Power and Progress: Dragoncat's Homebrew Alkenstar Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Dragoncat

Background Elements:
1.Aspexia is a young woman in age, but an old woman at heart. Beautiful but brooding. She is the youngest daughter of house Asploric, a family of lesser nobles out of Macini. The families wealth does have to do with ocean/sea going trading.
2. Early in her life she was betrothed to an old noble in the Cheliax capital or Egorian. Disgusted by the idea, the 14 year old girl took as much of her jewlery and wealth as she could and ran away. Unfortunately for her, she ran afoul of a hellknight who took one look at the young woman selling such wealth off in dark and dirty streets and arrested her for a thief.
3. Despite several chances to save herself just by telling the truth, she was eventually sold to a wealthy trader as an indentured servant to pay for her crimes. Despite the aptitude she displayed when it came to tracking finances and trading in general her sour attitude led to her being sold from one merchant to the next before she found herself dumped at a fighting arena in Katapesh.
4.She was standoffish, she was quick to strike, she was destined to die young... but then she met a man almost ten years her senior. An Ulfen gladiator, pratically ancient considering the life spans of that profession, took her under his wing. He didnt treat her like a beautiful woman, he treated her like a person, an equal. She soaked up his knowledge, and in turn grew to appreciate him and more to love him.
5.They ended up in the mana wastes, doing mercenary work for whomever was paying. It was a nice life and she was content...But then after a simple job she came home to find her husband murdered their wedding band missing. She discovered it for sale at a local merchant, he claimed a dark stranger sold it to him. He will certainly pay, when she finds him. Her husbands loss has left her haunted, grim and prone to dark musings.
6. Despite all the anger built into her life, she has a soft spot in her heart for any younger kids who clearly are in a bad spot in their life. Though not prone for asking for any thanks, she has been known to give coin, food,tips and the occasional overnight stay in her home to any local urchin.

Goals:
1. First and foremost Aspexia intends to find the man whom murdered her husband and make him pay as long and painfully as she can manage. SO far the only clues she has, is that the man had a northern accent, light colored hair and was very tall. (easily over 6 feet)
2. Someday, maybe she would like to have enough coin to at least pay for a proper boarding house for youth who have it rough, or even adults perhaps. She doesnt think she would be able to run it. At least not as angry as she is, but funding it could help ease the pain ... she thinks.

Secrets:
1. She secretly enjoys the rush she feels when causing pain. Her cognative side of her mind realizes such dark enjoyment is a terrible terrible thing.The elation and enjoyment she gets from it however sometimes overides her conflicted emotions.
(I plan on using the Daemon bloodline whe she levels into sorceror.)
2. Her cold hearted mother has been trying to track her down for years now. The loss of both the Dowry and political capital that her flight from her family caused has her mother Lucindrae beyond livid. She has spent a large sum of gold hiring problem solvers to track her down. The latest a somewhat famous Hellknight has been using diabolical magic to start to pin point her location.
3. Reserved for GM-created secret.

Connections:
1. One of Aspexia's few friends is a half elf woman Melisaundra who runs a shady/slummy bar called the "RatsnestDroppins. A few years ago some clever drunk carved through the sign and painted over the word nest and put Dropins instead. Despite the graffiti business picked up, so no one ever bothered to fix it. Before she owned the place, she worked in the bar, taking a young Aspexia under her wing when The couple first moved to the area and she took work there.
2. Herger found work with the city guard, and despite being a bit older he made a few much younger friends in the city watch. Brahm was on of the younger guards whom Herger took a liking too. Brahm and his young wife Lenneth visited often enough, Lenneth sort of teaching Aspexia how to be well a bit of a housewife. (mostly cooking, sewing... all the things that she missed in her upbringing) In turn, Aspexia used some of her informal knowledge about trading and financing to help the young couple.

