Kanya Ismahe

Simeon's page

Organized Play Member. 1,466 posts (9,926 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. 1 wishlist. 14 Organized Play characters. 70 aliases.


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James Jacobs wrote:
but another "R of the Runelords" Adventure Path? Never say never, but feel free to say probably not.

Surely the hybrid Adventure Path/Cookbook Recipes of the Runelords is excluded from that, right???


The Gastash theory is a damn good one. Just like land becomes barren in the wake of fertilization and irrigation, it must be even worse without the aforementioned land treatments but also necromantic power.


Fair point, mostly just trying to say that the title of Duke of Thunder still fits in an East Asian cultural context without a need for change, as well as sounding so damn cool.

Plus, plenty of real-world religions have overlapping titles and appellations for their divine figures, so why wouldn't Golarion have those as well?


Claxon wrote:
Or maybe a suggestion that Hei Fong adopt a different title (as Hei Fong is a Tian deity, a Chinese or Japanese noble title might make sense).

To be fair, the title of Duke has a pretty solid equivalent in Chinese, with the rank of Gong regularly translating to Duke in English, with the famous example being Duke Wen of Zhou.


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Castilliano wrote:
I'd imagine Nethys priests blowing crap up, much like a science demonstration focused on the showy effects & power more than the principles

Priests of Nethys just acting like Tim the Enchanter is not something I had previously considered but I love it.


Human

Man, I wish. I definitely make it sound a bit more exciting than it is. Though on the flip side, trekking through the redwoods and ferns never fails to feel adventurous, so I guess there's something to it.


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16-year necro! That's impressive.


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Claxon wrote:
It's vague, perhaps intentionally so, such that a GM can make it whatever they want it to be.

The answer is this. The entire matter of the Eternal Emperor and the Oracular Council and the Five Dragon Throne exists as a plot hook for GMs to slot whatever character they want into it.

If the game revolves around finding the reincarnation for a virtuous and diligent spin on the Oracular Council, it's whoever passes all the tests that the GM comes up with to determine proof of reincarnation. If it's about getting the newly discovered reincarnation past a villainous and corrupt spin on the Oracular Council, then the test might just be beating up a bunch of oracles. If it's a pesky player that's too big for their britches that decides to sit on the throne, it's as simple as "Boom, lightning bolt from a dragon. You're dead, sorry."


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Cyclops aren't getting smaller. If anything, cyclops are getting bigger. Great cyclops, the ones that are Huge at 30 feet tall, are postulated to be a result of degeneration and mutation of normal cyclops, and the ultimate fate of the cyclops now that their empires have fallen.


While not a Paizo person, I don't think there's a major (or even necessarily any) difference between them.

They're likely two different names for similar or even identical types of noble house, in the way that British great houses have names like Burghley House, Castle Howard, or Woburn Abbey while all having the same function of housing aristocrats in frivolously luxurious fashion.


A few of the core 20 that gave me instant ideas were:
Cayden Cailean, essentially a drunken singalong of hymns to the Drunken God.

Irori's services would likely look similar to Buddhist prayer services, with ritual chanting of mantras. I could even see ceremonial martial demonstrations.

Erastil's services would probably look the most familiar to us in the modern day, with townsfolk gathering in the temple of Erastil to hear stories about their god and hear the good that can be done by community and honest effort.


Human

Sorry to hear that, DM. Take care of yourself!


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Officially, Asmodeus never lies. Everything he says is true. But A. truth is relative B. he's powerful enough to make the truth almost anything he wants and C. an infernal contract can be complex enough to be perfectly truthful but also able to screw people over in every sort of way they'd never expect.


I am unbelievably stoked for Myth-Speakers. Iblydos has long been one of my favorite regions of Golarion, and engaging with one of the coolest sources of mythic power on Golarion is really exciting. My one wish is that it would be a full 6-book AP, having a low-level AP feels like it doesn't quite to the epic scope of hero-gods justice.

That said, Death Sails a Wine-Dark Sea is about as cool of a name for an AP book as I could ever hope for.


