Akatsu Horami's page

The floor was full of white lillies; with the door and windows open, the swift breeze would bring them and charmingly touch the papers in the floor, held in place by beautifully ornamented rocks. Half the room had the warmth of the sunlight, and the other half had the comfortable shade of the thin paper walls. While these were not times of peace in Minkai, that room had anything but war. In its center, in a meditative state (called mushin, "no mind state"), there was a kneeling man drawing.

The Shodo, the art of calligraphy, was greatly appreciated. While he was young, Horami looked masterful on the activity; for he was a teacher, and seemed to have proud on his work. His features were those of the Tian Min. The single sound of a dipping fountain was the only thing to be heard - and then it finally got interrupted by another man's voice. Horami looked at the opening, and there was a soldier and, behind him, a young woman in a pink yukata: Horami's student.

Her name was Mangin; Amatatsu Mangin, to be more exact. The soldier greeted the teacher with respect, even if harshly, and turned his back. Three more steps and he stopped by the stairs taking to the house, where he started keeping guard. Mangin smiled shy, and walked in fast yet truly small steps until she greeted and kneeled in front of Horami. They knew each other for a long time; Horami had been adopted by her family, and despite the lack of their noble blood was treated as a family member. They had another older brother - Tsutoku - but he was mostly interested in the arts of war, especially with the brewing events surrounding the oni coalition known as the Five Storms.

Horami shared tea with Mangin, before she actually started drawing, and during which time he diligently explained to her the dance of the fude, the brush, and the secrets of the ink colors. She pretended to be interested; she rather preferred singing, but out of respect for her family and birthright, she understood how important it was to learn it, and was happy to spend time learning Shodo with her talented adopted brother. Horami, by other hand, was bounded by honor to teach her, and in his core nurtured romantic feelings that he bravely suppressed. As the lesson progressed, the guard was still by the stairs, solemn and dutiful.

The things that followed were fast - mere seconds passed, yet for Horami it felt like hours. Mangin was drawing and he was standing when the wind became a lot colder. The entire room was taken by shade, as if the sunlight had became dim. He immediately felt it was the work of an Yokai; and he wasn't wrong. The oni minions attacked first the guard, who bravely screamed and slashed with his katana. The fight went through jumps on the stairs, by which time Mangin was already crying in despair. Horami hugged and pulled her towards the back, but suddenly they were stopped as the paper walls were painted with blood.

They stepped back inside as the evil figure formed. First made of shadows, quickly it took the shape of a brown red skinned horned oni, adorned in a samurai armor depicting the storms. The monstrous figure smiled perversively as he saw the Amatatsu seal by Mangin's obi sash. He advanced with his weapons, but Horami put himself in front of her. He had no weapons - all that he held were his brushes. The oni laughed loudly. Little man! Are you going to fight me with a brush? Are you going to bore me with your delicate, stupid strokes? he roared, but then stopped, thoughtful.

Wait..., said the oni, ... You're not even Human! - and as he said it, Mangin stepped back, taking distance from Horami. She was afraid of both of them at this point. As she did so, Horami tried to speak, but was thrown through a paper wall by the monster. He rolled out feeling his bones cracking and coughed blood. Yet, he pushed himself up, looking at the shadows of the yokai advancing towards his sister. And at that point, already standing, he ran back inside and jumped. The oni had his arm up, ready for the lethal swing, when screamed of pain - for the sumi, the inkstick, was now well stuck in his wrist, in some twisted struck of luck piercing his nerve and forcing him to release the weapon.

Mangin covered herself crying, with both arms, crawling to a corner as Horami - now looking like a humanoid fox, tailed and all - forced his weak kitsune teeth into a bite to the monsters neck. The oni screamed in pain again, but now such scream was combined with a rage rarely heard by mortals. How dared such creature? In his ire the house was entirely taken by lighting strikes, slashing the skies with lethal fury. The arcane words came out of the yokai's mouth with supernatural blood and talent; Five Storms! Hear me!, he yelled, Curse! Curse this mingle creature! Hear me now, and give him a fate much worse than a swift death!

All the muscles in Horami's body spasmed and weakened, as he released the much stronger enemy. The effect of the curse, while devastating, wasn't even comparable to his true sorrow: because Mangin, his sister, had been struck by lightning, and even despite the fact his lifeless body was broken through the floor, the oni still had the strength to finish crushing her to an unrecognizable state, such was his fury. That was the last thing Horami saw, as his flesh melted into a pitch black pile of ink - which the yokai blew to the top of his outsider lungs against the wallpapers. Before night came to that house, walls were taken of blood and ink, and the Amatatsu had lost their prized daughter.

