Next Session

Next session is on - tomorrow, June 1st, starting at 6 PM Pacific (8 PM Central) and ending at 10 PM Pacific (Midnight Central); we may go longer if everyone wishes. No other news right now, just wanted to let everyone know!

Erik's Backstory

Height: 6'1"

Weight: 200 lb.

Age: 28

Eye Color: Brown

Hair Color: Dark brown

Skin Color: Tan white

Body Build: Athletic

Distinguishing Feature(s): Large scar on his chest from right shoulder to diaphragm; keeps hair in a short military-style cut; many small scars from his military service; keeps the jawbone of the orc who killed his brother on his person at all times to remind him of his pledge to protect the people from the orcs

            Erik Truvinas was born in the city of Falconia.  His parents, John and Marie Truvinas, were lesser nobles of the region and made their fortune running a fairly successful merchant company in the region.  Erik was born with an older identical twin brother named Quinn and they would later have a younger sister named Allison, who was 6 years younger.  As both Erik and Quinn grew they were surprisingly athletic and their father had them trained in the ways of combat.  The boys took to their training like fish to water.  By the age of 16 the both of them were unrivaled by any of the other students.  The master that was teaching them took both of them out of the regular training programs and began to instruct them separately.

 In the next 4 years the brothers would rise to become Lieutenants of the patrol units for the borderlands area from their successful raids and heroic efforts in the hamlets they helped defend from orc raids.  The boys had become quite masterful in fighting together.  Quinn had taken to using a large great sword while Erik had excelled in using a broadsword and shield.  The brothers moved so fluidly on the battlefield when they fought near each other it often struck fear into the hearts of  their enemies just seeing the way they moved together combining the offsetting defensive attacks of Erik followed through with a swift swing of Quinn’s great sword to fell enemies in an instant.

However the summer of the boy’s 20^th year, one raid did not go as smoothly.  The orc clans of the area had banded together in order to capture them.  When Erik and Quinn’s platoon made it to the area they were supposed to be patrolling through the orcs struck from behind cover and before the platoon could react they beset.  The rest of the platoon was shot down with arrows while the brothers were snared in a net and dragged off to the orcs camp.

When they arrived the brothers were thrown into metal cages and locked up until the following morning when they were told they would be used as a rite of passage for some of the newer orc recruits.  The brothers would be put through 2 of the most hellish weeks of their lives.  They were used as sparring partners for the orcs trying to earn their way into the raiding parties.  If the orcs could defeat one of the brothers in hand to hand combat they were allowed to join the parties.  So, for 2 weeks the Brothers endured the hell of fighting in an arena of orcish laughter while trying to find some ray of hope to keep them going.

It was at the end of this 2 week period that things took a turn for the worse.  Up until that point, the brothers had managed to either win their fights or lose them in such a manner that they were not too seriously injured.  But after 2 weeks, the Orc chieftain’s son was ready to earn his place among the raiding parties.  Quinn was chosen as his partner for the initiation.  Normally the chieftain’s son would have been a challenge at Quinn’s best, but with his weakened state from the weeks of imprisonment and highly lackluster care they were given in between the fights, Quinn was at his limit.  What happened after that could hardly even be called a fight.  The chieftain’s son was merciless.  He would inflict serious blows to Quinn’s abdomen but ensure that he remained standing so that the fight would not be called.  After about 5 straight minutes of Quinn being unable to land a major blow on the chieftain’s son the unthinkable happened in front of Erik’s own eyes.  The chieftain’s son landed a hard right hook into Quinn’s jaw.  From the look of it the force of the blow shattered Quinn’s jaw and broke his neck at the same time.  Erik couldn’t believe his eyes as he hysterically called out to his brother to answer him.  But it was too late.  Quinn was dead before he ever hit the ground.  The orcs laughed and pointed at the lifeless body of Quinn as they cheered and moved to the Chieftain’s son to congratulate him on the fight and welcome him into the raiding parties. 

