Vahn MacCray's page

Reagent Case
Worn/Equipped: 55lbs (Light Load 0-58)
Backpack: 50lbs /Total: 105lbs with backpack (58-116 Medium Load)
Weapons: Masterwork Light Crossbow (4), 20 Explosive Bolts, 20 Bolts, Collapsing Baton (3).
Armor: Armored Greatcoat (10), Chain Shirt (25).
Clothing/Worn: Goggles, Ascendant Corben Talisman, Explorer's Outfit (8), Backpack (2), 2 Ammunition Pouchs (for vials, 1/2ea), Scrollcase, Golden Ring (Order of the Golden Crucible signet).
Backpack: Bedroll (5), Crowbar (5), Hammer (2), Flintstriker x2, Earplugs (3 sets), Jeweler's Loupe, Small Magnet (1), Mess Kit (1), Hand Mill (1), Writing Case (2 vials ink, 2 inkpens, 20 sheets parchment; 1), Waterskin (4), Thieves/Lock Makers Tools (1), Healer's Kit (1), Hourglass (1), Collapsing Shovel (7), Hacksaw (1), Percolator (1), Folding Table/Case (5), Metal Tongs (4), 5 days of Rations (1ea).
Alchemicals: Reagent Case (2), Sunrod x2, 4 vials Vitriol (1d6+6/5), 2 vials Blackroot Balm, 4 vials Ansleigh's Wound Seal.
Purse: 38gp, 27sp, 50cp.

