I do have a previous build of Ktinos here--it's a gestalt build, though, so not very applicable to this recruitment. If you ignore the second class and mentally dial down the level it's close, though. The background information and particularly the information on the spirits in the bottom of this alias's profile is still mostly accurate, though I'll probably change where he washed up to Riddleport, as part of how he ended up in such dire straits (A half-mad amnesiac? The perfect mark!).
As for him interacting with the spirits... let's do a few little scenes.
Lion:
Ktinos snarls in pain as the bear's claws shred through his armor and into his side.
"You are too weak, cub," the Lion growls in his mind. "Your hide is like wet leaves, even with your pathetic armor."
Ktinos, too busy with the bear to formulate a proper reply, simply sends the Beast Spirit a mental growl back.
"Pathetic. Let me take over. I will rend this beast to shreds while its claws scrabble uselessly against my hide."
"No." Ktinos's mental reply is firm in spite of his struggle with the bear. "I am in control."
"Only if you don't die, cub."
Chimera:
"Kill them! Let me taste their blood! Feast on their flesh!"
Ktinos accidentally lets his growl go from mental to vocal. The men in front of him back up a step before recovering their haughty demeanor. "Oh, you think because you're so big you can growl at us?" Their spokesman shouts.
The catfolk shakes his head. "It was not you, it was..." he trails off, not wanting to explain the presence of the Beast Spirits.
"Insolent! Humans! Kill them!" the Chimera snarls in her rage and hunger within his mind.
"I am not going to go about slaughtering every human who looks at us," he thinks back to the spirit.
Griffon:
Ktinos watches people pass by, sitting in an alleyway where he has taken shelter from the rain.
"And you let them just walk by when they should be bowing to us, offering us tribute for the gift of leaving them with their lives." The Griffon is dominant today, and as usual is going on about how other people than him still have wealth.
"Perhaps if you were to offer useful advice rather than insisting I enslave them all through intimidation, we might not be broke and sitting in an alleyway," Ktinos mentally snarls.
He can practically feel the Griffon bristle. "Perhaps if you were not so small and weak we wouldn't have to do something else," the Beast Spirit replies haughtily. "I can scarcely be blamed for your disobedience and weakness failing to get results."
Sphinx:
"A constant guest, never welcome, everywhere hunted, yet ever returning, tiny death of empires."
Ktinos sighs. The Sphinx was not as taxing as the other Beast Spirits, for she at least did not want him to kill or enslave people, but it was difficult to keep up with her constant riddles, philosophy, and other topics. "Mice, perhaps?"
"Ah, not so slow this time," the Sphinx purrs in his mind. "Though are your eyes as quick?"
He had only enough time to wonder what she meant before a dire rat that had been lurking in the shadows charged him.
So that's about what I'm thinking about for him interacting with the Beast Spirits.
Yeah, sadly true. I've actually been working the last couple weeks with my brother on making a solo game for Ktinos, as I felt after playing him here for a bit that he was more appropriate for a solo game (as that would let the GM focus on his Beast Spirit shenanigans without taking too much focus away from other PC's).
Have fun wherever you may go in the future, everyone!
Ktinos eyes the riding beasts warily. He and animals had a way of not getting along, perhaps because they could sense the hungry Chimera within him. As if on queue he felt her urge to hunt, to kill, to rip and tear and eat warm flesh rise within him. With difficulty he stamped down upon it.
He almost refused the offer, but that would leave him depending on drawing upon the Beasts' forms to keep up with the others... probably not a wise decision, especially not when they might wish to appear like they weren't about to attack this group they'd be pursuing. And so he takes the biggest horse offered, hoping it wouldn't bolt at his scent and that it could bear up under his considerable weight.
Ktinos is silent. He is too surprised to discover something he and the Beasts can agree upon to speak. Apparently even they do not wish the unraveling of reality.
Ktinos growls again, slightly closing his eyes as he feels the Chimera trying to turn his anger into berserk rage. She snarls within him, hungry for blood and death and flesh, but he pushes back.
There will be time for killing when we find these.
The Chimera cared not for waiting, but could not break his will.
He opens his eyes. "What are they?" he asks, waving a clawed hand at the crystals. "I understood little of what they were doing within the cave, beyond evil."
