While I didn't know what that was until I clicked the link, the surface layers do seem quite similar! Although, the campaign will be going in a different direction from that, I can tell you that everyone will underestimate our gang of elderly people too!
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Leaning against the wall, watching the others rush by him, he grins. "Go ahead, go get that treasure that's laying there. Be more for me after you die."
I have a very elderly witch I'd like to apply with if that's ok...see below:
Name: Illyara nem Qilthinnora ap Laniamirri d'Arilashina (Queen Illya to her friends)
Race: Gathlain
Character Class: Witch (Seducer archetype)
Character Sheet: Linked above
Description/Personality & Why/When I hope are adequately covered above
Character Questions: Brief responses referring to elements in the prose above!
Step 1: Write 5 background and concept elements that you feel are important to your image of the character. These can be a concept overview, a list of important life events, a physical description, a personality profile...whatever you need to get an image in your mind. 5 is just a minimum...more elements are encouraged!
1) She is a deposed queen of a kingdom in the First World
2) She is many millenia old, but slept as a tree for most of that time
3) Her familiar is the incarnation of her previous advisor
4) She is entrancingly beautiful
5) She is new to this world despite her age
Step 2: List at least two goals for the character. At least one of these goals should be one that the character has, while another should be one that you, as a player, want to see developed over the course of the game.
1) Illyana wants to recover her magical powers by any means necessary
2) I would like her to reach higher levels and explore the nature of her relationship with her familiar more
Step 3: List at least two secrets about your character. One is a secret the character knows, one is a secret that involves him but that he is not actually aware of yet. This will help me in creating plots that center around your character.
1) She doesn't know that she was duped into sleeping by a political opponent. Could it have been her own daughter, or even her adviser - who knows?
2)
Step 4: Describe at least three people that are tied to the character. Two of them are friendly to the character, one is hostile. If you like, you can include an enemy of yours here as well, so I have an instant NPC nemesis to throw at you.
1) Lariat, her familiar, was once a mighty wizard. She woke to find him still there and trusts him completely. Should she though?
2) Dorinnia, her oldest daughter now rules her old realm - she's a powerful Fey sorceress who can call on an effectively infinite number of allies and servants. Is she an ally or an enemy? Illyana assumes the former...
3) Belaphon, one her sons was cast out of the First World by Illyana for trying to raise a rebellion. He is a brutal and deadly fighter capable of shapeshifting (he may even have been the originator of the werewolves in the Material Plane)
Step 5: Describe three memories, mannerisms, or quirks that your character has. They don't have to be elaborate, but they should provide some context and flavor.
1) She's a pacifist who will try to avoid directly harming living creatures.
2) She loves the taste of distilled rose petals.
3) She is frightened of cold iron (though she has no DR any more)
Aggie wasn’t always like this, unkempt, unhinged, uncontrollable. Once this sad, lonely woman was the picture of serenity and grace. A Druid of power and poise she adventured with a crew of young and energetic heroes. Traveling the countryside delving dungeons and toppling evil. This group of eclectic personalities became her family as she lived a life only dreamed of in her Grove back home. It was sadly not to last.
It was after the defeat of the Mage-Lord Aargile that reality came crashing down on the dream she had built for herself. After a long adventure suffering through months of unnatural and profane creatures, and unclean city living, the Druid bade her companions good fortune as she retreated back into nature to meditate and reconnect with the calming and nurturing bond she had with nature. After a week of recharging her connecting to life and the natural world she ventured back to civilization to reconnect with her friends for their next journey. What she found instead was ashes and ruin, the death of her party and the end of her innocence. What had happened exactly she never discovered, only reports of battle and magiks gone awry.
Her faith and inner-peace shattered, Aggie retreated deeper into the filth and decay of city life. Living amongst the destitute and undesirable as her Druidic powers shifted and warped with her newfound connections. Eventually the unstable Druid found work as a spy, something the nimble Catfolk took to easily enough. Her abilities and reputation grew as her connection to the decaying world around her let her communicate and control the vermin around her, creating an undetectable and disposable army of informants.
Beware my Crazy Cat-lady Catfolk Druid. She turns her familiar into a swarm of cats.
