I hope it turns out alright! You have my best wishes!
One of my other GM's was in a car accident a couple of weeks ago and ended up with a concussion - I hope it isn't as serious as that.
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Sharda barks to her dinosaur, Kethia, and it runs over to one of the barizou on Rosa and slashes into it with her teeth and claws.
Sharda circles around to attack the Babau on Rosa and slashes into it with her teeth and claws.
"You sunk my Rurik!"
Sharda and her allosaur stiffen up as they smell the intruders enter the inn.
Sharda Vitals:
HP: 58/58, Perception +14 (Darkvision 60 ft.) Fort +9 Ref +2 Will +10 (+4 vs. giant spell/abilities) Speed: 60 Bite: +15 1d8+12 (Magic) Talon x2 +15 2d6+13 (Magic) Kethia Vitals: HP: 22/22, Perception +7 Fort +4 Ref +7 Will +3 Speed: 40 Bite: +10 1d6+6 (Magic) Claw x2 +10 1d4+6 (Magic)
I updated myself and added my dino on the map.
Sharda takes some barding out of her pack and puts it on. It looks completely wrong for her until her form shifts and changes into a deinonychus, whereupon it fits perfectly. Rather than shifting coloration to a raptor's hers is still that of marble. She barks out a raptor call and the allosaur in the corner rises and comes over to stand next to her. The raptor begins to cast spells.
Sharda Vitals:
HP: 58/58, Perception +14 (Darkvision 60 ft.) Fort +9 Ref +2 Will +10 (+4 vs. giant spell/abilities) Speed: 60 Bite: +15 1d8+12 (Magic) Talon x2 +15 2d6+13 (Magic) Kethia Vitals: HP: 22/22, Perception +7 Fort +4 Ref +7 Will +3 Speed: 40 Bite: +10 1d6+6 (Magic) Claw x2 +10 1d4+6 (Magic)
Sharda watches the back and forth between the various egos with a slight smile on her face, Perhaps there will be some 'survival of the fittest' soon. This should be fun.
GM Wolf: I left them fairly generic to fit in almost anyplace and if you had any ideas where you wanted to fit them in. I'll go read up more on Brevoy and the history of this place and write up a short background of her family.
Sharda takes each file and pours over them, taking in as much as possible. She's been ignoring politics and most of humanity in general for a while and she's trying to catch up with all of the people involved and their intrigues. "Mother was tangentially related to the family, thankfully for her she died a few years ago and is not embroiled in this." Her faint sad tone turns into a tone that seems to hope as she continues to look through the files, "I hope Step-Father is involved in this. That would be very satisfying."
Okay, back from pride and at work, I'll catch up on gameplay during work today and contribute this evening.
Sorry about being a bit scarce this weekend so far, it's pride weekend here and so many friends are in town. I thought I'd have more time to post.
Sharda laughs, "I was indeed sparring with you for sport. And you misunderstand me, it is not by scoring the moral victory that I sleep at night. It is by scoring what I believe to be a moral victory, much as you believe that force of arms in a theoretical situation is morally superior, by which I sleep at night. Both of us have a false predicate upon which we've based something that comforts us, nothing more. All thinking creatures swaddle themselves with such illusions." Winking, she continues, "Old man, you believe your long life has somehow imbued you with wisdom, whereas if you are blind to where your vision is limited, time cannot avail you. If you cannot smell, an infinite amount of time is useless for learning what a rose smells like. Whereas a newborn babe can easily know what you can never comprehend." "As for which is the bully, well both of course old man. Perhaps I should merely take comfort that you speak only of men and brothers and all sorts of overly masculine bluffery. I have thankfully never been infected with the particular diseases which corrupt men and their out-sized egos. I can rest assured that you lost your sense of smell long ago to such a pernicious infection." She raises her mug, "Cheers! Here's to many long days ahead filled with debate. And when my bones have long-since turned to dust, perhaps you will finally recover from your affliction and learn how marvelous a rose smells and what you have been missing your entire life."
