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| ARIOS CR 12 Male wild elf Cleric 5 (Firlott)/Divine Oracle 8 NG Medium humanoid (elf) Init +2; Senses low-light vision, Search for secret or hidden doors within 5 ft; Listen +7, Spot +7 Languages Elven, Common, Sylvan AC 22, touch 15, flat-footed 22; improved uncanny dodge, trap sense +3, uncanny dodge hp 65 (13 HD) Immune sleep Absorb 4th level or lower spells (20 level) Fort +9, Ref +7, Will +17 (+19 vs enchantments); prescient sense (as evasion), trap sense +3 Spd 40 ft (8 squares) Melee +1 shortsword +8/+3 (1D6+1) Melee +1 jade ghost touch dagger +8/+3 (1D4+1) Ranged +2 composite longbow +9/+5 (1D8+2) Ranged +1 bloodseeking composite longbow +8/+3 (1D8+1) Space 5 ft; Reach 5 ft Base Atk +7; Grp +7 Atk Options Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot Special Actions Rapid Shot, turn undead (2/day, +2 bonus) Combat Gear +1 shortsword, +1 jade ghost touch dagger, +2 composite longbow (+1 Str bonus), +1 bloodseeking composite longbow (+4 Str bonus), wand of searing dark [as searing light but darkness subtype and negative energy damage, so it heals undead] (CL 10, 35 charges), wand of dispel magic (CL 7, 10 charges), wand of cure light wounds (CL 1, 24 charges), wand of wind wall (CL 5, 7 charges), wand of shield of faith (CL 1, 46 charges), wand of lesser restoration (CL 3, 1 charge), wand of light of lunia (CL 1, 39 charges), potion of cure moderate wounds (CL 3), potion of cure light wounds (CL 1), potion of cure serious wounds (CL 5), potion of protection from arrows (CL 3), divine scroll of mending, purify food and drink (CL 1), divine scroll of bless water, detect evil, endure elements, hide from undead, obscuring mist, protection from evil, resurgence, remove fear, sanctuary, summon monster I (CL 1), divine scroll of gentle repose, make whole (CL 3), divine scroll of daylight, stone shape, remove blindness/deafness, speak with dead (CL 5), divine scroll of hallow (CL 9), divine scrolls of greater dispel magic (2) (CL 20), divine scrolls of sending (2) (CL 7), divine scroll of heal (CL 11), adamantine arrows (15), cold iron arrows (37), silver arrows (9), arrows (20), +2 arrows (12) Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 13 [CL 15 divination], melee touch +7, ranged touch +9, +1 bonus to DC of divination spells) 7th - holy word (DC 22), greater scrying (DC 23) 6th - blade barrier (DC 21), heal, wind walk(d) 5th - break enchantment(d), divine agility, flame strike (DC 20), spell resistance, summon monster V 4th - contingent energy resistance, death ward, divination, haste(d), panacea, spell immunity 3rd - alter fortune, dispel magic, mass align weapon, mass conviction, prayer, protection from energy(d) 2nd - cat's grace(d), close wounds (2), curse of arrow attraction (DC 17), master's touch, owl's wisdom, silence 1st - blessed aim, bless, command (DC 16), divine favour, ebon eyes, entropic shield, identify(d), protection from evil 0 - create water, guidance, light, mending, read magic, resistance Domains: Celerity (+10 ft land speed in light armour and light load), Luck (reroll 1 roll 1/day), Oracle (+2 caster level for divinations) Abilities Str 11, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 20, Cha 9 Feats Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Quicken Spell, Rapid Shot, Skill Focus (Knowledge [religion]) Skills Concentration +17, Craft (bowyer) +5, Diplomacy +11, Knowledge (arcana) +2, Knowledge (history) +2, Knowledge (planes) +2, Knowledge (religion) +14, Listen +7, Move Silently +2, Search +3, Spellcraft +6, Spot +7 Possessions combat gear, +3 chain shirt, ring of protection +3, ring of counterspells, cloak of resistance +2, amulet of fortune prevailing, universal solvent, boots of the snow, pale lavender, ellipsoid ioun stone, eight diagram coins (minor), handy haversack, sunrods (12), tindertwigs (10), masterwork bowyer tools, healer's kit (10 charges), acid (3), holy water (4), finger of jade, true holy symbol, masterwork hunting horn, masterwork potion belt, money belt, diamond (5,000 gp), powdered diamond (500 gp), pearls (8) (100 gp), true seeing ointment (4), augury components (39), divination components (36), spell component pouch |
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Boots of the Snow Price (Item Level): 500 gp (3rd) These white fur boots allow the wearer to move through snow as if it were clear terrain. Presrequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, longstrider |
Experience Points: 81,260.
