Description of the Player Characters:
TomTom Badgerclaw (halfling rogue 4 / psion 12): TomTom is not exactly your typical halfling. He's always worn boots, much to the chagrin of his more normal relatives, and he prefers to dress is an astonishing array of bright, clashing colors. As a result, he is often mistaken for a jester, or at least underestimated. That's a very bad mistake to make; while some thieves steal treasure, TomTom is more likely to try to topple an economy, as he uses a combination of native cunning and powerful psionics to get what he seeks. Back home, TomTom is the only halfling knight in the mostly human kingdom (a result of helping prevent a civil war), and is the trainer of the King's secret psionic elite guards and spies. For a weapon, he tends to use a +3 magical jambiya of sharpness that returns when thrown. Sadly for Squirrel Nutkin, TomTom has a severe hatred of squirrels, and enjoys slicing them down out of trees at every opportunity.
--> TomTom's player is a brilliant strategist. Everyone loves TomTom; he's a combination of good luck and good strategies. TomTom has been played since Day One in my game, and is the only remaining original character who has never died.
Velendo of Calphas (elderly human cleric 15): Velendo is frail and balding, with a fringe of gray hair, and he dresses in simple brown robes over chain mail; his holy symbol is a large, solid stone shield carved with runes. He used to have a very peaceful life. Until his mid-50's he had never left his small fishing village of Hunnerstide, running the local temple (as did his father before him) but never especially espousing true faith. Then one day, he had a vision from his God that he should leave the village. His horrified him; deep down, he didn't really believe that his God knew he existed, and this made him re-examine his entire faith. The ship Velendo took was seized by minotaur pirates, who took the cleric back to their island fortress and made him a slave. After escaping through a teleportation device to the mainland, Velendo fell in with the Defenders of Daybreak. Three years ago, Calphas selected Velendo to be his proxy for a Holy mission, and this has inadvertently catapulted Velendo to fame and recognition everywhere within his church. Much to his disgust and embarrassment, he is now considered a prophet and living saint, and churches are queueing up to take pieces of his body as relics when he dies.
--> Velendo tends to argue with his God a lot, similar to Tevya in "Fiddler on the Roof". Velendo has a reasonably low charisma despite all of his fame, and so tends to be brusque and snappy at people who annoy him. These idiosyncracies are typically written off by fervent believers as mere eccentricities.
For a long time Velendo wore banded mail under his robes, but after his STR was drained down to 6 a year or so ago (while locked in a mano-a-mano struggle with an evil Proxy counterpart), he ditched all armor and spent much of his acquired loot on a pair of +6 Bracers of Defense. Between those and his +3 Stone Shield (light as balsa wood for him, as are all shields to Clerics of Calphas), along with a decent Dex, his AC is pretty good. For the record, he still has a 6 Strength; the drained points were restored, but then he suffered the "old age" penalty, and his STR dropped back down. Needless to say, it's been a long time since he meaningfully engaged in melee combat.
Nolin Benholm (half-elf bard 17): Nolin, loosely based on an old friend of the player, is a complex individual. He's full of loneliness and self-hatred, but he presents an astonishingly engaging front to the world. Despite deep anger that his elven father deserted his mother after getting her pregnant, he started adventuring while running away from a girl he got pregnant himself. He tends to want what he hasn't got, and he goes through mood swings that range from near-suicidal moping and depression to ecstatic happiness and satisfaction. He's founded a bardic (and spy) academy on the estate of a former adventuring companion, and is now internationally known for both his exploits and his performances. Nolin's instrument is a lute of legendary quality, bought from a strange man in a tiny store in a bad section of Sigil. He knows that he still owes a price for the lute that can't be paid in coin, but he doesn't yet know what the price will be.
--> Nolin got a bit less lonely after he died (killed by inch-tall goblins in the Dungeon adventure "Chadrathar's Bane"); he was wearing an item called a "phoenix cloak" at the time, and found himself reborn and sharing his body with the soul of an imprisoned phoenix. He has since reached an understanding with the phoenix, and can access some of its powers. Unfortunately, his hair has been made of fire since that day, which (despite looking cool) makes sleeping on pillows really, really difficult.
Kirisandra Kulberg (half-elf rogue 4/sorceress 10): Kiri is Nolin's half-sister (by their unknown elven father), and met him mostly by accident. She is something of a dilletante; moving from religion to religion, from lover to lover, from place to place, until now she's never really settled down. Her patron is a mysterious woman named Miranda, for whom Kiri steals and delivers certain objects. Kiri's familiar is a drunken and willful pseudodragon named Tipic.
--> Kiri is really at a low point right now. Years ago, she stole the membership roster from the Eversink's church of Yorrine. As you'll see, this is really going to come back to haunt her.
