Post/Author/DateTime	Post
PoeticJustice 02-13-05, 05:42 PM	I wrote this to justify a character I had made using a mix of Frostburn and Eberron material, a warforged made out of some very unusual material. If you don't have frostburn, I think you can still enjoy this story, perhaps even more so, it only makes the mysterious nature of the character more, well, mysterious. If you just want crunch, there's a feat at the bottom you may want to look at. If you're into fluff, then read on! The Ice-Bound Warforged: Khaimu A party of weary adventurers huddled around a campfire in the Starpeaks. Three of the four in the party, a Valenar ranger, her Warmage husband, and a Silver Flame Paladin, laughed and joked around field rations and fine Karrnathi ale, throwing back their heads to chug liquor or laugh heartily. The fourth, a bulky, armor-clad Warforged wrapped in dark blue cloak stared at the Siberys ring, his firefly eyes bearing an even more blank expression than usual as gazed at the sky. Beside him, a white fox the size of Welsh corgi with eyes that glowed pale blue did the same. “You know, Khaimu, you should lighten up,” said the half-drunken paladin. “Me?” said the warforged, his voice like a low, chill breeze. “Lighten up? I can’t believe I heard that from a paladin” “Oh come on, you. Kinnamon’s right. Just ‘cuz you can’t enjoy this FINE ALE doesn’t mean you shouldn’t act like you can every now and then,” The ranger chimed in drunkenly. “That doesn’t make any sense at all,” Khaimu said flatly. “It wouldn’t to a cold fish like you!” Kinnamon shouted as laughed, slapped the warforged on the shoulder, and then pulled his hand away grimacing in pain. If Khaimu could smile, there’d have been a broad grin on his face. “It’s pretty hard to act warm when a significant portion of your body is comprised of the coldest material this side of Risia,” the ‘forged said. “For Tira’s sake, you bloody golem, you might’ve warned me!” The paladin winced as he held his frostbitten hand near the fire. “Here,” Khaimu said as he reached into his haversack. Inside seemed to be an endless supply of hard packed fresh snow. The warforged thought of a medicine kit, and one quickly rose to the erupted out of the snow. He pulled it out, rebuckled the haversack, and handed the kit to Kinnamon. “I keep this around in case Snowball is injured,” he said. “Inside should be a vial to relieve that.” “Right. Guess I should be happy you keep that creepy-eyed thing,” Kinnamon said, looking to the fox, which stared right back at him with glowing eyes made even more surreal by the firelight. At this point they both heard a low giggle and turned to see the happy elf couple kissing passionately on the other end of the fire. Kinnamon turned his head and got up, fumbling with the medicine pouch and picking up his bedroll. Khaimu stayed glued to the spot, still stargazing. “Let’s give ‘em some space.” Kinnamon said, not turning his head. “Why? Is something happening? What are they doing?” the warforged said innocently. “For a wizard you can be a real blockhead at times. Just trust me when I say they’d prefer to be left alone. ‘sides, you can see Siberys better away from the fire, right?” He said, managing to undo the strap and pull a vial from within, which he then strained his eyes in an attempt to read. “Curse it…” Khaimu acted like it was possible for warforged to sigh exasperatedly as he got up and went to the Paladin. Reaching again into the haversack, he pulled out a clump of snow and held it close to the vial. “Lumi,” he said frankly, and the snow glowed well enough for Kinnamon to read the label. “Healing potion,” Kinnamon read under the pale glow. “Perfect.” The Paladin unstoppered the vial and nearly poured it over his frozen hand, at the last moment realizing that you had to drink potions in order for them to be effective. Downing it in a gulp, savoring the chance to run without a suit of armor he chased after the warforged mage, who had walked away with his fox. He hated the bitter taste of those things. Especially the bargain bin version put out by the Artificers Guild, far better to feel the warm kiss of the Silver Flame, Kinnamon reasoned, but he got over it as soon s feeling returned to his left hand. “Now, what kind of name is Khaimu? For a warforged, I mean. Don’t you people name yourselves things like ‘clank’ or ‘rapier’ or ‘hammerhead’ and stuff like that?” he asked of the wizard. “My ‘people’, as you call them, name themselves after those silly things in a vain attempt to find identity. They are not unique. I am.” “I’ll say!” Kinnamon interjected. “I’ve never been frostbitten just by touchin’ a clanker before. At least not during this time of the year!” He said with an obnoxious laugh. He almost slapped Khaimu on the shoulder again but, remembering the frost, awkwardly put his hand down.” “My name.” Khaimu said out loud. “Hm?” Kinnamon replied. “You just asked about it.” The warforged said, staring at Siberys. “Yeah, talk away. Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve ever heard you talk about yourself…” “Siberys is clear tonight. It makes me…sentimental.” At this admission the Paladin almost couldn’t help but guffawing at the icy construct next to him. The humorless Khaimu, master of all arcane coldness, who, by ‘forged’s own admission existed only to freeze enemies to death, got sentimental just like the rest of them. Still, he wanted to hear more, so he contained himself, and listened on… “Khaimu is the short version of ‘Karrnathi Heavily Armored Ice Magic User…’” the ‘forged said. Tired, and sensing this would be a long story, as warforged have a tendency to ramble when they do talk, and warforged wizards in particular, Kinnamon unrolled his bedroll and sat down. “The Karrns commissioned the Cannith enclave at Metrol to make them a battlemage that would never tire, could cast more powerful spells than the hated Flamers—your people—and could do it in the midst of dense and stupid undead ranks that would never think to get out of the way of an area spell. House Cannith rarely refuses a challenge, especially when a government contract is on the line. Besides, Karrnath was somewhat notorious for refusing to buy warforged during the war. I surmise that my creators hoped to use me to open King Kaius’s mind to buying more soldiers. In building me, House Cannith realized three things. First, that conventional warforged have little business dabbling in magic. The composite plating gets in the way…” Khaimu stopped when he heard a loud snore. The glowing snowball illuminated a peacefully sleeping paladin. The warforged said no more, but instead turned his gaze to Siberys and turned back the curtains of time, to Metrol, before the Mourning destroyed his home... Deep in the halls of the House Cannith base of operations, screams echoed through the corridors. Khaimu childishly leaned against the door of his closet, straining to hear what transpired on the other side… “BUT I DON’T WANNA LEAVE!” A young, dusky, dark haired artificer screamed at his balding greybeard elder. “Now Merrix, you have to be mature about this,” the old man stated calmly. “No. No. No. This is my legacy. We are close. This could be the biggest thing since warforged first started coming out of MY GRANDFATHER’S,” He thumbed at his chest, “foundries. We are one test away from a prototype that can use magic, without fail…” Merrix cried irately. “I think the Karrns were hoping for more than ray of frost…” The bald one plainly. “You don’t understand, you doddard. Nobody understands! It begins with a ray, but he’s also been able to conjure an orb of cold and cast it—without fail. All other spells are subject to the same principles that govern somatic casting but the cold spells! And conveniently Karrnathi dead aren’t affected by cold!” He said, waving his hands excitedly. “I’ve done it. I’ve found the answer where nobody else could! You can’t take this away from me! It has something to do with this new material the Karrns gave us. That blue ice, it reacts with cold magic differently… if we could get more, we could, we could create an entire new series of warforged! Not unlike the jump from back when we were making nothing but Titans!” Merrix pleaded. “Blue Ice is expensive. Far more expensive than eternal wands. This project is not cost-effective, hence it is being cancelled. You, on the other hand, have made an incredible breakthrough here, a show of enough genius to land you a position of leadership in Sharn. Many people, including myself, would love to have that job.” The old man continued. “Then you take it, Rezzer, I don’t want it. My place is here, working on my legacy,” Merrix again begged. “You care too much for the automatons,” Rezzer said to the ashen faced Merrix. “It isn’t healthy. These are not real people. They are practically golems that we sell to any who can pay for them. They are not your legacy, they are house property, and this project is not your legacy, it is house research, and if it is not productive—or profitable,” he said through grated teeth “then it goes away. You hear? You still have a chance to make a legacy in Sharn, though. Go there and be great, don’t die anonymously like I will one day,” Rezzer consoled. A moment of silence passed between them. “You know what must be done, will you do it or shall I?” Rezzer asked quietly. It is fortunate that Warforged have no lungs with which to gasp, else the shock of this development would have blown the eavesdropping Khaimu’s cover. “Go, go…I will deactivate him myself. I won’t scrap him though. He is a piece of art. The greatest work of my latent genius.” Merrix said tearfully, accepting the inevitable. “By the sovereigns, a golden dragon would be made to blush at the