The Unusual Suspects (Updated 05/27/03)

[Delgar]

Well here we go it's my first story hour attempt, so be nice! First I'm going to post the backgrounds that the characters provided me and then I'll dive into the meat of things. Hopefully anyone who's out there lurking will enjoy! I'll also post all of the characters in the rogues gallery and link them when I get them posted!

Cast:

Cales Justus (Human)
Melkantur Granitemug (Dwarf)
Sasha (Kobold)
Grr (Black Bear Cub -actually blonde)
Wingsabbi (Gnome)
Nanita Lostetter (Elf)
Enjoy!

Delgar

 

[Delgar]

CALES JUSTUS:

Cales Justus comes from a long line of unknown peasants. He was born somewhere in Urnst, in a small farming village a stones throw from Nyrond. Rumor has it, that on the early morning of his birth, his father Thennis was forced to draw Cales from the womb after his mother Jealitte punched out the original nurse.

Cales started a meager childhood as most, throwing mud and dung at passing nobles and running very fast when they gave chase. During one pursuit, he not only outran the noble pursuing him, but also humored an aged man making his way on horseback through the village. When the noble surrendered his chase, nearly passing out, the aged man spoke with Cales and asked him if he knew anything about the Gods and their history. Cales was so impressed with the old mans shining armor and magnificent steed, that he puffed up his chest real big, & said "mydadsagodbecausethatswhatmymomscreamsathimlateatnightsoimustbeagodtoo." The old man stared at him trying to decipher what Cales and just said then nearly fell out of his saddle with laughter. Cales thought the old man was laughing at him, so he picked up a big pile of mud and dung and threw it at the man, hitting him right below his neck. Before the old man could react, Cales turned and ran as fast as he could over a hill and out of sight.

When Cales returned home later that night, his parents were waiting for him in the middle of their one room hovel. Instead of scolding him for being out so late, they told him that he was being sent to school and that he would have a lot of fun. He didn't know what school was, but he liked having fun. He went to bed with a smile on his face and was awakened by his father hours before dawn. After gathering the little of nothing that Cales owned, Thennis escorted him outside where he found his mother flirting with the same aged man on horseback. Cales didn't understand what the old man had to do with having fun, but he was told to get on the horse and he thought that would be fun. He hugged his mother and father and climbed into the saddle. The old man took the reigns of the horse, and began leading them out of the village. Cales, attention completely on the horse, failed to hear both his parents praise the gods.

Fast-forward almost a decade and a half, and Cales will soon be graduating. He is now the oldest student in his graduating class, having been held back several times because he had a habit of defying authority. When the other students were learning to ride horses, he was sweeping the mess hall. When the other students were learning to create fires with their fingers, he was scrubbing the prayer rooms. When the other students were attending social gatherings, he was peeling potatoes. Constantly under some form of punishment, Cales would find himself confiding in the strange custodian more often than the priests. Those priests worried him anyways, with those little dark confession booths, and their long bony fingers. Ysmandemaxales, or Max for short, was much older than Cales, and always had his long black hair in a ponytail, and never seemed to fit his loose clothing, but he became a good friend. He told Cales that there is never just one answer, or one path. Max tried teaching him what he knew about fighting, but it looked more like a drunken dance to Cales. Then he attempted to open Cales eyes and mind to peace, and relaxation by ways of focusing on ones inner strength, instead of muscles. "One mind with, mountains move you shall." Max was often strangely articulating in a broken common. Try and try as he may though, Cales could never remove the belt off the cutests girls breeches. Cales would stare and stare and stare and focus and drool and then get slapped when she saw him leering at her.

Cales did understand that there is more than one God, and none are truly correct. But he learned despite what the priests attempted to drill into his head, as long as one follows the heart, one shall never get lost. Before he graduates Max has reminded him to find a higher purpose, and search for greater enlightenment. Max instructed Cales, to "…find that who is teacher, but still learns. Seek he who is called I am." Completely lost, and for once in his life worried, Cales approaches his graduation date with much trepidation...

 

[Delgar]

MELKANTUR GRANITEMUG:

Originally from the foothills near Pelleur Keep, this dwarf lead a ragged life amongst gnomes; his father had been killed refusing to be taken by human slavers possibly linked to Wastri's racist church.

