Lantern Bearer

Mekel's page

101 posts. Alias of Harakani.


Classes/Levels

Gear

About Mekel

mechanics:

Male Elven Void Wizard
Str: 10
Dex: 18 (10 pts for 16, +2 racial)
Con: 10 (2 pts for 12, -2 racial)
Int: 18 (10 pts for 16, +2 racial)
Wis: 8 (-2 pts for 8)
Cha: 10

BAB: 0
HP: 7 (d6+1 fav)
Feats: Breadth of Experience, Scribe Scroll
Traits: Riftwarden Orphan, Treerazor’s Bane

Saves:
Fort 0 (+0 con +0 class)
Ref 4 (+4 dex +0 class)
Will 1 (-1 wis +2 class)
Modifiers: immune to sleep. +2 racial vs enchantment spells and effects. +2 insight vs spells and spell-like abilities.

Skills: 6 ranks
Perception +3 (+1 trait, +1 rank, -1 wis, +2 racial)
Knowledge: Local +10 (+4 int, +2 feat, +1 rank, +3 trained)
Knowledge: Planes +10 (+4 int, +2 feat, +1 rank, +3 trained)
Knowledge: Religion +10 (+4 int, +2 feat, +1 rank, +3 trained)
Profession: town guard +5 (-1 wis, +2 feat, +3 trained, +1 rank)
Stealth +5 (+4 dex, +1 rank)
Diplomacy +3 (+0 cha, +3 familiar)
Knowledge: Misc +6 (+4 int, +2 feat)
Languages: Elven, Taldane, Hallit, Dwarven, Draconic, Abyssal

Abilities:
Arcane Bond: Thrush Familiar
Scribe Scroll as bonus Feat
Arcane School: Void
Opposition School: Earth
Void Awareness (Su): +2 insight bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities. This bonus increases by +1 for every five wizard levels you possess.
Reveal Weakness (Su): standard action, select a foe within 30 feet. That creature takes a penalty to its AC and on saving throws equal to 1/2 your caster level (minimum –1) for 1 round. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence bonus.
Elven Immunities: Elves are immune to magic sleep effects and gain a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells and effects.
Keen Senses: Elves receive a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks.
Elven Magic: Elves receive a +2 racial bonus on caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance. In addition, elves receive a +2 racial bonus on Spellcraft skill checks made to identify the properties of magic items.
Weapon Familiarity: Elves are proficient with longbows (including composite longbows), longswords, rapiers, and shortbows (including composite shortbows), and treat any weapon with the word “elven” in its name as a martial weapon.
Low-Light Vision: Elves can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.

Spells per day: 3 cantrips, 3 1st (one must be void)
Spells known:
0: all cantrips + guidance - acid splash
1: expeditious excavation, grease, stone fist, shield, keen senses, true strike;
Spells memorised:
0: guidance (“lesser true strike”)
0: prestidigitation
0: mending
1: blank
1: blank
1v: True Strike

Equipment:

backpack
spell component pouch

flint and steel
ink and pen
mess kit
Whistle
Wandermeal
spellbook
arrows
leather armour
longbow
dagger
waterskin
ale, gallon


background:

