Akarna Awakens

Game Master Prosperum

A
• 1) He/him
  
• 2) 2, but have read Core Rulebook and Archives of Nethys and watched enough 2e videos that I think I’m about as prepared for 2e as you can be without actually playing it. I have kept abreast of the remaster changes.
  
• 3): Posting availability will be from about 9 pm PST to 3 am every day. I’m a night owl. From about 3 pm onward, I'll likely check the thread throughout the day and may be able to write quick replies. I would prefer “post anytime” because I don’t really have time for much synchronous play.
  
• 4) I haven’t found anything objectionable in past games I’ve played.
  
• 5) 2
  
• 6) 1

B
• 1) 4
  
• 2) 4
  
• 3) 2
  
• 4) 3
  
• 5) 4
  
• 6) 4
  
• 7) 3
  
• 8) 3
  
• 9) 3
  
• 10) 3
  
• 11) 2

C
• 1) While on an expedition as a student researcher in the Ruins of Aikor (a site in the Desert of Zond), a sudden cave-in left the group stranded underground in an ancient catacomb, and the rumbling rock disturbed a nest of giant spiders which bore down on the academics. The closest thing to a weapon Jon had was a coil of rope he attempted to flick at the spiders like a whip. He seemed to have true aim, but rope ultimately was only enough to hold them back for a few seconds. Thankfully, a few of the number were ratfolk with firearms who made short work of the spiders. Later, when his father found out he was dead set on studying arcana at the university and refused to change his study track, his father cut off his tuition funding and Jon remembered the ratfolk and their firearms. He withdrew from the university and used the last of his father’s money to go to Yshoka, buy a dueling pistol, and learn firearm combat and black powder alchemy.
  
• 2) n/a
  
• 3) It was just Jon and his mother growing up.
  
• 4) Growing up in Omrinth, and especially at his boarding school Lengthnak Academy, cemented his love of learning and discovery. His class came out of necessity when his father cut off his university money and Jon used the last of the money he had to become a gunslinger.
  
• 5) Entering the academy in H’Tesk, where he finally made friends of his own age and interests.
  
• 6) Master Halgo at the academy, worked tirelessly to get him ready for the entrance exams into Delthis University. He was relentless in his encouragement and private tutoring after regular classes to get him ready.
  
• 7) His mother, his best friend at the academy, Master Halgo, and the ratfolk who taught him the ways of firearmory.
  
• 8) His occultism professor at the university, Drachlam, who was exacting and eagerly hunted for every flaw and error he could find in Jon. His smug grin of satisfaction at Jon having to withdraw from the university still burns Jon to this day.
  
• 9) Pride
  
• 10) Omrinth, Cornyrian Confed., Rivermeet, Yshoka, Zond
  
• 11) Scholars who stay in books their whole lives and don’t go out into the field and see the world.
  
• 12) Spiders.
  
• 13) His father feels like he has seriously wronged him by pursuing a taboo subject in university. Jon hasn’t had contact with him since his father cut off his tuition money.
  
• 14) He desperately wants to learn what went wrong with Marathris’s magic and what became of his high elf ancestors.
  
• 15) I would love to create a new character and rejoin the campaign! I obviously don’t want my characters to die (it’s happened before), but that’s not the kind of thing that would put me off a campaign.
  
• 16) He had a few short-lived relationships with girls at his boarding school, but he was too dedicated to his studies in university to pursue any, and even in his current state of wandering, he doesn’t seem to stay in any one place long enough to have anything more than brief flings. Not open to establishing a relationship with NPCs.
  
• 17) I don’t know

D
• 1) There is a symposium at Scrivener’s Collegium that several of his old university friends were attending. Jon was in the area anyway, so came to Eredorn to catch up with them.
  
• 2) He’s currently staying at an inn near the collegium.
  
• 3) He’s been manufacturing black powder for an armorer in town.

E
• 1) Striker, weaving around the battlefield with a whip in one hand and a pistol in the other. I plan using the whip to keep 10’ away from enemies rather than being right up in their face, but also plan to get a shortsword for when that’s unavoidable.
  
