<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=108866.msg4730461#msg4730461">Quote from: Wintercat on 02-06-2011, 18:36:55</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I posted my "Tank" of a barbarian human woman in the recruiting thread before, now its time for the "Skill-Holder", so please let me introduce you to him. Also, I know there's a bit too much history probably, got a bit carried away.<br/><br/>I wonder if I should do the other three... Wildcard, Healer, and Magus then? Hmm. There's already good interest for those I think, but the thought is in my mind still. Just in case.. heheh. Or maybe I just like the process a bit too much. Well, other than looking for pictures, or coming up with a good name. Those are really among the hardest parts of the character creation sometimes.<br/><br/><hr/><div class="floatright">(http://img2.gelbooru.com//images/782/d24abc7121eda06e91251eae05a10c5d.jpeg?924994)</div><div align="center"><strong><span class="bbc_u">Varon Duskvale - Wandering Scoundrel (http://plothook.net/RPG/profiler/view.php?id=8716)</span></strong></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Description</div><div class="spoiler_body">Varon is an elven man that can look serious one second, and laugh merrily the next. He is white-haired fellow, with the white strings divided by the sharp-pointed ears. His dark brown eyes are sharp and observant, his smirk full of mirth and enjoyment of life. He has a finely chiseled nose and a firm jaw, a good head on his shoulders. <br/><br/>His body is naturally limber and strong, and his practice has honed the natural abilities more. He has wide shoulders and strong, a firm chest and strong arms, but it is his agility that has kept his head on his shoulders this far. His stomach is smooth and firm, his legs elegant. His step has the precision and grace of a mountain goat, rarely missing its mark. His skin is smooth, and though naturally fair, it has had a bit of sun now and then, maintaining a light bit of color to it.<br/><br/>Varon is usually seen wearing a simple black outfit, with white detailing in his pants and his jacket. He tends to wear a simple hat on his head when out working, though the hat itself seems to have had to endure a number of rough treatments and near-misses. The young man has still kept good care of it, showing a fondness for that particular piece of outfit. <br/></div></div> <br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Background</div><div class="spoiler_body">Varon grew up in a small village where food was often scarce. He grew up surrounded by people that were tougher and meaner than he was, so he had to learn to make use of what he had. His natural agility. His limber, flexible body let him escape the bonds he was tied in more than once, and his skill with acrobatics left his pursuers often staring at an obstacle he had crossed at ease taking a bit more distance between himself and them. More than once he slipped to a barrel, behind crates, or dashing into long grass, vanishing from sight before the others could catch up and spot him again, see where he was heading. <br/><br/>He learned the basics of a thief's life quite naturally, but one day his daring escape was spotted by a man visiting the village, and it seemed that the man was impressed by it. Impressed enough to come and find Varon's parents, and offer them a good amount of money and a promise to train the boy into a skilled man. Varon's parents had never even seen that much money at once, and readily agreed.<br/><br/>Following the man Varon soon came to learn a lot more about locks, and specifically, how to unlock them. He was given training about observing people, and how to make himself look more like them, or less like himself, with the help of some interesting props and makeup. Following this came learning to read and write different languages and alphabets, picking up ways to imitate someone's handwriting, and how to make convincing forgeries of wax seals he had seen. He spent time climbing up trees, and walls, sometimes with the help of a grappling hook and a rope, sometimes without. He was tied up and left in a dungeon with only the lockpick laying on the floor before him. Later on, he learned he would have to hide it somewhere on him, just in case. He spent time first learning to untie himself, and then again how to unlock a stubborn lock, and about sneaking past guards. It was a test which he passed, and with that, his mentor greeted him with open arms, welcoming him as an apprentice ready to graduate. <br/><br/>They were skills to be proud about, but the tricks and deception he had learned were not part of any respectable skillset he had heard of before at least. Soon, Varon learned he was right. His teacher was among people who specialized in acquiring information when it was necessary, robbing a particular item of interest, and occasionally although distastefully, quieting a voice that spoke too loudly against their interests. Spies, thieves and assassins. <br/><br/>Varon kept away from assassination, not wanting to taint his hands with the blood of an innocent person, but he was willing to steal things, forge documents and lie about their authenticity to confuse some people long enough for others to strike, and he moved with a certainty that he was doing what he was trained for. The pay was good, and his tools were exquisite. <br/><br/>He hesitated sometimes, and so he came to be introduced to the Goddess Calistria. She was the Goddess of the Trickery, and Vengeance that he lived with each day, but also the Goddess of Lust. Varon's continued success was soon rewarded not only by the good pay and equipment, but also the skillful attention of women that could take all doubts and worries from his mind. <br/><br/>Varon was tamed, for a while, but he still yearned to see the world, and he knew one thing in his mind that refused to quiet down. These women adored the coin, not him. Some might be impressed with skill, but it seemed that in the end, it was always something else than him. It was lust, and while lust was amusing, he craved to learn more as well. <br/><br/>His life had been a series of successful tasks after his escape from the life of running away from bullies, but then one night he broke into the apartment of a Lord that had been rather vocal recently. Sneaking down the hallways, avoiding the guards, he sought to locate the man's greatest treasure. He had been told where to find it by his mentor, who handed him a map, drawn by a bribed former servant of that lord. He knew his task was to find the treasure, and to ruin it. He despised the thought but had taken it, believing whatever it was, a little acid would rob it of its beauty, and if it was something acid would not work well with, he would find another way.