René-Audric Bastien

A true lord of The Forest Kingdom.

Personality
René was an impetuous child who grew into an impetuous teen; with two brothers, he was always a rather competitive sort as well. Yet, when he matured, the adolescent was whipped into shape by his late-father, and became a man who separated the various aspects of his life into mental battlefields.

The most literal of those is where the younger of his personality shines, while the courts and its intrigues are where the brushed and pressed, and poorly subdued cheekiness is given chance to play. Still, he is a lord, a learned man and above all, a Purple Dragon Knight and thusly René, with a keen sense of justice, sharp wit and (when necessary) sharp tongue, is the epitome of what he needs to be with dealing with the merchant-wars (as he's come to call them) of Cormyr.

However, such skills have not seen much use since he has left his home.

What is always in use, regardless, is the personal edicts he adopted when he had first decided to push himself toward being a Purple Dragon. Honour, duty, loyalty to himself and others, codes strongly adhered to and called upon to bolster sheer bull-headedness into a the sort of bravery that’s nigh indistinguishable from flat out stupidity.

Considering that, nearing the age of 40, he is still a potent fighter and travelling Faerûn with all of his limbs (scarred and calloused as they are), such heroism was not misplaced.

Now that he has pulled himself from exile, most of his mind is a rather subdued affair. Although René is still a very cheeky being and has not forgotten the ways of nobility, despite how he had spurned it the first time he'd run away. His words and his status get him much and while he has become humbled by all that he has seen in Cormyr, he is not fool enough to let all his learning go to waste - at least, not this time around.

Appearance
When not in battle, the Noble's appearance matches his status in life. His wavy, blond hair is well-brushed and fashioned into a respectable ponytail or left to hang loose; his beard trimmed and immaculate as his attire, and often highlights his bright blue eyes, which show with a different purpose depending upon where he is.

In the courts, his six-foot-one-inch frame hardly seems so imposing, for his broad shoulders are kept casually straight, rather than rigidly defiant as they do when they bear the weight of his armour and the rigours of battle. He walks much the same way, though even with his casual stroll there is a telic, disciplined air that warns of more than how much he may or may not have had to drink at a social gathering.

Yet, when the time comes and his life and others' are on the line, the pleasant twinkle in his bright blue eyes tends to dim beneath thick eyebrows, and a weary frown - which far more suited to his rugged and lightly scarred face - warps the warm, rosy flush of his stubble-ridden cheeks into just another a bit of colour set upon a face of grim determination stained by the toils of battle.

He turns, shortly, into the enemy he often doesn't get a chance to see once he mounts his horse and drops the visor of his helm. And if they manage to un-horse him - a rare thing indeed - they see the casual stroll of a noble turn into a hulking march of a plated beast that lumbers mercurially and without discourse over strewn bodies of fallen comrades and foes alike.

He has seen himself in others though and the lord is quite pleased - in some ways - to know that most of the battles, of which he has little interest, take place in the cities, rather than on the fields of his beloved Cormyr.

History
In his younger days, René was the typical rebellious child of a Cormyrean noble house – a boy who did not understand what he was meant to become and often refused his grooming for hooligan’s pursuits. With two brothers, one older and younger, the lad’s spirits were always high and he was ever-competitive for the attention his brothers received. Of course, they were doing things the right way, whereas young René thought it best to frequently abandon the family’s manor and lands to cause trouble wherever he saw fit, abusing the impunity that his social rank granted him.

With the death of his brothers by the time he was ten years old, René’s attitude only worsened and for the years after that, the young Noble wandered Cormyr, chasing trouble and pursued by law for brawling, gambling and thievery. Such a way of life, especially in his teenager years, saw him a grim figure that viewed most of his existence as a battlefield and when his fists did not work, what he had managed to learn of the intrigues of the court often did.

René bartered his way through towns and onto merchant caravans, travelling across his homeland until he was near twenty years old. He enjoyed the freedom and chaos of an adventurer’s life, selling his sword as a caravan guard, amongst other things and from that, found a sharper tongue to do his business – unwittingly grooming himself in all that his parents tried to teach him.

Still, he was not quick enough for his father, who had actually been tracking his movement all those years, and was apprehended before he could cross into the Dalelands for his adventure into Myth Drannor. Such a place, a Mecca for adventurers, was too much for the young noble, but determined to prove that he was far more than the child left a legacy only for the death of his brothers (which pushed him to be something more, to show he was not so weak a man) he escaped his father's shackles only to be near killed by a marauding band of goblins a week later.

