#RPGaDay2018: Day 5 - Favourite Recurring NPC

As yesterday, I've thought back over the various NPC's who've recurred in the games I've loved. I kinda wanted to pick a villain. Irrevetti, is the one who stands out because I hate him, and I'm loving it! He mostly recurs through being mentioned rather than us interacting with him, though, and I want to pick someone we spend in-game time with.

Irrevetti is a major villain in our Pathfinder game. The GM, Rich, created a bunch of NPC's and gave life to others from the book - to the point I'm not always sure which are which. From there, he expanded it to give Bells and I a full superteam of NPC's, as well as family, friends, mentors and rivals in Aberrant. I was really tempted to pick either Holly or Alastair from that game, for the maternal relationship Chrissie has with them both (most complicated with Alastair), but in my opinion it was Exalted where all the effort he's put into NPC building and development really came together. Again, some of them are named in the setting and many more are his creations - including some (Lawrence) who were created on the fly in response to things we chose to do (hire a child to help us not fall foul of curious and changing laws in a new city).

Meredith is wonderful. A First Age Solar living in seclusion, a Twilight, a formidable sorceror and crafter, she's scatty, she swears a lot, and my character idolises her more than a little. 'Gruncle' Cathak Chow, who raised the twins, last seen when he saved their lives in a part of the story not yet told. Captain Ling, another character who was created on the cuff and we liked so much (because she kept the young twins safe) she was used as a reason to get us to go somewhere dangerous...

But I'm going to pick the Undying Fury of Creation. If you've followed the story, you'll have met him very briefly in the 'non-canon' section. He's another being from the First Age, and carries his emotional baggage far more clearly than Meredith. A powerful Lunar, his bond with his Solar mate was such that her death tore him apart and he's never quite recovered. As mortals, Taji and Kito caused him great harm, such that Taji feels she owes him her death - that her death can come at no hands but his (though she still puts herself in thoughtless, reckless danger). As Exalts, he's saved her life on more than one occasion. Their relationship is complicated, emotionally intense, and very rewarding.

If you're taking part in the challenge, don't forget to leave a link to your response in the comments :)

#RPGaDay2018: Day 4 - Most Memorable NPC

There's a lot of NPC's in my current stable of games who are definitely memorable, but hard to say which will prove to be most memorable (though The Emissary's theme song does make him stand out somewhat). Instead of picking any of them, I've reached back through the games I've played, trying to remember NPC's who stand out, and I think I'm going to choose Tark from the ShadowRun game I've recently started writing up. It was a close call between him and Drazen, or possibly Jaz, as it's a good 15 years or more since I played, but I still remember the 3 fondly. I've picked Tark, though, because his death shook me up.

The game had been running for a while when I joined, so the NPC's were already embedded. My character, Kamaya, was a speedfreak adept, making her very similar to Drazen. Tark was a shaman. I think I was the only magic player character, and they were the two magic NPC's who most frequently assisted on runs. Drazen was pretty callous, with a disregard for human life, and it ended up rubbing off on Kamaya (because I was young and impressionable and forgot she'd started out disliking killing), and Tark, with Wolf as his Totem, followed his pack, so most runs were pretty bloody.

It's no spoiler to tell you about Tark's death; it happened long after my notes finish.

Several of the trio's early runs were against Ares, until they ended up with a bit of a reputation as being the runners you wanted on your team if that's who your target was. Of course, this got them onto Ares radar, though I was too young and naive to realise it was a risk. Tark went missing for a while - I assumed he was on some kind of shamanic retreat, so had Kamaya react accordingly and not worry about him. Until he showed up, walking up the stairs of the restaurant/club she'd just bought (I was working to retire the character because she'd become so powerful). Ares had taken him and inserted a cranial bomb that they'd detonate if they didn't come with him.

He refused to let them come with him, and Kamaya was too shocked to argue.

His brains splattered the walls. 

