Kallie Silversun's page

Price 21 gp; Weight 21 lbs.

This kit includes a backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, a flint and steel, ink, an inkpen, an iron pot, a mess kit, soap, a spell component pouch, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), and a waterskin. The kit does not contain a spellbook because a wizard begins play with a spellbook and does not need to purchase one.

Arcane Reservoir (Su)
An arcanist has an innate pool of magical energy that she can draw upon to fuel her arcanist exploits and enhance her spells. The arcanist’s arcane reservoir can hold a maximum amount of magical energy equal to 3 + the arcanist’s level. Each day, when preparing spells, the arcanist’s arcane reservoir fills with raw magical energy, gaining a number of points equal to 3 + 1/2 her arcanist level. Any points she had from the previous day are lost. She can also regain these points through the consume spells class feature and some arcanist exploits. The arcane reservoir can never hold more points than the maximum amount noted above; points gained in excess of this total are lost.

Points from the arcanist reservoir are used to fuel many of the arcanist’s powers. In addition, the arcanist can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir as a free action whenever she casts an arcanist spell. If she does, she can choose to increase the caster level by 1 or increase the spell’s DC by 1. She can expend no more than 1 point from her reservoir on a given spell in this way.

Whenever the arcanist expends 1 point from her arcane reservoir to increase the caster level of a spell, the caster level increases by 2 instead of 1. Whenever she expends 1 point from her arcane reservoir to increase the spell’s DC, it increases by 2 instead of 1.

You can cause a living creature to become dazed for 1 round as a melee touch attack. Creatures with more Hit Dice than your wizard level are unaffected. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier

By expending 1 point from her arcane reservoir as a standard action, the arcanist grants herself an effective illusion of armor.
She gains the benefits of mage armor with a caster level that’s equal to her arcanist level and appears to be wearing light or medium armor of whatever design she chooses when activating this ability. At any time while this effect is active, she can expend 1 additional point from her arcane reservoir as an immediate action to also gain the benefits of shield of faith with a caster level equal to her arcanist level.

The arcanist can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir to create a dimensional crack that she can step through to reach another location. This ability is used as part of a move action or withdraw action, allowing her to move up to 10 feet per arcanist level to any location she can see. This counts as 5 feet of movement. She can only use this ability once per round. She does not provoke attacks of opportunity when moving in this way, but any other movement she attempts as part of her move action provokes as normal.

Holy Water Jet (Su). Benefit: The arcanist can unleash a jet of holy water by expending 1 point from her arcane reservoir. This creates a 30-foot line of water that deals damage equal to 1d8 points of damage plus the arcanist’s Charisma modifier, plus an additional 1d8 points of damage for every 2 levels beyond 1st (to a maximum of 10d8 at 19th level) to each target in the line that would normally take damage from holy water. Creatures in the area of effect can attempt a Reflex saving throw to halve the damage.

You can briefly step out of time, pausing the world around you. This ability acts as the time stop spell, except that you gain only 1 round of apparent time. You can use this ability once per day plus one additional time for every 5 wizard levels you possess beyond 10th.

Benefit: Anytime you target and successfully affect a single creature with a charm or compulsion spell and that creature is within 30 feet of another opponent, your spell has a chance of affecting the second creature as well. As a swift action immediately after affecting a creature with a charm or compulsion spell, you can cause the spell to carry over to the nearest creature within 30 feet. The spell behaves in all ways as though its new target were the original target of the spell.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty to AC against attacks with improvised weapons and a –2 penalty to CMD against dirty trick combat maneuvers.

Later that evening, Kallie gets a knock on her door upstairs.

After a couple moments, Kallie opens the door. She's wearing a shimmering set of armor that covers her torso in a fancy breastplate, and barding around her lower half. "Oh! Cai'nan! Come in!"

Cai’nan looks stressed. He smiles and enters, pacing a bit. ”Ummm, nice armor. That new?”

She looks down at it and bobs her head. "Sort of. I've figured out a way to conjure magical armor without the use of a spell. Just tweaking the aesthetics a bit. Do you like? I was debating between this and something more like what the centaurs in the herd wear."

”Yeah...it’s nice,” he replies, running a hand through his hair as he goes back and forth in her room.

Kallie closes her eyes and concentrates for a few seconds and the shimmering armor fades, revealing her regular top. "Are you okay? You don't seem... I mean, is there something wrong? I'll listen."

