wanderingwolf

Blackguards!

I added Mer to the CS tab, and edited her personality and background to make her fit more in the Rumplestiltskin realm :D

Blackguards!

Mer Fuhgoad D'Got

Mer Fuhgoad D'Got

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Name

Mer (pronounced "Mare") Fuhgoad D'Got

Race

Dwarf

Gender

Female

Age

73

Appearance

Mer cuts a striking figure, the way a boulder might block one's path. Embodying the stockiness of a Dwarf, Mer's thick arms and squat frame belie a hidden bulk. She stands 4'3" tall, and weighs about 140 lbs. Her hair is a tangled nest of braids all stock white. Her warted skin takes a pallid tone around her face and hands. She wears a simple dress and shall, with a belt strapped with pouches and ampules. With her overcoat, which had a heavy tuft of wool about her shoulders, she stands prepared for harsher climates, with ample room to store vials and bottles within.

Personality

Mer has embraced the selfishness of dastardly tactics of an old witch aiming to live forever and cause as much pain as possible. She's spent years serving villages as a wandering witch, doling out cures and salves--for a price: a first born child here, a love unrequited there. Mer's left a string of bodies behind by proximity, enabling others to deal with their own problems, even if it cost them more than they knew. Mer's cost is often "the first thing you see when you get home," as it's served so many in her line of work through the ages. She can be calculating and fair--or fair as she sees it--as she believes in the rote letter of bargains and deals.

"You come to me to bring you love, a potion you want dear,
I'll give it, yes, and so you'll rest in love and wonton cheer,
But I'll come, one day, to take away the thing you cherish most,
A child, your first, yes dear, the same, the cost for this you chose."

Background

Mer, as most Dwarven childen, was raised underground in her formative years. Her family was a large one, and being the youngest of her family, Mer set off in search of her own fortune at a young age. Letters home were infrequent, but kept her in touch with her clan.

She found herself honest work as a mushroom gatherer in a town by the sea, within the King's realm. One day, upon delivering a bundle of ingredients to one gnarled home, Mer stumbled into the abode of a folk-witch at work at her cauldron. Upon her entrance, the 'witch', simply pointed to where she ought to drop her package: an altar full of ingredients and an open tome denoting all sorts of recipes for brews both curative and malicious. It was like reading a language she had long forgotten, and its draw was too great for the young and greedy Dwarf.

Mer stole the book, and swiftly took her leave of the hut. That day saw the beginning of her study as an alchemist. The book was a helpful starter, but Mer has since memorized the recipes from cover to cover, and she pursued more knowledge of the like, leading to the thievery of more books from other practitioners. Admittedly, her interest veered toward the sinister: poisoned benign objects like spinning wheels and apples, for instance drew her mirth.

She lived many of her years traveling from town to village and back, dispensing with 'cures' and quells as she saw fit. She gained a reputation for bargaining, and a body count, as there were mysterious deaths that followed her arrival. The trail of bodies through the years numbered in the hundreds, and a few officials of the crown began sniffing around when she traveled South. She relished the attention, truth be told, and her exploits grew in stature.

The Viscount Winthrop Ashton, who presided over a modest portion of the Southern fief of the Westerlands, suffered particular ire at her presence. As the result of a nasty bargain with a maid in the ruler's house, Mer had poisoned the Viscount's daughter, her final moments tied to the harvest of barley. The Viscount, embittered and enraged, dubbed her a scourge and set a bounty on her head of ten thousand coin to lift the curse. That's when things got really interesting.

The Viscount's army mobilized to a nearby hill, on top of which the alchemist had set her camp. The Viscount himself stood a safe distance away, in a full knight's suit of armor atop a steed, his naive standard bearer waiving his crest proudly. He would not miss the opportunity to bring to heel such a thorn.

Just when the army had surrounded her encampment, the alchemist imbibed an elixir which transformed her into a terrifying dragon covered in iron scales, and a belly full of molten fire. As the men ran fearing for their lives, Mer spread her volcanic breath in all directions, then leapt into the air, and thanks to that proudly waiving standard, landed squarely on the Viscount and his horse, crushing him to oblivion before uttering a roar which sent every bird aflight and every beast afeared.

The elixir which was the method of her revenge was also the measure of her undoing, however, and thanks to a miscalculation, the draught's power subsided suddenly. Mer found herself a Dwarf once again, standing in the middle of the bloody, unrecognizable mess which was the Viscount. It didn't take long for a second in command to rally the army and surround the alchemist with polearms. The Maw awaited.

