Nikolai Vancaskerkin's page

A brawler can take a move action to gain the benefit of a combat feat she doesn't possess. This effect lasts for 1 minute. The brawler must meet all the feat's prerequisites. She may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + 1/2 her brawler level (minimum 1).

The brawler can use this ability again before the duration expires in order to replace the previous combat feat with another choice.

If a combat feat has a daily use limitation (such as Stunning Fist), any uses of that combat feat while using this ability count toward that feat's daily limit.

At 1st level, a brawler gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A brawler may attack with fists, elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a brawler may make unarmed strikes with her hands full. A brawler applies her full Strength modifier (not half ) on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes.

Usually, a brawler's unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but she can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on her attack roll. She has the same choice to deal lethal or nonlethal damage while grappling.

A brawler's unarmed strike is treated as both a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that modify either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.

A brawler also deals more damage with her unarmed strikes than others, as shown on Table: Brawler. The unarmed damage values listed on that table are for Medium brawlers. A Small brawler deals less damage than the amount given there with her unarmed attacks, while a Large brawler deals more damage; see the following table. (Current = 1d6)

Starting at 2nd level, a brawler can make a brawler's flurry as a full-attack action. When doing so, a brawler has the Two-Weapon Fighting feat when attacking with any combination of unarmed strikes, weapons from the close fighter weapon group, or weapons with the "monk" special feature. She does not need to use two different weapons to use this ability.

A brawler applies her full Strength modifier to her damage rolls for all attacks made with brawler's flurry, whether the attacks are made with an off-hand weapon or a weapon wielded in both hands. A brawler can substitute disarm, sunder, and trip combat maneuvers for unarmed attacks as part of brawler's flurry. A brawler with natural weapons can't use such weapons as part of brawler's flurry, nor can she make natural weapon attacks in addition to her brawler's flurry attacks.

At 3rd level, a brawler can select one combat maneuver to receive additional training. She gains a +1 bonus on combat maneuver checks when performing that combat maneuver and a +1 bonus to her CMD when defending against that maneuver.

At 7th level and every 4 levels thereafter, the brawler becomes further trained in another combat maneuver, gaining the above +1 bonus combat maneuver checks and to CMD. In addition, the bonuses granted by all previous maneuver training increase by 1 each. (For example, if a brawler chooses grapple at 3rd level and sunder at 7th level, her bonuses to grapple are +2 and bonuses to sunder are +1. If she then chooses bull rush upon reaching 11th level, her bonuses to grapple are +3, to sunder are +2, and to bull rush are +1.)

So, you all want me to record my findings, right? Well, let's start with the basics - I'm looking into a weird gillman thing. Apparently, they make a trek from the ocean to this remote cave, and there's supposed to be one there right now. The Pathfinder that discovered this fact, a Janira Gavix, will be guiding us to that site and acting as our proctor for the Confirmation.

So far, I can tell you that the interior of this island stinks. All sorts of abandoned battlements and siege towers, difficult terrain, and, oh yeah, SPIDERS. LOTS AND LOTS OF SPIDERS. THEY GOT IN MY PANTS. THAT'S A SENSATION I NEVER NEEDED TO EXPERIENCE EVER.

That's been the trip thus far. I'm taking a moment to jot all this down as we recover from what I will be calling "The Day I Started Having Night Terrors." I'd say "it can't get any worse than this," but when you're a Vancaskerkin, you get used to finding out that you haven't quite scraped the bottom of the barrel just yet.

LATER

Typical Vancaskerkin luck. We find the cave, only for our proctor to get chased off by a freakin' minotaur. So now we're on our own, and are exploring this cave by ourselves. There was a pit with water in the bottom that briefly blocked our progress, but fortunately I remembered that seminar from VL Farkander Higglebotham (or something like that, gnomes have stupid names). He talked about all the stuff you need to bring on a spelunking expedition, and I remembered thinking how similar it was to doing second-story work. Not that I ever did that. I don't have the limberness for it. My sister out of Magnimar, though...but enough about her. Anyway, the point is, I had some rope and pitons, and we were able to get past it without any real problem.

Beyond were some murals that our resident Azlanti scholar and animal wrangler mentioned he was able to puzzle out four of them. They represented some of the aspects of Aroden - The Farmer, The Fisherman, The Merchant, and The Scholar. Undoubtedly, The Butcher, The Baker, and The Candlestickmaker were three of the others. Hell if I know what any of them mean, but there you have it.

Oh, and we've finally found the gillman. I'll update more after we've made contact - peaceful, or otherwise.

LATER STILL

Lots has happened. First off, that gillman wasn't very helpful at first, at least not until we bribed him with a cloak that we found in the bottom of that water-filled pit. He called himself Uori, then helped Aznive, one of the other initiates, perform some rituals with this massive diorama of Absalom, and awakened some magical powers lying dormant in the structure. I kinda followed along - the Taldane warrior recited a passage from her journal, trying to invoke the power of the Scholar, but failed. It wasn't until Uori had her lower the book to the city that a magical effect took place, sending fleeting images of monsters and their abilities to us. Similarly, catching a cave fish with your bare hands invoked the Fisherman, trading a coin of your own from one of the pool's invoked the Merchant, and placing dirt onto the city invoked the Farmer. These were not amazingly powerful gifts from the altar to the Dead God, about on par with some of the monuments of Magnimar, but still, magic is magic.