I learnt a lot about the game world, and gaming, and even GM'ing (if I had a young, inexperienced player in the group, I hope I'd give a better indication that she might want to be more suspicious!) Part of me still misses Tark. He was a good mentor for Kamaya, sweet natured beneath it all. 

If you're taking part, don't forget to add a link to your response in the comments :) 

Guest Post - Creating Characters by Rich

I recently wrote about connecting your character to the world, and muttered at the end that I'd like to see if I could get my friends to do guest posts. Two of them were very pleased to - here's the first, from someone who more often GM's for me than plays, and he's written from that point of view: making NPC's real. (I didn't play in his GURPS game, but know Noleski and Sam Spade from Pathfinder, and Alastair from Aberrant. Once you've read what he has to say about Alastair, I'd love you to read this post here, because it talks about how I dealt with the emotions a scene he mentions conjured up).

Over to Rich!

~~~

Characters… Christ, where do you start?

From a Storyteller/DM/GM/Ref point of view what can start as a gimmick, has frequently, developed into a staple character of the story. Anyone who has run a game, they have certainly been in the moment where you are put on the spot, the players look at you for what’s next and… the character has a lisp, they’re 5’4”, dresses colourfully, and has eyes that take in too much, a smile never moves past their mouth… Oh you want to know what they’re about… Ermm they’re a warlock, down on their luck and are one disaster from homelessness. From that you know they owe all sorts of cash to all the wrong types of people. So, they’re desperate, hey they just might be willing to help the players out… as for what they want in return depends on who they are… Are they smart, devious, manipulative, straightforward, blunt, several bulbs short of a full metric Blackpool Illumination? Are you starting to see the problem?

Where do you start?

There’s a few characters in my games that have stuck out to me, likely for entirely different reasons than they might for the players. (or one hopes they do anyway)

GURPS, it was my first game, and the short campaign (technically my second campaign using the system), was a pretty big deal for me in formulating how I’d run games in future. The premise of the game was a couple of people were hired by a Ford exec to drive one of the first four door model T Fords to California. The car, however was sentient, and a magnet for the supernatural… From dragging the group into a hair-raising adventure in a town dragged into hell for all of a day, culminating in a rather civilised cup of tea with a demon… Anyway, this was years ago, point was they didn’t find out the car was supernatural, or the reason they were kept alive through a series of convenient happenstances. Point is, my feeling over the game has informed how I tell a story; I like to leave a trail of breadcrumbs that the players only realise was a trail when they look back on it.

Pathfinder. There’s a couple of characters here that really stand out to me. As a “brief” bit of background, the campaign began as the Kingmaker adventure path which was quickly discarded in favour of my own spin on Golarion and its goings on. The advantage of an established world is that you have less work to do, and for a dungeon master with enough to do as it is, having a list of already created characters is a godsend. Noleski Surtova, Regent of New Stetven, was originally written as a cruel and hard person. When I approached the campaign, I knew I wanted him to be present in the story, so I deconstructed the character and started from the ground up. His childhood teacher, Sylvester Malliard, who is an old Wizard who seemed ancient in even his childhood and served as the previous king’s teacher. Then I moved on to how he became regent, the previous king and childhood friend, disappeared mysteriously (still not unveiled in the story, so… as I’m writing this for one of my player’s blogs… You’ll appreciate my reticence) naturally this disappearance tears him apart. Then how does he feel about the Stolen Lands? Noleski sees himself as a caretaker for Brevoy, and her people, therefore reclaiming it from bandits was an exercise in bringing strength to the country in a time of depression. He also is an aging man, old for a bachelor ruler, and his sister (who was supposed to be a Machiavellian manipulator) had attempted to set him up with other prominent members of the court. How does this inform his character? My conclusion was that he was married to his country, to his job, he hadn’t even considered taking the throne until the Stolen Lands had been reclaimed. Those were my thoughts going in. So, who is Noleski? He’s someone that has been influenced by his teacher to show kindness and wisdom in dealing with his people, though he won’t hesitate to make the “right” decision, even if it seems harsh. He knows how to get the most out of people, and will delegate when necessary, and is not afraid of picking up the sword when necessary. That should be enough to work with, right? Yes, and no. Progression makes up everything else. Whether it’s a marriage to one of the players, or the occasional letter, reminding the players of their obligation as rulers of a vassal state.

