Galen Greywhisper CotCT's page

Psychic spells never have verbal or somatic components, and have only expensive material components. Psychic spells are purely mental actions, and they can be cast even while the caster is pinned or paralyzed. Focus components work the same way with psychic spells as they do with other spells.

When a spell calls for an expensive material component, a psychic spellcaster can instead use any item with both significant meaning and a value greater than or equal to the spell's component cost.

Instead of verbal and somatic components, all psychic spells have components related to the caster's inner being. The two psychic components are called emotion components and thought components. If a spell's components line lists a somatic component, that spell instead requires an emotion component when cast by psychic spellcasters, and if it has a verbal component, it instead requires a thought component when cast by psychic spellcasters. Psychic spells cast by non-psychic arcane and divine casters use any listed somatic and verbal components as normal.

Emotion Components (replaces Somatic): Emotion components represent a particular emotional state required to cast the spell. A psychic spellcaster marshals her desire in order to focus and release the spell's energy. It is impossible to cast a spell with an emotion component while the spellcaster is under the influence of a non-harmless effect with the emotion or fear descriptors. Even if the effect's emotion matches the necessary emotion to cast the psychic spell, the spellcaster is not in control of her own desires and animal impulses, which is a necessary part of providing an emotion component.

Thought Components (replaces Verbal): Thought components represent mental constructs necessary for the spell's function, such as picturing a wolf in vivid detail—down to the saliva dripping from its jaws—in order to cast beast shape to transform into a wolf. Thought components are so mentally demanding that they make interruptions and distractions extremely challenging. The DC for any concentration check for a spell with a thought component increases by 10. A psychic spellcaster casting a spell with a thought component can take a move action before beginning to cast the spell to center herself; she can then use the normal DC instead of the increased DC.

Undercasting: Some psychic spells can be undercast. This means that the spellcaster can cast the spell at the level that he knows, or as any lower-level version of that spell, using the appropriate spell slot. When a spellcaster undercasts a spell, it is treated exactly like the lower-level version, including when determining its effect, saving throw, and other variables. For example, a psychic spellcaster who adds ego whip III to his list of spells known can cast it as ego whip I, II, or III. If he casts it as ego whip I, it is treated in all ways as that spell; it uses the text and the saving throw DC for that spell, and requires him to expend a 3rd-level spell slot.

Whenever a spontaneous spellcaster adds a spell to his list of spells known that can be undercast, he can immediately learn a spell in place of each lower-level version of that spell he knows. In essence, he loses each earlier version and can replace it with another spell of the same level that is on his spell list.

Mindtouch (Su) 1 pool: detect surface thoughts of spell target (as the 3rd-round effect of detect thoughts).
Overpowering Mind (Ex) 2 pool: increase Will save DC of linked mind-affecting spell by +1.
Phrenic Pool (4/day) (Su) Pool of points you can use to modify psychic spells as they're cast.
Physical Push +2 (2/day) (Su) Add Wis bonus to a Str, Dex, or Con ability or skill check. Recover 1 pool if you succeed.

- dagger (in wrist sheath)
- sling
- pouch of sling bullets (6)

- traveler's outfit
- pocketed kapenia scarf (+4 to SoH to hide objects)
- wrist sheath (+2 to SoH to hide objects)

- belt pouch
- prismatic crystal (modifies read aura time, increases light level)
- fortune-teller's deck
- gaming dice
- flint & steel
- 3 tindertwigs

- 1 healer's kit satchel 10/10 uses

- 1 masterwork backpack
- tin tankard
- whetstone
- deck of gaming cards
- tankard (tin)
- candle lamp
- candlestick
- 10 candles
- 2 chalk sticks
- 1 sunrod
- 2 alchemist's kindness
- 1 weapon blanch (silver)
- 1 acid flask
- 1 bag of marbles

- waterproof bag
- journal
- 1 scroll case
- 5 sheets of parchment
- 1 inkpen
- 1 vial of black ink

Encumbrance: Light Load (24 lbs, limits 30/60/90 lbs.)

