Edit History

Background:   Biff Butler was born in Sandpoint to Ham Butler, a half-elf cleric of Erastil, and Dorcas Butler, a half-orc bard, on 3 Pharast 4688.  The parents were surprised to have an aasimar for a son, and Ham dedicated the infant boy to Erastil’s service. 

When he was 11 and playing tag, Biff learned he could make himself run faster by thinking like a stag, or see in the dark by thinking like a bat, or do other tricks by thinking like an animal.  But the other children screamed that his face would change when he did these things.  They accused him of being switched by a fey and cheating, and they stopped playing with him.  His tutor Elias the gnome decided he needed to learn Sylvan and started teaching it to him.  So in addition to speaking Celestial since birth somehow, and Common in the home, Biff had extra homework and no playmates.  His father told him clerics need to study hard, and his mother felt put out but didn’t know what to do.

When he was 12, Biff’s parents died of typhoid, and the orphan boy’s relatives indentured him to a merchant in town named Cleon.  Cleon made Biff sleep in a barrel and eat scraps and work twelve hours a day in the docks as a stevedore hauling cargo.  

Biff hated his life and decided to run away on his fourteenth birthday.  He was caught, or rather, rescued, by Shalelu Andosana.  She found Biff trying to stay dry under a lonely tree in a meadow in a thunderstorm, and jokingly called in Sylvan that Gates to the First World aren’t opened by lightning strikes.  Biff responded, in Sylvan, that he didn’t care either way.  Shalelu was surprised to find her quarry was a 14-year-old runaway and not a hardened thief like Cleon had misled her to believe.  She brought him back to the docks, but every summer she paid Cleon to “rent” the boy for a month.  She taught Biff more Sylvan, how to live off the land like a ranger, and how to call on Erastil for spellpower, rightly concluding he was a divine conduit.  

In the Late Unpleasantness Cleon was found murdered, by the instigators of that general violence or on his own account was not clear and not investigated very hard.  Biff at 17 was the master of his own fate.  He signed on to the first caravan leaving town, an amateur twenty wagon operation bound for Magnimar by land.

This caravan of greenhorns came to a bad end at the hand of goblins led by hobgoblin samurai.  Biff managed to escape into the forest and survive on his own for a month as he’d been trained.  He was found by Shalelu when she came to investigate the carnage several weeks after the massacre.  Shalelu led him north past Sandpoint to a caravan led by Sandru Vhiski, where she obtained him a job as a caravan guard.  

After two years of safe travels with Sandru’s caravan, Biff is ready for a longer trek and a chance to really get away from the small town of Sandpoint.  He hears rumors the boss is planning something big, and he’d like to be a part of it.

Background:   Biff Butler was born in Sandpoint to Ham Butler, a half-elf cleric of Erastil, and Dorcas Butler, a half-orc bard, on 3 Pharast 4688.  The parents were surprised to have an aasimar for a son, and Ham dedicated the infant boy to Erastil’s service. 

When he was 11 and playing tag, Biff learned he could make himself run faster by thinking like a stag, or see in the dark by thinking like a bat, or do other tricks by thinking like an animal.  But the other children screamed that his face would change when he did these things.  They accused him of being switched by a fey and cheating, and they stopped playing with him.  His tutor Elias the gnome decided he needed to learn Sylvan and started teaching it to him.  So in addition to speaking Celestial since birth somehow, and Common in the home, Biff had extra homework and no playmates.  His father told him clerics need to study hard, and his mother felt put out but didn’t know what to do.

When he was 12, Biff’s parents died of typhoid, and the orphan boy’s relatives indentured him to a merchant in town named Cleon.  Cleon made Biff sleep in a barrel and eat scraps and work twelve hours a day in the docks as a stevedore hauling cargo.  

Biff hated his life and decided to run away on his fourteenth birthday.  He was caught, or rather, rescued, by Shalelu Andosana.  She found Biff trying to stay dry under a lonely tree in a meadow in a thunderstorm, and jokingly called in Sylvan that Gates to the First World aren’t opened by lightning strikes.  Biff responded, in Sylvan, that he didn’t care either way.  Shalelu was surprised to find her quarry was a 14-year-old runaway and not a hardened thief like Cleon had misled her to believe.  She brought him back to the docks, but every summer she paid Cleon to “rent” the boy for a month.  She taught Biff more Sylvan, how to live off the land like a ranger, and how to call on Erastil for spellpower, rightly concluding he was a divine conduit.  