In truth, many of Noleski’s traits were designed to make him a useful ally to the players… Though with limits…

Sam Spade, yes, I probably stole the name somewhere, don’t look at me like that. He started out as a gag character to help the players in an investigation when they hit a wall. Sam Spade is a gumshoe, he talks the walk, and walks the talk. When Sam is around, the world is Noir, fading to greyscale. The music is audible, the players and other NPCs around appear in appropriate attire, think those silly long cigarettes and fedoras. Sam is bound to a sentient artefact detective agency that appears “when it is needed”, and he is dragged with it when he is done. Oh, and he narrates everything. So yes, it’s another trope, but the character who has a comical overlay, the somewhat darker side of the coin is the few hints I’ve dropped, hinting that his bound status is less than voluntary. He largely speaks for himself, and everyone else.

Annnnd now for the hard part… Alastair Benedict St John. He’s one of the NPCs from my Aberrant campaign. So, Alastair is the product of two NPCs, the enigmatic Benedict, and the equally mysterious Jennifer St John. He’s a Nova, and for those in the know, a second-generation Nova. His childhood was… brief, due to his nature, both full mental and physical development took a matter of a year or so. Through various circumstances, Benedict died in the line of duty, which prompted Alastair to start considering revealing himself to the world, which would have meant subjecting himself and the team that had been built up over years of effort to extreme danger… I should probably elaborate, in my version of the Aberrant world Novas (evolved humans with super powers, about 6000~ worldwide) the relationship between baselines (humans) and Novas is strained at best. However, with Benedict’s death it meant the shadowy organisation, think of a mix between the X-Men and James Bond, operating under London had suddenly lost much of its protection. This means that the organisation, the Nova Initiative, was very vulnerable, which lead to the kidnapping of one Jennifer St John when things started going wrong. I won’t go into the circumstances, they’re largely irrelevant, times were indeed dire. At his lowest point, when the character was having a crisis of faith and near giving up, the players who had never given up hope that Benedict was indeed alive, (and were very vocal about it in his presence) he stated, “If he’s alive, then where is he?”

It was a protest, imagine if you had mere years to get to know your father, had to deal with the grief of losing them too soon, imagine if you had such a huge burden of responsibility placed upon you (Benedict was a pretty big deal). Imagine the world you’re fighting to protect is resisting your every attempt to help, now imagine two trusted friends fighting the reality you were desperately grappling with. How would that make you feel? Angry? Hurt? Yeah, probably. If you want connections to a world, there you go.

In summary, characters aren’t just a mask you put on for a couple of hours. They’re people, they have lives, they have families and they’re usually complicated, what family isn’t? (for god’s sake don’t do the whole, “I’m an orphan” thing, it’s grossly overdone) I suppose it’s the same with any form of storytelling, for a few hours as a DM you present your players a window to another world. That world has its own history which shapes it and the characters in it, like Noleski. That world has mysteries all over it for players to find, like ol’ Sam. That world has a part of you, which makes it sometimes a little scary. Truth is, of all the characters I’ve written, Alastair has the biggest part of me in him. I’ve felt the loss and frustrations he has. Ok, sure, it’s acting… or drawing on personal experience, you write what you know, all that sort of thing. Ultimately, I don’t think where you start is terribly important, you can write their history to inform the character or have the character inform their history, but humans are the sum of their parts… Take that how you will.