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Virellius wrote:
Also, I wouldn't take Divine Mysteries as a list of ALL of them. The Kyton Demagogues, I believe the Rakshasa and Oni deities, and several other groups were not included either. It WOULD be cool to see an expanded-expanded pdf with ALL of them, for people who want to worship or fight them.

That, or some hypothetical Divine Apocrypha book way in the future that gives us even more gods.


I could see the rough borders of the conflict, at least in Avistan, being the Shining Kingdoms versus Old Cheliax. A cool process of the conflict could be stunning initial victories from Cheliax that get more of the world involved, leading to A. conflict getting bigger across the world and B. ultimately a Chelish defeat that turns them into a bunch of squabbling states.


Hey there! The extension doesn't seem to be working on Chrome for me, when I go to download it, Chrome is giving me a message that it "doesn't follow best practices for Chrome extensions" whatever that means.


Human

Amideo nods to the kobold, "As far as we know, I believe so. Two undead beings, of an uncertain type, seemed to be the source of the curse, a type of beetle that inflicts those near it with a curse of madness."


I don’t believe there are any sources directly relating to this idea.

Chelish law is described as being byzantine and labyrinthine so is likely more complex than the legitimate/illegitimate and strictly gender based succession.

The fact that the two greatest Thrune rulers have been women also makes it unlikely that they’d have sex as a determining factor for succession.

Cheliax is also known for their fiercely competitive meritocracy. I would guess that there’s a complex legal code ensuring that the most worthy heir is the one who inherits, rather than being determined by anything as simple as birth order.


Arkat wrote:
When ZK merged with Dou-Bral and came back to the current universe/multiverse [...] he used most of the First Shadow to create the Shadow Plane (Netherworld in PF2e terms) as a warped reflection of parts of the Universe."

This is not at all the case, unfortunately. The Netherworld existed before Zon-Kuthon did, and did so pretty harmoniously. The Tian Xia Character Guide explicitly states that wayangs and d'ziriaks lived in peace in the Netherworld before ZK was banished there. When he showed up with his pain cultists and velstrac sycophants, the wayangs left for Tian Xia, creating passages from the Netherworld to Golarion. Based on the wording, it's even possible that the Netherworld was entirely disconnected from Golarion before the Age of Ashes (though this seems unlikely, definitely).

IMO, the Primordial Darknesss you're brainstorming matches most closely to the Dark Tapestry. It's described as the incomprehensible darkness between the stars, and there have even been oblique references to the Dominon of the Black as it's emissaries, it may have some sort of strange intelligence of it's own.


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My take on the Beyond Beyond vs the Dark Tapestry is that at a certain point, once you get far enough, it all blurs together. Outer Planes and Inner Planes dissolving into one another in the incomprehensible outer darkness where unspeakable things lurk.


It’s the Dark Tapestry that corrupted him! The section about it in People of the Stars directly states that Dou-Bral was transformed into Zon-Kuthon there.

The Netherworld isn’t inherently corruptive. The various native beings like d’ziriaks and wayags are strange, but far from evil. In fact, Zon-Kuthon has corrupted it by his presence. With that in mind, the primordial state of the Netherworld/shadow is not one of evil, just of gloomy strangeness.


Not really an errate per se, but I would love to know why the art for the battle harbinger of Calistria on page 275 has "7th" kinda oddly pasted onto their breastplate? As far as I know, it's precedent not to include Earth numbers and letters in in-world sources, so it breaks with canon in an odd way.


A bit of a necro to this thread, but here’s a quote from Arazni’s section in Divine Mysteries more or less confirming that Iomedae when a mortal was at fault for Arazni’s death, “Iomedae feels responsible not only for redressing Aroden’s mistakes
but also for Arazni’s treatment by the Knights of Ozem”


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Arkat wrote:
They could very well have originated in Golarion and were banished to Earth just recently during the turmoil of the Godsrain.

Them originating on Golarion is actually canon!

When the Keleshites invaded Osirion and functionally outlawed their worship in 1532 AR, the gods of Osirion retreated from Golarion for the land of Kemet on Earth. This date lines up with the late period of the Egyptian New Kingdom.

