Catfolk

Josria al-Zarqa's page

251 posts. Alias of SCKnightHero1.


Full Name

Josria al-Zurqa

Race

Catfolk

Quick Stats:
Init +2, HP 34/34 low-light vision; Perception +3, AC 12, T 12, FF10, F +2, R+3, W+4, +2 saving throw bonus vs fear, +4 saving bonus vs hot conditions, +1 saving bonus vs fire, FR 10, Base Atk +2; CMB +3; CMD 15

Classes/Levels

Sorceress 4

Quick Skills:
Climb +2, Diplomacy +13, Knowledge (Arcana) +8, Knowledge (History) +4, Knowledge (Planes) +9, Linguistics(Gnoll, Ignan) +4, Perception +3, Dance +5, Spellcraft +7, Survival +3, Use Magic Device +8

Gender

Female

Size

5'1" 92 lbs

Age

16

Alignment

Chaotic Good

Deity

Bastet and Cayden Cailean

Occupation

Former Slave and Fiery Sorceress

About Josria al-Zarqa

Current Experience:
280 XP

Stats:

Josria al-Zarqa
Female Catfolk sorcerer 4
CG Medium humanoid (catfolk)
Init +2, Senses low-light vision; Perception +3
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DEFENSE
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AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 10 (+2 Dex, )
hp 34 ((4d6)+10)
Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +4, +2 trait bonus on saving throws against fear effects, +4 trait bonus on any saving throws made to resist the effects of being in hot conditions and a +1 trait bonus on all saving throws against fire effects.
Resistances fire 10,
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee quarterstaff +3 (1d6+1/1d6)
Melee quarterstaff (head 1 only) +3 (1d6+1)
Melee quarterstaff (head 2 only) +3 (1d6+1)
Ranged light crossbow +4 (1d8/19-20)
Ranged blowgun +4 (1d2)
Special Attacks Elemental Ray 7/day (1d6+2 fire),

Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 4th; concentration +8)
2nd(4/day)-acid arrow
1st(7/day)-grease(DC 15), magic missile, summon monster i, burning hands(DC 15)
0th(at will)-acid splash, detect magic, light, prestidigitation(DC 14), ray of frost, read magic(DC )

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TACTICS
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STATISTICS
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Str 12, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 18,
Base Atk +2; CMB +3; CMD 15
Feats Additional Traits, Eschew Materials, Persuasive
Skills Climb +2, Diplomacy +13, Knowledge (Arcana) +8, Knowledge (History) +4, Knowledge (Planes) +9, Linguistics(Gnoll, Ignan) +4, Perception +3, Perform (Dance) +5, Spellcraft +7, Survival +3, Use Magic Device +8,
Traits Courageous, Finding Haleen (Sorcerer), Trustworthy,
Languages Catfolk, Common, Gnoll, Ignan, Kelish, Osiriani
SQ bloodline arcana (change energy damage spells to fire), bonus sorcerer bloodline power times, cantrips, cat's luck, elemental bloodline, elemental resistance, low-light vision, low-light vision, natural hunter, spells, sprinter, weapon and armor proficiency,
Combat Gear Soap (50 charges), rations (trail/per day) (5),
Other Gear quarterstaff, hot weather outfit, backpack, masterwork, grooming kit, mess kit, soap, waterskin (filled), spell component pouch, belt pouch, crossbow bolts (10), blowgun darts (10), light crossbow, blowgun, 0.0 gp
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Bloodline Each sorcerer has a source of magic somewhere in her heritage that grants her spells, bonus feats, an additional class skill, and other special abilities. This source can represent a blood relation or an extreme event involving a creature somewhere in the family's past. For example, a sorcerer might have a dragon as a distant relative or her grandfather might have signed a terrible contract with a devil. Regardless of the source, this influence manifests in a number of ways as the sorcerer gains levels. A sorcerer must pick one bloodline upon taking her first level of sorcerer. Once made, this choice cannot be changed.

Bloodline Arcana Whenever you cast a spell that deals energy damage, you can change the type of damage to fire. This also changes the spell's type to fire.

Bloodline Powers One of the four elements infuses your being, and you can draw upon its power in times of need. You must select one of the four elements: air, earth, fire, or water. This choice cannot be changed. A number of your abilities grant resistances and deal damage based on your element.

Bonus Sorcerer Bloodline Power Times Sorcerer: Select one bloodline power at 1st level that is normally usable a number of times equal to 3 + the sorcerer's Charisma modifier. The sorcerer adds + 1/2 to the number of uses per day of that bloodline power.