In the Late Unpleasantness Cleon was found murdered, by the instigators of that general violence or on his own account was not clear and not investigated very hard.  Biff at 17 was the master of his own fate.  He signed on to the first caravan leaving town, an amateur twenty wagon operation bound for Magnimar by land.

This caravan of greenhorns came to a bad end at the hand of goblins led by hobgoblin samurai.  Biff managed to escape into the forest and survive on his own for a month as he’d been trained.  He was found by Shalelu when she came to investigate the carnage several weeks after the massacre.  Shalelu led him north past Sandpoint to a caravan led by Sandru Vhiski, where she obtained him a job as a caravan guard.  

Biff traveled with Sandru for a couple years, learning the structure of language and basics of using magic devices from a Samsaran wizard named Traxius.  Traxius taught him a smattering of Elemental languages.

After two years of safe travels with Sandru’s caravan, Biff is ready for a longer trek and a chance to really get away from the small town of Sandpoint.  He hears rumors the boss is planning something big, and he’d like to be a part of it.

Background:   Biff Butler was born in Sandpoint to Ham Butler, a half-elf cleric of Erastil, and Dorcas Butler, a half-orc bard, on 3 Pharast 4688.  The parents were surprised to have an aasimar for a son, and Ham dedicated the infant boy to Erastil’s service. 

When he was 11 and playing tag, Biff learned he could make himself run faster by thinking like a stag, or see in the dark by thinking like a bat, or do other tricks by thinking like an animal.  But the other children screamed that his face would change when he did these things.  They accused him of being switched by a fey and cheating, and they stopped playing with him.  His tutor Elias the gnome decided he needed to learn Sylvan and started teaching it to him.  So in addition to speaking Celestial since birth somehow, and Common in the home, Biff had extra homework and no playmates.  His father told him clerics need to study hard, and his mother felt put out but didn’t know what to do.

When he was 12, Biff’s parents died of typhoid, and the orphan boy’s relatives indentured him to a merchant in town named Cleon.  Cleon made Biff sleep in a barrel and eat scraps and work twelve hours a day in the docks as a stevedore hauling cargo.  

Biff hated his life and decided to run away on his fourteenth birthday.  He was caught, or rather, rescued, by Shalelu Andosana.  She found Biff trying to stay dry under a lonely tree in a meadow in a thunderstorm, and jokingly called in Sylvan that Gates to the First World aren’t opened by lightning strikes.  Biff responded, in Sylvan, that he didn’t care either way.  Shalelu was surprised to find her quarry was a 14-year-old runaway and not a hardened thief like Cleon had misled her to believe.  She brought him back to the docks, but every summer she paid Cleon to “rent” the boy for a month.  She taught Biff more Sylvan, how to live off the land like a ranger, and how to call on Erastil for spellpower, rightly concluding he was a divine conduit.  

In the Late Unpleasantness Cleon was found murdered, by the instigators of that general violence or on his own account was not clear and not investigated very hard.  Biff at 17 was the master of his own fate.  He signed on to the first caravan leaving town, an amateur twenty wagon operation bound for Magnimar by land.

This caravan of greenhorns came to a bad end at the hand of goblins led by hobgoblin samurai.  Biff managed to escape into the forest and survive on his own for a month as he’d been trained.  He was found by Shalelu when she came to investigate the carnage several weeks after the massacre.  Shalelu led him north past Sandpoint to a caravan led by Sandru Vhiski, where she obtained him a job as a caravan guard.  

After two years of safe travels with Sandru’s caravan, Biff is ready for a longer trek and a chance to really get away from the small town of Sandpoint.  He hears rumors the boss is planning something big, and he’d like to be a part of it.

Background: WIP

Background: Biff Butler was born in the town of Nybor to Ham Butler, a half-orc cleric of Erastil, and Dorcas Butler, a half-elf bard, on 3 Pharast 4688.  The family was surprised to give birth to an aasimar, and Ham dedicated Biff to Erastil’s service for the duration of his life.

