Aldern Tane's page

Traits
Reactionary: You gain a +2 trait bonus on initiative checks.
Jenivere Crew: This trip to Eleder is just one of many in a long career as a sailor aboard the Jenivere and other cargo vessels. Whether you joined the crew with the hope of one day captaining your own ship, as the means of paying your way to a foreign port with sweat and blood, or as a slave or indentured servant, you now call the ship home. Pick one of the following skills: Acrobatics, Climb, Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (geography), Swim, or Survival. You gain a +1 trait bonus on that skill, and that skill is always treated as a class skill for you. [Survival selected]

Racial Traits
Energy Resistance: Sylphs have electricity resistance 5.
Darkvision: Sylphs can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
Storm in the Blood: A Sylph with this racial trait gains fast healing 2 for 1 round anytime she takes electricity damage (whether or not this electricity damage gets through her electricity resistance). The Sylph can heal up to 2 hit points per level per day with this ability, after which it ceases to function. This racial trait replaces air affinity.
Weather Savvy: Some sylphs are so in tune with the air and sky that they can sense the slightest change in atmospheric conditions. Sylphs with this trait can spend a full-round action to predict the weather in an area for the next 24 hours. The sylph's prediction is always accurate, but cannot account for spells or supernatural effects that might alter the forecast. This racial trait replaces the sylph's spell-like ability racial trait.

Class Skills
A wind listener adds Perception to his list of class skills.

Spontaneous Divination (Su)
At 1st level, a wind listener can reshape stored spell energy into divination spells he did not prepare ahead of time. The wind listener can “lose” any prepared spell that is not a cantrip in order to cast a divination spell of the same spell level or lower. The new spell must be one the wind listener knows and is capable of casting. Spells cast with this ability increase their casting time to a full-round action (if the spell's normal casting time is longer than a full-round action, it remains unchanged).

This ability replaces arcane bond.

Air Supremacy (Su)
You gain a +2 enhancement bonus on Fly skill checks. This bonus increases by +1 for every five wizard levels you possess. In addition, you can cast feather fall on yourself at will. At 5th level, you can cast levitate on yourself at will. At 10th level, you can cast fly on yourself at will. At 20th level, whenever you make a Fly skill check, assume the roll resulted in a natural 20.

Lightning Flash (Su)
As a standard action, you can unleash a flash of electricity. This flash deals 1d6 points of electricity damage + 1 point for every two wizard levels you possess to all creatures within 5 feet of you and dazzles them for 1d4 rounds. A successful Reflex save negates the dazzled effect and halves the damage. The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 your wizard level + your Intelligence modifier. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier. (8/day)

Air Elementalist Spells
0th—message
1st—alter winds, feather fall, shocking grasp
2nd—elemental speech, elemental touch, glide, gust of wind, levitate, resist energy, summon monster II, whispering wind
3rd—cloak of winds, draconic reservoir, elemental aura, fly, gaseous form, lightning bolt, protection from energy, wind wall
4th—ball lightning, detonate, dragon's breath, elemental body I, river of wind, shout, summon monster IV
5th—elemental body III, overland flight, planar adaptation, planar binding, lesser, suffocation, summon monster V
6th—chain lightning, elemental body III, planar binding, sirocco, summon monster VI
7th—control weather, elemental body IV, fly, mass, planar adaptation, mass, summon monster VII
8th—planar binding, greater, shout, greater, stormbolts, summon monster VIII
9th—gate, suffocation, mass, winds of vengeance

Earth Elementalist Spells (Opposition School)
0th—acid splash
1st—expeditious excavation, grease, stone fist
2nd—acid arrow, create pit, elemental speech, elemental touch, glitterdust, resist energy, shatter, stone call, summon monster II
3rd—draconic reservoir, elemental aura, protection from energy, shifting sand, spiked pit, stinking cloud
4th—acid pit, calcific touch, detonate, dragon's breath, elemental body I, stone shape, stoneskin, summon monster IV,
5th—elemental body III, hungry pit, passwall, planar adaptation, planar binding, lesser, summon monster V, transmute mud to rock, transmute rock to mud, wall of stone
6th—acid fog, elemental body III, flesh to stone, move earth, planar binding, stone to flesh, summon monster VI, wall of iron
7th—elemental body IV, planar adaptation, mass, rampart, reverse gravity, statue, summon monster VII
8th—iron body, planar binding, greater, summon monster VIII, wall of lava
9th—clashing rocks, gate, world wave

Skills
Fly +2, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (local) +8, Knowledge (nature) +8, Perception +5, Profession (sailor) +5, Spellcraft +8, Survival +5
Languages
Common, Auran, Aquan, Dwarven, Elven, Ignan

Spellbook
0th – All except acid splash
1st – alter winds, comprehend languages, charm person, ear-piercing scream, silent image, color spray, obscuring mist, memory lapse

Spells Prepared (three 0th, two 1st + one [air])
0th (DC 14) – daze, message, mending
1st (DC 15) – charm person, silent image, alter winds

Moira Tane, the captain of a small smuggler’s ship, was fond of stories, boasts, and tall tales. Although most of her stories gained little infamy in all but the smallest of taverns, one of her supposed fables spread like wildfire – the story of how she chanced upon, seduced, and bedded a djinn. While the tale varied with each telling, and several of Moira’s crew had their own version of precisely who was seduced by who, the story held at least an inkling of truth. Nine months after the supposed encounter, Moira gave birth to a boy who looked mostly human, save for his white hair and the light-blue flowing markings that labeled him as a sylph.

