Zhikkan Copperkettle's page

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Weapon and armour proficiency

Investigators are proficient with simple weapons, plus the hand crossbow, rapier, sap, shortbow, short sword, and sword cane. They are proficient in light armours, but not shields.
Swashbucklers are proficient with simple and martial weapons, as well as light armour and bucklers.

Alchemy (Su)

Investigators are highly trained in the creation of mundane alchemical substances and magical potion-like extracts.

When using Craft (alchemy) to create an alchemical item, an investigator gains a competence bonus equal to his class level on the skill check. In addition, an investigator can use Craft (alchemy) to identify potions as if using detect magic. He must hold the potion for 1 round to attempt such a check.

Like an alchemist, an investigator prepares his spells by mixing ingredients and a tiny fraction of his own magical power into a number of extracts, and then effectively casts the spell by drinking the extract. These extracts have powerful effects, but they are also bound to their creator. Extracts behave like spells in potion form, and as such their effects can be dispelled by dispel magic and similar effects, using the investigator’s level as the caster level.

An investigator can create only a certain number of extracts of each level per day. His base daily allotment of extracts per day is given on Table: Investigator. In addition, he receives bonus extracts per day if he has a high Intelligence score, in the same way a wizard receives bonus spells per day.

When an investigator mixes an extract, he infuses the chemicals and reagents in the extract with magic siphoned from his own magical aura. An extract immediately becomes inert if it leaves the investigator’s possession, reactivating as soon as it returns to his keeping—an investigator cannot normally pass out his extracts for allies to use. An extract, once created, remains potent for 1 day before losing its magic, so an investigator must reprepare his extracts every day. Mixing an extract takes 1 minute of work.

Creating extracts consumes raw material, but the cost of those materials is insignificant—comparable to the valueless material components of most spells. If a spell normally has a costly material component, that component is expended during the consumption of that particular extract. Extracts cannot be made from spells that have focus requirements; extracts that duplicate divine spells never have a divine focus requirement.

An investigator uses the alchemist formulae list to determine the extracts he can know. An investigator can prepare an extract of any formulae he knows. To learn or use an extract, an investigator must have at least an Intelligence score equal to 10 + the extract’s level. The saving throw DC for an investigator’s extract is equal to 10 + the extract’s level + the investigator’ Intelligence modifier.

An investigator may know any number of formulae. He stores his formulae in a special tome called a formula book. He must refer to this book whenever he prepares an extract. At 1st level, an investigator starts with two 1st-level formulae of his choice, plus a number of additional formulae equal to his Intelligence modifier. At each new investigator level, he gains one new formula for any level that he can create. An investigator can also add formulae to his book just like a wizard adds spells to his spellbook, using the same costs, pages, and time requirements. A formula book costs as much as a spellbook. An investigator can study a wizard’s spellbook to learn any formula that is equivalent to a spell the spellbook contains. A wizard, however, cannot learn spells from a formula book. An investigator can also learn formulae from another investigator’s or an alchemist’s formula book (and vice versa). An investigator does not need to decipher arcane writing before copying that formulae.

Inspiration (Ex)

An investigator is beyond knowledgeable and skilled—he also possesses keen powers of observation and deduction that far surpass the abilities of others. An investigator typically uses these powers to aid in their investigations, but can also use these flashes of inspiration in other situations.

An investigator has the ability to augment skill checks and ability checks through his brilliant inspiration. The investigator has an inspiration pool equal to 1/2 his investigator level + his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). An investigator’s inspiration pool refreshes each day, typically after he gets a restful night’s sleep. As a free action, he can expend one use of inspiration from his pool to add 1d6 to the result of that check, including any on which he takes 10 or 20. This choice is made after the check is rolled and before the results are revealed. An investigator can only use inspiration once per check or roll. The investigator can use inspiration on any Knowledge, Linguistics, or Spellcraft checks without expending a use of inspiration, provided he’s trained in the skill.

Inspiration can also be used on attack rolls and saving throws, at the cost of expending two uses of inspiration each time from the investigator’s pool. In the case of saving throws, using inspiration is an immediate action rather than a free action.

Trapfinding

An investigator adds 1/2 his level to Perception skill checks made to locate traps and to Disable Device checks (minimum 1). An investigator can use Disable Device to disarm magical traps.

