With a speech from Vesemir and a quick dismantling of the camp, the expedition had officially begun. Rezello took his place in the caravan, sitting in the second wagon; he watched as civilization gave way to wilderness, the forest engulfing the convoy before long. Though he had spent much of his early life living near the Twilight Forest, he had never dared venture within; the people of Scheel knew all too well the danger that lie across the waters of the Leize. So far, though, the forest almost seemed peaceful.
As if the mere thought of it had jinxed them, the initial calm quickly gave way to storm, and with the passage of time it only grew worse. Rezello pulled the hood of his cloak on over his head, watching the skies; it didn't take long for grey to give way to rain, and rain to thunder. The caravan soon was headed back towards a house they had passed recently; while such weather didn't normally bother Rezello, the intensity of the storm was beyond any that he had experienced in the past. Besides, even in a weaker storm these would have been no conditions for carts and horses, and there was no way he was going to separate from the group this early on.
When they arrived at the house, Gray Flame and Vesemir were the first to the door, checking for occupants before letting himself and the rest of the group inside. Taking a moment to wring out what water he could from his cloak before entering, he gave the living room he found himself in a cursory look-around before making his way over to the empty fireplace; some of the others, including a scarlet-dressed woman who had apparently entered shortly after him, were discussing the lack of wood. Kneeling in front of the opening, he loosely clasped his hands together, concentrating arcane energy in the space between his palms. "Don't worry about the wood. There's no need for it," he spoke, opening his hands to release a concentrated, cyan-colored flame that quickly expanded to fill the fireplace.
"Oh ho-ho. Now that's the spirit! I like a young man with a clear goal such as you. Let me introduce you to our Navigator, and fellow ruin enthusiast. This is Mr Gray Flame, and this one is Mr Engelbert"
Rezello turned to the two, one heavily armored in a distinctive suit of full plate and the other garbed in a mask and clothes suited to an adventurer who relied more on their dexterity and perception - and perhaps a bit of magic - to protect them than what they wore. Engelbert and Gray Flame; names that carried with them substantial reputations, and which Rezello immediately recognized. Given the latter's history of traveling into the Twilight Lands and returning unbroken, it was hardly surprising that he was present for the expedition.
"Wassup!" he regarded the masked human and tapped his white mask, indicating their distinguishable characteristic. "Welcome to the club."
Rezello gave a nod as the elf tapped his mask. "A pleasure to meet you both, Gray Flame. Engelbert. Always good to be working with veteran adventurers."
Soon after their introductions, more adventurers began to arrive. The first, a young girl with hair and clothes of scarlet. A member of high nobility, by the looks of it. That one so young would be joining them on the expedition took Rezello by surprise, and it evidently had upset Gray Flame, who had moved to speak with Vesemir on the matter in hushed tones. Though he didn't catch what they were saying to one another, it was evident by the end result of their conversation that the girl - Evelyn, by her introduction - would, in fact, remain a member of the growing party.
Well, this is an interesting development, isn't it? Who knew adventurers were starting so young nowadays.
Ignoring the voice in his mind, he watched as another adventurer arrived. A young woman, also with a head of long red hair, though it seemed to shift to orange along its length. Dressed in clothes in equal measures protective and ornate, the way she carried herself made it clear that she too was, or at least had previously been, a member of nobility. Of what nation or family, however, was unknown to Rezello; he hadn't concerned himself with the general affairs of the nobility since the fall of Scheel - and even before then, he paid little mind to those beyond the city - thus her name indicated nothing to him.
Around the same time, another individual entered the camp - what appeared to be a massive man, too tall to be a human or elf, encased in a threatening-looking suit of heavy plate armor. Another wandering knight, perhaps; a welcome addition against whatever perils they may face on their journey.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the camp, it seemed that the sleeping orc had awoken and was now conversing with the elven woman who had arrived shortly before Rezello. Additionally, a fairly out-of-place looking man was walking around the camp; whether he was another new arrival or if he had simply evaded Rezello's sight up until now, he could not tell.
As mid-morning arrived in the city of Alkuastar, the rising angle of the sun let a single beam of light break through the mostly-closed windows of an otherwise dark tavern room, landing upon a sleeping Rezello.
It's time.
His single uncovered eye opened as he awoke, throwing off the blanket he had been resting under and shifting his body until he was seated on the side of the bed.
"It's time."
