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17:15, 18th April 2024 (GMT+0)

Bard/thief searches for home...

Posted by JuniperJenny
JuniperJenny
member, 1 post
Tue 1 Sep 2015
at 19:16
  • msg #1

Bard/thief searches for home...

Hi! I have a character searching for an online home. Although the character was designed for a homebrew game using DnD rules, I've lost the original character sheet, and I'm not looking for anything very tightly married to dice. I am interested in a smaller game, from one-on-one to up to six players. Obviously this isn't a level-one character; I would be willing to discuss a modified backstory as appropriate for a game.

I am an experienced and capable writer, and can give an output of 3-4 long posts a week. The following is all about my character (note: setting-specific information is flexible, but the concept of mild racism towards half-elves is fairly integral):

Basic Statistics

Name: Margaret Larethieli Evensong Thursday
Nickname: Maggie, Magpie
Meaning of name: The Temple of Sehanine’s normal naming practice for foundlings is to give them a plain usename and a surname based on some memorable aspect of their arrival at the temple. Maggie was discovered just before vespers on a particularly benign and mundane weekday. A religious name is added when the child or youth either chooses to leave or join the temple of their own volition, and is intended to reflect the temple’s blessing for their future. Those children for whom it seems appropriate are given an elvish name as well, which individuals tend to keep to themselves; Maggie’s represents the priests’ sense that she is as likely to be touched by Corellon as Sehanine.
Origin of name: No undersized, overquick, and ravenously curious child can get by on the sedate “Margaret” for long, and “Maggie” seemed an inevitable abbreviation. “Magpie” has come into use more recently, as a handle given her by the young crew she captains, both to protect her identity and to fondly recognize her quick mind, unquenchable curiosity, and penchant for shiny trinkets.
Age: 22
Sex: Female
Nationality: Coilforks
Ethnicity: Silver Elf, Human
Race: Half-Elven
Alignment: CGF
Sexual Orientation: Straight
Current status: Captain of a small crew of young musicians and acrobats, who moonlight as thieves.
Police/Criminal/Legal record: She has been tried twice, but never convicted, for burglary. She was convicted at age twelve of pickpocketing. The guard are aware of her, but can’t get anything to stick, and don’t see her as a primary threat anyway, since her little gang has so far remained non-violent.
Socioeconomic level as a child: Lower than low; as a foundling she was entirely dependent on charity.
Socioeconomic level as an adult: She has moved up to thief. She is self-sufficient, but barely, and must still spend as much energy keeping herself and her friends from the notice of other more powerful thieves as from the authorities.
Birth date: Sometime around mid-February.
Birth place: Coilforks, presumably; probably somewhere on the northern side of the river.
Current residence: She and her crew keep a couple of rooms above an inn on the edge of the yellow district, as well as a basement room in the slums and a rather uncomfortable sewer refuge they hope never to need near the river’s edge. Most have a preference, but Maggie moves around. She also still has a small room at the Temple of Sehanine, although she views that as well as a place of last resort.
Class: Bard
Occupation: Bard/Thief
Title/Rank: Sometimes she is so lucky as to be called The Magpie. Otherwise none.

Past History

First Memory: Hearing the choir at the Temple of Corellon for the first time, possibly as young as three. Her unschooled response netted her a charity seat at the Arcane Academy until she was fifteen.
Most important childhood event that still affects him/her:
Why/How?
Other memories/events that still affects him/her and why/how: At the age of fifteen she was attacked and nearly raped at the hands of an aristocratic fellow student who sneered that any bastard had it coming. She was rescued by a teacher, who tried to assure her that was not a universal viewpoint, but she did not return to the Academy.

Backstory: Nearly a quarter-century ago, an elven emissary and his entourage spent a year in Coilforks, working mostly unsuccessfully to develop a trade agreement regarding the high-quality silver produced in the northern mines. Despite the lack of progress, the elves were amused by the human aristocracy’s ambivalent overtures, as they seemed equally attracted by their exotic looks as repulsed by their clear lack of humanity. A few even amused themselves by taking lovers among their human hosts, including the emissary himself.

