The idea for why she's in prison is that they don't know where else to put her. She hasn't really done anything wrong and her parents are distinguished crusaders. Sure, she's been hanging with cultists but only as an observer. Even when the inquisitors attacked she just sat back and observed, making notes. Heck, they would probably have let her walk if those notes hadn't contained the horrible details of everything she had seen up to the killing of the cultists at the hands of the inquisitors, including detailed drawings. Add to that the frequent depictions of an odd bull's head and her insistence about following the advice of the whispers and the inquisitors assumed she'd been targeted by some powerful follower of Baphomet who tried to pervert her because of who her parents are. In prison she at least can't hurt anyone and she'd be protected from her attacker until they figure out a way to sever the connection.
There is no attacker though, the bull's head isn't a symbol of Baphomet and none of this has anything to do with her parents.
No, she had joined the cultists' meetings out of curiosity and stayed out of interest. No better place in all of Kenabres to study humanoid anatomy than on the sacrificial slabs used by the cultists. The talk of whispers and images of a bull had made the Baphomet cultists think she was one of them. None suspected she was a cultist of some other demon lord who favored the bull, nor did they realise that their odd sickliness was caused by her experimenting on them by spiking their water supply with compounds she hoped would cause mutations in them.
She's annoyed now though. Prison is dull and they took away her notes. Six months of work those notes contained, six months! She just hoped they hadn't burned them yet, as they had threatened to do.
I decided to go with the follower of Haagenti. It's a character that doesn't care in the slightest about other demon cultists and demon lords but just pretends so he can benefit from their actions.
Toying with two different build directions though.
One focuses on Adaptive Shifter Shifter and takes the Sentinel PrC on the other end (not sure which base class to take there).
The other goes Beastmorph Vivisectionist Alchemist on end will take the Evangelist PrC (on either end as it keeps class features from the class it replaces). It'd probably be a Lavasoul Ifrit.
For both I'm not sure what to grab as the second class, though with the Alchemist I'm leaning towards Psychodermist Occultist.
Downside of the former is that I can't go CE but on the other end I truly adore the Adaptive Shifter archetype (and it's a fantastic fit for Haagenti).
Basically have two ideas that I have to decide between.
The first is a follower of the Demon Lord Haagenti who sees the Worldwound as a great place to conduct it's experiments. Would be aiming at having a Mutagens, through either Vivisectionist Alchemist or the Fighter or Brawler archetype, and be going for the Evangelist PrC for Haagenti.
The second is the crusader of Szuriel I mentioned before. It's goal would be to keep the fighting in the Worldwound going and have it kill as many people and demons as possible. Would be aiming for the Souldrinker PrC here.
Both of them would look to prolong the fighting. The first because it provides plenty of access to raw materials for it's experiments and the latter in order to cause as much destruction as possible.
I’m sure not many would question your evil intentions. Just maybe don’t mention you worship a daemon lord to anyone important and no one will have a problem with it.
That’s another angle to be explored though, characters not necessarily aligned with demons, but interested in keeping the war or invasion going for one reason or another.
If going that route Chaotic Neutral worshippers of Proteans would also be fun, they also hate both demons and crusaders (demons more though) and want to mire the Abyss in an unwinnable battle.
Ideally I wouldn't go for a Demon Lord though, but for Szuriel, the Horseman of War. The character would be mostly interested in keeping the fighting going.
I decided to ditch the idea of a follower of Chavazvug but I am keeping the idea of a character that is convinced the crusades are failing and doing so because they are soft and unwilling to do what is needed to win. That and they are deluded, being fine to throw millions of lives away in pointless crusades but balking at the mere idea of using a handful of souls to power magic that could actually be of use.
This all initially drove him to throw in his lot with the archdevil Geryon, then got slightly paranoid about being lied to and turned to the demon lord Abraxus. That didn't last either as his personal hatred against demons, they killed his parents, several siblings and many friends, won out over his need for knowledge. Now he instead turned his devotion to the eldest Ng in hopes that his devotion is enough to keep his soul out of the lower planes and knowing Ng wouldn't mind venues of research more goodly beings might find unsavoury.
Your questions with the answers I have so far:
1. What is your character’s name? WIP
2. How old is your character? Nearing middle age, actual number depends on race and haven't decided yet.
3. What would somebody see at first glance (i.e. height, weight, skin color, eye color, hair color, physique, race, and visible equipment)? Still working on this but a sure thing is that he always wears gloves, only taking them off to either wash himself or swap them out for his second pair so he can clean the first.
4. What additional attributes would be noticed upon meeting the character (i.e. Speech, mannerisms)? He obviously observes, actually scanning people. If people have an odd feature he is prone to focusing on that, not caring wether that might hurt or insult people.
