sherbertglasses's page

With all this talk of alchemy I thought momentarily about making one and thought I'd name her Ace and then I realized that my first instinct when naming a RPG character is to name them after Doctor Who companions who share a trait with them. (For non-Whovians, Leela was a barbarian who travelled with the Fourth Doctor and Ace is a girl who travelled with the Seventh Doctor and liked to make bombs. She was 16 when she started travelling with him, I think she was in her late or mid 20s when she struck out on her own. She blew stuff up a little less when she grew up.)

Leela accepts the hug, pretending it annoys her, but can't help a small tug of a smile at the corner of her mouth.

Leela chuckles, relived at Aislinn's response. Barbarian tribes were usually looked down on by so-called civilization. She was used to that. But after her confession, she feared being looked at as a monster.

Still shining the light over the city, Leela decides to join in on the humbling ceremony by admitting something she had been conflicted about since leaving her tribe. At the risk of losing the trust of her teammates, she began, "Aroden, I admit to you something I haven't spoken of since leaving my tribe. On some days I consider this to be my greatest regret, on other days, my greatest victory. Before leaving my tribe... I killed my entire hunting party. I was never supposed to be hunting with them to begin with as the traditions in my tribe dictated. But I hated weaving, I hated gathering and never cared for children or the affection of a man. So since I was a young girl, I began sneaking out with the hunting parties. I was 8 years old the first time I did it. At first the men let me tag along because they found it amusing, that is until I started outperforming them on hunt. I had to achieve twice as much as the men put together to earn even a spec of respect. They hated me for it. They sent me on a solo hunt for a frost giant, which I later found out was meant to be a suicide mission. When I returned victorious with the frost giant's sword as a trophy, I was greeted by laughs and jeers from the hunting party. I knew then that they would never respect me. The blood rage... it just took over. I slaughtered them all with the sword I still wear on my back. Any man would have been within his rights to take his revenge like I did. He would probably even been made chief of the tribe. But as a woman, those laws did not apply to me. To this day, I believe those men deserved what they got. But what keeps me up at night is their widows and fatherless children. They didn't deserve that punishment. The other women didn't know how to fight or hunt and the children have no one to teach them. It is a certainty in my mind that one day one of their children will find me and claim their revenge. But I am unsure whether I would let them take it." She opened her eyes and looked at her teammates expecting to see horror on their faces.

Leela takes a torch and shines it over the city. She closes her eyes and sends a silent reverence to a God she knows nothing of. It feels a little silly.

She smiles fully at Nimerah as she unsheathes the large bastard sword that someone her size shouldn't be able to wield with surprising ease. "Depends on what kind of beast. If it's a big guy, I can call up the blood rage of the barbarians and use this beauty to cleave it in two."

Leela cracks a smile, one of the wry ones that feel right on her face. Finally, a chance do some fighting. She knows the Pathfinder society might look down on the remnants of bloodlust, but you can take the barbarian out of the tribe, you can take the barbarian out of the woman.

Pre-GM post:
As they walk through the tunnels, Leela address Aislinn who is walking behind her. "Um... Aislinn... Do you think you could teach me to read and write in the common tongue? My tribe had no written language and, even as primitive as I thought them for not recognising the worth of a female, since leaving and finding myself in other lands, it is I who felt primitive."

"I'll lead," says Leela. Looking towards the entrance, she says, "I hope that halfling will be okay. Such a small person against such a tremendous enemy."

Leela laughs at Rohini's joke. It was good to see her getting bolder.

Leela watches the exchange, noting the wayang's stutter. The poor imp would never get anywhere in this job without confidence. She keeps these thoughts to herself. She may be judgmental, but she's not cruel.

Leela immediately regretted judging Nixie so flippantly without getting to know her. Of course she always judges people this way. She's hesitant about becoming even mildly close to people. But what Nixie said her duty was was a very noble duty. Leela's tribe had no written language. Storytelling was an honor reserved for the wisest elders. Nixie's native tongue was quite entrancing too. Leela spoke up. "I was born to a migratory tribe in the tundra. I didn't like the way they did things. Never recognized my competence in battle. So I left. Did mercenary work here and there. Then I found the Pathfinder society. They treated their female warriors as equal to their male peers. I liked that. They always had a job available, which meant I could always earn money. Liked that too." There were some pretty big parts of her story that she left out. How could they come to trust her if they knew?