Way of the Wicked (Monster Edition)

Game Master Diamondust

Igoroskandrallanotly - “Igor”
Doppelganger alchemist (vivisectionst) 1
LE monstrous humanoid
Init +3; Senses Perception +4; darkvision 60 ft
DEFENSE
AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex)
HP 9 (1d8+1)
Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +0
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft
Melee 2 claws +3 (1d4+2)
Ranged by weapon +3
Special attacks mutagen (not brewed), sneak attack +1d6, throw anything
Spell-Like Abilities
1/day - detect thoughts (DC 14)
Alchemist Extracts Prepared (CL 1st, Concentration +4)
1st level - none
STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Atk +0; CMB +2; CMD 15
Traits Precise Treatment, Suspicious
Feats Ability Focus (detect thoughts), Brew Potion, Throw Anything, Weapon Finesse
Skills Bluff +7, Craft (alchemy)* +7, Disable Device +7, Disguise +7 (+17 when using change shape), Heal +7, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Perception +4, Profession (scribe)* +4, Sense Motive + 5, Use Magic Device +6
Languages Common, Aklo, Draconic, Dwarven
SQ alchemy, change shape (human male), throw anything
Gear none

The origins of Igoroskandrallanotly are unknown - even to them. Igoroskandrallanotly - or “Igor” as his former master, Versarius, called him - is a doppelganger. No one knows where doppelgangers come from, except perhaps other doppelgangers, and they have no interest in revealing such things. Igor is not even sure what their origin is. They remember a city - Ghastenhall, it was called - where they had great success in tricking wealthy members of the city into giving them sums of money and disappearing with it. With the ability to look like anyone and act like anyone and then disappear, it was easy to do so. However, they then have a large gap in their memory before awakening, chained to a table in the town of Farholde. It was here they were made the slave of Versarius.

Versarius was a semi-competent wizard who was frustrated by his failures to advance. His research had hit a dead end, and he was forced to sell alchemical concoctions and minor potions to villagers in Farholde. When Igor awoke chained to the table in his basement, he took great delight in telling Igor about how he alone had been smart enough to connect the doppelganger’s various confidence schemes and captured them. How he had kept the doppelganger unconscious for his return to Farholde, held in the hold of a merchant vessel. Versarius told Igor his days as a schemer were done. Now, he would assist Versarius in his work.

Igor agreed, thinking he could easily kill the wizard, then replace him. However, he was shocked to find his claws had been clipped. He tried to shift his form into that of Versarius, but he could not! What was happening? The wizard watched with glee on his face, then showed Igor a vial - a special poison he’d created that weakened and neutralized doppelganger abilities. Versarius told him he could no longer shapeshift, nor read minds, nor use any other of his gifts. His only course of action, should they wish to live, was to serve the wizard and be his research assistant. The wizard laughed in triumph, then left Igor chained to the table for the night. During their solitude, Igor tried to assume every form they could remember, whether one of theirs or one they’d seen. None worked - except for the most recent form they’d assumed. Scarcely breathing, Igor realized that Versarius’s concoction did not work as well as he’d thought. Perhaps that meant he would be able to escape. He would have to be patient though - more patient than he’d ever been. This would be a difficult scheme, and a very long term one. He would have to pretend subservience to this lesser creature who believed himself superior. Lull the wizard into a false sense of security, and then...a plan in place, Igor slept, awaiting morning, and his first day as Versarius’s assistant.

Versarius believed that through the dissection and distillation of animals and other creatures he could enhance the power of spells that shifted the body. He had captured the doppelganger both so he could study the doppelganger’s abilities, and so the doppelganger could take notes for him. Versarius would purchase various animals from merchants, kill them, and dissect and experiment with their blood, flesh, and other body parts, using them as ingredients in crafting potions that would allow him to change his shape. Igor’s job was to take notes during dissections and to clean up the mess once Versarius was done. Versarius would also bleed him slightly, using his blood in the potions to enhance their form shifting abilities. Each night, before the wizard went to bed, he injected Igor with more of the poison to keep his abilities suppresssed. Igor complied with all of Versarius’s directives, bowing and scraping, making the wizard think him defeated. It galled him to have to do so - after all, he was a greater form of life than this buffoon! He knew he needed to keep up the act, though, if he was to win his freedom. Over the course of six months, Igor made Versarius think him less and less of a threat. He convinced Versarius to allow him to aid in the dissections, not just take notes, and to allow him to help brew the potions and make alchemical items for sale in the shop. Versarius, thinking him cowed, did so. After six more long months, Igor made his move. While working during the day, he mixed up a sedative with the intent to slip it into one of Versarius’s potions when he worked one night. All was in readiness.

That evening, Versarius summoned him into the laboratory for the evening’s dissection and experimentation. This time, strapped to the table was not an animal, but a woman who looked a cross between human and angel. The wizard said his research required them to move beyond beasts, and that the blood of one touched by the Outer Planes would enhance the potency of their brews ten-fold. Igor was shocked. They weren’t concerned about the woman’s life, since she was irrelevant, but kidnapping such a woman would surely attract the authorities and the Church of Mitra. Versarius did not seem to care, however, as he cut her throat and told Igor to begin assisting. Shrugging, Igor began going through the motions of the dissection - they knew the routine by heart, now, and did not need to concentrate on it. In their mind, Igor knew they would have to drug Versarius and kill him tonight. The authorities would be looking for the woman. By morning, he would have to be gone. He knew where the key to the safe was, and could take Versarius’s coin and vanish before the sun came up and the authorities found him.