Shards comments, ”That’s always the comment of the large target, ‘when neither has a chance to prepare’. To me it sounds like, ‘when everything is skewed to my favor and I can use all of my advantages.’ You propose an unobtainable theoretical point because nothing is ever skewed entirely that way. There is never a situation where you are on a featureless plane with your target in reach and there is no way they can use anything else than brute force.” She chuckles, ”If you wish to live in a fantasy world in which you go around saying, ‘I’m the toughest thing at something that can’t happen’ and that’s your only measure of who is best and what is honorable. If that keeps you warm at night, then more power to you. I hope, for your sake, that is not your measure of self-worth.” Her voice continues more solemnly, ”I prefer to think that my strength and abilities make me a servant of those who need protection. The measure of my worth is how well I’ve achieved that. The measure of my worth is not that I believe I can beat my chest after winning an impossible scenario. That benefits no one. My measure is how well I’ve done defending the downtrodden, not how powerful a foe I could have defeated if everything went my way.” She sighs a bit, ”But whatever keeps you warm at night. Keep doing that. If it helps serve the greater good and that belief is what keeps you effective, then whatever works is fine by me. Perhaps in a few more centuries you’ll start to see your strength is not an achievement, it was a gift to you by nature. You were born into a situation with advantages that others were not. We each do the best we can with what we’ve been given. We all try to survive. I just don’t believe in looking down on others for the means they’ve used to survive.” ”The spider weaves, the fly flies, the swordsman swords, the assassin stabs, and you punch things. I hope you can learn to appreciate yourself for your achievements rather than your gifts. I’m certain you have many achievements to be proud of.” She becomes less solemn and laughs, ”I can fully appreciate your point about not being good at subterfuge. As you can tell I am as subtle as a rock. I have never been known for tact either if that wasn’t already painfully obvious. Please be certain I appreciate you have gone through a lot. I just bristle when someone appears to think they are superior to others who do not have their gifts. I’ve been on the receiving end of too many bullies who thought the same way and it’s a hard association to break in my head.” She laughs even more, ”You can probably tell how well I fit in with nobility and royalty with my beliefs. Feeling morally superior to who I view as less enlightened is how I keep myself warm at night.”
The stone woman reminds the giant, ”Ah, but you did say what she did was not sporting and that it didn’t prove who was tougher. I’d say whoever won is tougher, no matter how physically brutish they are.” She throws in with a smile and an extra glitter in her eye, ”And don’t worry big guy, I’ll protect you.” At the mention of raw food she chuckles and glances over at her curled up dino, ”I’ve been learning recently how delicious screaming, wriggling, and raw is. I would have left the city sooner if I’d known.”
The little woman turns and stares at the ogre with her glittering eyes and remarks, “What a ten foot tall giant calls a fair fight is not necessarily fair for others. You were born by nature with certain advantages, other, smaller people would not call what you do a fair fight either.” ”She has an ability you don’t so you label it unfair. You have an ability she doesn’t so you label that fair.” she adds. Continuing the stone woman says, ”Nature itself is unfair. Would you call the spider unfair to the fly because it can weave a web? Or the fly unfair to the spider because it can fly away?” Cocking her head a bit as she talks, ”There is nothing more noble about using your unfair size advantage to kill a smaller opponent who is not as blessed as you than for her to knife someone in the back because they can’t see her. If you are good with your fists rather than a sword, do you call the swordsman unfair?” ”Its an eat or be eaten world out there and I far prefer to slaughter rather than be slaughtered.” she concludes.
The small marble woman looks back and forth between all of the boisterous talkers looking for a moment to insert a few words edgewise, "As to who I am, I am Sharda. I mainly wander the wilds looking for things that are not right and then righting them. Upon hearing of the royalty all disappearing, I began to wonder what happened to..." She pauses a moment as if trying to assemble her thoughts, "Nevermind, I think we will find out soon enough what happened to them. Hopefully, only a few of them have been brutally harmed." The cold, crystalline tone to her voice gives the impression that there are a few she would be happy to see severely inconvenienced. After seeing the fizzy drinks being passed around, she looks in one when its near and shakes her head, "No thank you, I will stick with water. And I definitely would prefer my tongue not stick to the roof of my mouth."
