Female Aasimar (Azata-Blooded) Samurai (Warrior Poet) / Oracle (Pei Zin Practitioner) 2
NG Medium Outsider (Aasimar)
Init +3; Senses Perception +1
------------------------------
DEFENSE
------------------------------
AC 17, Touch 13, Flat-Footed 14 (+4 armor, +3 Dex)
HP 26
Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +3 (+6 vs Charm/Compulsion) (+1 vs Evil Spellcasters/SLAs)
------------------------------
OFFENSE
------------------------------
Speed 40 ft.
Melee +5 (+6 Glaive)
Ranged +5
------------------------------
STATISTICS
------------------------------
Str 13, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 16
Base Atk +2; CMB +3; CMD +15
.
.
TRAITS:
Driven By Guilt:
You awake after your ordeal with a lingering feeling that you have taken part in something outside the normal bounds of your morals. Whether you were corrupted at one point or compelled to perform some forgotten actions, this guilt drives you to fight against those forces in the world that prey upon the good. You see your present condition as a chance to redeem yourself and banish this unsettling emotion.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on saving throws against any spells or spell-like abilities cast by evil creatures. In addition, once per day as a swift action, you can add your Charisma bonus to your attack rolls and deal 1 additional point of damage for each class level you have against evil creatures for 1 round. You must have a good alignment to take this trait.
Signature Moves:
You’re known for some unique item that has become your trademark. Your starting equipment includes a single masterwork item worth less than 900 gp, and you gain a +1 trait bonus on Bluff and Intimidate checks while wielding this item in one or both hands.
Irrepressible:
Your hope for a brighter future blessed by the gods, combined with your powerful personality, allows you to force your way free of spells that cloud the mind. You can use your Charisma modifier in place of your Wisdom modifier when attempting Will saving throws against charm and compulsion effects.
(Drawback):
FEATS:
Extra Revelation (Temporal Celerity):
Temporal Celerity (Su): Whenever you roll for initiative, you can roll twice and take either result. At 7th level, you can always act in the surprise round, but if you fail to notice the ambush, you act last, regardless of your initiative result (you act in the normal order in following rounds). At 11th level, you can roll for initiative three times and take any one of the results.
Weapon Finesse (Via Graceful Warrior):
You are trained in using your agility in melee combat, as opposed to brute strength.
Benefit: With a light weapon, elven curve blade, rapier, whip, or spiked chain made for a creature of your size category, you may use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on attack rolls. If you carry a shield, its armor check penalty applies to your attack rolls.
Special: Natural weapons are considered light weapons.
Improved Feint (Via Kitsune's Mystique):
You are skilled at fooling your opponents in combat.
Benefit: You can make a Bluff check to feint in combat as a move action.
Power Attack:
You can make exceptionally deadly melee attacks by sacrificing accuracy for strength.
Prerequisites: Str 13, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: You can choose to take a –1 penalty on all melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +2 bonus on all melee damage rolls. This bonus to damage is increased by half (+50%) if you are making an attack with a two-handed weapon, a one handed weapon using two hands, or a primary natural weapon that adds 1-1/2 times your Strength modifier on damage rolls. This bonus to damage is halved (–50%) if you are making an attack with an off-hand weapon or secondary natural weapon.
When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every 4 points thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the bonus to damage increases by +2.
You must choose to use this feat before making an attack roll, and its effects last until your next turn. The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage.
