Zan

Zan (Zanerith) Govind

Race: Half-Elf Drow, Class: Sorcerer 3/Warlock 2 Background: Smuggler (Variant), Alignment: Chaotic Good Patron Deity: DEITY Factions: Harpers

Ability Scores

Strength 10 (+0), Dexterity 16 (+3), Constitution 12 (+1); Intelligence 10 (+0), Wisdom 10 (+0), Charisma 17 (+3)

Proficiencies

Bonus: x Saving Throws: Constitution & Charisma Skills: Insight +4, Perception +4, Persuasion +7, Stealth +7 Tools: Forgery Kit Languages: Common, Elvish, Orc, Undercommon Armor: Light, Medium, Shields Weapons: Martial Weapons, Simple Weapons

Traits

Darkvision, Fey Ancestry, Drow Magic, Sorcerous Origin: Divine Soul, Divine Magic: Chaos, Favored by the Gods, Font of Magic, Metamagic, Otherworldly Patron: The Hexblade, Pact Magic, Hexblade's Curse, Hex Warrior, Eldritch Invocations (Agonizing Blast, Devil's Sight)

Feats

FEATS

Combat

Attacks: • Dagger: +6, 1d4+3,• Rapier: +6, 1d8+3,• Eldritch Blast: +6, 1d10+3 Armor Class: 16 (+1 against melee weapon attacks), +2 shield (+1 against ranged weapon attacks), Initiative: +6, Speed: 30 ft Hit Points: 32, Hit Dice: 3d6, 2d8

Social

Personality Traits: I stretch the truth about almost everything, even when there’s no good reason to. • I’m a born gambler who can’t resist taking a risk for a potential payoff. Ideals: People. For all my many lies, I place a high value on friendship. Bonds: I owe everything to my mentor — but I know he's not the saint everyone thinks he is. Flaws: I’m always in debt. I spend my ill-gotten gains on decadent luxuries faster than I bring them in.

Character Relevant Links

Harpers: Faction Info • Harpers of Waterdeep • Dusken Glade Cell
People & Places: Local Neighborhood • Dusken Glade Inn • Rivals • Griffins
Campaign Info: House Rules • Group Treasury

Traits

Racial Traits

• Ability Score Increase Charisma +2, Dexterity +1, Constitution +1
• Languages Common, Elvish, Undercommon
• Darkvision See in dim light within 60 feet as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light
• Fey Ancestry Advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
• Drow Magic A half-elf of drow descent can forgo Skill Versatility and instead choose the drow’s Drow Magic: You know the dancing lights cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the faerie fire spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the darkness spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Sorcerer Features

• Proficiencies:
  • Armor: None
  • Weapons: Daggers, darts, slings, quarterstaffs, light crossbows
  • Tools: None
  • Saving Throws: Constitution, Charisma
  • Skills: Insight, Persuasion
• Sorcerous Origin: Divine Soul Sometimes the spark of magic that fuels a sorcerer comes from a divine source that glimmers within the soul. Having such a blessed soul is a sign that your innate magic might come from a distant but powerful familial connection to a divine being.
  • Divine Magic:
    • Your link to the divine allows you to learn spells from the cleric class. When your Spellcasting feature lets you learn or replace a sorcerer cantrip or a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher, you can choose the new spell from the cleric spell list or the sorcerer spell list. You must otherwise obey all the restrictions for selecting the spell, and it becomes a sorcerer spell for you.
    • In addition, you learn the Bless spell, based on the Law affinity that is the source of your divine power. It is a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against your number of sorcerer spells known. If you later replace this spell, you must replace it with a spell from the cleric spell list.
  • Favored by the Gods: Divine power guards your destiny. If you fail a saving throw or miss with an attack roll, you can roll 2d4 and add it to the total, possibly changing the outcome. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
• Metamagic:
  • Quickened Spell: When you cast a spell that has a casting time of 1 action, you can spend 2 sorcery points to change the casting time to 1 bonus action for this casting.
  • Twinned Spell: When you cast a spell that targets only one creature and doesn’t have a range of self, you can spend a number of sorcery points equal to the spell’s level to target a second creature in range with the same spell (1 sorcery point if the spell is a cantrip).

