Mavaro, Collector of Esoterics's page

About Mavaro, Collector of Esoterics

Apply chronicle to #137974-17

Quick with his strange but fascinating stories, Mavaro knows much about the world but speaks little of his past. His obsession with finding esoteric relics makes him invaluable to the Pathfinder Society.

MAVARO
Male human occultist 1
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Perception +4; +2 to avoid surprise and/or to detect invisible or Incorporeal creatures

DEFENSE
AC 15, touch 11, flat-footed 14 (+4 armor, +1 Dex)
hp 12/12 (1d8+4)
Fort +5, Ref +1, Will +4; +2 vs. emotions

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee one-eyed sword +3 (1d8+3/19-20)
Ranged sling +1 (1d4+3)

Implement Schools
Necromancy (Mother Wren’s skull, 3/3 points)--Resonant necromantic focus; Focus mind fear (DC 13)
Transmutation (one-eyed sword, 3/3 points)—Resonant physical enhancement (+2 Str); Focus legacy weapon (+1), philosopher’s touch (1 minute)

Occultist Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +4)
1st (2/day)—inflict light wounds (DC 14), lead blades
0—mage hand, touch of fatigue (DC 13)

TACTICS
Base Statistics If Mavaro’s mental focus points are unassigned, his statistics are
Melee
one-eyed sword +2 (1d8+2/19–20);
Ranged
sling +1 (1d4+2);
Str 15; CMD +2; CMD 13.

STATISTICS
Str (17)
Dex 12
Con (16) increased by luck from harrow deck
Int 16
Wis 10
Cha 11

Base Atk +0; CMB +3; CMD 14

Feats
Extra Mental Focus, Iron Will

Skills
Appraise +7,
Diplomacy +4,
Knowledge (history) +7,
Knowledge (religion) +7,
Linguistics +7,
Perception +4,
Spellcraft +7,
Use Magic Device +4;
Armor Check Penalty –2

Traits
grief-filled, spirit sense

Languages
Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Infernal, Thassilonian, Varisian

SQ
implements 2
mental focus (6)

Combat Gear
acid (2)

Other Gear
chain shirt
one-eyed sword (longsword)
sling with 10 bullets
backpack
dagger
hemp rope (50 ft.)
grappling hook
Mother Wren’s skull
torches (5)
trail rations (4)
waterskin
4 gp

* The effects of this ability have already been calculated into Mavaro’s statistics.

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Implements
Mavaro can access the necromancy school of magic through Mother Wren’s skull and the transmutation school of magic through his one-eyed sword. If these items are not in his possession, he must succeed at a DC 21 concentration (1d20+4) check to cast inflict light wounds (without the skull) or lead blades (without the sword), or a DC 20 concentration check to cast mage hand (without the sword) or touch of fatigue (without the skull).

Legacy Weapon
If Mavaro expends 1 point of mental focus from his one-eyed sword, as a standard action he can touch a weapon and grant it a +1 enhancement bonus. The bonus lasts for 1 minute.

Mental Focus
Mavaro has 6 points of mental focus, which he can invest into his implements at the beginning of the day to access his implement schools’ resonant and focus powers. He can divide the focus in any way he desires. It takes 1 hour for Mavaro to invest his implements with mental focus.
Once Mavaro invests mental focus in an implement, the implement gains its school’s resonant power, and Mavaro can spend mental focus stored in the implement to access its focus powers. The implement grants its resonant power to whoever possesses it (allowing Mavaro to aid allies, but making his spells more difficult to cast; see Implements above). Mavaro must be holding his implements to expend their focus powers. Mavaro can choose to save generic mental focus inside his own body instead of investing it. He can expend generic focus on any focus power he knows, but doing so costs twice as many points of mental focus, and an implement into which he did not invest mental focus grants no resonant power. If one of his implements is lost or destroyed, the invested mental focus is lost. Mental focus refreshes once each day after Mavaro sleeps for at least 8 hours.

In the statistics above, Mavaro has invested 3 points of mental focus in Mother Wren’s skull and 3 points in his one-eyed sword.

Mind Fear
As a standard action, Mavaro can expend 1 point of mental focus from Mother Wren’s skull to cause creatures within 30 feet with 1 Hit Die to become frightened for 1d4 rounds (DC 13 Will save negates). A frightened creature flees; if unable to flee, it may fight. A frightened creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. Creatures with more than 1 Hit Die affected by this ability are instead shaken (shaken creatures simply take the penalties, but do not flee). This is a mind-affecting fear effect.

Necromantic Focus (3/3)
If Mavaro invested mental focus into Mother Wren’s skull, undead take a –1 penalty on saving throws against the skull’s bearer long as Mavaro invested at least 4 points of mental focus in it. Additionally, the bearer can control an additional 2 Hit Dice of undead for every point of mental focus invested (maximum 4). A spellcaster who uses the skull as an additional focus for a necromancy spell to create undead can create an additional 4 Hit Dice of undead.