The scene was found by Tsutoku, their brother, as he was fleeing Minkai. He was maybe one of the last survivor of the royal families to escape the Five Storms. The Amatatsu were no more. He pulled the few objects he could collect from his household - including a large jar of black ink, to remember his siblings - and left to Magnimar, never to step foot in Tien lands again. He became Rokuro Kaijitsu.

But Horami wasn't completely gone. Thirteen years of pain and silence per each of the Five Storms - this was the curse. After all these decades, the old jar of ink had been left in Rokuro's vaults and collected by his son, Lonjiku, which gifted it to his daughter, Ameiko, when she retired from her life of adventures. She placed it by her room in the Rusty Dragon, in Sandpoint, and a given day - while the room was empty - the ink came back to life again.

Horami became an ooze; a cruel piece of his own art, trapped in a formless state without his body or memories. He had a shiver of conscience, and such was the fear still terrorizing his soul that he would not reveal himself to anyone. He was in different lands, and all people his met before - being his adoptive family or friends - were now dead for a long time. He stayed in this strange state for months, and from the jar he would "see" Ameiko - and somehow see something familiar in her. Maybe she reminded him of someone - yes, there was a face in his dreams, the last face he saw - and, as such, he found comfort being in her presence.

Slowly his abilities developed more, and slowly - alone in the room - he'd carefully push himself to take some sort of resemblance of a human body. Eventually he was successful: he took a masculine shape slightly looking like Tsutoku, the brother he forgot. He was happy, but such shape quickly melted. It took him a very, very long time to be able to master it enough to keep it stable for longer. And as he did so, slowly he understood he wasn't limited to that face anymore, as much as he'd prefer it.

At a given day, after a lot of planning, he finally took courage and left the jar. Pretending to be a newcomer to Sandpoint, he introduced himself as Akatsu Horami to Ameiko, explaining he had lost his family a long time ago together with his memories, and had been seeking them ever since. Seeing the obvious resemblance, Ameiko guessed the young man was some other bastard son of her father or mother, and adopted him as such. By that time, Lonjiku - her father - rejected Horami's presence, as much as his appearance would remind him so much of his own father, and he never truly gave him any respect. Internally, the old man recognized the resemblance and knew it was possible he had another bastard, but was simply too ashamed to admit.

Horami "arrived" about three months ago in Sandpoint (in truth, he had been there for several months before that). He's treated by Ameiko and the citizens of Sandpoint with respect, as another stranded younger brother of her that lost his memories and is recovering them slowly. In truth, he's her great-uncle, but really has no recollections of his "previous life" before the curse or even understands what exactly he is nowadays - although the name "Horami", he gave, sounds truly familiar, and Ameiko does bear a resemblance with someone he knew from the past - her great-aunt Amatatsu Mangin!

Horami was a Shodo Artist - an individual talented in the classic Eastern calligraphy. The technique is as much of meditation as it is art, precision and drawing, and requires achieving a particular state of mind where nothing disturbs the focus/concentration.

As the Five Storms attacked the noble families and decimated the Amatatsu - which adopted Horami - he revealed himself as a kitsune, took his true shape and tried to protect his half-sister; in such process, he harmed an oni. The furious yokai cursed him, and Horami became one with the ink - an oozemorph.

For more than six decades he had been dormant in an old jar or ink that ended up being passed through generations by the surviving Amatatsu, which fled to Varisia and took the new name Kaijitsu.

He finally awoke, now in the presence of Ameiko. Despite having lose his memories, Horami still remembered his name and the trade of calligraphy, and Ameiko reminded him of his half-sister (even though he can't really pinpoint where the resemblance is familiar to him).

During this period of several months, Horami had been in a journey of self-discovery: using the sewer systems to move around quick, he ended up understanding more of the capabilities of his ooze shape, including having to fight for survival (or flee, most of the time!) in such environment.

Slowly gaining control of his shapechanging powers, Horami introduced himself to Ameiko - pretending to be a newcomer to Sandpoint - and was assumed as another bastard of her father.

Horami works as a melee damage dealer of sorts. He can attack most with his natural weapons, which aren't really too strong - maybe just enough to be useful. He is not too defensive either, being just average at such. In his true shape - that of an ooze - he is even worse. He can't use weapons or armors. He can't speak and can't cast spells. He can't use items either.

Yet, as a kitsune shapechanger, he can still shift to a human form most of the time. With the Realistic Likeness feat, this basically means he can shift into any human he ever met, which is definitely strong... Despite the fact that "Disguise" isn't a class skills. For one hour per day per level, he can shift via alter self, and in such period be a little stronger (for example, taking a shape like a sewer troll). He also got Fox Shape, so a tiny fox is another option for shapeshifting.

I'm giving him a crossbow to use while in his human form (despite the fact he can also pop two giant ink-looking tentacles to use for slam natural attacks).

For the future, I plan to keep going as an oozemorph at least until level 8 when he get beast shape I, maybe even beyond that depending on the party composition and how I can be more useful.