Cantrips Sorcerers learn a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells. These spells are cast like any other spell, but they do not consume any slots and may be used again.

Cat's Luck Once per day when a catfolk makes a Reflex saving throw, he can roll the saving throw twice and take the better result. He must decide to use this ability before the saving throw is attempted.

Courageous Your childhood was brutal, yet you persevered primarily through force of will and the hope that no matter how hard things might get, as long as you kept a level head you'd make it through. You gain a +2 trait bonus on saving throws against fear effects.

Desert Child (desert) You were born and raised in rocky deserts. You are accustomed to high temperatures, and gain a +4 trait bonus on any saving throws made to resist the effects of being in hot conditions and a +1 trait bonus on all saving throws against fire effects.

Elemental Bloodline The power of the elements resides in you, and at times you can hardly control its fury. This influence comes from an elemental outsider in your family history or a time when you or your relatives were exposed to a powerful elemental force.

Elemental Bloodline ~ Bonus Spells

Elemental Ray (Sp) You can unleash an elemental ray as a standard action, targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. This ray deals 1d6 + 2 fire points of damage. You can use this ability 7 times per day.

Elemental Resistance (Ex) You gain energy resistance 10 against fire.

Eschew Materials A sorcerer gains Eschew Materials as a bonus feat at 1st level.

Finding Haleen (Sorcerer) You never knew your parents--perhaps they died when you were a child, or maybe you were taken from them and raised elsewhere as a slave. You owe your sanity and your life to a woman named Haleen.

Fire One of the four elements infuses your being, and you can draw upon its power in times of need. At first level, you must select one of the four elements: air, earth, fire, or water. This choice cannot be changed. A number of your abilities grant resistances and deal damage based on your element. Fire is associate with the Fire energy type and the base movement type (+30 feet base speed).

Low-Light Vision In dim light, catfolk can see twice as far as humans.

Low-Light Vision (Ex) You can see x2 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.

Natural Hunter (Ex) Catfolk receive a +2 racial bonus on Perception, Stealth, and Survival checks.

Resistance to Fire (Ex) You may ignore 10 points of Fire damage each time you take fire damage.

Spells A sorcerer casts arcane spells drawn primarily from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. She can cast any spell she knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, a sorcerer must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a sorcerer's spell is 14 + the spell level.

Sprinter Catfolk gain a 10-foot racial bonus to their speed when using the charge, run, or withdraw actions.

Trustworthy People find it easy to put their faith in you. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Bluff checks made to fool someone. You also gain a +1 trait bonus on Diplomacy checks, and Diplomacy is always a class skill for you.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency Sorcerers are proficient with all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor interferes with a sorcerer's gestures, which can cause her spells with somatic components to fail.

Background:

Josria al-Zarqa never knew her parents, only remembering bits and pieces of them since she was so young when the raiders came. The young spotted catfolk doesn’t even know why the raiders attacked her village near the borders of Osirion and Katapesh. All she remembers is that she considered herself one of the unlucky ones that day…the day when she became a slave. The lucky ones were those who were cut down by the raiders. Given the last name al-Zarqa, an archaic Kelish phrase for ‘with the blue eyes,’ Josria endured much under the watchful eyes of the slave traders of the infamous Nightstalls and eventually an old wizard who treated her like a common servant, having her assist him in his studies of the magical elements. The wizard’s wife was much kinder to her, treating her like the daughter she never had. Eventually, Josria learned that she had a way with people, discovering that she had a natural talent of getting people to trust her, which allowed her to get away with certain things, like reading the books in her master’s library, which enabled her to learn much about not only this world, but others, like the Plane of Fire and the legendary City of Brass. The lady of the household nurtured this talent, teaching the catfolk how to behave in a civilized manner. Josria’s only friend during her time as a slave was a young girl who lived next door named Haleen. Haleen was the more adventurous of the two, and while the two did get into trouble from time to time, it was thanks to Josria’s silver tongue that kept them from getting further into more trouble.

As the years passed by, Josria began having strange dreams…dreams about fire and strange beings made of flames. She became both intrigued and terrified of her dreams and what they might mean. Then, one day, as the catfolk tendered the fireplace during a cold desert night, desperately trying to get it to light before her master punished her for failing to keep the fire going, when whether from sheer concentration or just stressed frustration, she caused a ray of fire to shoot out from hand and set the fire going. She was greatly amazed by this development, interested in her newfound powers. Then, the realization that she had seen what her master does to interesting things brought about feelings of dread. The only people she confided in about her secret were the wizard’s wife and Haleen. While the wizard’s wife cautioned Josria about using her powers, Haleen encouraged her friend to embrace her fiery abilities.

