---Background---
I like at least a
paragraph for character history. Remember the more background
information you have the easier it is for your character to have ties
to things that happened in your background. ---Event Hooks---
Event hook are
what gets your character noticed by Nicole. Most are compatible with
just about any background story you might think of.
Event
Hook 1 (Sibling in Trouble)
Requirement: A
sibling (Male or Female) with children, Character must have a lawful
good or lawful neutral alignment.
Story: Your
sibling has pressed his/her luck one too many times. After a very
quick and short trial, he/she is found guilty. Instead of service,
the law decides an execution should put an end to all the
questioning. Her husband/his wife decide to take the kids home.
Neither thinks it would be good for the kids to see. He/she leaves
with the kids.
Looking around,
most of the town is here. You almost missed the family of three, but
you hear the girl's voice over the silence crowd. “You are going
to stop this.” The father shakes his head. The girl looks to her
mom. “So, you are going to stop
this.” The mother shakes her head. The father starts moving
toward you. The girl whispers something in a language you don't
understand. (Unless you understand Abyssal.)
Notes: Story could
be altered to be a husband or wife of the character.
--END--
Event Hook 2
(Lost Supplies)
Requirement:
Already joined the shadow.
Story: It's a
simple job. Move a cache of weapons to area the shadow needs them.
We are moving 3 wagons this time. So 2 more wagons and we have one
new guard with his daughter. With 8 members total in your group, we
hope we don't have any trouble on this 5 day run. The daughter stays
within 10 feet of her father at all times.
On the second day,
around noon, the new guy stops the wagons. He seems to be sniffing
the air.
Two of your
members move toward him. He speaks, “12 humans in the woods
ahead.” He looks at his daughter. “You should know who the
traitor is by now.” Your men are looking at her. She is looking
at her feet. She misses it. Most of your men miss it. The two men
closes to the new guard go to backstab him. He drops. 3 arrows hit
the leader on the convoy. He drops dead. 4 arrows aimed at the girl
hit something invisible. It drops dead. The girl goes to run. She
yells, “Tar Tar, you are released.” You see shadows move from
under the wagon toward the archers.
Notes: Story could
be altered to be a small force planning to ambush supplies from the
enemy, but with a spy in the group, we would be the ones being
ambushed.
--END--
Event Hook 3
(Death to the Shadow)
Requirement:
Already joined the shadow.
Story: The spies
reported in. Arair’s angels are moving against the leaders of the
shadow. You get to the house being used as a base of operations in
the area. Everything looks burned to the ground. There are more
than a few dead bodies. You blink to hold back the tears.
When you open your
eyes, everything is fine. The build is in the same worn out
condition. The guard at the door looks at you. He speaks, “Are
you ok? You don’t want to keep Leader Edward waiting.” The guard
goes to start moving you inside. His strong hand helping and pushing
you at the same time. You blink.
When you open your
eyes, everything is ruined again. The guard is gone again. You
hurry to the meeting room. You find Edward body surrounded by the
bodies of dead enemies. With Edward gone, the shadow will slowly
fall apart. You close your eyes, letting the tears fall.
When you open your
eyes, everything is fine. Edward is shouting, “Someone send for a
healer.” Edward goes to move you to his chair. He sits you down,
“Ok, you are safe here. Tell me what is going on?” You see an
adult female with her female child that must have been meeting with
Edward before you came in. You blink a few times. The room jumps
from normal to ruin with each blink but the girl stays. In the
normal room, she is in a nice clean dress with her hair tied up nice.
In the ruin room, her dress is a dirty mess and her face and hair
covered with a bit of ash. Each blink seems to cause a bit of pain
to flash across her face. She pulls a necklace from around her neck
and the ruin room vanishes.
Notes: Story could
be altered to be have a gut feeling something is wrong at parent’s
home, a temple, or anything that might be standing against Arair. It
could be the girl’s male warden instead of the female warden.
--END--
Event Hook 4
(Betrayed)
Requirement:
Wife, not part of the shadow.
Story: After a
year of marriage, your life is great. Your life has always been good.
