Hrokon

'Horrible' Harold Grimsley's page

308 posts. Alias of Draconas (RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16).


Classes/Levels

M Half-orc Brawler 1 {HP 12/12; AC16, T12, FF14; F+4 R+4 W+1; Init+2; Perc+5} {Effects: none}

About 'Horrible' Harold Grimsley

'HORRIBLE' HAROLD GRIMSLEY CR 1
Male Half-orc Brawler 1
CN Medium Humanoid (human, orc)
Init +2; Senses Darkvision 60ft; Perception +5
--------------------
DEFENSE
--------------------
AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+2 Dex, +4 Armor)
hp 12 (1d10+2)
Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +1;
--------------------
OFFENSE
--------------------
Spd 30 ft.
Melee Unarmed attack +5 (1d6+4, x2),
. . Pain: Brass Knuckle, cold iron +5 (1d3+4, x2, monk)
. . Suffering: Brass Knuckle, silver +5 (1d3+4, x2, monk)
. . Longsword +5 (1d8+4, 19-20/x2)
--------------------
STATISTICS
--------------------
Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
Base Atk +1; CMB +5; CMD 17
Feats Improved Unarmed Strike (bonus), Power Attack
Traits Bully, On The Payroll
Skills Acrobatics +4 (1 rank), Intimidate +6 (1 rank), Knowledge(local) +6 (1 rank), Perception +5 (1 rank)
Languages Common, Orc
Special Abilities brawler's cunning, martial flexibility (4/day)
Combat Gear Pain(brass knuckle, cold iron), Suffering(brass knuckle, alchemical silver), Longsword, Chain shirt
--------------------
SPECIAL ABILITIES
--------------------
Racial
Ability Modifiers +2 to Strength.
Darkvision Half-orcs can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Intimidating Half-orcs receive a +2 racial bonus on Intimidate skill checks due to their fearsome nature.
Orc Blood Half-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.
Orc Ferocity Once per day, when a half-orc is brought below 0 hit points but not killed, he can fight on for one more round as if disabled. At the end of his next turn, unless brought to above 0 hit points, he immediately falls unconscious and begins dying.
City-Raised Half-orcs with this trait know little of their orc ancestry and were raised among humans and other half-orcs in a large city. City-raised half-orcs are proficient with whips and longswords, and receive a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (local) checks. This racial trait replaces weapon familiarity.
Favored Class Brawler (+1/4 level to unarmed strike damage)

Traits
Bully You grew up in an environment where the meek were ignored and you often had to resort to threats or violence to be heard. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Intimidate checks, and Intimidate is always a class skill for you.
On The Payroll During his visit to Caliphas, the good Professor hired Harold as a bodyguard in some of the more dangerous streets of the capital. You gain an additional starting funds of 150gp.

Class
Weapon and Armor Proficiency A brawler is proficient with all simple weapons plus the handaxe, short sword, and weapons from the close fighter weapon group. She is proficient with light armor, but not with shields.

Brawler's Cunning (Ex) If the brawler's Intelligence score is less than 13, it counts as 13 for the purpose of meeting the prerequisites of combat feats.

Martial Flexibility (Ex) A brawler can take a move action to gain the benefit of a combat feat she doesn't possess. This effect lasts for 1 minute. The brawler must meet all the feat's prerequisites. She may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + 1/2 her brawler level (minimum 1).

The brawler can use this ability again before the duration expires in order to replace the previous combat feat with another choice.

If a combat feat has a daily use limitation (such as Stunning Fist), any uses of that combat feat while using this ability count toward that feat's daily limit.

At 6th level, a brawler can use this ability to gain the benefit of two combat feats at the same time. She may select one feat as a swift action or two feats as a move action. She may use one of these feats to meet a prerequisite of the second feat; doing so means that she cannot replace a feat currently fulfilling another's prerequisite without also replacing those feats that require it. Each individual feat selected counts toward her daily uses of this ability.

