Aym

AYM, QUEEN AVARICE

Once a monarch of dwarves, Aym allowed her greed to bring an end to her empire. As a vestige, she gives her host the ability to wear armor without impedance, to set objects and creatures alight with a touch, to resist the effects of fire, and to shatter objects with heavy blows.

Legend: Dwarven legends depict Aym as the greediest dwarf queen who ever lived. Modern-day dwarves still spit at the mention of her name. Not long after Moradin first forged the dwarves, Aym arose as a great leader among them. Greed brought her to power, and greed consumed her while she ruled. Dwarves mined furiously in response to Aym’s constant demand for more gems and precious metals, and her people became virtual slaves to their work. As onerous as Aym’s rule was, however, all this mining greatly expanded the dwarves’ territory, and many dwarven clans grew quite wealthy. Jealous of the dwarves’ wealth and smarting from their conquests, a great horde of orcs, giants, and goblinoids banded into an army to assault Aym’s kingdom. The dwarves fought bravely, but because their forces were stretched so thin across Aym’s empire, they could not respond quickly enough to the horde’s concentrated assault on their capital. Legend has it that when the fires of the burning city reached her, Aym stood among a hundred wagons laden with gold that her servants had loaded in preparation for her flight. But so engrossed was she in counting the coins to make certain she didn’t lose a copper that she didn’t notice the danger until the fires began to melt the coins in her grasp. Rather than repenting her greed at the point of her death, Aym cursed Moradin for not protecting her, and in return, Moradin cursed her.

Manifestation: Aym arises from a coiled heap within the seal. She has two great worms for legs and three heads—one a lion’s, one a female dwarf’s, and one a bull’s. Her powerfully muscled torso strains beneath the fi nery of an empress, and her fi ngers glitter with more than a dozen jeweled rings. In one hand she holds a red-hot, star-shaped branding iron, and with the other, she holds shut the lion head’s mouth. Aymspeaks through her dwarf head, since both animal heads are incapable of speech. She prefers to keep the lion muzzled because if she doesn’t, it roars and causes the bull’s head to low in terror, making it impossible for her to hear.

Sign: While you host Aym, you bear a starshaped brand on the palm of your left hand or on your forehead, as you choose at the time you make the pact.

Influence: Under Aym’s influence, you become stingy and greedy, begrudging every coin or item of value that you or your group must give to another. At the same time, she requires that you give a coin (copper, silver, gold, or platinum, as you choose) to every dwarf you meet within 10 rounds of learning his name.

Granted Abilities: Aym grants you powers that reflect her dwarven heritage and the ruin she brought to her kingdom.

Dwarven Step: You can move at normal speed (without the usual reduction) while wearing medium or heavy armor.

Halo of Fire: At will, you can shroud yourself in a wreath of flame. Any opponent that strikes you in melee takes 1d6 points of fire damage, unless it is using a weapon with exceptional reach. You can also deal 1d6 points of fire damage with each melee touch attack you make. Your own flame does not harm you, nor does it harm objects unless you will it to do so.

Improved Sunder: You gain the benefit of the Improved Sunder feat.

Medium Armor Proficiency: You are proficient with medium armor.

Resistance to Fire: You have resistance to fire 10.

Ruinous Attack: Your melee attacks deal double damage to objects. If your effective binder level is at least 10th, your melee attacks are treated as adamantine for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

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