The story of Dan Imhakaru

Story by Jace a Fox on SoFurry

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This is the backstory of a Pathfinder character i made last semester, I thought since he was a Kitsune it would be appropriate to post this here. This will be the first story I post and if it seems that people enjoy it I'll post more stuff like it in the future.<br />

For those who have never played the tabletop RPG Pathfinder, or at least not with some of the expansions, I'll go ahead and explain somethings that are not completely explained in the story. So for the race Kitsune in Pathfinder they are magical tricksters that usually don't live in villages or at least not tightly packed villages. Kitsune also can't have a evil alignment, otherwise they become corrupt and turn into something close to a demon with insane power and kill anything on site. Kitsunes are usually neutral alignment in the game, though the Kitsune Oracles are usually true good. Atora is the mainland of our home-brew world that the DM and his friends made.


Dan Imhakaru is the child of Jack and Celeste Imhakaru, a happily married Kitsune couple who lived in the small, village of Chankotu. The village was on a moderately sized Island that was hidden by a powerful spell that made the island invisible except during the first day of spring. When Dan was born he, was rather small for male Kitsune kits, but grew to be taller then others of his generation. One of his favorite things to do, as a young child, was go to the spring festival with his mother and father. His father would judge the best enchanters at the enchanter's fair and was the top performer in the Illusionist's competition. Dan wished to become one of the most powerful sorcerers on the entire island like his father until his father started looking into some very dark and evil magic forgetting the fear of corruption. Dan forgot his dream of becoming like his father and stopped focusing on his gift of magical prowess and began to play tricks with the other Kitsune children, but he was never really did any good tricks because of his kind nature. When he was thirteen or fourteen, his parents had a huge falling out about his father's dealings in dark magic, and how his fur had begun to shift its color from the gorgeous blonde to a dark grey along with his beautiful ocean blue eyes turning into a pinkish red color. Jack left Dan and his mother that day and wasn't seen for many years. Dan came home that night and comforted his mother, who was now considered a form of widow since her husband had lost himself to a Daemon.That was the night when she gave him an enchanted locket that was made for him by his father for when he had mastered his skill, only then would it's magic come to life. Inside the locket was a tuned piece of quarts with the last part of his father's pure soul along with a part of his mother's soul to power the enchantment. Until the day his gift had been fully unleashed he would just feel the comfort of his family from the locket.

After about three years a few days before the time of the festival, Dan was now sixteen and helping around the village setting up the festive paper lanterns that some of the young kits had made in on of the art classes an elder had taught. Though they were made by children they were very beautiful and well painted. He knew it was part of his duty to help set up for the festival, but he was really doing it for a girl about his age, Kage Kyomi, she was voted the most gorgeous Kitsune in the village plus she wasn't a shallow minded person like many of the other pretty girls. She was top of her class in art, illusion, and enchanting. She and Dan had always been close friends and partners for projects, but he wanted to be more than just friends. Later that night after everything had been set up and many other races had arrived from other islands. Dan and his cousin and best friend Murphy were meeting up to go to the festival; Dan had finally worked up the courage to ask if she may be willing to take their friendship a step further. He had planned everything down to the minute, and his cousin was going to help him.

When Murphy finally arrived they went over his plan, but something caught Dan's eye. Over his cousin's shoulder he could see a familiar figure holding a blade in its' left hand and something else in its' right hand. Dan raised one finger to his cousin to signal for him to be silent for a moment. As he inspected the figure that approached them he recognized that it was his father, and in his right hand was the bloody head of his mother. He had a fiendish grin on his face as well, one that was smeared with blood, his fur was no longer a dark grey it was now black as the abyss, and his eyes were soulless and blood red. He was slowly walking towards Dan who was frozen up with fear from the horrific sight. His cousin grabbed his shoulder and tugged at him to try and get his to flee with him and attempt to warn the town of the danger. Dan snapped out of his trance of terror and turned to run with Murphy down the paper lantern lit pathway to the village center. Both Dan and Murphy were running as fast as they could but when they looked behind them they could see Jack speedily closing the distance, then slowing his pace, teasing them with a false sense of freedom. Dan caught on rather quickly that his father was after him and he knew of an overgrown path through the forest back to his mother's house. Dan broke off to the right and pushed through bushes and tree limbs, occasionally ducking under large exposed root arches, and hurtling over the rocks. He was still wearing his best robes from his earlier plan, and they would snag and tear on thorns and branches He could hear Jack tripping through the bushes and brush and knew that he would have plenty of time to either find his locket or a good hiding spot.

