Esaul's page

LIGHT
Male Companion Wolf animal 3 - N medium animal
Init +3; Senses Low-Light Vision, Perception +5, Scent,

DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14
hp 21 (3HD)
Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +2
Defensive Abilities Evasion,

OFFENSE
Speed 50 ft. (10 squares)
Melee bite +5 (1d6+2)
Face 5 ft. by 5 ft. Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +2; CMB +4; CMD 17 (21 vs trip)
Atk Options Trip, Power Attack
Special Actions
Abilities Str 14, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6

Special Qualities Bonus Tricks 2, Link, Low-Light Vision, Scent, Share Spells,
Feats Weapon Focus (Bite)(1st); Power Attack (3rd)
Skills Acrobatics +3, Acrobatics (Jump) +11, Appraise -4, Bluff -2, Climb¹ +6, Craft (Untrained) -4, Diplomacy -2, Disguise -2, Escape Artist +3, Fly +3, Heal +1, Intimidate -2, Perception¹ +5, Perform (Untrained) -2, Ride +3, Sense Motive +1, Stealth¹ +7, Survival +1, Swim +2,
Tricks:

• Attack (2): The animal attacks apparent enemies. You may point to a particular creature that you wish the animal to attack, and it will comply if able. Normally, an animal will attack only humanoids, monstrous humanoids, giants, or other animals. Teaching an animal to attack all creatures (including such unnatural creatures as undead and aberrations) counts as two tricks.
  
• Come: The animal comes to you, even if it normally would not do so.
  
• Defend: The animal defends you (or is ready to defend you if no threat is present), even without any command being given. Alternatively, you can command the animal to defend another specific character.
  
• Down: The animal breaks off from combat or otherwise backs down. An animal that doesn't know this trick continues to fight until it must flee (due to injury, a fear effect, or the like) or its opponent is defeated.
  
• Perform: The animal performs a variety of simple tricks, such as sitting up, rolling over, roaring or barking, and so on.
  
• Stay: The animal stays in place, waiting for you to return. It does not challenge other creatures that come by, though it still defends itself if it needs to.
  
• Track: The animal tracks the scent presented to it. (This requires the animal to have the scent ability.)

Evasion (Ex): You can avoid damage from many area-effect attacks. If you make a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, you instead take no damage. Evasion can only be used if you are wearing light armor or no armor. If you are helpless, you do not gain the benefit of evasion.
Link (Ex) A master can handle her animal companion as a free action, or push it as a move action, even if she doesn't have any ranks in the Handle Animal skill. The master gains a +4 circumstance bonus on all wild empathy checks and Handle Animal checks made regarding an animal companion.
Low-Light Vision (Ex): You can see 2x as far as humans in low illumination. Characters with low-light vision have eyes that are so sensitive to light that they can see twice as far as normal in dim light. Low-light vision is color vision. A spellcaster with low-light vision can read a scroll as long as even the tiniest candle flame is next to her as a source of light. Characters with low-light vision can see outdoors on a moonlit night as well as they can during the day.
Scent (Ex): You can detect approaching enemies, sniff out hidden foes, and track by sense of smell. You can identify familiar odors just as humans do familiar sights. You can detect opponents within 30 feet by sense of smell. If the opponent is upwind, the range increases to 60 feet; if downwind, it drops to 15 feet. Strong scents, such as smoke or rotting garbage, can be detected at twice the ranges noted above. Overpowering scents, such as skunk musk or troglodyte stench, can be detected at triple normal range. When you detect a scent, the exact location of the source is not revealed--only its presence somewhere within range. You can take a move action to note the direction of the scent. When you are within 5 feet of the source, you pinpoint the source's location. You can follow tracks by smell, making a Wisdom (or Survival) check to find or follow a track. The typical DC for a fresh trail is 10 (no matter what kind of surface holds the scent). This DC increases or decreases depending on how strong the quarry's odor is, the number of creatures, and the age of the trail. For each hour that the trail is cold, the DC increases by 2. The ability otherwise follows the rules for the Survival skill. When tracking by scent you ignore the effects of surface conditions and poor visibility.
Share Spells (Ex) The master may cast a spell with a target of "You" on her animal companion (as a spell with a range of touch) instead of on herself. A master may cast spells on her animal companion even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the companion's type (animal). Spells cast in this way must come from a class that grants an animal companion. This ability does not allow the animal to share abilities that are not spells, even if they function like spells.
Trip (Ex): You can attempt to trip your opponent as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity if you hit with the specified attack. If the attempt fails, you are not tripped in return.

