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Pardan
Acolyte
31 Posts |
 Posted - 08 Jan 2006 : 19:26:39
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This character was originally meant as an NPC and enemy but since the characters (I was DM at that time) saved her I decided to make her a full-fledged PC for me ;)
In order for you to understand where she comes from, I'll have to talk about the adventure where the characters encountered her.
During their wanderings in the Heartlands, the adventures came upon a lord who was on his way to the nearest town, there to ask for help. He was ready to fall from his horse and in terrible shape.
The characters found out that he had been plagued by terrible nightmares, haunted by unseen, unspeakable images and sounds every night.
From what he told them, it all began when suddenly, a castle had appeared only half a mile away from his own keep. It had simply been there one morning.
The characters, good-natured and helpful, decided to try and find out what was going on...
Once in his keep, they stared in amazement at the strange castle standing within sight...it did not look like it had been built by human hands. Rather, it was distinctly elvish in design and form...but of a design and form not seen in thousands of years.
They decided to approach the castle....
Well, from there on it's quite simple...the castle was Xaxox and the elf who greeted them was daruth Winterwood who seemed oblivious to anything that had happened in the last 12000 years...I decided to twist the material from the MotP a bit...in my version, Daruth does try to bring Xaxox back to the Material, but everytime he succeeds, he returns to sanity and to his old form (without having spiders for a brain) - a protective ward he had managed to cast before he went completely insane, overwhelmed by urges unthinkable. The same was true for his two companions, the only ones alive.
One of them was Rythael, Daruth's lover and companion, the other was daruth's brother Vaelthel.
The characters, intrigued by this mystery ( how had the castle travelled in time - even the Crown Wars were unknown to the elves living there), decided to stay until the puzzle was solved...and noticed how the castle and its inhabitants became more and more monstrous as time went by...
Finally, they found out what had happened and were able to flee with the help of Daruth, who, as his sanity slowly drained away, only wished for Rythael to be free of this unending circle of madness and sanity. Vaelthel had already transformed into a monstrous being and had been killed by the characters.
They managed to get out even though Daruth, now completely subsumed by the alien presence inside him, battered them with spells to keep them in.
Now, Rythael is alone. The castle has vanished again and her lifemate is gone. She is alone, in a world she no longer knows. The barbarians of old - humans - have forged mighty realms and have even mastered magic while the elves are almost gone...
She is a female moon elf of about 190 years ( I ruled that in the Far Realm time does not flow like it does in the Material World and that they have spent all these years in a state of timeless madness, only aging when emerging on a Material World).
Her alignment is CG, for she is friendly and easygoing...most of the time.
The world, however, confuses her greatly and she has yet to cope with the differences...
She is a 6th-Level wizard/1st-Level Alienist ( to show the influence of the Far realm, she is not going to take more levels in the class) and has the Cerebrosis feat - see above for reasons.
What do you think of this backstory and of the character? Do you have any ideas how I could showcase the bizarre schism between her friendly nature and the last vestiges of madness that will forever cling to her mind...?
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Do not knock on Death's door - ring the bell twice and run away.
He hates that. |
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Bluenose
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
134 Posts |
Posted - 09 Jan 2006 : 16:30:02
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Perhaps it's too obvious, but the most likely? form of madness would be an occasional delusion that the world is still just as it was 12000 years ago. It's probably not the case that she thinks that all the time and refuses to recognise current reality, but under certain cirucmstances she starts to act as she would have all those years ago.
So when a fight breaks out with a group of drow, she casts spells to disable the human barbarians and apologises to the nice Ilythiiri for their behaviour. |
These, in the day when heaven was falling,
The hour when earth's foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.
Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and earth's foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay. |
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Character presentation...critique and tips desired
