Song for Sharn characters

[Torscha]

Here's a rundown on the characters of the ongoing A Song for Sharn Story Hour, located here.

Vague back-stories at the moment, I'll probably get around to posting their stat-blocks at a later date, together with more detailed analyses.

Torscha Worldwalker
aka DM PC Swiss-army Knife character

Monk 2 / Cleric 3 / Sovereign Speaker 4 (Caster Level 6th)

Domains: Trickery, Travel, Force, Celerity, Knowledge, Healing

Despite his appearances, Torscha was actually born in Sharn, to a father who was an avid Fellow of Morgrave University, with a special interest in the history of pre-war Galifar. He had a younger sister, Asha, during whose birth their mother passed away. Their father was an absent but not unkind man, who sought to strike a balance between his passion for his work and his duty towards his children, and who can be said to have not failed as abysmally as one might have expected. When Torscha was only six and Asha four, their father went on an expedition into Cyre: all hopes for his possible return were crushed during the Day of Mourning.

Long before then, however, their father's debtors had already come to collect. The good professor had borrowed heavily to finance his research, and in his absence the sharks began to circle around his meagre estate. Driven out of their home by goblinoid toughs, Torscha and Asha took to the streets, for a while living as the other street children of Sharn did, by theft and by larceny and above all by their wits.

Torscha's natural intelligence and quickness might have seen them through, if it hadn't been for that first winter. Asha took sick, without shelter or warmth, and the coughs that wracked her frail frame brought up blood and bile. Desperate for a way out, Torscha sought to bring her to the attentions of the local priests of the Sovereign Host, hoping they would take pity on them and take them in.

Unfortunately, when he brought them to the location where his sister had been hiding away, Torscha found the place ransacked, victim of one of the many looting raids that gripped Sharn during the war. Broken-hearted, he inspired great sympathy amongst the priests, who decided that they would in fact take him in.

They sent him off under Host auspices to Karrnath, to train at one of the monasteries of the Host. He proved an adept student, fuelling his discipline with all the pent-up rage and frustration of not having been able to save his sister. Beneath that roiling core of discontent, however, his teachers detected a wellspring of calm, an inner heart of compassion. Instead of continuing his training as a monk, they sent him to a seminary, where he began training as a cleric. Once more allowed access to books and lore, his love of learning resurfaced, and he determined to follow in his father's footsteps, unearthing lost knowledge and travelling the face of Eberron, seeking out secrets. He firmly believes the Last War to be a product of stifling ignorance, and is a firm believer that awareness breeds tolerance.

His devotion to a cause instead of one of the Host won him their favour, and his expanded powers give him many resources to call upon. Although a capable combatant, his travels have taught him to prefer less direct methods of resolution. Most of the spells he prefers are related in some way to travel or stealth, such as obscuring mist and longstrider.

Just before the campaign begins, he was notified by an old associate that his sister in fact did survive the Last War. She had been picked up by a patrol of paladins loyal to the Order of the Silver Flame, and had been taken in as an initiate. Believing herself abandoned by her brother, she had dedicated herself towards eradicating the foibles which led to such large-scale calamity, training as a cleric in Thrane. Travelling there, Torscha discovered that she had last been sent on an assignment back to Sharn; he returns to the city of his birth, seeking the sister he lost so long ago.

 

[TDRandall]

Ooooh, sounds like a certain pending sibling reunion coudl be fraught with land mines.

At least in my mind the Sovereign Host and Silver Flame have always been only loosely aligned on the same side. Sort of a "enemy of my enemy is my friend" type arrangement. I don't know if Faiths of Eberron would support or crush that opinion though, since I haven't yet gotten around to reading my copy of that book.

(Thought from the other thread which I forgot making up that second attempt at a post) Interesting that you haven't gotten a look at the details of the other PCs. Although I might concur that a common definition of "DM" could be something like "evil demigod like being seeking to destroy", it seems like the more info you get about them the more you could also set up future conditions in which they will shine or offer options that specifically interest their character goals.

