I've gotta Admit, this character competes with my old 2nd edition ranger Lupine log rolling the dragon or my champions character Warhead taking a nosedive for being fun and memorable. He really started out being a really one sided damage monkey but the final result was a worth while fun and memorable run. The only thing missing was the showdown with "Team Heroes" and "Team Evil" that we were supposed to have but wasn't meant to be, but the tension of it looming over our heads had a lot to do with the campaign being so memorable. I just loved the concept of RPing and playing against other group of pen and paper D&D players.
I thought I'd have some fun and post the Characters. This just made me realize that I never wrote up a Character Description for Yak. He's pretty wacky and needs one, especially considering last session we realized that Yak is Both Big Bird and Mr Snufulupigus. XD
Lo'Mak'
The Raging Hell Reaver
Physical Description:
Lo'Mak is big for a Goliath, he stands eight and a half feet tall and is close to six hundred pounds of pure muscle covered by skin that is a light grey with tiger like dark green stripes, has no hair, and bright green eyes. The only visible lithoderms he has are on his arms and neck. His clothes are a deep blue plaid kilt pleated and made of a wool material that feels silky to the touch and wrapped it over his left shoulder with a pleated tail hanging off the back and is held up by a black belt with a large buckle that is gold and platinum with red Sapphire's set to spell out "Lo'Mak," two small silver skulls, a large bag, a golden scepter of elven craftsmanship and markings set with over a dozen green emeralds and a large Diamond at it's base hang from his belt. What appear to be a pair of bladeless foot long silvery rune stitched mitheral and black pearl sword hilts of exquisite quality are tucked into his belt (they are actually two large brilliant energy long swords, think light sabers or thundarr's sun sword and yes they're from the Mariliths that killed him.) A flowing dark green tunic over his bright mitheral breast plate is laced with gold and silver has a prominent symbol of Kavaki on the chest. Around his neck dozens of gold and silver necklaces with various pendants and gems (including a holy symbol of Kavaki, the medallions of Knight protector of Furyondy/Veluna, Knight protector of Greyhawk, & the Hero of Greyhawk medallion all of which are made of gold and platinum and covered in gems,) bandoleers of scores of potions hangs across his chest. His bear skin head dress is a brown bearskin head of a bear that canopy's his neck and shoulders and wears dark brown moccasins laced with gold. His cloak is a brown bear skin fur of unusual softness hangs just past his waist with a pair of fox tails adorning each shoulder of the cloak and from the left shoulder hangs what appears to be a stuffed cat sized black dragon. Slung on his back is a worn brown pack and a large black quiver with golden embroidering that indicates an elven origin. His sword "The Black Dragon" is an impressive sight, a great-sword over 10 feet tall and made of adamantite with the pommel literally being made up of the skin and scales of a black dragon with the head and jaws cleverly built into the guard and a bright green emerald at it's base. He is also immune to fire and can Breaths a 40ft cone of fire like a dragon (every 1d4 rds.)
NOTE: His gold trimmed clothes and jewelry from the Rod of Splendor are temporary and become mundane if the rod or clothes are removed.
(Great Excuse to pimp him out)
Personality:
One of the Founding Members of the Black Dragons, Lomak is wild at heart but has a keen sense of righteousness but can be overconfident to a fault. The group decided it needed a name during the time that LoMak strangled his second black dragon that makes up the handle of his sword, the first he arrogantly hangs from the shoulder of his cloak for all dragons to see(One of the guys got me to do that so I could honestly say my 1st level character strangled a dragon, I got lucky and had two opportunities at low levels.)
His Goliath upbringing has left him quite naive in many ways he lacks any real comprehension behind the real motivations of greed and envy but can just as easily identify it when he sees it. He has become quite fond of Aria, a friend of Merak's Daughter Gabrielle created by the deck of many things. The two are ruled by the moment and their passions and are quite a match. Many might be offended by the fact that they have not been wed but to Lo'Mak marriage is a foreign custom that he does not feel comfort able with. In Goliath custom if two are meant to be together they will be. The idea of Children and parentage is also quite different to Lo'Mak and Gabrielle's sudden growth to adulthood was quite a culture shock to Lo'Mak normally there are no parents or siblings only elders and everyone pitches in to raise and guide the children in Goliath custom. But she completely bi passed childhood and was born with all the knowledge and wisdom of a young adult so did she really have any elders? She considers herself Lo'Mak's niece while Lo'Mak has trouble with the concept has come to think of her as part of the Black Dragon's Tribe so to speak but is he really an elder to her since he didn't help raise her? Being a Goliath the Tribe and Family are synonymous but never the less he guesses it's okay. It's no more unnatural than his own immortality he supposes.
