About Brogol Stocklhalf-orc (Ustalevan) Investigator (empiricist) 3
AC 15, Touch 12, Flat footed 13, (10 +3 armor +2 dex)
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Spd 30 ft
SA Inspiration (2 points; increase attack or save +1d6) Ammo: 10 bullets -------------
Str 16 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 14 Wis 12 Cha 08
Languages [Abyssal, Common, Orc, Undercommon] SQ: Sacred Tatoo (+1 luck to saves); Skilled (+1 sp/level); Weapon Familiarity (Greataxe, Falchion); Intmidating; Alchemy (+level competence to craft items; can use alchemy to identify potions); Inspiration (6 pool; free action; add 1d6 to a skill check for 1IP; use inspiration for free on any trained knowledge, linguistics or spellcraft skill; 2IP - use on attacks and saves); Trapfinding (add 1/2 level minimum one to perception and disable device vs. traps); Ceaseless Observation (Int mod to Disable Device, Perception, Sense Motive, Use Magic Device, Diplomacy to gather information); Keen Recollection; Investigator Talent (Quick Combat); Trap Sense +1
Per day: 4
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Investigator (+3 sp) -------------
Consumables: torches*, trail rations* 19.2 gold *Part of alchemist's kit -------------
70.5# Light load: 76# Medium Load: 77-153# Heavy Load: 154-230 -------------
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Cure light Wounds (1); Heightened Awareness (1); Shield (1); open (1) -------------
Four years ago: Brogol stood in the snowfall, shivering. In winter in Caliphas, the days ended suddenly, the cold and darkness descending on the city like a blanket tossed over lantern. Tis a bad time of year for mum and da to have 'nough of me, the young half-orc mused, peeking his head around the corner of the dry goods store. There, up the street, just illuminated in under a lone gas light, walked the mark, a scarf wrapped tightly around his face, his hat pulled low over his brow, and his longcoat pulled snugly against his body. Otherwise, the street was silent in the way the world falls quiet in a snowfall, especially at night in this part of town – the only sound was the mark's boots crunching through the newly fallen snow echoing down the street. Stepping back into the alley, Brogol turned to his new-found friends, the Lakeside Stranglers, a vicious group of young men that looked to put Brogol's looks – and keen eyes – to use. Brogol's voice came quick and clipped, a whisper tinged with excitement. "One man, alone, dressed finely, wit a scarf an hat an longcoat – surely someone wit money!" The man passed in front of the alley, and the Stranglers spilled out of the alleyway surrounding the mark, the young toughs holding out an assortment of makeshift weapons – chair legs, hammers, a saw, even a rusty dagger. The mark paused and straightened up; it became apparent this man was a large one – physically gifted and well-fed. The boys menaced; the man stood still. No words needed to be spoken – each side measuring the other. The mark pulled his scarf from his face, revealing a clean-shaven chin, mouth turned upwards into a slight smile, the rest of his face still obscured under the shadow of his slouched hat. Pulling back his longcoat, the mark revealed a coin purse – and next to it, a wickedly curved blade, and a bandolier containing vial after vial of brilliantly colored liquids. The mark's voice came out low and gravelly, the voice of a longtime pipe smoker. "Tis yer lucky day gents. There's enough coin in this purse to buy a month's worth of meals – or a week out on the town. Take it, leave me be." Tossing the purse onto the snowy street, the man continued, "But know that I mean this - try to take anything else, and you'll be crow-food." Pausing for a long beat to let the message sink in, the man sighed, and the voice came forth again. "You, boy, half-human," he said, hat nodding at Brogol, "if you're looking for employment, come to the last house on Fur Street. You'll know it when you see it – it scares all the neighborhood children. I could use a boy with your, er, talents. Now, the lot of you – berk off." And with that the man pushed through the gang and continued his night stroll. ------------ It didn't take long for Brogol to take the man up on his offer, and though the Lakeside Stranglers blacked Brogol's eye and broke his nose for leaving, Brogol left them worse. The man from the robbery was right – his house was easy to spot. It was the last house on Fur Street, backed up to the Lake, where it stood dark and tall, seeming to hang over the lake like a roosting bat. The man answered the knock, nonplussed at Brogol's arrival. "Well then. Took ye long enough, for someone so obviously hungry. I was beginning to worry you've got no sense at all, boy. Well come on in, we can talk in the study. I'm Doctor Henry Dartengan." The study was grand room lined with books and objects Brogol had never seen, the Doctor seated at a massive, dark mahogany desk. Creatures, terrible to behold, were stuffed and mounted on the wall behind him, along with a wickedly curved sword and a huge axe mounted onto a wooden plaque. The questions came fast and furious. "Where are your parents, boy?"
"Why aren't you there?"
"They look normal? You're half-orc, boy. One of your parents, at least, should look like you."
"Would you like a job, boy?"
