Garet

Somewhere Over The Mountains

"So you're going through with this." The grizzled caravan guard stood in the doorway to the inn-room.

"Yes, Captain Wolff," Maxmilián said as he finished packing his bag.

"Doubek, you already sent a message by horse to Erostey. Assuming the messenger makes it alive, you've done enough to warn your family. Just come back with me to--"

"Sir, I'm going with the Caradian Emperor." Max belted on his scimitar at his waist and pulled his bag over his shoulder. Looking at his captain, he continued, "I can't stand by when my family is in danger. If we can learn where those creatures come from, and how to stop their advance, then I'm going to go."

Wolff nodded. "I suppose I can't stop you, then." He stepped out of the way as Max walked out of the room, then stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Here," he said, handing Max a small coin pouch. "A bit of gold for supplies. And you're gonna need a good mace or two." With a sour smirk, Wolff added, "Tell those beasts I said 'hello'."

~~~~~

Just because I need a mace, doesn't mean I know any more than 'swing and hit', Max thought. In addition to his scimitar and pack, his belt held a quality mace, with leather wrapped around its head. "Farran, what am I getting myself into?" he asked, looking down at the gray tabby cat beside him. Max stood on the corner of two streets in the capital of Caradia, just a few streets away from the castle gates. "Going up against those inky creatures again is, eh, frightening..." Shivering, Max sighed. "Come on, Farran."

Steeling himself, he resumed walking and didn't stop until, at the castle gates, a guard wearing a sergeant's uniform stopped him. "Halt. What's your name and business?"

"I am Maxmilián Doubek," Max answered, noting the old guard's face and one eye. "I am here to join the Emperor in his fight against--"

"--fight against the foul creatures plaguing the land?" the sergeant filled in, followed by a snort. "At least you look more fit than a few others we've seen." He waved for Max to enter and said, "You better hurry, though, they may be rarin' to leave about now, if I heard anything right."

"Thank you." With a nod, Max strode past the guards and found himself on the edge of a castle garden. Ahead of him were a large man in white armor, a woman in a white gown, and another woman in armor. Near them were around seven or so people; from what Max could see of their varying appearances and postures, this wasn't an everyday troop of soldiers.

"...We've a long way to go and it wouldn't do to walk the whole way," the man in white said. Max had seen a few paintings of Emperor Balan, and he'd thought they were exaggerated to some degree. Now...maybe the exaggeration was less than Max had thought.

Here goes nothing. With Farran at his heels, Max approached the armored man and stopped a few yards away. He bowed at the waist and said, "Sire, may I ask if this is the expedition decreed by the Emperor of Caradia?"

Somewhere Over The Mountains

Max Doubek

Picture

Name: Maxmilián Ladislav Doubek

Age: 34 years

Gender: Male

Personality: Max Doubek prefers to observe the situation and speaks when it is necessary to share information or voice an opinion. He doesn’t put effort into making friends, due to a fear that he’ll end up indirectly causing more misfortune to fall upon them. Max tends to see more into people than he lets on. He also watches his surroundings and mentally notes down details that seem odd or helpful at the time.

In his own opinion, Maxmilián is a bad luck charm, just as some people believe that a black cat crossing their path brings bad luck. While Max has learned better control over his hex-magic, he feels that he still ends up causing a mishap in someone else’s life daily. Whether this is unintentional or not nowadays is almost moot, since people who learn of his hex magic usually see him as bad luck anyway.

In any case, Max took up a hobby in sketching the positive things in life, to try to become more optimistic. …It’s a work in progress, alongside trying to forgive others. He thinks that it’s any ill will he feels toward another person that sparks a mishap. And Max doesn’t want that to keep happening.

Role/Title: Hexblade, Occasional Sneak
In combat, Max relies on his sword and hexes. He is also capable of stealth, to a certain extent.

History:

History

Maxmilián Ledislav Doubek’s father was also the village chief of Erostey, so Max’s older brother Ivan had the burden of trying to live up to expectations of becoming the next chief. Personally, Max was glad he wouldn’t have to worry about that. However, his own problems appeared around his eighth birthday. Accidents and other instances of bad luck occurred more frequently when he was around, and he noticed them only occasionally. It was only when Max saw his father’s servant, Anders Persson, giving him suspicious glares that he started feeling like something was wrong. When he asked his father, he was told to not worry about it, nothing’s wrong with him. A slightly confusing message for a child, but Max shrugged it off when very soon, Mr. Persson was replaced by another man.

