All right.  Draft one of Aesa Tolangarde.  Feedback, comments, love/hate, feel free to let me know.<br/><br/>Image<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">(http://cache.desktopnexus.com/thumbnails/1356802-bigthumbnail.jpg)</div></div><br/>Key Stats (Full Sheet to follow)<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Str 14<br/>Dex 20 (+2 from half elf)<br/>Con 13<br/>Int 8<br/>Wis 12<br/>Cha 17<br/><br/>Half Elf Brawler lvl 1  HP 11<br/><br/>Feats<br/>Weapon Finesse<br/>Skill Focus (Acrobatics)<br/>Improved Unarmed Strike<br/><br/>Traits<br/>Soldier (from crime), Acrobat, Bloodthirsty, and Blatant (Flaw)<br/><br/>Skill Ranks<br/>Acrobatics, Climb, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Perception, Swim, Profession (Soldier)<br/><br/>Common and Elven as languages, that's about it for starting naked  ;D<br/></div></div><br/>Back Story- Summary<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Aesa grew up in a non-pious, resentful half elf family with a history in the military.  She joined, but was soon shipped off to disappear with a unit full of essentailly evil aligned soldiers.  Instead she thrived there.  When ordered to help rescue a (lawful stupid) paladin who had foolishly gone north of the wall her unit deserted rather than waste itself in the doomed attempt.  The rescue was attempted anyway, led by a younger brother of the paladin, and met with disaster.  The younger paladin survived and hunter her down, killing one of her old companions in the process.</div></div><br/>Back Story- Short Narrative<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Ex-Sergeant Aesa Tolangarde opened her eyes with reluctance.  She must have nodded of for a moment, but it had provided a brief reprieve from her current predicament.  The rags hanging on her slim body barely fit and concealed little, but modesty wasn’t one of her top concerns even at the best of times.  The cuts and bruises were all superficial, which she supposed she could be thankful for.  Her crime was unquestioned, and her companions either dead or long gone, the inquisitors had no questions they cared to ask her.  As long as there were no bored sadists among them, she would likely be unbothered until it was time for the noose.<br/><br/>She closed her eyes, working the muscles in her arms to keep some blood flowing through them as she thought back on how she had arrived here.  One statement sprang forth right away, and since she was condemned anyway she felt no need to keep it silent.  “I hate paladins.”<br/><br/>________________________________________________________________<br/><br/>Aesa grew up in a military family, a pure-blood half-elf from an old, if not noble line.  The half elves were an adaptable people, but their longer lifespan changed the way they viewed history, and they remembered.  Aesa’s family still carried resentment about the lose of the old pantheon, the loss of choice of worship.  Which deity their family had once called their own had been quietly forgotten, but the simmering resentment passed down with each generation.<br/><br/>It was no wonder that upon joining the military, while her combat prowess was praised her blunt personality and lack of piety rubbed the more devout instructors and one particular paladin commander the wrong way.  So she was sent north to the Wall and tacked onto a unit full of insubordinates and borderline criminals.  They were based in a remote section of the wall and mostly kept out of site.  She still wasn’t sure whether the commander who assigned her there had hoped they would kill her, or whether they were actually succeeding in turning these people into a unit.<br/><br/>Either way the first day she arrived a scarred veteran named Kale loudly proclaimed he wouldn’t accept an “half breed whore” as part of their group and that she would only get in the way, but she was welcome to dance on the tables for them.  She had indeed gotten up on the tables, but only to reach Kale.  The two had beaten each other bloody while the rest of the unit watched and took bets.  When Aesa finally pinned him down and demanded a cut of the winnings, the whole unit burst into laughter.  The loudest sounds came from the man beneath her, which was impressive since she was pretty sure she had broken at least one of his ribs.<br/><br/>After that she was part of the unit, and eventually one of it’s leaders.  The relationship with the brass was always a strain.  They did the dirty work, the work no one else was willing to do.  Their reports were half truths, when they existed at all, and everyone tried to ignore them when they weren’t needed, commanders hoping they wouldn’t get complaints from the neighboring communities about theft or a despoiled maiden.  Every time a paladin rode through they knew the balanced on the edge of a discharge at best, a court martial at worst.  <br/><br/>Still, Aesa enjoyed her time with the unit, not caring about any of their less than morale world views because the unit functioned as a whole.  Their nimble fingered “espionage expert” might happily stab a man in the back for a copper, but never would any of them break with the unit itself.  Whenever they ended up in combat she stood in the front with the other fighters and left with her hands and weapons as stained as anyone's, perhaps even more so.<br/><br/>They kept the peace, at least from everyone but themselves.  They essentially ruled the small neighboring communities and when they went to one of the taverns while on patrol she drank and molested the bar maids right along with them.  She never did tell them about her occasional liaison with one of the owner’s daughters, but the girl was just too sweet to share.<br/><br/>It all came crashing down when some damned noble paladin lead his men north of the wall.  What his goal had been she never learned, but he had bitten off more than he could chew.  Cut off from the wall, the scryers said it was only a matter of time before he was surrounded and slaughtered.  A daring rescue plan was devised, to be led by the paladins younger but equally bedazzled brother.  <br/><br/>Aesa’s unit was ordered to “scout the left flank”.  It wasn’t a complete suicide mission, but at least a third of them wouldn’t be coming back alive.  When the unit commander objected and pointed out they would lose more men in the “rescue” than they could possibly save he was told only that Mitra would provide a path.  When the time came to enact the plan, Aesa’s unit had already scattered to the wind.<br/><br/>She made it south for a while, learning while she moved that the rescue had been attempted anyway, to disastrous results.  Not only had they failed the rescue, but half of the force had been caught in a bugbear ambush from the east and slaughtered.  Aesa couldn’t argue that her unit’s involvement would have reduced the blow, but she felt nothing but scorn for the fools.  Apparently the all powerful Mitra had been busy elsewhere.<br/><br/>The younger paladin, she would soon learn, had survived and loudly blamed the deserters for the death of his brother and pledged to hunt them down.  That is why she was here, why she and Kale had met up on that rainy day, why she had watched his cursed glowing mace crush Kale’s skull.  The holy energy the paladin had unleashed on her had burned through her body and knocked her back.  Proof, he declared as he watched his men surround her to finish the job.  Proof of her vile nature.  The last thing she remembered before blacking out was his smile.<br/><br/>____________________________________________________________________<br/><br/>Aesa opened her eyes in the darkness.  Her arms were sore beyond belief, but her muscles were still warm and fully functional.  She wasn’t dead yet.  A savage smile graced her lips as she muttered.  “Sanctimonious bastard, you should have killed me when you had the chance.  I'm going to rip your beating heart out of your chest, and you'll last just long enough to watch it stop beating in my hand.”</div></div><br/><br/>Question for Loki, will we be using character sheets on the D20 site, or managing them ourselves?