Torchbearer/Middarmark?

[BillTheGalacticHero]

It's a minor point, but my character is a Strider, not a warrior.
I'm sure I can use my Survivalist skill to find tasty herbs for our cook. My character would just kill something and put it on a stick over the fire.

[ffilz]

Working on my Elf Ranger, so far have:

Skills: Fighter 3, Arcanist 3, Lore Master 3, Scholar 2, Scout 2, Survivalist 2, Healer 2 (home skill), Cartographer 2 (specialty)
Traits: First Born, Calm
Wises: Elven Lore-wise, need to pick one more after seeing a map and some discussion
Nature Elf 5 (listens to ancient songs, confronted evil, yearns to journey west)
Circles 3 Friend is a Mentor, Parents are Healers, Mentor is a Cartographer
Spells: rolled 10 for Word of Binding

I need to name things, select more gear, and a few other bits...

[shroomofinsanity]

Then I'll take the obvious one with healer specialty

[ffilz]

I am partly tempted to have home be the Religious Bastion to have home and specialty skill both be Cartography, but I'm imagining a very woodsy elf...

[Marullus]

I think a religious bastion elf adds a lot of character to the character! Or, an Elf raised in the Dwarven Halls who doesn't yearn for the West is strange indeed... He starts with a Fiery x2 trait.

The Magician starts with Cartographer... I didn't realize it was the only one to do so. I can lend Help for those tests, or free you of the obligation if you don't want it.

[ffilz]

I think a religious bastion elf adds a lot of character to the character! Or, an Elf raised in the Dwarven Halls who doesn't yearn for the West is strange indeed... He starts with a Fiery x2 trait.

The Magician starts with Cartographer... I didn't realize it was the only one to do so. I can lend Help for those tests, or free you of the obligation if you don't want it.

What other specialties do we have? Others that would go well with my ideas would be Pathfinder, Scout, and Survivalist, but I'm also happy with Cartographer.

That said, the Religious Bastion would make for an interesting elf...

[BillTheGalacticHero]

I think a religious bastion elf adds a lot of character to the character! Or, an Elf raised in the Dwarven Halls who doesn't yearn for the West is strange indeed... He starts with a Fiery x2 trait.

The Magician starts with Cartographer... I didn't realize it was the only one to do so. I can lend Help for those tests, or free you of the obligation if you don't want it.

What other specialties do we have? Others that would go well with my ideas would be Pathfinder, Scout, and Survivalist, but I'm also happy with Cartographer.

That said, the Religious Bastion would make for an interesting elf...

I picked Scout as my specialty, so I have it at level 3, Striders start with it at level 2.

[Marullus]

Allric the Magician has an Orator specialty.

As an exercise, it is interesting to look at the finite number of choices that can result in a x2 trait... (See below)

A dwarf raised in a bustling metropolis who is willing to forgive a grudge gets Jaded x2.

A dwarf from a bustling crossroads who doesn't desire to settle down as a craftsman gets Foolhearty x2.

An Elf from a metropolis who doesn't take to listen to the trees gets Jaded x2.

An Elf raised in the Dwarven Halls who doesn't desire to go into the West gets Fiery x2.

...none for Halflings.

A human from a religious bastion can get Defender x2.

A human with no friends and who doesn't boast can get Loner x2.

A human from the Wizard Tower can get Thoughtful x2 (Allric did).

A human from a busy crossroads can get Foolhearty x2.

[shroomofinsanity]

My cleric has defender x2 himself. But I guess I should say a little more than that.


Berenwald "Berry" Auspice was raised in the relgious bastion of Hollifort all his life under the care of his powerful yet strangely distant father, Malvacar Auspice. Now care in this case meant that his needs were met but he never saw his father and was never seen with him at any public function. He was even enrolled into the Church and received his clerical training without the use of his last name.

"He must have a reason," Berry thought all the time, "maybe he wants me to learn and be the best cleric I can be without being in the shadow of his great leadership." Little did he know that it was due to being an illegitimate child of the cleric and was only cared for under threat of exposure.

Berry continued believing his father was some kind of saint, and therefore believed that the dwarves that were persecuted did indeed represent some threat to the standing of the Church. So he continued his training, taking a special interest in Healing and poultice making, wishing to follow his father's storied career as a healer and vanguard of the Lord's laws and fellowship.

That all changed one night, when Berry was spending time with his friend Trevor. See Trevor had it out for our young and naive bastard, and had manipulated him into sneaking Trevor into the inner sanctums of his father's home. Berry thought Trevor wanted to see the priceless heirloom said to channel the pure power of the Lords themselves. However Trevor just wanted to steal the priceless artifact and skip town to parts unknown.

Berry was devastated by the betrayal, so much so he gathered his things and ran into the night, promising to himself that he would track down the relic and be accepted by his father.

Cruel reality set in and once he was out the cloistered existence in Hollifort he got earfuls from all the non-human races about what a bigot and powermad tyrant his father really was. He spends about half his time in any conversation asking about and then defending the man he still sees as a benevolent father.
Game stuff

Berenwald is a human cleric of Hollifort with
Trait:
Defender x2 (he spends most of his time sticking up for a jerk and his town)
Touched by the gods

Will 5
Health 3
Nature 4 (He tries to listen to Dwarves and Elves as they are older and wiser, unless its about Hollifort, he boasts about his father's deeds and does not fear the night and what it holds, as he must plunge through to get back what was stolen)

Circles 4
Father
Friend Cale the Cartographer (a passing mapmaker, Berry has very few friends so anyone he has held any conversation with counts in his eyes)
Enemy Trevor the Thief (Human Thief, not a bad guy really, just doing a job. I leave his motives and path up to our esteemed gm)
Alignment Law
Age 16
Home Hollifort
Raiment: a torn cloth with Malvacar's and his family crest made into a bandana that he tends to wear around his arm to guide his actions.

