Thaim
Defense
AC: 15, touch 11, flat-footed 14 (+4 armor, +1 Dex)
HP: 25 (3d10+9)
Fort: +6 Ref: +4 Will: +1
Offense
Speed: 30 ft.
Melee: mwk longspear +6 (1d8+3/×3) or mwk shortspear +6 (1d6+2)
Ranged: mwk shortspear +5 (1d6+2) or mwk sling +5 (1d4+2) or javelin +4 (1d6+2)
Special Attacks: favored enemy (animals +2)
Statistics
Str: 14 Dex: 13 Con: 17 Int: 8 Wis: 10 Cha: 12
Base Atk: +3 CMB: +5 CMD: 16
Feats: Animal Affinity, Endurance, Far Shot, Mounted Combat, Point-Blank Shot, Trample
Skills: Climb +4, Handle Animal +9, Heal +4, Knowledge (nature) +5, Perception +6, Perform (Dance) +2, Ride +7, Stealth +5, Survival +6
SQ: favored terrain (plains +2), track +1, wild empathy +4
Languages: Hallit
Combat Gear: potion of cure light wounds (3)
Other Gear: masterwork hide armor, masterwork heavy wooden shield, javelins (3), masterwork longspear, masterwork shortspear, masterwork sling with 20 stones, medicine bag, pet mammoth (see below)
Description
Male human ranger 3
Before Combat: Thaim thinks like a hunter and tries to arrange the conditions of the battle as if he were hunting an animal, mainly by relying on surprise.
During Combat: Thaim prefers to fight while riding his mammoth. If he must fight on the ground, he uses his longspear, or shortspear and shield if his enemy is particularly dangerous (AC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 16 [+4 armor, +1 Dex, +2 shield]).
Morale: Although Thaim is not terribly bright, he understands that his mission to save his tribe will fail if he dies. If brought to 10 hit points or fewer, he flees, directing his mammoth to clear a path if possible.
Thaim is a boy of about 15. He has a pet woolly mammoth, and he’s a long, long way from home.
Several moons ago, Thaim’s tribe was cursed by a witch. The crops died, the cattle gave sour milk, and the people grew ill with a wasting sickness. Even the shaman could do nothing to stop the curse, announcing that one of the boys from the tribe must go south into the wild lands and bring back magic to break the curse. All the boys stood before the shaman, who looked them in the eye and chose Thaim—innocent, pure of heart, and skilled at hunting beyond his years.
Thaim does not speak Common. He has no understanding of currency or merchants, only that the world is a dangerous place and a tribe has to work together to survive. The tribe has tools it shares; when one man needs a tool, he uses it and then returns it so another may use it. Take only what you need—that is the way of the tribe. When tribe members are hungry, they hunt. When they need clothes, they make clothes. When the tribe has needs, the men and the women do what they can so the tribe does not suffer. This is the only life Thaim has ever known.
Now he has come alone into the “savage lands” to find magic to help his tribe. He doesn’t speak a single word of the strangers’ languages and has no money—only a small bag filled with tokens of tribal magic that the shaman gave him to protect him from evil, and his woolly mammoth, for whom only he knows the true name. He speaks to the mammoth in a strange tongue and the mammoth appears to understand.
Thaim needs magic to save his tribe, and he knows he is the only one who can find it. So he wanders, penniless and ignorant, hoping to find the thing or person that will offer him a miracle.
Boon: Thaim only sticks with PCs if he believes they can somehow help him end the curse; language and cultural barriers mean he doesn’t understand much but also doesn’t seem hostile. If the PCs help him with his quest, they gain his loyalty and the loyalty of his tribe. While they have little to offer in the way of goods (aside from a young mammoth to raise and train as a mount, which the tribe can provide), their shaman knows a bit about ice magic, unusual material components, and mysterious places in the Realm of the Mammoth Lords. If Thaim dies, his mammoth may choose to remain with an allied PC, not obeying commands but somehow understanding the character’s intent; if the PC is a druid or ranger, he or she may eventually choose the mammoth as an animal companion.
Source: NPC Guide, p. 19