Varnius Vol's page

"I have some skill in magic. Enough to deal with bandits and wildlife anyway. Thats in addition to my skills as a gifted conversationalist, if you hadnt already noticed."

Varnius looks to Arumil and Temerith as he responds, taking in the unusual appearance of the two before thinking to himself;

Hmmm, not a single human with a commission. If I didn't know any better I would say the Surtovans were shipping out undesirables on a suicide mission rather than a quest for glory and riches. I wouldn't put it past them.

He focuses on the few facial features visible beneath Temerith's cloak, recalling his statement that the hood was for the sake of others.

Could it be that he is...like me? Might I not be alone in my ancestry?

He addresses Temerith;

"Come now Temerith, there is no need to conceal yourself from us with shyness and stilted words. It is likely we will shed blood and share gold before long. Reveal yourself to us, that we may know the face of Ragathiel's arm."

As he waits for Temerith to respond, Varnius leans over to Arumil and whispers:

"...What's a Ragathiel?"

Varnius grimaces as the bones in his hand begin to audibly creak and grind together under Temerith’s unintentional onslaught. After a few agonising moments the Tiefling lets go and he pulls his hand away with a shout:

”AARGH! You’re even worse than the Elf! What the hell is your-“

Varnius stops his tirade when he notices the look of perplexion and worry on the shrouded man’s face, and hears the quiet murmur of an apology. He looks up at Arumil to see if he noticed the exchange, shrugging his shoulders uncertainly before turning back to Temerith.

”Look, don’t worry about it, my hand is fine.” He says while rubbing life back into his fingers, “My name is Varnius and this is Arumil. I guess we’ll be travelling together a ways?

He smiles and waits for Temerith to continue, although his expression is a clear mix of annoyance, pain and curiosity.

That’s it – If I meet anyone else on this godsforsaken venture, even the tiniest, daintiest gnomette; I am going to WAVE from a SAFE DISTANCE….We've not even set off yet and I've nearly had my throat cut and I can’t feel my fingers.

Varnius nods at Arumil's remark;

"Good, me too. From the sounds of it that trading post is the last spit of civilisation before a thousand miles of wilderness..."

He sighs as his voice trails off and his gaze fades into the middle distance

…A womanless, alcohol-barren wasteland as far as the eye can see, with nothing but bandits, wolves and other castaways like me for company...hanging me might have been kinder.

Just as he is drifting off into thoughts of the impending misery that the commission will entail, the figure approaching catches his eye and he perks up.

”Greetings friend. Do you have a commission as well?”

Varnius takes in the cloaked and hooded appearance of the man, similar to his own, and breaks into a sly grin:

“Also, why are you wearing a hood? Afraid to show your face after taking gold from the defenceless clutches of a poor, drunken traveller?”

Varnius laughs and extends his hand out to shake the man’s hand.

Thanks for letting me know so quickly. Perhaps I should actually share it instead of just posting a link. :)

Done. You should be able to view it now.

Nice touch.

Understood.

@Arumil - Even Gimli and Legolas didn't get on at the start :)
This could actually work well with my characterisation. Varnius prefers do'ers to talkers, and I guess waving a knife in somebodys face is an elegant way to transfer from one to the other.

That one show of force probably made him feel infinitely more respectful of you as a potential colleague than his previous opionion of you as a sheltered scholar.

As the dagger flashes in front of Varnius’ face and back again, his expression dances between genuine shock, a flicker of barely repressed anger, before settling into a wide and unexpectedly toothy grin at the elf.

Holy hell! Who would have thought this one would be the dangerous pick? I was expecting a nervous, stuttering scholar…

"Woah, easy there friend! I was looking to make a few coins back, not new scars. Not all of us can afford a fine horse to ride on."

At this he pats the horse reassuringly on its neck before extending his arm upwards again, this time gesturing for a handshake.

"You wouldn’t be the first elf I met without a sense of humour…but maybe this time I owe an apology. Sorry for pushing my luck. My name is Varnius. I guess you have a commission as well?"

No worries on any counts of the above, not every character opens with hello but I don't mean to ruffle any feathers IRL.

@Arumil This is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship heh heh heh. Apologies if my proclivity for winding up aloof elven mages caught you off guard.

@DMHaldhin Do you have any preferences when it comes to in gameplay posting with regards to backfilling events like I did in my first post or in certain tenses used etc?

Varnius wakes up amidst the crates and containers of one of the caravan supply carts, immediately becoming the owner of the group’s most significant hangover.

Aaaargh?! What the hell were we drinking last night? I feel like I’ve been kicked in the head by an ogre.

Rubbing his eyes, he starts to recall the events of the night before. After his first night of freedom turned to the boredom of days waiting for the caravan to leave, Varnius remembered his decision to escalate his usual nightly drink with the caravan guards into a bit of friendly gambling. One Varisian with a harrow deck and a bottle of Firewater later, and Varnius’ memory disintegrated into the usual hazy mess of half-remembered laughter and soon forgotten insults shared by the fire.