SKILLS: (6 points; 4 class, 0 INT, 2 Background)
-------------------------------
Acrobatics* +5 = DEX 3+2+0
-------------------------------
Appraise +0= INT 0+0+0
-------------------------------
Bluff +3 = CHA 3+0+0 (Use Perform; Sing) +1 (Glaive)
-------------------------------
Climb* +5 = STR 1+1+3
-------------------------------
Craft (Calligraphy) +4 = INT 0+1+3 (+1 Background)
-------------------------------
Diplomacy +9 = CHA 3+1+3+2 (Aasimar)
-------------------------------
Disable Device*† +3 = DEX 3+0+0
-------------------------------
Disguise +3 = CHA 3+0+0
-------------------------------
Escape Artist* +3 = DEX 3+0+0
-------------------------------
Fly* +3 = DEX 3+0+0
-------------------------------
Handle Animal† 3 = CHA 3+0+0
-------------------------------
Heal +0 = WIS 0+0+0
-------------------------------
Intimidate +4 = CHA 3+0+0+1 (Glaive)
-------------------------------
K (Arcana)† +0 = INT 0+0+0
-------------------------------
K (Dungeoneering)† +0 = INT 0+0+0
-------------------------------
K (Engineering)† +0 = INT 0+0+0
-------------------------------
K (Geography)† +0 = INT 0+0+0
-------------------------------
K (History)† +4 = INT 0+1+3
-------------------------------
K (Local)† +0 = INT 0+0+0
-------------------------------
K (Nature)† +0 = INT 0+0+0
-------------------------------
K (Nobility)† +0 = INT 0+0+0
-------------------------------
K (Planes)† +4 = INT 0+1+3
-------------------------------
K (Religion)† +4 = INT 0+1+3
-------------------------------
Linguistics +0 = INT 0+0+0
-------------------------------
Perception +1 = WIS 0+1+0
-------------------------------
Perform (Sing): +11 = CHA 3+3+3+2 (Aasimar) (+3 Background)
-------------------------------
Perform (Dance): +5 = CHA 3+0+0+2 (Aasimar)
-------------------------------
Profession† (Herbalist): +8 = CHA 3+1+3 (+1 Class)
-------------------------------
Profession (Gardener): +4 = WIS 0+1+3 (+1 Background)
-------------------------------
Ride +3 = DEX 3+0+0
-------------------------------
Sense Motive +0 = WIS 0+0+0 (Use Perform: Sing)
-------------------------------
Sleight of Hand*† +3 = DEX 3+0+0
-------------------------------
Spellcraft† +0 = INT 0+0+0
-------------------------------
Stealth* +4 = DEX 3+1+0
-------------------------------
Survival +0 = WIS 0+0+0
-------------------------------
Swim* +1 = STR 1+0+0
-------------------------------
Use Magic Device† +3 = CHA 3+0+0
-------------------------------
ACP -2
*ACP applies to these skills
Non-Standard Skill Bonuses
------------------------------
SPECIAL ABILITIES
------------------------------
Aasimar (Azata-Blooded)
Darkvision 60':
Skilled:
+2 Perform, Diplomacy
Native Outsider:.
Spell-Like Ability: Glitterdust
Deathless Spirit:
Particularly strong-willed aasimars possess celestial spirits capable of resisting the powers of death. They gain resistance 5 against negative energy damage. They do not lose hit points when they gain a negative level, and they gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against death effects, energy drain, negative energy, and spells or spell-like abilities of the necromancy school. This racial trait replaces celestial resistance.
Samurai (Warrior Poet):
Weapon and Armor Proficiency:
Samurai are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, plus the katana, naginata, and wakizashi. Samurai are proficient with all types of armor (heavy, light, and medium) and shields (except tower shields).
Challenge (Ex):
Once per day, a samurai can challenge a foe to combat. As a swift action, the samurai chooses one target within sight to challenge. The samurai’s melee attacks deal extra damage whenever the attacks are made against the target of his challenge. This extra damage is equal to the samurai’s level. The samurai can use this ability once per day at 1st level, plus one additional time per day for every three levels beyond 1st, to a maximum of seven times per day at 19th level.
Challenging a foe requires much of the samurai’s concentration. The samurai takes a –2 penalty to his Armor Class, except against attacks made by the target of his challenge.
The challenge remains in effect until the target is dead or unconscious or until the combat ends. Each samurai’s challenge also includes another effect which is listed in the section describing the samurai’s order.
Resolve (Ex):
Starting at 1st level, the samurai gains resolve that he can call upon to endure even the most devastating wounds and afflictions. He can use this ability once per day at 1st level, plus one additional time per day for every two samurai levels beyond 1st. Whenever the samurai defeats the target of his challenge, he regains one daily use of his resolve, up to his maximum number of uses per day. Defeating the target of his challenge usually involves reducing the target to 0 hit points or fewer, but the GM might rule that an enemy who surrenders or flees the battle is also defeated. He can use this resolve in a number of ways.
Determined: As a standard action, the samurai can spend one use of his resolve to remove the fatigued, shaken, or sickened condition. If the samurai is at least 8th level, he can alternatively remove the exhausted, frightened, nauseated, or staggered condition. If the condition has a duration longer than 1 hour or is permanent, this ability removes the condition for 1 hour, at which time the condition returns.
Resolute: Whenever the samurai is required to make a Fortitude or Will save, he can spend one use of his resolve as an immediate action to roll twice and take the better result. He must decide to use this ability before he rolls the saving throw.
Unstoppable: When the samurai is reduced to fewer than 0 hit points but not slain, he can spend one use of his resolve as an immediate action to instantly stabilize and remain conscious. He is staggered, but he does not fall unconscious and begin dying if he takes a standard action. He does fall unconscious if he takes additional damage from any source.
Dancer’s Grace (Ex):
When wearing no armor and not using a shield, the warrior poet gains a bonus to Armor Class equal to her Charisma bonus (to a maximum of her samurai level). A warrior poet loses this bonus while flatfooted or otherwise denied her Dexterity bonus.
