GM Mioki Presents: Wrath of the Righteous (Inactive)

Game Master Mioki

At five foot four and ninety-six pounds nobody ever expected Greta to follow in her father’s footsteps. Stellan, a paladin of Iomedae, had fought for many years on the front lines of the battle against the evils beyond the wardstones. When he married Astrid, a sorceress who was no stranger to battling evil herself, many rejoiced at the prospect of the sons they would one day send to the front. And they were blessed with sons, three strapping, handsome boys already by the time Greta was born. Apparently the demons heard the news too because when that one who made it through the barrier headed straight for their house. It killed all three boys and Stellan, and wounded Greta badly before Astrid finished it off. The girl was too young to remember the attack, but her mother told her about her father’s courage and ferocity, about how valiantly he fought defending them. She told her often so that her daughter would always know how heroic her father was, and how dangerous the demons were.

As Greta grew, her mother instructed her in the study of outsiders and in how to connect with the power in their blood to tap into a deep magic. The girl did not take to spellcasting the way her mother hoped but found incredible strength in her heritage nonetheless. Her father had used a great hammer in battle and had planned to pass it to one of his sons when they came of age. They never did, so Greta claimed it in their memory. Most of their neighbors scoffed when they heard; the head of Stellan’s hammer was easily twice the size of a warhammer, and its seven-foot shaft towered over her. Many joked that she wouldn’t be able to lift it muchless swing it. Swing it she did, though, and with hours of practice she’s gotten pretty good at swinging it.

Now that she’s come of age, Greta has decided to set out and find her own path to helping in the battle against the demonic forces of the worldwound. So far her petite stature, bright blue eyes, golden hair, and friendly smile have attracted far more romantic interest than respect from her peers, and she’s still often met with teasing when she shows up places with her oversized hammer, but she knows who she is and the family she comes from, and those setbacks aren’t about to slow her down.

Greta is an angelkin aasimar, primalist bloodrager with the celestial bloodline. She has the exposed to awfulness campaign trait, and scholar of the ancients which makes knowledge planes a class skill (to represent her mother teaching her about outsiders). Her one feat is exotic weapon proficiency- dwarven longhammer (which is a big hammer polearm). She wouldn’t be very skill oriented but would have some ability with acrobatics and perception. The angelkin aasimar gets bonuses to Str and Cha instead of Wis and Cha, so it is a fairly potent race for a bloodrager (and allows her to start with an 18 Str and still have some points for Dex/Con). The primalist archetype for bloodrage will let her trade the bloodrage powers that overlap with aasimar abilities for a small number of rage powers; I would probably take the celestial totem with that because it fits really well thematically and makes it easier for a healer to keep her going. Overall, this will be a pretty effective race/class combination especially for the first half of the game (until casters really come into their own), and might be better suited for a party with other effective builds. In terms of leveling progress, there's a couple directions she could go and I’d probably base that off how she compares to others in power, and what roles the group could stand to improve: she could just pick up power attack and then some feats that are more for flavor or survivability; or, if it’s not going to unbalance things, she could pick up combat reflexes and maybe some control feats like improved trip.

Marco was born in the rich, warm lands of southern Varisia. His family was old and well-respected, as close to nobility as any of the nomadic Varisian peoples could claim to be. His birth was marked by a special blessing, a birthmark on the palm of his left hand in the shape of a butterfly. His parents gave thanks to the Starsong, whose symbol the butterfly is, for watching over their son. That vague sentiment would prove truer than they expected, however. Throughout Marco’s childhood, the boy could often be found conversing with butterflies which had a surprising propensity for just landing on him out of the blue. Often after these ‘conversations’ he would ask his parents about what lies to the north, or comment on how the moon shines even in the darkest places.

