It gave me the idea that it, the campaign world I thought of, and the goblin world might be interconnected. In this the traveler guy always wore a hat- because his ears were slightly pointed. And the kid had pointed ears too. So I think they may have been half-elves, and the kid had been placed in the care of the nunnery much like the goblin had been placed with the monestary - to be 'civilized', and elves are like pagans I guess, worshiping old nature gods, and these people were worshiping a new god. "Humans worship their human gods, and those savages, who knows what they worship but it can't be good. Probably worship trees and eat babies and such." And i think it's different countries, but the same world as Grigory and Anika - I think it all fits together somehow. G-iven that Grigory and Anika's segment has essentially been about keeping the outsiders -out- for so long, and all of a sudden, guess what? the doors are wiiiiiide open... MIGRATION TIME! yes! hehe I think that Talvanis was one of the early experiments in that, taking kids out of their 'savage' communities and raising them in monestaries And that he either ran away from whatever they were going to apprentice him in, or from the place itself, and has been traveling ever since And the nun who stil needs a name because the dream hasn't given her one, hasn't traveled outside of her little town but is about to hehe becuase you know.. she doesn't want to give up te baby and her man Also i had a thought for who monty meets at some point during his travels - he meets up with a group of girl goblins who are living a sort of outlaw life. even though gobins in my story have a sort of eglatarian society, the humans are very about class structure women have a lower citizenship role and all And considering goblins already count as second class, so the girl goblins they capture instead of being educated by the monestary are given to households as servants, or apprenticed in woman trades like laundress or seamstress goblin women are ... third class. yes hee so these girls ran away from that and formed a little band poaching in the forest Because funny thing: 'civilized' life seems an awful lot like 'slave labor'. and at first they're down on Monty for being a Hob which they consider a dirty word- humanized goblin, pah A hobbled-goblin. yes! hee and goblins aren't cave dwellers in my world they live in forests-- kind of like pygmies hehe and they hunt things with poisoned arrows which lets them take down things bigger than they are so they hunt deer and such and the humans are encroching becuse they're expanding their lands and using the forrests and don't really respect nomadic goblin territory rights so they come into conflict with the 'savages' and they kill the adults and try to civilize the kids so they stop living like savages in valuable forest lands that should belong to king and country Which goes over about as well with the 'savages' as it does throughout most history. yes hee So there's like... two or three main conflicts in the world "I don't understand it. We've been burning their villages, killing their adults and enslaving their children, and they don't seem to listen to reason." There's the russian style lands where there's a big conflict between magic that the leaders have, and the people wanting to overthrow them and move away from the age of magic/superstition as they see it There the 'monsters' have been at bay so long they've become almost mythical Then there's a conflict between the pagan gods of the 'lesser races' (aka: anything not human) and the new god, who believes in human supremacy, and humans ruling as a 'benevolant dictator' over the world Which is happening in the place Talvernis and the nun are from especially And then there's the civilization of the savages which is starting in the country that Monty is from - they're not having any ruling problems there, because the royal family is much loved, and their magic viewed as a blessing So in short, the 'balance' between the two extreme conflicts. yes hehe so the question is.. how to bring all these elements together, and in what format The theoretical 'see, this can work out if we all just take a deep breath here.' Okay. First things first. Is this still going to be a campaign world I'm GMing? Well i think I would like to write the story / do the comic hehe but also yes I would like it to be a campaign world Alright -- from the standpoint of it being a campaign world, are we running campaigns in all three places at once, just as a 'hop between', and just keeping overall world notes in a wiki or something for later use and 'story editing' in a wiki or something? Hm... that could work. Or we could start them out in three separate places, and bring all the people together at the end? hee or well not the end but you know have them moving toward a place where they will all intersect Well, they may or