JohnB's Games

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====== Gagak deKassen ======


Gagak was a fun character to play. I picked him up at L1 when I joined a new game, he had already appeared as an NPC and his basic race, class and history had been set by the GM -  he grew from there.

===== Background =====

Gagak’s mum was a human taken by an Orc tribe and kept as a personal slave.  She bore a child (Gagak) to her ‘master.  He let her keep the child for a bit and then, to punish her, sent the child to the kennels to live with the dogs.  So as a child he skivvied (cleaning out the toilets, carting the garbage etc etc) during the day and then ate and slept with the dogs overnight.  Mum managed to get him a few bits of half-decent food, clothing etc, and taught him a few words of common so he remembered his shared heritage -  but he was basically a tool to keep his mother passive and ‘happy’ with the Orc master. Finally, when Gagak was seven or eight years old she died in child birth, as did the new half-Orc child she bore.  On her deathbed she extracted a promise from ‘her Orc’ that Gagak  would not be killed -  but the Orc didn’t want the half-blood reminder around.  However, he remained true to his word and didn’t kill the lad, just kicked him out in the wilderness alone  …

Eventually, Gagak found  ‘The Village’, where people talked like his mum, and he hung around. Initially he was angry and ashamed of his time with the dogs, and when he came to 'The Village' he wanted to be as much like the humans as he could -  after all they were like his mum. 
The young Gagak was lucky, it was spring time and there were Ramsoms, dandelions, birds eggs and all sorts to eat, although he rarely found enough to stop his hunger.  Eventually he found The Village of Kassen, where people talked like his mum, and he decided to stay for a while watching, listening and generally checking things out.

He found an abandoned  animal shelter outside the walls, and set up home there, still hunting for survival rations in the forest and eating what ever he could find.   One day he was caught stealing a cabbage, and he got a hard clip around the ear from the farmer -  who then turned around and told him he could have the cabbage if he mucked the yard out.   He learned - and soon he was doing enough odd jobs to supplement his foraging.  Then he branched out and found odd jobs that earned him a bowl, a spoon, a water bottle, clothes, boots, blankets – in fact all sorts of basic second hand bits and pieces.  He even did enough repairs on the shelter to make it more or less waterproof and then took in one of the stay dogs, he wanted the companionship, and started to teach it obedience and a few basic tricks.

Over time, he started to realise that there are some positives to his dual heritage.  He realized was he bigger, stronger and faster, than most of his peers, and he eventually realised that came from his father.  From then on, he started to feel a bit more comfortable with his 'Orciness'.  
Then he started to realize that he wasn’t going to have a comfortable life as an odd job boy.  No.  He would have to become an adventurer.  That was the only way that he was going to be able to afford a decent house, warm clothes and good food … 

By now he had a sling and could bring down small game to add to his diet -  and he found a length of rusty chain and, in exchange for pumping bellows for a few weeks, he talked the blacksmith into ‘welding’ a few old nails to it so he had something more suitable as an ‘adventurers’ weapon.  He arranged to do the mucky jobs for one of the village leather workers, in exchange for a few lessons and off cuts of cured leather - and from that he painstakingly made himself hide armour.  It was a right patchwork, and it didn’t look much and he was ready for the next stage of his life as an adventurer.

His life motto became 'Take what you have got and use it'. 

===== Development =====

His adventuring life started off in a Tomb at the village of Kassen, his human Home Village, and went through an eclectic selection of modules that the DM fancied, so Gagak went to Falcon's Hollow, Sandpoint, Magnimar, Riddleport, Celwynvian and a number of other places.  The game lasted until Gagak was L12 and the GM moved back to Australia.

Gagak became a speed and mobility based barbarian, and continued to use a one-handed chain, that was the equivalent of a light flail.  He moved fast (supplemented by Boots of Speed) and could jump long distances (Ring of Jumping) - along with Step Up and a couple of other feats, he became the bane of casters that went against us as he could get to them quickly, and he could hit them every time they cast a spell.  But he could be stealthy as well, and worked well with the party's rogue. But Gagak was more than just a rampaging barbarian.  His background made him very aware of poverty and struggle, and talked the party into taking a business as part of their adventuring rewards.  Before long, he had talked them into a small business empire.  His family would not suffer the hardship that he had, and would have the best start in life that he could give them.  Over his adventuring career, the party built up quite a large business portfolio, under the name of 'The Kassen Kompany', and made sure that they would have a comfortable standard of living during their retirement.

Quite early on in his career, Gagak took a level of Bard.  To me, this represented Gagak learning about civilization, learning how to read, then discovering hot baths and the artistic side of life.  In other words, Gagak became civilized - after a fashion.  While he had a few spells, they weren't sophisticated; his musical performances were based on percussion and tribal chants; hunting, shooting and fishing were still his greatest passions.  But he fitted in, and his children would fit in as well.  Ironically, it wasn't a 'dip' that gave any real advantage to the way I played the character in combat  :)

However, his wealth and his newly acquired 'civilization' let him get married to a woman from a respectable family in Magnimar, it gave Gagak a level of respectability, and helped save face for the Magnimaran family.  However, Gagak made sure there was room in the marriage contract for him to take other wives, if he chose to.  Eventually, he took two more wives, and built a home for them in a village (Skid's Landing) a few miles from Sandpoint.  His improved status was eventually recognized with a level from the Chevalier PRC, which allowed  him to use the title of Sir Gagak.

===== Current =====

Gagak still lives - somewhere.  However, he hasn't been 'home' for quite a while, and it is believed that he went off adventuring on another continent, or perhaps even another plane.  While the income from his business investments supports his family, there is uncertainty as to when he will return -  if he ever does,