For me it boils down to this, if you can know the shape of your story and commit to it, let the character guide your choices, rather than you guide theirs… Then your character is in the world, rather than just your puppet.

Rich

Brother Darius

I had a migraine yesterday, the first proper of this year. It meant I had to cancel our game (which sucked because I'm really enjoying Exalted and the slow reveal of the world and the GM's doing a fantastic job with the NPC's and with giving a foreboding sense of foreshadowing. If we're playing Pathfinder it's not so bad because there's more of us and we play at mine so if I need to I can lie down elsewhere for half an hour or whatever to get my head back towards the game, but that's less feasible with 2 players and someone else's house), but as it started to fade I learnt that Oxford University's Bodleian Library has released a colouring book of images from their collections, so I spent the evening colouring in instead, which was actually a lot of fun and a good distraction from the wibble of a migraine. And being me, as I coloured, I started to wonder who the people might be, if they were characters in a roleplay world. So here's the first.

This is Brother Darius. Not as he is, so much as he dreams of being: the priesthood he's a member of is as corrupt as it is good at hiding its corruption and there are only two ways to rise through the ranks: bribery, and blackmail, and either way it's dead (or disgraced...) man's shoes. Darius joined the order as a young teen. His family's poverty has kept his rank low, and he has spent the past couple of decades eavesdropping, spying, and otherwise learning enough about other members of the order and other major players of the region to make his play for promotion the next time an opportunity arises - and some of this knowledge could come in handy to a group of adventurers passing through town. At a price. Gold would probably do it, or a trade of information, or...

Darius is intelligent and hungry for promotion. He's not above engineering an opening in the hierarchy, but needs to do so in a manner that won't lead back to him. A more morally dubious party might be amenable to assassinating an opponent in return for information. But later, as he rises further, he may worry about what they know about him - particularly if they become notorious - at which point, he may decide it's time to do away with loose ends...

The Tree Ship

There seems to be a lot floating round about saying 'Yes' as a GM at the moment. I have some opinions on that, but I don't think my opinions are important: you should see what works with your group(s) for that game and go with that. I don't think there's anything wrong with saying no if you need to (or if other members of your group need you to), but amazing things can happen when you say yes. Terrible, amazing things.

We're doing the Star Stone trial at the moment in Pathfinder, which is why my GM has asked I don't write up the sessions until we're back on Golarion (he's doing his own version and I think intends to run it for other people another time, so no spoilers!), but we created something so cool last session I have to tell you about it!

There's two important things that happened in the lead up: we acquired use of an airship and discovered our druid can reduce our transport time dramatically by portalling us through trees. Obvious next step? Get a really big pot, put a tree in it and have that on our airship. And awaken the tree - that can't go wrong, right? We sold it to the GM with the suggestion that the tree - a spruce pine - could grow into the ship, creating something akin to Moya in Farscape or the sea-going ships in Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders trilogy (which I haven't yet read but now really want to). The Star Stone trial can affect the magic, or something. 

We helped the druid, all pouring in mythic chips. As the ritual ended, the tree stretched its limbs, needles extending. The balloon providing lift to the ship popped and for a few heart-stopping seconds we plummeted before the tree had converted enough of the ship and was able to return us to flight. Roots spread, wrapping through the timbers that made the ship - we could see the nutrients being sucked out and into the tree. The clean, worked wood was replaced by a mass of roots. The railings became old, gnarled wood. The trunk of the tree grew tall in place of a mast. A figure head grew from the prow, shuddered and shook, then looked back to us. The needles glowed, shimmering and shivering, as it spoke: "I am Yggdrisil".

