Brother Kye's page

Acrobatics -1
Appraise 2
Bluff 4
Climb 2
Diplomacy 10
Disable Device 8
Disguise 4
Escape Artist -1
Fly -1
Heal 8
Intimidate 4
Perception 7
Ride -1
Sense Motive 8
Stealth -1
Survival 4
Track 5 (undead)
Swim 2
Kn: Religion 8
Kn: All 4

Quarterstaff +2, 1d6+3 20x2
Longbow -5, 1d8 20x3
Dagger +2, 1d3+2 19-20x2

0 Level: DC14, 4 Known - Create Water, Guidance, Resistance, Virtue
1st Level: DC15, 2 Known, 4/day - Obscuring Mist, Protection from Evil, Cure Light Wounds (free)

Hide Shirt (+3 AC)
Armored Kilt (+1 AC)
Longbow
Dagger
Quarterstaff
Arrows (20)
Arrows, Blunt (20)
50' Silk Rope
Alchemist's Fire (flask)
Chalk
Rubber Ball
Pathfinder's Kit (Includes backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, a clay mug, a dagger (cold iron upgrade), two fishhooks, a flint and steel, a sewing needle, a signal whistle, 50 feet of string, 50 feet of thread, a waterskin, a week's worth of trail rations, and a whetstone.)

• *+2 to Diplomacy and Perception, racial.
• *Counts as both Outsider/Native and Human for all effects.
• *All Knowledge skills are class skills – Lore Mystery
• *All Knowledge skills use CHA instead of INT – Lore Keeper Revelation
• *AC and Reflex Save us CHA instead of DEX – Sidestep Secret Revelation
• *+1 spell/day at first level for 18 CHA.
• *Subject of Study Trait - +1 Damage (all) vs. Undead
• *Hunter’s Blood Trait - +1 trait bonus on Diplomacy when used to gather information, Knowledge (religion), and Survival when used for tracking when related to an undead quarry. Survival (chosen) as a class skill. The undead have a +1 bonus on any roll to learn about you.
• *Wisdom in the Flesh - Disable Divise.
• *Burned (Drawback) - You take a –1 penalty on saving throws against fire effects. In addition, whenever you are adjacent to open flames or are on fire, you take a –1 penalty on all attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks until you spend an entire round away from fire. These penalties are not cumulative. (An instantaneous fire effect adjacent to you or affecting you causes this penalty to apply until 1 round after it is gone.)
• *-4 attack with bow for non-proficiency.

Morgan Kye (pronounced like ‘eye’) was raised on the edge of the Shudderwood forest not far from the small hamlet of Morcei. His father was an archer, forest guide, and scout (ranger) who had been, at one time, a fearsome hunter of the undead known only as Kye. More recently though, with his adventuring days behind him, his duties still seemed to keep him away from his home more often than he would have liked. Kye looked forward to the day his son would be old enough to accompany him on his sometimes dangerous forays into the Shudderwood and perhaps they could adventure together as a family again.

Morgan’s mother was a strikingly beautiful woman who at one time had been an adventuring mage, but she gave up that life to settle down with her husband and their new baby. She was then more of a simple, loving housewife and mother. She passed on to her son a mysterious heritage that she didn’t completely understand herself, but she saw in him the same potential for inward power not long after he was born. This power manifested in Morgan sporadically as he grew giving him strange abilities that would take him many years to understand.

A Professor Lorrimor once visited Morcei seeking the services of a forest guide and was directed to the home of Kye. Lorrimor was very pleased with the services rendered to him and developed quite a friendly relationship with the small family. Not long before Morgan’s 12th birthday, his father was away with Lorrimor on one of their excursions when their cottage was attacked by small horde of, what seemed to Morgan as terrifying monsters, the undead. Caught off guard and unprepared, Morgan’s mother was overcome by the creatures, her torch cast aside setting the small cottage ablaze.

Kye and Lorrimor returned to find the home in ashes. The boy was pulled, badly burned and injured, from the wreckage, but his mother was lost. Kye became distraught and inconsolable over the death of his wife, so the professor took the boy to a nearby chapel for healing and stayed with him long enough to know if he would survive. Left lame and scarred from the attack, Morgan would not be able to return to his father’s care. Kye had grown cold harboring a growing spirit of revenge. His livelihood and his mission depended upon his being free to adventure in the wilds and return to that former calling at which he was so adept.

