Verrig Chastaine's page

Verrig Chastaine
Male human (Chelaxian) paladin (oath against corruption) 1 (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 60)
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Perception -1
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 11, flat-footed 17 (+5 armor, +1 Dex, +2 shield)
hp 13 (1d10+3)
Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +1; -1 in areas of dim light or darkness
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee dagger +5 (1d4+4/19-20) or
longsword +5 (1d8+4/19-20)
Ranged longbow +2 (1d8/×3)
Special Attacks smite evil 1/day (+2 attack and AC, +1 damage)
Paladin Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +3)
At will—detect evil
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Statistics
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Str 18, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 14
Base Atk +1; CMB +5; CMD 16
Feats Power Attack, Skill Focus (Knowledge [dungeoneering])
Traits scholar of ruins, stargazer, sworn enemy
Drawback shadow-scarred
Skills Acrobatics -5 (-9 to jump), Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8 (+10 to identify alien monsters' abilities and weaknesses), Knowledge (geography) +5 (+7 to identify alien monsters' abilities and weaknesses), Knowledge (religion) +4 (+6 to identify alien monsters' abilities and weaknesses), Linguistics +1, Lore (Mendevian Crusade) +4
Languages Aklo, Common
SQ shadow-scarred
Other Gear scale mail, heavy steel shield, arrows (20), dagger, longbow, longsword, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, hemp rope (50 ft.), holy text (Iomedae) {UE}, mess kit {UE}, pot, soap, torch (10), trail rations (5), waterskin, wooden holy symbol of Iomedae, 1 gp
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Special Abilities
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Detect Evil (At will) (Sp) You can use detect evil at will (as the spell).
Power Attack -1/+2 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Scholar of Ruins (Knowledge [dungeoneering]) +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (geography) and Knowledge (dungeoneering) checks. One of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.
Shadow-Scarred -1 to saves when in areas of dim light or darkness.
Smite Evil (1/day) (Su) +2 to hit, +1 to damage, +2 deflection bonus to AC when used.
Stargazer You gain a +2 trait bonus on Knowledge checks to identify alien monsters’ abilities and weaknesses. In addition, you gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (geography) checks, and this skill is a class skill for you. You are treated as if you possessed the Technologist feat for the purposes of resolving checks to identify an alien creature using a Knowledge skill and for all Knowledge (geography) checks. If you already possess the Technologist feat, then your trait bonus on Knowledge (geography) checks increases to +3.
Sworn Enemy (Aberrations) +1 to attacks of opportunity against chosen foe.

Verrig Chastaine originally hailed from a minor merchant family in Andoran before feeling the call of the paladin's life and traveling to Lastwall for training and instruction. He took to his studies well, and was prepared to give his life in service to the Mendevian Crusade as it attempted to cleanse the Worldwound from Golarian's surface. At a clean and fresh-faced 19 years of age, he set off on the pilgrimage to Mendev with a heart full of pious courage and a mind full of dreams of glory.

The route to Mendev took him and his fellow squadron of crusaders from village to village through Ustalav, up through the River Kingdoms and then Numeria, where they would then cross the border to Nerosyn, Mendev's capital city. Despite the dangers they faced on the way, the journey was largely uneventful. That was, until they reached Shale.

Shale was a small mining outpost near the eastern Numerian border, sparely populated and off the beaten path; the crusaders had heard of it through word of mouth on their travels and decided to make the detour to bed down and resupply. The people were friendly enough, and agreed to put up with the squadron for a few days until they moved onward. Work had been stalled anyway, they said. The miners had hit upon something that was obstructing their way and they were currently investigating what it was.

Verrig doesn't quite recall exactly what happened when night fell on the second day of their stay. There was yelling, and then an ear-piercing keening noise, and then screams...gas...wet, putrid flesh, and a gods-awful stench somewhere between cloyingly sweet and stomach-churning foul...the townsfolk and his brothers-in-arms gibbering madly, butchering one another and themselves with mad abandon...a desperate last-ditch rush to the mine...and something...something so unspeakably, disgustingly foul he can only remember its impression, not its form, like a damp rotten hole in his memory...he struck true, and then blackness...

Days later, Verrig's unconscious body was found by scouts from a passing Varisian caravan just outside the mine entrance. When he awoke in their care, and after he was lucid enough to cease screaming, he was told that they hadn't discovered a single living soul in Shale besides him, including his fellow crusaders. When he related what he could recall of what happened, they brought him to their resident priestess of Desna. The old woman told him many things; about Desna's shadow, Black Butterfly, and her eternal guardianship against the things that lurked within the Dark Tapestry of the void between the stars; of distant Aucturn, the Dominion of the Black, and the unclean things that sometimes drew down from the night's sky or bubble up from beneath the depths of the earth, alien beings that bore no kinship to that which our reality had to offer. Even the vilest fiends had a place in the natural order, she told him, but not creatures such as these.

From that day onward Verrig Chastaine swore an oath devoting his life to understanding and combating the things that should not be. He wrote a letter once to his superiors apologizing for not joining the fight against the Worldwound, but Iomedae had shown him that someone needs to stand against the dangers that are stranger to the world than that of any demon. Numeria was studded with bizarre ruins that vomited forth beings from beyond established knowledge, and he would remain to ensure that they will never escape to threaten the wider world.

He still has night terrors over what could happen if he fails.

Verrig is currently in Torch to investigate rumors of alien activity in the caverns beneath the town. He knows from experience that not all aliens are aberrations, but if the rumors are true, and these turn out to be, he wants to be ready.

Verrig stands 6 feet tall and carries himself ramrod straight. His sandy blonde crewcut and square-jawed features would look right at home on a military recruitment poster, were it not for the patchwork of scars on his chin and the haunted look in his blue-gray eyes. He wears the tattered armor and tabard of an Iomedaen crusader off to war, except it has been stained and dented from gods knows how many years of use, and has been patched up and repaired with a variety of scavenged materials ranging from downed ship hulls to rubber hose casings. His sword and shield are in a similar state, although the blade remains sharp despite this.

Verrig is taciturn to the point of single-mindedness, his former idealism replaced with a workman's attitude toward the slaying of monsters. He's seen horrors that he can barely describe, and this persona is as much a defense mechanism as it is a means of intimidation. Despite this, however, at his core he is still a good and honorable man who will go out of his way to help and defend those in need. When darkness falls he frequently seems on edge, as if bracing himself for an attack that could come from any angle. He does not tolerate aberrations of any sort, and will doggedly pursue any he finds to ensure that they are imprisoned or destroyed.