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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bob Aberton" data-source="post: 1169426" data-attributes="member: 1518">"Captain" Jack CrosstreeMale Human Rogue 2/Fighter 3 Alignment: NeutralHP: 32AC: 14 (+2 Dex, +1 Bracers, +1 buckler)SavesFortitude: 4 (+3 Base, +1 Ability)Reflex:  6 (+4 Base, +2 Ability)Will:  3  (+1 Base, +2 Iron Will feat)Initiative:  4 (+2 Dex, +2 Improved Iniative feat)Str 13Dex 14Con 13Int 14Wis 10Cha 16Melee:  5 (+4 Base, +1 Ability)Ranged:  6 (+4 Base, +2 Ability)Skills (Max ranks 8/5)Skill/Ranks/Ability/TotalSwim  6/2/8Climb  6/2/8Bluff  4/3/7Diplomacy  5/3/8Sense Motive  5/0/5Profession (Navigator)  4/2/6Profession (Pilot)  4/2/6Intimidate  4/3/7UMD  4/3/7Use Rope  4/2/6Listen  4/0/4Spot  6/0/6Move Silently  4/2/6Balance  4/2/6Profession (Sailor)  4/2/6Knowledge (Local)  2/2/2FeatsCaptaining*Iron WillExpertiseQuick DrawImproved Iniative(*this feat is from Broadsides; I thought it was fitting for my character, given that he's a former sea captain.  I can give you the details if you want them.)Equipment+1 rapier, +1 Bracers of Armor, 1 buckler, 1 masterwork light crossbow, 1 masterwork dagger, 50 +1 crossbow bolts, 50 normal crossbow bolts, 4 potions of cure light wounds, 1 potion of swimming, 1 Hat of Disguise, 2 sets captain's clothes (silk shirt, breeches, broadcloth coat w/gold buttons, & cocked hat; as courtier's clothes), 1 set explorer's clothes, 1 flask of Rum, 50 ft. silk rope, 1 sextant (from Broadsides, 500gp), 1 Ditty Bag (contains sail needles, sailmaker's palm, shaving razor, thread, & personal effects; 2 gp), Chart tools (from Broadsides; 15 gp), ! waterskin, 3 days trail rations, 10 torches, 2 empty vials.(Note:  I didn't calculate weight for these, because the gear Jack will carry will vary depending on where he is going.  He won't carry torches and waterskins for a night on the town, and he won't carry his navigational tools, extra clothes, etc. on a trip into the dungeons.  I'll calculate the weight depending on the situation & what he is carrying at any given time.  Hope that's okay.)Money,5 irregular pearls (10 gp each), 11 gold pieces, 4 silver pieces.AppearanceIn stature, "Captain" Jack is on the short side of moderate height, with a lean, wiry build.  His hair is a dark blond color, which he usually wears in a pigtail sailor-fashion.  He is clean shaven, except for long sideburns which reach to his chin.  His eyes are a grey color, and his face, which is generally battered and nicked with many small scars, speaks of a "rough and ready" lifestyle.His most prominent distinguishing features consist of a scar on his left cheek, and a number of tatoos, including the manacle-and-chains symbol of the slavers, for reasons he will not go into depth about.His favorite form of dress is a sea captain's garb, a blue broadcloth coat and a cocked hat with a great red plume in it; his stride still speaks of heaving decks and ships scuppers-under.When asked about his history, "Captain" Jack will relate, after some hesitation, that he was born in a teeming seaport town, in "the usual circumstances; a drunk for a father an' a whore for a mother."  This particular city was notorious for its slavers which are still very much active and part of the reason Jack is returning, with great reluctance.Most children born "in the usual circumstances" end up as their parents did, poverty-stricken wrecks, drunks and thieves and prostitutes.  Jack was in some ways an exceptional child; at an early age, he saw with clear eyes the squalor that surrounded him, and he made a solemn vow to "whatever gods there are up there" that he wouldn't become part of the squalid surroundings, and that his children would not be born "in the usual circumstances."  He realized that the best, indeed the only way to escape the slums was to escape the city, and that meant taking to the sea.He signed on a slave ship as a cabin boy at the age of ten.  Inured to a life of suffering from birth, the idea of slaving did not, at the time, bother him much.  He was an intelligent and charismatic boy, a born leader, and he rose quickly in the ranks of the slaver captains, becoming a captain himself at the age of 21.It was a few years later that the event that would shake the foundations of his world loose hit him, in the form a slave.  A slave woman, an elf, as a matter of fact, whose name was Arilen; her name now resides in a tatoo on Jack's forearm.  As Jack says, "She carried herself like a queen, like royalty, you know, not like them poor broken-down wretches we usually shipped.  And when she pierced me with those eyes - you wouldn't think it, but those lovely eyes could skewer like spears when they had to - well, I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time - shame.  She made me ashamed of what I was, and what I done with me life.  And that look made me realize that I from the moment I signed on that slave ship, I betrayed my vow to the gods.  I hadn't risen above my circumstances; my circumstances overwhelmed me.  I was much a wretch as those drunks and thieves on shore."Jack used his influence as captain to see to it that Arilen was treated kindly, but there was little else he could do, at least as he sees it.  Arilen was a highly valuable slave, a beautiful elf woman, and the ship's supercargo - an agent who reported directly to the slavers, saw to it that she was sold to a wizard who bid 20,000 gold pieces for her.  Jack, though a sea captain, was far from affluent, and could hardly hope to match this bid.  Arilen was sold, and he never saw her again.Jack could do nothing for Arilen, but he could do something for himself - he resolved to honor his vow and drag himself out of his miserable circumstances - to extricate himself from the soul-staining business he had been in for more than half his life.  It was when he tried to retire when he found that there were only two ways out of a job under the slavers - a quick death or a slow one.But Jack decided that he had nothing to lose - even if he died, perhaps it could restore some measure of self-respect to him.  By some lucky stroke - perhaps the gods he had sworn his oath to were watching him - he escaped the city alive, and his injuries left no more mark than the scar down his left cheek.Since then, he made a living as an honest sea captain - up until the last few weeks, at any rate.  He was one of the few, quite probably the only, captain to survive his former employers' - the slavers' - wrath.  His ship, the LADY ARILEN, damaged by a fierce gale, was forced to put into the harbor of the city of slavers for repairs.  He found, much to his dismay, that his erstwhile employers had not forgotten him.  He himself survived a pair of assassination attempts, but his ship and its crew and cargo were all seized - his ship was turned into a slaver, his cargo was sold for the slaver's profit, and his crew taken as slaves.He took the first boat out of that city, but only to regroup.  He decided that the slavers had harassed him enough, and he had also gotten word (from a clerical friend) of a movement to eliminate the slavers initiated by the Church of Heironeous, after an internal scandal involving the slavers.  Deciding this was the right time, he sharpened his old rapier and resolved to strike a blow (or three) for his long-lost Arilen.</blockquote>

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