Name:
Percival Dwallings
Aliases:
Ol' Crazy Barktooth, The Hermit
Gender:
Male
Race:
Human
Appearance:
Percy is a middle-aged male with dirty blonde but slowly greying hair that is
cropped close to his head. He has a medium length, bushy beard extending out
past his ears at its widest points that goes down to the top of his sternum.
Often times his beard has an odd leaf or twig in it from wandering around
surrounding forests. Percival's tanned, weathered face face shows aging
around his soft brown eyes.
He isn't much for a traditional wizard's robe and instead wears a knee length
piece of rough burlap fabric with a hole in the top. His pantless tunic is tied
up with rope at the waist which often allows a good breeze up. On his feet are
hardened leather sandals, the most expensive thing he owns. Tucked into his
belt is a twig from a yew tree.
Backstory:
Mary and Vyall Dwallings were peasant farmers who often took out loans to save
their failing beet farm. For 17 harvests they labored over thier hard won beats
and sold them at the local market hoping to turn a profit that may pay back
some of their debts.
As Mary was nearing the end of child bearing age she was offered a job. She was
sitting at her husband's stand while her husband went to go relieve himself at
a nearby oak tree. Any sale of course would have helped them but no one really
wanted to buy beets, even at their nominal prices because no one likes beets.
Mary was approached by an older man with shocked gray hair wearing once
extravagent robes. Surely he'll buy some beets and not just walk away
She thinks.
"Not much buying today?" asked the gray haired man.
"Not much today, or ever really." Mary bluntly puts their struggles out there.
"Well how does a gold coin sound?" the man eyes up Mary as if she was an animal
in a fair.
"It sounds like our year's salary" laughs Mary.
"Well I'll cut to the chase. You can have coin if you'll sire my seed."
Taken with aghast she twisted her face in disgust. Upon further contemplation
she realized that she'd be helping out her loving husband. She agreed at 3 am
the next day she'll have his child. And so she did. She told her husband that
they were blessed with the fortune of the church. He was suspicious about this
large sum of money coming in but decided to accept it without question.9 months
later she gave birth to a handsome baby boy named Percival after Mary's
favorite grandfather. Vyall was suspicious that his child had blonde hair, yet
his wife and hisself are dark haired. From then on Vyall believed it wasn't his
and harbored slight resentment. Percy cried a lot through his infant years
giving many sleepless nights to his parents. At that time in their lives that
was their only worry. Their beets began to yield a healthy harvest which, along
with the gold, greatly helped pay their debts. Which was probably a shame to a
local pub owner to whom the family owed money to, one more missed payment was a
free beating.
It wasn't long for Percy to start exhibiting signs of magical endowment. At the
was lifting rocks that would be heavy to the average infant, curious Vyall
lifted the rock and it was as light as a feather. Now this could be misconstrued
as just a very light rock so no worries there from anyone. Then one day at the
age of eight Percy was helping with farm work. Hoping to impress his distant
father he unleashed the plow and attempted to pull the plow, now at such a
young age he couldn't control his gifts so the whole plow went floppy. His
father was puzzled yet angry. He wanted his plow back the way it was, yet he
amazed that at the touch of his son the iron resembled rubber. But to the
dismay of Percival his father's amazement wore off and he was beat. With the
idea of suppressing magic in mind Percy tried not to use it fearing a beating
but eventually curiosity won him over and in secret he began manipulation of
an object's make up. This continued for several years until Percival was 17.
His aging father wanted Percival to take control of the farm and had his offer
rejected. Percival wanted to explore the world beyond the Dwallings Beet Farm
and hopefully learn about his gift.
And so with no money or blessings in hand Percival headed east to the seas. To
pay for his fare Percival worked on the Salty Fairy for 2 years. The Salty
Fairy was a passenger ship that ferried people across the seas. Having no
money Percival sheepishly admitted so upon boarding of the ship. He was allowed
to work for his share at first by cleaning up and slowly by helping the other
deck hands. In his first week of preparing to be a deckhand his hands were so
blistered that touching the salty railing of the ship would cause him to jump
back and exclaim loud curses. Which were looked down on in the ship by the
captain; the way he saw it was that this was a passenger ship and they pay for
customer service. Allowed to wrap with bandages Percival went into crew
quarters and sat on his hammock. Running his left hand over his injuries wished
that his blisters could heal faster and form a callous.
