 About ThaxosTHAXOS CR 5
Cantrips (DC 14):
Acid Splash
Arcane Mark Breeze Dancing Lights Detect Magic Detect Poison Flare Ghost Sound Haunted Fey Aspect Light Mage Hand Mending Message Open/Close Prestidigitation Ray of Frost Read Magic Resistance Spark 1st Level Spells (DC 15):
Alter Winds
Disguise Self Endure Elements Ear-piercing Scream Enlarge Person Feather Fall Magic Missile Shield Silent Image 2nd Level Spells (DC 16):
Cat's Grace
Scorching Ray -Psion-
Talents (DC 14):
Conceal Thoughts (self only)
Mind Link 1st Level Powers (DC 15):
Attraction
Empathic Connection Deceleration Deja Vu Inertial Armor Matter Agitation Mind Thrust --------------------
Familiar:
MERRAX CR 5
Male Razorwing N Tiny magical beast Init +4; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +6 -------------------- DEFENSE -------------------- AC 18, touch 16, flat-footed 14 (+4 dex, +2 natural, +2 size) hp 22 (5d8) Fort +2, Ref +8, Will +8; Defensive Abilities improved evasion -------------------- OFFENSE -------------------- Spd 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (good) Melee bite +6 (1d3-2) Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 2-1/2 ft. Special Attacks sudden swoop -------------------- STATISTICS -------------------- Str 6, Dex 19, Con 11, Int 7, Wis 14, Cha 11 Base Atk +2; CMB +3; CMD 12 Feats Lightning Reflexes Trained Skills Autohypnosis +6, Bluff +4, Disguise +2, Diplomacy +3, Fly +12, Perception +6, Sense Motive +4, Stealth +12, Survival +4 Untrained Skills Acrobatics +4, Climb -2, Escape Artist +4 SQ empathic link, share spells, deliver touch spells -------------------- SPECIAL ABILITIES -------------------- Sudden Swoop (Ex) If a razorwing makes a charge attack while flying, it does not provoke attacks of opportunity when it enters an opponent’s space to make a melee attack. It also gains a +2 bonus on damage rolls with its bite attack when it makes a sudden swoop. Alertness (Ex) While a familiar is within arm's reach, the master gains the Alertness feat. Improved Evasion (Ex) When subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage, a familiar takes no damage if it makes a successful saving throw and half damage even if the saving throw fails. Share Spells The wizard may cast a spell with a target of “You” on his familiar (as a touch spell) instead of on himself. A wizard may cast spells on his familiar even if the spells do not normally affect creatures of the familiar's type (magical beast). Empathic Link (Su) The master has an empathic link with his familiar to a 1 mile distance. The master can communicate empathically with the familiar, but cannot see through its eyes. Because of the link's limited nature, only general emotions can be shared. The master has the same connection to an item or place that his familiar does. Deliver Touch Spells (Su) If the master is 3rd level or higher, a familiar can deliver touch spells for him. If the master and the familiar are in contact at the time the master casts a touch spell, he can designate his familiar as the “toucher.” The familiar can then deliver the touch spell just as the master would. As usual, if the master casts another spell before the touch is delivered, the touch spell dissipates. Description:
Thaxos is a half-elven man that appears to have stepped out of another time. The brutal heat and general oppressive nature of Athas has yet to wear down his body and mind like so many others. His pale blond hair, nearly white in hue, and lightly tanned skin both have the sheen of health that comes from being well-cleaned on a regular basis. His elvish blood is readily distinguishable by his height of over six and a half feet tall, his finely pointed ears, and the general delicate structure the bones in his face. His human side comes out in his more robust physique and his non-mercurial nature of dealing with anyone that isn’t of his ethnicity. His normal garb consists of light and airy robes that keep the sun off but allow the breeze to play through its folds. Background:
Born the third son of a minor noble woman, a human, of Draj after an elicit tryst with an elven smuggler she happened to become involved with one evening, Thaxos’ existence was a crime against not just his mother’s husband but the very laws that bound Draji society together. Elves and their tainted blood are considered beyond spiritual salvation and are a cancer upon the face of Draj wherever they happen to crop up. Thaxos’ mother, knowing that she and her son would face death by the hand of Tectuktitlay and his moon priests atop the great pyramid for her transgressions, fled the city with only a paltry supply of resources as soon as her son’s unique heritage started to show in his pointed ears.