Memories, Mannerisms and Quirks:
1. Haugty, arrogant, and angry These words can describe how most think of Aspexia, but that is how she likes it.
2. Devoted, caring and watchful is how her husband would have described her. Since his loss, she is prone to cold calculated actions spoiled by moments of fiery rage.
3. Maybe its her time learning trade as an indentured servant, or her short time as a mercenary but Aspexia always gives her word of honor once but counts the money twice.

Despite path that Rafi's life has gone, he carries a free-spirited, mostly positive outlook on life. It doesn't hurt that, despite his upbringing, he was usually treated well by those that mattered most. Most notable is his former master, who treated Rafi with respect, unlike many in the harsh lands of Katapesh. He also learned a strong sense of responsibility and right versus wrong, and he has done his best to apply those lessons as a deputy of the law.

Rafi is a well-built young Ifrit, if a little on the lanky side. While the markings of his heritage are not as obvious as many, there is little confusing him for a human. His skin tone has a mild orange tinge, and his deep red hair is wavy, if cut short (can't have it getting in the way of his new hat, after all). His yellow eyes are piercing and discerning, but have a kindness to them when directed to those who are deserving. His leather hand and trenchcoat were gifted to him by the Duchess when he was deputized, and are probably the most precious things he owns, next to his steed and loyal friend, Blaze.

“I’m tellin’ ya whatever you think they want ya for. Yer clean. Least for now.”

In the back of a black smoke filled shack that served as a make shift tavern, the dwarf shrugged and turned away.

Gita sat for a long while sipping on a small glass of sour, under-fermented beer. It wasn’t possible. They had absolutely been betrayed. It had to have been someone close, someone who new her. Everyone had been rounded up or killed. The corrupt foreman at the Gunworks, the owner of the warehouse, the buyer from Galt, the drover. All the guns were gone, all the money was gone. Everyone but her.

But Toren hears everything, the sole perk of his miserable, disgraced lot in life. It’s possible he was just stringing her along to collect a bounty, but she’d not drawn a second glance from anyone on the street so far. And Toren had always hated the Skysiders. He had preached to her that Dongun Hold, the Gunworks, the Skysiders, the bankers, all followed a twisted version of the true faiths of Abadar and Torag, that the works of man and dwarf were not meant to be hoarded for the benefit of the already privileged.

He had no harsh words for the Dawnflower though. He seemed to approve. Who would begrudge a street kid her prayers for redemption on the smokyside streets? As far as she knew she was Kelshite in origin, and when she was little she prayed to the Dawnflower when night came.

“Listen for answers, kid.” He told her.

He might have always known she wasn’t really human. When the feathered tail began to grow she panicked, at first assuming it was a mutation. Which in a fashion it was he explained.

“Not like some fool getting a hold of more than they can handle in the wastes. Its in yer blood kido. Look closer, you’ve seen ‘em around here an’ there. Children of the 'strom. Look at ‘em. Do they hang their heads or do their eyes flash with strange pride? “

It was her kin, the Ganzi, that took her out of the city for the first time, to scavenge the site of an ambushed expedition. There the vision of the Dawnflower cam amid heat and dehydration. It played before her with Toren’s words echoing behind. Everything was wrong. Redemption, the light, can just as well come from a muzzle flash.

So she fell into the life of a gun smuggler, always trying to spread the weapons to the people she felt needed them the most. She’d saved up a tidy sum, hoping to one day arm the street folk of Smokyside, but it was all gone now. Swept up in a lightning raid.

However, for whatever reason, she was still her and sitting in the back of a beer shack wasn’t going to help her find out what had happened. Unsteadily she stood up, pushed her hat low over her eyes, and walked out into the smoke shrouded sunlight.

A half-elven woman stationed with a Nexian peacekeeping force in Alkenstar, although she is originally from Taldor. She has faith in her mission, and like many Nexians sees the Grand Duchy of Alkenstar as a vassal state to hers. That said, she does not see Alkenstarians as her inferiors as any way-- simply citizens of her own country.

