Apex the Gallant's page

Ongoing Spells: *Greater False Life, Life Bubble, *Mage Armor, *Mind Blank, *Nondetection, *Overland Flight

(From Earlier in the Morning (~5:00 AM) on Day 1 of the Expedition; before resting for a couple of hours via her Ring of Sustenance, Morgan cast these multiple hour spells and then extended them via Spell Tinker to last roughly an entire day to 36 hours for Mind Blank.)

Arcanist Spells Memorized (CL 16th; Concentration +25)

8th: (DC 27) (3/day)—Giant Form II
7th: (DC 26) (5/day; 2 Cast)—Giant Form I, Prismatic Spray (DC 26)
6th: (DC 25) (5/day; 1 Cast)—Flesh to Stone (DC 25), Monstrous Physique IV, Veil
5th: (DC 24) (5/day; 3 Cast)—Echolocation, Stoneskin (Communal), Icy Prison (DC 24), Teleport
4th: (DC 23) (6/day; 1 Cast)—Confusion (DC 23), Dimensional Anchor, Enervation, Greater Invisibility
3rd: (DC 22) (6/day; 5 Cast)—Dispel Magic, Haste, Heroism, Slow (DC 22)
2nd: (DC 21) (6/day)—False Life, Glitterdust (DC 21), Invisibility, Mirror Image, Resist Energy
1st: (DC 20) (6/day; 4 Cast)—Blood Money, Grease, Heightened Awareness, Mage Armor, Shield
0th: (DC 19) (at will)—Arcane Mark, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Light, Message, Open/Close (DC 19), Prestidigitation, Read Magic, Spark (DC 19)

-1 Point to swap in Tongues via Quick Study.
-1 Point to use Dimensional Step.
-1 Point to use Arcane Accuracy for Dimensional Anchor.
-1 Point to use Potent Magic for Giant Form I.
-1 Point to use Spell Tinker on Giant Form I.
-1 Point to swap in Veil via Quick Study.
-1 Point to swap in Heroism via Quick Study.
-1 Point to swap in Stoneskin (Communal) via Quick Study.

Starting
Str 14 Dex 10 Con 12 Int 16 Wis 10 Cha 10

After Racial Adjustments
Str 14 Dex 12 Con 10 Int 18 Wis 10 Cha 10

After Level Adjustments Every Four Levels
Str 14 Dex 12 Con 10 Int 22 Wis 10 Cha 10

After Magic Gear
Str 18 Dex 12 Con 14 Int 28 Wis 10 Cha 10

1st: Arcanist (Blade Adept);
2nd: Arcanist (Blade Adept);
3rd: Arcanist (Blade Adept);
4th: Arcanist (Blade Adept); +1 Int
5th: Arcanist (Blade Adept);
6th: Arcanist (Blade Adept);
7th: Arcanist (Blade Adept);
8th: Arcanist (Blade Adept); +1 Int
9th: Arcanist (Blade Adept);
10th: Arcanist (Blade Adept);
11th: Arcanist (Blade Adept);
12th: Arcanist (Blade Adept); +1 Int
13th: Arcanist (Blade Adept);
14th: Arcanist (Blade Adept);
15th: Arcanist (Blade Adept);
16th: Arcanist (Blade Adept); +1 Int

An arcanist has an innate pool of magical energy that she can draw upon to fuel her arcanist exploits and enhance her spells. The arcanist's arcane reservoir can hold a maximum amount of magical energy equal to 3 + the arcanist's level. Each day, when preparing spells, the arcanist's arcane reservoir fills with raw magical energy, gaining a number of points equal to 3 + 1/2 her arcanist level. Any points she had from the previous day are lost. She can also regain these points through the consume spells class feature and some arcanist exploits. The arcane reservoir can never hold more points than the maximum amount noted above; points gained in excess of this total are lost.

Points from the arcanist reservoir are used to fuel many of the arcanist's powers. In addition, the arcanist can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir as a free action whenever she casts an arcanist spell. If she does, she can choose to increase the caster level by 1 or increase the spell's DC by 1. She can expend no more than 1 point from her reservoir on a given spell in this way.