Not yet far under way in his combat training, as a good dwarf should've been, a strange phenomenon occurred (from a dwarf's perspective). Without a father figure of dwarven stock, Melkantur slowly began to take an interest in the spellcraft of his gnomish neighbors. Physical labor was never hard for the stout dwarf, but he knew he was capable of other tasks.

As the years went on, he picked up some of the concepts flung around so casually by the gnomes, but with one stark difference. Melkantur had no interest in pretty lights or illusions: he knew that if he were ever to wield the Art, his would be far deadlier than dancing lights and ghostly sounds. For the time being, he was content with his dwarven Maul, a hammer that many a gnome appreciated in the small village. It was the only thing he had from his father, except as his mother told him, his cold stare. She refused to tell Melkantur of the origins of the skull-adorned hammer and was always on edge in the weapon's presence, as if it were alive or worse, but she insisted that it would serve him well if the need for such grim deeds ever arose.

The Granitemug clan had always been robust and hardy, and Melkantur was no exception. What was exceptional about the stout and saturnine dwarf, was his aptitude. Few would note this, as he kept to himself, and rarely did a gnome suspect how much Melkantur would learn from their harmless games. Though none would have believed it, and he would hesitate to label himself as such, Melkantur had become, in all reality, an arcane protégé.

As time passed on, Melkantur grew restless both with the gnomes playful insouciance and with himself, a fatherless, clanless dwarf, performing remedial chores for his upkeep. One day, a caravan came past the foothills, with some rare commerce for the Pelleur Keep, and Melkantur struck up a conversation with the travelers and was eventually allowed to tag along as an extra guard, all having been impressed by his hammer and the biting gaze in his eye. Though mislabeled a mere warrior at his journey's outset, Melkantur would soon have his eyes opened wide to Nyrond's eldritch wonders.

He has a peculiar pet, a stout black toad named Rigdar, who bolsters Melkantur's resolve.

 

[Delgar]

SASHA:

The only daughter of the famous Kobold adventurer Sorceror Meepo, Shasha was raised in the Dwarven stronghold of Krundakhar, surrounded by dwarves, humans, half-orcs, gnomes, and most other "good" races of Oerth. Being the child of an adventurer, she was often left alone to find her own amusement among the caves and tunnels of the ancient fortress. One day, while exploring some of the ante-chambers near the entrance, Sasha came across a lost black bear cub. Intuitively, she knew the animal was an orphan looking for a mama, or some reasonable substitute. The two children quickly became friends and Sasha spent the next couple of years raising and playing with the bear the same as a human child would a dog. Sasha named the cub Grrr, as that seemed to be the noise he made most when she was teaching him various tricks.

On Sasha's fourteenth birthday, Meepo and his Half-Orc companion Grot came back from an adventure with a new animal. It was a white dragon about the size of a dog. Again, Sasha seemed to have an intuitive connection with the creature, and her and Grrr (mostly her) set to the task of taming the newest arrival. After inflicting many scrapes, bruises, and extensive cases of frostbite, the little dragon eventually came to accept Sasha and Grrr as companions and the three became friends. To this day, Sasha is convinced Kitty (named that because the only sound the dragon seemed to respond to was kitty-kitty-kitty-kitty) was overcome by a connection with the young kobold derived from their common ancestry. The general consensus of everyone else, including Meepo, was that Kitty was won over by the steady supply of food Sasha fed him. For the young Kobold, life in the dwarven hold had gone from boring and dull to one filled with fun and adventure. Combining Sasha's imagination with Grrr's size and Kitty's natural abilities, the three companions were soon encouraged by everyone to play outside. As time passed, they explored the forest around the mountains, and Sasha found herself most comfortable in the wild, away from the hussle and bussle of the forge.

One day, while trying to teach Kitty to fetch - a task that generally involved Sasha throwing and bringing back the stick while Kitty watched - a Gnome clad in a leather tunic and pants, entered the clearing. Sasha immediately froze. Normally, between her keen senses and Grrr and Kitty's natural abilities, they were able to avoid any travellers in the forest. All her life she had been warned about people and their perceptions, and that she had been cautioned about approaching anyone she saw outside of the forge. For some reason, this person was able to sneak up on the group, though he didn't appear to be sneaking. Odder yet, Grrr didn't growl or seem to be alarmed, and Kitty just flattenned his neck and hissed, the same greeting he generally gave antime he didn't feel threatenned. Noticing the look of panic on the kobolds face, the Gnome held out his hands and said "Don't be alarmed, child. I have been watching you and your friends and I have come to give you an offer."