• 2) I am thinking Thaumaturge since it marries combat practicality (with Glimpse Vulnerability) with his background in magical study, or perhaps Rogue or Archaeologist depending on the needs of the party.
  
• 3) See answer to 2. Thaumaturge, Rogue, or Archaeologist.
  
• 4) Blazons of Shared Power once I’ve enchanted my pistol with at least 1 rune to give my off-hand weapon fundamental runes without having to actually pay to enchant a second weapon. I haven’t played 2E so I have no idea what level that will become feasible lol
  
• 5) I don’t know.
  
• 6) I don’t really have a preference.

F
• 1) I enjoy fighting most enemies.
  
• 2) Swarms (at least in 1E) are (depending on the party) either boringly easy or impossible. And they aren’t fun at all for martial types because there’s almost nothing they can do against them.
  
• 3) I like riddles and puzzles. I love a properly foreshadowed plot twist.
  
• 4) Betrayals by allies which either were not foreshadowed at all or statted up such that it would be mechanically impossible to detect. I had a GM pull this on me last week and it felt cheap. In his defense, we’re running through an AP, so it’s not like he chose the stats or how the NPC would act, but we did everything we reasonably could have to vet him, including a good Sense Motive roll to make sure he was on the level. It turns out his Bluff was so high it didn’t matter what we rolled.

• Name: Jon Ydinna
• Pronouns: he/him
• Ancestry: Human (Aiuvarin), Level 1 Feat: Natural Ambition [Class Feat: Sword & Pistol]
• Background: Academy Dropout, trained in Arcana & Academia Lore, Skill Feat: Dubious Knowledge
• Class Build: Gunslinger (way of the drifter),
• Attributes: Str +2, Con +0, Dex +4, Int +1, Wis +0, Cha +2
• Class Feat: Munitions Crafter
• Trained Skills: Acrobatics (way skill), Athletics, Crafting (Munitions Crafter), Deception, Diplomacy, Academia Lore, Thievery
• Bonus Feat: Alchemical Crafting (Munitions Crafter)
• Weapons: Dueling Pistol & Whip, Armor: Leather
  
• Backstory: Jon Ydinna was born to Etta Ydinna (a human), a successful upscale baker in Marnas. His father is Lord Naidaniel, an elf lord in the Delendel Forest. Lord Naidaniel loved Etta but ultimately because of political pressures, he had to break off the relationship even though Etta was pregnant. He paid for Jon’s tuition to a boarding school in H’Tesk, where Jon studied and did well enough (through hard study) to gain admittance to Delthis University. It was here Jon’s interest into the arcane bloomed as a result of him wishing to connect more with his elf heritage and studying the Marathis debacle. He became insanely curious about what went wrong with the spell and what became of his high elf ancestors, so he decided he would focus on arcana. His father found out and threatened to cut off his tuition money if he did not give it up for a less controversial subject. Jon wouldn’t, so his father cut off his money. Then, as described above, Jon remembered the ratfolk gunslingers and took the last of his father’s money to buy a ticket to Dendar, a dueling pistol, and passage to Yshoka to learn from them.

  For the past few years, he’s lived a life on the road, traveling with caravans and ships and providing security for them with his gunslinging skills. This life of travel has enabled him to conduct independent research in the field and visit farflung libraries. Although his university tuition was cut off, he has not been publicly denounced (Lord Naidaniel probably feels the denunciation would inform nearly everyone of his son’s behavior when few people know about it now) so he can use the family name to get into private libraries which otherwise wouldn’t be available to him. When he’s not traveling with a caravan or ship, he finds jobs with alchemical supply shops to craft black powder for them. He tries to visit his mother at least once a year and writes to her every month or so.

• Appearance: He’s a 31 year old pale-skinned half-elf with black hair. He likes wearing plaid shirts (which usually are covered by his leather armor) and canvas trousers, with a leather belt with a gun holster and his whip coiled up and hanging from it. For warmth and to keep the road dust off, he completes his ensemble with a black duster.