As a standard action, the arcanist can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir to enhance her weapon. The weapon is treated as magic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. At 5th level, the weapon gains a +1 enhancement bonus, which increases by 1 for every 4 levels beyond 5th (to a maximum of +4 at 17th level). These bonuses can be added to the weapon, stacking with existing weapon bonuses to a maximum of +5. An arcanist can also use this exploit to add one of the following weapon special abilities: dancing, defending, distance, flaming, flaming burst, frost, icy burst, keen, shock, shocking burst, speed, spell storing, and throwing. Adding these special abilities replaces an amount of enhancement bonus equal to the ability's cost. Duplicate special abilities do not stack. If the weapon is not magical, at least a +1 enhancement bonus must be added to it before any other weapon special abilities can be added. The benefits are decided upon when the exploit is used, and they cannot be changed unless the exploit is used again. These benefits only apply to weapons wielded by the arcanist; if another creature attempts to wield the weapon, it loses these benefits, though they resume if the arcanist regains possession of the weapon. The arcanist cannot have more than one use of this ability active at a time. This effect lasts for a number of minutes equal to the arcanist's Charisma modifier (minimum 1).

Origins

Strange to many geniekin, Morgan Nightwish hails from Lepidstadt, Vieland, Ustalav. While Ustalav is known by several people to be a broken nation suffering from endless undead horrors, the little Sylph thankfully avoided the worst of its problems for many years; her human mother was a bright, intelligent young woman, who had secured a student position in the prestigious University of Lepidstadt. She graduated shortly after Morgan was born, and knowing the school to be quite safe compared to the rest of the country, Natalia Nightwish took a teaching assistant position.

The identity of her father is probably the greatest mystery in Morgan's life. Thanks to one of Natalia's school projects, Morgan has a detailed history of the Nightwish line going back several years. She has never found so much as a hint of genie blood anywhere. Meanwhile, Natalia had her fair share of boyfriends over her six years as a student, and none of them were overtly anything less than human. Morgan's best guess is that one of them was a Polymorphed Sylph, who assumed the disguise to avoid attracting attention.

Regardless of her daughter's lineage, Natalia Nightwish loved Morgan more than anything else in the world.

The University of Lepidstadt was a perfect place for a little Sylph to grow up. Ever bit as bright as her mother, Morgan learned to read at a very young age (for a geniekin) and always had her little nose buried in one of the University's thousands of books, all of which she was allowed access to given her mother's position. In particular, she loved anything on the subject of magic. While Natalia would teach class, her child would sit under her desk and read (the wonders of darkvision). Those days are some of Morgan's fondest memories.

Sadly, after four quiet decades, the darkness that plagued Ustalav caught up with the Nightwish family. While they were walking home one night from a visit to the local bookstore, they were ambushed by some undead creature. Despite old age rapidly catching up with her, Natalia valiantly fought the monstrosity while Morgan fled into the night. In the end, she made the ultimate sacrifice for her child. When she returned to the sight of the attack the following day, little more than a few bloodstains were there.

There was also a blood-stained book that had been tossed away during the chaos.

I know you love magic, and I wish the school had some more material covering it. I know that we don't have much, but hopefully, this little spellbook will stem your curiosity. Happy Birthday, Little Owl.

Love,
Mom

Needless to say, something in Morgan broke that day.

Orphaned

Even though she was forty, Morgan was still a child by Sylph standards. The only relatives that Morgan had were either long deceased or clear on the opposite side of the country, so it was ultimately easier for the Lepidstadti officials to stick Morgan in the nearest orphanage (she would later find out that none of them wanted anything to do with Natalia's exotic, illegitimate girl). Thankfully, one of Natalia's former students was able to get the girl into one of the better facilities in the region: Shelyn's Sanctuary, a modest-sized orphanage run by a mission of Shelynites who had settled in the area.

In the little Sylph's mind, her mother had died because she had been powerless to save her. The staff of Shelyn's Sanctuary certainly never neglected her, but for the most part, Morgan kept herself, and her exotic nature was enough so that the other kids gave her plenty of space. While an entire generation of human children grew up around her, Morgan studied her spellbook by day and trained herself how to fight by night. She only socialized with others during the weekly Sunday service dedicated to Shelyn, whose religion Morgan readily adopted into her moral code.