Knowing what good wishing did he instead cursed his hand think-shouting Just
heal damn you! From his left hand sprung a tiny green spark. The spark
branched out as it made contact with the skin. The spark touched the blister
and the skin began to knit it self together. With the contact of the spark to
the skin and his skin coming back together led to another curse coming out of
his mouth from the burning sensation. It was heard on the floor above and a
fellow crew member stomped his foot down and said, "Keep it down, you know how
the cap'n don't like cursin'." Percival said nothing and held his right hand to
his left and thought heal. Again, the green spark branched over his many
blisters, healing up the skin. Clenching his jaw Percy allowed his skin to be
brought back together at the expense of pain. To not arouse suspicion Percival
went and wrapped his hands just so it would look like nothing had happened at
all. From then on Percy would endure the pain caused by the rope burn and
blisters. Whenever he healed himself it was new skin that appeared not callous;
eventually, Percy gave up on healing his hands so they would adapt to the world
they live in. The indentured servitude ended and the greenhorn magician left to
learn as much as he could.
After months of traveling without money, the goodwill of people faded and so he
wandered through the forests hoping to scrounge up some food. In a summer
midday Percival sat on a log, the sun shining brightly into his eyes decided to
retreat into the darker treeline to perhaps eat a mushroom. Without a minute's
notice the mushroom grew as heavy as a stone and he dropped it jumping out of
the way to make sure his feet would remain unharmed.
"I wouldn't eat that if I was you." A mysterious yet aged male voice emanated
out.
"Well I would have liked to until it became heavy, I think this sun is doing me
in." Replied a hungry Percival.
"No son, it is not the sun, I did that." Percy's eyes widened in amazement when
he realized that this random man was like him. A wiry, lean muscled old man
walked out of the shadow wearing a rough looking robe.
"I can do the same thing" says Percy as he manipulates the mushrooms weight to
make it lighter with his thought as he picks it up. This time a blue spark
tingles over the mushroom and Percival picks it up about to eat it.
"No just don't eat that, it's poison, dipshit."
And thus the apprenticeship began when the poison set in and the poorly dressed
man was forced to intervene. He was simply known as the Sage and most knew him
in the local area. He offered wise counsel, settled disputes, and was a healer.
He healed using herbs, poultices, and alteration. From this wise man, or the
Sage as he was known, that Perc learned how to heal with herbs and magic.
Percival trained under this man for 10 years where he helped townsfolk.
After 10 years a 30 year old Percy took his leave and just began his walk
through nature. And so on the way with no money to purchase a night at an inn,
Percival slept in the boughs of trees. While he stayed in trees he took good
care of them as they had taken good care of him. He mended broken
branches and scratches in the bark of the wood, feeling he was doing a little
bit of right in a world so wrong. It was one tree that he stayed in after
healing a wood nymph a single twig fell from the tree. Percy felt that this yew
tree's guardian sent its thanks. The tree is part of the wood nymph and so
removing the twig was painful. Knowing the pain it must have caused the tree,
Percy patted the side of the tree and headed on wards where he felt the road
would take him.
10 years pass and soon Percival finds himself in a familiar
forest.On his path Percival subconciously found his way back to his old
master's tree. His master had altered the tree so that it formed a single room.
It was in this room that a note lay upon a table with a small paper weight.
Pinned to it was a sealed invitation addressed to the Sage, Percy's mentor.
The Note
[i] My student I hope time finds you well. You made a good apprentice, I had a
feeling you'd be when I first saw you. Now let me cut to the chase, there is an
invitation pinned to this letter. It is addressed to me but my old bones are
weary, I'm tired, so I fused with this tree. It's served us well over our
times, and it has served me even longer. It only feels right to help out this
old tree. Now about the letter. It was addressed to me but i feel that you are
younger and better suited to the task ahead. Remember thsoe stories I told you
about Magist Primus? Well as powerful as he is, he vanished and a Prince Seadus
took his place. Read the invitation. Follow it's instructions.
-The Tree formally known as The Sage.[\i]
Weapons: A twig
How did you find out about the tower?:
Percival's old master offered Percy as himself to the tower.
Personality:
Percival is a quiet man talking to himself and nature rather than people. In
his healing profession he is kind he won't over exert himself, the way he
learned is where he uses his magic efficiently. He lives off the land and cares
for nature a great deal. Often times he ponders off in though in the middle of
sentences if he chooses to talk. His mind is like the trees he sees everyday,
strong.
Magic School and Skill:
Percival is trained within the ways of Alteration. After living in the forest
with many obstacles in his way the weight and shape of an object can be changed
with ease from him. To do so he has to lay his left hand on the object and
think hard or speak aloud. An easy way to put it is that Percival is a master
of his craft. His healing skills slightly extend past flesh wounds. Although he
can sort out poison from someone's bloodstream by making the poison heavier so
that it drops to the bottom of the vein and slowly diffuses out is something he has become proficient in.