Eventually, her master’s temper tantrums grew frequent and he took to drinking, mainly due to his failed experiments with fire elementals. Josria learned quickly to avoid the wizard when he was drunk or having a tantrum when one of his experiments blew up in his face, burning his beard off. By the time the catfolk was 14 years old, the situation had gotten worse. Josria’s master became paranoid that the reason for his failures was that others had tampered with or sabotaged his research projects. Josria became worried about her safety, but it was not hers she should have been concerned about: it was the master’s kindhearted wife. One day, the already drunk wizard caught Josria reading several of his books on fire elementals, and he exploded in an alcohol-fueled rage. Using a statuette of Nethys, he beat the catfolk mercilessly. The whole household was in chaos, and some of the servants and slaves fled in terror, afraid for their very lives and not caring about the consequences of running away. The wizard’s wife ran into her husband’s study and tried to persuade her husband to cease his beating of the poor catfolk child. But instead, this only spurred the beatings even more. The weeping lady of the household could not stand it anymore, and she gave the wizard a swift and sharp slap across the face. Her husband, outraged by his wife’s defense of a simple slave, did in fact stop beating Josria, but now the wizard directed his full fury at his hapless wife…he was not only beating her, he was trying to rape his own wife.

Horrified by what was transpiring and feeling immense guilt, the catfolk tried to pry her master off the poor woman. This resulted in the wizard slashing Josria’s face with a serrated letter opener. As Josria watched in horror, with blood running down her face, something snapped in the little catfolk slave. Letting out all of the pent up anger she had kept bottled up for many years, she unleashed a wave of burning hot flames at the wizard. The sight of his slave hurling a magical spell at him had never crossed his mind since he bought Josria and was unprepared for the attack. The wizard shrieked in painful terror as he flung himself out the nearby window and to the streets below. Luckily, he didn’t burn to death; he broke his neck when he hit the ground. Josria wept tears as the kindhearted woman who had treated her as a daughter faded from this life, giving Josria her thanks for standing up to those who were cruel and advising Josria to never be afraid.

Thankfully, several servants had seen what had transpired and while the wizard was a government official, he wasn’t well liked in the first place so Josria wasn’t given the death penalty for causing his death. She would instead be sold. There was a large gathering of potential owners, but this was no comfort for the catfolk for each bidder was rumored to be worse than the previous one. When a fat, and if rumors and gossips were true, perverted brothel owner made the winning bid, Josria sank to her knees, her face and the rivers of tears flowing from her eyes covered by her hands. She did something that she had never done since she was a little cub: she prayed to her tribe’s goddess, Bastet, the cat-headed goddess who had once been worshipped in Ancient Osirion, but still had a few followers in this day and age. And, as if the ancient goddess had answered her prayers, someone made a bid that outdid the brothel owner’s bid! When the catfolk looked up, she saw her childhood friend, Haleen coming up to claim Josria. There was outrage by the brothel owner, who demanded that Josria was his, but the slave trader said that there was nothing to be done for Haleen had out bidden him, and Haleen even told the man that if he had a problem, they could take it up with the Pactmasters, a solution that the brothel owner didn’t want to do, and drop the matter.

Josria was speechless and moved by what her friend did next after Haleen brought her to her home: she gave Josria her freedom. It was heartwarming moment as the catfolk thanked Haleen in every language she knew as tears of joy covered her furry face. From that day forward, the two became even greater friends, Haleen encouraging Josria to continue her pursuit and understanding of sorcery, and to live a little, while Josria would often chastise Haleen for letting her temper get the better of her, since said temper kept the catfolk’s friend from making new friends or even keeping a job. Despite her temper, Haleen was always kind and protective of the mage. It was her human friend that introduced Josria to the god of freedom and adventure, Cayden Cailean. Taking an interest in her friend’s god, Josria began to worship him alongside her native land’s deity, Bastet. Haleen enjoyed teasing her friend, saying that the catfolk probably had the potential to become a talented dancer. During the year and a half that Josria lived with Haleen, the sorceress soon discovered something: she had fallen in love with Haleen. She tried to figure out how to tell her friend these feelings of love but never found the right moment, making things awkward for both of them at times.

But, recently, the human woman had grown strangely morose and depressed, as if something was weighing on her shoulders. Josria and Haleen normally didn’t keep secrets between each other, but whatever was bothering her wasn’t something she wanted to share with her friend. Josria feared of losing the person she had fallen for, and the catfolk told Haleen she loved her, pouring her love out into the words she said that day. Haleen stood there as if paralyzed. The catfolk saw tears begin to well up in the human’s eyes. Her friend said that they would talk about it later. As Josria weakly agreed and left to run several errands, she thought she heard Haleen crying...