may not come together -- that depends on where they're going. Sometimes getting people to all go in the same direction is problematic - sometimes, it's easy. For now, though, let's just agree that 'they're all in different places -- at least for now -- and we're pretty certain that someday they may be less differently placed?' right hee Okays. Next thing: a bit of world building. Since we've established that they're all in the same world, we're also establishing a few points of note: * Lead items can detract from a person's magical capability. * Lead can penetrate a magical barrier. * In many segments of the world, nonhumans are ostracized, even from the fantasy-traditional 'demihuman' races. yes * At least one major human religion believes that all nonhumans should be either subjugated or exterminated. * As might be expected, any nonhuman with reasonable intelligence knows full well about this range of 'ostracization to slavery to extermination' attitude, and responds accordingly. right Campaign 1: Montague - Monty hails from the country that has decided to not be dicks about this. While some humans are still assholes about it, the majority think that maybe they should just be trying to politely engage the nonhumans as long as the nonhumans aren't trying to be violent to -them-. http://hobworld.livejournal.com/ - I made us a journal to keep things in hee password is raymond1 They may still hold a second class role in society, but this is really more because of a nonofficial status than anything else. There's no royal decree that actually -keeps- nonhumans from doing this, that, or another, if I understand it right, just normal peer pressure. right it's just the way society is stuctured there might even be some establisments that have Humans Only signs like how colored people were segrigated with jim crow laws in the us This is what, in the comic, eventually gives Monty room to succeed, I believe - there's really nothing that says he -can't- aside from personal bigotries. right in his country, they're actually trying to intergrate non-humans so they might be a little more accepting To the resistance of those humans who think canoodling outside your species is a crime against nature. part of that is due to the influence of the abbot - Abbot Goodkind who is really trying to do the best for the goblins in his charge, getting them good apprenticeships and such Which also means that the Abbot himself might be a target in the future. yes! And he's Monty's mentor and you know how that trope goes where your nice kind mentor dieees in some horrible way and then the hero is all rarrr Unfortunately for 'the bad guys', and has to avenge him that trope usually goes 'you killed the nice guy's mentor. then he stops playing nice.' right hehehe We'll go into a bit more detail a bit later, but I'm hopping over to campaign two for a bit -- our dear friends Grigory and Anika, fleeing from the revolution of the people. Well, more accurately, fleeing from the revolution of a group of merchant bankers who want to seize power and don't believe in all that nonsense about royal blood. And from the people they are bossing around by telling them all the bad things that are happening are the fault of the royals and their 'dark magics'. The bad news: They're in a Russian pastiche, which means it's cold as balls, snowy as fuck, and everyone's cranky and miserable. The worse news: Nobody in that country's even so much as met one of the fae folk before, with the possible exception of the royals/nobles themselves, who may have had peaceful dealings with the nonviolent ones. ooh i like the guys siezing power being merchant bankers that gives them a good motivation for wanting to be in power and not just 'for the good of the poeple' like they're telling folks hehe Gotta have money to fund a revolution, which means it'd have to be either nobles themselves - unlikely, given the campaign targeting laser, or the upper class of the non-nobles, wanting the pie for themselves. "We're the new kings! Oh fuck." right hehe Of course they say it's for the good of the people, but really, its' for the good of their treasury. they're like hey we're as rich, or richer than the royal family collectively they're not listening to what WE want so why shouldn't we be running things? ...oh shit "... Bob, do you think we may have made a mistake?" "SHUT UP AND GET SOMEONE TO LOAD THE CANNONS!" They may even be trying to find her to get her to come back and -fix- things at this point haha look... we'll ahhh... we'll work with you you can be part of our new government! Which, given that last week they were trying to find her to KILL her... no. just... put these back And she's like ...um.. you killed my family... uh NO The good news: she's got an old-fashioned Hessian ass-kicking horseback riding bad-ass motherfucker on -her- side. yes! (Anika) Grigory <3 Their starting campaign