Erik was shocked.  He couldn’t take his eyes off his brother’s body, even as the orcs dragged the body off and took it out of his sight; Erik would stare at the spot where his older brother had lost his life to a malicious and devious orc.  The following day, the chieftain’s son kept walking by the area where Erik was being held and glancing over at him with an evil grin on his face.  Erik was infuriated and vowed that if he ever got out of that cage, he would find and kill the chieftain’s son with his bare hands if he had to.

It so turned out that 2 days later, the tracking parties who had been sent to find Erik and Quinn’s missing platoon showed up with several more platoons to wipe out the orc encampment and save whoever they could.  Erik was freed from his cage during the melee that ensued and retrieved a broadsword from the body of a fallen orc and rushed off in search of his enemy.  It didn’t take long for Erik to locate his target, the chieftain’s son.  He was standing outside of the battle watching as it unfolded.  Erik charged towards him with a bloody scream and leapt at his brother’s killer.  The chieftain’s son laughed with mirth as he saw Erik headed his way and prepared to battle. 

When the two of them met, the little skirmishes happening around them seemed to be miles away.  Erik saw only his opponent and pressed the attack with everything bit of strength he still possessed in his body. Early on in the fight the orc landed a serious slash to Erik’s chest leaving a large, but shallow, gash from his right shoulder to his diaphragm. Erik didn’t even feel the blow as he continued to press the attack.  They were evenly matched, as Erik had caught the chieftain’s son off guard with his bloodlust.  He had not expected a human to possess the amount of hatred that he could sense coming from his opponent.  The chieftain’s son was being pushed further and further from the spot where they had first started to clash. With every swing of Erik’s broadsword the orc would have to take a step back.  Then, the orcs foot stepped back and hit the wall of a tent and he stumbled, momentarily losing his footing.  Erik leapt at the opportunity and slashed the orcs left thigh open.  The orc screamed in agony as the blade slashed through his flesh and spilled a large amount of blood onto the ground around him.  Erik then removed the orcs weapon from his grasp with another slash to his forearm, rendering it useless, and kicked him in the chest sending him sprawling to the ground a few feet away.  Erik stared down at the bleeding, whimpering orc before him, his chest heaving from rage.  Then he drove the tip of his sword through the orcs belly and twisted it around violently enjoying every moment of the orcs agony.  He leaned in close to the orcs face grinned the same evil grin that the orc had given him the day after his brother was killed.  Then Erik stood up and drove his sword through the back of the Orcs throat and removed his jaw with a deft swing.

Erik would keep the orc chieftain’s son’s jaw bone as a reminder of the horrible events that befell his family in those 2 weeks.  He vowed to never again allow anything like what had happened to his brother and he happen again.

Erik met up with the commander of the rescue team and thanked them for coming to aid him and to find out that the rest of the orcs that were not slain had retreated away into the hills.  He was then debriefed about the circumstances of his capture and containment much to the horror of those who had been within earshot of the debriefing area.  Although Erik had not mentioned in his story the fate of his brother yet, the Captain seemed to see what was coming in the story and got straight to the point and asked what had happened to Quinn.  Erik looked up in astonishment at this question and stared with his mouth hanging slightly open not quite sure if he had heard the captain correctly.  But the captain repeated the question with a more grave expression on his face this time.  And Erik slowly answered in a whisper.  He gripped the jaw of the chieftain’s son in his left hand and gritted out what he had done during the battle at the encampment. The captain stared at the jawbone gripped tightly in the hand of the man in front of him in shock, and slowly looked back up at Erik’s face.  He then told Erik to rest for a while as the rest of the team gathered the wounded and killed of the Falconian forces for transport back to the city.

After the debriefing was over, Erik went and found his brother’s body to bring back to his father.  He wrapped the body in a cloth gingerly and put it aside from the rest of the casualties.  He had no idea what he was going to say to his family when he returned home to Falconia.  He wasn’t even sure he would be able to face them.  But, deep down, he knew that he had to return.  He had to accept what had happened and try to figure out what he would do when he returned home. 

It was a 2 day ride back to the city.  When they arrived, Erik retrieved his brother’s body, secured a wagon to use as transport, and set out towards his family’s home.  The captain accompanied him from the barracks towards their home.  They were both silent as they rode the wagon toward what would surely be a bittersweet reunion.

