Variel's WotR

Game Master Neltji

When her mother died, Aaliya and her siblings discovered a nasty loophole in Katapesh's laws when her father disowned them, then immediately claimed them as slaves rather than blood. Sold off as a lot, Aaliyah quickly found her siblings' well-being held hostage to her good behavior by her new owner (A situation that was also reversed, leading to undeserved punishments.) As an additional measure to help prevent problems, she was introduced to pesh milk just as she was blossoming into womanhood.

But her performances before the elite proved an entertaining enough distraction at various functions that she was eventually allowed some freedom, whereupon she used it to seek escape in the various pleasure dens of the city with her meagre allowance - a place that one as weak as she really should not have been, but nevertheless chose to go as the tiny amount of defiance allowed to her.

When these two lives intersected for the first and only time, disaster struck. Seeking repayment for a debt not owed, men broke into her master's home seeking her, and began to kill anyone they found. Guards awoke, battles were fought...and a scimitar fell to Aaliya's feet just as blades were about to fall on what remained of her family.

At that moment, something changed in Aaliyah's world. Her pesh-induced stupor was penetrated by a serene feeling of enlightenment and clarity. These men around her, the slaver who would beat others to control one, the thugs who would slaughter a household for the sake of a handful of gold. Every one was beyond redemption by the word. Only the sword could truly give them the just reward for the lives they had chosen to lead.

People in the street suddenly heard screams in the voices of angels and men, screaming in fear of cleansing flame and death.

The next day, the authorities found a sobbing girl, covered in blood admist the carnage. Everyone who had held a weapon that night was dead around her, most with a neat slash across a vital spot from a single rusty scimitar, alight with a flame that neither burned nor spread. She put up no resistance when the weapon was taken from her hand, and the flame went out. All testing showed it to be nothing more than a scimitar on the edge of being discarded. And strangest of all, she sat in the eye of an ankh of her victim's blood.

It should have ended there, but for a stray word at a temple of Saerenrae about the incident. For there is a price for everything in Katapesh, and that includes the freedom of a slave who murdered a score of freepersons in the span of a single evening. While there may have been those whose friends were harmed by Aaliyah's actions, the temple took them on, believing this girl may have been destined for great things. Every day in her cell, they brought to her holy texts and attempted to teach her of their goddess. She heard their owrds, and believed she had understood, but every so often she would say something in the words of angels that seemed nonsensical.

Finally, the various negotiations came to an end. Aaliyah could not be simply freed, so instead she was sentenced to journey north. The Pactmasters had devised a particularly ingenious punishment to satisfy all concerned parties - she was to make her way to Mendev, to fight in the Crusades for no less than ten years. There was to be no escort, no way of enforcing the edict. Effectively exile...she was, after all, free to simply ignore it and go where she wished...

...and yet, there was perhaps a destiny involved. Saerenrae had inspired magic from within her soul to come forth, shaped it. It wasn't the truly divine gifts of Her priests, but...perhaps she was meant to do something with it.