Standing up, he made his way over to the window on the other side of the room and opened it completely, allowing the sunlight to fully illuminate his temporary lodgings. He gathered his things, donning his boots and brigandine before strapping the plate elements of his armor on over them.
You're certain about this?
"Absolutely."
Making his way downstairs, he stopped at the bar, dropping a few silver coins onto the countertop. "One last meal, and then I'll be closing my tab." After finishing his food and a final mug of beer, Rezello set out into the city, making his way towards the outskirts to reach Vesemir's camp. As he walked through the streets, he ignored the strange looks he received from some of those he passed. Instead, he let his thoughts turn to the first time he had set foot in Alkuastar, several years ago; it was the first major city he had visited on his ten-year journey, and in some ways it reminded him of Scheel before it had fallen into ruin.
Arriving at the field that the camp was situated in, it seemed he wouldn't be the first. Looking between those currently in the encampment, Vesemir's unusual choice in clothing caught Rezello's attention, and thus he chose to approach him. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I take it you would be Vesemir," he started, giving a quick bow in greeting. "Name's Rezello. I'm here for the journey to Nuria."
Appearance: Rezello stands at a height of 6'6", or roughly 198 cm.
Bio: Rezello was born in the city of Scheel, along the southern edge of the Leize river in the northern frontier of Westernant. The second son of one of the families within the Fulsteel lineage of House Ashton, Rezello was chosen as a child to be trained as a knight of the Sten Corps - a tradition within House Ashton that would have fallen upon his elder brother, had he not been a sickly child incapable of taking on that responsibility.
Through their childhood and into their teenage years, Rezello and twelve other sons of House Ashton endured rigorous physical training and education, preparing them for the duty of guarding the city against threats both known and potential; the former from the untamed wilderness to the south, and the latter from the tainted lands to the north, across the waters of the river that it had been built along.
On the eve of his seventeenth birthday, Rezello and the other knights-in-training were armed and sent into the wilderness to prove their capabilities. Each was tasked with hunting and slaying a great beast before returning with a trophy from its carcass to prove their victory; within the span of a week, Rezello tracked and defeated his target, a giant boar. Returning to the outskirts of the city, he reunited with three other trainees who had completed their mission, awaiting the return of the others.
Once the thirteen were all together again, they headed into the city with their trophies, only to find it seemingly abandoned. Leaving behind the proof of their hunt, they searched Scheel for an indication of where their people had gone, but found nothing. Everything seemed to point to a single conclusion: at some point, while they were outside the city, everyone had simply vanished.
The eldest among them, the first to have returned from his hunt and de-facto leader of the thirteen, was the first to speak, declaring that without people to defend, the Sten Corps had no purpose. They had all earned their knighthood for naught, and on his authority he disbanded their order. Taking up his sword, he left the city, heading south. The remaining twelve soon followed suit, each going their separate ways.
Rezello, dissatisfied with merely abandoning the city to its fate, set out in an attempt to find answers; if none could be found within Scheel, he would simply have to find them elsewhere. There had to have been a time when something at least similar had happened somewhere else, he just had to find a record or sign of it.
Early in his newfound quest, while searching ruins not far from Scheel, he discovered a broken mask within the top floor of an abandoned wizard's tower. Holding it up in the limited light that shone through the tower's window-slits, he suddenly felt compelled to don it; upon returning to his senses, he found it fused to his face. With it came a newfound sense of power, along with a voice he did not recognize; it, however, claimed to recognize him.
Ten years have passed since Rezello first set out on his journey, and though he has learned much in his pursuit of knowledge, the answers he truly seeks continue to elude him. With his list of potential leads growing thin, he could not help himself when he learned of Vesemir Barandir's planned journey to Nuria. He set out to join the expedition immediately, refusing to let what may be his sole opportunity to pursue answers in the Land of Twilight slip by.
Passives: Steeled Blood: The men and women of the Fulsteel lineage inherited the tall stature and robust physique of their progenitor, warrior adventurer Redmond Ashton, granting them enhanced strength and endurance.
Heavy Weapons Specialist: Though trained in all manner of weapons as part of his knighthood, Rezello is especially adept with large two-handed weapons such as halberds, warhammers, and greatswords that make the most of his strength.