Lamplighter (Su)

At 1st level, a lamplighter can take a move action to create a small flame that immediately ignites a lamp, torch, or similar flammable item he’s holding.

Alchemical illumination (Sp)

At 2nd level, as a standard action, a lamplighter can cast certain light spells by burning a magic extract, infusion, or potion of a spell of the same or greater level than the light spell in a lit lantern or torch. If the spell has a range of touch, the lantern or torch counts as the object touched. The spell’s DC, if any, equals 10 + spell level + the lamplighter’s Intelligence modifier.

At 2nd level, the lamplighter can cast light and continual flame (24 hour duration).

At 5th level, the lamplighter can cast daylight and discovery torch.

At 8th level, the lamplighter can cast searing light.

At 11th level, the lamplighter can cast judgement light. The lamplighter need not have an active judgement to cast this spell, can choose what colour of judgement light is created, can use his alignment for golden light, and can select any element for copper light.

This ability replaces poison lore, poison resistance, and poison immunity.

Ready for the revelation (Ex)

At 3rd level, a lamplighter can use inspiration on initiative checks without spending a use of inspiration. He can use his Intelligence modifier in place of his Dexterity modifier on initiative checks. At 6th level, if the lamplighter has Quick Draw, he can draw a weapon as part of his initiative check. At 9th level, the lamplighter isn’t flat-footed before he acts in the first round of combat. At 12th level, the lamplighter adds his Intelligence bonus as well as his Dexterity bonus to initiative checks. At 15th level, the lamplighter can act last during the surprise round even if he is otherwise unaware combat has started. At 18th level, the lamplighter is not limited to just a move or standard action during the surprise round—he can act normally.

This ability replaces keen recollection and trap sense.

Investigator talent (Ex) or (Su)

At 3rd level and every 2 levels thereafter, an investigator gains an investigator talent. Except where otherwise noted, each investigator talent can only be selected once.

Investigator talents marked with an asterisk (*) add effects to an investigator’s studied combat or studied strike. Only one of these talents can be applied to an individual attack, but the decision can be made when the damage is dealt.

Alcemist discovery (Ex): Infusion

When the investigator creates an extract, he can infuse it with an extra bit of his own magical power. The extract created now persists even after the investigator sets it down. As long as the extract exists, it continues to occupy one of the investigator’s daily extract slots. An infused extract can be imbibed by a non-investigator to gain its effects.

Expanded inspiration (Ex)

An investigator can use his inspiration ability when attempting Diplomacy, Heal, Perception, Profession, and Sense Motive checks without expending uses of inspiration, provided he’s trained in the skill.

Studied combat (Ex)

With a keen eye and calculating mind, an investigator can assess the mettle of his opponent to take advantage of gaps in talent and training. At 4th level, an investigator can use a move action to study a single enemy that he can see. Upon doing so, he adds 1/2 his investigator level as an insight bonus on melee attack rolls and as a bonus on damage rolls against the creature. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1) or until he deals damage with a studied strike, whichever comes first. The bonus on damage rolls is precision damage, and is not multiplied on a critical hit.

An investigator can only have one target of studied combat at a time, and once a creature has become the target of an investigator’s studied combat, he cannot become the target of the same investigator’s studied combat again for 24 hours unless the investigator expends one use of inspiration when taking the move action to use this ability.

Studied strike (Ex)

At 4th level, an investigator can choose to make a studied strike against the target of his studied combat as a free action, upon successfully hitting his studied target with a melee attack, to deal additional damage. The damage is 1d6 at 4th level, and increases by 1d6 for every 2 levels thereafter (to a maximum of 9d6 at 20th level). The damage of studied strike is precision damage and is not multiplied on a critical hit; creatures that are immune to sneak attacks are also immune to studied strike.

If the investigator’s attack used a weapon that deals nonlethal damage (like a sap, whip, or an unarmed strike), he may choose to have the additional damage from studied strike be nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage. If the investigator chose to make an attack with a lethal weapon instead deal nonlethal damage (with the usual –4 penalty), the studied strike damage may also deal nonlethal damage.

The investigator must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot. An investigator cannot use studied strike against a creature with concealment.