Yggdrisil is a sentient airship sorceror (verdant bloodline). It is a magical plant, originally a spruce, so can photosynthesise and gets the rest of its nutrients from a ball of soil stored in the cargo area. It has some fire resistance, the ability to detect magic at will, an insatiable curiosity and a love of flight and freedom. Mental stats are all 18 (we took party averages to reflect the lifeforce we poured in in the form of mythic chips). If it likes you, your cabin will be spacious and accommodating to your needs - as a sorceror, it can use dancing lights to provide your lighting; as a living tree, it can extend part of itself as a shelf. If it doesn't like you, your bed will be gnarled and knotted and you may lose knickknacks you leave lying around. 

I don't know its flight speed, precise spell list or its physical stats, but the imagery is so cool and I'm really excited by this. I'd love to use it in a novel, if I ever manage to focus long enough to write one.

Piotr Utkin - Pathfinder Fighter

Piotr Utkin - True Neutral Human Fighter (Level 1) (with lawful leanings)

Abilities: Str 14, Dex 11, Con 13, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 10

Skills: Profession (farmer) 1, Ride 1

Feats: Endurance, Toughness, Catch Off-Guard (fighter bonus feat: no penalty for improvised weapon; opponents flat-footed when using improvised weapon)

Trait: Freedom Fighter (+1 bonus with improvised weaponry)

Gear: Basic farmer stuff, scythe/pitchfork

Appearance/Personality: Like most in the area, Piotr is broad shouldered, fair skinned and fair haired, with blue eyes. He's not as smart as his friends, but his family don't worry - a middle child of several, there are others who can run the farm whilst his strength means he's invaluable in getting the physical work done. He particularly enjoys the calm and rhythmic nature of the reap.

Background: Piotr is a couple years older than Svetlana, Anya and Devin, and a few years older again than Misha. He was an important member of their group - his strength and steadiness assisting den building endeavours and, on one memorable occasion, rescuing them from a fight with a group of merciless older children on a trip to Restov.  Nonetheless, they didn't always treat him as well as they could, playing on his gullibility and his desire to fit in: Piotr often played the king in their games; he didn't notice that the king was usually an old, ugly, bumbling fool, instead was flattered that they saw him as a leader. Devin was perhaps particularly bad for this (not from malice, but because it was easy to cause humour at Piotr's expense) but Svetlana didn't stand up for him as often as she maybe should have done, and even Anya could be guilty of laughing with them. It was a family-like meanness, though: if anyone else tried to use him the same way, they would jump on them and defend him swiftly and precisely: Devin can leave deeper wounds with words than any punch Piotr could have thrown.

It's fair to say the half-elf fascinates him. Piotr remembers the tinker who came through on her birthday. He remembers the fuss she made afterwards - he knew she was wrong, there was no way the human tinker could be her elven father, but his loyalty to his friend meant he supported her silently, letting her rant at him in the days afterwards until she shut up and hid her hurt deep down and never mentioned the mystery of her father again. He enjoyed the feeling of closeness her rants gave him, even if he thought she was crazy.

His first kiss was with Svetlana, when they were teens. For her, it was just a kiss, another game. For him, though, it really mattered. Svetlana would have tried to let him down gently if she'd known he was falling in love with her (or at least thought he was), but somehow she never realised. They'd started to drift apart; now in his early 20s, Piotr's duties at the family farm were significant and he was starting to see his younger friends (particularly Devin and Svetlana) as childish in their inability to settle into traditional roles - even Anya frustrated him a bit, seeing her position as a hunter as wilder than respectable for an expectant mother. 

Svetlana, however, was as unaware of this as she was of his infatuation when she approached him for his company on her adventure, and he misinterpreted her need for adventure as simply a need for change. He suggested she might want to settle down with him, become a wife - after all, they were both too old to still be playing at adventurers. She backed off, startled, having thought his past talk of fighting and adventure was still current.