A short, slight woman not even five feet tall with skin colored like white marble with dark gray streaks in it walks into the inn. Her wild, unrestrained hair has the same coloration and her eyes glitter like emeralds. Fitting loosely around her body are vibrant green, brown, and yellow clothes woven with patterns of dinosaurs among jungle plants and vibrant flowers. On her back is a well worn backpack; she has no obvious arms or armor. When she sees the giant, she smiles broadly at Aukan and hugs him, "It has been too long since I've seen you, Aukan. I'm afraid I don't make it into the city as much anymore. There are so many things threatening the wild and you know me, if there is a wrong to be righted, I'll be there to rip its throat out." As she enters the inn further, an allosaurus the size of a large man enters behind her. It stops to affectionately rub it's head up against Aurok and wait for a scratch on the head. Then it walks over to a corner, it's large talons making loud scratching sounds on the dinghy wooden floor. It circles like a dog and curls up head to tail, occasionally raising its head to look around the room. Sharda takes off her backpack and sets it on the floor by the dinosaur then wanders behind the bar and starts to root around. Eventually she finds a notched and worn wooden bowl and a hardened leather mug then goes to the water barrel to fill them both. She stands at the barrel filling and draining her mug multiple times as if she was desperately thirsty from running a long way. Crossing over to the dinosaur, she places the wooden bowl by it. It raises its head looks at it and rests it head back down. Looking nonplussed at the dinosaur she chides, "Show off." A couple of low short hisses almost like it was chuckling come from the curled up dinosaur. The diminutive woman hops onto a chair at the table, while she's seated her feet don't quite touch the ground. When she's not talking or drinking from her mug, she is motionless like an exquisite statue, only her glittering faceted green eyes move to follow who's speaking. Her movements, when they occur, are sharp and economical ending in another motionless pose. When she's still, her expression is an enigmatic, slightly bemused smile. "Does anyone have any idea what happened?" asks the stone-like woman, "Was it some nobles who are vying for the throne that eliminated the royal house?"
Looking good Sharda. I'll finish up the crunch using the PM info you sent. I'll have it done by Saturday, I have a busy couple of days so I'll need to finish it small chunks.
I'm going to work on an Unchained Monk. With the stats I rolled it should be fun even though the monk is a MAD character. It's why I'm doing a melee druid - these 4d6 stats make a number of MAD builds far more viable.
I posted initial crunch. I still haven't done things like super power, etc. I just realized something - I'm a druid, I have an animal companion and since I get a familiar/animal companion from the story benefits - is that just like a normal druid animal companion? Does that mean I can have domains as my "basic druid build" and still get a full druid animal companion?
And hit points:
I finished up a background story, it's both a writing sample and a background story. It has dialogue so a number of the "paragraphs" are short, so I wrote about double what you'd asked for. I hope you like it. If you'd like more details, please tell me. Sharda is a Goliath Druid focused on melee and shapeshifting. I'm finishing up the crunch and I'll post that tomorrow. Sharda's Background: It all began with a hiss. I remember the day well, I was in the jungle, sitting in a small clearing. My chanting was muffled and dying out in the oppressive, hot, and humid air. The heat and the day of chanting had exhausted me completely and I hoped I'd make it to the end of the ritual without passing out. My voice had grown hoarse and my throat was parched. Teacher had instructed me well in the ways of the wild and she'd brought me to this point in my life. She said she'd taught me everything I needed to know to take the next step, she couldn't take me farther until I'd completed this ritual. I researched what I'd need and where to go, I offered my prayers to Gozreh for a successful ritual and to not be eaten by something while I was performing it. I'd taken a deep breath and headed out into the jungle. A trickle of sweat beaded down my forehead and dripped into one of my eyes stinging it and making it water. Squinting in pain I tried to finish the ritual, I was very close to the end, very soon now... There was a loud crash off in the jungle before me. I began to panic, it didn't sound like what I was calling. I hoped something dangerous hadn't decided to wander by and kill me. More loud crashes followed as whatever it was sundered trees to come closer to me. I saw a large dark shape in the undergrowth coming closer. It was vastly larger than if the ritual had gone well. The last few words of the ritual croaked out of my mouth as the large shape broke through the trees into the clearing. It was a full-grown allosaurus. The ritual was supposed to attract a young allosaurus. Somehow, something had gone desperately wrong with the ritual or I'd just gotten unlucky and a random one had wandered by. I knew I was about to die, it lowered it's huge head to my eye level. It opened its mouth, the long dagger shaped teeth glistened with saliva. It hissed at me, the sound an allosaur makes right before it kills. The hiss was loud enough to shake me and I felt its hot breath on my face. I remembered yesterday when I was in Step-Father's study sitting in a chair in front of his desk. It was oppressively hot and sweat kept trickling down into my eyes. He leaned forward in his chair bringing his face closer to mine. He glowered at me as he took a deep breath before speaking, his breath hissed inward. In a cold voice barely containing his rage he said, "I'm tired of you and your mongrel blood polluting this house. You've never been trained before