The Frost Giant Jarl Overview
I've prepared an overview of Characters for the Frost Giant Jarl AD&D game. I'm not taking requests for specific characters, because I rather work that out at the table between players, rather than someone feeling screwed out of a good character because they didn't see the thread in time. I've come up with EIGHT characters (yes, for a six-person game) to offer a bit of choice. Also, if someone kicks the bucket in a particularly permanent way, there's a fresh character to pull in quickly.
The characters are:
Aggro "the Axe" Kilnfire (6 feet 2 inches, emerald eyes, sandy blond hair, brown salt-and-pepper beard) was an artisan and glazier first rate, whose pottery and wares were known clear to the city fo Greyhawk. After leaving his profession to join the army in Furyondy against the Horned Society, (when he acquired the name “the Axe”), he returned home after many adventures and campaigns and found a loving wife with which he settled down in the Duchy of Geoff and had children.
He has heard the call of Baron Falk and knows the threats the giants present. Unlike the usual assortment of orphans and upward-movers in adventuring bands, he is a retired adventurer, and he fights for his family and his home. And damnation to ANY giant who opposes him!
Arkayn (real name Darrow Groom, 5 feet 5 inches, black eyes, black hair, dyed black goatee) came from a poor family of groomsmen and farriers, and he was raised with a fair bit of knowledge on horses and other equestrian matters. He escaped this by promising back-breaking servitude to a wizard, and escaped his family destiny, to go adventuring, taking the nom de guerre “Arkayn” and eventually becoming a well-known wizard of the Kron Hills region. Arkayn refuses to acknowledge that part of his past, though close friends may know it, he tends to gloss over it.
Arkayn serves currently as court wizard to Lord Falk, and while concerned with bodily harm, understands the importance of the mission to rid the Duchy of the Giant threat, and will not shirk it. He hopes to finally gain enough approval by Falk to afford his plot of Land in the Duchy and the remaining funds to found his tower of research and seclusion.
Arlanni (2 ½ feet tall , blue eyes, auburn hair) is a halfling who has worked for the Guildmaster of Assassins for the Gran March / Geoff area for all of her life. She grew up stealing to survive, and later to earn her keep and protection under the Guild. While she has killed numerous times in battle and on missions, she dislikes cold-blooded killing of innocents extremely, and will go to lengths to avoid it.
Her latest mission to stop the giants sprung from her recklessness. Her most recent burglary of the Treasury vaults of Geoff had her caught red-handed by several skilled guards who identified her and managed to track her back to key guild contacts. The Guildmaster faced an ultimatum: Have his entire organization exposed and scuttled, and have to start from scratch, or loan him the services of this remarkable rogue for whom the national treasury was an open buffet. She has worked on loan to Lord Falk for 4 months now, and the rest of the adventuring band respects her for her skill and loyalty to the cause, even if they don’t completely trust her around the valuables.
Brother Balto (early 30s, 5 ft 8”, blue eyes, long blond ponytail), Disciple of the Stone Storm Style, and Master of Green Dragons, claims to have been once a simple farmer, whose steading was overrun by evil beastmen years ago (he now identifies them as some sort of werecreature), his family was killed and he was saved by a Stone Giant living in the Kron Hills. He was nursed to health, and to heal his mind and body, the unusual giant taught him a style of martial thought and training he called the Storm of Stone. After healing, he left and explored the world, only to return and find his master brutally slain by a fire giant raiding party. Balto has sworn to find his teacher’s murderers, and bring them justice. The trail leads to a series of coordinated Hill, Stone, Cloud, and Fire giant raids in the Crystalmist Mountains, and he has allied with the local Lord Falk to put a stop to the giants.
Halbarad (late 30s, 6 ft 6”, hunter green eyes, auburn hair) has been a ranger of the wood since he grew up in Oakvein in the Welkwood, south of the Gnarley Forest. His early experiences in the Wailing Halls (in the Welkwood) shaped him to be a harder man, when he lost the woman he loved and his best friend to a cabal of wraith-priests. When he joined Lord Falk of Geoff, he rid the hill and countrysides of every orc and kobold he could find. Now it seems this has paved the way for the giants to raid the lands of men, though never this coordinated before! Halbarad intends to find out why, and put them to the sword if need be.
Rath (4 ft 6”, cobalt blue eyes, bald head coated in lampblack, close-trimmed black beard) is a feisty dwarf, having learned his skill through indiscretions of youth against the advice of clan elders, and always getting into crimes of curiosity, not having the law-and-privacy-abiding sensibilities of his fellow dwarves. The Elders did put him to use a while, as a tunnel scout against monsters and drow, but he was expelled for a crime against the community that he will not divulge to anyone.
Silverleaf (Real name Gideon Lervan, early 40’s, chestnut hair, amber eyes, scar along right cheek) took the simple name Silverleaf when he accepted his vows as Novice Aspirant some 20 years ago. He seeks to get away from his place as illegitimate child of Baron Lervan of Hardby, and his family’s politics.
He has served Obad-Hai (“The Shalm”) faithfully and his mission the past year has been to hunt rogue creatures of the woodlands who threaten the sanctity of the forests and grasslands, and he has slain many giants, chimeras and manticores who have done so. He is soon to challenge the Druid of the Gnarley Forest for rulership in the rite of Fang and Claw, but does not yet feel ready. The Giant Bands who have pillaged the human lands of the Duchy of Geoff will serve as his final test to prove himself ready for the responsibilities of higher office.
Sister Rebecca (5 ft 3 inches, brown hair, hazel eyes, very light skin) is a cleric of Tritherion, god of freedom and retribution, because at an early age, freedom from oppression defined her life – she grew up in the foothills of the Lortmil Mountains, in a village that was destroyed by orcs when she was young. The populace was taken into slavery, and she somehow managed to escape several months later. Deprived of everything, she was taken in by a martial academy dedicated to Tritherion, and she learned the ways of the god. She has vowed to be a voice for freedom, a shield and sword for those who could not defend themselves.
Also attached is a quick one-pager about AD&D combat actions which we will be using at the table. I will have copies there, also.
http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=27387
Hope everyone is looking forward to the Gameday! I know I am!