In adolescence, his eyesight started to fade. His parents were deeply worried and hired priests and alchemists to treat him but the young man kept insisting that it was important he learn to see in the darkness even if it meant struggling to see in the light. His family had no idea what to make of those cryptic words but one of the priests who had come to try to heal him recognized a profound sense of calling taking shape in the young man. He joined their caravan and travelled with them for several years, teaching Marco about Desna's faith, and an ancient technique for fighting with a starknife only practiced by servants of Lady Luck.

As he grew into manhood, Marco’s unusual behavior continued. He alienated the aging priest by insisting that Mother Moon’s light revealed spirits in the world that were echoes of the Song of the Sphere, spirits that could be attuned with to access unusual powers. His family wasn’t entirely disappointed to see the priest go, but they were shocked by what came next. Marco announced that he finally understood what Desna had been guiding him towards- he was called to head to the worldwound and join in the battle there against the demonic horde. They didn’t understand why he would leave the relative safety of their caravan and journey into harm’s way, but he would not be dissuaded. The Goddess of Fortune must have had a hand in it though because that very day they happened upon a small trade caravan headed for Kenabres. The strikingly handsome, ruddy man kissed his family goodbye and set off to discover what his goddess was calling him towards…

Marco is a normal human who worships Desna (all the capitalized phrases in his background are different titles/names for her). He’s a lunar oracle with the spirit guide archetype (which replaces most of his revelations with the ability to form a bond with different ‘spirits’ to get some shaman-like abilities). His traits are touched by divinity and birthmark (which both strengthen his connection with his god). His feats are noble scion [war] and divine fighting technique [Desna], both of which let him use his Cha more in combat. He’s good with people and animals (diplomacy and handle animal) but his other skills aren’t impressive. He gets a lot of mileage out of his Cha, which makes him better in melee than most casters, but certainly not as good as a real melee character; his real strength is in the DCs his Cha gives him for control or SoS spells; overall, he’ll have more decent options in combat than many other casters at low-level but (like other casters) won’t really come into his own until mid to high level (at which point his extra melee ability will be moot).

Azadi is a tall, dark-skinned, friendly and helpful man who has looked forward to serving in the crusades since he was a boy. His grandfather, Khalil, was brought north as a slave during the Third Mendevian Crusade and fought so bravely and so well that he was awarded his freedom for his service. He took the family-name Freeman to celebrate and all of his descendents have been active in the fight against the demons of the Worldwound ever since.

Azadi isn’t as strong or as fast, or as good with magic as some of his cousins but he understands how to move people- how to help them find their courage, how to inspire them. He can carry a pretty decent tune too.

No life is easy in the shadow of the Wardstones, but Azadi’s has been pretty good. He has a loving family that encourages him to develop his strengths and find ways to use them, and has many friends among the new generation of crusaders. He knows that it’s only a matter of time before violence erupts again, before sadness and death make their presence felt anew; he works daily to try to be ready when it does, but until then he strives to enjoy the good. And, maybe that’s a form of readiness too- when evil comes the memory of these good times may be a necessary source of strength.

Azadi is almost completely core. He’s a human bard with no archeypes or anything. His stat points are kind of spread out, so he doesn’t really excel in any one area, but in a pinch he can sort of cover/help out with almost any role. His main niche is party buffs. His traits are child of the crusades and inspiring; his feats are flagbearer (which is a party buff) and fast learner (a human feat that lets him take the hp and skill point for favored class, and is a prerequisite for improvisation which lets you use any skill untrained). He has a bunch of skills, all pretty typical bard stuff- ‘face’ skills like diplomacy, some knowledges, acrobatics and stealth. He’s by far the weakest of the three pitches, but also the one most able to fit in a very wide range of power levels- on his own he’s not great at anything, but since he improves the abilities of his group members he’s helpful no matter how their power level compares to his own.

Delmoth: Junior
Torilgrey: Caliban Tre'Athkar
eriktd: Benedic
AGM Lemming: Selann Juris
Anthorg: Massielo Cirus
Wulfric Stonehelm: Greta Gyllenhar