Arthur Grayson's page

AC: 15
Touch: 15
CMD: 18
Flatfooted: 10
Fort: +3
Reflex: +7
Will: +0

Melee:+3
CMB:+3
Ranged:+6
Attacks: Masterwork Musket +7 (1d12, +1 to hit and damage within 30ft, 1-3 Misfire)
Crossbow, Light +6 (1d8, +1 to hit and damage within 30ft)

Skill: Total (Ability Score/Ranks/Class/Misc)
Acrobatics: 8 (4+1+3)
Craft(Alchemy): 8 (3+2+3)
Craft(Weapons): 7 (3+1+3)
Disable Device: 8 (4+1+3)
Knowledge(Arcana): 8 (3+1+3+1)
Knowledge(Engineering): 9 (3+2+3+1)
Knowledge(History): 4 (3+1)
Knowledge(Nature): 4 (3+1)
Linguistics: 4 (3+1)
Perception: 4 (1+3)
Stealth: 10 (4+2+3+1)
Survival: 4 (1+3)
Swim: 5 (1+1+3)

On Person
Masterwork Musket
Powder Horn x3
-Black Powder Dose x 30
Bullet x 30
Crossbow, Light
-Bolts, Crossbow x20
Gunsmiths Kit
Explorers Outfit
Journal (Thick)
Backpack
Alchemists Kit
Pants-colored Sling

Home
Lab Table
Notes
Blue Prints
Family Library

Gold:

(Ex) Nimble (+1 dodge to AC)
Gunsmith
Deeds
-(Ex) Steady Aim
-(Ex) Deadeye
-(Ex) Quick Clear

Feats
1st lvl: Precise Shot
Human Bonus: Point Blank Shot
Class Bonus: Gunsmithing
Class Bonus: Rapid Reload(Musket)

Traits
Mathematical Prodigy: +1 to Knowledge(Engineering) and +1 to Knowledge(Arcana), Knowledge(Arcana) is a class skill
Secretive Inventor: +1 to Stealth, Stealth is class skill

Languages
Common
High Northspake
Elven
Dwarven
Gnome
Halfling

Other
Skilled: +2 skill points
Favored Class: +2 skill points

Physical, Arthur is a wiry youth. Despite his time spent working at the smithy, it doesn't seem that he's muscular. Apparently all the studying he does on the side offsets the work he does within the smithy. However, recently he has developed some whip cord muscle, which seems good for speed but not for making him looking any bigger.

More often then not, his mid length blonde hair is pulled back behind his head in a short ponytail. It doesn't look like he takes care of it very much, though it is clean. With the hair clear of his face one can see rather deep skin tone for scholar who spends a lot of time indoors and an angular face with hawkish eyes. He seems to be perceptive, at least when he's not lost in his own little world, and his eyes always seem to be measuring his surrounding as well as the people in them.

His clothing is normally some loose fitting white shirt, a vest with a great many pockets, a simple pair long breeches and leather boots. He also has around his neck a pair of goggles with slightly tinted glass, suggesting he uses it to protect his eyes from bright light. Usually hooked into his belt are a pair of leather gloves that have burn marks in the inner hand area, such as around his palm. When he is not wearing these gloves one can see that his hands are usually blackened by soot or something else.

Arthur is very intelligent and well learned, especially for his age. He isn't arrogant though. While he is confident in his mind and his inventions he is also certain that there are many people out there who are better at many things then he is.

This is rather hard to notice though. For the most part, Arthur is an introverted person. Much of his time is spent mentally doing equations or taking measurements. When he seems to come to a conclusion, he'll spend a few minutes jotting his thoughts down, then move onto the next problem. It gives him an unsociable air, making people feel like he's ignoring them, but he hasn't really had much practice opening up to anyone. The only one that seems to be able to drag him out of this revere is his adoptive father, Durn.

To say that he is unsociable is fair. But to equate this to Arthur being an unkind individual would not be. Arthur has, since his birth, been raised to be responsible. His birth parents and Durn taught him the value of life around him. Arthur seems determined to create a great weapon, but it is defense of others not conquest that he wishes to aid. The world is becoming more dangerous, more wild as the years pass and Arthur intends to help humanity overcome the danger one invention at a time. And, in the meanwhile, he's always willing to offer a hand to those who need it.