This replaces the samurai’s proficiency with medium armor, heavy armor, and shields.
Flourish (Ex):
The warrior poet is skilled at performing elegant moves in battle. At 1st level, the warrior poet gains a flourish of her choice from the list below. She gains another flourish at 3rd, 5th, 9th, 13th, 17th, and 20th levels.
This replaces mount, weapon expertise, banner, and greater banner.
1st: Kitsune’s Mystique: The warrior poet gains Improved Feint as a bonus feat, ignoring its prerequisites. When the warrior poet uses Spring Attack or takes a move action to move, she can attempt to feint against one creature she threatens during her movement as part of her movement.
3rd: Exodus of Jinin: As long as the warrior poet is wearing light or no armor and carrying no more than a light load, her land speed increases by 10 feet. A warrior poet can select this flourish up to three times.
Graceful Warrior (Ex):
The warrior poet gains Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat and can apply its benefits to glaives, katanas, and naginatas as if they were light weapons. This does not alter the weapons’ properties for the purposes of any other effects.
Skirmisher’s Challenge (Ex):
The warrior poet adds her samurai level to her damage rolls only on her first successful attack against a challenged target each round.
This modifies challenge.
Order of the Songbird:
Edicts:
The samurai must never destroy art unless doing so is part of an artful act or performance of her own. She must respect the skill of her opponents and never desecrate or purposefully humiliate a foe. If she takes a sapient life, she must create a piece of art, performance, or poem in honor of the fallen creature or creatures in order to memorialize what she has taken from the world.
Challenge:
An order of the songbird samurai gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC and a +1 sacred bonus on saves against the attacks and abilities of the target of her challenge. This bonus increases by 1 for every 4 class levels the samurai has. The samurai must be wearing light or no armor, not using a shield, and carrying no more than a light load to gain this benefit.
Skills:
An order of the songbird samurai adds Knowledge (religion) (Int) and Perform (Cha) to her list of class skills. The samurai adds half her level to Craft checks and Profession (gardener) checks.
Oracle (Pei Zin Practitioner):
In distant Tian Xia, herbalists practice an obscure alchemical art known as Pei Zin herbalism, which involves medicinal and restorative techniques that are used throughout much of that continent. A few practitioners develop a talent for Pei Zin that transcends ordinary alchemy, allowing them to blur the line between applying alchemical medicine and coaxing divine miracles.
Like other masters of the art, Pei Zin practitioners can use the Profession (herbalist) skill in place of Craft (alchemy) to create alchemical remedies with recipes that include certain plant-derived reagents. More information is on pages 24–25 of Pathfinder Player Companion: Alchemy Manual.
Master Herbalist (Su):
A Pei Zin practitioner has mastered countless alchemical techniques that supplement her divine powers and greatly aid her when she heals the sick and wounded. She gains a competence bonus on Profession (herbalist) checks equal to 1/2 her oracle level (minimum 1), and uses her Charisma modifier in place of her Wisdom modifier when attempting Profession (herbalist) checks. Additionally, a Pei Zin practitioner can identify potions as if via detect magic using Profession (herbalist) instead of Spellcraft, and she can attempt such a check after holding a potion for 1 round.
This ability replaces the additional class skills the oracle gains from her mystery.
Mystery (Time):
Bonus Spells: Memory Lapse (2nd)
Revelations:
Healer’s Way (Su):
A Pei Zin practitioner combines alchemy, acupuncture, and divine magic to heal wounds by touch. She can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 1 + her Charisma modifier. With one use of this ability, she uses positive energy to heal the target of 1d6 hit points for every 2 oracle levels she has. Using this ability is a standard action unless the oracle targets herself, in which case it is a swift action. Using this ability requires only one free hand. This ability counts as a paladin’s lay on hands ability for the purposes of feats, spells, and effects that work with that class feature when it is used for healing purposes. Unlike lay on hands, this ability cannot be used to harm undead.
This ability replaces the revelation gained at 1st level.
Temporal Celerity (Su):
Whenever you roll for initiative, you can roll twice and take either result. At 7th level, you can always act in the surprise round, but if you fail to notice the ambush, you act last, regardless of your initiative result (you act in the normal order in following rounds). At 11th level, you can roll for initiative three times and take any one of the results.
Time Flicker (Su):
As a standard action, you can flicker in and out of time, gaining concealment (as the blur spell). You can use this ability for 1 minute per oracle level that you possess per day. This duration does not need to be consecutive, but it must be spent in 1-minute increments. At 7th level, each time you activate this ability, you can treat it as the blink spell, though each round spent this way counts as 1 minute of your normal time flicker duration. You must be at least 3rd level to select this revelation.
