'Dash' Ursool's page

Bardic Knowledge +1 (Ex) Add +1 to all knowledge skill checks.
Bardic Performance (standard action, 7 rounds/day) Your performances can create magical effects.
> Lingering Performance Bardic Performances last 2 rds after you stop concentrating.

Draconic Heritage (Ex) Ignore Cha pre-reqs of Eldritch heritage chain of feats.
> Darkvision (10 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
> Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in dim light, distinguishing color and detail.

Family Ties Not fulfilling family requests: -2 penalty on all Wis and Cha based ability & skill checks (DC 20 Will negates).
Psychometabolic (Stage 1, ML 1, Progression DC 16)
> Telepathy (20 feet) (Su) Communicate telepathically if the target has a language.

1. What is your character’s name?
‘Dash’ Ursool. Dash is kind of a stage name. Sounds good for a bard, right? Kinda ‘dashing’.

2. How old is your character?
A long 20 years.

3. What would somebody see at first glance (i.e. height, weight, skin color, eye color, hair color, physique, race, and visible equipment)?
I stand 5’ 9” and weigh in at about 165lbs – pretty average for a human. Like most folks I’m on the skinny side. Brown hair and eyes, not much really to notice there. I’ve got a bit of red to my skin – ‘salt-seasoned not salt-crusted’ as my aunt says. Oh, and my gittern is strung over my shoulder.

4. What additional attributes would be noticed upon meeting the character (i.e. Speech, mannerisms)?
I’m pretty well-spoken, as you might expect, given what I do. Some people say I’ve got magnetism, too.

5. Where was your character born? Where were you raised? By who?
Born on the Low Docks, and proud of it. Raised by my parents.

6. Who are your parents? Are they alive? What do they do for a living?
They’re gone. Few people live their full span on the Docks. They were fishers and dock workers, hauling lines, that sort of thing… but they made sure I never had to do that. They worked to the bone so I could do something better. Finest folk there ever were.

7. Do you have any other family or friends?
Aunt Meg is tough as shoe leather and still living on the Low Docks. I visit her as much as I can… bring her food, medicine, money, whatever she needs. I’ve been trying to get permission to bring her up to the Cliff Terraces to live with me, but it’s a rough trail. Even at the end of the world, there’s always some snooty a!&@*%@ who believes some people are better than others.

8. What is your character’s marital status? Kids?
Never married, no kids. Even if I was married… I don’t think I’d want to bring a kid into this.

9. What is your character’s alignment?
Neutral good.

10. What is your character’s moral code?
Use whatever skills you got to do the most good for the most people.

11. Does your character have goals?
Live another day. Die peacefully in bed. Don’t get eaten by an undead.

12. Is your character religious?
Are you joking? Who’s got that kind of coin? Listen, the gods abandoned us first. I think turnabout is fair play. They are either dead or may as well be for all the good they are doing.

13. What are your character’s personal beliefs?
“Live fast. Die young. Leave a good-looking corpse.” Just kidding, someone else said that. He probably lived til he was 90. No, my belief is we only have each other in this world. So, I try to encourage people, keep them going, help them out… and in turn maybe we can stave off the darkness and death just a little bit longer.

14. Does your character have any personality quirks (i.e. anti-social, arrogant, optimistic, paranoid)?
Not sure it’s a quirk but I’m personable… like as much as I can be.

15. Why does your character adventure?
I’m not sure that I do ‘adventure’. I’ve got skills that are periodically useful… so I use them. Mostly, I help out the Flame Keepers. But sometimes I chip in with the Tidewatch. I’ve even tagged along with the Last Dawn a time or two. Like I said – useful skills.

16. How does your character view his/her role as an adventurer?
We’re all bailing water out of a sinking boat here – that’s all I’m doing.

17. Does your character have any distinguishing marks (birth-marks, scars, deformities)?
I did a little dock work and I grew up down there… bloodtide is a dye that don’t wear off. So, I’ve got some traces of red to my skin.

18. How does your character get along with others?
Mostly good! Being a bard, I distract from people’s woes… so I do alright. I make the rounds – from the Cliff Terraces to the Low Docks. From Watchridge to the Ash Farms. Most people welcome a distraction whether they like me personally or not.

19. Is there anything that your character hates?
The world, as it stands.

20. Is there anything that your character fears?
I worry about Aunt Meg. I’m afraid something terrible is gonna happen on the Low Docks and she’s gonna die suffering. And I’m gonna have to live with that.

When asked about himself, Dash always says he’s ‘salt-seasoned and flame-kissed’… which kind of makes him sound edible and delicious. Given the prevalence of hunger, it’s probably a bad expectation to set. In this case, Dash is just acknowledging a couple points of pride – that he grew up on the Low Docks and now works with the Flame Seekers delving into the darkness below the bastion.

Dash’s journey from dockrat to the middle class was not entirely his own doing. His parents (along with some other Lowdockers who wanted to see one of their own get OUT of the docks) invested in educating the promising boy from his early days. To their (and his) credit he was able to largely wash off his saltcrusted exterior and become an acknowledged member of the merchant class. That said, Dash has never forgotten his roots and still weaves tales, odes, and songs in all but the loftiest section of the stronghold. Every person and every area (below High Ember) contribute to the survival of the populace and is of value. The least he can do is provide a little entertainment to those that want it.

Those are the highlights. Now, we need to talk about… It.

‘Ruin Runs’ with the Flame Keepers can be dangerous. And the further down you go, the higher the risk. On one such run, Dash’s crew went too deep or wasn’t careful enough. The undead came out of every crack and crevice – shadows, ghouls, all manner of horrors. The Flame Keepers broke and ran, scattering like mice before undead cats. The hope was that most of them would make it to one of their rally points where the crew could re-group.

Hanging at the back of the team, Dash was one of the lucky ones. He didn’t draw the attention of the worst of the undead when they had other victims closer at hand. So, he ran and dodged and tried to lose any undead that may have been chasing him. But, to be honest, he didn’t look back to see if he was being followed. In his panic to escape a horrible death, he managed to get lost. Rather than get himself even more lost, he found a good hiding spot and hunkered down. It was a simple plan. Hide and wait until the undead left. If any of the crew survived, they’d regroup and come looking for the lost sheep. If they were all dead, he’d wait as long as he could stand it, and then try to find his way to a known area and then up top.

His thinking was right. A couple of his mates did survive. And one of them saw him run and thought it possible he was still alive. And they did come searching. And they did find him alive. The only problem was… It found him first.

What’s it like when another mind insinuates itself into yours? What’s it like when a mind is so alien that there is no common ground on which to build an understanding? Where what you think is akin to ‘satisfaction’ feels like a horrid mix of lust and despair? Where its senses and world are nothing like yours to give context to what it is forcing you to see? Where taste and touch are somehow one sense? Where emotions are perceived only as patterns of vibration? Where sight (if it is that at all) is a fragmented jangle of discordant sounds? And what do you do when it worms through your psyche like a parasite sampling parts of your existence by triggering pathways in your mind?

Pray you never find out like Dash did. The creature violated the sanctity of his mind, broke parts of him, and left its slimy mental residue in his skull. When his crew found him, he was curled in a ball in a tight crawlspace, whimpering. They thought the undead had broken his spirit, but it was something far worse.