Single child of Shelen Inkadottir, she never knew her father, one of the countless victims of a stray demon attack before she was born. From him, she inherited her grey eyes, her tall stature and lean build. From her mother, she received long flowing dark hair and deft hands. Despite loosing her husband, Shelen never stopped braving the dangers of the Worldwound and as one of the best hunters of the village, she took her daughter with her as soon as she was strong enough to walk and hunt with her, showing her most of her tricks.
As Kalia was twelve, one of their hunts led them back to a devastating scene. Coming back with their preys, a pair strangely mutated deer, Kalia and Shelen came back to the village only to see it ravaged by a group of powerful Vrocks. Without home to come back to, crying for their lost kin, both woman and child fled the carnage without looking back. Pushing the pain bakc and focusing on survival, both they tried to reach the safety of the border and of the wardstones that Shelen knew of. After more than a month spent evading the most dangerous creatures, sleeping huddled in small caves or ditches and praying to Desna for safety, they reached the West Sellen River banks in view of Kenabes. building a small raft, they manages to cross the river unseen and safely in Mendev, they camped one last time, ready to reach Kenabes on the next day. However, the spot was also on the path of a group of cultist planning to infiltrate the town. The sleeping woman and child were easy to subdue and carry to one of their hide-out and use them in one of their foul rituals.
From this time, Kalia has only faint memories: some sounds in an unknown language, figures drawing strange symbols on her and her mother, horrible visions trying to tear out her mind... But something protected her, soul and maintained her sanity, bidding her to play along until she could escape. Then, something went wrong in the ritual and instead of corrupting her, she absorbed all the energies of the ritual and making them her own, she burst through her bonds, leaped on the closest cultist, killing him and taking his weapon. Running away to escape the place, she quickly got lost in a maze of caverns only to eventually emerge hours later in view of Kenabes, barely 50 feet from where she had been captured.
Thanking Desna for her luck, she made her way carefully towards the town, erasing her tracks until she spotted a patrol of Crusaders. Throwing herself at them, she told her story, urging them to go and rescue her mother. The patrol commander, preffering to refer to his commandment, lost precious time. And by the time they had assembled a large enough party and set out to the location on the spot, two days had passed and the site was turned into an enormous mass of rubble.
Exhausted and turned half-mad by grief, the young girl was taken care of by clerics of Iomedae that accompanied the party, then released to the care of the Temple as an orphan. There, she met the Zeru family without being particularly friendly towards them. A sulking and closed up girl, Kalia kept to her own, still hoping that her mother had somehow survived and praying Desna and Iomedae daily for it. As time came to chose a profession, she opted to join the city guard rather than join the Crusaders, half by choice, half by fear of going back to the Worldwound and awakening the painful memories of her life there.

She is not as innocent as she portrays herself, however. She lost her parents young, and was raised by travelling from aunt to uncle to aunt to second cousin, and so forth, in various Varisian travelling groups. Tzofia has not really known any true stability in her life. When she came of age - well, she SAID she was age, as no one really remembered, aside from Tzofia, how old she truly was, the young woman wandered the world on her own. When she found herself on the wrong side of the wardstones in the World Wound - a stranger saved her until help arrived.

Since that time, Tzofia has been searching for that strange woman - Tzofia immediately felt a bond, though Tzofia could not tell how or why. Perhaps Tzofia's is an old soul looking for redemption in a younger body. Perhaps there is something lingering in Tzofia that not even Tzofia knows about, which has set her on this course.

Tzofia is a skilled liar, and will spin tells about a happy home before coming to the worldwound. There has only been one person that Tzofia confided the truth to, besides the mysterious stranger who saved her life. He was a half-elven friend she made and became completely smitten with. When he started down the path of evil, Tzofia followed, before pulling herself back, having had dreams of where it would lead. In the end, Serani mocked her, and stabbed her in the chest, leaving her to die as he wandered towards the worldwound to join with the monsters of the Abyss. Tzofia still has the scar, both emotionally and physically, from that encounter, though she tells none about it.

Tzofia, instead, throws herself forward, carelessly, hoping to find Serani and either convince him to return or to end him, before he can hurt anyone else.

But she intends to do it with a smile, making certain her companions are none the wiser for her motives.

Beaten and berated and used by her father, something that he and his wife were exiled from the Varisians for, Tzofia was passed from one family to another because she was constantly lashing out, out of control, and a spirit of evil in the community.

When no one could save her, she was given provisions, and a map, and sent on her way. Her father, and passive mother, are still out there, somewhere - something Tzofia unconsciously flees from.

Serani was indeed someone she fell in love with. Someone she loved selfishly. He was the head of a local gang of street urchins when Tzofia came upon him, and Tzofia saw potential in him. So she started pushing him to become more powerful and more ruthless - more like the father she had been raised by. Tzofia, Serani and their little gang of thugs came across a ring one day - a ring that was sent into the city to be given to an influential member of society, a ring in which a demon waited to possess the wearer. Tzofia lifted it, but Serani somehow heard the demon calling him. He stabbed her to take the ring, willingly opening himself up to the demon inside, and left Tzofia for dead.

Tzofia, for some reason, could not handle the truth of that day and has rewritten her entire past, thus why her lies are so believable - she believes them.

Something in the eyes of the stranger who rescued her rang of the truth, striking a chord in the good which still resides in Tzofia, and concocted the lies of her past. That good portion of Tzofia wants to reconcile the past with Tzofia's present, and keep her firmly on the path of good. Perhaps there is even some being watching over this young child, fighting for her soul.