Finally, via the variant multiclassing system (in his case, Rogue), Horami will be able to help with trapfinding by level 3, which should help him fulfilling some usefulness to the party.

Akatsu Horami
Male kitsune shifter (oozemorph) 1/rogue* (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 4 175, Ultimate Wilderness 26, 81)
NG Medium humanoid (kitsune, shapechanger)
Init +4; Senses low-light vision; Perception +5
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Defense
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AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 10 (+4 Dex)
hp 13 (1d10+3)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +2
Immune critical hits, flanking, precision damage
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee unarmed strike +3 (1d3+2 nonlethal) or
. . morphic weapon +3/+3 (1d6+3)
Ranged heavy crossbow +5 (1d10/19-20)
Special Attacks morphic weaponry
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Statistics
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Str 14, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 7
Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 17
Feats Fox Shape, Realistic Likeness[ARG]
Traits clever wordplay, younger sibling
Skills Acrobatics +8, Craft (calligraphy) +8, Disable Device +5, Disguise +3 (+13 circumstance to fool others with impersonation), Knowledge (nature) +6, Linguistics +3, Perception +5, Stealth +8
Languages Common, Druidic, Hon-la, Minatan, Minkaian, Senzar, Sylvan, Tien
SQ change shape, compression, dragon empire native, fluid form (1 hour, 1/day), ooze empathy -1
Other Gear studded leather, crossbow bolts (100), heavy crossbow, backpack, blanket[APG], flint and steel, hemp rope (50 ft.), inkpen, masterwork calligraphy tools, mess kit[UE], paper, thieves' tools, trail rations (5), waterskin, 1 gp, 4 sp
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Tracked Resources
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Crossbow bolts - 0/100
Fluid Form (Sewer Troll, 1/day) (Su) - 0/1
Trail rations - 0/5
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Special Abilities
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Change Shape (Human) (Su) Assume a single human form.
Compression (Ex) Move through areas 1/4 normal space without squeezing or 1/8 while squeeze.
Dragon Empire Native You come from the Dragon Empires in Golarion, and so your starting languages are Tien and Senzar instead of Common and Sylvan.
Fluid Form (Sewer Troll, 1/day) (Su) Natural form is that of an ooze. Assume another form a number of times a day.
Fox Shape (Fox) You can take the form of a specific fox, as beast shape II.
Immunity to Critical Hits You are immune to Critical Hits
Immunity to Flanking You are immune to flanking.
Immunity to Precision Damage You are immune to Precision Damage
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in dim light, distinguishing color and detail.
Morphic Weaponry (Ex) Dynamically form natural attacks from your body that deal B, P, or S damage.
Ooze Empathy -1 (Ex) Improve the attitude of an ooze, as if using Diplomacy.
Realistic Likeness Change shape can mimic individuals you've met, gain a +10 bonus to Disguise to impersonate.

The ooze form is his true form. In this form, he can't use armor, weapons or any items at all. He can't speak or cast spells. He has the same land speed (30 feet) and senses (Regular Sight and Low-Light Vision) as his original form (Kitsune).

Here's some of the other shapes Horami could take (no limitations for Human or Fox, but the other shapes he can only do level divided by 2 times per day, minimum 1, and each time he shifts he can only maintain for 1 hour per level before rolling continuously difficulty increasing Fortitude saves per hour starting at DC 15):

Human In the Human shape, he's able to use armor, weapons, items, etc., and he can still (optionally) pop his morphic weapons. He loses his Low Light Vision. His land speed stays 30. He has a +10 in disguise to look human, with another +10 to look like any specific individual he met before.

Fox In the Fox shape, the size becomes tiny. He gains +4 to DEX and loses -2 in STR. He gains +1 Natural Armor bonus. He gains a bite attack (1d3) and loses one of his 2 morphic weapons. He gains Scent. He uses DEX for climb and swim. He keeps his Low Light Vision. His land speed increases to 40. He has a +10 in disguise to look like a fox.

Kitsune In the Kitsune shape, everything pretty much works like the Human shape, except he can only extend one of his 2 morphic weapons because as a Kitsune he has a bite attack already (1d6), and he keeps his Low Light Vision. His land speed stays 30.

Sewer Troll In the Sewer Troll shape, he's able to use armor, weapons, items, etc. Since the shape has already 1 bite (1d6) and 2 claws (1d4), he's not able to use his morphic weapons. He gains +2 to STR. He gains Darkvision and Scent. He keeps his Low Light Vision. His land speed stays 30.

Boggard In the Boggard shape, he's able to use armor, weapons, items, etc. He keeps both his morphic weapons. He gains +2 to STR. He gains Darkvision and Scent. He keeps his Low Light Vision. His speed drops to 20 in land, but he gains a 30 feet swim speed.