Your wife’s life on the other hand, has not. You were raised in a
home with parents that loved you. She was raised in an orphanage.
When you arrive
home from work for the day, Arair’s agents are there. The leader
of the group turns to you. “Your wife has been sell Arair’s
secrets to the shadow.” He looks back over at your wife, “Do you
deny it?” Your wife looks at you and speaks in a very quiet voice,
“I didn’t sell secrets to the shadow.” Some of her willpower
seems to be coming back. She speaks stronger this time, “My older
brother died for questioning the law. My parents died for protecting
him. I didn’t sell secrets to the shadow. I went out and found
the secrets. I delivered them into the shadows hands for free. I
would shed my blood for the shadow. Before a year ago, all I had was
my sister and the shadow.” She eyes fall off you.
The leader looks
over at your wife again and speaks, “Did you pass the last set of
secrets over?” She doesn’t say anything. Leader speaks again,
“We know you did. In fact, we wanted that information to move
along. Misinformation can be a good thing. They will waste resources
on a goal and leave the leadership unguarded. That enough blood
spilled for the shadow? I think not.” The leader looks to one of
his guards. “Go to the orphanage. I want this polluted bloodline
removed. If you can’t figure out which one is her, kill them all.
I think in fact, you should just kill them all. There must be at
least one shadow agent there.”
Notes: It could
be a husband if the player’s character is female. Or it could be a
best friend you have grown up with.
--END--
Event Hook 5
(Temple with no God)
Requirement:
Devoted follower of a religion other than Arair. Live in a port
city/town with a temple in it.
Story: You have
been with the temple for what seems your whole life. If you are not
a cleric, most other people think you are and some of the lower
clerics don’t like the attention you get. If you are a cleric,
most people bring problem to you because you know how to talk to who
need to be talked to about anything/everything.
One day, you walk
into the temple. It’s been a normal day. But you hear the temple
elder arguing with someone. Moving closer by sitting at a table so
you can hear things more clearly. Elder, “But this temple has been
here for over 500 years.” Man voice, “We know shadow agents have
been moving in and out of the temple. We are just trying to protect
your flock.” Elder, “My god does my protecting. My god has more
power than you.” Man voice, “Yes, yes. Your god is more
powerful than me. Is my god Arair more powerful than your god?”
You jump when she
speaks, “Hello? Eavesdropping?” She is paging through either a
holy book or a pray book. She speak again, “I hate holy ground.”
She looks up from the book and smile warmly. She speaks again, “What
would you trade your soul for?” Before you can answer, she
laughs. She speaks again, “I don’t trade in souls. That’s a
dark business.” She rolls her eyes, and you hear just above a
whisper, “Plus I am not allowed too.”
You hear the door
open and see the elder walk out moving toward his private room. The
woman makes a dash for the room the elder just left. The holy book
left on the table. The writing in the book is all wrong now. Worse
is some of it is in some demonic looking writing. You hear the man’s
voice in the room again. He sounds angry, “Who are you? Do you
know who I am? I could have you killed and your soul sent to hell.”
You hear the woman in a nice calm voice. “Oh…. Death won’t
send either of us to hell. And I promised if I was allowed to come
alone that I wouldn’t hurt you.” The man yells, “You get out of
here or I wi…” Woman speaks again, “Now, you will do as I say.
There are no shadow agents here. There is no reason to come back
here and check again. The feeble elder has no contact with his god.
If there is to be another search that you can’t stop, you will get
word to Timmy here at the temple as fast as you can.”
The guy leaves the
room in a fast pace. When he see you, he stops for a second. “Please
tell the elder I am sorry. My information must have been wrong. I
need to get my report filed right away.” The woman walks over to
the table to pick up her book. Notes: Temple
could be changed to a library, a bard college or at institute that
would either be neutral or try and be neutral.
--END--
Event Hook 6
(Wrong Place/Wrong Time)
Requirement: None
Story: You are
walking down a worn path. You come to a stump. Something urges you
to sit down but you refuse it. You continue down the path at the
same steady rate. Around the second bend since the stump, two group
are arguing. You move off the path to get a feel for what is going
on between the two groups. A family of 6 peasants vs a group of 5
royal guards. The guards are looking for a spy. After a bit of a
discussion, the father step forward. The father hands over a letter.