Family size: 1 family member
Homeland: Religious Community
Event: Survived a Disaster
Associate: Criminal

I can run with this. Still crafting.

HP 16
Size Medium
Speed 25
Low-Light Vision

Languages: Common +3

Focus Pool: 1

Perception: Expert

Fortitude: Trained
Reflex: Trained
Will: Expert

Feats:
• Brine May – Successes in Athletics for swimming are critical successes. I don’t sink.
• Underwater Marauder – not flat-footed in water, no penalty to slashing, bludgeoning melee
• Bardic Lore – Recall Knowledge on any topic

Skills:
• Athletics (Trained)
• Swamp Lore (Trained)
• Bardic Lore (Trained)
• Occultism (Trained)
• Performance (Trained)
• Acrobatics (Trained)
• Diplomacy (Trained)
• Thievery (Trained)
• Deception (Trained)
• Stealth (Trained)
• Survival (Trained)

Proficiencies:
• Simple Weapons, longsword, rapier, sap, shortbow, shortsword, whip, unarmed
• Light armor, unarmored
• Occult spell attacks, occult spell DCs

Occult Spellcasting
Spell Repertoire
• Cantrips
o Summon Instrument
o Mage Hand
o Message
o Shield
o Daze
• First Level
o Command
o Animate Rope
o True Strike
Composition Spells
• Cantrips
o Inspire Courage
• Focus Spells
o Counter Performance

6. 3

B.From 0 to 5, rank how much of the following you want:
1.4
2.4
3.4
4.3
5.3
6.2-5 depending on levels
7.1-2 I prefer to keep excel sheets at work
8.3
9.3 (a bit of everything)
10.2-4
11.2

C.General questions for the characters (short answer):
1. A fortune teller told him he would meet his father within a year. His fater is presumed dead, however, so Kork took this as a bad omen. After thinking about it for the better part of the week, Kork decided to do some good in the world.
2.
3. Kork grew up with his mother and two sisters. Father was often gone, but did visit every few weeks. He had a good friend who he was running with.
4. Kork grew up in a semi-isolated goblin community, hidden from prying eyes of the world. The entire tribe hunted local wildlife for food, and sent out scavengers to find rare and prescious trinkets to trade for whatever they needed. When the scavenging parties returned, they sat down by the fire to tell tales of what they saw. Kork would sit with them, mouth agape, taking in all the stories they told. Of vast cities in the east, of terrible monsters walking the marshes, of orc tribes roaming to pillage and enslave whatever they find, of hags cursing entire lands with their foul magics... He took all of that in.
5. Kork always asked himself this question. Perhaps it was the teeth? He was only missing one when the orc raid came. They looked at everyone's teeth, and slit the throats of those with defects. The rest were thrown into cages, and moved east into the desert. Kork doesn't even know where. But perhaps it was his ability to entertain his captors with the tales he had heard from other scavenger parties, and the ones he collected himself?
6. Kork was the only man in his familial household, and while his parents loved all of their children the same, his father was out in the wild scavenging most of the time. There are some things Kork's mother could not teach him. Chunks was Korks friend for as long as he can remember. When they were young, they hunted for sqruiells together. They played hide and seek in the foul-smelling marshes, and drowned fish for hours on end in the nearby creek. They have grown up together and competed in courting the same girls. When they reached a proper age, they both joned the same scavenger group, and lived to tell the tale. Chunks taught Kork the meaning of cameraderie and loyalty, and the value of found family. They have only split paths after Chunks started his own family. Something Kork never wanted. Last time Kork heard, Chunks moved to Eredorn.
7. His friend Chunks, his mother and sisters - Joknu, Ukko, and Ipi, his father Boork, his scavenging party leder, Boork.
8. The slaver Krozin, owner of one of the mines near Lake Taul. Kork found himself in a very 'One Thousand and One Nights' situation, except the fact that there was no love between Kork and the gem merchant.
9. Greed, I suppose. Kork often searches for old ruins in his travels, and collects various doodads.
10. Auldari Reaches, Karstlands, Despotate of Zokai, City of Glimmer, Akarnennian Empire, Free Isles
11. Slavers, snotty goblins.
12. Orc raiders. A deep wound from his youth.
13. He tricked one of the other slaves in the mines at Lake Taul - a halfling called Rupp. He stole his food to surive the journey on boat to Glimmer. It's been gnawing him since, and he would like to find the halfling at some point to repay him and ask forgiveness. If time permits it.
14. The fate of his father, Boork. Last time Kork saw Boork, their camp was being raided by orcs.
15. If permitted, make a new one? Since the character is out of the picture, I can't do much to persuade the party to somehow bring him back. Unless you permit a ghost running around, in which case - awesome? I'm not going to hold it against you, or anything. Dice roll either way.
16. Kork never was in a serious relationship. A few flings in his younger years, but nothing recent.
17. Kork made sure to survive his time as a slave by telling stories to his captors every night and ending on a cliffhanger.

