So far, I've written three. I'm waiting on one player to name his rogue & two other players to commit.
Cimmerii Acanthus
Female half-drow Ranger 1
Background – Richfest 7, 595 CY
You were born Midsummer’s night Richfest 4, 575, under the full light of Oerth’s two moons, Luna and Celene. Your mother, a human ranger named Cartissima, gave birth to you while taking refuge in the Downs, a village in the northeastern portion of the Pricipality of Ulek. Of your father you know little, only that he was a dark elf named “Fear,” and that he was a member of a slaving organization in the Pomarj know as the Nine.
When your mother became pregnant, she feared for her life and that of her unborn child because Fear’s paramour and fellow slaver, a sadistic drow witch named Edralve, would surely tear the child from her womb. Fear helped your mother escape to a druidic conclave in the Pomarj headed by a man named Dallic Clay. As the Pomarj was no place for a woman with child, Dallic and his companions escorted her to the Downs, where she gave birth to you in the Happy Farmer Tavern.
A few years later, when you were old enough to travel, your mother brought you to the Bronzewood Lodge community in the Cairn Hills, where she received her training, as would you once you came of age. Bronzewood Lodge lies about three hours northeast of the mining town of Diamond lake. Unlike elsewhere, your drow heritage has never been an issue at the Lodge, though you do receive raised eyebrows and stunned looks occasionally from visitors.
The Bronzewood Lodge is led by an old priest of the nature god Obad-Hai named Nogweir. Though your community is often at odds with the mining operations of Diamond Lake, Nogweir insists on cautious cooperation with Diamond lake mayor Lanod Neff, as outright hostility could cost Bronzewood Lodge far more than it could gain. Diamond lake, its sister mining towns of Blackstone and Steaming Springs, the halfling town of Elmshire, and several other communities in the area are subject to the Free City of Greyhawk, three days ride to the west.
Though you were born elsewhere, you were too young to remember your life before coming to the Lodge. You learned most of what you know from your mother, though you picked up a thing here and there from other members of the community. You’ve never been to Greyhawk, though you have been to Blackstone, Steaming Springs, Elmshire, and various other locales in the Cairn Hills. You’ve even made a few forays into the Mistmarsh to the south. You visit Diamond Lake frequently, perhaps once every month, usually with fellow members of your community to pick up supplies, trade or sell pelts, venison, or other goods, and to keep abreast of local happenings. For the most part, however, you can’t stand the place. Diamond Lake is choking, polluted s*!#hole for the most part, with brothel-lined roads that alternate between dusty and muddy, uncouth savages running the streets and town alike, and a once-beautiful lake now little better than a depository for sewage and mine tailings. Venelle, who owns a shop dealing in fine bows and other weapons, is about the only resident of the town you have any liking for–how she can stand living there, you’ll never know.
Three days ago, some of your friends from the Lodge took you to Diamond Lake, where they bought you a new bow from Venelle’s for your birthday. The town was quite festive, due to the annual Richfest celebration, so you decided to stay awhile a pick up some supplies. While shopping in Taggin’s General Store, you were approached by a man looking for a guide. He had an old map marking the location of a “forgotten” cairn he wished to explore. You agreed, and he asked you to invite one or two other individuals skilled in cairn exploration who were trustworthy. Later that evening at the Spinning Giant you ran into Hailleck, a dwarven bard who’d visited the Lodge before. Since you knew he had a strong interest in “histories and mysteries,” you asked him along. Everyone is to meet at dawn tomorrow, Reaping 1, at an old roadside shrine to Fharlanghn, god of travel, about a mile outside of town.
Romero
Male Human Priest of Wee Jas
Background – Richfest 7, 595 CY
You were born 565 CY in the port city of Safeton, several leagues south of the City of Greyhawk, and you lived in that town until your death five years ago.
Safeton lies near the northern border of the Pomarj, an orcish empire headed by Turrosh Mak, a powerful orcish warrior. Though Safeton used to be one of many free cities on the Wild Coast, it has been subject to Greyhawk since the Greyhawk Wars over a decade ago. Due to its proximity to the Pomarj, Safeton is under martial law, and firmly under the control of Turrin Deathstalker, the town’s military governor.
All able-bodied men in Safeton are required to serve rotating stints in the town’s militia, and you were no exception. Your military career came to an abrupt end in the spring of 590 when you suffered a serious blow from an orcish mace during a border skirmish. Believing you dead, your fellow militiamen brought you back to town, where you were buried in the town graveyard.
Whether you were really dead or not, you’re unsure, but you do remember hearing a soft, seductive, feminine voice whispering, “No, your time will come, but not so soon.” At that moment you opened your eyes and found yourself in total darkness, entombed in a shabby pine box under six feet of earth!
With a strength born of desperation, you managed to crawl from your grave. Making your way back home, your loved ones were horrified to find you alive, and thinking you were undead, called for the watch. You managed to escape by stowing away on a ship that night.
The ship left Safeton that morning and arrived in the female-ruled town of Hardby the next night. Realizing you couldn’t return to your old life (which wasn’t all that great to begin with), you decided to start a new one. Suspecting that the voice you heard in the grave was that of the Dark-Eyed Lady, Wee Jas, goddess of death, magic, vanity, and law, you made your way to the local temple, where the high priestess allowed you to stay and begin learning the ways of the Ruby Sorceress.
Five years later and your training is complete. You have been given permission to leave the temple in order to explore the Cairn Hills to the north. The Cairn Hills first sparked your imagination four years ago when you spoke with a dwarven bard from the hills named Gnorl who was visiting the city. You’ve decided to seek him out and learn more about the mysterious cairns and cairn builders, and perhaps even visit a few of the tombs. The high priestess suggested you begin your search in Diamond Lake, a muddy smudge of a mining town three days east of Greyhawk. She gave you the name of a cartographer at the garrison there, Dietrik Cicaeda, and a letter of introduction.
