To say Fenchurch Marsh is an imposing woman is an understatement would be an understatement in and of itself. Standing a full six feet, broad of shoulder, wide of stance, and a corded physique forged by over a half-decade as a logger make her impossible to miss in even a large crowd.
Piercing blue eyes peer out from behind the bangs of shoulder-length red hair. Clothed in furs, heavily armored, and carrying a massive axe forged of a strange glossy-green metal, Fenchurch rarely has to worry about making an impression.
Background:
The first score of Fenchurch Marsh’s years were uneventful. Born in the remote Andoran logging village of Bellis, both of her parents worked for the Lumber Consortium. From birth to her early adulthood, this fact simply meant that they lived a comfortable life in a seemingly uncomplicated corner of the world.
Growing into a powerful physical frame, and with no call to ambition outside of her hometown, going into the family business was the natural course of Fenchurch’s life. She spent her late teens assisting her mother’s clerical work for the Consortium, and at the age of twenty began working as a forester (no self-respecting native Bellisan would refer to themselves as a “lumberjack”).
Tragedy struck several years later when Fenchurch’s parents, both out for field work on a surveying project, were killed in a fey raid. Overcome with grief, the typically quiet and affable woman demanded to be transferred to Consortium security forces in the hopes of avenging her parents.
Working Consortium security gradually exposed Fenchurch to the corruption at the heart of the company. She grew increasingly disillusioned, spiraling into depression and believing herself a naive fool. Revenge for her family became the only driving force in her life. Her family was gone, her idyllic perception of the life they had lived together shattered as a convenient fiction, the only thing she had left was murdering enough damned fey to satisfy her thirst for revenge. And soon she wouldn’t even have that.
One early evening, her security detail was ambushed by a powerful fey while scouting a perimeter in the Verduran forest. Fenchurch never even saw the creature, but she watched in horror as one by one, each of her fellows was bewitched to slaughter another. Unable to move, likely by way of magic, she found her senses overwhelmed by incomprehensible chaos: a cascade of color and sound she felt would drive her mad before too long. She woke in a cold sweat, with a directive spoken in a language she didn’t understand seared into her brain.
Returning to her barracks under cover of night, she broke into a secured office and discovered paperwork confirming what the mad voices had pushed into her mind: the Lumber Consortium had effectively been the true murderers of her parents, deliberately sending them to a dangerous area as bait to divert predatory fey away from an important operation elsewhere in the woods.
Overcome with fury, and feeling the edges of the chaos she experienced in the woods tugging at the corner of her senses, Fenchurch slaughtered several Consortium security agents before fleeing in the woods under heavy pursuit. She made it slightly less than a mile before a crossbow bolt struck her in the small of the back, staggering her and ceasing her flight. Then another, and another, and another, and everything went black.
And yet she awoke. Fenchurch found herself waking half-submerged in a small creek deep within the Verduran, without even a trace of a wound. In fact, she felt better than she ever had in her entire life. Her already impressive physique felt honed to perfection. Moreover, she was clad in a fine suit of armor, and lying next to her on the creek bank was a massive, exquisitely crafted labrys. It was forged from a bizarre, glossy green metal. The strange metal had been wrought in the appearance of a haft made of wood, though the masterpiece weapon was entirely metal. She’d never seen craftsmanship anywhere near it in her entire life.
Thus Fenchurch began her second life -for she fully believes she perished fleeing through the woods. She became something of a transient hermit of the Verduran. She soon discovered that her head swam with knowledge and instincts not her own. In her quiet wanderings, she felt a primal understanding of the forest, it’s needs, and the threats it faced. Beyond that, a framing of nature in relation to civilization that sounded to her more like the words of a learned scholar. How could one’s own thoughts feel so foreign? Most disturbingly, she had a clear understanding of the perspective of the very fey who killed her parents.
Over time, she became something of a self-appointed vagrant guardian of the Verduran Forest. She hunted Lumber Consortium agents wherever she found them. Torn between a sudden powerful drive to protect the Forest and her own loss at least partly at the hands of it’s defenders, she had little desire to create more orphans like herself. She offered all offenders a choice: immediately cease their harmful behavior, leave the Verduran, and (if aligned) renounce the Consortium and they would be spared. Refuse and, well, the woods would likely have their lives eventually one way or the other.
Her actions quickly caught the attention of the Wildwood Lodge, who maintain an uneasy (and adamantly unofficial) relationship with Fenchurch. The lodge is both deeply curious and wary of her bizarre experiences and powers, not knowing of any fey currently inhabiting the Verduran with the power necessary to shape those events. They are also wary of and further perplexed by her bequeathed knowledge: it became apparent after several interactions that she has been granted shockingly comprehensive understanding of The Green Faith -concepts and philosophical musings of the tradition normally bandied about by seasoned adherents came to hear as easily as a hayseed farmer would dispense folksy wisdom. This also cast doubt on the prevailing theory of fey interference, as the folk of the First World typically have little interest or involvement in Golarion’s ancient nature religion.