arc is going to be looking for her (cousin, was it?) in a particularly inhospitable stretch of land, to see if she's survived thus far and to try to etch out some help from that front. yep Meanwhile, the -violent- nonhumans are starting to realize that they're free to enter. woo! free for alllll Yeah you got to figure in russia-like they have the BIG baddies And, of course, are doing so, with the sort of vengeance that one harbors after being told to sit in the corner for a few hundred years. trolls and ogres and all those huge nasty not so bright but full of violent races Trolls, of course, being the classic regenerative types. maybe even giants The types that shooting does -not- stop permanently. yes hehe Which will take a very long time to figure out. Say, four or five villages' worth of time. And that country is isolated by icy frozen heckdom, so news about it will take a while to reach other portions of the campaign world. Speaking of which, we move on to campaign number three: Talvanis and the Lavender Girl. She so needs a name hee Also, Nun on the Run, or "Does This Hat Make My Ears Too Big?" lol! Want a random one? sure hee How about this old English one? Avis - sanctuary in battle. I like that! Avis it is, then. Is it A-vis, or Ah-vis? In my head it sounds like Ah-vis, but use whichever you think sounds best, I'd say. Ahvis sounds good hee So, Avis is pregnant by a (half-elf?) named Talvanis, and wants to follow him on his journey rather than remain a nun and give up the child. yes hee She believes the child will carry the reincarnated spirit of the drowned boy as well as the spirit it's supposed to, which sounds like one nasty case of split personality disorder. And who knows how long she'll be pregnant because elves might take a long time to pop one out lol Like elephants live longer than humans, and they're pregnant almost two years Right. Though technically he's a half-elf, so your mileage may vary, hee. right heheh and I imagine she has some clerical type powers so she would be a healer Anyhow, her god apparently isn't nearly as down on the elvenkind as some of her fellow parishioners, (damn kids), yes hee - her baby may be a sign that the god everyone thinks is rahhh humans only is actually accepting of other races and the baby may be some sort of hope for the future and she may have taken such as a sign, yes, if she believes the baby's reincarnated (which is in said god's domain.) After all, why would the god reincarnate something it hates? right! But her god feels badly for the boy who was killed by his follwers so is making him reborn And so all of this has basically added up to her decision that she should accompany Talvanis on his travels -- despite that he may be a little creeped out by her god's ceremonies. right he's like... I suppose a very Joseph figure in all this like ... hey my woman's knocked up... and it might partly be some mystical thing... Of course, the bemusing part would be if said god regularly reincarnates people by impregnating one of the mourners, and ... that's a little creepy... but... and is usually a little quirked when they usually just give the baby away after. yes! that's true this could have happened before and it's like... hey aren't you reading these signs? wtf followers After all, they know how to recognize the 'glowing while rapturing' thing. "Oh hey you're pregnant!" They just seem to assume that it's "oh hey you got pregnant by a traveler". tsk tsk which you know.. they're not celebate per say.... Which can get double awkward if you never actually -did-... they're just... tsk that's not really what you _should_ be spending your time doing But it's much easier to give up the kid than to ask questions. and you certainly can't raise a baby wile serving yoru god-- give that up yes [God] ... [God] I need some angels or something. [God] I'm the god of journeys and rebirth. I think someone missed a memo. hehee Hee, of course, if they're all monotheism, then not so much in the 'domain' department, but that group seems to cater to those groups specifically, so... yes so that may be his areas also hehe maybe not all the rest of the travelers stuck around - oh shit I impregnated a nun, i'm outta here so Tal may be unusual that way too Though seeing as they drowned the last kid who was different, he might be feeling a bit wary anyhow. yes so it's a good idea for them to get out of there After all, those kids have parents who are just as... er... friendly. So. We have motivation for them to be moving 'away from the starting gate'. That brings me back to campaign 1: What is Monty's motivation to move out from where he's started? Well here's his story as I have it figure out overall He was captured as a young gobling and raised in Montrose Abby by Abbot Goodkind he was a very good student, and took well to civilization - so they apprentized him to the knighthood. A knight called Sir