 About M'KumbaM Human (M'Wangi) Warrior 1/Druid (Saurian Shaman) 4 Age 24 N Medium Humanoid (Human) Init +2 (+2 dex); Senses ; Perception +11 --------------------
AC 20, touch 13, flat-footed 18 (+4 armor, +3 shield, +2 dex, +1 deflection) HP 48 (10+8+8+5+8+5 con+4 favored class) Fort +7 (6 base, 1 con), Ref +3 (1 base, 2 dex), Will +7 (4 base, 3 ability) --------------------
Speed 30 ft. Melee +8 mastwk. longsword (1d8+3 19-20x2) Ranged +6 composite longbow (+3) (1d8+3) 110' range increments Space 5 ft., Reach 5 ft. --------------------
Wild Empathy (Ex):A druid can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. The druid rolls 1d20 and adds her druid level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly. To use wild empathy, the druid and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time. A druid can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but she takes a –4 penalty on the check. A saurian shaman can use wild empathy with dinosaurs and reptiles as a full-round action with a +4 bonus. Totem Transformation (Su):At 2nd level, a saurian shaman may adopt an aspect of the saurian while retaining her normal form. This ability functions as the dragon shaman’s totem transformation ability, but the druid may select from the following bonuses:
While using totem transformation, a saurian shaman may speak normally and can cast speak with animals (reptiles and dinosaurs only) at will. Using this ability is a standard action at 2nd level, a move action at 7th level, and a swift action at 12th level. The dragon shaman can use this ability for a number of minutes per day equal to her druid level. These minutes do not need to be consecutive, but they must be used in 1-minute increments. This is a polymorph effect and cannot be used while the druid is using another polymorph effect, such as wild shape. Woodland Stride (Ex):Starting at 2nd level, a druid may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at her normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment. Thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that have been magically manipulated to impede motion, however, still affect her. Trackless Step (Ex)Starting at 3rd level, a druid leaves no trail in natural surroundings and cannot be tracked. She may choose to leave a trail if so desired. Resist Nature's Lure (Ex):Starting at 4th level, a druid gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against the spell-like and supernatural abilities of fey. This bonus also applies to spells and effects that target plants, such as blight, entangle, spike growth, and warp wood. --------------------
Memorized:
1st (4/Day) - cure light wounds x2, entangle x2 2nd (3/Day) - aboleth's lung, bull's strength x2 --------------------
Base Atk +4; CMB +7 (4 BAB, 3 str); CMD 20 (10+4 bab+3 str+2 dex+1 deflection) Traits:.
Savage - After M'Kumba fled his crew he went feral for several years, living as a beast rather than a man. He learned much of nature and survival. Feats:
Skills ( Points 23 - 2 warrior, 16 druid, 0 int, 5 human):
Racial Modifiers:+2 str, bonus feat, skilled, favored class (druid) Languages: Common, Polygot, Druidic --------------------
+1 Wooden Armor 25 lbs. - 1170 GP
Masterwork Backpack 4 lbs. - 50 GP
Common Survival Kit 4 lbs. - 5 GP
Total Weight:71 lbs. Advancement:
0th:Warrior; 1st:Druid (Saurian Shaman); Nature Bond (Spinosaurus), nature sense, orisons, wild empathy, Power Attack, Point Blank Shot (Human) 2nd:Druid (Saurian Shaman); Woodland stride, Totem Transformation 3rd:Druid (Saurian Shaman); Trackless step, Precise Shot 4th:Druid (Saurian Shaman); Resist nature's lure, +1 wisdom =================================================== Background:
M'Kumba was born in a small tribe that lived in the swamps where the Sodden Lands and the Shackles merge with the Mwangi Expanse. His tribe were simple hunter-gatherers who worshiped the giant reptiles of the swamps as totem spirits. M'Kumba was raised as a hunter and a warrior, learning how to fight to protect the tribe and provide for their food needs. His uncle was the tribe's shaman when M'Kumba was young, his name was Beafutu. Beafutu lived just outside the tribe's village with his gigantic crocodile companion. He tended to the tribe's medical and spiritual needs. When M'Kumba was an adolescent he was out fishing with some of the other young men in the village. While wading in a marsh, he was bitten by a deadly poisonous viper. The viper's poison sent M'Kumba into a seizure, and a spiral towards death. His companions rushed him to Beafutu, who was able to pull M'Kumba back from the brink of death with his druidic magic. As M'Kumba lay in his uncle's hut, paralyzed and soaked in sweat he had a dissociative experience where he became part of nature rather than separate from it. He experienced life through the eyes of the reptiles in the swamps in a disorienting torrent of alien memories and sensations. Over the next few days Beafutu worked spells on M'Kumba and brought him back his strength. M'Kumba confessed what he had