A Rodian street punk and swoop biker, Cee-Lo left his Inner City Unit after his brother Smeato blew dirtside with his dreams of turning pirate, and his plans of not repaying his gambling debts. Since Rodians hunt each other for fun, paying them to hunt each other is even better, and even worse for anyone connected to their target. Cee-Lo bugged out with a friendly Duro freighter captain, and headed to the fringe. Being a second class citizen in the Imperium, at the mercy of bootboys and corrupt moffs, didn't seem like an alternative. Cee-Lo joined with the Rebellion, as they seemed the best bet to let him solve his problems with violence.
Dixon Falcon
Rising from an unnamed sword and sorcery paperback is Dix Falcon. (He seriously thinks it sounds cooler than Dixon. We all know someone like that.) Originally, I went with the mental image of Bow (Shut up. She-Ra was on after He-Man and before Silverhawks.), and since Jeff was playing my half-elf, half-brother the red hair made perfect sense. Dixon came home from military school, and was immediately thrown out of the house. He's been an asshole ever since. Seriously, dude's an asshole who can blow up anybody he comes across. They're the best kind. After ten levels of screwing everybody not in the party, and blowing up orcs, dragons, and eye elementals, Dix was trapped into working on behalf of devils.
Since that ramrod was part of what blew the campaign apart, the Dix here is the 500 xp shy of 11th level version that went into that night.
Doc started as the adventuring companion of Bart Bolt, until the DM fell off the Earth. After that, we recruited Jim (Brio Phyla, the Tallest Half-Elf in all the Land, C/MU), and Ray ( Cleve Phostarius, my Half-drow, half-brother, Cavalier) also a Dwarven Fighter, who died in the most horrible manner, and a Wizard, who also died in a more most horrific way, with Guest Appearances by Gopher (the Drow Druid, and the Elf-Hater)and Dave. Eventually after fighting our way down to the seventh level of the Mungeon of Moom, (Pick a door: The Red Dragon Mother of the red dragon armor the party Ogre was wearing, One of each Types 1-7 Demons, A room full of Mind Flayer diabolists, and a shaft leading down to the 10th level.) we bugged out into the Great Outdoors. We also began a rotating DM schedule, so Jeff could play (Munge Mungely, 1/2 orc Cleric Assassin), and I could get my licks in with random Air Squid encounters. Over time, Doc built a keep, (2nd Ed Bard, for the win) became a Baron by bribing Jack Palance, defeated Brigandeer Lethbridge-Stuart, and set the Diabolical Dr. Wu on fire, before finally defeating him in a land war in Asia (Okay, I just won a battle of wills with the Genie he had summoned, but I had to rally over 400 skeletons and 150 orcs to get there.)
Eventually, Doc went from being a Moorcock/Lieber flavored anti-heroic badass, to being a caricature:
- Necromancer?
- Orcs in employ?
- Ogre on staff?
- Vampire on premises?
- Fighter bodyguards?
- Lives in a mappable adventure location?
And since Doc was a product of his times, and my age, really, I doubt he could be revisited without the benefit of nostalgia.
Forgelock X-51
Inside Forgelock X-51's chest cavity is A) Tink inside a lantern, B) a Demon's Brain in a jar, or C) Something worse.
He's a prototype robot warlock, and favors robots to humans, and sloth and gluttony to work. He's a shoddy pirate, but a great artillery piece. Ideally, he would have lasted long enough to go Ur-Priest to Elditch Disciple to get wierder.
Grandfather Thorne
He's a grumpy Dwarf with a mysterious past! He's an unsatisfying buffer character! Together he gets killed by Snakemen!
Archivist seems like an interesting class, but so many of our opponents were humanoid, the class ability never kicked in enough to make Thorne more than a cleric with a reduced spell list or an ineffective melee combatant. Oh, he's the fighter variant from Unearthed Arcana that trades bonus feats for sneak attack.
Ichijoji
Ichijoji came from a world you may not understand. At Loren's invitation, I joined one of Dan's games, and was told it was 3rd ed. Oriental adventures. Duly, I made a Sohei, envisioning him as a temple orphan, inexperienced (hello, low WIS score), but a tough fighter from his hardscrabble life. The other new player, Loren's brother-in-law, brought in a shugenja, so I was appointed her guard, and we both went out to retreive our lord's daughter, who had been kidnapped.
Then we met the rest of the party, Loren, the half-orc barbarian, and Joe, the elf druid. It was no "wandering sci-fi zones," but I don't mind "fish out of water/stranger in a strange land" antics. Then we fought the ratmen. If you haven't read the flavor text, these are the guys whose paradaisical home was destroyed when hell fell on it, creating a demon land next door that they fight a guerilla war against, alongside humanity. These guys are demon-worshipping, human sacrificing standard humanoids in Dan's game. Three months of cognitive dissonance later, I left after being told I'll never find a magical katana in fake japan, because "they're very rare."
Stumpy, 2nd ed.
Stumpy adventured with Jeff's bard in a one shot GM'd by Ray. By the time we were done, we had killed three vampires, including the cleric who had hired us to kill all the vampires. Imagine waiting at the bottom of a well with a corpse, waiting for it to come to unlife, so you can make sure it's dead, this time, this man once your friend.
