Okay, here's take 2!
[sblock=Vela of the East]Name: Vela
Race: Human
Class/Level:
Gender: Female
Exp: 0
Desc
Vela is of medium height and has a slim, athletic build for a human woman, though her loose clothes tend to hide her shape. She is an exotic beauty, with high cheekbones and a slender neck. Her skin is a deep, sundark brown; her eyes the color of liquid honey that's just been poured. Her hair is equally strange...a single long, black glossy tail from a head that is otherwise shaved bare. She is dressed in a thin, baggy tunic worn under a coarse, plain brown robe and a sort of very thin, long hooded poncho that fits over everything else but leaves her arms free to move.
Strength (STR) 14
Dexterity (DEX) 18
Constitution (CON) 14
Intelligence (INT) 12
Wisdom (WIS) 14
Charisma (CHA) 10
Alignment: Neutral Good
AC: 15 (10 + 4 Dex + 1 class)
Hit Points: 10 (1d4=4)
Roll Lookup
Movement: 30'
Init: +4
Base Attack Bonus: +1
Melee Attack: +3
Ranged Attack: +5
Fort: +3
Reflex: +5
Will: +3
Traits
Desert Born (+2 vs fire, +4 survival in desert, 1/2 food/water, +2 balance/tumble)
Dextrous (+2 Dex, -2 Con)
Class Abilities:
Combat Speed Bonus: +10'
Combat Mobility - +4 defense vs motion-incurred AOA, Tumble at full speed w/no penalty
Skills:
Agility 4
- Balance +10
- Escape Artist +8
- Tumble +18
Athletics 4
- Climb +6
- Jump +6
- Swim +6
Knowledge: Geography +5 (4 ranks)
Hide +8 (4 ranks)
Move Silently +8 (4 ranks)
Listen +6 (4 ranks)
Sense Motive +6 (4 ranks)
Spot +6 (4 ranks)
Survival +6 (4 ranks)
Feats
1 Unarmed Combat (Finesse)
1 Weapon Finesse (Finesse)
Languages - Common, Imperial?
Money -
Weapons -
Unarmed, +5 to hit, 1d3+4 dmg
Armour -
Gear -
Misc and Sundry
[/sblock]
To the east, over the mountains is a sea of sand. It is said that each grain sparkles like a tiny diamond, and that at mid-day in summer the shifting ground is hot enough to burn the shoes of anyone who dares to walk upon it. Caravans with great hunchback beasts of burden cross that desolate land though, lured by the coin of trade between our people and the cruel, dissolute Empire of Jade, farther to the east even than the desert. The caravaners speak of men who live in the desert; cunning raiders who spring ambushes to slaughter and steal. Other tribes live in relative peace, finding and fortifying one of the few springs that provides precious water in the wastes, then defending it with all the tenacity of a lion guarding its kill.
Vela was born to one such tribe, hidden away in the erosion-carved caves where rocks plunged upward like broken teeth through the sand. What ancient waters, now long gone, had started and sandstorms had continued, Vela's tribesmen expanded on as they hollowed out chambers and passages from natural caverns. The water bubbles up from below to make a small underground lake suitable for washing and bathing. For drinking, tribesmen tend boiling vats constantly to ensure a constant supply. They keep to themselves, with two exceptions.
They do occasional trade with caravans, though only at some distance from their caves. They make a point of refusing all metals...never purchasing it. This is because if there is one commodity the raiders covet beyond food, water and women...it is metal to sate their constant hunger for weapons. To make up for this lack, the 'metalless' tribes learn to fight without weapon, or with simple weapons of wood only. Thus they avoid the attention of most raiders...and those that do come suffer far more greatly than they expect to. It is a way that has worked for all recorded history.
The tribe keeps its history in the form of 'books,' scribed upon the stone walls of a series of narrow passages. Each book contains the anecdotes and musings of one of the 'Wise,' tribesmen who have gone out into the world, experienced much that none others do, and survived to return. The Wise are venerated as guides and sources of great learning, even after death. They are generally referred to collectively only, as their wisdom has no owner.
Each generation, several young tribesmen are selected to leave and go out into the world, perhaps to return as one of the Wise. How many are selected, and who, is determined by the Wise present. The secret truth is that it is frequently done to prevent the tribe from outstripping its limited resources of water and food by growing too fast. Most that go out, do not return. Those that do only return many years later. Either way, the tribe's burden is lessened. It is seen as a great honor to be chosen; to be recognized as having the potential to become Wise.
Vela has been sent out. She has crossed the endless sea of sand not with a caravan, but with a map that showed the paths between sources of water...even small ones. Using this to 'leapfrog' from water to water, Vela was able to cross without needing camel or caravan. The map came to her from her father, who said he had purchased it some time ago at great cost, but would give no more specific answer.
Now, in the savage wetlands armed only with her wits and the words of the Wise, Vela seeks learning and experiences that she can one day scrawl into the stone of her own book.