Esaul is a human with hair reaching the neck, brown eyes and tanned skin. He is not so tall, but has a very defined muscles, probably resulting from a lot of continuous exercise. He is usually wearing his leather armor, that almost look like a bear pelt armor since brown fur covers most of the spots. He has a Lonbgow made of a bege wood, and carries no extra weapons at this moment. He is accompanied by a big wolf, that is certainly bigger than any dog you have seen so far, but seems to be well trained.

Esaul wants to help other people, whether they deserve it or not, contributing with his small part in the world change we so desperately need. After all, in moments of danger you can not lose time wondering if the person deserves or not your help, you have to act. He is willing to risk his life for others, but not his wolf's life, since it is his partner, not his pet. Presented with a danger situation, he makes a quick judgement: Are we strong enough? If he considers the group capable he will act to directly intervene in the situation. Otherwise he will think of other tactics to help solve it. "Hit and Run" and "Play the Mighty" are among his usual tactics.
He watches everything carefully, wanting to know the truth behind jests, but tries not to give credit to bad things he hears from other people he does not know well.
Easy to talk with, he makes friends easily and like the company of people who value teamwork, which he do all the time with Light, the wolf. He's not suitable to be the leader of a larger group, but if need arises he's flexible in his decisions and quick to change the plans according to the situation, in order to prevent any injuries from the ones within the group.

• Core concepts: Everyone is wise in their own way; Together we stand; A bad deal is better than a good fight.

Cities. Places full of people where you can find everything you need, if you're in one big enough. Esaul hated those overcrowded places. But hey, he was kinda traumatized. Ever heard of Kaer Maga, the city of strangers? Yes, that's the city he grew up in. Definitely not a nice place for a child to be raised in. Shadow dwellers were said to be delve everywhere, which made you live in constant fear and never leave your home at night. His father said they lived there because they needed it, having an established commerce point that provided for the family. They had some money which granted comfort, but was it worth it?

He didn't thought so. Esaul was disgusted about the city. Noisy, smelly, dirty, ugly, scalding hot, and dangerously overcrowded with all the sort of refuges and bandits. Not a surprise they called it the City of Strangers! Anyway, the boy wanted to find someplace else, where he could live in peace, have a decent job, and do useful stuff instead of having to watch for people you met on the streets because they could rob or kill you. The years he spent here, 15, were very useful to him. He upgraded his senses and became quick to run if danger appeared, but since he wanted to be away from the stinking city he asked his family free pass to travel throughout the region. He wanted to make sure that Kaer Maga was a terrible city compared to any other you could find, and thus, equipped with some useful items provided by his family, including a dog puppy, they said farewells and he moved away, stopping first at Sirathu.

Not much to say about the small town, but there is a lot to say about the puppy. Piloto, as it was named, grew up to be a playful Labrador, and their friendship forged strong bonds, although he was not even close to train the animal. He had a very hard time doing it, mainly in the first months. He just didn't know how to do it, but the good thing about a dog is that they are loyal, albeit they usually do what they want. Oh, the town. Its roads and public places were mostly abandoned, because the city was ruled by the distant Korvosa, and although their rulers once said they would care more about little Sirathu, it never happened. In the decaying town he spent just a couple months working in a farm, and learned to be aware of politicians and nobles, because their interests only favor themselves, although they will lie to you about it. The place was far better than Kaer Maga, for all he knew, and the geography started showing some of its beauty, so there could be much more ahead.

Next was Abken, a fairly different city. If he could resume it in one word, it would be protection. The city was surrounded by a wooden palisade. It was weird to see such a small city with such strong defenses. Esaul wanted to understand why did they lived like that, and asked for a temporary job in the city. He was tainted by Kaer Maga, but still carried some of a child’s innocence, enough so they would let him and Piloto into their selective family. Representing no threat, it was an easy decision. I mean, he carried a short sword, but even tough children always dream about being knights and heroes, his parents forbid him from learning proper sword training in his home city. If you know how to fight it’s more likely you will get into trouble and get killed. Fortunately enough, he did not ran into problems until he got here, never needing to use the weapon. But well, those times were over, he knew, and as the whole city received martial training, he took the chance and dip into it. He worked until he got good managing his short sword, then moved to a long one, and later tried a two handed. He also varied his training through hammers, axes and specially Longbows, in which he found his preference. It was good to be able to hit enemies at a distance. Armor was a safe thing to have in combat, but it slowed you down enough to hate it. Esaul even learned to swim here!

