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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ancalagon" data-source="post: 6895928" data-attributes="member: 23">KestrelNeutral Human Monk 4Background: Urchin (City secrets)Kestrel was a lost child, like so many others. A hungry mouth born to those who couldn't feed themselves, she was perhaps lucky to have been given over to an orphanage instead of dropped into the sea, or left out for the rats. Perhaps. She learned the hard lessons that any child of that stature learns...and she kept going as much out of defiant stubbornness as anything else. A will to live born not from fear of death, but a spiteful decision not to give the world the pleasure of being rid of her so easily.She didn't stay at the orphanage long though...she was too eager to find her own way, to free herself of dependence on others. And while she was good at keeping her head down and avoiding the appearance of troublemaking, under her apparent compliance was a keen mind waiting for the opportunity to make good an escape. Once on her own many things in her life became harder, but she would never have called them worse.Kestrel, or the girl she'd been, had few friends...but the ones she had were true. Street vermin like herself, of similar mind and motivation...or so she'd thought. One of them, an older beggar who feigned blindness and went by the name of Old Squint took a particular interest in her. She was a quick one, after all, and cunning in her own way. Where some saw a pernicious thief, he saw a deeper potential.Squint would sometimes offer her copper for bringing him a few things from the market square. Food mostly. Innocent enough. He tested her more though, as time went on...offering more for more. Finally he offered more than money. He admitted he knew a lot, had seen a lot, and could teach her a lot. Warily Kestrel agreed, and was startled to see how right he was. Tricks he had, of how to be unseen and unheard, how to move fast like flowing water over and around obstacles...and how to fight, oh yes. She'd never thought of herself as a fighter before, but Old Squint knew where you could put fingers and palms on a man and make him hurt like knife blades were puncturing him. All it took was a good eye and quick reflexes, and Kestrel had those to spare.Finally he had another offer for her. There was more to learn, but not from him, he said. She could learn to twine shadows between her fingers and spin it out like spider's silk. To jump between drops of falling rain and not get wet. To see without even a flicker of light to glint in one's eyes.Did she want to learn more?So Old Squint sent her to see a man he knew, who sent her to wait where the old shipyard had burned into the harbor and never been rebuilt. As she waited there, hands from a man she'd never heard draped black cloth around her head and cinched it tight. As she kicked and twisted, trying to get away, Kestrel passed out from being unable to breathe.She woke up in a cell in the Silent Tabernacle, and her training as one of the Veiled commenced.The training was hard, grueling, and the punishments for failure severe enough to keep everyone on edge constantly. The ones who survived did so by learning to accept it into themselves; by convincing themselves that it was all worth it. That this is what they'd wanted. For a while Kestrel did that too. Wasn't this what Squint had told her? Well, no...he hadn't said it would be like this...but she WAS learning things. Fantastic, eerie, somehow horrible things. To take shadow in, you had to push something out. That was what they learned.Like so many things in the Tabernacle though, it wasn't quite true. Kestrel didn't surrender herself, didn't push herself out. Like she had in the orphanage, she pulled in. The shadow cloaked her, congealed around her, pressing her into herself. It felt cloying and odd and sometimes so tight she couldn't breathe...but while the other successful students became less human, she held on to something vital. Or maybe, she'd reflect later, those parts of her had been missing long before she'd arrived at the Tabernacle, and she'd simply learned to do without.For whatever reason, after her 'apprenticeship' was over, the missions began. Very quickly she realized that she was not, could never be, one of the Veiled. The hierarchy too strict, too all-encompassing... She would be forever under someone else's thumb, until and unless she managed to take control of the entire thing. And even then, it seemed sometimes as if something else was there. Something dark and quiet and endlessly hungry, issuing the commands that the One-Eyed Man passed down to the Preceptors to the Inspired to the rank and file.There was no freedom to be found here. To be a Veiled was to accept forever that your destiny was in the control of others.So as she had before, Kestrel watched, and waited...and set out to make her way. She was aware it wouldn't be easy...but when was anything?Str 12Dex 18 (+1 racial + 2 lvl 4)Con 13Int 10Wis 15 (+1 racial)Cha 8HP 27AC 17 (10 +4 dex + 2 Wis + 1 cloak)Save Bonuses Str +3 Dex +6 Con +1 Int +0 Wis +2 Cha -1Prof Bonus +2Init +4Speed: 50'Exp: 0Race-------Human- +1 to 2 attributes (Dex, Wis)- Bonus Skill Proficiency- Bonus featClass-------Monk- Unarmored Defense: AC is 10 + dex mod + wis mod when not wearing armor.- Martial Arts: Use Dex with unarmed or monk weapons, unarmed or monk can do 1d4 damage, bonus unarmed atk- Unarmored Movement +10- Ki 4- Slow Fall (20 points)- Deflect Missiles (1d10+3+4)- Monastic Tradition: Way of Shadow** Cast Darkness, Darkvision, Pass Without Trace or Silence for 2 ki** Gain Minor Illusion cantripProficiencies--------------Weapons: Simple, ShortswordArmor: NoneTools: Thief tools, Disguise kit, FluteSaves: Strength, DexterityFeats------Mobility (+10 speed, ignore diff terrain on Dash, enemy she attacks cannot OA her due to movement)Skills-------Acrobatics +6Athletics +3Insight +4Perception +4Sleight of Hand +6Stealth +6Languages----------CommonEquipment-------------Cash: 136gp 5spWeapons--------Unarmed, +6, 1d4+4Darts (10), +6, 1d4+4, 2.5lbs, thrown 20/60Shortsword (monk), +6, 1d6+4, 2lbsArmor------Common ClothesMagic------Cloak of ProtectionGear-----Backpack, 2gp, 5lbs- Blanket, 5sp, 3lbs- Hooded Lantern, 5gp, 2lbs- Oil (3 pints), 3sp, 3lbs- 50' silk rope, 10gp, 5lbs- Grappling hook, 2gp, 4lbs- Antioxin, 50gp- Alchemist's Fire, 50gp- Healing Potion, 50gp- Holy water, 25gp- Flute, 2gp, 1lbBelt Pouch, 1lb- Small knife, 1lb- Caltrops, 1gp, 2lbs- Memento (trinket) - Antioxin, 50gp- Alchemist's Fire, 50gp- Healing Potion, 50gp- Thief's Tools, 25gp</blockquote>

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