Migrating to Bloodgargler's game gave me the chance to switch to Marisol (I played a cleric previously), which has been a great ride so far! :D
I appreciate the added history. I have started skimming through the original game. I imagine I will figure out where things went sour. :)
If you are reading Tuyena's game, it shouldn't take long to figure out why we all left it.
Yeah, I figured it out once I made it up to page one.
Greetings, Nico! Glad to have you with us.
I was not in that game for very long myself. More towards the tail end, as a regrettably terrible character. Looking back, there were a few other fairly decent players that bowed out of that campaign for various reasons - here's to hoping that they've had more positive gaming experiences since then.
Hi everyone! Nico's build has been approved and you can see the stats on my profile page.
I have also submitted his background to our illustrious GM for review. Though this hasn't received approval yet, I wanted to share now since it's been a couple of days since I agreed to join and didn't want to leave people hanging. This should give you the general tone for Nico as a character, even if some details end up changing.
I am open to ideas for hooking him in to the story, and have left his recent history blank for that reason.
Nico's birth name was Nicoli Arvina-Medvyed.
Originally, they lived near the Gronzi Forest. Then his father inherited an estate in New Stetven from his father, but years of mismanagement and poor financial decisions led to an accelerating decline.
Nico tried to help his dad, but was rebuked for it.
Nico left home to get away from the conflict there, and enrolled in an academy of magic. He was inspired by his early years living near the forest.
His mom saw where things were headed and started squirreling away money for herself. Eventually, she left his father once she had enough money of her own to live on.
When the financial collapse came, and the family name ruined, Nico changed his last name to his mother's maiden name and moved to Restov to start anew.
Nico Tegustus grew up as Nicoli Arvina-Medvyed. He spent the first seven years of his life with his parents, Aemilia and Quaris, living near the Gronzi Forest.
His family was connected to the Noble House of Medvyed by marriage through his great-grandmother. But as House Surtova rose under the rule of King Noleski, House Medvyed found itself in decline and nowhere was that felt more than the distant relations with a passing connection to the nobility. Nicolai's grandfather, Ruti, was an exception: politically savvy, extremely wise--some might even say shrewd--and generally well liked, he was relevant if not influential even in New Stetven. He maintained his estate there, and when he died, that estate passed on to Nicoli's father.
Quaris moved his family to New Stetven when Nicoli was eight years old. He inheriteed the manor home, a modest amount of gold and liquid assets, and a steady income form property and investments. For Nicoli, Ruti had left a trust fund, sizeable enough to ensure a proper education in a cosmopolitan (for Brevoy) city.
Unfortunately for the family, Quaris had neither his father's business acumen, nor his financial discipline, and over the next several years the coffers drained at an increasing rate. At first it was simply a matter of spending more money than was coming in, but it was Quaris's ill-fated efforts to fix their finances that accelerated the pace. Attempting to solve the problem on the wrong end--increasing their income--Quaris turned to investment opportunities and schemes, nearly every one of which failed due to bad judgement or mismanagement. As Nicoli grew older, he began to notice the things which a young child does not: the staff slowly shrinking in size, items wearing out or breaking without being repaired, the grounds becoming increasingly rough as caretakers were dismissed, and so on. By the time he was thirteen, the house looked shabby and he could see more clearly the differences between his own standard of living and those of his friends. He still knew that he lived better than the vast majority of the people in Brevoy, but he could tell that this would not last.
And then there were the fights. His mom and dad were having more of them, and had stopped any attempts to hide the conflicts from their son. At one point, his father had even accused his mother of stealing from him, a thought that Nicoli found absurd because for one, the root of their problems lay in his father's mismanagement not some conspiracy involving his mother for gods' sakes, and two, they were married and by law had joint assets so what his father suggested was nonsensical, even if it were true.
As the situation grew more dire, Nicoli saw his father's interventions as increasingly dire and desperate. At one point, Nicoli--who had inherited his grandfather's head for numbers--tried to steer his father away from obvously bad investments and outright scams but magical thinking and self-denial proved an impenetrable barrier. Those homes located in a flood plain? "They haven't flooded in years. It was a one-time event, caused by storm debris. It won't happen again." This was not how flood plains worked. Investing in crop futures without knowing anything about agriculture? "I lived in the forest all my life. I know the old ways, and the ways of the land." A farm was not a forest.