All went well. The woman was dissected, and Versarius and Igor began brewing potions. Igor found the opportunity he needed to slip the sedative into the combination, and Versarius drank it. It took only moments for him to fall to the ground, unconscious. Grinning, Igor shoved the woman’s remains from the table and strapped Versarius to it, then went do destroy every ounce of the poison that had stripped him of his powers, and the formula to make it as well. No one would strip him of his might ever again. That done, Igor returned to the laboratory and fed the wizard an antidote to the sedative. When Versarius awoke, he was bound and gagged, unable to use his magic, and Igor stood above him, dissection tools in hand. Fear appeared in Versarius’s eyes, and he struggled mightily to escape - but to no avail. Every dissection technique Igor had learned from Versarius, they used, save one - they did not kill the wizard first. They ensured the wizard felt extreme pain for what remained of his life. In the end, Versarius lie still, his body cut open, the blood drained. Igor stood, savoring the sight, committing it to memory so he could remember it always. That proved to be his downfall.

The authorities proved quicker than they thought, aided by a Knight of the Alerion, Sir Balin of Kierkegaard. The Mitrans burst into the room and quickly beat Igor into unconsciousness, hauling them away. When they awoke, they found themselves chained in a cell, accused of the kidnapping and murder of both the woman and Versarius, as well as of conducting foul experiments and the black arts. Igor did not worry. They could not know what they were. They would pretend to be a guard who had been attacked and chained up by the escaping prisoner, then sneak away and flee the town. Shifting into the only form they still could, when the guards next came to check on them, they tried convincing the guards of what had happened. Their ruse succeeded, but not in the way they had hoped. One of the guards was newly arrived from Ghastenhall, where wanted posters of them had been circulated for swindling a banker. The guards were thrilled, for they had an infamous con artist in the prisons. Instead of being freed, they were guarded all day against escape. They desperately tried using their shifting abilities to scare the guards, changing back to their true form, but it did not work. The monster was clearly a murderer, a kidnapper, a con artist, and a possible devil worshipper.

They were unceremoniously taken in chains to a wagon with barred doors and windows, chained into it with a hood over their head, and sent to some unescapable prison, where they were to be held until the anniversary of King Markadian V’s reign, where they would be killed in mock combat with some night. Igoroskandrallanotly could scarcely believe they had fallen so far. This was it. The end...of everything.

Type: Fey. Fey have low-light vision, eat, breathe and sleep. (2 RP)
Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Cha (0 RP)
Darkvision 60 ft. (2 RP)
Scent (4 RP)
Swift as Shadows: Members of this race reduce the penalty for using Stealth while moving at full speed by 5, and reduce the Stealth check penalty for sniping by 10 (3 RP)
Static Bonus Feat (Basic Magical Training(Dark Sphere)): Members of this race gain the Dark sphere as a bonus sphere. (2 RP)

Total, 13 RP.

Humanoid (0 RP)

Large (7 RP)
Prerequisites: Humanoids taking this quality must have the giant subtype.
Benefit: Large creatures gain a +2 size bonus to Strength and a –2 size penalty to Dexterity. Large races take a –1 size penalty to their AC, a –1 size penalty on attack rolls, a +1 bonus on combat maneuver checks and to their CMD, and a –4 size penalty on Stealth checks. A Large creature takes up a space that is 10 feet by 10 feet and has a reach of 5 feet.
Normal Speed (0 RP)
The race has a base speed of 30 feet.
Standard (0 RP) +2 Str, -2 Int, +2 Wis
Modifiers: Members of this race gain a +2 bonus to one physical ability score, a +2 bonus to one mental ability score, and a –2 penalty to any other ability score.
Standard (0 RP)
Members of this race start with Common plus their racial language (if any). Furthermore, choose up to seven languages (except for Druidic or other secret languages). Members of this race with high Intelligence scores can choose from any of these additional languages.
Offensive Traits
Reach (1 RP)
Prerequisites: Large size.
Benefit: Members of this race have a reach of 10 feet.

Defense Racial traits
Fire in the Blood (3 RP)
Prerequisites: Outsider (native) with ties to the Plane of Fire or dragon type.
Benefit: Members of this race gain fast healing 2 for 1 round anytime they take fire damage (whether or not this fire damage overcomes their fire resistance, if any). Members of this race can heal up to 2 hit points per level per day with this ability, after which it ceases to function.
Elemental Immunity (4 RP)
Fire
Prerequisites: Outsider (native) with ties to an elemental plane.
Benefit: Pick one of the following energy types that corresponds to the plane the race has ties to: acid (earth), cold (water), electricity (air), or fire (fire). Members of this race are immune to the chosen energy type.
Special: This trait can be taken more than once. Each additional time you take this trait, increase its cost by 1 RP. Each time it is taken, select another energy type that corresponds to another elemental plane the race has ties to. If a race has vulnerability to fire and immunity to cold, it gains the cold subtype. If a race has vulnerability to cold and immunity to fire, it gains the fire subtype.
Movement Trait
Fast (1 RP)
Prerequisites: Normal speed.
Benefit: Members of this race gain a +10 foot bonus to their base speed.
Special: This trait can be taken more than once, but each time it is, the cost increases by 1 RP. Its effects stack.
Sight Traits
Low-Light Vision (1 RP)
Prerequisites: None.
Benefit: Members of this race can see twice as far as a race with normal vision in conditions of dim light.
Weakness Traits
Elemental Vulnerability (–2 RP)
Cold
Prerequisites: Outsider (native) with ties to an elemental plane.
Weakness: Pick one of the following energy types: acid, cold, electricity, or fire. Members of this race have vulnerability to the chosen energy type. They cannot posses any racial trait that grants them resistance or immunity to this energy type.
Special: This trait can be taken multiple times. Each time it is taken, choose a different energy type. If a race has vulnerability to fire and immunity to cold, it gains the cold subtype. If a race has vulnerability to cold and immunity to fire, it gains the fire subtype.