Philosopher’s Touch
If Mavaro expends 1 point of mental focus from his one-eyed sword, as a standard action he can touch a weapon and cause it to gain the properties of cold iron or silver for 1 minute.

Physical Enhancement
When Mavaro invests mental focus into his one-eyed sword, he can select Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. The sword grants a +2 temporary enhancement bonus to that score for every 3 points of mental focus invested (maximum +2). Mavaro has chosen Strength in the statistics above.

Spells
Mavaro can cast the following spells. For the full descriptions of the spells listed below, see Chapter 10 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook or Chapter 5 of the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide.

Inflict Light Wounds: Creature touched takes 1d8+1 points of damage (Will DC 14 half). This spell heals undead creatures instead of damaging them.

Lead Blades: For 1 minute, Mavaro’s sword deals 2d6 points of damage instead of 1d8. His dagger deals 1d6 points of damage instead of 1d4. Mavaro must be wielding the weapons for them to deal this amount of damage.

Mage Hand: Mavaro can point at one object up to 25 feet away that weighs up to 5 pounds and move it as far as 15 feet in any direction. The spell ends if the object travels more than 25 feet away from Mavaro.

Touch of Fatigue: A creature touched becomes fatigued (it cannot run or charge and take a –2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity). Anything that would cause the creature to become fatigued instead makes it exhausted. A successful DC 13 Reflex save negates this spell.

Spirit Sense
Mavaro gains a +2 bonus on Perception checks to avoid being surprised and to detect invisible or incorporeal creatures.

Combat Gear
Mavaro’s combat gear is detailed below.
Acid: Mavaro can throw a flask of acid as a splash weapon with a +1 attack bonus and a range increment of 10 feet. A direct hit deals 1d6 points of acid damage, and every creature within 5 feet of where the acid hits takes 1 point of acid damage from the splash.

Mavaro spent his youth and young adulthood with his mother, in the silent seclusion of a Pharasmin convent deep in Varisia’s Mindspin Mountains. Quiet and reserved, Mavaro quickly learned that the esoteric books and scrolls in the convent’s great library were his only friends. As he grew older, he began to secretly navigate the convent’s forbidden halls, ignoring the tales of horrors stalking them. There, he regularly bore witness to the nuns’ strange ceremonies.
Of all the rituals he saw, the most baffling one involved the nuns’ participation in a period of severe fasting and meditation. After their bodies wasted, the nuns gathered in a hushed chamber, where novices unveiled the yellowed, sigil-scripted skull of the order’s founding abbess, Mother Wren. A ghostly whisper emanated from the skull, indicating a worthy candidate. The nuns then adorned the chosen sister’s body with strange sigils and specially cast silver talismans, wrapped her in fresh linens, and carried her into a hidden catacomb to place her among generations of similarly mummified worshipers.
In Mavaro’s twenty-second year, Varisian traders arrived at the abbey. The nuns took the opportunity to restock their food stores and other essentials, but Mavaro was fascinated by the traders’ other goods—relics that represented cultures Mavaro had only read about.
He coveted these esoteric items, particularly a strange sword with a carved face and red gems for eyes. Lacking any money, Mavaro stole into the forbidden catacombs and took the silver talismans from the sisters’ starved bodies. He bought his sword, but little did Mavaro know that disturbing the nuns’ bodies unraveled the binding magic that had long kept an evil force at bay. As the caravan trundled away with the convent’s traded relics, the entity’s spiritual corruption leaked forth.
The deaths began slowly, secretly, but soon the evil being began openly murdering the nuns. The prioress finally realized Mavaro’s folly, but it was too late, and the malevolent presence possessed her.
Wrenching back control of her body for a brief moment, the prioress set fire to the convent in hopes of destroying the entity of rust and chains, which Mavaro came to call the Thorn Priest.
It and Mavaro survived, though, and as it stalked toward him viciously, its vestments of razor wire glowing red, Mavaro tried to gather any relics he could find to defend himself. He would have died, but Mavaro heard the skull of Mother Wren whisper to him in the ashes; the ancient holy woman commanded him to open his soul to the power of the items he had collected. Trembling, but full of strange power, Mavaro struck. A red gem shattered in the sword’s hilt and the dark thing shrieked, flailing jangling fetters as it retreated through the ruins.
Twenty years have passed, and Mavaro is now a man of many indulgences, making up for his modest childhood with good food and raucous company. He deflects questions about his youth with inconsistent yet entertaining tales about his collection of strange objects. Quietly, though, he seeks the relics he traded away long ago, and this mission has led him to join the Pathfinder Society. Ultimately, Mavaro seeks to undo the folly of his youth and to finally face the Thorn Priest, which stalks him still.