Alfonse was friends with Abbot Goodkind, so he agreed to let Monty in and let him squire etc Monty at first gets all the shit jobs that they think a hob could handle- like driving snails out of the garden, mucking up the stables, etc but then something happens Sir Alfonse is sent to slay a dragon, who lives in the caverns on the other side of the forest and he Never Returns (dum dum dummmm) so they're like oh fuck who are we going to send? Sir A was our best knight etc so they're like well let's send the hob- he's expendable, and his kind come from the forest anyhow so he may be able to get through it if the forest is what killed Sir A so they send him out and in the forest he meets the band of girl gobs who are like no they didn't see Sir A and no they didn't accost him and they want monty to join them - but he sticks to his mission and goes to the cave and there he finds the dragon has choked on Sir A while eating im so both dragon and knight are dead and there's an egg so he takes the egg and he's rolling it back through the forest for home when it hatches and he names the dragon Parsnip and that's his dragon when he gets back home he's like -- well Sir A is dead and the dragon is dead- he's telling this to Sir Charmingham and Charmingham takes it as Monty killed the dragon so he rushes off to tell the king without any more info and everyone's all oh wow a hob killed a dragon and there's all this celebration and a bit of warriness too because the king had said whoever kills the dragon gets to marry the princess and she can't possibly marry a hob Hence why he needs to get sent on a quest posthaste? Something more-impossibler? then Monty tells them the truth, and tells the princess she should want more out of life than to marry anyone just because they killed something anyhow Hee. and the king is very grateful and Monty is made a full knight for having told the truth and not just marrying the princess And anyhow-- then Abbot Goodkind is killed and Monty wants to set off in search of his killer and Sir Reginald Charmingham goes with him-- becuase they're getting be buds as does parsnip the dragon. And then-- surprise-- they're joined by the princess who escaped the castle dressed like a boy and she's all like I'm going with you! and Charmingham is all No!! And she's all I order you as knights of my kingdom to allow me to come and they're like 'crap!' And then they go back through the forest, and they meet up with the girl gobs again and the girl goblins send someone along with the group - because they're worried that because it looks like it was a Goblin Attack that killed Goodkind, there'll be war between humans and goblins and they'll be caught in the middle but it wasn't really a goblin attack that got him- it was someone who didn't agree with his policies of making goblins part of society who wants to isnight the war Incite, hee. anyhow that's how they wind up going off on their quest oh yes and there's four of them-- a goblin girl monty likes, Charmingham and the Princess (whose name is Valoria) and parsnip the dragon who is big enough for monty to ride now and Milicent, Charmingham's horse hehe Okay -- so where Campaign 1 is, is with the fearsome foursome gathered together - Monty the Hob Knight and his young dragon Parsnip, Princess Valoria, Sir Charmingham and Milicent, and the Goblin Archer. right! And they're trying to discover who or what is trying to make it look like goblins caused goodkind's death and why they want to start this war Question. yes? This is sort of rewinding the clock here... but goblins are prone to using poisoned arrows. So chances are, whoever killed the abbot used a poisoned arrow to do the work, to try to pin it on the gobbos. But here's the rub. What if they actually used a crossbow to fire it - and goblins are -not- crossbow users. the idea being that nobody was supposed to see the shot, and just to find the dead body. but someone -did- see the shot, hence why they have any idea. or something to that effect, that something's rotten with the setup. ooh I like that idea The fact that someone used a crossbow to fire an arrow would stand out as weird on its own, and as a deliberate attempt to mask the type of assassination; they're not really meant to fire 'archery' arrows. It means someone put serious effort into trying to pin this on the goblins. And if the witness involved is reasonably unimpeachable, then you have to take it at face value that something seriously rotten is going on. So you start trying to figure out things, like 'well, where was the poison made', 'are these actually goblin arrows'. Maybe the princess saw it? Right. Also would explain why -she- wants in on the act. (And why the king's gonna have a heart attack in a bit.) hee So, short of knowing a good alchemist, the next question would be 'well, where's the arrow come from?' The goblin girls would be a logical place to