1) Urban Druid, former adventurer, abandoned nature/adventuring after losing her friends/party. 2) Information broker: Uses her familiar/trained vermin to spy and gather info (though she often forgets about training the vermin and eats them shortly after). 3) Communicates to others through conversations with her familiar (one of the signs of her instability). Cat rarely talks back. 4) Has a weakness for stray cats, collects and cares for any she finds. The names are embarrassing and often hilariously ill-fitting. 5) Although crazy, much of her instability is an act to catch others off guard. 6) Horrible cook, poisonous to most. 7) Yes, Mister Meow can talk. Yes, he’s probably the smartest person in the room. No, he isn’t interested in telling you what weaknesses the monster in front of you has..... Unless you have a treat?
Aggie has long been plagued by the mystery of who murdered her friends all those years ago. While she was away reconnecting with nature, she came back to her gangs usual hideout to see the inn long burned to the ground and her friends remains amongst the ashes and cinders. The hunt for the killer has long eluded her, and the guilt of not being there has fractured her psyche and long severed her bond with nature. Another of Aggie’s goals is a subconscious desire of companionship and family long thought lost after the death of her friends some time ago. Her obsession with strays and mental instabilities stem from her self imposed exile from creating emotional bonds with other sentient beings. My goal for Aggie is to let her grow as the unique and powerful Druid that she is. Her ability to live and thrive in an area other Druids could not make her unusual, but also strangely adaptable.
As an information broker/spy master Aggie has had many secrets fall into her lap, fortunately for her clients Aggie’s attention wanders from matters not concerning her directly so few have been retained. Buried within her madness and eccentricity is one secret she holds on to. A long forgotten Druidic Grove, a place of lost power, cared for by her mentor and destined for her care until she abandoned her duties for the glory and honor promised in a life of adventuring.
A secret unknown to her was that the loss of her companions was perpetrated by one of their own. While she was away, deepwith the woods in meditation, adispute over spoils became heated and the wizard Rangthar killed her friends in a fit of rage, faking his own death to avoid suspicion and using his newfound wealth to set himself up comfortably.
1) Rangthar, Wizard and Killer: Long thought dead with the rest of her adventuring party; Rangthar, now Lord Rothebone, is a powerful mage and influential noble who keeps tabs on his former companion. 2)Mister Meow, General Wiskers, Lord Fuzzy Bottom: Aggie’s long suffering familiar, whose name she never quite remembers. 3) Mr. Black: The secret employer of Aggie, this mysterious individual is the one who contacts her Druid for her clandestine work. No one, not even the inquisitive Catfolk knows exactly who or what this person really is. Whether it is a credit to his own considerable skill or Aggie’s defecit of attention that keeps his identity unknown is anyone’s guess.
1) The laughter of her friends around the campfire, celebrating their latest death-defying adventure.
2) The smell of burnt flesh as she wanders through the ashes of the inn and her friends charred remains.
3) The sound of the small cat, crying in an alleyway not far from the burnt inn, it’s fur singed and paws blistered. The purr of this innocent creature as she nursed it back to health. The feeling of its tongue as he woke her up every morning, even as depression and an all-consuming sadness tried to keep her in bed.
Oh the temptation to make a party cook specialising in improvised weapons (Equipment tricks, specialising in a Mithral waffle iron naturally) is definitely there. Can't go into battle on an empty stomach after all!
Name:Hrumph of the Eye Race: Orc Age: 75 Class: Cleric of Myketa, Community and War Domains. Appearance: Even at his hulking six foot nine, Hrumph, slightly bent with arthritis, seems less hardy than most Orcs. His skin, once a deep green, has faded to a heavily wrinkled mint shade. His orange eyes are still bright and alive, even beneath the streaked black and grey fur over them. Clothing this frail hulk is a fine coat of strange chain mail. Most chain mail is made of small links of a single color, but this coat is interwoven with much larger links in a diamond pattern that are made of alternating rings of silver, gold, and copper, and at the left shoulder, in a diamond pattern, are two rubies, an emerald, and a sapphire, the metals and gems form the base of the coat's enchantment. In the left palm of his gauntlets is welded a silver medallion with the inlay of a black and white longspear.
At his back hangs a small, round, steel shield rimmed in copper, with a device of a sun with a single, large, topaz in the center. At his left hip hangs a simple, dulled scabbard of steel, from which juts a fine black wooden hilt with a brass cross-guard.
