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Liam Tesanqua
From PagodaWiki
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Stats
Male Human Monk Level 2/Swordsage Level 2
Str 18, Dex 16, Con 11, Int 13, Wis 18, Cha 10
Hit Points 32, Initiative +8, Speed 30ft, AC 21, Base Attack Bonus +4, Saves: Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +8
Attack
Unarmed +10 attack 2d8+11 Critx2
Flurry +8/+8 attack 2d8+11 Critx2
Skills
Balance +11, Climb +11, Hide +10, Jump +7, Concentration +11, Move Silently +11, Spot +11, Sense Motive +11, Tumble +11
Feats
Improved Unarmed Strike, Dodge, Combat Reflexes, Stunning Fist, Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike), Adaptive Style, Shadow Blade, Superior Unarmed Strike, Improved Natural Attack, Extra Readied Maneuver
Special
Bonus AC, Flurry of Blows, Evasion, Quick to Act +1
Flaws
Frail (-1 HP each level), Shaky (-2 to Ranged Atk)
Maneuvers
Burning Blade, Stone Bones, Wolf Fang Strike, Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Sudden Leap, Counter Charge, Cloak of Deception
Stances
Child of Shadow, Assassins Stance
Planned Character Progression
Background
Early Years
When Liam Tesanqua was 9 years old, his older brother murdered their mother before his very eyes.
9 is a hard age to experience such a tragedy. He was old enough to understand completely, to truly feel the cold agony of grief and rage crawling through his bowels, but he was far too young to actually do anything about it. Never mind that he was the younger son and bastard child of a disgraced noblewoman, without a whit of influence or prayer of aid coming from anywhere. His blood was too dense for the peasantry to want him, and his blood was too tainted for his mother's relations to acknowledge him.
And so the oldest true memories Liam has are of rage, and fear, and hunger. Cast out of all human society, he began to descend toward something less than human - a beast, a feral creature guided by little more than its appetite and its mighty terror of things that are not itself. For nearly a year he survived as a street-urchin, stealing rotting bread and sleeping in gutters.
Way of the Shadowsun
When he was 11, there was a military coup in his home country. The change meant little to street people, at least at first, but then the new governor of their city decided to crack down on vagrancy, and within two weeks Liam found himself being collared by the guards and thrown into a dank prison cell. For hours he raged and foamed and tore his hands bloody trying to break through the thick stone walls and iron bars.
It wasn't until he had finally collapsed to the floor, chest heaving with the pangs of exhaustion, that he noticed the shadow looming out of the corner. A hugely tall shape emerged from the darkness and approached him, menacing with every step. Liam closed his eyes and screamed, and was surprised when he wasn't gutted instantly. Cautiously his eyelids lifted, peering at what he now saw was a man...or something like a man, at least. He was built as a man, but was green-skinned and long-toothed like one of the orc-kin he'd heard whispered of. Rangy muscles rippled under ragged clothing as the stranger silently waited for Liam to calm down, and then folded his long legs under himself and sat, looking at the boy.
His name, it turned out, was Daghan, and he had been placed in this cell for brigandry approximately 10 years ago. Daghan and Liam struck up a friendship, and it quickly turned out that the old half-orc was quite a bit more than a simply highwayman.
When he had still been welcome within the orc tribe that had raised him, Daghan's birthright had been the traditions of the legendary orken Blackblades, the martial adept students of the Sublime Way, primarily the Way of the Shadow Hand. This was an ancient and mysterious combatative art, and Daghan was secretly one of its highest masters. As he was getting on in years, he finally decided that he could not allow his ancient ways to die, and so he began to tame and restore Liam's sanity by teaching and training him the Shadow Hand.
This went on, in the bowels of the city dungeon, for a few years. At this point Liam's training had reached a level where Daghan decided that he could no longer be constrained by the small cell, and so the two of them staged a daring jailbreak. Soon they were free, out of the city, and wandering the open roads. Master and pupil hid themselves in the woods along the major highway, and Liam's training continued day and night. As he improved, he and Daghan began engaging in his former activity - highway robbery. This gave them the money they needed to feed and clothe themselves, though Liam eventually noticed something odd - Dagahn never actually took anything himself. Indeed, he seemed almost sad every time they raided a caravan or a stagecoach and would brood for hours or even days after each take.
Later Daghan began to explain to Liam his reservations - he had originally begun banditry as a way of refining the art of the Shadow Hand, sowing confusing and interrupting order for its own sake, but in later years had grown to also love the things that he was taking, in and of themselves. There was a problem with this, a way in which it went against the Sublime Way...