---------- Three years ago: The first time Professor Lorrimor came to visit, he seemed struck with Brogol. The Doctor waived off the Professor's curiosity in his usual gruff manner - "The boy's got no real talents, Petros, except maybe scaring children and making tea." – but the Professor always found time on his visits, six in all during the time Brogol knew him, to take the half-orc under his wing, and pass along little lessons. Mostly, though, the Professor showed Brogol something the boy had never known – kindness. ---------- Two years ago: The Doctor invited Brogol into his basement laboratory for the first time. It was a cramped space, with a large steel table and straps. On a nearby desk were crowded many beakers and vials, connected to strange tools and filled with concoctions bubbling away. Shelves lined the room, but rather than books, the shelves were stacked with jars containing specimens – unrecognizable organs, and creatures – humanoid and not. "Today we start with a new line of work, boy. You will assist me here in the afternoon, then retire upstairs to make dinner. I need you to make contact with your old friends the Lakeside Stranglers. Don't worry that you left on bad terms – gold smooths most everything over. We need them to do something for us – I don't care how they come about it, but we need bodies. Something is afoot in Caliphas!" And so it went for two years. A steady stream of bodies entered and left the Doctor's manse, always under the cover of darkness, the Doctor always circumspect about what he was looking for. ---------- 13 days ago: Four Stranglers accompanied the Doctor and the boy into the boneyard. The work was backbreaking, digging into the frozen earth, but if the rumors were true – that something was buried with the deceased midwife Gretchen Kolsma – well, the Doctor assured Brogol that the last two years of poking around in bodies would be worth the time. Prying the lid from the coffin, there was revealed a sight both horrifying and wondrous. The midwife Kolsma was not in the casket, but there was a creature. Dressed in a shear gossamer gown, it was all teeth and flabby wrinkled skin, attached to sinuous limbs that once had carried obvious strength. One of the Stranglers, unaccustomed to the smell of death, lost his dinner into the casket, and the Doctor's disapproval was swift. "Idiot! Take off yer coat and sop up yer damnable mess – you'll contaminate things! Brogol, help your pinhead friend with his dinner and let's get both corpses back to my home before day breaks – everyone here knows the penalty for grave-robbing!" 12 days ago: The Doctor woke with a case of horrible melancholy, skipped breakfast and went straight to his laboratory. Brogol was told to stay out. 11 days ago: Brogol woke, with the rooster, to find a note on the dining room table. Boy, I'm off for a bit. You are not to leave the house and you are not to go into the laboratory. Do not let anyone in. I'll be back in three days, four at most. I was planning on giving this to you soon – given the recent turn of events, it might as well be now. Study it. On the table, bound in what Brogol knew now by touch was human skin, was a book, filled with arcane and mysterious symbols. The pages of the book were yellowed and spotted with age. On the cover was inscribed Beginning Alchemy. 7 days ago: No Doctor. Brogol, for the first time since he started employment with the Doctor, broke his word and went into the basement laboratory. The creature – or what was left of it – was on the steel table, splayed out, organs removed. Legs removed, head removed, genitalia removed. In the corner sat a squat square cage that Brogol had never seen before, and in that cage was the corpse of the midwife Kolsma, her throat slit, dried blood spilt out of the cage and covering the floor. 4 days ago: Still no Doctor. A horrible, sweet and sickly smell – that of decomposition – emanated from the basement and filled the house. Brogol, accustomed to the smell by now, paid it little attention. 3 days ago: The larder's supplies were emptied out, Brogol's last meal at the house being a beef jerky and barley stew. Today: A finely scripted envelope arrived via courier, addressed not to the Doctor but to Brogol. In the envelope was invitation and request – an invitation to Professor Lorrimor's funeral, and a request to be present at the reading of his will. Gathering his possessions, the formula book the Doctor had left him, and the weapons from the Doctor's wall, Brogol set out for Ravengro. -------------
As far as personality, he's always been subservient and is still young, so he tends to listen to those he considers his superiors. Brogol is very comfortable in the role of assistant or helper, and as such will naturally gravitate to personalities that he views as leaders, in the hopes of ingratiating himself to them. Those that show him kindness will earn his utmost loyalty. He also has a soft spot for misfits, outcasts, and the abused. -------------
As the story goes on, if picked, Brogol will come into himself a bit more. He is aware of the effect his appearance has on others, and at some point will realize that this will be an advantage in some social situations. He also has taken with him a small library and formula book from the Doctor Dartengan, and as time goes on he will come to emulate his disappeared mentor more and more. Brogol already has been molded to have questionable morals (not so much in terms of the enjoyment of evil acts but rather the internal fortitude to do tough things if a situation requires it). I imagine that as Brogol gains confidence, he will take on more of the Doctor's traits – haughtiness, confidence, a respect and admiration for the educated – for better or worse. As far as role, Brogol will be a secondary melee type, knowledge type, and part-time face (at least in terms of using intimidate, sense motive, and occasionally bluff and diplomacy to gather information). His alchemy will help with combat and with utility situations. Although I imagine his mentor to be an alchemist or alchemist / fighter, Brogol will never be an alchemist himself. I think Investigator melds his roguish upbringing with new-found education and alchemy skills however, and will continue advancing him as such, with the fluffing of the class to be more in line with an amateur mad scientist and self-trained academic, with a bit of rogue in his past. Currently his build reflects his roguish upbringing and fledgling education, but it will focus more on knowledges as time goes on. -------------