The guard take the letter and read it. Guard finishes the letter and
looks at his men. “We got it. No witnesses.” The guards move to
finish the family off. Your thrown daggers go wide. You arrows seem
to miss their target. A few steps towards the family and you are
back to the stump. Something urges
you to sit down but you refuse it. If you hurry, you can make it to
the family before the fight breaks out. But something is wrong, it
takes you longer to get here this time. The family is already being
slaughter by the time you get there this time. A few more steps
towards the family and you are back to the stump.
Something urges
you to sit down but you refuse it. Maybe if you all out run, you
could make it. Then you hear the screams. You hear a girl's voice
behind you, “You cheated.” You hear a female adult laugh and say
“I cheated? You won. He/She would have moved to help the family.
He/She did so twice.
The girl notices
you watching them. Girl says, “He/She is here & watching us.”
The woman says a single word in a demonic tongue. Girl says, “And?
That all you have to say? And you say it where he can't understand
it.” The woman turns to you.
Notes: The scene
could be changed being a market place in town, a shady tavern, or
other type locations.
--END--
Event Hook 7
(Treasure and other dead stuff)
Requirement:
Non-Lawful Alignment, port city (same city as Temple with no god)
Story: John says
“It’s simple. The three ships just arrived in the harbor. They
are not marked as Royal Vessel. But rumor has it each has a chest
filled with gold and gems. The four of us meet here at midnight and
be rich by morning.” Everyone nods in agreement.
At midnight, we
are sneaking onto the first ship. James speaks up, “Do you smell
that? Smells like something died.” John response, “Ok, I smell
it. I think we should go back home and just drink.” James says,
“Really?” John hits James on the back of the head. John
whispers, “I want some of the gold, anyone that wants to leave can
leave.” John quietly moves over to the door. He tries to open it.
He looks back over at the group and whispers, “It is locked.
James get your ass over here.” James moves to the door. He pulls
out his lock picks and goes to work on the door. After a few
minutes, the door is unlocked. With it being the dead quiet of the
night, when the lock pops open, you hear other locks pop open.
Everyone stand
still for a minute, then all hell breaks out. Skeletons and zombies
start coming out of every unlock door on the ship. You hear a scream
from closer to one of the other ships. You notice skeletons and
zombies exiting those ships as well. It undead surround both James
and John. They go down fighting.
With Robert at
your back, you hope to hold out until backup can arrive. Then you see
the figure standing over James's & John's corpses. Her back is
toward you. She is wearing a black robe with hood. James's hand
reaches out and grabs her ankle. She jumps and says “Wonderful,
plague undead.” James and John go to stand up. Robert goes to
fall. You know the end is near. The necromancer
screams something. All the undead seem to be stunned for a second.
Then the ones attack Robert rush the necromancer and attack James and
John. The rest of the undead around you seem more interested in
attacking each other then you.
The necromancer
approaches you. She drops her hood back. She only seems 17 years
old. She speaks, “Are you ok? Your friend need bandaging.” Her
right hand is dripping blood. She seems be holding something very
very tightly in that hand. The battle
continues for a time. After a bit, you see the necromancer drop.
You move to bandage the necromancer. You are able to bandage her
before the confusion on the undead stops. You drop before the end of
the battle.
You wake in a bed.
It must be an infirmary. Across the room in another bed, you see a
girl that must be the little sister to the necromancer.
Notes: None I can
think of.
--END--
Event Hook 8
(Cover Blown)
Requirement:
Already joined the shadow, human
--ALREADY TAKEN--
Story: You
have been working hard with the local government. You are in a
position of trust. Local information travels into and out of your
office. Your last bit of information about full chests of gold
should help the shadow. All in a days work.
On your walk
home, a tall guy walk up to you. You can tell he is trying to keep
his voice calm, “They are at your house waiting on you. You will
come with me.”
--END--
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