| Victor Spieles RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32 aka kid america |
Veddic, Master of the Codex:
Male half-elf stone golem wizard 7, fighter 2, expert - knowledge 3
For the last eight hundred years the whispered name of Veddic signals the coming of martial conflict where ever it’s heard. For eight centuries Veddic has made a reputation for himself, along with several lifetimes worth of fortunes, supplying arms, magic and mercenaries to half of the conflicts of Golarion. In many cases he has supplied arms to both sides. Besides being a global arms dealer, Veddic heads a shadowy organization called the Codex, which collects damaging and dark secrets about the powerful and wealthy.
Description:
Born a thousand years ago in the city of Katheer in Qadira, Veddic is the sole offspring of a wealthy human Keleshite caravan merchant, and his mother an elf of Kyonin. After his birth a member of his mother’s family left Veddic at the house of his father. His father embraced his half-elf sire and lavished special attention on Veddic over his nine human children. Veddic was educated by the finest scholars and wizards of Katheer, as while as being trained in the dervish fighting style. At the age of thirty Veddic set out to explore the world and experience all he had read about in his studies.
To protect his family from retribution, Veddic has never revealed his surname of Fadlan. The elves of his mother’s family refuse to acknowledge Veddic’s existence, or reveal the state or whereabouts of his mother.
Those granted an audience with Veddic are shocked to discover he is a six-foot tall muscularly sculpted male stone construct of polished black marble. When traveling for business, Veddic dons a black leather tunic and red cloak; otherwise he wears a simple red tunic. Veddic never carries a weapon, but he is also never without his personal guards. Those looking to slay him have destroyed several of his bodies over the centuries. Fortunately his guards have always managed to escape with Veddic’s head.
Veddic’s first construct body was built nine hundred years ago. Once a renowned mercenary leader, Veddic was mortally wounded and his half-elf body severely burned during a campaign against a foreign nation that called upon infernal assistance to win the battle. In order to live on in the hope of seeking revenge, Veddic had a stone golem body constructed to house his brain as his own body lay dying. With the aid of two powerful wizards he was able to transfer his living brain into his impressive and much more resilient new form.
To insure his continued existence Veddic has three bodies available to him at all times. The first body is the one his head sits upon. A second body is hidden in a safe house in Katapesh. While a third body resides in his private residence in Erehwon in Qadira.
Veddic’s body has one draw back; it requires a monthly infusion of a liquid alchemical mixture of sun orchid elixir, giant blood and amber. The mixture is solely for his brain, which is encased inside the removable stone head of his construct body. The alchemical mixture provides his brain the moisture and fluid it needs to function, while prolonging Veddic’s life. Since he no longer has a body of flesh to keep a live a single vial of sun orchid elixir distilled with the mixture prolongs the life of Veddic’s brain 2d8 years each year the sun orchid elixir is administered. Veddic brews this special chemical mixture once a month. When the mixture is complete its infused through a small opening in the right side of his head as he drains the old mixture out the left side. The alchemy process to create the mixture takes two hours. While the infusion and draining process takes an hour.
Veddic can go up to two months without a new infusion. During the second month though all of his ability scores and saves suffer a -2 penalty. After two months Veddic can will his brain into a protective state of hibernation until it receives a new infusion. At that point his brain begins to age at the normal rate of a half-elf.
Motivations/Goals:
Veddic is an intellectual genius and scholar, using the profits from his arms sales to indulge in collecting rare tomes and scrolls to quench his thirst for knowledge. His personal motivations come out of his studies of the recorded histories of man and human conflict. Where scholars are content with pondering theories, Veddic has set out to put those theories and his own to the test in the real world. Since he is neither human nor elf he feels no guilt about what he does.
A side benefit of promoting human conflict is an ever-available market for arms sales. One thing Veddic has theorized this past eight hundred years is that humans are at their core power hungry, greedy, violent and prone to conflict.
The other thing Veddic theorizes is half-elves are the superior evolution of the human race. Since that time Veddic has gathered around him wandering and disenchanted half-elves from across Golarion. Veddic has even established a secret city of half-elves named Erehwon in a hidden valley of Qadira. Veddic periodically espouses his philosophies to the half-elf citizens of Erewhon then sits back and waits. Those who embrace his philosophies and willingly approach him are trained as his personal guard and Codex agents. No one except half-elves are allowed in the valley, and all trade is conducted in Katheer.
Veddic feels at some point in the future humanity may wipe itself out and the half-elves will be ready to step in to fill that void.
Roughly one hundred and thirty years ago two events occurred that effected Veddic’s life. First Veddic accidentally crossed paths with the original outcast of Hermea, rescuing the lone man adrift at sea in a small storm wracked ship. The man and the beliefs of Mengkare and Hermea fascinated Veddic, though he finds them completely foolish and unattainable. Shortly after releasing the Hermean outcast Codex agents came into possession of a scroll stolen from an enemy of Veddic. The scroll penned and sealed by Aroden, now hidden in Veddic’s personal library in Erehwon, foretells Veddic’s death. Furthermore the scroll describes the passing of Mengkare as well, suggesting their deaths are linked. At this point Veddic’s motivation for staying alive is to fulfill the scroll’s prophecy.
Schemes/Plots:
Manipulation is the key to Veddic’s success. Besides profiting from arms deals, Veddic delights in offering aid to those who seek him out, in exchange for owing him a favor at a later date.
Veddic travels with the Codex, three magically warded tomes housed in an ornately carved chest. The Codex meticulously records three different sets of information. The first tome records in detail all of Veddic’s arms deals including where and whom he purchased arms, magic and hired mercenaries from; and who, where and why they were sold, traded or contracted to. The second tome contains the dark secrets of rulers, merchants, families and individuals of renown from across. The third tome records the favors of Veddic. Each entry contains the person’s name, location and profession along with the service Veddic provided them. The entry also records whether a favor is still owed to him, or the form of the favor Veddic collected from the individual.
