TWO's Mythic Kingmaker: Fey Winds Blowing (Inactive)

Game Master The Wyrm Ouroboros

Technicals:
I think we've gone through most of these as well.
Remember that both your Dispelling and Limning arrows are required to be magical - +1. You paid for them, you might as well make sure it's noted.
Be warned that the dragonskin grip (yes, even that) may have dire consequences if spotted by a dragon.
'Aldori' signet ring. Is this along the lines of a general 'aldori swordlord membership ring' thing? If so, approved; if not, clarify.
Your invisible ink - 25 gp/bottle means 'good' (DC 20) ink. Even superior ink (75 gp/bottle) only achieves DC 25, so your DC 30 ink for 25 gp/bottle doesn't fly. Revise.
"Cuff Bracelet, False Compartment (45 gp)". Source? Is this meant to be a variation on a poison pill ring?
Why are you bringing elven and dwarven trail rations?
Trade Goods: Where are you getting half of these from? Raw glass, marble, silk, wool, canvas, the weights/values on the silver and copper?

I haven't looked closely at Orvin (or built him), but I trust he's relatively clean on the build side. Actual building will have to wait for a while. (Sorry.) Otherwise, though, looks pretty clean.
=====================================================================

There is a definite - and significant - conflict between, on the one hand, his professed code (that of the paladins of Erastil) and, on the other hand, his actual code of honor (the Political) along with his particular vulnerability to temptation. Understand that while I'm willing to allow you to mouth the first, I expect to see your actions reflect the second.

There is also significant conflict between several things of what you claim him to be: extremely harsh, stoic, and calculating, but also very angry and daring, but also enjoys entertaining people with conversation, jokes, and stories. This is a picture of an individual on the verge of a psychotic break, if not already in the throes of multiple personality disorder. You are, essentially, trying to play three characters at the same time. That's fine, but make them three characters, not three-in-one. Be a strict, ruthless, calculating, by-the-book individual who might relax some but always basically has a stick up his ass, or be an angry young man who doesn't quite manage to think before he acts and who has become the core of what's essentially a punitive expedition into the Stolen Lands, or be a socialite and manipulator who sees the people following him as stepping-stones to greater political power and influence. Being all three is going to become a train wreck for you.

Background (Kliment):
A good background. The only change I'd make is where he heads; he would know well that a brawny farm lad is more likely to find military training in New Stetven than in the agility-focused Restov.

Technicals:
As stated before, you can't purchase magic items for your followers, so the muleback cords will have to stay with you - either on your character, or (for example) on your character's horse. However, while I am a little loathe to bend the rule significantly, since you're loading up on the caravan I am willing to permit you to convert them to Large items to be used on two of the horses.

I also - very strongly - recommend not loading your critters (and/or your wagons) up to their maximum. Cut the three-months' feed by a third or by half (since in 6 weeks it's going to be mid-March, and things will be looking a bit more lively, i.e. grazing will start to be available) and get another wagon. Also, the heavy cargo wagons still require only one horse; you have 16 horses where you only need 4, or 8 if you rotate properly - 12 at the most, or if you double-hitch and rotate 2-on, 1-off. But horse and wagons at maximum load are going to slow you down considerably.

You have 37 people in total; one cooking kit is SO not gonna do the job.
A few pins or sheets of paper are negligible in weight; a large number of them is not, as anyone with a sizeable library or who works in an office supply store can tell you. :P

(It would be nice to be able to download the file and review it offline, btw.)

In regards to the villagers following along, this is fine; consider them a part of the quantity of farmers, etc. who are coming with now in order to get first choice on the best farm / village location(s).
=====================================================================

This, incidentally, will place your 'adventuring' as a necessary evil instead of as 'Pa's got a wild hair up his ass agin'.

Buildwise, very bare-bones on both of them. While I believe that basically anything beyond the 'fighting/basic adventuring items' went into expedition outfitting, it'd be nice if this was made clear. In addition, if you don't select the spells/concoctions that Winnie can create, you will not have them, and you will be stuck with an alchemist who can't do anything. Complete your characters, please.

Strongly recommended: a masterwork short sword and a masterwork dagger or knife for William. These would be the equivalent to the wakizashi and tanto, completing the daisho set started with the greatsword.
=====================================================================

Tarna: 2 + 5 + 1d10 - 1d6 ⇒ 2 + 5 + (3) - (4) = 6

Also I may work up some kind of Dwarven code of honor if there is still time for that.

