About Osei Otieno“I still get nightmares. In fact, I get them so often I should be used to them by now. I'm not. No one ever really gets used to nightmares.”
"The process of delving into the black abyss is to me the keenest form of fascination."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Osei Otieno (o-SAY o-tee-EN-no)
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AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10 (+1 Dex)
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Speed 30 ft.
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Str 10, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 17, Wis 12, Cha 12
Feats
Traits
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Elven, Osiriani, Polyglot -----------------------------
Wizard Spells Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +6): 1st - Spellbook:
Pages filled: 27/100 ( 20-0th, 7-1st )
1st - Color Spray, Enlarge Person, Feather Fall, Grease, Infernal Healing, Mage Armor, Protection from Evil
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Wizard 1 x ( 3 Int + 2 Class + 1 FCB + 1 Human ) = 7 - Acrobatics +1 ( 1 Dex )
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Starting Gold 70 gp ( average ) Clothing Scholar's Outfit ( free ) Weapons Cold Iron Crossbow Bolts (20) ( 4 gp )
Magic Items Arcane Bond Ring ( Masterwork, free, Wizard ) Other Equipment Abyssal Treatise ( 'on loan' )
Current Money 3 gp, 1 sp
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -- Player Notes --:
- Areelu Vorlesh wanted two things - 1) Vidkun Lauritz, 2) ???
Previous Notes: Mendevian Sending Scroll
Research Topics
The Rescuers Irabeth Tirabade, half orc, paladin, leader of the Eagle Watch. She has a welt on her face that you recognize as being from the demon's tongue attack, and her armor is still sizzling slightly. (The robed man dropped her into a pit full of acid just as she was about to smite the demon.) Sir Robert Macaul of Augustana is a human male of around thirty or so. He has wears blue and white and carries and oddly curved sword. There is something faintly nautical about him. As you come up, he's just finished murmuring a prayer over the bodies of the dead. Now he's bandaging a wound on one arm that is obviously from the dwarf's glaive. Quednys Orlun wears black and is really too old for this sort of thing. Stooped with age, he wears no armor, but has several wands on his belt. He glowers at the battlefield and the corpses, looking annoyed and outraged. Your fourth rescuer stands a little apart from the other three. Lord Devon Lambert-Adzel, Third Marquis of Szyx, Special Envoy of the Empire of Cheliax to Kenabres is a human male in his forties. He wears red and black and gold and has the imperial arms of Cheliax embroidered on his silken tunic. Tall and lean, he has black hair with a widow's peak and a neatly trimmed goatee that is just starting to show threads of white. He seems uninjured, but his hands are still smoking slightly, and a faint whiff of sulfur lingers in his vicinity. -- Description --:
Osei Otieno's visage commonly sports a brow furrowed by concentration and he is slow to smile. He stands at around average height for a human male, with a corresponding slim build. Where his skin is visible, it is laced with red runic tattoos that don't blend into the dark tone of his flesh. When he speaks, his voice is clear and his speech rapid. -- Background --:
Osei has worked diligently as a low-ranking scribe at the Temple of Iomedae in Old Kenabres for almost 10 years. He has spent most of his days interpreting and transcribing musty, long-forgotten tomes and accounting records for various temple denizens and Kenabres locals. Though an orphan of mysterious birth, he is known to descend from a lineage of scholars and crusaders who arrived in Sarkoris prior to the death of Aroden and the eruption of the Worldwound. Mzaka, Osei's seventh great-grandmother and a seer of some skill, was guided by an extraordinary vision of the legendary Old Mage Jatembe. The Old Mage instructed Mzaka to take up her family from central Garund, and travel to distant Sarkoris. Mzaka's surviving descendents have served the temple of Iomadae since Sarkoris fell, but Osei is the first Arcane-touched child born in seven generations. The Beginning As active Riftwardens, Osei's parents were obviously not expecting a child when they were sent on a months-long mission into the Worldwound to investigate a potential breach of wardstone boundaries. The Kenabres Council received a troubling message from the Riftwarden crusaders indicating that a breach had indeed occurred - and that Osei's mother was with child – and then only silence. A rescue patrol furnished by The Order of the Sunrise Sword retraced their path into the Worldwound after further attempts to reach the pair were unsuccessful. Six months later… Not far from the edges of the Wordwound, the patrol stumbled across a disturbing scene. Amid the detritus of a recent battle with the fallen Riftwarden pair, a group of cultists were completing a ritual. As the party regrouped from the ensuing fight, a wail erupted from the ritual circle. A Mwangi babe laid bleeding and squalling on the altar. Upon examination, the Order knights were arrested by the Sign of the Seeker's Spiral livid on the boy's chest. More alarming was the result of the ritual: fresh red runic tattoos covered the child from head to toe. The child was was quickly returned to Kenabres; the followers of Iomedae took him in, and as most of his family had served the temple directly, and they raised him as a ward. He was named Osei. Childhood The curate declared that Osei should be allowed to continue his family's tradition, and be trained as a scribe. As the boy aged, however, he showed attunement to arcane magics. He displayed an intuitive magical aptitude, but his desire to learn quickly grew in tandem with intense nightmares that invaded his sleep. For many years, the temple