Biff was born knowing Celestial and learned Common in the home.  He also learned Sylvan from a gnome tutor who taught the boy the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

In 4699 Ham set out with a Varisian caravan up the Yondabakari River as chaplain.  Three months later a southbound Varisian caravan bore the news that Ham had been murdered in a slaver’s riot in Kaer Maga.  The only possession he left his family was his prized wooden holy symbol of Erastil, which the despairing widow gave to her son Biff. The family, now impoverished, was given a ride to Magnimar with the Varisian southbound caravan along the Yondabakari to Magnimar.  Dorcas worked as a bard and her 11-year-old son Biff made a living as a camp servant to a Samsaran wizard named Molthaus, who trained the boy in linguistics and the basics of using magical devices, and taught him a smattering of Elemental languages.  

Dorcas had hoped to reside with her elder sister Miriam and raise Biff to be a cleric.  Alas, both Dorcas and Miriam perished in a typhoid outbreak in 4700.  Care of the orphaned boy passed to Clymas, a priest of Ragathiel who had known the sisters before they died.

Clymas was not comfortable raising the boy, being something of a recluse by nature, and also not pleased to have the boy refuse to change allegiance from Erastil to Ragathiel.  There were also the odd changes in the kid.  He could sometimes see in the dark; or climb like a squirrel; or run very fast; or swim like a frog; or lift beyond his normal heft.  His face got very unpleasant to look at when these changes came about, almost bestial in appearance.   It was all disagreeable to the elderly priest.

One day in 4701 Clymas fell asleep during his prayers to Ragathiel, and dreamed Biff followed a holy stag into the northern forests of Varisia.  Clymas awoke with a perfect recall of this dream, which convinced him it was an augury.  He signed papers of indenture that placed the 13-year-old Biff in servitude to a Sandpoint merchant named Cleon until 4708.

Cleon was horrid to Biff, beating him regularly for laziness which was his term for the seasickness that gripped Biff on the voyage to Sandpoint.  Things didn’t improve much when they got to Sandpoint and Biff was given an old barrel to live in and ordered to work twelve hours a day as a longshoreman on Cleon’s docks.  

Biff eventually ran away, but was caught (rescued, really) by Shalelu Andosana on one of her patrols.  She found the lad trying to stay dry in a thunderstorm under the only tree in a meadow, and jokingly called out to him in Sylvan that Gates to the First World weren’t opened by lightning strikes.  He responded in Sylvan that he didn’t care either way.   She was surprised to see her target was a runaway aasimar teen, not a hardened thief as Cleon had misled her to believe, and glad to see he spoke in Sylvan.  She got his sorry story out of him on the way back to town.

Shalelu was no fool, and though she obeyed the law that restored Biff to the docks, she looked in on him from time to time.  Beginning in the summer of 4702, when he was 14, she hired him for a few weeks from Cleon and trained him to live as a ranger would.  She was greatly impressed with his animal foci, and trained him to call on Erastil for magical powers, discerning rightly that he was a divine conduit.  

Cleon was found murdered during the Late Unpleasantness, whether on his own account or as part of the general violence was not clear and not well investigated.  His indentures were freed, and as a 17 year old Biff became the master of his own destiny.  He signed on to a feckless caravan of amateurs who wanted to reach Magnimar by the overland route rather than pay shipping to go there by sea.

These greenhorns had the singular misfortune of venturing into the Wild at the same time as a band of four hobgoblin samurai of the Order of the Eclipse.  These ronin decided to rouse their goblin cousins to do a little caravan raiding, but with expert tactical leadership.  On one dusty day about noon, two horn blasts broke out.  The caravan anxiously scoured the treeline of the adjacent forest, without making an immediate laager.  The attack came from their flank out of the tall steppe grasses.  The lead wagon and the last wagon were ignited with flame arrows but the rush came at the middle wagon.  Rather than accept the divide and form two defensible laagers, the wagons tried to reunite towards the forest, and wound up being destroyed piecemeal on the way to the trees.  Biff and a half dozen fleet others made it into the forest separately, but only Biff, trained to live off the land, ever came home to Sandpoint.

Still, he’d been through what could happen when things went wrong, which made him more determined to see they went right from then on.  He looked around for another caravan to sign up for.  Shalelu took him on an extended tour with her instead, and then personally arranged for him to join Sandru Vhiski on his adventures for a year.  Though he was too young to realize it, he had built a name as a bad-luck kid, and she wanted to break that reputation for him.

Now at 19 Biff is well regarded as a hard worker who had a few bad breaks, and is an acceptable road companion to most.  He’s heard something is brewing, and he’d like to be part of it.