It's also not an organization with formal circles and ranks and suchlike; either you know your stuff, and you're a druid, or you don't. If someone knows a certain something better than you, you defer to them in that thing; if someone possesses more power, a greater link with the natural world, you respect and honor and listen to them, striving to learn the lessons that they teach just by being alive, and that they impart by pointing out things you might have missed. 'Joining the circle' would have been less a matter of being judged worthy to join the group, and more a matter of finally getting introduced to a guy who comes through every month or two, or the fellow who lives in the cabin by the waterfall twenty miles thataway - i.e. being introduced to other druids.

"Who's this, then, Wallace?"
'Calls hisself Acaciano. High-falutin' name, but y'can't blame the boy, it's his mother what stuck him with it.'
"Hear ya there. He learnin' anything?"
'Oh, this-an'-that. He's been wond'rin' 'bout them tower oaks, so's I thought he might come up roundabout here for a couple seasons, you c'n show him what-for.'
"'Spect I got a bed what ain't got nothin' sleepin' in it of late."

And, after a while, he makes his own decision about where to go, and what to do. If that means roaming through the forests and plains in the south of Brevoy, then go to; it isn't as though druids typically pay much attention to sentient-designated borders, except for perhaps territorial borders for the more sentient creatures. There is plenty of 'wild area' inside Brevoy for him to work in; let him function there, as I do not want either Acaciano or Tai to be familiar with the Stolen Lands, which is essentially where you're wanting him to be.

While I find Tai's 'swordlord training' to be, well, distasteful, it is not something I will say 'no' to; as a Swordlord, Acacian's mother will have been visibly reluctant to train in her school someone like Tai who a) relies more on strength than agility, and b) clearly did not intend to really study the sword; she'll have basically put him in with the beginner's class as a favor to Acaciano, then pretty much left him there to rot.

As compensation (so to speak) I will clarify the link between Acaciano and 'his mother', who I name Dáma Katerina Karbashewsky. Swordlady of one of the Northern Schools, Katerina Karbashewsky is indeed the mistress - meaning leader, as 'Dáma', Lady, is the Brevoy way to refer to a female knight - of one of the Northern schools, who has been climbing in popularity - or, rather, policial acumen and influence, thus making her one of the Swordlords of Restov. She is a hatchet-faced woman with a subtle turn of both mind and wrist; Acaciano being 36, I'm going to put her at a very, very active 63.

In regards to the bandit king: no. First, you're not to be from the Stolen Lands, which is about the only place this 'bandit king' could exist. Second, without significant reinforcements, you straight-out would not survive a fight against 'A self-crowned bandit king, having consolidated power from a number of smaller groups in the region' - the fellow simply would have more muscle than Acaciano and Tai would be able to deal with, and he would not - could not - back down and retain his authority; the village fight would be a fight to the death, i.e. that of Acaciano and Tai. Third, this sort of group couldn't coalesce outside of the Stolen Lands; north of there is Brevoy, where the army would grind them into pulp, and south of there are other River Kingdoms, who would tolerate small bandit groups but crush any wannabe-leaders with a ruthlessness that would make Noleski Surtova blush.

My advice is for the two of them to have engaged something inhuman - perhaps the owlbear pack from Tai's background having regrown, which would not only offer continuity, but would give me a much better and more druid-and-ranger-appropriate foe for you than just some measely bandits.

Finally, in regards to the return of The Druid Circle and the one known as Branch (considering your suggestion that he could fly both of them to Restov, he'd be at least, what, 10th level? Probably 12th?). This seems to be specious; I suggest that instead of Acaciano being the passive one here, that he be the active one, and send a message (animal message, via hawk?) to his old mentor suggesting they present a group to Chalm. Perhaps frustrated with his inability to nail down the monstrous threat (the owlbear pack-leader and one or two of its females keep evading the two of them) he's in Restov or New Stetven (or even somewhere else in Brevoy) for a rest-and-resupply. He sees the notice, has a flash of inspiration, and sends the message to his old mentor. His mentor sends a message back saying 'good idea', and then a week later sends another message giving him names and details. A week after that, two other druids of roughly his level of competency (6th-7th level) arrive (no leadership on them), and the three of them with Tai start planning on their approach. It having been Acaciano's idea, he gets defaulted into being the leader of the group, and voila'.

Technicals:
Like I said, not diving too deep into these. First, please do not abbreviate; it took me five minutes to figure out what AoMF +1 was supposed to be. (Stupid, I know, but there you are.) Second ... good job, just in general. Very nice (and sometimes unusual) picks on the items. I'm not seeing any blatant issues, except that the cracked Pink & Green Sphere ioun stone doesn't have its selection indicated.

You do not have any information indicated on your five followers; please at least give me basic class types. Remember, you can have up to 2 PC classes; the other 3 have to be NPC classes. The 2 might be druids or rangers too ... ?