Curse: (Haunted)
Malevolent spirits follow you wherever you go, causing minor mishaps and strange occurrences (such as unexpected breezes, small objects moving on their own, and faint noises). Retrieving any stored item from your gear requires a standard action, unless it would normally take longer. Any item you drop lands 10 feet away from you in a random direction. Add mage hand and ghost sound to your list of spells known. At 5th level, add levitate and minor image to your list of spells known. At 10th level, add telekinesis to your list of spells known. At 15th level, add reverse gravity to your list of spells known.
Spells:
------------------------------
0 Level (Orisons)
Detect Magic Guidance Mending Spark Stabilize
1st (4/day)
Bless Cure Light Wounds Memory Lapse (Mystery)
Protection From Evil
Gear/Possessions:
------------------------------
GEAR/POSSESSIONS
Lamellar Leather Armor
MWK Silversheen Glaive
Wakizashi
Short Bow (20 arrows)
Club
Backpack
Waterskin
Whetstone
Bedroll
Belt Pouch
Notebook
Pen & Ink
Flint & Steel
Iron Pot
Mess Kit
Soap
Torches
Rations (5 Days)
------------------------------
Carrying Capacity Light 0-33 lb. Medium 34-67 lb. Heavy 68-100 lb.
Current Load Carried 0 lb.
Money 4 GP 7 SP 0 CP
Appearance and Personality/20 Questions:
Height: 5'3 | Weight: 105 | Hair: Black | Eyes: Brown
1. What emotion best describes your character?
Remorse. Burning down Jarl Alvar’s hall and killing those inside is the great pivotal event in Satomi’s life so far and the reason she feels remorse. Thinking back on it, Satomi now would have still acted against Jarl Alvar, but in some other less extreme way. Through her ruminations about her actions, Satomi has worked to change herself in ways she believes will prevent from making such bad decisions in the future. She is less self-centered, less materialistic, and less callous about others than she was before. Her remorse causes her to consider the choices she might make more carefully before acting. Based on this (and much of the description below), Satomi might seem depressed and gloomy. This is not true at all. She thinks back on the episode from a self-analytical rather than self-flagellating way. She is at peace with the fact the past cannot be altered. When she unpacks the episode, with its events and her state of mind at the time, it is similar to how a person will poke a sore spot to see if it is still there, and if it has changed for better or worse. Satomi is mostly upbeat, if not exactly an optimist, and has a good, low-key sense of humor. She accepts that she bears a curse, and likely always will, but that is the way things are now and there is nothing to do but move onward. Satomi doesn’t even regard her curse (and probable doom) as anything extraordinary. All people and things become damaged or broken through the passage of time. It is a simple truth. Repairs must be made and time moves onward. As Satomi tells herself often: “Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect."
2. What emotion does your character invoke in others?
Calm. In part this is because Satomi has worked to make it so. A healing practice requires the ability to put uncomfortable, nervous people at ease. Awkward questions must be asked, and embarrassing things must be seen. In those situations she is good at conveying she is trustworthy and nonjudgmental. More generally Satomi is pleasant company in a way that puts people at ease. She is considerate and sociable without being overwhelming or unpredictable. She speaks with others in a sincere and straightforward way, which tends to make other regard her as trustworthy and dependable.
3. What does your character need most?
To exercise self-restraint. Burning Jarl Alvar’s hall was an extreme reaction to an extreme situation. Satomi is self-aware enough to know it was not normal behavior for her. The best explanation she has is it was an extended period of madness that caused to her do it. However at the time it seemed right and reasonable. Even if it wasn’t normal for her, it did happen so it’s not beyond her capability to act in vicious and brutal ways. If it happened once, it could happen again. Satomi needs to reassure herself that she is not going there again. She habitually examines the reasons underlying her actions, and keeps impulsive behaviors in check. Otherwise she believes she can’t trust herself.
4. What is your character’s goal in life?
Satomi has two goals. The first is to reopen a Pei Zin practice after reaching Taldor. She would more or less rebuild her former life, or what she expected it to be like in the future, but in a different location. The second goal is to find a way to appease the spirits haunting her.