Veddic uses the information contained in the Codex, bribery and personal favors to move unseen between the nations of Golarion.
Adventure Hooks:
1. Veddic loves scrappiness and overcoming the odds. One of his favorite things to do is start a small conflict by selling arms to one side. To the other side he leaves clues about the location of a magical object he’s hidden that can stop the invaders. Then Veddic sits back and waits to see who will prevail.
2. Veddic is involved with the disappearance of all the members of House Rogarvia in Brevoy. He was paid handsomely by the Surtovas to make this happen without any direct connection to them. Thus allowing the Surtovas to consolidate their grip on the throne.
3. Veddic and agents of the Codex are currently working behind the scenes to accelerate the collapse of Taldor. He feels the nation has run its course like all human nations do. Veddic is providing arms, magic and mercenaries to a half dozen noble houses looking to claim the throne for themselves. Unbeknownst to them Veddic also has a secret arrangement with the Satrap of Qadira to destabilize the region for possible Qadiran expansion.
4. Since the death of his mortal body Veddic has despised all things infernal. He feels infernal aid in conflicts upsets the natural human balance of Golarion. That hatred has brought Veddic and the Codex into a shadow war with agents of Cheliax, Isger and Nidal. During the last thirty years he has worked to keep their infernal powers in check. There is the possibility of him hiring player characters to thwart a plot involving Cheliax.
| Charles Evans 25 |
Having finished with the Round 3 entries now, I have time for a look over this....
Seems tighter, but there are still incongruities here and there. With regard to the lead in to the tomes, to acknowledge that you refer to different things with the name 'Codex', I would have liked to see you run the sentence 'The Codex is not just the name of Veddic's organisation, but of a collection of three tomes with which he travels...' before the description of the books.
The entry hops around, back and forth between the stages of his life a bit, which is like having flash backs or flash forwards in a film, and can read as being a bit disjointed instead of flowing smoothly from explorer to mercenary leader to arms dealer.
If Veddic knows that he is mentioned with Mengkare dying in a scroll penned by Aroden, why does that motivate him to stay alive? Surely seeing his theories proved regarding the eventual replacement of the human race by half elves are the things which motivate him day to day? The prophecy of his death being caught up with Mengkare's would intrigue him, and could mean (out of self-interest) he tries to keep Mengkare alive, although keeping it simple and simply saying that the subject of Mengkare and Hermea intrigue him as a result of the scroll (and maybe also the fallibility of prophecies since the demise of Aroden intrigue him?) would be cleaner and easier to handle.
As a footnote, in case it is of interest to you, on Page 198 of the Campaign Setting an organisation called 'The Harbringers' is mentioned who are desperate to 'put the world right by fulfilling prophecies'. If Veddic & Mengkare going out together is on their list, then that could put them on a cllision course with the Master of the Infinite Codex.... :D
| Eric Morton RPG Superstar 2009 Top 16, 2012 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka Epic Meepo |
Well, I said I'd give this a read-through a few weeks back, so here I am.
I agree with the above post that this seems tighter, and I'm also pleased to see that you've explained further about the way in which Veddic survives when his body is destroyed. Though I have to wonder if Veddic is actually a stone golem at all. The stone golem just seems to be a perch for Veddic, whose actual race is half-elf (disembodied brain).
I'm not sure that the whole family history really adds that much to Veddic, so you might consider cutting that back to a shorter summary. You might also want to say more about Veddic's feelings towards elves. There's a lot of talk about his thoughts on humans and half-elves, but he seems to spare less time thinking about full-blooded elves. How do they factor into his philosophy of half-elven superiority?
| Charles Evans 25 |
I just arrived at Chapter 4 of the Campaign Setting Book in my read-through, and as soon as I got on to the Aspis Consortium, and the 'patrons', I thought of Veddic.
It seems to me that Veddic could fit right in as one of the unidentified patrons of the Aspis Consortium, and I would recommend looking at Veddic to anyone thinking of making heavy use of the Aspis Consortium in a game.
| Victor Spieles RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32 aka kid america |
When you've been alive for a thousand years and come across a document that specifically mentions you by name and your destiny, it may motivate you to stay alive. It may also motivate you to see if you can control and manipulate that destiny to your own gain.
The idea of having a predisposed destiny poses a huge philosophical conundrum to a man used to controlling and shaping the destinies and fortunes of individuals and nations. Does a man control his own destiny, or is his destiny preordained and beyond his control? The ultimate quandary for a philosopher like Veddic to ponder
The Harbingers of Fate and the Aspis Consortium are both interesting groups.
The Harbingers of Fare though are short sighted and well meaning to Veddic. They are trying to bring about and fulfill the prophesies of others for the greater good and promised Age of Glory. Its hard to make money in times of peace and tranquility when you're an arms dealer and blackmailer.
The Aspis Consortium is a definite rival to The Master of the Codex. Like any group though they suffer though from bureaucracy, infighting and individual self interests. Why share power when you can be the sole power. Veddic also believes in letting your rivals do the heavy work, then sweeping in to collect the ill gained profits right out from under them.
I'm also sure Veddic has very definite opinions on the elves. But at what point do I go from posts and replies to a novel or adventure. I wanted to create a character that left room for the DM/GM to add to and make their own. I also wanted Veddic to be flexible enough to insert in a variety of settings at any point. I'm a fan of reoccurring villains versus one shot bosses. That way when you do defeat them/slay them the emotional reward is much bigger.
Thanks for the feed back. It's much appreciated.