His dad was irritated by these criticisms from his adolescent son, and finally snapped. "If you're so smart, why aren't you fixing this!? Either contribute, or shut the Hell up!" And that was the problem, really. Nicoli didn't have any solutions. He knew nothing about finding business opportunities, investments, or making deals. He wasn't a negotiator or a businessman. He only knew bad opportunities when he saw them. And his dad had a nose for them.
Fortunately, Nicoli was nearly an adult and all-too-happy to move out of a home increasingly bathed in conflict and desperation. The trust would pay for continued schooling and living expenses, so he found an apartment of his own and enrolled in an academy of magic, inspired by the Forest where he lived as a young boy.
During his last month of school, his mother came to visit and said, simply, "I am leaving your father. I hope you understand." The only thing Nicoli didn't understand was what had taken her so long. But when he asked, "Will you be OK? Financially?" he found out why.
His mother had seen the writing on the walls years ago, long before Nicoli was old enough to understand. Unwilling to spend her life in poverty, Aemilia started skimming money from the family accounts and placing it in her own, personal, savings. It was easy enough to do this and keep it hidden from her husband: his bookkeeping was so chaotic that nothing balanced, anyway. A few hundred gold here and there never even registered. She had finally built up enough to live out her days comfortably, not extravagantly, and that was that.
As happy as he was for his mom at finally getting out, Nicoli was disillusioned by the years of deception. His dad, he realized, had been right, and his mom had lied to him by denying it when accused. Nicoli couldn't really blame his mom for what she had done--she deserved better than what the last decade had given her--but it left him feeling hollow. People were complicated. Life was complicated. And he didn't really understand any of it.
When his father's financial collapse finally came, Nicoli changed his last name to his mother's maiden name--Tegustus--and moved to Restov. In less than 20 years, the accomplishments of his grandfather had been completely undone, and the family name was not even worth the ink used to write it. The only way for his life to move forward was to start anew.
Assume he is on good terms with his mother and still speaks or writes to her on occasion, but he has not seen his father since leaving New Stetvon.
He's not secretive about all this, but he won't necessarily say that he was tangentially connected to one of the noble houses. At least, not until some trust has built up.
Welcome! Marisol is also from a noble family, though she was a discredited bastard. With your knowledge (nobility) you may have heard of her as "The Widow of New Stetven" who was rumored to be a vampire, an immortal, or a black widow, depending on which rumors you heard - but that was supposedly something like a hundred years ago!
Oooohhh. Interesting. He's probably heard a rumor or old story here and there, but it may take him a while to put things together. I might make a die roll or two when the time is right.
As others have said, Welcome!
The Ducheski family is are minor and new nobles that had recently purchased their noble status in Brevoy with the funds generated by the family patriarchs business dealings...kind of the opposite of what Nico had experienced.
If you wanted to add a bit of roleplaying conflict to the situation, Vladimir's father, Anton, is a ruthless business man and very well could have been one of those Nico's father had made one of those bad deals with.
Just a thought, but not necessary unless it is something you would like to pursue.
I am not a fan of major intra-party conflict. The game is more fun for me when everyone generally gets along. But, I don't mind there being a connection between our fathers, either. My only request is that it be my father that was responsible for the failing. Maybe he pulled out too early and lost money because he didn't listen to your father's advice to ride it out. Or, maybe he stayed in too long. Or, maybe he made an offer that was well over market value because he didn't understand what he was getting into. Lots of possibilities there.
FYI. I have a not-so-routine surgery tomorrow (it's not a critical health issue, it's just a somewhat involved procedure for a lingering problem that this will hopefully be the end of) so I will most likely be AWOL Monday and part of Tuesday.
I am not a fan of major intra-party conflict. The game is more fun for me when everyone generally gets along. But, I don't mind there being a connection between our fathers, either. My only request is that it be my father that was responsible for the failing. Maybe he pulled out too early and lost money because he didn't listen to your father's advice to ride it out. Or, maybe he stayed in too long. Or, maybe he made an offer that was well over market value because he didn't understand what he was getting into. Lots of possibilities there.