Arthurs parents were, much like Arthur would be one day, followed by rumors from other residents of Danel. There comings and goings to and from the city, often leaving nearly empty handed and returning with books, scrolls or odd devices of ancient origin raised many questions. But none of them raised as many as the day they returned not with their findings but with a child. For the first few years, his parents remained at home to raise Arthur, giving him their time and their love. They were good people and from them had born a very intelligent child. He had learned to read and speak by the age of four. By the age of six, he was reading as if he were ten. By the age of eight, he read nearly as well as his parents, though could only understand three languages. The parents of this gifted boy were proud of Arthur and loved him dearly, but the road called to them and their purpose, which the rumor mongers would have you believe was to summon a demon and which Arthur guessed was the preservation of history, called with the road. By the age of nine, they left Arthur in the care of their only friend within the city, Durn, with instructions for almost every event that might happen. They had even left instructions for what would happen if they did not return within a year.

Arthur was already comfortable around Durn, though this was because he had met the smith before hand. Arthur, being every the curious child, had often gone to Durn's smithy down the road and asked questions of the older man. Most smith's might have turned him away so they could focus on their work, but Durn remembered being a boy at that age, always full of questions, and did the best he could to answer when he could. Arthur, for his part, did not pester the smith when he said he was too busy, understanding and respecting the adult who was so patient with him. So Durn often check on Arthur, who spent much of his time reading. His parents had left him a list of things to study but he had finished the list within the first week and now searched on his own for whatever his mind wanted. More often then not, he was drawn to books about engineering. Though they were few and far in between, much of the text focusing on the ancient world and it's rituals of old, Arthur learned quickly how to find and locate the books where technology was the topic.

One such text was a journal of an old painter, one who had seemed to have a brilliant mind for many other things too. And within this text Arthur found what would, to this day, be an inspiration for his work. A picture of a flying machine made not with the magic of old but through sheer engineering prowess. Arthur marveled at the designs within the book, all of them, but this one especially touched his youthful heart. To reach the skies...

Unfortunately, four months into his solitude, the date for Arthur's parents to return came and went without any sign of them. The youth was, at first, not worried, merely believing them late. But as the days turned into weeks, the weeks into months, Arthur's fears grew. His studying came to a stop as the young boy, who loved his parents dearly, spent more and more of his waking hours hoping for them to return. Perhaps six months in, Arthur could more often then not be found sitting atop the wall around Danel looking toward the north where his parents had gone, waiting for their figures to show up on the horizon. Durn, unwilling to let the boy suffer alone, enacted the plans Arthur's parents had left behind early. During the seventh month of their absence, Durn asked the boy to move in with him.

Arthur did so reluctantly at first, but the affect that a caring adult had in his life was quick to show itself. He became more animate now, speaking to Durn the way he once had to his parents, confiding in this simple smith his fears and reams. And Durn did his best to protect the boy from the truth. It was a year to the day that Arthur surprised the smith for the first, though certainly not the last, time. He wandered down from his room into the smithy attached to Durns home and asked the older gentleman if he believed his parents would return. Durn, who believed honesty was very important, was forced to answer the truth. “No boy... I don't think they will...”

Arthur nodded and looked away, and Durn could see that the boys face was streaked with tears. “Do you think something happened to them? Bandits, perhaps?”

“I knew your parents well boy... it would take more then just a few bandits to keep them from you.”

Arthur looked to Durn, whose face was solemn in the light of them embers of his forge, and asked, “Do you think... that if they had a better way to protect themselves they would still be here?”

Durn shrugged his shoulders and replied, “In this day and age, nothing is certain. But I reckon a better means of defense would make anyone safer.”

Arthur nodded, as if he had expected this answer, and said, “Then I'll make one.”

