Hours wrote:I think I'll go for Rinkaiel, do I just jump in or do I ask for a hook to it all?
The way you did it is just fine. One complication in Rinkaiel is that the main action centers (for the moment, not necessarily in the long run) around the Gewehr -- and as you will recall, the Gewehr and Ensigerum are most definitely not on good terms, at least in the Poe-verse. Some of the non-Gewehr characters (notably Jamie) also have issues with the Ensigerum. This may make certain of the interactions ... tense, at least once the characters start to figure each other out.
Let's assume that some of the characters know each other as pirates, mercenaries, etc., and go from there, in anticipation of the action moving back to Tsuiraku-town. Until it does, there may be some challenges ...
Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.
Name: Mouse
Age: 16
Occupation: Sharpshooter and Sneak
Nationality: Northerner
Basic Appearance:
Mouse has a very slight, almost stunted build. Standing only about 4'9". She has short, straight black hair and brown eyes. Her body is lean and wirey, and covered in numerous small scars.
Equipment:
Bolt Action Rifle
Pocketful of rifle cartridges
Hatchet, usually hooked to her belt
Knife concealed in right boot
Monocle
Plus other miscellaneous bits of gear, canteens, handkerchief, goggles, that sort of thing
Typical Attire:
Mouse is usually seen wearing khaki shorts, a short-sleeved canvas blouse, heavy wool socks and thick leather workboots. In colder climes, she'll also be seen wearing a greatcoat, ushanka and mittens.
Personality:
Despite being unable to speak, Mouse maintains an very upbeat and girlish attitude about most things, particularily her job as a sharpshooter. Infact, she seems to be at her most unnervingly cheerful while she's lining up a shot, or creeping up on an unsuspecting target. She is also very loyal to her current caretaker, William Gault.
Appearance:
Ouro wears fine white bandages over the left side of his face, hiding his left ear, his left arm, and his stomach. He is missing his right ear and ring finger on his right hand. He has deep blue eyes and red hair. His clothes usually cover as much as the bandaging as possible, including a black glove over his left hand. He is of medium build, and 5'8", small by elven standards.
Equipment:
A long knife hidden in a sheath strapped to his left arm
A fife with an extendable blade
A fiddle
A scottish bow with a small blade that extends from the end
A small sword on his belt
A leather belt
A large backpack
Personality:
Ouro is distrustful, cautious, and paranoid. He will always analyze a situation before jumping into it. He thinks first, acts later. Ouro has a acute sense of justice. He usually exudes a calm or jovial exterior, no matter his true emotions, however, his exterior will occasionally break if he thinks he is alone, or if his emotions are strong enough that he can't control them.
History:
Ouro was born a normal elf before the errant war. He loved the world and nature, and would often wander for months, out of contact of other elves. He eventually encountered a tribe of trolls living in the mountains in the North. He was fascinated by them. He returned to watch how they worked again and again, taking notes each time. This changed when a group of elves attacked the tribe when he was about 100, and Ouro intervened. He attempted to stop the elves from killing the trolls, as he had come to respect them. In the ensuing battle, Ouro and the tribe killed three elves, and managed to cover the escape of half of the tribe, but the defenders where eventually defeated. For his "crimes" Ouro was exiled,and any elf that saw him was to kill him on sight. In order to show he was an exile, they cut off his right ear.
After leaving the elves, he once again found the trolls he saved, who welcomed him back as a sort of hero, and for the next 400ish years he lived with the trolls. While living with the trolls, he became on of them. He learned their language and customs, engaged in their rituals, and worshiped their gods. When no one was looking, they snuck south out of what is now the Northern Confederacy into what is now Veracia. Years past, and the Errant War came upon the elves. Soon after it started, the tribe got sucked into it, on the side of the errants. This proved disastrous for the tribe, as the elves came down upon it, hard. In one fatal battle, the entire tribe was wiped out, except Ouro. Ouro was hit with a four fire blasts, seven lightning bolts, and an out of control energy draining spell. This combined attack blasted him into the ocean, and currents brought him to Farrel, where his unconscious body got caught upon a nail, and brought up the channel bisecting Farrel. At some point along the way, his body washed up upon the shore, where it was picked up by a wild dog, and carried a couple of miles inland, where he was found by a farmer, who shot the dog as it entered the small town he lived outside, Tantara.
The townspeople tended to his wounds, and built a small house for him in the outskirts of town. When he awoke he had no memories, but they returned slowly over the course of the next year. The townspeople called him Thunderstruck because of his damage, and when he regained his memories, he called himself Ouroboros, abandoning his old name. In the town, he made a new life, and learned to play the fife and fiddle. He became the towns musician, and historian. After a couple of years, his strength began to return, but his magic never did. He perpetrated many rumors about himself to account for his longevity, contributing it to from what caused his wounds to a sorceress he helped years before his memory loss, to a healthy diet.