 

[Torscha]

Song for Sharn characters - Karsen

I did look at their character sheets long enough to approve them, but I don't really memorise any of that stuff or require on-hand copies of anything besides spell-lists. My players are generally trustworthy that way, and most of the fun doesn't derive from skill rolls or damage rolls or anything like that, but from their interaction with one another. We can go by most things besides fights without rolling dice.

Karsen Dulath d'Orien
aka Influence-hungry lesser scion of a Great House

Dread Necromancer 8 (6 at beginning)

Born to indifferent parents, Karsen was largely neglected by his elders who devoted their energies to educating and grooming his dragonmarked siblings. At an early age he realised that his keys to success in life would be intelligence and charisma: sure that he would never achieve any degree of acclaim on the merit of his own capabilities, he determined to wrest it by cleverly exerting the most leverage he could with his winning charm.

He held himself aloof from much of the ruckus generated by the Last War, instead devoting himself to arcane studies. He eventually drew the attention of the priests of the Blood of Vol, who realised the potential of such a well-placed, malleable, and above all power-hungry young man, taking him into their fold and initiating him into their mysteries. Karsen proved an apt pupil, quickly mastering the lesser powers, and was mentored by their greatest necromantic adepts, who taught him the ways to master thralls both living and undead.

Ironically, his fervent devotion to Volist principles exposed him to the dangers that would unlock his heritage. One day, in order to accomplish one of the tasks his mentors set for him in order to test his progress, he found himself cornered deep beneath the streets of Sharn, his powers exhausted. In desperation, he willed himself away to a nearby spot, manifesting the least power of his dragonmark, the Mark of Passage.

Belatedly embracing him as one of their own, House Orien showered honours upon him, but to Karsen's dismay forced him to leave the enclave in Sharn, and incidentally his contacts among the clergy of Vol, and sent him to their headquarters, where he was trained in the use of his dragonmark. If his instructors found their student surprisingly adept in manipulating the energies of his mark, they attributed it to his 'late blooming' and sent him back with high praises.

Upon returning to Sharn, however, Karsen showed little inclination of devoting himself to furthering his House's interests, instead choosing to re-establish contact with the Blood of Vol, which he kept his involvement with a close secret. His elders, knowing nothing but that Karsen had a decidedly morbid bent, decided to channel his interests constructively and sent him to learn some healing from the adepts of House Jorasco, so he could serve as a kind of mobile doctor, capable of supplying medical attention to those even in the most inaccessible places.

The time has come for him to prove his worth once and for all, both to his House and to his cult. The latter has rousted him from his usual haunts and given him a daunting task: to track down and silence one of their higher echelon members, a cleric by the name of Anselm, who has abandoned his responsibilities and seemingly disappeared into the seedy underbelly of Sharn. The cult fears that Anselm might have been suborned by some other power to whom he might uncover their secrets, and so they send Karsen sniffing after him, promising him a place in the inner circles of the cult if he succeeds. They send with him one of their newest and most unusual initiates, the warforged fighter Tim.

Tim (Antimony)
aka Karsen's meat-shield

First bearing the name Antimony, later shortened by his brethren to "Tim" for ease of use on the battlefield, the warforged found himself lost and directionless after the cessation of hostilies following the Treaty of Thronehold. What puzzled him above all was the phenomenon of death, which he had seen firsthand and often during the course of his brief military career.

Seeking explanations as to its curious nature and dubious provenance, he sought out the advice of those he had heard were most qualified to give it: the priests of Vol. While altogether unsuitable to be a higher-order initiate, Tim proved useful, being strong enough, tough enough, obedient enough and most importantly dim enough to be content with scraps of pseudo-philosophy and platitudinous slogans, diverting his energies to serving his newfound masters.

Despite the ordinance stipulating the recognition of warforged as citizens of the Five Nations, Tim misses the regularity and order of military life, and is much more comfortable under the direction of a master -- any master -- than he would have been on his own. He is quite content to follow Karsen and do whatever he is told, confident that his master is both enlightened and wise, and puppyishly hopeful that some of that will rub off on him. He is, in fact, glad to be offered the opportunity to earn enlightenment the same way he earned military accolades: with his strong shield-arm and sharp sword.