About Tom Weed5' 9"
Kudzu Archaeamphora, traveling under the created guise of Tom Weed, has the fair skin associated with elves, though most will notice the blue druidic symbols tattooed over his entire body before anything else. His hair is a basic brown decorated with braided vines and leaves. His red, catlike eyes complete the demonic visage for most of the European populace. Tom Weed "Kudzu Archaeamphora"
Defense
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Nightshade
Defense
Offense
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Tom speaks of a plant called Nightshade often. He is not, however, referring to the traditional variety of flowering plants. A creature of animal instinct but with a vegetative form, Nightshade is a rather unique member of plant life. It is the living myth of man-eating flowers. With grey, twisting branches in the shape of claws, it pulls itself along the ground at remarkable speed. This dark wood is incredibly hard, resistant to both axe and flame and densely packed to hold up the "head", a great flower of black pedals that sways to light and sound as if caught in an invisible wind. At night or when given the command to attack, the black flower blooms, revealing the inner pedals that give off a fluorescent blue light, and at the center of the blooming flower is a hole lined with teeth like spines that expands and contracts to tear meat off other living things. Gear
Carrying Capacity-66/133/200
Kudzu sat among the smoking wreckage of Redwolf, his former home. After refusing the dragon, Conflagravious, his tribute, the druidic village had been burned to the ground. He had spent the better part of the last few days tending to the injured while those without his knowledge of healing plants buried the dead in what was left of the woods. Now the care was done, only sporadic treatments and prevention of the festering of wounds was left. As he rested his body, the sounds of horses approached the village. Drawing his curved blade, Kudzu raced to ruined settlement with Nightshade crawling beside him. The riders had all ready arrived in the town's square. Men and women in various or non-existant armors sat atop steeds of all shades and colors. The markings of more than a dozen different villages covered them. "Who is the leader here?" asked the head of the company. "I am," Kudzu said curtly as he put away his weapon. "Chief Corvus was killed in the attack." "The council has requested the leaders of all villages to a special meeting. Do you have anyone you can leave behind in your stead?" "We're a little short of authority right now." "I can supply a pair of warriors to help keep the peace until you return. Will that be fair?" The leader of the company motioned for two of the riders to dismount. They were large men, brutish looking with tattoos of dragons on their backs. Kudzu doubted their ability to keep peace and wanted nothing more than to send the pair on their way. However, he could not think of a polite way to refuse the invitation to a cheiftain's council. "These men are Aiken and Kamar from Darkglade," the captain rider continued. "They will guard what remains of your people until you can return here." "How long will I be away?" Kudzu asked, but no answer was given. Instead a black horse was brought to him. Ominous thoughts crossed his mind. After taking one last look at the town of ashes, he had Nightshade crawl onto his back and told it to sleep before mounting the dark horse. The Council of Chieftains was smaller than Kudzu thought it would be. Only about fifty people were in attendance. From the news brought by other riders, many tribes had been completely obliterated by the dragon's attack. Many who had attended the previous council some months ago were quick to place blame on the elders, who had asked that all tribes refuse Smaug's tribute. Since they had relatively little gold even combined and they were isolated from the main body of land the dragon controlled, the elders thought they would be ignored. They were wrong. The dragon had attacked them all. Faced with the question of how to proceed, the chieftains divided rather quickly. Some wanted to accept the rule of Conflagravious, but the elven race could not abide the loss of their maidens every year. They were too slow to mature and grow. Others thought to unite the tribes and war with the dragon, but that would surely doom them. Even the humans, who were far more populous and faster breeding, didn't have the armies to battle the great tyrant. On the evening of the fifth night, Kudzu spoke up. "Why don't we send someone to the humans? If we combine forces, perhaps we can find a solution." Silence fell across the council for a moment. Finally, one of the elders spoke, "Will you go to the humans? Will you ask for the help of the people who have deemed worthy of extermination?" "I cannot," Kudzu replied. "But you would ask someone else here to undertake such a perilous journey?" "If someone is willing." "Very well. Is there a soul here brave enough to meet the humans in their cities?" the elder called almost mockingly. No one answered. "Such a young and green chieftain has no business making a request like that." The discussion began to resume the circle it had been following for days. Kudzu blinked in surprise. Was that a remark on his own tribe's worship of plants? Every tribe here considered trees and such to be sacred. His tribe just took it a bit further by giving them the same intelligence that animals were born with. Fuming, he stood up. "If no one else can see that allies are the only way we can survive the dragon's fire, then I will go. I will find one of our boats and travel to the human's land." A day later, he was packing the few belongings he had left into a sack of cured animal skins. He had appointed a young woman called Longicervia to watch over the town while he was gone, but she was desperately trying to talk him out of the journey. "But they're so close minded," she said, yet again. "It's useless to try to talk to them." "But I still need to go. It's for the best of all the races to unite and battle Conflagravious. If I can't get through to the humans, perhaps the Halflings will listen to reason They live among the humans and have a more open mind then their tall cousins." "Okay, but their cities are so crowded. You won't feel comfortable there." Kudzu stared at her. Longi retracted the statement quickly. "At least take a human name. Like Tom. I hear a lot of humans are called Tom" "Tom." Kudzu rolled the name around on his tongue. "It sounds so simple." "They are a simple people." "What do they use for clan names? Green?" "Yes." "I'm not using green. Our tribe is all ready mocked for being so close to plants." "How about Weed then. It's roughly the translation to your first name." "I'm not giving them the satisfaction of mocking us by taking a name that is so negative in their point of view." "Perhaps you can teach them to rethink what should be exterminated." "Not likely. Still...it's better than Green." By now Kudzu had finished packing. As he mounted the black stallion, Longi handed to him a cloak. "Humans do not take kindly to tattoos or plants in your hair." "Or man eating plants." Kudzu pointed to Nightshade on his back. "I need to show my druidic heritage proudly. If we are to work with humans, we can't hide our customs around them or they'll go right back to hating us after the threat has passed." And so it happened. Kudzu Archaeamphora became Tom Weed to meet the humans under their own terms. Uncloaked and fully decorated, he rode forth in his armor of bearskin atop a black horse. Upon reaching the waiting boat, he left the beast by the waterside. As he sailed away, Kudzu's gaze returned to the land. Seeing the beast's silhouetter as a small wooden boat took him to the human lands, he couldn't help but return to the ominous thoughts of a week earlier. |
