Exclusive Contest! WAYNE REYNOLDS draws OR PAINTS your character! No more entries!

[reveal]

Kristobar Chelton (Forgotten Realms)
Cleric 5/Paladin 3 of Torm

Kristobar Chelton grew up in a loving home in Neverwinter. His father was a cleric of Torm, as his father was before him and his father before him. All served Torm well and just. When Kristobar was a youth, his father gave him a small silver key. “This represents your future and with it you can control your own path”, his father said “There are many uses for keys and they will become apparent as you grow older”.

Kris dreamed of being a Paladin in the service of Torm, carrying justice throughout the land. “Only those of noble birth may follow the way of the Paladin,” said Kris’ mother, but his father would always say “To every problem there is a key and each man must find his own key and unlock his own fate”.

So Kris toiled and became a cleric of Torm, as his father was before him and his father before him. Content to his duties, the dream soon became tucked away at the back of his mind, never forgotten but deemed too preposterous to realize.

But soon Kris found himself in a field; naked as the day he was born. And before him was a vast ocean of green grass, ebbing to and fro with the wind. And the voice spoke. And he knew it was Torm.

The voice told him that while humans spoke of nobility, only He would choose his riders. The voice did not care of a man’s status of birth only that he was pure of heart and possessed a soul wrought of justice. They all had to prove themselves to Him and carry his message faithfully. Do this, the voice told him, and he would be allowed to enter into Paladinhood.

But until then, Kris was to travel far and wide, carrying out His message and defending the just and pure. When Kris was ready, He would know and He would show Kris the way.

And after he awoke the next day, Kris told his father of the dream and his father wept with joy. As the family gathered his belongings, he vowed to come back when he was a Paladin. And he rode away with the hopeful eyes of his parents upon him…

------

Kristobar spent a lot of time as a cleric in the service of Torm. Eventually, he came upon a large church. During his stay at the church, He contacted Kristobar and told him his time had come. After passing a grueling test, one in which he used his father's key to "open the door" to Him, he was welcomed into the service of Torm as His paladin.

Kristobar's defining moment came with his, almost self-sacrifice in the face of a dragon. With his comrades wounded or scared, or both, he took it upon himself to get the dragon to focus his rage on him. He waded into the foes reach, with no fear in his heart. His friends, seeing this bravery, pulled themselves up and waded in too, Kristobar's courage pressing them onward. Eventually, the dragon fell with a final blow from Torm, whom Kristobar always felt guided his sword.

This is the best character I have ever played. I truly felt he progressed as a character into something more than a simple cleric. He had a goal in mind, paladin, and he worked towards it, showing Torm's great strength and wise judgement all along the way. When Torm finally decided to welcome Kristobar into his fold, I felt a great sense of accomplishment and pride, just as Kristobar, himself, did.

Description:
28 years old
6'2"
216 lbs.
Shoulder length Brown hair
Deep Hazel eyes
Wears Full Plate with pride (keeps it polished but is practical and knows it will get dirty and doesn't obsess about it)
Large Steel Shield with symbol of Torm on the front (magically enhanced +1)
Favorite weapon: Flamesinger (Flaming Longsword +1)
Wears the Holy Symbol of Torm proudly around his neck
Has no mount (Unfortunately, the campaign ended before he could get one)

 

[Kae'Yoss]

The fact that he wrote "favourite character(s)" should answer the question of multiple entries.

 

[reveal]

The fact that he wrote "favourite character(s)" should answer the question of multiple entries.

Reading never was my forte.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Antaros Dlardrageth a.k.a. Antar Nimesin (Forgotten Realms)

Okay, I'll start with the charater from previous competition, which didn't make it last time.

To get the rules-material out of the way: Antaros Dlardrageth is a fey'ri (tiefling descended from a gold elf and a succubus) Rogue/Assassin, with a strong focus on "covert ops" - he's a great spy, infoprmation gatherer, and assassin - occupations where it helps that you can change your appearance to just about anything humanoid (the butler might not be the killer, but the guy posing as the butler sure is). If I'd play him today, I'd probably go for chameleon (from Races of Destiny). AL CE, Str 12, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 12 Cha 18 (without items).