At 10th level, a brawler can use this ability to gain the benefit of three combat feats at the same time. She may select one feat as a free action, two feats as a swift action, or three feats as a move action. She may use one of the feats to meet a prerequisite of the second and third feats, and use the second feat to meet a prerequisite of the third feat. Each individual feat selected counts toward her daily uses of this ability.

At 12th level, a brawler can use this ability to gain the benefit of one combat feat as an immediate action or three combat feats as a swift action. Each individual feat selected counts toward her daily uses of this ability.

At 20th level, a brawler can use this ability to gain the benefit of any number of combat feats as a swift action. Each feat selected counts toward her daily uses of this ability.

Martial Training (Ex) At 1st level, a brawler counts her total brawler levels as both fighter levels and monk levels for the purpose of qualifying for feats. She also counts as both a fighter and a monk for feats and magic items that have different effects based on whether the character has levels in those classes (such as Stunning Fist and a monk's robe). This ability does not automatically grant feats normally granted to fighters and monks based on class level, namely Stunning Fist.

Unarmed Strike At 1st level, a brawler gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A brawler may attack with fists, elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a brawler may make unarmed strikes with her hands full. A brawler applies her full Strength modifier (not half ) on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes.

Usually, a brawler's unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but she can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on her attack roll. She has the same choice to deal lethal or nonlethal damage while grappling.

A brawler's unarmed strike is treated as both a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that modify either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.
--------------------
GEAR
--------------------

Worn

  • Traveler's Outfit (Matching jacket and trousers, a white undershirt, vest, bowler hat)
  • Chain shirt
  • Longsword
  • Pain: Brass Knuckle, cold iron
  • Suffering: Brass Knuckle, silver
  • Backpack
  • Belt pouch (jacket pockets)
  • Tattoos (Whole back - an exotic Tian woman bathing in a lotus pond; Right arm - a comet circling down the length of the arm, similar in appearance to Pharasma's holy symbol, wrapped in spiked chains; Left arm - a skeletal snake wreathed in flames)

Weight w/o containers: 38.5 lbs.

Inside Backpack

  • Bedroll
  • Mess kit
  • Trail rations (5 days)
  • Waterskin
  • Spare outfits (x2)
  • Rope, silk (50 ft)
  • Shaving kit
  • Soap

Backpack Weight: 31 lbs.

Inside Belt Pouch (jacket pockets)

  • Small cigar case, cedar wood; contains 9 rolled Taldan cigars
  • Box of 20 Tindertwigs
  • Flint and steel
  • Flask, hip; filled with brandy
  • Loaded dice, average
  • Cards, marked
  • Funds (16 gold, 2 silver, 9 copper)

Belt Pouch Weight: 4 lbs.
--------------------

Description

Spoiler:
Harold stands somewhere close to 7' tall and fills out every inch of that height. His face has been pummeled so often that most of its bones are no longer in their original locations. His often broken nose is squashed upon a face ugly enough to make most women faint if they ran into him on some dark street corner. He keeps his red hair shorn short for both appearance and to keep it from being used as a grappling tool for any assailant. Opposed to his hideous looks, Harold always dresses sharply. His big form would normally burst most suits so he has all his apparel custom tailored. A pressed jacket, vest, white undershirt and trousers matching the jacket are his normal wear along with a well-kept collection of bowler hats.

Background

Spoiler:
The people of Ustalav are a nation haunted by their past. It is so traumatic that it bleeds over into the present. The sins of forefathers and tribulations of grandmothers are the realities of the sons and daughters. The night is still a very dangerous place and strangers are seen as bearers of calamity.

When the Whispering Tyrant finally was subdued by the Shining Crusade and his forces routed, not all of the lich’s forces were laid to rest. The orcs of the Hold of Belkzen retreated to their holes and strongholds but would rise up numerous times over the years to cause their neighbors grief. One of the more recent uprisings would see the tribe of Three Fangs sending raids deep into parts of north and western Ustalav. The orcs were their normal merciless selves: villages were razed, men were slaughtered, and women were raped.

