Sir_Drystan_Goldenflame's page

2,500 gp
Boost Ability Card +33

Scarab beetle figurine, MC in case you want to make a figurine of wondrous power. It reduces the cost by 500 gp.

Fire:
Scorching Ray 1/day, 6th level
Molten Skin 1/encounter
Pyrotechnics at will.

Leo was a bit of an odd child growing up. While he enjoyed playing with other boys, he was often bullied, and rarely happy. Unlike most other boys, he liked school, and looked forward to learning new things. In 2nd grade, when he was 7, his teacher saw the inquisitive nature of his mind, and convinced the school librarian to grant him access to the books normally reserved for older children, and pushed him to begin reading the classics. He was quickly hooked, and devoured most of what the library had to offer, from Twain to Shakespeare to Tolkien, from history to science to geography. By fourth grade, teachers were recommending he skip a grade. Maybe two. But his mother, a high school teacher, felt that such a jump would only further his social isolation, and refused. While he was usually the last one picked for recess sports (much to his chagrin), he dominated his school's academics. In Spelling Bees, Geography Bees, and more, the question was not who would win, but who would finish second. Everyone took for granted that Leo would win. This continued through middle school and high school, where he was a decent track and soccer athlete, but a star of every available academic competition, well known in church for his bible memorization and wisdom beyond his years, and an honor graduate with a full academic scholarship to a prestigious university. But he had never wanted to be just an academic. So he joined the Army National Guard, much to the shock of many of his classmates.
College was much the same; he studied history, political science, philosophy, religion, classical languages. Languages were his worst subject, but that just meant he was getting high Bs instead of As. But he really struggled with the physical requirements of ROTC. He persevered anyway, atending remedial physical fitness training. He fully intended to make a career of the Army. Late in his college career, disaster struck: he was diagnosed with a congenital bone condition, which both explained his physical struggles, and slammed the door on any future with the military. Within months of graduation, he was medically discharged and left adrift.
He tried law enforcement, but found it lacking, many of his fellows corrupt and ignorant, more interested in power than service. He tried following in his mother's career as a teacher, but could not tolerate the interference in his classroom of administrators who had never taught his subject and government bureaucrats who'd never taught at all, not to mention students who had no interest in learning. He drifted for years, working security jobs that barely paid enough to live on, commercial driving jobs that were a bit better, and had the benefit of not requiring so much interaction with fools, not to mention giving him hours to listen to podcasts and audiobooks, but which were still often less than satisfying. He eventually studied his Master's in military history in the afternoons through online courses, but never put it to use. He felt little kinship with the boring, ignorant masses of his day. He longed to march with crusaders, or in Caesar's legions, sail on a viking longboat to raid England or join the Emperor's Varangian Guard, or march as a Spartan hoplite (though he fully acknowledged he's likely have been exposed as a child in Sparta). He would've prayed for such a chance, but he couldn't imagine God unwinding centuries of time just for him. Nevertheless, he continued to grow in his faith as well, teaching bible classes to youth in his church. He studied everything he could about ancient military history, every chance he got. He liked other subjects; paleontology, geology, astrophysics, epistemology, logic. But military history was his first love. If he felt kinship with anyone, it was Miniver Cheevy. And so he drifted for a few more years, until one day his truck hit a patch of black ice on an overpass, and flipped off the roadway. He was crushed before he could finish thinking "this is going to hurt." Then everything changed.
He hadn't been expecting to wake up again. When the...beings, whoever they were, offered him a chance in another world, he knew just what he wanted: to be a hero, a mighty champion of good, as much an angel as a man! Heaven's fiery vengeance made manifest! A paladin. That's what he wanted to be. And he would take a new name. Leo was dead. Sir Drystan, Knight of the Golden Flame, was born.