They pulled up in front of the family home that Erik grew up in with his brother and began to step down from the wagon when suddenly, the door burst open and Allison bolted out with a smile on her face to embrace her returning brothers.  Halfway to meet with Erik however, she noticed that something was off about him.  She leapt into his arms and welcomed him home with a big smile as their parents came to the door and stepped outside.  Allison then asked where Quinn was as the boys usually came back home together.  At this point the captain stepped down from the wagon and proceeded to stand next to Erik.  Erik didn’t know what to say as his younger sister looked up at her brother’s face expecting to hear that he was still at the barracks and would be joining them shortly after.  But all Erik could do was look down and away from his family, feeling ashamed for something that was not his fault.  Allison’s grip loosened when Erik looked away, and she slowly backed away in shock.  Erik looked back at his sister and fell to his knees with tears streaming uncontrollably down his face for the pain of the news he was about to have to give to his family  Their parents rushed forward as he fell and looked up at the captain for clarification.  Then the captain explained what had happened to the boys over the past few weeks and explained the fate of their oldest son.  Allison and their mother clung to each other and cried while their father kept his composure and thanked the captain for telling him.  He then stood Erik up and walked over to the wagon with him.  Erik, with tears still streaming down his face stood blankly next to his father while they unloaded his brother’s body and brought it to the parlor in the house. 

Over the next few days, preparations were made for Quinn’s funeral.  He was to be buried in the Truvinas family plot behind the house in a small ceremony for the Truvinas’ of the city.  Afterwards, many people who had heard the news of the passing of one of the heroes of the borderlands stopped by offering flowers and their condolences to the family.

Several weeks later, Erik returned to his duties as a borderlands patroller.  He had recovered almost completely from his ordeal both mentally and physically.  He had a new resolve.  He would not allow what had happened to him to happen again.  Before he left the city on patrol, he made recommendations to the training protocols of border guards to make the new generations more prepared to deal with ambushes on the roadside.  The motion was accepted and they began to draft what would, in a few years time, be the reformation of border guard units being increased in size to try to avoid any future captures and unnecessary fatalities in the line of duty.  And on a more personal level, Erik vowed to protect everyone that he could from the threat of orc aggression on the borderlands and wherever he may be at any given time.

Erik still holds a hefty grudge against any orc and is not too trusting of half-orcs.

Adrie's Backstory

Height: 5'10"

Weight: 125 lbs.

Age: 61

Eye Color: Red

Hair Color: Light Green

Skin Color: Lightly tanned

Body Build: Slender

Distinguishing Feature(s):  Tattoos around right eye & on left arm; carries a letter from a lost loved one in a pouch & a wooden doll made for her when she was a child

            Adrie was born in one of the many elven communities in the forests of the Elven Wildlands, by the name of Celesthem. Her mother died in childbirth and her father died from grief not soon after - because of this, she was raised by the people of Celesthem. They trained her as a warpriest. Her older brother Elmorn and younger sister Aludiana were raised in a similar fashion.

            Adrie's life was happy and simple until one day she and the other elves were out hunting some sort of monster in the forest. This monster turned out to be a deadly ghost, and it possessed Adrie. Under this possession, she killed almost all the rest of her hunting party - including her beloved, Rolen. The party's leader, an experienced warpriest named Heian, managed to subdue Adrie and exorcise the ghost - but the damage had already been done.

            When they returned and the people of Celesthem found out what happened, they were horrified and demanded that their leaders exile Adrie. Despite Heian's protests and attempts to explain that the slaughter of the party had not been Adrie's fault, the leaders were forced to exile Adrie. She accepted this fate, and left the village in peace, albeit with sadness in her heart. Now she travels, serving the people of Titania and trying to atone for the (accidental) murder of her friends. Her tattoos signify her status as an exile (the tattoo around her eye) and the people who helped raise and train her (the tattoo on her arm). She also carries a letter written to her by Rolen, and a wooden doll made by Elmorn.

Mika's Backstory

Height: 5'6"

Weight: 135 lbs.

