# [[Jaspen Bond Callistair]] %% token:: [[golarion-bond-token.png]] %% Jaspen Bond, aka *Bond*, is a blue [[Stonescale Kobolds|kobold]] gunslinger (Way of the Spellshot, Druid dedication) from [[Alkenstar]]. He wears a mask and is fully covered up — only his hands, ankles, and eyes show — in the uniform of his far-off city. Played by Nico. ![[golarion-jaspen.png]] Bond's adjectives: - Always: Experimental (*If it can be opened, picked, copied, or modified, I will*) - Always: Collector (*Components, formulas, runes, gems, languages — all of it*) - Never: Social ## Identity & Personality Bond is the educated, lawful, deeply un-social engineer of the party. He is fascinated by mechanisms, alchemy, magic, and language — and impatient with anything that prevents him from learning more. He admires Ash's lawful good drive, clashes with Zuhri's rebellion, and earns Vayle's resentment for trying to impose his moral code on others while also earning their grudging respect for actually living by it. - **Far from home, by mission**: Sent from [[Alkenstar]] to find technological marvels that can save his city - **Spellshot ethos**: After Session 067, his archetype is *Way of the Spellshot* — gunpowder + arcane - **Studious and chronicling**: Documents fauna and flora as he travels, providing checks-bonus knowledge - **Lawful good with edges**: Critiques Zuhri's rule-breaking; threatened [[Malleus]] over a sleeping-habits dispute - **Dwarven-speaker**: Picked up dwarven; understands that during the Zarmavdian incident the dwarf was reciting a poem about death and dying ## Mission for Alkenstar Alkenstar is dead and devoid of life — only its people and its technology keep it standing. Bond's purpose abroad is to find what his city needs, and his employers are *not* impressed by his current direction. - **Sent as Shield Warden**: Reported to family-business guardian robots that used to take orders from him - **Family**: Manufactures guns in Alkenstar; he left them behind for this mission - **Boss's disappointment (Session 076 dream)**: His boss is unhappy that Bond is currently focused on fixing the war between Nex and Geb rather than directly bringing tech home - **Beast's challenge (Session 075)**: *"Artifice will ruin nature in the very same way magic ruined your city. You wish to protect your home but you are not protecting the lands around it."* - **Wisdom over knowledge**: *"Why do you need to keep on learning? Don't you think you already have enough power and knowledge? What you actually lack is the wisdom to use what you know properly, perhaps even the wisdom to save your city."* ## Werewolf Nature & Xal'garoth's Boon Bond was infected with lycanthropy by the [[Alpha]] in Session 073. The full moon initially terrified him — he and Vayle both required the party to tie them up, blindfold, and gag them on full-moon nights. In Session 075, [[Xal'garoth - The Apex Beast]] gave him control. - **Werewolf control**: Can now choose when to transform; pelt turns aside non-silvered weapons - **Hybrid form (Session 121)**: Deliberately transformed into a kindred/hybrid werewolf form (DC 23, rolled 30). In this form he gains **physical resistance 14** but is **vulnerable to silver**, and can **communicate with canine creatures** — he used wolf-language *intimidation* to frighten an attacking werewolf back - **Wolf instinct**: When triggered, will want to attack any helpless creature he sees - **Plant empathy (Leaf Order)**: Can ask questions and get answers from plants and fungi; communicated with the moss on Level 5 to learn it was growing fast because reduced threats stopped killing it - **Wildsong**: Druid-only language gained from a Level 2 Druid Dedication - **Arboreal & Nuan**: Spoken languages of the [[Arboreals]] and the plane of wood, gained via Multilingual feat - **Vision of home**: The beast showed Bond [[Alkenstar]] and a horse-like creature with a horn that could fly him there ## Tech & Engineering Focus Bond is the party's tinkerer, lockpicker, and identifier of magical mechanisms. The Volluk-vs-Bond technology rivalry runs through the campaign. - **Volluk's work, recognized on sight**: Identified the [[Soldier Construct|Black Knight]] as one of [[Volluk Azrinae|Volluk]]'s earliest works (cruder but more functional than his later designs); recognized Volluk's signature on a trapped Vordine door, noting it was "way better" than the Ash Elementals fishbowl Volluk built years ago - **Soul-gem engineering**: Removed the soul gem from the Black Knight to open it; identified the Soulgem Golem as