For two years he stayed there, gathering enough resources to buy a couple weapons, a longbow beautifully crafted by a girl he fancied, and some leather armor. Besides, he got to knew everyone, and valued them as family. He would to anything to protect these who accepted him into their numbers. Once he took part in the village defense against a raid. But time passed, and even if he knew he could be happy here for his whole life, there was also an urge to move forward, to know knew places and to see whatever mother nature had to show him. In the end, he moved on. Piloto was fully grown now, and knew a trick or half, depending on who was judging.

In Janderhoff he learned that living underground was possible, even pleasant. Melfesh taught him something about how large-scale business and blackmailing works. In Baslwief he grew muscle mining for some months. After that, things got ugly.

Thinking he was strong enough to travel alone, Esaul bought a horse with his well earned money and set foot to Palin’s Cove, along with his dog. But he was surrounded in a large road, by some bandits who wanted more than money. They wanted fun. Fun like only a diabolic being could want. They outnumbered Esaul. Piloto, brave but badly trained, tried to defend his owner and got badly injured. Esaul rushed to help but was also disarmed and defeated. But the worst was yet to come. He will never forget that night, when he was beat unconscious several times and watched his dog be dismembered in front of him. In the meantime, as the sunlight was fading away, he saw caravans passing a few times, just a couple hundred feet away, all of them seeing what was happening but none cared to help. None gave a damn to him or his deceased companion. He hoped he would die that night, but as fate would have, he had yet much to learn.

He woke up when the sun rose, with a broken arm and several bruises along his body. He cared not about the thirsty or the hunger that filled him, worrying only about something finding something to bury his now dismembered old friend. All his equipment was stolen from him, including the horse and all the supplies he had, but he only cared about the grief. He made a crude brace to his broken arm and set foot to the Fenwall Mountains, to hopefully kill himself falling from the high peaks. But he didn’t do that, knowing that his life was worthy too much to give up.

Esaul kept to the wilderness and learned how to survive from berries, fruits, and seeds, having a hard time catching any kind of meat. For a long time he laid low at the mountains, watch nature from the highest spot he could get. After some months his arm healed and he was back to his shape. The man really enjoyed being up there, with only the elements of nature and the wild animals close to him. He meditated for long periods of the day and learned that nature had power. He could drawn it and use it for his own purposes, if just he knew what to do with it.

He was disgusted that the world could be populated by such mean people, and he didn't want to return to it. What if those passerbies had helped him? Wouldn't he have avoided so much pain? The loss of a friend? He wondered what he had done with his life so far. He had absorbed a lot, but had he given anything? He worked, but was that really meaningful? Esaul didn't thought so. He always worked for the money or knowledge. He never really helped anyone in need, never taught anything to his equal. How could he expect to receive something from them?

Thus he made a plan. He approached once again Baslwief and started working to a bow crafter, doing it enough time to learn how to make a longbow himself. After he made one from ivory wood, he took it and returned to the mountains. It was easier to live now that he could hunt, and he did so only with small animals, since the meat would spoil if only he was to be fed. But he felt exposed, as in truth the man was alone. Several times he sat on the mountainsides and watched other animals hunt and live. The wolves called his attention, and he learned his most important lesson. Together we stand is how he would call it. Indeed the wolves hunted as a pack, each of them doing one little job. His mind drifted to his only nightmare and he imagined if everything would have happened if he wasn’t alone.

But as fate would have, he was not supposed to be alone in this world. Circumstances brought him to watch a pack of wolves hunting, and he heard it from far away when a wolf let out a shrill scream. He ran to get close as fast as he could, and stopped several feet away from the outer hunters of the pack. There was clearly a wolf emitting a low cry somewhere close, but he could not approach more without endangering himself. He waited for a minute, but as it continued he decided to get closer. Strapping the bow at his back, he slowly circled around the place, trying to get a view from the crying wolf without getting too close to any of them. And he saw it. It was a young wolf indeed, but yet in full size. It was heavily injured and locked in a bear trap, although by a miracle the leg haven`t been severed. Esaul stood waiting for what seemed like ages, with wolves growling to him. He decided to do better. Assuming a non-threatening posture, he slowly took a few steps forward, and the wolves drew closer. But they did not get close enough, nor got in his way while he approached the trapped puppy. He waited for the last line of defending wolves to open a breach and moved again, getting to the animal an opening the trap. Relieved, the puppy licked Esaul almost to death, as many of the other wolves.