experienced to his uncle, hoping the shaman would have an answer as to what the visions meant. Beafutu had an answer, but not one M'Kumba wanted to hear. His uncle told him that he was fated to become the tribe's next shaman. M'Kumba didn't want to live in some hut with a big lizard, he wanted to be a warrior, to be strong - not wise. Beafutu told him that to fight his destiny would only bring disaster, but M'Kumba ignored his uncle. As soon as he was strong enough to go home, M'Kumba took what he needed to hunt and survive in the wild, and as much food as he could carry and headed west. He left at night, without an explanation for his family. M'Kumba would go to the pirates in the Shackles, they didn't care anything for fate, and respected only strength. It took him many weeks to get to a town, hiding uncomfortably in trees at night and walking all day in the oppressive heat and humidity, scrounging what he could to eat. Many times M'Kumba regretted his decision to leave home, but his stubbornness prevented him from turning back. It was a bitter and difficult journey. Eventually he made his way to a small shanty town on the coast controlled by a gang made up of a few pirate crews. The town was little more than a whorehouse, a general supply operation for passing ships and a place for prostitutes' bastards to grow into hard men and more prostitutes. M'Kumba fell in with the gang running the town and spent the next several years doing what he had to to get by. He was a large young man, and he put that strength to work many times dealing with rough customers in the brothel or as a debt collector. He learned what a real fight was in that dirty stain on the beach. His skills and misplaced loyalty made him valuable to the leader of the crew running town, a half orc called Goretusk. Goretusk had a mistress called Sheelah, a beautiful keleshite woman. M'Kumba was hopelessly in lust with Sheelah from the moment he laid eyes on her dark curls and sultry curves, but he never dared to say anything or make a move. Goretusk would torture both of them to death if he even suspected how M'Kumba felt. The more important M'Kumba became to Goretusk, the more time he spent around Sheelah. Sheelah was as clever as she was beautiful, and had a deep hatred for Goretusk. She noticed how M'Kumba looked at her and slowly worked at crumbling his resolve, until she successfully seduced him. M'Kumba's lust blossomed into full-blown naïve love under Sheelah's careful ministrations. Eventually she convinced M'Kumba to steal Goretusk's keys while the gang boss was passed out drunk and deliver them to her. She claimed she would use them to escape and take M'Kumba with her, and that they could find a better life. Instead, she robbed Goretusk of his life's savings and absconded with one of the rival crew's captains, leaving M'Kumba to take the blame. When Sheelah didn't come for him as they'd planned, M'Kumba realized he'd been betrayed. He fled town immediately, with only what he could carry, heading back east into the wilds as fast as he could. Thankfully none of Goretusk's crew were as skilled survivalists as M'Kumba and he was able to evade them and vanish into the huge tracks of swamps where the Shackles become the Sodden Lands. M'Kumba spent weeks in the swamps, reliving the patterns of his youth. He suffered badly at the hands of the weather and insects, not to mention the rough terrain. One day, he spotted a full grown female spinosaurus across a large, open marsh of tall reeds. He avoided the monstrous creature's notice by staying well away from it, but over time he realized she was guarding a nest. He watched her from afar, learning her patterns. All the while he was running out of food sources nearby. Soon M'Kumba would have to move and find another safe place to build shelter. He couldn't pass up the food represented by the dinosaur's eggs, they'd be perfect to eat while he moved on to new territory. After waiting until the spinosaurus was out hunting, M'Kumba sneaked up to her nest and stole three of her melon-sized eggs. He fled the area immediately after, moving on to another swamp. That night M'Kumba ate one of the eggs. The next day he ate a second egg, putting more distance between him and the dinosaur's territory. That night he curled up around the third egg, and slept in a nest of grass, hidden in some brush. He awoke the next morning to the sounds of an eggshell cracking. M'Kumba scrambled up and watched as over the next few moments a chicken-sized hatchling forced its way from the egg. The little dinosaur looked at M'Kumba quizzically, and then lunged at his foot with its razor sharp little fangs. M'Kumba jumped back in surprise, only to see the scaly foot long body of a snake dangling from the baby dino's jaws. The colored bands on the snake's scales sent a shiver down M'Kumba's spine as his memory flashed back to that fateful day in his youth – this was an immature but no less deadly version of the viper that had nearly killed him as a child. Taking it as a sign, M'Kumba decided to keep