Carith Blankenship's page

Power Attack
Shield Focus

Self-Sustaining - When you gain this trait, choose one of the following 0-level spells: create water, mending, purify food and drink, or stabilize. You can cast this spell once per day as a spell-like ability, using your character level as your caster level. Once chosen, this selection can’t change.

Chance Savior: Fate smiled on you and Professor Lorrimor one day in the not so distant past. Through a matter of pure chance, you were in a position to save the late scholar’s life and did so. His gratitude was effusive, and he promised that he would never forget you. You are unsure of the nature of the summons in his will, but believe he may have listed you as a possible heir in thanks for saving him from an untimely demise.

Your ability to think quickly on your feet has stayed
with you, and you quite often feel that you’re in the right
place at the right time. You gain a +2 trait bonus on
Initiative checks.

Heal +6 (1 rank, 3 class, 2 Wis)
Kn (Dungeoneering) +5 (1 rank, 3 class, 1 Int)
Kn (Religion) +5 (1 rank, 3 class, 1 Int)
Perception +6 (1 rank, 3 class, 2 Wis)
Sense Motive +6 (1 rank, 3 class, 2 Wis)
Survival +6 (1 rank, 3 class, 2 Wis)

*Kn (Geography) +2 (1 rank, 1 Int)
*Profession (Farmer) +6 (1 rank, 3 class, 2 Wis)

Common, Varisian

Good Aura

Torment - A tortured crusader’s great suffering in the face of inevitable horror strengthens her faith and resolve, even as it makes her introverted and far less personable than most paladins. A tortured crusader uses Wisdom instead of Charisma as her key spellcasting ability score (to determine her spell DCs, bonus spells per day, bonus on concentration checks, and so on), and to determine the effects of lay on hands.

This ability alters the paladin’s spellcasting, smite evil, and lay on hands.

Self-Sufficient - A tortured crusader adds Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (dungeoneering), Knowledge (planes), Perception, Stealth, Survival, and Use Magic Device to her list of class skills, instead of Diplomacy and Handle Animal. She gains a number of skill ranks equal to 4 + her Intelligence modifier at each level, instead of gaining a number of skill ranks equal to 2 + her Intelligence modifier.

This ability alters the paladin’s class skills and skill ranks per level.

All is Darkness - Everything around a tortured crusader is so bleak that detecting evil only reminds her that the odds are always against her. A tortured crusader doesn’t gain the detect evil or divine grace class features. At 1st (level, a tortured crusader gains the smite evil ability, but she doesn’t add her Charisma bonus to attack rolls or a deflection bonus equal to her Charisma bonus to her AC against the target of her smite. At 2nd level, she adds a +4 bonus to attack rolls and a +4 deflection bonus to AC against the target of her smite.

This ability replaces detect evil and divine grace and alters smite evil.

Alone in the Dark - Faced with endless foes, a tortured crusader can’t ask others to confront the same horrors she does. She can’t use her lay on hands ability to heal others or to channel energy, though starting at 4th level, she can convert two uses of lay on hands into an additional use of smite evil. Her aura of courage, aura of resolve, aura of faith, and aura of righteousness affect only her, not her allies. When she selects a divine bond, it must be with a weapon, not a mount.

This ability alters lay on hands, channel energy, divine bond, aura of courage, aura of resolve, aura of faith, and aura of righteousness.

Smite Evil - Once per day, a paladin can call out to the powers of good to aid her in her struggle against evil. As a swift action, the paladin chooses one target within sight to smite. If this target is evil, the paladin adds her Cha bonus (if any) to her attack rolls and adds her paladin level to all damage rolls made against the target of her smite. If the target of smite evil is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage on the first successful attack increases to 2 points of damage per level the paladin possesses. Regardless of the target, smite evil attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.

In addition, while smite evil is in effect, the paladin gains a deflection bonus equal to her Charisma modifier (if any) to her AC against attacks made by the target of the smite. If the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect.

The smite evil effect remains until the target of the smite is dead or the next time the paladin rests and regains her uses of this ability. At 4th level, and at every three levels thereafter, the paladin may smite evil one additional time per day, as indicated on Table: Paladin, to a maximum of seven times per day at 19th level.

3 gp, 4 sp, 5 cp, Scale Mail, Heavy Steel Shield, Longsword, Dagger, Longbow, 20 Arrows, Backpack, Flint & Steel, Waterskin, 5 days rations, Explorer's Outfit, 5 torches, 50' hemp rope, grappling hook

Carith grew up in a Pharasman monastery close to Caliphas in Ustalav, the son of a priestess of The Lady of Graves and her farmer husband. The youth learned the value of hard work, as both figures were very dedicated to their respective crafts. Carith worked in the fields with his father, though his mother was sure to educate the young boy about the cycle of life and how the undead were an abomination that disrespected and mocked the very nature of life.