It was just a thought. I wasn't shooting for any major conflict, just something that might have gotten the two off on the wrong foot so to speak. There can any sort of connection that you like (including none at all).
Good luck with the surgery tomorrow. Here's to hoping for a speedy recovery.
Good luck with your procedure! See you soon!
I hope that goes well for you! Best of luck!
And as far as our characters go, I doubt that there's anything to really hook their pasts together. Unless Balter and company robbed Nico blind in the past, but that is pretty much the definition of intra-party conflict. :P
Sorry if the overt flirting is tiresome!
Hardly. At this point I consider it a running theme.
Marisol craves affection, probably something about having been an outcast growing up :)
Durielle casts wall of text!
Oh goodness now I have to cast flashback to the previous scene!
Hmm? This should bring Durielle current.
The second knock, knock should be Balter. Durielle just assumes it's Marisol. :P
Ahhh! I see now!
Balter casts crossdress!
You'd look fabulous in my evening gown!
Also, I'm rather obliquely implying our party gains Nico because of Durielle not answering Marisol. Since you had already determined Durielle hadn't answered her, and the subsequent conversation with Vlad led to us remaining at the Trading Post an extra day...it seemed fitting to make that a future vision. :P
That works out great. I figured that you were busy and that's why you hadn't answered when Marisol came to knock and wake up Durielle in the morning, but I wanted to keep some momentum on our scenes, so I just kept moving forward from night before to morning next day to the day's activities. There will be plenty of chances for us to interact I'm sure!
Sorry if I, uh, closed the door on a scene you wanted to run!
Lol, no worries. I had planned to respond to Marisol's knock, but this worked out just fine.
Edit: Why don't you guys roll like this in all our fights??
Because ultimately these rolls don't mean anything and the dice generator knows it ;)
Heading to work, but I should have a post up shortishly. In theory, anyway.
I am back home.
Glad to see you made it through! :D
Welcome back. Good to hear you are back home.
Here's to hoping the remainder of your recovery is painless and as quick as possible.
OK. I am lucid enough now that I am ready to enter the game. GM, fire away.
Nico's hook/motivation is that he crossed paths with Hrafen, and learned that you all might be in need of a spell caster. He had never really set out to rebuild his family's legacy (or rather, his grandfather's), but...he's a follower of Alseta, and sees this as being given a sign. An opportunity has opened up that may just do that, and he might not ever have another chance. So he's going to take it.
Allow me to add to the congratulations on your hopefully successful procedure. I hope your recovery is easy and not too uncomfortable. :)
Glad to see you with us! Hopefully our DM will be able to catch up and rope you in shortly (and we haven't scared him off with our wall of in-character text and shenanigans!).
I kind of feel like a creepy lurker reading this stuff.
I sent a PM for the go-ahead.
We can get back to adventuring any time ;)
How's that for sad? We're less creepy when we're killing stuff.
Well I am kinda Morticia Addams.
Enter, stage left.
And so it begins!
...who's watching the front gate, I wonder?
The group isn't at the Stag Fort at the moment, Oleg's is a palisade-fortified trading post not far from the border with Brevoy.
Missed it by that much! :D
Nico, I assume DM BG started you off with 4th level wealth?
Assuming that's the case, and DM BG is alright with it, I'm going to liquidate the items that were not claimed or kept and split the proceeds four ways so that we can start fresh with our new group.
A four way split would yield 1,403 gp 4 sp and 3 cp each.
No objections!
A thoroughly official welcome to Nico. Glad to have you with us now. :)
No objection to the treasure split!
Yes.. welcome Nico!
Okay! Consider the unclaimed items liquidated. 1,403 gp 4 sp and 3 cp each to Vladimir, Marisol, Balter, and Durielle.
Thanks, everyone!
Yes, Vlad, I started with Level 4 wealth,
To answer everyone's earlier question, yes, the procedure went well. I am very sore, in a bit of pain, and not very mobile at the moment. But that's all to be expected and shouldn't last more than another day or so.
Sorry about the lack of posts. Been in bed sick with... something for the past two days. And maybe tomorrow too, if I don't get hooked up with some penicillin.
Seems to be a lot of that going around. Hope you feel better soon.