She is generally a decisive person who puts her mission first. When not on the job, she tends toward kindness, although it's hard to describe her as "warm."

Like many half-elves, she has a complicated relationship with her parents-- although, somewhat rarely, she is the offspring of two half-elves herself. Her mother, a monk, instilled in her a strong respect for discipline and authority. However, upon reaching adulthood, she returned to her life in the temples, imploring Joie follow. Her father, a Taldan man with a flair for individualism, had only dropped by for a few weeks at a time throughout her childhood, but had imparted a sense of adventure in the young Joie, such that she did not want to resign herself to a life of spiritual meditation. Torn between the need for adventure and the need for hierarchy, she soon found herselves within the ranks of the Pathfinder Society.

Joie found happiness working with a balanced, reliable party of Pathfinder agents. She fell into it easily, but ambition to climb the ladder was not a part of her so long as she could travel. She was confirmed, but remained low-ranking at her own convenience.

When a mission went bad, however, the surviving Pathfinder and Aspis forces had to cooperate to survive. However, at first sign of rescue after weeks in the drow-infested caverns, the Aspis took the Pathfinders by surprise.

Joie took the opportunity to grab an Aspis agent that she had been growing very close to by the neck, using them as a shield to escape in the chaos. However, her grip was too strong; while she had intended to leave them alive, she had accidentally crushed their windpipe when the adrenaline surged.

Returning to Absalom as the only Pathfinder survivor, she immediately resigned, slipping away on a ship in the night to escape any place that might force her to confront her memories.

Seeking to avoid the continent altogether, she sought to integrate herself-- and disappear-- within the countries in the Mana Wastes. Finding herself too lively for Geb, she instead fell in with Nex.

After a few years, she applied for a position with the Nexian peacekeepers branch of the military, and found herself assigned to a squad in the Grand Duchy of Alkenstar. Happy to serve her new country with some slight distance from the squabbling of the various factions within, she has been at her post for approximately 1 year.

Despite the length of her deployment, she has yet to make many friends amongst the locals, though this is not entirely intentional.

Above all else, Joie seeks to live quietly and help people, more aligned with her mother's expectations than ever before in her life.

Gita is a Ganzi raised in the smokeyside slums. Her father wasn't around by the time she was born and her mother worked hard in a factory until an accident claimed her. Gita was mostly raised on the streets with the dwarf Torren as a surrogate father figure. Torren runs a glorified shack of a tavern, exiled from the dwarven communiity for heretical ideas about the redistribution of the products of dwarf labor. Gita never new she was a Ganzi until adolescence. At that point she connected with what few kin she had on the streets and joined a scavenging operation out in the waste. It was there she had what she believed was a revelation but what others might describe as sunstroke. She believes that it is the sacred duty of anyone who venerates redemption and good to free the oppressed people of Golarion with the sacred flame of Sarenrae. There is nothing 'good' about the slavery of Halflings in Cheliax and nothing 'good' about the poverty and chaos in smokyside. To that end she has been smuggling firearms out of Alkenstar and stockpiling them with in to give the downtrodden a chance to free themselves. The Cult of the Dawnflower allows one chance at redemption, and if the oppressors refuse it's the sacred flame of the muzzle flash. Nobody else believes this, but they're happy to make profit running guns with her. Until now. Somehow the authorities were tipped off about her operation and they sized everything and arrested everyone but her.

“I’m tellin’ ya whatever you think they want ya for. Yer clean. Least for now.”
In the back of a black smoke filled shack that served as a make shift tavern, the dwarf shrugged and turned away.

Gita sat for a long while sipping on a small glass of sour, under-fermented beer. It wasn’t possible. They had absolutely been betrayed. It had to have been someone close, someone who new her. Everyone had been rounded up or killed. The corrupt foreman at the Gunworks, the owner of the warehouse, the buyer from Galt, the drover. All the guns were gone, all the money was gone. Everyone but her.

