Morgha_Kul wrote: »

The premise of the character is that he is an average person cast into a strange unexpected life of adventure. He would have no magical training, and would learn weapons and armor only AT FIRST. After some time, he would learn magic, and take on abilities more like a traditional wizard.

Morgha_Kul wrote: »

So, as I like to do, I've written a first chapter. I thought I'd post it here for your amusement, since you were all so helpful in bringing the character to life (so to speak).

The Journal of the Traveller

I am known now as Thespen Shein. I am writing this journal to chronicle an extraordinary journey I find myself on, quite inexplicably. I will explain how this began, in order to bring the journal up to date, and then I will carry on making entries as long as I am able.

I had gone to bed the night before, as I had done so many times before, in my home in Waterloo, Canada. However, when I woke I was not in my bed. I found myself somewhere else. I awoke in a cage, a cold stone floor beneath me. I wore nothing to bed, but now found myself clad in shabby rags. I was forced to stand by bracing myself against the cage, as my arms were bound behind me, locked into metal shackles. The air was thick with a damp smell, mixed with other scents I couldn't identify.

Across the cage from me stood a... being. Humanoid, it was not human. It had scales and spines, like some great humanoid lizard. It too was clad in rags, its hands bound by iron manacles. At first, I was terrified, confused. How had I come here? WHERE was here? What was this creature? Did it mean me harm? What was going on?

The creature spoke to me, and to my astonishment, I understood its language. It said its name was "Eoki" and that someone called "Naryu" was waiting for me in the next room. Still unnerved by the creature, I made my way past it gingerly and left the cage. The next room was large and dome shaped, and looked rather like the inside of a turtle's shell, very organic. I noted that there were other captives, including several other lizard folk. One was a feline humanoid, but there were two human captives here as well, a man and a woman. There were a few crates and chairs and other detritus scattered about, and there in the center was Naryu.

She was clad in leather, and was really quite attractive, slender, with long dark hair. However, she also was not quite human. Her skin was a dark blue-grey, and her eyes were reflective red orbs. Protruding through her long hair were the points of pointed ears. She told me I was on the island of Vvardenfell, home of her race, the Dark Elves. She told me I had been taken by slavers, as one of the survivors of a shipwreck off the coast. Of course, I knew nothing of any ship or wreck. She had come to free the prisoners and wanted my help to do it. I don't know why she wanted MY help, surely there were others here that might be more useful to her. Nevertheless, I agreed to help if I could.

She insisted on knowing if I could fight, and I showed her I was capable, even though I'd never been in an actual fight before. My childhood martial arts training was of some use after all. So, I ventured out into the night.

The building was on the top of a hill, and surrounded by all manner of bizarre flora. Great mushrooms, 20 feet tall and more, towered overhead. Strange flowers bloomed all around, filling the air with dramatic sweet smells, and strange birds soared overhead. The air was fresher outside, and I could hear the rush of the surf down below. Perhaps the greatest shock came when I looked up to the night sky and saw TWO moons, one a dull red, the other a more traditional pale blue. Wherever I was, it was NOT Earth. I decided that I needed to put that problem behind me for the moment, and focus on escape.

I made my way down the hill. At the bottom were several more small shell-like structures within the gated wall. I saw no guards, but Naryu had said the slavers were off on a raid. Nevertheless, I made my way quietly and carefully through the first building, collecting weapons and armour for the prisoners to use in their escape, should the need arise. For myself, I took a helmet and gauntlets of iron, and a shield. I considered taking a sword or something of that sort, but I had no training in swordplay. As a child, I had played with wooden swords and shields in the sand pits behind my home, but that would not likely be much good against foes trained and experienced with the real thing. I thought it best just to avoid them altogether.

In the second building I found a guard, but unconscious from drinking. I took from him his "uniform," a set of clothing Naryu said the slavers typically wore. Perhaps I could pass myself off as one of them. In the last building I found the key to the gate, guarded by a strange beast, a kind of lizard creature that was nearly all head and mouth. It was asleep, however, and I was careful not to wake it as I claimed the key.

Key in hand, I met the other prisoners outside, and distributed the weapons I had collected. Eoki told me to meet Naryu further up the hill on the overlook, so I made my way there, still being watchful for guards. They others made their way through the gate eagerly, though I saw now why I had been chosen to help Naryu, as the others all seemed rather unspirited, perhaps broken by abuse from the slavers.

