Dr. Orris Duftwurtz's page

About Dr. Orris Duftwurtz

The adventurer now known as Orris was born to a scholarly, if downwardly-mobile, family in Xin-Edasseril. Raised to see his studies as a way to cling to a few scraps of his ancestors' glory, he was perparing for a mediocre career as a researcher when a particularly bad plague swept in from the swamps bordering the city, and his parents fell ill.

Though he bankrupted the family to pay for healing reagents, he failed to save them. Lacking the last of their wealth, and having lost his parents' advice and pull, and sold the books that might have guided him in their stead, he found himself unable to keep up appearances enough to find work befitting his former station. Instead, he resorted to working as a footman for a local trader. Grimly determined, he applied his alchemical training to the task of giving his body every advantage he could in combat, to make up for his relative unfamiliarity with violence.

He had just returned from a successful trade journey, and was working to consolidate his methods and materials into something more suited to future adventures, when Earthfall threw his plans into disarray yet again; before he knew it, he was out of a job (even if the old trade routes were not obsolete, citizens must now stay within the borders or be summarily executed), and forced to learn newfangled vernacular to communicate.

No speakers of Common seemed to have patience even for his titles, much less his full name (which would serve as a fairly detailed genealogy, to the right ear). He translated and consolidated those titles to "doctor", because his schooling was largely about doctrinal matters of one sort or another. For a name, he searched for a moniker to denote that his rough exterior hides some noble content, until one night he received a vision of a root that his family foraged from the swamps in its most desperate times. It looks shaggy and filthy when first dug up, but after appropriate processing, it is the source a delicate fragrance that communicates a touch of class, and commands a decent price in the perfume market: in the common tongue, this plant is known as orris root.

Orris intends to wear kohl at the edges of his his eyes (to prevent infection; part of basic hygiene, per his upbringing), and to keep his face and head clean-shaven, but he often neglects these tasks for days at a time. Over his armor, he wears coarse and common imported fabric, wrapped in his customary (i.e., ancient Thassilonian) style. The case for his alchemist's tools and supplies, like much of his other adventuring gear, is ancient in this context, part of the kit he assembled for his caravan travels shortly before Earthfall.

Senses
Perception (*) +3
Languages: Thassilonian; Common, Elven, Gnomish, and Goblin

Defense
AC 18 or 17 bestial
HP 18
Reflex (**) + 8 or +6 bestial
Fortitude (**) +6
Will (*) +3

Offense
Speed 25 feet; Bulk 7.4
-Bestial Claws +6/+2 @ 1d4+2 S
-Bestial Jaws +6/+1 @ 1d6+2 P
-Longspear (2h/reach) +5/+0 @ 1d8+2 P
-Heavy Crossbow (2h/1r) +6/+1 to 120 ft @ 1d8 P
-Alchemist’s Fire (1h/0r) +6/+1 to 20 ft @ 1d8 fire, 1 persistent fire, 1 splash

Skills
Athletics (ST*) +5 or +6 bestial
Acrobatics (DX*) +6
Crafting (INT*) +6
Diplomacy (CHA*) +2
Arcana (INT*) +6
Lore: Thassilon (INT*) +6
Lore: Scribing (INT*) +6
Society (INT*) +6
Stealth (DX*) +6
Thievery (DX*) +6

Feats and Abilities
Versatile: Toughness, Ambition: Alchemical Familiar (Ancestry)
Dubious Knowledge (Background)
Field: Mutagenist, Quick Bomber (Class 1)

Equipment
Explorer’s Clothes (L); Studded Leather (B)
Scrollcase (-) w/ original poems on various topics
Bandolier (-) w/ daily Bombs, Mutagens, and Tools
Sheath x3 (-) w/ Crossbow (B), Bolts x20 (2L), Longspear (2B)
Backpack (-) w/ Alchemist Tools (2B), Formula Book (B), Soap (-), Writing Set (L)
Coins: 9 gold, 9 silver, 5 copper
Feather token (ladder)
Owlbear claw

Alchemy
Default Familiar: a “Snail” with Climber (25 ft) and Speech (Common)
Alchemy DC 17; Infused Reagents 4/day; Formula Book w/ 8 formulas (p543)
Default Preparations: 4x Alchemist’s Fire, 2x Bestial Mutagen (1 minute), 2x Sunrod
Formula Book: Mutagens: Bestial, Juggarnaut, Quicksilver; Bombs: Acid Flask, Alchemist’s Fire; Tools: Smokestick, Sunrod; Poisons: Arsenic

Society Initiation & Training
Radiant Oath faction, Scrolls school (all 3 points)
Feather token, Scribing lore, Owlbear claw

Botting instructions
Orris tends to attempt a knowledge check, then move to a location where his longspear will help protect the party, and apply whatever alchemical item is suggested by the result of the knowledge check (either throwing a bomb of an energy type the enemy is vulnerable to, or quaffing the appropriate mutagen). He will tend to resort to a bestial mutagen (or Mutagenic Flashback If surprised), unless he remembers something useful about the enemy. Versus an enemy whose primary threat appears to be spells, he'll typically quaff a Bestial mutagen, then move adjacent to the caster, if the opportunity arises (or flash back to such a mutagen, close, and bite, if the threat seems to justify the expenditure of such an ability).