It was thus that Harold came into the world, an unwanted child in a nation that abhors abominations. His mother’s village was destroyed, a burning husk on the horizon, as she and the remaining survivors made the long trek to a neighboring village for assistance. Many of the women sullied during the raid committed suicide in the months after, some from their own inability to recover from the trauma and some from the pressure from the community that they were now tarnished or carried seeds of evil in their wombs. Harold’s mother was a bar wench in her previous life and too tough, or mean as most of the village’s men pronounced, to cave in and end her life. Instead, she pulled up her new roots and headed across the country to someplace that no-one would know her name or the father of the thing growing in her.

Eventually, Harold’s mother settled in Caliphas, the capital, taking up her previous profession in such a seedy joint that she ended up being little more than a prostitute that served ale. A month after moving to Caliphas, Harold was born prematurely but already the size of a very healthy baby boy. His crude features, a mockery of a human’s, were repugnant to his mother and all the difficulties she had endured from his conception to her voluntary exile were placed solely on his shoulders. To say that Harold had a hard life growing up would not encompass the cruel, stark reality of the situation. He was tormented by the neighborhood children, spat upon by their parents, then when he ran home to escape it all, his mother would beat Harold raw and call him names such as ‘Abominable Spawn’, ‘Aurochs-face’, and ‘Her horrible mistake that she should of fed to the dogs when he was born.’ The last name would stick, at least partially, as it shrunk over the years until he was just being called ‘Horrible’.

By the time he was five, Harold was the size of most ten year olds. As the abuse buried beneath his course features grew, it fermented into a deep and terrible rage at the world. The first time it erupted to the surface he broke an older boy’s arm in three places. The resulting beating by the boy’s father and charges filed with the local guards would set the tone of the rest of Harold’s youth. He was in and out of cells or hospital rooms, his face constantly swollen, black and blue, or marked by his often broken nose. His mother could care less what became of her son thus he was raised on the streets more than at home.

Between the ages of thirteen and fifteen, Harold was working with a local gang as an enforcer, breaking bones or shops of those that didn’t pay protection money. This life would take a change of course one night when he was supposed to tear up the antique shop of an older man who looked like he hailed from Tian Xia. The old man, Cho-lum, was supposed to be asleep when Harold broke through his door and started shattering his merchandise but instead he was up doing some late night cleaning in the shop. Already towering well over six feet tall at age fifteen, Harold wasn’t too worried about the little old man and didn’t even know anything was wrong until he came back awake on his back with the sound of guard whistles carrying through the open door.

Cho-lum was still sweeping the store nearby as he told Harold that a nice young man such as himself should show more respect to his elders and neighbors. At a loss for words, Harold was beginning to stand when the guards arrived and took him into custody. The old man didn’t file any charges but Harold was held for a few days just because of his long record as a troublemaker.

Harold would return three more times to Cho-lum in the following week, the first in anger at the little man ruining his job which ended much as his first encounter did. The second visit had Harold still angry but also weary, ready to catch the old man at whatever tricks he was playing. A blur of arms and legs later, Harold was shaking his head clear in a cell again. The third time, Harold returned, asking the old man how he kept disabling him so easily. Cho-lum told Harold it was as easy as disabling a mounted knight in armor, one must merely trip the horse and let the momentum of the big beast and its heavily armored master do all the work. Harold left the old man’s shop with much to digest after a conversation that lasted over an hour.

The next day, Harold returned and learned a bit more from the old man, who enjoyed having a younger fellow around to regale with stories and occasionally help move the heavy object or two. For three years, Harold visited Cho-lum as regular as clockwork, learning what the old man had to teach in pieces. Now most would have cause to fear that teaching a boy, that was filled with anger at everyone, these skills would make him a threat to every innocent person he might encounter, but somehow, Cho-lum had a calming effect on Harold even when the old man would pop the half-orc on the head in admonishment for doing something wrong.