Suspicious, Sasha stepped between Kitty and Grrr, and responded, "I bet you've come with an offer. You probably have more of your clansmen in the trees as we speak. I'm warning you, you better back off, or I'll call out and you'll have the entire Kundrakhar contingent to deal with." It was a hollow threat for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was no one was close enough to the openning to hear her scream, and Sasha had a hard time sounding the least bit confident.

"I assure you, I come alone." the Gnome chuckled at the young girls bravado. "You are special for your kind. Most Kobolds I have encoutered have been no offense intended, tricky and nasty, little creatures. Yet, hear you are in the company of a bear, trying to teach a dragon to fetch." The Gnome chuckled again, as if at a private joke. "If I hadn't seen you and your group in these woods before, I would be worried that you were up to no good. As it is, however, I have been watching you and I would like to teach you some of what I know about nature and the way of world."

For the rest of that day and many days to come, Sasha and the Gnome would meet in the clearing and he would lecturer the your girl on Nature, Good, Evil, Creatures, and the balance of the universe. Sasha was very suspicious at first and most of their meetings took place with the delegates sitting on opposite sides of the clearing while Grrr and Kitty sun themselves in the middle. Eventually, though, familiarity led to trust, and the Gnome started to teach Sasha how to tap into the energies of the earth to cast spells. The young Kobold felt a purpose for the first time, and she started to think of life beyond the confines of her Dwarven home.

One winter day when the friends were playing inside in Kitty's room, Sasha noticed a large brassy shape in a block of ice against the wall. While Kitty and Grrr wrestled around she dragged the block of ice away from the wall and took the frozen treasure back to her room. Kitty noticed the girl taking part of his horde and was about to let fly with a blast of ice, when Grrr swatted the dragon from behind, causing Kitty to spin and spray his ice along the wall instead of at his intended target. Kitty might have pursued Sasha, but, at that moment, a playful Grrr wanting to wrestle preoccupied him. Besides, Kitty could always steal it again some other time.

Back in her room, Sasha melted the ice off of the treasure and saw that the brassy block was actually an elaborate helm in the shape of a jackal’s head. Black and gold relief work covered the surface to make the artifact look like something out of an ancient tomb. Sasha put the helm on, and was immediately impressed with the fact that it made her half again as tall, after all, being three feet high, she needed all the help she could get, especially around all those tall dwarfs. Reverently, she took off the helm and put it aside, declaring from now on it would be her new hat.

The next day, Sasha and Grrr were playing once again in Kitty's room, when Sasha started thinking how great it would be to go to the far away forests the Gnome told her about. She was envisioning the old forest, when Grrr slid into her from behind sending the two of them sprawling across the floor, that is if they ever hit the floor. As soon as Grrr hit her, lush grass and tall ancient trees instantly replaced the icey walls and floors of Kitty’s room. Unfortunately, Sasha and Grrr didn't have time to admire their new surroundings, because the momentum of the bear sliding into the Kobold had sent the pair down a steep bank into a shallow river. After untangling herself from her furry counterpart, Sasha looked around and thought how remarkably like the Gnome's forest this area was. She also noticed the helm laying half in the stream. Picking it up she saw that the nose of the jackal had been bent in the fall. Instead of looking like a regal ancient headdress, the drooping nose made it look like something out of childs story. Oh well, she shrugged as she placed it on her head, the helm was still as tall as ever, and that was what really mattered.

"Way to go, Grrr. Now what are we going to do?" Sasha looked at the black bear that was looking around and sniffing the air. "I'm pretty sure we aren't at home anymore." She sat and thought a moment. "You know, this might just be the opportunity we were looking for. Here we are, on the other side of the world, with no one around and nothing to do ... I say, let's do some exploring." With a grin and a clap on Grrr's back, Sasha stood up and started up the hill, apparently on the way to some grand adventure, her final thought being that wouldn't it be great if Kitty was here.