They argued until she ran off, angry to hide an uncomfortable undercurrent of fear at his reaction. He was her friend and she loved him dearly - but like a brother. And he couldn't expect her to give up who she was to stay here - he clearly didn't know her at all. And how come she hadn't realised how he felt? She kicked herself for her naivety... but the encounter was soon behind her as she followed the adventure to her new life and she didn't often think of it, assuming all was as well with him as with her. After all, he had the quiet life he'd wanted...

He stayed home, nursing his hurt, refusing to speak of her. His anger worsened on hearing just months later that she was not only engaged, but to a king - to the role he'd normally played. She'd told him she didn't want to settle down, but that had been a lie. He simply wasn't good enough for her...

I forget whether he's now engaged to another villager or not. If he is, how does Svetlana feel? Jealous, perhaps? She wouldn't admit to it, but maybe the strength of his attention flattered her.

Or maybe not. Maybe she'd just be relieved he'd forgiven her for unintentionally hurting him, relieved he'd moved on. 

(Edit to clarify: the latter is the case. Piotr may prefer to believe she's at least a little jealous his attention has shifted, but Svetlana never saw him in the same light and would be relieved not to have to worry about his feelings any more.)

Misha Volkov - Pathfinder Druid

Misha Volkov - Neutral Good Human Druid (Level 1) (with lawful/neutral leanings)

Abilities: Str 10, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 11

Skills: Diplomacy 1, Handle Animal 1, Heal 1, Knowledge (nature) 1, Perception 1, Spellcraft 1, Survival 1, Swim 1

Feats: Animal Affinity (bonus to Handle Animal and Ride), Nature Soul (bonus to Knowledge (nature) and Survival)

Traits: Erastil's Speaker (bonus to diplomacy; diplomacy a class skill)

Spells: Create Water (0), Discern Health (0), Divining Rod (0), Calm Animals (1), Commune with Birds (1)

Animal Companion: Barsuk, female badger

Languages: Common, Druidic, Gnomic, Sylvan

Gear: Basic survival gear, spell components, and a quarterstaff.

Appearance/Personality: Fair skin, white-blond hair and ice blue eyes common to the region. Maybe slightly shorter than average, but as broad-shouldered as most in the remote community. Misha is the youngest of three siblings, with brother Maksim the eldest and sister Marya in the middle. Often mistaken for shy, Misha's quietness comes more from an inner calm and strong sense of self that means he doesn't feel the need to compete for attention to know he's real. 

Background: Misha is the only vegetarian in the village, particularly odd in a family of hunters. It is not part of his druidic training but a personal decision he took when he was old enough to understand.

With Anya, Devin and Piotr, Misha is one of Svetlana's childhood friends; he's also Anya's brother-in-law. Whilst the youngest by a few years, his wisdom and intelligence have given him an emotional maturity that found him better suited to their company than to children his age. They were also the group whose games took them furthest into the forests, allowing him to indulge in his love of the wild.

It may be that Devin's fast talking got them out of most of the trouble his imagination had led them into, but sometimes it took Misha's calm to soothe things over. Adults often forgot he was part of the group until he spoke, and whenever he interceded forgot he was so young.

It surprised no one that the druids took an interest in him from an early age. In many ways, this was a blessing to the community: being so remote and with no dedicated cleric or healer locally, childhood mortality is high, but with regular visits from the druids, far more of this generation survived.

In the months before Svetlana left, the druids had found a place for him in their ranks. She regretted this meant he would not accompany her but could see he was on his own journey. He does miss his friends from time to time, but  is leading the life he was born for.

Anya Volkova - Pathfinder Ranger

Another of Svetlana's childhood gang, Anya's the only one who's cameoed in the game so far - she was Svetlana's bridesmaid and spent time in New Stetvon for the wedding. 

See also Svetlana, Devin, Misha and Piotr.

Anya Volkova (nee Kuznetsova) - Lawful Good Human Ranger (Level 1)

Abilities: Str 12, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 11

Skills:  Climb 1, Handle Animal 1, Heal 1, Knowledge (nature) 1, Perception 1, Profession (hunter) 1, Stealth 1, Survival 1, Swim 1

Feats: Athletic (bonus to climb and swim), Run 