One day, two cloaked strangers came into town, and bought rooms in the inn. That night, Ouro awoke to the entire town burning. In the outskirts he saw the two strangers standing outside. Before he was able to catch up to the strangers, the teleported away. He vowed revenge. In the next town he went to, he modified his fife and bow, and got his knife and sword. Ever since, he has been hunting the two strangers, and honing his fighting skills.
Abilities:
He has great knowledge on magical theory, despite not being able to use magic. He is fluent in the elven, troll, and human languages. He is moderately skilled in hand to hand combat, but makes up for his lack of skill by being sneaky. He is a master at the fife and fiddle.
Last edited by deathpigeon on June 15th, 2010, 9:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
This basically works, I think, although a few changes in the backstory might bring it into slightly better agreement with the Poe-verse canon (which we try to follow as well as we can in Errant Road). A 50-year-old elf is still a kid, if we understand it correctly, and it seems unlikely that a "kid" would wander off and live with the trolls. That's easy enough to fix with an age tweak, of course. 5'8" isn't just "short" for an elf, it's incredibly tiny. Of course, that may be attributable to the deprivations of his youth. The biggest problem I see with the backstory has to do with how the trolls got wiped out and Ouro got "orphaned" again. That seems essential to his nature, but it is not at all clear that there were trolls anywhere near elven territory when the Errant War broke out. Some later tweak may be necessary on this one, but it should be possible to recon something that still works for playing the character.
It looks like you've already put him in play, and well enough; there's nothing about this guy that should produce anything incompatible with the game. I get the impression that he and the other two newcomers may not interact much with the ongoing "plot" of the Farrel threads, but there's no reason why they have to. Go for it!
Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.
I imagine Ouro to have been like a teenager when he left, so he feels to be more of a troll then an elf, but I changed it to 100 so he is more mature, but not yet an adult. In addition, the troll tribe he was with wasn't near elves, just in the south for better resources, and tried to avoid areas elves travelled. Their involvement in the Errant War was mostly hiding wounded, until their tribe was attacked, and wiped out.
Hey errant story board. The name's jack, i'm a long time fan of poe's work and all things rpg. Been looking for a board to knock some creative rust off and put something together on. I'm just reading the earlier posts and getting up to date with the stories going on here. Dunno if you guys are looking for new players or not. But I’m posting up (and probably editing about twenty times over) a profile for your consideration:
Appearance: 5”8, dark red hair, green eyes, angular face, has a thin scar which runs down from her right eye
Typical Equipment
A customised scimitar with a long thin, slightly curved blade
Half a dozen throwing knives
Revolver with two dozen bullets
Basic Blacksmith/Gunsmith tools (prongs, hammers, cleaning oils, tongs, etc)
Hunting knife
Warpaint
+ other travel equipment related to the circumstances
Attire
Canvas type clothing
Leather longcoat
Leather sling for sword (hangs off her hip)
Boots
History: An unremarkable upbringing by the standards of the downtrodden populace of Solshire (a small village a few days travel from Port Lorrel). Jade was a middle child in a household of two parents and three brothers which, of course, meant she spent a sizeable chunk of her free time being mercilessly picked on by her male siblings. After a testosterone dominated childhood it was little surprise when the young tomboy followed her father into his blacksmith trade and even less of a surprise when she exhibited a natural aptitude for the job. Under his tutelage her understanding of the craft grew and began to rival her fathers. The pair often worked side by side as suppliers for local military forces and did the occasional commission from Ferrel's standing army. Jade spent a fair amount of her free time training and providing support for Solshire’s privately owned and funded military (which was a twenty strong 'unit' that included her brothers and was led by a retired Ferrel officer called Lato)
This relatively idyllic existence didn’t last. The rising taxes in the region had driven many of the populace to bankruptcy and unemployment, and as a result groups of bandits began to form in the surrounding countryside and launch raids on the increasingly terrified populace. Eventually those smaller bands unified under the banner of the strongest leader, a monster of a man named Theodore Reks, and made a concentrated push to strip the border towns of Port Lorrel dry. It was the summer of Jade’s 23rd year when the hundred strong mob arrived in Solshire with swords, guns and burning torches. The fighting was short, one sided and brutal. The town militia was butchered, the store houses were looted and the residences burned to the ground. Jade was one of the few survivors, left wounded and weeping with only the corpses of her family for company.