In regards to your fame: if you go with hunting the owlbear pack throughout Brevoy for the past year or two, or something similarly monstrous, 25. Otherwise, 21. (Call it a bribe. ;) )
=====================================================================

However, I then double-checked the group I made you a part of, and came up with a better idea. Make Galt where you went after the River Kingdoms. Maybe, after a time banging around the place, you stopped in Gralton for a while, and agreed to take a message from one of the exiles to someone still in Galt. And the message got you involved in an 'art rescue,' during which you formed close bonds with the people you pull it off with. The bunch of you got out of the country half a step ahead of the law, returning the artwork to the person who gave you the message (who was either the original owner, or else someone who'd always reeeeeallly wanted the thing) and then go a-rovin' with you two as part of the adventuring party known as 'The Reckless'. Five others besides the two of you, all of you 'older races' - a gnome, a halfling, a dwarf, and two half-elves. The first three are 6th level, the latter two are 5th; basically, this is an Ocean's 13-style heist crew. An illusionist, a confidence man, a technician, two all-arounders, and the two of you. Sound fun? :D

Technicals:
With one exception, nothing leaps out on a scan-through; I'll do the full build later. As offered to Lyda, I have two variants of the efficient quiver available for the same price which, instead of carrying 60 / 18 / 6 in the arrows/javelins/bows compartments, carry either 250 / 10 / 2 or 300 / 0 / 4. Available to both characters.

Leadership is the exception, however. Your base score is 11; for your leadership score in regards to your cohort, you get a -1 for a different alignment, and a -2 for having an animal companion, for a CLS (Cohort Leadership Score) of 8 - still 5th level. For followers, however, it's still an 11, and I'm specifically going to eliminate the 'moves around a lot' from your score at game start. I'm doing this because an FLS (Follower Leadership Score) of 11 earns you 6 followers ...

... which, when added to the 7 primary characters, gets you 13 people. You can define what your followers would be, but considering the Reckless, the two with PC classes should be either specific (i.e. devoted sorcerers, mages, or something) or readily adaptable, while the other four with NPC classes should be experts of some sort. Muahahahaha. ;)
=====================================================================

It is obvious he cares a great deal about his faith, without becoming fanatical and over-the-top about it. Forgiving would be another word; while he is certainly more than willing to use force when necessary, he is also quick to forego that force when it is possible to do so. He always tries to see the best in people, always assumes the best in people, and expects people to always strive to be better. He is versitile, not getting backed into the same routine combat-wise, able to pull off many different tricks. He is rather quiet, not feeling the need to babble on to fill the silence. He is reserved, quick to listen and slow to respond. Despite his calmness, though, when someone stirs him to anger and does not resolve themselves, he is a fierce man, more than willing to be the arm of Erastil when the need arises.

From the way his background reads, Kyras (or rather, Lord Kyras) is a okay guy - loves Erastil, loves the outdoors, cares for nature, isn't too intense or anything; inspires people to be better by example. The guy whose uprightness, charisma, and shining example inspires people, who tries to see the best in people, who assumes the best in people, who expects people to always strive to be better is the paladin. The guy who counsels people, blesses crops, takes care of people, and converts people by serious conversations about faith, who is quick to forego force, who is quick to listen and slow to respond, is the cleric. Either one of these is the guy whom you've described as Kyras.

And so the problem lies in the fact that this is not the inquisitor, both in the way the game offers it as a character class and simply in the term 'inquisitor' and its definition.

Grim and determined, the inquisitor roots out enemies of the faith, using trickery and guile when righteousness and purity is not enough. Although inquisitors are dedicated to a deity, they are above many of the normal rules and conventions of the church. They answer to their deity and their own sense of justice alone, and are willing to take extreme measures to meet their goals.

This guy is the Church's hitman. No, wait, not even the church's - the god's. You are Erastil's personal go-to guy, whether that's to expose (and violently eliminate if necessary) corruption in the ranks of his priesthood, or sabotage an attempt to radically grow a simple village into a bustling town, or take care of a rampaging owlbear (which is, after all, an enemy of basic civilized life). You're the very-long-arm-indeed of the law when it comes to catching that rat bastard that pulled a fast one on the village and left them without the coin they need to buy food for the winter; you're the hammer that drops on the serial arsonist who loves setting grain silos on fire ('cause of the way they explode, see). You're the goblin hunter, the aberration eliminator, the guy who'd go toe-to-toe hammer-and-tongs with Old Man Winter himself in order to make sure a village had food (and who wouldn't rest, hunting until they did). The inquisitor is the over-the-top fanatic.

