[CHAR] The Wizard's Bodyguards, A Fantasy Adventure

[SyrianHamster]

Character Creation

You are a sell sword of little renown, having lived a life of relative obscurity guarding merchant caravans and providing security for local lords. For most of your life, you've lacked ambition; that's not to say you didn't try to be all you could be, but rather, everything you've done in your life has ultimately felt empty and pointless.

You've spent the last portion of your life serving alongside like-minded individuals. You don't know what drew you to their company, and not some other mercenary band, but love them or hate them, you feel a sure sense of belonging in their presence. Together you have performed all kinds of mundane tasks, whatever it takes to keep the coin flowing, but not enough to earn any real glory or prestige. You are all simply dust in the wind, lost souls without the sense to realise that something otherworldly is tugging at your subconscious, yearning to put you on course for your rightful destiny.

That was, until a mysterious wizard in crimson robes tracked down your group and recruited your services. As with your comrades, there was something about this wizard that felt "right", and you all agreed to assist him in his tedious quest of exploring the world's more troubled areas. The whole thing sounds pretty dangerous, but the wizard, this Rorin Greymere, has so far provided adequate gold for your services.

And this is where your story really starts; at a dreary inn, the Pig and Sty, nestled in the forested town of Belonde. Your employer, Rorin, is seated at a table and inspecting a mug of weak ale with the curiosity of a dedicated alchemist, oblivious to the bustle and commotion one would expect to find within a tavern.

Suddenly, he looks up at you with his single working emerald eye, and you feel uneasy, as if he's analysing every fibre of your being. After a few moments, he smiles, raises his mug and drains it.

"At last," he says with a throaty tone. "You must be..."

***

Post in OOC until acceptance, then move it here to the character tab. Consider this your initiative test.

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Race:

Class: Although I don't expect your character to adhere rigidly to a D&D style class system, it would help myself and others if you could summarise their role within the party with a few words. That way I can make sure I don't end up with a group of anime ninjas at my back and no bloomin' diversity.

Physical Description:

It's probably best to actually describe the character if you are going to rely on a picture, or you can do without the picture if you like, but definitely describe. Anime pictures are fine, but advised against, as their proportions (legs!) are often way out of whack and some players have a hard time imagining their way past them.

Skillset:

Talents one has either naturally or through education or training of some sort.

Natural Abilities: These are either race related, or unique specifically to your character and are not considered magical in nature. For example, a lizard man assassin might be able to blend into his surroundings, making him invisible. An Elven huntress' eyes might come fully equipped with an optical zoom type deal. A troll warrior might be able to have his skin become as hard as rock for a few minutes.

Magic Type: If used. Choose either Arcane (traditional wizardry), Divine (Holy powers, such as clerics or paladins), or Fell (anything considered unholy, such as necromancy or demonic).

Magic School: Define what school your character specialises in, if they use magic. Examples would be, Elemental for Arcane, Holy for Divine, or Necromancy for Fell. Leave blank if your character is a general practitioner of their chosen magic type.

History:

Equipment:

[SyrianHamster]

I need to keep details sparse, as not to ruin the story too much or to make it too easy to metagame.

Name: Rorin Greymere

Age: Undisclosed

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Class: Wizard

Physical Description: Rorin Greymere is a frail old husk, warped with age. His skin is leathery but tanned, hinting that he is used to travelling on the road. He wears bright crimson robes, with a smattering of purple over garments. His long hair and bushy beard are iron grey in tone, but his single working green eye stands in vibrant contrast. His other eye is obscured by a black leather eye patch.

Rorin tends to wear leather boots and gloves, and carries with him a simple ashen staff with a large pale green crystal of unknown origin set upon its end.

At full height, Rorin is around 6 feet, but is of a terribly skinny build. He boasts no muscles to speak of, and appears to be a man accustomed to light work... or maybe age has simply stripped his flesh and left behind nothing but skin and bones.

Skillset: Undisclosed.

Natural Abilities: Undisclosed.