Ultimately, it's a weird but fun detail in Pathfinder lore that, rather than the case being that the Egyptian gods are also worshipped on Golarion, the Osiriani gods chose a similar world with humans living in a desert along a life-giving river to set up a fallback/second kingdom, and one they made their primary domain for thousands of years.

While I can somewhat understand the Pathfinder writers wanting to reduce the amount of real-life Earth religious figures in the setting, it's still a bummer to have them written out of the setting and lose a zany piece of lore like that.


Human

Unfortunately yeah.


keftiu wrote:
We also get a new Iblydan origin for minotaurs, as the descendants of a mason cursed for accidentally angering a hero-god.

It's interesting that we now have two highly differing origins for minotaurs. I wonder, then, if that implies there are two different types of minotaur, one from Iblydos and the other from the Azlanti settlement of Tulo from Mythic Monsters Revisited.

It could go to explain how there are the more bestial and bloodthirsty minotaurs that were created/influenced by Lamashtu and follow Baphomet, and the more intellectual and sociable ones from Iblydos.

To make things even more confusing though, Baphomet is specifically called out as being the first of the minotaurs, and was born in Iblydos because of Lamashtu. Maybe Tulo was an Azlanti colony in Iblydos? But with that in mind, how does that tie into the origins of minotaurs from Howl of the Wild?

Man, this is starting to feel like a Pepe Silvia moment.


Tempting! If I’ve got the time and headspace today, I’ll see about working something up.


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Rovagug....

is...........

Safe!


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Rovagug lives! Awesome that the death of Rovagug kinda sorta ends the world.


I do like the idea that those edicts come from Iomedae's direct regrets over the part she played in Arazni's death.

I don't know for sure if it'll happen, but I've shifted from thinking it could be interesting for Arazni to kill Iomedae, to thinking that if Iomedae is the one to die (which might be likely) that her death should come from sacrificing herself to save Arazni. Ascension to the higher ranks of godhood often seems like it comes from elevating yourself from your inherent nature, such as with Nocticula breaking free of her demonhood or Irori becoming something more than human. That act of ultimate sacrifice from the one who kicked off all her pain could be the spark for Arazni's ascendance.


I mean, the sources about Arazni’s binding say that it planted seeds of doubt and mistrust in her mind, so she may have just looked past it because she thought it was for the greater good.

Plus, though Iomedae is the archetypal Knight in Shining Armor, especially as a mortal, people don’t always act with perfect righteousness. She may be truly, cosmically, capital letters Lawful Good now after having been kicking around in heaven for a milennia, but in her mortal life she probably had to make some hard decisions regarding Arazni. In terms of how it got her killed, it’s stated that the Tar-Baphon toyed with and then killed Arazni. I imagine that if she wasn’t bound, she could’ve gone back to the Outer Planes and recuperated. The wording of the binding is specifically that they “bound her to their will.” I can imagine that the Tyrant had Arazni on the ropes, and even if she wanted to retreat, the Knight’s will was that Arazni fight him, and so that was all she could do.

About the timing of her leadership, if the official sources timing of her rapidly becoming their leader feels off, this is how I see it. In the Windsong Testaments, it’s clearly stated that she perfom the first of her three acts before the start of the Shining Crusade. She had made quite the name for herself as a paladin of Arazni, and when she joined the Knights of Ozem, having such a strong and renowned paladin as their leader would’ve been really great for them. Even the earliest substantial sources we have about Iomedae (the article about her in Council of Thieves) links her joining the Shining Crusade with leading the Knights. Essentially, I can’t see any way that Iomedae didn’t have a hand in the binding and subsequent death of Arazni. The timing is so strongly established as to seem deliberate on the part of the writers.

Edit: Also in terms of Arazni’s alignment, angels can be any good alignment. I don’t think her pre-lichdom alignment was stated, but LG seems fitting for the herald of a LN god. As with Prismatic Gay’s other posts, totally agreed! I had the thought that the Crimson Reclaimers might be empowered over the Shining Sentinels precisely because they break with the traditional role of the Knights of Ozem. They break the mold of crusaders with the nuance of admitting that not all undead are willing and inherently evil, so Arazni might see that as worth preserving over the blindly zealous knights who got her killed.