- 1 artisan's outfit
- 1 scholar's outfit
- grooming kit
- wooden snuffbox
- teapot
- censer (for incense)
- 10 sticks of incense (common)
- 1 pint oil
- ball of string
- wind chimes

At first glance, the typical passersby may regard Galen as having a fair-seeming and youthful clean-shaven face, though usually they would fail to even notice him at all. A young man of no great height or build, his body is slim but not particularly athletic, with the hardiness and hands of one who has neither martial training nor well-suited to hard labor. His skin has the more tanned complexion of his Varisian heritage, though it is lighter than most Varisians that travel and spend their time outdoors. With nondescript brown hair and light hazel-colored eyes, the most charming quality of Galen is his smile – boyish and youthful but with a note of genuine understanding. His voice is neither high nor low and on the softer and quieter side.

Galen often wears the artisan’s tunic, vest and breeches of an herbalist’s assistant in the Midland district, though at times he dons the more scholarly cassock-style robes when employed upon occasion as a scribe or translator in the University area of The Heights, or the affluent areas of North Point. Favoring nondescript greys over flashier dye colors, the exception is with his scarf: a richly colored thick scarf - a Varisian family kapenia scarf that his Nan made for him – bearing a pattern of dark green and deep violet with a weave of sky blue in it. Aside from his fortune-teller’s deck also from his Nan, the scarf is one of his favorite possessions. He wears the occasional hat which suits the occasion, though he owns nothing flashy or distinctive in that regard.

Galen is a transplant of western Varisia, orphaned at a young age out of Magnimar due to violent circumstances that affected his family – he is given the assumed name “Greywhisper” which he knows is not his father’s true family name.

Galen’s earliest sustained memories are with his Nana, sitting on her lap as they bounce back-and-forth in the rickety wagon of a Varisian wandering caravan. He has some distinctive loving memories of his mother and only a faint hazy recollection of his father, but by the age of six he becomes accustomed to life without having his parents. His Nana never told him the details of why she left Magnimar with him…only that there was a terrible “accident” which killed both his parents in a night of fire and violence. Apparently that terrible night affected many others of their extended family and friends as well, so Nana never even revealed to him his father’s family name in order to protect him. Instead, he was given the name “Greywhisper” - Galen always knew was not his true name, but none of the other Varisians in the caravan seemed to call it into question, so neither did he. Nana was his family, after all, with an extended family of nomadic wanderers that peddled, performed, swindled, stole and generally lived their lives with freedom and a zest for life that Galen always found comforting, despite the occasional chaos. Not just Varisians traveled with the caravan, but at times other interesting wayfarers: gnomes seeking whatever interests best suited them and elves seeking to discover the world, wandering worshippers of Desna following their dreams, mercenaries seeking their fortunes. During that time Galen learned many snippets of various languages, basic herb-lore and midwifery, the lore of various lands and cultures they traveled in, the nefarious nomadic pastimes of pickpocketing, games of chance and false fortune-telling…and of course a great many stories and tales. He also witnessed the strange séances of spirit mediums, the power of true Harrow deck readings, the foretelling of people’s futures and fates. Somewhere in this he felt a connection to strange powers of “magic” that he could not explain.

Galen’s five years on the long, dusty roads of a mobile Varisian hamlet on the move took him across the traveled areas of Varisia and even Nirmathas and Lake Encarthan once, but never again to Magnimar. Sometime near his eleventh birthday he found himself in Korvosa, where he and his Nana left the life of the caravan and took up residence there, as she evidently had connections there from her own youth. Why she was leaving Varisian life on the roads with him was apparently still tied to trouble that killed off his parents, but he didn’t ask further. She sets up a modest herbalist shop and midwifery services in the more tolerant newcomer district of Midland, providing a means for Galen to learn herbal lore and healing remedies as her helper.

