Ability raw racial mod
Str - 3d6 = 10 8
Dex - 5d6= 14 14
Con - 4d6 = 18 20
Int - 4d6= 14 14
Wis - 3d6 = 8 8
Cha - 5d6= 17 19

Well, he certainly isn't going to be any good in a fight, though he could probably take a hit or two. Let me know if you're happy with those rolls, I'm happy to roll again if you'd like. Cheers

As for the stats, I was laughing at the first few rolls. They didn't really align with what I was after but I actually enjoy running random characters. I'm just lucky I did ok for the Charisma. That was 2 ones, two sixes and a five. Could've been much worse. However it does present and almost min maxed character and if that's a problem for your game I have rerolled below.

I rolled on IC as well because you're initial spoiler suggested I should reroll. [4,6,3] = (13), [1,6,6,5,4] = (22), [5,3,3,2] = (13), [6,6,1,3] = (16), [2,2,3] = (7), [6,3,2,6,4] = (21). That gives a stat breakdown of
Str = 11, Dex = 17, Con = 13, Int = 15, wis = 7, cha = 18 (this again took the best three dice and I've already added the racial modifiers.) This one has far less extremes but I'm happy to go with whichever ones you prefer. Cheers

Pre Age
15
13
14
9
13
18

Age Ajustment
14
12
13
10
14
19

Racial/Final
16
12
13
10
14
19

As per usual I seem to get lucky on the char gen, wait till I wow you with my epic fail d20 rolls.

I’ve not used this method before, it seems to give good stats … a little too good – have I done it right? Or just rolled well perhaps.

Seems like a no-brainer to put my racial stat bonus on Int, and I probably will, but I’ll hold off for now while I think more about what sort of character I want to play.

Weigh the berries.
Use an equal weight of sugar plus another quarter (i.e. 1lb sloes, use 1 + one quarter lb sugar)

Granulated is fine. If you want to go fancy, buy jam sugar with the added pectin, but these boys don't need much help in that department.

Sterilise jam jars (roughly 4-5 per pound of fruit) by putting them in a 100 degree oven for at least 20 minutes. Leave them there while you're cooking the jam.

Sloes into large pan. Add half a mug of water. Cook til slushy (usually about 10 minutes). Bring to boil so the stones rise. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the stones out. You'll get most of them very easily. Just warn any denture wearers that they might find stones in the finished product.

Add the sugar. Allow sugar to dissolve and bring to boil and then pull back to a simmer. Simmer for no more than 8 minutes. Pot.

I would be very tempted to add some cinnamon or ginger when the sugar goes in, for extra warmth. Around two teaspoons per pound.

It will be quite a soft set, so you'll need to keep it in the fridge once its open. Unopened, you're quite safe for a year or more if you sterilise the jars properly.

My guy is very much searching for his place in the world, trying to find a way to make himself whole – as a part of that though, or an off-shoot, is making himself powerful / important, so that he might finally be accepted by elf and human alike.

He’s felt like an outsider for much of his life, so he would respond well to friendship or good company. He’s probably a little shy and shelterd when it comes to inter-personal relationships.

Str 3d6 5, 2, 3 = 10
Dex 5d6 5, 4, 4, 1, 6 = 15
Con 4d6 5, 4, 6, 1 = 15
Int 5d6 6, 6, 3, 2, 5 = 17
Wis 3d6 2, 6, 2 = 10
Cha 4d6 5, 4, 1, 5 = 14

You'll certainly find him a fast friend though somewhat flighty in terms of his devotion to a task. Easily bored, wants to see the world and tell its story.

Your story would probably interest him a great deal, from what I read of your background so far.

I'm off to watch Watchmen DVD. Will check back in before I head to bed.
Cheers

Lazarus Quint
Lazarus can be first or second level, I’ll let you choose. When you flesh out his background see what suits the gnome.

He can have a trait of your choice as well. Either homemade or from the PF books. Wealth will be the standard for his level plus 300 gold. That money came from the return of the San Frieden pearls to the Marquis.

Information You Would Know – use your bardic abilities and ask questions as the party adventure and I will supply you with the snippets that you would have picked up on your travels. Essentially Lazarus can have been all over the north of the mainland, possibly seen a little of the south too before the war, maybe with his mother or father on their travels. However he has been at least to the main island of the Lochillins, the isles that the Marquis controls.

The Marquis
He was a vibrant warrior with a questioning mind, extremely well read and married to a lovely woman, deeply religious follower of the Dove. They would both be in their late fifties now. They had a pair of fine daughters who both married well onto the mainland into “good” families. They regularly held wonderful fetes for entertainers and artists which their people loved. However the wife, Helena Burnd died of an assassin’s barbed dart, poisoned and killed as she returned from Church. That was four years ago.
The Marquis joined the war and took his soldiers with him. Lazarus has heard of the man’s anger. It is typical of the people of the Lochillin’s where going berserk happens with frightening results. Lazarus will have seen inns where the fight just starts like the click of fingers.
Lazarus hasn’t seen the Marquis since he left but the word is that he returned recently, a broken man, to live out his last few years.