When one sees an Orc, there is an immediate, gut, reaction. A "Watch out boys, that thing can kill you" instinct far deeper than most races can understand. But, every once in a while, there is an Orc born of a different stripe. Sometimes they are smaller, faster, than their brethren, but just as dumb and brutish. And sometimes, rarely, they can reach human levels of intelligence or wisdom.
Three hundred years ago, one such Orc was born. Mrrest the Mother was raised like any other Orc, but she never took part in the brutality that many of her age did as they grew. Instead she carefully planned to always be away from these acts of violence. And then, in her twelfth year, she wasn't able to stay away, and her whole life changed.
For two years she had had dreams that she never understood. Dreams of a woman, sitting, waiting, by a fire, and a soft voice that repeated "The day will come when you need me. I will be there." . And it came.
Two of Mrrest's age-mates, hulking brutes already, and already apprenticed to the Clan's Warchief Horath, happened upon a lone human, wandering through the woods near where Mrrest lay on a large tan rock, at the base of a lightning blasted Oak, staring at the sky. His cries as the brutes savaged him reached her ears, and she rose and went to investigate. Finding them beating this poor soul, and not knowing what she did, she grabbed a large stick from the ground, and charged in. In her mind, almost subconsciously, she yelled "I need you!" as her left hand stroked the stick. Unnoticed by her a bit of dirt in her right hand flared dimly for a moment, and vanished.
As she rushed the first Orc and swung her stick she was surprised at how easily her improvised weapon was to wield as it slammed upwards into his jaw, knocking him down in a single blow. She turned on the other, but his shocked surprise at her attack caused him to turn and flee.
That night, as she lay in her bed trying to sort out what had happened, she received a visitor. There was no knock at her door, no sound of an opening window, only the sudden realization that she was not alone. ( I will expand upon this if you approve the basic concept...only one part is important here.)...
As Mrrest realized that she was talking in person to the voice from her dreams, the woman spoke again. "I am Myketa, She Who Waits, and you shall be my high priestess to the Orcs."
Her story can be read in the 1,400 page Magnum Opus "The Lay of Mrrest, the Mother". Of her search throughout all of the lands, through dozens of Clans, for those few Orcs who could think. Of her founding of the town of Community, of her gifting her new Clan with four children, all female.
But this, this is the story of her fifthson, Hrumph of the Eye, Blessed of Myketa, who waited.
It was a quiet, blandly sunny with some few small white clouds high in the sky, Tuesday afternoon when Trazla the Lame lay on her birthing-bed holding her new-born son, wondering at his bright orange eyes, and the small, much darker green than his skin, oval mark on his forehead, directly above his nose. And is was thus that Hrumph of the Eye came to the world of Community.
Born of Trazla the Lame, a dexterous Ranger whose expertise with the paired short-swords earned her the name The Dancer until her final battle with Heshdron the Devil left her right leg crushed beyond full repair, and Frelah the Light, the most powerful Wizard to have graced Community in a full century, Hrumph would learn early in his life that great things were expected of him. And for most of his life it would seem that he failed.
By his twelveth year Hrumph's name was already known throughout the moderate sized town of Community. While he had seemingly not inherited his father's raw intelligence, it was just as obvious that he had indeed attained the deep and abiding Wisdom of his mother, and a strength that was envied even among the older children of the Clan, and his advice was often sought even by the adults of the town. And then came the Festival of Apprenticeship.
In Community, every year on the day of the seventh full moon, the entire Clan gathers and has a Carnival. Games are played, treats are eaten, and much alcohol is imbibed. At the rising of the full moon all of the Clan children of the age of twelve are gathered at the center of town, and the Master's of the town that are seeking apprentices that year chose from the children.
By tradition, as might be thought normal for a town built on the idea of worship of a particular deity, the Elder's of the church of Myketa are allowed to chose their apprentices first. This year it happened that at the last minute only one Priest had put his name in for needing an assistant.
As Gheat the Wise mounted the small wooden dais, he stood, stooped with his many years, and looked out at the crowd. In a powerful voice he called out to the crowd. "By the direction of Myketa, Mistress of Community, I call Hrumph, son of Frelah, to service."