Swift alchemy (Ex)

At 4th level, an investigator can create alchemical items with astounding speed. It takes an investigator half the normal amount of time to create alchemical items. He can also apply poison to a weapon as a move action instead of a standard action.

Inspired panache (Ex)

More than just a lightly armoured warrior, a swashbuckler is a daring combatant. He fights
with panache: a fluctuating measure of a swashbuckler’s ability to perform amazing actions in combat. Each day, an inspired blade gains a number of panache points equal to his Charisma modifier (minimum 1) plus his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1), instead of just his Charisma modifier. His panache goes up or down throughout the day, but usually cannot go higher than his Charisma modifier (minimum 1) plus his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1), though feats and magic items can affect this maximum. A swashbuckler spends panache to accomplish deeds (see below), and regains panache in the following ways.

Critical Hit with a Rapier: Each time the swashbuckler confirms a critical hit with a rapier, he regains 1 panache point. Confirming a critical hit on a helpless or unaware creature or a creature that has fewer Hit Dice than half the swashbuckler’s character level doesn’t restore panache.

Unlike other swashbucklers, an inspired blade regains no panache from scoring a killing blow. He regains panache only from scoring a critical hit with a rapier.

This ability alters the panache class feature.

Deeds

Swashbucklers spend panache points to accomplish deeds. Most deeds grant the swashbuckler a momentary bonus or effect, but some provide longer-lasting effects. Some deeds remain in effect while the swashbuckler has at least 1 panache point, but do not require expending panache to be maintained. A swashbuckler can only perform deeds of his level or lower. Unless otherwise noted, a deed can be performed multiple successive times, as long as the swashbuckler has or spends the required number of panache points to perform the deed.

Derring-Do (Ex)

At 1st level, a swashbuckler can spend 1 panache point when he makes an Acrobatics, Climb, Escape Artist, Fly, Ride, or Swim check to roll 1d6 and add the result to the check. He can do this after she makes the check but before the result is revealed. If the result of the d6 roll is a natural 6, he rolls another 1d6 and adds it to the check. He can continue to do this as long as he rolls natural 6s, up to a number of times equal to her Dexterity modifier (minimum 1).

Dodging Panache (Ex)

At 1st level, when an opponent attempts a melee attack against the swashbuckler, the swashbuckler can as an immediate action spend 1 panache point to move 5 feet; doing so grants the swashbuckler a dodge bonus to AC equal to his Charisma modifier (minimum 0) against the triggering attack. This movement doesn’t negate the attack, which is still resolved as if the swashbuckler had not moved from the original square. This movement is not a 5-foot step; it provokes attacks of opportunity from creatures other than the one who triggered this deed. The swashbuckler can only perform this deed while wearing light or no armour, and while carrying no heavier than a light load.

Opportune Parry and Riposte (Ex)

At 1st level, when an opponent makes a melee attack against the swashbuckler, he can spend 1 panache point and expend a use of an attack of opportunity to attempt to parry that attack. The swashbuckler makes an attack roll as if he were making an attack of opportunity; for each size category the attacking creature is larger than the swashbuckler, the swashbuckler takes a –2 penalty on this roll. If his result is greater than the attacking creature’s result, the creature’s attack automatically misses. The swashbuckler must declare the use of this ability after the creature’s attack is announced, but before its attack is made.

Upon performing a successful parry and if he has at least 1 panache point, the swashbuckler can as an immediate action make an attack against the creature whose attack he parried, provided that creature is within his reach. This deed’s cost cannot be reduced by any ability or effect that reduces the number of panache points a deed costs.

Inspired finesse (Ex)

At 1st level, an inspired blade gains Weapon Focus (rapier) as a bonus feat. With Elephant in the Room he gains Deft Manoeuvres in place of Weapon Finesse.

This ability replaces swashbuckler finesse.

Charmed life (Ex)

At 2nd level, the swashbuckler gains a knack for getting out of trouble. Three times per day as an immediate action before attempting a saving throw, he can add his Charisma modifier to the result of the save. He must choose to do this before the roll is made. At 6th level and every 4 levels thereafter, the number of times he can do this per day increases by one (to a maximum of 7 times per day at 18th level).