check for 'goblin manufacture'. The nearby town of Rotheford may be a next destination. And so forth. woot so that gets them on the quest road Gestalt Classes: Base Save Column A: No armor B: light armor C: light/medium armor D: light/medium/heavy armor Defense Bonus from Armor: Level A B C D 1st +2 +3 +4 +6 2nd +2 +3 +4 +6 3rd +3 +4 +5 +7 4th +3 +4 +5 +7 5th +3 +4 +5 +7 6th +4 +5 +6 +8 7th +4 +5 +6 +8 8th +4 +5 +6 +8 etc. Monsters without Classes: No armor proficiency +0 Light +1 Medium +2 Heavy +4 Armor as DR: Creature Natural Armor provides DR 1/- per +5 AC Armor provides DR 1/- per +2 AC Subtract new DR from AC bonus. Shields still work as normal. Avis 2nd level Cleric / Wizard Gestalt Str 13 Int 13 Wis 17 Dex 14 Con 11 Cha 12 BAB +1 Fort +3 Ref +0 Will +3 Languages Known: Elven Cleric: 0nd x 5, 1st x 3+1 Domains: Travel, Sanctuary The Travel domain lets you act normally for one round per cleric level you possess as if you were under a freedom of movement spell, regardless of magical effects that may be fucking with your ability to move. Its first level domain spell is Longstrider, which increases your speed. Survival is a class skill. Protection domain: You can generate a Protective Ward as a supernatural ability. Grant someone you touch a resist bonus equal to your cleric level on their next saving throw. Activating this power is a standard action. Duration 1 hour, usable once per day. First level domain spell: Sanctuary. Born in a warm climate aboard a ship, travelled with her father as a child before settling in as a nun. Her family is wealthy (merchant sailors) and conducts trade over a large area of the world (which may be useful for future tie-ins.) They are highly combat-capable as a family; most members of the family are familiar with at least one weapon, if not more. The family name is beyond reproach, even though they are ethically fairly neutral. Her family has no specific religious commitment, and while the family name is known as beyond reproach for business, but individuals are judged on their own merits. They are a supportive part of the political system, but open to suggestions for change - for example, they might be willing to listen to the 'goblins aren't all bad' thing. Her family is controlled by the eldest members (probably the oldest male members, given the rest of society.) Gavin Dimitrio originally discovered the alchemical ingredients for a new type of medicinal tea and attempted to market them. Unfortunately for him, rivals soon caught on and drove him out of the market he created outright, financially ruining him in the process. His son, Alec Dimitrio eventually went on to found the Dimitrio shipping line. Less well known, but still of great importance - one of Avis's ancestors, Jaclyn Dimitrio, was believed to have forged the magic item responsible for maintaining the barriers in the Coldlands; her descendent's power will be needed to reawaken it now that it has fallen dormant. Avis picked up on the language of the elven people during her travels as a young child, and when she was old enough, she was sent to finishing school to study her manners and etiquette, so as to know how 'proper women' behave. However, interestingly, during her time at finishing school, she was approached by an arcanist who informed her parents that she had a special gift that should be cultivated within the church - a natural talent with magic. She trained under the arcanist for several years before joining the church proper. Avis was born under a strange astronomical sign; sailors watching the skies that night must have wondered whether the gods were trying to tell them something or merely to play tricks with their navigation. In her teenage years, she found herself growing interested in politics - speaking out against what she saw as abuses of authority. (This may not have helped her chances of avoiding the nunnery.) Her isolation has been broken, however, as large groups of travelers have come to visit her home community, bringing friction with the residents and stirring up her life just as it looked like it might become one of quiet contemplation... Avis has an identical twin brother named Avin that she hasn't seen since finishing school; her mother and maternal grandparents are dead, but her father and paternal grandparents are both still alive, and there are nine other extended relatives that she is aware of. Avis has a number of companions and associates at the nunnery, though nobody extremely close; however, while most of the sisters are friendly and compassionate, sister Jaya is a nasty troublemaker and rival of Avis's who has never measured up to their teacher's approval and who takes every opportunity to chastise the other sisters for perceived indiscretions. Sono Bartholomew was Avis's teacher, and has taught her well in the arts of magic and holy orders; she has a Holy Book of Orders in which to transcribe her prayers and spells, and knows how to convert the lesser magics of others into the words of her god (metamagic feat: Consecrate Spell.) She's also not yet accessed the second level cleric spells (or wizard spells, not that she's really been trained that there's much of a difference, beyond that cleric spells are a gift based on your devotion in prayer, and wizard spells are a gift based on your devotion in study.) HP: 12 Cleric Skill Points: 20 Wizard Skill Points: 20 0-level Cleric: Create Water, Cure Minor Wounds, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Guidance, Light, Mending, Purify Food and Drink, Read Magic. 