The emissary, rather pettily, chose for his pleasure the youngest daughter of the councilman most virulently opposed to elven interests taking hold in the town, whom he met when she sang very prettily to entertain guests at her father’s estate. The petite lass, nearly as small as a proper elven woman, was sweet and sheltered, but she earnestly loved the exotic creature. He was charmed by her and fond of her, and, had he known she was pregnant when he left, he might have taken her along, to spare her from her father’s disappointment and society’s censure.

Her father covered the scandal up well, though he was completely confused by what he saw as his daughter’s betrayal of her race. He rushed her quietly away to his country castle, and genuinely mourned her death a few months later. The tiny, strange-looking girl-child she left he disposed of more permanently, but he truly meant no cruelty. Surely the priests and priestesses of an elven deity would know what to do with an odd little bundle like that. An anonymous donation and a loyal servant paid to leave the babe on the stoop before being pensioned generously off was enough to make the problem go away, for good.

If the priests and priestesses spent much time in considering her origin, they never mentioned it to the little child they named Margaret. Maggie spent her first few years with a wet nurse found among the small congregation, then returned as a toddler to live in the dormitories with the young novitiates. She was the youngest there, but not by terribly much, and no one ever found it much burden to look after the cheerful child, whose worst trait seemed to be her inability to quit making noise. The elderly priestess who looked after the novitiates was especially fond of her, and let the girl trail along behind her everywhere she went, thinking fondly of the day when Maggie would surely take her own vows.

These half-formed plans for her future were scrapped in her third year. That spring equinox, the old priestess scrubbed the girl clean, dressed her in her best clothes, and took her for a treat: a high service at the Temple of Ioun. That larger, more prestigious temple was packed to the gills, and the woman wedged herself and the child against a column where they could see, if only a little. The little girl hummed cheerfully to herself as she played with a doll before the service, but as soon as the great choir let out their first clear, pure note, they had Maggie’s unbroken attention.

The girl was absolutely uncharacteristically silent for a moment, a look of wonder on her tiny face, and the priestess smiled down at her. Then Maggie let out a tiny chirp, perfectly in tune, and began slipping determinedly through the crowd toward the front. The old woman rushed behind, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment as she apologized for bumping hips and elbows, but the crowd seemed to thin of its own accord. As the space before her cleared, she was able to make out Maggie, whose little chirp had developed into a small but somehow polite descant to the choir’s melody. As the little girl sang, those around her stepped absently out of the way, so that by the time Maggie and her guardian stood at the front by the rope separating the distinguished guests (provided with chairs) from the standing crowd there was a calm pocket of space all around them, enough the priestess could spread her arms and turn in a circle without touching anyone.

She was not surprised at all to be approached by a young priest of Ioun after the service. While Maggie played happily with the choral director, who was enchanted by the toddler’s ability to parrot musical passages back at him, no matter how complex, the priestess talked about her girl’s future with the high priest. Lessons with the temple musicians were arranged, to start immediately, and as soon as she was old enough, Maggie would be attending the Arcane Academy as a charity student. The Temple even offered to take the child in altogether, but the priestess insisted that Sehanine’s house would be a more welcoming home for a half-elven child, and no one could really argue with her.

