Dorcas Lancaster, Human Barbarian

Kazan Petracca

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, in the Ordawn Empire there was a dwarf named Kazan Petracca. A forward-thinking veteran of border raids and skirmishes, Kazan Petracca was known and admired for his ingenuity on the battlefield, earning himself a position to speak among the respected officials of the dwarven warrior class. However, upon exercising his privileges, his peers and contemporaries quickly found his forward-thinking tendencies distasteful and undiplomatic. His outspoken belief that the practice of slavery should be immediately decried and abandoned was especially problematic -- for even though the dwarves did not traditionally practice slavery, the larger part of the Empire did; and besides, dwarves hate half-orcs.

The final straw came when Kazan Petracca began to lobby publicly for the reintegration of exiled, or dishonored dwarves into the larger part of dwarven society. The [dwarven parliament??] ruled that Kazan Petracca had abused the privileges of his station and purposefully sowed dissention among the public. And so, Kazan Petracca was stripped of his rank and accolades, and summarily exiled. His wardens marched him to the port of Saltcliff, placed him on the first ship to nowhere, and sent him on his merry way.

Not long bereft, Kazan Petracca made himself useful and soon gained the sailor’s trade. With nowhere to call home, he worked on the same merchant vessel for several weeks without a particular direction or purpose. However, his luck eventually turned -- for both better and worse.

A month into his new station, Kazan Petracca’s merchant vessel was attacked by pirates from [another place other than the Ordawn Empire] off the coast of an abandoned island. Kazan Petracca’s ship was run aground, the keel broken, and the fight moved to the beach. During the battle Kazan Petracca went toe-to-toe with the pirate captain, wielding a heavy wooden oar. His years as a border patrol leader had served him well, and he split the pirate’s skull open and painted his brains on the beach.

The pirate crew, while having killed most of the merchant crew and their captain, panicked at the sight of their dead leader, and attempted to flee. However, upon re-boarding their ship, they found that they had beached themselves as well. It was a standoff. A very awkward standoff.

Kazan Petracca gave the pirates an ultimatum: either follow his orders, or continue the most awkward standoff in maritime history. At length, lacking the manpower and leadership to push their craft off into the water, the pirates agreed.

And so, Kazan Petracca found himself in command of the Cursed Blade, along with thirty-odd pirates and seven pirates-to-be.


The Lancasters

The Cursed Blade, as it turned out, was a well-known pirate vessel among the Imperial Navy, and Kazan Petracca was hard-pressed to find honest work for his crew. His first raid as a pirate emerged out of necessity, when dwindling food supplies brought morale low enough to court mutiny. To his surprise, upon raiding his first Empire trading vessel, he found that a) it wasn’t too hard to keep casualties down as long as you killed all the enemy marines quickly and gave the crew a chance to surrender, b) the Empire had much to spare in the way of riches, c) he kind of enjoyed it, and d) it gave him a chance to free slaves, depending on the cargo and destination of the ship.



Because he couldn’t dock at any of the Empire’s ports, he usually ferried newly-freed slaves to [nation to the south], or, if they were too far away, pirate some lifeboats and let them limp to the Empire’s shores. A slave with good seamanship was allowed to join his crew.

Slave traffic in the Empire was mostly half-orc or some other non-majority race, but in some cases, it was not unheard of for humans to be sold into servitude.

One such occasion brought Kazan Petracca face-to-face with Gerard Lancaster and his young daughter, Dorcas.

Gerard had been the head of a noble family in the faraway Principality of Aer, which had been savagely attacked by its neighboring Principality of Rela. For leading the resistance, he had been clapped in chains and sold into slavery along with his daughter. However, a long journey, harsh treatment, and depression had ravaged his health, and Gerard did not live to see landfall.

Dorcas, heartbroken, clung to Kazan Petracca’s leg for the better part of a night. By morning, Kazan Petracca had come up with plans to send her to shore in a lifeboat with the brightest half-orc of the bunch he had just freed (INT score of 9) and hope to high heaven that the girl could find a way to fend for herself in Waveshore. As you may expect, after gazing into her tearful blue eyes, he found he could not go through with it -- so he adopted her.

(Eventually, the pirates also liberated a physician who had been captured and sold into slavery, so he became the ship’s doctor and also a tutor for Dorcas).


Pirate Years

At first, Dorcas did little but wash things and prepare food in the galley, but as the months went by she learned the sailor’s trade from the crew, and made a decent ship’s hand. She was a little girl when she joined, and half of the crew doted on her, and the other half chose to ignore her. More often than not, she was rushed below decks during raids and confined to the galley for hours after.