But Toren hears everything, the sole perk of his miserable, disgraced lot in life. It’s possible he was just stringing her along to collect a bounty, but she’d not drawn a second glance from anyone on the street so far. And Toren had always hated the Skysiders. He had preached to her that Dongun Hold, the Gunworks, the Skysiders, the bankers, all followed a twisted version of the true faiths of Abadar and Torag, that the works of man and dwarf were not meant to be hoarded for the benefit of the already privileged.

He had no harsh words for the Dawnflower though. He seemed to approve. Who would begrudge a street kid her prayers for redemption on the smokyside streets? As far as she knew she was Kelshite in origin, and when she was little she prayed to the Dawnflower when night came.

“Listen for answers, kid.” He told her.

He might have always known she wasn’t really human. When the feathered tail began to grow she panicked, at first assuming it was a mutation. Which in a fashion it was he explained.

“Not like some fool getting a hold of more than they can handle in the wastes. Its in yer blood kido. Look closer, you’ve seen ‘em around here an’ there. Children of the 'strom. Look at ‘em. Do they hang their heads or do their eyes flash with strange pride? “

It was her kin, the Ganzi, that took her out of the city for the first time, to scavenge the site of an ambushed expedition. There the vision of the Dawnflower cam amid heat and dehydration. It played before her with Toren’s words echoing behind. Everything was wrong. Redemption, the light, can just as well come from a muzzle flash.

So she fell into the life of a gun smuggler, always trying to spread the weapons to the people she felt needed them the most. She’d saved up a tidy sum, hoping to one day arm the street folk of Smokyside, but it was all gone now. Swept up in a lightning raid.

However, for whatever reason, she was still her and sitting in the back of a beer shack wasn’t going to help her find out what had happened. Unsteadily she stood up, pushed her hat low over her eyes, and walked out into the smoke shrouded sunlight.
I've left a few details out of the crunch since it seems up to the GM how to handle Ganzi oddities.

A native of smokyside Gita is curious but poorly educated. She feels a divine connection but knows nothing of theology, she only knows who the enemies of goodness are. As a street kid she's a clever liar and her Ganzi heritage lends a magnetism that instils both curiosity and fear. Most of the time she's approachable and cheerful but occasionally her eyes take on a 'thousand yard stare' and her intense driven nature shines through.

Silas Kaine is a male gnome with tanned skin. He is 3'5” tall and weighs about 38 pounds. His hair a spikey green mop on top of his head and he has amber eyes.

Paddy is a 5 foot tall, dark green cactus with long pickly spines.. He is similar in appearance to a saguaro with two heavy arms and a vaguely head-shaped protuberance at the top of his body. His body splits around its mid-point to create to leg appendages that the ambulatory cactus uses to walk around and position himself in the best spots to soak up the sun.

There were high hopes for Silas when he was sent to school at the Regent's Academy on the Skyside of the city of Alkenstar. He had showed great promise as a child and his entire clan looked forward to the day he returned as an accomplished magician.

Things never seemed to turn out the way they were supposed to for Silas though, and while his instructors all agreed that he showed potential and excelled at some forms of spells and illusions, he never seemed to grasp all of the lessons that he should. While his acane magics seemed to be unpredictable, he showed an unseemly talent for dealing with plants and animals, almost as if he were some sort of druid.

He didn't advance as he should, but he did well enough in his classes to always seem to hang on for another term. The one area he did seem to excel at was botany and the headmasters that had once expected great things of him now were content to let him putter about in the gardens of the Regent's Academy, caring for the plants and gardens collected throughout the manaunder the direction of an Elven wizard named Doctor Wachtenstein.

Silas tended the Academy gardens for several years gradually moving into the role of a lab assistant and gardener. He was content to continue on so, and he began to collect a small stipend from the school and he moved out of the school dormitories and took residence in the upstairs rooms of a pensioner widom named Margaret Ludlow. He tended the potted rose bushes she kept flanking the entrance to her residence and began a small garden of his own on the roof of her townhouse.

