About Auehda, Burnt OneNeutrois half-orc druid (blight druid) 4
Spell-like abilities (CL 3rd, concentration +7)
Str 10, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 7, Wis 19 (+2 race, +1 level), Cha 14 BAB +3; CMB +3; CMD 14 Feats Combat Casting, Spell Focus (conjuration) Traits Flame-Touched, Skymetal Smith (PAPIGPG 9) Skills Appraise +3 (-2 Int, +3 rank, +2 scavenger), Bluff +4 (+2 Cha, +2 rank), Climb +2 (+1 rank, +3 class, -2 ACP), Diplomacy +3 (+2 Cha, +1 rank), Linguistics -1 (-2 Int, +1 rank), Perception +13 (+4 Wis, +4 rank, +3 class, +2 competence), Perform (comedy) +3 (+2 Cha, +1 rank), Stealth 0 (+1 Dex, +2 rank, -3 ACP), Survival +10 (+4 Wis, +1 rank, +3 class, +2 nature sense); Racial modifiers +2 Appraise, +2 Perception to analyze edibles or find hidden objects; Conditional Modifiers +5 competence to Perception to notice corporeal moving creatures of Small or larger size Languages Common, Druidic, Hallit, Orc Favored class druid (+4 skill ranks) Alternate racial traits scavenger, skilled Special qualities gift of flame, nature bond (Fire), nature sense, orc blood, spontaneous casting, vermin empathy (+6), weapon familiarity, wild shape (1/day, 4 hours), woodland stride Gear Access card (brown) (3 gp, -), bedroll (1 sp, 5 lbs), broken greataxe (115 gp, 12 lbs), club (-, 3 lbs), coins (-), 5 days worth of trail rations (25 sp, 5 lbs), everburning torch (110 gp, 1 lb), flare gun (300 gp, 1 lb), grippers (100 gp, 5 lbs), hide armor (15 gp, 25 lbs), holly and mistletoe (-, -), +1 inferno pistol with 3 charges (5000 gp, 2 lbs), masterwork backpack (50 gp, 4 lbs), masterwork hide armor (165 gp, 25 lbs), masterwork spiked gauntlet (5 gp, 1 lb), medlance (500 gp, -), 3 nanite canisters (1500 gp, 3 lbs), peasant's outfit (1 sp, 2 lbs), 2 rolls of ion tape (200 gp, 2 lbs), soft grenade (750 gp, 1 lb), tattered red cloak of resistance +1 (1000 gp, 1 lb), timeworn brown nanite hypogun 7/10 charges (500 gp, 1 lb), timeworn panic suit (1000 gp, 2 lbs), timeworn proximity helmet with 8 charges (2000 gp, 2 lbs), veemod goggles with black veemod (1400 gp, -), zipstick (20 gp, 1 lb) 70 pp, 6 gp, 5 sp, 7 cp (1 lb) (Yvell owes 128.81 gp) 106 lbs carried; Light < 38 lbs < Medium < 76 lbs < Heavy < 115 lbs On a dark summer night six years ago, Burnt One awoke. They were on a glossy black surface next to a great pillar of fire, and their skin was black in its light. Below the fire was a mass of small lights, and Burnt One crawled towards them. As they crawled, they gradually became aware of a burning sensation. Their nose and lungs, their scalp and shins - all were afire. They cried out in fear, arms and legs seizing up, and slid and rolled down the hill. The searing pain worsened until even the sensation of falling was blocked out, and Burnt One fell unconscious on impact. When they next woke, smells of decay assailed their nostrils. They were in a heap of rotting apple mush, and around them were an array of foreign objects. As Burnt One sucked up breakfast, they picked up each object, examining it and putting it back down. One felt good in their hands and had a shiny blade, so they kept it. They spent the rest of the day looking through more things and finding new things to eat. In the evening, a group of people came to the place. One of them screamed when Burnt One saw it, but another approached and offered a hand. "What is this thing?" she asked. Burnt One reached for the hand, but suddenly it was gone and they fell. The people laughed. They told the one who screamed to wait there with "the thing." Burnt One looked at the screaming one, stood up, and fell over again (but this time on purpose). The screaming one tittered, but Burnt One could tell he was nervous. "What are you?" the screaming one asked. Burnt One could not reply. Their mouth was flame. Soon enough, the people returned with more people. All of these watched as Burnt One did the falling over trick. More asked what Burnt One was, and one threw them a piece of bread. In later days, Burnt One improved their performance to get more food, and lived through the autumn making people laugh in the junkyard. Their skin got tough and healing, but their breath still flamed some days. In the winter, one of the ones who came to watch asked about Burnt One's family. Burnt One had control over their throat-sparks by then, and they were able to explain, "None. No think." The watcher kept asking, though. "Where are you from?" Burnt One had no memory. "What's your real name?" Burnt One had no memory. "What do you first remember?" "Burning. On the hill." The one who asked seemed confused, but they took Burnt One into a warm place. "Stay here when it snows." And Burnt One did. The watcher was the Junkmaster, and he was something called a "bleachling." Bleachlings usually cared little for entertainment, but Burnt One seemed to have some greater connection to the world, hidden behind the jokes, that the Junkmaster thought worth nourishing. In time, the Junkmaster discovered that Burnt One's connection was indeed very strong. Each morning they entered a spirit trance, pulling magic from the blighted earth. They could commune with ants and spiders, and even overgrown beetles that sometime trundled into the outskirts of town. For the next six years the Junkmaster cared for Burnt One, feeding them when alms did not and giving them pieces of armor so that they could eventually fend for themselves. He nourished their hidden powers, taught them how to lie to the guards, and even gave them a secret name: "Auehda." Their axe rested safely on his mantelpiece. But in the sixth year since Auehda fell from the Hill, the Torch went out. Their livelihood went with it. Smiths and scholars, with no reason to come to Torch, would not come to watch the fire-breathing monster in the Junkyard. Apprentices had no more coin to spare for a burnt bastard child, and bakers no longer threw away even stale bread. Even the flow of scrap metal quickly burnt out, and the Junkmaster's job too was threatened. Auehda took their axe from its place and went to the Town Hall, hoping somehow to help rekindle the light. Notes on lost memories: Here are a few options for you to think about, Demonmoose. If possible I would like for the truth of Auehda's first ten years to be a secret (something that you reveal during play).
Before the fire, Auehda was the child of a couple part-orc, part-Kellid adventurers, whose band had stopped in Torch to forge weapons from the skymetal they had collected. Auehda had been training in druidism under the band's shaman, and was nearly done with their training when they arrived in town. What happened on the hilltop is up to the GM. I was thinking that the band waited a day or two when the Torch started crackling and flaring, but eventually lost patience and went up to get back to work on their weapons. Auehda was playing with an adamantine-alloyed greataxe when suddenly the flares grew blinding; they did not even have a chance to scream before everything was gone in flame. They survived the fire through divine intervention, a fluke of luck, or by never actually being in the kill radius, anyways. Or perhaps their parents/custodians were awful enough to throw Auehda into the normal heat of the forge-fire and simply abandoned them there. The flame in that spot was not hot enough to kill, and Auehda was able to crawl out of it. Or perhaps Auehda was left on the black mount by a mercurial night-flying monster, and just happened to have been burnt before landing. Description/vital statistics:
5'6"
193 lbs Yellow eyes Permanently blackened skin (originally chestnut) No hair Spell preparation time: 1 hour after sunrise |