Ktinos, having accepted Lady Zal's invitation to sleep in her home, had rather less ground to cover to reach her courtyard. He steps out as she was examining the crystals, his mane looking, if possible, even more tangled than before.
He growls and bares one of his long fangs at the sight. "These," he rumbles. "We hunt those who make them?"
Hmmm, I think length was just about right for this. The last fight was good. The spider battles were perhaps a little boring, but minion battles often are, and we hadn't gotten dialed in on combat strength yet.
Ktinos is very surprised by Lady Zal's home. He was used to rough inns--or more commonly, their stables--not houses so rich they are enchanted. While grateful for the offer, he feels uncomfortable in such oppulance, worried he'll accidentally knock something over with his tail or break a chair not intended for his weight or something. So he is glad to see this strange garden within, more familiar with plants and outdoor spaces as he is.
Cautiously he steps into it and looks about, finds an area he can sit down in, and does so. After a little while the fatigue of a hard day hits him, and he lays down on his side in the midst of the garden and is soon asleep in spite of the false daylight.
Ktinos is rather surprised by all that happens with the seed. He knew little to nothing of Quercus's kind, so had no expectations for how they worked.
He nods warily to the hero-god. In some ways he would rather get the speaking done with all at once, right now, for in his heart he still could not believe Kelksiomedes could be anything but an enemy to him, who bore the souls of the great beasts slain by his kind.
He turns to Lady Zal. "I would be grateful for the place to rest. It is... rare to find an inn... suited to me," he states, not quite wanting to bring up the why, though he thought it obvious.
Ktinos is so caught off-guard by Kelksiomedes's touch that he almost misses his invitation. Shaking himself slightly, he half-nods, half-bows and takes the seed back.
Quietly he goes to the place indicated, looks about for an appropriate place, and kneels to the ground. With one large paw-hand he digs a hole, then gently places the seed in with the other.
Ktinos warily presents the seed to the hero-god. The Beasts within him screamed for the blood of their enemy. He hoped Kelksiomedes could not sense their rage... or that if he did, that he understood the price Ktinos paid to keep them in check.
He gives Lady Zal a slight nod, but does not answer for now--he appreciates the offer, but now does not seem the time to discuss it, not until after the hero-god has done his work.
Ktinos cocks his head to one side. "If you will have me, I will come. I have no home to return to nor a destination to seek, so if there is some good here I can do, I will do it."
Ktinos growls in agreement. He shrinks down to his normal size, though as he does so his head grows more dragon-like. He inhales deeply, then exhales a blast of fire over the poisonous garden.
He looks over the destruction, waiting to catch his breath. After several seconds he burns the crops a second time, then seems satisfied with his work. Turning he sees Ethana struggling, walks over to her, and silently offers a shoulder to lean on.
Ktinos eyes their finds warily. "I would ask our plans for sharing the spoils, but I am not certain what here we should not destroy. Who of you are knowledgable in such things?"
Ktinos snarls, but lets go of the rage... but not his increased size, at least for the moment. Instead he reaches down and grabs Gosor and the seed they'd come for and starts heading out of the chamber as far as he can fit.
Ktinos, having long since lost any sense of rationality in his rage, snarls and whirls on the tree-thing that had dared run into him, tearing at it with claws and teeth... though the Sphinx's influence on him gave him just enough cunning to feint one way before attacking from the other.
I keep forgetting that the Sphinx/Trickster gives him a sneak attack on the first attack he gets on a target by making the target flat-footed the first time he attacks it. Pretty sure he hasn't attacked 2 before. I've also been forgetting Haste.
Not sure if I can 5' step and stay in reach--I think the dotted red line is its path? So looks like I'd have to move 10' to be within 15' of its destination, but just in case I'll roll the other attacks.
Snarling, Ktinos drops his club and slashes at the nearby tree-beings with his claws, then snaps at them with his teeth.
Going for the big one first, the small one if it dies. Looks like I messed up my bonuses last time and didn't take the size change into account... oh well.
Ktinos steps forward and swings a heavy blow at the nearby corrupted tree-thing, then another, then surges forward to snap at it with his teeth before finishing with a third swing of his club.