D. Campaign questions for the character (Short answer)
1. Visiting a childhood friend who supposedly moved there.
2. Kork is not afraid to do dirty work. He would earn money to pay for a room.
3. Kork is not afraid to do dirty work. He would earn money to pay for a room.

E. Game questions (short answer, “I don’t know” is acceptable):
1. Skill monkey, close range or frontline combatant pointing out enemy weaknesses to the party.
2. Champion, Rogue, and Acrobat are top candidates.
3. Champion, Rogue, Acrobat are top candidates. If we use free archetype rules, it's more of a question of the order in which I would take them.
4. Skeleton Key, and a Rope of Climbing I guess? I am not bent on any particular item. Well, a Bag of Holding would be nice.
5. Hard to tell at this point. I could get back to you on that, if I make the cut. However, Kork probably slighted a lot of people during his slave days, just to ensure him and his family get through the ordeal. I'm going for a redemption angle, assuming the character reaches civilisation at some point.
6. No preferenece. Variety is the spice of life.

F. Question(s) for players redux (short answer)
1. No preferenece. Variety is good.
2. All enemies can be fun.
3. I love me some intrigue in a game. Dopplegangers, shadow governments, shifty advisors, lies, treachery. The works. But not too often. Good friend NPCs are good friend NPCs.
4. As long as there's banter between players, even stranded scenarios are fun.

In his young years, Kork had spend most evenings listening to tales of other scavenger parties exchanging stories of their travels by the communal fire. He would sit with them, mouth agape, taking in all the stories they told. Of vast cities in the east, of terrible creatures walking the deserts, of orc tribes roaming to pillage and enslave whatever they find, of hags cursing entire lands with their foul magics... He took all of that in. His father, Boork, was often away on these scavenging hunts. As a result, Kork grew up mostly with his mother, Joknu, and younger sisters Ukko and Ipi.

With his father scavenging most of the time, Kork was the only man in his familial household, and there were some things Kork's mother could not teach him. Chunks was Korks friend for as long as he can remember. When they were young, they hunted for sqruiells together. They played hide and seek in the foul-smelling marshes, and drowned fish for hours on end in the nearby creek. They have grown up together and competed in courting the same girls. When they reached a proper age, they both joned the same scavenger group, and lived to tell the tale. Chunks taught Kork the meaning of cameraderie and loyalty, and the value of found family.

When they reached adulthood, Kork and Chunks joined the scavenger parties. They went on several expeditions together, scouring nearby ruins. When the tribe felt that the local ruins have been depleted, they packed, and started moving to another location. This migration did, however, attract the attention of a nearby orc raiding party. They descended on the goblins and overpowered them within minutes. A few hours later, Kork had found himself shackled in a cage with Chunks, but with no idea about his family. Much of the tribe did not make the journey east through the Karstlands, and when they finally reached the Zokai’gor camps, Kork and Chunks approximated only a third of the goblins made it here.