Background: WIP

Background:  Biff Butler was born to human parents, Ham Butler, a cleric of Erastil, and Dorcas Butler, a bard, in upcountry Cheliax.  They were upset at the boy being a Celestial-speaking aasimar in devilish Cheliax and knew it wasn't safe to stay.

They waited too long to leave. Dorcas and Biff returned from an overnight stay with her mother to find their cabin ransacked and Ham arrested by Hellknights for treason.  Dorcas quickly grabbed a sack of food and Ham's prized wooden holy symbol of Erastil and fled into the forest with her baby.  From the treeline they watched a mob of devil-worshipping villagers burn their cabin.  Dorcas prayed to Erastil that if he would spare their lives, she would dedicate the boy to his service.  At that moment a stag darted in front of her and walked northeast, pausing to see that she followed.  It led her for a week and ran away when she neared some woodsmen.  They told her she was safe in Nimarthas.

True to her word, Dorcas had Biff raised as an acolyte to a priest of Erastil named Clymas.  When Biff was 11, Clymas asked to bring the boy along for a week's journey.  When they returned, Clymas pulled Dorcas aside. "That boy can see in the dark, sometimes.  Sometimes he can track by scent. He can climb like a squirrel and swim like a fish.  Tell me about his father." Dorcas told him about the arrest and her promise, and Clymas praised Erastil for his miracles.  He told Dorcas to rear Biff to be a hunter in the wilderness and not a cleric.

Biff spent the next few years as apprentice to a ranger named Vlad.  Vlad taught the boy woodcraft and the Sylvan tongue.  Biff grew into a sturdy teenager adept at living off the land. When Biff was 15, Vlad told him they must be parted.  "I am off to fight the invaders from Molthune," said Vlad.  "Our freedoms must be defended."

"Take me with you," said Biff.  "I love Nimarthas too."  Vlad at first refused, then agreed everyone must be useful somehow to the Army.

Even with the danger from Molthune the Army officers were hesitant to take one so young, but Biff proved what he could do when he took on his animal foci.  They accepted him and trained him to be an Army scout working with Rangers and Hunters to track and neutralize Molthune raiders.  It was a war of expert woodsmen, and Biff learned quickly.  Yet he grew disenchanted with regular killing and scheming to kill sentient beings.  At age 17 he prayed to Erastil for guidance.  At once a stag darted before him and led him for a week to a caravan camped in a clearing.  They were Varisians bound for Riddleport.

At Riddleport the Varisians we're joined by a Samsaran wizard named Molthaus.  Biff became his camp servant.  Molthaus taught him how to learn a language systematically, and a smattering of Elemental tongues, as well as some basics on using magical devices.  They roamed Varisia for about a year.

Unfortunately for the caravan two hobgoblin samurai of the Order of the Eclipse were making their way through Varisia as well. These two decided to lead their Churlwood cousin goblins on a raid against the Varisian caravan.

It was almost time for the midday halt when alien horns blew two blasts. All eyes darted north to the Churlwood, but the attackers were lying in the tall steppe grasses to the south.  Fire arrows ignited the lead and rear wagons but the attackers howled and swarmed the middle wagons.  The eastern wagons lost their heads and instead of forming two laagers, east and west, the eastern wagons tried to link up with the western wagons, creating a straggling clump of wagons already overrun by goblins.  

"Mages Amok!" shouted Molthaus as he cast Fireball into the melee.  It was his last words.  Biff saw him dropped by a spear and beheaded.  Biff ran for the treeline til he couldn't breathe.

The survivors were scattered into the forest, and Biff survived alone on cold mushrooms and creek water for two weeks.  Finally he decided to surrender to the first travelers he encountered.

The first campfire he ran into was the cooking fire of caravan scouts.  They were inclined to give him food and wish him good luck, but a young Varisian named Sandru Vhiski insisted the lad be given a chance as a servant.  Biff proved he was a crack woodsman, rough cook, firekeeper and camper.  He knew how to camp near fresh water without leaving the camp liable to flooding, how and where to dig latrines, how to build different fires for different purposes, how to tend to pack mules, and showed he was no sleepy guard or coward.  The caravan gladly took him in as they journeyed to Sandpoint.

Now in Sandpoint, Biff has been paid off handsomely in his opnion but sees nothing worth doing in town.  He's told Sandru about his desire to make tracks, and the Varisian has told him not to set out on his own just yet.