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Ability score modifiers: Ratfolk are agile and clever, yet physically weak. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, and –2 Strength.
Type: Ratfolk are humanoids with the ratfolk subtype.
Size: Ratfolk are Small and thus gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty on combat manoeuvre checks and to their CMD, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
Base speed: Ratfolk have a base speed of 30 feet. Increased from 20 feet due to surface sprinter.
Languages: Ratfolk begin play speaking Common. Ratfolk with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following languages: Aklo, Draconic, Dwarven, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling, Orc, and Undercommon.
Tinker: Ratfolk gain a +2 racial bonus on Craft (alchemy), Perception, and Use Magic Device checks.
Surface sprinter: Some ratfolk spend as much time as they can aboveground and become very fast runners. This comes at the cost of their night vision, which becomes less acute after years of sunlight. These ratfolk gain low-light vision and have a base speed of 30 feet. This racial trait replaces darkvision and slow speed.
Cleanliness: Ratfolk strive to keep themselves and each other immaculately clean, to make it difficult for disease to spread. A ratfolk with this racial trait gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against disease, and whenever she exceeds the save DC to recover from a disease effect by 5 or more, she is treated as though she had succeeded at two consecutive saving throws. This racial trait replaces rodent empathy.
Cheek pouches: Some ratfolk have developed stretchy cheek pouches that they can use to hold and carry small loads up to 1 cubic foot in volume and 10 pounds in weight, such as light weapons, potions, scrolls, and similar objects. Such a ratfolk can transfer a held object to his cheek pouches or extract an object from his cheek pouches as a swift action. As a move action that provokes an attack of opportunity, the ratfolk can instead massage all of the items held in the cheek pouches onto the ground in the square it occupies. As long as the ratfolk has at least one object in its cheek pouches, its speech is difficult to understand, and it has a 20% spell failure chance when casting spells with verbal components. This racial trait replaces swarming.
Low-light vision: Ratfolk can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light. Changed from darkvision due to surface sprinter.

Tall and rangy, at least as far as ratfolk go, Zhikkan is all fast-twitch muscles and nervous energy that he keeps in check via a logical mind and the ancestral pipe that is regularly clamped between his teeth. Warm brown fur is garbed in loose fitting clothing in neutral colours. Follow the whiskered snout back from the pink nose and inquisitive black eyes meet your own, taking your measure. Look to the side and you’ll see numerous chunky hoops of copper that adorn his right ear. His left ear is partially covered, along with that side of his scalp, by a crimson bandana, a rare splash of colour. The covering hides charcoal finger marks, scars that appear to have singed the places they touched, where fur no longer grows. His look is finished off by the rapier at his hip, marking him as a competent swordsman, and a long all-weather hooded cloak.

Zhikkan surveys the embassy, slightly on edge. It all seems fine on the surface but something about the place feels a little off and the fingers of one paw instinctively reach for the symbol at his throat. He looks the woman who has greeted him up and down, deciding she is most likely a clerk rather than an envoy or ambassador before reading through the proffered form.

“These are good questions, Maebrizia,” the ratfolk says with a low bow and using one of his people’s terms of earned respect for the Nidalese woman. “But I am finding the order of them to be strange. You are asking what I am fearing but the answer is devoid of context. And I am thinking some of these are leading questions, pointing towards the assignment. It would be better to give a complete answer so a true judgement can be made, yes?”

The bored expression on the woman’s face suggests that she would rather not be subjected to an extended monologue, but whether through good breeding or simple decorum she says nothing.

Taking the silence as assent, the ratfolk begins. “What you need to be understanding about me is there is before Nightjar House and there is after. Before is easy. I am a Copperkettle, one of half a dozen significant offshoots from the famed Coppersands clan of Katapesh. That is meaning we are tinkers and tinkerers, the family caravan is rolling from Brinewall to Korvosa and all places between, just as sure as the seasons are turning. And of course if you are knowing the Copperkettles, you are knowing that could be describing many dozens of us.”

