Desh's page

Darkvision: Half-orcs can see in the dark up to 60 feet.

City Raised: (in place of Weapon Familiarity)

Sacred Tattoo: Many half-orcs decorate themselves with tattoos, piercings, and ritual scarification, which they consider sacred markings. Half-orcs with this racial trait gain a +1 luck bonus on all saving throws. This racial trait replaces orc ferocity.

Shaman's Apprentice: Only the most stalwart survive the years of harsh treatment that an apprenticeship to an orc shaman entails. Half-orcs with this trait gain Endurance as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces the intimidating trait.

Studied Target +1 (Ex): A slayer can study an opponent he can see as a move action. The slayer then gains a +1 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks attempted against that opponent, and a +1 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against it. The DCs of slayer class abilities against that opponent increase by 1. A slayer can only maintain these bonuses against one opponent at a time; these bonuses remain in effect until either the opponent is dead or the slayer studies a new target.

If a slayer deals sneak attack damage to a target, he can study that target as an immediate action, allowing him to apply his studied target bonuses against that target (including to the normal weapon damage roll).

At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels, the bonuses on weapon attack rolls, damage rolls, and skill checks and to slayer DCs against a studied target increase by 1. In addition, at each such interval, the slayer is able to maintain these bonuses against an additional studied target at the same time. The slayer may discard this connection to a studied target as a free action, allowing him to study another target in its place.

At 7th level, a slayer can study an opponent as a move or swift action.

Track +1 (Ex): A slayer adds 1/2 his level (minimum 1) to Survival skill checks made to follow tracks.

Worn: Varisian traveler's clothes, kapenia, scale mail, longsword (left hip), cold iron morningstar (right thigh), war razor (belt), light steel quickdraw shield, javelin sling (6 javelins),

Beltpouch: 1 set of bone dice, flint & steel

Backpack: bedroll, waterskin, Alika's harrow deck, 1 pack playing cards, 1 pack marked playing cards, 50ft rope, mess kit[UE], pot, torch (10), trail rations (5), manacles

Current Monies: 5.8 gp

At a distance, Desh looks like any other Varisian traveler. Practical traveling clothes with random slashes of bright colors cover his tall, athletic frame. His armor is well-used but well-maintained, and the kapenia enshrouding his neck is a riot of reds, oranges, turquoise, and purples. His equipment and weaponry are similarly straightforward: a stuffed travel pack, a shield, and a longsword.

But once you step closer, more interesting details emerge. Bluff, brutish features, thick muscles, and grayish-green skin give away Desh's orcish blood. And where his skin is exposed - on hands, forearms, and shaved scalp - brilliantly multicolor tattoos create a unique tapestry. Most remarkable is Desh's insistence that a few notable ones, those on his forearms and scalp stylistically depicting symbols of Desna and Calistria, were in fact already there when he was found as a baby.

Desh tends to be irreverent, frank, and often sarcastic. There's a jaded streak to his nature, though it often expresses itself as a blunt, dark humor. He enjoys gambling wherever he goes, and usually can't pass up a good wager. He hates to lose, often displaying a single-mindedness when set to a task. What Desh often hides is his soft spot for outsiders and outcasts. Like most Varisians, he steadfastly (and often violently) protects those he sees as friend or family.

Alika Vaduva loved her morning walks. She wasn't young anymore, and she found a jaunt away from the caravan in the early dawn helped awaken her old bones. It also gave her time to clear her head ... see what Desna might whisper to her for the day. But it wasn't Desna's whisperings she heard that morning. It was a baby's screams.

The child was literally wrapped up in a sac. Not safely tucked away, but folded all the way into mucky old burlap. Like some piece of trash. When she opened it, she openly admits she recoiled at first. The child was ... brutish-looking. With gray-tinged skin and black eyes. And across its tiny, quivering arms and up onto its round, ashen head were markings.

Her heart broke. And as Alika's aging body bent to pick up the little castaway, the child's skin markings seemed to speak to her. Maybe Desna whispered after all. To her eyes, they seemed almost to move: stars and butterflies, daggers and wasp stingers. Auspicious markings, indeed.

So she waited, hoping futilely that the child's parents might return. One hour passed. The morning mists receded. The child wailed. A second hour passed. Dawn gray-blues became morning oranges around her. Still no parents. But the cries receded, and the child slept in her arms.

Alika had never born children. Had never wed. But in her years, she'd learned to listen to Desna's whispers - in the Tarrow cards or in the subtle shiftings of everyday events. And that day, she saw her stars aligning.

She took the child back to the wagons. She fed him. She cared for him. And from that day forward, he was hers. Her little Desh Vaduva.

The child grew quickly into a boy. Healthy, strong. The boy was different than the other children of the caravan, but he was loved. At least by Alika. So he may never have had traditional brothers and sisters, but he had family.

Desna continued to smile on Desh as he grew. Her luck seemed to be with him, protecting him when he got into scrapes. Guiding him when he might otherwise get lost.

And while the boy never seemed interested or capable with Alika's Tarot cards, he proved incredibly valuable to the caravan's Sczarni members. As Desh's youth exploded into young adulthood, his muscle made him an asset. His sharp eyes made him valued. And when they started pulling regular jobs with other troupes around the small coastal town of Sandpoint, Desh jumped at the opportunity.

Then Desh's luck caught up to him. Years back, while the caravan was visiting a contact in town named Jubrayl Vhiski, Desh came home to find Alika gone. One hour passed. Daylight faded to dusk. A second hour passed. Stars began to dot the sky. Still no Alika.

Her body was found the next day, cast off outside the city's walls. Like some piece of trash. No witnesses came forward. Non-Varisians never do in defense of Varisians, anyway.

Alika was buried. Desh mourned, but has never fully recovered from the loss. He wears her kapenia - and keeps her Tarot cards - in her memory. For years, he couldn't bring himself to set foot inside Sandpoint.

But when Jubal's message arrived, and the caravan leader asked Desh to help protect the wagons carrying fireworks for the town's upcoming celebration ... what was Desh to do? They were family. You don't turn your back on family.

He doesn't have to like the Sandpointers, but he'll do his part. Who knows, maybe he'll be able to win some coin off them.