Spells: Armory: Grants access to a small pocket dimension, allowing Rezello to swap out between different weapons he has collected. Only mundane weapons can be used with this spell; those that have been enchanted, made using magic materials, divinely forged, or otherwise enhanced beyond purely physical means cannot be stored.
Electric Shell: Emits a surge of lightning magic through the metal in Rezello's armor and weapons, electrifying those in contact with him or struck by his melee attacks. Consumes magic energy slowly while idle and rapidly while affecting a target. Ineffective if the target does not normally conduct electricity.
Hold Ground: Channels earth magic through Rezello's legs and into the ground beneath, anchoring him in place and bracing his body against attempts to move him. Energy consumption is proportional to the amount of force resisted.
Conjure Sparks: Produces a small flame, too weak to be used offensively but capable of igniting flammable objects, maintaining warmth, or providing light. Rezello can choose which of these three properties produced sparks have, the color of the flame changing depending on which are chosen. Multiple sparks can be combined to increase the size of the flame, but not its power.
Mundane Skills: Survivalist: At a bare minimum, basic survival skills were expected of all members of the Sten Corps, as defending the city often required them to track beasts and monstrosities through the untamed forests that lie beyond its borders.
Equipment Maintenance: Though the Sten Corps styled itself as a proper order of knights, and were recognized as such within Scheel, in truth they were little more than particularly well-equipped guards. Without elements such as the page and the squire to perform tasks like maintaining equipment, it fell upon the knights to do so, either by hiring servants or learning to do it themselves. Rezello chose the latter.
Equipment: Fulsteel Spadone: A long, thin two-handed sword. Forged in Scheel as a token of his entry into knighthood from a steel alloy denser than those typically used in swordsmithing. Rezello's preferred weapon.
Weapons of the Armory: Rezello's Armory spell currently contains a messer, a pair of long daggers, a pollaxe, a bec de corbin, and a morningstar.
Sten Corps Armor: Blackened armor, consisting of a mix of plate and mail; pauldrons, gauntlets, half-plate rerebraces and greaves protect the limbs, while the torso is covered by a gambeson, hauberk and green-clothed brigandine. A helmet would also normally be worn, but does not fit over Rezello's mask.
Mask of the Tower: A cursed mask of unusual design, fused to Rezello's face. Rigid, with a leathery texture; the jaw is articulated and can move with Rezello's mouth. A spirit trapped within grants him his magic abilities and claims to be familiar with the Ashton bloodline.
Appearance: Rezello stands at a height of 6'6", or roughly 198 cm.
Bio: Rezello was born in the city of Scheel, along the southern edge of the Leize river in the northern frontier of Westernant. The second son of one of the families within the Fulsteel lineage of House Ashton, Rezello was chosen as a child to be trained as a knight of the Sten Corps - a tradition within House Ashton that would have fallen upon his elder brother, had he not been a sickly child incapable of taking on that responsibility.
Through their childhood and into their teenage years, Rezello and twelve other sons of House Ashton endured rigorous physical training and education, preparing them for the duty of guarding the city against threats both known and potential; the former from the untamed wilderness to the south, and the latter from the tainted lands to the north, across the waters of the river that it had been built along.
On the eve of his seventeenth birthday, Rezello and the other knights-in-training were armed and sent into the wilderness to prove their capabilities. Each was tasked with hunting and slaying a great beast before returning with a trophy from its carcass to prove their victory; within the span of a week, Rezello tracked and defeated his target, a giant boar. Returning to the outskirts of the city, he reunited with three other trainees who had completed their mission, awaiting the return of the others.
Once the thirteen were all together again, they headed into the city with their trophies, only to find it seemingly abandoned. Leaving behind the proof of their hunt, they searched Scheel for an indication of where their people had gone, but found nothing. Everything seemed to point to a single conclusion: at some point, while they were outside the city, everyone had simply vanished.
The eldest among them, the first to have returned from his hunt and de-facto leader of the thirteen, was the first to speak, declaring that without people to defend, the Sten Corps had no purpose. They had all earned their knighthood for naught, and on his authority he disbanded their order. Taking up his sword, he left the city, heading south. The remaining twelve soon followed suit, each going their separate ways.
Rezello, dissatisfied with merely abandoning the city to its fate, set out in an attempt to find answers; if none could be found within Scheel, he would simply have to find them elsewhere. There had to have been a time when something at least similar had happened somewhere else, he just had to find a record or sign of it.