At eighteen years of age, Harold lost the first person he ever thought of as a friend when Cho-lum passed away from old age. Set adrift again in the city of Caliphas, he started to migrate back to his old acquaintances and employment. However, with new insight in his view of the world, Harold found it hard to do the acts of petty, or otherwise, crime that his ‘friends’ wanted him to do. He made numerous new enemies as he started telling them to sod off and instead started to hire himself out as muscle for local businessmen whom had issues with the gangs causing them grief. He made a name for himself amongst the dregs of society, living up to his moniker ‘Horrible’ as most would scurry away to their dens of ill repute if so much as word got out that Harold was on the job.

It was during these years that Harold met the Professor. Visiting Caliphas to lecture at the local college, the Professor was also interested in the rumors of vampires stalking the streets at night. This would lead him into some nasty places that would have seen his throat slit just for the change in his pockets if he hadn’t had the foresight to hire a local tough to show him around the area. Thus Harold came to be in the temporary employ of the Professor, even pulling him out of one sticky situation when they actually did encounter a vamp who was seducing a young lady, a party the Professor accidently interrupted in his haste. Harold was sure he had a few gray hairs by the time the Professor left the city finally. It was strange and with some hesitation that Harold opened the letter from the Professor’s estate that arrived a few months later.

Old Sheet:
'HORRIBLE' HAROLD GRIMSLEY CR 4
Male Half-orc Monk(Martial Artist) 5
CN Medium Humanoid (human, orc)
Init +2; Senses Darkvision 60ft; Perception +9
--------------------
DEFENSE
--------------------
AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 13 (+2 Dex, +2 Wis, +1 Dodge, +1 Monk)
hp 44 (5d8+10+5)
Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +7; (+2 vs sleep, paralysis, stun)
Immune fatigue
--------------------
OFFENSE
--------------------
Spd 40 ft. (ignore difficult terrain on charge, run, withdraw; charge through allies' spaces)
Melee Unarmed attack +8 (1d8+7(+9 on first hit a round), x2),
. . Flurry of blows +8/+8 (1d8+7(+9 on first hit a round), x2),
. . Pain: Brass Knuckle, cold iron +9 (1d8+5, x2, monk)
. . Suffering: Brass Knuckle, silver +9 (1d8+5, x2, monk)
. . Temple sword +8 (1d8+5, 19-20/x2, monk and trip)
Special Attacks Stunning Fist (DC 15)
--------------------
STATISTICS
--------------------
Str 20, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +10 (+12 on grapple); CMD 23 (25 vs grapple)
Feats Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, Dodge, Combat Reflexes, Improved Grapple, Dragon Style, Dragon Ferocity
Traits Bully, On The Payroll, Superstitious Ward
Skills Acrobatics +10 (+15 when jumping), Climb +9, Escape Artist +6, Intimidate +8, Perception +10, Sense Motive +7, Stealth +7
Languages Common, Orc
Combat Gear Pain(masterwork brass knuckle, cold iron), Suffering(masterwork brass knuckle, alchemical silver), Temple Sword
--------------------
SPECIAL ABILITIES
--------------------
Racial
Ability Modifiers +2 to Strength.
Darkvision Half-orcs can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Intimidating Half-orcs receive a +2 racial bonus on Intimidate skill checks due to their fearsome nature.
Orc Blood Half-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.
Orc Ferocity Once per day, when a half-orc is brought below 0 hit points but not killed, he can fight on for one more round as if disabled. At the end of his next turn, unless brought to above 0 hit points, he immediately falls unconscious and begins dying.
Weapon Familiarity Half-orcs are proficient with greataxes and falchions and treat any weapon with the word “orc” in its name as a martial weapon.
Favored Class Monk

Traits
Bully You grew up in an environment where the meek were ignored and you often had to resort to threats or violence to be heard. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Intimidate checks, and Intimidate is always a class skill for you.
On The Payroll During his visit to Caliphas, the good Professor hired Harold as a bodyguard in some of the more dangerous streets of the capital. You gain an additional starting funds of 150gp.
Superstitious Ward You’re not frightened of the old wives’ tales of vampires and ghosts, and though you try to avoid the undead, you’ve learned how to deal with them. You may cast disrupt undead once per day as a spell-like ability. This is cast at your highest caster level gained; if you have no caster level, it functions at CL 1st.