1st Level Cleric: Bless, Comprehend Languages, Cure Light Wounds, Deathwatch, Detect Evil, Detect Good, Detect Undead, Divine Favor, Endure Elements, Hide from Undead, Magic Stone, Protection from Evil, Remove Fear, Sanctuary, Shield of Faith. 0-level Wizard: Detect Magic, Dancing Lights, Ray of Frost, Disrupt Undead, Mage Hand, Open/Close, Arcane Mark, Message. 1st level Wizard: Alarm, Hold Portal, Shield, Grease, Feather Fall, Sleep. Quarterstaff Leather armor Hooded lantern and oil Traveler's outfits, 2 Lavender cleric's vestments Ceremonial dagger Flint and steel Tent Backpack Canteen Blanket Healing herbs Bandages Soap Signet ring with family crest Sealing wax Journal Rope Loose paper for letters Quill and ink Travel writing desk Donkey Hair combs, 2 Ribbons, 4 ----------------- Talvanis 2nd Level Ranger/Thief Immune to sleep, +2 save vs enchantment Can see twice as far in poor lighting +1 to Listen, Spot, Search +2 to Diplomacy, Gather Info Str 12 Dex 16 Wis 15 Int 15 Con 11 Cha 16 Talvanis's elven people were always nomadic by nature, travelling from destination to destination with no real destination in mind, merely living life by experiences and learning all that they could of the world. However, his birth originally came about when this trip was interrupted by an attempt to integrate them into human society, specifically into one of the rugged hilly villages on the edge of the kingdom. Apparently at one point or another, Talvanis's elven mother grew close to a gentleman, and out of that relationship, Talvanis was eventually born. The community that Talvanis's people had attached to was a monastic community that lived in quiet contemplation, and that went hand in hand with the state of mind of his nomadic forebears. His father was one of the people in the community whose work supported the monastery, and made a modest living as a vintner. However, when it was found out that he had fathered a child by an elf, he was arrested, and the child was taken as well. This... caused a slight problem. You see, monks... are very well trained combatants. And the elves weren't so shabby either. (Outstanding military readiness...) Things got ugly very quickly. To the monks, and to the community who knew what had transpired, the elves, the vintner, and the child were in the right... and the vintner was known well as a goodly man, and the elves had proven themselves in helping the community. But the king thought differently. More to the point, he thought the elves had corrupted the town and its people, and that the whole mess needed to be cleaned up, quietly and quickly, before it could spread and get out of hand. The monks worshipped no one true god, and the elves? They worshipped whatever nonsense it was they worshipped. They needed to be removed, and the issue needed to be settled, and anyone who was complaining about it needed to be silenced. Faced with the pressure, some members of the community turned on the poor vintner -- they felt badly for him, but they weren't about to stand up for him against the king, after all. And it was his fault for dallying with those forest creatures, anyhow... The vintner's family had always been a supporter of the king, and those who heard of the matter didn't question it - if the king said he needed to be arrested, he needed to be arrested. Nothing to it. The elves were forced to leave the area -- they didn't want the people they'd befriended to come to harm because of them, and foresaw that only bloodshed would result of resisting. They left in the night, leaving the community saddened and an empty field in their wake, with only a message to the grandmaster in their wake. Nobody really knows much about Talvanis's ancestry beyond that story, especially not Talvanis himself; his human family certainly never sought him out, and his elven family never knew where to look. So it was that a young child landed in the midst of the 'rehabilitation' program for 'nonhumans', to train them as servants for the castle. When Talvanis was very young, he had shown a great interest in the outdoors; meditation within the monastery walls never appealed to him nearly as much as climbing up the walls, and he learned quickly many basics of survival in the wild that some peasants