With no home to go to and no family left Jade took to wandering. She crossed the country searching for the chance to change her circumstances, taking odd jobs and putting the skills she’d learnt to use whenever she could. With a need for revenge burning in her heart she eventually fell into bad company, lawless mercenaries who were all too happy to take a lost and pretty girl under their wing. Jade continued her education, learning the dirtiest ways of fighting and the quickest ways of turning a profit in a corrupted society. It was only years later when she found herself holding up an old man at gunpoint that Jade realised she’d become no different from the people who’d taken her old life away from her. Shamed, she finally found the strength to leave her immoral employer and strike out on a new journey. This time seeking repentance.
Personality:
Jade's traumatic past has left her with a slightly stony demeanour. She is prone to bouts of silence or replying with gestures more than words. Her criminal roots have left her with a vicious streak that runs deep, particularly in any situation that calls for violence. Not one to put with unnecessary bullshit and somewhat of a heavy drinker. Despite all this nowadays she forces herself to pursue honourable courses of action. Sometimes she shows a flash of the more playful, optimistic person she used to be but for the most part she maintains a pretty chilly front.
As a side-note, Jade is also fond of putting streaks of black warpaint across her face prior to getting into a battle (if she has the time that is); an old trick she kept from her bandit days to put fear into her opponents.
Abilities
An accomplished sword fighter, particularly when using her customised sword which she’s developed a rapid, whirling style that takes advantage of the thinness and general shape of the blade. A talented blacksmith which a knack for bringing the potential out of most conventional weapons (although it helps for her to have a working forge and proper equipment to take advantage of that). A decent shot with a firearm. About as magic as a brick.
Edit: Changed her town of origin to outside Ferrel.
Last edited by Jack Rothwell on June 22nd, 2010, 7:07 am, edited 4 times in total.
First of all, welcome! And new players are always OK. Any idea yet which thread you'd like to join? You might want to read the "Thread Summaries" article in the wiki to get a sense of the history of the things. (Note that the "Airship Pirates" thread doesn't have any "history" yet, as it's still in Chapter 1.)
Some touch-up for the backstory will be needed. Saus, second largest city in Veracia and the country's window on the world (such as it is...), would certainly never have a "private army" of its own. Veracia is a fairly "unified" country, with essentially the whole place under the thumb of the Veracian Church and no known outliers except the Ensigerum village. (Some of the action in Errant Road has suggested that things along the northern border, with the Northern Confederacy, are at least slightly more rough-and-tumble, but only slightly; still no mercenary bands roaming the countryside, Luminosita would surely smite them. Wouldn't he?) There also are no such things as "border towns of Saus"; Saus is a city, not a country, and it's quite a fair distance from any "border," being a seaport at the end of a long, probably unnatural channel more or less in the middle of the west coast of Veracia. (See map.) If you really wanted her to be from around Saus, or otherwise Veracian, some modifications would be required.
OTOH, she basically fits straight into Farrel just as she is. The whole concept you've laid out is entirely consistent with the anarchist/libertarian way Farrel works, and if for "Saus" you substitute either "Port Lorrel" or "Ysabel," you have someone who's practically ready to go already.
The character concept is otherwise fine, although you'd probably have to do some thinking about just why she'd want to come into contact with any of the existing characters. It's not a problem in the "Airship Pirates" thread, which was written in such a way as to make it trivial to introduce newcomers. Unfortunately, that thread is pretty stagnant right now. For the Farrel threads (currently Tsuiraku-town, part 2), there's not a huge problem; Rinkaiel, the city with a Tsuiraku-town district, is a typically chaotic Farrelian place, and mercenaries seem to come and go there. Alas, many have found it difficult to get integrated with what's happening, although several interesting newcomers have just appeared with backgrounds similar to Jade's. The Veracian threads are generally the most difficult to integrate with, because the characters there have been together for a long time and have highly developed reasons for (1) being together and (2) doing what they're doing. However, the description of Jade as having green eyes offers some ... interesting opportunities to write a "hook" into what's happening right now, if you can fix the backstory to reflect Saus as it actually is. If that's your preferred option, drop me a private message ASAP and I'll help -- I'm going to be intermittent for the next couple of weeks, so do it as soon as you can.
Anyway, welcome, and it'll be good to have you! Love the "T. Reks" reference...
Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.
Lol, T. Reks was actually unintended, i only just got that looking back at the backstory. Probably my subconscious chipping something in.