Warlock Features

• Proficiencies:
  • Armor:Light
  • Weapons: Simple
• Otherworldy Patron: The Hexblade You have made your pact with a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell — a force that manifests in sentient magic weapons carved from the stuff of shadow. The shadowy force behind these weapons can offer power to warlocks who form pacts with it. Many hexblade warlocks create weapons that emulate those formed in the Shadowfell. Others forgo such arms, content to weave the dark magic of that plane into their spellcasting. Because the Raven Queen is known to have forged the first of these weapons, many sages speculate that she and the force are one and that the weapons, along with hexblade warlocks, are tools she uses to manipulate events on the Material Plane to her inscrutable ends.
  • Hexblade's Curse: You have the ability to place a baleful curse on someone. As a bonus action, choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The target is cursed for 1 minute. The curse ends early if the target dies, you die, or you are incapacitated. Until the curse ends, you gain the following benefits. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.
    • You gain a bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target. The bonus equals your proficiency bonus.
    • Any attack roll you make against the cursed target is a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 on the d20.
    • If the cursed target dies, you regain hit points equal to your warlock level + your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1 hit point).
  • Hex Warrior:
    • You have acquired the training necessary to effectively arm yourself for battle. You gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons.
    • The influence of your patron also allows you to mystically channel your will through a particular weapon. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. This benefit lasts until you finish a long rest. If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon’s type.
  • Eldritch Invocations: In your study of occult lore, you have unearthed eldritch invocations, fragments of forbidden knowledge that imbue you with an abiding magical ability.
    • Agonizing Blast:When you cast eldritch blast, add your Charisma modifier to the damage it deals on a hit.
    • Devil's Sight:You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.

Smuggler Background Traits

On a rickety barge, you carried a hundred longswords in fish barrels right past the dock master’s oblivious lackeys. You have paddled a riverboat filled with stolen elven wine under the gaze of the moon and sold it for twice its value in the morning. In your more charitable times, you have transported innocents out of war zones or helped guide herd animals to safety on the banks of a burning river.

• Skill Proficiencies: Perception, Stealth
• Tools: Forgery Kit, Vehicles (water)
• Down Low:
  • You are acquainted with a network of smugglers who are willing to help you out of tight situations. While in a particular town, city, or other similarly sized community (DM’s discretion), you and your companions can stay for free in safe houses. Safe houses provide a poor lifestyle. While staying at a safe house, you can choose to keep your presence (and that of your companions) a secret.

Faction Traits

• Sponsor: You have a senior Harper who has not only brought you into the Harpers, but helps to train you. The time it takes to learn one of the mentor's proficiencies by the Training downtime activity is reduced in half. Any given mentor usually knows 1d6 languages and 1d6 tool proficiencies. They can also arrange training with other Harpers for proficiencies outside of their own baliwick.
• Signs at Twilight: All Harpers learn the methods for contacting and getting information to the Harpers. The use of certain songs, signs to look for, identifying phrases - all the techniques that Harpers use to find one another in a cold and dangerous world. Harpers also learn the meaning, placement, and discovery of the specific Harper sigils.
• Song Training: By the time a Harper has spent some time as part of the organization, training in music is an inevitability. Harpers use music for a great many things - to subtly identify themselves to one another, to pass coded messages back and forth, and even the use of musical metaphor in their interactions. A proficient Harper may play music that communicates something to other Harpers who hear it in a coded fashion, as well. Proficiency - Drum

Harper Pins

Wondrous Item, rare (attunement)

Wrought by certain finesmiths and enchanted by Harper magicians, the Harper pin provides a number of benefits to the attuned wearer based on their standing within the Harpers as a faction. Pins manifest power based on their attunement to Harper bearers. An un-attuned pin is referred to as being dormant.

