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Thessir

Submerged in black waters he thrashed. The light was too far to see and all that surrounded him was the cold grip of the pool starting to pull him underneath. As he felt the current start to jostle his flailing form he recalled watching the bowl floating away, the sickly yellow paste inside dissipating into the stream. He couldn't breath. He was moving but he was too cold to struggle. The nothing he could see was joined by the darkness behind his eyelids as he lost consciousness.

_
It was evening. The sun was just starting to touch against the horizon. The beams of light were cast through the clear windows below, faint particles of dust caught in the illumination. Up above, in the dark shadows of the rafters slept the diminutive young elf. With his head rest against the wall while he slept atop the roof beam he had his hat set over his face to block out any stray light to save from discomfort.

"Omigosh! I can't wait to see who shows up at the tournament!" One overly cheery voice from below remarked in what was clearly not their indoor voice.

"I hope plenty of cuties sign up this year!" The girl's accompanying friend added, speaking with an annoyingly shrill and squeaky voice.

Thessir stirred, rudely roused from his slumber by the two empty-headed girls passing under, gossiping about the upcoming tournament. He never cared for sleep, not with the dreams such rest brought however waking was never pleasant either, especially when it was still daytime.

"Tournamint this, tournamint that." He muttered in irritation, largely to himself. Pushing himself up he sat his hat back upon his crown and stretched, yawning deeply as he did. Grabbing hold of the side of the beam he lowered himself a bit before letting go and landing on the floor below with deft grace.

"Weire it not for the lightniss in my pouch and the locks to the library I'd say nay but here I am no liss, off to sign up in the hopes of moving forward." He rambled on, talking to himself until he caught notice of someone staring from the corner of his eye. A flower beast-kin half submerged in the garden soil was looking out from under her petals at him questioningly. After all, talking to one's self was not normal behavior, at least not in Zauberheim. Seeing her staring back at him he grumbled and turned away, cutting through the garden on his way out of the academy.

_
He had made his way to the market where he purchased a wooden dowel for a measly few coins. While of little use for him now after some work he saw potential in it as a weapon. Perhaps not a fine weapon of elegant make but a weapon no less.

Heading into the northern courtyards of the academy he found himself enjoying the experience less and less. Bustling crowds of people filled the streets, most of them a fair bit taller than him making it quite hard to navigate. Even from underneath the brim of his hat the sunlight made the world far too bright, hurting his sensitive eyes as he looked around. Keeping to the walls and trekking through shade whenever possible he eventually made it to the pavilion where numerous purple registration tents were set and ready to recieve applicants.

With his hat low he kept a low profile and continue towards one of the tents chosen largely at random. There were people that knew him but none he'd really describe as friends. He was a strange sort and strangeness often brought a sense of alienation with it. Affiliated with neither elf nor beast nor man despite his racial heritage he stood out from the accepted and the welcome. It wasn't so much discrimination as it was isolation. No one had much to do with him or his kind and he even less so.

So he had no real friends to speak of, which was fine in his opinion. In the wake of his failure solitude has clung to him like the scent of sea water no matter how many people surrounded him. They did not know, he did not need for them to know.

He was Thessir, he was not from here. That's all he'd ever share.
@PaulHaynek - Excellent. And yes, Leomund is no more.
@PaulHaynek - Here's my replacement character, Thessir. I decided to go with something a little different from the shadow hand model which is hopefully acceptable. It's a useful alteration spell but it comes with some strong drawbacks which hold it back from being too strong. Hopefully he's a bit more palatable than my last two.



@PaulHaynek - Alright then. I have two choices for alternatives.

1: I swap Gang out for a fellow student who uses alchemy to enhance himself at a severe cost.

Or

2: I scrap them both and replace Leomund with a student that's a rogue elf who uses darkness magic to conjure shadowy hands that can grapple opponents and wield weapons.

Which sounds better?

Edit: Actually, I'll just go with the second choice myself. I like the idea better and it's easier to work with being a single character.
@PaulHaynek - I got the character's appearances up. I'm planning a joint writing sample featuring the two of them but I'm holding off because if Gangraena simply cannot be I'll have to do some major rewrites to both Leomund and the character replacing her and that's if I don't scrap both of them and write up someone else. Also I made the changes to Gangraena, removing the resistance to dark magic as well as her healing effect from curses.

Anyhow here's the updated sheets, complete with everything except the writing sample.


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@PaulHaynek - There are a couple things I'll argue in her defense.

Firstly as far as toughness goes she's fairly strong but her flesh is no tougher than most light elves. She's far easier to put together but depending on the damage sustained that can be made quite a bit harder. I've put a high resistance to dark spells and the ability to shirk certain types of curses but all other forms of magic work just as intended on her. By herself she's a powerhouse physically but her range and especially her speed are both lacking. Her attacks tend to be big single hit strikes while she makes little effort in dodging, usually opting to sustain blows in favor of a more aggressive attack.

Secondly while she is definitely more powerful than Leomund who quite frankly sucks when he's left alone they do make a potent team. This said she is not a student at the academy so plots that exclude outsiders will typically leave her uninvolved. She is by large a secondary character so her involvement will be largely circumstantial, especially for the tournament arc where her role will be quite passive indeed. When she is involved as a team they are quite powerful but Leomund will always be the weak link in the duo. Taking him out makes Gangraena much easier to fight as it deprives her of his support magic.

If needed I can remove the resistance to dark spells to give her a bit more magic vulnerability since she lacks the ability to cast spells herself. If you have any other suggestions regarding changes I'll definitely be watching out for input.
@PaulHaynek - I've decided to change the second character to downplay the reanimation concept so now it's more organic in nature. The only thing missing from the sheets currently are the appearances. I'll be adding those after a short break but I felt like sharing what I've got written thus far since all of the sufficiently important details are already covered. Hopefully these two are acceptable. The appearances shouldn't take long to write.


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@PaulHaynek Alright. I suppose redefining this character's state as "Questionably alive" in that they aren't wholly dead but also behave rather different from most living beings would be more appropriate?
@PaulHaynek - Excellent news that. I may be able to suffice for one but for the other there simply is little substituting anything else in for it.

As far as your mention regarding death and spirits the method of reanimation is barred only to extremely powerful beings such as gods correct? Is there a concrete understanding to which entities exist in this realm that fit something close to that description or is that flexible? I'm happy to discuss possible alterations to the background I'm designing for her if you have changes that would help make her better suit your setting. I'll have something more concrete to present when I finish her background. I'm just doing my student's background first before I get to her CS.
Excellent. I shall get my CS's written up.

@PaulHaynek - By the way, in regards to appearance is an image strictly requires or will text suffice?
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