Banny Kneebreaker's page

Banny is a typical dwarf in terms of build-- about four-and-a-half feet tall, built like a brick latrine. She has ragged shoulder-length black hair, worn unbraided (not so typical) and dark, darting eyes. The most visually arresting thing about her is a long scar that runs across her face, neatly splitting it along a diagonal-- one of the many relics of her enslavement by orcs, though not all scars are so plainly evident.

A battle-axe is strapped across her back, but beyond that, Banny is lightly armed by the usual dwarven standard. She wears plain, slightly-shabby clothing in dull grays and browns, threadbare at the knees and the elbows, and (in battle) a worn chain shirt.

She looks to be a dwarf who has stopped taking pride in her personal appearance or neatness. Most of the time, there is a distinct aroma of booze about her person.

She walks with a rolling, loose-limbed gait that speaks to her being possibly inebriated. Her knuckles are heavily scarred, speaking of the many brawls she's been in and punches she's thrown.

Banny
Female dwarf brawler 1 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 23)
NG Medium humanoid (dwarf)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+4 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 13 (1d10+3)
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +2; +2 vs. poison, spells, and spell-like abilities
Defensive Abilities defensive training
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft.
Melee battleaxe +4 (1d8+3/×3) or
. . hopeknife +5 (1d4+3/19-20) or
. . unarmed strike +4 (1d6+3)
Ranged sling +3 (1d4+3)
Special Attacks hatred, martial flexibility 4/day
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Statistics
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Str 17, Dex 14, Con 17, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 11
Base Atk +1; CMB +4; CMD 17
Feats Dodge, Improved Unarmed Strike
Traits militia veteran (any town or village)
Skills Acrobatics +4 (+0 to jump), Appraise +1 (+3 to assess nonmagical metals or gemstones), Climb +5, Perception +6, Profession (brewer) +6, Survival +7, Swim +5; Racial Modifiers +2 Appraise to assess nonmagical metals or gemstones
Languages Common, Dwarven, Orc
SQ brawler's cunning, martial training, mountaineer, rock stepper
GEAR: See SPREADSHEET for full inventory.
Current encumbrance: light (85/86 lbs)
Money: 2 GP, 1 sp, 7 cp

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Special Abilities
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Cold weather outfit +5 Fort save vs. cold weather.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Defensive Training +4 Gain a dodge bonus to AC vs monsters of the Giant subtype.
Greed +2 to Appraise to determine price of nonmagic goods with precious metals or gemstones.
Hatred +1 Gain a racial bonus to attacks vs Goblinoids/Orcs.
Improved Unarmed Strike Unarmed strikes don't cause attacks of opportunity, and can be lethal.
Martial Flexibility (move action, 4/day) (Ex) As a Move action, gain a combat feat for 1 min. More gained for greater actions.
Mountaineer Retain Dex bonus on narrow/slippery surfaces, immune to altitude sickness.
Rock Stepper Ignore rubble, broken ground, or steep stairs when taking 5 ft step.
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Roll With It (Campaign Trait):

You’ve trained with some of the best
giantslayers out there, and have learned how to avoid the
worst effects of a giant’s powerful attacks. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Ref lex saves. In addition, once per day, when a creature with the giant subtype successfully confirms a critical hit against you with a weapon or a slam attack (not a spell or special ability), you can roll with the attack. You take normal damage from the blow, as if the critical had not been confirmed. You must be aware of the attack and able to react to it—if you are denied your Dexterity bonus to AC, you can’t use this ability. If you are a dwarf or a gnome, you can use this ability twice per day.

The dwarf called 'Banny Kneebreaker' arrived in Trunau after having been freed in a Trunau raid on an orc encampment in the hills. Banny was one of several slaves freed in the raid, though as others informed the Trunauan rescuers, Banny had been kept as the personal slave of the sadistic orc shaman, who took an interest in her for some reason.

Whatever horrors Banny had witnessed or experienced in her time as the shaman's slave were a mystery-- for the dwarf woman was in no shape to speak of them. When rescued, she had numerous signs of physical ill-treatment, including a long cut across her face that wept pus an blood, but more disconcerting was the fact that she couldn't speak other than to repeat the word bani over and over in a hoarse whisper. The rescuers incorrectly assumed this was her name, and started using it as 'Banny'; by the time Trunau dwarves pointed out that it means 'death', and that they probably shouldn't call her that, it was too late: the nickname had stuck.

Her physical injuries were tended by the Iomedans, leaving her with a nasty scar across her face. The mental injuries proved more difficult. Though the priests prayed, and Agrit tried spells, and Gorkis Meeson potions, Banny remained largely unresponsive. Trunau has little use for those who cannot pull their own weight in defense of the town, but everyone was sympathetic to whatever horror she had experienced, and tried to give her time. She was not deemed to be a threat to others or herself, so Banny was left to wander, mostly, with the Iomedans corralling her at dusk.

One day, she showed up at the Killin' Grounds' doorway. Rabus had just gotten in a keg of expensive dwarven ale from Janderhoff, and, feeling pity for Banny, offered her a 'taste of home.'

The transformation was remarkable. A few swallows in, and Banny seemed more responsive, more alert, and said her first full sentence since arriving in Trunau: "Janderhoff 4690, isn't this? That was a damned good year."

It's been a year since that first drink. Since then, Banny has improved considerably. She fights fiercely against the orcs whenever they come, and nobody denies her usefulness in battle... but the rest of the time, Banny is firmly entrenched in the role of the town drunk. If she's not at Rabus's tavern, she will be found sitting on the cliff edge with a bottle of something potent, watching the birds fly by.

The Iomedans find Banny to be a bit of a disappointment-- or perhaps a strange rebuke of sorts, in that a vice like alcohol seemed to do what their prayers could not. They don't approve of her constant state of inebriation, and Tyari has been known to try and lecture her into clean living, or at least drinking in moderation. She has not been successful.

Banny's past remains a mystery to most of Trunau. She seems to know a lot about brewing, but has never spoken of her clan or how she came to be a prisoner of the orcs. Though she fights well enough with her axe, she doesn't bother with a shield-- indeed, she seems to prefer simply wrestling an orc to the ground.

Banny is viewed as a good dwarf but with a pitiable reliance on the bottle. For Banny, the truth is more complex than simple alcoholism: while alcohol does indeed help her function, it's less about getting drunk, than trying to silence the parts of her mind scarred by her time as a slave. Drinking for her doesn't feel like an escape so much as a return to home-- to the security she remembers as a child, the smell of aging hops and sour malt... the safety of family and clan, the cameraderie of drinking together. For Banny, alcohol has come to resemble, in some ways, all that is right with the world: it requires a stable enough civilization to practice agriculture and produce the base materials for alcohol, and then also the stability of time required to brew and ferment and age liquor... A good keg of ale is more than a way to get hammered: in her mind, it represents community, safety, tradition, and fellowship. When she drinks, she feels like herself again, the way she used to be.

When she has had a drink in her, Banny is cheerful, generous, and extraordinarily easy-going. When she hasn't, Banny is sour-tempered and grimly cynical. So, however much some people in town may tut about her heavy drinking, most people in Trunau prefer to be around her when she's drunk.

Banny has no real 'job', but often arm-wrestles in the Killin' Grounds for coin-- most of which usually flows right back into Rabus's coffers. She's perpetually broke-- what little she doesn't spend on alcohol winds up given away to anyone she thinks may need it, regardless of Banny's own financial needs. Alcohol-soused judgment is not the best for things like a long-term budget.