As I see it, Tzofia is going to be a 'little sister' character to one, if not all, of the party. Her antics at first will be annoying and distracting, but there is immense potential for growth in this young woman desperate for that love and adoration most people gain from their families and friends. Awkward and trying too hard at first, Tzofia will settle down.

After all, she will NEED the support of friends when the mental break is discovered and the truth comes out, if she is to stay on the path of the righteous.

At the age of 16, Chin's training at the Temple was completed and he was released into the world which was so foreign to him. As Chin began to look for work he realized that the Meyeung name belonged to a great noble family in the Province, however all knew of the taint the name carried. He found himself shunned by everyone. No one would talk to him, let alone tell him what his father did to dishonor the bloodline.

Chin left the Tian Xia lands and sought out a place to create a new life. His fairly uneventful travels have brought him to Kenebras.

Together with her adventuring band, they found their job cut out for them – the she-devil had entrenched deep in one of the many archaic ruins of the region, and surrounded herself by a mix of trained humanoids, in a structured hierarchy kept in order by her outlander lieutenants.
In the end they managed to spear through and lay their monstrous commander down, only to discover she had a child with her – not a devil child, but a celestial child, that clung to her lifeless body as if she gad been his... mother?

The first impulse of the group was to put it down immediately, but Tagrin recognized something in the creature that, even completely alone, held on to its dear existence, roaring defiantly at the ones who had assailed its home, and murdered his matron.

She took him in, against the will of the others, carrying him back all he way with her to Qiang Tian. In spite of clearly not being a devil, the young creature acted as if bestial and animal like – it ran the length of the compound over and over again, it growled and attacked any that attempted to approach it, seemingly having absorbed all the evil that had surrounded him, Irori knows for how long.

Tagrin had more than one strong discussion with other senior members of the Order about having Zeriax staying with them – his behaviour disturbed the peace and contemplation of the mountain top monastery – he would scream hours on end during the night, was considered dangerous and attacked the monks therein more than once. She did not allow them to expel him though, she followed him closeby, night and day, slept when he slept, ran when he ran, and even when he took off across the cold snow, running madly without destination, she followed until he fell exhausted, sleeping, picked him up and brought him back to the monastery.

It was one dawn, when Tagrin was starting to feel also affected by the child's disturbance, that Zeriax regained the awareness of himself again, staring at the rising sun, in a rooftop that became his favourite place in the whole monastery for the years to come – he stared at the searing orb, it burned through his skull, his spirit calmed, and he cried.

Zeriax has trained with Tagrin for many years – his body and mind are attuned, able for combat – he is disciplined, agile, quick and strong – his master is proud of all he has accomplished, from the most contradictory of natures – a celestial child found in the den of a she-devil that apparently took him as her own – reaching a state of balance she had never dared to hope possible for him – yet he has prevailed.

However, Zeriax has nightmares almost every night – flashes of caring faces he does not recognize, of a devilish visage that strangely transmits him an uncanny sense of calm... He does not know their name, but he knows they must be from his past, they HAVE to be – the nightmares haunt him to this day – filled with dreadful images of unspeakable horror, murder, evisceration, and worse – there have been times when he thought he would not be able to stand it any more – but Tagrin was always there when he woke up, offering him the morning tea, and urging him out of bed into his monk training, purging his head from the horrors with extenuating exercise.

He has come to find balance in his life – the nightmares are still there almost every night, but he has learned to deal with them, trying to find meaning and familiar faces – some nights are harder than others, but he has find enough peace to deal with it all, though within he longs to understand more, about his true nature, his ascendancy, what h he was before he became what he is – and that was why he left Tagrin and the Monastery.

From their seclusive mountain top, he had felt it – maybe he was still more attuned to the Worldwound than he thought – but he felt it clearly one dark night – the nightmares were worse than he could remember – there was a sense of urgency, of impending doom behind the haze in his head – it throbbed as if something had changed, almost as if calling out to him – when he woke up drenched in sweat Tagrin was there – without a word she eased him back to sleep, but on the next morning he left the monastery [OOC: Please refer to the spoilered dialogue on the alias link ;)]

It was a long travel from the monastery to the Worldwound, and Zeriax kept on discovering much about himself – he learned about the wild and survivability, his own abilities and awareness allowing him an almost second natured attunement to its ways – he learned the ways of the city, after finding himself forced to work for more than six months to gain enough to continue his trip – after such a long time in seclusion, he learned for the first time how to deal with others, their aspirations and fears, and found he was a good listener and advisor, understanding and empathizing with motivations so different from his own.