One spell in particular let her conjure a dagger made from shadows, so she was able to become quite handy with one in secret. She would patrol the Sanctuary halls at night, practicing against enemies that only existed in her imagination. Shortly after her sixtieth birthday though, her self-training paid off.

While on her patrol, Morgan spotted something slipping into the infant ward. She quietly stalked after it, only to find herself staring down a vicious dire rat. Knowing full well the damage it could inflict on the newborns, Morgan wasted no time in conjuring her weapon and defending the helpless.

It was a nasty fight, but Morgan ultimately prevailed due to her superior intelligence. Moreover, she had been exercising daily to overcome her natural Sylph frailness, and her improved endurance paid off wonderfully. By that point, the resulting noise from the fight had woken up the staff, who quickly deduced what had happened. Despite it being strictly against the rules for any orphans to own weapons, the now teenaged Sylph was still hailed as her for her quick thinking and bravery.

Something about the hugs and the praise made her heart flutter, and for the first time in years, Morgan Nightwish felt content with herself.

The Sylph gradually transitioned from a ward to a member of the orphanage staff. It was a very brief period of her life, but it was rather instrumental in Morgan's development. Being perhaps the most well read person in town, she would teach the younger children how to read and write. She also read stories to her wards, who greatly enjoyed the way she told them.

She inadvertently sent a lot of time practicing on how she would act out the roles, developing a certain skill that would be quite useful later in life. However, Morgan eventually found herself wanting to see the world depicted in her books, so with a heavy heart, she departed the second place that had been her home.

After training for a few years with some of the town guard of course. During that time, she became quite skilled with a blade.

Having torn her way through dozens of their Chronicles over the years, Morgan figured that the Pathfinder Society would be a great way to travel while also having allies around to help her. Being the accomplished "magus" that Morgan had become, she passed the field tests with no real issues, and thus the Sylph was accepted with open arms.

Apex

After relocating to their main Lodge in Ustalav, Morgan eventually settled into more of a support role for the Pathfinders. She usually stayed at the was often tasked with studying magical items or assisting with rituals. While she occasionally saw a field mission when they needed an arcanist type to decipher something, but those days were rare. For the most part, she just did her paperwork at the Lodge and listened to the dozens of issues that her colleagues mentioned plaguing her homeland at large. She put them aside at first, but after hearing about the umpteenth family getting eaten by zombies, Morgan found herself wanting to do something about the problem.

Part of her remembered the good feelings that she experienced when she had stopped the rat many years, so Morgan decided to look into ways to do... something about the horde of problems that kept coming to her attention. However, she was worried about drawing unwanted attention to herself. The Pathfinder Society as a whole had many enemies in high places because of their visibility. Being a bookworm who worked in the backroom studying magical items, Morgan did not have any personal enemies, but still...

The identity of Apex was developed as a means to tackle that issue. Was the identity developed as some sort of carefully crafted symbol? Not really. Morgan used her life's saving to purchase a Mask of Stony Demeanor and then bought a more mundane one to cover her face entirely. She did odd jobs with her magic such as transmute tools into masterwork versions of themselves to raise the funds for a magic item to distort her voice. She picked out practical adventuring outfits that made her figure as androgynous as possible and added a few inches to her height. Morgan had always kept her hair short, so that was never an issue. The name of 'Apex' was picked by flipping through a dictionary.

After shuffling through ideas of where to start, she found a puzzling predicament for Apex to tackle.

Lepidstadt was suffering from a string of seemingly random ghoul attacks in the middle of the night. For a time, they only seemed to be escalating in damage, and the local authorities had no idea how to proceed. Using some of the intelligence that acquired through Pathfinder channels, Morgan gradually began to unravel the mystery. Rumors of a masked man swooping in from nowhere and intervening in the assaults soon began to become widespread. Shortly afterward, the attacks stopped entirely.

In truth, Apex had tracked down the ghast responsible for the mess and ended its reign of terror.