Igoroskandrallanotly - “Igor”
Doppelganger alchemist (vivisectionst) 1
LE monstrous humanoid
Init +3; Senses Perception +4; darkvision 60 ft
DEFENSE
AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex)
HP 9 (1d8+1)
Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +0
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft
Melee 2 claws +3 (1d4+2)
Ranged by weapon +3
Special attacks mutagen (not brewed), sneak attack +1d6, throw anything
Spell-Like Abilities
1/day - detect thoughts (DC 14)
Alchemist Extracts Prepared (CL 1st, Concentration +4)
1st level - none
STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Atk +0; CMB +2; CMD 15
Traits Precise Treatment, Suspicious
Feats Ability Focus (detect thoughts), Brew Potion, Human Guise, Throw Anything
Skills Bluff +7, Craft (alchemy)* +7, Disable Device +7, Disguise +7 (+17 when using change shape), Heal +7, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Perception +4, Profession (scribe)* +4, Sense Motive + 5, Use Magic Device +6
Languages Common, Aklo, Draconic, Dwarven
SQ alchemy, change shape (human male), throw anything
Gear none

The origins of Igoroskandrallanotly are unknown - even to them. Igoroskandrallanotly - or “Igor” as his former master, Versarius, called him - is a doppelganger. No one knows where doppelgangers come from, except perhaps other doppelgangers, and they have no interest in revealing such things. Igor is not even sure what their origin is. They remember a city - Ghastenhall, it was called - where they had great success in tricking wealthy members of the city into giving them sums of money and disappearing with it. With the ability to look like anyone and act like anyone and then disappear, it was easy to do so. However, they then have a large gap in their memory before awakening, chained to a table in the town of Farholde. It was here they were made the slave of Versarius.

Versarius was a semi-competent wizard who was frustrated by his failures to advance. His research had hit a dead end, and he was forced to sell alchemical concoctions and minor potions to villagers in Farholde. When Igor awoke chained to the table in his basement, he took great delight in telling Igor about how he alone had been smart enough to connect the doppelganger’s various confidence schemes and captured them. How he had kept the doppelganger unconscious for his return to Farholde, held in the hold of a merchant vessel. Versarius told Igor his days as a schemer were done. Now, he would assist Versarius in his work.

Igor agreed, thinking he could easily kill the wizard, then replace him. However, he was shocked to find his claws had been clipped. He tried to shift his form into that of Versarius, but he could not! What was happening? The wizard watched with glee on his face, then showed Igor a vial - a special poison he’d created that weakened and neutralized doppelganger abilities. Versarius told him he could no longer shapeshift, nor read minds, nor use any other of his gifts. His only course of action, should they wish to live, was to serve the wizard and be his research assistant. The wizard laughed in triumph, then left Igor chained to the table for the night. During their solitude, Igor tried to assume every form they could remember, whether one of theirs or one they’d seen. None worked - except for the most recent form they’d assumed. Scarcely breathing, Igor realized that Versarius’s concoction did not work as well as he’d thought. Perhaps that meant he would be able to escape. He would have to be patient though - more patient than he’d ever been. This would be a difficult scheme, and a very long term one. He would have to pretend subservience to this lesser creature who believed himself superior. Lull the wizard into a false sense of security, and then...a plan in place, Igor slept, awaiting morning, and his first day as Versarius’s assistant.

Versarius believed that through the dissection and distillation of animals and other creatures he could enhance the power of spells that shifted the body. He had captured the doppelganger both so he could study the doppelganger’s abilities, and so the doppelganger could take notes for him. Versarius would purchase various animals from merchants, kill them, and dissect and experiment with their blood, flesh, and other body parts, using them as ingredients in crafting potions that would allow him to change his shape. Igor’s job was to take notes during dissections and to clean up the mess once Versarius was done. Versarius would also bleed him slightly, using his blood in the potions to enhance their form shifting abilities. Each night, before the wizard went to bed, he injected Igor with more of the poison to keep his abilities suppresssed. Igor complied with all of Versarius’s directives, bowing and scraping, making the wizard think him defeated. It galled him to have to do so - after all, he was a greater form of life than this buffoon! He knew he needed to keep up the act, though, if he was to win his freedom. Over the course of six months, Igor made Versarius think him less and less of a threat. He convinced Versarius to allow him to aid in the dissections, not just take notes, and to allow him to help brew the potions and make alchemical items for sale in the shop. Versarius, thinking him cowed, did so. After six more long months, Igor made his move. While working during the day, he mixed up a sedative with the intent to slip it into one of Versarius’s potions when he worked one night. All was in readiness.

That evening, Versarius summoned him into the laboratory for the evening’s dissection and experimentation. This time, strapped to the table was not an animal, but a woman who looked a cross between human and angel. The wizard said his research required them to move beyond beasts, and that the blood of one touched by the Outer Planes would enhance the potency of their brews ten-fold. Igor was shocked. They weren’t concerned about the woman’s life, since she was irrelevant, but kidnapping such a woman would surely attract the authorities and the Church of Mitra. Versarius did not seem to care, however, as he cut her throat and told Igor to begin assisting. Shrugging, Igor began going through the motions of the dissection - they knew the routine by heart, now, and did not need to concentrate on it. In their mind, Igor knew they would have to drug Versarius and kill him tonight. The authorities would be looking for the woman. By morning, he would have to be gone. He knew where the key to the safe was, and could take Versarius’s coin and vanish before the sun came up and the authorities found him.