It was truly a journey for the young Aasimar (it felt strange knowing what he was – he had read and learned about it from his masters – still it seemed detached now, after Tagrin had shared with him all the details of how he had come to the monastery in the first place) – it mattered not though, the time for self doubt has been long over for Zeriax – learning about himself is a process, and one that he knows will continue until he passes from this world – travelling to the Worldwound is just another step – there are still many more to come.

Zeriax is an unusual Plumekith – his head is shaved, his skin is darkened, and it has always been like that according to Tagrin – the only telltale of his ascendancy are his eagle like amber eyes, and his demeanor in combat - taking action at the spur of the moment when his abilities seem needed, rushing into the heat of battle to face off against what he deems as evildoers. Most of the time, he is a quiet, pondered one, but there his convictions are deepset – much more than the disciplined training rubbed off from his time at the monastery, making him a stern adherent to the cause of good and order.

His posture denounces the strict training endured – he carries himself with confidence and is constantly aware of his surroundings – dressing in plain travelling clothing, he travels light, with but a backpack and a bow at his back. Onlookers will definitely notice the many quivers holding varied types of ammunition, neatly stacked and identified by their distinctly coloured feathers. At his waist dangle a pair of simple, roughly hewn iron knuckles.

I have built Zeriax around what I know is considered a straightforward class and archetype – the Zen Archer :D But in my head, he is much more than that – I have taken the liberty to take a look at the group that is already in game and, together what I believe to be his strengths and weaknesses, built his skill set to accommodate knowledges, skills and capabilities that I think will be a good complement to what is already in place.

Bottom line, he is an able infiltrator, able to deal with traps and disable them as needed [of course he is still only level two :D]. Already he provides some decent ranged support, which will improve significantly in two levels. He packs knowledges that complement what the group already has plus Local, since I would like to play him as someone that has arrived some time ago, having the opportunity to make himself acquainted with the dynamics of the place.

I hesitated a LOT between investing in Diplomacy or Intimidation, both for the character concept itself, but also for what I have heard about the AP, and what I have read about the importance of Charisma, Leadership, etc. In the end, I have gone with Intimidation for two main reasons – on the one hand, the group already packs a very decent ability towards social skills, and on the other I wanted to try and play him not as the “guy who will murder you if you don't tell him what he wants to know” but as the “guy who is on a mission, and will not be deterred because some misguided one is not willing to cooperate” kind of intimidator.

Skills Bluff +1 (+3 vs. evil outsiders), Climb +5, Disable Device +9, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +6 (+8 vs. evil outsiders), Knowledge (geography) +5 (+7 vs. evil outsiders), Knowledge (local) +6 (+8 vs. evil outsiders), Perception +7 (+9 vs. evil outsiders), Profession (soldier) +7, Sense Motive +2 (+4 vs. evil outsiders), Stealth +12, Survival +7 (+9 vs. evil outsiders, +8 to track), Swim +5

Languages Abyssal, Common, Hallit

SQ combat styles (archery), track, wild empathy
Combat Gear Holy water (2), Oil (2);
Other Gear Masterwork Studded leather armor, Arrows (40), Blunt arrows (20), Cold Iron Arrows (30), Masterwork Composite longbow (Str +1), Rapier, Backpack, masterwork, Belt pouch, Chalk, Flint and steel, Grappling arrow, Hooded lantern, waterproof, Mess kit, Sewing needle, Silk rope, Thieves' tools, Waterskin, 141 GP, 9 CP
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Favored Enemy (Evil Outsiders +2) (Ex) +2 to rolls vs Favored Enemy (Evil Outsiders).
Point Blank Shot +1 to attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at up to 30 feet.
Precise Shot You don't get -4 to hit when shooting or throwing into melee.
Track +1 Add the listed bonus to survival checks made to track.
Wild Empathy +1 (Ex) Improve the attitude of an animal, as if using Diplomacy.