Physical Characteristics

Height: 5’3”
Weight: 114 lbs.
Posture: Straight
Build: Fine bone structure with narrow wrists and ankles, but curvy. A little underweight, and her collar bones are a little too prominent.
Skin: She is very pale, with a delicate rosy flush.
Hair: Her hair seems black, but has a startling midnight blue tinge under the right lights that discomfits some race-pure humans. She periodically tries to cover it with walnut stain, which occasionally turns the blue strands green rather than dark brown. Her hair is currently an unfortunate olive green, up to about three inches from her scalp, where it reverts to its natural shimmering blue. She is not immune to vanity and has been keeping the long, straight strands knotted up in a garish red kerchief, almost as startling against her blue roots as the green is. She has a slight widow’s peak.
Ears: Long and pointed, although she tends to wrap them up in the kerchief as well; it isn’t always wise in her neighborhood to flaunt a difference.
Eyes: Exceptionally, profoundly, gorgeously blue. Also very large in a waif-like face.
Nose: Small and tip-tilted. It tends to scrunch up a little when she’s concentrating on what she’s saying. Like when she’s lying. Or telling the truth.
Mouth: A little too wide, with pale lips. A bit of a cupid’s bow.
Face shape: Heart-shaped.
Expressions: Her face is remarkably expressive, with her wide eyes the only constant.
Smile: Constant. A large fully smile lights her face up entirely, but more often her grin is a crooked twist of lips that her crew recognizes as a harbinger of trouble.
Hands: Her hands seem large for her slight body, but they are long and thin. Her nails are all cut or bitten short, and there are rough callouses on her fingertips. She is an expressive speaker, and her hands are constantly in motion.
Feet: Usually encased in worn-out secondhand laced boots. There are holes in the bottoms of both shoes, and she’s cut insoles of rough leather to try and keep the cold out. The difference in color is fairly noticeable.
Tattoos/Scars? The letter ‘P’ is branded into the web of her left thumb. She has a tattoo of the crescent moon on her left ankle, as well as a lute emblazoned with a silver star on her right shoulder blade.
Left/Right handed? Right handed, although years of music have left her quite dexterous with her left hand as well.
Distinguishing features: She has flipping blue hair, in a human city. How distinguishing does it have to be?
Who does s/he take after; mother or father?: She, of course, has no idea, although her odd coloring makes her quite sensibly suspect it is whichever parent was elven. In fact, while she would be fairly quickly recognizable to anyone who knew her elven father (well, actually, his mother, but such is genetics and luck) heavily in her delicate features and deep blue hair, she would be surprised to learn how much she resembles her aristocratic human mother, who was an accomplished musician in her own right and rebellious enough to die giving birth to a half-elven bastard, in carriage and temperament.
Style: Her clothes, shabby secondhand finery, tend toward the flamboyant. She usually wears an embroidered white peasant blouse, allowed to slip off one thin shoulder when she performs, and with strands of floss dangling where the embellishments are unraveling, tucked haphazardly into a full skirt in a bright color, always too long and kirtled up or too short with pale ankles and her crescent tattoo showing. Over the whole outfit she wears a fine blue silk rectangular shawl with a dark water stain in one corner, either knotted around her hips or thrown around her shoulders, and the red kerchief wrapped around her hair. It is an odd and arresting combination. Those who know her well know that such outfits are as much disguise as anything else: she learned how to dress up in perfectly good taste as a student at the academy, and wears slim and serviceable leather breeches, a dark boy’s shirt worn past any recognizable color, and the red kerchief for night work.
Jewelry: In her loud day garb, she wears sparkling paste earbobs and a noisy silver charm bracelet that doubles as tambourine. She never goes without a slim silver chain around her neck, with a star and crescent moon pendant.
Health: She is healthy but has been looking a little malnourished since she left the temple.
Hygiene: To the casual observer, she looks as dirty as any other slum dweller, but it’s surface dirt; her smile is white and gleaming and her hair shines with health and cleanliness. Her clothes are worn, but mostly clean, and any patches are neat.

Characteristics

Are they generally balanced or clumsy? She is balanced and quick.
Habits/OCDs/Obsessions: She keeps a dream diary in the back several pages of her ritual book. She is constantly shaking her bracelet.
Sleep patterns: Light and restless sleeper. Wakes up reaching for her lute, which she protects with her life.

Psychological/Personality Attributes and Attitudes

Known Languages: Elven and Common
Character's short-term goals/desires in life: To protect her crew
Secret desires: To make a name and a place for herself in respectable society, where no one will look down on her or threaten her again.
Is this character generally dominant or submissive? Dominant.
Patience level: Extremely low.
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof? She is emotional and volatile, ruled by compassion and excitement.
Optimist or Pessimist: Tempered pessimism.
Introvert or extrovert: She seems extroverted, but it’s all surface. She is surprisingly difficult to actually get to know.

Relationships with Others

Non-Married
Virgin? Yup.

Spiritual Characteristics

Religion:
Does the character believe in a god or goddess? Sehanine and Corellon
What are the character's spiritual beliefs? She believes Sehanine and Corellon care for her and about her.
Is religion or spirituality an important part of this character's life? She attends services at Sehanine’s temple regularly and Corellon’s when she can.
Superstitions: She will react strongly to dreams, even if she feels silly about it, feeling that Sehanine speaks to her thus.
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