I need some help to fill up my story.
I've covered the relationship between each of the characters in my party and the story at different levels. Except for one, the concept seemed to make sense at creation but we're getting to Hook Mountain Masacre and I still have no handle on the character.
The character is Keela, a Human Shoanti female Axe-Clan Barbarian raised as a half-wild ship-lass by a benovelant (to her) female smugler in Riddleport. She was forcibly tatooed when she was 12 by a Shoanti crewmember who ran off afterwards.
So far I've played up a link between the Axe-Clan and the remains of the Wrath Empire but I can't seem to find good links to the storyline.
Any ideas anyone?
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Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but here is a possible hook and backstory connection for your barbarian lass.
Assuming you have not fleshed out exactly how the infant got into the hands of the Riddleport smuggler, this should be feasible. Jakardros Sorvak, 2nd in command of Fort Rannick and the Black Arrows, was a young recruit at the fort long ago when the Black Arrows chased down and killed a group of half-ogres/ogres/you pick the race that had attacked a shoanti camp and slaughtered most of them. A few prisoners were taken for eating, and well other unsavory things. These prisoners were deranged, mutilated, or dead by the time the Black Arrow patrol caught up with the giant types and killed them, however one of the female warriors who was near death gave a totem, necklace, some memento to the young Jarkardros and told him that her infant daughter was hidden at the destroyed camp, safely tucked under a fallen tree (or some other place) as the surpise attack was sprung. Jakardros retrieved the infant, and passed her along to a smuggler contact he had in Riddleport, along with a sack of gold as support money, since Ft Rannick is no place for a child to grow up. He also gave her the necklace/totem/you pick as a memento of her tribal ties. When the party rescues Jakardros in AP3, he will recognize the necklace and reveal their connection.
Alternatively you can have Jakardros and a band of Black Arrows meet the party at some point in the AP prior to actually starting Hook Mountain. After the party was resting from defeating Thistletop, and eating dinner at their favorite watering hole, the Rusty Dragon, I had a band of Black Arrows come in from the road, grim faced and quiet. This was basically to let the party know in advance who and what a Black Arrow was, and the name of the fort they came from. You could do something similar, but in this case have the leader be Jarkardros and recognize the Shoanti player by her memento. Establishing this connection to him would also engage the character more during AP3 since
... good stuff ...
But I'm afraid I'm using Jakardos (now a dwarf) as the older cousin of another character whose family was forced to exile by ogre and ogrillions (orc-ogres) raids and Vale as an ex-lover for another character (female half-orc). So the remains of fort Rannick are kind of already involved.
But I like the ogre-kin vs shoanti angle even if the Hook is a bit far from the coast for the Axe-Clan.
Maybe a Stone Giant long-range raid theme vs the Axe-Clan defenses. Could tie up with The Fortress instead, maybe use Conna like Jakardos. She could have been fixing what she saw as a brash and dis-honorable move of some of her younger siblings allying with ogres and/or hill giants a long time ago and biting more than they could chew against the Axe-Clan Braves leaving a costly blood bath and a few orphans.
Still have a lot to figure out but that might just help play up the alliance angle in FotSG.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll come back with more when I figure it out.