Favorite characters

It was pretty clear that Katoichi from an earlier post is a Kobold ripoff of  hommage to the long-time Japanese movie character Zatoichi., the blind masseuse-gambler-swordsman. Wonder Wife and I are great fans of Beat Takeshi's 2004 version of Zatoichi, and that film directly inspired these two characters as well. This backstory is from an email to the DM.

Elsa & Adrien

Karmin and Walter will be playing Elsa and Adrien, twin sisters. Elsa is the butch one (older by a minute), a nimble rogue, and Adrien is the femme one, a charming bard. They hail from a middle-class family in the hinterlands (you tell us where), a merchant clan with the roots of its small fortune in piracy and smuggling. Dad wants the family to be more legit, so he insisted his children go to university and he had the resources to pay their way in. Adrien is truly interested in learning more about these magic powers she has been experiencing; she has been up to now attempting to be a model student even though her own moral standards can be fairly elastic. Elsa really just came along (a) to protect Adrien and (b) to con/steal from the townies to line her own pockets (she takes after her mother's side of the family). As such, while Elsa attends classes and sometimes even enjoys them, much of her time is spent off-campus in various taverns around town, drinking and gambling with the townies.

Now here are the deets only the DM needs to know:

First of all, Adrien is actually a boy. He is a cross-dresser, living as a woman to avoid a longstanding feud involving the first-born sons of rival families in [whatever hinterland we're from] as part of dad's plan to go legit and leave the clan past behind. Adrien has Disguise and Bluff at 9 and Act at 8 and has been doing this almost his whole life, so I imagine she passes very well. Other than that, the backstory is accurate.

Adrien has focused exclusively on Enchantment spells and carries a small ornate masterwork light crossbow (a going-away gift from daddy) in her pack and no other weapons. She wears only padded armor, which has very intricate and ornate embroidery. Some paper and pen in her backpack and that's about it. I have attached a picture that gets the flavor: she is practicing Perform (Dance). Since this is a one-shot, if you think the Enchantment focus is a little off for the flavor of the adventure (or if I just change my mind) I might go Conjuration.

Elsa almost always has numerous daggers secreted about her body, which she draws -- and sheathes -- with sleight-of-hand. Since many people in town go armed, however, she often openly carries one very plain-looking dagger, lest anyone mistakenly suspect she's an easy, defenseless mark. One of the hidden daggers is a masterwork dagger that she recently was given after finally -- and just barely -- proving herself by managing to nick her mother during one of their many combat lessons. While she cannot use magic herself, due to her sister's coming into some ability with it, she's been interested in learning more about magic -- specifically, say, methods for how those without magical talents can try to use magical artifacts. Otherwise, she focuses on her own, personal lessons: making local connections with smugglers, thieves, and others with dubious morals so that she may someday, despite father's wishes, keep up the family tradition; learning the local gossip; and trying to make just enough money gambling each week to cover her bar tabs and incidentals -- by cheating, if need be. Since town-gown relations are strained, however, she doesn't advertise that she's a student, instead preferring to leave her affiliations and profession nebulously undefined -- and leaving her books and school supplies on campus.

Karmin is my best gaming buddy and we did have a swell time playing these siblings for a campaign that was all too short...

Moar characters

During Covid days there was no such things as a table group, only online games. The upside of this was that I could play with my Boston Buddy, Lyle, and his Massachusetts posse. DM Eric wanted to work with the Pathfinder 2E system, and took us on an adventure reminiscent of the TV series Lost but way cooler  (and with a much better finale). Since I was new to PF2E, I only rolled up one charcter for that campaign, Isle of the Lost Elders:

Raebur Oatkeep

Raebur Oatkeep was an attorney with a thriving private practice in his Halfling community in southern Bresne, mostly mediating personal or commercial disputes between members of different clans. 

Because of his skill, he was appointed procurator and charged with negotiating treaties and trade agreements between his extended tribe and the goblin band with whom they shared the land and frequently encountered. Raebur did his job gamely for many years, but the constant stress of trying to engage in a fruitful conversation with the goblin representatives, who seemed to change weekly if not daily, and who seemed to regard signed agreements as, at best, mere suggestions, and more often as funny stories, took its toll. After pursuing too many impossible agreements, and after pressing too many futile claims and grievances, and after the lead goblin emissary ate the last copy of the original signed agreement between the two groups, Raebur lost it in the conference room, lost his job, and lost his mind. 

His madness presents in two ways: First, while he still affects an air of conciliation and agreeableness and can negotiate with the best of them, if you get on the one, tiny, threadbare nerve he has left he will snap and go berserk. Second, he left his tribe and wanders the world seeking to serve a writ of Habeas Corpus on the god Llenkandrin, and allies himself with various adventuring groups in the hopes of finding some mystical access to godland.

That campaign was so successful and so much fun that the party re-upped for another go, which turned out to be an adventure in the shadow realm called Harrowing Days in Riverstead. Since I was used to the PF2E system now, I rolled up more than one character,as usual. First go:

Kaleb Straphammer

Kaleb is in service to Molki Starbrow, the halfling Landless Jarl whose domains extend to the roadways throughout the Thanelands and who exerts control over commerce, trade, and traffic from the polar caps to the southern lake (name?). Supposedly a mid-level consular officer in charge of the Division of Weights and Measures, responsible for calibrating scales, inspecting minted coins, and similar duties, Kaleb is actually a troubleshooter without portfolio, with an active role in espionage, sabotage, intelligence, retribution, and straight-up thievery on behalf of his Jarl and the halfling community.