Both goblins got assigned slave jobs. After seeing the disregard for slave life in the camp, Kork decided to entertain his guards with stories, ending in a cliffhanger every time (yes, a very "One Thousand and One Nights" situation).

Weeks have gone by, and Kork could have sworn he'd seen one of his sisters in the camp. With his hipe rekindled, he conspired with Chunks. Steal keys, free whoever they can, and run for the hills. This plan did not come to fruition, however. Timing is everything. And the timing on this was not at all right. Before executing their plan, they were loaded onto wagons again, and shipped further east towards the slave markets of Abul Dar. Here, they were all sold to a man named Krozin. Finding the silver linings, at least Kork was reunited with his mother and sisters. As for the fate of his father, none of them had seen Boork since they original attack in the forests of Auldari.

The entire goblin batch was sent to a mining colony near Lake Taul. Here, they shed blood and broke their backs extracting rate minerals for months, when Chunks devised a plan to hide in barrels on a ship heading for the goblin city of Glimmer. Kork distracted the guards while Chunks and Korks's family hid on the boat. Kork stole some food for the journey and snuck up on the boat a few minutes before it set sail for Glimmer.

After an arduous journey with little to no food or water, they reached their destination, Kork and Chunks did odd jobs for a few weeks, then signed up with Jibzi's Trifles, one of Glimmer's curio shops. Having an eye for interesting objects, Kork would walk around the city, looking for oddities to buy for Jibsi. He found the Glimmer goblins to be... snobbish and condescending. Placing themselves themselves above their wildland kin for reasons Kork did not understand. He grew tired of the attitude and left the goblin city to wander the land, looking for interesting baubles to sell back in Glimmer.

Years went by, and Kork had visited his fmaily in Glimmer several times, most recently to celebrate the 20th birthday of his older sister. A quite venerable age for a wildland goblin. During the occasion, they have all visited a fortune teller for fun. But Kork did not get good news. He was told he would reunite with his father, presumed dead, within a year. Kork left his money with his family in Glimmer after purchasing passage to the Free Isles, and set off to say goodbye to his old friend, Chunks in Eredorn.

Old Kork Thaumaturge 1

Small
Goblin
Unbreakable Goblin
Humanoid
Perception +4; Darkvision
Languages Common, Goblin

Skills Acrobatics +6, Arcana +3, Athletics +5, Lore: Esoteric +7, Lore: Goblin +3, Lore: Scouting +3, Medicine +2, Nature +2, Occultism +3, Religion +2, Stealth +6, Survival +2, Thievery +6

Str +2, Dex +3, Con +1, Int +0, Wis -1, Cha +4

Studded Leather AC 18
Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +4

HP 19

Implement's Interruption
Speed 25 feet

Ranged Boomerang +6 (Uncommon, Recovery, Thrown), Damage 1d6+2 B

Exploit Vulnerability (Esoterica, Manipulate, Thaumaturge)

Additional Feats Additional Lore, Dubious Knowledge, Goblin Lore, Scroll Thaumaturgy, Unbreakable Goblin

Additional Specials Esoteric Lore, First Implement And Esoterica (Weapon), Implement's Empowerment, Weapon Initiate Benefit

C1) There wasn’t really a single major event, it’s more that he’s restless and curious and wanted to learn magic which led to traveling which led to having to defend himself which ended up looking a lot like being an adventurer and he’s just kind of rolled with it.
C2) <.< >.>
C3) He’s the second of four siblings, parents and a grandfather at home, and I’m imagining tengu communities to be on the close-knit side.
C4) Well, his home community indulged his curiosity, but he had to leave it to study magic--the forbidden nature of the study only made his curiosity about it sharper
C5) Okoteck picked up several languages from an early age and started translating things for various merchants in Eredorn who had international business, especially one by the name of Metello. He got his big chance to travel when Metello hired him to spend a season in his branch office in Jurgen’s Fist
C6) Jorn Stosch, a professor at a university in Cornyria that supported Okoteck’s study of magic and used his translation capabilities.
C7)
C8)
C9) Curiosity isn’t on the list but it is for Okoteck… call it gluttony for knowledge? Or maybe it would be greed for knowledge…
C10) The Free Isles and the Cornyrian Confederation, though he’d like to visit more
C11) Destroying books, scrolls, and the like. Senseless violence (which is to say, violence that doesn’t make sense to him)
C12) Anything that damages the mind
C13) No, he’d rather avoid people he doesn’t like than harm them
C14) A lot of things. Lost secrets of magic especially, but any sufficiently rare and important knowledge.
C15) Shrug and move on
C16) He’s ace/aro