Age: 25

Eye Color: Green/Brown (see distinguishing features)

Hair Color: Light Brown

Skin Color: White, slightly tan from traveling

Body Build: Lean

Distinguishing Feature(s):  Left eye is green and right eye is brown 

            Mika was born on the western continent of Seafarrow, in the bustling port city of Weatherby. The daughter of a prosperous merchant family, she was discovered to have a talent for the arcane at a young age, and the mages in the nearby Tower of Leon were quick to conscript her into their order. She was trained in the arts of enchantment by the mages there.

            One day, an adventurer from a land known as Titania, an island continent to the southeast of Seafarrow, came to the tower, a human by the name of Davven Dragonsbane. Davven spent the week at the tower, and Mika, who knew little outside the tower, took every opportunity to ask him about the world beyond. She credits her eventual departure from the tower to Davven, for he inspired her to become an adventurer through his stories.

            On her 21st birthday, Mika left the tower and returned to her family. However, when she returned she found that the wealthy home of her birth had been taken from her family, who now lived in the slums, destitute. Her parents explained that a rival merchant with ties in Weatherby's criminal underworld, Marlannan, had stolen their fortune and ruined their good name. Swearing revenge, Mika split her time between working to provide a meager living for her three younger siblings (her brother Belian, sister Janys and sister Undella) and tracking down Marlannan. When she finally found him, he escaped and fled to Titania. Mika has followed him to Titania, arriving just recently in the port city and capital, Falconia. Mika carries with her a silver coin bearing the seal of Weatherby's ruling noble house to remind her of home.

Backstories Posts

The next few posts will be those of character backstories. They will follow the same basic format - each will open with a short bio entry for the character, and the backstory will follow it. Enjoy!

Session Recap #2: Hypnotism! Hypnotism!

Last night's session, if I do say so myself, was a good one - we went an hour and a half longer and managed to polish off the first adventure, along with the first encounter of the second one. Roleplaying was done and laughs were had. Let's get right into it.

All four players were in attendance this time, and Iados was introduced rather unceremoniously to the other adventurers who had joined his company, the Blacksword Band. Iados and the rest of the party had a bit of acquainting to do at first, but after a bit of a Mexican standoff they figured out who was who and got to work. Heading down through the trap door they had discovered at the end of last session, the party found themselves in a kennel full of dead (and undead) dogs, along with the skinwalker skeleton who had escaped them before. The tight quarters of this battle proved to make things difficult, as the hounds tore into everyone but Iados, leaving them bloodied or nearly dead by the end of the fight. Adrie in particular found herself in dire straits, as she was dying and had ongoing damage - if the turn order had come around to her again she would've been at -12, 1 HP from outright death.

Naturally, the party took the opportunity to rest after this - this was not something I'd anticipated them doing, but given the difficulty of the kennel encounter perhaps it was for the best. Really need to start keeping track of time so the party doesn't go to sleep mid-adventure all the time... Anyway, after their uneventful rest the party returned to the kennels, and after some exploration they found another trapped door buried under a pile of rotting gore - this gore was no match for Erik and his filter mask, however. Below they found Rover - zombified and hostile, along with a second gravehound, three more skinwalker skeletons and the apparent leader of this operation, a deathlock wight by the name of Beleak.

This combat, the last of the adventure, proved far less difficult than the previous one, thanks to a daily dump on the part of the party. Mika ensured that the monsters didn't even have the opportunity to move for about 2 rounds, and the gravehounds (with the exception of Rover) were quickly dispatched - the skinwalker skeletons fell not long after, and Beleak was unable to hold up at that point. With just Rover left, the party opted to "mercy kill" the poor hound - that is to say, Mika burst its head open with a magic missile. In the aftermath the party explored the cave and found that the ritual circle was inscribed with the religious icons of two rather disturbing powers - one was a symbol of Orcus (a mace with a human skull for a head) with a small crown over it, and the other was a spider-like symbol of Lolth. Being that these two beings are the Demon Prince of the Undead and the Demon Queen of Spiders, respectively, the party was understandably concerned at this revelation. Additionally the party found a spiderweb-choked tunnel - this tunnel ended after a ways, however, in a cave-in, and prevented the party from moving any further.