It is under his cover story that Kaleb has been seconded to the household of Thane Matlara Sun-Feather, ostensibly to use her connections with the court in Riverstead as he negotiates comprehensive revisions to the equivalency rates for measurements of liquid volume. In actuality, Molki Starbrow has an interest in prosecuting the High King Haldaar Fire-keeper’s three-point program, and Kaleb’s true mission is to support Matlara and her ally Thane-Princess Estrid in any way he can, using all his available talents, as they maneuver the platform through the Ealderman’s Council.

Kaleb also has another agenda, a personal one. As a supporter and frequent contributor to the Congress of Folkish Rights, Kaleb takes the CFR non-human advocacy platform very seriously and works whenever he can to overcome the prejudices and biases prevalent among many humans in the Thanelands. The inclusiveness and tolerance found in Riverstead and most of Icemelt Hold does not obtain as one journeys to the far parts of the Thanelands, as a well-traveled Kaleb knows first-hand. The Unification Faction of reformers seems to offer the best hope for a truly equitable society, and Kaleb would not be averse to tilting the table or stacking the cards in their direction if given half a chance.

As it turns out, Kaleb would have done awesomely, considering the way the game has developed. But nooo, I had to go with my second draft...

Sehmet Woosha

Sehment Woosha hails from Kywenvale in north Thanelands, having been raised in a small, well-established Amurran community. Her affect and appearance suggest long training in self-discipline; she is both physically fit and emotionally controlled, at least outwardly. Although  she shares little about the details of her early life, it is clear that after some time in seclusion and training, she has traveled widely throughout the Thanelands and been in service to various jarls and eaoldermen.

She currently resides in the court of Thane Matlara Sun-Feather and is known as a spiritual advisor for various courtiers, drawing on her history with and apparent expertise in contemplation practices and meditation techniques. While she does partake in these activities on a regular basis with various nobles and attendants, in actuality she is a troubleshooter at large for the Thane, solving security problems in a quiet and effective way. Capable, stealthy, and with an apparently agnostic attitude toward the niceties of property rights, she proves herself very useful to the Thane in the right circumstances. 

As befits her training, Sehmet is a bit of an ascetic, preferring a simple diet and spare lifestyle, especially when compared to the pomp and luxury of the court; she is often seen as a fish out of water, an amusing but well-regarded oddity among the nobles, mechants, and eaoldermen. In personality, Sehmet is congenial and deferential, soft-spoken with a wry sense of humor, and possessed of a surprising predecliction for good-natured pranks. Despite years of service, she has never quite mastered the complications of formal society, but has at least learned how not to offend.

Sehemt was fun to play, but unfortunately she met an untimely end at the hands of a Fire Giant (but she went our spectacularly). Totally coincidentally, shortly after Sehmet died, the party ran into this fellow:

Barashak Walkbeside

Barashak Walkbeside is – was – a mercenary bodyguard/enforcer in “private practice” as it were. Barashak wandered the Thanelands as a sell-sword, caravan guard, village constable - any sort of position in which a heavy hand was required and not a lot of detailed thinking. Barshak, a simple laborer, got had gotten involved with a slightly heretical sect within his community, some Iruxi who expressed doubts about some of the ancient stories told in Iruxi oral tradition. As such, he found himself caught up in the internal conflicts/purge and wandered off to make his way apart from the community.

He met Lord Viarmo Silinis while serving as a caravan guard, and the elf (with a high tolerance for his unorthodoxy) took an interest in his story and in him, wound up hiring Barashak on occasion, and sponsored him into a respected position within a somewhat disreputable profession. Barashak feels indebted to him as a result.

It was through the good offices of Lord Silinis that at the time of the Grand Council Barashak found himself in the employ of a consortium comprised of a minor Jarl and few Ealdormen from some outlying holdings. He had been hired to do some of the same work that Harrison et alii were doing for Matlara Sun-Feather – keeping an eye on things, running confidential errands, and so forth. (He didn’t have the skills for even the rudest diplomacy or subterfuge.)

Most of his time was spent in the Gallery and Courtyard, where he alternated between being captivated by Harrison’s bardic performance and keeping a weather eye on his charges. Much of his professional attention was spent on watching Lady Malphene Crag-Jumper. He observed her strongarming and intimidating various delegates and secretly hoped that she would try such tactics on one of his employers, so he could get some exercise in. As it happened, she apparently tried the patience of another interested party before coming across any of his clients (who were all in the Thane-Princess’s camp) and he watched her leaving a stable looking quite the worse for wear after the old minstrel and some others followed her in.

Barashak tried to engage a subdued Malphene in drink and conversation after that, but she was in no mood and his social skills were not up to the task of persuading her to share.

When all hell broke loose, Barashak was in the Courtyard, standing behind his employers as they watched the stage. When King Haaldir cut Kalbio’s throat and panic broke out in the crowd, the Jarl and the Ealdormen scattered like chickens in hailstorm, despite Barashak’s best efforts to herd them together and protect them.

…then everything went black until he woke up in the Shadow Realm.

Hopefully, Barashak will live to see the end of Days and I won't have to roll up another character. Because that would be a shame, innit?