5. How does your character believe this goal can be accomplished?
The first goal is not so hard to accomplish. Really it just takes money. She needs to reach her destination, find a suitable building, and purchase the equipment and materials to get up and running. It might be difficult to locate a suitably auspicious five scroll set of the Five Spoked Cycle, and of course building a client base takes time, but she knows none of this is beyond her abilities. Satomi does not believe she can ever find a way to appease the spirits and be rid of them. She hopes she might discover she’s wrong, but Satomi is convinced her curse will remain with her until she dies. In her darker moments she suspects it will not even end at death, and she is doomed to join them rather than be free of them. She has several theories about the origin of her curse. Her most hopeful one is it is the work of an angry Qi Zhong. Parts of her revenge and escape plan, such as the narcotic drink and the resin used as glue, depended on knowledge from her. Qi Zhong revealed the secrets contained in the Five Spoked Wheel and the god may have been angered when they were used to harm rather than heal. Another aspect of her curse was an augmentation of the divine energy Satomi imbues into her healing arts. It may be a message from the god along with the punishment. Satomi doubts this theory is correct though. She thinks it more likely she is doomed, and the augmentation has been provided as the weapon of her own demise. Over time she will be grow more and more desperate, attempting greater and greater feats of healing until the final attempt consumes her. It feels right to Satomi that her heightened power to heal is the curse’s punchline.
6. Where does your character come from?
The Jade Quarter of Kalsgard, in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings.
7. When did your character grow up?
Burning down Jarl Alvar’s Great Hall was Satomi’s last act as a child. In the days and weeks following Satomi came to have great regret for what she had done and found it more and more difficult to understand her frame of mind prior to starting the fire. She knows she believed it was the only option she had, but in retrospect she’s aware it was not true at all. She could have had the revenge she sought by making poisoning the Jarl to helplessness and killing him, accepting her own death would result. She could have escaped to bring a case against him or simply to disappear. She might not have prevailed in her case, the Jarl had greater friends than she, or she might have been tracked down and recaptured, but surely the greater risks didn’t outweigh the innocent lives lost as collateral damage to the path she chose. Satomi doesn’t have an adequate answer to what she should have done instead, but she does recognize she acted thinking only of the own wants and needs. In the sense she came to recognize her decisions have consequences for others beyond herself, she began to become an adult.
8. What values does your character hold?
Satomi was raised on the samurai virtues of rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, loyalty, and self-control. While she may not be a shining example of all these values all the time, she does try to uphold them and actively works to improve herself. It is worth pointing out Satomi’s exposure to these virtues occurred within a context of family tradition and personal and social responsibility, not a strict, inflexible martial setting. They are values to strive for rather than a code that must never be violated.
9. How does your character dress?
Satomi has been traveling for about a year so she owns simple, comfortable clothing that is suitable for travel. She favors light colors; natural fiber shades, white, light blues, and yellows are favorites. While her clothes are plain and utilitarian, Satomi takes meticulous care of them. She washes her clothes whenever possible. She also mends and patches her clothing diligently, often keeping items in service past the point when most people would discard them. Satomi mostly avoids jewelry and other accents. Her hair reaches almost halfway down her back and is usually worn held back in a ponytail or braided and up if she wants to devote more time to it. Satomi’s physical appearance is already extraordinary, and she doesn’t feel the need to stand out any more than she already does. She has no objection to nicer clothing, she simply never has occasion to wear it.
10. What are your character’s means?
While living with her parents Satomi lived what could be describe as a ‘comfortably middle-class’ life. She no longer has those kinds of resources available to her. The only item of any significance (but of no exceptional value) she now has from that time is the family wakizashi that she stole back from the Jarl. The matching katana was too large to take and was lost in the hall fire. Satomi is not a ragged, hungry traveler though. She has her training as a healer, which caravans value. In fact, the most valuable item Satomi now owns, a well-crafted glaive, she took in payment for curing the son of a minor noble in one of the towns her caravan visited.
11. What are your character’s personal tastes?
Sotomi could write tact upon tract on the subject of aesthetics. She has highly developed ideas concerning the nature of beauty, art, and their relationship to life. I won’t say too much about this right now because the subject will be one she discusses and comments on a great deal in the game. For the moment I’ll mention that her tastes run toward simple, sparse designs and an absence of fussiness. She finds great beauty in imperfection and transience. Time and wear add to beauty because they create intimacy by revealing the past.
12. What are your character’s opinions?
Although medicine, herbalism, and healing are typically considered sciences, or at least indebted to science, Satomi views them as arts. Fundamentally art requires two elements. The first is precise control of the tools and medium. The second is intuition guided by inspiration. This is equally true of Pei Zin, in which exacting, precise application of herbal cures relies on empathy for the partient’s suffering, or dance in which one’s bodily movements are precisely controlled to convey meaning or emotion. In Satomi’s view practice as a healer is not substantially different from her practice of kintsugi, the mending and repair of broken things. Although her heart belongs to the worship of Shelyn, she is also a devotee of Qi Zhong. She considers her worship of the two deities to be mutually reinforcing rather than a divided loyalty. Shelyn is the goddess of art, while Qi Zhong is the god of a particular art.