You’ve been in Diamond Lake only a few weeks now. Dietrik directed you to two cairns across the lake. One cairn is called the Stirgenest Cairn, which yielded little more than a few interesting wall rubbings. The other cairn is occupied by a mysterious group called the Cult of the Green Lady, which seems to be an offshoot of the traditional Jasian faith. You’ve decided to hold off on visiting them until you can find out more about their take on Wee Jas–they could be heretics, after all.
At the start of the Richfest Festival this week, you heard talk of an adventuring band from Greyhawk looking to explore cairns in the area, starting with the Stirgenest. Realizing that there may be more cairns locally, and that this group was more interested in plunder than preservation, you returned to Dietrik. Though he didn’t know of anymore cairns nearby, he did allow you access to his map room, filled with hundreds of maps of the Cairn Hills, some centuries old. Finally, you stumbled across a 70-year old map of a place a day’s ride from town called the Fant Mine, which you knew was long-abandoned from seeing other maps. Unlike the other maps, however, this one had an extra location on it, a place near in mine called the Whispering Cairn. Not taking a chance on someone else finding the map, you stole it, vowing to assemble your own group to explore the cairn.
Your first step was finding a guide to the mine, which you found three days ago in Taggin’s General Store–a dusky-skinned, half-elven woman from the druidic community of Bronzewood Lodge to the northeast. You asked her to bring along one or two others who were trustworthy and whose skills might come in handy. You’re to meet at daybreak tomorrow at an old roadside shrine to Fharlanghn about a mile outside of town.
Hailleck Beeblebrox
Male dwarf bard 1
Background – Richfest 7, 595 CY
You were born Hailleck Grobadore 545 CY in Greysmere, an isolated lakeside dwarven community on the western edge of the Abbor-Alz Hills, just south of the Mistmarsh. The headman of Greysmere is a surly dwarven warrior named Fionor the Rude, who comes by his nickname honestly.
Disinclined to follow traditional dwarven pursuits, you often found yourself having a hard time fitting into the dour, structured lifestyle of the dwarves in Greysmere. In fact, most of the other dwarves viewed you as a bit wild and unpredictable, and often a magnet for trouble. Attempts to learn “useful” trades like mining, smithing, and stone carving ended in dismal failure. The only craft that you had any patience for was the crafting of musical instruments, and eventually you were apprenticed to Galen Craggenhilt, Greysmere’s aged historian, who crafted musical instruments in his spare time.
Occasionally Galen would be visited by his old friend Gnorl, a dwarven bard who would beat out ancient historical epics on his drum. Gnorl spent most of his time wandering the Cairn Hills north of the Mistmarsh, and was working on an epic history of the land. The fires of your imagination were lit sitting at the feet of your master and Gnorl as they spoke of lich kings, Wind Dukes, and Isles of Woe. Much of what you know of music and history you learned from these two men, and always looked forward to Gnorl’s visits.
Upon completing your apprenticeship, you found yourself quite idle,. Much of your time was spent in the local drinking hall, entertaining your fellow dwarves with song or sleight of hand tricks. One of your signature tricks was to make pebbles appear to turn into bugs. The owner of the hall dubbed you “Hailleck Beetle-Rocks” because of this trick, but he was often drunk and your name came out as “Hailleck Beeblebrox” when he introduced you. The name stuck, but you didn’t mind.
Unfortunately, you had to leave Greysmere about five years ago. It seems your decidedly “non-dwarven” eccentricities caused a bit of trouble in Greysmere and you had to leave. Your father sent you to Diamond Lake, a rowdy mining town in the Cairn Hills, three days ride from Greyhawk City. You are nominally there to assist your uncle, Galuth Grobadore at the Greysmere Covenant, which represnts greysmere’s interets in Diamond Lake and neighboring communities. The delegation is led by Dulok Blitzhame, a cunning, pragmatic councilor. Your uncle and a dwarven woman named Bitris Ruthek serve as his deputies. Fortunately, you have few duties, though you’ll occasionally provide entertainment for honored guests (you once performed for Governer-Mayor Lanod Neff, though he doesn’t seem to be a big fan of dwarven music). Galuth is often away representing Greysmere in the neighboring towns of Blackstone nad Steaming Springs, and feels it’s better to let you run wild in Diamond Lake (but not in the Greysmere Covenant building) than to spend time “breaking” you.
In truth, you’ve enjoyed your time in Diamond lake, muddy s@@!hole though it is, and have little desire to return to Greysmere. You spend much of your time in the gambling halls of the Emporium, entertaining soldiers at the Spinning Giant, or entertaining the ladies at the Midnight Salute. Gnorl would even occasionally visit to give you a lesson, but sadly, he was slain by trolls three years ago about two days west of Diamond Lake. You’ve even visited other communities in the region, including Steaming Springs, Blackstone, the halfling town of Elmshire, and the druidic community of Bronzewood Lodge.
Recent talk in town concerns a band of adventurers intending to raid the Stirgenest Cairn across the lake. Having been here five years, you know that all the cairns in the area have already been raided. However, just three nights ago, while entertaining Richfest revelers in the Spinning Giant, you were approached by Cimmerii Acanthus, a dusky-skinned, half-elven ranger that you knew from Bronzewood Lodge. It seems she’d been approached earlier in the day by a man seeking a guide to a “forgotten” cairn a day’s journey outside of town. The man had asked her to bring along any interested companions whom she thought trustworthy. Knowing your interest in histories and mysteries, Cimmerii thought of you. You are to meet your companions at daybreak tomorrow at an old roadside shrine to Fharlanghn about a mile outside of town.