Arios was born in 5367 in the forests of Hagrog. His mother, Llestreya, was a priestess of Firlott. His father, Gorath, was a great hunter in his own right and a lay worshipper of Firlott. Their small wild elf clan was a primitive one that lived and died by the hunt, so their worship of Firlott was only natural.
The clan had been suffering through a hard winter, and so it was that Arios' pregnant mother found herself with her husband on the trail of a white stag that she had been tracking for days. Ever elusive, the stag would dart in and out of tress, and wherever she thought she lost it, suddenly it sould appear again, just for a moment. As they ranged afar, the couple found themselves in an increasingly wild and untamed part of the forest. Then they heard a sound behind them that chilled their spirits, the howl of a ravenous wolf pack. In an instant, the hunyers became the hunted. The pair continued deeper into the wild wood, the wolves' baying growing ever closer. In Llestreya's condition, it was impossible for her to climb a tree, and Gorath would never leave her. As it became increasingly clear they would not excape, in the classicallu selfless act of a mate, Gorath kissed his wife one last time and turned to face the wolves, even while urging Llestreya onward. She heard her husband's final battle cries as e brought down wolf after wolf with his bow before his cries were abruptly and wetly choked off.
The wolf pack sounded diminished but still plentiful enough. As the sounds again began to approach closer, Llestreya found a patch of snowless ground and entered it. She then prayed to Firlott for sanctuary. Her prayers were answered as the wolves circled all around her area but did not attack. In the distance, she thought she saw a black-clad man with a horned helmet driving the wolves onward, but by that time she was delirious with exhaustion and pain, so it could have been a mere figment of her imagination. Ultimately, the wolf pack departed, leaving Llestreya alone in the forest. She was not alone for long however. Arios chose that moment to begin his fight into the world. Llestreya prayed for restoration of her weary body and felt Firlott's energy rush into her. This gave her the strength to persevere. Arios' birth was difficult however, and as she lost blood, she prayed for healing after healing. Finally, many hours later, she delivered a healthy elf but, her prayers completely spent, she did so only at the expense of her own life. Her last act was to lovingly wrap the baby in her cloak and lay her bow atop the bundle, praying one final prayer to Firlott that He keep him safe.
Not long thereafter the cries of the baby attracted the attention of a wandering band. It was a merry band of males, a delightful band, a band of wine and song. Goat hooves approached to the sound of pipes, and the satyrs cooed over the wild elf baby. The carefree leader, Belikar, felt a surge of compassion and took up swaddled baby and bow while bidding his followers to give the elf priestess an impromptu burial. Despite the winter months, the satyrs did not complain; although they worshipped Galasiria, they still recognized and respected Firlott. Belikar named the boy "Lalo" which means "Lost One" in Sylvan. Being raised by satyrs was a fascinating experience. In some ways, the worldly creatures were more civilized than wild elves, but in others, they were much more primal. Lalo grew up learning Sylvan, Common, Elven, archery and even religion, for one of the satyrs was a priest of Galasiria. Believing strongly in free will however, the priest also taught Lalo about his mother's god, Firlott. Lalo, deeply longing for some connection to a mother he never knew, resolved to revere the Hunting God from the first day he learned about Him.