All went well. The woman was dissected, and Versarius and Igor began brewing potions. Igor found the opportunity he needed to slip the sedative into the combination, and Versarius drank it. It took only moments for him to fall to the ground, unconscious. Grinning, Igor shoved the woman’s remains from the table and strapped Versarius to it, then went do destroy every ounce of the poison that had stripped him of his powers, and the formula to make it as well. No one would strip him of his might ever again. That done, Igor returned to the laboratory and fed the wizard an antidote to the sedative. When Versarius awoke, he was bound and gagged, unable to use his magic, and Igor stood above him, dissection tools in hand. Fear appeared in Versarius’s eyes, and he struggled mightily to escape - but to no avail. Every dissection technique Igor had learned from Versarius, they used, save one - they did not kill the wizard first. They ensured the wizard felt extreme pain for what remained of his life. In the end, Versarius lie still, his body cut open, the blood drained. Igor stood, savoring the sight, committing it to memory so he could remember it always. That proved to be his downfall.

The authorities proved quicker than they thought, aided by a Knight of the Alerion, Sir Balin of Kierkegaard. The Mitrans burst into the room and quickly beat Igor into unconsciousness, hauling them away. When they awoke, they found themselves chained in a cell, accused of the kidnapping and murder of both the woman and Versarius, as well as of conducting foul experiments and the black arts. Igor did not worry. They could not know what they were. They would pretend to be a guard who had been attacked and chained up by the escaping prisoner, then sneak away and flee the town. Shifting into the only form they still could, when the guards next came to check on them, they tried convincing the guards of what had happened. Their ruse succeeded, but not in the way they had hoped. One of the guards was newly arrived from Ghastenhall, where wanted posters of them had been circulated for swindling a banker. The guards were thrilled, for they had an infamous con artist in the prisons. Instead of being freed, they were guarded all day against escape. They desperately tried using their shifting abilities to scare the guards, changing back to their true form, but it did not work. The monster was clearly a murderer, a kidnapper, a con artist, and a possible devil worshipper.

They were unceremoniously taken in chains to a wagon with barred doors and windows, chained into it with a hood over their head, and sent to some unescapable prison, where they were to be held until the anniversary of King Markadian V’s reign, where they would be killed in mock combat with some night. Igoroskandrallanotly could scarcely believe they had fallen so far. This was it. The end...of everything.

Fiaincosranboladhrianoir was less a name than a designation; a role to play in the grand story of the Wild Hunt, as the Hound Which Scents the Prey. All the Fey of the Hunt were similar in that regard, with even the King serving his Role faithfully and without question, a tool of the grand concept of the Hunt.

The Hound served for centuries, growing old, crafty...and cruel. One cannot hunt sentient prey for long without deriving at least some pleasure from it. To do so for so long would require an abject dedication to the craft of reaping the terror of arrogant creatures. The rest of his Pack, and the immediate Link were of a similar mindset to him; not only were they serving a Role, but they had been place din that Role by their inherent superiority over the prey.

The primary tenet by which they lived became that all living creatures existed only for their amusement; Prey was prey, and none but the Hunt were anything else.

So this led them to hunt ever more dangerous foes, with ever more convoluted and cruel methods and rules attached to their hunts. Some prey would be hunted for years, even decades before they were closed in on, harassed until madness took them and they ceased to have the cunning to be amusing prey.

This continued until they hunted a being which was a match for their cunning and far more than a match for their power: a higher angel of the Heavens, which smote them, annihilating the Link and most inside it.

The Hound was injured, but survived. Scarred and broken, it roamed the wilderness of a small island on the planet of Golarion in the Material Plane. Some of its wounds healed, though others remained. The physical harm was a mere symptom of the greater injury, however: the Hound's connection to the infinite stream of energy in the First World that empowered all Fey was damaged, and mostly severed.

Metaphysically weakened and rendered killable for the first time in its existence, the Hound was cautious. Moreover it had true free will for the first time as well, though it did not understand this at first.

As such the Hound knew nothing else than to continue its activities, hunting mortals that strayed too far into the wilds of Talingarde and drawing sustenance and pleasure from their fear as well as their flesh.

It was only a matter of time before an organized contingent of monster hunters ventured into the woods, and the Hound proved too weak to fight them off.

Facing defeat for the second time in his existence was bad enough. The humiliation of capture like a common beast, and talk of fighting for others' amusement turned that shame into deep, abiding resentment.

He would have his revenge on Talingarde, and all mortals that lived within that nation.

Scarred and broken, the hound is nevertheless powerfully muscular and retains much of its experience with tracking and hunting.

The most prominent injuries are the lack of its right eye and most of the same ear, burned off by the angel's righteous might. The burn scars covering the rest of its body leave its black fur patchy where it grows in at all, lending the Hound a disturbing, fleshy appearance.

I've made some choices for the build that make him pretty powerful for a 1st level character, like with most synthesists, admittedly. However, I hope this is balanced by a couple of things. Firstly, I'm not actually using any templates or monster race, nor do I expect to gain them later on. My growth into a monster will come through evolution points and the growth of the eidolon. Secondly, while fairly strong early on, and even later on, I'll suffer a lot of lag as the game goes on compared to other characters, particularly in BAB and some saving throws, to some extent. My goal was mostly to prematurely try to counteract some of that, while also building a fun and flavorful character. I'll explain some choices in the backstory, and I'm happy to explain further if you like.