Erostey was a common stop along the route for travelers and traders. One trader who came frequently to the village was a foreign man named Adrian Vann, who was friends with the Doubek family. Just a little before Max’s ninth summer, he and Ivan stopped by Trader Vann’s vendor stall, where Max proceeded to accidentally shatter a fragile glass ornament. While Ivan left to fetch a little more money from their parents, Vann and Max struck up a conversation. The trader learned that Max was starting to feel like he was “bad luck incarnate”, in the words of a young boy. When Ivan returned, Vann decided to cut the ornament’s price in half. He did write and send a short letter with the boys back to their father. Max didn’t know what was in it, but his father left later to have a talk with Trader Vann.

Accidents and mishaps never did stop following Max around. A few years later, at the age of twelve, Maxmilián and a friend, Arvid, were fishing at a river near Erostey. Arvid hooked something that ended up pulling him and his pole into the water. When he didn’t come back up after a few seconds, Max dove in to try and help him back up. He couldn’t see clearly in the water, but it looked like Arvid was trapped by something…large. Max and Arvid only got away from the water creature because Trader Vann and a local hunter found them and intervened. Back at the village, Arvid’s father, who happened to be Anders Persson, accused Max of bringing doom to his son. In short, Anders claimed he was going to kill Max and rid the village of his bad luck, and he had several other villagers backing him up.

Max’s father finally agreed to a previous request made by Trader Vann – to send Max with him for training. Vann was sure that Max had potential to become a hex-mage or something similar. Max was not thrilled with leaving behind his home, even if it was with a family friend. Oh, and another thing – Vann was a mage, too, but with a different specialty. However, Max had to agree with his father that it wasn’t safe for him in Erostey.

So Max left town and travelled with Trader Vann for a few months. During that time, he began learning how to control his hex-magic properly, though it was a slow process. Eventually, he and Vann left Caradia and met with another man, Jeshal Kifius. Kifius called himself a hexblade, as he was able to use both sword and hexes on the battlefield. Vann stayed long enough to help Max get settled, then resumed his trading routes.

Max trained under Kifius for close to ten years, eventually getting work alongside him as a caravan guard. This was his career until just recently. He was one of the guards in a trading caravan travelling back through Caradia, when they were attacked by inky-black creatures with claws, teeth, and glowing red eyes. Max was one of the few survivors who fled on horseback, eventually making their way to the capital of Caradia with their report. It seemed that other reports of the creatures had already reached the capital’s ears.

Though he had to rest first, Maxmilián Ledislav Doubek decided to answer the Emperor’s call to arms. He didn’t know yet whether Erostey or his family had been affected, but if not, then ridding the land of the black creatures may protect them…

Anything extra: A few years back, Max found Farran and decided to keep him.

Farran

Somewhere Over The Mountains

Personally, I was waiting for @SanaChan to state whether my CS was accepted or not, after making the changes that were requested.

The Parallel Campaign

This is looking interesting to me. I'm not sure yet about filling out a CS, but I do wonder about the semrians' tails. In the wiki, it says that their twin tail-ends are mostly vestigial. Does this mean that there was a reason for a semrian to have two tail-ends during the course of their evolution? Did they help with mobility, for example?

Somewhere Over The Mountains

@Raylah I had a couple ideas regarding Farran, but while editing Max's cs, I decided that the cat wouldn't work out as a familiar. So, he's no longer mentioned under Role/Title.

Somewhere Over The Mountains

@SanaChan I finally got around to finishing my cs, and here it is.
CS Edit #1: Specified Max's specialty in magic, and changed cat from being a familiar to just being a cat.

Max Doubek

Picture

Name: Maxmilián Ladislav Doubek

Age: 34 years

Gender: Male

Personality: Max Doubek prefers to observe the situation and speaks when it is necessary to share information or voice an opinion. He doesn’t put effort into making friends, due to a fear that he’ll end up indirectly causing more misfortune to fall upon them. Max tends to see more into people than he lets on. He also watches his surroundings and mentally notes down details that seem odd or helpful at the time.

In his own opinion, Maxmilián is a bad luck charm, just as some people believe that a black cat crossing their path brings bad luck. While Max has learned better control over his hex-magic, he feels that he still ends up causing a mishap in someone else’s life daily. Whether this is unintentional or not nowadays is almost moot, since people who learn of his hex magic usually see him as bad luck anyway.

