knighthawk — Roleplayer Guild

Hexblade gladiator, outright worshiper of Hades. Long term goals might involve becoming a paladin for his god if he curries enough favor with the lord of the dead or a general for an army of evil. Otherwise, its best just to cut a swathe of dead men and satisfied women in his wake.

Name:
Tiberius Octavius Pulcher, "The Dashing Bastard"
Physical Form: "I put the gore in gorgeous!"


6'6" and 300 of tight body tone. Unarmored, he has a score of scars running him over from a decade in the arenas. His eyes are a fine gray with a catlike shimmer of silver in the back. 

Abilities:
Curse; The cornerstone of the hexblade, the ability to lay a witches malicious befuddlement upon intended targets. Not an attack in of itself, it is a go-to weakening of the enemy before engaging. He often pairs the curse with a memorized intimidation to follow up and bring most to cower before finishing them off in a single blow.

Resistance; Like a paladin, he can rely on his sheer strength of will to help shrug off attacks to mind body and soul.

Mettle: Those that he cannot avoid, he tries do bear down and endure, taking the lesser of the worlds woes when he has the chance.

Prestidigitation: Because of the hexblade's calling, Octavius' desire to know more about his arcane abilities manifests itself beyond the ability to curse and the he is able to cast minor prestidigitations at will.

(Item) familiar: Where most would bond to a creature from elsewhere for more power, he has strengthened the bond with his sword to a supernatural level.

Aura of unluck: Once per day Octavius can create a baleful aura of misfortune. Any melee or ranged attack made against the hexblade while this aura of unluck is active has a higher miss chance. Activating the aura is a free action, and the aura lasts for a full minute.

Spells: Like a sorcerer, he uses his sheer strength of will to manifest magic in the world. He just severely lacks the dedication most others would possess by this time.
0 Message
0 Dancing lights
0 Mage hand
0 Detect magic
0 Acid splash
0 Distupt undead
1 True strike
1 Shocking grasp
1 Color spray
1 Identify
2 Eagle splendor
2 Flaming sphere

Personality:
Truly Octavius' greatest strength is his overwhelming charisma, wielded as a weapon as much as his sword. He brings it to bear to cow the most stalwart of enemies and draw up the crowds to a screaming frenzy in the arena. 
He is a patient man in combat, often letting the others go first before he devastates them.

He had devoted his life to death, Hades specifically, as a way to deal with the loss of his family. But one can only lash out for so long. In time the burn in his hearth grew cold and hollow so he turned to ways to fill the hole, most often drinking and tavern wenches. But in the end he still fell back to his oldest friend, death. Its more of a bad habit than an addiction, but every week he makes his way to some manner of arena to put himself in the ring.

He's smarter than he ever lets on, by no means is he a genius with lifetimes of knowledge. He's just more experienced that he'd like to be in the way the world works. The best thing he always reminds himself 'always assume they are better than you in every way and plan to fail'. 
Relationships: 
Since his arrival, he has taken a keen interest in Tinkerhel, She might be a nymphomaniac, but he thinks there is a whole lot more going on in her head.
Backstory: 
Octavius' tale is not at twisted as many might think. His parents were simple farmers, his grandfather was a retired army officer who was too maimed to bear spear. When his chores were done for the day, his grandfather would train him in a longsword so big the boy needed both hands to wield it. 

Suns rose and set for a decade until the boy on cusp of manhood could now wield the longsword in a single hand. But now he was starting to think with the dagger between his knees and had his eye on the girl across the creek. They were promised to each other and their parents agreed to the union. Sadly, the fates have more in mind than a happy farmer.

A merchant cart heavy with goods came to the farm, asking for a night in the barn for a few silver, all was well until the bandits climbed out of crate and pot to slaughter the family. The boy did well by all accounts, with no armor and only a sword older than him to keep himself safe as he killed the bandit leader while the others ran. As he burned the bodies, he was visited by a lady paladin of Hercule and her ancient wizard. One of his first life lessons about the bigger world would be that halflings and dwarves clearly age differently. 

She could see he was strong, strong enough to carry her stuff as his squire as he had nothing left for him here, indeed, he had no other ways to go but with them or try his own. He tried to learn magic cantrips from the wizard but had no luck compared to the combat she refined from what his father gave him. She was teaching him how to fight in armor, a skill he lacked, when they came upon a wizard of the dead. 

They made their way to the wizards workshop when they came to discover he was just finishing his ritual to litchdom. The paladin took the undead in a full body tackle while the other two destroyed the phylactery, the wizard found it while Octavius shattered the device but it was too late to save her from its evil magic. The magic of the ritual burned its way into him and changed him to his very core.

Other: 
His hat he got from a pirate captain to whom he served upon a ship for a year before a monster afflicted her, her hats own bubble of air was her own undoing.