It was from a small mining town that his first inspiration for this means of defense came. The town had discovered, quite by accident, black powder and were using it to great effect to create more and more tunnels. Unfortunately the mining tunnels, the town and about half the mountain disappeared when they used it one too many times. The process they used to refine the black powder was not named in the journal Arthur had, one written by one of the miners. It wasn't his job, after all. But by luck or province, it had been his job to collect the mineral it originated from. A near perfect description of the mineral, how to locate it, and how to harvest it was provided. While he would have to learn himself how to create the powder from it, he had a start in his idea. Explosives such as that would be useful at a distance and, if formed properly, could be lobed across said distance. Few bandits or wild animals would be willing or able to stand against such a force

At the age of eleven, he asked Durn, the man who had become a surrogate Father to him, to make the request for the mineral with detailed instructions on how to find and gather it. Durn, his legal guardian, had been given control over many things from Arthur's parents when he took Arthur in. The house, the library, and a surprisingly large amount of gold. Durn, however, was smart enough to realize he had also been given a responsibility to raise Arthur properly. So he did what his parents had done whenever he had wanted something in his youth, he made Arthur work for it. Though Arthur's gold could probably pay for orders a thousand times over, Durn wanted to instill in Arthur a sense of responsibility and the value of a coin. As such, Arthur only got as much mineral as he had earned helping out in Durns smithy. In the earlier days this meant little but Arthur did not object, wishing to make his guardian proud.

With the small amounts of the mineral that he began to gather Arthur did extensive tests and, also with the aid of Durn, tried hundreds off different ways to refine and mix the powder. The tests often involved fire and, after the second one that had cost Arthur half an eyebrow, Durn insisted he find a place outside to continue testing. Arthur could not test in the streets or the alley ways for fear of causing a disturbance, so his testing, in the end, fell outside the city walls. Eventually, after a few minor burns and some discarded sheets of metal, Arthur deduced that his refinement process was not good enough, and the powder needed a great deal more heat a great deal quicker to ignite.

So again he delved into the books his family had and the library of Danel, hoping to find a way to fix his issue. Though he did not find any way to fix the refining process, it appeared that no one save that mining town had ever tried after the accident out of fear, he did find something else. From the north, from one of the crafting tribes as his parents had detailed it, there was a manner of plant that grew about fissures that, when used properly, created a powerful flame. It seemed that this plant was used to start and sustain fires that would be hard to put out in the freezing cold of the north. Arthur only wondered for a short while how his parents had gotten such information, since he immediately began looking for plants with similar attributes through his texts. When he was confident enough to go out looking Arthur only spent a few weeks in search of what he needed. He found the plant that would aid him in abundance, but quickly learned through testing that it was no where near as potent as the Northerners recipe. Arthur guessed that the fissures that helped create the micro-ecosystems might create, in such a wild place, plants far stronger then the common kind he had found. It would stand to reason that the properties that allowed it to survive in such a harsh place, even with the aid of the fissure, would quickly overcome the weakest and bread true the strongest.

So it was again that Arthur delved into his parents text until, at the very bottom of the pile, he found a signal scroll from far off to the east. It depicted glass containers of odd shapes over flame and leaves being mixed into it some how. It's language was archaic, beyond even Arthur's understanding, but more searching turned up a journal of his fathers with the translation. It was a process to extract key oils from plants, or from other liquid things, by evaporating the oil in one beaker, letting it flow to a higher beaker in the chain, and then letting it cool in the higher beaker until it was again a liquid. Arthur, delighted, set about creating a set of such beakers. It only took him a month of crafting and two more house fires before he was able to make the process work well enough for his needs. Using the knowledge of plants from the north and the skill of refinement from the east, Arthur distilled a vial of oil pure enough to create the heat he needed, perhaps ten times more effective then what was used to light torches in Danel.

Experimenting was extensive now and his walks outside the city were usually followed buy loud thunder peeling across the city. Rumors abound of what he was doing began, the most prolific of them saying that he had found a way to tap into the 'magic' of old. When asked by the more brave, or nosy, of the rumor starters Arthur would laugh and say this. “The magic of old is a dead religion. Nothing more. What I do now is not magic. It is the future!” Often these brave souls who managed to catch Arthur between his walks back and forth between the outer wall and his home spoke little of their encounter with the young, but rapidly growing, man. If pressed themselves, they would simply call the child touched. The look in their eyes made them seem shaken by the experience. It wasn't Arthur's personality that did this either, for years of focusing inward in his mind made him distant and socialization had become difficult for him. It was the belief they saw in his eyes. The certainty that he had discovered a way to uplift man kind. Such a young child with such grand thoughts scared the older, more conservative lot who came to speak to him merely for a good story to tell their friends over a fire. And instead they were left with questions, so many questions.