5. Where was your character born? Where were you raised? By who? Location of birth still in the works, possibly extraplanar (going Riftwarden Orphan). His young years were spent with a foster family in Kenabres but as an early teen he stowed away on a barge going down the Sellen River and eventually ended up in Absalom where he found work with the Pathfinders as a junior clerk. Considering he was still very young then you could say the senior clerks did parts of his raising.
6. Who are your parents? Are they alive? What do they do for a living? They were two Riftwardens working on figuring out how to close the Worldwound. They are dead as per the Riftwarden Orphan trait.
7. Do you have any other family or friends? He still has his foster parents in Kenabres who he likes and an older sister who lives in Nerosyan. He has a few friends back on Absalom among his former colleagues but he lost many due to his own pursuits.
8. What is your character’s marital status? Kids? Single, no kids that he knows of. He ditched his girlfriend on Absalom just before leaving for Kenabres to continue his research into the Worldwound, and portals in general, and the disappearance of his parents. Figures he did her a service by leaving her angry because now she wouldn't need to mourn him if he dies.
9. What is your character’s alignment? Neutral Evil
10. What is your character’s moral code? Moral codes are for idiots who don't have the capacity for logic. That said he is well aware of how the world expects him to behave and tries to conform just because it makes his own life easier.
That said, he does love his friends and family and goes out of his way to keep them from harm, to varying degrees of success.
11. Does your character have goals? Yes. Figure out the Worldwound, then figure out the multiverse. And on a more personal level, discover what happened to his parents.
12. Is your character religious? Sort of. He is a follower of Ng, one of the Eldest, and strictly follows his tenets but the reason behind this is because he made some missteps in the past and hopes this steers his soul away from the lower planes in case of his death.
13. What are your character’s personal beliefs? Believing is assuming something to be true despite or even because there is no evidence and as such it's silly. So he doesn't believe. Behaving based on belief is ridiculous to him and he gets annoyed when he catches himself doing something for which he can't explain the reasoning.
14. Does your character have any personality quirks (i.e. anti-social, arrogant, optimistic, paranoid)? Many. He seems cold and calculating though that is in fact a combination of coping mechanism and issues in expressing emotion. He tends to seem arrogant to people who don't know him, but he isn't.
15. Why does your character adventure? To learn about existence.
16. How does your character view his/her role as an adventurer? He considers himself a scholar first and an adventurer second and the latter is purely to facilitate the former.
17. Does your character have any distinguishing marks (birth-marks, scars, deformities)? he has a birthmark that looks like the Sign of the Seeker's Spiral on his chest (as per the campaign trait). Rest WIP and based on race.
18. How does your character get along with others? He thinks he gets along very well. In truth he tries to get along but often fails. He's a likeable goof to most but some find him distasteful (the fact that he once dissected a Dretch on the streets after crusaders had killed it just outside the city did not help there).
19. Is there anything that your character hates?[/b[ Bigotry, taboos, trivial limitations in the name of good taste, decency or religion and most of all, demons. While the first ones are all because they impede research and the gathering of knowledge that latter is purely personal and one of his few irrational features.
[b]20. Is there anything that your character fears? Losing his mind or control over his mind. The very existence of magic like the Feeblemind spell terrifies him. He also doesn't drink any alcohol because of this.
While I find the concept of Numenara intriguing, I do wonder how this will interact with Dark Sun's specific cosmology, specifically on how The Grey forms a barrier between Athas and the rest of the outer planes. In this the elemental planes and the plane of shadows all have a part inside the Grey, which is accessible from Athas, and the rest outside, which isn't. The part of the plane of shadows that's inside is what's known as The Black.
I guess the easiest way to integrate this is that recently a passage through the Grey has been opened and that pre-existing extra-planar things date from a time before the Grey was put in place.
A big reason behind my interest here is that at the moment I'm looking at tying my character to the Grey as a source of my character's powers.
EDIT: After looking through the "Beyond countless doorways" (yay for friends with extensive RPG book collections) I do wonder how you will approach it all. Are we bound on Athas or will we be walking the planes? The latter really gives me strong MtG planeswalker vibes (which I'm not at all opposed to).
This looks like I could finally find a home for my Chavazvug, the one Qlippoth lord who hates demons more than he hates mortals, worshipping crusader, though the worship is purely as a method to achieve her own goals. Chavazvug doesn't care.
My character would be a disillusioned crusader who is convinced the current methods used by the crusade don't work. To her the current crusaders are too 'nice'. Simply put, she wants to end the demonic invasion by any means necessary and if that means sacrificing a hundred innocents/crusaders, so be it. If you'd ask her she'd say that the good guys also do that by sending them into unwinnable battles, they just dress it all up in lies. Despite being scorned and ostracized by most crusaders (she has avoided the hardliners so far) she does consider herself to be their best ally.