Magic Type: Arcane

Magic School: Master of All

History: Rorin is a name known to few, though he is perhaps the greatest magic wielder in the known world. Very little is known about the mysterious wizard, although he is known to frequent courts of many Lords and Kings. Some mark him as a member of the Nirin Fir, an almost mythical order of wizards established a long time ago when civilisation was still in its infancy after some great cataclysm.

Equipment:

• Ashen staff crested by a pale green crystal. He guards its origins closely, but any magic user will feel a powerful aura coming from it.
• An ancient ring, made green with age, sits permanently on his right hand.

[knighthawk]

Name: Kuma

Age: 65

Gender: Male

Race: Orc

Class: Hexblade/magus

Physical Description:

6' and 200 lbs is an orcish runt but lets him deal with human arms and armor rather well.

Skillset:
Endurance, the ability to go just one more mile, just one more day without water, just one more minute without air...To get up, just one more time.

Combat (disarm): He has become quite the capable warrior, a lifetime of fighting will do that. But he was taught how to unarm the enemy at minimum to leave them on equal footing and at best to put their weapon in his hand to finish them quickly.

Necromancy (status): Now and again something otherworldly seems to afflict him or his foes. Sometimes his wounds never bleed, sometimes his enemies grow cold as ice, he can start stinking a nauseating aroma. once he killed an enemy but they came back from the dead and he had to kill them all over again. He has yet to find a necromancer to teach him how to control this power.

Natural Abilities:
He posesses an otherworldly endurance and constitution. Perhaps from the undead influence of his mother, perhaps from the ancient ancestry, all to say is he can trade blows with a troll!

He can see perfectly well in the dark but wears snow goggles during the day to keep from going dayblind.

Magic Type: Fell

Magic School: Necromancy

History:
How in the world does an orc live so long? Good question! One might think it started with his mother, the witch doctor of his tribe who received an omen of ruins filled with riches for the taking. On the way to the ruins she became planted with child from a fine warrior but still felt the need to guide the raiding party rather than fall back to the village. There were ruins, there were riches, but there was also undead. She managed to keep whatever bitten infection she received at bay until he was born before it was too much for her body to take and she died giving birth to him, only to rise up again as something wholly evil a few days later.

While many called for his death as a bad omen, the new shaman saw an interesting potential in a child born of the undead and kept him as her own. If only to experiment on.

He grew, but he grew sickly and thin compared to the others. While he got the snot beaten out of him daily for being a runt, he always could seem to take more punishment. So his 'mother' decided to start her experiments early, she would collect his teeth and blood whenever they fell to work her fell magics on, and fell they were for his ingredients used as spell components for necromancy were nearly twice as effective.

She 'convinced' one of the warriors to take an extra interest in the sickly boy who refused to die and put him into a form of strength training. He started with lifting rocks and the like to make him stronger but before he could become just another bulked out warthog, he had the child lift a ten pound weight a hundred times, rather than a hundred pound weight ten times. It was that style of training that got mixed with professional ass beatings from the warrior to teach him how to take the hits. Once he knew how to not die, he began to be trained in how to disarm an opponent, rather than overpower them. Blocks and locks, twisting and turning the weapon and the warrior into the best position for victory.

Sadly, all that time and preparation was useless when a wizard simply fireballed the village like he was exterminating a pest infestation. Only Kuma's constitution let him survive the attack. Since then, he's had a general distaste for wizards, not knowing the fell power flowing in his veins.

Equipment:

• Sword: His prized possession, it was once an unholy blade wielded by a necroknight who reveled in inflicking suffering in others, but when the blade had drunk its fill, it left the dark one to his fate and failures. The sword itself radiates a dark aura that pulls on peoples pride to challenge Kuma to sword fights for his blade. So far he hasn't lost and it provides him with gold and skills kept sharp while in town.
• Light armor, he favors agility and relying on his endurance to survive the wost, again.

