About Caspian "Cass" AbernathyStatistics:
Male Human (Crossbred) Wizard (Exploiter) 4
NG Medium Humanoid (Human) Init +5; Senses Perception +2 ------------------------------ DEFENSE ------------------------------ AC 15, touch 11, flat-footed 14 (+4 armor, +1 dex, +0 shield) hp 30 Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +4 ------------------------------ OFFENSE ------------------------------ Speed 30 ft. Melee Gauntlet +3, 1d3+1 Ranged Light Crossbow +3, 1d8
*ACP applies to these skills
Special Abilities:
------------------------------ SPECIAL ABILITIES: Arcane Reservoir: Has an arcane reservoir of 7. Each day when he prepares spells, his reservoir gains 5 points. He can also regain these points through some arcanist exploits. He can expend 1 point from the reservoir as a free action to increase his CL by 1 or the spell’s DC by 1.
Spells:
------------------------------ Spells Memorized ------------------------------ 0th (at will): detect magic, light, mage hand, prestidigitation 1st (4/day): color spray, feather fall, grease, silent image 2nd (3/day): flaming sphere, Gear/Possessions:
------------------------------ GEAR/POSSESSIONS Please see spreadsheet Spreadsheet. ------------------------------ Carrying Capacity Light 0-50 lb. Medium 51-100 lb. Heavy 101-150 lb. Current Load Carried 25 lb. Money 2 PP 5 GP 4 SP 6 CP
Background:
Caspian “Cass” Abernathy’s beginnings were humble. He was born to a relatively unremarkable family in the nation of Thane. A son of a blacksmith and the youngest of five children, Cass was expected to follow in the steps of his father and brothers and join the family business. Jameson and Madeline, his parents, were, by all accounts, loving and caring of their children though Cass probably gave them the most headaches. He was an inquisitive child from the start and, by far, the cleverest of their children but from an early age Cass found the prospect of cobbling horses and smithing fences for Abernathy and Sons boring. Schooling wasn’t any better – the town he grew up in, Foxglove Run, was no more than a few hundred people in population and his schoolhouse was a simple one room building run by a schoolmarm who should have retired fifteen years ago. He easily excelled in school, reading far above his age level, leaving the other children behind. And, as is often the case with burgeoning geniuses left unchallenged, Cass found himself bored. He quickly abandoned school for his own rambunctious ends – spending days in the woods with other delinquents instead of learning. His parents, however, were less than pleased. While they both understood their son was far gifted than the local school could handle – they didn’t want him running around either. Instead, they struck a deal with their impetuous child – Cass no longer had to go to school, but he had to help at his father’s forge and read at least one book a day and report to his mother what he had learned from it before bed. And so Cass became fairly self-sufficient in his education – and his parents quickly found themselves hard-pressed to keep up with Cass’ voracious reading. Books were expensive, after all. But somehow his parents made it work. When Cass finally entered his teenage years – he was given a small stipend to spend however he wished and the books he chose changed from narrative fiction to treatises on science and engineering. And with knowledge came experimentation – and with experimentation came failure. Cass’ inventions, without the proper schooling to put his knowledge to use, were, shall we say, less than optimal. One particular one – a steam and pneumatic powered hammer he designed to ease the work he and his father had to do at the forge backfired and tore a hole in the roof. It also proved to be his last experimentation for a while – as his father put an end to it, forcing Cass to focus on smithing, though in his free time he continued to draw up overly elaborate instruments during his free time. About two years into working with his father, when Cass was fourteen, a travelling merchant wagon with a streaming banner on both sides of it passed through Foxglove Run. And if the banners alone, which read: “Nicodemus’ Travelling Clockwork Emporium”, were enough to grab Cass’ attention, the tiny clockwork mechanica that whirred and hummed in the wagon itself would certainly do. Nicodemus had begun travelling to sell his wares to escape the war but had quickly found he was not a fan of life on the road. His work, however, was popular in the nation of Thane where his tiny clockwork automatons almost seemed to have a spark of magic in them, a curiosity to those who lived in the deaf magic zone, but in reality was simply an incredibly precise feat of engineering. Passing through Foxglove Run on the way to a nearby port, Nicodemus stopped at Abernathy and Sons to have his horses reshod before heading out – but he couldn’t help but marvel at the crude contraptions, unfinished and broken, that he saw scattered across the blacksmith’s workshop. After inquiring of the elder Jameson and speaking with Cass himself, Nicodemus quickly recognized the spark of genius that lay within the young boy and arranged for Cass to be apprenticed to him. Eager to see the