Background:  Biff Butler was born to human parents, Ham Butler, a cleric of Erastil, and Dorcas Butler, a bard, in upcountry Cheliax.  They were upset at the boy being a Celestial-speaking aasimar in devilish Cheliax and knew it wasn't safe to stay.

They waited too long to leave. Dorcas and Biff returned from an overnight stay with her mother to find their cabin ransacked and Ham arrested by Hellknights for treason.  Dorcas quickly grabbed a sack of food and Ham's prized wooden holy symbol of Erastil and fled into the forest with her baby.  From the treeline they watched a mob of devil-worshipping villagers burn their cabin.  Dorcas prayed to Erastil that if he would spare their lives, she would dedicate the boy to his service.  At that moment a stag darted in front of her and walked northeast, pausing to see that she followed.  It led her for a week and ran away when she neared some woodsmen.  They told her she was safe in Nimarthas.

True to her word, Dorcas had Biff raised as an acolyte to a priest of Erastil named Clymas.  When Biff was 11, Clymas asked to bring the boy along for a week's journey.  When they returned, Clymas pulled Dorcas aside. "That boy can see in the dark, sometimes.  Sometimes he can track by scent. He can climb like a squirrel and swim like a fish.  Tell me about his father." Dorcas told him about the arrest and her promise, and Clymas praised Erastil for his miracles.  He told Dorcas to rear Biff to be a hunter in the wilderness and not a cleric.

Biff spent the next few years as apprentice to a ranger named Vlad.  Vlad taught the boy woodcraft and the Sylvan tongue.  Biff grew into a sturdy teenager adept at living off the land. When Biff was 15, Vlad told him they must be parted.  "I am off to fight the invaders from Molthune," said Vlad.  "Our freedoms must be defended."

"Take me with you," said Biff.  "I love Nimarthas too."  Vlad at first refused, then agreed everyone must be useful somehow to the Army.

Even with the danger from Molthune the Army officers were hesitant to take one so young, but Biff proved what he could do when he took on his animal foci.  They accepted him and trained him to be an Army scout working with Rangers and Hunters to track and neutralize Molthune raiders.  It was a war of expert woodsmen, and Biff learned quickly.  Yet he grew disenchanted with regular killing and scheming to kill sentient beings.  At age 17 he prayed to Erastil for guidance.  At once a stag darted before him and led him for a week to a caravan camped in a clearing.  They were Varisians bound for Riddleport.

At Riddleport the Varisians we're joined by a Samsaran wizard named Molthaus.  Biff became his camp servant.  Molthaus taught him how to learn a language systematically, and a smattering of Elemental tongues, as well as some basics on using magical devices.  They roamed Varisia for about a year.

Unfortunately for the caravan two hobgoblin samurai of the Order of the Eclipse were making their way through Varisia as well. These two decided to lead their Churlwood cousin goblins on a raid against the Varisian caravan.

It was almost time for the midday halt when alien horns blew two blasts. All eyes darted north to the Churlwood, but the attackers were lying in the tall step grasses to the south.  Fire arrows ignited the lead and rear wagons but the attackers howled and swarmed the middle wagons.  The eastern wagons lost their heads and instead of forming two laagers, east and west, the eastern wagons tried to link up with the western wagons, creating a straggling clump of wagons already overrun by goblins.  

"Mages Amok!" shouted Molthaus as he cast Fireball into the melee.  It was his last words.  Biff saw him dropped by a spear and beheaded.  Biff ran for the treeline til he couldn't breathe.

The survivors were scattered into the forest, and Biff survived alone on cold mushrooms and creek water for two weeks.  Finally he decided to surrender to the first travelers he encountered.

The first campfire he ran into was the cooking fire of caravan scouts.  They were inclined to give him food and wish him good luck, but a young Varisian named Sandru Vhiski insisted the lad be given a chance as a servant.  Biff proved he was a crack woodsman, rough cook, firekeeper and camper.  He knew how to camp near fresh water without leaving the camp liable to flooding, how and where to dig latrines, how to build different fires for different purposes, how to tend to pack mules, and showed he was no sleepy guard or coward.  The caravan gladly took him in as they journeyed to Sandpoint.

Now in Sandpoint, Biff has been paid off handsomely in his opnion but sees nothing worth doing in town.  He's told Sandru about his desire to make tracks, and the Varisian has told him not to set out on his own just yet.