[sblock=Vela of the East]Name: Vela
Race: Human
Class/Level:
Gender: Female
Exp: 0
Desc
Vela is of medium height and has a slim, athletic build for a human woman, though her loose clothes tend to hide her shape. She is an exotic beauty, with high cheekbones and a slender neck. Her skin is a deep, sundark brown; her eyes the color of liquid honey that's just been poured. Her hair is equally strange...a single long, black glossy tail from a head that is otherwise shaved bare. She is dressed in a thin, baggy tunic worn under a coarse, plain brown robe and a sort of very thin, long hooded poncho that fits over everything else but leaves her arms free to move.
Strength (STR) 14
Dexterity (DEX) 18
Constitution (CON) 14
Intelligence (INT) 12
Wisdom (WIS) 14
Charisma (CHA) 10
Alignment: Neutral Good
AC: 15 (10 + 4 Dex + 1 class)
Hit Points: 10 (1d4=4)
Roll Lookup
Movement: 30'
Init: +4
Base Attack Bonus: +1
Melee Attack: +3
Ranged Attack: +5
Fort: +3
Reflex: +5
Will: +3
Traits
Desert Born (+2 vs fire, +4 survival in desert, 1/2 food/water, +2 balance/tumble)
Dextrous (+2 Dex, -2 Con)
Class Abilities:
Combat Speed Bonus: +10'
Combat Mobility - +4 defense vs motion-incurred AOA, Tumble at full speed w/no penalty
Skills:
Agility 4
- Balance +10
- Escape Artist +8
- Tumble +18
Athletics 4
- Climb +6
- Jump +6
- Swim +6
Knowledge: Geography +5 (4 ranks)
Hide +8 (4 ranks)
Move Silently +8 (4 ranks)
Listen +6 (4 ranks)
Sense Motive +6 (4 ranks)
Spot +6 (4 ranks)
Survival +6 (4 ranks)
Feats
1 Unarmed Combat (Finesse)
1 Weapon Finesse (Finesse)
Languages - Common, Imperial?
Money -
Weapons -
Unarmed, +5 to hit, 1d3+4 dmg
Armour -
Gear -
Misc and Sundry
[/sblock]
To the east, over the mountains is a sea of sand. It is said that each grain sparkles like a tiny diamond, and that at mid-day in summer the shifting ground is hot enough to burn the shoes of anyone who dares to walk upon it. Caravans with great hunchback beasts of burden cross that desolate land though, lured by the coin of trade between our people and the cruel, dissolute Empire of Jade, farther to the east even than the desert. The caravaners speak of men who live in the desert; cunning raiders who spring ambushes to slaughter and steal. Other tribes live in relative peace, finding and fortifying one of the few springs that provides precious water in the wastes, then defending it with all the tenacity of a lion guarding its kill.
Vela was born to one such tribe, hidden away in the erosion-carved caves where rocks plunged upward like broken teeth through the sand. What ancient waters, now long gone, had started and sandstorms had continued, Vela's tribesmen expanded on as they hollowed out chambers and passages from natural caverns. The water bubbles up from below to make a small underground lake suitable for washing and bathing. For drinking, tribesmen tend boiling vats constantly to ensure a constant supply. They keep to themselves, with two exceptions.
They do occasional trade with caravans, though only at some distance from their caves. They make a point of refusing all metals...never purchasing it. This is because if there is one commodity the raiders covet beyond food, water and women...it is metal to sate their constant hunger for weapons. To make up for this lack, the 'metalless' tribes learn to fight without weapon, or with simple weapons of wood only. Thus they avoid the attention of most raiders...and those that do come suffer far more greatly than they expect to. It is a way that has worked for all recorded history.
The tribe keeps its history in the form of 'books,' scribed upon the stone walls of a series of narrow passages. Each book contains the anecdotes and musings of one of the 'Wise,' tribesmen who have gone out into the world, experienced much that none others do, and survived to return. The Wise are venerated as guides and sources of great learning, even after death. They are generally referred to collectively only, as their wisdom has no owner.
Each generation, several young tribesmen are selected to leave and go out into the world, perhaps to return as one of the Wise. How many are selected, and who, is determined by the Wise present. The secret truth is that it is frequently done to prevent the tribe from outstripping its limited resources of water and food by growing too fast. Most that go out, do not return. Those that do only return many years later. Either way, the tribe's burden is lessened. It is seen as a great honor to be chosen; to be recognized as having the potential to become Wise.
Vela has been sent out. She has crossed the endless sea of sand not with a caravan, but with a map that showed the paths between sources of water...even small ones. Using this to 'leapfrog' from water to water, Vela was able to cross without needing camel or caravan. The map came to her from her father, who said he had purchased it some time ago at great cost, but would give no more specific answer.
Now, in the savage wetlands armed only with her wits and the words of the Wise, Vela seeks learning and experiences that she can one day scrawl into the stone of her own book.
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