Ulrik of Belkzen's page

he had already ambushed and killed a few of her paladins and clerics. They proved to be a bunch with resources, and the gold pillaged from them was not an easy make -- they fought to the very end.

He acted with a group of orcs near the foot of the Cenotaph, and he waited further down the road in order to intercept anyone who attempted to flee the ambush by the larger group of orcs.

One night a paladin came riding in his horse, escaping from the group of orcs who had outnumbered his party and slain his companions. He was severely injured. The orc tripped the horse with a rope, and the paladin came tumbling. Lying down with very little strength to fight against an orc warrior, the man pleaded for mercy, but the orc struck his spear against the man's neck. When the orc slew the man, the night became day, the mountains disappeared and an angel of Sarenrae appeared to him: "You fool! Your heart that burned with the pure fire of the sun now scorches and taints this land! It consumed the blood of my children and became impure! Unto you is now doom!

There will be much derision in your days, for you have been shown the Light and you see what the evil ones do not! The very blindness that I have now cleansed you from, the blindness in which you killed my children, will bring you much sorrow, for it will strike against you in all your days.

You will carry the burden of your deeds of evil for I see your heart and your heart cannot resist me! It burns with zeal, and you will not deny me or my orders, even in the face of the many trials that await. These trials will crush you and all in you will perish, except for my Light! Then you will be, truly, my paladin. You henceforth a knight, you are Odalric: this is now your name, so that on your name hangs the guilt of your last vile act, and, on it, the whole of your damned past.

Odalric, whom you murdered: great is his debt to a man by the name of Petros Lorrimor, one contracted when he, too, was blind, before he came to me. It was my will that he should in his honor seek to repay his debt, so it is now my will that you pay it on his behalf. There is much you must pay, and it will never be enough, because of the blood spilled in your blindness."

The night embraced the surroundings and the mountains rose once again from the ground. In silence and resignation, Ulrik buried Odalric's body as prescribed by his Order, and took his belongings, for he needed them.

"Others have tried to refute me by enunciating the many good deeds of the Dhampir of past generations, but they cannot refute the truth: by their blood, Dhampirs are lower than even the lowest of orcs; they are offspring of undead, and to act as though they could ever be pure is to lie to themselves. Only by acknowledging their profane and worthless nature, and by abandoning their dreams of greatness, can they perform deeds that bring Light and truth to the world."

"They sense of entitlement corrodes this world and kills their own kin. For the sake of these I would not move a foot or wield my sword a single time.
Yet, to look at their little ones is to see the heart of Sarenrae, Light that none of them can abandon or outgrow, even if they become the most perverse amongst their brothers. It is my duty to kindle that light so that it shines and purges the evil that grows in these lands."

"Inside them burns incessantly an intense fire. Does not the sun also blaze even on those that are on the ground, so distant from it?
My kin was born for a life of solitude and labour, in the distance, to bring Light to our world through devotion, strength and isolation. For they do not realize it, they deny this design, and live only to spill blood and learn war. My heart aches for I am witness to the doom of my own; the door is open, but their eyes are blind, they do not see. For that my heart aches day and night, and my sorrow is bitter."

with such short lips cannot hide his teeth, let alone his tusks, which, along with the resignation in his eyes and the orc fetishes on his nose, ears and skin, forms an emotionless and frightening mask.

The armor that seems designed to comfortably suit a human is strapped around the orc at its loosest, and still somewhat constrains Ulrik's movements into uncomfortable gestures and mild flesh lacerations. Likewise, a shield, displaying the crest of the Alberich, the lower noble Ustalavic family to which the late Odalric belonged, is tightly strapped to Ulrik's left forearm. A sheathed scimitar hangs strapped to the orc's back, indicating that he does not intend to use it: Odalric's Sword of Sarenrae. A warhammer hangs from his hilt, and it seems to be what Ulrik would resort to in a combat. Between his back and Odalric's backpack, stands elevated the blood-stained orc spear with which the late paladin was slain, a herald to all those who may recriminate Ulrik for his past.

A tabard covering his poorly-donned armor displays a dyed, dull sun that has almost faded on the grimy white fabric, corresponding to his deity and the order he now belongs to, by divine recognition, but perhaps not as easily by the church of the Goddess of Splendor.

I have heard once that an RPG campaign is meant in some ways to prove characters wrong of their convictions. I accept this as a challenge to Ulrik, and the outcomes of these trials will determine the path he takes. If his attempts to redeem humans succeed or foster his hope for redemption of the evil ones that have Light within, he will go towards feats that tend to augment his grappling skill and capacity to deal non-lethal damage and help villains change. On the other hand, successive disappointments will lead Ulrik to become less tolerant to evil and, in some sense, pervert his zeal into destructive force. In any case it will be righteous zeal from the point of view of his divine precepts, depending on how the deity itself, Sarenrae, is interpreted (or, rather, is). Regardless, the intensifying of this destructive nature will come to Ulrik at great personal cost, due to the regret he will face.
When it comes to creatures that are hopelessly evil (are there any?), Ulrik will exercise his destructive nature to its full extent, but, again, he would face trouble if he were to find out later on that he could have helped redeem one of the enemies he vanquished.