The inquisitor may have an alignment of LG, but by his very nature he has permission to violate - temporarily, and if he has a damn good reason - almost any precept held up by his God if he does so in pursuit of his faith's greater good. Lie? Sure. Cheat? Absolutely. Steal? It's in better service to Erastil anyhow. Destruction of property? Hell, boy, that was the entire point of this exercise. Murder? He was a violator of the law. Torture? Justified to get the information he had. Mass murder? ... okay, now that's pushing it, but if you killed more of the enemies of the faith than you did innocents ... well, maybe. Go to confession and seek atonement - just in case. An inquisitor, by definition, doesn't give a damn about what people feel about him. He's the 'grim and determined' son-of-a-b!tch who is going to get the job done, come hell or high water, and that means he very easily could be the target of an assassination attempt. But he's not going to turn Milo over to the authorities; why bother? He is the authority.

The guy isn't Captain America, he's Wolverine; he isn't Superman, he's Batman. He's Judge Dredd, 'I am the law!' and everything.

He's the dark hero, the brutal fist of justice, the guy who goes down into the sewere and gets nasty and dirty so that the shining-example good guy paladin can remain a shining-example good guy. He doesn't expect people to do better; he knows from grim experience that the odds are against them not doing so. He isn't slow to respond, or reticent about being violent; if the need is there, if his god's faith is in danger, he will come down on the offender like an entire mountain and not stop until they're a greasy stain on the wall. He's the god's vengeance, the god's emergency stopgap, the god's fireman, and the god's executioner all rolled into one package.

Now, understand that this doesn't force him to be a loner; the archetype can be inspiring, and draw people to him - competent people admire competence, admire the willingness to get sh!t done in spite of the people who would try to tie him up in red tape. But this requires an essential shift in the characterization, in the conceptualization of Kyras's inner Self. This is a guy who believes in Erastil and Erastil's ideals so fiercely that he goes beyond what a Paladin of Ol' Deadeye is allowed to do, and is not only allowed to do it, but all but encouraged to do it if it gets the job done. And while when relaxing he can be pleasant and convivial, that 'eye out for threats' is always, always going to be there.

In reality, this doesn't require much, if any, writing work on your part; a tweak here and there in regards to his attitude. I think the core change is the 'greatest asset' train-of-thought. His greatest asset isn't to inspire people; his greatest asset is to get the job done. It happens that his getting the job done has inspired a notable number of people (and I'll get to one detail on that in a bit), but 'inspiring people' isn't his job; leave that to the paladins whose job it is. His job is also not to convert others to the faith or teach them; that's what a cleric does. Kyras can absolutely be charismatic and smiles in social situations; he is a Lord and scion of Medvyed, after all, and I have no problem with it. At the same time, this guy needs to be the one who walks into a situation and immediately analyzes the sight lines, the potential tactical situation, who he has to protect and who would be his first target. All this can be internal, a matter of a phrase - 'Kyras's glance flicks about the room, noting the placement of the guards / weapons on the walls / location of the other doors and windows, in the instant before he bows to his host...'

But for him to be an inquisitor, he needs to be an inquisitor.

In regards to the group you're leading - you should have encountered the other four noble scions who make up the balance of the Bronze Seal in social situations. With Medvyed bordering on Khavotorov, this should not be a problem, and you could easily have stayed in touch over the years. (How old is he?) When the pronouncement was made, you may have had the thought of trying to join it (even despite the insanity of going out in early February) but the clincher could/would have been a chance encounter with one or more of the four of them. They mention they're putting together a group, you say you've had some thoughts in that direction, and they propose that having you as their front-man would definitely lessen the potential stigma of being a band of Khavotorov Rostlanders and improve everyone's chance of getting picked ... which is why you're the 'leader' of the Bronze Seal. Works?

Technicals:
Leadership - very nicely done. In regards to who/what all of them are, I'm more-or-less good with everyone but one: the Paladin.

The way an inquisitor works is very much in contrast to the way the paladin works; while they have the same aim, there are a lot of things that an inquisitor is perfectly okay with doing that a paladin is not only going to have a hard time with, but which either allowing to happen or failing to prevent is going to cause him to edge perilously close to failing his code. As a consequence, the two are essentially incompatable. I recommend switching the paladin out for a fellow inquisitor - perhaps an apprentice, as it were.

I would recommend making your three clerics something not-clerics; a druid, a wizard, and a bard, perhaps, not only for some variation, but also to thin out the Godly Might.