enormity of your ego,” Rezzer as he walked away. “Even in tears, he brags…” As he left, Merrix smiled broadly behind Rezzer’s back. The ploy had worked. He opened Khaimu’s storage closet. “Master Merrix, I understand. I have failed you, and for that I deserve deactivation. Forgive me.” Khaimu resignedly said. “You know that being deactivated isn’t like being disabled. Once it happens, it doesn’t reverse. Ever. This is the end,” Merrix said coldly. “I am aware of that,” Khaimu said as offered his neck to Merrix, one of the few that knew where the spark of life that all warforged possessed resides. “I deserve as much, though. We exist to serve, and nothing more. If I cannot do that, then I should not exist.” “Get back in your closet, you stupid machine. I’m not going to deactivate you and apparently you haven’t learned a thing in the past months.” Merrix snapped. Khaimu was shocked, but obeyed. “You will wait here. It will be years, but one day I’ll return to Metrol as a baron or a house lord. When that day comes I’ll have enough house favor to make you my servitor. You must wait quietly until then. If anyone sees you awake we’ll both be in big trouble. In the meantime, contemplate this: Everyone has a role in the world. It may be as a slave, as your folk exist, but it is a role nonetheless. You cannot serve your role if you are deactivated. Always fight for your life. If I were to try and deactivate you, I would rather you strike me dead than offer me your neck. Got it?” Merrix said quickly, closing the door. “No…” Khaimu said. “Well, that’s why you need to contemplate it then. Fare thee well, Khaimu, one day we shall meet again.” Merrix said, wiping a final tear of frustration, and then he was gone. Warforged have no internal clock. Their immortal lives are spent with little to separate one minute from the next. Therefore Khaimu had no idea how much time passed between his parting with Merrix and the Day of Mourning. All he could remember was a flash, horrible screams that never seemed to end, punctuated by the only thing worse, silence. He waited, even then, for his master to return. He waited until Kinnamon found himthe ruins of Metrol and told him all of Cyre was destroyed, and that Khaimu was the only survivor his the Flamers had found during the reconnaissance mission that had brought him to the ruins of Metrol. After this Khaimu abandoned his vigil and set out to see the world with no more than the only other resident of his closet, a waterproofed spellbook Merrix had given him to study. Since then he’d wandered. Eventually he met up with Kinnamon again, and though only 3 years had passed the Paladin seemed a decade older. Apparenty he’d fallen out of favor with the cardinals, or maybe the cardinals had fallen out of favor with him…Khaimu no longer remebered. Either way, he had given up military service for humble wandering, and needed a companion as much as Khaimu did. The two then met Flara and Klara, the Valenar couple, and the group had been thus ever since. Over many adventures Khaimu would learn to augment spells to function normally despite his bulky frame by adding snow as a component to the spell, and shortly thereafter he'd carry a haversack of the white stuff wherever he went. Then he met Snowball the fox and took him as a familiar spirit. He was a full-fledged wizard, a master of Arcane Arts, one of the more powerful on Khorvaire, just as he had been designed to be, but still, something was wrong… Khaimu couldn’t bear to see Merrix. Merrix would have to find him, just as the artificer had said he would. Besides, the warforged was still contemplating on what he said… Back in 998 YK, one the other side of the curtain of time, the ice-bound warforged looked up at Siberys while he watched over his friends and stood, looking—contemplating—all night. Well, if you managed to read all that you've got this coming :cookie: . I thank you for your patience. In case your interested, here's the house feat that allows this character to function: Blue Ice Body [Warforged] Key areas of your composite plating have been formed using the exotic substance nicknamed 'blue ice', which reinforces composite armor and interacs unusally with cold spells Benefit Your composite plating armor bonus increases to +8, you have a -5 armor check penalty (blue ice is light like mithral) and 35% Arcane Spell Failure Chance, except in the case of spells with the [cold] descriptor, which ignore failure chance from your composite plating. Your base speed becomes 20, and for all purposes you are wearing heavy armor Designer's notes: Basically this is a munchkin spellcaster's wet dream; a total rip off of adam. body with little drawback. The high armor bonus was given to represent the fact that Merrix probably went a little overboard during initial testing, though this could be bended to reflect a lower armor bonus.