He took cuttings and stock from plants across the city and some surreptitiously from the gardens and lab of the Academy. He took better care of the plants than anyone else did and what Doctor Wachtenstein didn't know was going to hurt him. Things were going well enough for Silas and he was happy until he made the mistake of adding the wrong plant to his garden collection.

The unremarkable succulent sample had never stood out in Silas's studies. It was labeled as an Elysian Wandering Cactus in the laboratory and while it seemed healthy, it had never grown much or seemed very remarkable.

That changed after Silas smuggled the plant out and took it home to his gardens. In a matter of a few short weeks, it began to grow taller. Starting from a few cactus pads not much larger than Silas's clenched fist, in a matter of weeks it grew up to waist high, necessitating re-potting into a much larger container (a delicate operation for a heavy cactus covered in sharp spines).

Silas was ecstatic at his success with the plant for a week or so with his success, but that changed the day he went into work to find a search underway for the missing cactus by Dr Wachtenstein and a number of attendents. Silas denied any knowledge of the location of the missing plant, while telling himself that he would secretly return the plant at the soonest opportunity. Surely all would be forgiven when the Doctor saw the success he had made at growing the plant.

At the end of the day, Silas headed back to rooms at the top of old Mrs Ludlow's townhouse to plan the return of the cactus, only to find that it was missing from his garden. He searched franticly about the roof but saw no sign of the plant, but while searching he did hear a commotion in the street. Looking over the edge of the roof he saw Doctor Wachtenstein and a number of marshals at the front door of Mrs Ludlow's house, seeking entry to search his rooms.

Knowing that they were bound to find plants and materials he had taken from the school and also not knowing how or why the cactus was missing, Silas panicked. He took advantage of the time that he was given by Mrs Ludlow arguing with the marshals, he grabbed a few valuables and necessities and ducked out the back and down the fire escape.

He passed unnoticed through the streets and across the bridge, over to Smokeside. He found a mostly reputable looking inn with some cheap rooms and put himself up for the night, collapsing asleep after a terrible day of panic and ruin.

He awoke the next morning to find the cactus standing in the center of the floor of his room, catching the rays of the morning sun as they streamed in through the window of his room. Somehow, the plant seemed to have undergone another growth spurt. Now it was a head taller than him and it seemed a massive specimen compared to what it had been only a few days before. Strangely, it seemed that as it grew, its lower trunk had split to look like a pair of legs.

Silas stood up to examine it and discover the mystery of how it had disappeared and re-appeared when the topmost pad of the cactus began to swivel away from the window and towards him, seemingly like a man looking over his right shoulder.

Silas froze as a a pair of of knotty whirls in the topmost pad opened up, showing strange white eyes with no pupils. The eyes blinked and Silas promptly passed out.

That was six months ago. Silas has put food in his mouth and a roof over his head working at an apothecary. His knowledge of botanicals and closemouthed nature landed him the position working in the backroom, processing material both mundane and illicit. He hasn't heard anything from the Academy and has no idea why it doesn't appear that there is an arrest warrant in his name yet, but he is keeping a low profile nonetheless.

The cactus still comes and goes, but Silas had learned some of the tricks for getting it to appear when he wants it to so he can study it further. He knows that the plant has manner of intelligence and is far more ambulatory than any cactus ever deserved to be. The plant, that he calls “Paddy” for lack of a better name, seems to understand him when he speaks to it but has yet to seem to wish to communicate back to him.