Step 1: 5 Background and Concept Elements 1) Brogol is a half-orc who's half-orc genes have long been buried in his family line. Unfortunately for Brogol, those genes flared up again upon his birth. As such, he's been feared and ostracized since infancy, even by his parents, who are unaware of their genetic role in Brogol's appearance. 2) After being kicked out his family home, Brogol hung out for a short time with a gang, the Lakeside Stranglers. More young toughs than organized criminal outfit, Brogol is no longer with the Stranglers, but has worked with them to secure bodies for the Doctor Dartengan (see below for information on the Doctor). 3) Doctor Dartengan was mugged by the Stranglers, and after turning over his coin purse and threatening the street toughs, he offered Brogol employment. Though the half-orc boy didn't realize it at the time, the Doctor was interested in Brogol because of the boy's appearance and lack of ethics. The Doctor immediately went about molding the young man into the assistant that the Doctor needed; dependent, loyal, educated, and willing to do what the Doctor asked. The Doctor is the closest thing to a father-figure in Brogol's life, and Brogol loves the man in his own way, though he would never dream of letting the Doctor know this. 4) The Doctor had a good friend - a professor from Ravengro named Lorrimor. The Professor visited the Doctor six times while Brogol new him, an extended visit each time. The Professor showed the Brogol much more kindness than the Doctor ever did, taking the young half-orc under his wing and tutoring Brogol during the boy's nightly studies. The Professor is the closest thing to a friend that Brogol has ever had, and he's told the Professor so many times. 5) Almost two weeks ago, after the Doctor and Brogol found a strange creature in the grave of a midwife, the Doctor disappeared. Brogol has waited patiently for the Doctor's return, but upon the arrival of a letter inviting Brogol to his friend the Professor's funeral, Brogol has set out, heart heavy, for Ravengro, his father-figure and friend both seemingly gone from the boy's life. Step 2: 2 Goals for Brogol 1) Find the Doctor, or barring that, find out what happened to the Doctor. 2) Brogol cannot go home. There is a monster and a corpse moldering in the basement lab, and it is only a matter of time before the city watch finds out about it. Thus, though he doesn't want to, if Brogol cannot find the Doctor, he will have to go his own way in the world. He would like to be a man like the Doctor: educated, proud, confident, and a solver of mysteries. Step 3: Secrets 1) Brogol has not admitted it to himself, but part of him really likes the way he looks, or more specifically how his looks bring about a visceral reaction in people. Perhaps it is because he has known little in the way of love and friendship in his life, or perhaps it is because a cruel streak runs through the boy, but one day he will begin to embrace his monstrous side. 2) Brogol's orc lineage extends back to one of the great war chiefs of the Belzken Holds. The greataxe and the falchion that the young man now wields have made their way, through the Doctor, to the last living relative of that great war chief. Coincidence? Probably not... Step 4: Three people tied to the character 1) The Doctor Dartengan. Tall, confident, brilliant, good looking - the Doctor is everything that Brogol feels he is not. Father-figure, educator and benefactor, Brogol is desperate to know what happened to Dartengan. 2) Paddy and Levtanya Stockl. Mother and father, biologically, at least. Brogol's mother and father have grown to hate the boy they sired, and are thankful he is seemingly gone or dead. 3) The Lakeside Stranglers. These street toughs, years later, are still pretty bad at being criminals - more muggers and drug dealers than anything else. The Stranglers have in the past helped the Doctor and Brogol with the procurement of bodies - sometimes through grave robbing and other times through methods that Brogol would rather not know about. Step 5: Memories, Mannerisms and Quirks 1) Brogol remembers the first time he became aware that he looked different than most - A woman recoiling in fear in her father's shop, as Brogol stepped from a back storage room to ask his Da a question. A question which was quickly answered with a swift kick from his father and a command to "Get the hells in the back room, boy!" 2) Brogol is lanky, with skin the color of green summer grass. The young man is cursed with pointed ears, blood-red eyes, and sharp, nearly fang-like teeth. Such an appearance draws sideways glances all too often in traditional (and fearful) Ustalev, and sometimes even scorn, fear and derision. As such, Brogol tends to keep his thoughts to himself and stay away from the attention of others as much as possible, by keeping his cloak's hood up and his head down, standing in the back of a crowd, and not speaking his mind. 3) Brogol has always had a subservient personality and is still young, so he tends to listen to those he considers his superiors. Brogol is very comfortable in the role of assistant or helper, and as such will naturally gravitate to personalities that he views as leaders, in the hopes of ingratiating himself to them. Those that show him kindness will earn his utmost loyalty. 4) He also has a soft spot for misfits, outcasts, and the abused, and a deep and abiding hatred for those that hurt or take advantage of them. |