Class
Weapon and Armor Proficiency Monks are proficient with the club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shortspear, short sword, shuriken, siangham, sling, and spear. Monks are not proficient with any armor or shields. When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a monk loses his AC bonus, as well as his fast movement and flurry of blows abilities.
AC Bonus (Ex) When unarmored and unencumbered, the monk adds his Wisdom bonus (if any) to his AC and his CMD. In addition, a monk gains a +1 bonus to AC and CMD at 4th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every four monk levels thereafter, up to a maximum of +5 at 20th level. These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the monk is flat-footed. He loses these bonuses when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load.
Flurry of Blows (Ex) Starting at 1st level, a monk can make a flurry of blows as a full-attack action. When doing so he may make one additional attack using any combination of unarmed strikes or attacks with a special monk weapon (kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, and siangham) as if using the Two-Weapon Fighting feat (even if the monk does not meet the prerequisites for the feat). For the purpose of these attacks, the monk's base attack bonus from his monk class levels is equal to his monk level.
Stunning Fist (Ex) At 1st level, the monk gains Stunning Fist as a bonus feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites. At 4th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, the monk gains the ability to apply a new condition to the target of his Stunning Fist. This condition replaces stunning the target for 1 round, and a successful saving throw still negates the effect. At 4th level, he can choose to make the target fatigued. At 8th level, he can make the target sickened for 1 minute. At 12th level, he can make the target staggered for 1d6+1 rounds. At 16th level, he can permanently blind or deafen the target. At 20th level, he can paralyze the target for 1d6+1 rounds. The monk must choose which condition will apply before the attack roll is made. These effects do not stack with themselves (a creature sickened by Stunning Fist cannot become nauseated if hit by Stunning Fist again), but additional hits do increase the duration.
Evasion (Ex) At 2nd level or higher, a monk can avoid damage from many area-effect attacks. If a monk makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a monk is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless monk does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Fast Movement (Ex) At 3rd level, a monk gains an enhancement bonus to his land speed. A monk in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.
Maneuver Training (Ex) At 3rd level, a monk uses his monk level in place of his base attack bonus when calculating his Combat Maneuver Bonus. Base attack bonuses granted from other classes are unaffected and are added normally.
Pain Points (Ex) At 3rd level, a martial artist's advanced knowledge of humanoid anatomy grants a +1 bonus on critical hit confirmation rolls and increases the DC of his stunning fist and quivering palm by 1. This ability replaces still mind.
Martial Arts Master (Ex) At 4th level, a martial artist may use his monk level to qualify for feats with a fighter level prerequisite when those feats are applied to unarmed strikes or weapons with the monk special quality. This ability replaces slow fall.
Exploit Weakness (Ex) At 4th level, as a swift action, a martial artist can observe a creature or object to find its weak point by making a Wisdom check and adding his monk level against a DC of 10 + the object's hardness or the target's CR. If the check succeeds, the martial artist gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls until the end of his turn, and any attacks he makes until the end of his turn ignore the creature or object's DR or hardness. A martial artist may instead use this ability as a swift action to analyze the movements and expressions of one creature within 30 feet, granting a bonus on Sense Motive checks and Reflex saves and a dodge bonus to AC against that opponent equal to 1/2 his monk level until the start of his next turn. This ability replaces ki pool.
High Jump (Ex) At 5th level, a monk adds his level to all Acrobatics checks made to jump, both for vertical jumps and horizontal jumps. In addition, he always counts as having a running start when making jump checks using Acrobatics.
Extreme Endurance (Ex) At 5th level, a martial artist gains immunity to fatigue. At 10th level, he also gains immunity to exhaustion. At 15th level, he gains immunity to stunning. At 20th level, he gains immunity to death effects and energy drain. This ability replaces purity of body, diamond body, and perfect self.
--------------------
GEAR
--------------------
Weight Item
( 1lb) Pain: Masterwork Brass Knuckle, cold iron
( 1lb) Suffering: Masterwork Brass Knuckle, silver
( 3lb) Temple sword
( 5lb) Traveler's Outfit (Matching jacket and trousers, a white undershirt, vest, bowler hat) x3
( 1lb) Belt of Strength +2
(----) Cloak of resistance +1
( 2lb) Small cigar case, cedar wood; contains 9 rolled Taldan cigars
(----) Box of 20 Tindertwigs
(1.5lb) Flask; filled with brandy
( 2lb) Backpack
( 5lb) Bedroll
( 4lb) Waterskin; filled with water
( 4lb) Rations, trail; 4 days worth
(.5lb) Mirror, small metal
(.5lb) Razor, shaving
(----) Flint and steel
(----) Loaded dice, average
( 1lb) Marked cards
(----) Tattoos (Whole back - an exotic Tian woman bathing in a lotus pond; Right arm - a comet circling down the length of the arm, similar in appearance to Pharasma's holy symbol, wrapped in spiked chains; Left arm - a skeletal snake wreathed in flames)
--------------------
Description