At the age of fourteen on his “nameday” Nan presents him with his kapenia scarf as well as a sizable sum of money she has hidden these many years, and convinces him to enroll at the University of Korvosa to elevate his status. Galen follows her advice, and for the next four years he lives near and studies in the University; he is a passable student in both letters and various types of lore, though he finds his mind grows stronger in a peculiar type of “magic” which he initially mistakes for sorcery. His ease with languages, greater means and increased confidence in negotiating Korvosa leads him to discover the more lively sections of North Point and East Shore, finding the large inns, gaming taverns and dancing halls of Korvosa to be an exciting diversion, though his shyness and self-discipline doesn’t let those vices take him too far astray from his studies. It is around this time that he meets Evelyn “Evie” Moray of North Point, an exciting and bold fellow student of the University and patron of the bardic arts; a friendship begins that eventually leads to thrilling ‘on-again, off-again’ romance as they get older. Evie encourages Galen to take up his prestidigitation magic and Varisian herbal lore to delight and help children, particularly less-fortunate orphans. Though Evie’s friends aren’t necessarily Galen’s friends, he finds his social life is enriched by being in proximity to their exuberance and outgoing nature and tags along with them often.

At the age of eighteen, Nan grows ill and soon dies, leaving Galen truly alone in Korvosa without family. In true Varisian fashion she was many things in her long life, but at times she had the foresight and was proficient in using a true Harrow Deck from her own mother, well more than just a fortune-teller that swindled fools for desirable lies. Nan tells Galen on her deathbed that she brought him to Korvosa those years ago because of a Harrowing she once had performed on him, and that his special powers would come to fruition here hand-in-hand with his Fate, even though that could also mean his Doom. To hide from it, however, was not the Varisian way, and she asks him to stay and discover his true self after she is gone.

With Nan’s unexpected death the herbalist shop in Midland passes to a business associate of hers, and Galen finds his funds to attend the University of Korvosa starting to dwindle, preventing him from applying to Theumanexus College to try and understand his “sorcery” and eventually forcing him to discontinue his scholarly studies by the age of nineteen. He could no longer afford to live near the University and returns to Midland just a few blocks away from Nan’s old shop, living in a lower-rent Varisian boarding house. Not long after his nineteenth birthday and his leaving of the University of Korvosa, some of Evie’s carefree friends steer her to become more involved in wilder forms of entertainment in the seedier areas of the city; they begin to sample various concoctions to “enhance” their entertainment, and soon several of them become addicted to shiver from a dockside crimelord named Gaedren Lamm. By the time Galen realized what is happening to his dear friend, Evie is dreadfully addicted. He desperately tries to convince her to leave her gregarious lifestye and stay with him to remedy off the dream venom, but as much as she cares for him she would never do so for long. The year passes and Evie becomes more and more afflicted, abandoning her studies and all other concerns and cares except to maintain her supply of shiver – eventually she is forsaken by her North Point family and resorts to thievery and prostitution. Galen does not have the means to cure Evie by this point, and without the likes of his Nan or other family to help him in means he can do little but watch her slip away. Evie Moray dies from shiver and abuse in a cold dockside alleyway not long after Galen’s twentieth birthday, Galen finding out about it just in time to collect her body from the city guard and have her properly buried down in the Gray District with as much coin as he had left. He vows at her burial that he would not forget the name of Gaedrenn Lamm, and though he is a kind young man and not prone to hot-blooded Varisian vengeance, something stirs in him that he had never felt before.

Firmly now in his twentieth year he works two jobs: as an apothecary’s assistant for patrons in the Midland district, and as an occasional scribe and translator for University sages and scholars when called upon. Yet whenever he can spare the time he visits the orphanage houses to offer his herbal and healing lore for free, trying to do what he can to inspire them to the right path. Unfortunately, he has come to understand the fuller depredations of Gaedren Lamm and his spidery strands upon many destitute children, with far too many stories of orphans enslaved in his criminal enterprises and ending up disappearing altogether.