• Basic Abilities: No ranking. Harper pins, even those which are dormant, are themselves immune to divination magics. They never register as magical to spells or spell-like abilities.
• Rank 1+. The Harper attuned to the pin may, as a bonus action and mere act of will requiring neither speech nor gesture, command the pin to change its shape into another piece of jewelry. It never appears to be worth more than 5gp, although this value can be for a piece that is obviously costume jewelry. If the wearer is in any way targeted by a dispel magic, even if the pin is not the target of that spell, it automatically reverts to its normal harp-and-moon shape.
• Rank 3+. In addition to the above abilities, the pin functions as a ring of mind shielding, without the soul-retention property of that ring.
• Rank 4+. Harpers with some experience can learn to invest their pins with a fragment of personality. Instead of causing mind-reading to simply fail (which is suspicious), they can cause the pin to "loop" a set of thoughts of their choice, usually setting a cycle of thoughts appropriate to their current cover story. A pin's thought loop can be reset during a short rest.
• Rank 5+. The pin is capable of playing a counter-tune when the attuned Harper encounters spells that would charm them, granting the bearer advantage on all saves against such spells and abilities. The pin also drinks in the power behind magic missiles, rendering the bearer immune to them. Either of these effects cause a shapechanged pin to revert to its normal, harp-and-moon shape.
• Rank 6+. The pin protects the bearer from electrical attacks, granting resistance to lightning damage. This effect causes a shapechanged pin to revert to its normal, harp-and-moon shape.
• Rank 12+. A shapechanged pin is now immune from reverting to its normal shape by any means.

• Magic Access: Rank 2+. Harpers can get access to Common potions and scrolls at the cost it takes to create those items, and have them within 1d4 days.
• Song Training: Rank 2+. By the time a Harper has spent some time as part of the organization, training in music is an inevitability. Harpers use music for a great many things - to subtly identify themselves to one another, to pass coded messages back and forth, and even the use of musical metaphor in their interactions. The Harper of this Rank may choose proficiency in a musical instrument or the Performance Skill for singing. A proficient Harper may play music that communicates something to other Harpers who hear it in a coded fashion, as well.
• Harper's Pin: Rank 3+. Fully acknowledged agents of the Harpers receive a Harpers pin magic item (see sidebar).
• Harper Cell: Rank 3+. Harper agents are frequently put into a cell structure, giving them the support of allies without endangering the entire organization should they be compromised.
• Harper Lore: Rank 4+. Harpers gain access to repositories of arcane lore - spells known only to Harpers. These are taught by mentors or provided as spell-scrolls. These spells may be considered to be added to the spell-list of the character.
• City Lore: Rank 4+ A Harper gains familiarity with the backways and shortcuts of their main city of operation, or of any other city they spend at least a season (three months) in. These months do not have to be cumulative. You gain the "City Secrets" ability of the Urchin Background for those cities.

- City Secrets: You know the secret patterns and flow to cities and can find passages through the urban sprawl that others would miss. When you are not in combat, you (and companions you lead) can travel between any two locations in the city twice as fast as your speed would normally allow.

Feats

None

Resources

• Coins: x cp • x sp • x ep • 215 gp • x pp • Other coins: x
• Gems: x

Magic Items

• Cloak of Protection (w/Guardian Quirk): You gain a +1 bonus to AC and saving throws while you wear this cloak and it whispers warnings to its bearer, granting a +2 bonus to initiative if the bearer isn't incapacitated.
• Stone of Good Luck (Luckstone): While this polished agate is on your person, you gain a +1 bonus to ability checks and saving throws.
• Chain Shirt of Melee Weapon Resistance: You have a +1 bonus to AC against melee weapons while wearing this armor. Has the Vanguard quirk.
• Deflecting Shield: You have a +1 bonus to AC against ranged weapons while using this shield. Has the Deflecting quirk.