a [[Soulbound Doll|Soulbound]] mechanism almost certainly built by Volluk; learned Volluk's [[Frost Wardens]] recycle materials and *report* tactical intel back to him after destruction - **The Cooperative Balloon (Session 116)**: Took possession of the silent floating metal eye, disabled its flight to keep it from calling for help; suspects it's Volop's surveillance device; reportedly contains a dwarven soul gem Bond wants to extract — but only after consulting with the soul about consent (an ethical alternative to standard soul-gem power sources) - **Dissecting the eye (Session 117)**: Bribed the goblins (via Grumble) to use their Otari workshop and took apart the eye. Three key findings: (1) the eye **projects the trapped soul's memories** into a nearby viewer's mind — analogous to a data crystal; (2) the soul was *forced* into the gem in a way Bond believes **can be reversed**; (3) the machinery shares mechanisms with other [[Volluk Azrinae|Volluk]]-made locks, useful intel for future encounters - **Future goals**: Acquire ghost-touch runes for his gloves; develop an ethical soul-gem-power-source alternative - **Mechanism mastery**: Understood the Frost Warden double-door mechanism; copied the runes for the [[magical glyphs]] controlling stone transparency (opaque, transparent, ethereal); picked the lock on the [[lead-lined steel box]] (the [[ring]] inside) - **Alchemical Crafting**: Wants to make more things; has the feat, needs formulas ## Bestiary Knowledge Bond is the party's identifier of monsters and magical hazards via *Thoughtful Reload* (Recall Knowledge) and study. - **[[Tomb Jelly|Tomb Jellies]]**: Level 6, eat flesh and leave bones intact, mindless and immune to mental effects, immune to crits and precision but easy to hit, beneficial to nearby undead, used by ancient cultures to polish bones - **[[Sod Hound]]s**: Level 3 earth elementals, often used as guards or pets; the chained ones at the Gauntlight are under unrenewed Arcane Binding that can be undone via an out-of-combat ritual - **[[Drider]]**: Honorable position among drow — prestigious despite most dying in service; arcane casters with no known weaknesses - **[[Death Shepherd]] & ghoul fever**: Dying with ghoul fever raises you as a ghoul under the Shepherd's control; ghoul fever counteracts vitality-effect spells - **[[Flesh Warp|Flesh Warps]]**: [[The Gibbering Mouther]] is an example - **[[Graveknight Armor|Greater Shadow]] (Siora form)**: Level 7, intelligent, light-vulnerable, resistance 20 to all but force/ghost touch/vitality (doubled vs. nonmagical attacks); also identified Belcorra herself as a ghost - **Mutant beasts**: From footprints near Arbor Felix, identified a basilisk-mutant with 30 ft petrifying range, 60 ft speed, 60 ft climb - **Wolf packs**: Up to ~10 members at most (intel from [[Gazzo]]) ## Notable Capabilities - **Way of the Spellshot**: Arcane gunslinger archetype since Session 067 - **Thoughtsense**: Can detect intelligent thoughts behind cover; used to detect two minds inside the Black Knight, between one and two minds beyond a Vordine door - **Metal detection**: Useful for sweeps in cluttered dungeons - **Ring of the Ram**: Used to break through doors — including the Mulvenboom door that alerted the fleshwarp guards, and the jammed door near Chafkem - **Cold-build punishment**: Critical hit (~70 damage) bloodied the [[Irnakurse]], and a single strike instantly killed the [[Forge-Spurned]] it became (exploiting weakness 10 cold) - **Bombs from height**: Started Session 109's mouther fight by lobbing bombs from a 40-foot vantage - **Heroic healing**: Healed [[Vayle]] for 14 HP after they went down in the Mutalisk room and asked the plants to hold back from attacking them ## Active Objectives - **Save Alkenstar**: Find the technology — or the wisdom — that lets the city survive - **Resolve the Cooperative Balloon ethically**: Consult the trapped soul about consent before extracting the gem - **Develop ethical soul-gem alternatives**: Replace Volluk's mechanism patterns with consenting power sources - **Acquire ghost-touch runes**: For his gloves - **Out-engineer Volluk**: Match or surpass his work without copying its ethics - **Manage the Wolf**: Stay in control of when he turns ## Unresolved Questions - Will Alkenstar accept what Bond actually brings home — and is Xal'garoth's critique correct that the city can't be saved by more artifice? - Whose surveillance device is the Cooperative Balloon really, and how much has it already transmitted? - Will the trapped dwarven soul inside it