ULRIK OF BELKZEN
XP 0
Male orc paladin 1
LG Medium humanoid (orc)
Init +1; Senses
Darkvision 60 ft.,
Perception -2
Auraaura of good

DEFENSE
AC 19, touch 10, flat-footed 19 (+7 armor, +2 shield)
hp 12 (1d10+2)
Fort +3, Ref +1, Will +0 (+2 against fear)

OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee warhammer (one-handed) +6 (1d8+5/x3)
Melee heavy steel shield (one-handed) +6 (1d4+5/x2)
Melee spear (two handed) +6 ((two handed) 1d8+7/x3)
Ranged spear (thrown)+0 (1d8+5/x3)
Special Attacks Smite Evil,
Class Spell-Like Abilities: detect evil (at will)

STATISTICS
Str 20, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 6, Cha 14
Base Attack Bonus +1; CMB +6; CMD 17
Feats Bludgeoner
Skills Acrobatics -8 , Acrobatics (Jump) -12 , Appraise +0 , Bluff +2 , Climb -4 , Craft (Untrained) +0 , Diplomacy +6 , Disguise +2 , Escape Artist -8 , Fly -8 , Heal -2 , Intimidate +2 , Perception -2 , Perform (Untrained) +2 , Ride -8 , Sense Motive +2 , Stealth -8 , Survival -2 , Swim -4
Languages Common, Orc
SQ aura of good, automatic languages, darkvision, darkvision, detect evil, ferocity, weapon and armor proficiency, weapon familiarity,
Gear warhammer; shield, heavy steel; uniform (soldier's);, tabard, splint mail; scimitar; spear; Backpack, Common [ Flint and Steel; Rations (Trail/Per Day) (x9); Rope (Hemp/50 ft.); Waterskin (Filled); ];
Load 106 lb (light)
Wealth 35 GP, 5 SP

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Aura of Good (Ex) You project a faint good aura.
Automatic Languages (Ex) Orcs can speak Orc and Common.
Cleansing Light Your faith is pure and strong, and your positive energy purges undead. When dealing damage to undead with your channel energy, you can reroll any damage die that shows a natural 1.
Making Good on Promises At some point in the past, Professor Lorrimor did you a favor under the condition that he would someday call on you to repay it. After he came to your aid, however, you never saw nor heard from him again, leaving you with a sense of unending anticipation that each day might be the day you were asked to return the favor. Yet that day never came, and your fears and anxiety about what the professor would call on you to do abated. Assuming the old man had either forgotten about you or died, you eventually assumed you’d never have to follow through on your end of the bargain. When you received word of the professor’s death, and that he had named you specifically in his will, your dread of what he could possibly want from you has grown throughout your entire journey to Ravengro. Years of living with the fear and uncertainty of the unclaimed debt to Professor Lorrimor have inured you to extreme anxiety. You gain a +2 trait bonus on saves against fear effects.
Darkvision (Ex) Orcs can see in the dark up to 60 feet.; Darkvision is the extraordinary ability to see with no light source at all, out to a range specified for the creature. Darkvision is black and white only (colors cannot be discerned). It does not allow characters to see anything that they could not see otherwise-invisible objects are still invisible, and illusions are still visible as what they seem to be. Likewise, darkvision subjects a creature to gaze attacks normally. The presence of light does not spoil darkvision.
Dayrunner (Ex) Orcs refuse to yield to any foe, including the sun. Some spend hour upon hour glaring at the sun until their ruined eyes acclimatize to bright light. Orcs with this racial trait take a –2 penalty on all ranged attack rolls. This racial trait replaces light sensitivity.
Detect Evil (Sp) At will, you can use Detect Evil, as the Spell. You can, as a move action, concentrate on a single individual or item within 60 feet and determine if it is evil, learning the strength of its aura as if having studied it for 3 rounds. While focusing on one individual or object, you do not detect evil in any other object or individual within range.
Ferocity (Ex) When below 0 hp can still fight; staggered, loses 1 hp/round.
Smite Evil (Su) You can call out to the powers of good to aid you in your struggle against evil 1 times per day. As a swift action, you choose one target within sight to smite. If this target is evil, you add +2 to your attack rolls and +1 to all damage rolls made against the target of your smite. If the target of Smite Evil is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage on the first successful attack increases to +2. Regardless of the target, Smite Evil attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess. In addition, while smite evil is in effect, you gain a +2 deflection bonus to your AC against attacks made by the target of the smite. If you target a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect. The Smite Evil effect remains until the target of the smite is dead or the next time you rest and regain your uses of this ability.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency Paladins are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light), and with shields (except tower shields).
Weapon Familiarity (Ex) Orcs and half-orcs are proficient with greataxes and falchions, and treat any weapon with the word "orc" in its name as a martial weapon.

FEATS
Bludgeoner

TRAITS
Cleansing Light, Making Good on Promises (Campaign Trait)

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