D1) He was visiting his family in the mountains and heard about the expedition so he came to apply.
D2) While he’s in Eredorn he’s renting an inn room. While he was visiting family he was staying with them. Before that he was traveling.
D3) They haven’t been in town long so they still have savings from their work in the Cornyrian Confederation.

E1) Is there a way to play a magus other than slashing things with a spell-enhanced sword? :D Given I don’t know 2e well I’ll be going for a pretty straightforward magus build.
E2) I’d been playing around with the idea of some multiclass archetypes (Alchemist, Investigator, Wizard, maybe Witch or Rogue) or maybe the Linguist archetype
E3) See E2
E4) No idea, I haven’t looked at 2e magic items
E5) I’ll have to play him for a bit before those ideas come
E6) There aren’t particular monster types I enjoy fighting more than others

F1) See E6
F2) This is completely dependant on context to the degree I can’t give a general response
F3) Hmmm… I like when doing the right thing requires personal sacrifice without immediate gain. I like when there’s no sapient mortal life that’s always evil. I enjoy shapeshifters. I like when the pursuit of power for its own sake destroys those who seek it. I like when it’s possible for us to fail and not A) die or B) end up with the world destroyed.
F4) Again, completely dependant on context

B. (assuming 0 is no interest and 5 is strong interest)
1. 3
2. 5
3. 3
4. 4
5. 1
6. 3 Not TPK but death as a possibility is exciting.
7. 0
8. 2 (to the extent that it helps the character be effective, but not for its own sake.)
9. 3 (I'm a big fan of Doctor Who, which combines the two extremes well)
10. 4 (again, Doctor Who does a good job of having an arc woven into a series of episodes, leading to a climactic outcome)
11. 4 (sandboxes can lead to dithering in PBP)

C. (So far I've only worked out one character, so I'll answer for that one, but I will likely create several characters if I have time, just to learn the 2E system better. I'll post those answers as I work them out.)
1. I'm playing a female catfolk swashbuckler, so the race's innate curiosity combined with a chaotic alignment and a low wisdom leads her to get in trouble and have to keep moving to avoid legal troubles.
2.
3. Lots. Catfolk are reputed to have large communities where social life is rich, so I expect she came from a large family, not necessarily lots of siblings but lots of cousins, friends, etc.
4. Catfolk culture encourages bravery and defending nature and people against threats. Catfolk tell tales of brave adventurers who explore and do heroic things, which would have inspired her to experience such a life herself.
5. She and her friends discovered a ruin in the wilderness. She alone returned to explore, getting into a fight with a dangerous denizen, and finding treasure. This gave her a reputation as an explorer and it resulted in adults teaching her skills that would prove important.

