Cladissa Velorryan's page

1st level: Witch; Cat familiar; Agility Patron; Extra Hex x2; Hexes Cackle, Evil Eye, Fortune; Favored class: hit point.
2nd level: Witch; Hex Misfortune; Favored class: hit point.

dancing lights, guidance, read magic, detect magic, burning hands, cure light wounds, enlarge person

You treat others with a clear and calculating intellect. You gain a +1 trait bonus on all Heal checks, and you may use your Intelligence modifier when making Heal checks instead of your Wisdom modifier.

You were bullied often as a child, but never quite developed an offensive response. Instead, you became adept at anticipating sudden attacks and reacting to danger quickly. You gain a +2 trait bonus on initiative checks.

You are always on the lookout for reward and danger. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Perception checks, and Perception is always a class skill for you.

You lack confidence in your abilities or confidence in the universe at large. Whenever you fail a skill or ability check, you take a —4 penalty on that type of skill or ability check for the next hour.

HP: 7
AC: 14 (T: 14, FF 12)
Saves: F +1 R +4 W +4
Offense: 2 claws +5 (1d2-4) bite +5 (1d3-4)
Space 2 1/2 Reach 0 ft
Climb +6, Perception +6, Stealth +15
Alertness, Improved Evasion, Share Spells, Empathic Link

This kit includes a backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, candles (10), chalk (10), a flint and steel, ink, an inkpen, an iron pot, a mess kit, soap, a spell component pouch, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), and a waterskin.

Ht: 5'6"
Wt: 115 lbs
Age: 25
Hair: Long, dark tresses.
Eyes: Yellow
Skin: Olive, clear complexion
Fur: Dark, patterned

Cladissa is shy and withdrawn. She is someone who has been overshadowed and bullied most of her life, and her confidence suffers for it. However, the mutations she is experiencing is liberating for her. Something about her ongoing change is affecting her personality, which is unsettling to her.

Cladissa's cheeks burned hotly as Cole looked down at her. It should have been a simple affair; cross the narrow beam across the gulf to get to the other side. Yet she was nowhere near as graceful as the black cat that eyed her with intense yellow eyes. And so she was on her rump in the soft cushions, failing again at the preparation exercises, which serve as a prelude to her true trial.

It was so frustrating; she was a better luck charm to others than to herself. As she pulled herself back up, she could feel it: Auronee's smirking amusement at her own failure. Her step-sister was no doubt looking on somewhere. That thought got Cladissa moving again.

She returned to the balance beam. This time. This time I'll make it. Take the lead, Cole, she thought to him, though he didn't really hear her thoughts; just the emotions behind them. He picked up on her urging, and he moved forward silently with feline grace. She followed, much more wobbly.

She was almost to the other side, when a panel in the far wall slid open. She could see the strange writing, but couldn't quite make it out. She paused, but her wobbling started to get worse, so she had to keep moving forward. She kept going, and almost reached the other side when she glanced up again at the runes. And read them. A riot of colors shot out --

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Cladissa hated her the moment she saw her. This new man -- she would never call him Father; her real father had lost his head in Galt when they had moved there so he could defend the accused in their trials -- had successfully wooed Mother and brought them to his estate in Taldor. His daughter oozed sweetness, beauty, and an awful knack at being good at everything. Auronee had friends galore, yet chafed at the instructions to integrate Cladissa into her little group. The pranks soon began.

At first, they were simple things. She always ended up with the cracked mug. Snakes and insects in her bed. Animal dung in the chamber pot. But then they started getting worse, as Auronee started getting bolder, and their relationship soured. Cladissa found solace in books, and always had to keep an eye out for the next trick.

When her new step-father Castor Farwynd was appointed ambassador to Qadira he decided to leave his children behind with their uncle Laneth, but to take his new wife with him. Fortunately, her step-uncle Laneth treated her well, and nurtured her love of learning. He was a Pathfinder, as well, and took both girls to the lodge on occasions. It was there that the girls found a new way to compete -- earning favor with the Pathfinders and joining their ranks.

Cladissa failed at everything, unfortunately. She wasn't particularly strong or agile. She couldn't even take well to the arcane, even though she seemed smart enough to grasp the concepts. As Auronee became a prodigy, Cladissa fell further and further behind, not finding anything she was good at.

Her desperation fed into a bout of recklessness. One time while at the Pathfinder lodge, she snuck into a room of Osirioni artifacts, looking for something to make her special. She rummaged through the dusty junk for what seemed like hours. Then she made a discovery: a mummified cat. Thinking only of a possible joke to play on Auronee, she took the thing and brought it up to her room.

Staring at the spiced, dessicated remains, her imagination failed in thinking of a way to use it as a prank. When she finally drifted off to sleep, she had a strange dream. Young one. You seek power, do you not? I can teach you, if you will accept guidance, came a voice from a shadowy form.

I don't seek power. I just want to be able to do something. I don't want to end up a scribe, or scrivener, came her reply, compelled somehow to be honest to this entity.