At one time, he came upon a princess tiara as part of his treasure pull from a successful kidnapping of royalty. In order to dispose of the royal artifact, he had the enchantment transfered to a single jewel worn as a third eye and let them keep the rest of the encrusted property one worn by a queen as payment.
While worn, a third eye conceal protects the wearer from view by all devices, powers, and spells that detect, influence, or read emotions or thoughts. This power protects against all mind-affecting powers and effects as well as information-gathering by clairsentience powers or effects.


Given his propensity for tavern wenches and the like, he was quick to acquire a trinket from the temple of Aphrodite The wearer of this blue gem on a silver chain is immune to disease, including supernatural diseases.

Collected from the skin of a displacer beast, he had its pelt fashioned into his sleeveless longcoat with its powers still within the folds.

Worn inside out to hide its value, he keeps a vest once worn by a pyromancer who was dumb enough to think his innerfire was more powerful than a white dragon. Octavius managed to convince the dragon that the vest would melt the beasts home so he would take it far away while the dragon ate the former wizard for lunch.

Collected from a gnome adventuring party, he managed to run three through on his blade but only kept the one treasure.

1) Mount
2) Slumber
3) Phantasmal Killer

A most useful glove he keeps on hand, it once belonged to an assassin who would use it to bring all manner of gear in a backpack hidden in the stitching. When not used to hide his sword from public eye, he is often known to put his hand into a bucket full (20 pints/2.5 gallons) of  holy water and secure it away for dealing with fiery or unholy creatures.

Two small but simple rings in his line of work, 

A dwarven ring warded to protect the wearer from evil is actually a good choice when traveling with evil on a daily basis. 

As powerful as a ring of invisibility, but far better for him as it makes eight more of him appear rather than make him vanish.

Made from the hide of a Steel dragon parading around as a priestess to Athena, she was fought and slain on her monthly hunt while she was fat and full of a heard of sheep they had left for her as an ambush. When crafted into armor, he had the choice to make the leather immune to acid or protect the wearer from poison, he took the poison protection. In truth it protects him as a full suit of armor as strong as platemail but glamored to be debatable levels of leather and hide piecemeal to suit his ego.

A prize from the arenas, once worn by a master of unarmed combat, this rope belt keeps him far more flexible than he ever could be without it.


Acquired from a fellow raider, a barbarian far from home who could outrun almost anything but a cup of envenomed wine.
These boots let him move faster than normal for moments at a time, acting as a blur when speed was needed over power.


Tattoo:
Psychoactive skin:

Morningstar
An lesser weapon best put to use when three feet of steel isn't recommended. He really hopes to replace it with a mace of disruption soon enough.


Shield
There are times when running around half naked with a greatsword isn't the best plans. When he has to play the defensive position, he uses a heavy shield with a depiction of Gaia upon it as she is of the earth as is hades.


Throwing Axe
When he needs to reach out and touch someone. He is also known to take a moment for himself to relax with all manner of pungent herb or alchemical paste into the bowl on the back.

His gift from beyond. Once, when he was a much younger lad, he traveled as a squire under a paladin of Hercules and her elderly wizard friend into the keep of a vile necromancer. Unfortunately there is a big difference between necromancer and a newly formed litch! Thinking quickly, the paladin took her bag of holding and threw it over them both to pop it away into a pocket realm for just a few seconds as the squire smashed the Phylactery on the work table. The litch turned to dust within the bag and the paladin sacrificed herself for the greater good. Octavius had an idea. He had the wizard use his magic to transmute the holy cold-iron plate-mail of the paladin to the litch dust and he had a greatsword forged from the coldiron dust. 

This weapon is a Bane of the undead both solid and ghostly. Its supernaturally keen edge can store the simplest of enchantments within its Damascus folds for release at his will.
Why would a worshiper of the god of death have such enmity to the undead? To KEEP them in Tartarus where they belong!

Recently, he came upon a Devil who had a gift for Octavius. It seems the litch he had defeated so long ago had tried to use the phylactery as a bypass from the devils due. If the litch had succeeded it would have been most embarrassing and bad for business. So out of gratitude he offered the man one gift on credit, not the usual freebie sort of thing but the 'finders fee' of a wayward soul. 

Thinking about it, he could easily wish to be the most or the best or the richest... but he had seen how that can bite you in the ass with previous people so he chose to keep it smaller, something he could live without; an extra enchantment on his blade. The two bickered back and forth on the who or what to be done but Octavius was rather stringent on not asking for too much, lest he rely on it too far. 

In the end he got an idea from an assassin he used to know and had a small ruby inset into the pommel of his sword. This ruby would trap the soul of every victim of his sword for later that he could bring back to the devil for more credit. So far, Octavius cant find a problem with the deal and that bothers him.
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