Dingo Meadowbreeze's page

Dingo Meadowbreeze was born a slave in Cheliax. His family had been owned by House Seidraith, a Chelaxian noble family associated with House Arionne, for many years, and when Dingo was born, he was added as a matter of course to the contract his Chelaxian owners possessed that defined his family's bondage. His family were house servants, and like many in Cheliax, they were a sought-after breed of servant. Compliant, cheerful, discrete and quiet, the Slip servants, as they are called, are owned by the wealthiest and most prestigious families. Dingo was raised in the downstairs rooms of the nobles' mansion in Westcrown. There he learned the emnity that would carry him through the rest of his youth, against the human owners who decided every aspect of the lives of Dingo and his family. Dingo was one of several Halfling children in this particular house. Because of the laws of Cheliax, the children of slaves were not free individuals, but belonged to the slave masters. His owners treated their Halfling slaves like cattle, or more appropriately like dogs. They introduced new breeding stock from time to time to create the best servants. Dingo was trained by fellow Halflings from the household staff, which was arranged in a rigid hierarchy that echoed that of the Asmodean-influenced Chelaxian rulership. The top of the Pyramid rested with the Lord and Lady of the house, Talamon and Deriah. Below them were their parents, and then their children. Next the Household staff was controlled by the Head Butler, and under him the Head Maid. They, like the Head Footman, House Guards and the Stable master, were Human. Below all the Human staff the Halfling staff was headed by the Head Underbutler and Undermaid. They controlled all the Cooks, Grooms, Maids, Underfoots, Chars and Nightfoots. The household was a rigid place, but a pocket of traditional Halfling life existed like a candle in the dark.

Dingo was particularly troublesome as a child. He was sneaky, and yet an excellent liar when caught. The Underbutler tried to train it out of him, but it was taken out of his hands one night when Dingo was found in the childhood rooms of one of the Lord's sons by the Head Maid, playing with the toys there. The Head maid beat Dingo within an inch of death. The son whose toys these were died in childhood, and it was a sacred place to the Lady of the house. There was a more sinister side to this death, but Dingo will not realize what it was until many years later. Dingo recovered, but he became obsessed with the dead son, even beginning to mimic the son's appearance in the portrait hanging in a shadowed corner of the Library. The boy's room was sealed, but knowing the house as he did, he eventually got back in, and to prevent being caught inside, he snuck toys out one at a time to avoid suspicion. This was perhaps foolish, for the Lady knew every inch of that room, and recognized that things were coming and going from there. She waited up one night and observed Dingo come in. Seeing Dingo, she recognized he was one of the servants' children. Dingo was terrified and froze when he saw her, but was amazed when she spoke to him. "Child, I know what you have been doing. And I want it to stop, but I do not blame you. In fact, I want you to have one of my son's toys, as long as you promise never to come back to this room." She stepped aside and opened the toy chest, and then left the room. Inside were all the wonderful things Dingo wanted, but to choose just one... Then as he looked, he spied something that caught his eye. It was a curious thing. A puzzle box, carved from some kind of black wood with a reddish tint, inlaid round and round with intricate lines. He picked it up and it felt warm to the touch. It was a devilishly intricate thing, and in all the time he played with it in the years since, he could never open it completely.

Dingo grew older, and learned what he was able of how to be a Nightfoot, one of the Halfilng servants who watched the house at night. He liked the night, and its shadows, but outside the house, the night had recently become a thing with teeth. The scourge of the Shadow Beasts filled Westcrown with fear. Dingo had hardly ever been outside the house and its grounds and the rumors of what stalked Westcrown's streets took on a surreal dimension among the staff. Dingo found himself looking out over the manor's walls at the rooftops beyond, straining his eyes to see any signs of the dreaded shadow beasts. He did see shapes in the darkness, but whether they were imagined or not, was never important. In his later adolescence he would get a first-hand experience that would set him on the path he finds himself on now.

New servants had not joined the house for some time, but the Underbutler was growing old, and so the Head Butler arranged for two new slaves to be purchased. One was a Halfling man and the other was his daughter, Mia. Dingo was lovestruck immediately. Being the brash one that he was, he began courting her. But his naivete about the world outside the manor was a source of disdain for Mia. Despite this, the two were encouraged to fraternize, and eventually she grew fond of Dingo. However, she was not a domesticated servant like Dingo and his family. She harbored a desire to run away. She began to educate Dingo about the world - or at least as much of it as she knew, which was far more than he. This had the predictable effect of firing him up, and as lovestruck as he was, he ate up every word. The mention of the Bellflower Network made him intensely curious, and he began to wonder how they might help he and his family escape their bondage. Mia, who now hoped she could trust Dingo, included him in her plans to run away. She said she had a contact in the Bellflower Network, and that she would take Dingo with her.