Equipment

Carried Equipment

• In Hand: Rapier, dwarven shield, light crossbow, daggers (4)
• Worn: Cloak of Elvenkind, a Harper pin, Studded leather armor
• Belt: x
• Backpack: Ball bearings (bag of 1,000), bedroll, bell, candle, crowbar, hammer, hooded lantern, mess kit, oil flask, pitons (10), potion of healing (2), rations (15 days), rope - hempen (50ft), string, thieves tools, tinderbox, torch (10), waterskin, clothes - common, traveler's, fine

Stored Equipment

• x

Lifestyle

• Modest: (1 gp/day).

Backstory

Heinrich doesn't know how to handle grief. He transitions it into anger, which isn't always healthy. And anger he channels into fighting. Outside of the fighting ring he has developed this dapper persona - something of a flirty lothario, willing to bed down with all manner of suitors but never dating anyone. In truth, this actually is an expression of his grief, whether he recognizes it or not.

Heinrich has had the idea since he was an adolescent that he wanted to be a gladiator, even going so far as training in one of the "youth leagues" where they teach youngsters fighting skills. (I'm picturing a Waterdeep version of modern martial arts and boxing schools that offer classes for youth as something of an athletics hobby). But when he came of age and went to sign up for participation in Waterdeep's gladiatorial games, they flatly refused to sign him up. The official policy is that the games are open to Bugbear participants, but individual racism blocked his attempt to sign up. He could have pursued the matter, but in his anger, he decided he didn't want to be a part of the establishment's organized games and instead found his way to the Griffin's non-sanctioned fighting matches. He started doing well, and the crowds there liked his style, calling him "The Dancing Beast". He also started to make friends. Sure, he knew that the Griffins were technically a gang, and that his new friends were involved in various illegal stuff, but they were his friends and he chose to ignore that. He also chose to ignore the cries of the guard to help stop who they were perusing as that person ran by him. That person being one of his new friends from the Griffins. Instead of trying to stop her, he stepped out of her way and let her past. It wasn't until several blocks later that he saw what had happened - as the pursuit continued, the Griffin had tried to hide behind some innocent bystanders, using their bodies as a shield. When that didn't work, the Griffin casually shot a crossbow into the neck of one of them, hoping to distract the guard long enough to escape. The distraction worked, but the bystander died. That bystander was Heinrich's Uncle Benjax, who had been coming to see Heinrich after a recent argument and to gift him with a family heirloom.

A pocket sized stone sundial with tiny gemstones at each hour. This was a Mountainflower family heirloom that Uncle Benjax had on him when he was killed by one of the Griffins who the City Watch had been pursuing. Uncle Benjax had been coming to find Heinrich and give the small sundial to him as a gift after the two of them had gotten in one of their larger arguments about Dwarf/Goblinoid conflicts and the plight of Goblinoids, who Heinrich feels have been discriminated against. Uncle Benjax hoped that by gifting Heinrich with something that had been passed down in the Mountainflower family, that he could somehow convey just how much he loves Heinrich and truly considers him to be a part of his family. Unfortunately, Benjax was killed before the sundial could be given to Heinrich. Heinrich's Aunt gave him the sundial instead and explained the significance.

Having been raised in Waterdeep by a Dwarven couple amid a multitude of other races, Heinrich always knew he was a different kind of bugbear. He also knows that many, if not the majority, of bugbears out in the world fall under an evil alignment. And he also knows, "Not all bugbears..." BUT he also has something of a disconnect between what he knows intellectually and his desire to connect with his blood ancestry. The result is that he has something of a romanticized view of bugbear culture. Maybe they are aggressive and violent because other races are oppressing them. Maybe the dwarves are the ones who are aggressive in they way they are so uptight and rigid about everything and make enemies of the goblinoid races when they don't have to. This was a major source of arguments and discord between Heinrich and his adoptive father, Uncle Benjax, prior to his passing. He certainly has a fondness for Dwarven culture also, having been raised in it, but he wants Bugbear culture to be a little more noble than it probably actually is. He even practices something of a personal devotion to the Bugbear deity Grankhul, but it's a romanticized, watered down version of Grankhul that his clerics would probably sneer at, and Grankhul himself would take issue with if Heinrich ever had a true encounter with him.