Absalom

Tales of the Masked Man soon spread throughout Ustalav. His feats were well known. Numerous innocent lives were saved from undead attacks. Quite a few demonic cults were bloodied when they tried to make headway into Ustalav. Stolen art mysteriously made its way back to its proper owners!

Unlike his debut, he rarely worked strictly alone; Apex was certainly not above enlisting help from good people like the Worldwound crusaders. However, the aura of mystery he carried generally made Apex the most discussed subjects of the stories. Moreover, his tendency to shift shapes and take new forms (via Morgan's magic) only added fuel to the flames. True, her other self could not be everywhere at once, but Morgan was quite content with what she was accomplishing.

After her alter ego made a name for himself, Morgan was eventually offered to the chance to transfer elsewhere in the Society; they needed an arcane spellcaster for the mission, and due to all the experience she had gained fighting as her altered ego, Morgan was probably the best at Ustalavic Lodge had to offer.

After heavy consideration, Morgan eventually agreed to go. True, Ustalav was her home, but she original goal in joining the Pathfinders had been to see the world. What better way to accomplish it than by basing herself in the city at the center of it?

Spymaster

While her official job in Absalom was to toss around or study some magic when ordered, she found herself of much more use helping the intelligence division sort out any details other Pathfinders reported back. However, there some gaps that Morgan noticed.

Over the course of her vigilante work, Morgan had learned to become incredible sneaky. It certainly helped that she had learned the skill when she had prowled around Shelyn's Sanctuary, but some of the undead were supernaturally alert, so Apex had been forced to became supernaturally stealthy. Additionally, she had become a good detective over the years; she could crack cold cases that stumped many people. As Apex, she would look into those matters and collect the missing data.

While she had her share of failures, Morgan almost always pulled some sort of victory out of them. The Society's enemies who did realize that they were being watched would be too busy searching for an elusive masked man to notice the Pathfinders until they had swooped in and seized the day. With each successful mission, Morgan threw more of her caution to the wind and claimed more of the credit for the victory.

Given that immense, near continuous success, for the first time in life, Morgan grew proud.

Too proud.

Retirement

If something caught Morgan's ear, she was more than willing to put her mask on and charge into the fray to tackle it. She had learned how teleport long distances, so she was no longer limited to one region. His adventures only seemed to grow in scope and scale.

Apex did not choose to retire from heroics, and Morgan did not choose to retire from the Pathfinders. It happened extremely suddenly. One of her Society colleagues abruptly went missing, and after some investigation, they dubbed him a lost cause. Scrying wasn't working. Divination was expensive, and what little they did was spotty. As such, he was written off as dead by almost everyone.

However, back in Ustalav, there was an old saying that went "If they ain't a still body, then they probably ain't dead."

Morgan donned her mask and began the search by herself. Her journey took her all the way back north to Ustalav, which had changed little since she had left. After combing through the entire country, the other Pathfinder, a man only known as Nikolai, had been taken captive by the Whispering Way.

Despite what many would assume, Apex did not have any true nemesis. His work was so varied, mysterious, and quiet that he was barely more than a myth. However, if there was one group that he had tangled with the most with over the years, it was the Whispering Way. Perhaps no other organization on Golarion was as responsible for as much undeath as they, so Apex frequently clashed with them during his early days.

Much as he had in the past, Apex silently worked his way through their compound with little trouble. However, just as he got to his goal, he lowered his guard and fell for the oldest trick in the Book: an Alarm spell on the prison door. While certainly skilled with blade, the self-proclaimed magus was not a one-man army and was eventually overwhelmed by sheer numbers and a couple of unlucky hits from an Enervation spell. As such, his priorities quickly changed from winning to escaping.

Only her foresight to have a Teleportation Contingency spell ready allowed them to escape. While Morgan technically won the day by accomplishing her goal, the victory was ultimately quite hollow on a personal level. While trying to secure Nikolai, the Sylph suffered multiple injuries that left her missing most of her left arm and paralyzed from the waist down. They teleport-crash landed just outside the Grand Lodge in Absalom, where Morgan promptly passed out from bloodloss.