Power is what you seek, then. Power to do what you want, even if it is only to avoid a mundane fate.

Cladissa found herself accepting, as the shadow resolved itself into a coal-black cat. Okay, then. I'll learn from you. Can you make sure I'm not a--

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FAILURE! Cladissa hung her head in shame as the Master of Scrolls addressed her. Her actual trial had gone even worse than the other training. It should have been so easy. They actually gave her a task that she was sort of good at.

Kreighton Shaine had walked her into a large, hexagonal room. There was a simple desk at the center, and the walls were lined with shelves full of reference books, curios, nick-nacks. It was a comforting room to her.

Shaine set down a large dusty tome upon the desk and instructed her to sit. This is your trial. He gestured to a long, tapered candle also on the desk. You have the length of this candle to study this treatise on the nature of planar energies, and to write a summation for evaluation. You will be graded on your insight, clarity of writing, and whatever findings you may come across.

With a gesture from Shaine, the candle sparked alight, and the test had begun. The candle burned slowly, so she had time to do this right. She began reading and jotting notes on the parchment provided. Cladissa smiled. She was doing well; this was something Auronee could not mess up. She was here alone save for Cole, who was coiled up contentedly around her feet. Cole, her familiar. The one who came to her that night she stole the Osiriani artifact. The mummified cat had disappeared from her room all those nights ago, but Cole had showed up that next morning, and instantly they had a strange rapport. Through him, in a way she still wasn't entirely sure, she could cast a few spells. She also had ways of helping or hindering others. But none of them helped her gain any favor with the other Pathfinder initiates. She guessed she had Auronee to thank for her total isolation in Absalom.

It was like she was a black cloud hanging over her life. When Uncle Laneth had brought them to Absalom for an extended stay at the Grand Lodge, she had managed to completely alienate Cladissa from all other Pathfinder potentials. It didn't help that her step-sister seemed completely immune to her hexes. At least, her Evil Eye. As if she'd ever grant her Fortune. Not that she needed it anyway. She was talented in a way that impressed all the masters. Cladissa suspected that the instructors put up with her just so that they could benefit from their rivalry and Auronee would join the Pathfinders.

But Cladissa still had her chance, and here she was. She wouldn't have to put up with that smirking, superior grin. She would be a Pathfinder too.

She glanced at the candle. Oh no! Her mind had drifted, and the candle had continued to burn. She sped up her reading, skimming certain sections rather than reading them closely. Then she triggered the spell.

It was similar to the rune trap on the obstacle course, and if she had been going slower, she may have caught it in time. A small, horned, winged figure poofed into existence in front of her, cackled in mad glee, and flew up to the top of one of the bookshelves. An imp, she surmised quickly, and suddenly felt a surge of panic.

She tried to hex it. She tried to shoot it with her crossbow, but the bolt twanged off the shelf. It flew from one corner of the room to another, taunting, tormenting her. She ran up to it and unleashed a gout of fire, but only succeeded in igniting the books it was sitting on.

Desperate, she pulled down a tapestry to smother the spreading fires. It took several attempts to get the last of the fire out, though plenty of damage was done. Infuriated at the imp, she caused herself to grow to large size, wielding the tapestry's bar as a club. She swung wildly at it, wrecking more shelves but doing no damage to the outsider.

After a few more minutes, the imp disappeared. She looked around, only now noticing Cole sitting on the book she should have been researching, meowing urgently. She moved to the desk as she shrunk back to normal size and read what her familiar had been pawing at. Programmed image.

The Master of Scrolls ranted at her. Springing a trap. Failing to see through an illusion. Horrible tactics against the creature. Failing to realize the spell would wear off eventually anyway. Starting a fire in the library. It was a debacle.

Through tears, she glanced down at Cole, who twined around her feet. You could have got my attention better, she mumbled to him. He just looked up at her, nonplussed.

A lump formed in her throat as she thought of the inevitable gloating from Auronee. Bitter, rancid bile rose to her mouth as she felt the crushing weight of her failure. Auronee had passed the tests two months ago, but had hung around just to rub it in. And to watch how Cladissa fared.

She looked up at the master, desperate. Please, is there any way? I'll do anything. Anything! You have to have some way of... of she trailed off, stopping herself from begging further. Auronee's gloating smile (why did she have to be so pretty, too?) came to her mind. Is this how she was to compete with her? By groveling better? I'm sorry. I shouldn't have spoken like that.

However, the Master of Scrolls looked at her with an appraising eye. Anything? was the only thing he asked. However, the tiniest seed of hope was planted.

Cladissa was summoned shortly thereafter, in a gathering of a few other washouts. She looked around. She thought she recognized a few of them. Her eyes bulged as the masters spoke of their second chance.

I-- I'll do it, she said, surprising even herself a bit. It seemed like such a simple solution. She could smile at Auronee knowing full well that she would be a Pathfinder. Whatever else she became.