As so began Hrumph's three years as a Acolyte of Myketa, learning all of the secrets of his Mistress. It was in his fourteenth year that he finally realized that the unknown Lady of his dream must be Myketa herself. Even at Community direct communication with their Goddess is rare, and is seen as an omen. When he revealed to Gheat that he had been seeing Myketa for several years Gheat gifted Hrumph with his new name, Hrumph of the Eye.
From his fifteenth year, in which he was officially consecrated as a Cleric of Myketa, to his seventy-fourth, Hrumph's life was, at best, boring. The primary job of a Cleric of Myketa is to keep Community itself running smoothly. Even Orcs of the Mind are still Orcs, and the fighting nature of their Race is difficult for even the smartest to resist. And so the Chosen of Myketa spend many of their hours negotiating problems between the citizens of the town.
For Hrumph his life became frustrating. His calling, the entire town's calling, was to search the world and find more Orcs of the Mind. And yet, every time Hrumph began to think about leaving Community he would have the Dream again. And the word "Wait" would echo though his head until he gave up his ambition to leave.
The Dream Changes
As Hrumph lay on the bed of rushes in the corner of the room he called his own, he never felt himself fall asleep, and yet he thought that he must be asleep as the Dream began.
Always before the Dream began on a plane of darkness, glowing with a faint white light. This time, it began in his own room. As he lay on his bed, he heard his door open. He turned over, forcing his aching bones off of the bed, coming to the ready, as he saw that his Visitor was a mere human woman. A woman dressed in a simple black dress of mourning. He knew somehow that this woman was Myketa Herself, and he realized that the Dream was beginning again. Instinctively, facing one on one his very own Goddess, Hrumph dropped to his knees. Unbidden he heard his voice as he said "My Lady, what do you ask of me?"
The woman stepped up to Hrumph, and placed her hand upon his scarred left cheek, the scar itself a reminder left by his War Instructor on a day when he thought Hrumph was not fighting to his full ability. Gazing into his eyes, almost on a level with hers while he was on his knees, she smiled.
Her lips never moved, and yet Hrumph clearly heard the words in his head. "Hrumph of the Eye, your time of waiting is done. Arise my Champion. The day has come for you to leave Community. Go forth, roam the World. Seek your Destiny. You will gain power such as you do not yet comprehend, and within the year my Purpose for you will become clear. Sally forth, my Chosen, and find for me the one you have been set to find."
Step 1:
1) Hrumph of the Eye is the great, great, grandson of the original Matriarch of the Town of Community, a town dedicated to the god Myketa.
2) Hrumph has experienced prophetic dreams since he was a cub of 9. While he was consecrated as a Cleric of Myketa at 14, she has directed him to remain at Community for most of his life, holding him back for a specific fate.
3) Nine months ago the dreams changed. Prodded by the whims of his Mistress, the waiting ended. It took time to find a group willing to accept a grey-headed Orc as their Healer, but find one he did. For seven months he adventured with a group of younglings who were desperately searching for a priest. His power has been growing. And now Myketa has sent him here, for a Tournament. Is Myketa joking with him? He has grown in power, and yet he is now failing in body.
4) Hrumph has been good to Community. Following the tenet to engender as many Orcs of the mind as possible he has fathered 16 children with 9 different mothers. He has a total of 45 grandchildren, and, as of last count, 27 great grandchildren.
5) Hrumph has had a long, and is his opinion interesting, life, and he has no problem discussing it.
Step 2: Hrumph's goal in life has always been to follow in his fifthmother's steps, and travel the world looking for Orcs of the Mind to bring back to Community.
I'd like to see him meet at least one smart Orc to send home.
Community's goal : in searching the world for Smorcs Community has built a society made of members of every Orc tribe in the world. When Myketa says they are ready they plan to send these smart orcs out to every tribe, and arrange for them to marry into the leading Clan of each Tribe. Given time the plan is to take over every tribe in the world, and end their reigns of terror.
Step 3: Hrumph knows: half a century ago, when Hrumph was still a young Orc, he had a torrid, year long, affair, with a human woman named Serreh Olgasdottir the Barbarian.
Unknown to Hrumph : eight months after the two called the relationship off, she gave birth to twins. Half-Orcs. Her husband, disgusted, left her.
