About Fukushu of MinataStatistics:
Fukushu of Minata
Moso Bard 2 CG Medium outsider (native) Init +2; Perception +7; darkvision 60' --------------------------------------------------------------------
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (Armor +4, Dex +2, Natural +1)
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Melee Urumi +4 (1d8+3)
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Ability Scores: Str 16
Feats: Arcane Strike
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Skilled: Pitborn gain a +2 racial bonus to Disable Device and Perception checks. Spell-like ability: Tieflings can use darkness once per day as a spell-like ability. The caster level for this ability equals the tiefling’s class level. Prehensile Tail: Many Tieflings have tails, but some have long, flexible tails that can be used to carry items. While they cannot wield weapons with their tails, they can use them to retrieve small, stowed objects carried on their persons as a swift action. This facial trait replaces fiendish sorcery. Scaled Skin: The skin of these tieflings provides some energy resistance, but is also as hard as armor. Choose one of the following energy types: cold, electricity or fie. A tiefling with this trait gains resistance 5 to the chosen energy type and also gains a +1 natural armor bonus to AC. This racial trait replaces fiendish resistance. Skills: The moso’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Knowledge (all) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (oratory, singing, string) (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Stealth (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha). Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A moso is proficient with all simple melee weapons, plus all one-handed swords. Moso are also proficient with light armor, though not with shields, and can cast bard spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a moso wearing medium or heavy armor incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component. A multiclass moso still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes. Spells: A bard casts arcane spells drawn from the bard spell list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time. Every bard spell has a verbal component (singing, reciting, or music). To learn or cast a spell, a bard must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class (DC) for a saving throw against a bard’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the bard’s Charisma modifier. Like other spellcasters, a bard can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: bard. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score. The bard’s selection of spells is extremely limited. A bard begins play knowing four 0-level spells and two 1st-level spells of the bard’s choice. At each new bard level, he gains one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: Bard Spells Known. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a bard knows is not affected by his Charisma score (See Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells). Upon reaching 5th level, and at every third bard level after that (8th, 11th, and so on), a bard can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect, the bard “loses” the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least one level lower than the highest-level bard spell the bard can cast. A bard may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for the level. A bard need not prepare his spells in advance. He can cast any spell he knows at any time, assuming he has not yet used up his allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level. Bardic Knowledge (Ex): A bard adds half his class level (minimum 1) to all Knowledge skill checks and may make all Knowledge skill checks untrained. Bardic Performance: A bard is trained to use the Perform skill to create magical effects on those around him, including himself if desired. He can use this ability for a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + his Charisma modifier. At each level after 1st a bard can use bardic performance for 2 additional rounds per day. Each round, the bard can produce any one of the types of bardic performance that he has mastered, as indicated by his level. Starting a bardic performance is a standard action, but it can be maintained each round as a free action. Changing a bardic performance from one effect to another requires the bard to stop the previous performance and start a new one as a standard action. A bardic performance cannot be disrupted, but it ends immediately if the bard is killed, paralyzed, stunned, knocked unconscious, or otherwise prevented from taking a free action to maintain it each round. A bard cannot have more than one bardic performance in effect at one time. At 7th level, a bard can start a bardic performance as a move action instead of a standard action. At 13th level, a bard can start a bardic performance as a swift action. Each bardic performance has audible components, visual components, or both. If a bardic performance has audible components, the targets must be able to hear the bard for the performance to have any effect, and many such performances are language dependent (as