From the Wildwood druids, Fenchurch learned the nature of The Treaty of The Wildwood, something she found a great deal of meaning in as it served as material proof that the tension between civilization and nature could be ministered to the long-term benefit of all - mirroring the tension she hopes to resolve within her own heart and mind.
Within the Taldan borders, Fenchruch enjoys nominal civic protection from the Wildwood Lodge, though she is a polarizing figure both within the Lodge and without and she’s as likely to encounter someone who regards her as a stain on Taldor and the Lodge’s image as she someone who at least tacitly approves of her vigilante acts on behalf of the Verduran in Galt and Andoran. In exchange, she has an agreement with the Lodge to only kill in necessary self-defense within Taldan borders: she apprehends anyone committing egregious offenses against nature or violating the Treaty and remands them to relevant authorities.
Fenchurch is fundamentally a wanted criminal within Andoran, and many Lumber Consortium agents will attempt to kill or apprehend her on sight (or report her location and activities to higher authorities if confronting her themselves is beyond their abilities). Within the Galtish borders of the Verduran her exact identity is unknown, and her status is closer to a folk boogeyman. In either of these regions of the Forest, the only code she beholds herself to with regards to enemies of the natural world is her own: repent, cease, and flee or face her axe.
Personality:
Her experiences have built Fenchurch into something of an inherently oppositional nature. She’s friendly and polite with those who earn her trust and are respectful of her ways. She hasn’t had anything like a friend in her new life, though she is amicable with a few Wildwood druids.
She is a devout defender of nature and the natural order, and will protect both with righteous determination.
The combination of feeling straddled between two worlds, and lack of understanding of her nature and the events that led to her second life renders her prone to occasional bouts of glumness, melancholy, or depression.
Improved Initiative:
You gain a +4 bonus to Initiative checks.
Power Attack:
You can choose to take a –1 penalty on all melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +2 bonus on all melee damage rolls. This bonus to damage is increased by half (+50%) if you are making an attack with a two-handed weapon, a one handed weapon using two hands, or a primary natural weapon that adds 1-1/2 times your Strength modifier on damage rolls. This bonus to damage is halved (–50%) if you are making an attack with an off-hand weapon or secondary natural weapon. When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every 4 points thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the bonus to damage increases by +2. You must choose to use this feat before making an attack roll, and its effects last until your next turn. The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage.
Furious Focus:
When you are wielding a two-handed weapon or a one-handed weapon with two hands, and using the Power Attack feat, you do not suffer Power Attack’s penalty on melee attack rolls on the first attack you make each turn. You still suffer the penalty on any additional attacks, including attacks of opportunity.
Endurance:
You gain a +4 bonus on the following checks and saves: Swim checks made to resist nonlethal damage from exhaustion; Constitution checks made to continue running; Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from a forced march; Constitution checks made to hold your breath; Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from starvation or thirst; Fortitude saves made to avoid nonlethal damage from hot or cold environments; and Fortitude saves made to resist damage from suffocation. You may sleep in light or medium armor without becoming fatigued.
Diehard:
When your hit point total is below 0, but you are not dead, you automatically stabilize. You do not need to make a Constitution check each round to avoid losing additional hit points. You may choose to act as if you were disabled, rather than dying. You must make this decision as soon as you are reduced to negative hit points (even if it isn't your turn). If you do not choose to act as if you were disabled, you immediately fall unconscious. When using this feat, you are staggered. You can take a move action without further injuring yourself, but if you perform any standard action (or any other action deemed as strenuous, including some swift actions, such as casting a quickened spell) you take 1 point of damage after completing the act. If your negative hit points are equal to or greater than your Constitution score, you immediately die.
Skills:
(4)Athletics +10 (+4 in armor)
(4)Diplomacy +9
(4)Knowledge (Nature) +8
(4)Sense Motive +7
(4)Survival +9 (+11 when tracking Aberrations or Undead) (+11 in Forests) (+13 if both)
Background:
(4)Knowledge (Geography) +8 (+10 in Forests)
(4)Lore (The Green Faith) +7
Untrained:
(0)Perception +0 (+2 in Forests)
Armor Check Penalty: -6
Traits:
Devotee of The Green:
Your faith in the natural world or one of the gods of nature makes it easy for you to pick up on related concepts. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (geography) and Knowledge (nature) checks, and Knowledge (Geography) is always a class skill for you.
Back For More:
Anytime an opponent confirms a critical hit against you, you gain a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls against that foe until the end of your next turn.
Bellis Axe Master:
No one knows how to swing an axe better than a Bellisian! You gain a +2 trait bonus on all rolls made to confirm critical hits with axes (battle axe, hand axe, or greataxe).
Infamous:
Fenchurch is publicly known to have murdered several Lumber Consortium agents. She’s also spared many that renounced their allegiance, but the Consortium has shown little interest in making that fact public. She draws attention anywhere within the greater Verduran region and risks imprisonment or worse within the borders of Andoran. Fenchurch and her apparent allies take a -4 penalty on Diplomacy checks to interact with law-abiding citizens (except enemies of the authority that accused you).
Class Abilities:
Proficiency:
Simple Weapons, Martial Weapons, Light Armor, Medium Armor, Heavy Armor, Bucklers, Light Shields, Heavy Shields.