In lieu of returning to Cairnmoor with a rotting undead headless dog corpse, the party went back and explained the situation, first to Halpern, and then to Ulrick. The scene with Ulrick was understandably awkward - given Ulrick's (admittedly unusual) attachment to his dog, the party found themselves in a bit of a spot. Adrie was quite comforting to Ulrick, however, and netted a bit of bonus XP in the process. The rest of the party remained rather silent, and after claiming their reward, they quietly let themselves out, leaving Ulrick to grieve. After that, the party enjoyed a respite at the Misty Morning Inn, doing a little roleplaying as they got to know eachother. Having finally acquired the money to do so, the ladies got themselves luxury rooms - the guys took their chances with the standard rooms, but were fortunate enough to land a room to themselves.

The party's respite was interrupted the next morning by the ringing of the town bell - they looked outside to find people fleeing through the streets, many of them dressed in the finery worn by the clergy of Pelor. Following the screams, the party reached the Temple of Pelor, and found out from Halpern that skeletons had broken through the floor of the Temple (more of a monastery in construction) and begun slaughtering the worshipers attending morning services. Making things even more interesting, the High Priestess was trapped inside, and a skeleton archer had his bow trained on anyone coming into the main section of the Temple. This proved to be an interesting encounter, as the party had to use the pews for cover or, as Erik experienced firsthand, find themselves bombarded with arrows. This encounter nearly killed Erik, as the DM's dice were rolling pretty high in this encounter, and the archers targeted Erik every time save once. Revenge was had, however, as Erik dealt the killing blow to the skeleton archer which had earlier been knocked into the hole, and drew an opportunity attack trying to climb back out.

The party stabilized the High Priestess, and Halpern brought what was left of his guards, who had been beaten up pretty badly by the skeletons, in to survey the situation. The party learned by talking to the High Priestess and Halpern that these skeletons had come from the Catacombs of Sir Cairnstone, the burial ground for the war hero who had founded Cairnmoor and his loyal men. The situation was revealed to be quite dire, as the catacombs contained upwards of 300 men who could quite possibly overwhelm the town if they attacked in numbers. Iados volunteered the Blacksword Band's services in dealing with this matter, and the party headed down into the hole. There was an attempt on Mika's part to hypnotize someone into jumping into the hole, but her attack rolls took so long to connect that, by the time she had, everyone else had already jumped down. This led to the titular situation of this recap: Mika shouting "Hypnotism! Hypnotism! Hypnotism!" at nothing while the High Priestess, Halpern, and the guards stared in confusion. We ended the session with everyone down in the catacombs.

Events are beginning to unfold in the Titangrave campaign - the sleepy town of Cairnmoor appears to have quite a problem on its hands, and the Blacksword Band find themselves right in the thick of it. What horrors await in the Catacombs of Sir Cairnstone? What dark forces (apparently under the influence of Orcus & Lolth) have designs on the town? Will Mika having a considerable bust size become canon? I suppose we'll just have to be there to find out...

Next Session & Question For Players

Our next session will be tomorrow, from 6 PM Pacific (8 PM Central) to 10 PM Pacific (Midnight Central). As usual we will allow for the session to go later if everyone wishes.

Since I nearly have everyone's backstory in, I'd like to ask if you guys would like those backstories to be posted on this blog. Let me know what you think of this in the comments, please.

Session Recap #1: Adventures in Cantrips

Tonight we had our first session of the new campaign! Sal was unable to attend, so his character Iados wasn't present for this first adventure. The party, which consisted of Andrew's human fighter Erik, Bibart's human mage Mika, and Traver's elf warpriest Adrie, were all referred to a dwarf by the name of Rangrim in a tavern called the Red Mare Tavern. They all spoke with him about starting an adventuring company, for various reasons - Erik & Adrie wish to help people, whereas Mika (who started the session flat broke) is looking to make some money so she can start tracking down Marlannan. Rangrim referred them to a herald (basically an organizer/promoter for adventuring companies) named Smolkin Stanbeard. He also asked them for a tip, and Erik and Adrie were happy to oblige. Mika, being completely broke, was unable to provide anything, though Rangrim begrudgingly permitted her to "follow the others".