Of course, being the only female on a pirate ship had its disadvantages, and as Dorcas grew older she gained more and more attention from the non-doting half of the crew. Kazan Petracca, indeed protective of his adoptive daughter, dunked many a head into a water casket over the course of several years. Knowing better than to trust to the integrity of a pirate crew, he also began instructing Dorcas to defend herself. These incidents culminated one day when a lecherous new-join made a drunken attempt to force himself upon Dorcas. In a trice, she had taken the nearest oar and split his skull open, decorating the planks with his brains in much the same manner her adoptive father once had.

From then on, she slept only with whom she wanted, when she wanted.

This marked the true beginning of her career as a pirate. Having earned the fearful respect of her shipmates, she was allowed to participate in the raids, and set to her new pastime with relish, enjoying the work of liberating both excess wealth and slaves, as she had once been.

Unfortunately for Dorcas, she proved horridly inept at both methods of boarding an enemy ship -- either swinging from ropes or boarding across planks. More often than not, she found herself tossed into the briny roiling water between the two ships, dodging oar strokes and calling out for a rope to whichever side could hear her. After the fourth such incident, Kazan Petracca decreed that she should just stay back and protect the Cursed Blade from enemy boarders instead.

Remembering her preternatural skill with an oar, the crew searched the lower decks for the one single heavy weapon aboard the ship -- an old, rusted greatsword -- and presented it to her in consolation. Dorcas took to it with zeal, becoming the ship’s one-woman counterboarding party, smashing enemy planks and swinging the huge hunk of metal and rust at incoming enemy marines on ropes. She grew attached to the weapon, polishing the rust away until it gleamed like new.


Separation

One fateful day, the Cursed Blade attacked a bait vessel off the coast of [whichever province where we start the campaign]. As the fight crossed the decks, an Imperial bireme jetted out from behind a bend and made straight for their ship. Kazan Petracca, by now a canny master of the sea, reacted quickly recalling his boarding teams and turning the ship to minimize the impact.

However, Dorcas’ luck with things such as ropes and balance was the same as ever, and even though the bireme’s ram caught the ship at an ineffectual angle, the impact jarred her from her footing and she plunged into the water, sword still strapped to her back and unused in the fight.

In the meantime, a second bireme appeared and began bearing straight for the Cursed Blade, and Kazan Petracca’s crew pushed themselves into full flight. Dorcas’ shouts went unheard in the tumult, and she was carried further and further away towards shore.

Too late, Kazan Petracca realized his daughter was nowhere to be found, and he frantically scanned the waters. He caught sight of sunlight glinting off her in the water, and knew they were too far by now. Praying to the gods for her safety, he shouted for his first mate.

In the water, Dorcas despairingly watched her ship fend off its pursuers. Her tears mingled with the salt water she was treading as she watched Kazan Petracca’s figure move about the aft deck. She did, though, have the presence of mind after a moment to notice that he was manning the aft ballista. With a distant -thump-, it sounded and a large projectile flew over her head towards the shore.

Soon, it became clear that they would not be coming back for her, and she and her father figure stared at each other across the water as the ships widened the distance. Eventually, she turned and swam towards the shore.

On the beach, she located the projectile -- a harpoon with a sack tied to it. Inside, she found blankets, dried food wrapped in oilskins, and firestarters. In one oilskin, she found something else -- a ring that Kazan Petracca had always worn. Setting her jaw against the loss she felt, she looped the ring onto a piece of leather and draped it around her neck as she watched the Imperial ships run the pirates into the sunset.

Later, after they passed across the horizon, she picked up the sack and set off grimly for [whatever port city is closest to where we start the campaign].


Alternate Racial Traits

Heart of the Sea: Having been taken from her childhood home relatively young, Dorcas has no roots on land, and spent most of her time as a young girl under the tutelage of her adoptive father’s pirate crew and the ship’s physician. (ARG 72) Dorcas receives a +2 racial bonus on Profession (sailor) and Swim checks, and can hold her breath twice as long as normal.
Character Traits

Dirty Fighter:

(APG 328) When Dorcas hits a foe she is flanking she deals an additional 1 point of damage (this damage is added to her base damage and is multiplied on a critical hit).
Enemy of Slavers: By upbringing and by trade, Dorcas loathes slavers and will attempt to free those she can. (KIS 26) Dorcas gains a +2 trait bonus on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks made to sway the minds of slavers and anyone who otherwise keeps innocent people against their will.