Amusingly however, Lalo's skills with the pan pipes were non-existent. It finally got to the point where the satyrs forbade him from even touching them, so badly did his efforts hurt their sophisticated ears. The tin-eared Lalo nevertheless fancied himself to be quite the skilled practitioner, and in his adult years would insist on carrying and playing them from time-to-time. Of course, Lalo also learned all about drinking and carousing, and although he never experienced it directly, he certainly learned just about everything that an elf could ever learn about sex. Not only did the satyrs talk about it CONSTANTLY, but he would never forget one time in particular when a human woman had been drawn to their camp by the satyrs' music. The debauchery that had ensued among all of the satyrs and the woman left the child wide-eyed, and as he thought back upon it, he had little doubt that he would have been expected to join in (and undoubtedly would have done so gladly) if he were older. Even as it was, Belikar had gestured him over to watch, and the satyr and the giggling human woman gave him a rather graphic and detailed tutorial.
Lalo reached early adolescence with the satyrs when a visitor would change his life forever. An itinerant priest of Firlott named Amarinstil happened across the roving camp of the satyrs and was granted hospitality with them. Instantly recognizing the symbol of Firlott on the wild elf youth's cloak and bow, a long conversation ensued, and at the end of it, all agreed that Lalo should go with Amarinstil. In a surprisingly maudlin display, Belikar tearfully embraced the lad and bade him farewell and good luck. Lalo, too, was crying, for this was the only life he had ever known. The new pair traveled far and wide, and Amarinstil taught him the ways of Firlott. Acting on the boy's obvious wild elf heritage and a dimly remembered story from decades past, Amarinstil also eventually reunited the boy with his clansfolk. It was there that he heard the names and stories of his parents, and discovered that even before he had been born, Gorath and Llestreya had already picked out a name for a boy: Arios. Still longing for a connection to his deceased parents, he decided to stop calling himself Lalo, and be known as Arios instead.
Although he was welcome to stay with the clan, his parents had no direct kin there (although they had been greatly respected). Additionally, even after a short while, it was clear that the differences between the wild elf community and the satyr one he had just left were enormous. Finally, he felt a kinship with Amarinstil and Firlott both, and he was determined to foster both relationships. For his part, Amarinstil recognized the talent the youth had with beasts and the bow and saw that he possessed an intuition and insight that could only have come from the gods themselves. The two wandered south, eventually settling in the forests of Vosh-gerr. Given his oddly cosmopolitan and diverse background, and Amarinstil's determined efforts to convey the best of "civilization" to the lad, Arios was remarkably modern for someone of wild elf heritage. At the age of 153, Arios was ordained formally into the clergy of Firlott, and he served with distinction for the next 12 years, often hunting the orcs and goblins and other fell creatures that came into the forest from the mountains to the northeast.
In 23 N.S., Arios began having strange dreams; disturbing dreams. At first, he could not remember any of them, but over time they became clearer and clearer. Sometimes his dreams would tell him of things that would come to pass, such as where the dire boar he was hunting would be found, or when an orc raid was imminent. Amarinstil was fascinated, and was proud of the fact that his protégé had been god-touched.
In late 23 N.S. however, the dreams took on a sudden urgency. They varied from night to night, and did not happen every night, but there were common threads running through all of them:
The dreams featured a large boulder, from which clear water sprang. But this water would then turn to crimson blood.
The dreams featured hundreds of humans poling rafts laden with goods down a calm and placid river.
The dreams seemed to feature a rugged barbaric-looking man coupling with a dryad.
The dreams seemed to show a great darkness falling over a strange coastal land Arios had never seen before.
In the dreams could be heard the screams of the innocent, the rattle and clash of large armies, and always ended in a deluge or torrent of blood.
Amarinstil grew very concerned, and he advised Arios to seek out the local priestess of Erinhoru, the River Goddess, for the first two common visions bespoke of that goddess. Arios journeyed south and came to the abode of the Elven priestess Emenstalla. There he told her of his dreams. Emenstalla asked him to describe the boulder, and when he did, she told him that it sounded like a sacred spot to Erinhoru in a place the humans called Orsvale, in a land the humans called the Far Coast. As Arios listened to the priestess, he began to see the shape of his dreams. The first vision was perhaps of this holy site in Orsvale. Indeed, the fourth vision was of a coast, and the Far Coast was, obviously, a coast. What was more, the Far Coast was a land once ruled by the descendents of Thaneer, a human barbarian hero who, according to the human legends, coupled with a faerie woman. It was clear to Arios that his visions concerned events in the Far Coast, and when Emenstalla told him that it was likely no coincidence that her people were planning to leave soon on their once a decade pilgrimage to the Orsvale site, he asked to accompany the priestess. She assented, and as the year turned to 24 N.S., Arios departed east with the Erinhoru pilgrimage.