We're heading down another path. More later.

EVEN LATER

Seriously, this place blows. Twice-born gillmen tried to kill us, and one of them got a lucky shot in. Fortunately, the half-orc in our group has more muscles than common sense and hacked mine apart as well as his own. We also found the body of a dhampir in the chamber, who apparently had designs to raise and control an army of twice-borns, but only achieved one half of that before they killed him. This is why you always need death's-head amulets. Anyway, not a lot in here, other than a few magical trinkets that our rock guy can't figure out, and a secret passage. There's some shouting coming that way, so we're going to check that one out.

YET AGAIN LATER

Turns out the shouting was our bard, Janira. She'd led the minotaur well away from us, and it had somehow broken its axe - probably magic. That, I finally figured out where all my good luck went, the damn bend stole all of mine. Killing the thing wasn't nearly as bad as I figured it would be, though.

So there you go. The place was a temple to a dead god, and it's where fishman priests go to die or something. I suggest waiting until they've all died out and taking the place from them, but that's just me. Do whatever you want with the place.

Before I begin this tale, I'd like to once again formally request a mission that doesn't take place on the g~$#&*ned Isle of Kortos! Seriously, I've spent the last three years of my life as an indentured servant to the Lodge, and nearly died plenty of times for you all. The least you could do is let me go somewhere interesting before I'm devoured by otyughs or turned into a frog or petrified or whatever. 'Cause that's how this is going to end, you know. There's no happy retirement at the end of my road - just some ignoble death that probably doesn't even make the pages of the Chronicles.

Anyway, the fortress. I'm using that very loosely here, first off. It was a siege tower, one of the countless weapons used to assault Absalom in its early days. An earthquake had recently allowed entry, and the Society was sending us in to see what we could find out. I don't remember if the VC gave us a name - if he did, I don't remember it. I'll call him Geoff, mostly because he doesn't look like one, and I think he'd hate the name.

I'm going to skip over a bunch of stuff here and head straight to the end - the tower had little to no info on the warlord who tried to use it. The best we could find was that they must have venerated Nethys, as we found a shrine to that god. We also found a pair of burning skeletons there. I only remember that from the searing pain I felt as they ripped their flaming claws into me, as I nearly died from those two. I also nearly died from a spear trap, a giant frog, and the crocodile pet of the troglodyte leader in this damn tower. Yeah, there were trogs, too. This place sucked, and didn't have much of historical note. Some decent jink, but nothing of historical note.

Oh, there was also another Pathfinder, some guy named Balenar. The VC never mentioned that there was a second Pathfinder on site, so I immediately suspected him. Still do, even though he helped us fight the leader, if I'm honest. I recommend we keep an eye on this guy, just in case he turns out to be an Aspis spy or something.

Typical. Just typical. After three years of indentured servitude and countless missions around Absalom and the Isle of Kortos, the VCs finally decide to trust me with an actual mission, and what is it? F**KING COURIER DUTY. Because of course it is. At least it's on the mainland of Avistan again. The City at the Center of the World is nice and all, but damn if I haven't seen enough of it for the last three years of my life. Besides, it doesn't have nearly the character of the Asylum Stone. Not that I can show my face there any longer.

***LATER, IN CASSOMIR***

HA! At last, things are finally looking up! Tragic news - a fellow Pathfinder has been captured. Looks like some auction was going on, and it was raided by kidnappers. The VC, some skirt named Hestia, informed us that Pathfinder Cestis was captured during the raid. The usual suspects, the Aspis Consortium, aren't considered to be involved this time, as one of their agents, someone named Kafar, was captured as well. His servant, a boy named Nefti, has agreed to lead us to where he saw everyone being taken. Personally? I think the whole damn thing is a trap. I remember a stunt we pulled back in Kaer Maga, where we dressed up as a third gang to attack a meeting involving our gang and the Crossblades. The best way to have someone think you didn't do something is to show that you were a victim, and I'm suspicious of these two.

So far, though, Nefti's been true to his word, and led us to the Inn of the Unlucky Sailor. It's little better than a lean-to, but honestly, I've seen worse. Our prize wasn't inside - and neither was Uncle Guaril's - but there was some crazy guy dressed in robes torturing a man lashed to the bar. Protecting him was - and I'm not making this up - three rats the size of large cats. We dealt with these losers in relatively short order, but got next to nothing useful out of the weirdo, only that he hates humans, that he's part of some slaver ring here in Cassomir, and there's more slavers at the Prancing Prince . The curvy spellcaster in our group - Sheela, I think - she seemed bothered by the mere mention of slavers. I don't think she's Andoran, but hey, it takes all kinds. Me, I don't care, just so long as I'm not the one being enslaved.