Everything else looks good; I see you already took advantage of the archer's quiver variant. ;)

I SHOULD let you stew in your character sheet's 9 Fame, but I won't.
=====================================================================

He doesn't expect people to do better; he knows from grim experience that the odds are against them not doing so. He isn't slow to respond, or reticent about being violent; if the need is there, if his god's faith is in danger, he will come down on the offender like an entire mountain and not stop until they're a greasy stain on the wall.

See, in my mind, Kyras is a naive inquisitor (hence the drawback to that point), and that is part and parcel with who he is. He is certainly willing to do the dirty work, to shrug off the issues that a paladin might have, and definitely willing to resort to violence, if that's what it takes to get the job done, but it seems to me he can do those things and still expect people to do better, and still prefer to avoid violence. To me, it comes down to whether he is an inquisitor who is also a person, or a person who is also an inquisitor. The aspects of the inquisitor - grim and determined, willing to use trickery and guile, taking extreme measures to get the job done - those things are there, but take second billing to his naitivity and hopeful personality. I will work on making a couple of tweaks to the background to reflect your feedback, I just wanted to explain my point of view on his characterization, because those are aspects of the character I'd like to keep to some degree.

In regards to the gaggle of clerics, one restriction I have is that I do all my building in Hero Lab, and I went with the class-based licensing approach, so I get all the toys for any given class but not all the classes. I've purchased several class packs, but I don't have access to either the druid or the bard, for example. I could make another wizard, but I like having Sabros, my crafter wizard, be unique as a wizard and thus getting special treatment. From a practical perspective, it makes sense (both IC and OOC) to have multiple clerics around, as they can be very useful out of combat (generating water, purifying food/water, healing from injuries, etc). Given the religious bent to my crusade to settle the Stolen Lands, it also seems to make sense that Kyras would be able to recruit a band of clerics willing to go out in service to Erastil; that is part of why I had all of the clerics be "new recruits", as I can see them joining up for that cause more than I can them joining an inquisitor just for kicks. All that to say that I'd prefer to keep my clerics, unless you feel very strongly about me not doing so.

Here's the thing. He's 7th level, he's seen the bad and the ugly people get up to. (Please note that a proper inquisitor is just as likely - MORE likely - than a paladin to stop a lynching, riot, or revolt if he feels it runs counter to the faith and his God.) But hell, just to become an inquisitor requires a zeal and a DS9's-Odo-like 'my way is the right way' attitude and suspicion.

I agree - absolutely - that he can want people to do better, to hope for them to prove him wrong, but he isn't a dewy-eyed wet-behind-the-ears 1st level fellow (or paladin) that still has delusions that, well, people are innately good; he's regularly seen them not live up to their potential, because that's part and parcel of the muck that an inquisitor regularly finds himself knee-deep in.

So I suppose the main thing I wanted to make sure of was that this was a guy who planned for the worst while hoping for the best - that he was like the (image link SFW) King of Swords, having a weapon ready to strike even while he was offering his hand in peace. While I don't believe the 'Naive' trait's fluff goes with an inquisitor at all, I recognize that the crunch can, and that a minor re-skinning of the trait would keep it intact; that he doesn't expect people (most people) to descend to the level at which he's accustomed to work, that he tries to make sure that he's walking into a straight-up fight instead of a bug hunt.

This, I agree also, can mean that he doesn't resort to violence until the very last moment - that he always has a plan for it, that it's an option that is never taken off the table, and that if he can talk (or threaten, because intimidation is, after all, his friend) people around to doing the right thing he'll do that - but violence, and the threat of violence, is always a tool, and not always the tool of last resort, because cutting out a cancer early saves on a hell of a lot of trouble.

Paladins and inquisitors are, in one unfortunate way, in the same basic boat: they are not 'people who are also paladins/inquisitors'. Their strength of faith is powerful and overwhelming that the god comes first, and the rest of their lives - indeed, their very life itself - comes a distant second or forty-second.

So as long as we have 'hope for the best, plan for all the worst possible options' going on in this guy's skull, I'm satisfied; it just didn't come across initially.

If you want a 'champion who guards the home base', go with a cavalier; they have options and oaths and strategists and stuff that do exactly that. The restrictiveness you want to have available to play with for 'Mother Cedric' can be done equally well (and the commander aspect can be done even better) with a cavalier with a Chivalric code of honor; your actions can affect his honor, especially if you do something that he witnesses and doesn't stop. An honor-bound cavalier, in this regard, is almost as good (and in some ways even better) as a paladin.(Also, your paladin has two archetypes; limit is one per class.)

Reading about the clerics ... all right, I can see that. They're followers, though, so you can expect some occasional pushback about the way you do things and such.

As for the clerics, pushback could make things fun, works for me :)

Background:
All right, I see you didn't go with the 1500gp cost for the at-will arm/eye glow thing; that's fine, it becomes a point of flavor for your light cantrip casting.