Silas Kaine
Male gnome unchained summoner (leshy caller) 1 (Pathfinder Unchained 25, Ultimate Wilderness 94)
CG Small humanoid (gnome)
Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +7
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Defense
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AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 11 (+2 Dex, +1 size)
hp 11 (1d8+3)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +2; +2 vs. illusions, -1 penalty vs. fear spells and effects
Defensive Abilities warden of nature[APG]
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft.
Melee dagger +3 (1d3/19-20) or
. . quarterstaff +1 (1d4)
Ranged sling +3 (1d3)
Special Attacks warden of nature[APG]
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +5)
. . 1/day—ghost sound (DC 15), haunted fey aspect[UC], prestidigitation, speak with plants
Summoner (Unchained) Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +5)
. . 7/day—summon nature's ally I
unchained summoner (Leshy Caller) Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +5)
. . 1st (2/day)—grease, snowball[UW]
. . 0 (at will)—acid splash, detect magic, light, read magic
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 18
Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 11
Feats Agile Maneuvers, Spell Focus (conjuration)
Traits caretaker, seeker, twinned presence
Skills Acrobatics +2 (-2 to jump), Craft (alchemy) +7, Heal +7, Intimidate +5, Perception +7, Profession (herbalist) +4, Spellcraft +5; Racial Modifiers +2 Craft (alchemy), +2 Perception
Languages Common, Gnome, Goblin, Sylvan
SQ finesse weapon attack attribute, gnome magic, leshy eidolon, life link, secret shame
Combat Gear healer's kit; Other Gear dagger, quarterstaff, sling, sling bullets (10), backpack, bandolier[UE], bedroll, spell component pouch, 10 gp, 3 sp
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Special Abilities
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Agile Maneuvers Use DEX instead of STR for CMB
Finesse Weapon Attack Attribute Finesse weapons use Dexterity on attack rolls.
Gnome Magic Add 1 to the DCs of any saving throws to resist illusion spells cast.
Leshy Eidolon Can summon a powerful aspect of a plant-like outsider.
Life Link (Su) Damage that dismisses Eidolon can be taken by you. It weakens if not in 100 ft.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in dim light, distinguishing color and detail.
Secret Shame -1 to save vs. fear effects and to DC to demoralize you. If immune to fear, lose imm but no penalties.
Spell Focus (Conjuration) Spells from one school of magic have +1 to their save DC.
Summon Nature's Ally I (7/day) (Sp) Standard action summon lasts minutes, but only 1 active at a time and can't use with eidolon.
Warden of Nature +1 to hit and +2 AC vs. aberrations, oozes and vermin.

Paddy CR –
Male cactus (Ultimate Wilderness 25)
CG Medium outsider (extraplanar)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +4
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Defense
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AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 10 (1d10+5)
Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +0
Resist electricity 5, sonic 5
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Offense
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Speed 40 ft.
Melee slam +3 (1d8+2), sting +3 (1d4+2)
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Statistics
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Str 14, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 11
Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 15
Feats Combat Expertise, Deadly Aim, Power Attack, Toughness
Skills Acrobatics +2 (+6 to jump), Intimidate +4, Perception +4, Stealth +6, Survival +4
Languages Common
SQ finesse weapon attack attribute
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Special Abilities
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Combat Expertise +/-1 Bonus to AC in exchange for an equal penalty to attack.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
Deadly Aim -1/+2 Trade a penalty to ranged attacks for a bonus to ranged damage.
Energy Resistance, Electricity (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Electricity attacks.
Energy Resistance, Sonic (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Sonic attacks.
Finesse Weapon Attack Attribute Finesse weapons use on attack rolls.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in dim light, distinguishing color and detail.
Power Attack -1/+2 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.

Ara has a good life. she lives in one of the great cities of the Inner Sea. Has a steady job as a scribe. Living with a dwarf that That doesn't want to kill her or tortured the location of her old tribe out of her. Life is good.

Life was good Until the day Ara woke up completely deaf, and could use magic for no applicable reason. Being a smart hobgoblin she immediately began looking into why she had these abilities and could no longer hear. She found out she was an oracle, she was okay with it... until she found out which gods would have made her an oracle.

Calistria and Norgorber both are unsavory patrons in Ara’s opinion. Which only makes it even more confusing why she was given such powers at all. She views the things that the two represent as a reality of the world she lives in, not fundamentals that should be praised and admired.