Araska the Desert Walker's page

About Araska the Desert Walker

Araska Picture
Human Mystic (Aurora Soul)//Daevic Wrath/Champion 1
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +4; Senses Perception +9
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 18, touch 13, flat-footed 16 (+5 armor, +1 deflection, +2 Dex)
Vig 26 (3d8) Wnd 28 (Threshold 14)
Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +7
Defensive Abilities arcane defense, elemental glyph, hard to kill; Immune inhaled poison
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee unarmed strike +9 (1d4+5)
talons +8(+3 sec.) (1d4+5)
Special Attacks mythic power (7/day, surge +1d6)
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 20, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 17, Cha 14
Base Atk +3; CMB +10; CMD 21
Feats Powerful Maneuvers, Extra Essence, Broken Blade Style, Extra Mythic Power[M], Greater Unarmed Strike, Improved Unarmed Strike
Skills Acrobatics +6, Bluff +8, Diplomacy +4, Knowledge (engineering) +7, Knowledge (geography) +7, Knowledge (history) +7, Knowledge (nobility) +7, Perception +9, Sense Motive +11, Spellcraft +7, Stealth +6
Languages Common, Dwarven
SQ animus (4), blade meditation, elemental attunement, fleet charge[MA], mythic sustenance[MA], Emissary, Eternal Hope, Urbanite, Wild Talent, Essence (3)
Combat Gear caltrops; Other Gear lamellar (leather) armor[UC], bedroll, belt pouch, chalk (10), flint and steel, grappling hook, hemp rope (50 ft.), masterwork backpack[APG], mess kit[UE], mirror, piton (10), pot, soap, sunrod (5), trail rations (5), waterskin
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Mythic Power (7/day, Surge +1d6)
Animus (1 turn)
Blade Meditation
Elemental Attunement
Elemental Glyph (3 allies, 4 rounds)
Fleet Charge
Hard to Kill
Mythic Sustenance (MA)
--------------------
Maneuvers & Stances
--------------------
Level 1
Clockwatcher
Disturbing Blow
Eldritch Shield
Fluctuation Movement
Flurry Strike
Ghost Hunting Blow
Inner Sense
Shards of Iron Strike
Embrace the Elements
Pugilist Stance

Level 2
Bronze Knuckle
--------------------
Veils & Chakra Bonds
--------------------
Passion Veils & Bond Essence: 1
Sea Drake’s Talons

Other Veils & Bond Essence
Forcestrike Knuckles: 1

Backstory:

I went into the desert to silence the voices...

Since the time of my majority they had plagued me, whispers half-heard by day and a confused babble by night that haunted my dreams. My concentration wandered, my strength ebbed, and the Elders of the Hurien, my tribe, whispered of madness. But the Eldest Druid stayed their blades, and told them that my journey was not yet over but could not continue among the tribe. I turned my back on them before the Blade Wielder called for my blood. As I walked into the empty sands, the voices mocked me, laughing at my fear.

I walked until I was past The Dragon Horns and deep into the Great Alluvial Sand Wastes, where at the hottest the Sun's fury has turned the sands to glass. I walked over them until my feet bled through the cloth wraps of my feet. There was such torment, such agony that the whispering voices grew silent. I saw the steam rising from my bloody footprints, and I realized I was unafraid.

After three days I walked again upon sand. I drew a circle in the sand and sat down at its center, beneath the empty sky. After two days more and the last of my water, I felt the ache of hunger until it left me, and thirst became a comfort. Each day the Sun burned me, but I sat still and endured her fury. On the seventh day the voices returned. With them came the visions.

The Cilops came first, and whispered that his was the voice that plagued me. He mocked my weakness, growling that I had failed my tribe, and that my family would never mourn me. He offered me death, dripping from his barbed mandibles, and called it mercy. I refused him, and bid him leave me. As he vanished, I felt the akasha, the holy fire of my blood, burn hot and pure. I had never guessed at the strength that lay hidden within suffering and enduring.

My flesh withered, my mouth bled, and my skin darkened. Days later (how many? I cannot tell, for I had lost all hint of their reckoning) the Serpent came to me, and whispered that his voice was the one who had plagued me for so long. He offered me food, to aid me in my Test. But I heard the lies that lay hidden in his words, and bid him take the food away. He did so, but in his spite the Serpent lashed out, biting my hand. And then my blood ran cold, as cold as the pale dead waters legends tell of, as cold as the dark between the stars. I writhed in agony, and screamed until my voice was gone.

But in time my akasha, my fire, mastered the ice, and my sinews thawed. I saw the power of the akasha to transform: sand into glass, wood into charcoal, mud into hard brick, flesh into food. I saw the power of the soul flame to heal and cure, mending flesh and blunting venom. But I felt no joy at the revelation, for my ordeal had left me as barren as the sands.

Finally, a Fly came to me, and its voice buzzed within my ears. He buzzed that he was Death, and that his was the voice that had plagued me for so long. He praised my strength, saying that he had not the spirit left to vie with my soul any longer. He had tried since my birth to corrupt me into madness, but now I had won. I was free. The Fly whispered many things to me; ancient secrets, chants and charms of great power, tidings of the buried past and hidden future. He offered me water, so that I could regain my strength and return to my tribe, where they would praise my Wisdom and beg me to command them. But I laughed, refusing him. "You dare defy me?" the Fly buzzed. "Do you know who you are, and who I am?"

I laughed again. "I am nothing," I said. "I am the least child of the least family of my tribe... If you would bring me death then do so, otherwise, I have heard your words and found power and wisdom in them but no meaning. Give me meaning or end my torment spirit."

And then there was laughter, feminine laughter, for I had passed its Test. The fly was gone, the Desert was gone, and before me there was a woman shrouded in white cloth with bright red eyes. I found myself sitting and leaning against a tall bleached white tree, shaded from the harsh Sun. "I am your meaning child, and you... you are my vengeance. I will merge the last life energy I have with your soul and we will both receive what we desire. I will shape you into a weapon to destroy my enemy and you will never be the least child of the least family again. Should you agree, of course."

I left my tribe low of status and have not returned. My mother and father presume me dead, swallowed by the sands like so many others. It has been years since I last saw them but I know the time is not right yet to rejoin them. Only once my task is complete may I rejoin them.

Now, I travel among a group of companions who I have found agreeable enough. We survive, at the very least, and under the dark sun of Athas, sometimes, that's all it takes.

I went into the Desert to silence the voices.
Instead, I learned to listen.