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Totally agreed that Iomedae had a hand in Arazni's death! I've mentioned it here and on Reddit a few times and to put it lightly, folks did not agree despite having some clear sources showing it was the case, so it's nice to see other people are putting those pieces together. Might not be too holy, but it sure is some vindication!

I pretty firmly believe that Iomedae was the one to give the order to bind Arazni. My take on the Fourth Act was that it happened before Iomedae summoned and then bound Arazni. It's also possible that it happened post-binding but pre-death, because the Knights summoned her in 3818 and then she was killed by the Whispering Tyrant in 3823. Hell, it's possible Arazni didn't even know about the binding until the battle where it got her killed.


I think ultimately there woulnd't be a single name for it. Both Kellids and orcs aren't known for having a strong tradition of centralized authority.

The western reaches by the Hold of Belkzen would probably just be part of the Hold of Belkzen. The region neighboring Sarkoris would've likely just been a part of Sarkoris. The eastern regions by Numeria would probably be similar to the rest of Numeria, with roving Kellid clans inhabiting it.


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Our friendly neighborhood Great Old One, snuffed out by the darkness she came from! Quite poetic.

As my favorite member of the Prismatic Ray, I'm glad to see Desna is safe.


Human

Hey folks! Thanks for having me, I’ll get Ptah fully up to speed later today. Looking at the other characters, I think Dynarius and Ptah will get along fabulously!


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Travelling Sasha wrote:
Simeon wrote:
Woo! Hard to kill what's already dead. The hint that Arazni might be the one to do the slaying is lending credence to my theory that it'll be Iomedae.
Wait, why would Arazni slay Iomedae? Did I miss something? I believe the only thing we've been told about them (unfortunately, because I'd like to hear more) in so far is that Arazni has complex and ambivalent feelings about her old Paladin: That she resented her for reaching divinity easily, and that she was proud of her for her victory over the Shining Crusade.

So there's one important detail about her relationship to Iomedae that isn't explicitly stated when sources describe Arazni's relationships with other gods. The Knights of Ozem, led by Iomedae at the time, summoned Arazni to help fight against the Whispering Tyrant. Despite Arazni being willing and eager to fight, the Knights bound Arazni to their will. With Iomedae as the leader of the knights, who else would've held the reins of power or given the order the bind Arazni? Because of that binding, she was unable to retreat when the Whispering Tyrant gained the upper ground, and she died because of it.

Essentially, Iomedae willfully allowed Arazni to be murdered and kicked off the whole series of events that led to her becoming a lich. Arazni commands her followers to "despise and never forgive those who hurt you" and if I was in her shoes, I would see Iomedae as a person who hurt me.


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Woo! Hard to kill what's already dead. The hint that Arazni might be the one to do the slaying is lending credence to my theory that it'll be Iomedae.


TheLastGhost wrote:
Simeon I am not seeing an explanation of your expenditure of Experience. Could you add this to your character? Also, please double check over your Aptitudes, it looks like you have 1 extra. With house rules, you should have: Homeworld (1) + Background (2) +Role (5) + General (1) + Bonus (1) = for a total of 10

Yep, I'll add the XP expenditure. As far as aptitudes, I realized I accidentally duplicated Willpower, but even with that in mind I'm only counting 9 on my sheet. Are there aptitudes that count as double?

XP:

Common Lore (Imperium): 100
Common Lore (Tech): 100
Scholarly Lore (Numerology): 100
Scholarly Lore (Tech): 100
Scholarly Lore (Adeptus Mechanicus): 100
Scholarly Lore (Imperium): 100
Forbidden Lore (Archeotech): 100
Forbidden Lore (Xenos): 100
Forbidden Lore (Adeptus Mechanicus): 100
Forbidden Lore (Imperium): 100
1000 XP on Lore
Tech: Trained, 200 xp
1200XP total
Dodge: Known, 300XP
1500XP total
Ballistic Skill: Simple, 250 XP
Intelligence: Simple, 100 XP
1850 XP total
Weapon Mechadendrite Usage: 300 XP
2150 Total

Looking through my XP expenditure, it seems I miscounted, I'm 350 XP short. I think. My Dark Heresy skills are rusty.