Antar Nimesin is a charismatic and graceful sun elf with a keen intellect. Always a charming smile on the lips, he works as adviser for this noble cormyrean or that sembian merchant, offering surprisingly insightful insights into their rivals' current and near-future endeavours, and providing fine details for his employers' plans. He usually wears a fine mithral shirt that speaks of nobility and carries an elegent rapier at his side.
And... he's only a facade! In truth, Antaros Dlardrageth is a fey'ri, the results of an unholy coupling of sun elves and demons. Those few unfortunates who saw his true face (none of which ever had the opportunity to tell anyone about it, or about anything else) will witness an unsettling transformation: the bronce skin of the charming gold elf turns deep red, the golden eyes become a fiery crimson, and he sprouts bat-like wings and a long tail with a pointed tip. His formerly pleasant and musical voice acquires a dark undertone, and his friendly smile turns into a sadistic grin that promises death - eventually. His true purpose in the realms of Cormyr and Sembia is to gather information about present-day Faerûn in preparation to the great assault the Daemonfey plan to launch, and the recent problems between Sembia and their wood elf neighbours could be exploited, and Cormyr has also ties to the elves.
Antaros is a ruthles, merciless killer who stops at nothing to achieve his goals. He sees the rest of Faerûn merely as tools to gather information, increase his power, and provide fun - especially wood and moon elves, who are responsible for his house's imprisonment ages ago. He's a master of disguises, no small thanks to the ability to change shapes, a great stalker, good at the "usual thief stuff" like open locks and sleight of hands, and a master in all negotiations - he either lies to people, intimidates them into doing what he wants, or just convinces them of his opinion (which, again, is helped by his heritage, as he is able to cast suggestion once per day as a spell-like ability).

As with the first time I entered Antar(os), my favourite pose for him would be in his diguise as gold elf, clad in fine garments and his chain shirt, a buckler on is one arm, brandishing his rapier in a typical swashbuckler-like pose, a rakish smile on his lips. In the background of the picture, his true form in portrait: only the head (with the smile which is at the same time somehow the same as with the sun elf form and a sadistic grin) and part of the shoulders and wings. (Or something like that)

One fond memory of the character was his first use of the assassin's death strike ability (which promptly worked): The party explored some underground structure, and stumbled upon a couple of bound guardians - a couple of devils and a celestial (none of which were thrilled at their assignment, but where bound by will of the spellcaster who brought them here in the first place). They were behind a closed door (Antaros found them with his detect thoughts power) he hid, and as the rest of the party drew them out, he reverted to his true form, watched the eladrin from the shadows, and finally plunged his rapier into the the celestial's heart. The last word the angelic creature ever heard was "surprise".

Another funny story, which I just have to tell whenever I speak of that campaign, isn't exactly something you'd tell your children to impress them: The party (consisting of a moon elven death cleric, a wood elven psychic warrior, Antaros, and an insane gnomish necromancer/alienist) had to find a ship to sail somewhere (not important). The problem: as the nation was engaged in a naval war, there were few ships in the ports, and those were being repaired or prepairing to sail off into another sea battle.
They eventually found one ship, but the problem was that it was a halfling ship. Not only are halfling ships less-than-comfortable for human-sized persons, the mad gnome had a weird form of insanity: hinophobia - the fear of halflings. Nonetheless, they soon hade a plan: Antaros - in the form of a halfling - is to enter the halfling village and convince the halflings to take him on a small sailing trip. When they're far enough off shore so the rest of the halflings cannot interfere any more, the others use dimension door to appear on the ship - taking it hostage. The gnome is to be put in a sack so he doesn't see the halflings (and be told that the sailors of that ship have a fear of gnomes - a certain fey'ri in the party was convincing enough to sell sandboxes to bedines, and the gnome was quite gullible despite his intellect). Later, he's told to stay in his chamber for exactly the same reasons.
It really worked out. For a day or two. Then, the gnome remembered that he can turn invisible and so go take a look without any of the sailors seeing him and thus panic. He entered the main deck, saw halflings, and was promptly paralyzed by his fear. After a while, the invisibility spell wore off, and at the halfings alarmed cries he snapped out of his fit and right into the next: now he just wanted to destroy the object of his fear. This was a cause for great alarm for his fellow party members for they knew the spell he usually employed to destroy things: reality mealstorm, a spell that pulls everything in the immediate vicinity into a random plane. Antaros planned to race to the gnome and enter a grapple to stop him from spellcasting, while the psychic warrior tried to blow his mind with a mind blast.
But the mind blast only succeeded in stunning the fey'ri, and the gnome resisted both it and the clerics spell, and so the reality mealstorm is created.
Somehow, both the gnome and the daemonfey resist its pull, but all the halflings, the other two party members - and the ship! - are drawn into a random plane, which was Acheron, the Infernal Battlefield
Tymora must have not only smiled, but rolled with laughter at them, for none survived: the gnome somehow succeeded in holding Antaros over water until he came to and turned into a sea elf, and the other two party members succeeded in surviving long enough in the middle of the Blood War for the cleric to prepare plane shift. The halflings, of course, were just like leaves in a fire storm in the raging war...
It took quite a while (and persuasion) to get the two plane-travellers to forgive the gnome and let him live....


