The Unseen Servant forums

If you're the son of a noble, perhaps you own my character? Perhaps:

When Wening's Master died, she hoped that he would have made provision for her freedom in his will, and that she could continue as a free woman serving the House of Unveiled Truth. However, the successor to her Master's position, worried that a Wening's long association with the old power structure would threaten his own authority. He had Wening sold before the old Master's will was unsealed.

So, redwarrior, what's going on that your family bought you a weak slave with a creepy background (and probably at a bargain price)? And why do you need a scribe-slave on your foreign travels?

Raja Hanari, like its sister city Raja Kupu, is represented by a blade, this one inverted. It likewise has paranoid rulers and a population that follows a wide variety of Demigods, thought the cult of Tantor the Elephant is the most common, having two separate cults vying for supremacy. Raja Hanari is ruled by 10 merchant houses, sometimes with one voice, and sometimes in vicious and deadly trade wars. The city is well known for its two major temples to the pantheon, the one in the city temple home to debaucheries of every kind, and the one in the outskirts devoted to meditation and the seeking of wisdom. As befits a mighty trading city, it has a bazaar where one can find anything they might desire, for the right price – and a great slum where they can find more than they bargained for. The stench of the Sulphur pits wafts over the great slum, while the wealthy and travellers –who are also wealthy – enjoy the famed hot baths outside the main temple complex.

Agents of two rival city-states have been active within the city in recent months, fomenting uprisings and attempting assassinations of leading figures of the merchant families. Mercenaries formerly in the employ of an 11th family recently slew their patrons and have fortified themselves within a keep in the northwest corner of the city.


Hanarl is a son of the Krishna Hassain, patriarch of one of the 10 ruling merchant houses of Raja Hanari, with a large portion of the slave trade. Well liked by the people and nobles alike, and respected for his religious knowledge and fervor. It is believed that he was afflicted by a desert spirit upon his birth, making him incapable of the learning that would be expected of this noble house. Unless his mother, but no… that would not be conceivable…. Regardless, His father found him incapable of mastering the intricacies of a major merchant family. Despite eloquence in speech, his failure to learn any other language than common/trade, or even to read and write that as well as a junior scribe, convinced dear old dad that he could have no place where he could move the levers of trade.

Therefore, he was encouraged to follow his clerical inclinations, being fierce in his zeal in service of Tantor, bull elephant god of battle of the 100 kingdoms. Even so, he was deemed to be too close, as people would occasionally trick him into sharing confidential family plans. With the recent unrest and mechanations taking place, on his 20th birthday, Hanarl was made a gift of a learned but sickly slave from the The House of Unveiled Truth, which his father had picked up on a slave trading mission to Raja Kupu and bid to represent the glory of Tantor throughout the purple lands. Krishna charged the slave with making sure that Hanarl's low intelligence is not preyed upon as he journeys.


[I tried to roll a random deity a few times, but … It ended up being the “chaotic hawk goddess of disease who likes blue and human sacrifices”. As her cleric, I think I would have spent my time giving out infected blankets to the natives!! And the second was “neutral crocodile goddess of dreams who likes black and bird sacrifices”. and since I’m supposed to be the son of the ruler, it would be very odd to NOT be a follower of the main deity, and still be alive – especially given my INT roll. Also, neither sounds fun to play, though I can run with either of those, if they work for the campaign]

Looks good!

Wening is still recovering from the disappointment of not having been freed when her former Master died and of being denied a chance to practice a craft she had begun to think of as her calling. But, lawful child that she is, she still believes that if she is loyal and diligent, she will be rewarded.

She is grateful to have found herself in position of provide labor no more odious than that of a scribe and minder, although she feels an abhorrence for the Cult of the Elephant Demon, and cringes at the thought of the screaming victims in the Demon's Maw—so much more prolonged and horrible than the velvet-worm pits.

Well-schooled as a torturer, Wening is not cruel, and does not seek opportunities to cause pain—The House of Unveiled Truth would never tolerate sadists, for their enthusiasms might make them overstep their duties. She believes that her craft is a just and important one without which orderly government would be impossible. She has not discussed her background with her new Master, Hanarl, or any members of his House's retinue, although she assumes he knows.

She misses the many familiar devices and diagrams of her old position, but she has one tool of the trade still with her: a plain-looking hairpin that conceals a wire-thing needle of some length. With it, she can precisely reach and manipulate nearly any nerve in the human body, leaving a prick so small as to rarely shed a single drop of blood.

One thing that she likes very much about her new master: he is intent on traveling. She is eager to see the wider world, and the many people in it. Although she knows she is an unlikely adventurer, her heart thrills at the thought.

Lots of cool stuff, I hope to catch up on it this evening.

Nice backstories guys! I'm still ruminating on Prishneena's background.

Do we really want long backstories in a B/X game?

Modric wrote:Do we really want long backstories in a B/X game?