In any case, Max took up a hobby in sketching the positive things in life, to try to become more optimistic. …It’s a work in progress, alongside trying to forgive others. He thinks that it’s any ill will he feels toward another person that sparks a mishap. And Max doesn’t want that to keep happening.

Role/Title: Hexblade, Occasional Sneak
In combat, Max relies on his sword and hexes. He is also capable of stealth, to a certain extent.

History:

History

Maxmilián Ledislav Doubek’s father was also the village chief of Erostey, so Max’s older brother Ivan had the burden of trying to live up to expectations of becoming the next chief. Personally, Max was glad he wouldn’t have to worry about that. However, his own problems appeared around his eighth birthday. Accidents and other instances of bad luck occurred more frequently when he was around, and he noticed them only occasionally. It was only when Max saw his father’s servant, Anders Persson, giving him suspicious glares that he started feeling like something was wrong. When he asked his father, he was told to not worry about it, nothing’s wrong with him. A slightly confusing message for a child, but Max shrugged it off when very soon, Mr. Persson was replaced by another man.

Erostey was a common stop along the route for travelers and traders. One trader who came frequently to the village was a foreign man named Adrian Vann, who was friends with the Doubek family. Just a little before Max’s ninth summer, he and Ivan stopped by Trader Vann’s vendor stall, where Max proceeded to accidentally shatter a fragile glass ornament. While Ivan left to fetch a little more money from their parents, Vann and Max struck up a conversation. The trader learned that Max was starting to feel like he was “bad luck incarnate”, in the words of a young boy. When Ivan returned, Vann decided to cut the ornament’s price in half. He did write and send a short letter with the boys back to their father. Max didn’t know what was in it, but his father left later to have a talk with Trader Vann.

Accidents and mishaps never did stop following Max around. A few years later, at the age of twelve, Maxmilián and a friend, Arvid, were fishing at a river near Erostey. Arvid hooked something that ended up pulling him and his pole into the water. When he didn’t come back up after a few seconds, Max dove in to try and help him back up. He couldn’t see clearly in the water, but it looked like Arvid was trapped by something…large. Max and Arvid only got away from the water creature because Trader Vann and a local hunter found them and intervened. Back at the village, Arvid’s father, who happened to be Anders Persson, accused Max of bringing doom to his son. In short, Anders claimed he was going to kill Max and rid the village of his bad luck, and he had several other villagers backing him up.

Max’s father finally agreed to a previous request made by Trader Vann – to send Max with him for training. Vann was sure that Max had potential to become a hex-mage or something similar. Max was not thrilled with leaving behind his home, even if it was with a family friend. Oh, and another thing – Vann was a mage, too, but with a different specialty. However, Max had to agree with his father that it wasn’t safe for him in Erostey.

So Max left town and travelled with Trader Vann for a few months. During that time, he began learning how to control his hex-magic properly, though it was a slow process. Eventually, he and Vann left Caradia and met with another man, Jeshal Kifius. Kifius called himself a hexblade, as he was able to use both sword and hexes on the battlefield. Vann stayed long enough to help Max get settled, then resumed his trading routes.

Max trained under Kifius for close to ten years, eventually getting work alongside him as a caravan guard. This was his career until just recently. He was one of the guards in a trading caravan travelling back through Caradia, when they were attacked by inky-black creatures with claws, teeth, and glowing red eyes. Max was one of the few survivors who fled on horseback, eventually making their way to the capital of Caradia with their report. It seemed that other reports of the creatures had already reached the capital’s ears.

Though he had to rest first, Maxmilián Ledislav Doubek decided to answer the Emperor’s call to arms. He didn’t know yet whether Erostey or his family had been affected, but if not, then ridding the land of the black creatures may protect them…

Anything extra: A few years back, Max found Farran and decided to keep him.

Farran

Somewhere Over The Mountains

Hi. Quick question, is there room for one more? Or is it getting to be too late? @SanaChan

A wild RPer appeared!

Hi, everyone. I've been a roleplayer for...maybe ten years now, since I started as a beginner on a different website. I've been to a few different roleplay forums, and I'm hoping to be able to spend some good time around here. The genres I've written in the most are medieval and/or fantasy, Pokemon fanfiction, and I've wanted to try superhero-style RPs from time to time.

...Hi.