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Ebon Dermeer
From PagodaWiki
Contents |
Stats
Male Elf Rogue 3
Str 16, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10
Defenses:
AC - 18 Fort - 14 Ref - 17 Will - 13
Health:
Hit Points - 39
Bloodied - 19
Healing Surges/day - 7
Healing Surge - 9
Initiative - +5 Speed - 7 (Wild Step)
Trained Skills: Acrobatics (+10), Athletics (+10) Bluff (+6), Perception (+9), Stealth (+11), Thievery (+10), Nature (+3), Religion (+3)
Feats: Toughness, Backstabber
Features: First Strike, Brutal Scoundrel, Rogue Weapon Talent, Sneak Attack 2d8, Group Awareness
Exploits:
At Will:
Deft Strike
Piercing Strike
Encounter
King's Castle
Bait and Switch
Daily
Blinding Barrage
Utility
Tumble
Equipment:
3x Daggers, 2x +1 Frost Daggers, 20x Shuriken, 5x +1 Magic Shuriken, Hand Crossbow (25), +1 Sylvan Leather Armor, Adventurer's Kit, Thieves Tools, Climbing Tools, 5x Flashbombs, 2x Smokesticks, 15x Bloodstinger Poison
Background
Foundling
Ebon has no memory of who he was or what he was doing before the age of three. Not many do, of course, or even if they do, they acknowledge that their “memory” of these formative years is entirely the product of what their elders describe to them. Ebon knows of no one living who knew him back then, and so he possesses no knowledge of that time. All he does know is that his parents and everyone else who might have constituted the family of his birth is dead.
Few outside of the small elven community even knew the war was going on. It was a tribal dispute, a struggle over territory, really. Ebon’s birth family were defending their lands against incursions by orc tribes who were abusing the forest, cutting down trees and hunting various species into extinction. It was a cold war, really, a delicate matter of drawing borders and keeping peace while not giving up the virtues core to each side.
No one is sure how things changed. A particular orc clan, less-inclined toward maintaining stability, took power in the region, and decided that regardless of the needs of their people, allowing the elf-kin to keep them at bay at all was an insult to their honor. They acquired the services of a demon-sworn warlock, and with the help of his infernal power, they razed the elf community to the ground.
A band of adventurers was nearby, and happened to see the smoke rising from the woods. They rode to investigate, or to assist if it seemed plausible, but by the time they arrived, it was over. Everyone was dead. Searching through the smoldering ruins of the small town, they were surprised to find that, even amidst all this carnage, one small elven toddler had survived.
Witness and the Moonshadow Clan
They were unsure what to do at first, when unexpectedly the party’s thief offered to take the child under his wing. This particular rogue was a long-time companion to these adventurers, and though they all had been through enough with him to trust him completely, they were all aware that he had a rather…secretive manner. All were sure he had ulterior motives for caring for the infant, but they had no choice in the matter – none of them could do the job.
Soon after the group parted ways for a time, and the thief, whose name was known only as Witness, took the child back to the nearby human city, where he made his home. There he took the young elf to the headquarters of the Moonshadow, the elite clan of assassins to whom he belonged. The boy, whom Witness named Ebon, was fostered to the Moonshadow, with Witness as his patron “father” in the organization. And so Ebon was raised entirely among men and women whose trade was death, and whose skill in this trade was unmatched. He was the brat of the clan, everyone’s nephew or little brother or son, and his upbringing, though unusual, was fairly solid.
Witness was always his favorite, and to his credit, the man was as good a father as he could be, given that he was away 7 out of every 10 days. He trained Ebon personally whenever he was around, but the boy received lessons in the fine art of professional killing from damn near anyone in the clan who spent more than a day or two at the HQ he called home. The Moonshadow were not evil…they were worshippers of Erathis, the God of Civilization. They were consummate professionals, with strict rules against killing true innocents, and were mostly employed by the churches of good deities and local governments to remove threats to everyone’s safety. They were incredibly secretive, and treated the art of assassination as a reverential experience – an administration of justice and the glory of a skilled kill.
