Nieszka

Knights & Nightmares: A Classic Dark Fantasy Adventure

I'm still here! Is Void up? Or do we need a pot from our GM?

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OOps

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Aina

Aina

Age: XXIII

Sex: Feminae

Occupation: Gladiator/Slave

Appearance:

Aina is of an average height, though more lean and muscular than the common Roman standards of beauty might permit. She has long, dark hair, high cheekbones, and full lips. Her body is bronze from many days spent in the sun and painted with the geometric tattoos common among the Amazons.

Personality:

Quick-Tempered: Before her capture, Aina was known among her friends to be quick to anger, but since it is hard to say she is “Quick Tempered” because she is nearly always angry, resentful of her captors. Her every movement has something of the caged tiger: one can’t be quite certain when she will lash out.

Intrepid: Aina is bold to recklessness, dauntless in the face of any danger to her person.

Clever: Aina is very poorly educated by Roman standards, but is quick-thinking in battle and when faced with problems or puzzles. She is good at finding the weaknesses in her enemies.

Capricious: The Amazon hardly ever makes much of a plan, but rather launches into action and asks questions later.

Equipment:

As a slave, Aina now owns nothing, but her leather armor which she was allowed to keep in hopes of the exoticism drawing in more spectators. In the arena, she fights with a polearm.

Skills:

“Swiftness”: Aina’s name roughly translates to “swiftness” and she lives up to the moniker. The Amazon is fleet of foot, flexible, and remarkably agile; her skill in battle is largely due to her speed, reflexes, and acrobatic feats.

Horsemanship: Like all Amazons, Aina was riding almost before she was walking and has great skill in managing horses. There has been some talk of placing her against the other Eques, or equestrian gladiators. Others think it’d be a shame to waste the spectacle of her fighting on foot.

Melee: Though she was trained in the use of bows as well, Aina’s primary weapon is the polearm. She fights like a dervish, using the weapon’s long reach and her own agility to carve her opponents.

Flaws:

Uneducated: The Amazons teach their children the art of warfare, how to fight, how to hunt, and how to ride. Aina can read very little and has no knowledge of politics, philosophy, or art.

Reckless: Aina has no concern for her own safety or for danger of any other sort, not to mention the sort of attitude that is bound to get her in trouble.

Underweight: Compared to the other gladiators, and any other man Aina might find herself up against, she is small. The Amazon has little in the way of brute strength and must rely on other aspects to succeed in a fight.

Backstory:

Spring had come some time ago to the plains of Scythia, but so early in the morning a bite of chill still lingered in the air and Aina shivered as she stepped dripping onto the northern bank of the Black Sea. Salt water ran in rivulets off her bare, goose-pimpled body, taking with it weeks of dirt and grime from her travels. The young warrior had made good time on her trek outwards from the heart of Scynthia and by that very afternoon, she believed she would arrive at her destination.

The chieftess of Aina's tribe had little love for the Romans and their relentless hunger for new territory, and they had been suspiciously absent from Scythia for some time. It was possible that the legions had turned their sights on the easier, more fruitful pickings to the south, but Aina had been ordered out to check the borders anyway. With winter’s grasp lifted from the land, it may once again look favorable to the damnable Romans.

As the warrior woman slipped her clothing back over her damp skin, she looked out across the expanse of mirror-calm water and at the tall black mare nosing near the shore. It was as still and peaceful as any scene Aina had laid her eyes on, with fog rolling off the lake in the grey light of a sun just beginning her day’s journey. It was high time Aina and Aba, the horse, began their journey as well. With a prayer of thanks for the morning’s beauty, Aina collected her few belongings. Aba pranced impatiently as her simple bridle was fitted, and with a wave of apprehension, the warrior woman noticed that no trace of paint remained on her mount’s sleek black body. Gone were the geometric swirls that matched the tattoos on her own skin, and Aina prayed that the blessings that had accompanied the markings had not faded as well.

The peace of that morning lingered within the warrior woman as she entered the pine forests near the Scythian-Roman border, singing a simple chant to the moon goddess and swaying with Aba’s gentle canter. With the overconfidence of a fighter who had never lost a battle, Aina did not fear the approach of Romans—she doubted she would find any on so quiet a border, and if she did she had no doubt in her ability to best them. What were Roman soldiers to the wild beauty of a tribeswoman in battle frenzy?

Then, the first arrow struck. It was a clever shot, not aimed at the warrior woman, but at the unprotected chest of her trusted steed. The big black horse seemed to cave in on herself, crumbling to the ground beneath Aina as the barbed tip found a beating heart.

“Aba!” the warrior woman let out one startled cry of grief as her animal fell. She had raised the sturdy beast from a filly, but there was no time for sorrow just then.

An East Roman Border Guard was welling out of the surrounding trees like so much blood, each soldier bent on attacking the one savage they had seen on the border after being stationed in so remote a place all the long winter. Aina whirled into action, slaying 4, 7, 10 of the soldiers with the cruel blade of her polearm, but the sheer number of soldiers soon proved too much. There was a sharp stab of pain in her left temple, and the warrior woman knew no more.

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Aina is an Amazon warrior from the steppes to the East of the Black Sea, recently captured and taken to Rome to be sold as a gladiator. She has yet to be pitted in the arena but has already been installed in the Ludus Magnus Gladiator School.

The Legend of Gobbledygook

Basira would probably blink awake from where she was staring absentmindedly at the door, waiting for some poor soul to try her latest riddle on and have no clue what anyone was talking about.

Edit: That'd probably be a good reason to go find out though hahaha.

And I'll add it!