13. What is your character’s comfort zone?
Like most people probably, Satomi is most comfortable in situations where she has considerable skill mastery and experience. Making art, healing, and even situations where she must use weapons are all comfortable. While her training with weapons was more for the purpose of keeping alive family social standing and tradition, she does know how to use them well enough to be confident. Satomi might not be a gregarious social animal, but her live and let live attitude toward others prevents her from being uncomfortable in social situations that aren’t extremely weird or charged.
14. Who has had the biggest impact on your character’s life?
As for most people Satomi’s parents have probably had the biggest impact. She is fundamentally a product of her upbringing. Her personality, the knowledge she possesses, and her outlook on life came from or in reaction to them. Next would be Jarl Alvar. Ironically, and quite accidently on his part, he contributed to making her a better person than she had been before. In the time since she killed him, her ruminations on what happened and introspection on why she acted as she did, led her to see it wasn’t just an episode of (perhaps) insanity, but a lack of empathy that drove her behavior. She simply didn’t care enough to consider the other people who would be hurt. She wanted retribution no matter who paid for it. Only afterward, when she was living with the consequences, did the suffering of others besides Alvar weigh on her conscience. In the time since, Satomi has worked at building her ability to empathize with others, and it has made her a better healer. Her professionalism hasn’t increased; her parents imparted it in her well. But her understanding of healing as an altruistic calling, and not just a business has taken root. If her life had continued on course without the intervention of Jarl Alvar, the change might never have occurred.
15. What are some of your character’s unexpected quirks?
Satomi has an aversion to fire. It’s not a phobia, she’s not afraid of any and all fire. But large fires, or those that could get out of control are worrisome and stressful to her. Satomi can mend magically, but does not do so unless she must. For example, her clothes are carefully mended by hand. She has even partially mended objects that were broken and finished the last of the repair by hand. One of the arts she practices is Kintsugi, which artfully repairs broken items (mostly ceramics in RL) in such a way that the repairs (thus imperfections) are emphasized for their beauty. She can talk at exhausting lengths about the four arts she practices; dance, calligraphy, kintsugi, and Pei Zin, and how each of them are fulfilling in distinct ways. Considering Satomi is a worshipper of Shelyn, it is perhaps unusual that she has never experienced romantic love. The closest she has ever come were a couple of adolescent crushes that she never spoke about or acted on.
16. What story does your character belong in?
Hopefully Satomi belongs in Strange Aeons! But leaving that aside, I’ve tried to make Satomi a character that could inhabit a Kaiden, a Japanese ghost story. There’s a particular feel to Japanese horror that seems to match Eldritch horror in some ways that are a little different than the more popular madness and body horror tropes. Kaiden carry an atmosphere of dread based on the inevitability of characters’ doom. They also tend to sidestep the standard moral rules of western horror, where survival, etc. is meritocratic. Strength, quickness, intelligence, being good or bad, none of these things matter in deciding a character’s outcome. Doom is more an existential matter.
As for a Shelyn worshipper belonging in a horror setting, here’s a 17th century self-portrait by Maruyama Ōkyo, who painted figures from popular Kaiden.
Kaiden Painting
17. What role does your character fill?
Satomi is a divine caster, which fills a spot not covered in the current party. Aside from the obvious part, healing, her spell selection will be mostly about buffing and support. Barring the unforeseen I don’t expect her Charisma to be raised from where it’s at now, so she won’t have the high spell DCs for going on the offensive. On the martial side she will start out in more of a combat support role. She’ll be able to use AoOs for to aid in raising allies’ armor class. With a polearm she will threaten over a large area, and should do good damage as well. As more of her samurai abilities come online at higher levels, Satomi will be more and more capable as a mobile striker. The two roles won’t be either/or necessarily. She could use spring attack to move up and attack, then fall back to the line to support it with Bodyguard. Her skills will be middling, not a lot of skill points, but she should do well with skills based on dexterity or charisma.
18. What should other characters know about your character?
Probably not much? Considering Satomi herself knows almost nothing about the things written in her description due to her memory loss, her physical appearance and the things obvious due to the gear she carries I suppose. They’d know she’s a Shelyn worshipper, and that she can probably fight. What she can tell them about herself would be limited depending on how the memory loss is being played in the campaign.
19. What is your play style?
I play PbP exclusively because I like its greater potential for roleplay and character development. For me the mechanical parts of the game are less interesting than roleplay. I’ve played games where the main goal was to quickly knock out as many encounters as possible and keep moving on to the next one in order to finish the campaign, and that was fine. But my favorite campaign of all time (which is still running) took about 2.5 years to get to book 2 of the AP, and that was without slow posting rates and gaps in play. All the characters are well played and wonderfully detailed, and we spend a lot of time interacted with each other. So no, I don’t mind a slower campaign if the characters are interacting and building relationships.