Though, once he awoke in his home a month after the ordeal, his father commended him for the prowess he had garnered in his short years. He was, however, informed that a few goblin-kills were not enough for his dreams and desires, and his father (a skilled knight, and the one who saved his hide) offered him, once more, the chance to do him proud.

René, both shamed and bolstered by his misadventure, leaped at the chance to become a Knight of Cormyr – it was an easy thing in his mind, especially with his family's standing in the world, to accomplish. Never mind the constant border disputes with the Sembians, and the forays against the Zhentraim assured him a place in battle. It was, in his mind, the right time for him to test and show his mettle.

It was nothing of the sort.

After two arduous years of training, he was stationed at the docks of Marsember, keeping the peace. It was a boring job, and often he found himself in the midst of a crowd - weary of giving directions and local customs to visitors - brawling for money and the sake of it. Only his name, and his father's constant favours and glib tongues kept him in Cormyrean ranks.

Those privileges ended, three years later, with his father's death; the ageing Baron had been called to quell a skirmish in the Stonelands, only to find an ambush awaiting him. The platoons at his command were decimated, few survived and those few came back with tales that brewed a potent hatred in the young Noble, which – coupled with his mother and aunt's despair – drove him toward perfection in all he had yet to attain with his father was alive.

A year later, at the age of 27, René found himself garrisoned at Castle Crag, the fortress which protects Cormyr from the Stonelands – doing his part to drive back the goblin's threat and taking great delight in killing every green-skin he encountered, as homage to his late-father.

Five years were spent in the desolate castle and while René had done more than his share to avenge his father's death, it wasn't enough in his mind and rumours of an old decree made by Azoun reached his ears – a contract for those with a strong enough arm and swift enough mind; the king and his successors were bound by honour to grant anyone who could tame the Stonelands the appropriate title and power over that bleak expanse.

It wasn't enough that he killed orcs and goblins, they needed to be gone. They were the reason that he could not bury his father, they were the reason he could not make that man proud, even in death. René lusted after that, though during that time, the Goblin Wars had begun in earnest. He was pushed back, with the rest of the army, overrun and outmatched. He and the last of his platoon – with their leader slain – had to make a choice, yet, with Vangerdahast's disappearance and the discovery of who truly lead the goblins to war, morale was a commodity no man could afford, though René (so stubborn and set in his ways) gathered what was left of the platoon and, on horseback, broke for freedom the next morning.

With nothing but lance and the tattered armour they had to their names, they charged through the remnants of Arabel, tearing through flanks and scattering those left to claim the once-fair city. A glorious charge that did not end, for fear and anger of all they witnessed fuelled them, until the brave knights reached Marsember, scratched but none of them dead or near death for René bull-headed ways.

In 1371, two years after that fated day, René was granted the title of Swordcaptain and garrisoned, once more, at Castle Crag. Though, in that same year, his proud mother and Aunt, while on a simple trip to Marsember, were killed by a marauding remnant of the orc and goblin armies; the same fate that his brothers had met. Incensed, but despairing all the same for the last of his family was no more (his aunt never married or had children of her own), the last of the noble house Bastien forgot his dreams and, for a time, was consumed by attempts to keep the peace beneath the new Regent and new goals of Cormyr.

Which was to say, he involved himself – with minimal interest – in the intrigue of rebellious nobles, those who had been exiled and now wished to return to refute the claims of Her Majesty Alusair. Her love for adventurers and support for them both amused and made René disdainful of his country's state – with the fall of Arabel and Tilverton, there were more important things to worry about than how many troops they had. He motioned, at a gathering of the court, for half of the three-thousand Purple Dragons at Marsember to be re-assigned.

It was laughed at and the Princess continued to hire those not of Cormyrite heritage to protect their lands. With no reason to truly stay, and shamed – not by his cause – but the lack of trust and respect for his family and all they'd done, René cast himself into exile, leaving his squire as Castellan of his family's keep in Suzail, and taking his horse (the noble beast he rode from Arabel upon whom he named Honour) on a quest to figure out what it is he should do with the rest of his days – closing in on him as he feels all too greatly.

Character Sheet
Name, Type: René-Audric Bastien, Human Purple Dragon Knight (15); Medium Humanoid (Human) Hit Dice: 15d10 (162) Initiative: +3 (+3 Dex) Speed: 20ft AC: AC 21, touch 11, flat-footed 20 BAB/Grapple: +15/+20 Attacks: +22/+17+12 melee (1d8+9, 19-20/x3, Masterwork Lance) or +22/+17/+12 melee (1d8+7, 19-20/x2, Masterwork Longsword) Face/Reach: 5ft/5ft (10ft with lance) Saves:
 * Fort: +16
 * Ref: + 7
 * Will +9

Abilities: Str 21, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 16

Armour: René is proficient in all armour, and all shields (including tower shields)

Weapons: René is proficient with all simple and martial weapons.

