OOC InformationPlayer name: Myki
Player age and gender: 25, F
Player Contact: Myki#5980 on discord, chezmyki @ plurk
Any other characters in game? nope!
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IC InformationCharacter name: Freyja Stormlight
Character canon: OC (Dungeons & Dragons 5e)
Canon point: Post-game (defeated the big boss and was brought back).
Physical Description: Freyja stands at roughly 5' 5", but possesses the confidence of someone much larger and stronger. She's 23 years old, has very pale blonde hair that she keeps in a waist-length plait as well as a circlet braid around her head. Her eyes are properly hazel, but tend to get a gold-orange gleam when she's using magic. She dresses simply, with light leather armour over a well-made tunic and pants.
About the Character: Freyja comes from a homebrew 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons game. She has the fortune of being one of the heroes... but that's about where her luck ends.
Freyja's early life was fairly similar to that of many children growing up along the Whitecap Sea; running around in a loose mob of village children, poking at things in rock pools, climbing trees, swimming in the creek and the ocean. Her father was the village's weaver, and her mother trapped small animals for their meat and skins.
And then, as it so often happens, tragedy struck. Her father was swept to his death while gathering seaweed for dyes; her mother, in her grief, went out on longer and longer hunting trips until one day, she didn't come back at all.
Given that her magical abilities had already begun to surface - her ability to predict the next day's weather, among others - a visiting Druid took her in as their ward. She traveled with them for the next five years, learning about the Circle that protected the inhabitants of the Blasted Strand as well as preserving the natural environs that housed weird and wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) creatures.
This upbringing instilled in her a core belief:
the natural world is more important than any construct of civilisation. Freyja honestly believes that it is better to favour the wild spaces over even the smallest village. This is not to say that she will not help a lost farmer, or an ill town resident. She is, after all, chaotic good. However; place her in a situation where a new settlement is being threatened by a nest of ankhegs? She will advise the settlers to give up, and find somewhere else.
And then, in the summer of her twelfth year, a warband of orcs - the likes of which has not been seen for a very long time - carves their way across the Blasted Strand. It is a bloody fight to stop them, and it is a fight that even involves children like Freyja. This... changes things. Children should not be soldiers - but she survives. Thrives. There is a wildness in her blood, and it has been awoken.
And then, the denouement. The Orc Warchief is captured. His forces routed, and prisoners taken of those who survive. The remnants of the Circle offer him as a blood sacrifice to Umberlee, and Freyja is to wield the knife. One of the remaining masters calls it a coming of age, another condemns it as barbarism. In the end, it matters not - the orc's blood mingles with seafoam, and drips from the ragged blade of a tarrasque-bone knife. This coalesces into her major flaw -
I harbor dark and bloodthirsty thoughts that my isolation and meditation has failed to quell.Now, her training begins in earnest, and we skip ahead to the Campaign proper. At 23, Freyja Stormlight is a fully acknowledged Druid of the Circle of the Hungry Tide. Her role is to be an arbiter between the forces of nature and civilisation - or at least, it
was. As her party meets for the first time in an inn (predictable, yes), a cult devoted to two evil gods (Setheth and Hiddukel) is infiltrating and destroying the Circle from the inside out.
This is an awkward time in her life - torn between her duty to ensure the safety of the people who live in the wilds of the Blasted Strand, and her own desire to
not die, Freyja retreats into relative seclusion. Funnily enough, this means abandoning the wilds, and hiding in plain sight in towns.
The party, as it stands, is fairly standard. A half-orc Cleric (and daughter of the sacrificed Warchief (oops)), a halfing Ranger, and a human Bard. There's a bit of friction between Freyja and the party in the beginning, mostly because she ignores social niceties and etiquette. Oh, she knows how, but it's boring and takes too long. Why bother?
Events unfold slowly at first: Freyja is aware of being hunted, but isn't sure
why; Mikhaila (the bard) fled to the middle of nowhere to hide, but isn't saying why; Kathar (the cleric) simply wants to find where she stands in the world; and Ilsabeth (the ranger) just wants to enjoy her retirement without the threat of bandits. It's an alliance of convenience at first, but slowly morphs into a band of true friends.
