Gormak Thunderblood's page

Gormak
Male half-orc sorcerer 1
CG medium humanoid (half-orc)
Init +3; Perception +0; darkvision 60 ft
Favored Class: Sorcerer; FCB: +1 Skill points
DEFENSE
AC 12 17, touch 12, flat-footed 10 14 (+2 Dex, +4 Mage Armor)
HP 8 (1d6+2)
Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +2
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee light mace +2 (1d6)
Melee dagger +2 (1d4/19-20)
Ranged light crossbow +2 (1d8/19-20)
Ranged dagger +2 (1d4/19-20)
Special Attacks thunderstaff 6/day (1 round)
Spells Known (CL 1st; Concentration +4)
1st (4/day) - ear-piercing scream (DC 15), mage armor
0th - detect magic, mending, ray of frost, touch of fatigue
Bloodline Stormborn
STATISTICS
Str 11, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 17
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 14
Traits Orphaned, Touched by the Sea
Feats Weapon Finesse
Skills Bluff +6, Craft (carpentry)* +5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Profession (sailor)* +4, Spellcraft +5, Survival +4, Swim +5
Languages Common, Orc, Elven
SQ Human-raised, orc blood
Gear light mace, 6 daggers, light crossbow with 20 bolts, Sorcerer's kit (backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, a flint and steel, an ironpot, a mess kit, soap, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), and a waterskin), fishing kit, fishing net, waterproof bag, dice, 12 gp, 9 sp

Gormak Thunderblood is a half-orc Stormborn Sorcerer. His mother was captain of her own ship, on which his father was the first mate, based out of the Shackles. Though his parents were generally honest people, the reality of shipping in the Shackles meant they were also smugglers - typically of Mwangi artifacts or content deemed illegal by the Chelish Navy. While his parents would usually take Gormak along on their voyages, on the more dangerous trips, they would leave their son with one of their former crewmembers, an elf named Farila. Farila had lost an eye to a pirate attack, and her left leg to a shark, and so retired from the sailing life with a modest pension thanks to her loyalty to Gormak's parents.
It was on one of the more dangerous smuggling runs when he was 5 that they were attacked by three ships of the Chelish Navy. A captured pirate, hoping to lessen his own sentence, had ratted out his parents, who were smuggling revolutionary material north to Kintargo. His parents tried to flee, and fought hard, but a diabolist on one of the ships summoned a devil to smash a hole in the side of their ship. The vessel sunk, carrying both his parents down into the deep.
Gormak never learned this, however. He knew his parents had left him with Farila, and never returned. He knew they were dead - his parents would never have abandoned him - but he didn't know what happened. Had they been killed in a storm, or a pirate attack? In some ways, the not knowing made it all the harder for him to get closure. He grew increasingly difficult for Farila to deal with, lashing out in grief and anger. In order to try and give him a focus, Farila decided to try teaching him how to swim.
Swimming wasn't easy for the elf, what with her peg leg, but for Gormak, it was like walking. While swimming in the ocean, the boy felt more at ease than he had at any point since his parents' deaths. Every day, he went swimming in the seas, and every day, he felt a little less anger over his parents' deaths. He couldn't change what had happened - all he could do was move forward. Farila made for a decent surrogate parent, and the stability in Gormak's life didn't hurt.
Once Gormak was 12, he decided that he wanted to follow in his parents' footsteps, and live a life on the seas. So Farila arranged for him to get passage to Bloodcove with a letter of recommendation to an old friend of hers, where he would be able to find work as a cabin boy on a legitimate merchant shipping vessel. Upon arrival in Bloodcove, he was able to find the Valiant Feather, and her captain, Algar Fornwyn, brought him on as cabin boy on a trial basis.
On that first voyage, the Feather was attacked by pirates, who boarded the ship. One of the pirates saw the cabin boy, and thought he'd be an easy mark. He rushed, cutlass drawn, and the boy screamed as he ducked a swing of the cutlass and desperately lashed out with a fist. He did not expect to hit, nor for the pirate to be blasted back with a crack of thunder when he did, but that's what happened. The pirates, feeling superstitious, chose to break off their attack and flee, for fear of death by this apparent child of thunder. Captain Fornwyn heralded him a hero, and made his hiring permanent.
For the past 7 years, Gormak has been a crewmember on the Valiant Feather, working his way up from cabin boy to crew. During that time, he learned not only how to sail and repair a ship, but also how to control his budding magical powers. Though he doesn't think of himself as particularly powerful, he has learned that if he can bluff a pirate crew into thinking he's more powerful than he really is, they'll leave the vessel alone.
Recently, in port, Gormak overheard a couple of retired pirates in Bloodcove talking about his parents' deaths, and that a pirate had sold them out to the Chelish Navy. Suddenly, all the thoughts of anger at what had happened to his parents came back, and Gormak resolved to find out what specifically happened, and who was responsible. The two pirates didn't know who, but Gormak realized that the only way to find out would be from pirates. It would require playing a long game - after all, he was one person, and going around trying to beat up pirates for information was a good way to get himself killed. He took his leave of the Valiant Feather, and journeyed to Port Peril, with the intent of signing on with a pirate crew, working his way up the ladder, and eventually finding out who had sold his parents to Cheliax, so he could have his revenge. On a dock in Port Peril, staring out at the sea as he thought these plans, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, and as he blacked out, he realized he was probably joining a pirate crew in a way he didn't intend to.