Mekel’s full name is Mekelarienon, but he goes by Mekel and has for decades.
Mekel’s parents went on a mission when he was only 11, and he doesn’t remember them. Mekel was left with his uncle (Dariniel) and his uncle’s wife (Marla), who raised him as their own.
Mekel was taught archery by his “father” Dariniel, who was a veteran ranger against Treerazor before joining the first crusade. Mekel’s “mother” was a Forlorn elf with traces of drow ancestry.
Dariniel died fighting cultists inside Mendev in 4651, when Mekel was 40. While Mekel continued with the lessons his “father” had started he is only competent by elven standards. Dariniel’s attempts to show him how to fight demons (Treerazor’s Bane) and learn to control his mind were in their infancy.
Dariniel’s friend Maen - a defender of the city and dwarven Earth wizard - offered to train Mekel. Other elves shunned Marla because of her heritage, and knowing nothing of magic herself she agreed. This was devastating to Mekel’s magical abilitity.
Maen had no experience with the speed of Elven education and taught a dwarven philosophy to magic “hold it down and beat it into the shape you want with your mind”. Unbeknownst to anyone Dariniel had been teaching Mekel the basics of elven magic “let the magic grow within you like a tree, encouraging it to grow where you want”. The result was a distortion of both teachings meant that Mekel was a very poor student despite his hard work. To his credit Maen persevered for fifteen years (4666) before giving up with a regretful “you’ll never be more than a dabbler”.
fifteen years of disappointing a harsh but beloved teacher who believed in frank honesty destroyed Mekel’s belief in his own magical abilities. During this period Mekel did learn how to acquire a familiar - the one area both teachings actually agreed on.
Maen stayed in touch and his subsequent apprentices have gone from strength to strength. All his apprentices gather annually and Mekel tries to make it, trying not to feel jealous of the heights to which they have risen.
The third crusade had started by this time and Marla’s heritage had made her a target. Dariniel’s friends rallied around her and prevented the worst of the persecution, but Mekel and Marla joined the church of Abadar to gain some religious protection - the Abdadarian church never weakening in its demand that all paperwork be complete before its congregation were inquisited. Abadar’s beliefs made sense to Mekel and he became a true believer - though we was disquieted by the cold way in which laws were sometimes applied.
Over the next thirty years Melek started many apprenticeships and careers, but over and over lacked the will to continue, his shattered self-respect leading him to believe he simply had no aptitude.
In 4696 he became a fully-fledged member of the Guard. Mostly consisting of training or standing sentry watches in isolated outposts. During training he once again started to regularly call up on Dariniel’s teachings, which has (without him realising it) started to undo the damage wrought by Maen. His periods of isolation have led him to much reading and his knowledge of trivia is becoming encyclopedic.
A month ago he discovered his birthmark in one of his borrowed books. Stunned to discover its meaning he confronted Marla, who finally broke down and told him the little she knew of his real parents. Dariniel had apparently had a letter to be given to Mekel on his 110th birthday, but it was taken during the witch hunts.

appearance:
Appearing as a teenage elf Dariniel wears light armour and carries a bow. As a full member of the Guard he is permitted long hair and is delighted not to have to cut his hair every month - as a result over the years it has become quite long. A slight purple cast to his skin could be an indicator of demonic or drow heritage (or just as equally not, but as most elves believe his mother is the quarter-drow Marla it has become a mark of predjudice)

personality:

Mekel has no belief in his magical abilities, labelling himself a “failed apprentice”. He still has a familiar and collects odds and ends in a “component pouch”. He carries a notebook with him at all times, and often has another book or two where he can.
Mekel is proud of his encyclopedic knowledge. It is one of only two things of which he is proud, having stumbled upon the aptitude and worked very hard to keep it.
Mekel is also proud of his devotion to Abadar. Elven age has let him gain some degree of seniority within the lay hierarchy of the church.
Elves bond with their territory, and for Mekel that has meant bonding with Kenabres. His knowledge of the city is exhaustive.
Mekel likes to help people, but his time as a Guard has left him distrustful. He despises cultists. His history means he is scrupulous about checking accusations and following the law, but if anything could convince him to chaos it is watching a cultist use a loophole in the law to escape punishment.
Unlike most Forlorn Mekel is not especially morose - everyone in Mendev knows life can be short and end at any time. Everyone has lost friends. Mekel’s associations with Maen and Marla means he has had anchors on which to build his life.

A note on age:
Though he is 102 years old Mekel is still about 18 years short of the minimum age for an elven wizard. There’s a couple of reasons for this (A) emphasising the young aspect for the monomyth (B) Mekel is supposed to be an apprentice, so being too young to graduate is perfect (C) My reading of the Riftwarden Orphan trait is that the parents were lost after the start of the Worldwound, but the first crusade started 91 years ago. At the moment that makes Mekel at least 11, which seems like an age where he might not remember his parents given elven aging.