The Legend of Gobbledygook

The Door

The Door is set into the rock outer wall of the Tangle, where the map marks an opening. By day, the door stands open, a passage into the unknown worlds beyond, and guarded by the Sphinx, Basira, who tests any who hope to enter the Tangle. By night and in times of great peril, the gate is closed.

Also, speaking of indecision, I have changed Basira's picture... again.

The Legend of Gobbledygook

Basira

So what's your name?
You don’t know already? Well then I suppose you may call me Basira.

Why do you look like that?
All the very best sorts of creatures look like this. You’re the funny looking one, I mean what sort of sphinx are you supposed to be?

You aren’t a sphinx?

Why ever not?

You're weird. I bet you can do some cool stuff.
You’ve been quite rude enough already, but if you must know, I can fly, and I am so clever that even the trees and the boulders listen to me.

So where's your home? Is it as weird as you are?
I live in the highest branches of the oldest trees in the Tangle, a different one every night if I’d like.

What's your favorite candy?
I eat only fruits, and my favorite berries are the bright green bell berries that grow on the twining vines in the highest Tangle trees.

Do you have any?
Not anymore.

High Concept: Keeper of the Door
Explanation: I guard the door of the Tangle against the entrance of unworthy intruders, and I decide whether or not to close the Door during crisis.

The Door

The Door is set into the rock outer wall of the Tangle, where the map marks an opening. By day, the door stands open, a passage into the unknown worlds beyond, and guarded by the Sphinx, Basira, who tests any who hope to enter the Tangle. By night and in times of great peril, the gate is closed.

Trouble: The Only One
Explanation: The is only one Sphinx in the tangle, so I am lonely and vain and prone to self-pity.

1st Aspect: Riddle Me This
Explanation: Whenever asked a direct question, I must, of course, answer with a riddle. If not, what sort of sphinx would I be? (I didn’t do this for the sheet so that you guys could have the info about my character without having to puzzle it out.)

2nd Aspect: So Many Choices…
Explanation: I am highly indecisive when given multiple choices.

3rd Aspect: Head in the Clouds
Explanation: I may be wise and clever, but most of the time I'm too busy daydreaming or contemplating the great mysteries to bother with the present.

The Legend of Gobbledygook

I'm writing up a bit of lore on the Door. :)

The Legend of Gobbledygook

Indecision can be resolved with team effort :)

@ShwiggityShwah

That's sort of what I had in mind. Basira would be great for helping figure out what course to take, at listing pros and cons and arguing for either/any choice. The final decision though, would be where team work came in haha.

The Legend of Gobbledygook

Basira

So what's your name?
You don’t know already? Well then I suppose you may call me Basira.

Why do you look like that?
All the very best sorts of creatures look like this. You’re the funny looking one, I mean what sort of sphinx are you supposed to be?

You aren’t a sphinx?

Why ever not?

You're weird. I bet you can do some cool stuff.
You’ve been quite rude enough already, but if you must know, I can fly, and I am so clever that even the trees and the boulders listen to me.

So where's your home? Is it as weird as you are?
I live in the highest branches of the oldest trees in the Tangle, a different one every night if I’d like.

What's your favorite candy?
I eat only fruits, and my favorite berries are the bright green bell berries that grow on the twining vines in the highest Tangle trees.

Do you have any?
Not anymore.

High Concept: Keeper of the Door
Explanation: I guard the door of the Tangle against the entrance of unworthy intruders, and I decide whether or not to close the Door during crisis.

Trouble: The Only One
Explanation: The is only one Sphinx in the tangle, so I am lonely and vain and prone to self-pity.

1st Aspect: Riddle Me This
Explanation: Whenever asked a direct question, I must, of course, answer with a riddle. If not, what sort of sphinx would I be? (I didn’t do this for the sheet so that you guys could have the info about my character without having to puzzle it out.)

2nd Aspect: Knowledge is Power
Explanation: I know of most every creature above ground in the Tangle.

3rd Aspect: So Many Choices…
Explanation: I am highly indecisive when given multiple choices.

4th Aspect: Head in the Clouds
Explanation: I may be wise and clever, but most of the time I'm too busy daydreaming or contemplating the great mysteries to bother with the present.

Knights & Nightmares: A Classic Dark Fantasy Adventure

The lessening of pain made itself known much more slowly than the presence of it, a dim, cooling sensation as wounds closed and bleeding stopped. It was peaceful to lie still while her body mended, the terror of the last several hours finally beginning to fade, and the dryad felt her muscles start to unknot

With this reduction in pain, came an increase in awareness, however, and soon Rhiannon became aware of a distant roaring. At first, she could not quite make out what this sound was; it seemed too capricious to be water and too hungry to be the wind. It was definitely starting to fade, though. Was she moving away or was it?

For what could have been moments or hours, Rhiannon faded back into comfortable blackness, lulled away from exhaustion, but some undefinable amount of time later, she realized that she wasn’t comfortable at all. She was certainly swaying but in a way too rhythmic and bouncing for her to be in the comfortable bows of a big old oak. The constant movement tugged at the still-painful gashes in the dryads side, dragging her unwillingly from blissful unawareness.

Gradually, Rhiannon came to realize that she was being carried like a child, with someone’s arms under her knees and behind her shoulders. With a small groan, she tore herself into full awareness, unwilling to let herself be taken anywhere without knowing. Her eyes adjusted slowly, but soon the dryad found herself looking up into the face of a thin young human that she had never seen before.

With a small yell, Rhia began to struggle, kicking at him with her heels and pushing at his chest to get away. Soon she squirmed her way free and found herself in the middle of a dirt road, a cloud of smoke billowing up from the clearing behind them.

“Who are you?” she demanded, the words feeling unfamiliar in her mouth for lack of using them.