noted in the description). A deaf bard has a 20% chance to fail when attempting to use a bardic performance with an audible component. If he fails this check, the attempt still counts against his daily limit. Deaf creatures are immune to bardic performances with audible components. If a bardic performance has a visual component, the targets must have line of sight to the bard for the performance to have any effect. A blind bard has a 50% chance to fail when attempting to use a bardic performance with a visual component. If he fails this check, the attempt still counts against his daily limit. Blind creatures are immune to bardic performances with visual components. Blind: Blind All moso are blind and automatically fail any visual Perception checks. Moso cannot use scrolls or any other magical item requiring reading or functioning eyes. However, they are immune to gaze attacks and other effects which target the eyes. Moso are trained to use their other senses, particularly their ears, and gain a +10 class bonus to all auditory Perception checks. A trained moso’s other senses are so acute that, unless a target succeeds on a Stealth check, the moso can identify, by sound (and sometimes smell), any creature within 20 feet and suffers no penalties in melee combat from being blind or when attacking invisible creatures. A moso can target creatures he can identify with spells or ranged attacks but all creatures outside of the moso’s sensory range benefit from full concealment. All Disguise checks made against a moso suffer a -10 penalty. An effect which nullifies sound or renders a moso deaf suppresses this ability. A moso’s ability to audibly discern an individual’s location and identity improves by 5 feet at 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th level. List of Bardic Performances: A moso gains the following types of bardic performance. Ward (Sp) At 1st level, a moso can use his music to guard his listeners against evil influences. When a moso uses this ability, all listeners within 30 feet of the moso’s playing and singing benefit as if affected by protection from evil for the duration of the performance. This ability replaces distraction. Counterfear (Su) At 1st level, a moso can use his music to strengthen the resolve of others. For the duration of the performance, all listeners within 30 feet have a bonus to saves versus fear equal to half the moso’s class level, and those already under the effects of fear are allowed a new saving-throw each round. This ability replaces fascinate. Song of Life (Su) At 6th level, the moso can use his music to damage undead. For the length of the performance, all undead within 30 feet of the moso must succeed at a Will save each round (where the DC is equal to 10 +1/2 class level + Charisma modifier) or take 2d6 points of damage. The amount of damage increases by 1d6 every 3 levels to a maximum 6d6 at 18th level. This ability replaces suggestion. Dismissal (Sp) At 12th level, a moso can use his bardic performance to create an effect identical to dismissal. To use this ability the moso must perform uninterrupted for 4 rounds and the target must hear the song the entire time. This ability replaces soothing performance. Soothing Performance (Su) A moso gains soothing performance at 18th level in place of mass suggestion. Spells:
0-Level: Daze, Detect Magic, Ghost Sound, Prestidigitation, Summon Instrument
1st-Level: Charm Person, Dancing Darkness, Vanish Appearance and Personality:
Fukushu, despite his blindness, is rather a handsome young man. He is of average fight, with sharp features. He shaves carefully with a razor every day, feeling by touch for any missed spots. He has a thick head of black hair, piercing crimson eyes that are usually covered by either tinted glasses or a blindfold, and small fangs that only add to his exotic flavor.
Fukushu favors simple slippers and robes, flowing garments that make him appear harmless but will not interfere with his movements. Coiled around his waist is what appears to be a metal belt; it is, in fact, Fukushu's urumi. Fukushu is a social chameleon. He becomes whoever he thinks he must be in the moment, utilizing his skill at social interaction to ingratiate himself wherever he felt necessary. This has left him with any acquaintances that like him but no true friends. Fukushu has one burning ambition, forced upon him by his mother, and that consumes him. He will do good, but for the wrong reasons. Should he fall in with a more altruistic group, Fukushu might change, especially were he forced to confront the reality that many are far more downtrodden than he. Background:
When Corinthus Thrune, member of the ruling family of Cheliax (though far out of line for the throne), was sent to Tian Xia as an ambassador, he ensured that he had every luxury available. The man was ostentatious in the extreme, exulting in his status and putting it on display in the most gauche fashions whenever possible. Corinthus, in fact, decided to take an exotic mistress. Her name was Ligeia, an exquisite courtesan with ancestry from the areas around the Worldwound. She enjoyed the finery he could provide; he enjoyed her attention. They were not as careful as they should have been, however, and Ligeia was soon with child.