(Addition from here)
Though it is not relevant, and it won't really have any impact on the contest, but Antaros will be back. I'll be playing him in another game, with another DM. The funny part: the DM of the old game is a player here.
Of course, I won't tell the other players. The old cover identity of Antar Nimesin will be dropped, and a new one will take its place. Sotaran (an anagram of Antaros) Di'Fey (stands for D-Fey, Daemonfey). It will be a sun elf again, though this time fighting with two weapons (Rapier and Dagger).

 

[Kai Lord]

Just a quick reminder to all who have entered or are planning to enter;

Describe what your character looks like.

A couple of the entries already submitted have great backgrounds or gaming moments but I haven't a clue as to what kind of hair, clothes, physique, or equipment the characters have. Remember, be as descriptive as possible. The background and gaming moments will probably be what sets the winners over the edge, but to even get that far we have to know what the character looks like in the first place.

Some great entries so far, keep 'em coming and good luck to all!

 

[Piratecat]

This is a wonderful contest. Thank you, Kai Lord!

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

Huzzah!!! Krynn!!!

Ah Dragonlance. I pretty much lived in Krynn from the late eighties throughout the nineties. I rarely play 3.x but I will only play Dragonlance with 1e.

The Dragonlance hardback opened my gaming up considerably. Hill Dwarf Rangers, Kender Barbarians (I always wanted to summon a kender barbarian horde when I was high enough level but alas, never happened), Silvaneti Elf Paladins, ah the memories.

I'll start with my Silvanesti Elven Wizard of High Sorcery, Wizard of the White Robes named Lamothius, aka Lame-O by irreverent sonsof***** fellow players.

Lamothius was of typical build for his race, 5' tall, silver blond hair (worn long), hazel eyes, and silvery white silk robes. He had the fair skin of the Silvanesti and his build was lean but above average strength (no bookworm was he). He had the arrogance of the Silvanesti but tempered with the fact that the Silvanesti homeland got is arse whooped by dark forces and Southern Ergoth just wasn't home. So with fellow adventurers they set out to do good deeds.

Most memorable adventure with him was a trip to Ice Wall around 9th level or so. Lamothius was the proud owner of a Staff of Power (black staff tipped with a symbol of the Night of the Eye). The party ran into a little trouble known as a Rhemoraz. I don't quit remember everything but I do remember the conclusion. The party was down so I cast a fly to give me some room. Now, I seem to remember that Rhemoraz had a pretty good magic resistance in 1e so my attack spells were doing jack.

Tha's when I said Ferkit and did the 'ol Retributive Strike. Lamothius was doing it selflessly so the DM had Paladine send me back with ONE hit point. We picked up the pieces and got on with adventuring.

Ah the memories,

More later.

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

Next up Tyvek Ascalhorn

Tyvek Ascalhorn, Rider of Khur, human male Barbarian.

In the module anthology Mists of Krynn there is a good short adventure dealing with the nomads of Khur. Ah, the adventures it spawned.

Tyvek is a member of the Wey-lu tribe. I took inspiration from many sources so he's pretty archtypical. Deadly on his horse with light lance, scimitar, and composite short bow.

He stood 5'9", even with the bowed legs of a horseman. I imagined him with a lean, compact brutally strong frame. His skin tone was bronze with black hair (worn short). Eyes, blue. He wore studded leather armor and mainly fought with his scimitar and round wooden shield. Expert horseman. Although I did love charging with my lance.

Most memorable moment with Tyvek was in Palanthas during Kitiara's siege of the city. She was attacking with the Floating Citadel to aid Raistlin when he came back from the Abyss at the end of Legends.

I had trained Solamnic cavalry so I was well known and liked among the Knights. I was at a different gate than the one Soth came through. I was leading a unit of Knights whose commanding officer had been killed early in the fight. We were facing a squad of Sivaks lead by an Aurak draconian. Those Sivaks are brutal mean and we were taking heavy casualties, especially with the Aurak backing them up with magic.