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Gnollvalue wrote:

I don't like this take, as I feel like it diminishes Shelyn as a character. Yes, it's easy to show her artwork with Sarenrae and Desna to a queer person and say "Poly Lesbians=Pathfinder Good" but if you presented me with the same characters with the same dynamic and told me nothing bad and permanent would ever happen to them under threat of being edgy or "burying the gays" I'd roll my eyes. If there are no stakes, there isn't really much of a conflict. No conflict means there isn't a story. I've played Pathfinder long enough to know is representation everywhere.

[...]

The LGBT experience can be a messy one. Sometimes tragic things happen, and we don't get to keep the happiness we find. For me, Lamashtu represents my queer experience more than anyone in The Prismatic Ray, to the point where I have her holy symbol tattooed on me. While I don't want anything to happen to her, that's the way the story plays out sometimes. It won't diminish my fondness for her (if anything, it might strengthen it), and I won't call out Paizo for having an agenda, good or bad, behind the selection besides trying to tell a compelling story.

Absolutely agreed. I've been playing Pathfinder for just about as long as I've been open that I was queer, and through that whole time, I've felt that the various facets of my identity have been well represented and supported in every part of Pathfinder. Treating any of the goddesses in the Prismatic Ray as untouchable for the sole reason that they're LGBT representation is a disservice to queer folks being accurately, respectfully, and heroically portrayed in fantasy stories like anybody else. We deserve more than to be seen purely as our identities.


Wounds: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
Influence: 20 + 2d10 ⇒ 20 + (7, 5) = 32

Ptah 7-Kappa is nearly updated, just have to sort out gear. I'll be posting his sheet shortly.


Wowza, I've been hoping to get a chance to play RED sometime, stoked to see some interest in it!


bigrig107 wrote:
Ah, beaten by a few seconds. How much overlap is there in between builds? If I made a mechanicus character as well, will it be overlapped a lot by another Tech Priest?

Ack, sorry to ninja you, Bigrig. There might be some overlap, depending on the route you take with your Tech-Priest. I'm going the Sage route, aiming for knowledge skills, tech-use, as well as being able to supplement it with decent melee and ranged capabilities.


Gonna re-roll a tech priest I've had in a few DH games over the years.

WS: 25 + 2d10 ⇒ 25 + (7, 9) = 41
BS: 25 + 2d10 + 5 ⇒ 25 + (4, 9) + 5 = 43
Str: 20 + 2d10 ⇒ 20 + (8, 2) = 30

Tou +: 25 + 3d10 - 4 ⇒ 25 + (4, 10, 5) - 4 = 40
Agi: 20 + 2d10 + 3 ⇒ 20 + (4, 5) + 3 = 32
Int +: 25 + 3d10 - 6 ⇒ 25 + (10, 6, 8) - 6 = 43

Per: 20 + 2d10 + 6 ⇒ 20 + (6, 3) + 6 = 35
Wil: 20 + 2d10 ⇒ 20 + (7, 2) = 29
Fel -: 20 + 3d10 - 10 ⇒ 20 + (10, 7, 4) - 10 = 31

Reroll BS: 1d10 ⇒ 9
Reroll AGI: 1d10 ⇒ 7
Reroll PER: 1d10 ⇒ 9

All in all, damn fine stats for a tech-priest!


Option 1 sounds most appealing, but option 2 seems fun as well.


Human

Also feeling rather slow from holidays.


Here is the promised character! I'll need to finish selecting gear, but Urhal should be good to go otherwise.