As for why she's evil, it's because she is convinced it is what is needed to finally get things done, not because she likes it. The end justifies all means. This also means that she could veer from her current path if shown another path that is at least as effective as her current one.
Still figuring out what I'd want to play as it would not be the same as my idea in the previous interest thread. I'm now thinking of going for a Ssuran, just need to figure out what race would be best to build that (or perhaps a custom race approved by Seb).
With the suggestion of the insectoid races being native to Athas and the mammalian races being alien in origin it does make me wonder where the reptilian races come from. Perhaps they have a relation to the origin of the dragons.
After some more thought I decided to not go with a Ratfolk and instead also go for a Samsaran. An Occultist to be precise as I figured a character tied to relics of the past would fit quite well.
Ban-Lu Variani is still very much under construction. The image is for a Veela but it makes for a decent stand in for a Samsaran.
As far as background goes, the idea is that he is the reincarnation of one of the Kajitsu retainers that got killed years ago before arrival in Brinewall. Back then he was still human, though the child of two Samsarans. His first reincarnation landed him in the Mierani forest, in the town of Crying Leaf. There he was taken in by local Elves only to later die in a dragon attack (the same attack that cost Shalelu's mother her life).
He was reborn in the same town again some time later but actually left Crying Leaf to travel with a Varisian clan. Recently he has come into possession of his own old weapon, handed to him by the descendants of other retainers that had actually fled Brinewall many years after his own death.
Having the same home town, Ban-Lu, who uses the last name from his adopted Elven family, knows Shalelu but they aren't close.
What I really like about the dicepool method is that you don't roll sets, which you do do with 3d6+6. The three dice you roll are stuck together and are inseparable.
With the dicepool you roll 24d6, getting to reroll a 1 for every stat you have aka six times. Then you pick a total of 18 dice and assign them to your stats as you see fit. This way there is a lot more customisability than there is when you roll sets.
You could say this method sits between rolling sets, the standard rolling method, and point buy. It has customisability close to the levels of point buy but also has randomness similar to normal dicerolls. It's just that if you happen to have a set of two 1's and two 2's you're not stuck with a 5 (assuming 4d6) but could instead lower another stat to prop that one up (heck, you might even be able to ditch all those low dice if the rest of your rolls are good).
As for Focus - Foible, it's rather lacklustre if you ask me and not suitable if the aim is high powered characters. If anything it's a system that promotes SAD characters, favoring full casters over others.
As for flawed characters, I'm all for them but shouldn't that be RP instead of just stats?
As far as levels goes, 6 sounds fine to me, as would 5 for that matter.
On races, Darksun races is fine but I guess the Deadlands could also add options. Beyond that there are races that could easily fit. As an example, Trox would make a pretty good Thri-Kreen offshoot.
The "(almost) no metals" rule is part of the setting isn't it?
I'm fine with the other rule suggestions, though I'd prefer some restrictions on the bonus feats. Whether that is no combat other than teamwork and no metamagic or something else I don't really mind (perhaps a softer restriction, like at max half of them on combat/metamagic so that characters like a weaponmaster aren't left out in the cold).
Your list looks good Smooshie and I agree with all except point 2. I barely prefer the dice pool method I linked to just rolling sets. This way you can actually arrange your dice and have more control than with rolling sets.
The backup point buy looks fine, though I think some suggested going beyond 25.
One of the reasons I suggested to limit the use of Paizo classes and not outright exclude them was people's access and familiarity. Sure, D20PFSRD has a lot of 3rd party material on it but most of that is unfamiliar to people. Sticking a Paizo class in there would give many people a more familiar base to start from.
That and Paizo also has plenty of it's own obscure stuff, like the Omdura (which I still want to find a fit for).
I do think that pushing people to use 3rd party stuff sounds fun and that's why my idea was to limit Paizo classes. I'd also be a proponent of pushing other 3rd party things, though in general I'm less into 3rd party races as many of them are just a bit too silly for my taste (either mechanically or thematically).
Dragoncat wrote:
Honestly, I'm leery of doing anything 'Gestalt' or 'Tristalt' or similar stuff like that because of how easy it would be to create uber-characters. Even if the party takes extra care to ensure they don't hog the spotlight from each other or encroach on someone else's role, it's still going to be a headache for a GM, having to balance encounters with that character generation rule in mind.
While I understand and somewhat agree I also know that Seb is quite used to working with that power level so I'm not worried in the slightest.