Arthur's experiments would, unfortunately, come to a grinding halt around his thirteenth year. This was when he finally managed to work everything out. The kinks in his explosives were many, and between the refining process for the powder itself and the weakness of the oil, Arthur would have to spend more gold then he had over the last two years, nay more gold then his parents had left him, to gather enough of the mineral to make only a few hundred explosives. Effective at first, but stock would quickly dwindle in a crisis and Arthur needed to create something the city would see as a viable way to defend themselves.

Despairing that all of his work had been for naught, Arthur went almost half heatedly into the lessons his guardian, Durn, had insisted he have with him. Durn, knowing that in three short years Arthur would be called upon to learn how to defend the city, wished to instill in his youth the basics of martial combat. He was a smith, of course, no where near an expert in anything. But to be able to forge the weapons properly Durn had always held to the belief that he needed to know how they worked. So he practiced, constantly, preserving the skills that had been taught to him in his youth by the descendants of the founder.

So Arthur went into these lessons and began to learn the ways of the sword, the dagger and other melee weapons. He picked up quickly on the basics, but did not seem to have any real potential when it came to close quarters fighting. However, he seemed to have a knack for ranged combat. He quickly picked up on how to use a bow and a crossbow, seeming to favor the latter. The practice took a lot of Arthur's time and energy, so more often then not he would stop working at the Smithy, a physically taxing job on it's own, and practice with Durn on how to use weapons. When they finally returned home, Arthur had not the energy to contemplate his experiments. It was oddly liberating for the young man, who had spent day and night thinking on how to improve it. And it proved, in the end, just what he needed. Now, more physically fit then he had ever been, with about two months of mindless and somewhat relaxing physical labor, Arthur returned to his work. Almost immediately he came upon his solution, something he would have never thought of if it were not for Durn.

He began drawing, designing and then constructing his first prototype almost immediately. His inspiration? The bow. It was so deadly because it focused such great power behind a single point. The crossbow even more so for some, allowing a great deal of force to be added through engineering. So he decided to find out how much force one of his explosions, measured right, could create. At first he tried something more open, like a crossbow, but quickly discovered that too much of the force was directed upward and toward the wielders face. It cost him a small scar on his chin, but thankfully he had been practicing with hardly a fraction of the estimated oil treated black powder that would be necessary to make this work. Thankfully he quickly learned and, quite soon, he had a working prototype. He immediately decided to use something much stronger then an arrow, which were made of wood, and deduced that fletching wouldn't survive the force, so he had to create a long muzzle to help aim the projectile of his choice. A small metal ball. His first live test, though it cost him his first prototype, punched it's way through several inches of a tree.

Over the years, Arthur has tweaked both his designs and his formula’s. He has discovered ways to streamline the loading process, the lighting process, and even the building. He has refined his black powder and the oil he treats it with and has, almost to a single speck, measured what he needs to fire his weapon. It is still a work in progress. It has, by his estimation, a 20% chance to not fire at all. But when it does, when used close enough, it does so with enough force to punch through armor, making even the most heavily armored man vulnerable. He has improved it's range, it's accuracy and it's durability. And now, at the age of sixteen, despite the rumors abound that have followed him since his youth, despite the loss of his parents and having to completely scrap his original idea; Arthur is ready to face the world. And now, at the age where all youth must go to learn beneath the descendant of the found, Arthur brings his weapon in the hopes of proving his worth. And in his breast pocket, just over his heart, lies his first inspiration. The flying machine that he often dreamed of building in his youth. A symbol, perhaps, that technology would be what uplifted mankind from this desperate lot in life they now had. Or perhaps, a goal of the young inventors.

3rd level: (Feat) Focused Shot
4th level: (Bonus feat) Deadly Aim, Ability score bonus to dex
5th level: (Feat) Extra Grit, Get gun training

Solved the Problem with the Long-range Copper Metallicizer: Musket is Masterwork
Pants-colored Sling: Quick Draw with musket, Move action to remove from person
Wait, haven't I been here before?: Permanent Bonus +1 to Knowledge Geography