Lochillins
The main isle, Lochillin, has several smaller ones around it and the odd patch of rocks in the sea. Pine forests, lochs and narrow gorges with rivers make the isles tough, tough to eke out an existence on. People generally live in small communities, fishing hunting and gathering. Some herding does go on too.
Mostly human but there are little groups of the other races mentioned, including one or two high elves. But Mothman’s PC will definitely come from the mainland.
As you move closer to civilisation things get a bit softer and the villages tend to grow larger. Lochillin port is the centre for everything. The Marquis’ castle stands proudly on a hill overlooking the large town below.
How you came by the San Freiden pearls, I shall leave to your creativeness but they are highly magical and valuable, and did belong to his last wife until her death. The 300 gold I have given Lazarus is what remains of his thanks. He actually gave Lazarus 500 gold but that was four years ago. What’s left represents money spent wisely….

On Gnomes
As far as your family are concerned, seeing one or two every few years is the sign for a brewfest. The gnomes love to brew and love all manner of alchemy. They would make great apothecaries but only ones that travel. Typically a wandering gnome will hear about another in the area and just decide to look him up. From time to time the wanderlust leaves a gnome and he will find a place to settle and explore, maybe even raise a family if the right pretty nose comes along.

The Letter
Recently Lazarus was working in the north, not far from the coast when a messenger arrived one night. A bedraggled and tired messenger searching for you. He had a letter from the Marquis. He had been sent to find Lazarus about a week ago on an urgent matter.

My Good Lazarus
I need your help again. Since you have been of great service to myself in the past on the matter of the Pearls, I trust I can count on your acquiescence this time too. Either way, let my man servant know your decision. If you are unable to be of service then let him know the name of a suitable replacement please.
My task is simple, I am organising a party of various talents to aid me with a problem on one of my islands. My time away at the war has been arduous and long, the lands have fallen foul and need urgent attention, alas my health is not what it was so I cannot devote my time to this personally.
You would be an ideal person to serve my needs. Your remuneration will be satisfactory and we can discuss this when you arrive in Lochillin Castle.
However I also need the assistance of a mage, and it would be good if you could bring him here on the way I would be grateful. The mage is a protégé of the half-elf Aristor Ganaeus who I believe currently resides in the village of Flamboun near to the town of Chalcy. There is a letter of introduction for Staff Sir Ganaeus that explains everything. Your experience of the open road should help alleviate any problems that the protégé may encounter along the way to me.

Marquis Burnd, Master of the Lochillin Isles, Devoted of Our King Hezeroux

Your wizard can either be first or second level. You decide once you have a feel for the character. The party will mostly vary between those levels but there needs to be some discrepancy because of the way people have written up their PC’s. Wealth will be the maximum that a wizard can have for that level.

Naming, I liked the idea of the high elves having Latin sounding names to show their longevity, but maybe Talfen comes from the other side of his heritage.

Also he gets one trait either drawn from a PF product or made up by you. Wrath and I worked out mine for his game and I’m sure we could do the same again.

The background you gave fitted exactly with what I wanted, a young half-elf wizard, so thanks for that. I would like to slightly change things so that he was raised much further north, nearer the Western isles that the adventure takes place on.

When I said that high elves are aloof and proud, arrogant and isolated I was understating that. My concept for them comes from an Isaac Asimov novel set on Mars where the few people living have homes hundreds of miles from each other. Even married couples only meet once or twice in their lives to procreate. The rest of the time communication takes place via magical holograms. The high elves do not have robots though they employ slaves, kobolds or goblins taken from the woods centuries ago and turned into dumb servants. The question is how do half-elves occur? One way is when a high elf must travel to a college or for a meeting then they do stop at noble castles and the like along the way, if they cannot teleport. These wizards are generally archmages so research can include grabbing the odd maid or noble daughter for a bit of how’s your father along the way. But it would be a cold, clinical thing that the elf barely remembers. The result as you said would be a pariah.

The colleges act as crèche for growing high elves that is where the younger ones spend many years honing their talents until they too can take over a Tower. It is a very regimented system, with a rigid hierarchy of ability. But we are talking about only a couple of hundred elves across a large mainland, however their impact is huge because they seem to control the nobility. The colleges also contain nobles, many do not progress in magic, some do, some just go for knowledge of history, nobility and land management. The ones favoured by the elves generally do better in the future and that includes most of the highest nobility.