<br/><br/>Yet the door that opened revealed a young woman sleeping in her bed. He paused, and hesitated. His mentor had set him up to murder someone, or at the very least rob them of their virtue it seemed. Given their teachings however, to never be seen as their true selves and let the person live, he believed that it was a task of murder. The noble's daughter, he remembered briefly.<br/><br/>He neared the bed, but he did not feel cold-hearted enough to murder someone that was innocent just for the sake of coin. He had stepped close however, and his fortune turned the moment he refused to carry out the vengeance he had been ordered to. The girl's eyes opened, and she screamed.<br/><br/>Varon backed away, grateful he was wearing the black scarf to cover most of his face on the job, but she had seen him up close, and might remember his white hair, not all of it had been hidden perfectly into the cover of his hat. He grimaced, but it was either kill her, or leave. Then things got worse.<br/><br/>Her screaming was followed by throwing things, and one of the things she hit was a nearby, dim oil-lamp that had shone a little light into the room. As it fell when hit by a pillow that Varon had dodged, causing the oil and the hot ember to come in touch. Burst of flames spread n the room, the sounds of guards rushing in sounding out. Varon grimaced, and taking some speed, he leaped through the window nearby. His arms before him and his eyes closed, he trusted in his mithril shirt to help keep him from being cut too bad at least and he hoped that he could make the fall and land safely. He opened his eyes in the air, seeing the ground ahead, and falling feet first, immediately bending his legs and pushing himself to a roll, feeling the ache in his feet but also knowing he had survived the fall. Panting, he turned to leave. <br/><br/>Varon did not waste time getting out of town after that. He heard later, in another town, a song from a bard about a greedy pig of a noble that roasted alive with his daughter and staff in their apartment from a lamp knocked over in the daughter's bedroom. Some tales said her lover had come to visit her, others said a murderer had come and hid his trail by setting the place aflame. <br/><br/>Varon felt guilty for the deaths, he could not change what had happened, but he also knew he would not go back to the town. He had no wish to become a tool for murder, and even if he had killed his target it was by mistake. He wondered who had been left to share the tale about a stranger in the house after he left, but he hoped that the people that trained him would also think he died in the fire. <br/><br/>He set out on his own to make a new life, somewhere else, putting his skills to use for himself. Hoping to one day find himself able to forgive himself, he was not truly good, ready to fight a good fight, but neither was he a cold-hearted killer. He could see himself killing an evil person, but not an innocent, and this left him with a guilt he could not shake.<br/></div></div> <br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Writing Prompt</div><div class="spoiler_body">"You want me to tell a little bit about myself?" The elven man cast a curious look at the people before him and smiled. "Its my favorite topic." With a laugh he smiled to the group and nod his head in agreement. "Well, the way I see it, this world is full of dangers and troubles, and you face some of them even if you sit on your ass and grow turnips all your life. They might not be as big troubles and dangers as you find adventuring, but nobody gets it easy in life. I had a choice of what I would do with my life, and I took this path. I am not ashamed to steal when I need to, but I pilfer from the monsters not people, because monsters rarely send guards running after you through towns, and if you kill a monster trying to kill you then you were just defending yourself." <br/><br/>Shrugging slightly and smiling, he brushed his chin. "I follow the Goddess Calistria, and find the teachings of <em>the savored sting</em> pretty good sense to me. You have to laugh and jest sometimes, trickery is for that, and if you are laughing at a monster why not do so when pulling off something nasty? Now, the vengeance part is also easy. Don't let someone stomp on your toes and get away with it, if you have a chance, even the score. Doesn't mean I go after every little thing, that wouldn't be worth the effort, but if someone seriously causes me or those I like harm or trouble, I don't mind hunting for them a while and making them quite as miserable or maybe a bit more." He shrugged a hint, then chuckling. <br/><br/>"The last part, Lust? That can be fun, but it depends really who you are with. I enjoy company of pleasant men, and I enjoy company of pleasant women. I have to admit I enjoy the company of pleasant women even more than that of the pleasant men, its a preferance, afterall. Now, Lust can be just itself, or it can be part of something more, but well I personally find myself admiring a lady now and then. Regardless of race, that is. Human, elf, halfling, gnome, even dwarf." He smiled. "There's some races among monsters that don't look too bad either but I think I've only run into men of their species so I cant say for sure."<br/><br/>Leaning back a little to the nearby wall and raising his fingers to touch his hair, Varon cast a conspirational look at the others present near him at the time. "If I had enough gold, I'd try and build some nice big home somewhere, return there between adventures to rest and plan for the next things in turn, and spend time with folks I enjoy. Not supposed to say that, bad luck or something, but I imagine as long as I keep my way I'll be fine. So, who's ready to take on that task we spoke about this morning now?"<br/></div></div></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>Looks good. Quite focused, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Definitely one to be considered. Like the detail on the elf, and it's good to see someone that doesn't think CN can flow between good and evil.<br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=108866.msg4730313#msg4730313">Quote from: PhantomPistoleer on 02-06-2011, 18:11:24</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Question:  if making a ranger, would goblinoids and plains be good for favored enemy/terrain?<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>Goblinoids could be a good one. They are pretty common throughout many levels, so they fall into the safe bets along with undead and the like. Though the plains would be common considering it is a main feature of the landscape, dungeons would be a prime area as well. Underground fits most dungeon settings, like ruins and the like. So either one of those could work.