Arriving at Smolkin's office, they were sent in by the office clerk, who seemed rather annoyed at the mention of Smolkin's name. Smolkin turned out to be a very unusual character for a dwarf - whereas most dwarves speak in archaic language, using words like "aye", "nay", "lad" and "lass", Smolkin made no such use of these words, speaking much more like your average human. He offered to set the party up as an adventuring company and work on drawing notice to them from the city's noble patrons in exchange for a 10% cut of their rewards from the jobs they finish, a deal they took. Smolkin then set about asking them what their adventuring company would be called - after no real suggestions were put forth, Smolkin offered to merge them in with another company that had been registered with him and needed adventurers anyhow - the Blacksword Band, a company registered by a tiefling (Iados). Smolkin also put 15 gold pieces into an envelope marked "Rangrim" - apparently a payoff for their referral. Intersting that Rangrim told them he had no money and asked them for a tip in exchange for information he seems to be getting paid well for giving out, wouldn't you say? Smolkin sent them on their first quest - a man named Ulrick, one of Smolkin's friends in the northern town of Cairnmoor, needed help finding a "missing family member", and Smolkin decided to send their group out to help.

Afterward, the party set out for Cairnmoor. They had two real options - take the road and spend the night in Kinderwood, or cut across the countryside and get there in a day's time. Since they weren't looking forward to spending their money for an inn room in Kinderwood, the party opted to cut across the countryside. In doing so, they encountered a pack of wolves which got the drop on them. The wolves landed some good initial hits on Erik, but in the end they were beaten and ran off (albeit with one of them now glowing from Mika's Light cantrip). Interestingly, the party discovered that these wolves (who normally would steer clear of humanoids, the only real challenge in the region to their apex predator status) seemed to be starving and attacking out of desperation. There was an attempt to distract the wolves with a conjured steak - but Mika's unfortunate Bluff roll botch prevented that from succeeding.

The party continued on to Cairnmoor, passing a hooded stranger carrying a large burlap sack along the way. They made their way to Ulrick's place - after talking to his landlady (who seemed annoyed by the prospect of Ulrick having a "missing family member") they were introduced to Ulrick - a weepy, hysterical mess in the absence of this family member. Talking to Ulrick, the party quickly realized they hadn't been sent here to find a person - they'd been sent to find a dog. Ulrick's pet dog, Rover, had been missing for several days - something Ulrick found unusual, because Rover typically returned home daily. They gathered what information they could, then went to talk to the leader of the town guard, Constable Halpern. Halpern seemed to have a lot of problems on his hands, and was quite irritated with the issue of a missing dog being brought to him when he had missing livestock to worry about. The party told him of the hooded stranger they'd seen leaving the town. Halpern realized the party was a group of adventurers, and offered to keep an eye out for the dog in exchange for their help figuring out what happened to the livestock. The party intended to check out the farms livestock had been taken from, but night was to fall soon, so they purchased a room in the local Misty Morning Inn and went to sleep for the night.

They were awoken in the middle of the night by a single ring of the town guard's warning bell - rushing outside, they saw a pair of guards killed by horrific undead hounds. The party engaged the hounds, and triumphed quite handily through Mika's use of burst powers to clear out the minion hounds. Halpern and his guards, only informed of the situation when a town resident came to them, arrived to take care of cleanup.

In the morning, the party decided to try and find any tracks left by the dogs. Adrie nailed two successive Perception checks to follow the tracks, and the party was led to a farmhouse west of town. All signs pointed to it being deserted - objects had been left out in the rain, the plants in the small crop garden were dead, the inside of the farmhouse was quite dark and musty, and the stables reeked of death. Erik entered the house, and as he did, Mika caught sight of another of the hooded strangers coming out of the back door. Inside, Erik found a dried bloodstain on the floor of the small farmhouse's bedroom, and a journal mentioning a number of "hooded men". Erik then went out the back door - only to immediately be attacked by a zombie guard dog stationed there, chained in place. This began the last encounter of the night.