One of the reasons I thought it important to post LoMak's misunderstandings of Human Culture and such was that as players we thought it would have been fun if LoMak had hooked up with Gabrielle the Daughter of Merak making Marek LoMAk's father. As a player I thought it would have been fun and as a character LoMak would not have seen an issue with it. Ultimately the DM put his foot down on that "No she's not going to make out with Uncle LoMak!" and I'm good with that. But going with this was the idea behind why we made LoMak IMMORTAL! Gabrielle's fiendish heritage gives her immortality so LoMak drank a potion of Immortality from Castle Greyhawk and then later Hugo used one of his wishes from Castle Greyhawk to grant LoMak the Timeless body ability. Effectively making him truly immortal the idea being he could then spend eternity with Gabrielle and watch over Merak who reincarnates being part of the order of the Jade Phoenix. Now he can spend eternity with Aria and still help Gabrielle and Laurazhi watch out for the Reincarnated Merak. He has also sworn duty to watch out for Laurazhi as their 'forced rehabilitation' of the Succubus (Used an artifact level cursed item to change her alignment to lawful good, Merak figured giving her a conscience would be a more fitting punishment than killing her.) Many Demon hunters would not care that her heart is no longer blackened and so LoMak must stay vigilant through the centuries seeing to her safety.
Although Lo'Mak is certainly no tactician and makes no bones about the fact that he does not think in terms of strategic movements of troops and armies thinking ahead like a game of chess and such, his element is in the moment. He is a master huntsman and in combat to him it's less about strategic maneuvers as it is about instinct and it's fair to say that LoMak's strategic prowess is similar to that of the great hunting cats and predatory animals. He can read the lay of the land to prepare for or spot trap in the wild that no strategic thinker would consider, often catching them off guard. His favored prey is not of nature though. It is hunting fiends. Ever since Marek's wife Larazhi bested them in combat and charmed LoMak making him kill his friend the Kavin Cleric of Hironius, LoMak has studied his prey extensively transforming himself into a Hellreaver, a warrior who specializes in slaying Demons and Devils. He has gotten so good at hunting their trails he can literally feel the presence of any fiend near him.
When LoMak enters a state of Rage however all those tactical instincts are well utilized when he releases the the beast within him. His reckless abandon has nearly cost him his life on several occasions but his unquestionable raw power that few creatures can match has no doubt saved his allies on many more occasions by attracting the fire of their enemies or putting them down in short order or both. However due to LoMak's personal combat experiences oddly he finds fighting strategically to be a flawed and foolish way to fight. When ever he enters the fray and he's not in a state of Rage he usually looses. This has now happened to him exactly twice. Once when the group was betrayed by Marek's wife the Succubus Larazhi and then again when LoMak was defeated by the Marilith with the light saber.
On Another note... LoMak has a very competitive spirit and is legendary for asking anybody and everybody from gladiators, kings, to clerics of Kord or Baccob if they want to Arm wrestle (of course clerics of Kord tend to love the big guy since he actually presents a challenge for them) weather it's the right time for it festivals and bar rooms or at the most inappropriate moments, dinner banquets and noble events ect. LoMak has gotten better about when it is appropriate or not but he just dosn't understand many of what he considers the wacky human customs. Many a time Marek and Bart could be over hears saying 'let the wookie win.' I do a pretty good wookie so it stuck.
Lo'Mak' and Aria have a their own keep called Freehold near Songhold where they can often be found with their tiger cubs Tiger and Tiggy. It is not as structured a place as Songhold nor is it anywhere near as gigantic a castle as Songhold, there are no regular patrols and no stationed guards. Indeed freehold is very much a wild frontier and attracts free spirits, wanderers, and sometimes those who have no where else to go. Many a raider would confuse it with a place that would be an easy mark only to discover the rangers and druids who have have hidden themselves well throughout the countryside of Freehold calling it home, and are quick to keep LoMak informed of potential dangers they can't handle themselves. I like to think Freehold has the flavor of the "Bear Country Jamboree" it's got that rugged frontier flavor and when you get down to it where LoMak and Yak are involved there's something surreal about it, even to those who call it home.