Epilogue

Feeling quite weary and disgraced, Morgan formally retired from the Society. She expected to be thrown to the buzzards and left to rot for her failure, but thankfully, that was not quite the case. About a couple of weeks after his rescue, Nikolai tracked her down and formally introduced himself to his savior (turns out that he really didn't have a surname). Having been so focused on saving him, Morgan felt quite embarrassed by how she had missed his racial heritage in her haste to rescue him.

Nikolai was a Sylph just like her.

Given the circumstances of their meeting, they largely avoided the usual cat-and-mouse spy games that Sylphs play upon learning of another of their kind. Nikolai took it upon himself to help Morgan out with her recovery. It started with daily check-ins; despite having just one arm to drag herself around with, Morgan asserted that she would be fine by herself. However, after as the months flew by and their friendship blossomed, she grew rather lonely just reading her books all day and moved in with her assistant caretaker. Their relationship only escalated from there.

Upon getting married, Nikolai took her surname, and despite Morgan's disability, they ended up having four children together. While Nikolai was away working with the Society, she stayed home to raise their kids and manage their funds. Their youngest Ruxandra began to show promise with arcane magic just like her mother, and Morgan began tutoring her using her own memories. Upon reviewing magic for the first time in decades, Morgan found herself making several discoveries that she had missed; the "magus" has spent so much time learning to fight with a blade that she had failed to notice that she could learn levels of magic on a much higher level.

Morgan's first meeting with Brythen Blood was pleasant. Using contacts that she had made in her Pathfinder days, she got Ruxandra into the prestigious College of Mysteries. Morgan was placed under Blood's tutorage, so a customary meeting was arranged. When asked about her injuries, she explained that she thought it better to use her money to raise her children. Besides, the only spell that could probably fix her disability was not readily available to anyone lacking the right connections. Upon hearing about her skill with arcane magic, Blood suggested that she try Polymorph Therapy instead; namely, try using of the transmutation spells that granted regeneration; he even gave Morgan the means of copying the spell into her spellbook.

It took sixteen minutes of being a troll, but a few days later, Morgan walked for the first time in years and hugged her family with both arms. She then took a year to get back into form. Life never seemed better.

However, Brythen Blood went missing not longer after. At first, she thought nothing of it, but as time passed, she became increasingly worried about what had happened to her daughter's teacher and the kind man who had helped her recover. Morgan soon found herself drawn to a tucked away, rolled up Portable Hole, one that contained a very familiar mask...

Intelligent; Calculating; Kind; Altruistic; Shy; Pragmatic; Quirky; Expressive; Cautious;

Gallant; Noble; Calm; Stoic; Bold;

Morgan shares many common behaviors and quirks with other Sylphs. She can certainly be shy at times, and the Arcanist does not care to be the center of attention. However, Morgan is a very curious individual. She loves to listen to other people. In fact, like many Sylphs, she sometimes listens too well; Morgan could write biographies about some people who've never met her. The few Pathfinder Chronicles that mention her describe her fighting style as similar to the stereotypical mage: throw around some big spells and retreat once the thick of combat describes too close. Morgan is also quite expressive; her state of mind is easy to tell, even when she isn't talking.

At least behavioral wise, Apex is Morgan's opposite in many ways. Overall, he comes off as much stronger and immensely more charismatic than his other self. While the masked man can be just as quiet (arguably more so than Morgan), when Apex does speak, he seems much more stoic. His speech is very polished, perhaps a little too much. While Apex is a known spellcaster, unlike Morgan, he gladly jumps into the thick of combat. No one can be sure if he will throw a spell or a punch. However, some very observant people have noted that his behavior feels slightly forced at times. Almost like he is putting an act that took years of dedicated practice to master.

Both personalities have strong moral cores. Both personalities help and protect the innocent, and they have little tolerance for evil. They are altruistic whenever possible, and their kindness is probably one of the most commonly remembered aspects about their character. They both know that they can't fix every problem in the world, but just letting them all go unresolved isn't an answer.

