Ah! Tis muy aesthetic. I love it, and you for providing it. I think Arathi will have to be kept for another day, because I've written yet another story that spurs my creative engine.
Les Ghentel, Githyanki Warlord: Ex-Gambler, Ex-Pirate, Ex-Slave
The Laughing Gallows is a terrifying place to grow up, and yet, the same aspects that make it so also make it far more entertaining to those who stay. Les was one of these. Orphaned at birth for unknown reasons, she grew up in Lady Wendle’s Orphanage. The orphanage was not too far from Notrim’s Singing Sails and was supported by several pirate captains who were always looking for new, and cheap, crewmates. Les enjoyed the constant change that, in her mind, was epitomized by the isle.
She grew up in her own enigmatic ebullience performing various chores for Lady Wendle and taking care of the younger children. She slowly grew into a role of the lead child and would help run the entire facility. Of course, like most of the children, the day came that she was drafted onto a pirate vessel as cheap labor. It was, after all, the intent of the orphanage. Les was naught but a deckhand for several years being forced to scrub wood and kiss boots to keep herself from being thrown overboard.
However, this was no life of adventure or excitement. Sure the occasional raid did occur, but Les had no part in these. Rather she was forced beneath the deck by an intransigent captain who did not understand her fair hand at combat. It was not long before she chose to wander off for a new position, ignoring any threats of future violence if she didn’t return to the ship. Notrim’s Singing Sails provided an entertaining position that let her swiftly graduate to a key role in running the gambling tables. Notrim recognized her skill with others and her ability to expeditiously calculate how to achieve prime results from the customers. But this was not a position to last.
Her former captain, a man known as Siegfried Frosteye for his stiff gaze and one blind eye, noticed her while he was gambling away at Notrim’s. Not wanting to stir up any trouble, the corrupt human took a small fee and sold Les off to the captain. She was ambushed by several armed pirates while on her way back to the small shack she called home. Les was taken onboard the Wesling, the name of Frosteye’s ship, and beaten near to death for desertion. Afterwards she was kept below as a galley slave. This grueling position lasted for only two weeks before a battle occurred on the Wesling. Les managed to escape her bonds and help the invading ship against Frosteye’s crew. Unfortunately, even with her help, the other crew failed. As a last resort she leapt off the stern and soon blacked out. She awoke on the sandy shores of Daunton with no money and no contacts.
Les calculated her chances of survival and did not like the idea of spending her life as a beggar or thief. Her wanderings through the city and her investigations into possible escapes from her poor lifestyle led her to the gates of a small facility known as Tymon’s Barracks.
The warrior Tymon was a former military captain who now ran a small fighting academy that tailored to those in the lower socio-economic neighborhoods. Les walked to his gates and went right in, knocking out anyone who tried to stop her. She approached Tymon himself and declared that he should take her in as an apprentice. When asked why, she simply grinned and proclaimed that she would take on any of his current students and show them up.
After several duels, Les was battered and torn. It was then she had to face Renauld Wexington. He easily beat her in skill at arms and with physical strength. The battle was very obviously stacked in his favor. It was then that Les performed what many at the school still claim was ‘cheating.’ She used her inborn gith skills to leap upon a nearby roof. She tore the shingles from the top, ripping skin and nail from her hands, and tossed the stones at Renauld until he surrendered.
It was this action that likely caused her to gain Tymon’s appreciation. She did not have the physical brawn or skill to overcome some of the other students, but her keen mind, tactical awareness and refusal to lose allowed her to take advantage of terrain and openings others did not see. Over the years she grew fond of Tymon and became a constant rival to Renauld who strived to join the military and become an outstanding captain.
She stayed at Tymon’s Barracks for three years until she was 21. Les realized that there was little else that her master could teach her. Additionally, even if he did, she had no desire to stay in Daunton all her life. She took what she could, bid farewell to her master and began to plan her way to getting back at Frosteye. Her resentment of her former captain had grown like a tumor on her heart. The young gith decided to join the ranks of mercenaries in hopes that she could gather a fortune and one day stride upon the deck of a ship all her own.
Personality: Les is like the ocean. How do you describe someone so? She is constantly changing, always on the move and can go from friendly to vicious with little warning. Her harsh lifetime has had a tremendous effect on the way she values lives and possibilities. Some would call it avarice, Les calls it realism.
Description: Les stands a little shorter than other female Gith, being only 5’ 1”. She has narrow features with wide, almond-shaped brown eyes. Her hair is an eclectic collection of colors. While typically silver, she puts red, gold and black highlights through its length. She likes to braid it into several braids each consisting of hair from each color intertwined around one another.
Her long ears are pierced by several gold rings each and her left cheek bears the scar of a sword strike which she has elaborated upon with her own scarification to make into a cat-eye.
Les’s armor is bronze chainmail beneath a blue tabard and a pair of black leather boots. When not prepared for battle she prefers to wear silk shirts and leather pants with numerous bangles and necklaces. Her primary weapon of choice is an elaborate chain with small silver rings ending in a circular ring of spiked and barbs. Each spike is flat enough to have a single symbol engraved upon it. Les uses each symbol to represent a part of her life. Currently there is a ship, a coin and a mailed fist engraved upon three of the spikes.
Last edited by Dawn Raven; 20th November 2008 at 09:40 PM..
I'm just joining the group and I was considering trying to fit in a Mordengard-esque Dwarven Workers' State.
That could fit on Allaria. They could be allies or rivals or both with the Hzakan goblin communist state (think USSR/China). It could also fit on its own distant isle, of course.