still struggle with. When he was put into 'rehabilitation', he was ordered to learn religious philosophy and religious texts from the 'true god', as reasons why impure things like him should serve. He's more than a bit resentful about that. The walls of the castle were stifling, confining, nearly maddening in their isolation. He gradually managed to find one of the few positions that would at least let him touch nature again, and started offering to work in the gardens to assist the healers. He absolutely refuses to talk about what happened the day he was arrested, but it still unsettles him very, very deeply. He also refuses to talk about what he did that allowed him to escape the castle, or why he's been on the move ever since, just in case anyone's looking for him; he managed to make a sleeping poison using his access to the castle gardens, and put it in the guards' food to give him an opportunity to escape. He was still just a teenager then, and he wasn't really certain that he used enough to put people to sleep and not, say, seriously hurt or kill them, and that's been quietly bothering him for a very long time. He's essentially a refugee at this point, with no family to speak of -- he has no idea how to contact his mother, his father may be dead in jail, and either way he hasn't seen them in over fifteen years. As such, he's a troubled sort who's been relying on himself and trying to find a place to be. He's staying clear of the town where he was born, though he doesn't really acknowledge it, because of the memories and because of the man who lived there who was responsible for destroying his life and that of his family. Most of what he knows now is at the hands of none-too-gentle instructors at the castle, or his own trial-and-error learnings, and either way, he bears the scars of his mistakes. Ranger Skills: 40 Favored Enemy: Human Feats: Track, Rapid Shot [light/no armor] Combat Style: Archery Fort: +3, Ref: +3, Will: +0 Thief Skills: 50 Evasion Sneak Attack +d6 Trapfinding Anika Str 10 Con 11 Dex 14 Cha 16 Int 16 Wis 13 We already know it's cold as balls, but let's toss a d100 to get an idea of the general terrain in their neigborhood. !d100 -=[ Name: L | Roll(1d100): 94 | Total: 94 ]=- The area closest to their castle is tangled pines; the sort of things that make a direct overland march difficult for traditional armies, and also make it difficult to pursue someone who doesn't want to be found. The castle area was a large city - between 12,000 and 25,000 inhabitants. What do they have to fear from the woods? What indeed... As the royal family, they were obviously considered wealthy nobility. But how well equipped were her bloodline to handle things themselves? Gimme a d100. !d100 Nope. In short, the family relied almost exclusively on their magic, and on the services of the military. This may have been a bad idea. oh dear that explains why she's no fighter hehe Perhaps fortunately, Grigory is a very loyal member of the Aegis Knights, those who shield the royals, and who will fight to the death to protect her. (And is a goddamn beeftank.) (Anika) Grigory <3 hee, aww. Anyhow, so what was the royal family like? Let's have a couple of d100s, it's ethics time. hey were genuinely good people, and their public image matched their private outlook. They were, after all, -keeping the goddamn monsters out-, but also were trying to help people in many other ways. Goddamn merchant bankers. Does your family have a religious commitment? Let's see... d100 time. As it is, at the very least, they probably didn't deserve to get bushwhacked. aw poor people !d100 -=[ Name: L | Roll(1d100): 43 | Total: 43 ]=- Your family has been worshipping a patron deity for years but may not observe religious commitments consistently. hee so they're like most people they're not super religious but they believed in something Right. They're not all psycho about it. Well, weren't, anyhow. Let's hear a bit more about the family... give me three d100s. The family is generally treated as individuals without regard for the family name - nobody is known as truly horrible, and everyone's more or less known as good people, even the ones that live way out there. The founder of the kingdom was one of a band of adventurers who first drove the great evils from the kingdom, and banished them from the lands. ooh neat so that's how the monsters got kicked out of the kingdom hee It is said that their leader became the first king of Ikalia, and his lady became the first queen; and that they were responsible for making the devices that the nobles were supposed to keep up every so often in order to keep the monsters out. (The part about keeping the magic only within the royal line came a few generations later.) Anika would know that there are specific rituals that are supposed to be performed every year to keep things running smoothly, and may have been taught the