About Talas ArduinnAppearance Talas often changes his outward appearance with disguises, but stripped of such props, he looks like a lanky beanpole of a man with olive skin and dark coloring. His black hair hangs to the middle of his back; usually it is loosely tied back, though sometimes he wears it in a braid. Streaks of grey at his temples speak to middling years (though that's actually dye). His eyes are dark brown and surrounded by numerous laugh lines and crows' feet of a life spent outside. His hands are nimble, long-fingered, and nicked with dozens of small scars, calluses, and little alchemical stains. His ears have the mild half-point of mixed elven-human ancestry. He dresses according to the needs of his job and situation-- dull colors should he need to move discreetly, etc.-- but in a perfectly relaxed setting he still leans towards the bright colors of his time as a Varisian wanderer-- yellows, reds, and bright blues, with a black-and-purple patterned kapenia scarf that he has worn to the point of threadbare fading. The one distinctive thing about his person that's hard for him to conceal is his elven curveblade sword, as its mere length makes it hard to fit into a disguise, and its shape is hard to pass off as a cane, or similar. Accordingly, Talas sometimes leaves it at home. A very long background:
Cliff's notes is he is a former Varisian caravaner who is looking for a place to belong.
Talas was born on Golarion, in a Varisian traveling caravan. His mother was the caravan's wise-woman, a healer and brewer of potions, Sela Arduinn by name, and his father was a wandering elf who had taken up with the caravan a few years prior. Talas's memories of his father are vague and fragmented, for by the time he was eight years of age (mentally a bit younger, more like a human child of five), his father had grown bored of dallying with the caravan and wished to move on. Sela said that she had no claim on him, but that their son deserved a legacy from his father. Tarien agreed; he left his sword in Sela's care, to be given to Talas when he was old enough to use it. Tarien then exited from Talas's life. But Talas didn't lack for male relations to fill the gap his father had left. The tight-knit home of the caravan supplied him with a diverse field of older brothers, uncles, grandfathers, and other 'family.' Though none of them knew the art of the elf-blade, he was trained in sundry other things that are useful to know both on the road and in a city: how to leap and tumble, how to tell a false coin from real, how to spot a snare (and how to undo it), how to pick a pocket, and how to fight like a Varisian-- with a scarf whose colors hide a blade. Additionally, his mother also taught Talas the rudiments of brewing tinctures and dyes, how to make flash powder or tangling sap. Though he sometimes dreamed, as a boy will, of his father coming home again, Talas did not truly want for much growing up. The only other spot to mar his youth was that he was often deemed immature and rowdy by both his peers and his elders. This was largely due to the fact that Talas was just a bit slower to mature than his fully-human age-mates: at the time they were becoming young men and women, leaving childs' games behind for how to contribute to the caravan as adults, Talas was still pursuing such pasttimes as stealing the laundry of townspeople, slipping soap into his friends' food, and otherwise acting in a fashion that everyone thought he should have outgrown. The constant lectures and pressure from his mother and the other caravan adults to 'grow up' gave Talas a small seed of resentment for authority figures-- mingled, at the same time, with the desire for their approval. Talas was given to showing off, to flashy displays of his natural grace and wit, in an attempt to earn this approval; the results were not always to his liking. As he grew older and settled more into his own skin, Talas was always just a bit behind the curve. His childhood friends began to marry and have children, just as he was finally beginning to mature enough to interact with them as a fellow adult, leaving him the single fellow among a half-dozen couples. Not ready for long-term commitment himself yet, Talas's attempts at wooing tended to leave his partners frustrated, deriding him as a superficial charmer who was good only for a night's pleasure. The subtle gap between Talas and his peers continued to widen. By the time Talas was forty, he still looked as youthful as a full-human of twenty.... and was often still treated the same, as the perception of him in the caravan was solidly one of an immature trouble-maker, even though Talas had largely abandoned those activities. Frustrated at his inability to be taken seriously as an adult and veteran member of the caravan, Talas took to streaking his hair with grey dye, and using a few tips of the stage to age his face somewhat. While the cosmetic changes garnered somewhat him more respect outside of the caravan, inside it he still had to struggle with his established reputation. Though the caravan were his family, his tribe, his people-- he loved them, and they loved him too in their way-- Talas found it difficult to forge a deep personal connection with anyone, save his mother. He was always just a bit of the outsider-- perpetually the 'fun bachelor uncle' to the growing generation of nieces and nephews, but never the one asked for advice on where the