Naryu was waiting for me among the bushes, and stood as I approached, commending me for my stealth and my success. Now she told me the truth of why she was here. She was an assassin, here to kill the leader of the slavers. Setting us free might draw him out, she reasoned. She hoped I would help her finish her mission, but I told her I would not. I'm no killer, and I wasn't about to become one. Finally, she conceded the point, and I agreed I would scuttle the slavers' ship while she did whatever she had to do. I would need the materials to make a firebomb, so I would need to raid the slavers' supplies.

As I left the compound, I was greeted by the sight of several of these slavers wandering the shore. They were all dark elves, and all armed with medieval weapons; swords, daggers or bows. I had always been able to move about very quietly, so I set about that now. As I slipped past one guard by moving quietly under a dock, I heard the clash of steel above. Some of the other prisoners had chosen to simply kill the slavers, and battles were erupting all over the place. I climbed up from below the dock and stole into a storage shed where I found the materials Naryu had sent me for. As I left the shed to find the kindlepitch we would need, I spotted a slaver with a prisoner nearby. Another of these lizard-folk, I couldn't simply leave him... her... it to be a slave or worse, so I slipped up behind the slaver and struck. She was armed, of course, and I was not, but my suprise attack left her stunned and unable to defend herself. Releasing the prisoner, I slipped back up onto the dock and gathered some of the kindlepitch from the slavers' supplies.

Naryu was waiting nearby with a boat, and we rowed quietly over to the slave ship. Our stealth proved unnecessary, however, as another vessel approached and started firing flaming bolts from a pair of arbalests on the deck. Naryu and I quickly boarded the slave ship at the bow, and she dashed off to find the slave captain. My task was to go below decks and plant the firebomb I had made as we had crossed to the ship. As I approached the gangway, the ship's mate, another dark elf woman, appeared from below deck, armed with a mace and shield. I slipped quietly around her, my movements concealed in part by smoke and fire on the deck, and dropped down to the lower deck. Moving forward, I planted my bomb and took cover as it blasted a hole in the ship's hull. Drawn out by the explosion, the ship's Captain appeared from a room in front of me. I thought myself trapped, but Naryu appeared from nowhere and struck the Captain down, her contract complete. She waved me over with a jaunty grin and suggested we disembark. I would have done so, but my path was blocked by the ship's first mate. Naryu had already jumped off the ship, so I was forced into a fight.

I was armed only with the shield I had taken from the compound, so I did my best Captain America impression and fought off the mate. She struck at me with her mace, but I was able to block her attacks and managed to disable her long enough to jump overboard. Unfortunately, I'm not a strong swimmer, and by the time I was pulled from the water, I was about exhausted. I was unconscious before they even got me below deck.

---

I have awakened in a pleasant cabin, sleeping in a soft bed. A guard nearby has instructed me to clean myself up and he will take me to meet the governor of the port town of Seyda Neen. He has offered me some clothes and a razor to shave with. Now that I'm free, perhaps I can find out how I got into this mess in the first place.

---

I was led from the cabin by the guard. He was a dark elf, clad in a strange metallic armour with a distinctly organic look to it. I wondered if that was typical. The buildings the slavers were using had a very organic look too, like they were the shells of some great crabs, or perhaps insects. Perhaps his armour was the shell of some such creature... or metal made to look like it. Once on the deck my senses were assaulted by so many smells and sounds, it was a bit overwhelming. The breeze carried a salty scent, suggesting the water the ship was resting in was saltwater, but there was also the dank smell of jungle and stagnant water. Seyda Neen was constructed at the very edge of a swamp.

I saw very little of the town at first, as I was led into a rough building with a thatched roof and turret. The inside was far more pleasant, with plastered walls and wooden rafters and pillars. Bookshelves lined the walls and the tables and chairs were finely crafted wood. The clerk at the desk was told we were to see the governor, and was suprised to be told there was to be no record. No reason was given, but I wasn't about to argue.

The next door opened into the Governor's office, a smaller room, but similarly decorated. The Governor herself was a very attractive dark elf, even with the deep scar on her face. She was brusque, but I was beginning to expect that of the dark elves. She demanded to know why I was there, why I was dressed like a slaver. I had no real answers for her, but Naryu appeared through the door with a "lawful" writ of assassination, and explained how we escaped. This seemed to satisfy the Governor, and she presented me with a sea chest, ostensibly with my name on it. The name read "Thespen Shein," and it is by that name I am now known. I noticed of course, that this name is an anagram of my actual name, which only served to perplex me further.

I explained to them I had not been on the ship, that I had come from another world somehow. I had expected them to look at me like I was a crazy person, but to my suprise, they actually began considering the question. Unfortunately, none of them had any real answers. They supposed that my world was one of many planes of existence, and that somehow I had fallen from my plane to theirs. Just how or why that would happen... no one could say.