I sort of front-loaded the Dark Sphere by taking three drawbacks. That is because that can be an incredibly versatile sphere in the future, but right now I'm just interested in one standard trick (which is creating areas of dim light or darkness centered on me). I plan on buying back the drawbacks in the future to use the darkness more offensively, but if you think that's too much of a front-load I can cut back on them.

If I'm interpreting the rules correctly, Martial Shifter (which moves quick transformation to level 2) should stack with Nocturnal Predator (whose Hidden Transformation counts as quick transformation) by having me move Hidden Transformation to level 2. As well, Martial Shifter does not grant a combat talent progression, therefore I should be able to trade my feats at levels 1, 5, 9, 13 and 17 for a Proficient progression. Again, tell me if this can work.

Scent of Fear is made for 3.5 bugbears, but it's literally the only monster feat whose prerequirements I meet. I can tone it down if needed.

PLAYER----CHARACTER----CREATURE----CLASS----BACKSTORY
Philo Pharynx----unknown----unknown----unknown----no
Sapiens----Eat-in-Shadow----Bogeyman----Shifter----Yes
Nemroider----unknown----Serpentfolk----Cleric----no
caster4life----unknown----unknown----unknown----no
zefig----unknown----Medusa----Hedge Witch----no
rorek55----Reginald Oswell----Ogre----Wizard----no
DBH----unknown----Vishkanya----Rogue----no
Andrea1----Aggghhh the Unclean----Orc----Barbarian----Yes
Joynt Jezebel----unknown----unknown----unknown----no
Phntm888----Igoroskandrallanotly----Doppelganger----Alchemist----Yes
Nyaa----unknown----unknown----unknown----no
Ictoo----unknown----Vampire----Alchemist----no
Storm Dragon----Fiaincosranboladhrianoir----Hound of the Wild Hunt----Stalker----Yes
Aipaca----Captain Richter Kruegar----Dread Skeleton----Mageknight----no
Jereru----unknown----Ogre or Minotaur----unknown----no
Helix Missionary----Ngogh'gnish----Rogue Eidolon----Summoner----no
Nikolaus de'Shade----unknown----Construct----unknown----no
ImperialSunlight----Gop----Goblin----Witch----Yes
Fenris105----Fjori Unnason----Fire Giant----Cleric----no

Dahlia's mother had thought she'd had it all figured it, that she was so clever. But she was a fool. She only learned at the very end that a medusa could never truly exist side-by-side with the humans.

Her mother had spent decades setting up her position before she was comfortable enough to bring Dahlia into the world. They lived in the depths of a dismal, fetid swamp - debasing themselves in a place that the humans would never dare. Never “encroaching” on the lands the humans claimed for themselves. Yes, game had been plentiful, for a time, so they didn't go hungry. Her mother taught her to hunt. But she also taught the girl not to give the gift of eternity to anything but the bugs and the small creatures of the earth and sky. As if the pitiful things deserved it. What good does an eternity in stone do for something so base and ugly? But her mother said that the humans feared the insects. That many other villages had lost half their numbers to sicknesses that the insects brought, but the two of them protected theirs from such a fate. “Their” village, as if the hamlet welcomed them with open arms rather than terrified, averted eyes and grim stares of mistrust on the rare occasions they donned their veils and ventured into the village to trade. Long enough to trade, to get the news, and to leave before fear drove any of the humans to think better of their tense arrangement.

And so Dahlia led a childhood full of isolation and resentment. With so few distractions without, she turned inwards to grow. She began to impose her desires upon the world. Her stone toys of birds and locusts began to fly themselves around through the air. As she hunted, she willed the insects to ignore her, the sun to beat down upon her less fiercely, and her prey to look past her until it was too late. Her mother, possessed of similar powers, encouraged her practice. As she grew older, her powers grew, but slowly the swamp began to die. The insects had all but disappeared, and soon afterwards the plants began to go as well. After the plants, the game. The humans of the village took notice, as the game supplemented the grain they grew. As her 14th winter set in, the villagers sent a messenger to tell Dahlia and her mother to leave. With predictable weakness her mother acquiesced, promising to leave within the week. Though Dahlia still held to her mother's misguided rules, she did not expect to see a human as she hunted out in the swamp unveiled. The messenger boy happened upon her during his return to the village, and he took the gift of eternity as their eyes met. His horse followed suit a moment later, it's back already broken by the weight of the terrified statue rider. Dahlia returned to her mother in tears but could not reveal what she'd done out of fear of punishment. The villagers soon found out though, and pooled their resources to hire a small band of “heroes” to avenge their fallen son.

Dahlia's mother's grave is marked now by the statue of the Knight of Alerion who slew her, his self-righteous pity for her still clear in his granite eyes. The heroes’ arrival in their camp was marked by two arrows thudding into Dahlia's chest and shoulder. As her mother pleaded for mercy, unaware of the reason for the attack, Dahlia slipped into the swamp to evade further assault. The paladin called down the holy wrath of Mitra, and her mother imposed a last command unto her daughter: SURVIVE. And so she did. Dahlia soon sank into the shallow bog several miles away from the attack, the first snow of winter fell, and she felt her heart turn cold.