Early in his newfound quest, while searching ruins not far from Scheel, he discovered a broken mask within the top floor of an abandoned wizard's tower. Holding it up in the limited light that shone through the tower's window-slits, he suddenly felt compelled to don it; upon returning to his senses, he found it fused to his face. With it came a newfound sense of power, along with a voice he did not recognize; it, however, claimed to recognize him.
Ten years have passed since Rezello first set out on his journey, and though he has learned much in his pursuit of knowledge, the answers he truly seeks continue to elude him. With his list of potential leads growing thin, he could not help himself when he learned of Vesemir Barandir's planned journey to Nuria. He set out to join the expedition immediately, refusing to let what may be his sole opportunity to pursue answers in the Land of Twilight slip by.
Passives: Steeled Blood: The men and women of the Fulsteel lineage inherited the tall stature and robust physique of their progenitor, warrior adventurer Redmond Ashton, granting them enhanced strength and endurance.
Heavy Weapons Specialist: Though trained in all manner of weapons as part of his knighthood, Rezello is especially adept with large two-handed weapons such as halberds, warhammers, and greatswords that make the most of his strength.
Spells: Armory: Grants access to a small pocket dimension, allowing Rezello to swap out between different weapons he has collected. Only mundane weapons can be used with this spell; those that have been enchanted, made using magic materials, divinely forged, or otherwise enhanced beyond purely physical means cannot be stored.
Electric Shell: Emits a surge of lightning magic through the metal in Rezello's armor and weapons, electrifying those in contact with him or struck by his melee attacks. Consumes magic energy slowly while idle and rapidly while affecting a target. Ineffective if the target does not normally conduct electricity.
Hold Ground: Channels earth magic through Rezello's legs and into the ground beneath, anchoring him in place and bracing his body against attempts to move him. Energy consumption is proportional to the amount of force resisted.
Conjure Sparks: Produces a small flame, too weak to be used offensively but capable of igniting flammable objects, maintaining warmth, or providing light. Multiple sparks can be combined to increase the size of the flame, but not its power.
Mundane Skills: Survivalist: At a bare minimum, basic survival skills were expected of all members of the Sten Corps, as defending the city often required them to track beasts and monstrosities through the untamed forests that lie beyond its borders.
Equipment Maintenance: Though the Sten Corps styled itself as a proper order of knights, and were recognized as such within Scheel, in truth they were little more than particularly well-equipped guards. Without elements such as the page and the squire to perform tasks like maintaining equipment, it fell upon the knights to do so, either by hiring servants or learning to do it themselves. Rezello chose the latter.
Equipment: Fulsteel Spadone: A long, thin two-handed sword. Forged in Scheel as a token of his entry into knighthood from a steel alloy denser than those typically used in swordsmithing. Rezello's preferred weapon.
Weapons of the Armory: Rezello's Armory spell currently contains a messer, a pair of long daggers, a pollaxe, a bec de corbin, and a morningstar.
Sten Corps Armor: Blackened armor, consisting of a mix of plate and mail; pauldrons, gauntlets, half-plate rerebraces and greaves protect the limbs, while the torso is covered by a gambeson, hauberk and green-clothed brigandine. A helmet would also normally be worn, but does not fit over Rezello's mask.
Mask of the Tower: A cursed mask of unusual design, fused to Rezello's face. Rigid, with a leathery texture; the jaw is articulated and can move with Rezello's mouth. A spirit trapped within grants him his magic abilities and claims to be familiar with the Ashton bloodline.
Personally I am leaning more towards the number 2 actually. But as far as his backstory is concerned, if my understanding is correct that his hometown is inside the land of Twilight, I realized that it will be a bit conflicted with the Land of Twilight's cataclysmic history that has already began since 1000 years ago.
To be clear, the intent wasn't so much that I was deciding between one of the two as much as they were both part of the character. The mask would've been something he found during the ten year journey between the disappearance of his (former) kingdom's population and the start of the RP. If the mask part doesn't work out at all, though, it's not like it's so important to the concept that I can't get rid of it.
As for the second part, I probably should have elaborated more on it in the initial post, but what I was going for with the lost kingdom wasn't meant to be part of the Land of Twilight. Rather, a small, independent region, perhaps not even big enough to really call itself a kingdom; mountain range fortresses built atop plentiful mines, with forges, terraced farmland, etc. in the surrounding land for self-sufficiency and further fortifications to protect from hostile wilderness beyond its borders. All effectively pristine ruins after the population vanished.
