Durvin Gest's page

About Durvin Gest

Durvin Gest, as he is now known, was once a slave of the Shadow Lodge during the time when they were rebelling from the Pathfinder Society. He spent much of his time in Almas under the iron fist of Hagla, a spiked chain wielding captain in the shadow organization. It wasn't until the society intervened and defeated the hobgoblin that Durvin was freed. The Andoran agents felt sorry for the goblins and how they were treated so sent them to Absalom to be cared for. That's when Durvin's life got interesting.

At Starrise Spire, Durvin witnessed fantastic things that shocked and amazed him. Unlike the other goblins he did not shrink away from the wonders, rather he tried to see how they functioned and from where they manifested. This was not lost on Kreighton Shaine, the society's master of scrolls. He tested the goblin and found Durvin could grasp the concepts of magic and the idiosyncrasies of casting spells. He submitted to the Decemvirate that he could teach magic to the goblin and make him a productive agent of the society. They had their doubts, but stopped short of denying Kreighton his little "pet" project. In fact secretly, they were interested to see if it could be done.

Over the next few months, Durvin was instructed in the rudiments of the arcane. Clearly, he would never become an archmage, but by combining flashy, offensive magic with the goblin's natural skill with a light blade, Kreighton believed he could develop Durvin into a magus. The challenge was getting a goblin to read magic. Where to start.

Goblins by their very nature are destructive and typically distrustful of humans, elves, and other demi-humans. So the first thing Kreighton needed to do was get Durvin to trust him. Granting the goblins their freedom and caring for them was a good start, but he needed to do more to really make an impression on [the new] Durvin. Fortunately, despite being unusually intelligent, Durvin is especially impulsive, quite naive, and lacking in common sense. Kreighton convinced him that he was the reincarnation of the Pathfinder Society's greatest hero, none other than Durvin Gest and he was there to rebuild the society after the Shadow Lodge rebellion and restore its past glory. Durvin always felt like he was better than other goblins anyway and this explained why. He embraced the identity and Kreighton was amused at how Durvin portrayed himself as a hero of the society.

Now, goblins believe that writing steals their thoughts and memories. So, Kreighton had to be inventive if Durvin was ever going to progress. He accomplished this by using the hieroglyphs of ancient Osirion and the goblin's natural propensity for visual imagery to develop a pictorial "language" representing the complicated components required to harness magic. Durvin was skeptical at first and did not want to even look at the spellbook. However, over time, his curiosity overwhelmed him and he would increasingly peek at the book, eventually "reading" all of it. He still does not trust words, which makes learning new spells and using scrolls problematic, but at least he can study his own spellbook.

After two years of study, largely under Kreighton's direct supervision (and without the support of Arem Zey or Ambrus Valsin), Durvin was declared competent enough to take the Confirmation, the test all aspiring agents must complete before being commissioned into the Pathfinder Society. Other than a few mishaps, like nearly being consumed by a gelatinous cube and accidentally freezing Janira Gavix's waterskin with a miscast cold spell, Durvin performed well. He has since been sent on a number of missions all over the Inner Sea. He was instrumental in discovering the diamond sage as well as saving Balenar Forsend from troglodytes in the Cairnlands. He even battled the demonic hordes that invaded Mendev leading an army of miniature golems into battle, in so doing earning the title "Field Marshal." More recently he has traveled to Katapesh doing battle against a slaver cult of Lamashtu, then to Tian Xia where he "led" an army of tengu samurai and closed a temporal rift to another plane from whence demonic shapechangers were emerging. It was during this most recent event that Durvin almost died (in fact he did), but was saved by the power of Sarenrae though the healing hands of Silus. As a result, Durvin has begun study of Sarenrae and the other "gods of light" (whom he didn't believe in prior to his near-death experience) as well developed a deep-seated fear of cats ( ailurophobia) which joins his well-developed fear of wayangs (creepy little f#**ers).

In recognition of his many exploits, Durvin has gained many honorifics including:
Hero of Pathfinder
Defender of Silvershore
Tiller in the Bellflower Network
Professor
Boss'er around of small rocks that move and attack on their own accord
Knight Captain of the Eagle Knights

When not adventuring on behalf of the Society, Durvin teaches Magic 101, a beginner course on arcane magic for new Pathfinder recruits. It focuses on the general nature of magic, though he usually focuses on elemental magic because its the "shiniest." More often than not, his classes are help outside were his examples cause less collateral damage. When he has to leave on a mission, Durvin's grad assistant Albert Porachron (who he calls Alpo) teaches his classes. They share a farmhouse on the outskirts of Absalom.

Kreighton continues to monitor Durvin's progress and the Decemvirate were so impressed with the results, they encouraged other society leaders to teach valuable skills to other freed goblins who have also gone on to be (mostly) productive agents.