All through the pilgrimage, Arios' dreams intensified, so much so that when the group had to camp in the wild, he was gagged so that his cries would not attract dangerous creatures. A great sense of foreboding came over Arios, and it seemed to grow the closer he got to Orsvale and the Far Coast. Eventually, he began to have waking visions. He would glance at a passerby on the road and see an image of that person dead or tortured or enslaved by unseen beings. Flowers became trampled fields and forests became marshes. The pilgrimage traveled slowly, for they performed many rituals along the way, and Arios would often question local priests and wisemen about his visions. Most of the time he was met with a patronizing dismissal, but sometimes with contempt and other times with genuine interest. He received no great insights into his visions, however. The pilgrimage finally arrived at Orsvale in the summer of 24 N.S. and conducted its rites peacefully and without incident. The humans of Orsvale were very welcoming of the elves, and Arios even made the acquaintance of the human priests of Firlott. The townsfolk put on a merry festival, and Arios' worries slipped away, as did his dreams. A human priestess of Firlott named Brianna made her interest in the strange elf clear, but it was at that moment that he realized he was in love with Emenstalla.
As he pondered how to best to express this love, disaster struck on their return journey, just a few days outside of Orsvale. While traveling along the northern verges of the Arundel Forest in the Far Coast, the pilgrimage was ambushed. Humans attacked from all directions, led by a tall man with gold and silver for his nose and one ear. This leader, despite his appearance as a powerful and skilled warrior, also seemed to wield immense arcane powers. The pilgrimage was decimated, but the men took special care to spare and capture the Erinhoru priestess. Arios assumed that his capture after being wounded and imprisoned by a spell cast by the ambushers' wizard was merely happenstance. He watched in horror however, unable to move, as the humans slit the throats of the still living elves, and he thought he was next. But instead, he was bound and blindfolded. Arios didn't know how long he had traveled, but he was taken by boat at some point in his journey, and then into a long passageway before being imprisoned in a cell. Miserable, Arios waited for weeks, fed by an unseen gaoler, before finally being interrogated by the leader of the ambush and his wizard. The first revelation they gave Arios was that the ambush was not made to capture the Erinhoru priestess. Indeed, she had been questioned over the last weeks and "played with" before her corpse was dumped in the rivers she so loved. The news chilled Arios to his soul, and he swore to himself that he would have vengeance.
Even more shocking news was yet to come, however; the ambushers had attacked the pilgrimage specifically to capture Arios!
He was wracked by guilt over this, but very soon he had other things to worry about. Day after day, Arios was questioned regarding his visions, not only about the content, but also about whom he had told and where they had come from. The questioning was at times tedious and repetitious, and at times agonizingly accompanied by torture. Magical means were used to try to wrest secrets from Arios' mind, and eventually he told them everything... which wasn't much. Frustrated by his lack of information, his captors placed Arios back in his cell. He spent some time recovering his mind and body, and then began to think about what was asked of him. One thing he was asked was whether he "served House Riverine." Thinking back on the questioning, he deduced that House Riverine was a Merchant House, and that seemed to fit in with his second common vision!
The days ground on, and the elf
was occasionally brought out for questioning, but mostly he was
left to rot in his cell. Perhaps a year went by, perhaps two,
and no one seemed to occupy any nearby cells until recently, when
another prisoner was brought in. She was a
female, at least from the sounds of her screaming, but beyond
that Arios could discern nothing of the new "guest."
Shortly afterwards, the mercenaries of House Riverine raided the keep where he was being held. They had come to rescue the new prisoner, and they also took Arios with them. Arios learned that he had been captured by House Mercur, and the elf priest took up common cause with House Riverine, serving with them to bring Mercur low. After the fall, Arios had a parting of ways with Riverine, for he was shocked at the grimmer side of house politics. Instead, he took up an offer to serve with the Heroes of Gem in the Kingdom of Slumber.