Lo'Mak's PDF Files (Using Google Docs now)
The Juicy stuff (Like his potienal 16d6+106 Damage Attack and +58 to hit) is on the Last Sheet.
Yak (the NPC)
Ummm... Are you aware you guys have an elephant with a bears claws and yak horns in your party?
LoMak's Noble Steed... Plfftt... Yeah, Sure.
Originally at 1st level looking at all the mounts we realized that LoMak was just damned too heavy for any standard mount, even a heavy war horse. So we found that you could add the warbeast template to anything which is basically where the warhorse stats come from. Add the warbeast to a horse and viola or in this Case add war beast to Bison and you've got the closest thing to a WarYak you can get and thus started the endless Mongo Impersonations. Well at the time we were 1st level and even at 1st level LoMak was already ridiculously strong with a 28 Strength when he raged even so he was absolutly no match for Yak. Yak was by far the most powerful thing in the party. Which is what got the legends of Yakdom started and the running joke about how Uber Yak is, there was a hint of truth too it.
So that's why we had Yak in the group, then later the group realized we had need a rear guard guarding the entrance to the places we adventure. Then Marek realized if we awaken Yak He'll be the perfect guard so we did it. He'll be totally inconspicuous and can stay hidden simply by staying quite. LoMak has the ability to actually speak with animals so when Yak was awakened he already considered LoMak a good friend. However Yak's calling was that of nature and not LoMak's moral high ground, it just wasn't his way. The other Joke about Yak was saying that Yak IS Team Neutral, after we were 10 to 12th level and found a Deck of Many Things and Yak pulled from the Deck and skyrocketed past everyone to 19th level by time he was done witht he Deck of Many things. So for a while there Yak actually would have pwned both Team Heroes and Team Evil maybe even at the same time. He hasn't really changed much since then though now that Team Heroes has caught up to his level he is among equals once more. Inside Joke: It was also about this time a running Joke got started that Yak was "The Keeper of the God Points," yeah okay actually that kinda fit well at the time. There was also a little known issue of Yak's willingness to sell out the elves if necessary to pacify the Hobgoblin threat in the Wild Coast. The Hobgoblin lack of self sufficiency meant they needed to raid burn pillage ect and in turn had no understanding of maintaining a harmonious balance with their enviornment. The opportunity to nurture a Hobgoblin balance with nature was something that Yak would see done at what ever cost was needed.
So anyway now years Later Yak is probably one of the most powerful druids on Oreth. He's not an ordinary druid he's a warshaper he can create claws and natural weapons in forms that normally don't have them he uses his "Ferocious Slayer" form when in combat usually takes the form of a Huge Elephant with Bear Claws and Yak Horns. A truly frightening sight to any one sane. He's using the shapechanger variant from the PHB2 and I'm loving it for it's simplicity. You get a set set of bonus' and can wing exactly what your changing into to suit your flavor, this fits very well with warshaper Yak can be any natural form or any combination of natural forms if I wanted for that matter. He Also often takes the form of a Giant Yak Horned Eagle when speed is needed in "Avian" Form Which although is not quite as fast as a Dragon does have perfect maneuverability. Having a Giant Bird and Elephant forms kinda makes Yak both Big Bird and Mr Snufalupogus. LoMak does not ride Yak anymore although LoMak is actually just as fast as Yak and can can actually do a forced march for far longer then Yak. Besides the last time LoMak fought from Yak's back to get a little extra reach to hit a spider on the ceiling, Yak entered a cave while running chasing a spider but the cave entrance was just barely big enough for him alone and LoMaks face made an imprint in the webbed wall over the entrance just before he hit the ground (not how it really happened but it catches the flavor better.)
Yak has now left his buddy LoMak and retired to the Barren's where the Local's worship him as the Demi-God that he is. :)
Most Importantly, Lets Put Cleaning up after Yak in perspective 8D
Yak's PDF File (Using Google Docs now)
Like LoMak the Juicy stuff with Yak's Gross numbers (like where his 40 Strength comes from) is on the Last Sheet.
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