I would like to put young Hugo of Harrowstone in for consideration (brief character description in profile, will be bulking up later):
1: What will you add to the party?
I will serve mechanically and thematically as a balance between the disparate motivations and desires of the other party members, as well as a backbone of support to keep us going through the long dark. Adventurers are very powerful personalities, but someone like Hugo is a reminder that not all adventurers journey out of a lust for glory, riches or power, but out of a necessity to help the people who live beset on all sides by terrors that on the other side of the world would only play out in children's nightmares.
2: How do you see your character developing both in terms of mechanics and in role play?
Mechanically, my character is leaving Damage at the door. By focusing Hugo's ever growing wisdom onto strategic advantage via buffs and debuffs, I want the party's enemies to feel like they are staring down the barrel of a gun in every encounter...a gun with a Pharasma-powered-Paladin in it.
In terms of role play I see Hugo starting as an uncertain young man balancing his fear and inexperience against his will to see the world bettered by his good work. As the (I assume inevitable) horrors of the campaign unfold and he becomes more knowledgeable of the threats the party face, I expect him to become a grimmer and more resolute character motivated more by the destruction of the unholy blight than the people who suffer under them. After all, there are only so many zombified peasants you can weep over before you start wondering where the Necromancer is hiding so you can kick his door in.
3: Do you feel able to commit to attempting the entire AP?
Absolutely. No qualms at all with the posting guidelines you have posed.
4: Is there anything you want to ask us?
Which deities have the party members selected and what skill sets have they already started to groove out so I can avoid skill redundancy.
AS HUGO
A: What is your connection to the Lorrimer family?
My family had little or no dealings with the Lorrimer family while my parents were alive, but we were always aware of their presence and station within the area. It does not serve to pry behind closed doors in Ustalav, and most families keep to themselves. It was only when I started manifesting signs of Pharasma's gift two years ago that I came into contact with them, and even then not face to face, but via a messenger.
They knew of my new found talents and had apparently observed me aiding the few townsfolk willing to let me help. I know not how, for I did not make it widely known. Within a week I received word I was to receive their "patronage" and be given travel and funds to study at the clergy stronghold on the region's border. It was only when I arrived that I realised how...well, hurried the whole thing had been. Hurried and desperate. Still, upon my return to Harrowstone I shall express my gratitude at this new life, but my mind aches over what drove them to notice me in the first place.
B: Why did you miss the funeral?
I was waylaid by many more. On my travels back the caravan I journeyed with encountered a roadside village I had passed on the first leg of my journey two years ago. The stench of Urgathoa filled the place like a dense fog *spits*. A sudden illness had whipped through the town and taken half of the population with it. I did what little I could with my new training, anxious though I was to use it, and with Pharasma's blessing slowed a few journey's to the Boneyard. I missed the burial of one man to oversee twenty others. Such is the lady's way. Ironically as the new cleric at that very church, I may very well have led the ceremony had I been there...no matter.
C: Why are you currently in or very near the local church to Pharasma?
This old church will be my new place of work and worship now that I have returned a fully anointed member of the faith. There are scant others in the town with the gift or the wish to work both birth and grave, but we must all serve and stand together. That has never been more true at the edge of the famous Worldwound than it has been in Ustalav.
D: Why do you care what happens to a tiny hamlet in the middle of nowhere?
It is my birthplace, my home and now, my parish for as long as Pharasma sees fit to let me keep my bones from her. In my new role I can truly help, heed and give hope to the town.
E: What are you afraid of?
In truth, there is little that walks the night in this place that doesn't give a sane man cause for fear. But more than all its the insidious work of Urgathoa, the Plagueweaver, that gives me cause for fear. Silver for werewolves, stakes for vampires, holy power for the walking dead. Each have their cure. But the faceless and countless plagues, diseases and ills that stalk up from tomb, marsh and black magic? There is scant medecine but hope, hope that a man may wake with as much flesh in the morning that he went to sleep with.
I hope that was ok and worth your consideration! Do let me know if you need anything more from me.
Happy choosing! Hugo
