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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BLACKDIRGE" data-source="post: 671893" data-attributes="member: 1953">Here are the stats and the tragic history of Hek, Grummok's new apprentice.************************************************Hek (age 37): Male Human (quarter elven) Rog 8; CR 8; Medium Humanoid; HD 8d6+8; hp 42; Init +8; Spd 30 ft.; AC 16 (+3 Dex, +2 armor, +1 buckler); Atk +8/+3 melee (1d4+3/19-20 x2, +1 dagger) or +10/+5 ranged (1d4+3/19-20 x2, throwing dagger) SA sneak attack +4d6; SQ uncanny dodge (Dex to AC, can’t be flanked), evasion; AL NE; SV Fort +3, Ref +9, Will +3; Str 14, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 13, Cha 11.Skills (123 pts): Bluff +11, Climb +12, Disable Device +13, Escape Artist +14, Hide +13, Intimidate +11, Listen +11, Move Silently +13, Open Lock +13, Search +13, Spot +11, Tumble +15.Feats: Quick Draw, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Far ShotLanguages: Undercommon, Drow, Orc, CommonPossessions: 6 master work throwing daggers, leather armor, +1 dagger, buckler, ring of darkvisionThe man now known as Hek was once an innocent boy from Hommlet by the name of Hekendel Oakheart. Hek’s parents were successful merchants that traded in rare spices and fabrics; they peddled their wares across the flanesse and were always on the lookout for new markets. After the fall of the Temple of Consumption one of the brave warriors who had thwarted the dread god Therizdun and his unthinkable machinations settled in the town of Hommlet and became good friends with Hek’s parents. The warrior, one Bytorn Nighthammer, found the sedentary lifestyle of Hommlet to be stifling and before too long he had decided to begin adventuring once again. Bytorn decided that his first stint as a born again adventurer would be to the underdark and would include a visit to the dreaded drow city of Erelhei-Cinlu. Bytorn hired a few mercenaries and then approached his new friends, the Oakhearts, and offered them the merchant’s chance of a lifetime. They would go, under heavy guard, to an area that was a completely untapped market for their wares for underdark denizens often had use of surface goods but rarely had a way to acquire them easily. The Oakhearts readily agreed to Bytorn’s offer and soon along with their teenage son were on their way to the uncharted depths of the underdark. The journey to the Vault of the Drow, the huge cavern that housed the city of Erelhei-Cinlu, was dangerous in the extreme but the combination of Bytorn’s adventuring skill and a little luck saw the merchant family and their guards reach the gates of the drow city virtually unscathed. The small band of surface dwellers was allowed entrance into the city after the exchange of a few coins and was directed to the bazaar where the Oakhearts quickly set up shop. Over the course of the following week the merchant family plied their wares with great success drawing even the noble families down from their gated manses to peruse the goods offered by the surface dwellers. All was going well until disaster struck in the guise of a spider-masked cleric of Lolth and her retinue of devoted sycophants. The priestess had been haggling over the price of a silk cape and had suddenly taken offense when Jendaria Oakheart, Hek’s mother, muttered a curse under her breath in elven regarding the penny-pinching ways of the obviously wealthy priestess. The drow elf’s keen ears had detected the slur and had also realized that the barb had been in the language of the surface elves, the ancient enemy of the drow. Jendaria had taken pains to hide her elven heritage, using both methods magical and mundane, but her slight breach in etiquette proved to be her family’s undoing. The drow priestess had without warning stepped back and mouthed an incantation, releasing a spell the negated all of Jendaria’s magical disguises, leaving her elven ancestry clear to all. Having exposed a half-elf in the midst of her Lolth dedicated city; the priestess ordered the death of Jendaria on the spot and her retinue of guards jumped to fulfil their mistress’s command. Bytorn and Kodar Oakheart, Hek’s father, along with Bytorn’s hired guards leapt to the defense of Jendaria but were cut down after a short and brutal battle. Jendaria was dragged away screaming her life destined to end upon the sacrificial slab in the Fane of Lolth. All of the Oakheart’s goods were confiscated and Hek was taken and sold into slavery, eventually ending up in the hellish brothel where Grummok had first encountered the boy.At the brothel, Hek endured six months of the worst kinds of brutality imaginable mainly at the hand of Shebon Mot, the sadistic drow assassin. When Shebon was slain by the Grummok, the gargoyle bought Hek’s freedom from the brothel for his participation in Shebon Mot’s slaying. Grummok supplied Hek with a small amount of coin and an enchanted dagger, and then sent the boy on his way to make what life he could in the horrible drow city. Hek was drawn to the Ghetto of Outcasts almost immediately as it offered him ample bolt-holes in which to hide and in addition was one of the few places in the city that contained any noticeable amount of illumination due to its large population of surface dwellers. Hek was gifted with agility and intellect and these natural talents allowed him to survive where many others would have met a swift and painful death. Hek took to thieving naturally and soon had established a comfortable lair for himself in the Ghetto of Outcast furnished with stolen goods from all over the city. As Hek matured his success and was noticed by the other denizens of the ghetto and a conflict was inevitable. But the young human was up to the challenge and instead of slaying his rivals he bent them to his will and soon controlled a veritable army of beggars and thieves. In the years that followed Hek’s motley assortment of castoffs were starting to become an organized force and Hek had ambitions of making the Ghetto of Outcast a safe haven for the abused and mistreated of Erelhei-Cinlu. All of Hek’s grand designs were suddenly stamped out by the appearance of Grummok on his search for an apprentice. On first sight of the gargoyle all of the terrible memories, so long repressed, came screaming to the surface, his parents death, the pain he suffered at the brothel and finally the horrid death of Shebon Mot, which he was forced to watch. Hek could do nothing but flee in terror, but the human’s past would not be denied and Hek found himself leaving the ghetto of outcast, so long his home, to endure the tutelage of the vile assassin Grummok. Deprived of the stability of leadership Hek’s ragtag group of followers deteriorated into the hopeless group of individuals it had been before the human’s arrival and despair reined once again throughout the district.</blockquote>

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