Byden Brant's page

About Byden Brant

Male Half Orc Paladin 1
NG Medium Humanoid
Init +2 ; Senses Perception +5

==DEFENSE==
AC 21, 12 touch, 19 flatfooted (7 armor, 2 dex, 2 Shield)
hp 26 (17 hd, 2 favored class, 4 con, 3 feat)
Fort +8 Ref +5 Will +5

==OFFENSE==
Spd 20 ft
Melee MW Longsword +7 1d8+4/19-20/x2
Melee Club +6 1d6+4
Ranged Club +4 1d6+4

==STATISTICS==
Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 16
Base Atk +2, Cmb +6 Cmd 18

Feats: Toughness

Languages Common, Orc, Celestial

Traits: Eyes and Ears of the City +1 trait bonus of Perception checks and Perception is a class skill.

Skills:[3] Diplomacy 8, Knowledge Religion 5, Perception 5, Profession Soldier 4, Ride 6

Class features: Aura of good, detect evil, smite evil 1/day Divine grace, lay on hands (4/day 1d6)

Appearance:

Byden's has a powerful jaw line and a close cropped head of white hair. He looks much older than his twenty eight years, and hard as granite. Despite, and sometimes because of, his imposing looks he is considered ruggedly handsome by many. Most people can guess at his orc blood, but it takes a second glance.

Personality:

Byden is blunt, and gruff, but also kind generous and always willing to go out of his way to protect people. He is not always charitable, often feeling tough love to be the right choice for wastrels and layabouts. He is quietly proud of his orc heritage, orcs are often evil, but he knows he is not and he knows his orc blood grants him abilities that help him better serve Heironeous. Though highly devout he prefers to keep his faith fairly private.

Backstory:

Byden Brant was born after his mother Sendra Tinwhite, was seduced by a solider from the local Garrison. Ordan Brant was a bully boy sergeant with a bad reputation, but a certain roguish charm. Ordan took great pains to hide his half orc blood, though and was finally hung after killing two men for calling him orc ugly, some eyars after having denied that he could have fathered Byden.

Byden was raised with the shame of bastardry, and the stygma of orc blood, meaning he got into a lot of fights - most of which he won. His young, and foolish mother could not control him, and he became something of a wild child. The at fourteen he was conscripted after, stealing a cask of ale from a wagon, getting drunk up at the old cairn with some of his cronies, and kicking a Sheriff's deputy so hard in his unmentionables that the man had to visit a cleric to be set right.

Army life did not suit the prideful young tearaway, and he ended up being disciplined often and hard. He got in a great many fights, usually winning, but getting punished further for his trouble. For years he found himself alternating between endless tedious watches, drill, and drudgery.

Then he called a Paladin of Heironeous, "sanctimonious sack of horse dung," and called the old man out. Sir Lorton Birch beat him handily, and when he awoke the next day he was informed he had been assigned as the old knight's squire.

Sir Lorton was a noble man trying to make a difference in the political arena of the City of Greyhawk, so they rarely saw action. But the Paladin's constant striving for justice, fairness, and patience all began to slowly erode Byden's surliness. He joined Lorton in his devotion to Heironeous and began to try to live up to the old knight's ideals, albeit in a rough and ready way.

Sir Lorton passed away some ten months previously, and with his mandated service over Byden returned to the Diamond Lake Garrison. But he found himself restless and bored, in all his time with the army he had seen virtually no real battle. He bridled at Commander Trask's standoffish approach to Diamond Lake, and began to spend more and more time in the Chapel of Heironeous listening to Valkus Dun's inspiring words.

Two weeks ago he resigned and has been looking for mercenary work since, having refused a number of less than reputable offers. But his purse is getting lean and he is beginning to regret leaving the tedious, but orderly life of the garrison.