ritual at some point -- but her parents were still responsible for actually carrying it out for the time being. Problem is, nobody believes that those silly ceremonies the nobles perform every year are anything but fancy parties. Guess what they chose to use as the timing for their hostile takeover. And guess why things immediately went to hell because the ceremony got screwed up and the devices just plain got shut -off-. You received basic book learning when you were young, and a natural affinity for the magical arts, to the surprise of no one. You were interested in political philosophy growing up, trying to understand diplomatic relations with the expectation that someday you might be taking on the mantle of queen, and continued to study the wizardly arts to prepare for your solemn duties in keeping monsters and evil at bay and protecting your kingdom from threats. When danger did come, then, and came not from that which was evil but that which was misguided, you were unprepared... ooh ... but perhaps fortunately, not unguarded. During your teenage years, your magical capabilities flourished - you were already wielding basic magics that others required years of study to master. Your parents were proud of you, and made certain to take time to teach you what they could as they had time to, and let you read the books of magic they kept away from the common folk, always under their watchful eye, until they knew you used the power responsibly. Unfortunately, when the revolution came, you were not cloistered in your palace, safe behind stone walls and with this magical library at your fingertips; you were at the town square, in public, with your parents and the rest of your family, watching as the king and queen performed the same ritual they had every year for prosperity and good fortune in the next year. And that's when the strange noises started. Guns. Some people had never heard them before, and looked around, confused, or expecting to see fireworks like they had at earlier celebrations, but the revolutionaries came charging, with guns and swords and torches, and attacked the crowd at the moment when the king and queen were most exposed. eep And then you saw nothing else of what was happening, not even what happened next, because a massive wall of iron and horseflesh blocked the way, and Grigory was there, scooping you up before you had time to react, and riding off into the night. The King and Queen have Aegis Knights too -- perhaps they fulfilled their duty, or perhaps they died that night with those they swore to protect. and woot all done my world history reading But the country is going to hell, and for now at least, you are a refugee. As far as you know, you still have grandparents alive on your mother's side, and your father's mother is still alive as well, though they are retired and live far from the capital these days. Your extended family was also very large; you can easily count off eighteen relatives you could talk to for help, if they aren't all dead. Some were living in the castle with you; your mother's brother and his wife and their two children. On the other hand, your father's relatives are all over the place. Your day-to-day instructor, for the record, was a minor nobleman - he didn't really have much claim to territory, but he was part of the family, and had basically taken up teaching so as to make himself more useful and less expendable - by the name of Tevo; he was honestly very nervous about the whole thing. I mean, she's -the princess-. And extremely attractive. And waaaay out of his ballpark. So he's trying to be as professional as possible, and his student is a very attractive, very well-behaved, very studious girl who can have him executed. And yes, he probably -did- have a bit of a crush on her given her intelligence and charm. But he's about 58th in line for consideration for intermarriage, or thereabouts. So he kept his distance and did as best he could and managed to make it until revolution day without panicking. Wizard: 5/3 0level wizard Bard: 3/1 Zero-Level: Dancing Lights [bard], Detect Magic [bard], Flare [bard], Ghost Sound [bard], Know Direction [bard], Light [bard], Mage Hand [bard], Mending [bard], Message [bard], Open/Close [bard], Read Magic [bard], Acid Splash, Ray of Frost, Touch of Fatigue, Arcane Mark, Disrupt Undead. 1st-Level: Alarm [bard], Animate Rope [bard], Cause Fear [bard], Charm Person [bard], Comprehend Languages [bard], Cure Light Wounds [bard ONLY], Detect Secret Doors [bard], Disguise Self [bard], Expeditious Retreat [bard], Feather Fall [bard], Grease [bard], Hypnotism [bard], Identify [bard], Magic Mouth [bard], Sleep [bard], Tasha's Hideous Laughter [bard], Endure Elements, Hold Portal, Magic Missle, Burning Hands, Shocking Grasp. Equipment: Warm Furs Traveler's winter clothes Family ring Jewelry (100 gp) Canteen Backpack Blanket Pillow Tent Bedroll Mandolin