[5e] Spell & Crossbones (FULL)
Katarina del Corazon
Height 5’ 8”; Weight 130# ; Hair: Black; Age 22; Patron Deity:
Sex: Female Race: Human (Spanish) Class: Rogue 3/Fighter 1 Level:4
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral Size: Medium Type: Humanoid
Init +5; Passive Wisdom (Perception) 9
Languages :
AC 15
HP 36 (HD: 8 +6F +10R +12 Con)
Saving Throw Proficiencies: Dexterity, Intelligence
Speed 30 ft.
Proficiency Bonus: +2
Special Actions
Combat gear: None
Pistol +7
Sabre +7
Abilities:
Str 8
Dex 20
Con 16
Int 12
Wis 9
Cha 18
Racial Traits: Variant Human: +1 to two Stats, One Skill Proficiency, One Feat.
Background:
Sailor
Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Perception
Tool Proficiencies: Navigator’s Tools, vehicles (water)
Equipment: Belaying pin, 50 ft silk rope, common clothes, 10 gp, trinket.
Feature
Personality Trait:
Bond: Accursed and Baby/ Loved One
Ideal:
Flaw:
Fortunes:
Good: Monkey Magnet, Devil's Own Luck, Ally or Notoriety
Ill: Accursed (Enemy/ Wanted), (Vice)
Class Features:
Expertise
Sneak Attack +1d6
Thieves Cant
Fighting Style (Two Weapon Fighting)
Second Wind
Proficiencies:
Armor: Light, Medium, Shields
Weapons: Simple and Martial
Tools: Thieves Tools, Cartography Tools, Gaming (Cards)
Saving throws: Dexterity and Intelligence
Skills: Choose 4 From Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth
Skills (P Proficiency, E Expertise)
+7 Acrobatics P
-1 Animal Handling
+1 Arcana
+1 Athletics P
+6 Deception P
+1 History
-1 Insight
+6 Intimidation P
+1 Investigation
-1 Medicine
-1 Nature
+1 Perception P
+4 Performance
+8 Persuasion PE
-1 Religion
+7 Sleight of Hand P
+7 Stealth P
-1 Survival
+4 + Stat Thieves tools PE
+2 + Stat Gaming set (Playing Cards) P
+2 + Stat Cartographers tools) P
Feats: Skilled
Spells:
Equipment: 120 gp
Thieves Tools
Cartographer's Tools
Navigator's Tools
Gaming Set - Cards and Dice
Vehicles
Appearance:
[SBLOCK=Background]Francisco del Corazon was a Spanish sailor who deserted the brutal conditions of the Spanish navy. He joined up with a pirate crew and over the years grew in power until he commanded his own vessel, becoming known as the pirate Blackheart. Blackheart was feared as a cruel, ruthless pirate, though he was good to his crew, loyal and generous, winning their favor time and again.
Blackheart landed in Mexico to take on fresh water and supplies and to give his men some time with their feet on solid ground. While there he took notice of the stunning, exotic daughter of the chieftain, and made sure to come back to the same village many times to see her. The Princess Inka fell in love with Blackheart, who loved her back and one dark night, Inka slipped away onto the ship with Blackheart who took her away. They enjoyed their time together, though Inka made Francisco promise to one day return her to her Island, where she would be reunited with her ancestors.
Sometime later, Inka was with child, and even Blackheart was surprised at his welcoming of the news. The pregnancy went well enough and was a happy time, but fatefully Inka died in the difficult birth to their daughter Katarina. Blackheart was heartbroken but in a desire to fulfill his promise to his only love, he returned Inka to her Island and her family.
When Blackheart carried his love’s body into her village and presented her to the Chieftain he became enraged. He had guessed well enough where she was and over that time had become more and more vengeful towards the pirate for stealing his daughter away.
He bound the pirate and dragged him to an old, blood-stained altar in the jungle where he made sacrifices to the gods calling into being an ancient curse as vengeance. He wanted the pirate to suffer. This curse would prevent Blackheart from ever touching his offspring as the chieftain could no longer touch his. If he did the child would die horribly. Blackheart never had a chance to tell him his daughter lived on in heart and spirit through a granddaughter.
Fortunately, Blackheart had brought a wet nurse on board to help raise the child for he didn’t dare touch his precious gift. Blackheart had lost his love and now couldn’t touch the only thing he had left of her, Katarina. Additionally the curse slowly began to take his health, his strength. He also entrusted the upbringing of his girl to one of his longtime shipmates, an ancient old dwarf named Jozef. Zef could teach her the physical things that the Captain could not, though it pained him greatly to watch someone else have that role with his daughter. Katerina called him Opa Joe, for grandfather.
He searched for a way to break the curse without luck. He was however able to find a magical cowrie shell necklace that held part of the curse at bay, the part where he couldn’t touch his daughter. They rejoiced for it had been a four long years that he could not hold his love in his arms.