After clearing a group of bandits that had been menacing the main road, Kathar finds a palm-sized stone carved with the sigil of an outlawed god, as well as coded messages. When decoded, the missives detail a plan that is nothing less than exterminating the entirety of the Circle of the Hungry Tide. Freyja does not take this well.
The dead bandits have no maps on them, but the advantage of being a druid is that one can turn into animals - most of which have a better sense of smell than humanoids. Freyja follows the scent trails to what was once a Circle bolthole, and goes a bit too hard when it comes to extracting information. Nevertheless, her crude torture gets them information.
A cult made of followers from two evil-aligned gods is attempting to destabilise the region, destroy it, and then reshape it as they see fit. Cool. This is fine.
The rest of the party then puts Freyja in what is effectively time out because
holy shit that was not cool. Ilsabeth steps up, pulling on her past soldiering experience to keep her in line, and instead keeps the party focused on doing helpful things, like fetch quests for local villagers and recreational monster slaying.
...unfortunately, they stumble upon signs of a growing goblin horde. This wouldn't normally be a problem, but with the Circle m.i.a., there's been no warning. Copious amounts of goblin murder occurs, including fun discussions about whether or not goblins should be counted as people-people or not. Freyja's stance: yes, but y'all are on thin fucking ice.
The horde is driven back into a swamp, and when the party goes to check it out, there's something really wrong with the place. Upon slaying the hobgoblin leader (and the party is exhausted), they learn exactly why the swamp felt off: it's being inhabited by a young black dragon. It lets them leave... for a price, and even offers them a warning about an unseen, unsuspecting threat.
Once they leave, Ilsabeth is all for raising a party and going back in to slay the creature - it's clearly a threat, and the Blasted Strand would be better off without a chromatic dragon breathing down their necks. Freyja, to everyone's surprise, argues against it. Dragons, after all, are top-order predators. Without them, things lower down the food chain can get out of control.
Again, in Freyja's eyes the natural world is more important than civilisation. On their way back to town, an old woman asks if she can walk with the party. It's probably not a hag, so they say yes. Well, turns out it's a dream-eating demon. What a great way to get everyone's fears and insecurities out in the open!! Not.
Freyja's own personal dreamscape is a jagged, rocky shore with heavy swells constantly crashing and the backing forest a mere smouldering wreck. She looks like her 12 year old self, drenched in blood and saltwater, carving an endless path through people she knows and loves. She knows that there's something wrong with herself, to adore this violence and bloodshed. Add to that a crippling fear of being abandoned, and you get someone who thinks it's probably best to stay away from people before either she gets hurt by them, or she hurts them.
It's brutal, and fucked up. And it's Kathar who drags her out of this despair, who reminds her that she's already killed Kathar's father (which, yes, awful), so there's no way Freyja could hurt her more. It's enough for her to break out of the dreamscape, and they rescue the rest of the party - as well as the demon's host, a young elven wizard by the name of Viat'alili.
They take the next few weeks off, because that was some emotionally scarring bullshit, and they all need a nap. Of course, the cult who is determined to end the Circle doesn't let them have too long to relax, and Freyja takes it... poorly. Horrified at her own actions and scared that the party will reject her (oops), she takes her pack and leaves on her own, desperate to try and find an even keel.
This backfires spectacularly, because she's ambushed on the second day, as she's praying on a rock shelf by the sea. Underwater combat is hard when you've got a concussion, and Freyja drowns.
What she doesn't expect is to be offered a bargain by Umberlee, the Hungering Tide and the God of Storms and Sea. Restore balance, end the cult, and reinstate the Circle. Well, it's better than dying. Except that she has a time limit. Shit.
As far as getting your life together goes, a literal God telling to you to
fix this is pretty effective. Freyja returns to her party on the third day, and says hey, this breaks been nice, but we need to hustle.
