Pre-Campaign Relationships

[Palena]

So, Gersh wants us to figure out how we all know (or know of) each other. I'm open to suggestions, and I have some more specific ideas for possible situations, but here's some more general ideas I'll just throw out there in case anyone wants to utilize them:

1. Persons A and B try to one-up each other on missions; may either be serious competition or good-natured (a la Legolas and Gimli of LotR)
2. Person A said something off-hand within earshot of Person B and unknowingly earned the animosity of Person B.
3. Person A saved Person B's life months prior to joining Varien's crew
4. Person A is someone Person B knew from the distant past (perhaps with knowledge of embarrassing blackmail-worthy antics).
5. Persons A and B were both in the Royal Army/mercenary group/trade guild/secret society together.
6. Person A witnessed/heard of a major failure in Person B's past.

I'll add more as I think of them.

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So currently:

Gareth [Sean]
-Keidra: Views as 'Authority Figure' in party
-Raven: Believes that he is an Eladrin
-[Kevin]: Wants to thoroughly interrogate

Keidra [Rachael]
-Gareth: views as the "rookie" of the group; offers guidance
-Raven: respects combat ability, but trusts him about as far as she can throw him
-[Kevin]: resents for past and future undermining of her authority in the party; tries to be civil

Raven [Zach]
-Gareth: ?
-Keidra: Respects as comrade-in-arms
-[Kevin]: ?

[Kevin]
-Gareth: ?
-Keidra: ?
-Raven: ?

[Palena]

Name: Keidra
Age: 29
Race: Human

Description: Keidra is 5'7" and muscular. She has strawberry blonde hair that is typically braided at the nape of her neck to keep it out of her way and muted hazel eyes. She has tan skin thanks to her months working in the sun.

Personality: Tends to not speak unless addressed; Very direct with friends; respectful but firm with employers and acquaintances; ruthless and unforgiving to her enemies. Not very outwardly emotional.

Job: Mercenary (armed escort, scout, executioner, go-fer, tactician, saleswoman, guard, etc.)

Weapons and Armor: Spear; a knife visibly strapped to her thigh. A very faded and worn Royal Army tunic with chain mail over it.

Known Information: Was personally sought after by Varien upon her arrival in Coronas and has been working for him for 6 months.

[irishmagician]

Name: Gareth
Age: 20
Race: Human

Description: 5'10 and leaning on the thin/gangly side, Gareth is fair-skinned, has piercing green eyes, and has a shaved head customary to his monastic order. A birthmark shaped like Ioun's holy symbol lies on his right arm.

Personality: Somewhat 'sheltered' due to growing up in a cloistered environment, Gareth is a bit naive when it comes to everyday life. Despite this, he is extraordinarily inquisitive/curious about anything he doesn't know, which tends to lead him into mischief more often than not. Has an odd habit of answering questions with questions.

Job: Acolyte of the Hestavarian Order

Weapons and Armor: Wears white and light orange monk's robes bearing Ioun's symbol, with a thick leather-bound tome hanging off his belt. Does not carry any obvious weapons.

Known Information: 'Volunteered' by the Hestavarian Order in Coronus to work for Mayor Varien, and has been doing so for the past six months.



Rachael, perhaps some variant of #3 would work? This character has a tendency to find/get into/cause trouble, I could see Keidra either saving his rear a couple times or covering for his social faux pas that he can be prone to making. Thoughts?

[lordgersh]

Here's something worth considering: What do your characters do in their free time? They will have significant free time, not just before the game starts, but also throughout the game. You won't be doing missions constantly. Especially between major arcs, there will be downtime.

(Rachael, Zach... remember how in Scales of War there would sometimes be weeks that went by in between chapters? And Rupert and Makaria would basically drink heavily during that entire time? That.)

So, do you guys have common interests? If Gareth spends his free time being a Monk at the Hestavarian Temple, it's likely he doesn't have as much of a relationship with the rest of the party. But, if he spent his free time studying texts with Raven trying to figure out who/what he is... that would be a totally different dynamic.

[nivek]

Okay, not everything has been decided, but here is some cursory information. I will try to fill this out further soon.

Name: TBD
Race: Eladrin
Age: 75

Description: Standing 6'1" and thin (compared to a human) with silver hair and deep blue eyes; his skin barely has more color than his hair.

Personality: Considered arrogant by first impressions, giving all others the respect he considers due (extremely courteous to some, dismissive of others). Acts with an air of authority, occasionally implying intellectual superiority. He has a reputation as a skilled negotiator.

Job: Appeared in Coronus 3 months ago as a mercenary. Did several jobs for various merchants defending their trade lines before being hired by Varien about a month ago.

