fissionessence
First Post
You may recognize the title 'Cosmic Seafarer' from the Plots & Places forum, where I've posted a similar thread. Basically what's going on is I've started running myself through a solo D&D 4E game (no DM, just me playing) using a couple of systems to support it. If you're interested in reading about all the nuts and bolts of how this works, and all the decisions I'm making about the story on the fly as I go, go check out my other thread. Otherwise, this is just to serve as a warning as to why the story might be weird and seem to jump around, or not necessarily make too much sense sometimes. In between rolling on random tables and figuring out what it means, I 'roleplay' my session by writing it as fiction; that's what I'm presenting here, in my Story Hour thread.
But first, a character and setting introduction.
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As a young boy, Rinian was a human street orphan and got into a lot of trouble picking pockets and whatnot. This got him into trouble with the law, where he went to some delinquency place and because of the 'dark ages' laws of that city he was sold as a slave. Captain Tradaro, a tiefling, bought him to sweep the poop deck. Tradaro's ship, Star Bearing, essentially serves as a sailing tavern. The captain used to be an adventurer himself, but has now 'retired' into sailing. He'll take adventurers anywhere they want to go, but for commensurately high prices. As he travels, he collects 'quest seeds', treasure maps and the like. As he meets adventurers he feels are up to snuff, he sells them the treasure maps or information, or hires them to perform certain quests off of which he thinks he can make a profit. In this way, he makes a reasonable amount of money, and he adventures vicariously through these younger people aboard his ship.
Rinian found himself on this ship full of adventurers, whom he came to somewhat admire. One day a beautiful wizardess or somesuch caught him staring at her as she lounged in the sun. She smiled and winked coyly. When they docked and she and her party left the ship, she winked at him again and cast a spark of magic at him. He doesn't know if this infused him with power, or just activated something latent within him, but over the next few weeks his body began changing. (He became a xax.)
As his transformation completed, he found he also had magic powers and an affinity for the moon and the stars. He is now able to read them better than any astrolabe, and eventually replaced the ship's previous navigator. As the ship is constantly filled with adventurers of all shapes, sizes and races, he doesn't feel out of place in his strange and unexplainable new form, and the captain seems to have some kind of affection for him, as he shows great talent and power as a navigator and potential adventurer.
* * * * *
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But first, a character and setting introduction.
* * * * *
As a young boy, Rinian was a human street orphan and got into a lot of trouble picking pockets and whatnot. This got him into trouble with the law, where he went to some delinquency place and because of the 'dark ages' laws of that city he was sold as a slave. Captain Tradaro, a tiefling, bought him to sweep the poop deck. Tradaro's ship, Star Bearing, essentially serves as a sailing tavern. The captain used to be an adventurer himself, but has now 'retired' into sailing. He'll take adventurers anywhere they want to go, but for commensurately high prices. As he travels, he collects 'quest seeds', treasure maps and the like. As he meets adventurers he feels are up to snuff, he sells them the treasure maps or information, or hires them to perform certain quests off of which he thinks he can make a profit. In this way, he makes a reasonable amount of money, and he adventures vicariously through these younger people aboard his ship.
Rinian found himself on this ship full of adventurers, whom he came to somewhat admire. One day a beautiful wizardess or somesuch caught him staring at her as she lounged in the sun. She smiled and winked coyly. When they docked and she and her party left the ship, she winked at him again and cast a spark of magic at him. He doesn't know if this infused him with power, or just activated something latent within him, but over the next few weeks his body began changing. (He became a xax.)
As his transformation completed, he found he also had magic powers and an affinity for the moon and the stars. He is now able to read them better than any astrolabe, and eventually replaced the ship's previous navigator. As the ship is constantly filled with adventurers of all shapes, sizes and races, he doesn't feel out of place in his strange and unexplainable new form, and the captain seems to have some kind of affection for him, as he shows great talent and power as a navigator and potential adventurer.
* * * * *
~