TheLogger's Axe
Welcome again to Masters and Minions, where I strive to give you interesting NPCs and encounters that can be placed easily into your game. This week’s encounter involves Taksi’ki, a lok'wa child who was found lost and abandoned in a forest slated to be clear-cut, by a logger named Warren (lok’wa are a race of wolf-like nomadic humanoids that can be found in Marchen der Daemonwulf II). After explaining to her that he meant no harm, she explained, in a broken form of Common, that her family used to live in this forest, before cruel humans tried to drive them off. She went on to say that the humans’ attempts to scare off her family became more and more violent, until a human came and called fire down from the sky to burn them out of their home. Her father was said to have perished in the fire, while her mother tried to take her to safety. Her mother also ended up giving her life to protect her daughter and draw the evil men away from Taksi’ki’s hiding place. She told Warren that she hadn’t seen either of her parents for days now.
Up till that point, Warren was completely unaware of his employer’s cruel methods, and he was shocked when he heard her story. He decided to quit his job and raise Taksi’ki as his own daughter. When he left camp that night, he stole a powerful magic axe called Forestbane that was used to quickly cut down several trees at a time.
It has been almost twenty years since Warren left the logging camp with Taksi’ki and the stolen axe, and the logging company has finally tracked him down. As of yet, none of the men the company sent to kill Warren and retrieve the stolen axe have come back alive. The logging company has become desperate and they have now begun to hire mercenaries.
Taksi’ki, now in her mid-twenties, has become quite skilled when it comes to fighting with axes, and she now wields the stolen axe in order to protect her aging adoptive father.
Taksi’ ki’s Tactics
Taksi’ki begins combat by warning her attackers that if they do not turn back, she will be forced to slay them all. If they remain hostile, she starts off by using her axe’s line attack in order to strike as many targets as possible.
Taksi’ki
This canine-headed woman wears a dark hooded cloak in order to hide her wolf-like characteristics.
Beast Subtype (Ex)
The beast subtype grants low-light vision and scent. Creatures with the beast subtype can be affected by spells that can affect animals, even if those spells couldn’t normally affect them.
Beast Speak (Sp)
Lok’wa with a Wisdom of 11 or higher gain speak with animals as a spell-like ability once per day. The caster level for this effect is equal to the lok’wa's level.
Forestbane
This adamantine greataxe’s single blade is thinner and wider than most axes, with a wicked curve, and its darkwood handle is unusually thick.
The first of what was to be a line of logger’s axes, this +2 adamantine greataxe was created to both protect the logger and allow him to fell several trees with one swing. This greataxe inflicts double damage on wooden creatures (such as treants), as well as wooden objects. Additionally, as a full-round action which provokes attacks of opportunity, you can throw the greataxe, targeting all creatures and Medium- or larger sized objects in a 60-foot line. Make separate attack rolls against each creature and object, starting with the closest. The axe magically returns to your hands at the end of the round.
