About Zachris SwayneStatistics:
Male human sorcerer 1
NE Medium humanoid Init +8; Senses Perception +1 ------------------------------
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Melee unarmed strike +0 (1d3 nonlethal) Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; +0 melee touch; concentration +7) 7/day—corrupting touch (shaken, 1 round) Sorcerer Spells Known (+3 ranged touch, concentration +7) 1st (4/day)—charm person (DC 17), sleep (DC 15)
Bloodline Infernal ------------------------------
Gear Background:
Zachris Swayne (ZAH-kris SWAIN) has lived a difficult life. His parents were wealthy merchants before the rise of Mitra. They both perished while he was barely a teenager, his mother from disease and his father— driven to despair—by suicide shortly thereafter. Zachris did what he could to survive, mostly unskilled labor and petty crime, depending on the opportunities before him. He wandered from farm to village to city, living off the land and whatever work he could find. While he had a way with people and could usually talk his way into a job or out of a rough situation, luck never seemed to favor him, and he never managed to move beyond scraping a living from one day to the next. He eventually made his way back to the city of his birth. There, he took a job as a laborer in a merchant’s warehouse.
Not having a home, Zachris had made a habit of staying behind after the other workers left, bedding down in the warehouse overnight hidden among the crates, and slipping out into the working throng in the morning. One night there was a fire. Zachris awoke to choking smoke and crackling flames. As he attempted to escape, there was a weak cry for help. Peering through the smoke, Zachris saw his employer lying nearby at the foot of the stairs to his office, where he often worked late. He had fallen and injured his ankle and the flames were closing in. Instinct told him to go, but he feared that if the man survived he’d be condemned and hunted for abandoning his employer. Zachris went to him. The merchant was fat and difficult to move with his injured leg. During the struggle to rescue the man, a stack of burning crates collapsed, leaving Zachris battered and burned. As the flames seared him, something fierce and powerful roiled up from deep within him. With a burst of strength, Zachris pulled free from the rubble and hauled the heavy merchant with him, making it out onto the docks in front of several surprised watchmen and volunteers who had formed a bucket brigade. The merchant was recognized and taken to the temple for treatment. Zachris, his rescuer, was taken to a healer, but not given access to clerical magics. During his recuperation, Zachris had strange dreams: long forgotten incidents from his childhood and things from his ancestral past he couldn’t have possibly known. His family’s traditions, which included pacts with infernal beings in exchange for wealth and power, were made known to him. He began to exhibit sorcerous powers, minor magics that he learned to call up. Zachris hid his new gifts, worried about the implications of their origin. Eventually, the grateful merchant showed up to express his thanks. He paid for the healer’s services and took Zachris for some new clothes and a meal. He was given a new job as a foreman, and it finally seemed that his fortunes had changed for the better. In his spare time, Zachris practiced with his new magic, honing his abilities in secret. Then one evening after a long day’s work, the merchant took Zachris for a drink at a nearby tavern. Once he was well into his cups, the merchant spoke of his own rise in social position. He had once been a menial laborer like Zachris. However, when the Church of Mitra was in the midst of cleansing Talingarde of the influence of false gods, he took it upon himself to deal with a competitor of his employers. He traded information on their infernal dealings in exchange for a better position and income. His former employers were scandalized. While they were never convicted of blasphemy, they spent their fortune defending themselves, and the stigma of the accusation left them ostracized. As the story unfolded, Zachris realized that the people his employer had betrayed were his parents. Here was the man responsible for his fifteen years of hardship and struggle. Having tipped a few drinks back during their talk, Zachris formulated a plan that seemed easy enough. He used his newfound magic to charm the merchant and took him back to the warehouse where the fire happened. Once there, he put the man into enchanted slumber. Taking a crowbar, he staved in the sides of several newly arrived barrels of lamp oil. Then he moved to the door and awaited the moment when his spell wore off and the merchant awoke. At that instant, Zachris called forth a small spark, igniting the oil. The merchant died screaming. The fire spread rapidly and Zachris fled the scene. With the extra fuel from the oil, the blaze quickly spread out of control and destroyed the warehouse, the dock, and a ship that was unable to cast off its moorings in time to avoid the fire. An investigation eventually led to the capture of Zachris, who was charged with arson. Because of the great damage caused, he was sentenced and sent to Branderscarr, where he awaits his turn to burn. Physical Appearance:
Zachris is a hard-bitten and dangerous looking man. Life has not been kind to him and years of hard labor and toiling under the sun have taken their toll, leaving him looking leathery, worn, and older than his years. His aquiline features could be considered handsome, were it not for his weathering, scars from past incidents of violence, and the burns he suffered from the fire that was the catalyst for his sorcerous powers. He keeps his brown, prematurely graying hair long. Most striking are his piercing, blood-red eyes—another effect of his recently discovered bloodline—which make his hard gaze both captivating and fearsome. Personality:
Zachris Swayne is an angry, bitter man. He has lived a life of hardship because of what he sees as the unfair persecution of his parents. Now with the rise of his power, he sees the opportunity to take his rightful due. With no real moral compass, he is perfectly willing to cause undue pain and suffering to others to get what he wants, his twisted perception of justice molded by the wrongs that life has handed him.
Zachris secretly worries about the price of his newfound sorcery. Other than his dreams, he has no solid evidence as to what sorts of pacts were made by his family to secure their wealth and power. The very real possibility exists to him that he has a portion to pay— and that his very soul may be the price. Ironically, in his eyes the answer is to expand his power, allowing him to traffic with fiends so that he can find out more about his familial pacts and perhaps bargain for new arrangements. Zachris sees himself as a victim. He bemoans his fate when things go wrong, and he can always find a circumstance or person to blame other than himself for his misfortunes. After years of not knowing where—or when—his next meal would come from, Zachris has little in the way of table manners. He guzzles down food and drink with abandon, and will often furtively stuff his pockets and pouches with leftovers. |
