Pathfinder. Dhampir Shaman (Life spirit)
I originally created Snowfoot about 8 months ago for a campaign that never got off the ground. Rediscovering him motivated me to create this thread. If we ever get to playing that Winter Witch campaign after Runelords, he could make a really fit there I think. That is, if I haven't come up with 18 other equally interesting possibilities in the intervening three years.
The concept here is a dhampir healer who, ironically, cannot heal himself. He will have limited fighting ability and low hit points, and probably be kinda cowardly in practice. Very emo.
My name is Setsuke, but I have been known only as Snowfoot most of my life.
My father died when an ox kicked him in the head. Four months later, my mother, heavy with child, was bitten by a jiang shi. A filthy, shaggy vampire-witch that dwelt beneath the snow around our mountain village. Kodo, our healer, nursed her back to health, but she wasn’t the same. Or so they tell me. My mother died bringing me into this world, and immediately, Kodo knew that I bore the taint of the grave. Aswanigami, she called me… half-vampire… daywalker… dhampir.
But Kodo was a stubborn old fool. She was intent on saving me from the darkness. She surrounded me with the magicks of life and worked to infuse me with vital energy, to drive out the stain around my soul. She even severed a portion of her patron spirit, a grand, glowing, rainbow-colored eagle that the people called Komada… giver. That new-formed spirit thing became Omichi, my own guardian spirit. But where Komada had been master of the air, filling the sky when Kodo worked her magic, my Omichi was small and tentative and timid, a snow rabbit like the ones that lived all around us. But timid or not, Omichi has not left my side in the century since that day.
That was a surprise, by the way—realizing that I did not age. Kodo did not succeed in “curing” me, but thanks to her efforts, I can walk boldly in the daylight like a normal human. Not that anyone would ever mistake me for a normal human. Kodo raised me as her own, but she was old. She died when I was 14. After that, I lived with her grandson Kenzo and together we studied to be healers. Or rather, Kenzo studied, and I just followed along, putting in as little effort as possible. Kenzo became one of the greatest leaders of our village, and it is thanks to him, I suppose, that they didn’t drive me away sooner than they did. But Kenzo was mortal as well, and he eventually died. That left me nearly 100 years old and still looking and acting like a spoiled petulant teenager. I withdrew from the world to be with my spirits, living off the kindness of the village. But eventually, they came to see me as a freeloader (which I was) and worse than that, a token of bad fortune (which I might have been). Not long after that, it became clear that staying there was no longer in my best interest.
I have wandered from town to town, nation to nation, eking out a living where I can, usually by theft. But my powers are growing. Things are changing. I still do whatever I have to, but more often now, I can peddle my healing skills to others for a little profit. I managed to stow away on a ship, and my healing power saved me from being thrown overboard when they found me. The captain’s favorite mistress was gravely ill, and I promised I could heal her, if only they didn’t kill me. It turns out I wasn’t lying. I was as surprised as anyone.
And that’s how I was brought to this place. Or at least, that’s how I was brought to this town. Stealing from a temple is what got me to this particular cell, I suppose. But I don’t plan to be here long.Statistics: Posted by Mike — Wed Sep 07, 2016 9:32 am
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