If they knew of her secret life, many people would be curious about why Morgan took an alter ego with the opposite gender and how Apex quite convincingly comes off as male. For the truth about the former, her superhero side is a man mostly because Morgan wanted to separate the identities as much as possible. Even if there are ways to change one's gender on Golarion, they are not exactly commonplace, so most people would not immediately think to look too closely at a woman while looking for Apex's true identity. The latter question is answered by the simple fact that the Sylph has spent nearly forty years perfecting the act. Additionally, as dedicated Shelynite, Morgan is not picky about gender.

Ht: 5'6"/6'0"
Wt: 122 lbs/144 lbs
Age: 170
Hair: Light Silver/Black
Eyes: Pale Green/Obsidian Black
Skin: Gray Blue/Tanned

Morgan Nightwish stands at a modest five feet six inches. Like many Sylphs, she looks a tad frail. Her skin is a mild gray blue, and it sports the usual Sylph marks that dance around her body. She keeps her light silver hair cut short. Most people would describe her as a pretty woman, though her shy and withdrawn demeanor downplays that element. Morgan usually dresses in the modest mage outfits. Ever since the day she learned Overland Flight, Morgan has rarely set her feet on the ground.

No one is quite sure what Apex looks like beneath his mask and hood. Most guess that he is of Elven blood; he is not only quite tall, but he moves extremely gracefully. His hair and eyes are dark, and what few glances anyone has ever caught of his skin indicate that he has a tan.

Both of them have a thing with the wind. A soft, gentle breeze is often not far behind Morgan. Her hair and clothing occasionally rustle a bit at random as a result. Meanwhile, Apex always seems to have a most epic wind flowing through his cape when it would be the most dramatic.

Morgan (Far Right) Socializing with Fellow Pathfinders.

Reference Image for Apex.

8th-Euphoric Tranquility, Form of the Dragon III, Frightful Aspect, Giant Form II, Mind Blank, Moment of Prescience, Polymorph Any Object, Prismatic Wall, Undead Anatomy IV

7th- Control Undead, Deflection, Elemental Body IV, Ethereal Jaunt, Form of the Dragon II, Giant Form I, Mage's Magnificent Mansion, Phase Door, Plane Shift, Planetary Adaptation (Mass), Plant Shape III, Polymorph (Greater), Prismatic Spray, Spell Turning, Teleport (Greater), Waves of Ecstasy

6th- Beast Shape IV, Contingency, Disintegrate, Dispel Magic (Greater), Elemental Body III, Flesh to Stone, Form of the Dragon I, Getaway, Heroism (Greater), Monstrous Physique IV, Plant Shape II, Repulsion, Stone to Flesh, Transformation, True Seeing, Undead Anatomy III, Undeath Ward, Veil

5th- Baleful Polymorph, Beast Shape III, Break Enchantment, Dismissal, Echolocation, Elemental Body II, Feeblemind, Hold Monster, Icy Prison, Life Bubble, Monstrous Physique III, Overland Flight, Permanency, Plant Shape I, Polymorph, Sending, Stoneskin (Communal), Telekinesis, Telepathic Bond, Teleport, Undead Anatomy II, Vermin Shape II

4th- Adjustable Polymorph, Beast Shape II, Black Tentacles, Boneshatter, Calcific Touch, Cloud Shape, Confusion, Dimension Door, Dimensional Anchor, Elemental Body I, Enervation, False Life (Greater), Invisibility (Greater), Monstrous Physique II, Remove Curse, Resilient Sphere, Vermin Shape I

3rd- Adjustable Disguise, Beast Shape I, Dispel Magic, Displacement, Fireball, Fly, Gaseous Form, Haste, Heroism, Magic Circle against Evil, Magic Weapon (Greater), Monstrous Physique I, Nondetection, Resinous Skin, Resist Energy (Communal), Shrink Item, Slow, Stinking Cloud, Tongues, Undead Anatomy, Water Breathing

2nd- Alter Self, Blur, False Life, Glitterdust, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Resist Energy, See Invisibility, Spider Climb

1st- Alarm, Blood Money, Ear Piercing Scream, Feather Fall, Grease, Heightened Awareness, Liberating Command, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Obscuring Mist, Protection from Evil, Shadow Weapon, Shield, Silent Image, Stone Fist, True Strike, Vanish

0th- All Core Rule Book