Your master, Staff Sir Aristor Ganaeus, is self-taught with a title he made up and a thirst for knowledge. He has overcome many of the barriers the colleges put in his way to become the grumpy old half-real he is today (half-real means half-royal and stands for the way that the high elves regard their blood). In fact, Aristor is a fatherly figure who has taken great pains to give Talfen the best start in life that he can. Recently his cough has worsened and the draughty, run-down, old monastery he lives in has not helped. The Hospitalers of the Dove who run an infirmary in the monastery have tried to help but there is an inevitability about his long fight with illness.

Magically Aristor is close to three schools, Divination, Conjuration and Necromancy. He studies the latter to learn more of the body and has several banned tomes in his possession. But the college inspectors rarely surprise the old codger now, the local villagers of Flamboun protect and warn him of anyone who approaches in thanks for all the good work he has done.

Recently a gnome, Lazarus Quint, arrived with a letter for Aristor. The mage eventually sent for Talfen and introduced him to the gnome. And showed Talfen the letter.

My Old Friend and Advisor in the Arts, Aristor

We have discussed before how old age appears to have robbed us of our youth and we face a cold future. Remember that cold dragon we fought and slew in the dverge mountains all those years ago, and that seems like only yesterday but I doubt I could do it now. And I need to. My isles have been left without me these last few years and that has done them no good.
Lochaude in particular could be the start of a wild fire of rebellion if it is not pruned out sooner rather than later. But my bones are on fire whenever I move, that wasting spell of the War is taking its toll. I am calling in younger blood to deal with this and wonder if you could help? Can I borrow your protégé for a while, until mine is settled in. It would be the education in the real world that you mentioned in your previous missive. It would benefit him greatly and I would secure a laboratory for his needs until they return to Flamboun.
Look I know it could be an uncomfortable trek to my castle so the person who brings this will accompany your assistant to ensure no harm comes to him along the way. He can be trusted.

Marquis Burnd, Master of the Lochillin Isles, Devoted of Our King Hezeroux

Mothman - you need to decide what if anything of this letter that you pass on to the gnome. He has not seen the contents of the letter yet.

I think I will start as a first level wizard, and I’ll probably take the second set of stats I rolled.

How much further would you like me to go in character creation at this stage? Also, would Aristor have taught Talfen as a generalist or a specialist (in one of his preferred schools)? Or is that up to me.

When I said that a few of the characters as written would need to be changed I was mainly thinking about yours. What you and Robert put together was stellar writing and great PCs, almost ideal for the purposes of the start of this game. We need to do a little horse trading to make the perfect fit, I think.

But first off the mundane stuff, the campaign hinges around your character. Enough said. So everyone else is getting the opportunity to be second level or higher but you are the youngster, the noble thrust into a brave new world before he/she is ready. But they will help you. Or at least that is how I intended it before all that lovely writing started.

Armand/Alinuyn will be a first level PC with maximum gold for that level. She gets one trait (there is a pdf on your account which you can download and read for free) that lists many basic traits or you come up with one of your own.

Marquis Burnd
The old Marquis is your grandfather by marriage, his daughter married your father. The war torn angle you created is good but instead of reclaiming your lands now that you are the sole survivor, the Marquis needs you to help him reclaim part of his. The bonus is that it will keep you out of the politics of nobles and high elves on the mainland, allowing things to calm down. The Marquis was a fine warrior and had a loving family, two graceful daughters, but he joined the war in the South when his wife was killed by an assassin. Your grandmother was a very saintly figure so this was a great tragedy.

Nobility
Although young, Alinuyn would have been taught the rudiments of being a noble, the history of the high elf magical support and the way to get the most out of the peasants. Her father probably was a good guy in some respects but somehow or other he became embroiled in a political argument that ended in the destruction of his family and keep. That means we need an adversary or two please.

Recently a letter arrived on your doorstep from the Marquis, asking that you travel to his side because he has something of importance he wishes to discuss with you. Read on;

Dear Alinuyn, My Sweet Grand-Daughter
I was shocked and worried by the news of that foul attack on your family and lands. Such perfidy I have felt before and feel that we should be rely on each other in such times. I know you must be hurting deeply. Deep down I can never forgive nor forget what happened to your dearest grandmother.
Understand that the two events may be connected, the potent Councils move in deadly ways when they decide against a Family such as ours. You are not safe on the mainland. You would be much safer here in the Lochillins. So I pray by your mother’s smile that you come to me.
Know that I am ill and crippled from the War and your support is greatly needed. It would be good to see your graceful enthusiasm for life once more and perhaps I can provide you with a chance to start the fight back against our enemies.

Marquis Burnd, Your Ever-Loving Grandfather

The letter is given to you and not your squire and mentor. It makes no mention of Vincent so it is up to you how much you tell him about this before you travel.
The only thing I could do with is come up with a few personality points which relate to the way she feels about the other races, the religions and the like. If she cares passionately for or against a thing that will help provide entertainment in the future.

