Draven Barlow

A human male priest named Draven Barlow, who was found outside of the Ruined Church of Oghma before the party decided to check it out for themselves.

## Physical description

### Gender

Male

**Draven Barlow** is a human male priest or cleric from the look of his attire, he wears a holy robe with the emblem of Tyr and is lined with chainmail. He is armed with a two handed mace, which he often leans on his shoulder.

**Draven** is bald, but covers it with a feathered beret with a golden quill. He looks to be around the age of 50, and is fairly large for a human. From small glimpses of his neck, hands and arms you can see that he is quite strong looking, toned with muscles. Draven speaks with a enthusiastic, hearty voice, and can be seen frequently clutching his holy symbol of Tyr, with eyes closed in deep meditation.

He was found waiting outside of the **Ruined Church of Oghma** at the **Scar of Jaskir**, with the explanation that he believed to have been the only surviving member of his party, sent here by **Lawretta Stowen** to clear out the monster threat and to investigate the strange rumors regarding the "strange voices". After his group made it into the ruins, it only took a few minutes of exploration before something went awry and the place started to collapse, forcing him to escape. He says he went to look for survivors but found none so was preparing to head back to his home and to get paid by the mayor.

## Background

Not much is currently known about the original Draven Barlow.

Ashes learns by reading the tome titled "The Gold Star" that the person who is masquerading as Draven is in fact a man known as Temen Nikku, who used the power of the Wounded Gold Star to save his own life by swapping bodies with Draven.

Temen Nikku was part of the adventuring party sent to the Ruined Church of Oghma by Lawretta Stowen to investigate recent rumors regarding the surrounding area. The rumors say that recent travelers that cusp the edges of these ruined parts of Jaskir see and hear strange sights and sounds, such as the gimmer of gold and jewels or friendly voices which guide them to great treasures which lay inside the ruins of the Jaskir Church of Oghma.

Temen and his adventuring party consisting of a group of 15 people were sent in to ensure the safety of the city, and were to be compensated very handsomely for dealing with this problem quickly and quietly, paying for their silence regarding this adventure. Temen was a chaotic neutral character, but after his use of the Wounded Gold Star his mind was warped and twisted even further causing his alignment to shift to chaotic evil, coaxed by the tempting offers offered by the strange relic.

Temen's group was caught off guard unexpectedly, splitting up into two squads and nearly immediately setting off the jury rigged traps set up by a group of kobolds led by a Scale Sorcerer, who took control of a strange relic known as the Wounded Gold Star, gaining more and more powerful as they collaborated in tandem with the relics desires.

The Kobold Scale Sorcerer named Urta commanded his small army of 20 kobolds to start killing the group, but the ruins of the building could not contain the few fireballs launched throughout the battle, causing a massive tremor which further collapsed the already derelict ruins, sealing off about half of the underground portion and instantly killing several of the kobolds as well as adventurers.

Temen and a small group of survivors pushed through despite the sudden chaos, and made their way into the kobolds sanctum, killing it by pushing it into a pit of carnivorous eels, used prior by the kobold to dispose of captured adventurers drawn in by the call of the Wounded Gold Star after being robbed blind and sapped of all their essence into soul gems.

Temen was able to deal a killing blow to the Scale Sorcerer but not without sustaining life threatening injuries during the battle, of which only he and his close friend and dear companion Daven Barlow survived, because of his sudden cowardice during battle, leaving him alone to deal with the threat by himself.

As he lay, dying in the cold ruins he heard the call of the Wounded Gold Star, offering him a chance to live if he emptied out his gold pouch and gave it all to the relic.

Not even giving it a second thought, he immediately used the last of his remaining energy to pull off the draw strings of the pouch to spill the coins on-top of the relic which he had grabbed off of the kobold during his scuffle which caused him to be stabbed through the heart with a dagger, while simultaneously grabbing and knocking off the kobold into the pit of eels, killing it and leaving its magical relics inside the pit and stomachs of the disposal.

The relic began absorbing all of the gold coins like water into a sponge, all other types of coin such as platinum, copper and silver just bounced off, almost repelled like a magnet pushing away from another magnet. After feeding, an audible burp is be heard, slowly causing the relic to levitate off the ground and start spinning hypnotically into the nearly fading eyes of Temen, who is suddenly transported into a dark glittering gold hued empty void.

Inside this void, Temen instantly regained consciousness and all pain from his mortal wound ceased, he inspected his body and saw that his wounds were still there, but not bleeding; as if stuck in some sort of statis. He felt no need for food, water, and he was slowly being filled with a warm feeling of gratitude.

Almost as if detecting his emotions, the Wounded Gold Star reveals herself to Temen, an enormous floating featureless woman whos skin was a polished rose gold, freckled with what looked like small coins of various shape and size. She had a long mane of flowing gold "hair" which resembled a waterfall, like metal being melted down and poured off into the aether, vanishing. Her face was covered with a shattered mask, which looked like it was somewhat fused onto her face.

She asks him, "Are you grateful for what I have done?". Stunned, he silently nods in agreement, unable to think of any sort of response. "That is good, because I too have a favor to ask of you."

"A favor?" he responded, "I... suppose I can help with a favor, sure." he meekly added. "You are going to be reborn, given a second chance, but all I require of you is to feed me, and I will reward you with whatever you desire." the entity seductively said, looming over and cupping the floating Temen up into her giant hands, bringing her closer towards her face.

"Anything? At all?" he replied, his averting gaze slowly focusing on hers as he begun to imagine the possibilities. "That is correct, anything at all." she said as she embraced the tiny in comparison sized man in between her breasts.

What seemed like a long talk and persuasion inside the Wounded Gold Star for Temen which may have lasted for around an hour, was in reality only a few minutes at most as time seems to slow down inside whatever realm the relics form lays inside of.

Regaining his will to fight, and deeply regretting leaving his friend behind, Draven rushes back into the chamber with a new found burst of confidence but only to charge into an empty room with the floating relic, glowing softly with a radiant aura, implanting seductive whispers to coax him into focusing on the Wounded Gold Star.