The Rabbi
The Rabbi came about from having the religous men set from the old Call of Cthulhu minis line. Originally named Rabbi Loew (via the TMBG song Dr. Worm's "Rabbi Loew plays the solo"), the Rabbi shifted alignments after saving the rest of the party by spiking the door closed behind him, trapping a party member who royally deserved it with the monsters we later rescued him from. The Rabbi is a member of the state religion of Blackmoor, and ostensably survived the campaign, alongside Vulgar Ironbeard and the Halfling Thief, who assumed the Mantle of the Barrow King.
Vasilli
I still have a warm place in my heart for little Vasilli. Vasilli started as a randomly generated character, and evolved as all the players asked questions and added specifications. He ended up as a can-do bugman, the only working psionic character I've seen, and single-handedly proved the cleric class as fun to play (Man, for years the cleric class pissed me off, a drudge of a class, to a guy who can't stand necessary evils). Everything this little guy touched turned to gold. Naturally, he was target number one for every damn monster we fought. If you want to piss me off, either insult my intelligence, or go after my henchmen.
Vulgar Ironbeard
Vulgar comes from the Gimmelots school of kick down the orc, and take his door. Vulgar, like most right-thinking beings, dislikes mindflayers and anything else that lives underground and is not dwarvish. My main character from Jeff's Blackmoor campaign, and sort of a strange take on the warcaster I usually play. Was 3rd edition so I flubbed a bit to make him 3.5 for this post. Ref save, craft (alchemy), and Intuit+Wild=Survival.
Inside Forgelock X-51's chest cavity is A) Tink inside a lantern, B) a Demon's Brain in a jar, or C) Something worse.
He's a prototype robot warlock, and favors robots to humans, and sloth and gluttony to work. He's a shoddy pirate, but a great artillery piece. Ideally, he would have lasted long enough to go Ur-Priest to Elditch Disciple to get wierder.
Grandfather Thorne
He's a grumpy Dwarf with a mysterious past! He's an unsatisfying buffer character! Together he gets killed by Snakemen!
Archivist seems like an interesting class, but so many of our opponents were humanoid, the class ability never kicked in enough to make Thorne more than a cleric with a reduced spell list or an ineffective melee combatant. Oh, he's the fighter variant from Unearthed Arcana that trades bonus feats for sneak attack.
Ichijoji
Ichijoji came from a world you may not understand. At Loren's invitation, I joined one of Dan's games, and was told it was 3rd ed. Oriental adventures. Duly, I made a Sohei, envisioning him as a temple orphan, inexperienced (hello, low WIS score), but a tough fighter from his hardscrabble life. The other new player, Loren's brother-in-law, brought in a shugenja, so I was appointed her guard, and we both went out to retreive our lord's daughter, who had been kidnapped.
Then we met the rest of the party, Loren, the half-orc barbarian, and Joe, the elf druid. It was no "wandering sci-fi zones," but I don't mind "fish out of water/stranger in a strange land" antics. Then we fought the ratmen. If you haven't read the flavor text, these are the guys whose paradaisical home was destroyed when hell fell on it, creating a demon land next door that they fight a guerilla war against, alongside humanity. These guys are demon-worshipping, human sacrificing standard humanoids in Dan's game. Three months of cognitive dissonance later, I left after being told I'll never find a magical katana in fake japan, because "they're very rare."
Stumpy, 2nd ed.
Stumpy adventured with Jeff's bard in a one shot GM'd by Ray. By the time we were done, we had killed three vampires, including the cleric who had hired us to kill all the vampires. Imagine waiting at the bottom of a well with a corpse, waiting for it to come to unlife, so you can make sure it's dead, this time, this man once your friend.
The Rabbi
The Rabbi came about from having the religous men set from the old Call of Cthulhu minis line. Originally named Rabbi Loew (via the TMBG song Dr. Worm's "Rabbi Loew plays the solo"), the Rabbi shifted alignments after saving the rest of the party by spiking the door closed behind him, trapping a party member who royally deserved it with the monsters we later rescued him from. The Rabbi is a member of the state religion of Blackmoor, and ostensably survived the campaign, alongside Vulgar Ironbeard and the Halfling Thief, who assumed the Mantle of the Barrow King.
Vasilli
I still have a warm place in my heart for little Vasilli. Vasilli started as a randomly generated character, and evolved as all the players asked questions and added specifications. He ended up as a can-do bugman, the only working psionic character I've seen, and single-handedly proved the cleric class as fun to play (Man, for years the cleric class pissed me off, a drudge of a class, to a guy who can't stand necessary evils). Everything this little guy touched turned to gold. Naturally, he was target number one for every damn monster we fought. If you want to piss me off, either insult my intelligence, or go after my henchmen.
Vulgar Ironbeard
Vulgar comes from the Gimmelots school of kick down the orc, and take his door. Vulgar, like most right-thinking beings, dislikes mindflayers and anything else that lives underground and is not dwarvish. My main character from Jeff's Blackmoor campaign, and sort of a strange take on the warcaster I usually play. Was 3rd edition so I flubbed a bit to make him 3.5 for this post. Ref save, craft (alchemy), and Intuit+Wild=Survival.