Now, I do have an issue with the two of them, and at its core it's the same issue: they're both prodigies, and they just don't lose. "Before long, Darivan could regularly defeat almost any of the soldiers in the base in single combat." "His arcane talent increased tenfold almost overnight ... he found himself, at the young age of fourteen, an almost unstoppable warrior." "Having figured out a few basic spells on her own ... quickly mastering basic spells, and proved to be quite innovative in her use of the arcane. She undeniably stood out..."

Honestly, it makes me want to cut both their throats.

In less than two years, apprenticed at age 12 (which is fine - 10 would technically be better, especially since he's a member of the nobility, and he'd've been sent up as a page), before his magic 'increased tenfold almost overnight' - before, in fact, he's reached even the minimum age of 15 for a self-taught 1st level character (e.g. a fighter or a warrior), must less the minimum age of 16 for the trained 1st level character of the class he's in, magus - he could 'regularly defeat almost any of the soldiers in the base in single combat'. Trained soldiers. In a base specifically devoted to '(fighting) off attacking monsters from the Icerime Peaks', where even the newbie soldiers sent there are going to be veterans, and where incessant daily training is a very real matter of life-and-death (i.e. their own), their abilities tested every time they go out on patrol.

Bullsh!t. I've stated that I didn't want child prodigies; this goes for your background too, with a minimum age being 'as if you'd rolled an average of 2s on your age dice', which would put the 1st-level-starting-magus Darivan at age 19 - and even then he's not going to be able to regularly defeat almost any of the soldiers in the base in single combat. He might at that point reach the lofty pinnacle of losing only maybe a little less than half the time to the encampment's soldiers. Why? Because he's a 1st level character, and going by your own definition of the base, nobody there (who doesn't die on their first or second patrol) is going to be less than a 3rd level warrior.

He definitely would not have been 'unstoppable' by a long fvcking shot.

Sylvia has the same problem - unless there's a spellcaster leaving spellbooks around that she can attempt to study, or unless she's an intuitive (sorcerer, oracle) or self-taught (bard, ranger, summoner, witch) spellcaster, Sylvia needs to be taught - just as much as Darivan does. It doesn't matter that she's a supergenius (more on this later); for wizardry, you have to have somewhere to start from, something to study.

Second, Pathfinder and the Pathfinder world does not have gender bias. If you can fight, then it doesn't matter if you're male or female or neuter or hermaphrodite. If you're a genius, it doesn't matter what genderbits you possess. The way you approach her apprenticeship to the wizard suggests - very strongly - that this gender bias was of primary consideration in their decision. It would not have been in the PF World, whether in this game or with any sort of decent GM any other game.

This is not to say that they would not have refused, but the reasons behind their refusal would have been different.

• The wizard knew he was headed to a military encampment that is under constant low-level siege, that a monster attack would've been a very real likelihood and a very serious threat to the girl's life and limb; he would have refused any child seeking an apprenticeship, and instead would have directed her to the local guild or military post.
• If her parents actually noticed the 11th child (which, going by your background, they might not have) and didn't have a 'sure, whatever, go ahead' vague pseudo-approval okay for her to go apprentice herself, they would have declined on the grounds that 'being a wizard is not appropriate for a member of this family', or some such - if they're farmers, that farmers don't become wizards, if they're merchants that they have a reputation to maintain (and that if she's got brains, they're put to better use in the family trade), or if they're nobles that 'wizarding is not something the nobility does' - they'd've declined because they're classist, not sexist.

Too, unless she has experience keeping hidden around people whose lives depend on being aware of their surroundings (as compared, apparently, to her family, who ignore her), she'd not have managed to stay hidden for an entire week. A day, maybe two, but the ten-year-old would've been spotted by then.

Characters - characterizations - are interesting not for what they can do, but for what they can't do, or what they fail to do. Darivan's 'I'm cool, look at me, I use magic all the time, oops I overdid it' is fvcking boring, if not outright infantile. If, instead, he'd "... been trying to do this single, simple, stupid bloody spell for a month!!" and had been throwing himself against it again and again and again, failing every time, and then Sylvia corrects - or maybe 'improves' - one tiny little flaw and says 'try that' and he basically blows a fuse with the magic overload - something she can handle, but which he cannot. It becomes a point of interest, that he still tries and tries even when he failed, and that because 'the accident and the mark' comes about because not only is he giving it his all, but Sylvia makes a mistake in showing him how to channel too much before he's ready.