The zombie guard dog landed some good initial hits, enough to bloody Erik, but it was quickly dispatched. The emaciated man in the robe attacked Adrie, and the party came to see that these men (another emerged from the stables when the fight started) appeared to have no muscle mass or tone of any kind, as if the were quite literally skin and bones. The party discovered this to be the truth when they tore open the skin of one of the men, discovering that underneath was nothing but a skeleton. They killed one of these "skinwalker skeletons"; however the other escaped back into the stables and disappeared. Examining the fallen skeleton, they discovered that the skin it wore was magically grafted onto its bones - there were no seams or marks where the skin would've been sewed on via more mundane means. At this point the party began to throw around lights and cause all manner of unusual things to happen - Mika made a well glow, caused a vuvuzela noise to emanate loudly from Adrie (as well as making Adrie glow also), and made Erik smell like flowers after he faceplanted in bloodsoaked hay as a result of a botched Strength check to break down a severely weakened door. Adrie returned the favor by making Mika glow right back. When they finally made it inside the stables, the party found the skinwalker skeleton nowhere in sight - however, after some searching they located a trap door hidden under some hay. After this revelation, we stopped for the night.

There's our recap of the first session. I will try and post one of these after every session so that people can read them to recall what happened last week if they forgot, or see what happened last week if they were unable to attend at all. Hope to see everyone for our next session on May 25th!

The Day Before: Start Time & Other Things

We'll be starting the campaign tomorrow (Wednesday, May 18th) - here's some information for everyone to make sure it goes smoothly:

• We will be starting at 6 PM Pacific time, and we will go until 10 PM Pacific time (or longer if such is agreeable to everyone). For Central time players, that's an 8 PM start time, and a Midnight end time (again, or later if agreed upon).

• I currently only have complete backstory information for Bibart's character, Mika. I have most of the information for Traver's character, Adrie, but there are a few missing pieces (see your email for the details, Traver) and the information needs to be organized. I have no information as of this writing for Andrew's character, Erik, or Sal's character, Iados. Please get this stuff to me ASAP!

• The introduction of our first session will have your characters coming together as a group - you will be starting out individually in Falconia, and we will do a little roleplaying to bring the group together. You'll need to come up with a name for your adventuring company as well, so give some thought to names which might be good. I have an idea or two if nobody is able to come up with a good one; this name could change down the line if certain exploits of the party demand it, as well.

That about covers it. If the time doesn't work, let me know as soon as you can so I can change it and let everyone else know. See everyone there!

Backstories Update

I would like to have everyone's backstories and characters finalized by May 13th (this coming Friday). This will allow me plenty of time to get any potential personal storylines worked into the campaign, and to make sure that everyone's characters/backstories look good. As for what to cover, include:

• An answer to each of the "questions" posed in the Background Prompt Generator. You may include more if you like.
• A physical description of your character - height, weight, age, hair color, eye color, skin color, body build. See your race's description for the averages/standards of these.
• Choose at least one distinguishing feature for your character from this list: a scar, jewelry, clothing, a tattoo, a birthmark, a hairstyle, or a unique posture. You can choose more if you like - be sure to add these to your character's physical description, and briefly describe what makes this feature of your character distinguishing or unique. You can also choose a distinguishing feature not covered here, just make sure to check with me first.
• If there are any significant NPCs in your backstory (nemeses, loved ones, mentors, etc.) be sure to give them a first name. If you can't come up with one let me know and give me a brief idea of the character, and I'll name it.

In order to speed up the backstory/character finalization process I'd like to meet with everyone for an hour (perhaps longer if necessary) individually to make sure everyone's set to go, help filling in details about a backstory (or perhaps coming up with a backstory), and any other things you may need help with regarding the campaign. Please let me know in the comments section below what time would be best for you!

Update: Finalized Start Date

We'll be starting on May 18th, about 2 weeks from now. I'll make sure to check with everyone to help along the character finalization process, and coming up with backstories.