Looking at the map in the initial post, somewhere within the mountain range in Dagorlad, the western mountains north of Azred and Ellenrin Village, or the mountains bordering the Blizzard Lands strike me as potential locations. At the most extreme the kingdom could have been on a separate continent (if those ports on the western coast can support such travel, rather than just being for ships sailing along the coast), with my character exhausting his options there and traveling to Varenheim to look into rumors he had heard of the Land of Twilight and the upcoming expedition to see if anything he can discover within could give a clue as to what befell his own homeland.
Of course, that's all just thoughts on my part, and I understand if none of that would work.
No? Then is that means he is an adventurer looking for job and his background is not yet made for the RP setting?
Well, as it stands I suppose the background right now beyond his life in his homeland before almost everyone there vanished is just a decade of adventuring (at some point during which he may or may not have ended up with a cursed mask on his face) across the continent, trying to find anything that might give him some idea of why almost everyone in his homeland vanished. Running low on options after ten years with no results, he saw the announcement of the expedition into the Land of Twilight as a golden opportunity and took it.
The promise of riches is, of course, a welcome bonus.
I do have a suggestion that might fit perfectly with the setting and the proposed character's theme. He, ten years ago was a Westernant knight in training specialized for clandestine ops. For their final training, they were tasked to delve into the land of Twilight and must return with a proof that they have reached Nuria. It ended with a disaster in which only your knight and some of his friends that made it out alive.
Fast forward to the present day, he joined the group not only because it pays handsomely, but also to honor his fallen comrades and finished the task they failed to accomplish ten years ago.
If none of what I've suggested ends up working out, I think I can work with this, yeah.
Gonna throw in some interest as well. Got a character concept in mind from an RP that never went through, though before I continue to develop it I'd like the check on the validity of two aspects so that I don't spend too much time developing an idea that would be dead on arrival:
1. He is in possession of a sort of cursed artifact, which grants him the ability to use magic but cannot be discarded. A spirit within, the source of the magic, has some connection to his ancestry and the origin of his homeland. Comes in the form of a broken mask resembling something between a skull and a goblin's face, and has been stuck to him since the day he found it and became compelled to put it on. The jaw is articulated and can move with his mouth, so his ability to eat, drink, and speak is not impaired.
2. He is a black knight, as while he was away from his kingdom/city-state/whatever on a mission in order to complete his training as a knight something happened and everyone within its lands vanished; only he, his fellow knights-in-training that were also on similar missions, and a handful of others who were gone at the time of the incident remained. Without a kingdom to defend they went their separate ways, and thus he turned to adventuring, both to make a living using the skills he had obtained in his training and to uncover what had happened to his home. Ten years have passed since he began his investigation, and he is no closer to finding any answers.
On the note of character ideas, I've had a few ideas and I figure I should probably check on two things for one I've been considering using before I invest too much time into developing it further.
The first, a fairly minor element, being related to his skills. Part of the concept I had involved my character's skills being altered/corrupted by a cursed item he found in prior travels and, due to the aforementioned curse, cannot rid himself of. If that's not something that can happen in the rules of this world, I can adjust that.
The second, more deeply a part of the actual concept itself, is that he's a black knight. Not in the sense of an evil knight suited in black armor - though the armor he wears is black (and his clothes beneath a dark green) - but in that he is unaffiliated with any particular nation, because the kingdom he once called home no longer exists. Though, perhaps less a kingdom and more a city-state, consisting of mountain castles built around unusually plentiful mines and the surrounding forges, workshops, farmlands, etc that made it capable of sustaining itself deep within otherwise hostile wilderness.
Regardless, after returning from a mission he undertook to complete his training as a knight, he found that everyone in the kingdom - aside from some other knights-in-training who had been on similar missions and a handful of other individuals who had been gone for their own reasons - vanished while he was away, leaving only pristine ruins.
Not sure if that conflicts with the whole six nation thing, or if it's just six major powers and other, smaller, independent territories do exist and are scattered around. Could even be that his home nation is unknown to the outside world, either because it was so small or as part of the same circumstances that caused its populace to vanish. Mysterious magical incidents and whatnot.
Member
Augran
Izurich
Soldat Elf
Lunamaria Hawke
Fetzen
Pandolin
Nallore