world, Cass agreed, with the promise that if he failed at mechanica he would return home to take on the hammer and anvil. Settling down in Almor with Nicodemus, in the city of Slate, Cass’ apprenticeship went by quickly – with the young boy absorbing as much knowledge as possible. And, surprisingly enough, Cass found he had a talent for the arcane. It had languished in Thane – where the use of magic was next-to-impossible, but with Nicodemus guiding him – he was able to quickly piece together the complicated concepts that allowed him to fuse his technological knowledge with the arcane. But Nicodemus was only a minor hedgewizard – for greater mastery of the secrets of magic, he encouraged Cass to attend school at Hemming University. While Cass found himself constantly challenged intellectually he quickly chafed under the structured study of his professors there. He was someone who had, so far, learned by doing and through his own experimentation – letting his whims and hunches and guesses drive his pursuit of knowledge. After two years of formal study, he dropped out and returned to Nicodemus to work in his shop. But Cass was not happy – while he cared little for the structure Hemming University offered, he missed the pursuit of knowledge and Nicodemus could tell his apprentice was growing disillusioned. So the clockwork engineer reached out to contacts and found a sponsor who, somehow, was familiar with Cass’ work at Hemming and agreed to sponsor an independent study for the burgeoning wizard. Neither Nicodemus or Cass ever knew details of the sponsor, other than he (or she) was an exceptionally wealthy benefactor who had a specific request – they wanted to see if the dead magic zone over Thane could be repaired. While Cass and Nicodemus were originally suspicious – after some discussion they agreed that it was best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. And if things ever turned bad – Cass would ditch the sponsorship and make his own way through Ikeroth. So far his studies have been fruitless – though smithing had taught him the value of patience. You can’t speed up the rate at which metal is heated (or at which it cools) without damaging its integrity. So Cass wandered – searching for secrets to unlock the mysteries of the universe. A year and a half ago – he journeyed to a remote village where he met a blind Skive skyseer who only went by ‘Dusk’. Here Cass found something intriguing in how the skyseer was able to foretell events using the alignment of the planets and the stars – and here is where Cass began to develop his hypothesis. The planetary alignment may have been what caused the Terrible Lapse -- While most skyseers consider the alignment of the stars and the planets to be an elemental thing, Cass began to see patterns in the orbits, a deep and complex cosmology that affected the way magic worked on Ikeroth. And while many scholars have seen this before – Cass began attacking the problem with a different mindset, as if the universe was a clock and Ikeroth was but one cog in the machine...
Appearance and Personality:
Caspian Abernathy is a mess of contradictions. Equal parts a working-class man and a scholar of the mysteries of Ikeroth, his appearance somehow reflects both. Tattoos of the geometric patterns of the stars, the planets, and their paths and orbits run up both of his arms – which are leanly corded and taut and look like they know how to swing a hammer or work a forge. A thick auburn beard covers his face with his mustache waxed carefully into points that curl slightly up from his lips which, more often than not, feature a thick cigar dangling from it. The earthy smell of that cigar smoke permeates into his clothes – a off-white beater shirt and suspenders that hold up the thick leather pants of a blacksmith. But on his waist and across his chest are a series of belts and bandoleers – each hold the tools of his trade; glasses, wrenches, hammers, screwdrivers, and a wide variety of contraptions that look overly-designed with clockwork mechanica. Each of these are polished and well-maintained, the brass and steel gleams sharply in the light – offsetting the grease and oil that has stained his clothes. A rucksack hangs across his shoulders, and tied securely to it are a trio of waterproofed books covered in canvas for added protection, the first two look dog-eared and well read and a closer examination would reveal the titles: “The Applied Mechanics of Ikerothian Astronomy” by Valentine Wentworth-Chambers and “Improving the Efficiency of Clockwork Mechanica Through Implementation of Minor Arcana” by Nicodemus Highmoore. The third reads, in Sarvic, “A Comprehensive Elucidation of Arcanum Fantastica Utilizing Historical Classifications of Magicka Obscura for Identification of Large-Scale Planetary Phenomena” by Caspian M. Abernathy – and it looks relatively new compared to the others. The rucksack itself jangles with the sound of his tools and half-finished projects as he walks. It is a walk of confidence, straight backed and with purpose. But a look at his eyes would tell otherwise – hazel in colour they dart everywhere, taking in as much information as possible.
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