[Forsythe]

Name:

• Human: Tala Halfelven
• Elvish: Aranel Kuu`Datto

Age: 18

Gender: Female

Race: Human / Elven halfling

Class: Alchemist

Physical Description:
Due to her elven heritage, Tala has quite a nice figure, lean yet strong enough. Her body build favors speed and agility over strength and durability. Despite being about 180 cm tall, she only weighs about 60 kilos. Her skin is rather pale.

Her face is a bit more angular than that of a human, with prominent sky blue eyes common to elves and full rose red lips. Most of her features are shrouded in her clothing and wild mane of raven hair. Her ears are pointy, but of regular human size.

The thing everyone will immediately notice is her red cloak and hood, making her look like a part of a fairy tale. Her face is further covered in an equally colored scarf. Under that she wears sturdy traveling boots, leather pants and jacket reinforced with metal in key areas. Her gear is full of pockets and belts that can be used to store and hang stuff for her job. Last but most important to her is the leather satchel with a traplock that holds most of her supplies and tools.

When in comfortable environment such as a house or ship cabin, Tala likes to wear a long grey skirt and loose blouse of the same color, coupled with her brown work apron, so she can have her tools at hand at all times.

The halfling wears a ring which is a symbol of her membership and rank in the alchemist's guild. The ring is made of gold with 4 runes and 4 gemstones spaced equally around its circumference, each pair representing one of the four elements. The ring ranks her as a common member.

The woman holds herself in a way that makes her look smaller than she really is, oftentimes picking far corners of a room to sit, hiding behind a crowd or travelling in an enclosed carriage. She prefers to keep her face hidden behind her hair and hood when talking to others.

She doesn’t like large gatherings of people where someone could cause her trouble because of her bastard heritage, but in small groups or between four eyes, she opens up and is quite friendly.

Skillset:
Potion making: The most basic of alchemy, the half elf can create all sorts of potions, from healing salves through beverages to poisons. she allows herself a little vanity in the form of rose perfume.
Metalworking: Tala can refine and cast metals. she is no smith however, and her skills are more fit to creating jewellry and some smaller, specialized items such as locks. she could repair and strengthen a blade, but she wouldn’t know how to create a good one from scratch.
Machinery: Something the alchemist is studying right now. She is good enough to create locks, components for firearms and the like, but her skill is not yet good enough to make delicate parts like clockwork, which is a requirement for the next rank in the guild.
Combat: Tala isn’t as good in combat as the other sellswords, specializing more in supporting them with ehr alchemical equipment or acting as a scout where her ranged weapon and good sight come into play. She is also apt at laying traps.

Natural Abilities:
Dexterity: Not on par with an elf but greater than that of a human, tala has easier time dodging blows and overcoming obstacles.
Sight: Due to in part to her heritage and part to her training, Tala is a spectacular marksman and can spot a target farther than most others.

History:
A daughter of a farmer, Tala spent her childhood working on the field. Her mother died giving her birth, leaving her without a woman figure in her life. Naturally a bit lazy person, instead of slacking off Tala found herself ways to make her work easier, tinkering with the tools. Having no desire to live without his wife, not even for his child, Tala's father withered and perished in the following winter, leaving the 10 year old Tala orphaned.

Taken by an alchemist from the orphanage at the age of 14, Tala worked in the house as a maid, and often as extra pair of hands for the scientist. Inspired to study the art, she begged her master to teach her, but was shooed away as a lowly woman. It wasn't until she took care of the rat problem in the house with a poison she made herself that her master reconsidered, reluctantly taking her as an apprentice.

He soon discovered the girl had natural talent for the art, partly due to her superior half elven intelligence and senses. when she reached the age of 18, Tala sold her neglected farm to the neighbors and used the money to craft her member's ring. Along with passing the tests given to her by her master, she finally gained membership in the Alchemists' guild.

In need of a job to keep financing her studies, Tala has been running around for a few months with local group of mercenaries.