But the time to move forward has arrived, and the pack was about to move, but the young one was having problems walking. Esaul followed them as best as he could carrying the puppy, but they were faster than him, and so he lost sight of the pack. Night fell off, and he watched over the puppy for a long time, deciding to reach for nature`s power to heal the wound. After many hours of meditation, he knew he was ready. He put his hands in the puppy`s leg, palm first, and muttered a few words to summon forth what he needed: healing. ”May Nature return you to the state you belong!” A shimmering radiance appeared in his hands and in the wound, closing the skin and healing the muscle and bone. His eyes were wide open in disbelief, as while he felt he could do it, he thought he was getting insane.

Morning came, and he felt the wolf was yet unprepared to leave his pack, since he needed the pack to hunt and survive. Thus he learned to follow the tracks left by them, and after half-a-day they caught up with the others. He essentially learned how to hunt. The wolves, impressively, did not threaten him or the puppy in any way. Of course, the little one was part of the pack, but he never imagined the wolves could consider Esaul as a member to. Lonely faded away, and only a small fear of being left behind was present in his mind. That did not last long either. The puppy, that now he called Light, stayed with Esaul whenever he couldn`t catch up with the pack, and so they would find their way back together, the now adult wolf helping the human when needed. Esaul got really attached to the wolf. He dedicated his time teaching him tricks, so it could improve it`s ability to hunt and coordinate himself with the others. And the fear was totally gone when the pair faced a dire bear. Esaul and Light were far behind the rest of the pack. The bear was far more than they could chew, and the thing was fastest than the human. He could not run away. He was able to delay the bear causing an increase in the terrain`s vegetation, but soon he was doomed again, but then help had arrived. The pack, silent as death, circled the huge creature, and in a mix of distraction and deception they were able to put the thing down swiftly.

In that day he was the power represented by union. Weak creatures could face and defeat much stronger enemies when acted as one. And he took that lesson to the hearth. The beautiful story continued with some other events, Esaul helping the pack and the pack helping Esaul. He also learned to prepare leather and fur, making it proper to use as armor or clothes. He used the pelt to make a crude armor for him. Even though it was not pretty as the one he had before, it was useful enough and did not hinder him. Light became very smart, almost readying what Esaul was thinking, and the human got stronger, attuned to nature. But he knew he was wasting time here. The pack could care for themselves, but there were others in the world who could not. He left Fenwall Mountains and so far has not returned, but he got surprised when the wolf understood what he was doing, but yet followed him. They were partners now, and Esaul would become so strong that nothing would ever hurt his friend.

They passed Palin`s Cove in a haste, the smoke in the city leaving both disgusted about it. It was in some way worst than Kaer Maga, and so they didn`t waste a single night there. Instead, they wandered to Korvosa. He had business here. Although almost four years have passed he had not forgotten about Sirathu and it`s abandoned state. They paid their taxes but did not get anything in return. He wondered why, and so he was decided to spend a while there analyzing the city. But the sight really broke his hearth. From afar he was the beautiful Korvosa, a city that mixed the smell with the sea with fresh, clean water coming from the Jeggare River, walls and huge constructions, even taller than the ones in Kaer Maga. He learned that day that men are able to make something beautiful, as long as they want to.

Of course, when he got to the city he saw its problems. Bridgefront citizens working to death to buy crappy food, while nobles lived in the safeness and comfort of the higher districts. Nothing something one could change in a lifespan, but he was determined to help where he could. And so he heard about the Samaritans. Devan's Samaritans was the actual name, which made him frown. He thought that it was probably a political game, since he believed one who works for the cause of good would not promote his own name in doing so, but maybe they just didn't realize it. Or maybe Devan was someone who passed away, and was honored by the group. Anyway, there's only one way he could know the truth, joining them. In case the worst scenario was found, he would certainly unmask the group’s true intentions.

But well, you and I know that did not happen, right brother?

He was considered a green soldier, didn't have any equipment aside from a bow and a wolf, and he hid his magical abilities in the beginning, until they realized that they were good people, not possible enemies. Either way, he had a hard time being accepted to the group. You will agree with me that the view of a savage-looking man, in a crude leather armor and with only a longbow, with no signs of common equipment, was not something you would want in your group, aye?