Now, my Barbarian hated magic (he'd gotten less jittery around the party mages, still didn't like it, but less jittery) so I charged the Aurak. In one of those rolls that was either cheating or sheer luck I dropped a 20. Aurak went to negative and started his death throe crap. When all was said and done, I was in the single digits and my beloved horse was dead. DEAD ...muttering..... those dirty rotten bast****....

Son of Thunder

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

Irda

Now, Irda are hands down my favorite race from Dragonlance. No one in my group played them but me. There was just something really cool to my inner adolescent that I loved about 'em. Their looks, definitely, their magic, absolutely.

Anyway, I had two characters one time. Both Irda. I was the only player at the time. They belonged to an organization strictly Irda based called the Order of Lost Souls. It was formed after the War of the Lance to send agents into Ansalon and Taladas to find captured Irda.

Zy'Quorlan was a Wizard of the White Robes and Kelowan was a Cavalier. In human form they were non-descript. In their true characters they were otherworldly. They both had midnight blue skin, silver hair and silver eyes. Zy'Quorlan was 6' and Kelowan 6'3". Zy'Quorlan had a lean frame hidden by his plain white robes. Zy'Quorlan wielded a simple +3 Quarterstaff. Kelowan retained some of the ogre ancestry bulk and was quite strong. He liked to wear field plate armor and use a longsword and shield. Zy'Quorlan had a unique tattoo on his forehead. It was in silver and was the shape of the Night of the Eye, about 2" in diameter. When in human form the tatoo was definitely muted.

Their most memorable experience was against a dragonriding Cleric of Takhisis. Zy'Quorlan and Kelowan were around 14th level at the time and we had our own dragonmounts. Zy'Quorlan's was a silver and Kelowan's was a bronze. To be fair it was my two to her one except she had some undead support in the form of wraiths and shadows. No 20's or 1's were dropped, never were we really close to dying (although her red dragon gave us alot of grief), it was just one grand fight. And no, we didn't have Dragonlances. I can still imagine the scene in my head, and I can see WAR doing it right.

P.S. They weren't brothers or anything, just both Irda.

Son of Thunder

 

[Mokona]

Sir Val of Delphis

Valor (called Val for brevity) grew up as a street urchin after his father had died when Val was still a young boy. Dwarves, like Val, aren't common in the human cities of Omegan but one dirty begging child looks like any other when unbathed and clothed in rags. The authorities caught Val stealing from pedestrians. To repay Val's victims the judge had this homeless dwarf sold to an elven slaver.

Upon cleaning up his slave and discovering a dwarf the elf slavemaster sent Val, who wasn't quite old enough to be a teenager, to work the mines. Val spent 40 years working in the mines as a slave. Resentment built up in Val for the crushing labor his taskmasters forced from him and the slavers liberally applied lashes to force Val to comply with their requirements. After 30 years Val came to see his slavery as just punishment for his evil deeds as a youth.

Throughout the land in which Val lived the deities were forgotten, despised, or not even believed in at all. Val, however, saw the justice in his slavery-induced payment for past sins as a true sign that there was a good and lawful deity after all. With that internal realization in mind Val became a model slave working as hard as possible without complaint or resistance. A section of the mine collapsed on Val's slavelords, revealing an abandoned dwarf stronghold. Val believed that his slavery had served its purpose of bringing him to a realization of a higher spiritual purpose. Visions led him to a secret monastery of priests. There he learned about religion and his deity.

Val entered the world a changed dwarf; he was the sole champion, a paladin, of an abandoned faith in the divine.

Sir Val fought an evil usurper and vile magics to restore the king of Delphis. While earning a knighthood Val acquired his signature items. Val wears scale male armor emblazoned (as if etched in the metal) with a rose and stem (a symbol of hid deity). The armor is a relic created when Val called upon the divine glory of Tritus (his deity) within a defiled holy site to free that site from those who had corrupted it. Val fights with a large steel shield featuring the image of a green dragon rampant and a one-handed longsword glowing with divine might. Val has very weathered skin from his hard time working the mines and scars on his back/chest/arms from being lashed by slaver whips. Dwarves from Val's line wear their hair (Val's is black with speckles of gray) short and neatly trimmed (including their very short, neatly trimmed beards).

The biggest event in Val's life:

Valor finished a quest against evil elves who had stolen the magic in the world that Val's deity had created. After Val's companions freed the trapped energy from the elven orrery that acted as a magic singularity Val channeled all magic in the world back to his deity (the magic's divine source). The resulting removal of all magic from the world sunk the continent where the orrery was; it was a great catastrophe akin to the story of Atlantis.