consent to extraction — and what will Bond do if it refuses? - Where does the Spellshot path actually lead — and why was the [[Dendarion]] comic the right manual at the right moment? - What does Bond owe to the family business he left behind? ## Relationships - **Party**: [[Ashnefrotty|Ash]] (kindred lawful good — *they admire each other's discipline*), [[Zuhri]] (chronic rules-clash), [[Vayle]] (mutual moral resentment-with-respect), [[Grumblebum|Grumble]] (both far from home, both engineers in different idioms) - **Allies**: [[Hearthmother Saesella]] (Blessing of Defiance), [[Marmanak]] (Juggernaut Mutagen), [[Stonescale Kobolds]] community in Otari ([[Andy]], [[Gran]] both call him "Mr. Bond"), [[Gazzo]] (wolf-pack lore) - **Frictions**: [[Holes]] and [[Arnoald]] from [[Arbor Felix]] — caused trouble and blamed it on "the dead guy" - **Rival/Antagonist**: [[Volluk Azrinae]] (engineering obsession; Bond reads his signature in everything he leaves behind) - **Subordinates back home**: Family-business guardian robots used to report to Bond as Shield Warden ## Notable Events Timeline Combat round-by-round detail removed; preserved in the session notes themselves. - **Session 057** — *Berry Bush*: Befriends a bird that leads him to a fruit tree; first day of travel through heavy downpour - **Session 058–059** — *Werewolf Woodland*: Reveals he's an Alkenstar guard; reveals he left family behind; confirmed lycanthrope in the forest near [[Absalom]] - **Session 060** — *Bulette Rodeo*: Identifies the Walking Cauldron — a witch's cauldron with 25 ft land speed, follows the party within 30 ft, holds 2 Bulk of potion ingredients - **Session 062** — *Fallen Tomb Wardens*: Acquires a [[Dongun Hold]] dagger pistol from a fallen [[Tomb Warden]]; figures out which symbols on the dwarven door must be pushed in to lock it; cooks butter oyster and mushrooms (+1 saves until end of next encounter, doubles 4 rations into 8) - **Session 063** — *Dwarven Souls*: Researches the dwarven statues; uncovers the drow soul-gem deception that trapped 10 dwarves' souls - **Session 065** — *Coalition Named*: Names the freed elementals "[[The Coalition]]" - **Session 067** — *Spellshot*: Subclass change to Way of the Spellshot; secondary stat to Intelligence; both Bond and Vayle fail to resist the full-moon transformation - **Session 069** — *Arbor Felix Defense*: Notes the village's primitive weapons; receives a Blessing of Defiance from Saesella and a Juggernaut Mutagen from Marmanak; chooses to transform into a werewolf in control; scouts the silver alpha wolf in armor leading hundreds of wolves in a meadow - **Session 071** — *Wolf Pack Intel*: Learns from [[Gazzo]] about wolf-pack behaviour - **Session 073** — *Lamashtu Temple*: Infected with lycanthropy by the [[Alpha]] - **Session 075** — *Xal'garoth's Boon*: Plant empathy, Wildsong, Arboreal, Nuan, Druid Dedication, Leaf Order membership, werewolf control - **Session 076** — *Alkenstar Dream*: Boss's disappointment over the Nex/Geb focus; received the [[Beastmaster's sigil|Beastmaster's Sigil]]; teleports to the underground laboratory and faces the real [[Zarmavdian]] - **Session 079** — *Soulgem Golem*: Identifies the golem as Volluk's Soulbound mechanism; opens its face and sees the soul gems inside - **Session 086** — *Jade Quarion Tree*: Tries to talk to the [[Leafy Fleshwarp]] tree; goes down to Dying 2 in the [[White Fungus room]] combat - **Session 088** — *Alchemy Run*: Buys [[Life Shot]] from goblin merchants; receives [[Storm Breath Potion]] (10 resistance to lightning/sonic, 4d12 electric in a 30-ft line); reaches Level 7 - **Session 091** — *Glyphs and the Ring*: Copies the magical-glyph runes; picks the [[lead-lined steel box]] open; finds the mysterious [[ring]] in velvet - **Session 095** — *Chafkem*: Uses [[Ring of the Ram]] on the jammed door; participates in freeing [[Chafkem]] - **Session 096** — *Level 6 Descent*: Communicates with the moss; encounters the [[Destrachan]]; agrees to find another way down - **Session 099** — *Dwarven Irnakurse*: Major realization that the Irnakurse was made from dwarf parts, not elves; encounters [[Frost Wardens]] for the first time - **Session 100** — *Forge-Spurned Defeat*: One-shots the Forge-Spurned with a 63-damage strike (cold-weakness exploit); recovers the [[Soul Chain]], which permanently destroys souls of those it slays - **Session 101–102** — *Frost Wardens & Thri-Kreen*: Understands the door mechanism; identifies the [[Thri-Kreen]] as Level 7; learns Volluk's machines report after death - **Session 