He lets out a heavy breath. ”It’s not that anything is wrong. I mean, I dunno,” he stammers. He sighs and then says ”Look, there’s no easy way to do this. I think...I think we should just try and just be friends...”[B]

[B]"Well, of course we're--" Her eyes suddenly go wide and her legs wobble. "Wait. You mean-- you're saying that... you don't want to..." Her voice trails off. Her hands flutter as her tail tosses wildly. She squeezes her eyes shut and turns away. "No," she whispers hoarsely. "Nonono, this can't be happening."

”I’m sorry...” Cai’nan mutters. ”I...It’s just not fair to you. And to be perfectly honest, you know I’ve been uncomfortable with our differences. If I could just make a wish and turn me into a centaur I’d consider it, truly. But I cannot help that I’m a human and have human attractions...”

He steps closer and adds ”I think you are a great person. But it’s not fair of me to you to never be able to, well, satisfy you. And it makes me feel bad, even if you feel otherwise.”

She shakes her head. "Don't. Don't wish. You'd be too big for me." She keeps her back to him, but her body shudders as she tries to keep from breaking down fully. "I... understand." Her hands keep wiping at her face, but she still doesn't turn around.

Cai’nan feels sick to his stomach. ”I’m sorry I hurt you. I...I’ll just...” he says as he steps towards the door.

"If I, um, used magic, you know, to be human for a while? Would you maybe... consider?" She groans in frustration and looks up. "Gods, that's so pathetic."

He then thinks to all the pain magic has been in his life and shakes his head. ”No...I don’t think that’d be a good idea...”

She finally turns to look at him, her eyes red and filled with tears. "Why not? Sure, it would only last a few minutes, but I could finally, finally be sated! I've been so... you don't know what it's like!"

”I mean...do you even have that kind of magic? You’ve never even brought it up before. And...I mean, what would happen if it wore off in the middle of...” he asks, trying to consider the dangerous end results of such a mid-activity-event.

She tosses her hair and plants her fists on her hips. "I know of the magic. I'm sure I can learn it. The human shape is simple compared to a centaur. And I could probably get it to last for five minutes, maybe a few more if I used the boosting tricks that Papa Eugeni taught me." She shrugs. "We might be tangled a bit, but if you stay on top you shouldn't have any problems."

”Five minutes? Do you think five minutes would be enough?” Cai’nan asks sincerely, but his own discomfort with the risks and idea of it also hangs in his voice. ”Kallie...”

She throws up her hands in frustration. "No, but even a morsel is a banquet to someone starving!"

Cai’nan sighs and sits on the foot of the bed, burying his face in his hands in frustration.

Kallie deflates and runs her hands through her hair. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have... pressured you. I'll be okay. I'll maybe find a spell to make me grow, and then I can steal the heart of some stallion somewhere. Or, I dunno. Maybe there's a human out there who would want this." She runs a hand along her flank as she looks at her lower half wistfully.

”You deserve better than me, Kallie. I’m so sorry,” he says through his hands as he stands and steps to the door.

Kallie's face sours. "Oh? When did Pharasma pronounce you as arbiter of what I deserve? Don't I get a say? You either want to be with me and help us work it out, or you don't. Don't delude yourself into thinking you're doing this for me."

He shakes his head.

Dragging this out won’t make it any easier. It’s just making it worse.

He then opens the door and steps out.

Kallie shouts after him, "Coward!" Then behind her closed door she collapses on her bed and sobs.

It was hot.
No, it was worse than hot. The summers of his home had been this hot, except that the sun didn’t blaze like a fire too close to the skin. This sun cracked and blistered the skin if you let it. That was the difference. Well, that and everything else.
The insects, the plants, the prey, the predators, everything was different. Even the sun.
The boy nestled in the shade, feeling much cooler with his back dug into the earth he and his friend had tilled. No insects swarmed them from the ground this time. They had chosen carefully, as he had done so ever since the first time he had disturbed a nest of biting and stinging insects roiled into a frenzy by his digging. The wolf panted next to him, ever alert even as the sun and heat forced every moving thing deep into the canopies and shade.
It sounded different. The distant surf and the strange birds made the boy’s new home press on him even when he closed his eyes. He wanted to eat deer again. He wanted to hear his pack’s mournful calls at night. He wanted —
The boy shook his head and snapped to attention. He couldn’t think like that. The pack. They were a pack of two, and he had to do his part. He listened. He sniffed. He watched. They were alone, as always.