C1) There wasn’t really a single major event, it’s more that he’s restless and curious and wanted to learn magic which led to traveling which led to having to defend himself which ended up looking a lot like being an adventurer and he’s just kind of rolled with it.
C2) <.< >.>
C3) He’s the second of four siblings, parents and a grandfather at home, and I’m imagining tengu communities to be on the close-knit side.
C4) Well, his home community indulged his curiosity, but he had to leave it to study magic--the forbidden nature of the study only made his curiosity about it sharper
C5) Okoteck picked up several languages from an early age and started translating things for various merchants in Eredorn who had international business, especially one by the name of Metello. He got his big chance to travel when Metello hired him to spend a season in his branch office in Jurgen’s Fist
C6) Jorn Stosch, a professor at a university in Cornyria that supported Okoteck’s study of magic and used his translation capabilities.
C7) He has fond memories of most of the people in his home village
C8) Okoteck clashed with a lot of the students and faculty at the university he went to due to his disrespect for boundaries that got in the way of his pursuit of knowledge
C9) Curiosity isn’t on the list but it is for Okoteck… call it gluttony for knowledge? Or maybe it would be greed for knowledge…
C10) The Free Isles and the Cornyrian Confederation, though he’d like to visit more
C11) Destroying books, scrolls, and the like. Senseless violence (which is to say, violence that doesn’t make sense to him)
C12) Anything that damages the mind
C13) No, he’d rather avoid people he doesn’t like than harm them
C14) A lot of things. Lost secrets of magic especially, but any sufficiently rare and important knowledge.
C15) Shrug and move on
C16) He’s ace/aro

D1) He was visiting his family in the mountains and heard about the expedition so he came to apply.
D2) While he’s in Eredorn he’s renting an inn room. While he was visiting family he was staying with them. Before that he was traveling.
D3) They haven’t been in town long so they still have savings from their work in the Cornyrian Confederation.

E1) Is there a way to play a magus other than slashing things with a spell-enhanced sword? :D Given I don’t know 2e well I’ll be going for a pretty straightforward magus build.
E2) I’d been playing around with the idea of some multiclass archetypes (Alchemist, Investigator, Wizard, maybe Witch or Rogue) or maybe the Linguist archetype
E3) See E2
E4) No idea, I haven’t looked at 2e magic items
E5) I’ll have to play him for a bit before those ideas come
E6) There aren’t particular monster types I enjoy fighting more than others

F1) See E6
F2) This is completely dependant on context to the degree I can’t give a general response
F3) Hmmm… I like when doing the right thing requires personal sacrifice without immediate gain. I like when there’s no sapient mortal life that’s always evil. I enjoy shapeshifters. I like when the pursuit of power for its own sake destroys those who seek it. I like when it’s possible for us to fail and not A) die or B) end up with the world destroyed. I like when ‘treasure’ comes in the form of unique blessings, favors, or the like rather than generic magic items.
F4) Again, completely dependant on context

For all the exasperation he caused them, however, his family did love and care for him, viewing his escapades with fondness. None did so more than his grandfather, especially after the death of his wife. Perhaps it was because he saw something of himself in his grandson, for he had traveled the world when he was younger. Likely it was this resemblance to his younger self that led him to teach Okoteck some of his adventuring skills, both weapon techniques and… a few things he’d picked up about how to get past locks.

Okoteck’s curiosity couldn’t be contained by his home for that long, though. By the time he was ten he was begging to go with the groups that sometimes left his home community to go trade in some of the larger settlements around the island. Once he figured out that he was much more likely to be able to go along if he had something useful to contribute to the group, the young tengu fervently applied himself to picking up some useful skills--everything from woodcraft and wilderness survival to scribing to packing his own little pack. Soon enough the eager, inquisitive young tengu was a regular sight wherever his village’s traders went. One thing he discovered as he started meeting more non-tengus was a love for languages, which he tried to learn more of whenever he had the opportunity.

But trips with relatives and friends only sharpened Okoteck’s appetite for travel. As soon as he was old enough to be on his own, he left his home and started traveling all across Keliak, from Pharsini to Flerno to Eredorn. He would in the various towns and villages he encountered, worked for long enough to buy supplies then moved on. He made a number of contacts during his travels--a number of people recognized the tengu’s talents and offered to hire him long-term, but he always valued his freedom to travel too much to tie himself down. He even traveled back and forth to Tholiar a couple of times and explored its towns as well.

Perhaps the most important contact he made during this time was a human merchant by the name of Metello. Metello understood Okoteck better than most, and never tried to tie him down to more than a short-term contract. About when the tengu was longing for broader horizons than Keliak could offer, Metello offered him a job--to travel to Jurgen’s Fist and serve as a translator in the branch office he was setting up there for a season. Okoteck of course seized the opportunity to leave the Free Isles with all talons.