The professor took the broken and abandoned boy to Andoran where he met the head Zen master of a large training monastery. He spoke at length with the master about the boy, his parentage, and the sad circumstances that brought them to his door. For the next several days, the professor and the master studied and tested the boy. They found him to have great potential. Like all students of this path, Morgan would first learn the way of service and study. Before parting from him, the professor left Morgan with several small volumes of his detailed experiences in the wild, much of it gained with his father. True greatness can never be achieved without the cultivation of knowledge. These words spoken by the professor became ingrained in the boy. He heard them when he rose and when he laid his head to rest. They were echoed in the training and instruction he received from the Master.

When Morgan wasn’t busy at his studies, or training his body, or serving the masters in the kitchen, he loved to sit and listen to the tales, stories, and songs of traveling folk. He found that the more he did so, he learned as much from them as he did from the piles of dusty books that filled his small bed chamber.

The Master taught him to focus his mind and his force of will to coerce his body and twisted limb to obey his commands. It wasn’t long before he learned to overcome his disability and keep up with the other boys physically even if he was resigned to the prospect of never winning a race. He may never be a cheetah, but he may one day become a lion.

On his 18th birthday he was given the rite of brotherhood. The name his mother had given him would be set aside, tucked away in the treasure chest of his memory. He would embrace the name of his father and would be known as Brother Kye. The many days he had spent sitting in the grass next to the target range observing the master archers would finally pay off. He would be now be allowed, and trained to wield the bow himself. He never fully understood the reason that the Master would not allow him to even touch a bow prior to brotherhood. Of course he could recite the Master’s reply by now, You must first master the way of the bow in the mind. You must take it up with complete understanding. Only then can it become an extension of your will. He understood that he was completely wasting time and while he was sure that he would step foot on the firing line at any moment, his disappointment lasted another three years.

He became restless during that time, training his mind more in sarcastic wit than in knowledge seeking. He grew bored filling his head with only facts about the world and the things in it and not experiencing them. He longed for adventure and to travel the road that would lead him there. He had visions and great dreams of felling a thousand enemies with his mighty bow. He spent more of his time alone in his room cultivating the wondrous abilities that he could perform with only his will; making puddles on the floor, invigorating himself with power to accomplish things he could not otherwise accomplish, filling his room with fog. These practices were not expressly forbidden at the monastery, but neither were they encouraged, and expressing them in the open typically resulted, not so covertly, in extra time spent on a stool milking goats or carrying furniture for the Master. Why did he need to move his bookshelves so frequently anyway? At least the goat offered up something of comfort for his labors.

He slept little, working up his courage the night before, as he planned to visit the Master again in the morning to ask him for his approval to begin archery training. On his way to meet him in the garden, he paused at the archway to meditate and prepare himself for a calm and collected encounter with the Master. Surely he would view such self control as the final step in the marathon of preparation he had endured until today. As he opened his eyes, he discovered a surprisingly silent messenger, one of the younger boys, waiting to give him a letter. He had so enjoyed the correspondence he shared with Professor Lorrimor over the years. He had the professor’s encouragement to thank for the modicum of patience that remained in him. He did not, however, recognize the hand that had written his name across the parchment he now held. His heart and his body sank as he read the words contained in the letter. There would be no more letters from his only remaining friend, his family, the professor.

He approached the Master with the note and knowing it would not be taken he made ready to read it to the blind man. He girded himself to speak the words aloud. He listened through the long, expected silence for the Master to ponder what he had just heard. I wish to pay him my respects, Kye finally blurted out. You are not ready, began the old Master as he slowly turned to face the young brother, but that has not barred your path to victory in the past. The Master stretched out a hand against Kye’s chest, he continued not with his familiar recitations, but with the words of the professor. True greatness can never be achieved without the cultivation of knowledge, to which he added, …and the preparation of your mind. You must learn to master your will before it can become the master of anything. His hand slowly fell away and he lowered himself into a bow. Kye repeated these words in his head several times before he remembered to return a bow of his own.

At one time, grief had been a constant companion, and unwelcome guest, but with the success of his training and growing hunger for knowledge, the young boy he had been found a way to shut away grief. The man he was now understood that it would visit him at moments in his life, but these moments were his to control. He nearly galloped through the large front gate of the Monastery and with his life savings and his minimal possessions made his way immediately to the bowyer. The road will be treacherous and I must be ready to meet the challenge. It was a long way to Ravengro, especially by foot, and even moreso with only one.