Trait: Free Spirit (+2 DC to intimidate her; +1 saving throw against language dependent/sonic descriptor effects)

Ranger Abilities: Favoured enemy (animals +2)

Languages: Common, Gnomic

Equipment: Basic outdoor survival gear/hunter's pack, shortbow, dagger, leather armour, bottle of Chekhov family mead. 

Appearance/Personality: Anya has the fair skin, pale blue eyes and strawberry-blonde hair common in the village. Her build is sturdy; athletic: she hunts with the eye of an eagle, swims with the joy of an otter, climbs with the speed of a squirrel and runs like a leaping hare. She laughs easily and often and comes across as very laid back in comparison to her friends (except the calm Misha). She is hard to insult and quick to stand up for those she thinks are being picked on.

Background: Anya is very close in age to Svetlana, making her a little younger than Piotr and a little older than Devin and Misha, and is third cousin to Svetlana's mother. Her father, Ruslan Kuznetsov, is the village blacksmith, a role her brothers are likely to take on.  

Anya gravitated to her charismatic half-elf cousin and often acted as scout for the group when they played further from home than they ought - picking up a love of the wilderness that found her spending a lot of time with Misha's family, hunters and trappers who proudly traced their lineage back to the hunters saved by Erastil burning the oak that gave the name to the village pub. In an effort to tame the wild bunch, Devin's mother taught them tasks that required focus and patience - lockpicking and the like. Whilst Anya enjoyed these, she never dedicated the time to them she did to understanding the natural world.

She is bright and enjoyed school, but declined in surprise the suggestion by Olesya Chorkina that she move to Restov and continue her studies there. The teacher had expected Anya to attend university and pursue an academic career and put her decision not to down to the bad influence of her friends rather than the fact Anya genuinely preferred her more practical life.

It did not surprise anyone when Misha's elder brother Maksim asked Anya to marry him, nor how readily she agreed. The two had always been close and their wedding, in its elegance, had all the simplicity Svetlana had wanted in her own.

It was Anya who discovered the cellar of the Burning Tree was 'haunted' shortly before the fortuitous arrival of the ragged 'exorcist', Alexei Vassilev. She'd come to tell her cousins of her recently discovered pregnancy, and the shock of bottles flying round when she went to fetch supplies nearly caused her to fall. Alexei took the ghost with him and left the leaflet that drew Anya's best friend away, then Natasha (Svetlana's mother) left to be closer to her daughter in the Dawnlands (and opted to stay there rather than move again after Svetlana's relocation to New Stetvon). Natasha's parents were beginning to feel too old to run the pub themselves - had already handed the running of the orchard and brewery to younger family. Heavily pregnant, Anya was unable to hunt so it made sense for her to spend more time at the inn. Once the twins arrived, she was grateful for the extra space the inn offers, but ultimately she hopes to pass the pub to her sister-in-law, Marya, and return to hunting with Maksim. 

Devin Panesar - Pathfinder Bard

Been going through my roleplay folder and found the sketchy character sheets I made for Svetlana's friends - Devin, Piotr, Anya and Misha. I made them up as first level player characters because I really enjoy character creation - I find it strangely soothing - rather than to assist my GM, instead allowing him to flesh them out from the background I gave him as he sees fit (he received rather more pages than I shared here!). For a bit of info about the place they grew up, see here and for Svetlana's background, see here. (Update to add links for Anya, Misha and Piotr).

There's been a bit of talk again about how characters get their names: in Devin's case, I liked the name Devin. His surname is borrowed from a schoolfriend with the intention of invoking an image of Golarion-India for his father's family.

Devin Panesar - Chaotic Neutral Human Bard (level 1)

Abilities: Str9, Dex13, Con11, Int17, Wis14, Cha16

Skills: Appraise 1, Bluff 1, Diplomacy 1, Disguise 1, Knowledge (Geography) 1, Linguistics 1, Perception 1, Perform (Sing) 1, Sense Motive 1, Sleight of Hand 1, Spellcraft 1

Feats: Persuasive (bonus to diplomacy and intimidate), Deceitful (bonus to bluff and disguise)

Trait: Charming (+1 bonus to bluff/diplomacy and +1 bonus to DC on language dependent spells against those sexual attracted to him)