I do have some suggestions for the rules, assuming we're to make them up ourselves. I'm not getting into setting specific things like races and how to deal with arcane casters simply because I don't have solid ideas there. Other than races have to be setting appropriate.
My suggestions, also besed on what I've seen from Seb so far.
Gestalt or Tristalt, either is fine with me.
Max 1 "normal" Paizo class, regardless of whether it's Gestalt or Tristalt. By "normal" I mean any non-PrC by Paizo with the exception of the Omdura or the Vampire Hunter, though the latter seems out of place for Athas to me.
No building 1 man armies. All classes must be picked to create a cohesive unit based on a single them. This would be a flavour theme, not a purely mechanical one.
At least free Weapon Finesse for all and at BAB+1 Combat Expertise and Power Attack and it's equivalents. Full EitR is also ok with me. If the 3rd part scaling versions of those feats are used those would still cost a feat to buy the progression.
I know Seb has a love for giving more feats which sounds fine to me. I would, however, like some sort of restriction on the feats gotten beyond base progression. Something like no Combat feats (unless also Teamwork, maybe)
Dice pool for stats, including rerolling 1's as per the link(easily simplified as getting to reroll up to six 1's).
I think that covers all the non setting specific things.
They also have a heavy presence in Tian Xia, with their own underground kingdom that actually conquered surface cities in the past, more or less running Goka's Deepmarket and in a city in Kwanlai.
It would also be nice culture shock for an Inner Sea region Ratfolk to learn that his people have a more negative image in Tian Xia.
And then I found a way to build her as I originally intended but picking a Malefex Knock that, in a vacuum, is probably one of the worse ones. Bela switched to improvised weapons. It's a better feat for someone who grew up on the street, alone and had to improvise when she botched yet another attempt at picking someone's pockets.
She pretty much is a switch hitter, using a bow at long range and unarmed strikes at close range. The focus will be on ranged attacks but she has a decently strong melee option.
In combat she'd focus on punishing enemies, debuffing them and getting attacks on those that attack allies.
So constantly growing claws that give a -2 on Escape Artist and Sleight of Hand due to growing too long too fast. That would explain her constantly getting caught when picking pockets as a child.
And might as well add HP rolls:
5d8 ⇒ (7, 1, 8, 5, 4) = 25
reroll the 1:
1d8 ⇒ 4
so 28, nice.
Slight change of plans, I'm making my character a Changeling instead of a Duskwalker. Not entirely sure what subtype yet, if any.
That also changes the idea for the character's background, though much stays the same (still grew up on the streets of Daggermark and the such).
What changes is that the man that got guillotined is her father and it actually was a final blade that got him.
The idea is that her father was a Gray Gardener who was married to a Changeling and kept in touch with her after her hag transformation as their love an mutual interests remained. The coven her mother was part of was in contact with a Night Hag and the idea was that my character's father would sell souls taken by final blades to the night hag.
However the plan fell through when her father's fellows found out. Her father was arrested and executed and both her mother and the night hag were forced to flee. During the run my character's mother dumped her outside an orphanage in the first big city she encountered after leaving Galt, which so happened to be Daggermark. My character was about 4 back then.
Her weakness would be tied to this and would more be an outside factor than a weak spot on her end: My character is actively being hunted not just by her own mother but also by the night hag. While her mother simply wants to turn her into a hag the night hag has more complicated plans, which are unknown to my charracter.
A question: I'm planning to take the Arcane Malignancies drawback. Should I roll for that or just pick one?
I will authorize the use of Malefex due to its great RP possibilities!
Nice. I'll be looking at making a Duskwalker Malefex.
In his past life he would have been an anthropologist studying what was going on in Galt while it was on it's way. His study was perceived as prying and that landed him under a guillotine, though he was spared from the Final Blades.
Or at least, that's what the psychopomps that sent him back told him. No telling if it's truth, partial truth or a complete lie.
He came back to the world in Daggermark, where he lived alone and unnoticed on the city's streets, surviving by begging and stealing. When he looked older, Duskwalkers age at strange rates, he got pulled into the famed assassin's guild of his home town. He never had a knack for the guild's beloved poison and would stand out in a crowd due to his appearance yet he was a master at causing what appeared to be accidents and getting away. He used both of those talents to escape Daggermark.
Since then he has been all over the River Kingdoms and the neighbouring lands, including another narrow escape in Galt where he went to find traces of his supposed past life.
You said 3rd party races are a possibility, with permission. How about 3rd party classes? In particular I'm looking at Dreamscarred Press's Malefex, a roguish pseudo-caster with a love of curses.