As he broke free from the forest in front of his home, he saw that the place was in shambles and bloody footprints leading away from the hut down the path to where his father had appeared. As he ducked through the splintered door all he could see was a dark room with something slumped over in the middle of the room, and he could smell the scent of his mother covering the left side of the room. He needed better light to see where his locket was, so he used his ability to conjure up a few orbs of foxfire to illuminate the room. As soon as the orbs appeared his heart felt like it sunk into an abyss of heartache and misery. In the middle of the room was the skinless, mutilated, and headless corpse of his mother. On the wall were large symbols as part of a sacrificial rite, recently used candles with puddles of melted wax at their bases. Upon further inspection the symbols were obviously painted with his mother's blood, and his mother's body had multiple chunks bitten out of it. When he got to his mother's skin, there was a large rectangular hole in the middle of her back. Dan had tears streaming down his face at this point, he was no longer afraid. He continued to search for his locket when he found what the rectangle of skin was used for, it was a large ancient tome that's cover was made of the skin of his mother overlying bones. On the wall above the book was a symbol that was obviously only partially complete.

Dan was curious why it was only halfway complete unlike all the other symbols he had his theories, none of them pleasant, but he shook it off and continued to look for his locket. He searched some of the toppled shelves with broken china, the scattered silverware from the overturned table, and cupboards above the kitchen basin. Nothing, only broken mementos and glass, he was heading towards his room's torn door, but he could hear his father finally break through the forest. Dan's fear resurfaced, and he decided to find a place to hide. He snuffed out his foxfire spell, he could see enough to sneak over the the cellar door and sneak down the ladder. As he closed the door he could hear Jack's quiet footsteps slowly entering onto the hut's squeaking floor boards. Dan looked around the pitch black room, even his dark vision couldn't see anything down there. As Dan felt his way through the room, he found what felt like a stack of rice sacks that he could try to slip behind. He got comfortable and listened to the footsteps of his father up stairs, he could hear him mumbling something as he paced upstairs. He waited for what felt like an eternity down in the cellar, listening and trying to keep his breathing calm. Dan could hear a commotion outside coming up the path, it sounded like it was a small group of the village guard running up the path. Jack obviously heard this and walked over to the door, Dan took this moment to try and sneak upstairs and into his room. Dan felt his way back to the cellar door and slowly climbed the ladder opening the cellar door slightly peeking out to see Jack chanting a powerful spell to throw at the approaching party. Dan crawled out of the cellar making his way into his room, there he focused on his mother's voice, and used his magical knowledge to make a noise that sounded similar to her voice. Jack heard the noise and lost focus on his spell that was at a critical phase, before the spell collapsed Jack whimpered out, "I'm sorry Celeste." The spell became unstable and collapsed in on itself causing a massive drain on Jack who fell to the floor. Dan saw his locket on his bedside table, grabbing it he walked out of his room. Jack was still reeling in pain on the floor, his fur had glowing red markings shining through it from where the spell had seared into his flesh. Dan took the time run past and out the door to safety. As Dan ran through the doorway he saw Murphy standing with the guards who were waving for Dan to come over to them. The guards had four sorcerers with some staves of binding to bind the hut in a pocket in time. Dan was safe, but mentally scarred from what he had witnessed that night. The Island was evacuated after the spell to seal Jack in was complete. After everyone was off the island they villages most powerful wizards, oracles, and sorcerers sacrificed themselves to use the island's enchantment to add a second barrier to stop Jack's eventual escape.

Dan was sailing on his cousin Murphy's fishing boat to another land far off that Murphy had been too many times. All that he now had were his ragged robes and his locket, all the rest of his stuff like his books, scrolls, and art supplies were still sealed away in his old house. Now he was in the middle of the ocean heading to a new land on a large fishing boat with many other refugees. There were Kitsune, Elves, and a handful of Humans on the boat. After a two weeks of travel, and nothing but fish to eat, they arrived at a port somewhere on the eastern shore of Atora. Those who had proper documentation to enter Atora left the boat and those who didn't stayed aboard the boat and waited for their requests for amnesty. Dan had to wait three days before he was granted right to enter the city. Once inside him and his cousin went to a bar to celebrate, this was the first time in a long time that he had used his human form and he hated the feeling. As Murphy got wasted and wondered off with some of the local girls Dan sat there with his untouched ale in front of him. He was filled with grief from the lost of his mother and his friends. He sat there for hours fearing the worst, he knew some ships would have more trouble than his cousin's. He was worried about Kage mostly, wishing that he would have at least gotten to talk to her one last time. He knew though that he would need to move on, and let his father's example show why he should never get mixed up with evil dealings. He knew that he would need to get a job if he was ever to actually live anywhere substantial. After a few days of searching he found work in a Pathfinders guild that fed and housed him. He was put in a party of newbies lead by one high ranking officer. He had traveled with them for a little while. They were only sent on escort and fetch quests, never getting to see any action for the three years. One quest they were camped,sleeping through the night, when the watchman caught the sight of a large shadow pass by. He awoke the group and told them to prepare for battle, but before the group could fully prepare the dragon had destroyed two tents and killed three of the members. Dan didn't have many spells to combat the dragon, and didn't have any ranged weapons. He ran and hid in the forest for a while he watched the rest of the party get murdered. The dragon left after finishing off the party and eating the remains, Dan waited for it's terrifying shrieks and loud flaps of its wings were far in the distance. He fled the scene and ran for three days before come across another party, that he has traveled with since.