Equipment:

• Blitzkrieg: Her precious ballista. Resembling a crossbow with it’s looks, the arms on the weapon are actually wound up by torsion springs. This allows for the barrel to have a wider bore and for each arm to be winded separately, reducing the strength needed to do so. It takes bolts from gravity loaded magazine that can hold 5 bolts. The weapon has very precise sights that allow Tala to reliably hit a target at 300 meters. As far as ammunition goes, Tala carries armor piercing bolts in the magazines, and the folding stock of the weapon can hold 4 extra pieces that she usually reserves for specialized ammunition, such as poison rounds or the boomsticks.
• Hunting knife: a longer blade strong enough to hold Tala’s weight if for example embedded in a wall to be used to give her a boost. It can also be mounted on the front of the Blitzkrieg in a bayonet lock.
• Boomsticks: the halfling can use her alchemy in combat rather effectively. the sticks are shaped in a way that allows them to be fired from her weapon, albeit at greatly reduced range, or they can be used separately. Tala can manufacture various types, form explosive through shrapnel to smoke, along with different fuzes, such as contact or timed.
• Deck of cards: She carries a deck of cards around with her. Nobody know if or how the deck is marked or whether the girl is just a good player, but she wins more often than not.

[Sir Avita]

Name: Wendel Axewielder

Age: 14

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Class: Mage (Or maybe a subclass of a wizard? Meh. Also possibly, as bait!)

Physical Description: I'm not very good at this. Here goes!

Wendel would be overweight, probably weighing around 73 kg ( or something ) and as tall as 4'8" or 142 cm, so he's pretty short. His head would be pretty round, because genetics and fat. Mostly fat, though. His eyes are of a reddish color, and the area around his right eye would be slightly bruised. His hair would be a brown-ish color, slightly unkept but it isn't too long. ( I have a reference, if this seems lacking. Supposedly it is. ) His body is also littered with cuts and bruises most of the time. Some would say he was "cute," though.

His current clothing would be a gray-ish trenchcoat-like coat that reaches up to his ankle, with a darker shade of gray around the edges, ( again, pic for reference, I drew it this time ) a shirt with very long sleeves, he has to roll them up, a scarf he keeps in a satchel he has, dark brown pants, and leather boots made for traveling, which look like they've been continuously maintained. He also has a bracer on his right hand, and his left hand is covered in bandages. His satchel is very uninteresting.

He's not accustomed to melee combat, even if his descendants were all warriors and the like. He's pretty weak, physically.

He enjoys hugs very well, and seems to prefer being in larger crowds, usually to keep himself hidden or maybe unnoticed. He also cannot, under any circumstances, swim. He wasn't taught how to, that's why. Well, maybe he'll be taught soon, who knows? He doesn't like sleeping in the buff, too. He sleeps only without the coat, and without the boots.

Overall, he looks pathetic. Very pathetic. But cute, at least.

Skillset:

Smithing: Since everyone else in his family was a warrior, he'd picked up some skill in this. He could only make bracers, though.

Melee Combat: Because of his family, he does have some skill in melee weapons. He'd probably be too weak for a two-handed sword, though.

Natural Abilities:

Perception: Wendel's very perceptive, but most of the time, he'd be probably be too lazy or too busy to notice anything odd.

Magic Type:

Arcane

History:

Wendel was born to a family of five. He'd be the youngest, and the most bullied of them all. He spent his childhood lazing about in their home, occasionally running errands and chores. He'd be inclined into the schools of magic when he was 6, while on a task to get milk from the market. When he was eight, he accidentally started a fire while intoxicated with alcohol. Why was he drunk, you ask? Well, blame his father, who left a barrel of mead (or something) unattended. Being the most curious, he drank a whole mug. At the age of thirteen, he was asked to just leave, leave and never return. That being said, he actually left his family, along with his things. Maybe it's his destructiveness, who knows.

Equipment:

Wendel's "Stalberd" - A staff with a blade on it. It's taller than Wendel by a few strands of hair. Though it looks incredibly makeshift, it's actually pretty durable.