I'd love to submit a Half-Elf Were-touched Shifter for this using the stag aspect. The idea is that he's a devout follower of the Empyreal Lord Tolc, patron of frozen lands and their inhabitants.
As a result of this he would be a reluctant ally of Baba Yaga as they share an enemy in the demon lord Kostchtchie and the enemy of my enemy is at least a potential friend.
He would have found the group simply because he sought out Baba Yaga himself. He would have no idea about the danger she could pose to him, he just knows she shares an enemy in Kostchtchie and he seeks information in how to deal with the threat of that demon lord and his frost giant followers.
He'd originally come from a Varki tribe, born to a reindeer herder and a visiting Twilight Speaker from a Snowcaster Elf tribe. He would have done his rite of passage, finding and killing a remorhaz together with other youths, at a far earlier age than most at the tender age of 12. In the years after he hunted many other monsters threatening his people and their herds. The height of this all was when he banded together with other hunters and several shaman to get rid of a wendigo. They paid a high price but in the end they forced the creature to flee.
Mechanically he'd focus on natural attacks and using his high speed to quickly reach and take out dangerous foes. He'd also be a great tracker, guide and survivalist.
He can be found here. I'll wait with sorting gear as a skeleton build is enough.
Did some more shuffling on Valerie and ended up with a more balanced build I think. She has no gear as I don't know what is available to the characters.
I ditched the tower shield in favor of a heavy shield(for now at least) but am keeping the heavy blades Valerie starts with in game. The idea is for a character that turns defense into offense via the Archon Style chain and Paired Opportunist combined with the Fighter's Tactics Advanced Weapon Training (so not online until next level).
As I mentioned, I made her an Orlovsky as I know she's of noble birth and the Orlovsky's kind of fit with Shelyn lovers.
That and the one documented Orlovsky woman I could find, Sylvanna Orlovsky, bares some resemblance to Valerie based on her description. I'd imagine her as Valerie's older sister or cousin and someone who Valerie was jealous of as she is a military captain, something Valerie would have preferred over a paladin.
I've been playing with more ideas including one that dips a single level of Monk using the Master of Many Styles archetype so it can adopt two styles at ones (the Fighter feat that does this requires at least one of them to be a weapon style, which I'm not using). This second style to run next to Mobile Bulwark Style would be Archon Style.
This build would be a better all-round protector than the High Guardian version as it's not limited to protecting just it's charge (and itself). On the flip side, it's quite gimmicky with the monk level and not a great fit for the character. I guess you could say Valerie went soul searching after she dropped out from Paladin school.
So a few questions for the GM and the current players: What kind of Valerie would you like to see? I'm talking broad strokes here, so would you like an offensive or a more defensive version? How far is it ok to stray from the original and still be Valerie? Or does being Valerie purely depend on the rp character and not so much on the build? How gimmicky can one go?
More or less done with Valerie. I made her an Orlovsky as I know she's of noble birth and that house fitted with her parents pushing her to be a paladin of Shelyn.
The profile continues a more offensive feat setup:
Barroom Brawler, Combat Reflexes, Improved Bravery, Improved Shield Bash, Shield Brace and Step Up.
This would be using a polearm, a heavy shield for bashing and would be a focused on hindering opponents.
Another, more traditional Valerie setup would be:
Advanced Armor Training (Master Armorer), Combat Reflexes, Improved Bravery, Mobile Bulwark Style, Mobile Fortress, Shield Focus
This build would probably use a falcata next to the tower shield and would focus on becoming an immovable object side-lining as a protector.
EDIT: Actually I'd probably take the High Guardian archetype with this, ditching Improved Bravery (lose the feature) and Advanced Armor training (will grab later) while getting a better (for this character) version of Combat Reflexes from the archetype.
Just to be clear: all exotic weapons are now martial?
Right now I'm in a bit in doubt on my build for Valerie. Either she'd be more classic Valerie and become a walking fortress with a tower shield or I change her to a heavy shield and do something odd/ugly like wielding a butchering axe in one hand (versatile design to make it a polearm or spear combined with Shield Brace).
In that case I'd love to rebuild Valerie. Might have her keep the tower shield, but the archetype has to go.
Any other restrictions on character building?
25pt buy, two traits plus a campaign trait, and yes, the tower shield archetype is really bad.
Another question: How do you feel about Combat Stamina? If you are ok with it, would Fighters get it for free or would you need to pick it up normally?
How much of the game will be urban vs out in the wilds? Mostly asking because the Fortune-Finder makes less sense if the group doesn't travel through different terrains.
Hey, Cuan, have you checked out the Luckbringer to balance out the Malefex in the whole 'twisting fate' idea?
Hadn't seen it before no.