Heinrich has earned the moniker of "The Dancing Beast" in the fighting ring for his agile, quick, acrobatic fighting style. Despite his size, he manages a fluid, graceful movement. As a hobby, he has picked up quite a proficiency with a deck of cards, which he always has on him and is shuffling and reshuffling in a flashy, showy fashion. He's also learned several card tricks. His impressive stealth has saved his ass a number of times. Nobody expects the big guy to be able to hide in the way that he does.

Heinrich has always loved Midsummer and the variety of different holidays for the various gods and religious traditions that surround it. Since he was obviously discouraged from observing devotion to the bugbear deities he has done some cherry picking from the other festivals and part of the reason he likes Midsummer, and Midwinter to a lesser extent is that there are so many festivals to cherry pick from. In particular, he has very fond memories from his youth of The Grand Revel, which his parents focused on because of their connection to the Harpers, and also of the Dwarven festival of The Axe Held High.

Important Individuals

	Zavelinda Harper • Mentor Zavelinda is a monk of some skill
	Uncle Benjax Adopted Father (deceased) • Bard xxx
	Aunt Maylephia Adoptive Mother • Baker xxx
	Luchezga Agent of the Waterdeep Watch The half-orc Luchezga is a pugilist and fighter of some talent. For many years, she was part of the cage-fighting circuit, and beat a good many folk in the ring with her unarmed fighting tactics. Eventually, though, it happened: the Watch raided one of the biggest Griffin Gathers during a big fight, and she was instrumental in seizing and arresting Valesta. As it turned out, Luchezga is a member of the Watch, and she'd been planted among the fight scene in order to identify and arrest the people involved. Luchezga escaped her apprehension on the way to gaol, though, which is a source of great frustration for the fighty half-orc. To this day, she still seeks to dismantle the gangs of Waterdeep. She is a student at the Monastery of the Sun, studying the Way of the Sun Soul with Abbot Alger. Luchezga and Heinrich became friends as they were fighting in matches, sometimes pairing up and fighting as a duo against other pairs. They were always quite popular with the crowds when paired up this way. In fact, Luchezga was the more experienced fighter and took Heinrich under her wing when he first started fighting in the matches and trained with him, training him how to fight and please the crowds. Secretly, she was fond of him and hoped that he wouldn't really fall in with the Griffins and always encouraged him to seek something better. After Benjax died and Heinrich officially became a Harper and went back undercover with the Griffins, of course both Heinrich and Luchezga were unaware that the other was working undercover. When the inevitable raid by the watch happened, Heinrich would have been captured along with Valesta, but Luchezga let him go and warned him to straighten himself out or the next time he would get more than just a warning. Of course, Heinrich's mission keeps him with the Griffins, and he knows that he will at some point come back face to face with Luchezga.
	Whorbi Worldthrone Harper Wizardess The dwarven wizardess was one of the first apprentices of the renowned but reclusive Ahmadar of the Seven Runes, one of the earliest known dwarven wizards in the wake of the Thunder Blessing of the dwarven peoples. Whorbi is not merely a member of the noble dwarven Clan Worldthorne, and thus one of the most important members of the dwarven community in Waterdeep. She is also a Harper of some rank, and takes the responsibilities and traditions of the Harpers very seriously. Whorbi comes across as a total hardass to Heinrich. She was close friends with Benjax and Mayliphia, especially Benjax. Ever since Benjax died she rides Heinrich HARD. She won't let up on him. Heinrich thinks she's a racist, cold hearted bitch who hates him because he's a bugbear and blames him for Benjax's death. The truth: She sees great potential in Heinrich and cares about him deeply, and despite the fact that he's a bugbear and Benjax was a dwarf, she sees Benjax's legacy living on in Heinrich and wants to push Heinrich to be the best he can be and honor the memory of his adopted father. Heinrich might be TOO much like his obstinate adopted guardian because he can't see the way Whorbi cares for him. Instead he fights against her, much as he did Benjax.