Turns out Kathar is having a minor existential crisis about turning into her father, so they return to the den where she was born for her to get closure which... mostly works. Freyja bonds heavily with Kathar and Mikhaila both during this expedition (oh no), but keeps her growing non-platonic feelings hidden.
They return to town in time for the Dragondeath festival, which is lovely and fun and not crisis-inducing at all, even when she dances with them and then sees Kathar and Mikhaila kissing (oh NO). Great, cool, she's very happy for them and this is exactly why she said nothing to them. Can't mourn a relationship if you never said anything in the first place, right?
Then one of Mikhaila's family comes to town, with a fun little entourage composed of ghouls. As that's not a person, that's a devil in a people suit. Urban combat is great and fun and it's awesome trying to prevent civilian casualties. Kathar uses
turn undead. Freyja fails her save, and it's outed to the party that Freyja is now, somehow, undead.
Mikhaila tells them about her family, and how they made a literal deal with a devil to gain power and influence - and the price for that is that after a certain age, they invite a devil to possess them, giving themselves infernal power. Yikes. Then, since it's apparently sharing hour, Ilsabeth tells the assembled party that she helped to slay the two dragons that are the cause for the Dragondeath celebration they've just partaken in - which was a hundred years ago. Viat'alili is perhaps the only elf still alive that remembers what the ancient elven homeland looks like, since she was possessed by the dream-eater demon during its fall, five thousand years ago.
Freyja tells them about the deal. This information is taken very badly by everyone present, but she pushes it aside and asks that they focus on what's happening. Namely, that there's gotta be some kind of ritual being planned, if they're trying to change the whole coast. Time to hunt cult members!
The end result: the cult is destroyed, the rituals are stopped - but Freyja dies during the final battle, the only party casualty. She is brought back nearly a week later - without any of the fun undead characteristics of her prior boon.
These days, Freyja travels the coast solo, looking for people with magical talent and respect for nature. She is calmer than she was before all this began, but still remains blunt and standoffish. She is no longer a lone wolf, but respects the safety and benefits that a party can bring. The bloodlust will occasionally still rise to the surface, but she's able to ignore those urges.
And if she can't? Well, she can always get someone to throw a ball and then let her fetch it as a dog.
Character abilities:
Druidic Magic - Freyja has access to a bunch of spells, most of which are limited by the number of times she can cast them per day. The more powerful, the fewer times she can cast them.
she also doesn't have any teleportation spells bc planeshift would take all the fun out of things. She is also able to turn into a number of animals! Druids: why be wizard when you can be bear.
Combat Training - Over the course of her adventures, Freyja's gotten pretty good at fighting both humanoids, beasts, and other fun critters. She's confident with her scimitar, has good aim with a dagger, and isn't afraid to use her staff as a cognitive recalibration device. That said, she won't wear armour or use a shield made of metal.
Survival Skills - Freyja is absolutely able to survive in the wild without contacting civilisation, thanks to her ability to
purify food and water via magic. Even without magic, she's got a steady head on her shoulders, and a good eye for non-toxic plants. Also if you need someone with a green thumb, she's your druid.
Inventory:
WEARING
-
Short tunic-
Pants-
Lower leg wraps- Stiffened leather breastplate, bracers, and greaves.
-
Shoes- Wide leather belt
- Component pouch(es)
- Druidic focus (hand carved amulet)
- Coin pouch (9 GP in assorted coinage)
ATTACHED TO BACKPACK
- Bedroll
- 50ft hempen rope
- 2 waterskins
- Bundle of torches (6)
- Fur half-cloak
- 6'x 5' tarp
IN BACKPACK
- A skirt for wearing to good occasions
- Several shifts, some in better shape than others
- Mess kit
- Dry rations (7 days worth)
- Tinderbox (unused)
- Incense (1/2 lb)
- Charcoal pieces (pouch)
- Incense burner
- Book of prayers and rituals
- Herbalism kit
- Three empty vials
- One half-full vial (clear grain alcohol)
- Ritual knife
- Whetstone & oil
WEAPONS
- Quarterstaff
- Three daggers
- Light crossbow (15 bolts in a case)
- Scimitar
Samples:
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