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Chaotic Neutral adult male Gnome Bard 1
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Ability Scores Movement Rate 20 (size Small) Initiative Bonus 0 = DEX Mod 0 |
Hit Points 11 = 8 + (1 × CON Mod 2) + (1 × 1 Favored Class)
Fortitude Save 2 = Base 0 + CON Mod 2
Combat Maneuver Bonus -2 = BAB 0 + STR Mod -1 - 1 Size
Concentration Check Bonus 4 = CL 1 + CHA Mod 3 |
Bardic Abilities: Bardic Knowledge, Baric Performance (7 rounds per day of Inspire Courage +1, Countersong, Distraction, or Fascinate)
Feats: Effortless Trickery
Traits: Darkision 60', Gnome Magic, Illusion Resistance, Gnome Weapon Familiarity, Gift of Tongues, Obsessive Profession Fortune-Teller, Magical Lineage (Silent Image), Harrow Chosen, Harrowed (without Will Save boost)
Languages: Common, Gnome, Sylvan, Elven, Dwarven, Undercomon, Celestial
Magical Items: Metal Dragon Stud on armor (CL 5 Stone Shape once daily), 3 scrolls of Cause Fear, 3 scrolls of Cure Light Wounds, 3 scrolls of Sleep
Mundane Weapons: shortbow and quiver of 20 arrows, net, whip, rapier, dagger, sling and ten spongestones for ten doses of rainbow jellyfish toxin (owns gloves for safe use), brewed reek
Mundane Items: Gnome-kapenia, quality fortune-telling deck, masterwork studded leather armor, masterwork heavy bone shield, entertainer's outfit, Pathfinder's kit, cooking kit, shaving kit, winter blanket, two vials of holy water, a bit of fleece, patchwork cloak, board game
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Cantrips: (4 available at once) Detect Magic, Ghost Sound, Mending, Prestidigitation
Level One: (2 per day, DC 14 or 15 = 10 + CHA Mod 3 + Level 1 + 1 if Illusion) Saving Finale, Silent Image
Total Skill Ranks: 9 = 6 Bard + (1 × 3) INT Mod
Untrained skills: Disable Device, Handle Animal, Sleight of Hand, Use Magic Device
Veratile Performance: at second level will be able to substitute Perform (Sing) for Bluff and Sense Motive, at sixth level will be able to substitute Perform (Wind) for Diplomacy and Handle Animal
(Shayne normally puts down his shield when using STR or DEX skills to avoid the -1 penalty.)
Acrobatics 0 = DEX Mod 0 |
Linguistics 7 = INT Mod 3 + 1 Rank + 3 Class |
Five years ago...
"What do you mean, Hanjah?"
"Just what I said, father. I will be our clan's last fortuneteller. Yet I will also train an apprentice."
"Are you sure? How can that be?"
"Yes, I am sure. The message is clear and from our ancestors, not one of the confused portents from the echoes of Aroden."
"Perhaps our family will find a young orphan girl and adopt her? No, then she would become clan. I am confused, my daughter."
"I am too, father. But set aside being troubled."
Four years ago...
"The poor thing keeps moaning and thrashing. Is it having a nightmare? When will he wake? What are those words he is repeating?"
"I do not speak gnome, little one. Ah, here is Hanjah. The gnome remains delirious. What say your cards?"
"We must wake him. He is trapped in a terrible memory. Make him drink this broth."
"And the odd pillar of black smoke?"
"It is part of his past, not our future."
"Poor lad. We will give him what health and peace we can before dropping him off at a town."
"No, father. This is the one I will apprentice. The cards were clear."
"Him? You are joking."
"No, father. There have been male fortunetellers before. Rare, but true."
"But he is not human! Not Varisian!"
"Indeed. Yet did not notice the tattoo over his shoulder blade?"
"A wing?"
"Seven sevens, nested. The is the youngest of seven sons, as was his father, and his father's father, for seven generations. I do not know what more it means. But he is tied to his ancestors, as I am to ours. Perhaps he is a seer? Or he will be some day? Or merely a plaything of fate? In any case it is my destiny to train him. But you are right, he is not Varisian and will never be clan."
One year ago...
"What is this scarf, Hanjah?"
"Your kapenia, Shayne."
"A kapenia? But it has only sequins, not swirling lines of embroidery. And I am not Varisian!"
"Put the pieces of the puzzle together, my apprentice. Why do Varisians have kapenias?"
"They record the family tree."
"That answers what a kapenia is. Now answer my question. Why do we have them? Why does everyone in the clan keep theirs safely stored for weddings and funerals, except for me, and I always keep mine folded small and folded over my belt?"
"Because...you use yours daily and they do not? As the family fortuneteller you have a connection to your ancestors that they do not."
"Good. Keep going."
"Because...you need to be aware of your ancestors?"
"No. Quite the opposite. The kapenia helps my ancestors be aware of me."
"What?"
"It could perhaps be called magic, although a much older and different kind that your cantrip allows you to see. It is like a map that helps guide the ancestors to me. Without it the cards, coins, and bones would at best work much more slowly, and often not work at all."
"But this is only a scarf with sequins. How can it be a kapenia, then?"
"You family tree is lost. It has been four years; your amnesia may never heal. We only know that you escaped when your people's underground city was burned, and for a day you suffered a nightmare stupor mumbling about 'all aflame' and 'no eyes'. Perhaps your tattoo is a truer kapenia than this scarf, for you certainly have the power even without this scarf. But let these sequins represent your ancestors and other family even if we do not know how they connect. It is proper. It may even be magic."
"So it takes me longer to read the cards than you because my tattoo is a less detailed map for my ancestors than your kapenia?"
"You are quick, Shayne. Yes. But we speak in metaphor. Do not imagine spirits walking the lines of embroidered loops and whorls. They no longer have such spacial concerns."
"This gift still does not seem proper, Mistress. But if you say it is then I will accept it, wear it on my belt, and learn."
Three days ago before the campaign began...
Shayne could barely see the caravan from the mountain clearing. He had been sent by Hanjah to this spring's source to fill a jug with water for use for fortune-telling tea. Now he uncorked the jug and was surprised to find the cork hollowed out underneath with a message inside written on old paper in Hanja's spidery calligraphy.
"You are safe for today, Shayne," he read. "The spring water is a lie, a false errand to keep you away from the caravan until danger is past. Beasts have been sent to smell out and kill humans. I know no more about this enemy. It must not know about you.
"Feel no guilt about being the survivor, again. It is your destiny, seventh times seven. Stay loyal to your destiny. Learn from it. Serve it. It is your new Master, my old apprentice.
"You have noticed me quietly weeping sometimes, since we entered these mountains. I do not fear death. But this family will be no more. Each caravan that leaves without creating children-caravans is a great loss for my people.
"Remember that vengeance is a kind of slavery. Do not seek vengeance against today's enemy. Yet perhaps, some day, you will strike a key blow against one or more enemies of the Varisians. That would make me smile from afar.
"I have not warned my family. The cards forbade that, so doing it would only increase troubles and pains. The cards are clear so rarely. Never fight the cards when they are clear.
"The cards tell me one last thing that I share while trembling. I have one more lesson to teach you; bring my head to the nearest monastery.
"Wait a day high in the mountains. Then return to bury us as custom requires, with our kapenias and jewelry, at a crossroads if possible. You know these things. I write them needlessly because I do not want to stop writing. I have cared for you like a son. I have prayed, and pray again now, that after my death I would be allowed to watch over you despite not being of your ancestry, of your race.