__________________ Gary Hoggatt - www.garyh.net "Such heroic nonsense..."
Hey all. One of my PbP games* died recently, so I've been toying with the idea to get into L4W, and decided to take the plunge
Thank you so much, garyh, for that awesome table! That is exactly the kind of thing I like. I actually went through and did the classes part on my own, haha.
So, somewhat foolishly, I rolled up a character and put together a backstory before I read this page and the discussion thread and saw that leaders are really lacking. Anyway, I made an elven paladin from the Imperium, so I guess he's a sort of half-leader. He is similar in some respects to Graf's character (eladrin paladin from the Imperium, for those who don't know), but hopefully Raiyek is different enough, even though Graf's gone for the time being. What do you all think? I'm just about ready to submit him, though he could be a cleric with little backstory change.
Edit: Can anyone think of a kicker for Raiyek? I'm having trouble with it, but that could be because it's 6 am ... maybe I should get some sleep, haha.
*Don't let that let you think that I'm a PbP vet. It was the first pbp game I joined, and the one I'm still in was the 2nd and last one I joined
I'm sliding into a concept for Haran Beardless, Dwarf Cleric of Vulkar.
I'll work on some backstory... Probably loosely tie him to the monastery Dwarves
Don't flood them with too many leaders ^.~ Or I just may have to change my submission to my rogue hehe.
EDIT: Nice background, Lord Sessadore. Perhaps for your kicker, one of the legion is sent to look for you after the portal is opened. Maybe a friend from a former military brigade or some such.
Last edited by Dawn Raven; 22nd November 2008 at 05:36 PM..
Thanks, Dawn Raven I just read Les' background, and I have to say it looks pretty awesome! I'm always nervous when I put together a background, I'm always the DM for my group, so PbP is the first time I've ever really had a PC. I never think I'll have any good ideas or that it won't be very long... and then I end up with these huge novels
I like your idea for my kicker ... but now I'm torn. I came up with one just before I fell asleep last night - before Raiyek's parents became elves and the Veritas was formed, they had another child, a daughter. But the daughter didn't follow them, so they disowned her and never mentioned her to him. So Raiyek has a much, much older eladrin sister living somewhere in the Imperium, but doesn't even know she exists.
There's no reason you can't have multiple ones! Although, if you plan to adventure in and around Daunton you might want to make it so that your sister actually travelled over into this area instead of staying in the Imperium. That way, a DM could say, arrange to have their adventure perhaps given to you with her as the client. Hah! Imagine that, you could end up adventuring for your sister, with neither realizing their blood-related but still distinctly different races.
I usually DM too but I think that only spurs creativity when it comes to making PCs. For many of my games I make these short stories for NPCs that only end up dying. I hate the idea of a DMPC so what I do is set up interesting characters as enemies. Everytime the group gets a magic item it has a history and a person attached to it. For example, I'm soloing a game for a friend and he's going to be getting a +1 Distance Longbow. The longbow is in the possession of this young boy mercenary in the next fight his party is in. The mercenary is an enemy but I wrote up this short background for him and plan to drop little bits here and there. Such as the bow having a carving of a minotaur skull on it [the boy's family was killed by minotaur savages and he hunts them as a side profession]. Ah..I digress.
By the way, you can start RPing in the tavern before your PC is approved. Come join us! A couple of us are already RPing in the Hanging Man.
Yes, I think I'm gonna go with multiple kickers I really like the idea of the sister being on this side of the portal too, I was toying with that idea earlier. Then I have one kicker that's on this side of the portal, and another that becomes available when someone decides the portal is open (even temporarily).
I'm discovering that about being a DM most of the time, too. Though I don't think I'm very good at dropping the little hints about the personality of the bad guys and magic items ... most of it stays locked inside my skull, haha.
And I think I shall join you in the tavern, seems like a fun place
Most of it never reaches the player's brains, simply going from one ear to the other. I find that my friends play more for the social engineering and the combat than anything remotely resembling an estimable roleplay. As such, many of my attempts to throw them off the main quest [or even put them ON the main quest] end up being extirpated from the brains of my fellows. They prefer fatuous games caused by feckless decision-making. Alas, most of the stuff I end up writing gets filed into an extant folder on my hard drive never to see the light of day. I suppose they're lucky that I love them enough to DM anyway...always throwing out a hint here or there hoping it will one day be discovered.
Last edited by Dawn Raven; 23rd November 2008 at 01:55 AM..
Reason: My spelling is equal to a sin.
Haha, I can sympathize with you there Though most of my story writing probably falls more into the category of day-dreaming; I rarely write it out.
I think you'd be hard pressed to find a group that put as much thought into the game as the DM does. But the main thing is that everyone has fun, right?
Edit: Something I noticed in the summary on your CS when browsing: I'm pretty sure you don't do 26d4+4 damage with Bastion of Defense
Oops! And I thought I had found all the errors..le sigh. time to go make changes.
EDIT: Okay I saw an error in math but it was in the template part. I have +2 initiative from my race, +2 for the class and +1 Dex so it should calculate in the green to +5. However, it is only showing as +3. Something isn't being calculated correctly. Can anyone help with that?
Last edited by Dawn Raven; 23rd November 2008 at 06:31 AM..
I think I know what went wrong there. In the data for that chart, you have
|InitClass = 0
|InitClassFeature = 2
InitClass is where the numerical bonus goes, InitClassFeature is the name of what the bonus comes from. So, it's thinking that you're getting a bonus of +0 from a class feature named "2". Replacing it with the following should work:
With the passing of the 2nd characters proposal, I'm gonna go ahead and resurrect this thread.
I don't think it's any secret that I'm planning to put together an avenger once PHB2 is out. Not sure what race he'll be ... maybe just plain old human
But I'm curious - what characters are you thinking of playing?
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