Carith was a well-mannered and likeable youth, quick to talk to strangers and curious about the world and how things worked. As he grew into a young man, he delved deeper into the teachings of Pharasma even as he continued to toil as a farmer, though he showed no spark of the divine gift as his mother had. Still, he learned the process of respectfully preparing the departed for their final journey and that death is just the next step in a soul's journey.

At dusk one evening when Carith was nearing adulthood, he and his father were finishing up a section of the field when they were ambushed by a motley collection of undead. The duo managed to hold them off briefly, even bashing a few of the skeletons into rubble, but the ghoul leading them managed to slash both the younger and older man, and soon enough their limbs stopped responding and they were helpless on the ground, awaiting their grim fate.

Thankfully, Carith could not see the ghoul savage his father, but the sounds sticks with him to this day. The rending and ripping of flesh by sharp talons, the labored gasping as the windpipes was finally severed, the audible sounds of the creature feeding on the man while he still lived. Carith prayed silently to Pharasma for deliverance, but when the ghoul's bloody face appeared above his own he knew his days on Golarion were over.

The undead creature started to slowly work on Carith, its immediate hunger satiated. Leaving the torso unattended, the beast dragged its claws across the young man's face repeatedly, leaving a bloody mess in its wake. The pain was excruciating, but unconsciousness was a blessing that was denied the youth. The pain had reached unbearable agony when a warm light bathed the area, Carith's mother stepping forth and driving the undead away with her divine power. She healed what she could of the boy's face, but the once handsome young man was heavily scarred, with pits in his features where the meat had been removed beyond repair.

After this, Carith refused to work in the field any more. For a time, he refused to even leave the monastery, certain that more undead lay in wait to finish him off. It took several months for the fear to be replaced by anger and resolve, and the young man took up training. He might never have the divine spark of Pharasma, but he was large and could train to wield a sword effectively should an encounter like the one that fateful night happen again.

Carith trained for a couple of years, until he and his mother felt it was time for him to journey out into the world and lose his fear of it. The young man joined a small caravan as a guard, thinking that a relatively short trip with limited risk would be a perfect starting point. The group was a trio of young scholars accompanying an older loremaster, a Professor Lorrimor. Carith had only heard of the man in passing, but considering his cloistered life, that was enough to know the man was quite well-known.

As the group traveled, the younger men stayed away from the hideously scarred Carith, revolted by his appearance. Lorrimor, however, made it a point to engage the young man in conversation, talking about the Pharasman faith in particular. Lorrimor took notes, though Carith was sure that was to make him feel better. Surely a learned man knew as much about the Lady of Graves as a man barely into his third decade.

As the small party was setting up camp about a day's ride from their destination, a scene out of Carith's nightmarish memories came to pass. One of the young scholars had wandered away from the camp to take care of a need, and the guard noticed just as a figure attacked the man, savaging him before he realized what was going on. The other two young students stood, frozen by fear, but the Professor grabbed a cudgel and charged forward.

Frozen in place by cowardice himself, Carith watched the older man step forth to challenge the creature and his courage shone through. He felt a warmth fill him that had been lacking before, and he found the strength to wield his sword and go forth. He arrived right as the creature had started to press the Professor, and with righteous might Carith dispatched the ghoul before it could touch Lorrimor.

Carith made sure the three remaining members of the entourage made it to their destination, with Lorrimor personally thanking the young man for his bravery. While still uncomfortable with peoples' reactions to his appearance, Carith never let his fear overrule him again after that. While still respecting his mother and her goddess, the young man figured out that the resolve that had filled him when the Professor was under attack had come from another deity, one more active in the fight against evil and darkness.

Several years later, a letter arrived from the estate of the recently deceased Professor Lorrimor. Saddened by the man's loss even though they had not spoken again since parting at their destination a couple of years ago, Carith resolved to heed the man's last wishes and made his way to Ravengro to pay his final respects.

Carith is tall and broad, standing a few inches over six feet and well over two-hundred pounds. He has short-cropped black hair with brown eyes and dusky skin, and might once have been handsome before his face had been horrifically scarred. Now, white scar lines cross all over his cheeks, the tip of his nose is missing, and the bottom lobe of his left ear is gone.

The young man has withdrawn since that point, still a good man at heart but hurt by the flinching stares he has endured. His voice, when he speaks, is a low baritone meant to not draw attention to himself. Carith is still a dedicated defender of his faith and humanity, however, and will not hesitate to come to another's aid should the need arise.