* * *

“You won’t be alone,” the great wolf told him. “You will be surrounded by your own kind. Humans. What you are.”
“I don’t want to be human,” the boy replied. “You told me, as I learn the ways of my father, I’ll be able to become a wolf. Soon I won’t slow you down. I’ll be able to hunt with you, as one of you!”
The wolf shook his head. “That path will always be available to you, should you choose it. But I have decided. You must learn about humans, before you decide to abandon what you are. I loved your father, as I love you. He and I ran together, hunted together, and fought together. At times, he would be a wolf. But he always returned to his true form. And that was human.”
The boy barely remembered his human father. Or his mother. The great, shaggy-gray wolf with deep, piercing gold eyes was always his true father, he felt. He opened his mouth to speak.
“No. I have made my decision. So long as you remain with us, you will know nothing of humans. You must live amongst them, for a time. They are a strange kind, but you know their common speech. You will make friends, meet females, and perhaps decide that houses and cities are not bad things.”
The boy would not argue. He would follow the instructions of the alpha male, like a good wolf. And then he would return.

* * *

This land was small. Surrounded by poison water and sharp rocks. There was no way to swim, no way to return. He did not want to return to the cities and the houses. They were cramped, noisy, and they stank. He did not come to like them. No, he wanted to return to the woods.
He met no human he liked. He met many who smiled, and said nice things, and made him like them for a little while. But their smiles were just the baring of fangs. He believed them, and was clasped in iron and put on display for others to gawk at.
Humans said one thing and did another. It was like a hunter moving one way to get the prey to move the other, into the jaws of a waiting pack member. The boy was prey amongst humans, where his hunters used words and promises instead of growls and bared teeth. And before he realized it, he was caught.
The months he spent with humans left him with no friends, and no understanding of humans except that they were cruel and evil. He wanted nothing to do with them.
It didn’t take long, however, for the boy to realize that to get off this small land and cross the big waters that he would need other humans. Wood floated, that was obvious, but humans made it so it could sink. How to make the wood move to where he wanted it to go? Which way was the great forests of his pack? How to make the giant skins catch the wind? Other humans knew.
Some humans on this land, though, had been here too long. They wouldn’t want to leave, don’t speak the human languages he’d been taught, and seem more interested in hunting and eating both him and his pack-mate. But there were others who travel in the wooden boxes, that crash onto the rocks. More will come. And they will want to leave.
So. He will do the smiling. And they will not see his fangs.

Male Human Druid 1 (Wolf Shaman)
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +6; Perception +7
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEFENSE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13
(armor +2, Dex +2, Dodge +1, Shield +1)
hp 11 (1d8+2)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +4

------------------------------------------------------------------------
OFFENSE
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spd 30 ft.
Melee: Sickle +4 (1d6+4)
Combat Options:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
STATISTICS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Str 18 (+4), Dex 14 (+2), Con 12 (+1), Int 10 (0), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 8 (-1)
Base Atk +0; CMB +4; CMD 16
Feats Dodge, Improved Initiative
Skills Knowledge (Nature) +6, Perception +6, Stealth +4, Survival +8
Traits: Dirty Fighter, Stowaway
Languages: Common, Druidic
SQ: Nature Bond: Animal Companion (wolf), Nature Sense, Wild Empathy, Heart of the Wilderness
Equipment: Leather armor, sickle, dagger, wooden buckler.

Animal companion: Wolf

N Medium animal
Init +2; Perception +4 (scent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEFENSE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12
(Dex +2, Natural Armor +2)
hp 13 (2d8+4)
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1

------------------------------------------------------------------------
OFFENSE
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spd 50 ft.
Melee: Bite +3 (1d6+1 plus trip)
Combat Options: Trip 1d20+1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
STATISTICS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Str 13 (+1), Dex 15 (+2), Con 15 (+2), Int 2 (0), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 6 (-2)
Base Atk +0; CMB +4; CMD 16
Feats Weapon Focus (bite)
Skills Perception +5, Survival +5
SQ: Scent, Link, Share Spells
Tricks: Attack (all), Defend, Down, Heel, Seek, Track

Personality, Role, and Campaign notes:
Ferrell is naive about most things, including social norms. He's very unsure of human interaction, and still thinks of himself as a wolf. I don't plan on making any crude jokes about marking territory or things like that, but he cares little for gold and fails to understand its value, since you cannot eat it or use it to hunt. His wolf friend is always present, and even when unseen he's slinking nearby, waiting for Ferrell's signal. If Ferrell survives long enough to get Wild Shape, it will be interesting to see if the rest of the party has developed his human side enough that he won't spend every moment he can as a wolf.