It looks nice, but I'm not sure. It would be another classes with many moving parts (that I'm not familiar with). That and it's Charisma based making me more MAD and clashing a bit with the only thematic race I have found so far, the Hexbreather and it's -2 Cha.
Best fitting third class on the cursing front I have found would be Mageknight, from the Spheres stuff,, with the Grim Disciple archetype. But on mechanics it would be less of a fit as that one is full BAB while the other 2 aren't.
I'd be looking at a character whose power revolves around curses and bad luck. Still looking for a race though. Normally I'd lean towards Changelings but since they are Paizo material I'm still looking for something else that fits. I'm sure I'll find it, just haven't yet.
Functionally the character would be a mix of debuffer and damage dealer as well as some degree of skill monkey. I'm mostly sold on two of my classes though (Malefex and Malefactor) and could be a bit more flexible with the third, as long as I stay close to concept (looking at Soul Hunter Stalker at the moment but could go other ways as well. Hellion by Rogue Genius would fit thematically but would make the character quite MAD).
So far I'm looking at mixing Malefex from Dreamscarred Press, Malefactor from Total Party Kill games and Stalker from Paths of War using the Soul Hunter archetype.
All are d8, 3/4th BAB and a have penchant for causing misfortune and ill fates in others.
I must say though that there is one baseline feat that I probably can't avoid with this build: Weapon Finesse. I'd expect to get it through Stalker class features but getting that effect(though not necessarily the feat) is pretty much a must.
I'm working on a Ratfolk with the Sleepless Suns Star background. Still deciding between Swashbuckler and Fighter for the little guy.
The idea would be that he's actually a foreigner himself, sort of. He arrived on a ship from Goka in Tian Xia when he was about a year old when his parents came to set up the Absalom branch of his clan's trading company.
Yekra should be fully complete now, including her eidolon.
She carries a wand of cure light wounds with 20 charges.
Her eidolon will be going for the Archon Style chain of feats later, in part because it works for the tag team idea I have for my character and in part because a demonic eidolon fighting using techniques normally used by archons is an idea that pleases me.
Should we end up with a group that needs it I'd be fine with swapping some skill ranks of my eidolon to Disable Device, grabbing the Extra Traits feat on it for the Trap Finder trait and adding a Skilled evolution for Disable Device.
Yekra will be dual pathing Guardian and Archmage, as I mentioned before. All the things to give my eidolon a mythic boost are in either Guardian or Heirophant and the latter doesn't do much for me.
If I had to pick 1 path it would probably be Guardian.
A slight change to my character concept compared to what you have on the sheet: She became a Half Orc instead of a Half Elf and turned CG in the process.
Yekra Tharier is still very much under construction.
Yekra is the daughter of a Matanji, one of the demon hunting Orcs of the Mwangi Expanse, and a Human crusader from Mendev.
Background. It's long:
Her Orcish mother, an aristocrat among her people, had travelled north from the Expanse to see more of the world. Originally aiming for Belkzen, she instead veered east after learning how those Orcs treat their women. After being harshly rebuffed at the Kyonin border, where she hoped to learn about the fight against Treerazer she went further north to learn and teach in Mendev. After first dealing with a healthy dose of scepticism she eventually managed to prove herself in the eyes of the crusade even though most were shocked about the Matanjio practice of eating demonic flesh and chewing demon bones to prove their might over their abyssal prey.
In time she fell in love with a Gorumite crusader and together they had two children, Yekra and her younger brother Makir.
Like a good Gorumite, their father died in battle. Yekra and Makir were still children and were no being raised by a mother who had no real ties to the place where they lived, in effect they grew up in a tiny Mwangi enclave. At home their mother told them about the practices of their people, their culture and how they fought the demons and their history of glory while outside the house they were force to join military training as soon as they came of age and were constantly scrutinised by the Witchhunters because they weren't like the 'normal' people. After her mother had started placing the first warding tattoos on Yekra's skin it only became worse as they caused her to stand out even more than her manners already did.
It were the regular arrests by the witchhunters, which invariable led to her being let go once an officer had caught wind of it, that led a teenage Yekra to be taken by cultists posing as just more witchhunters. But instead of a cell where she awaited the arrival of an officer she was led to some dark basement where there were several other teens, most of them bloody, beaten and tied up. The cultists tied her up as well and then she and the others were each placed at a tip of a pentagram on the floor that appeared to be drawn in blood. The apparent leader of the cultists stood in the centre and once the other cultists were all in place, he or she started chanting while lifting something up in the air. Then one of the other teens started to scream while a stream of what looked like blood streamed from his mouth, through the air and towards whatever the main cultist was holding. Then the same happened to the second teen and then the third and then it was Yekra's turn. But while the pain did come and she did scream her blood remained hers. Instead all the tattoos that her mother had so carefully drawn on her skin lit up a brilliant silver. Before any of the other cultists could react the foul ritual turned against the figure standing in the middle as whatever he was holding burst with a loud crack and then exploded, splattering all present in the collected blood that had somehow been altered by the ritual. But while the foul substance tore at materials and at the flesh of the chanting cultists Yekra's tattoos glowed once more and all the blood that hit her was absorbed into her skin, giving her a healthy complexion but nothing else.