Stats:

Urhal ton-Thuyek
Half-orc alchemist (beastmorph)/slayer 3 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 53, Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide 26, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Combat 24)
CG Medium humanoid (human, orc)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +6
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 18, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 shield)
hp 28 (3d10+6)
Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +2 (+2 trait bonus vs. charm and compulsion)
Defensive Abilities sacred tattoo[APG], trap sense +1
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Ranged bomb +6 (2d6+4 fire)
Special Attacks bomb 7/day (2d6+4 fire, DC 15), sneak attack +1d6, studied target +1 (1st, move action)
Alchemist (Beastmorph) Extracts Prepared (CL 3rd; concentration +7)
. . 1st—enlarge person (DC 15), heightened awareness[ACG], long arm[ACG], shield
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 16, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 10, Cha 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +6; CMD 19
Feats Brew Potion, Combat Expertise, Deadly Aim, Dodge, Power Attack, Throw Anything, Weapon Focus
Traits child of two peoples, inspired by greatness
Skills Acrobatics +5, Climb +6, Craft (alchemy) +10 (+13 to create alchemical items), Disable Device +8, Heal +6, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (arcana) +10, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +10, Knowledge (geography) +10, Knowledge (local) +10, Knowledge (nature) +10, Perception +6, Spellcraft +10, Swim +6; Racial Modifiers +2 Intimidate
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Giant, Goblin, Orc
SQ alchemy (alchemy crafting +3), beastform mutagen, discovery (feral mutagen), finesse weapon attack attribute, mutagen (+4/-2, +2 natural armor, 30 minutes), orc blood, poison use, slayer talent (trapfinding[ACG]), track +1, trapfinding +1
Combat Gear mutagen (feral)[APG]; Other Gear mwk chain shirt, mwk buckler, alchemist starting formula book, 595 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Alchemy +3 (Su) +3 to Craft (Alchemy) to create alchemical items, can Id potions by touch.
Beastform Mutagen Mutagen gives beastial features but grants one alter self ability.
Bomb 2d6+4 (7/day, DC 15) (Su) Thrown Splash Weapon deals 2d6+4 fire damage.
Combat Expertise +/-1 Bonus to AC in exchange for an equal penalty to attack.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
Deadly Aim -1/+2 Trade a penalty to ranged attacks for a bonus to ranged damage.
Feral Mutagen (Su) Mutagens grant claw and bite attacks, and a bonus to intimidate.
Finesse Weapon Attack Attribute Finesse weapons use on attack rolls.
Mutagen (DC 15) (Su) Mutagen adds +4/-2 to physical/mental attributes, and +2 nat. armor for 30 minutes.
Orc Blood Half-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.
Poison Use You do not risk poisoning yourself accidentally while poisoning a weapon.
Power Attack -1/+2 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Sacred Tattoo +1 to all saves.
Sneak Attack +1d6 Attacks deal extra dam if flank foe or if foe is flat-footed.
Studied Target +1 (move action, 1 at a time) (Ex) Study foe as a Move action, gain +1 to att/dam & some skills vs. them.
Throw Anything Proficient with improvised ranged weapons. +1 to hit with thrown splash weapons.
Track +1 Add the listed bonus to Survival checks made to track.
Trap Sense +1 (Ex) +1 bonus on reflex saves and AC against traps.
Trapfinding +1 Gain a bonus to find or disable traps, including magical ones.
Weapon Focus (Natural Weapons) Choose one weapon group. You become better at using that type of weapon.

Background:

Urhal’s parents were mercenaries once, his mother from Absalom and his father an outcast orc from the Hold of Belkzen. His father named him in the old Orcish way, and he has carried the name with him ever since. It has not been kind to him.

He grew up in the countryside of Vieland, watched over by the few folk in the village they called home that were willing to look past his half-orc features and at the intelligent and ambitious young man that he truly was. Urhal had seen his parents come home from battles against orcish raiders or demonic incursions beaten, bloody, and traumatized. He did not want that life for himself. In all truth, they didn’t either.

Somehow, despite the deep bias against half-orcs than many in Ustalav harbored, Urhal managed to secure acceptance to the University of Lepidstadt, his skills in alchemy undeniable.

Urhal left that little town, unsure of his future, of his skills, of what his life would be.

