 About Welby Dardragon IIIWelby Dardragon III
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Familiar:
Harley Arcane Familiar Thrush (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic) CG Diminutive magical beast (animal) Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +13 -------------------- Defense -------------------- AC 17, touch 16, flat-footed 15 (+2 Dex, +1 natural, +4 size) hp 16 (1d8-2) Fort +0, Ref +5, Will +5 -------------------- Offense -------------------- Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (average) Melee bite +1 (1d2-5) Space 1 ft.; Reach 0 ft. -------------------- Statistics -------------------- Str 1, Dex 15, Con 6, Int 6, Wis 15, Cha 6 Base Atk +2; CMB +0; CMD 5 Feats Skill Focus (Perception)[B] Skills Acrobatics +6 (-2 to jump), Appraise -1, Bluff -1, Diplomacy +1, Disable Device +3, Escape Artist +3, Fly +12, Linguistics +0, Perception +13, Sense Motive +3, Sleight of Hand +3, Stealth +18, Use Magic Device +1 SQ improved evasion -------------------- Special Abilities -------------------- Flight (40 feet, Average) You can fly! Improved Evasion (Ex) No damage on successful reflex save; half on failed save. Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail. Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Background:
Welby Dardragon III comes from a long line of librarians. His earliest memories involve him sprawled out on the floor of a library looking at books. There was only one problem though: for Welby, learning did not come easily. When he would try to read and comprehend books, the letters would often appear mixed up. This made his childhood difficult, especially considering that his twin sister was somewhat of a genius. Much of his childhood days were spent working with his family, especially his sister Pameel, but he would often get the chance to roam the streets of Mosval. During these excursions, he found adventure. Meeting up with some young, human street rats, he soon joined their group. His time with them was limited due to working for his Father. He used the time he did have wisely though. He quickly became the group's best thief. With his new "profession", came a pension for luck and mischief. During the next couple of years of his life, he developed many skills that would be useful in the future. He finally gained confidence in himself. For once, he believed he was important. Where he had always lagged behind with books, the streets gave him an environment to excel. Life was finally improving for the young Halfling, he would suffer through his work at the library during the day knowing that his freedom would come for a few hours in the late afternoon and early evening. He began sneaking out of his house at night. Things took a major turn for the worse one fateful night. Welby had snuck out of his house and his sister had followed unbeknownst to him. Pameel trailed him from a distance as he a group of friends attempted to break into a rich miser's house, who (it was widely rumored) owned a magic ruby which he'd supposedly recovered from a shapeshifter ruin. During the attempt, the miser's guards were alerted, who in turn called for the City Guard. While Welby was in the house, taking apart the security devices built around the ruby (which was a stunning inch-long egg-shaped ruby of at least 450 carats), his friends started a skirmish with the guards. Though the handful of cohorts felled the two house guards, the city guardsman outnumbered and clubbed down the members of the gang. Welby had disarmed the last trap and was only moments away from picking the lock and taking the ruby when he finally realized that what he'd been hearing were the sounds of a skirmish. Peeking out, he realized that he was the only one still standing. As he started to try to run, his sister panicked and broke cover; the miser, who had been watching both Welby and the gang, was startled by her sudden movement and reflexively drew and threw a dagger. Hearing Pameel cry out his name, Welby turned in time to watch her fall, the dagger low in her back. Thoughts of escape fled from his head as, devastated, he went to her and held her; he was taken into custody immediately afterwards. Since nothing was taken, the most the judge could do was six months at hard labor; however, because of his sister's crippling, all of the members of the gang received the sentence. A gnome friend of his mother's, one of the city mages named Larissa Farview, was the one who placed the mystic convict's mark on Welby's forehead; the look of disappointment on the librarian-mage's face may have been the second key to breaking down the young halfling's defenses. Time spent in jail changed the young Halfling - time spent in jail and the interest of the miser into whose house he'd broken. As selfishness was slowly replaced by a desire to help others, the miser visited Welby with fair frequency, at first once a week, and eventually every couple of days. The miser - a lean, dark-skinned human named Khofi Tamman - turned out to be a retired 'archaeologist', or (as he put it) tomb raider. He told Welby of discovering and retrieving the 'egg', of probing the shapeshifter ruins, of how book-knowledge was vital to survival in those places. Khofi helped Welby with the dyslexia both of them shared, and though book-learning would never be easy for the young halfling, between the new reason for {i}having{/i} it and the help with pinning the letters in place, it became a workable project. Upon the completion of his sentence, and with the lack of the 'screw the world' attitude of his fellow gang members (many of whom would wind up in prison again, or as convict-workers for the Mosval Rangers), Welby was released; Larissa was pleased at his change of attitude, new direction, and increasing facility with reading. Unfortunately, his parents were not as pleased to see him. His sister, once a spry, cheerful young halfling dama, had been crippled from the waist down; she had turned into a sullen, morose individual who read voraciously but refused to do much more than that. Welby worked tirelessly with Pameel, wheeling her around both the library and up and down the slopes of the city streets, visiting places he'd learned of from his time in the gang - places where you could see things being done which they'd only read about before. On occasion, Khofi joined them during these excursions, and after several months of observing Pameel's refusal to be drawn out of her insular behavior, suggested Welby visit him - not at his home, but at his club (of which there are a handful in Mosval). The club was the headquarters of the local 'archaeologists' - those individuals whom the Ravennan Historical Preservation Society most often hired to go out and identify (and later explore) ruined locations of the past Ravennan Empires. There, Khofi suggested that what might be needful for Pameel was the same thing that Welby had discovered - for there to be a {i}need{/i} for her expertise. While she would be unable to go out into the field, if {i}Welby{/i} did, counting on the information she found for him to help him stay alive, she might emerge from her shell. Khofi had been planning just that sort of expedition, and asked Welby if he'd like to participate. Of course Welby said yes. Over the past few years, Welby has worked for, and finally become, a member of the Ravennan Historical Preservation Society, and a frequent rake at their bi-monthly soirées. Of late, he has found that the adventure and the cameraderie, the risk and the luck of the explorations has struck more than just the chord that has kept him involved and out of more petty trouble; he has managed to befriend a bird which Larissa Fairview (on one of her visits to his mother) identified as a thrush, quite like her own wizard's familiar. As she would speak to it, so Welby started casually chatting to his new brown-feathered friend, sometimes imagining it speaking back to him. It was only when the little thrush was injured by a sparrowhawk that Welby realized there might be something more going on; his heartfelt prayers for her healing, sent to the patron god he shared with the thrush, were answered, as the bleeding slowed and stopped before his eyes. In mere minutes, she was hopping around and chirping once again, and somewhere inside him he heard a laughter-filled voice murmur, "Well, that's good ..." He's still not sure what to make of it, but he's started taking lessons from the Temple, and jumped feet-first into the theology section, taking a crash-course in what all that might mean. |