Spoiler:
Harold stands somewhere close to 7' tall and fills out every inch of that height. His face has been pummeled so often that most of its bones are no longer in their original locations. His often broken nose is squashed upon a face ugly enough to make most women faint if they ran into him on some dark street corner. He keeps his red hair shorn short for both appearance and to keep it from being used as a grappling tool for any assailant. Opposed to his hideous looks, Harold always dresses sharply. His big form would normally burst most suits so he has all his apparel custom tailored. A pressed jacket, vest, white undershirt and trousers matching the jacket are his normal wear along with a well-kept collection of bowler hats.

Background

Spoiler:
The people of Ustalav are a nation haunted by their past. It is so traumatic that it bleeds over into the present. The sins of forefathers and tribulations of grandmothers are the realities of the sons and daughters. The night is still a very dangerous place and strangers are seen as bearers of calamity.

When the Whispering Tyrant finally was subdued by the Shining Crusade and his forces routed, not all of the lich’s forces were laid to rest. The orcs of the Hold of Belkzen retreated to their holes and strongholds but would rise up numerous times over the years to cause their neighbors grief. One of the more recent uprisings would see the tribe of Three Fangs sending raids deep into parts of north and western Ustalav. The orcs were their normal merciless selves: villages were razed, men were slaughtered, and women were raped.

It was thus that Harold came into the world, an unwanted child in a nation that abhors abominations. His mother’s village was destroyed, a burning husk on the horizon, as she and the remaining survivors made the long trek to a neighboring village for assistance. Many of the women sullied during the raid committed suicide in the months after, some from their own inability to recover from the trauma and some from the pressure from the community that they were now tarnished or carried seeds of evil in their wombs. Harold’s mother was a bar wench in her previous life and too tough, or mean as most of the village’s men pronounced, to cave in and end her life. Instead, she pulled up her new roots and headed across the country to someplace that no-one would know her name or the father of the thing growing in her.

Eventually, Harold’s mother settled in Caliphas, the capital, taking up her previous profession in such a seedy joint that she ended up being little more than a prostitute that served ale. A month after moving to Caliphas, Harold was born prematurely but already the size of a very healthy baby boy. His crude features, a mockery of a human’s, were repugnant to his mother and all the difficulties she had endured from his conception to her voluntary exile were placed solely on his shoulders. To say that Harold had a hard life growing up would not encompass the cruel, stark reality of the situation. He was tormented by the neighborhood children, spat upon by their parents, then when he ran home to escape it all, his mother would beat Harold raw and call him names such as ‘Abominable Spawn’, ‘Aurochs-face’, and ‘Her horrible mistake that she should of fed to the dogs when he was born.’ The last name would stick, at least partially, as it shrunk over the years until he was just being called ‘Horrible’.