That night, Haleen vanished; she left the catfolk sorceress a brief note, begging Josria to forget about her and to get on with her life. The note’s words began to break her heart, until she noticed something, and this something bothered her. Something in the way Haleen phrased her words struck her friend as forced, as if Haleen didn’t want to write the letter. Josria became convinced the woman she loved had been kidnapped, forced to leave against her will, or even magically controlled, but she also slowly began to suspect that she had left to protect the catfolk from something. Even as children, that was Haleen’s way of protecting those dear to her. Josria took a deep breath and decided that it was time for her to step in and protect Haleen, for their roles to switch. There was of course a problem: Josria had no idea where she may have gone!

Several months passed by since Haleen disappeared, and those months were spent searching for clues to her location. Then, when she was about to give up hope, she had gotten not one, but two leads! The first one was from a sighting of a woman matching Haleen’s description near the ruins of some town or city somewhere near the Pale Mountain. While this was a start, Josria knew that there were probably dozens of ruins scattered from Katapesh to the Pale Mountain! This lead did much to bolster the mage’s morale as she tried to narrow down her search. She eventually found a back alley diviner who agreed to help. He conjured a dream spell that would aid in the divination, allowing Josria to see exactly where Haleen had last been seen. The spell showed the catfolk’s friend entering the abandoned ghost town of Kelmarane! At last, Josria had found her! Still, the journey would be perilous, and even though Josria refused to let anything get in her way in finding the one she loved with all her heart, she knew that it would be suicidal to go alone. There also was the matter of why Haleen was in Kelmarane to begin with. Still, when the sorceress learned of an advertisement for mercenaries to accompany a man named Garavel to the region, she knew it was a sign from both Bastet and Cayden aiding her in finding her true love. The catfolk sorceress eagerly awaited the day the caravan would leave.

Description:

Josria is a petite young female catfolk who has the fur patterns and markings of a cheetah along with long brown hair. Her last name ‘al-Zarqa’ is an archaic Kelish phrase meaning ‘with the blue eyes,’ and was given to her because of her brilliant catlike slit blue eyes. She usually wears a red wide-sleeved robe with detached sleeves that leaves her legs and her upper arms exposed with a large slit opening the robe in the front starting at the top and closing up at her navel; she also wears a leather belt and elbow straps; the straps hold the detached sleeves in place. Her thighs are bare, but on her feet she wears a pair of open-toed boots. Metal pads engraved with Osiriani hieroglyphics cover the backs of her hands, and a midnight blue cape covers the back of her body and legs along with a pair of similarly colored metal shoulder pads.

A recognizable feature, besides her being a catfolk, is a large ragged scar that runs diagonally across her face between the eyes, along with a fang jutting out of her mouth.

Despite her petite stature, Josria has an athletic body, built to withstand the desert heat, due to her insistence in exercising in order to stay fit.

Personality:

Josria al-Zarqa has a very gentle and trusting nature, in addition to displaying a generally optimistic and friendly attitude towards her friends, and conducts herself with politeness sometimes even under the most dangerous of circumstances. However, she does have a bit of a feisty side, along with being prone sometimes to outbursts.

The catfolk sorceress is a pious follower of both Bastet and Cayden Cailean, seeing life as being a gift and that it must cherished and that each day should be viewed as a celebration of life’s joys. Having lived a life as a slave her entire life, she finds the teachings of the Drunken Hero to her liking, although she does admit that she doesn’t like to drink a lot, preferring to have her wits sharp. Her worship of Bastet helps her remember her origins as well as a way to remember her tribe and parents prior to their tribe being raided by slavers.

Despite her friendly and kindhearted personality, she is not afraid of being honest about people and things that disgust her or go against her morals. Thus, she usually speaks her mind.

Probably due to her faith in Bastet, Josria enjoys ancient depictions of cats in hieroglyphs or statues. The catfolk sorceress also feels a bit of kinship with sphinxes, honoring her people's and her nation's history with them. She also has a habit of collecting unusual items and trinkets.

No longer a slave, she wishes to seek adventure, hoping to experience and see things, people, and places she only read and dreamed about in books and maps. This has lead her to become a very energetic and outgoing girl. She can never sit still; she's always eager to go on adventuring. In matters of romance and love, she is madly in love with her childhood and best friend Haleen, wishing to spend her life with her.