Special Abilities: Bardic knowledge, Bardic performance: Countersong, Distraction, Fascinate, Inspire Courage 1
Spells: Level 0 - Canny Effort (+2 bonus insight bonus to next skill check; 1001 Spells), Mage Hand, Message, Open/Close
Level 1 - Charm Person, Innocence (+10 bonus on bluff checks to convince others of your innocence; Advanced Players Guide)
Languages: Common, Elven, Dwarven, Gnomic, Vudrani

Appearance/Personality: Average height and scarwny build, Devin's dark hair, dark eyes and dusky skin mark him out in this village of very pale people. He would like to be described as "moving with a dancer's grace" or "smooth, lithe as a snake" or "flowing like water" or other such comparisons as are given to the master-thieves of mythology, but it isn't true. He moves quickly and fidgets without noticing - although if he's focused on a task, he can stay almost impossibly still, as if his internal energy simply needs grounding.

He laughs easily, as often at another's misfortune as at something the other villagers would deem appropriate. This is not malice and he does not lack empathy but he does, perhaps, feel the world is his to play with.

Background: Devin is unusual in not having been born in the village - his mother Katya had been, but left as soon as she could and her experiences are a novel in themselves (one I'd like to write, one day). After hardship, she joined a travelling merchant family from a southern continent, falling in love with Vivek, marrying him and starting a family on the road. She returned with her husband and eldest children when she heard her brothers had both died and her parents were unwell. Vivek and their daughter Timpani settled happily into the sedentary life, but her second child - Devin - had inherited her restlessness and always seemed out of place. It was possibly their shared wildness that drew him to Svetlana. The two are very close, their Chaotic nature at odds with the Lawful predominance of their home, something Devin struggled against more fiercely than Svetlana because he'd experienced other places.

Devin can sing beautifully and can talk his way out of most situations; Piotr may believe he's the leader of their group, but the others have always watched Devin pull his strings. Whilst he often led the quintet into trouble, his charmed tongue could usually get them out of it again.

It was Devin who taught Svetlana to speak Elven. When they first met, he greeted her in such and was surprised that the young half-elf merely cocked her head in curiosity. He'd arrived a year or so after she met her father, and once he'd taught her the language she trusted him enough to tell him of that meeting - and in doing so was delighted to earn an ally who believed her. He vowed to fiind her father for some arbitrary vengeance, but she didn't believe him and didn't really care; she's believes she's at peace with the situation, but struggled to express that to her hot-headed friend.

His family is much closer and much larger - as well as his elder sister, he has many younger siblings named for friends of his parents from around Golarion, and whilst he never sees his cousins any more, he has many and was close to them before coming to the village.

His first kiss was with Svetlana, although they were both just playing and their attraction has always been more the closeness of siblings.

As well as charming, he is incredibly smart and this accounts for some of his restlessness: there simply isn't enough to fill his interest in the small and sleepy community he grew up in. When Svetlana told him of the call to clear out the Stolen Lands, he filled with excitement and swore he'd be there, already dreaming of his adventures and the way history would speak of him.

His father, quiet and calm, tried to dissuade him gently. It was his mother - his mother who'd run away herself younger than he was - who forbade him to leave. Could he not understand that she was looking out for him? That she knew the dangers and was simply protecting him from the risks she'd been lucky to survive?

No. No, he could not.

He arranged to meet Svetlana at the pub her adventure started in - promised to be there before the coach left. She waited for the second coach (and who knows how that would have gone if she'd left with the first and never met Alexei?), but he still didn't show.

Spinning the game forward, it was not until her wedding anyone would hear from him again: he was working as a guard in the Osirion region. Svetlana received this with mixed feelings: relief that he was ok, disappointment that he wasn't at her wedding and a little jealousy at what he was seeing.