Class

While not a barbarian in the traditional “wild uncivilized savage” sense, Dorcas nonetheless takes the barbarian class in the sense of her untamed style of combat and unfamiliarity with culture. Her martial skill is adequately summarized as “getting really upset and wailing on things and people with that huge sword of hers”.


Notes

• Her greatsword, while featuring in her backstory, is not of special value -- only sentimental value. (When it was given to her, it was rusted and had a -1 to damage penalty, but she has since polished and sharpened it, bringing it back to normal-greatsword status).
• Kazan Petracca’s ring is not special either beyond sentimental value. If needed for campaign purposes, estimate its cost to be no more than that of an ordinary silver ring.
• Dorcas starts with basic leather armor that would be worn by pirates.

Dodge: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC.

Fast Learner: When you gain a level in a favored class, you gain both +1 hit point and +1 skill rank instead of choosing either one or the other benefit.

Power Attack: You can choose to take a –1 penalty on all melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +2 bonus on all melee damage rolls. This bonus to damage is increased by half (+50%) if you are making an attack with a two-handed weapon (...). When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every 4 points thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the bonus to damage increases by +2. You must choose to use this feat before making an attack roll, and its effects last until your next turn. The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage.

Cleave: As a standard action, you can make a single attack at your full base attack bonus against a foe within reach. If you hit, you deal damage normally and can make an additional attack (using your full base attack bonus) against a foe that is adjacent to the first and also within reach. You can only make one additional attack per round with this feat. When you use this feat, you take a –2 penalty to your Armor Class until your next turn.

Leadership: This feat enables you to attract a loyal cohort and a number of devoted subordinates who assist you. A cohort is generally an NPC with class levels, while followers are typically lower level NPCs.
-> Dorcas' Leadership score is 13 (10 + 1 fairness + 2 base)

Additional Traits: You gain 2 bonus traits.

Dirty Fighter: When you hit a foe you are flanking, you deal 1 additional point of damage (this damage is added to your base damage, and is multiplied on a critical hit). This additional damage is a trait bonus.

Worldly: You have acquired an unusual breadth of life experience—more than others of your age, race, or culture. Once per day when attempting a skill check for a skill you're untrained in, you can roll twice and take the better result.

Tactician: You know how to take advantage of enemies who are unprepared for your assault. You gain a +1 trait bonus on initiative checks. In addition, once per day when you make an attack of opportunity, you gain a +2 trait bonus on the attack roll.

World Traveler (Diplomacy): Your family has taken the love of travel to an extreme, roaming the world extensively. You've seen dozens of cultures and have learned to appreciate the diversity of what the world has to offer. You gain a +1 trait bonus on checks with Diplomacy, and it is always a class skill for you.

Superstition (Ex): The barbarian gains a +2 morale bonus on saving throws made to resist spells, supernatural abilities, and spell-like abilities. This bonus increases by +1 for every 4 levels the barbarian has attained. While raging, the barbarian cannot be a willing target of any spell and must make saving throws to resist all spells, even those cast by allies.

Animal Fury (Ex): While raging, the barbarian gains a bite attack. If used as part of a full attack action, the bite attack is made at the barbarian's full base attack bonus –5. If the bite hits, it deals 1d4 points of damage (assuming the barbarian is Medium; 1d3 points of damage if Small) plus half the barbarian's Strength modifier. A barbarian can make a bite attack as part of the action to maintain or break free from a grapple. This attack is resolved before the grapple check is made. If the bite attack hits, any grapple checks made by the barbarian against the target this round are at a +2 bonus.

Intimidating Glare (Ex): The barbarian can make an Intimidate check against one adjacent foe as a move action. If the barbarian successfully demoralizes her opponent, the foe is shaken for 1d4 rounds + 1 round for every 5 points by which the barbarian's check exceeds the DC.

Dragon Totem (Su): The barbarian must select a single color of dragon (black, blue, brass, bronze, copper, gold, green, red, silver, or white) as her totem. While raging, she gains a +1 bonus on Perception checks and a +1 morale bonus on saving throws against fear, paralysis, and sleep effects. This bonus increases by +1 for each additional dragon totem rage power (such as dragon totem resilience and dragon totem wings) the barbarian possesses.

Dragon Totem Resiliance (Su): While raging, the barbarian gains resistance to the energy type that is associated with her dragon totem—acid (black, copper, green), cold (silver, white), electricity (blue, bronze), or fire (brass, gold, red). This resistance equals double her current DR/— from her barbarian damage reduction class feature; this DR increases by 2 for each dragon totem rage power she possesses, including this one.