He thrived there, despite it all. His peers treated him like filth, like a beast let in off the street, but when his formulae worked beyond his wildest dreams and thereby proving himself one of the brightest upcoming minds in the fields of physiology and mutagenic alchemy, they had no way to disprove his excellence. If that didn’t convince them, his constant exercise and formidable build protected him from any challenges. Indeed, he had found a place for himself, one he thought he might remain in for all his days.

A chance encounter with Professor Petros Lorrimor changed all that. The old academic took an interest in Urhal that few had. Rather than the half-orc playing at scientist that his peers often accused him of being, Professor Lorrimor saw him as an exceptional student, and one that was destined for greater things than the life of a simple academic.

Their time together was brief, only a few weeks, but the lengthy correspondence that followed secured a lasting friendship between the two of them, one that inspired Urhal to strive for the grander fate that the professor had imagined he could have.

He left the university on an academic grant to travel to the Hold of Belkzen. Urhal sought to study the traditions of the orcish alchemists, specifically their talent for mutagenic solutions that twist their forms into that of beasts.

Urhal departed the University in the same way he had arrived, anxious for his future. But now, he knew his skills, and what they could do.

It was in his time in the Hold of Belkzen that he found a deep connection to his orcish heritage. He found refuge from the harsh wilderness of Belkzen among the Murdered Child clan. Though their brutality disgusted him, they accepted half-orcs more readily than other clans did. Indeed, his skill with alchemy and explosives easily proved his worth to the clan, and after a few months he was granted the sacred scars that proved him an adult among the orcs. He spent three years with the orcs of the Murdered Child clan. He learned to fight, to hone the razor focus that he had previously only applied to alchemy to many other things. He refined his alchemical craft with the knowledge he learned from the clan’s alchemists, and in battle came to resemble an orc with the features of a ravening beast as his mutagen enhanced his already formidable physiology.

A messenger came from Ustalav, at great risk, to tell him that his old mentor had died. He had already missed the funeral, but he would pay his respects to the man’s grave, at the very least.

And Urhal ton-Thuyek left the Hold of Belkzen for the little town of Ravengro. For the first time, as he went from one stage of his life to another, he was truly confident in himself. His time among the orcs of Belkzen had tempered him, turned him from an ambitious academic who had to prove himself to the world to one who knew that whatever he would face, he would be ready.

Appearance and Personality:

Urhal is a hulking half-orc man, with wiry black hair and deeply tanned skin. Small tusks protrude from his mouth as with most half-orcs. He wears light, simple clothing designed to stretch as his mutagens increase his size and change his physiology. His style is odd, some mix between that of an Ustalavic scientist and an orcish warrior. His eyes are dark and vigilant. Elaborate scars crisscross his back, a reminder of the painful but deeply sacred ritual that confirmed him as an adult and a member of the Murdered Child clan.

He is a bit of a paradox in terms of personality. Though his parents and caretakers raised him with the typical grim determination one finds in the people of Ustalav, he also carries with him a fierce pride instilled by his time among the orcs. Of his own accord, he’s also found a deep desire for freedom. Not just for himself, but for any who’ve found themselves on the fringes of society. He will carry on no matter what, but the constant jockeying for power and status among the orcs proved to him that he could not sit idly by as the world moved on past him. His academic upbringing and new connection to the wildness of the orcs has created a man who’s personality seems to be at odds with itself. He is a scholar and a savage, a warrior and an academic, an orc and a human. At times, when he looks within himself, he does not know who he will find.


Switched up my concept quite a bit! I'll be bringing a beastmorph alchemist/slayer, instead, which I should be able to finish up for the most part before tonight.


Ooh, I always love some gestalt 1e! I've got an idea for a slayer/bladebound arcanist. They should bring some combat and skills to the table while also not treading on Petyr's toes too much once he's back.

My general idea is to take the On the Payroll campaign trait, basically playing a mercenary/hired blade who frequently worked for the Professor, but missed his funeral due to some (most likely shady) side business, and has recently come to Ravengro to pay their respects.


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Human

Almost ready, should be done by tomorrow.