“About Zhikkan personally?” He holds up a pink paw, the short claws clean and manicured, and starts ticking off items on his fingers as he makes each point. “I am being the third of eleven children, the eldest son. I am learning my blade arts from a sword-dancer here in Magnimar and the rudiments of natural history and alchemy from an ancient gnome in Sipplerose. I am being briefly promised to a girl in Riddleport until they are discovering I have no “sea legs” - you are knowing this expression, yes? - and her family is ending it to prevent such an embarrassment. And I am having quite the nose for coffee, though I am trying to cut down so my whiskers are less twitching.” The ratfolk grins toothily. “Which is all leading onto Nightjar House,” he says with a sigh, as he adds his little finger to the other four.

“Do you mind?” he asks, pulling out a well-used pipe from a pocket. Trying to cover a look of… surprise? distaste? the well-dressed woman nods her assent, and Zhikkan lights it before taking a long draw.

“This is being a strange tale. Even now I having few real answers regarding it. I am having theories of course, but I am not really sure where it was, or what it was, or even how I am getting to be there. One moment I am sitting in a tavern in Wartle, the next I am being inside a strange, gloom-filled manor house. At the time I am not knowing there is no way out or how long I would be trapped inside. What I am telling you for certain is that it was a waking nightmare.” The haunted look in his eyes speaks to the truth of his words.

“Nightjar House, as I am discovering it was called, has no doors. The windows are not opening and are being impervious to any attempts to break them. Believe me, Maebrizia, I am looking and I am trying. My explorations are showing me a sizeable mansion: two floors, plus an attic and a basement. They are also showing me that I was alone. I am living with an underlying sense of dread, as if the house could be doing me harm if it is choosing to, it is not seeming to have any other occupants. On this last point, I am soon finding out I was sorely mistaken.”

“When night is falling - I am using the term that is best describing it, as time in the house was… strange and the lighting was ranging only from a dingy gloaming to a deeper darkness - that was when the shadows are coming out. Creatures that are seeming to be made of shadowstuff they were, both solid and insubstantial at the same time. Steel could not cut them but they could hurt me; this is rather tilting the balance in their favour. So I am running and running and hiding until the darkness is dispersing a little and the shadows are slinking away. Exhausted, I am collapsing into a fretful sleep. The next day I am continuing my search: for a way out of my mysterious prison, and when I am not finding one, for information about where I was, which was being an equally thankless task. Then night is coming and the chase is starting all over again.”

“Running and hiding. Hiding and running. It was being a game of, well, cat and mouse.” Zhikkan smiles tightly. “That was being my existence, exhaustedly clinging on to survival one day at a time as the pattern is playing out time and again. This is going on for what I am later discovering was a number of weeks, even as the cycles within Nightjar House are keeping to their own strange rhythm. How I am getting out is more than a little hazy too. I am thinking that I am getting out through the chimney. I am having a memory of endless climbing up a narrow chute, not knowing whether the end is being blocked, and intensely aware that if one of the shadow-beasts is pursuing me in there, it is being the end of me.”

“That is the last thing I am remembering until I am being found cowering in a chapel in the Temple of Sarenrae in Korvosa. More than half-crazed I am being, not sleeping for three days, but alive and free, I am allowing myself to collapse into their care. And there they are nursing me back to health; not so much physical ailments but balm for the mind and soul. I cannot be finding fault with the care of the Dawnflower’s priesthood, but nobody is giving me any answers about Nightjar House, a place that nobody is hearing of, or explaining. Given my condition when I am arriving and the strangeness of my tale, even as I am becaming more lucid, I was feeling that some of them were taking the story as the ravings of a madman.”

However disinterested the woman may initially have been, by now she has fully bought into the narrative. She purses her lips, weighing something up before she asking, “Is it possible that the whole thing took place in your head? Powerful magics and living nightmares can do such things and inflict real mental scars.”

“Believe me, the thought is occurring to me,” the ratman replies with a grim look. “More than once. However-” Zhikkan glances nervously around the room. Satisfied that the pair are alone, he carefully unties the deep red bandana that covers the left-hand side of his crown. He dips his head low revealing an inky black mark that is unmistakably the tapering fingers of a handprint standing out starkly on his soft brown fur.

He lets the silence hang for a moment; the proof self-evident.

“Did it… does it hurt?” the woman asks almost before she can help herself.