 

[Delgar]

WINGSABBI (SHADOWFROLIC):

Wingsabbi of the Daergel clan was a difficult birth. The Cleric had to intercede in the birth, a rare occurrence indeed, violating the private childbirth ceremony. Wingsabbi's mother dealt with the situation with fine Gnomish humor and decided that his birth pet would be the Hedgehog. Perhaps this was a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, as hedgehogs aren't as social as other burrowing animals, Wingsabbi quickly picked up the hedgehog language, and took months longer than others his age to switch to speaking gnomish. That isn't to say that he wasn’t doted upon by his parents, for he was. In fact, much of this doting resulted in the freedom he had as a child. For Wingsabbi had a strong family bond. Nor was he lacking in the feeling of community. What he was was simply a bit apart.

His parents let him run around free earlier than the others his age. This meant that he was familiar with the outdoors when the others started wandering. Wingsabbi took the leadership role and guided the others around, showing them what was safe and what was poisonous. The loss of life was less that year. It was this guiding that led his parents and the rest of the village to call him The Little Ranger. Whether he grew into that name or that name was a prophecy, only Ehlonna would know. But indeed the two became one. Along with the time spent playing with his friends, he spent nearly as much wandering on his own around the nearby countryside. Though he was never really alone, as he had his animal friends to play with.

It was during his school years that he got his nickname of Shadowfrolic. He specialized in pranks based on shadows. Shadows to scare people. Shadows showing couples in compromising positions. Mocking shadows behind someone giving a talk in class. When he turned his attentions towards a young gnome female, Glinttresses, he turned his shadows to the task. After many pranks involving her shadow acting out the passions he wanted her to feel, her body followed suit. Together, their pranks soared to new heights, as Glinttresses was a budding Illusionist. Between his animals and mundane ability with shadows and her magic and illusions, their friends and families were always bewildered about what was real and what wasn't, but in either case, everyone was laughing heartily. Soon after graduation, they got married, to the relief of the village who was hoping some of their energies would go towards children. And that occurred, as they were graced with a baby girl, Scintilla. Life was good.

But it didn't last. Shadowfrolic was on patrol one evening, and saw the shadows of some ogres approaching the village. Maybe it was his happiness or his complacency, but when he thought it was a prank, he decided to prank the pranksters instead of just checking it out. The ogres attacked the village and without his warning, it was more successful than it should have been.

What hit Shadowfrolic hard was that the creatures of the wild didn't warn him. As he wept and prayed, Ehlonna came to him in a vision stating that it was his personal arrogance that overcame his duty. He thought he could outprank the pranksters, and not about what his duty was. He had always been a bit apart, felt he was not above others, but to the side of them, where some rules just didn't apply. That shouldn't have interfered with his sense of duty and protection. Ehlonna set him a penance of leaving the community and his family, to aid and succor others throughout the world, until he's learned humility and can raise his head in honor again. Only by sacrificing his personal ties temporarily, can he be worthy of them for eternity.

That is the story he told the elders when they berated his actions. That is the story he told his wife when she was consoling her sister who lost a husband in the attack. That is the story he told his daughter who was asking where some of her friends were. And with those words on his lips, a pack on his back, he walked out of the village.

 

[Delgar]

Nanita Lostetter

The daughter of an elven nobleman, she is a rather...
bloody.... bard. Her motto is, "Stab First, Sing Later!" She almost
murdered the man her father bethroted her to, when upon meeting her, he claimed that he thought bards were usually a bit more attractive. He lived, but he'd never play the piano again, and he'd have to take a liking to processed foods. She is now out in the world at large, and enjoying life immensely - she has made friends with a number of half-orcs and paladins that share her outlook on life. Nanita has found that her destructive energies are actually Appreciated by communities when she calls herself an adventurer, so she took up the proverbial mercurial greatsword. Or perhaps in her case, not quite so proverbial.

 

[seasong]

Looking forward to it! I'm subscribing now .

 

[Caliber]

Sounds cool. Looking forward to some more. I have to say your players have some of the most interesting backgrounds I've seen in a while ...

Any chance of seeing some of the mechanics, like classes and levels? I always enjoy getting a chance at "looking under the hood" of story hours I enjoy.

 

[Delgar]

I too was impressed with my players creativity. I will definately be posting game mechanicy stuff in the rogues gallery here: Character Sheets, Game Mechanics, etc.

I don't have any of the characters here at work or I would be posting them right now! I'll try and get to it this evening and hopefully sometime this weekend.

Thanks for the kind words I hope I don't disappoint!

Delgar

 

[Delgar]

Just letting you know I've updated the rogues gallery with a stat block for almost all of the characters. You can see them all here Characters

Delgar