I was thinking about that. At 3-6 paragraphs or so (sorry, still haven't had a chance to read through all the backgrounds), I don't think it will be too much of an issue. The biggest thing that may be an issue is if folks background applies to where they are from rather than Sughd and the Mountains of the Moon.

I really need to get some information out about the starting Oligarchy...

Meanwhile I've been putting energy into such esoteric things as figuring out what to use as a map and working on a full bestiary so I can start working up encounter charts, while thinking about what "dungeons" to offer (you ARE starting at 1st level in BX...) while still honoring the social landscape constructed by the Yoon Suin charts. Fortunately they generate a variety of things that can serve as actual adventure locations (aka dungeons).

On an administrative note, we are up to 8 players, but we so far have 3 players (2 very new) who haven't started chargen and don't have access to the Google Sheet yet. If you are a new player and plan on playing, please give me an e-mail address I can send you a document invite to, or go to the document and request access:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Frank

Hi Frank (an everyone else )

I'm ramping up chargen now. Read through all of the posts (a couple of times now). I'll post my stat rolls here shortly. I requested access to the spreadsheet a few minutes ago. Looking forward to the game.

Marcus

On backgrounds, I expect most of our characters to die early on, so what's the point? The OSR is lethal.

Samsura

I pious human warrior from the poppy fields of Sughd who was born into a warrior caste and worships a lawful deity that takes the form of a carnivorous plant.

Apparently, not many hit points though:

[1d8] = 2

CharGen:
STR [4d6k3] = 12 INT [4d6k3] = 14 WIS [4d6k3] = 13
DEX [4d6k3] = 16 CON [4d6k3] = 8 CHA [4d6k3] = 16

In order: DEX (16), CHA (16), INT (14), WIS (13), STR (12), CON (8)

Based on Prime Req’s I’d say Thief <then> Magic user <then> Cleric
Spreadsheet has the following so far:

• (1) Magician
  (3) Fighters
  (1) Cleric

Since we don’t have a Thief yet, I’m happy to take on that role

Cleric (WIS)
Thief (DEX)
Fighter (STR)
Magic-User (INT)

I'm a big proponent of short descriptions and backstories. In this case, it was more about having fun with what the Yoon-Suin tables produced for her home polity, which proved to be pretty rich. And then figuring out how the character I had rolled might fit into that and... well, it got verbose, but it was fun, so I went with it. But Wening has 1 hit point, and I'm wholly prepared for her to bite it the first time we run into so much as a dyspeptic alley cat.

rossik wrote:

ffilz wrote:

rossik wrote:Butter Burt
Human Fighter
(to edit)

STR 13, INT 8, WIS 9, DEX 9, CON 13, CHA 6


DM, where should i look to roll the rest o my character?


Burt was a pugilist in his youth. After a cheap shot, he lost the main fight and all credibility. Since then, he got a food compulsion and started eating as hell. He got round and soft, always with a sweaty look on his frown. When he starved for a hole day, after checking there was no food left in his shack, he decided to go and adventure, maybe collect money in exchange of his axe chops

Do you want to go with outsider or native? If native, local or random origin (you can always roll random origin, and choose local after seeing the random origin)?

native seems nice

Do you have access to Yoon Suin? If not I'll guide you through the rolls.

I posted the background charts at the front to help those who don't have the book.

I will roll some bones as soon as I figure out the dice roller on this site.

err

Ok clearly I am not getting this. i will dig back into it tonight when I have more time.

RobinGoodfellow1976 wrote:err

Ok clearly I am not getting this. i will dig back into it tonight when I have more time.

Everyone has a learning curve

At the bottom of the Dice Roller page is a link to a guide for formatting: Macro Syntax (Link)
Additionally, there is maximum number of rolls you can make at once. That's why you'll notice folks doing their stat rolls in two separate links (3 stats each).

Feel free to PM me or anyone esle if you need more detailed info if you want. Always happy to assist (I'm Central time and work 8-5).

CharGen:
STR [4d6k3] = 12 INT [4d6k3] = 14 WIS [4d6k3] = 13
DEX [4d6k3] = 16 CON [4d6k3] = 8 CHA [4d6k3] = 16

In order: DEX (16), CHA (16), INT (14), WIS (13), STR (12), CON (8)

Race: Human
Class: Thief
HP: 1
HP [1d4] = 1
GeoOrigin: The Mountains of the Moon
[1d12] = 1
Other Human Background: Low caste (born of a rice farmer, worm breeder, waged laborer, servant)
[1d20] = 10

Name and background in progress

ffilz wrote:

Do you have access to Yoon Suin? If not I'll guide you through the rolls.

yes, i do have. what should i look for?

rossik wrote:

ffilz wrote:

Do you have access to Yoon Suin? If not I'll guide you through the rolls.

yes, i do have. what should i look for?

Look at the 1st post in this thread for the origin rolls or choose to come from The Mountains of the Moon and just roll background.

The origin tables start on p.29 of Yoon Suin.