Weapons and Armor: He wears a well maintained leather armor and wields a longsword, possibly carrying a sling (not confirmed).

Other known information: From the Thodrin Forest

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As we have only done one job together, I don't know how certain we are of each other. Here are some ideas:

Rachael: A little bit of 1, 2 & 3? I tried to preemptively give orders to the group before you did, stepping on your toes for a bit. However, I was able to prevent a fair amount of damage to the group, slightly easing the hurt feelings (to what extent, I'm not sure).

Sean: Maybe some 2 with a bit of 3? Again, I helped shield you in the last mission, but your continued questions about the Thodrin Forest (which yielded some, but not much information) got on my nerves after a while? We'd have to work out what you asked and what you learned if that is the case.

[irishmagician]

Free time? I would say that Gareth would be exploring Coronus mostly, as he would have spent most of his time previous to Varien's employ in cloistered settings. Based on the background I sent you, the priests of the Hestavarian Order would not be in any particular rush to see him back anytime soon; so he most likely would not spend much time there beyond any duties they request of him.

I would agree with Kevin's points, though I am not sure how bumbling Gareth will be until there is an actually chance to see how he does in combat. He would ask your character a lot of questions though, about the Forest and EVERYTHING else, as I believe (correct me if I am wrong, Gersh) Eladrin wouldn't be very common amongst the Joint Mission or the Order in Coronus.

Based on what I see about Zach's character in my mind, I think that he would attempt to glean information from him but fail in amusing fashions (as from what I gather Raven would probably be non-disclosing about his history). Hence, Gareth will probably come to the (false) assumption that Raven is some form of unseelie Eladrin, based on the shadows/lacking-pupils-thing. In fact, some of his free time would probably be spent (attempting, most likely failing amusingly) discreetly trying to either verify this assumption or see if Raven is hiding non-existent pointy ears by magic.

I could also see Keidra keeping Gareth 'on-track' when it comes to missions for Varien, as I am sure that Gareth has the potential to be side-tracked very easily.



Gareth [Sean]
-Keidra: Fellow founding member of party, 'Authority Figure'
-Raven: Professional Acquaintance, Believes that he is an Eladrin
-[Kevin]: Professional Acquaintance, Wants to thoroughly interrogate

[Zguy]

Name: Raven
Age: uncertain
Race: Human... ish?

Description: A very disconcerting looking man, Raven is about 5'9" tall, with a very lean build. His skin is dark, but not tanned. It almost looks like there is a constant shadow over him. He has short black hair and eyes that are completely matte black. No difference between his sclera and iris coloring. He admits that this was mostly the reason for him taking the name "Raven".

Personality: Quiet, perceptive, a bit odd at times, especially when it comes to conversations about past events. He doesn't tend to lie very much, but he often avoids topics rather obviously. Some of the ways he stares at things with his all black eyes can be unnerving to others.

Job: Spy, Assassin, Scout, Tactician

Weapons and Armor: When on a job, he wears leather armor stained specifically to not shine in the light. His weapon, a large bastard sword always slung across his back has a similar oil worked into every metallic surface to give it a matte finish. The blade itself often looks charcoal gray in color.

Known information: Raven began working for Varien about 2 months ago. Before then, he was taking jobs for unimportant or random people in the Docks district (a very seedy area of the city). Varien recruited him personally, and as far as anyone knows Raven has only taken jobs from Varien ever since. He spends most of his free time either alone in his room or in one of the many libraries Varien has granted him access to. What he researches is something you would have to ask him.

[lordgersh]

For the record, Eladrin are very rare in the Northern Kingdoms. I would imagine that Kevin's character is the only Eladrin in Coronus.

Elves and Half-Elves, however, make up, collectively, about 15% of the population of the Northern Kingdoms.

[Zguy]

It's tough to guess what my character's connections are to the others.

Rachael and Gareth - since you both have been working with Raven the longest, you probably know a bit about his background. He literally just appeared on the grapevine one day having taken out an underboss of a gang in the docks district. Then he bounced around different jobs, never working for one group more than once until Varien personally took a trip to the bar where Raven most often is hired and recruited him.

If you spent anytime asking about his past, you'll have noticed that he does discuss the events after killing off the gang leader. If asked about any events before then - he's always evasive or tries to change the subject.

None of you had ever heard of him or any rumors of a person with his appearance or skill before the day he fought the gang. ~ Right Gersh? ^.^

When it comes to interactions... I see Raven respecting Keidra for her skill and tactical knowledge. Probably relies on her to have a second pair of eyes on the battlefield.