Nos-4-A2 02-13-05, 06:40 PM	Thats a long introduction to a feat, heh. I'd lower the AC bonus though or it becomes a bit unbalanced. I'd say make it a +7 to balance with the ice abilities or whatever abilities it has. This would work well with the concept of a warforged sorcerer being imbedded with enchanted stone or parts to create a "living wand".
Sarlax 02-13-05, 09:03 PM	Blue Ice Body [Warforged] Key areas of your composite plating have been formed using the exotic substance nicknamed 'blue ice', which reinforces composite armor and interacs unusally with cold spells Benefit Your composite plating armor bonus increases to +8, you have a -5 armor check penalty (blue ice is light like mithral) and 35% Arcane Spell Failure Chance, except in the case of spells with the [cold] descriptor, which ignore failure chance from your composite plating. Your base speed becomes 20, and for all purposes you are wearing heavy armor. What's so great about this feat? You say it's a munchkin's dream, but: Same bonus as Adamantine body. Same check penalty. Same speed penalty. Still considered to be wearing heavy armor. The only advantage is casting cold spells without penalty, but you give up damage reduction for that. I can't think of anyone taking this feat. Another way to go might be to have blue ice plating give the warforged the Cold subtype. Or use the feat as you've written it, but make it the equal of the Adamantine Body by making the 'forged immune to rust attacks (since it's now ice and not metal). Another thing would be to have the feat make the 'forged's body so cold that it deals an extra point of cold damage on unarmed strikes or with metal melee weapons (which 'channel' the body's cold, much as the salamander's body channels its heat).
PoeticJustice 02-13-05, 09:29 PM	To make full use of the feat, you need the Frostburn expansion. In it there's a feat that gives any spell the cold descriptor simply by adding a handful of snow as material component. Coupled with Blue Ice Body, a wizard can wear full-plate armor and not have to worry about loing spells. I'm no game designer, but that seems good. At least for level 3, it's good. Overall I was hoping people would pay more attention to the story than the feat, else I'd have posted it in another forum.
Magagumo 02-14-05, 10:58 PM	:thumbsup: It's refreshing and helpful to me, as an Eberron GM, to be exposed to well-written stories that focus on Warforged... I admit that I still wrestle with the mindset (and occassionally fall into the the "robot" trap) of this race. Khaimu certainly demonstrates an "alien" mindset, while still portraying a tangible (and comprehensible) personality. Thanks once again for the great read.
PoeticJustice 02-14-05, 11:51 PM	:thumbsup: It's refreshing and helpful to me, as an Eberron GM, to be exposed to well-written stories that focus on Warforged... I admit that I still wrestle with the mindset (and occassionally fall into the the "robot" trap) of this race. Khaimu certainly demonstrates an "alien" mindset, while still portraying a tangible (and comprehensible) personality. Thanks once again for the great read. Thank you for reading the story and appreciating what I was trying to convey, rather than skipping to see the feat that makes Khaimu work.
Solarious 02-15-05, 01:03 AM	'Tis a great tale, and a fairly interesting on Merrix's personality. He wuvs all his Warforged children :P I wonder if Merrix is trying to retrieve Khaimu by hiring adventurers and sending them to Metrol... Would be a very tense encounter anyhow. I would love to see what happens to Merrix when he finally realizes that his pet project is gone. XD Anyhow, on balancing the feat, I suggest that you cut the AC bonus to +5 to reflect cold ice not being quite as hard as what is considered the hardest metal substance in existance, and maybe add 1 point of non-lethal damage to all touch/unarmed attacks and against all who damage the 'forged with unarmed or natural attacks. For flavour purposes and neatness.
PoeticJustice 02-15-05, 10:32 AM	Thank you for your kind words. Merrix is a favorite character of mine in Eberron, I wanted to show my interpretation of him. Unfrotunately, as I plan on never actually playing this character, I'm not going to bother with balencing the Blue Ice Body feat. On other hand, the hardness of adamantine gives its wearer DR, not a higher AC.
PoeticJustice 02-16-05, 07:43 AM	bump.