I'll make her from from Ferrel then. It's a hell of a lot easier than adjusting the back story. I'm re-reading errant story ATM anyway to try and remember where is where and what is what. As far as intrigrating jade into the story is concerned i'll have sit down and think about the most appropriate way. ATM, i was thinking of her just coming off a job of some kind that puts her in the charecters area, maybe even stumbling across them at some critical moment and getting dragged into a situation (you gotta reach into the plot hole of the universe sometimes, right?) or even being drunk and surly in a bar somewhere and nearly getting into a fight with one of them (although joining up with them would be trickier afterwards).
Also new here ^^; I'm still working on a character, but and right now it's a toss up between a scholar mage-school drop out, and a narcoleptic blue golem >_> leaning towards blue golem, but I wanted to make sure it's okay to actually make one before I get beyond character skeletons. I'd have asked sooner, but been on vacation without access to the computer where I started typing up the notes for a while now... soooooo yeah. anyway, any suggestions for which I should go for? or just post up a cleaned up version of what I got on both first and see what seems more acceptable?
Name: Ghaz, Best at Lovemaking Age: 38 Occupation: Wanderer Nationality: Ghob
Basic Appearance:
Ghaz is several inches shy of four and a half feet tall, with grayish-green skin and a very broad, trianguar head, sporting large but somewhat ragged ears, scarred and with several small slices missing. The ghob's wide mouth holds a frightening array of multitudinous chisel-like teeth. Despite this diminutive stature, Ghaz is powerfully built, with broad shoulders and arms bulging with wiry muscle terminating in strong four-fingered hands with hefty blunt digging claws.
Equipment:
Heavily tinted sun-goggles
High-caliber revolver
Detachable shoulder-stock and barrel extender to convert revolver into a carbine
Pocketful of cartridges
Cutlass
Short staff/Cudgel
Long knife
Pack with traveling supplies and other necessities
Handful of coins
Typical Attire:
Ghaz wears plain cloth trousers and a sleeveless pale-green canvas shirt, and occasionally a large, battered overcoat that trails to his knees. Sometimes the ghob will wear a set of boots, but doesn't particularly need them due to an extremely thick-skinned and tough pair of feet. In sunlight Ghaz is never seen without a distinctive pair of opaque goggles, which allow the ghob to withstand the brightness of daylight; in dark areas, Ghaz will remove the goggles, revealing a pair of bright red eyes.
Personality:
Ghaz is laid back often to the point of seeming detached, seldom displaying particularly strong emotion, and tends to be somewhat taciturn. However the Ghob does seem to have something of a soft spot for Mouse, and women in general. Despite what ought to be a rather off-putting appearance, Ghaz, while not overly friendly, does generally give the impression of approachability, mostly due to a calm nature. Ghaz is content to drift by in life, going wherever there might be something interesting to get involved in, with no particular goals other than finding excitement and enjoying the company of as many different types and races of women as possible.
History: Ghaz's beginnings were marked by discontent and wanderlust. The ghob was the kind who always wanted to explore the next cavern, the next vein, always moving to new things and always moving beyond boundaries. Even when The Rest said not to, said to stay within what was established and best for the group. Ghaz moved around, became something of a delinquent and renegade, entertaining the Ghob ladies and steadily generating more and more friction between Ghaz and The Rest.
Things came to a head upon the chance arrival of a human adventurer to the Ghob caverns, a Tsuirakuan woman. The group made it very clear that her presence was unwelcome, but Graz was entranced by her beauty and personally made her welcome... very welcome, indeed. Outraged at this blatant and licentious defiance, the community ordered Graz into exile, and for once the hedonistic Ghob was more than happy to comply, relishing the chance to explore the wider world, see and do new and interesting things, and perhaps meet more delightful creatures such as the Tsuirakuan adventurer. Ghaz reached the surface world some few weeks later, and, having already heard of the burning light in the sky, prepared an altered, dark-lensed set of workman's goggles for the occasion.
Ever since, Ghaz has wandered the land, jumping into danger and unrest in the name of excitement, wooing maidens while passing through. This naturally landed Ghaz in quite a number of fights, messes, and scrapes, and the Ghob rapidly picked up the skills and weapons to not only survive, but thrive in such situations. Ghaz rarely stayed in any one place for long, but has made one lasting association- a rewardingly exciting acquaintance with the indomitable Captain Gault and his adorable ward Mouse, serving as Gault's second for many years save for occasional on-and-off periods of wandering. However more and more the Ghob has come to stay longer and more frequently with Gault, realizing a certain lasting value in the company, and enthused at the opportunity for travel operating out of a vessel entails. After the latest period of solo adventure, Graz is on the way back to Gault and company, and surprisingly enough, realizes that every time this feels more and more like coming home.
Last edited by Rainman on July 22nd, 2010, 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