103** — *Tomb Jelly Identification*: Provides full Tomb Jelly intel - **Session 106** — *Black Knight Opens*: Removes the soul gem; identifies it as Volluk's earliest work; rescues [[Andy]] and [[Gran]] - **Session 107** — *Elemental Guardian Analysis*: Identifies Sod Hounds and Living Landslides as bound; witnesses the [[Graveknight Armor]] kill all the elementals in two rounds - **Session 109** — *Mouther Fight*: Bombs from height; heals Vayle for 14 HP - **Session 112** — *Pentagram Shards*: Passes a Diplomacy check with Vayle to align a Vordine drill instructor with [[General Urevian]] ([[112_20260404 The Pentagram Shards]]) - **Session 114** — *Belcorra Confronts*: Identifies both Siora and Belcorra as ghosts; throws a Ghost charge at Belcorra - **Session 115** — *Greater Shadow*: Provides the full Greater Shadow profile; hears the Cailean Key's muffled voice on Vayle's person - **Session 116** — *Cooperative Balloon*: Takes possession; disables flight; suspects Volop surveillance; plans ethical extraction - **Session 117** — *Soul Gem Reversal*: Disassembles the eye in the goblin workshop; identifies the memory-projection mechanism, the analogy to data crystals, and — most importantly — that the forced binding of a soul into a gem may be reversible - **Session 118** — *Projecting the Eye*: Projects the eye's stored memories for the party, exposing [[Volluk Azrinae|Volluk]]'s research notes — *conscious extraction* works better on awake, fearful victims; soul gems preserve identity longer than ambient [[The Gauntlight|Gauntlight]] exposure; Volluk is sketching anti-party countermeasures; and the [[The Fulcrum Lenses|Fulcrum Lenses]]' material flaw is "load-bearing." Recognizes the time-hunting [[Hound of Tindaloth]] prowling Volluk's workshop, and confirms [[Odasa|Gloam]] left town with the [[Pharasma|Pharasmins]] against his will - **Session 119** — *Sorting the Souls*: Takes stock of his soul gems — only one besides the Cooperative Balloon gem holds a dwarven soul. Hands two dwarven soul gems to [[Grumblebum|Grumble]] (who alone cares what becomes of them), leaving Bond with **5 soul gems** - **Session 121** — *Hybrid Form*: When werewolves attack [[Maret]]'s collapsed hut under the full moon, Bond goes prone to stay unseen, then transforms into a controlled hybrid werewolf form (DC 23, rolled 30) — gaining physical resistance 14, silver vulnerability, and canine speech. Uses wolf-language intimidation to frighten [[Aumagh Longsaddle|Wolf 4]] back - **Session 122** — *Baited and Grabbed*: Still in wolf form, Bond deliberately triggers Wolf 2's reactive strike (shrugging off the damage thanks to his physical resistance), then tries to Grab the wolf — but is grabbed himself instead - **Session 123** — *Down to 6 HP*: Took 14 damage from the wolves and dropped to **6 HP** before the last two wolves fled and combat ended. Afterward, when the Gallowhops offered their gifts, Bond wanted the **figurine** from their wagon, which [[Zuhri]] kept for him - **Session 124** — *The Paper Insect*: At [[The Rowdy Rockfish]], Bond and [[Grumblebum|Grumble]] spotted an **insect made of paper** torn from a tome; Grumble knocked it down with a dagger and it sprinkled a dust-like substance. Bond recognized it as part of a ritual that transforms someone into a **mummy**, and identified the paper as an **ancient tile** not from the library — the same material last seen around [[Chafkem]] ([[095_20250831 The Paper Mummy]]), which acts like a familiar of his. A second paper spider later appeared in the room where [[Vayle]] was counselling [[Lazda Venkervale|Lazda]] ## Equipment - A dwarven dagger pistol from [[Dongun Hold]] (acquired from the fallen [[Tomb Warden]]s; needed repair) - [[Beastmaster's sigil]] — spellheart that summons an animal (Session 076 dream-gift) - [[Life Shot]] (purchased from goblin merchants, Session 088) - [[Storm Breath Potion]] — 10 resistance to lightning and sonic; 4d12 electric in a 30-ft line - [[Ring of the Ram]] - *Striking Bulabomination* — used in shadow-creature combats - *Walking Cauldron* — witch's cauldron, 25 ft land speed, follows within 30 ft, holds 2 Bulk of potion ingredients, cannot be used in combat - Light lantern (used on the [[Leafy Fleshwarp]] tree) - Notes: copied runes for the [[magical glyphs]] controlling stone transparency - One of five **Pentagram Shards** received via the Vordine alliance ([[112_20260404 The Pentagram Shards]]) - The **Cooperative Balloon** — captive surveillance eye, flight disabled; contains a dwarven soul gem (consent-pending)