Personality:
On the surface, Galen is a relatively quiet and unassuming fellow – at first glance not the material of vendettas or vengeance. He enjoys acquaintances of many different walks of life, but has few close personal friends. He enjoys conversing with others in a kind and off-putting fashion, neither outspoken nor gregarious with his speech. Galen has an easy smile but is not one to preen or overly impress. He loves being in a room with energy and interesting affairs going on, but prefers to sit on the periphery to watch and listen while others demand the attention of the room. Galen has his opinions on many topics and knowledge of subjects, but doesn’t feel the need to convince others of his opinions or mastery of his knowledge.

An orphan through the product of violent misfortune, raised only by his grandmother and spending much of his earlier years on the roads and byways of Varisia in the nomadic traditions of his people, Galen could have drifted to become a wild vagabond or scoundrel with a dark heart and darker intentions. Yet he did not, thanks in no small part to his Nan…and to a certain extent his wider “family” of Varisian elders of the caravan train. He didn’t have much in his youth, but Nan ensured they had enough to do well enough – and more importantly he had both love and full attention from his grandmother. Long ago his Nan made a decision to raise him and devote herself to his well-being. In turn he loved her unconditionally, the pain of losing his parents and close family becoming a distant memory in time. The bonds of friendship and hope of love are what keep Galen centered to this day: a kind soul that has known hardship and grief but which has not been utterly damaged or corrupted.

Galen is a student and practitioner of balance, attempting to keep his emotions in check while at the same time experiencing the emotions and passions of a youthful existence. This too is a product of his upbringing by his Nan, though to some degree Galen always has had patience and wisdom beyond his years. Fundamentally this helps him in two distinct areas. Firstly, he knows if he lets go and pursues an emotional and uninhibited course, it will only lead to playing the fool and becoming the target of some foul mischief that could undo him, with no one there to protect him should he falter – tragically what he witnessed firsthand in the death of Evie Moray. Secondly, he knows the unhinging of emotion and rational thought prevents him from unlocking and using his special “sorcery” – something he dearly wishes to learn more about and foster within himself.

Galen knows his unique brand of magic is not “sorcery,” though for a long time he thought it was…or something akin to what Varisian bards or Ulfen skalds practiced. The final talks he had with Nan before her death brought him to the realization that he is “different” from other arcane sorcerers and bards. The odd crystal Nan left to him illustrates this different legacy to him well – his gifts are much more tied to the Varisian Harrow deck fortune-tellers and spirit mediums than anything else he has discovered in Korvosa to-date. His talents delve mostly into trickery and compulsions of the mind, though after one incident where he was chased by a pair of bravado toughs in North Point where it borders Old Korvosa, Galen found he could propel cobblestones and other large objects the size of a helmet at a foe with only his mind, able to hurt or maim with crushing force. He eschews such blatant actions of violence…though deep in the recesses in his mind he feels a wall that holds back more deadly powers not yet made manifest, feeling that wall beginning to crumble while thinking of the likes of Gaedren Lamm.

Galen knows his name of “Greywhisper” is an assumed name – though he knows his true family name told by his Nan before her death, he will never reveal it to others. His kapenia scarf is richly woven in the colors that Nan said suited him well – normally the kapenia traces the lines of his family history, which he would tell friends that it stretches back hundreds of years. In truth, the lines go only back to his Nan and nothing before her, circling back to himself. He finds that to be a fine joke that he and his Nan both shared when she bestowed the scarf on his naming day.

Galen is no evangelist or sacred worshiper, avoiding zealotry in most forms, but he does revere both Desna and Irori. Desna is part of his past, a connection to his Varisian heritage and the dreams of wandering free in the nomadic caravan of his people. He hears the Song of the Spheres most when he hears the stories and traditions of people in whatever language he has learned, when he wishes for luck in a game of chance or when he dreams of his family long gone. Irori has intrigued Galen ever since he came across a hidden copy of Unbinding the Fetters in an obscure section of the University of Korvosa libraries, finding the meditative forms and diet regimens extremely helpful to center himself and grow his strange powers. He embraces the yearning for increasing and preserving knowledge, though his preferences tend to fall to history, philosophy and interesting cultural practices over the stodgier topics of numbers and law.