20. How do you want your character to die?
Well, I don’t want my character to die. But it might be worth considering what Satomi thinks. She is not very distressed by the idea of her death. She is ghost haunted, and reminded of it daily (although she no longer remembers why). To her the border between life and afterlife is thinner and more familiar than for most. Familiarity breeds ease, if not necessarily desire. Satomi hopes that at the time of her death she will be doing the right thing. ‘Right’ in this context means appropriate for the circumstances, not simply morally or physically courageous unless those are the conditions called for at that moment. Other actions could instead be right for the moment; play, sleep, engaged in the act of healing, enjoying a cup of coffee. It might seem as if Satomi is accepting of any death at first glance, but that isn’t true at all. Nobody except perhaps the Norns know the length of a person’s golden thread. Therefore, one must always be alert to what is right within the moment, and act accordingly. Any moment is potentially the last moment.
Background:
Satomi’s family hails originally from Shokuro, although she has never seen the place herself. It was three generations ago that her family took the route across the Roof of the World to Kalsgard, in the Linnorn Kingdom of Thanelands. Her great grandfather had come as a samurai and stayed. But there was never much call for samurai in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings. While Satomi’s family is of the samurai class, since her grandfather’s time the family’s business has been in healing and herbalism.
Given her family’s fairly prominent position in Kalsgard’s Jade Quarter, Satomi’s parents tended to be rather conservative in their views. They did not mix socially with the Ulfen population, sticking to the Jade Quarter, and it was extremely rare to find an Ulfen client on their premises. They were sticklers for traditions and mores that others, especially those Tien who grew up in Kalsgard, were content to let fall by the wayside. Satomi’s parents’ views were not just about stubbornness or pride in their lineage, it was a way of indicating to clients that their Pei Zin practice was pure and true, not watered down by new, foreign methods or ideas.
Even as a very small child nobody who saw Satomi doubted she was aasimar. The perfect symmetry of her face and body, and her perfectly jet black hair could be explained as simple good fortune, but her eyes were not human. In low light Satomi’s eyes were merely a warm brown. But in direct light they became incandescent, breaking the light falling on them apart and reflecting bits of red, green, blue, and yellow like a pair of chocolate opals. Satomi’s parents were overjoyed. She was proof positive their ancestry included an aasimar from Tainjing in the far past, something most everyone else had quietly considered a pretentious claim before her birth.
Satomi’s parents took her education very seriously. She was trained in the arts, as a samurai, and in Pei Zin as her parents had been. She showed exceptional promise in Pei Zin. Her touch seemed to carry something more than the mundane. With acupressure, the application of a poultice, and other remedies where she laid her hands on the patient, Satomi seemed to transfer something of the divine into the treatment.
One day not long after Satomi had turned 19, Alvar, the Jarl of their part of the city, showed up at the shop on business. There was tension in the air and Satomi’s mother sent her to the back room to prepare herbs. She heard arguing, and then violence break out. By the time she reached the front, her parents were dead, and one of the two men the Jarl had brought with him was badly wounded. Jarl Alvar was furious at the outcome. He and his other man grabbed and bound her, telling her money was owed and he had come to claim the shop as his own property. But with her parents dead and unable to work for him, the shop was worthless. Instead Satomi would work off the debt as his thrall.
Alvar had Satomi immediately transported to his great hall in the countryside. He knew perfectly well Satomi could not be held responsible for debts that were not hers, but he was a mobster as much as a ruler, and he would have his compensation. Away from the city in territory that was his alone, Satomi would have no way to raise a case against him. After his anger eventually cooled, he came to view Satomi as better compensation than money anyway. Who else could claim the prestige of being personally served by a thrall who possessed a spark of the celestial? Even if only Jarl Alvar and those closest to him would ever know, it was still very satisfying.
Satomi was quite aware she was unjustly held, even in a land where thralldom was largely considered just. But isolated as she was, Satomi could make no appeal for justice. At first, she refused to comply with any orders or directions, but it did not work. Jarl Alvar was very comfortable with cruelty. He administered beatings and other punishments carefully crafted to leave no visible marks. He would not mar his thrall’s beauty. Satomi had no choice but to submit. She also came to understand how pleased Alvar was to have her under his control, and also that she would not be serving a fixed term, free after the debt was paid. Jarl Alvar would never willingly free her. She was a prize, like a fine work of art or exotic pet. Further, he could not risk her bringing a case against him if she were she ever free to do so.
