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Quote from last night's session: "Avner is like the Burt Reynolds of Sasseine."
I knew I was going to have a good time roleplaying Avner, inspired by the great Flashman. But from everything I've read on these boards, I wasn't expecting the players to enjoy him as much as I do!
I certainly didn't skimp on his racism (I stayed away from any real-world epithets, but his anatomically-based shorthand for the islanders he expected to meet on the trip to Farshore was still pretty vile) or sexism (the players succeeded on a Knowledge: Local to know he'd been seen in the company of many of the city's most desirable women, but failed the Sense Motive to tell that his spare-no-details descriptions of these conquests were more than half BS). Nevertheless, most of the PCs were eager to accept his invitation to party down at the Meravanchi mansion. They take him to be a laid-back, fun-loving frat boy. So far they haven't seen the petulant, entitled, and snobbish aspects of his character. (Another set of Sense Motives they failed allowed Avner to conceal his reflexive snarl of disgust when players told him that some of their ancestors had been dragons, or worse yet, household servants).
The thing that particularly set Avner up to shine in the player's eyes was that I introduced him during a scene when Lavinia was chewing out the party. Several sessions ago, they captured Harliss Javell due to a phenomenally lucky sequence of initiative and grapple checks when she tried to exit stage left by swimming out the sea passage after they'd negotiated with her. Having wind walked out to Kraken's Cove, the party had no way to bring Harliss back with them, so they decided to put her in a crate and bury it. When they went back for Harliss and the Sea Wyvern four days later, they decided to strip its former captain naked and tie her to the prow as a living figurehead. Upon sailing back into the harbor and encountering all the ships that were leaving town after the Wormfall Festival, a 30+ Bluff check had the crowds jeering the hapless Crimson Fleet pirate and cheering the Heroes of Sasserine who had captured such an impressive prize & turned her over to the Dawn Council.
Although it hasn't come up before, I've always figured that Thenalar-educated Lavinia is a feminist in the mold of a Bryn Mawr or Smith College graduate. So she was livid that the PCs, who are firmly linked with the Vanderborens in the public mind (and some of whom have been jockeying to be linked to the family & its fortunes through marriage), would humiliate any woman so crudely & publicly. She launched into a speech about how, on their voyage to the Isle of Dread, it would be essential to maintain civilized standards of decency and not match savagery with savagery. Halfway through, I put Avner's mustachioed portrait on the projector: "Mind if I interrupt, Lavinny? Just wanted to offer my congrats to the heroes of the hour! I hear you were flying quite a saucy flag during your sail this afternoon! So sorry I missed it - maybe my father could arrange a private performance at our manor sometime? He's a very important man, you know, and never one to get in the way of a little fun."
All of these Lavinia / Avner interactions were improv rather than planned, but it's going to be interesting to see where things go from here as we begin SWW.
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Wow. That's an amazing tale. Avner hasn't been introduced yet in my game, though I thought he was a wonderfully repugnant character. Interestingly, one of the PCs is also a Meravanchi, and quite the ladies' man himself, though perhaps a bit more respectfully so. Looking forward to see where that goes.
"Living figurehead"...your group rarely fails to entertain you, huh? XD
I like your characterizations thus far...be sure to share any other gems that come up, impromptu or otherwise.
Wish my PCs had Enjoyed Avner more OOCly. Every hinderence even minor ones to them becomes a vile thorn in their side which they hate with all their being. -sigh-
Good job thou~! Good personalities & Timing make a Great NPC.
my players hated him.
they did even sneak into his quarters to shave of his mustache.
btw they hate mustaches, even on my marshal/mythic exampler/knight (4/7/1), now that I am a player.
Yeah he had it rough from my player.he got his clothing thrown over board ,was dangled over a cliff ,thrown over the rail on the ship drugged stripped and painted, and came to blows with the drawf..he lost he hates them but fears them even more after zander there leader told him he had enuff of his s*%t and lost his cool after a comment one his crew after a battle in witch one was killed{he hand picked his crew} he told him one more word just one and he would flay his skin from his body and leave him for the beasts and he no longer had his protection if the drawf should decide to gut him and watch him slowly die in a small cold voice . it was very chilling to hear it spoken like that and the drawf just needed one more reason and he would have .So he spends his time in farshore in fear and drinking after the battle of farshor and zander marring ms.vanderborn
and becoming farshor fleet commander he just stays out of there way they broke him bad the scare from the drawf didn't help .
My players hate Avner more than any character in the campaign, including Vanthus. The relationship started out badly when the PCs first met Avner at a dinner party held in their honour, and he criticized the party swashbuckler's swordsmanship and offered to give him some pointers on how to properly use a sword. At the same party, Avner seduced 16 year old Larissa Lidu, got her pregnant, then fled the city in the Sea Wyvern.
In the last session the party had a nasty encounter with a tribe of bullywugs on the Isle of Dread which cost the lives of Urol (whom the PCs loved) and one of the PCs. After the fight, in which Avner frequently cried for help whenever a bullywug came anywhere near his position, he casually remarked, "That was a bit of a challenge - I was almost worried there for a moment." He almost died for that crack. I wonder if Avner can make it all the way to Farshore before the party kills him.
I love the idea of this kind of characterization of Avner. Wish I could have done him a bit differently when I ran STAP. I succeeded with him in earning the players' dislike and enmity, but overdid it just a tad since the pot came to a boil sooner than I would have liked.
On the other hand, my group absolutely adored Urol Forol. I played him as this super enthusiastic one man pep squad who loved every bit of adventure he could wring out of life - even the most mundane of things.
As an aside, any DM getting ready to run Here There Be Monsters, be sure to see 10,000 B.C.. There's a part of the movie when they're trekking through a jungle and get attacked by what I immediately identified as Terror Birds. They were absolutely nasty! They did a number on my group, especially the nest mother. Great visual illustration of what these voracious prehistoric flightless birds can do.