When early spring thawed the ice and snow, Dahlia stirred from where she'd lain unmoving, recovering over the course of the winter. She returned to her camp to bid her mother farewell and gather a few scant belongings. Her swamp was too dead now to keep her alive, so she set foot on the road and followed wherever it led. Her first encounters with humans on her own taught her that her veil was not enough to keep her safe from fear, mistrust, and attack. Her gaze, her bite, and her magic kept her from harm but she soon found that deception, disguise, even diplomacy and that very same fear were often more effective at actually getting her what she needed. Or even just what she wanted. The road was good to her. But waylaid merchants and reports of travelers turned to stone don't go unnoticed in Talingarde. And the petrified Paladin of Mitra had not been forgotten. The Knights of Alerion put out a bounty on this scourge of the countryside, and it was soon answered. The hunters tracked her across the Heartland and took her as she slept, and the church praised their tenacity and cunning. They gouged out her eyes as she woke to take her deadliest defense, and they gagged her to keep her from imposing new realities. The goodly church praised their foresight. Her poison weakened them, and the church gave them succor as they dragged her maimed and beaten into a cage. As she was shipped to Branderscar without food or water to sustain her, the church hailed a new period of safety and prosperity in the Heartland.

Now she slumps in a dismal, fetid hole in Branderscar Prison, and the church has announced that justice will be served. Dahlia believes it will. So she waits, and she watches, and she plans. Most of all, she survives.

Strength, that was all Ogres really cared for, besides family that is. Strength, or power, were what determined ones place in Ogre clans. The stronger you were, the better off you would be. Usually. This, coupled with the natural intelligence of a dimwit, lead Ogres to be rather simple creatures. However, by some strange occurrence, there was born a blue skinned Ogre baby named Thunk. One, that dared to ask questions. Now, while he received some bullying from the other ogres, more often than not he was smart enough, and sharp enough with his tongue, to deflect bullying onto others. (to his own great amusements) Though his weak frame and lesser strength (at least in Ogre standards) would lead to him being a lowly “worker” in the tribe. Eventually, this natural (or, unnatural intellect) lead to curiosity. Particularly in regards to a human manor not too terribly far from His home. Of which all manor of things seemed to explode out of. While many Ogres may have simply stalked in and tried to eat the old man who lived there, Thunk instead preferred to watch. He watched the old man perform all manor of magic and rituals over the course of nigh 2 years, where he managed to slowly acquire a wide vocabulary in common. Finally, one day, Thunk could stand it no longer. He entered the Manor at night while the wizard was sleeping, and crushed his skull in one swift motion. There was nothing wrong here, as the Manor was on the Ogre clan’s territory so it was his to take! Thunk found the old wizards journals and, upon reading the name, took up the name of Reginald Oswell. For over two years, Thunk, now Reginald, lived in the manor, and he kept it very tidy despite his heritage. He even managed to teach himself some magic from all the books and tomes left in the wizard’s home. After managing to keep up the persona for almost two years to the few strangers that came along. He was outed by greedy tax collectors coming to “personally” collect “overdue taxes”. Needless to say, the confrontation ending in Reginald finding himself a tasty snack. Eventually a search group was formed and guards discovered who, or more precisely, what, was living in the old manor. After finally working up the courage, (and bringing nigh a dozen men) The guards demanded that Reginald come with them. Reginald saw it more as a request, and would rather be done with all the trouble once and for all. So he complied, he had thought this would aid his case, however, it was what doomed him. After being rudely detained and stricken down He awoke in a jail of sorts. Grumpy, hungry, and flabbergasted. With no one to talk to save his little rat, Squeaks.

Igoroskandrallanotly - “Igor”
Doppelganger alchemist (vivisectionst) 1
LE monstrous humanoid
Init +3; Senses Perception +4; darkvision 60 ft
DEFENSE
AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex)
HP 9 (1d8+1)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +1
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft
Melee 2 claws +3 (1d4+2)
Ranged by weapon +3
Special attacks mutagen (not brewed), sneak attack +1d6, throw anything
Spell-Like Abilities
1/day - detect thoughts (DC 14)
Alchemist Extracts Prepared (CL 1st, Concentration +4)
1st level - none
STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Atk +0; CMB +2; CMD 15
Traits Precise Treatment, Suspicious
Feats Ability Focus (detect thoughts), Brew Potion, Human Guise, Throw Anything
Skills Bluff +7, Craft (alchemy)* +7, Disable Device +7, Disguise +7 (+17 when using change shape), Heal +7, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Perception +4, Profession (scribe)* +4, Sense Motive + 5, Use Magic Device +6
Languages Common, Aklo, Draconic, Dwarven
Automatic Bonus Progression Resistance +1
SQ alchemy, change shape (human male), throw anything
Gear none

The origins of Igoroskandrallanotly are unknown - even to them. Igoroskandrallanotly - or “Igor” as his former master, Versarius, called him - is a doppelganger. No one knows where doppelgangers come from, except perhaps other doppelgangers, and they have no interest in revealing such things. Igor is not even sure what their origin is. They remember a city - Ghastenhall, it was called - where they had great success in tricking wealthy members of the city into giving them sums of money and disappearing with it. With the ability to look like anyone and act like anyone and then disappear, it was easy to do so. However, they then have a large gap in their memory before awakening, chained to a table in the town of Farholde. It was here they were made the slave of Versarius.

Versarius was a semi-competent wizard who was frustrated by his failures to advance. His research had hit a dead end, and he was forced to sell alchemical concoctions and minor potions to villagers in Farholde. When Igor awoke chained to the table in his basement, he took great delight in telling Igor about how he alone had been smart enough to connect the doppelganger’s various confidence schemes and captured them. How he had kept the doppelganger unconscious for his return to Farholde, held in the hold of a merchant vessel. Versarius told Igor his days as a schemer were done. Now, he would assist Versarius in his work.