library's ancient collections would offer solace during his sleepless nights: an escape to other lands, other worlds - both wondrous and comforting. A New Focus Osei first met Riftwarden Aesthiala, a wizard and a scholar, when she arrived at the temple to pick up one of the boy's translations. She took note of his unusually keen mind when a short dispute about the translated work evolved into an engaging, hour-long syntactical debate between the eleven year old and the centuries-old Elven arcanist. The Riftwarden tactfully avoided comment on the tattooed, runic markings, as she sensed his unease. This did not escape Osei's notice, and through the intellectual stimulation shared during subsequent visits, they cultivated a lasting friendship. Aesthiala knew the boy's mind was going to waste as a mere scribe. Certainly, his level of curiosity about the arcane, if not constructively directed, could find dark paths to tread. She petitioned the Temple to allow her to instruct Osei in the Art. Her petition took months of effort, which culminated in an unintelligible yet obviously impassioned discussion behind the closed doors of the Ruling Council of Kenabres. After waiting several frustrating hours, Osei immediately brightened as Aesthiala strode out of the Ruling Council's chamber with her head held high and a victorious smile. She informed him the Council had agreed to allow his instruction, but only with two conditions: Condition One - he was to continue his work as a scribe at the Temple of Iomedae in addition to his arcane studies with no reduction in his output. Condition Two - he was to be accompanied by a chaperone while traveling to and from Aesthiala's study, as well as during her arcane training. Osei dove into the arcane studies with fervor. His voracity for all magical knowledge was rivaled only by his growing trust and affection for Aesthiala. There were disagreements along the way, but only minor ones. However, when Osei showed strong interest in conjurations or divinations, Aesthiala strongly argued against such a limiting focus. At his mentor's urging, Osei eventually agreed to refrain from any specialization before completing his general studies of all schools of magic. Unbeknownst to the youth, Aesthiala could not allow specialized studies in those areas as part of her agreement with the Council. Several years passed… The weight of his confinement had become trying. In spite of the exception allowing his arcane studies, Osei was escorted everywhere and not allowed to wander away from the watchful eye of the Temple or explore much outside of the temple proper. Even more vexing was the obvious deflection of any inquiry into his origin, or of the runes. Osei had asked about the story of his origin many times. Mostly the stern priests liked to remind him of how fortunate he was that The Order of the Sunrise Sword found him abandoned, otherwise he would have no home at all. As the last scion of family who had faithfully served the Temple for generations in Kenabres, Osei could not understand the harsh response to his inquiries. While he recognized the support and opportunities he had been given in spite of his orphaning, it was a double-edged sword. The fledgling wizard was too young to have memory of his early ordeal, but there were signs. Never-fading, blood red-runic tattoos decorated his body, from forehead to toe. During public hours at the temple, he could not avoid the stares and holy signs warding against his presence. Social contact had become a tiresome exercise, so Osei spent increasingly more time cloistered in the Temple library. The tomes, at least, didn't judge. A Turning Point Three months ago, Aesthiala departed after unexpectedly being called to duty by the Riftwardens. At the midnight turn of the glass following her departure, Osei was alone and deep in thought among the tomes in the library when he was startled by the sudden, sharp clap of an impact. After a search of the empty library, he found a single, ancient tome on a table that he had already cleared. The text was written in Abyssal characters, the likes of which was forbidden outside the inner vaults. It certainly didn't belong out there with the general collection. Rattled, but with his curiousity piqued, Osei slipped the tome into a stack of books to take to his quarters. Translation would be difficult; it was a dialect he had never before encountered, and it was obviously written in a cipher. While flipping through the brittle pages, a familiar sight caught his eye. To his surprise, he recognized an illustration depicting the very rune tattooed on the back of his left hand. Over the next few weeks, Osei slept little as he clandestinely chipped away at his translation. When he did drift off, his nightmares had intensified and were, he thought, sometimes overshadowed by a ... presence. From what little he had gleaned, his body was covered in profane runes and symbols used in some sort of ritual specific to one of the lords of the Abyss. Osei felt certain that this fact was already known to some in Kenabres. His inquiries about the marks were too quickly and uncomfortably deflected. The kindly attendant caregivers who constantly chaperoned him scoffed and reminded him to focus his thoughts on the grace of Iomedae. "Know that Iomedae's Light will keep the darkness at bay," or some variant thereof, was offered as ineffectual platitude that did nothing for the young wizard's curiosity. Instead, Osei doubled his efforts at translation. Now As the increasing Worldwound skirmishes took their toll, the Ruling Council recognized that the number of deployable arcanists left in Kenabres was growing alarmingly low. With the latest calling, Osei was finally tapped to begin formal training to serve in the field. Now ranging far from the safety of the temple, the young wizard has experienced vivid nightmares of becoming something more. Something dark. Something other. He still reads to stay awake. |
