About Ziggurd HammerhandZiggurd Hammerhand
Hit Points 20
Apparition Attunement:
Current Primary Apparition Gryg, Steward of Stone and Fire Current Secondary Apparition Azakar, Impostor in Hidden Places Each day during your daily preparations, choose two apparitions from the list on page 12 to attune to. Of these, choose one to be your primary apparition. Your attuned apparitions each grant you knowledge in the form of Lore skills and a repertoire of additional spells you can cast using apparition spellcasting (see below), and your primary apparition grants you even further power in the form a unique vessel focus spell and, when you are higher level, a unique avatar form. When you Refocus (page 5), you can change which of your currently attuned apparitions is your primary apparition, selecting from any of the apparitions you attuned to during your daily preparations. All your apparitions typically remain attuned to you until your next daily preparations, but some animist abilities can temporarily disperse them, usually in exchange for a powerful boon. If an apparition is dispersed, you lose access to its gifts—you forget its apparition skills, its spells are removed from your apparition spell repertoire, and you cannot use its vessel spell or avatar form—until you attune to it again. When you disperse your primary apparition, your remaining apparition becomes your primary apparition.
Apparition's Possession ♦:
Frequency once per round. You relinquish control of your physical body to an apparition, allowing it to fully unleash its spiritual power at the cost of your own agency. Until the start of your next turn, you are immune to control effects and spells that attempt to influence your actions, such as charm or command, unless its spell rank is more than twice your level. However, the only actions you can take are to Stride, Strike, Cast an apparition Spell, Cast a vessel Spell, or use an action that has the apparition trait. Apparition Sense:
You can see and interact with things others can’t. You have apparition sight, an imprecise sense that allows you to detect the presence of invisible or hidden spirits, haunts, and undead within 30 feet of you. You can allow a spirit or undead otherwise incapable of speech to speak through you as long as you are in direct contact with it. You can act as a link between disembodied souls and their mortal bodies; as long as you are in contact with both a spirit and a living body that belonged to it in life, the spirit can use you to return to that body. This doesn’t allow you to bring the dead back to life, but can assist in restoring a disembodied soul to a still-living body. If the body is occupied by another spirit or soul, that entity must succeed at a Will save against your spell DC or be cast from the body when its original owner is returned. Apparition Spells:
Physical Description:
Ziggurd (or "Zig" to most people) is on the short side for a male dwarf, and broad-shouldered. His visible skin has traces of iron along it in thin bands like veins. His long auburn hair is pulled back in a messy braid. His beard isn't hair at all, but comprised of long, thin bands of iron that tinkle softly as he walks. His hands are completely covered in segmented metal plates. Backstory:
For most of his childhood, Ziggurd was known as “Agni.” His earliest memories are begging on the dark streets of the Spilldown in Stonebreach. Though he still carries his clan dagger, it offers no answers to his origins; the handle has no metal on it to denote his caste, and the dull amber gem on the pommel does not glow with an ancestor’s spirit. It is dark and lifeless, unlike all the other clan daggers of those he’s met--even other urchins like himself (those that even have a clan dagger). The only person who bothered to look after him was Thera Heartslip, local crime boss and owner of several lodging houses in the neighborhood. However, her intetentions were hardly philanthropic; Thera often uses the downtrodden to delve into the deadly, monster-infested Dying Range to scavenge for trinkets she can sell on the Night Market, and children are especially useful: they are small and nimble, and can fit into tight spaces. She was unkind, almost never referring to him by his name and simply calling him “girl,” a term under which he chafed. When he was a young adult, the group of scavengers he was with were chased into a narrow tunnel by an otyugh. As the tunnel narrowed further, they eventually became wedged, one by one. Only he was able to escape through the narrow gap and into a small cavern. With no other exits, he consigned himself to his fate. There, in the darkness of that cavern, he was discovered by an ancient earth spirit. When it discovered he could talk to it, the spirit offered to help him escape, but they had to hurry, because something big was coming--some planar event that the spirit worried would collapse the cavern and kill the young dwarf. The catch: he had to let the spirit take control of his body. With no other recourse and already feeling the ground begin to shift, he reluctantly agreed. The spirit used his latent magical powers to blast a hole in the rock wall, letting them escape to a larger cavern on the other side. As he crawled through, the rock wall erupted from a massive expulsion of planar energy. When he woke up, he had been transformed. Thin veins of iron crisscrossed his skin. Both his hands were merged with multiple segmented iron plates that he found he could shift the general shape of with a concentrated effort. But most importantly to him, he discovered that his bald face, which had been the source of much frustration and confusion, had suddenly sprouted a beard comprised of dozens of long iron bands. The spirit also gave him a new name, one that was more befitting: Ziggurd. The spirit, whose name was Gryg, helped guide Zig out of the tunnels of the Dying Range and back to the Spilldowns. There, he excitedly told Thera what happened. Far from being happy, she was terrified of his transformation, and furious he came back empty-handed. Worse, she called him crazy for talking about his “new friend” she couldn’t see. A shouting match ensued; angry and hurt, Zig stormed out and left Thera’s lodging house behind for good. Zig wandered for days, begging for change in the street, until someone requested the aid of a local priest of Trudd. The priest recognized the signs of spirit possession, and immediately called on the Rivethun to help. The leader of the Smoldering Court herself, Nenakari, came down to collect Zig. She brought him back to the Court in King’s Heart and began his training as an animist--a channeler of spirits. For twelve years he studied there, learning all the skills he required to be a healer and spirit talker. For his formal education, he would make regular pilgrimages with Nenakari to Tar-Kazmukh, to study under the tutelage of the Blue Warders there, who owed Nenakari a few favors. Zig made few friends, either at Tar-Kazmukh or at the Smoldering Court back in Highhelm. It isn’t that he’s abrasive or rude, but Zig has a tendency to focus heavily on something to the exclusion of everything else, a habit that has earned him an unfounded repution of being aloof. Of the few friends he’s made, however, he counts Rosha Coppervein as his closest. He even attended her wedding when she married into the Tolorr clan. Six months ago, after several years of meditation and counseling by elder Rivethun adherents and daily supplements, Zig finally underwent surgery to bring his physical body more in line with his soul. While the scars under his pectorals are noticeable, he does not hide them. They are a source of pride for him, a badge he has earned through hardship and learning. After his transition, Zig’s research at the Blue Warders’ library began to change from classwork to more personal matters. Two questions burned ever at the fore of Zig’s mind: what had caused his strange transformation from a regular dwarf into one bound partially in iron; and where did he come from? Who was his clan, his caste? And why did they abandon him as a toddler in the dark recesses of Stonebreach? To these questions, he found no answers. Rosha eventually encouraged him to speak with her new clan by marriage, the Tolorr. Eminant scholars all, masters of history and many esoteric topics, perhaps they could discover what he could not. With a letter of recommendation sent, Ziggurd now returns to Highhelm to speak with the elders of Clan Tolorr and hopefully gain access to their libraries and finally get answers to the burning question in his heart: Who is he? The Apparitions of Ziggurd Hammerhand
- Azakar, the Impostor in Hidden Places
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