Special Attacks:

  Skills:   Feats:
 * Mounted Weapon Bonus (lance)(Ex): René gains a +2 competence bonus on attack rolls with a lance while mounted.
 * Mounted Weapon Bonus (sword)(Ex): René gains a +2 competence bonus on attack rolls with a sword while mounted.
 * Ride bonus: René has gained a +4 competence bonus to Ride checks.
 * Courtly Knowledge(Ex): As a competence bonus René adds +6 to his Knowledge (nobility & royalty) checks.
 * Deadly Charge(Ex): 3/day; When mounted and using the charge action; you may declare a deadly charge before making an attack roll. If you hit; you deal triple damage with a melee weapon(quadruple damage with a lance). This ability does not stack with the Spirited Charge feat.
 * Burst of Speed(Ex): René can urge Honour to greater than normal speed when charging. Doubling the maximum distance the mount can travel when charging; up to four times its speed. Usable once per day without penalty to the mount. Each additional use of the ability in a single day requires Honour to make a DC 20 will save. Failure results in Honour taking 2d6 points of damage.
 * Full Mounted Attack(Ex): René may make a full attack when Honour moves more than 5 ft. but no further than a single move action. René cannot combine this full move with a charge.
 * Heroic Shield: René can use the aid another action to give an ally a +4 circumstance bonus to AC instead of the normal +2.
 * Rallying Cry(Su): René can utter a powerful shout that causes all allies within 60 feet to gain a +1 morale bonus on their next attack roll and increases their speed by 5 feet until his next turn. This is a mind-affecting ability that may be used up to three times per day.
 * Handle Animal: +11 (+3 Cha, +2 Animal Affinity) = 16
 * Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty): +10 (+2 Int, +6 Class: Cavalier) = 18
 * Ride : +18 (+3 Dex, +2 Animal Affinity, +2 Synergy, Handle Animal, +2 Military Saddle, +4 Class: Cavalier, +1 Cormyrean Destrier) = 32
 * Diplomacy: +5 (+2 Synergy, Knowledge Nobility and Royalty, +3 Cha) = 10
 * Intimidate: +12 (+3 Cha) = 15
 * Listen: +2 (+1 Wis) = 3
 * Profession – Horse Master: +4 (+1 Wis) = 5
 * Spot: +3 (+1 Wis) = 4
 * Animal Affinity
 * Improved Critical (Lance)
 * Leadership
 * Mounted Combat
 * Ride-By Attack
 * Spirited Charge
 * Toughness
 * Trample
 * Weapon Focus (Lance, Longsword)
 * Weapon Specialization (Lance, Longsword)

Ye Valiant Steed
Name, Type: Honour, Magical Beast (Celestial Pegasus, Cormyrean Destrier) (8); Large Animal (Heavy Warhorse) Hit Dice: 4d10 +12 (50) Initiative: +2 (+2 Dex) Speed: 50 ft., fly 120 ft. (average) AC: AC 14, touch 11, flat-footed 12

BAB/Grapple: +4/+12 Attacks: +7 melee (1d6+5,Hoof) Full Attack: 2 hooves +7 melee (1d6+5) and bite +2 melee (1d3+2) Face/Reach: 10ft/5ft Saves: Fort: +7, Ref: + 6, Will +4 Abilities: Str 20, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 13 Special Attacks:

Special Qualities:
 * Smite Evil (Su): Once per day a celestial creature can make a normal melee attack to deal extra damage equal to 1d6+4 against an evil foe.


 * Darkvision 60 ft.
 * Low-light vision
 * Scent


 * +4 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks


 * Spell-like abilities.


 * Damage reduction: 5/magical


 * Resistance to acid, cold, and electricity: 5


 * Spell resistance: 9


 * As a celestial creature, Honour’s natural weapons count as magical weapons for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.

Spell-like abilities:
 * Detect Good and Detect Evil at will, 60ft radius; Caster Level 5th.

Skills:


 * Diplomacy: 3


 * Listen: 10


 * Sense Motive: 11


 * Spot: 10

  '''Feats: '''
 * Endurance


 * Fly-by attack


 * Iron Will


 * Run

Environment: Any good-aligned plane. Challenge Rating: 5 Alignment: Chaotic Good Level Adjustment: +4