Corinthus had no plans to formally acknowledge a bastard, but had no issue with his existence; he might even be able to use a scion eager to prove themselves in the political games of Cheliax. All such plans, however, flew out the window when his son, Benecio, was born. It soon became apparent that there was infernal heritage in Ligeia's ancestry, and when pressed, Ligeia did admit that there had been rumors that her great-great-great-grandmother had had no mortal mate, but had lain with a Demon. That in itself would have been no issue; Cheliax is, of course, the Empire of Devils. No, Benicio's life was ruined before he could walk or talk for a completely different reason. Benecio had been born blind. His eyes were a brilliant amber, and he had slit pupils, but they were completely unresponsive to stimuli. Benecio has never seen the world. Corinthus could not bear to have fathered a cripple. A bastard would have been fine. A Tiefling, a second-class citizen in Cheliax, would have been even better. But blind? Corinthus' pride would not bear it. So he sent Ligeia and Benecio away. He paid them for their exile. They would stay on the isles of Minata, and there they would remain, quiet and out of the way. Ligeia, for her part, loved her young son with all her heart, and came to loathe her gilded cage. She raised Benecio, though she soon abandoned that name; it had been given to him by a monster that cast them both off as soon as it suited him. No, instead she named him Fukushu, meaning “revenge” in the Minkaian tongue, and raised him to be exactly that. Ligeia did not let Fukushu disability hold him back. From the time he was old enough to walk and talk and understand, Ligeia saw that he was trained. She had been a courtesan, not some lowly streetwalker. She was learned, and talented, and passed what she could on to him.
Fukushu, for his part, understood his situation early on in life. He was a Tiefling, and the passions of evil outsiders were in his veins. As a Pitborn, he found that he was easily angered, and that anger brought with it destructive impulses. Fukushu engaged in those, briefly, but soon became dissatisfied. Such actions would not aid his longer, larger goals, and before long, he turned to channeling those impulses into a slow-burning furnace; that brief glow of satisfaction at smashing in somebody's face was nothing compared to the glow of completely dismantling the lives of those who had wronged him. What could have been anger and depression at his disability instead became a slow-burning, bottomless rage, mostly directed at his father. Fukushu took to his lessons with aplomb; he became well-versed in a variety of subjects, and even became skilled in combat, able to use his other senses to pinpoint foes near him. Soon enough, he proved adept with magic as well, and he knew this would only serve his greater purpose. When he was twelve years old, Ligeia told him her plan. Corinthus had achieved great success as an ambassador, securing lucrative trade contracts for Cheliax and the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune. He had been given greater wealth and power as a result, and the contacts that Ligeia had made over her career informed her that Corinthus had begun to gain influence in Westcrown. Why was not known to her contacts, but Ligeia had a guess; subvert the Council of Thieves and bring Westcrown back under the heel of Cheliax. Ligeia suggested to her son that this was the opportunity they had been looking for. For eight more years, Fukushu honed his skills. He learned the biwa; more than learn it, he mastered it. In doing so, Fukushu found gathering information was simplicity itself; no one noticed a blind musician. In fact, many a gangster, coming to Minata to conduct illicit business, found Fukushu services invaluable; he provided music, and ambiance, and would never be able to identify them.
Fukushu would report the criminals to the authorities, anonymously (usually wearing a mask and disguise). If the authorities failed to apprehend them, he took a more personal hand; if he had to kill to keep the worst of criminals from trading slaves, then he did. After a time, Fukushu developed a reputation. When he took a criminal out personally, he would find where they were staying. Through stealth and cunning, he would sneak into while they slept, snuff out all light, and slay them in the dark. Before long, the downtrodden of Minata whispered of the Dark Vengeance that would come for those that attempted to prey on the weak. These whispers were helped to spread by Fukushu himself, utilizing his growing faculty with words and music to sway the populace. Now, though, the time has come for Fukushu to move on from Minata. It was a small place, only ever meant for Fukushu to learn his craft. He has, now, and it is time to set his sights on Westcrown; to ply his trade there, and blunt the ambitions of his father before Fukushu is powerful and influential enough to end Corinthus Thrune once and for all. |