It took Satomi almost two years to free herself. First, she needed to learn the workings of the hall and devise a workable plan. Satomi then needed to gather the right materials and rehearse bits and pieces of the plan’s execution as best she could. Finally, she needed to wait until the time was right.
The right time was the celebration of Winter Solstice. The day before Festivus celebrations would begin, Satomi retrieved her family’s wakizashi from the Jarl’s collection. When her parents were killed and Satomi was taken, their shop and house had been ransacked for valuables. The wakizashi was both important and small enough to hide away for a short while, and Satomi could risk taking only one thing. Once she had the wakizashi there was no turning back. There was little chance she would be able to put it back before it was discovered to be missing.
Satomi’s plan was a simple one to put into motion, but the preparations beforehand had taken months. At the end of the night of celebration, with guests tired, feasted, and mostly somewhere between tipsy and passed out, Satomi went around to pass out cups of warm grog to the unfortunates assigned to guard the hall’s doors and clean up overnight. The grog included a finely powdered herbal mixture that produced a strong narcotic effect. The plants needed for it had been gathered the previous summer and processed in the fall. When the grog recipients were unconscious, Satomi blocked the kitchen doors with barrels and furniture. Then she started a grease fire after spreading fuel liberally about the room.
Rushing to the great front doors, she used two chains with locks she had hidden away beneath a loose floorboard to fasten the great wooden bar across the doors in place. Finally, she hurried upstairs to the one window with shutters that still opened. Over the last few weeks, when it had gotten too cold for anyone to open a window, Satomi had sealed all the others with resin. Slipping out onto the narrow ledge, she dropped a tindertwig and some oil into the house and nailed the shutters closed behind her.
Dropping into the snow drifts below, Satomi went to the stables and dug up the cache of furred winter clothes she had slowly gathered and buried there. She walked away down the road leading to the hall and away. The hall lit her way for a long while. It rapidly became completely engulfed in flames and burned to the ground. For months Satomi had been working oil and grease into the wood, saturating unvisited corners and lightless seams in the planks. Jarl Alvar died inside, as did every man, woman, and child in the building.
The burning of Jarl Alvar’s hall is how Satomi came to be cursed. The spirits of those who died there are always with her when she is awake, and sometimes when she sleeps.
Satomi walked until she found a ride, then another. Eventually she found a caravan interested in taking on a healer. While she doubted anyone would look for her, or think she might still be alive, Satomi couldn’t expect to blend in anywhere, even back in the Jade Quarter. She had to leave the Lands of the Linnorm Kings behind. The first caravan got her to Southmoor, and the second carried her to Varisia. Given time to consider her future, Satomi decided to make Taldor, perhaps Oppara or Cassomir, her destination. It was the only place in Avistan she knew of with large, established Tien communities. She could open a new shop in one of those places and start over. The climate sounded much nicer as well.
Satomi stuck to the caravan routes, turning east toward Ustalav and the River Kingdoms. From there it would be south toward Taldor.
Character Role and Advancement:
It seems the current party could use some bolstering in the Divine spells area, so Satomi will be able to cover that gap. She will be particularly good at condition removal with the Pei Zin Practitioner archetype.
Warrior Poet Samurai plus the Succor Mystery allows Satomi to play 2 roles in combat. With Perfect Aid + Bodyguard + Combat Reflexes + Glaive she can use AoO's to give allies AC boosts. Warrior Poet will also make her a good mobile striker due to feinting and Spring Attack. She wouldn't be dealing huge damage, but she should be able to do her part.
Outside of combat Satomi won't be a skill monkey, but her social skills should be good.
Gestalt characters tend to have a lot going on with them to manage so I plan to keep things simple and advance both Samurai and Oracle all the way to the end with only a single level dip to pick up Improved Unarmed Strike. Considering the scarcity of feats Satomi will have a dip seems better for being able to threaten at 5' while using a glaive than Bladed Brush.
**Note** I can see how a Warrior Poet Samurai might not seem like a good fit for this campaign. If you don't like bouncy and protective aiding, Satomi was very nearly a Mutation Warrior Fighter instead. Mutation Warrior meshes very nicely with the Pei Zin theme. I'd be happy to switch to it if you want a more traditional damage dealer for combat.
She also very nearly had the Life mystery instead of Succor. If you want more healing instead of AC boosting I would change to Life. I don't think I'd play a Life oracle as a single class character due to the healbot problem. But it's a cool mystery and I'd be happy to use it in a gestalt build.
**Note On My Previous Note** Now with Satomi's 20 questions done, I see she came out as a great match for the Time Mystery as well. Maybe the best Personality and Mystery match of them all actually. I'd be very happy to switch to Time as well if you all prefer it.