So it was that Katarina grew up aboard a pirate ship. A bright young girl, she learned quickly and thought that the life she led was exciting, but also perfectly normal. Katarina grew into quite a stunning young woman, with the striking beauty of her mother, and the cunning of her father. She learned to fight, to sail and to steal, all of which she enjoyed immensely. Her father taught her, through example and later through tests, how to run a ship and captain a crew. She spent much of her youth plundering, pillaging, and cheating both men and women alike. She found she was excellent at deception and persuasion and enjoyed the game of it. She accompanied the men into pirate villages to spend their ill-gotten gains on drinking rum, cheating at cards and finding men to pleasure her in whatever ways she desired. She also started to gain her own reputation; aside from being protected by her father the infamous cruel Blackheart, she could handily defend herself with sword or gun and was in fine physical condition. Her father showed little love towards almost anything, but adored his daughter with a great love beyond measure.
It was at Tortuga that the
Heart of the Seas took on a charismatic young man with an ancient book. Aeron was a rare sea wizard, and had learned his eldritch secrets from elves back in the forgotten glens of Wales. With Aeron’s arts, the
Heart of the Seas became even more fearsome on the seas. It was rumored that Aeron imbued the ship with magic, making it faster, more sturdy and less likely to catch on fire.
Perhaps it was this additional increase of magic that drew the attention of the authorities. The governor of San Juan, Colonel Juan de Ribera, in particular took umbrage with Blackheart and hunted him endlessly for years. This only made Blackheart more inclined to steal from him and his ships and ravage his lands.
Meanwhile Katarina had been spending much time with Aeron, intrigued by his sorcery and even his disposition. While he fit in on the boat, he was no pirate and this change enraptured Katerina. Eventually they fell in love. Her father was happy for the match but also quietly worried; losing his own love had been the only time in his life his heart had been broken and he worried the curse would pass to his daughter so his searches for a way to break the curse intensified.
Katarina was heavy with child when the Spanish Navy finally caught the
Heart of the Seas. Despite a fierce defense and the sinking of two Spanish ships, the
Heart was disabled and boarded by the scores of mercenaries and thugs (Prussian Gnomes?) the Governor had paid.
Katerina was held by her hair and pushed to her knees and forced to watch her beloved father Blackheart’s throat slit and his body thrown overboard. Aeron’s hands and feet were bound and he too was thrown overboard for the sharks. Most of the remaining pirates were slaughtered, though they chose a handful that were put in shackles and brought back to San Juan for trial and execution so the Governor could prove these pirates were no longer a threat. Katerina was “tried” and found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. She was branded a Pirate, and in defiance she refused to scream while the P was being seared into her skin.
Back at the jail, there was a bit of commotion surrounding Katerina. She was brought to a secluded part of the jail where she was alone. A large number of people came by to examine Katarina and see if she was healthy, including a couple of doctors and finally a slave that was said to have mystic powers of Ixchel. Katerina resisted all but the slave, who seemed to be in a prison of her own, having to work for the Governor. The slave was to be Kat’s midwife and charged with delivering a healthy baby.
The first time she touched Katerina she had a sudden vision. She could sense the curse on Katarina and told her that with her father’s death the curse passed onto her, and if she held her daughter after she was born, it would kill the child. The seer also told her that the governor’s wife was barren and they needed an heir. They intended to take Katerina’s baby and pass it off as their own. And that was why they sent her, to make sure the baby was born healthy and then bring it to them.
Katarina was horrified. There was so much to take in and understand. She couldn’t hold her baby or it would die, she was cursed herself now and her days were numbered. She had lost her father, her lover, her crew, her ship, her home and family. The necklace her father used to hold the curse at bay was lost at the bottom of the ocean. And worst of all, this nasty, barren witch wanted to take her baby.
The seer seemed to be a kind hearted woman, if not a bit strange, and grew be Katarina’s only solace. The governor was waiting to hang all of the pirates at once, so he had to wait until the baby was born.
Finally the time came. The birth was long and difficult for Katerina; she lost a lot of blood and was weak. The baby was born, a healthy, happy little baby girl that Katarina gazed upon with love. The seer was stalling, she did not feel it was the right thing at that moment to take the baby but before long guards came and Katerina sobbed as they took away her daughter. Her tears quickly turned to rage and cruel thoughts of vengeance on Governor Ribera and his wife.
Unknown to Katarina, her remaining shipmates had not been idle. Opa Joe, or Old Zef as most referred to him, had managed to engineer an escape. He had lured over the guard’s dog with an old bone. He took the dog’s collar and used a wire in it to make a lockpick and opened the cell. He and the few other survivor’s were looking for Katarina when they came across the seer. She was frightened for a moment until her eyes glazed over with a vision. Then a resolute look came over her face and she said, “This way to Kat,” where she led them around guards to right to Katarina. Katarina was so torn, she loathed leaving her baby, and thought about stealing her back, but she was weak and there was the curse. She realized that the only solution would be to break this curse then save the little one. Kat implored the slave to leave with them as they slipped away in the night and she did.
A few weeks later, the seer had another vision. She saw that when the Gloriosa went down it was rumored to have had an ancient idol from the Inca. The seer was confident that this powerful artifact could break her curse over her permanently.
And so Katerina del Corazon had plans. She would seek this Idol and break the curse. She would find her child and take her back. She would avenge her father and her lover and kill the Governor and his wife and set their people free from their corruption. She would search for any surviving crew members and find and take back the
Heart of the Seas, her father’s ship and her birthright. She would right every wrong, and in the process put back together a life that had been torn apart.[/SBLOCK]