A cursory rummage through the pockets of his travelling attire revealed how much of a toll the previous night had taken on his coin purse.

Foul tempered, aching, and poorer than the night before, Varnius raises his head above the baggage barricade that serves as his bed and looks around, pulling the hood of his cloak over his head to shield his searing eyes from the hateful daylight.

Right, which one of this miserable lot has my gold and gods help him when I find him out.

His eyes alight on two figures leading the caravan, two fellow travellers on their way to the Stolen Lands that had remained solitary and unspeaking throughout the nights before the venture. Picking his target; a tall and overdressed elf in too nice clothes on a too nice horse, Varnius introduces himself:

"Hey, Knife-Ears! Which one you of has got my gold?"

His voice rings out over the sound of tromping hooves and creaking cartwheels but he is oblivious to the stern looks of the other travellers as he flicks himself off the slow moving cart and moves apace towards the elf, pointing a finger accusingly as he approaches.

"I know you elves can be a cold bunch, but it’s something else enitrely to take gold from man you’ve never had the courtesy to speak to!"

As he draws up next to the horse, he looks past its flank to give a conspiratorial wink to the hooded figure across the way (Temerith) before turning his gaze practically vertical to meet the eyes of the accused elf astride the horse and brazenly holding an open palm up to him.

"Come on princess, cough up."

Sorry Bridge, Varnius is six feet tall.

@Bydar don't worry about roleplaying, its still activity and everything you were doing was advancing the situation. With regards to the Cpuncil/House and voting structure, I'd be up for trying it as long as its kept relatively simple. I have found in the past that inter-party factions can be problematic.

You are right that its a long way off. Has anyone encountered the Kingmaker Graveyard thread? I have avoided it because its a spoiler fest but when I said I got into this PBP a friend of mine commented that the first few levels have a high percentage chance of someone being eaten, dissolved, bludgeoned, drowned...

Hahaha, I agree!

"Vote for Riches. Vote for Rage. Vote for Raxus."

Have you also heard that Arnie is signed up to reprise his role as Conan the Barbarian? No Joke.

My characterisation demands that I go for ruler. If not, high CHA role will be the most mechanically beneficial. Although might be on the back foot as far as diplomat is concerned considering the Surtovans tried to hang me. Heh heh.

Raxus Half-blood wrote:

I'm with you, DM. I don't mind adult subject matter, I just think it's more tasteful to insinuate/fade to black.

The calistrian in that game was an extremely toxic player. She was the main reason the game died.

Why did no one just say that the game is a little more PG and not R rated. If they could tone it down a bit. No reason to shut a game down over something like that. Then again I was not there so I could be wrong. ;)

@Varnius
I have seen worst on game commercials. Not to mention the recent trailers for all the horror/supernatural flicks lately. That sentence would only bug me in that I could not type something so detailed and creative. xP

Thanks Arumil, I actually did English and Creative Writing at university....at least its paying off somewhere *sigh*.

I think rather than language, the hardest thing is going to be training myself to be good rather than neutral. As soon as those worgs showed up my first thought was, "flammable". Not especially diplomatic.

That shouldn’t be a problem. I’m more of a:

Varnius immolates his foe with a blast of sorcerous fire.

Than;

Varnius kicks the decapitated head of his foe, sending it flying into the air trailing arterial spray like a shiny, wet firework before colliding with the unseen and unsuspecting troll.

Or at least I was before THAT sentence happened…

Varnius, here is some additional information I would like you to add into your background. Feel free to simply cut-and-paste it under "Things the DM told me to add" or similar.

I think all of this is pretty basic and shouldn't cause any problems, but please let me know if you have any questions.

** spoiler omitted **

No problem boss. Works well for me.

One question, if the new additions are travelling down together should we draw up some idea of what we now think of each other in advance of joining the gameplay thread?
Just seems a little unlikely that we would force march ourselves all the way down there without talking!
This is aimed more at the new recruits than the DM.

Varnius doesn't have much time for the gods, but his adoptive parents were worshippers of Erastil so he has a bit of a soft spot for that religion comparatively. He is distasteful towards the more prescriptive religions suchas abadar, iomadae and asmodeus, seeing them as boring, narrow minded and oppressive.

He will more than likely just waive off anyone getting to theological with him in conversation. Anyone worth listening to can make up there own minds and use their own words; not someone else's scripture.

Varnius Vol, dotting in! Hello to all members of the "New Brevorian Treasure Liberation & Bandit Readjustment Committee". Thank you for the selection.

Good luck everyone.

Just chiming in to let you know I'm still around!

Thanks for coming back Haldhin. My character is now complete, hope you like him.

Good luck to everyone involved, as there is some tough competition and good character concepts on here already!

Statistics are ready for my submission; Human Red Draconic Sorcerer - Varnius Vol.

Will post all backstory and other elements later today, with the basic gist being he has been given a choice between self imposed exile to the Stolen Lands...or hanging.

I have done plenty of PBP in the past (albeit on a different account) and am familiar with the format.

-NothingBoy-