Challenge:
Once per day, a cavalier can challenge a foe to combat. As a swift action, the cavalier chooses one target within sight to challenge. The cavalier’s melee attacks deal extra damage whenever the attacks are made against the target of his challenge. This extra damage is equal to the cavalier’s level. The cavalier can use this ability once per day at 1st level, plus one additional time per day for every three levels beyond 1st, to a maximum of seven times per day at 19th level.
An order of the Green cavalier can’t issue a challenge against any creature of the animal or plant type. Whenever he issues a challenge, he receives a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls against the target of his challenge. This bonus increases by 1 for every 4 levels the cavalier has. If the target of his challenge is of the aberration or undead type, each round he can roll his first attack roll against the target creature twice and take the higher result.
Challenging a foe requires much of the cavalier’s concentration. The cavalier takes a –2 penalty to his Armor Class, except against attacks made by the target of his challenge. The challenge remains in effect until the target is dead or unconscious or until the combat ends. Each cavalier’s challenge also includes another effect which is listed in the section describing the cavalier’s order.
Implacable Knight:
A green knight gains Endurance and Diehard as bonus feats.
Order:
At 1st level, a cavalier must pledge himself to a specific order. The order grants the cavalier a number of bonuses, class skills, and special abilities. In addition, each order includes a number of edicts that the cavalier must follow. If he violates any of these edicts, he loses the benefits from his order’s challenge ability for 24 hours. The violation of an edict is subject to GM interpretation. A cavalier cannot change his order without undertaking a lengthy process to dedicate himself to a new cause. When this choice is made, he immediately loses all of the benefits from his old order. He must then follow the edicts of his new order for one entire level without gaining any benefits from that order. Once accomplished, he gains all of the bonuses from his new order. Note that the names of these orders might vary depending upon the campaign setting or GM’s preference.
Order of The Green:
Cavaliers of the order of the Green are dedicated to protecting wild places and creatures, embracing the Green Faith in all its glory and natural wonder.
Edicts:
The cavalier knows his place in the natural order and strives to defend the balance of nature. He must be willing to allow nature to take its course, and he must stop all those who would do harm to its delicate balance. He will not tolerate aberrant creatures, undead, or the irresponsible and greedy consumption of natural resources. He may be farsighted and seek to establish agreements that lead to lasting protection of the natural world, but resorts to violence if it is the most effective way to enforce such protection.
Skills:
An order of the Green cavalier gains Knowledge (nature) and Survival as class skills. In addition, whenever an order of the Green cavalier attempts a Survival check to track foes of the aberration or undead type, he receives a bonus on the check equal to half his cavalier level (minimum +1).
Beast Tongue (+6):
A Green Knight can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person (see Using Skills). The Green Knight rolls 1d20 and adds her Cavalier level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly. To use Beast Tongue, the Green Knight and the animal must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.
Favored Terrain (Forest):
At 2nd level, a Cavalier of the Order of The Green may select a type of terrain from the Favored Terrains table. The Cavalier gains a +2 bonus on initiative checks and Knowledge (geography), Perception, Stealth, and Survival skill checks when he is in this terrain. A Cavalier traveling through his favored terrain normally leaves no trail and cannot be tracked (though he may leave a trail if he so chooses). At 8th level and every 6 levels thereafter, he selects another favored terrain. In addition, at each such interval, the skill bonus in any one favored terrain (including the one just selected, if so desired) increases by 2.
Ferocious:
At 3rd level, a green knight is not staggered when below 0 hit points. At 9th level, taking actions when below 0 hit points does not cause her to lose hit points.
Woodland Stride (Ex):
Starting at 2nd level, a Green Knight may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at her normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment. Thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that have been magically manipulated to impede motion, however, still affect her.
Racial Abilities:
Heart of The Wilderness:
Humans raised in the wild learn the hard way that only the strong survive. They gain a racial bonus equal to half their character level on Survival checks. They also gain a +5 racial bonus on Constitution checks to stabilize when dying and add half their character level to their Constitution score when determining the negative hit point total necessary to kill them. This racial trait replaces skilled.
Bonus Feat:
Bonus Feat at first level. Must meet prerequisites.
Languages:
Common
Gear:
Masterwork Living Steel Greataxe, Composite Shortbow, Arrows (20), Banded Mail, Furs, Masterwork Backpack, Bedroll, Belt Pouch, Flint & Steel, Iron Pot, Mess Kit, 50’ Rope, Torch (10), Trail Rations (5), Waterskin, Potion of Barkskin Lvl. 1 (2), Potion of Cure Light Wounds Lvl. 1 (3) Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds Lvl. 3
Weight Carried: 85lbs (Light Load)
Light: 86lbs
Medium: 87-173lbs
Heavy: 174-260lbs
Platinum:
Gold: 45
Silver:
Copper:
[spoiler=ABP Effects]
+1 Resistance bonus to all saves
+1 attuned weapon (Masterwork Living Steel Greataxe)
+1 attuned armor (Banded Mail)