Rather than flee to the west where the slaving caravans would pick up any stray soul to ship back to Draj for the daily sacrifices, she set out to the east to follow the trade route north along the coast of the Silt Sea. With only a couple kanks and a few weeks’ worth of rations, Thaxos’ mother set out into the wilds of Athas. By the time she arrived at Azeth’s Rest, both kanks had perished from hungry predators and exposure and the whole collection of her supplies had dwindled to the size of a knapsack. Weak, exhausted, and in general pitiful condition, Thaxos’ mother was able to purchase safe passage for herself and Thaxos with House Azeth to the city-state of Kurn by selling the last few pieces of her jewelry that she had smuggled out of Draj. Thaxos’ mother secured a small home in the city for them and lived out the rest of her days a free citizen of Kurn. Unfortunately, this space of time was fairly short as she never recovered from the hard journey north and passed on into the Gray after only two years. Thaxos was too young to fend for himself as of yet but luckily this was Kurn, not Draj or any other city-state, and orphans are not turned out into the wastes to perish or taken as slaves. With other young boys and girls bereft of parents or guardians, Thaxos was taken care of at an orphanage by kind Templars of King Oronis. As the years flew by, Thaxos grew into a reserved young man but with an insatiable curiosity. His innate connection with the Way and the speed he picked up any task given him was not overlooked by Oronis, who was known to visit the children at least once a week. Once they were of age, Oronis selected six of the orphans, including Thaxos, to train under him as his apprentices, not to eventually become Templars, but as those that could learn what he had to teach and help him in his grand project of restoring Athas to its past verdant splendor. Thus began Thaxos schooling in not just the power of the Way but the mysteries of preserving magic. By the time that Thaxos was in his early twenties, he had learned much from Oronis and was considered one of the king’s top two star pupils. When the powerful preserver/psion Korgunard arrived in Kurn and convinced Oronis to share the techniques for the avangion metamorphosis with him, Thaxos was there to listen to the man’s charismatic words. In in the aftermath, once Oronis had shared the secret did the king worry that what other inquisitive individuals might track the same trail that Korgunard used back to Kurn. Oronis was still burdened with the sadness of Nerad’s death when he originally went down to the region around Tyr to clean up any ties leading back to him and thus must of missed something. Concerned for his people’s safety, Oronis tasked his two star apprentices with important tasks. To Thaxos, he asked the half-elf to travel to Tyr and make sure there was nothing, not a scrap of paper or whispered rumor, which mentioned Nerad or avangion with Kurn or Oronis. He was given a contact in the Tyrian Veiled Alliance to get in touch with once he was in the city. The other student was sent out to follow Korgunard and make sure the man took the proper precautions not to be uncovered by another sorcerer-king or, spirits forbid, the Dragon. Ready to prove his worth, Thaxos gladly set out to follow his master’s instructions. Thaxos joined one of Kurn’s rare trade caravans down to Draj. The whole trip there he spent cultivating the fake persona that he would adopt once amongst non-Kurnians. He was to be a collector of ancient and exotic antiquities working for a rich patron from a well-off large village north of Draj, notably in the market for artifacts from the Ringing Mountains and Halfling tribes of the Forest Ridge. In Draj, Thaxos put his backstory to the test when he booked passage for the next phase of his journey with a House Tsalaxa caravan leaving for Raam then Urik. The trip was a hard one as he was exposed to the brutality of the southern cities and settlements, so different from peaceful Kurn, and given a firsthand education in the prejudices heaped upon half-elves by both humans and elves. The caravan leader must have detected some of Thaxos’ unease and the cracks that started to form in his persona and decided to take advantage and line his own pockets, as on the road between Raam and Urik his guards restrained the half-elf, beat him bloody, then shackled him with a handful of the slaves the caravan was going to sell in Urik for a bit of extra profit. However, luck would be on Thaxos side as an elven raiding party struck the caravan a few days travel from Urik. Thaxos had kept the brunt of his powers hidden from his captors and in the ensuing chaos of the raid, he was able to break his bonds and set the other slaves free. The half-elf took a certain satisfaction in boiling the caravan master’s brain in his own skull when he went to collect his stolen possessions. Before Thaxos could see if the guards or elven raiders won, he fled into the sands. With new knowledge on his past mistakes, Thaxos re-donned his fake persona and made his way into Urik as a lone merchant/traveler. He stayed in the orderly military city-state only a day, enough time to gain a kink mount and fresh supplies before he left in haste to resume his journey south to Tyr. It would be the sandstorm that suddenly rolled in one afternoon that threw him off the main trade route down to Tyr. It lasted for half a day and by the end of it, Thaxos was hopelessly lost. He was able to gain enough barring to tell north and that Tyr was still probably somewhere to the southwest. Praying that his supplies, especially the water, would hold out, Thaxos set out southwest toward what he hoped would eventually be Tyr, or at the least he’d know better once he ran into the Ringing Mountains. A number of days later, Thaxos would eventually see his way out of the wastes to the sight of Tyr's walls in the distant. Entering the city, the half-elf attempted to make contact with his liason in the Veiled Alliance but his unfamiliarity with Tyr lead him to speaking the wrong words to the wrong person. Templars took him into custody and questioned him for days. Thaxos was beaten and tortured yet was able to stick to his cover story that he was merely a merchant here to purchase rare antiquities for his employer and the 'contact' he was attempting to meet was a name supplied to him that had in their possession many priceless pieces from across the Ringing Mountains. Kalak's templars were sure Thaxos was probably lying (their default belief of everyone) so sentenced him to death in the gladitorial games meant to honor the completion of the Sorceror-King Kalak's grand ziggurat. |