Skills
Fighter 2
Healer 3
Persuader 2
Ritualist 4
Scholar 2
Survivalist 3
Theologian 4

Wise
Poultice (let me know if that is too broad, im not great at wise crafting)

Belief: The disciples of the Lords can help all people

Instinct: Always help those that suffer.

I think it will be fun when it comes to light at some point down the road that Berry is in fact related to Malvacar, though he never says so up front, at best he calls him a mentor or hero. A young kid who is going to get a whole lot of innocence broken when he realizes more and more that the world is a dark and scary place.

Also obviously his father absolutely thinks he took the relic and ran away, sending thugs after him, Berry has no knowledge of this and thinks his father is waiting for his son to return with the treasure.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Is there any way to get peasant other than being from a remote village?

[Marullus]

Play a Druid.
Be a Barbarian raised in enslavement.
Play a Monk. Play a Minataur pit fighter.

Or from Denizens...
Play a Skin Changer or a Witch.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Play a Druid.

Nah. He'd probably just get swarmed by a horde of undead and be reincarnated as a badger. Or something like that.

Too bad. Peasant is such a useful skill.

I have been toying with the idea of taking a human thief instead, but was trying to get Foolhardy 2 and Peasant. (I liked the idea of his mentor being our cleric's enemy! )

I'm out of the house tonight, but I'll try and work up my character tomorrow evening.

[Marullus]

I love the detail of Berenwald "Berry" Auspice. I love that you linked to the Malvacar the Cleric enemy of Aoife Kearney as your character's father.

We are already travelling/adventuring together, right? Is Berenwald's bastard heritage (and his last name of Auspice) still a secret from Aoife? Is jhrrsn okay with that, or would you prefer to already have reconciled yourself to travel with the kin of your hated enemy?

I think "Treacherous Bastards-Wise" is freakin' awesome.

Does Aoife know or have relation to the dwarf that Allric wronged? Does jhrrsn want to help develop that?

Aoife has an enemy, but no friends, mentor, or parents? (Just checking)

Trevor the Thief who robbed Malvacar and thus is the enemy of Berenwald is an interesting mentor for Rusty's thief. That implies we can find him more easily, though (or at least Rusty can) which removes that aspect of the "hunt him down" plot. Instead, perhaps we'd find him and get entangled in his machinations. (Where did he fence/lose the artifact? How do we have to help him to get what we need from him? How much can Berenwald stomach doing so?) Thoughts?

Thag Simmons introduces his mentor, the mysterious witch-hunter Solomon Kane, who is training him in a remote village to hunt dragons. Does this mysterious witch hunter have any relationship to the Church characters already defined? What about that dragon which ate the last thousand generations of Thag's ancestors?

[shroomofinsanity]

I thought twisting the backstories together could result in more fun. Berry hasn't told anyone about his lineage. In fact he remains primarily evasive about the bandana, saying he picked it up on his way out of town to help on his "divine" mission to retrieve the relic.

He has said the name of the thief and talked about the betrayal of trust. He hasn't stated his last name, only that his name is Berenwald the cleric and that his friends call him "Berry"

The ball is in the more deft fingers of thief/burglar as to any reveals on their end. Berry is prolly partied with a criminal because of the old adage "to catch a thief, you must think like a thief " and he is much too trusting for line of thought.

Edit: It could be interesting if Trevor is but a cog in a greater machine by the forces of darkness(tm) and I have to keep tracking it through various hints and rumours that just happen to trace the same line the party also follows.

[BillTheGalacticHero]

Have we finalized our characters? Or can I make a minor change?

[shroomofinsanity]

What are you wanting to change?

[BillTheGalacticHero]

What are you wanting to change?

Since we don't have a true Warrior that I know of, I want to change my Will to 3 and Health to 5, that should give us a little better chance of fighting. And I still need to pick a Wise. Is Trap-Detecting-wise too general?

[ffilz]

I'd love to see a summary of what we have so far, so I can tweak up the elf. Also, I'd love to see a map so I can pick a wise.

I wonder why it's taking so long to get our forum? May be summer vacations. When I requested one for my Traveller game, a few weeks ago, I got it within a day or two.

Frank

[shroomofinsanity]

I don't think anyone's character is 100% set in stone, so I doubt messing with health and will matters much yet.

[jhrrsn]

Hey! This is fun

Aoife isn't a loner, I didn't want to make a stereotype! She's probably closer to Arya Stark ( ) - driven by vengeance, but still generally sociable on the surface. She's more of a bruiser than Arya though, wielding a large warhammer! Bill, Aoife has 3 Will/5 Health and 4 Fight, so we've got some combat potential.

She's got no parents, obviously, but she has a friend, Gerhardt the Armourer, whom she helps out during downtime in exchange for food & shelter. (I'm assuming she now lives in some sort of town or village, as she's not lived in Hollifort for six years). She doesn't have a mentor though.

Regarding Berenwald, I think Aoife has noted his conspicuous family crest but is keeping quiet about it until she knows more about the situation. She certainly doesn't call him 'Berry' though.

I'm not sure about Allric's humourless dwarf, I'm happy to have a loose connection if it serves the story - most dwarves are related somehow, right?