Graduation
When Ebon was 14 his training was deemed near complete, and he was taken out on his first job by Witness. Things were going smoothly, right up until the deed needed to be done…and Ebon hesitated. Though the target was a slum lord who had been tormenting a poor neighborhood for years, he paused before making the killing stroke, giving the man a moment to slip free, and shout for the guards. Witness cut him down moments later, but it was too late – the game was up, and within moments the two were fleeing for their lives from dozens of well-armed and well-trained soldiers.
In a desperate attempt to save the life of his adoptive son, Witness flung himself into the pursuing crowd. Ebon watched in horror as his mentor was chopped to ribbons, barely able to muster the will to flee back the Moonshadow’s hidden headquarters. It seemed, for a moment, that he would be safe. A failure, and less his only real family, but at least alive. Then, suddenly, the tromping of boots came from above and around – the guards had managed to trail Ebon back to the headquarters! The clan scrambled to make an escape, but Ebon told them all to stop.
There was an icy glare to his eyes, a glinting cast that sent a chill down the spine of even the most battle hardened of all the assassins. Ebon had always been a more straightforward killer, his style more about overpowering a target with superior combat skills rather than ambushing them stealthily.
Without a sound, Ebon crept to the hidden exit, and slipped out. Minutes passed, and the clan his in fear, waiting for one of the guards to find the secret entrance and expose them all. Suddenly there was a crash, a scream, and a heavy thud. Silence. Several more minutes passed, an agonizing wait. Suddenly the door flung open, and there stood Ebon, covered in blood with a nasty gash has across his face. The young elf stared at the clan for a long moment, and then sank to his knees. His hands fell open, and the clan saw that he was clutching something – a bandolier style belt, containing five long daggers.
“They had father’s daggers…couldn’t let them keep em.”
For his skilled defense of the clan’s security, Ebon was made a sworn brother of the clan the next day, branded with one of their tattoos.
Today
7 years later Ebon is still a skilled killer, one of the best in his clan. The death of Witness and the traumatic experience following left him a grim and humorless professional, though he still harbors affection for and a fervent dedication to Moonshadow, the only family he ever really knew. As he grew he gave himself the surname Dermeer, so as to better blend into society as a whole, but an elf with a human name still occasionally generates odd questions. Recently, however, Ebon is feeling like the city is stagnating him, causing his skills to lapse and plateau – there is nothing new here, nothing interesting, and he’s starting to take his daily life for granted. He wants Witness’s daggers to see the wonders they once had, in the world beyond the walls.
Appearance
Ebon does not possess the robust coloring of most elves, probably because he spends most days indoors and only goes out at night. He is small for his age, lean and sharp with wiry, lithe muscle. His hair is a very dark brown and is worn short, kept roughly trimmed by means of his daggers, yet another thing that differentiates him from his fellow elven kind. His face is plain, not ugly, but not particularly memorable, with the exception (for humans) of his incredibly bright violet eyes.
He dressed primarily in dark grey and white, the colors of clan. His leather protective gear is elf-made, acquired and fitted for him by a traveling armorsmith who had been contracted by the clan to outfit their newest members. It is a very dark grey with a white enamel filigree in fluid, sylvan patterns that break up Ebon's outline and provide some camouflage whether in the city or in the wild. Under his cloak, the outfit is very form-fitting to allow for maximum mobility. Over all of this, he almost always wears a long black cloak that completely covers him. This can serve as camouflage, a blanket, or many other uses.
At any given time, Ebon is carrying all five of Witness's daggers, in concealed sheathes in various locations. (2 across his lower back, 2 hilt downward on his chest, one on his hip.) He also has a folding hand crossbow on his other hip, 5 shurikens attached to his left bracer, and 20 more in a belt pouch.