Step 4: Hydgren Steelsmith stands tall for a Dwarf, a towering 5'6". His grandfather traveled with Mrrst the Mother, and when she founded Community he established his own clan just outside the original town limits. Hydgren, now aged 125, became an acolyte of Myketa the same year that Hrumph did. Growing up in the Steelsmith Hillocks in downtown Community, surrounded on all sides by Orcs, he never felt any fear around Hrumph, and the two became life long friends. Eileen Soridial Caravan Master of the Silver River Traders. He was the one who agreed to hire Hrumph as a guard for the journey to (I don't see the name of the city the Tourney is starting in.). Crossing the badlands to the East the Caravan was attacked by Gnolls. Eileen was impressed when Hrumph, alone and with some haste, dispatched four of the Gnolls without taking a single hit himself. He has offered Hrumph an open invitation to travel with him at any time. Troosk Grumahet is an atavism in Community. First son of Hrusk Grumahet the Mage, Troosk was born outside of the Orcs of the Mind. Birthed the same year as Hrumph, Troosk has always been envious of Hrumph's ability to maintain a coherent thought stream for more than a few moments. Troosk has long been a thorn in Hrumph's side, trying from their early years to disgrace the Graced of Myketa, and always failing. In their 75th year Hrumph and Troosk finally achieved an uneasy truce, more from the exhaustion of old age than from any mutual understanding.
Step 5: Describe three memories that your character has. They don't have to be elaborate, but they should provide some context and flavor.
Ayeah, I remember the Rebellion against the Dragon Tyrant, though I was but a cub, far too young to fight. The great Blue terrorized the land for a double hand of years before Hexterix, a group of six adventurer's led by a pair of Warlocks, got together and ended him. We saw the final battle for miles, the great bursts of bright blue lightning, the crimson of detonating fireballs flashing across the night sky. The death of Heldian Holdfast, the Gnomish Paladin, was unmistakable, the massive explosion of divine Light filled the heavens from horizon to horizon, the brilliant actinic silver heralding the end of one of Bahamut's Chosen. We saw as the Blue, beaten and scorched, attempted to escape his fate. Even as his wings rose above the mountain top that had been his Palace a strange black reaching crawled across the sky, grabbed him, and slammed him to the ground, his landing a booming crash that deafened those closest to it for hours. His Deathscream, a mere breath later, as my father, Jhahum, drove Dracolance, his massive Dragonbane Great-sword, through Sky Terror's heart and out of his back, making the crash seem a quiet summer's shower, shattered glass out of windows as far away as Helden on the Veria. Community, in honor of his sacrifice, named that day Heldian's Day, to be celebrated every year with a festival. After three days of Official Mourning we feted Hexterix with a week long celebration, wherein every meal was a feast fit for the greatest King's of the land, where the entertainments would become stories that the children would tell their children for a generation. Henderson's great acrobatic feat of performing ten summer-sets on the edge of the Cliff of Pepper has still never been topped, and Henry "the Horse" Aledian's Illusory Waltz of the Fairies is said to have been one of the most beautiful Plays ever performed.
Even 66 years later, the dream is one of Hrumph's clearest memories. The human woman in Black, and the single, loudly quiet word, "Wait." echoing through the canyons of his mind.
The battle with the Gnolls haunts Hrumph. The battle itself took so little time that even Hrumph was amazed. Myketa herself seemed to guide his every move, his shield deflecting every incoming hit while Headsplitter his Cutlass, seemed to slip into every vulnerable spot in their hide armor. But the three days of soreness in his arms and legs forcibly reminded him that age is not a thing to be taken lightly.
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Things to Remember #1: When attempting to bluff ones way out of an old bar bill, it is not wise to yell Tab?! TAB?!! I have been in this bar before, ye drunken lout!
As the Troll Master Chef was wont to say : There's no Race like Gnome, for the Hollendaise.
Last edited by KarlCullinane; May 28th, 2019 at 02:40 PM.
@KarlCullinane Orcs are actually on the standard list for D20psfrd, so go right ahead!
Yes, but what about the other monstrous orc races that are listed under the Bestiary (think these may be third-party)....some have racial HD. I was tossing around an idea using the Orog race.