Jack Merriweather lived a happy childhood in a small village populated by humans. One bright morning, a man in a black, hooded robe walked into town. He bought a room at the inn and was never seen outside his room. Strangely, though, people started disappearing one after another. After the third disappearance, the townsfolk stormed into the in to confront the robed figure. They did not find the figure, but they did find the organs and skin of the victims hanging from the ceiling and lining the walls. Disturbed, they took down the remains and gave them proper burials.
But people didn’t stop disappearing. One by one, the population of the town disappeared. After several weeks, Jack and his parents were among the few adults that remained. They all huddled in the temple of Ilmater at the center of town. Eventually, they ran out of food and water, and were soon to weak to stand. At around this time, there came a great pounding on the grand, oaken doors to the temple. The pounding persisted for a day straight until the wood began to splinter.
The door eventually fell, and the zombified remains of the townsfolk burst through. Behind the small horde stood the black-hooded wanderer, his face hidden but for his long chin and sadistic smile. Jack hid inside the alter to Ilmater at the rear of the room, and prayed with all his might until long after all the sounds had disappeared. When he emerged, his vision was flooded with the image of all twelve people he was hiding with, including his parents, torn to shreds and half devoured by the undead fiends. It was then that his young mind snapped. Instead of screaming or crying as a normal child might, he began to smile softly and hum to himself as he pulled the hand-scythe his father brought for protection from the skull of a dead zombie and wrapped himself in the white and red robes of the dead cleric of Ilmater. Swearing revenge on the black-robed man, he began to whistle as he turned onto the road that led out of town.
I envision Jack starting out as a level 0 commoner, working as a minor page in a large temple of Ilmater in order to train as a cleric and gain access to their libraries. He has NO talent for the Divine arts, is useless as a scribe, and is looked upon with fear by the other pages and low-level clerics. When he does discover his affinity with Arcane magic, he BELIEVES that Ilmater has finally granted him Divine abilities, despite countless priests telling him otherwise. He devotes his life to worshipping his god and learning about the undead in order to defeat them more easily, but in the process, his mind is further corrupted by the dark nature of the magic. Eventually, he starts USING undead to further his goals.
Personality/Appearance:
Jack wears the white robes with red trim of a cleric of Ilmater. He has cleanly-trimmed blonde hair, and wide, innocent-looking blue eyes. He is always, ALWAYS smiling and laughing. Even when he’s in a battle, he’s laughing jovially as he cuts his enemies down. Initially, this trait is disarming, and people tend to trust him more. As they spend more time with him, they naturally become more and more creeped out. He tends to gather a bit of a mixed reputation wherever he travels. Those that spread tales of his exploits know him as The Merry Jackal.
He is fiercely devoted to Ilmater, and will seriously consider killing anyone who speaks ill against him. Jack has a very obsessive personality. He absorbs as much arcane and religious information as he can, and the more taboo, the better.
Motivations:
POWER is his main motivator. Anything he can do to cripple, debilitate, or terrify his enemies will be his strategy of choice. He has an innate need to make the people he judges undergo the same psychological torment that he felt when he was a child.
FAITH is his other motivator. He believes that he is a cleric of Ilmater, and that his spells are gifts from his god. He knows that his magic operates differently than that of other holy men, but he feels that this is because he was tested and chosen directly by Ilmater when he was a child to eliminate all undead. Another point to mention is that when he shows his true face, it’s clear to other people who are familiar with Ilmater that he is exactly the OPPOSITE of what Ilmater truly stands for.
GOALS: He has two primary goals: to find the black-robed man and torture him until he dies, and in the long term, to find a way to completely eradicate all undead, even if he has to sell his soul to do it.
Build:
He will be a variant of Sorcerer called Battle Sorcerer (1). His combat tactics are to use hirelings and summoned creatures as meat shields, while he weakens enemies, biding his time to make decisive strikes with his hand-scythe. Eventually, he’ll dabble in creating magic weapons enchanted with life-draining effects.
His Charisma is his primary stat. Moderate Dex/Int, below average Str and Con, and low Wis.
For skills, he’ll focus on Knowledge: Arcana and Religion, Intimidate, Diplomacy, Bluff, and Sense Motive.
(1) Sorcerer Variant: Battle Sorcerer
(2) Ilmater
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