the dinosaur and named him Finn, for the spiny protrusion on his back. They spent the next few years hiding out in the swamps, moving around as necessary and surviving off the land. Finn grew to be even bigger and stronger than M'Kumba. Life in the swamp was hard, and lonely. Eventually M'Kumba couldn't take it anymore, and hoping that Goretusk had forgotten about him, went back to his home village. M'Kumba's family was overjoyed to see him, having assumed him dead for many years. Beafutu was the only one who smiled knowingly. ”I was certain you'd return. And not alone, no less,” he said to his nephew, motioning to Finn. ”You cannot escape your fate, M'Kumba.” M'Kumba nodded in resignation and agreed to apprentice under his uncle, who was now an old man. Beafutu spent the next months training M'Kumba in the ways of druidry, which he took to with great natural skill. One day, unexpectedly, it all came to an end. Unbeknownst to M'Kumba, Goretusk had paid one of the villagers to send him a message in secret should M'Kumba ever return to his hometown. Goretusk's agent did his work, and the pirate arrived one night, with the full strength of his blood thirsty crew behind him. They slaughtered the village, burning it to the ground. Only Baefutu's home being located outside of the village gave the two druids any warning at all. As the pirates rushed towards the shaman's home, Beafutu told M'Kumba to run. ”You must carry on the traditions of our people! Find somewhere safe and start again! I will hold them off!” Beafutu fought valiantly, buying time for M'Kumba and Finn to escape, but in the end he fell with the rest of the village. Again, M'Kumba was on the run, this time fleeing south, towards Sargava. He lived off the land as he fled, avoiding contact with anyone. Eventually he made his way to Eleder, where he changed his name to Jelani and took work as a guard with one of the colonial shipping companies. He and Finn rode river boats from the interior of the Expanse downstream to Eleder and protected their cargo until it was transferred onto larger ships. It was not the life he'd dreamed of, but M'Kumba felt relatively safe for a while. He continued to practice his druidic skills, using them to make himself better at his job, and to deepen his bond with Finn. M'Kumba was a loyal and skilled worker as always, and made friends amongst his colleagues and bosses. M'kumba received warning for some of those friends that some unsavory types were asking around Eleder about someone named M'Kumba who fit his description. Cursing his life, M'Kumba realized then that he would never be safe in Garund. Goretusk was so bent on revenge that he'd follow M'Kumba to the ends of the seas. M'Kumba needed to get away completely, to go to a new world. He reached out to his friends in the shipping company and they told him of an expedition they knew of to explore a new land across the Arcadian Ocean that was leaving from Westcrown in the near future. They agreed to smuggle M'Kumba there in exchange for most of the money he'd saved up while working for them. Everything went smoothly and before he knew it, M'Kumba and Finn were on board a ship heading to a new world, with only what they could carry with them as company. As the ship pulled away from Westcrown, M'Kumba prayed with all his heart to whatever god might be listening to let him find a new life in the new world. A life he wouldn't have to run from.
Description
M'Kumba is a physically imposing man. He rises taller than most, and is well muscled. His expression is direct and somewhat suspicious. He wears only the practical. M'Kumba is covered in utilitarian clothing made from animal hides, worn under a set of beautifully carved wooden armor. Tribal druidic runes coat every surface of his breastplate, greaves and braces. On his back are a well-worn traveler's backpack, a diamond shaped wooden shield carved with designs similar to his armor, and a composite wood and horn longbow with a quiver of arrows. He bears an Avistani longsword of excellent make at his hip, and there is a wooden wand tucked behind his belt. Finn (Animal Companion):
N Medium Animal (Spinosaurus) --------------
HP 30 (4d8+8 con+4 toughness) Fort +6 (4 base, 2 con), Ref +7 (4 base, 3 dex), Will +2 (1 base, 1 wis) --------------------
Speed 30 ft., swim 20 ft. Melee +8 bite (1d6+5) and +8/+8 claws (1d4+5) [dice=Bite]1d20+8;1d6+5[/dice]
Ranged Space 5 ft., Reach 5 ft. --------------------
Base Atk +3; CMB +8; CMD 21 Feats:
Skills:
Tricks:
Evasion (Ex):If an animal companion is subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage, it takes no damage if it makes a successful saving throw.
Finn is 300 lbs of savage, scaled, jungle fury. Hailing from the swampy jungles of the Shackles, the immature spinosaurus is already a combat trained killing machine. He stands four and half feet at the shoulder, and is seven feet long including his tail. Finn's scales are mottled brown and green, with streaks of red on his dorsal sail fin. |
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