Keep on the Shadowfell Request
May I use this character? I know she is a child but I love roleplaying and character development. Whatever penalties and limitations you impose on her I will of course accept but I would like to play her as is. The background explains everything. When do we start?
Name: Jessica Darkwood
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 11
Hair: Golden Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Height: 4'1"
Weight: 60 lbs
Class: Evocation Mage
Alignment: Good
Description: Jessica tends to dress in plain clothing and is tomboyish in style and dress. She hates dresses and fluffy clothing. She is also very observant and has a keen eye. Very self sufficient and independent. Seems well travelled and despite her cuteness and smallness is by no means an easy target in the wilderness or city.
Jessica stands 4 feet 1 inch tall and has long, wavy, auburn hair and sparkling blue eyes that light up her presence whenever she smiles or laughs. She is fairskinned and is around 11-12 years of age. Her attire consists of a light blue shirt, brown pants, a hooded green cloak which partially conceals a backpack and a pair of black boots. There is a sheathed dagger on her belt.
Personality: Jessica is a brave and courageous child with a stubborn and convictive streak. She is kindhearted and generous. The girl is constantly on the move and is very independent by nature, getting things done on the button and is self sufficient. She fights for the good of others, especially for the poor and downtrodden.
She does tend to be a loner though and a bit of a 'lone wolf'. Very emotional and stubborn.
Background
Johan Darkwood and Marie Swordheart were both adventuring wizards who had fallen in love but could not sum up the courage to tie the knot. But then Marie became pregnant. So they settled down in Sharn and 9 months later Marie gave birth to a baby girl whom they named Jessica or Jess for short. However Marie developed a dangerous infection and died.
Despite this terrible loss, Johan poured all of his love and affection to his daughter. She became his life and he became hers. To his surprise, Jess proved to be an exceptionally bright child learning to read fluently by age 3 and even write to a limited degree at age 4. She loved books and tomes, and was an avid student and researcher at an early age.
While this pleased Johan, it also worried him too. She spent too much time in the library studying. At ages 4 to 6 she was being quite the student. Which was fine by him. But Jess proved also to be a sickly child. Flus and boughts of shivering and malaise were a problem with Jess. She had no problem studying and learning quickly because she was in bed most of her young life.
So when Jess asked her father to teach her magic, while this pleased him immensely, he did so with a plan. First he packed up all his stuff and his daughter's and sold the shop. Then he took his daughter and once more began to live the life of an adventurer. Jess was 5 at the time.
There were several reasons for this. When Johan was young he also suffered the kind of childhood Jess suffered through. Until his ranger father took him out into the forest and began gradually training him in outdoor survival. It helped toughen him up physically and for years he actually became a ranger until he developed an interest in magic.
So he did so with Jess, teaching her how to survive in the outdoors,and how to hunt and forage for food. He did this along with days of training her to learn spellcasting and manipulating the energies of the arcane. Jess found that she loved both, finding the peace and serenity of the wilderness and forests a calming influence which helped her study better and develop good concentration skills. She proved to be a quick learner and was mastering Cantrips by age 9. Eventually Johan gave her her first spellbook at age 10. But what was more important to him was that Jess was getting healthier and stronger physically. The gradual and careful exposure to the outdoors helped her develop a stronger constitution and made her overcome her earlier childhood bouts of sickness.
Jessica and her father was also in constant contact with Douven Stahl, Johan's former mentor and friend. Whenever Johan went on a mission that might be deemed to dangerous for Jessica, he left her under the care and tutelage of Douven and his wife. Douven would often refer Jessica other mages and sages to work with them on their research. Thus Jessica earned money on her own and had a more varied education other than her father.
Then tragedy struck. About a week before Jess's 10th birthday, a town she and her father visited was struck by a plague. Both she and her father fell ill. It would later be determined that the plague was caused by tainted well water, a favourite revenge tactic by a vicious priest named Kalarel after he was banished from town when he tried to obtain a ritual component located in a shop there for his own nefarious purposes. Jessica's own will to live and her previous battles with sickness when she was very young managed to help her overcome it with her father's help. Her father helped develop an alchemical cure for the plague but risked his own health doing so. He died at his daughter's bedside as Jess's fever broke and she began to recover.
After hearing about Johan's death, Douven immediately went to the now desolate town and picked her up. He took her in as his ward, just as he did with her father years before. For the past year Jessica has been living under the mentorship and care of Douven Stahl and taking research job using Douven himself as a reference to help improve her education and mage skills. Recently Douven went on a visit to Sharn, Jessica former childhood home. Jessica was at the time doing research on Death Cults for Marla of the Great Church and could not go with him. That was three weeks ago and Mrs Stahl has not heard from him since and believes something is wrong. Also Marla of the Great Church believes that a Death Cult is operating in the area in and around Sharn. Worried about her husband and given Marla's concerns, combined with Jessica's extensive knowledge of Death Cults through her research, they agree, though guardedly, that Jessica is the best person to go and investigate the situation in Winterhaven. Marla believes also that Jessica was spending too much time in a library and needed to go out into the world a bit and Mrs Stahl agreed as well. Of course sending an 11 year old alone on such a quest was ridiculous and foolhardy without at least having some protection and help. Therefore they hire some trustworthy adventurers to assist and protect her on this mission. And this is where her adventures begin!