With my +2 from being a half-elf (which I am dropping in Con)you come out with:

Str - 15 +2
Dex - 18 +4
Con - 13 +1
Int - 16 +3
Wis - 11 +0
Cha - 14 +2

Favored class is obviously going to be fighter, and since my con is so low I will probably drop the first FC point into my HP instead of a skill. And as for character traits, I'm in the debate...

He is probably third level given his age and accomplishments but it is up to you, he can be either second or third. If he is second we can put him near the top end of that xp. I’ll let you decide. Wealth is the standard for a third level character as per the PF core rules. You get one free trait either made up or from one of the Pathfinder Adventure Paths. Have a look at the pdf that I mentioned to Elora, you can download it for free.

It is easy to see why Vincent is so protective and close to his charge, that is perfect for the adventure to come. Your explanation of the war torn lands that she is escaping from needs to take a few other things into account. First retaking her lands is very much a long term ideal, pbp’s are notoriously slow and I doubt we will ever get to do that on the boards. Her initial adventure centres on her grandfather, the Marquis Burnd and helping him.

However that doesn’t mean we should forget the mainland and her home, I need to understand in a bit more detail how the politics of nobility led to her father being at war with another and how the wood elves fitted in. More of the Who Was Involved. What I need most of all is an adversary, the sort that may come after Alinuyn even as far as the Isles.

As far as Vincent is concerned I’d like you to write up his code of paladinhood, the mantra of behaviour that acts as the fuel for his holy powers. He need not be religious but I’d like to test that code.

Rumours
1) The Marquis is a good guy. A warrior and his islands were once the home to warlike sea raiders and pirates. Since then they have been civilised.
2) The Marquis suffered a bad wound in the War and has been invalided out of the Noble army.
3) His wife was killed by a rogue, possibly in noble employ. She was a lovely woman.
4) The Lochillins have a small reputation for holiness, being one possible site of the holy avenger of a paladin, in fact someone once said that they have produced many such honourable holy warriors over the years, something in the blood. Vincent could have come from Lochillin, the main isle, if you wish.

The Start
Alinuyn has received a letter from the Marquis, as to its contents that is up to her to tell you.

Cheers

This was my original thought: Alinuyn's mom was a wood elf, it was the reason they tried to stay neutral from the war for so long. Her parents met while her father was on a hunting expedition, as was her own group (she was a ranger). The two parties were both hunting the same quary and began to compete over the kill. Imagine, the epic final hunt scene, the young human warrior and the beautiful elven girl racing towards the stag, both knocking their lines at the same time and loosing killing blows to the stag. Looks pretty epic in my head at least :)

I can also very easily see how this does not fit your vision, and if that is the case and it messes with your story too much, then she can be human and I get an extra first level feat... oh darn. And she can most certainly have a trainer who was a wood elf. The land her father held was very fertile, and would have probably been partial to the druids and rangers that helped keep life in balance and the crops good.

I intended on her being skilled with a bow but not having that as her main form of offense (I play a lot of archers and I was leaning toward a dervish/duelist feel but if that doesn't work as well I can always play an archer, I do love them)Also, the knight's code finds all forms of long ranged combat less the honorable, and Vincent would have a problem with it :(

In regards to reconciling the "knight" idea with the duelist idea, I was thinking about knights in the most basic sense in regards to their code of honor. Knights would often enter into one on one combats and duels, as you well know. One of the reasons I enjoyed the knighthood idea was that he/she did not fit into that norm, it is what makes her obviously different, despite her best efforts to hide, and gives all those great rp moments of "your a knight? you certainly don't look like a knight..." But Robert and I are going to look at the duelist PC again, and see if it really works, which it may not, and then I'll just go straight fighter. Wall of text; complete!

So that would make all those dead brothers and sisters half-elves too. What happened to mother?

I only mentioned archery to make you stand out even more and perhaps to help protect you at the back of the party. Wouldn't want my nice shiny new half wood-elf getting all messed up too quickly.

Pick a masterwork weapon by the way. That can be a family heirloom either a weapon of practical nobility or one of wood elf grace. You choose. That is in addition to your characters wealth (after all she is a rich kid).

I've been trying to figure how her uncle found out where she was and this is my thought: Last year she sent a ruby ring which her aunt had given her for winterfest to her uncle, with a note that told him she was alive, and masquerading as a boy, by Vincent's advice, in order to bide her time. Then he has a reason to know why she is pretending to be a boy and where she most likely is. He would search for her with her assumed name, Armand de Seul. (But of course the letter can be written to Alinuyn, she intends on burning it the second she is able if that is the case :) )

I like your solution to finding a way of contacting the Marquis. But perhaps you need to on the run for less time, not sure, otherwise what have you been doing with yourselves becomes something worth considering.

Lastly your strength bonus gives you +2 to damage, not +3.