Igor agreed, thinking he could easily kill the wizard, then replace him. However, he was shocked to find his claws had been clipped. He tried to shift his form into that of Versarius, but he could not! What was happening? The wizard watched with glee on his face, then showed Igor a vial - a special poison he’d created that weakened and neutralized doppelganger abilities. Versarius told him he could no longer shapeshift, nor read minds, nor use any other of his gifts. His only course of action, should they wish to live, was to serve the wizard and be his research assistant. The wizard laughed in triumph, then left Igor chained to the table for the night. During their solitude, Igor tried to assume every form they could remember, whether one of theirs or one they’d seen. None worked - except for the most recent form they’d assumed. Scarcely breathing, Igor realized that Versarius’s concoction did not work as well as he’d thought. Perhaps that meant he would be able to escape. He would have to be patient though - more patient than he’d ever been. This would be a difficult scheme, and a very long term one. He would have to pretend subservience to this lesser creature who believed himself superior. Lull the wizard into a false sense of security, and then...a plan in place, Igor slept, awaiting morning, and his first day as Versarius’s assistant.

Versarius believed that through the dissection and distillation of animals and other creatures he could enhance the power of spells that shifted the body. He had captured the doppelganger both so he could study the doppelganger’s abilities, and so the doppelganger could take notes for him. Versarius would purchase various animals from merchants, kill them, and dissect and experiment with their blood, flesh, and other body parts, using them as ingredients in crafting potions that would allow him to change his shape. Igor’s job was to take notes during dissections and to clean up the mess once Versarius was done. Versarius would also bleed him slightly, using his blood in the potions to enhance their form shifting abilities. Each night, before the wizard went to bed, he injected Igor with more of the poison to keep his abilities suppresssed. Igor complied with all of Versarius’s directives, bowing and scraping, making the wizard think him defeated. It galled him to have to do so - after all, he was a greater form of life than this buffoon! He knew he needed to keep up the act, though, if he was to win his freedom. Over the course of six months, Igor made Versarius think him less and less of a threat. He convinced Versarius to allow him to aid in the dissections, not just take notes, and to allow him to help brew the potions and make alchemical items for sale in the shop. Versarius, thinking him cowed, did so. After six more long months, Igor made his move. While working during the day, he mixed up a sedative with the intent to slip it into one of Versarius’s potions when he worked one night. All was in readiness.

That evening, Versarius summoned him into the laboratory for the evening’s dissection and experimentation. This time, strapped to the table was not an animal, but a woman who looked a cross between human and angel. The wizard said his research required them to move beyond beasts, and that the blood of one touched by the Outer Planes would enhance the potency of their brews ten-fold. Igor was shocked. They weren’t concerned about the woman’s life, since she was irrelevant, but kidnapping such a woman would surely attract the authorities and the Church of Mitra. Versarius did not seem to care, however, as he cut her throat and told Igor to begin assisting. Shrugging, Igor began going through the motions of the dissection - they knew the routine by heart, now, and did not need to concentrate on it. In their mind, Igor knew they would have to drug Versarius and kill him tonight. The authorities would be looking for the woman. By morning, he would have to be gone. He knew where the key to the safe was, and could take Versarius’s coin and vanish before the sun came up and the authorities found him.

All went well. The woman was dissected, and Versarius and Igor began brewing potions. Igor found the opportunity he needed to slip the sedative into the combination, and Versarius drank it. It took only moments for him to fall to the ground, unconscious. Grinning, Igor shoved the woman’s remains from the table and strapped Versarius to it, then went do destroy every ounce of the poison that had stripped him of his powers, and the formula to make it as well. No one would strip him of his might ever again. That done, Igor returned to the laboratory and fed the wizard an antidote to the sedative. When Versarius awoke, he was bound and gagged, unable to use his magic, and Igor stood above him, dissection tools in hand. Fear appeared in Versarius’s eyes, and he struggled mightily to escape - but to no avail. Every dissection technique Igor had learned from Versarius, they used, save one - they did not kill the wizard first. They ensured the wizard felt extreme pain for what remained of his life. In the end, Versarius lie still, his body cut open, the blood drained. Igor stood, savoring the sight, committing it to memory so he could remember it always. That proved to be his downfall.

The authorities proved quicker than they thought, aided by a Knight of the Alerion, Sir Balin of Kierkegaard. The Mitrans burst into the room and quickly beat Igor into unconsciousness, hauling them away. When they awoke, they found themselves chained in a cell, accused of the kidnapping and murder of both the woman and Versarius, as well as of conducting foul experiments and the black arts. Igor did not worry. They could not know what they were. They would pretend to be a guard who had been attacked and chained up by the escaping prisoner, then sneak away and flee the town. Shifting into the only form they still could, when the guards next came to check on them, they tried convincing the guards of what had happened. Their ruse succeeded, but not in the way they had hoped. One of the guards was newly arrived from Ghastenhall, where wanted posters of them had been circulated for swindling a banker. The guards were thrilled, for they had an infamous con artist in the prisons. Instead of being freed, they were guarded all day against escape. They desperately tried using their shifting abilities to scare the guards, changing back to their true form, but it did not work. The monster was clearly a murderer, a kidnapper, a con artist, and a possible devil worshipper.