Once his contract was done, he traveled deeper into the Cornyrian Confederation to Cornyria itself, for there was one subject his curiosity had longed to learn of--arcane magic. Like with most knowledge, the forbidden nature of arcana simply made it all the more alluring to him. It took him some time, but he eventually made the acquaintance of one Jorn Stosch, a professor at one of the universities centered around study of the planar vortex, through his translation work, who found his skills useful and sponsored him to attend.

Okoteck tore into his studies with the same fervor that ever marked his pursuit of knowledge, but he had one small problem. While he quickly discovered he loved magic, his passion for all of the other skills and knowledge he’d gained was not diminished, and in spite of his talents he just couldn’t quite keep up with everything. He did well enough for a while, performing acceptably in magic but not truly distinguishing himself.

This might in part have been why, when he was caught trying to break into where the university kept some of its more… sensitive texts, Jorn did not contest Okoteck being expelled. For his part, Okoteck was disappointed in some ways, but in other ways he’d been starting to find the structure of university studies stifling. Now free again, he traveled to other parts of the Confederation, continuing to practice his magic in secret--and not just his magic, but blending his magic with his other skills.

He considered exploring other parts of the continent, but decided first that he wished to return to his family and visit them. It had been some time since he’d seen them, and while he’d written occasionally and gotten a couple of letters back from them, he knew his grandfather likely didn’t have much time left at his age. So he returned to the coast, worked long enough to save up money for passage back to Keliak, and made his way to his family’s home.

After a couple of weeks with them, he set back out. He stopped in Eredorn, thinking he might contact Metello and see if he had business in Taraka that Okoteck might help with, when he caught word of the expedition to Thalis. The idea of exploring a land long cut off from the rest of the world proved irresistible to the curious tengu, and so he went to meet the Captain of the expedition…

Appearance & Personality

Okoteck, like most tengu, is a black-feathered humanoid with a gray beak and scaly gray hands and feet. He’s roughly five feet tall, with a lean build that hides a surprising degree of strength and toughness. He favors plain, hard-wearing clothing with lots of pockets.

Okoteck is generally a cheerful fellow, always willing to talk about things he’s seen and learned (in hopes it’ll get his audience to share some of what they know, too). He can get rather… intense if he’s on the trail of a particularly juicy secret, though. While he’s friendly with most everyone, he’s very hesitant to form deep attachments, almost seeming fearful of being tied down to people.

Medium
Skyborn Tengu
Humanoid
Perception +3; Low-light vision
Languages: Common, Cornyrian, Tengu, Draconic, Elven, Jotun, Dwarven

Trained Skills: Acrobatics +7, Arcana +6, Athletics +4, Scribing Lore +6, Tengu Lore +6, Nature +3, Occultism +6, Society +6, Stealth +7, Survival +3, Thievery +7

Str +1, Dex +4, Con +1, Int +3, Wis 0, Cha 0

Unarmored AC 17
Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +5

HP 15

Speed 25 feet

Melee: Beak +7, 1d6+1
Shortsword +7, 1d6+1
Light mace +7, 1d6+1

Ranged: Shortbow +7, 1d6
Dagger +7, 1d4+1
Throwing Knife +7, 1d4+1

Ancestry Feats: Long-Nose Form (Bonus), Tengu Lore

General Feats: Multilingual

Class Features: Arcane Cascade, Spellstrike, Laughing Shadow Hybrid Study

Spells known: Cantrips: Chill Touch, Detect Magic, Electric Arc, Light, Produce Flame, Slashing Gust, Shield, Mage Hand

1st: Flashy Disappearance, Horizon Thunder Sphere, Pest Form, Shocking Grasp

Equipment: Explorer's Clothing, Shortsword, Light Mace, Shortbow, 60 Arrows, Dagger, Throwing Knife, Thieves' Tools, Writing Set, Spellbook, Candle x10, Flint & Steel, Bedrool, Waterskin, Backpack, 5xRations, Playing Cards, Climbing Kit, Blank Book