By the time he was five, Harold was the size of most ten year olds. As the abuse buried beneath his course features grew, it fermented into a deep and terrible rage at the world. The first time it erupted to the surface he broke an older boy’s arm in three places. The resulting beating by the boy’s father and charges filed with the local guards would set the tone of the rest of Harold’s youth. He was in and out of cells or hospital rooms, his face constantly swollen, black and blue, or marked by his often broken nose. His mother could care less what became of her son thus he was raised on the streets more than at home.

Between the ages of thirteen and fifteen, Harold was working with a local gang as an enforcer, breaking bones or shops of those that didn’t pay protection money. This life would take a change of course one night when he was supposed to tear up the antique shop of an older man who looked like he hailed from Tian Xia. The old man, Cho-lum, was supposed to be asleep when Harold broke through his door and started shattering his merchandise but instead he was up doing some late night cleaning in the shop. Already towering well over six feet tall at age fifteen, Harold wasn’t too worried about the little old man and didn’t even know anything was wrong until he came back awake on his back with the sound of guard whistles carrying through the open door.

Cho-lum was still sweeping the store nearby as he told Harold that a nice young man such as himself should show more respect to his elders and neighbors. At a loss for words, Harold was beginning to stand when the guards arrived and took him into custody. The old man didn’t file any charges but Harold was held for a few days just because of his long record as a troublemaker.

Harold would return three more times to Cho-lum in the following week, the first in anger at the little man ruining his job which ended much as his first encounter did. The second visit had Harold still angry but also weary, ready to catch the old man at whatever tricks he was playing. A blur of arms and legs later, Harold was shaking his head clear in a cell again. The third time, Harold returned, asking the old man how he kept disabling him so easily. Cho-lum told Harold it was as easy as disabling a mounted knight in armor, one must merely trip the horse and let the momentum of the big beast and its heavily armored master do all the work. Harold left the old man’s shop with much to digest after a conversation that lasted over an hour.

The next day, Harold returned and learned a bit more from the old man, who enjoyed having a younger fellow around to regale with stories and occasionally help move the heavy object or two. For three years, Harold visited Cho-lum as regular as clockwork, learning what the old man had to teach in pieces. Now most would have cause to fear that teaching a boy, that was filled with anger at everyone, these skills would make him a threat to every innocent person he might encounter, but somehow, Cho-lum had a calming effect on Harold even when the old man would pop the half-orc on the head in admonishment for doing something wrong.

At eighteen years of age, Harold lost the first person he ever thought of as a friend when Cho-lum passed away from old age. Set adrift again in the city of Caliphas, he started to migrate back to his old acquaintances and employment. However, with new insight in his view of the world, Harold found it hard to do the acts of petty, or otherwise, crime that his ‘friends’ wanted him to do. He made numerous new enemies as he started telling them to sod off and instead started to hire himself out as muscle for local businessmen whom had issues with the gangs causing them grief. He made a name for himself amongst the dregs of society, living up to his moniker ‘Horrible’ as most would scurry away to their dens of ill repute if so much as word got out that Harold was on the job.

It was during these years that Harold met the Professor. Visiting Caliphas to lecture at the local college, the Professor was also interested in the rumors of vampires stalking the streets at night. This would lead him into some nasty places that would have seen his throat slit just for the change in his pockets if he hadn’t had the foresight to hire a local tough to show him around the area. Thus Harold came to be in the temporary employ of the Professor, even pulling him out of one sticky situation when they actually did encounter a vamp who was seducing a young lady, a party the Professor accidently interrupted in his haste. Harold was sure he had a few gray hairs by the time the Professor left the city finally. It was strange and with some hesitation that Harold opened the letter from the Professor’s estate that arrived a few months later.