and yet last night you cast a spell. I knew you'd grow up to be no good. Just like your father, you're going to go mad from the magic seething inside of you." "I'll not have let you harm any of my family, get your things and get out of here. I never want to see you again!" he thundered, slamming his fist on the desk hard enough the impact shook me. I'd seen him angry before but not like this, I was afraid he'd beat me if I stayed. I waited for the allosaur to get it over with and kill me. It's large reptilian eyes stared right into mine. I'd never been that terrified before. A short while later as all sorts of gruesome visions of what my mangled body would soon look like flit through my head, it hissed again. Could it be it didn't want to eat me? All sorts of thoughts ran into my head, I tried to think of what to do. I remembered a scrawled note in the margin of the book I'd read about making an allosaur a companion. It couldn't be, had I been lucky? I cast one of the spells Gozreh had granted me for the day and asked, "Mother?" When I was young and it was just Mother and myself, I would ask her to tell stories about her days with Father. She'd tell me tales of their days adventuring together, the ruins they'd explored, the perilous dungeons they'd emptied, and the horrible beasts they'd slain. Her beautiful green eyes would gleam with excitement when she recalled their time together. It seemed to be the only time she was happy back then. Father and her settled down when I was born. A quiet cottage in the forest by a stream. I barely remember him, a gray skinned man with glittering blue eyes like sapphires. He smiled a lot. I have his eyes, glittering blue gemstones and my skin is also gray, though lighter than his. Mother was a human who'd fallen in love with this man who obviously had blood that wasn't entirely human flowing through his veins. I have occasional memory glimpses of father sometimes becoming randomly angry and he'd stomp out of the cottage. Mother would look concerned as terrible noises sounded from outside. I was never allowed to look and Mother kept the doors and windows shut. The next memories I have were from a few years later, Father was no longer around and Mother looked unhappy most of the time. We moved from that peaceful cottage and traveled to the city Mother grew up in. It was noisy and smelly and nothing like the idyllic setting I was born into. We lived close to family. I adjusted to living in the city, although I received stares from people when they noticed my eyes. Then Mother met Step-Father and everything changed for the worse. "Yes my child, you called to me and I came," the allosaur replied. I slumped a little in relief, she wasn't here to eat me. The note had mentioned that in rare circumstances, a female who'd just lain eggs would answer the call and you could negotiate with her for one of her eggs. I hoped asking for one of her eggs wouldn't make her angry and she'd eat me anyway. "I have come to ask a favor of you Mother. I would like one of your eggs." I hesitantly asked. There was a long pause as more images of my mangled body crossed my mind, "Why do you want one of my children?" "I need a companion to aid me in my endeavors. To help me defend nature against everything that tries to destroy it. I implore you in Gozreh's name to help me in this," I explained. She seemed to think on this for a while, her unblinking eyes staring into mine as if trying to read my soul, "What do you offer?" I hadn't prepared for this, what could I offer her? I had nothing on me that would be valuable to a dinosaur living in the jungle. Then I realized what she was asking, "I offer your child a companion for life. I offer it fresh red meat without struggle. I offer it my devotion." She stared at me some more and then, some decision made in her mind that she did not reveal to me, she turned and went back into the jungle. I nearly collapsed. I was exhausted from the ritual, hot, sticky, hungry, thirsty, and drained from all the fear. After yelling at me and ordering me out of the house, Step-Father stormed out of the room. I was left wondering what to do next, where was I supposed to go? Would he come back to beat me? Not wanting him to come back and see me, I quickly went to my room. I packed my few belongings and fingered the ring on my necklace - Mother's wedding ring. When I was little and before Mother met Step-Father, she still wore her wedding ring. I tried to adjust to the city. I didn't have any friends and I was smaller than the other children. With my different looks, I was the target of numerous fights and the center of all the other children's cruelty. I took to wandering the streets at odd hours to avoid people or I stayed home closeted in our small home. I wasn't used to being penned up and I had to get out when I could. Mother always looked sad back then and she was worried about me whether I hid inside or when I went out that I'd come back beaten up. After she met Step-Father, she seemed happier. He looked mean and he didn't treat Mother as well as Father did. I never liked him and whenever he was around, I left the house and wandered the city. I wished I was larger and stronger so I could defend myself, but because of Father's blood in my veins I grew up slower than the other children. I was always the small one. Mother and Step-Father eventually married and we moved into his mansion. Step-Father was a successful merchant, he owned multiple ships and they traded goods around the seas. His other children were all older than me and didn't like Mother or myself. They played cruel pranks on me and never missed an opportunity to make my life worse. Sometimes, I'd sneak into Mother's room, go into her jewelry box, and look at her wedding ring. It was a plain gold band with a single blue sapphire. And it was the only thing of Father's that remained. Everything else from the little cottage in the woods and that wonderful time in my childhood was gone. Only faint memories were left. Mother noticed how