Empowered by whatever had happened Yekra tore at her bindings, breaking them, and then freed the last teen, who was covered in blood and in shock but otherwise appeared healthy. She dragged him past the tow cultist guards who had come to check on the commotion while they stood in awe of the scene before them.
Yekra dropped the teen off at the nearest temple and then proceeded to head home, hoping to tell her mother about all that happened and find some comfort there. Instead her mother appeared to be revolted the moment Yekra started to speak, turning away from her in disgust. She was stupefied. Only when her brother told her she had been speaking in the language of demons did she understand her mother's reaction. She tried to write down her story but to her shock discovered that her writing was in Abyssal as well. She cried, sobbing until she fell asleep.
It was only the next day, when she had calmed down, that she could tell her family what had happened to her. Her mother embraced her almost instantly, apologising profusely for her behaviour the day before. Yet when breaking down into tears again, Yekra once more found herself speaking in the demonic tongue. From that moment onward, every time she got emotional, be hit anger, sadness or even delight, she automatically switched to Abyssal, often only discovering she did by the change in expression of those around her.
That wasn't all though as soon after the day of the ritual she started being plagued by nightmares. In those nightmares something was hunting her. She run and while she did she'd trip over the dead bodies of the cultists and other teens from the ritual as well as those of her parents and brother. She could only catch glimpses of the thing that hunted her and it looked at what she knew to be a demon, a babau. Often she'd wake up screaming, only able to speak Abyssal and not able to tell of her dreams until she had calmed. down.
Initially both Yekra and her mother figured this was trauma from the ritual and that it would fade in time. When they did not and in fact only became worse her mother sighed and took her daughter to a separate room, imploring her son to stay behind. There she told Yekra stories from the Mwangi she never had before, telling tales of a god called Kalekot who would hunt they guilty while sowing fear among the innocent. He was one who watched over the victims and those of mixed heritage, people like Yekra. So perhaps, if she turned to him, he could help her deal with the nightmares. So she did.
That night, when the nightmares came, they started the same but soon her own panic at being hunted was overshadowed by someone's else panic. Something had come for her tormentor and it was terrified of it. Sometimes she could catch glimpses of the demonic foe from her dreams being chased by something much bigger.
After several more weeks of this Yekra was surprised by her next nightmare. The moment right after she fell asleep she found herself standing over what used to be her tormentor, the demonic figure on it's knees, begging her to call off the bigger hunter. For a moment she just stood there and then she saw the demon huddle even closer to the ground when a large, withered hand not unlike the demon's own was gently placed upon her shoulder. When she looked up she saw the eyeless mask of Kalekot, just as her mother had described him. Yet it did not scare her, instead it emboldened her. She nodded and while the hand was lifted from her shoulder and the giant figure vanished she placed a hand on the demon's head. The invader might have been placed there by the ritual, contained by the marks on her skin, this was her mind and here she ruled, not it. She would make it her own as well.
The demonic form shifted under her hand. The babau's oily skin dried up and turned black as charcoal and it's tail shrunk away while silver markings started to snake across it's skin until they mirrored Yekra's while it's entire hands also turned silver. Lastly it's eyes shifted from pupil less, white orbs they became bright blue like Yekra's but with pupil's like a snake or a cat.
A new shock came when she woke up and found the figure from her dreams huddled in the corner of the room while her mother stood over it, blade held high. Yekra only just managed to unsummon it, turned it into a silvery fog before it made it's way back to her mind, before her mother struck. While Yekra could explain everything to her mother's satisfaction after they had both calmed down this was the last straw for her mother and the next day both she and Makir left Mendev for good, heading back to the Mwangi where the demonic corruption, while ever present, had not corrupted the world to the same degree.
Yekra did not join them, knowing from her mother's stories that the Matanji would not accept her now that she was bound to some demonic force, even though it was no more or less cleansed of it's foulness. Instead she remained, determined to learn more about her condition and use her ability to help the crusade. She figured that she could handle the reactions given the prejudice she had already experienced. She was wrong.