The MacCray family has a long history in the Five Fingers. A long line of blacksmiths and metalworkers that always seemed to do well enough in a city that has no shortage of people needing blades and other weapons. And while the family fortunes, such as they were, were never anything to boast over, the family has enjoyed some measure of prosperity over the years. Kannigur's Shrikes, a overtly polite but dangerous gang on the MacCray's home of Bull's Island just wouldn't let up though.
Vahn began learning metallurgy at an early age from his father Cullin MacCray. His mother, Siobhan MacCray, tended home and hearth along with keeping the smithy tidy. While not yet old enough to begin smithing work in earnst, Vahn took an instant liking to the chemistry involved in smelting metals and the blending of alloys. This interest would one day spark into the young boy's obsession with alchemy.
As a lad, Vahn was unable to avoid witnessing the way that the Shrikes would give veiled threats to his father, asking after Vahn or his mother's health and such. Of course, the Shrike's could guarantee our continued good health for our father. But generosity deserves something in return, eh? And so, Vahn got to see just how things worked on Bull's Island...his father forced to take ingots out of his stock, free of charge for the Shrike's "generosity", and make for them fine daggers of spring steel and dueling blades as well.
Cullin MacCray was a great example of a man who would do anything for his family. As the hard years passed by and Vahn began to get tall and strong from working the bellows for his father, the Shrike's still didn't leave well enough alone. The Grand Stevedore Union was looking for strong lads who could keep their mouths shut, they said. Vahn fit the bill perfectly. Now, only the daftest of folk don't know that the Stevedore's Union works with the Shrikes...so blabbin off bout the thing you see t'one or the other would only make matters worse.
The hard work on the dockgrav for the Stevedores Union only strengthened Vahn's back further and helped him to grow into lean muscle to fit his broad shoulders. Over time, Vahn began to not see quiet as much problem with the way the Shrikes and the Stevedores did their business. Sure, some folks occasionally got hurt...but they didn't pay up or they're the ones that picked the fights. Some of the other lads from the dockgrav also took a liking to having a great huge lad like Vahn around. They began to take him with them on trips about the isle, to bars and brothels.
The trouble all began when old Cullin found out about these trips. Being longer for the world than young Vahn, Cullin knew the score and what the Stevedores were doing with Vahn. A great lad like that might be molded into a fine enforcer some day, with the right training and incentives. Now young Vahn, in all his 14 years, had never seen his father so agitated. Old Cullin promised Vahn that day that he'd do all he could to make it right. Cullin wasn't about to see his son become one of folk that threatened the poor people of Bull's Island. And so, little by little, Old Cullin MacCray put aside what little coin the family had to spare aside and began to make arrangements.
After a year had passed and Vahn had become even still more friendly with the Shrikes and Stevedores he'd been working with, his "friends" took Vahn out on the town..this time to see if the 15 year old boy might be worth the trouble of joining up with them. After getting Vahn liquored up and turning him loose in one of the brothel's they frequented, the Shrikes took Vahn with them to Hospice Isle, them looking to try Vahn against one of the Knucklebone Boys. Now, while Vahn's a big man, even at that age and strong. Matching him up against a trollkin streetfighter was plain sadistic. Even the more battle-hardened of the Shrikes didn't fare so well. The Bone-Boys they tangled with were some of Hezguth Blackgills' own picked boys...Vahn barely survived.
The Shrikes took their dead and wounded, along with Vahn and took them all home or gave them a brief burial at the bays. Old Cullin MacCray didn't say a word as they brought Vahn in all bloodied and broken. He just knew it was time. Once the Shrikes left, Cullin started spending that coin he'd laid by..making arrangements and calling in favors. Before Vahn had even fully regained consciousness from his injuries, he was on a ship to the port of Ceryl, across the border in Cygnar. Cullin's young nephew Donal was a smith there, and Donal did have some folks he knew that might help shape Vahn's future for the better instead of where the Shrikes and Stevedores had wanted it to go.
Vahn woke on the ship bound for Ceryl with little more than a note from his father that told him to not come home until he had made his own way in the world. It told him not to worry bout his mother or father and what might become of them. In his way, Old Cullin was saying to Vahn, don't dishonor what he'd done and the trouble he'd taken to help his son out of a bind that the boy had fallen all too easily into. That was the first time in a few years that Vahn realized just how much his father and family meant to him, and just how much those things meant to his father too.
The coins that Cullin had set aside paid for an apprenticeship of choice for young Vahn. Donal MacCray offered to take Vahn on as a smith's apprentice, to which Vahn agreed at first and began work at Donal's smithy making tools and household goods like pots and pans. Donal graciously handed over the money that Cullin had sent to Vahn and told him to save it to either further his education or to use to start his own shop someday. Not long thereafter, one of Donal's frequent patrons, a Thurian Alchemist of the Order of the Golden Crucible by the name of Doyle Gafnaegh came to buy some goods. Vahn was immediately awestruck by the man's erudition and talents. Master Gaf's knowledge of metallurgy and alchemy put stars in Vahn's eyes. By the third time Master Gaf came back to the shop, Vahn had already talked to cousin Donal about it and begged the elder alchemist to take him as an apprentice.
At first the old man balked, suprised a young smith's apprentice would ever even consider such a thing. Over time though, conversation will tell. Master Doyle realized quite quickly just how sharp a mind Vahn had, despite his lack of education. And honestly, the boy knew his letters better that most. To cover the cost, Vahn paid Master Doyle the money his father had sent with him and cousin Donal supplemented that a bit as well. With a wry chuckle, Master Doyle agreed and Vahn MacCray began his apprenticeship as an Alchemist of the Golden Crucible.
Over the next four years, Vahn studied many different subjects. He was taught advanced mathematics and formulae necessary to perform his craft, he studied books in obscure languages, and all of these things he did well. During his studies, Vahn took a rather serious interest in history and religion and began to study both the Caspian and Khurzic languages so that he could read religious texts in their original forms. He soon came to a simple belief in Morrow and to great faith in Ascendant Corben, the patron of Alchemists. Vahn even began to study the intricacies of clockwork creations during this time.
As his apprenticeship came to an end, Master Doyle proclaimed him a journeyman Alchemist without any reservations, save that Vahn is somewhat impatient and rather incautious...a potentially dangerous combination of traits in an alchemist. To help channel Vahn's interests, as Khador had recently invaded Llael and Cygnar had responded by moving to war against the Motherland, Master Doyle thought that military service would be good. Vahn entered into the Cygnarian military as a combat alchemist and grenadier. After a full year of service in the military, fighting on the Llaelese front, Vahn is finally now heading home to Ceryl. Returning to military service is something he is considering, but for now, Vahn has seen enough of war. Taking the road south from the front, Vahn's travels take him to Corvis, the city of Ghosts. Only his first stop back to a war-torn Cygnar and his home...though after all the fighting, Vahn has begun to wonder exactly where home is for him. Is it where his dim memories of his father and mother in Five Fingers are? Or those of his happy apprenticeship in Ceryl? Even moreso...with the fall of Llael, the headquarters of the Order of the Golden Crucible in Leryn is inaccessible. What does the Order itself mean to do now? Vahn is a man with much on his mind and a path that is being pulled in many directions.

As tall as a Kossite, Vahn MacCray looks like a tavern brawler or warrior, belying the keen mind hidden behind his rough exterior. His arms are corded with lean muscle from hard labor, his hands gnarled by acids and work. Vahn has ruddy skin, pale green eyes and reddish hair that shows his Thurian heritage. His clothes, while in good repair have a near constant sheen of dust on them and his fingers often show inkstains or burns.

Extracts per Day: 1st: 3 (Save DC: 15)
Extracts Known: Comprehend Languages, Enlarge Person, Expeditious Retreat, Least Vigor, Jump, Shield, True Strike.