Talents

Mer is an Alchemist. She can brew most any potion to heal or kill, to sap or save, to transform or transfix. She's got a strong frame and a keen eye for chucking her concoctions at a range of twenty feet.

She has taken, as of late, to focus her energies on transformation alchemy, or transmogrification. She's experimented with turning herself into Ogres and great bears, basilisks and dragons. This alchemist is ready to get her hands dirty by the fist and daggered mouthful.

Flaws

The laws of Alchemy are uncertain and inherently unstable. It's more of an art than a science! Sometimes her cocktails have a different affect than intended.

As per her character is concerned, she's quick to judge and long to loathe. Pragmatic only to a degree, the Dwarven stubbornness is strong in Mer.

Equipment

She has the clothes on her back, several empty vials and ampules, and the ingredients on her person lashed to her belt and in the pockets of her long coat. She also carries a walking stick.

Miscellaneous

Mer's writing her own book of potions and poisons: D'Got's Guide to Alchemy. Most of what she's memorized through the years has been penned, but she's still finalizing the section on transmogrification.

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P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

Giving @vertigo the chance to add in before pushing onward.

Art by Wanderingwolf

Update on Kragthar:

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

@Digizel Give @patientbean a moment to reply with her revelation before posting up a reply to this, please.

As Saur takes a closer look at the watery footprints he can identify that there are more than one set, though how many, the kobold tracker is not able to discern.

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

@Digizel Certainly! I'll roll an Arcana Recall Knowledge check for Fleur, because I may need to lie to you :D.

As Fleur gets a closer look at the rune on the paper, she delves into her past knowledge of the Arcane. The Seer closes her eyes for a moment to center herself before seeing an image of a waterfall flood her mind. Whatever this rune means, its application has something to do with torrential water.

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

But while I've got your attention Wolf, I do have a quick question regarding the game. When it comes to the footprints we're beginning to follow, is there only one set? Or does it seem like more than one person walked out of the office? And if so, could Saur try to figure out how many there might have been, or if they might've been dragging something or someone? Usually stuff like that leaves different kinds of trails, but I'll leave it to you~

@Digizel

If you'd like to take a closer look at the footprints give me a Perception check to see if Saur can decipher how many may have left the trail. Regardless of whether or not Saur can decipher how many traveled this way, the tracks and direction of the trail are obvious now to everyone in the party.

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

@Digizel Recall Knowledge is a tricky skill to nail down. Coming from DND, I didn't really have a good grasp of what it is used for or when it is most useful. This is probably down to me being a new DM, so I'm bound to miss the mark on things. In this instance, I probably fudged things a little too much and skipped a step, which would have made the whole thing make more sense.

Step 1 would have been: Saur sees an interesting pile of papers. Search the papers
Step 2 would have been: Saur finds a small piece of paper with a rune on it. Do you want to investigate?
Step 3 would have been: Saur recognizes the rune... etc.

While reading about Recall Knowledge I found this:

You might need to collaborate with the GM to narrow down the question or skills, and you can decide not to Recall Knowledge before committing to the action if you can't don't like your options.

From the Player Core p.231: 2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=2367

Which makes me think maybe there ought to be more narrowing down of skills and questions used. The Adventure I'm using has preset data and DC's for things like "The player can use Nature or Arcana to Recall Knowledge for this with a DC of..." And that's it. It doesn't really coach the GM through much else.

In my experience playing in the Pathfinder Society, where time is of the essence for a 4 hour session, the GM often says something like "You can choose Nature or Arcana to Recall Knowledge in this situation. Or you can choose a different skill at a higher DC. Which do you choose?" I'm not a fan of this approach since it feels more like rail-roading than allowing players to think for themselves.

All in all, this is probably my bad with skipping a step above. My apologies; I'm still figuring things out as I go!

P2e - Threshold of Knowledge

@Digizel Sorry about that. I ought to have phrased that differently; something like 'would Saur like to investigate the pile of papers'? Then you could have told me which skill Saur would have liked to use to Investigate with and I could roll Recall Knowledge with that skill.

Thanks for posting these modifiers!

As a result of a separate, secret roll:

Saur sifts through the piles of papers and debris and finds a small sheet of paper among them. The paper is marked with a strange rune and several notes analyzing various aspects of the rune in the margins. Using Saur's knowledge of nature, he is able to recall that this rune is related to conjuration magic and that the analysis of this rune is actually incorrect and led to false conclusions on the part of whomever penned the analysis in the margins. At this point, that's all Saur can divine from the small sheet.

Blackguards!

@Red Wizard I've updated Mer's CS above to make her last stand a bit more menacing. Let me know if I need to lean more into the evil proceeding up to the end there.