"With but a drop all are rendered equal by its noxious embrace. Poison,
the bane of peasant, rich, saint, tyrant, beast, or even divine." ~ exerpt of lecture by Professor Venin, shortly before ejection from the alchemists guild academy. Name: Averris Venin Aliases: The Junkbrewer, Professor Venom Race:HumanAge:38 Height:6'2 Weight:182 lbs Class: Alchemist Archetype: Fumigant Position: Battlefield control through area denial and debuffs, also buffs/off healing through potions and infusions, History: *Specifics on areas are left purposefully vague to be able to fall into appropriate locations in the world* Averris
Venin began life in a humble border town, his father Everid a humble
farmer and mother Talssa a wise woman and herbalist. Life was was
simple, a only child Averris served as a sponge for every bit of
knowledge his parents poured into the youngster, from farming and
hunting, to herbs and folk remedies, he absorbed it all. Despite a keen
intellect, Averris followed after his father's footsteps as a farmer.
But while most toiled and prayed to gods of harvest young Averris took
all he had learned in his few years, applying it to the crops and lands.
Ventures into the bordering forests to study the natural growth of
plants, untouched by man were frequent as the young man sought to glean
their secrets. In time compost and rotations of crops were the norm of
the Venin farm, at first Everid refused to part with tradition but as
harvests grew, his fears were laid to rest along with the family coffers
padded. With the farm providing enough to pay for help and
Averris's techniques, Talssa was finally able to provide her only son
with the education he so desperately craved. With his notes, a purse of
coin and a writ, she tearfully bid farewell to Averris sending him off
to the city to seek a old acquaintance of her's. As fate would have it,
this acquaintance would be Averris's first introduction to the
alchemist's guild. Initially the guild would look to turn away
young Averris who was perceived as a barely literate bumpkin. How wrong
they would be proven, when at a half hearted interview Averris would
demonstrate a exhaustive knowledge of various substances, and even
admixtures that he gleaned for half remembered folks tales from his
mother and the few books owned by his family. A full membership would be
offered to young Averris, to study and further his knowledge as a
member of the guild. Averris's place in the guild would not
come freely or easily. Others would look down on him, either as country
folk who did not belong in the educated environment or a potential rival
or danger the to status quo. Such adversities would see Averris go from
outgoing and cheerful student to frequently secluding himself in the
guild's expansive library, laboratories, and greenhouse. By the time of
his graduation Averris had become a ghoulish figure, frequently skipped
meals and years practically buried under stacks of alchemical tomes had
bleached the mark of the countryside from the now man. The
guild would retain Averris as academy staff after his graduation as a
assistant professor of poisons and noxious admixtures. In his years
Averris had displayed a talent for working with deadly substances,
particularly in the cultivation of difficult to obtain plants and fungi.
As the assistant and later in life full professor, Averris displayed
what his colleagues would describe as a obsession for poisons and their
indiscriminate ability to kill. For years Averris would search for ways
to weaponize substances to affect only certain species or even select
individuals. Averris's own obsession with his goals would eventually
prove his downfall, in his 34th winter Averris would be ejected from the
Academy and stripped if his guild membership for the charges of
poisoning and unethical experimentation on students and fellow staff.
Discarded and disgraced, Averris would wander for years, living as a
travelling physician, herbalist, and pest exterminator. Finally Averris
would settle in Golden Rock's undercity, first known only by the moniker
of "Junkbrewer" he would sell his admixtures, powders, and salves,
produced from scraps of whatever he could find to anyone that would pay.
By the time the Durg crime ring became aware of his existence the onces
promising young alchemist had become a wraith of a many that haunted
back alleys and dank fungus lined tunnels. Fingers and lips stained
black from a lifetime of handling deadly compounds and emaciated from
surviving more off of alchemic brews than food, clad in stained apron
and leathers, posessed of a chemical reek, the crime ring was unsure of
what to make of "P'fessor Venom" until he delivered his first batch of
products. With the crime ring as constant "though miserly" customers
Averris was able once again set up a laboratory and begin his research
in earnest. Life was seeming to finally take a up turn, freed of
the constraints of the guild and with underworld ties Averris had a
lifetime of research ahead of him, untill the drow arrived. Barely
escaping from his shack and into the back alleys and dank tunnel during
the invasion, he now hides and simmers with cold rage and the
destruction of his lab and waits for the moment to test his newest
concoctions on the dark skinned invaders. As he huddles in the dark, among debris and refuse he thinks to himself "They will be perfect subjects". About me: I
am 28, active duty military. I have a little over a decade of various
PnP games as both player and Dm. My most recent storyline as a player
was PF's reign of winter. As a DM, I ran a group of for Way of the
Wicked for over year. I enjoy intellegent characters that are often
morally "broken" but not murderhobos. I'm a firm believer in RP and
really investing myself in the story and world.