Mannerisms:
* Galen prefers tea to all else, though he likes Garundi coffee and drinks it whenever enjoying himself at one of the scholarly taverns near the University, or as a special treat upon finishing up a tedious job in the northern part of the city before returning back home to Midland. Cider and common wines (typically mulled or spiced) are favored by him, though he drinks little in the course of an evening compared to most around him, avoiding ales and hard liquor almost entirely.
* Galen’s favorite meal is wild hare or game bird, usually set in a good stew. He eats fruits and fresh vegetables when he can find (and afford) them, and generally avoids pastries and heavier meats (as prescribed by Unbinding the Fetters and other Irori suggestions of proper diet).
* Galen enjoys games of chance as an idle pursuit, and keeps a deck of gaming cards as well as set of gaming dice handy wherever he goes. He will play for coin if the social occasion calls for it, though he is not one to gamble for serious stakes or as a means of income.
* Galen is superstitious of Varisian occult folk divination methods – particularly rituals of séances, fortune-telling, sight readings and faith healing. His Nan kept a favorite set of fortune-telling cards which he now keeps with him at all times. Occasionally he has tried to do a true Varisian reading for auras and cards, though he thinks he is not very good at such things. He believes in the true power of a Harrow deck and those that practice that rare talent, seeing it as a boy in the nomadic caravan. His Nan told him they came to Korvosa because of a Harrowing performed upon him, and Galen does not doubt this is utterly true.
* Galen, if asked about his Varisian kapenia scarf, is happy to talk about the significance of its colors and tracing of his “Greywhisper” family history, unashamed of his semi-orphan status. Of course, he is reticent to talk about the true history of his family whenever he does so, keeping the notions of family limited to his Nan and himself only.
* Galen, if asked about his magic, will be evasive and hint at some ancient Varisian bloodline which influences his "sorcery".

Spells Galen Favors:
1st: Expeditious Retreat FREE, Command, Color Spray, Mind Thrust I*, Mage Armor, Charm Person, Magic Missile, Vanish, Telempathic Projection, Shield, Feather Fall, Disguise Self
2nd: Bear's Endurance FREE, Mind Thrust II*, Id Insinuation I*, Hideous Laughter, Blindness/Deafness, Mirror Image, Thought Shield I*, Mental Barrier I*, Invisibility, Darkvision, Alter Self, Rope Trick
3rd: Haste FREE, Mind Thrust III*, Slow, Loathsome Veil, Fly, Ablative Barrier, Thought Shield II*, Dispel Magic, Displacement, Mental Barrier II*
4th: Freedom of Movement FREE, Id Insinuation III*, Confusion, Intellect Fortress I*, Charm Monster, Dimension Door, Black Tentacles, Though Shield III*, Resilient Sphere, Dimensional Anchor
5th: Echolocation FREE, Id Insinuation IV*, Mind Fog, Feeblemind, Mind Thrust V*, Ego Whip III*, Wall of Force, True Seeing, Teleport
(* Undercast spells - when taken swap out for another same level spell)

Feats Galen Favors:
1) Extra Amplification, Expanded Phrenic Pool
3) Spell Focus (Enchantment)
5) Bouncing Spell
7) Greater Spell Focus (Enchantment)
9) Piercing Spell
Other Choices: Reaching Spell, Logical Spell, Spell Penetration

Amplifications Galen Favors:
1) Mindtouch (1 pt, use detect thoughts on foe failing will spell)
1) Overpowering Mind (2 pts, +1 DC to Will Save spells, +2 DC at 8th lvl)
3) Relentless Casting (1 pt, roll twice vs. overcoming SR)
7) Will of the Dead (2 pts, can target undead w/ will save spells)
11) Space-Rending Spell (1 pt./10' travel, as dimension door with max distance equal to spell slot being cast)