unhappy I was and how ill-treated I was by the other children. She came to my room one day and said, "My sweet child, you need to get out some more, I have someone you should meet. You're old enough now." She took my hand and led me out of the city and down a road through the jungle. We came upon a small path that led off from the road and deeper into the jungle. We turned aside there and followed it. A short while later we arrived at a small cottage in a clearing. An ankylosaur was calmly eating some leaves and it looked up when we entered the glade. It seemed to shiver with excitement like a dog when it saw Mother and ran over to us, it's immense weight shaking the ground with every step. I stepped back uncertain what was happening and it looked like it was going to bowl Mother over. She threw her arms around it's head and hugged it, then scratched it in some unknowable spot behind one of the horns on its head causing it to wag that large club of a tail. Mother cooed to it as she scratched it, "It's been so long since I saw you. I hope you've been good." A tall, dark elf dressed in clothes that matched the colors of the jungle leaves came out of the cottage calling, "I was wondering what all that racket was. Of course it was you." Mother smiled the broadest I've seen her smile since we lived with Father and she ran over to hug the elf, "I'm so glad to see you again! It has been too long and so many things have changed. All except you." The elf nodded and turned to study me. "Is this her? Is this Sharda? She looks so much like her father." she asked Mother. Mother's smile faltered for a moment at the mention of Father but she recovered, "This is her and she is very much like him. Enough of sadness though, I'm so happy you're here. I've been very worried about her. The other children are cruel to her. She's smaller than them and can't defend herself well." The elf smirked as she looked at me, "Well, now that I'm here, we can feed her griffon steaks and dragon milk and see if we can strengthen her up a bit." She addressed me for the first time, "You stay out here and play with Helga while I catch up with your mother. Tomorrow we start your training." She turned and led Mother into the cottage. I wondered who Helga was when the ankylosaur butted it's head up against me nearly knocking me over. It dropped a tree branch at my feet as if begging me to play fetch with her. That's how I met Teacher. I went to her cottage everyday I could and learned everything she could teach me. I'd been hungry for learning and I soaked up everything she taught me. Step-Father had forbidden me from learning anything involving magic because he said Father went mad from magic and he could tell I was a bad apple that didn't fall far from the tree. I snuck out of the house all of the time and ran to Teacher's cottage. It was my refuge from a dismal world. The jungle around the cottage was bright, fresh, and energizing whereas the mansion was dreary, stuffy, and filled with people who hated me. Mother and I had to keep secret about what I was learning and where I was running off to all the time. Step-Father didn't care I wasn't around; out of sight, out of mind. I fingered the wedding ring on it's hand woven necklace. I put it around my neck and decided I was going to leave for Teacher's immediately. It was the only place I had left to go. Teacher had indeed strengthened me over the past years, not with dragon's milk, but with lots of back breaking labor. Now, when other people tried to push me around, I pushed back. Last night one of Step-Father's own kids pushed me too far. I was so angry I didn't want to hit him fearing I'd kill him, so I cast a spell on him. Immediately I knew I'd made a grave mistake when I saw the fear and shock on everyone's faces. They all must believe I'd manifested powers like Father's. I wish Mother was still around, but I was alone in the mansion and now everyone was afraid of me. A little over a year ago, Mother became sick. Priests came to examine her and cure her, but to no avail. All they'd say was that it was a powerful curse, beyond anything they'd seen before and none of them were powerful enough to do anything about it. When I told Teacher about Mother, she frowned and closed her eyes, "I knew this would happen one day. All I can tell you is to spend as much time with her now as you can, she doesn't have long." Now matter how much I pleaded she wouldn't tell me more. I spent the next few days constantly at Mother's bedside. She told me all the stories of her and Father again so I'd remember them. I watched her waste away before my eyes. One of the last days before she died, she took her wedding band from her jewelry box and gave it to me, "Take this my sweet little girl. I know life hasn't always been easy for you and I hope this will remind you of Father and I in happier times. When you wear it know that we are watching over you and protecting you." Taking the ring off the necklace I put it on my finger, finally able to wear it openly. I looked around my room in the hellish mansion one last time, smiled, and set off for Teacher's cottage. She'd had me preparing to perform a ritual for months now and she'd said it was time. A loud crash in the jungle startled me out of my drowsy state. The mother allosaur had been gone for a while, I hoped the noise was from her returning and not some other predator. More crashing later and she came into the clearing with one of her eggs in her mouth. She delicately placed it at my feet. I reached out to take it and saw Mother's ring on my finger. I smiled thinking she and Father had been watching over me. I picked up the egg, it was large, warm, and leathery. I looked up, "Thank you Mother, I appreciate your sacrifice and your gift." The mother allosaur nodded its head a bit, "Take good care of her little hunter." I was confused, "I'm not a hunter." She snorted and as she turned away to walk back in the jungle she said, "You will be."
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