The ghost of a smile crosses Zhikkan’s lips. “Yes, and mostly no. It was like the burning of something incredibly cold. It is normally feeling fine but sometimes I am feeling it when I am being particularly restless or anxious so I think there is being a psychosomatic - you know this word, yes? - element to it. Which is probably not being a surprise. I am not knowing if it was the touch of the creature touch or of being in the House or the cumulative effects of the gloom, but I am also since discovering that I can no longer see in the dark.” In a voice little more than a whisper he adds, “I am being changed in many ways.”

He stands for a minute, silently smoking until the woman coughs, shaking the ratfolk out of whatever haunted daydream he is reliving.

“It is taking us - that is being me and Most Radiant Flame Ambriel, who is nursing me in the temple and who I am owing my life to many times - over a year of delving in dusty crypts, hunting in chambers of knowledge, and trekking all over Varisia an beyond, but eventually we are finding Nightjar. Maebrizia, we are finding it and we are burning it until it is no more.” The conviction in his voice as he says this conveys an inner steel and a sense of righteousness that gives a glimpse of his personality. “We are ensuring that it is not hurting anyone else the way that it is hurting me.

“So yes,” he whispers, barely audible, “the answer is being yes.”

“The answer to what is “Yes”?” the woman asks, her scars standing out white on her skin.

Zhikkan waves the paper, bouncing slowly from one foot to the other. “You are asking me, a long time ago now, what I am fearing. I am answering that I am still being afraid of the shadows. It is why I am always taking the light into places of darkness.” The ratman clutches at the holy symbol around his neck, looking up and offering a silent prayer to the Dawnflower. “It is why I am doing what I am doing. After everything we are going through together, Ambriel and me are being partners, a team.” He wrinkles his whiskered nose. “I am not finding the right word but you are understanding that we are sharing a deep bond, yes?”

Assuming that she does indeed understand, he continues. “Nightjar House is being no more but there are always being other evil places. There are always being malevolent forces that are wanting to be damaging or controlling or subjugating others. And there are always being people needing help. Some of those are being your “highborn and noble individuals”, many are not.” He shrugs his slim shoulders. “If someone is asking for help and I am able to be helping them then that is what I am doing. I am not being able to go back to the Copperkettle caravan and be acting how things were before. They are just being too different. I am being too different.”

He scans the paperwork again. “You are wanting to know about my credentials? You are hearing of the affair at the Greyfeather Institute, yes? The school of magic and observatory in the Mushfens and the vanishing of many girls in their care - it was being a big scandal a few months ago. Ambriel and me are solving it and finding the missing girls.” His voice drops and he bows his head. “Not all of them are being found alive, may the Everlight be guiding them.”

“We are also killing the Wight-Queen in the barrows on Bleaklow Moor and we are recovering the Emerald of K’Dinn after it is being stolen. We are also taking down a number of Steelwhiskers agents.” There is a hardness in his eye as he says this. “They are giving ratfolk a bad name - this one is being personal.”

“Petru Mindurian - he is being a nobleman of that house - his daughter was studying at the Greyfeather Institute. I am being sure he would be vouching for me. Ambriel too, of course, though you are wondering she is, yes?” The ratman seems to deflate just a little. “She is being called away on church business. I am missing her,” he confesses. “It is why I am being here though - I am wanting to be keeping busy and I am thinking I can be helping you. Ambriel would be missing me too,” he adds. “My family also. As I am telling you before, there are many, many Copperkettles. But my little sister Lessi, her and her husband are settling here in Magnimar and they would be missing me more than most.”

Zhikkan looks again at the paperwork and a smile slowly spreads on his furry face. “I am finding that I am answering the questions in this order anyway. My apologies to your High Lady Tibrose - there is being wisdom and logic that I am not initially seeing.” His tale now told, he pulls a pen out of his backpack and quickly begins to scribble down a response to the questions. A flicker of distaste crosses his face at the need for blood, but he methodically pricks his finger, dotting it on the vellum, before signing his name and then inking his paw and pressing it firmly down to leave a print for good measure.

He passes the completed form back to the woman. “You are having your answers, Maebrizia, but I am still thinking they are making much more sense with the full story, yes? A tindertwig is being useful but it is being much more useful when you are lighting a torch.” With that, the ratfolk bows once again before being escorted out of the embassy.