Tao Camber (half-elf ranger 9/cleric 5): Tao (pronounced TAY-oh) has become a Knight of the Horn, an almost-extinct order of Holy warriors of her nature Goddess. As such, she has the ability to shapeshift into a unicorn, and she works to organize the order once again. Originally a giant-killer, Tao now spends less time at her ranger academy and more time with her priestly duties. She has a variety of pets, including a riding lizard, a ferret, and a war-dog. She usually resents being the party's front-line fighter (or "damage sponge"), but she tolerates it with good grace. In another shocking display of squirrel bias, Tao's father was killed by a diseased squirrel bite, and she still harbors somewhat of a grudge.
--> Tao really started out as a combat-oriented character, but her whole focus has changed. In the intervening years, her player has become more interested in spell-casting, so we've worked to stress her clerical side instead of her ranger abilities. It's been a really nice shift. She's also had it tough: two deaths, shaving and branding by an enemy (who stole all her magic items and gave them away to the poor), and the breaking off of a proposed marriage by her much younger fiance'.
Raevynn Icewing (elven druid 12): Raevynn's been dead before as well, killed by a delayed blast fireball shortly after joining the party. Her Goddess did not take her, however, and made her a spirit capable of possessing people and animals. When Raevynn finished the holy mission that had been assigned to her (destroying a dracolich who worshipped the God of Abominations), she was spontaneously reincarnated - but into the body of an evil elven sorceress. She's pretty sure that the sorceress' personality is gone, but she still retains some of the physical mannerisms, such as flicking her long nails against each other when irritated - which is often. Raevynn is a member of an elite druidic troubleshooting group, working directly for the archdruid to combat threats to the balance and the wilderness.
--> Raevynn REALLY hates Eversink. She dreams of the day when she can summon a storm to sink it, or create elementals to smash apart the carefully maintained avenues between the canals. She's managed to control herself so far, but being made a slave to Eversink's council for 5 years hasn't improved her disposition any.
Palladio of House Roaringbrook (human rogue 5/fighter 7): Palladio (Pa-LAH-dee-oh; if it sounds like PlayDoh, you're saying it wrong!) works directly for House Roaringbrook, the druidically aligned Great House that supplies much of Eversink's produce. His role is that of an investigator and detective, protecting the house's interests and watching for threats. He tends to dress subtlely and keep his eyes open, but with whirlwind attack and tumbling he's a demon in a fight; he's been known to tumble into the middle of a group of enemies, and attack all of them at once. Palladio tends to be blunt (he once told an informer "You're scum, but you're scum who stays bought, and I respect that").
--> Palladio is a good example of using skills to max out a character's strengths. He has an astounding spot and listen check - and I mean astounding, like +20 or so for spot - and has a high enough sense motive to tell whether anyone is charmed by chatting with them for a few minutes and taking 10. The character was inspired while reading the Fu Manchu books, with the role of the two-fisted detective. One of his more unusual magic items is the skull of his former mentor, a diviner, which prophecises for him when called upon.
Former PCs whose players have moved away:
Sir Valdek Nurin (human fighter 10): Valdek was a red-haired, quiet swordsman and horse farmer. Early in his adventuring career, he managed to get ahold of a Sephanic warhorse (the best known horse stock, tightly controlled by the tribesmen on the planes of Sephane) for breeding stock. As a result, he went into semi-retirement to breed horses and practice his riding skills. He also was one of the Defenders' representatives in Court, training the King's knights in horse skills.
--> Valdek and Kiri started to "keep company" about half a year ago. It was Valdek who was slain by the trillith further down the thread, and who had not wished to be raised.
Lady Sharala Clearwater (human wizard illusionist 13): Shara is gorgeous if you like the type, with long tumbling blond hair and perfect pale skin an "active" figure. If Nolin claims that her lips go all bloodless when she tightens them in disgust at his attention, well, perhaps he's prejudiced by her dislike of him. Born some 73 years ago, Shara was the 4th child of House Clearwater, and her tyrant-like grandfather who ran the family sent her off to study magic with tutors instead of paying any attention to her. When she was finally affianced to a repulsive patriarch from House Meridian, in an engagement she couldn't get out of, she rebelled; her charmed and illusioned handmaiden went to the altar instead of her, and she fled the country. Months later, she was at a dance when everything went black, and in an eyeblink she found herself in Sigil: 50 years later and a long, long way from home. It turns out that an assassin sent by her grandfather (Spider Nick) became obsessed with her and couldn't bear to kill her, so he sealed her into a bottle and sent her off. She decided to regain her equilibrium, check out the political climate in Eversink, and perhaps make a bid for her House on the basis that she is the eldest member.
--> Shara's player has since moved to LA to go to film school at USC; he claims that it wasn't to skip the political ramifications of what he did in his last game. Shara has a fierce temper, combined with a high charisma, and that makes her quite memorable. In her absence, she was turned into something of a martyr and a folk hero; she is now playing on that sympathy to garner support in the Council.