Vhekk's page

Name: Vhekk al-Atarshamayyin Vahdat Adalan Sedeq
Ancestry: Human
Heritage: Tiefling
Class: Swashbuckler (Fencer)
Background: Restless Wayfarer
Level: 2
Alignment: CG
Abilities:
Str: 12
Dex: 18
Con: 10
Int: 12
Wis: 10
Cha: 18
AC: 18
HP: 28
Feats:
Ancestry – Hellspawn (Tiefling), Form of the Fiend (Claw, Tiefling)
Class – Goading Feint (Swashbuckler), Charmed Life (Swashbuckler)
Skill – Terrain Expertise (Forest, Survival), Lie to Me (Deception), Read Lips (Society)
Proficiencies:
Simple Weapons – Trained
Martial Weapons – Trained
Unarmed Attacks – Trained
Light Armor – Trained
Unarmored Defense – Trained
Saves:
Fortitude – Trained (level+2+Con, total +4)
Reflex – Expert (level+4+Dex, total +10)
Will – Expert (level+4+Wis, total +6)
Perception – Expert (level+4+Wis, total +6)
Skills:
Acrobatics – Trained (level+2+Dex, total +8)
Deception – Trained (level+2+Cha, total +8)
Diplomacy – Trained (level+2+Cha, total +8)
Intimidation – Trained (level+2+Cha, total +8)
Lore (Forest) – Trained (level+2+Int, total +5)
Lore (Legal) – Trained (level+2+Int, total +5)
Nature – Trained (level+2+Wis, total +4)
Performance – Trained (level+2+Cha, total +8)
Stealth – Trained (level+2+Dex, total +8)
Survival – Trained (level+2+Wis, total +4)
Thievery – Trained (level+2+Dex, total +8)
Additional Abilities: Low-light vision, panache, precise strike, confident finisher
Languages: Taldane, Kelish, Draconic
Equipment: 8 SP, bow staff, adventurer's pack, thieves' tools, arrows (40), handheld musical instrument (ghironda), wooden religious symbol (Atarshamayyin loop amulet), winter clothing
Attacks:
Bow Staff (Melee) +8 - 1d6+1 B, parry, sweep
Claw +8 - 1d4+1 P or S, agile
Bow Staff (Ranged) +8 - 1d6 P, deadly d8

There are uncountable tales of mysterious foundlings raised by humble but caring foster parents and going on to achieve greatness. Vhekk's life is not one of these tales. The unwanted child of unknown parents, he was found in a cheap wicker basket, floating on the river, by a slavemaster in the godless city of Sedeq and sold to Zari Vahdat, a representative of the Imperial Bank who oversaw trade in the crowded market city. His name, Vhekk, translates to "freak" in the Gnoll tongue, and his full name at the time was largely a cruel joke at his expense – Vhekk al-Emkrah Vahdat Adalan Sedeq, or "Freak, son of a misbegotten one, servant in the tribe of Vahdat, slave in the Adalan merchant house (that is, the Imperial Bank), native of Sedeq."

As he grew, he became capable of physical labor, and his purchaser soon put him to work as a house-servant, where he was treated abysmally. However, he did develop a friendship with a fellow slave named Amestri, a female sulijann a year or two older than him who worked as a messenger for a wealthy merchant. Amestri was born to a cruel genie binder but was sold into slavery in Sedeq as soon as she grew old enough to be worth something. Amestri, who had a talent for music, taught her friend how to sing, leaving him with a significant repertoire of simple but beautiful songs. Under her guidance, he carved a flute out of a scrap of wood, treasuring it as a token of his friendship.

During this time, he talked often with Kolmeir Jalab, a traditionalist Tzorehiyi elder attempting to spread his people's gospel to the largely atheistic Sedeq, who told the young man about his faith. Vhekk, who had never known any other priests, took to the preacher's teachings and became a devotee of the nearly-forgotten horse god of the Tzorehiyi, Atarshamayyin the Windspeaker, switching the cruel taunt of al-Emkrah to al-Atarshamayyin to symbolize his devotion.

Vhekk's life took a turn for the better when Zari lost him and a number of his fellow servants in a bet with a noble in a different city during the tiefling's early adulthood. This new owner would likely have been no better than the last one, but the slave ship he was on was intercepted by the Gray Corsairs of Andoran, never reaching its destination. Vhekk watched in awe as his captors were soundly defeated by the Eagle Knights, and when they helped the newly freed slaves reach Golsifar, the young man was impressed by the power and righteousness displayed by the Andoran knights.

In the few months he spent in the town, he was treated with suspicion but not outright hostility due to his infernal nature, and he quickly learned to talk his way out of danger. After some time, he decided to wander the lands, seeking to perform heroic deeds, setting out with a secondhand bow staff to see if he could perform deeds worthy of the Eagle Knights he tries so hard to emulate. In his travels, he hopes to come across news of Amestri, who managed to escape Qadira but has not yet reunited with her friend.

The young man's travels eventually brought him to Heldren, a small town near the border with Qadira, where the peaceful landscape and the presence of the nearby Border Wood persuaded him to stay, seeking news of his friend. His time in the village has been short - a matter of months as opposed to the townspeople who have lived there their whole lives - but he has put his archery skills to use as a hunter in the dangerous forest, and his strange music and fascinating tales are a now-frequent fixture of the Silver Stoat's common room. While some of Heldren's elders still rankle at the thought of accepting a hellspawn Keleshite into their community, Vhekk has managed to find at least a degree of tolerance among many of the town's hunters and farmers.

A scrawny, malnourished young man of nineteen or twenty years, Vhekk has the dark skin and curled black hair of a Tzorehiyi Keleshite, but his div ancestry is suggested by his eyes, which seem to be empty pits to an unknowable abyss, his whiplike tail, and his backwards-curving horns. His hands seem to be made of obsidian, and they end in razor-sharp talons, which led to him developing a significant amount of manual dexterity to avoid accidentally harming himself or others. On the inside of his right wrist is branded the sigil of the Imperial Bank, marking him as a slave. His fiendish nature does not just extend to his outside - his black blood and three hearts prove quite disconcerting to those not used to his oddities.

He wears the clothes of a peasant, but he always makes sure to wear full shirts that extend all the way to the wrist, even in warmer weather. Additionally, he wears a long cloak over his ordinary clothes, and a simple hat is wedged between his horns. He carries a worn ash bow staff he purchased secondhand, and despite its age, it serves him better than a flashy rapier or the like would. In combat, he favors a flowing, graceful fighting style featuring significant spinning and staff-twirling. Most of his other equipment is carried in his backpack, but he always keeps one item on him. His ghironda, a simply adorned but sturdily made instrument, is a reminder of his friend Amestri, and he carries it with him whenever he can.

Vhekk enthusiastically hero-worships the Eagle Knights, but he is also a serious devotee of Atarshamayyin, a minor god of winds, prophecy, and horses. He frequently smiles and maintains a generally positive outlook on life, but does not act with levity around death of any sort. He hopes to someday be reunited with his friend Amestri. Though his parents abandoned him as a child, he is optimistic that his parents were simply too poor to care for him and wanted a better life for him, and he hopes to one day find them. He has a strange hatred for the peal of bells, and he tries to stay away from temples with large bell towers as a result.