If Gareth ever followed Raven on any of his research expeditions, I doubt Raven would mind. I don't know if Raven would open up just yet about the purpose of his research, but it seems to be focused around accounts of disappearances of people in the area and city records of families.

[Kevin] could possibly be somewhat of an annoyance. Especially with interrupting Keidra's orders during a mission - since Raven would have already decided that Keidra knew what she was doing. But I think this would depend a lot on how the first mission went with him in the group.

Oh and Sean - Raven doesn't just have no pupil. He apparently has no eye entirely. The sclera, iris, and pupil are all the same color, blended completely with no visible difference between them.

[Palena]

I'm going to try to address everyone's posts in one. Bear with me.

As far as free time, Keidra does not like to be idle. Often in her free time she will seek out local contests to watch or participate in, might take the odd job or two, or may just sit in a tavern, thoroughly amused by the drunkards.

I'm still working on her bio but as of now her primary interests are weapons and military history (but not to the point where she would want to sit in a library poring over texts). She also has some less violent ones but I haven't gotten to that point yet. XD

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Sean: I could see Keidra sort of taking pity on Gareth, making sure he stays out of trouble, and taking him under her wing, so to speak. He's the 'rookie' of the group to her (regardless of his actual skill). Watching out for him would become even more of a priority for her once Varian has them both jumpstart this merry band of heroes.

As far as common interests: I could see Keidra possibly going on a walk with Gareth at some point and having a friendly chat.

Also: Does that mean we might have more "I'm rolling a d20 to see if I make a socially awkward comment" moments? Those were gold.

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Kevin: Given that situation (which I think would work well), I believe Keidra would resent your character a lot, not just because you stepped on her toes, but because the orders you gave saved the party a lot of trouble (thus making her second-guess her assessment of the situation and her fitness as the party leader in general).

That being said, in the spirit of professionalism and comradarie (and because you're not the first arrogant, holier-than-thou merc she's had the pleasure of working with), she would try not to show it or act on it (which could make for some interesting situations later on in the campaign). She's got a one-strike rule with those who question her authority: Do it again, and she'll probably take you to task about it.

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Zach: Keidra probably pressed you for some background information when she was first working for you, since the whole appearing out of thin air thing made her a bit skeptical (and curious). She won't push the issue of your past as she completely relates on the fact that some things are better left a mystery.

I would say in combat that Raven is the one Keidra most trusts to have her back in the party thus far. He's proven himself in combat time and time again, and has proven himself to not be a bumbling baffoon outside of combat. So he's earned at least some respect.

They don't have a lot in common, I don't think, but if any of Raven's investigations took him out of the library and onto the streets, she probably would go along and help him out if he asked, and wouldn't ask too many questions.

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Last but not least, I have updated the original post with what information I could glean from the posts. Let me know what you want it to say for your character.

[lordgersh]

Jul 17, 2012 8:23:14 GMT -5 Zguy said:

None of you had ever heard of him or any rumors of a person with his appearance or skill before the day he fought the gang. ~ Right Gersh? ^.^

Correct.

Jul 17, 2012 18:21:34 GMT -5 Palena said:

Sean: I could see Keidra sort of taking pity on Gareth, making sure he stays out of trouble, and taking him under her wing, so to speak. He's the 'rookie' of the group to her (regardless of his actual skill). Watching out for him would become even more of a priority for her once Varian has them both jumpstart this merry band of heroes.

Just a note: Gareth and Keidra are really the founding members of the party; Raven joined later and [Kevin] joined a few weeks ago. You saying that you view him as a rookie because he's the youngest in the party, and newest to the whole adventuring gig? He is the youngest, right? [Kevin] is Eladrin, and Raven is somewhere in his late 20s or early 30s, and Keidra is... I'm not sure how old your character is... it's not nice to ask a lady...

As far as being new to adventure and combat, Gareth has had a lot of training, but he and [Kevin] really haven't seen a lot of close, personal combat yet, while Keidra and Raven certainly have.

[irishmagician]

I would actually agree with Rachael's viewpoint, Gersh. Gareth would be as about as 'green' as one can be, in terms of combat or pretty much anything outside of monastic living; I think he would even be a bit surprised of what he CAN do with the training, even.

He would follow Raven around, though he definitely wouldn't understand the 'logic' behind his search/questioning in Coronus. Most likely, Gareth would probably come to (completely incorrect) conclusions based on Raven's search. For example: "Hmm. Raven is speaking furtively with the baker on the corner. Note to self, verify potential Eladrin weakness to pastries." In fact, he would probably follow up these (completely incorrect) observations with [Kevin] to see if they are true; like throwing a sticky bun at Kevin's character and seeing what happens.

[Palena]

Sean, I feel like Keidra and Gareth will be great friends. XD