Bronze bracer - This is part of armor that was supposed to be for Wendel. He actually forgot that he had this on all this time.

References I used:
http://gyazo.com/8620214a4b5b3691742a22b1f426c3f9 ( My art-- sucky drawing, though )

http://gyazo.com/0d7c9e85f969bcad6b222cf82b4b37f0.png( Not my art. Credit to original owner, and I also edited it. Shhh. )

[Sagittarius]

Lura Virem

Name: Lura Virem

Age: 16

Gender: Technically none, but identifies as male

Race:

Blood Slime

A rare species occasionally born from the spilled blood of beings with large amounts of magical power. They are unique in that they have high intelligence compared to their normal counterparts and can utilize magic, usually either hemomancy or corresponding with the blood slime's "parent". Particularly powerful hemomancers can intentionally create blood slimes and control them, but there are few that have actually achieved this.

Class: Short-range mixed attacker with minor healing abilities

Physical Description:

Though Lura has taken on a humanoid form to better fit into human society, his body is still made of the translucent, crimson gel iconic to his race. His hair and eyes, while still the same gooey substance, are simply a darker shade of red. While unable to understand why people are adverse to his slimy features, Lura still takes the courtesy to hide them underneath his grey, hooded cloak. The cloak, along with his dressy outfit, has several pockets which hold his belongings. He normally stands at a short 5'6" with an average frame.

Skillset:
Hemomancy - Lura's hemomancy is incredibly potent due to the amount of blood he has, but is short-ranged because his level of mastery is still relatively low. He can also use it to mend minor wounds and preform a transfusion.

Mimicry - Lura can copy the movements of others after seeing them, but not their magic or innate abilities.

Natural Abilities:
Lura's form is malleable, allowing him to morph into anything he can see with less mass than him. Absorbing blood temporarily increases his mass and allows him to regenerate lost body parts.

Magic Type: Fell

Magic School:
Hemomancy - The caster's blood is used to attack other beings and drain their life-forces. It can also be used to give blood and seal wounds.

History:
There was once a powerful archmage named Lucius Virem, exhausted from years of fighting. Deciding that he wouldn't fight any longer, the mage hung up his robes and retired to his tower. Relaxing for a few years certainly helped him, but now he was wondrously bored. "I suppose a hobby or two would help," he said to himself as he pondered what he could do. He'd never cooked his own meal in a while, so the archmage told the golem that normally made his meals to take a break, and he himself took up a knife for the first time in a long time. Shaking from something between enthusiasm and muscle deterioration, Lucius accidentally cut himself. Normally unfortunate, this actually turned out to be a stroke of luck for the old mage.

As his blood dripped, it took the form of a small, putty-like blob. Fascinated by this more than trying to do something he was bad at, the archmage brushed the minuscule slime into a cup and brought it to his study. He decided to name it Lura. Everyday, he fed Lura some of his blood and watched it grow, graduating from a cup to a bowl. Lucius carried it from room to room with him, chatting to it as if it were a close friend as he read or took a bath; Lura seemed to hop or shake a little in response to his words. Being eccentric as usual, Lucius wondered if smarter slimes could learn like people and decided to give him an education.

Along with giving him the necessary knowledge to live in the outside world, Lucius helped Lura learn the art of hemomancy, reaching the point where Lura could change his own form into fine shapes. During the ten remaining years of the archmage's life, he finally came to consider Lura like a son. After the old man was put into a tomb in the tower, Lura adopted the surname Virem and took the cloak put away years ago. Though he wasn't welcomed by most people, he found a home as a mercenary, where no one cared who he was as long as he could get a job done.

Equipment:
Grimoires - Lura accepts two types of pay: money and magic tomes. He's still relatively inexperienced at hemomancy, so he tries to learn what he can about it. He can also invoke stronger spells with some of them.

Notebook - Though able to talk, Lura seems to prefer writing down his words rather than actually speaking. He also likes drawing things, but usually ends up making them hyperrealistic.