The ship, like the docks surrounding it, was empty - at least on deck. We found evidence of several men on board, but they were nowhere to be found. That was, at least, until we went belowdecks, and found two half-orcs, ugly as sin and about as good at hand-to-hand as me. They didn't have the good sense to wear armor, but they made up for it with their fancy dance moves.

***WRITTEN IN A HASTY SCRAWL, THE PAGE BLOODSTAINED***

Son of a whore! How did this all go sideways so damnably fast? And why did it have to happen to him?

So, the half-orcs were punks. We took them down easily, and I even found the lordling that Uncle Guaril was wanting me to look for. Just as we were leaving, though, we ran afoul of the captain and what I assume was her twice-born cabin boy. Davith tried to bluff that he was one of the half-orcs below, but she wasn't buying what he was selling, so we had to try to rush her. It went poorly from there. The twice-born was faster than normal, and clocked me with a meaty fist as I went by him to harrass the priestess. Worse, she had her dark powers to channel negative energy, and that injured many of us lethally, and she even blinded Hakon. I don't know how we survived - that samurai of ours managed to take her out while we were dying on the ship's deck - but it came with a heavy cost. Davith died. I took out my aggression on her corpse. There wasn't much of her face left when I was done.

I'm still furious. At myself for letting my team down, at the Pathfinders for sending us on this mission, at the Aspis for probably being behind all of this, but mostly at the bastard responsible for the kidnappings. We've got a lead on him now, and we're en route to take him down. I'm sorry, Uncle Guaril - I'll make sure that he's dumped on the constabulary's steps like you asked, but we won't be taking him alive. He's mine.

Woke up this morning, and found my head still attached to my shoulders and my heart surprisingly daggerless. Looks like Uncle Guaril decided my insubordination wasn't as bad as I did. Maybe he has further plans. Who the f**k knows any more.

I was ready to get back on the ship to Absalom when the VC told me that there was a new development in the kidnapping plots. One of their victims, some blue blood, escaped her captors but died to infected wounds fleeing through their stinking sewers. Before she died, though, she told our VC that there was some artifact called The Jet Rat. It apparently can make regular rats turn into dire rats or big rats or wererats or ratmen or some s**t. Anyway, the VC wants us to get the Rat, and maybe rescue a few Taldane citizens along the way. Personally? As long as I get to kill a few more of these bastards for Davith, I'm in.

***LATER***

Oof, whoever said that working for the Pathfinders would be glamorous was definitely lying. It doesn't matter where you go in the Inner Sea, there are some universal truths - everybody's s**t stinks, and sewers are always filled with undesirables. In this case, we were greeted by a massive spider. Seriously, what is with all the damn spiders? We killed it fast, and I realized I could try to harvest the poison sacs for Uncle Guaril. At least, right up until I tried to do it, and then found my hands coated in spider goo.

We found some dead bodies floating in the muck, and it looked like the anti-human cult slashed their throats and threw them here to be forgotten. Later, we found the bastards that did it - a few mites and a priest of this cult. I recognized him at once from the briefing old Uncle Guaril gave me - Grench Teppish, the twin brother of Dalirio Teppish, the bastard that was responsible for Davith's death. He had two blue goblin things with him, but they all went down without too much effort.

No, the real problems began after we won. I had my orders - Grench would die, and his head would decorate the fences of his disgraced house. My party, though? They refused to let me kill him! Seriously, don't they know who I work for? They do not get to tell me who I kill! These bleeding hearts wouldn't make it a day on the streets of the Stone. Whatever. I'm going back for him once this is over - they can't stop me from doing my work. And after disobeying Uncle Guaril once, I can't risk doing it again.

We eventually found our way past a guard into a ruined underground city. More mites and their derro master were all that stood in the way between us and the Jet Rat. He went down like a two-copper whore. We gathered up all the documents - written in some weird Darklands language, I couldn't fathom them - and the remaining Cassomiri citizens. I took that bastard's head, and we all returned topside.

Somehow, I feel this isn't over yet.

I knew it. I knew that when I didn't have any documents waiting for me to let me know when I was shipping out that they wanted me here longer. That VC just told us the kidnappings have started up again. Worse, they're now coming back as twice-born, and that concerns me. Most places don't control their twice-born as well as the crafters in Ankar-Te, so an uprising of the hungry dead is something that could happen. Worse, this cult is apparently a Groetus cult. Another cult worshiping the end times. Wonderful.

Well, they're half right about it. The end times are coming. For them.

Oh, I almost forgot the best part - they're sending us to interrogate some cultist they captured trying to kidnap an engineer. We need to find out where the cult is at, how they're turning people into skeletons, and where the rest of the missing citizens are at.

And beat the s**t out of the guys responsible for Davith's death. She always seems to forget that part.

***LATER***

Crazies. I've seen plenty in Kaer Maga. The place attracts crazies, breeds crazies. This guy was little different. Well, the art was new. Other than that, he was like any other bark-at-the-moon crazy. He wanted us to describe a statue to him in exchange for his assistance. Turns out that the master he speaks of is in some place called the Crypt of Fools, the crypt of the shamed families. The engineers were being kidnapped because they knew where it was, so the obvious next step is to talk with the artisans at the Hall of Wonders.

***LATER STILL***