Their plan was simple, and Dingo was good at planning. He knew the house and its routines intimately. He initially balked at going out in the night, for fear of the Shadow Beasts, but Mia convinced him they were far more a myth than a real danger. She was not from Westcrown, as it happened. They slipped out of a window and for the first time Dingo was outside the manor of his owners. He felt terrified, but with Mia there, he hoped he would be able to find his way. They dashed through the night, keeping away from the streets patrolled by the Dottari. But Mia was wrong about the Shadow Beasts, and to Dingo's continuing sorrow, they both found out how terrible the truth of Westcrown's haunting was. Impossible shapes descended on them in a lonely court, and Dingo and Mia tried to run. Terror turned the next few minutes - or was it seconds, into a fear-soaked blur, but in the end Dingo felt himself being lifted off the ground, held by cold, dark appendages. He grabbed Mia's arms, and held on so tight. And though they tried to tear them apart, Dingo held on. Until the creatures let him go. They shied away from Dingo for some reason. Just long enough for their grip to lapse and for his grip on Mia to be torn away as he plummeted from the sky. The last thing he saw of her was a faint shape against the starry sky, and then he hit water.

Dingo landed in the river, and would have drowned were it not for a ship nearby. The night watchers heard the splash and spotted him struggling. They sent a boat festooned with lanterns against the hungry shadows, and pulled him, insensible and terrified beyond reason, shivering from the water. He grew feverish, and the ship's captain at first wanted to put him ashore, for in Cheliax he might be someone's property. But the strange method of his arrival and ultimately the intervention of the ship's gunner saved him. The gunner, a grim Dwarf named Etgar was a rare breed. A seagoing Dwarf, but even stranger, a practicer of the strange art of firearms from Alkenstar. The circumstances of his exile Etgar never shared with Dingo during his time on the ship, the Rose. This ship was owned by the Pathfinder Society, and they were in Westcrown on a mission for the Decemvirate. Dingo was never privy to what this entailed, but with Etgar's generosity, he spent some time aboard the Rose. As the ship sailed out of Westcrown, Dingo suffered. First under the fever, and then under the loss of Mia. Etgar, while grim, was not unsympathetic. He gave the boy tasks to do in his workshop, a strange place of burning powders and terrible smells. After a time the Rose arrived in Magnimar where the ship's cargo, a team of Pathfinders, was disembarked. Dingo considered leaving then, but he felt drawn back to Westcrown. He asked Etgar to drop him off there when the Rose passed Westcrown again on the way back to Absalom. Etgar seemed to know the danger an escaped slave faced in Cheliax, and after a serious chat with the Halfling, he agreed to do so, but also to teach him skills he hoped would protect him when he returned, as long as Dingo agreed to stay aboard the Rose for as long as it would take. Dingo agreed, and he became the Dwarf's assistant. Two years passed, and he was to learn a great deal, eventually constructing his own pistol under Etgar's tutelage. He also met many more Pathfinders as the Rose conveyed them around the Inner Sea. One of those, a Wizard from Cheliax, spotted Dingo playing with his puzzle box, and recognized the script on the outside. It was Infernal. The puzzle box was some kind of document engraved very cleverly to only be revealed when the box was fully opened. Dingo was amazed, and intensely curious. He had the Wizard teach him what he could of Infernal and continued to try to solve the puzzle. He found that the text mentioned souls, and contracts, and the name of his former masters' family, but could not piece together more than that.

When he finally arrived back in Westcrown, Dingo was older, more experienced, and wiser, and also armed. But he had no contacts in Westcrown. However, Etgar had one for him. A local Cleric named Arael. Dingo thanked Etgar and the Dwarf promised to look him up if he was ever in Westcrown again. Dingo disembarked and sought out Arael.

Traits: Conspiracy Hunter (+1 Stealth, Stealth a class skill), Successful Shirker (+1 Stealth, +3 Bluff and Diplomacy to avoid punishment from Lawful Authority)
Alternate Racial Traits: Fleet of Foot (Replaces Slow Speed and Sure of Foot)
Feats: Rapid Reload (Pistol) (1)

Dingo Meadowbreeze
Male Halfling Gunslinger (Mysterious Stranger) 1
NG Small Humanoid (Halfling)
Init: +4, Perception: +5
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Defense
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AC 18 (+1 Size, +4 Dex, +3 Armor), touch 15, flat-footed 14
HP 11 (1d10+1 favored class)
Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +0 (+2 vs Fear)
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Offense
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Speed: 30ft
Melee: Short Sword +1 (1d4-1), Dagger +1 (1d3-1, 19-20/x2)
Ranged: Pistol +6 (1d6, 20/x4)
Special: Grit (3), Deeds: Focused Aim, Deadeye, Gunslinger's Dodge
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 18, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 16
Base Attack: +1, CMB +0, CMD 14
Feats: Rapid Reload (Pistol), Gunsmithing
Traits: Conspiracy Hunter (Stealth), Successful Shirker
Skills: Acrobatics +8, Bluff +7, Craft: Alchemy +6, Knowledge: Local +6, Perception +5, Stealth +14
Languages: Taldane (Common), Infernal, Dwarven, Halfling

60gp

Pistol (-), Gunslinger's Kit (26 - Backpack, Bedroll, Belt Pouch, Flint & Steel, Gunsmith's Kit, Iron Pot, Mess Kit, Powder Horn, 50' Rope, 10 Torches, 5 Trail Rations, Waterskin), Studded Leather Armor (25), 20 Doses of Black Powder (20), 20 Bullets (2), Short Sword (10), Dagger (2), Pocketed Scarf (8), Hat (1), Waterproof Bag (5s), Smokestick (20),3 Potion of Cure Light Wounds