caravan should travel next, never the one asked to lead if trouble were expected. Eventually, Talas's mother passed, when he was sixty (yet still hale as a human in his mid-30s). The children that Talas had grown up with were now in their sixties as well, most of them grandparents. The children he had dandled on his knee as their surrogate uncle were grown, married, and had children again, that he had played uncle to a second time. Finally, Talas was in the position of being able to play responsible elder to most of those in the caravan... and it was now an unsatisfying prospect, as he looked at the rest of his life stretching out before him, watching generations of people he cared about continue to age and die before him. So... Talas left. He spent several years on his own, traveling for the first time without the comfort and companionship of an extended family always present. Talas sought tutors in the use of his father's blade, and learned to wield it passably well. He never stayed in one place too long, however, as his methods of supporting himself would usually recommend him to the local thieves' guilds before too long-- and, while Talas accepted the first such pointed invitation to come his way, he quickly found that it was nothing like the caravan: that he was expected to murder, to extort protection money, and to steal from those who could ill afford it. Though the caravaneers had been no great respecters of any laws of men, neither had they been vicious or ruthless, either, and Talas was a poor fit for the truly criminal lifestyle. In an attempt to settle into regular society, Talas briefly served as apprentice to an apothecary to put his other skills to use, but while it made him more eager to develop that part of his talents, it did not result in steady employment. So, on his own, he drifted city to city through Golarion, with some half-formed idea of eventually finding his father... but before that happened, he found Arch. (Or Arch found him?) With the prospect of a new world and a new way of doing things, of a use for his skills that is both challenging but doesn't require him to steal from the pockets of bakers and blacksmiths, Talas has decided to leave the known behind him, and leap for the Arch. Personality:
The social pressures that formed Talas have led him to being a bit of a chameleon. He still has a deep-seated desire to be liked and accepted, which leads to his trying to prove his worth to any new colleagues he has... because Talas confuses being liked for who he is with being appreciated for what he can do. When that need for acceptance is matched with a natural wit and curiosity, the result is someone who tries to pick up any skill that comes his way, as well as someone who tries to be all things to all people, to provide whatever it is they seem to need. Talas can be summed up simplistically with 'eager to please.'
Beneath that, there's a sub-current of resentment, for the fact that all his efforts and contortions of the self never quite seemed enough. This manifests as an occasionally-cutting wit and sarcastic bent, but Talas usually tries to cloak things in enough humor that nobody is likely to take real offense. His other driving trait is curiosity: Talas has a half-dozen hobbies and pursuits, from the mixing of dyes to the traditional Varisian dances he learned in the caravan. He likes to learn, and he picks things up quickly. Skills I'll be keeping maxed for ongoing role functions: Perception, Disable Device, Disguise, Stealth, UMD - scouting and traps
Statblock:
Talas
Male half-elf rogue (unchained) 2 (Pathfinder Unchained 20) CN Medium humanoid (elf, human) Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +10 -------------------- Defense -------------------- AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+4 armor, +3 Dex) hp 17 (2d8+4) Fort +1, Ref +6, Will +0; +2 vs. enchantments Saves breakdown: Fort (Con+1), Reflex (Dex +3, Class +3) Defensive Abilities evasion; Immune sleep -------------------- Offense -------------------- Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. when encumbered) Melee bladed scarf +4 (1d6+1) or . . dagger +4 (1d4+1/19-20) or . . mwk elven curve blade +5 (1d10+3/18-20) Ranged sling +4 (1d4+1) Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +1d6 Attack bonus: BAB +1, Dex +3. (MWK +1) -------------------- Statistics -------------------- Str 13, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 12 Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 15 Feats - Houseruled Dervish Dance (Dex to damage with his curveblade), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bladed scarf) (from campaign trait), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (elven curve blade) (Level 2 rogue talent Combat Trick), Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse Traits - Petitioner (+2 HP), Blade Dancer (to grant exotic weapon proficiency in the bladed scarf, as per house rules) Skills Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Elven, Goblin, Orc, Sylvan, Taldane, Varisian
Combat Gear caltrops,
Other Gear
Encumbrance: full kit is 69 lbs, medium encumbrance
Gear - Occupied slots:
Headband _________ Head __________ Eyes __________ Neck __________ Shoulders __________ Body __________ Chest __________ Belt __________ Ring R __________ Ring L __________ Hands __________ Wrists __________ Feet __________ Armor - Mwk lamellar leather Weapons - various Ioun stones? No |