That the two of these characters are perfect and that any 'bad things' that have happened to them are the universe's fault, not theirs, makes them exceedingly two-dimensional, cardboard characters, and though I might allow them into the game, I will inflict terrible, terrible things upon them for their two-dimensional perfection.
=====================================================================

Despite all of the above, this does not invalidate the essential sturdiness of their backgrounds. 'Two people meet when they're kids, work together for years and years, grow up, go out adventuring.' The 'monk' thing is, honestly, a crazy twist that kind of has no right to be there, especially if they're reduced to being 'two of the most promising members' four or six levels after being 'an almost unstoppable warrior', but lop off the latter, and you can perhaps have reason for the former. But you have to start at the beginning.

Darivan shows promise; great. He's a handful and a half; fine. So they send him off to court to be a page. It's not the Aldori sword schools (most of which would hate to teach him anyhow), but instead a standard path of maturity for a scion of a noble house - be accepted as a page at court at age 8, learn manners and weapon work, gain some baseline familiarity with magical threats. If they have magic like Darivan does, they are assigned a tutor in the Art, who brings out the ability within him. He works hard, and graduates from page to squire at age 12, having gotten in touch with the base of his magical power - but not being able to perform even the simplest of spells, because that's the sort of thing you simply don't entrust to a little brat not even old enough to shave.

As a squire, he has a knight - in Darivan's case, Sir Aethelred Waincroft, Lord Highgage, a knight-magus who, to his fellow (heavily-armored) knights' amusement, never wears anything heavier than a chain shirt. (Secretly, it's mithral chain, enabling him to use his spells almost without penalty.) He spends a year in New Stetven for Darivan's 13th year, teaching him the basics of spellcasting and of the art of the magus; at the end of it, Sir Waincroft is assigned to Rimefort, and of course Darivan goes along. When the two join the caravan assembling to head down to Rimefort, Waincroft meets an old friend - Master Cragjumper, a mage in the employ of the Crown, who has been assigned to replace Rimefort's recently-slain wizard.

While the two of them renew their friendship, Darivan meets Cragjumper's apprentice, a 13-year-old girl named Sylvia who has apparently long since mastered the art of reading while riding. Though she barely gives him the time of day at the start of their journey, she discovers in Darivan an intellect that is almost sufficient for her. Proximity and natural adolescent interest does the rest, and by the end of the ride she's only reading when Sir Waincroft has sent Darivan off on a task; the rest of the time, the two are engrossed in conversation that is significantly more serious and intellectual than typically found in teen-aged discussions.

Sylvia had begun pestering Master Cragjumper (named for his lightning magics, 'jumping from crag to crag') when she was six; her burgeoning intellect interested the mage, and while he refused his permission for her to become his apprentice then (and for many years afterwards), his answer was never "No," and always "Not yet." When she was eleven, Cragjumper finally paid a visit to her parents, and told them bluntly that if they didn't know what kind of treasure they had living in their house, he at least did, and if they didn't give their permission for the girl to leave with him that very day as his apprentice, he'd return in a fortnight with not only a royal writ ordering the move, he'd personally engage to make sure that lightning would strike whatever place they were in every night for a year. Unsurprisingly, they allowed Sylvia to leave, and the girl hasn't looked back since.

Though both Sir Waincroft and Master Cragjumper were are rotated out of Rimefort after six months, the squire and the apprentice kept in contact, writing daily letters to each other. Three months of 'soft city living', as well as the two masters' recognition of the growing bond between their charges, resulted in Waincroft and Cragjumper petitioning to receive reassignment back to Cragfort for another six months. After watching their charges for another half-year, and recognizing the dynamic and potential synergy between Darivan and Sylvia, the two quietly arranged for linked postings thereafter to let the pair learn and grow together.

Insert above incident involving a revision to 'Shocking Grasp' and a major ouchie delivered to Darivan. Afterwards, Darivan has learned to be careful about Sylvia's advanced intellect when it comes to his own spell capabilities; he may go to her for help in understanding a concept, but he makes sure he grasps the concepts himself. 'Once burned, twice shy,' because the next time could blow off the top of his head, which might inconvenience him a bit.

Six months after his recovery, now nineteen and having proven his ability to handle himself in battle, Sir Waincroft returned to New Stetven with Darivan to turn him over to the proctors. Testing him on his knowledge of various courtly and combat scenarios, their approval led to Darivan's overnight vigil - and his knighting the day after.

Sylvia having 'graduated' a couple months before, the two went out adventuring, roaming through Brevoy as a knight-errant and friend. Relying primarily on House Orlovsky's coffers for their daily bread and lodging, the two engaged in typical do-gooder fare: chase down bandits, fight off monsters, defend villages, get cats out of trees, that sort of thing. Though Darivan grew in both skill and fame faster than Sylvia, the two of them made something of a name for themselves - until they ran into a situation in House Garess territory, by the Golushkin mountains just this side of the Numerian border.