The moment it was known what had happened and become of her people were scared of Yekra. While she did not mind that too much, one of Kalekot's teachings was that fear of the unknown was a healthy thing that kept you safe. she did mind the witchhunters. Where in the past they would arrest her and release her again the moment an officer showed up now the officers ordered her arrest. In fact it was only because the Riftwarden's interceded that they did not execute her, just to placate the masses. Now instead the Riftwarden's studied her while at the same time they taught her about her condition. They were especially intrigued that the demon that had become bound to her, became an eidolon as they called it, had somehow been transformed.
Yet while this relation with the Riftwardens provided her with a degree of freedom it was all still a glorified prison to Yekra. Now she just needed a way out of the city without guards bringing her back to the Riftwardens when she tried to slip away. Luckily Armasse was coming up. That way she could buy herself some good food before using the cover of the masses to slip past the guards before making her way south in hopes of trying her luck among her mother's people.
I used quite a bit of new lore from the new PF2e Mwangi book as inspiration for my character. That should still work just fine as the things I used would have been around while WotR was going on.
Any chance we'll see more of Grandmother Spider among other pantheons? I had more or less expecting her among the Freeing Flame, seeing how she likes to mess with tyrants.
I love WotR, like I mentioned in the interest thread.
I parked the character idea I mentioned before as I would actually rather build him as an evil character, should I ever get the chance.
Instead I'd like to submit a Half Elf Unchained Summoner using the Soulbound Summoner archetype and the Stolen Fury campaign trait. She'd actually take the Dual Path feat as her first Mythic feat and will be a mix of Guardian and Archmage.
The idea here is that the ritual my character was exposed to nestled within her, haunting her dreams. In time she managed to hive it form so she herself could better deal with the nightmares until that form become so real that it started to manifest as a physical being. As such her eidolon is a Demonic in form yet it's alignment is the same as my character, Neutral Good. A side effect for my character is that when she is excited for any reason any word she utters turns into Abyssal, sometimes without her noticing (Extending the Pactbond Curse of the archetype into a flaw, if that's ok).
The character herself is a bit of a grump and a cynic, at least at the start. While she understands that her affliction is a scary one so close to the Worldwound she would have expected that the locals would have gotten used to it by now. She was the victim of kidnapping by cultists and was then exposed to some demonic ritual, she still suffers the scars from all that and yet, somehow, she's the bad guy. She has been arrested and interrogated by the local Witchhunters several times despite them knowing who she is and what happened to her. In fact she has gotten so fed up with it all that she intends to leave Kenbres after the coming Armasse (the event going on when the campaign starts).
Her reasoning being that while she wants to support the crusade they pretty much make it impossible for her so she's better of leaving.
Later than anticipated, in large part because I actually made a switch in character as I just couldn't get my head around the changeling in a satisfying manner.
So instead I present Sawbones, a Warforged Engineer | Medic. As it stands I'm just spending his money and am done beyond that.
He is a small size Warforged using the race from the Eberron conversion.
Background:
Originally a gift to House Jorasco from Breland (who bought him from House Cannith), Unit 67447 was trained as an artificer after his 'birth' from the forge. The purpose he was gifted fore, beyond fostering goodwill from the house of healers, was threefold. First he was to assist the healers in their work, second he was to repair other warforged and third he was to be a last line of defense for the healers, who quickly named him Sawbones.
While not supposed to actually work as a healer the Jorasco healers did train him do deal with all but the most severe cases so he could help them handle the ever increasing flow of wounded soldiers, be they flesh or construct.
Eventually he was also sent onto battlefields after the fighting had died down to both look for survivors and to scavenge parts from dead warforged to use in the repairs of other warforged. It was during such a run that he stumbled upon a broken down prototype of an elementally infused siege weapon from which he salvaged it's khyber shard containing a bound earth elemental.
Having both a relatively high degree of freedom and a lot of free time at night while their group was travelling, Swabones started to employ his ever increasing knowledge of warforged anatomy to upgrade himself in hopes of becoming better at his work. While he started fairly simple, upgrading his night vision, he soon got the plan of integrating his salvaged elemental core into his own body. While his first attempt nearly met with catastrophic failure he eventually managed to succeed and almost immediately noticed an increase in power.
By the time the war ended Sawbones was less a servant and more another colleague to his fellow healers, being the only constant in the squad's roster. While he initially kept his elemental integration secret from everybody, it in time became a shared secret within the group as it was impossible to constantly hide the crystalline growths protruding from his frame.
A free warforged after the treaty of Thronehold, Sawbones nevertheless travelled with his comrades to their new assignment, landing him in the House Jorasco enclave in Newthrone. Yet this concept of true freedom kept gnawing at the back of his mind and while doing his work he is just looking for a good enough reason to leave the enclave and find his own path.