They were unceremoniously taken in chains to a wagon with barred doors and windows, chained into it with a hood over their head, and sent to some unescapable prison, where they were to be held until the anniversary of King Markadian V’s reign, where they would be killed in mock combat with some night. Igoroskandrallanotly could scarcely believe they had fallen so far. This was it. The end...of everything.

Name: Edward Mulligan
Race: Skinwalker Ragebred
Class: Feral Shifter Druid
Alignment: Neutral Evil
HP: 11(8 +2 Constitution, +1 from Favoured Class - Druid)
AC: 11(TAC: 11, flat footed:12)
Movement: 30
Deity: Lamashtu

Strength: 18
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 14(16 in hybrid form)
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 14
Charisma: 11

Traits: Trustworthy(+1 Bluff to fool someone, +1 Diplomacy and Diplomacy is always a class skill), Demon Proof Mind(+2 to save vs mind-affecting powers of evil outsiders).

Feats: Extra Feature(Can take 1 extra feature in hybrid form), Dedicated Adversary - Human(+2 Preferred Enemy bonus for humans).

Skills:
Perception: +8/+10 vs Humans
Knowledge(Nature): +6
Diplomacy: +5/+7 vs Humans
Survival: +8

Fortitude Save:
+4/+5 in hybrid
Reflex Save:
+1
Will Save:
+4/+6 vs evil outsiders mind-affecting.

Special Abilities:
Animal Focus - Can choose a feature from Hunter ability of the same name

Skinwalker Shapeshift - Can choose 2 of the following features:
+10 foot racial bonus to base speed
Gore attack that deals 1d6 points of damage
2 hoof attacks that each deal 1d4 points of damage
Scent to a range of 30 feet

Spells Memorized:

0th:
Enhanced Diplomacy
Detect Magic
Guidance

1st:
Magic Fang
Cure Light Wounds

Combat:
Shapeshifting attacks:
Hooves: d4+4/d4+4
Gore: d6+4

Edward is mean. Always has been - But when you come from a Skinwalker tribe, particularly one descended from Wereboars, your life is a whirlwind of passion and misunderstandings, and Edward's life is no different. All of that was made worse by the fact that shapeshifters are far more likely to kill the person bearing them, so the family turned to Lamashtu worship as the only way to keep their mothers safe.

Taking on the path of the druid from a young age, Edward's malleable form helped him as a hunter with his family, bringing in pelts from the islands and selling them on the open market. His family were travelers, constantly moving from place to place when the inevitable bar-brawl or savage beating got them chased out of town by the authorities.

Still, Edward had a place in the world, and that place involved getting paid to hunt things. Sometimes, that 'thing' involved people, simply because hunting fugitives was more lucrative than hunting deer when the opportunity presented itself.

He relished the chance to pit his own near-supernatural strength against the various thieves and ne'er-do-wells he occasionally encountered. Generally, Edward kept to an attitude that he liked to use the same level of force whoever he was hunting used - Lethal for lethal, non-lethal for those who threw a punch or two back.

All that came to a halt when he gleefully took on a bounty to hunt a Rovagug worshipper named Denython, guilty of heresy in the state of Talingarde. Edward took the bounty and went to hunt the fallen worshipper of a mad deity, who took every opportunity to turn things against him.

The follower of Rovagug summoned dream-Daemons, plaguing Edward with nightmares that wouldn't let him sleep, so Edward hardened himself to their images and found Denython's trail again. Denython summoned wisps of shadows whispering promises to Edward, but Edward's direct nature shredded the shadows and his psyche left sacrosanct. Finally, Edward tracked Denython to a city tavern and burst inside. Frayed and angry, having been plagued by Daemons for months while following him, when the Diabolist Denython drew a knife, Edward lost it. In a red haze, he tore the Diabolist limb from limb, along with the Tavernkeep and a random bystander who happened to scream and get his attention. He also destroyed 3 city guard who burst on to the scene, catching them by surprise before the rest of the watch managed to drop him down and drag him off.

And now he is imprisoned, trapped in a prison for the worst of the worst.

PLAYER----CHARACTER----CREATURE----CLASS----BACKSTORY
Philo Pharynx----unknown----unknown----unknown----no
Sapiens----Eat-in-Shadow----Bogeyman----Shifter----Yes
Nemroider----unknown----Serpentfolk----Cleric----no
caster4life----unknown----unknown----unknown----no
zefig----Dahlia----Medusa----Hedge Witch----yes
rorek55----Reginald Oswell----Ogre----Wizard----yes
DBH----unknown----Vishkanya----Rogue----no
Andrea1----Aggghhh the Unclean----Orc----Barbarian----Yes
Joynt Jezebel----unknown----unknown----unknown----no
Phntm888----Igoroskandrallanotly----Doppelganger----Alchemist----Yes
Nyaa----unknown----unknown----unknown----no
Ictoo----unknown----Vampire----Alchemist----no
Storm Dragon----Fiaincosranboladhrianoir----Hound of the Wild Hunt----Stalker----Yes
Aipaca----Captain Richter Kruegar----Dread Skeleton----Mageknight----Yes
Jereru----unknown----Ogre or Minotaur----unknown----no
Helix Missionary----Ngogh'gnish----Rogue Eidolon----Summoner----no
ImperialSunlight----Gop----Goblin----Witch----Yes
Fenris105----Fjori Unnason----Fire Giant----Cleric----no
Odentin----unknown----Wight or Skeletal Champion----Kineticist or Martial----no
Simling----Edward Mulligan----Skinwalker (Ragebred)----Feral Shifter Druid----Yes
Tharasiph----unknown----Bugbear----Monk----no