Unfortunately, Daghan never got to finish his explanation, for at that point their hidden camp was found and raided by a party of adventurers that had been hired by the unscrupulous merchants guild to take them out. The two fought fiercely, but they lost the fight. The two escaped the losing battle and staggered away into the night, and later Dagahn died of his wounds. Liam found himself once more alone in the world.
But this time he was better prepared. He could fight, and he could take life with ease when he so desired. The old rage began building in him again, and he swore revenge on all those that had wronged him - the adventurers, the city, the merchants guild, the nobility, and his elder brother. The Sublime Way of the Shadow Hand would guide him to destroying all those who had wronged him, and enable him to gain his rightful place in the world.
He began to become a plague on the region, a violent shadow of death that raided farms, wrecked caravans, and stole or destroyed millions of gold worth of property. And this was just a preliminary. Soon enough, heroes and nobility from the realm began to come hunting for him, and he killed them, stalking them in the woods and eliminating them with his ever-developing techniques one by one. Within a few years his actions had bankrupted the merchants guild, and the city lapsed into a economic depression.
As the months passed, there was less and less targets available, and Liam's rage subsided somewhat. He reconsidered all the things that he had done, meditating on them daily. Daghan had tried to instill some of the deeper philosophies of the Sublime in him, but Liam had ever been about the physical. In short, the truths of his nature and the nature of his life and his abilities was something he had to figure out entirely by himself. As much as he regretted some of the actions he had taken, he also understood that they had been, in many ways, necessary. He had simply gone too far.
The following night another caravan passed through the woods. Liam attacked it from the Shadows, as usual, but quickly realized he'd made a terrible mistake. The covered wagon contained no goods or simply passengers - no, instead, even as he attacked, nine people sprung suddenly from it, attacking him instantly. He was overpowered in seconds. His assailants were unknowable, but each used a different fighting style and unique weapons, and he quickly realized that they were all masters of the Sublime Way. As he lay moaning on the ground, brutally beaten, the nine stood in a circle around him.
"Wonder who taught him?" A voice says.
"One of Ryuubi's, I think. There were some Orcs out this way who had learned..."
"Enough. He is of Ryuubi's line, but he knows other Ways as well. Something that will have to be looked into. Still, lets be done with it...." The last speaker nodded at one of the nine, and this person stepped forward into Liam's vision.
It was a half-orc, like Daghan, wearing enameled black leathers and an extremely ragged cloak.
"Greetings youngling. I'm Ryuubi. I, like whoever taught you, am a master of the Sublime Way, and a member of the Shadowsun Ninja Clan. You seem to have some knowledge of our ways. We would like to teach you more...and perhaps, give you some greater understanding of the ways of the adept."
Current
Now he seeks to undo his past evils, and change completely. He still clings to his dark nature, and some habits are difficult to overcome, but Liam is true to his dedication to good. To further his understanding of his own duality, he has sworn himself to the way of the Shadowsun Ninja, seeking enlightenment in the virtuous righteousness of good actions, and in the mental focus of the Sublime Way. An he has already begun to realize that this true path is leading him to greater power.
The Shadowsun Ninja are martial artists who exist to study the balance between good and evil, using both dark and light energies to explore their inner nature and find the true strength of good within themselves. They recognize that there is no such thing as true purity, and it is in the understanding of the necessity to choose to good on a daily basis that forms an individual into a true force of light. A full initiate of the Shadowsun knows that evil lurks in the heart of all creatures, but that denying one's base impulses would be the same as not using a particular limb.
Liam adventures out of a need to understand his own nature and destiny, and to redeem himself from his past actions. He also believes that improving his skills in the Sublime Way will further purify him of his former corruption. A portion of any gold he finds he sends back to the township that he ravaged for so many years. He typically adventures to destroy evil (his vengeance kick hasn't been shaken yet), to learn new secrets of The Sublime Way, as a representative of the Shadowsun, or to better understand the nature of the Shadow power he wields, and how it relates to his path towards good. He has also begun attempting to track down his older brother.
Appearance
Liam is now 20, and his appearance is extremely odd, a mixture of the holy wisdom and traces of glory that he has gained due to his sacred vows and close relationship to a guardinal nymph, and the dark ravages of his shadowy martial discipline. He is handsome, with pale skin and raven blue-black hair that he wears in a long ponytail. Typically he wears a light black leather and velvet "ninja suit," close fitting garb that allows him to move easily and stealthily about.
Particular identifying marks include his eyes, which are milky white-blue as though he was blind, and a strange tattoo that looks like a black dragon on the inside of his forearm - a symbol, Daghan had said when he gave it to him, of their discipline.