While going to the rescue of what they believed to be a group of travellers, the pair were soundly and roundly beaten to the edge of death by a strange sort of golem which, after killing almost everyone, retrieved an item from inside one of the corpses and went back into Numeria. The pair were rescued only by the intervention of a calm, angel-faced traveller whose comment to Sir Darivan before the latter passed out still echoes in his thoughts, even if he and Sylvia still have a problem with following it: "Know what you're getting into before you get into it."

The traveler was, of course, Aballon the monk; returning from a mission to Mendev, he had spotted the mechanoid's chase of the adventuring party fleeing Numeria and thought it best to stay out of it; sure enough, the mechanical slew the thieves, recovered the technological gizmo, and went back - but it left on death's door those who had attacked it, but who had not been thieves themselves. Caring for their wounds, he got them to a place they could recover a bit, left them information on where they might find a place to learn a better path, and departed.

Once well enough to travel, the two of them journeyed to a small pallisaded village of perhaps ninety souls, a little past the border of Brevoy and into the Stolen Lands, among the foothills of the Branthlend Mountains. (In terms of the Kingmaker map, it is just a few miles off the northwestern edge of the westernmost map.) King Noleski has been exceedingly firm about not wanting Aballon's 'Aurum Chain' within Brevoy, and had previously burned the group out of two prior villages. (He doesn't want them dead, he just doesn't want them around.) The crude, hardscrabble village, being technically beyond Brevoy's borders, is at this point 'out of sight, out of mind'. There, Aballon strives to bring to enlightenment through martial excellence those who have followed him here; the location means that crops are always in danger, as are the lives of the farmers themselves, and everyone has a role to play when a giant or monster comes roaming around, from pulling a bow to using a spear from the walls to being a water- or arrow-courier.

This is the community Darivan and Sylvia entered; unusued to such a low baseline for survival, the two discovered that they'd finally found a project to which they could commit themselves. While Sylvia tended to spend time at the village, shifting stone or shoring up ill-built walls, Darivan scouted the area for, well, money-making opportunities (monster hunting), which he and Sylvia would then persuade Aballon to allow them to bring some of the villagers into engaging. Once a sufficient store was developed, usually two or three times a year, they would then travel to Silverhall or New Stetven (and, once, Pitax) in order to sell the items; the money this brought in helped to supply the village, typically through monthly trips into the closest Brevoy town (a three-day ride north by north-east).

Unfortunately, the place is almost permanently on the knife's edge of failure; the Glenebon Highlands are home to clans of giants, and though the little village is out of the way, it still endures landslides, floods, and yes the occasional giant attack. So when on the latest supply trip at the end of the first week of Abadius they saw the proclamation, they raced home to debate the merits of arranging for representatives to try to join the expedition. A two-giant attack on the village on 12th Abadius helped to decide Aballon; if his monastery-village is to survive, it will need to have the protection of a civilization.

And so Darivan and Sylvia, along with a number of people from the Aurum Chain, hurried the many miles to Restov to submit their request, arriving just at the last day ...
=====================================================================

Technicals:
The only glaring things I see are a) Sylvia's intelligence, and b) the fact that Darivan is a point overspent. Handle in reverse order.

Darivan:
Str 14 (5 pts) + 2 Racial = 16
Dex 14 (5 pts)
Con 14 (5 pts)
Int 15 (7 pts) + 1 Advance = 16
Wis 9 (-1 pt)
Cha 14 (5 pts)

26 pts spent. Dex/Con/Cha can come down by one to put Wisdom back at 10, or else Wis has to drop by another point.

Sylvia:
This ... is something that I suppose I should have seen coming. While I think it's more intended to be used as a two-point boost to help someone avoid a totally sucky score, or to give a necessary 'medium' score a boost into 'good', I can see this sort of thing inevitably being done. I will not say 'no', simply because Sylvia DOES have both Strength and Wisdom at 8s, and she will get hammered on those. I expect brilliance from her, but also foolhardiness; she has, in effect, an evil genius setup, in that her plans are complex, interlocking affairs, but that one well-thrown shoe will totally screw it up, leaving her in the lurch.

=====================================================================

For the stats *quintuple checks point values,* I still can't believe I overspent. I'll just drop wisdom by a point, I suppose. Still not sure how I did that. Sorry.
And I always knew I was pushing the envelope with the 23. I'll just use the points to up Str instead.
In any case, that's the overview. If I have the time, I'll try and have it up before too long, but I'm not terribly hopeful.