Aldern spent most of his youth aboard his mother’s ship, and grew up knowing little of life on land, save for small port cities. When his mother grew too old to continue on as a captain, the sylph found himself at a loss as to what to do with his life; although he had experience aboard a ship, he was never much use when it came to harsh physical tasks. One of his mother’s crew encouraged him to enroll at a magic university, noting that those who could bend the elements to their will were ever welcome aboard ships. Moira was less supportive – she knew of her son’s desire for freedom and his tendency to gamble, neither of which lent themselves well towards a life of study – and bet her son that he wouldn’t last a week in the Arcanamirium in Absalom. Eager to prove her wrong, Aldern applied to the school, and was accepted due to his innate gift for air magic.

To his credit, Aldern lasted much longer than Moira predicted. After nine days at the Arcanamirium, Aldern was banished from the school grounds after betting a fellow student that one of the spell lords indeed wore a wig, and accidently creating a small, localized hurricane in an attempt to prove it.

Aldern has since studied magic wherever he could learn it, from dusty old tomes in libraries to lessons from less-than-reputable members of society. As a result, his learning has been incredibly slow, albeit one of a wide breadth. As his magical studies progressed, he learned to tap into some of the powers of his djinn heritage, the most important of which being his uncanny ability to predict the weather with near perfection. The sylph has spent the last several decades aboard various ships, serving as a minor weather forecaster and manipulator – and occasionally even as a sailor when extra bodies are required on deck. Although profitable, he often gambles away most of his gains, and it is not uncommon for Aldern to leave a ship with empty pockets. Nevertheless, he enjoys his lifestyle, and the freedom of the sea and sky.

Although the billowing blue markings of the sylph are evident all over Aldern’s skin, very little of it is exposed. He typically wears long, flowing robes of a seafoam green, and his head is often obscured by a tricorne hat and full beard. Despite the fact that Aldern appears to be rather young, his hair is uniformly white in color.

Aldern gazed up at the sky for a third and final time, and spat several colorful curses into the wind. He’d been in his share of storms, but never in a ship so heavily laden with cargo.

”We need to dump some of the weight,” he said to the ship’s first mate, a stocky young man with a misshapen nose. ”The storm’s coming, and it’s bad.”

”Cap’n says to leave it be. We’ve weathered bad before, we have. Don’t call ‘er the Stormbreaker for nothin’,” replied the first mate with a lazy confidence. To further make it clear how little he cared about the sylph’s warning, he faked a yawn. ”’Sides, the sky’s clear! Might not even be a stor-oof!” exclaimed the man as Aldern pushed past him.

Aldern sprinted awkwardly for the captain’s quarters, the soles of his feet beating out a dull rhythm as they bounced off the ship’s wooden floor. The captain might be a greedy man, but Aldern would make him listen to reason. Force him to, if necessary. If it came to that, Aldern would like as not be put in the brig once his deception came to light, but at least he would be alive. Maybe once they saw that he had been right, they wouldn’t even keelhaul him. Maybe. But maybe dead was better than definitely drowned.

Aldern burst through the captain’s door, and immediately muttered an incantation. ”What the hell are you-“ growled the captain. As Aldern finished the incantation, the captain’s eyes became briefly unfocused, then found their way to Aldern. ”Ah, Aldern! To what do I owe this pleasure?”

”Ship…storm,” panted Aldern, out of breath. ”Need to…to offload some cargo. Too full.”

”Dear boy, have you gone mad? That cargo is worth its weight in gold! To offload it would be…most unprofitable. We’ll make the proper arrangements to weather the storm, of course. Quite clever of me to bring you on board,” chirped the captain.

Gozreh drown him. The spell makes me into his best damned friend, and he’s too greedy to listen to me even now. Aldern noticed his hands had balled into fists of their own accord, and straightened them. He fought to keep his voice calm. ”How about this, then? We play a game of cards. If I lose, I serve aboard this ship for a year with no pay aside from meals. If I win, you dump the cargo.”

The captain closed his eyes thoughtfully, and took a few moments to run some calculations in his head. Finally, he gave a curt nod of agreement that sent a wave of relief through Aldern’s body. Perhaps the captain would be furious once the charm spell wore off, but at least the sylph had saved the lives of everyone aboard the ship, especially his own. As the wizard sat down and the captain began to shuffle the cards, Aldern readied a spell; this particular spell, he knew, would allow him to win.

Sixteen hours later, Aldern lay curled in a ball in the corner of the brig as the ship rocked violently from side to side. How was he to know that the captain was the sort of bastard that would cheat in a game against his own “best friend?” ”Shoulda made an image of a royal flush,” the wizard muttered to no one in particular.

spellbook, quarterstaff, light crossbow (20 bolts), backpack, waterskin, spell component pouch, pen and ink, haramaki, trail ration (3)
13g, 82s