[quote=“William_Holz, post:20, topic:83289, full:true”]I was going to shoot more for ‘braver and with a better self image than he has any right or reason to be or have’, but fine with letting somebody else lead the way. 
[/quote]
Awkward in the effect he has on others, rather than awkward in personal terms. Thinking of:
In game mechanic terms, it adds up to some sizable reaction modifiers. 
Yes, this would be true. Sounds fun!
Name: Blue Hawk
Culture: Tribal
Class: Shaman (Priest/Bard)
Hawk’s birth was a moment of omen, good and ill. He was born with the mark of the Wandering Shaman. A Wandering Shaman, unlike most Shamans, belongs to no tribe and all tribes. They are destined for great things, but their arrival often signifies that great darkness will soon fall upon the land.
Hawk spent his life moving from tribe to tribe, learning the powers and invocations of the various tribes, the stories and the dances. He learned how to call the rain from the clouds, to call forth the aid of creatures large and small, and to beat the drum of the ancestors so that the warriors might carry their aid into battle.
Not a warrior himself, Hawk has some proficiency with a spear; not all animals will heed his call, and some tribes have brought disfavour upon themselves and see shamans with distrust. Hawk prefers to talk himself out of trouble, but will fight if he must, and will run if he must.
As Hawk was coming of age, the darkness that his birth portended came to pass: the Banestorms came upon the land, bringing creatures legend had never spoken of, and whispers of darker terrors upon the wind.
Hawk’s power, added to that of the shaman of whatever tribe he was staying with when a raid hit, allowed them to drive off the strange metal-clad men, or the lizards, or the foul things for which they had no name. Hawk, though, knew that this was not his purpose: something darker yet was coming, and so he set out into the storm.
Hawk seeks to destroy any evils which may beset his land before the storms can bring them to his land, and to divert the storms entirely from his land, if possible.
Due to his travel among the tribes, he has an excellent faculty with languages, and is good at being diplomatic as long as he is treated with respect. Those who do not generally fall ill to a nasty headache spell he’s learned.
And if you have any points left over, herbal medicine would be a nice skill to put them into.
A questionnaire for the players to flesh out their characters:
(William gets a pass on those two due to amnesia)
(BTW, you’ll be starting off as a collection of drifters all looking for a job at the Tredroy Mercenary’s Guild; that seems to work with the characters assembled so far)
So far, that’s one fighter/outdoors/crafter, one illusion/creation wizard, one healer/bard. Could probably use a combat archer or sneakery specialist.
@discbot help please
@codinghorror Did BoingBoing revert to defaults, or is this more sensitive now?
@discbot roll 2d20
@gwwar the 2d20 dice reads: 23 (4,19)
Although Blue Hawk is a very private person, he has agreed to answer your questions, as it is a prerequisite to being hired.
Although by tradition, I was welcome in every tribe, some of the younger shamans and apprentice shamans envied my position as a Wandering Shaman. I had done no special service for their tribe, had no obligation to perform such a service, and yet I was respected and honoured and given gifts and food and lodging that was at least as good as that given to them. I did not ask for these things, but was obliged to accept them as a gift to the shaman is considered a sacred gift to the spirits.
The older shamans, though, especially the ones who had lived long enough to see the previous Wandering Shaman, looked upon me with respect and pity, for they knew the task that lay ahead of me. One such man was Screeching Raven. He treated me not as a child but as a much younger brother, and my secrets were his, and his secrets were mine. He taught me much, not just of the lore of the spirits and the power of the land, but of family, and friendship, and brotherhood.
When it was at last time for Screeching Raven to join the world of the spirits, his successor in the tribe, one of those who felt I was trying to place myself above them, made it clear that I was no longer welcome in that tribe. I was angered, but out of respect for my friend’s spirit, I left that tribe and did not return before I was taken by the storm.
I wish to return home. The spirits have told me that I shall not return until my task is ended; whether I will return as a living man or as a spirit has not been made known to me.
When next I see the land of my birth, it will be because I have made it safe, and so that is the place I wish to see more than any other.
A fight is never the best path to take. I shall try, at all times, to end the fight before it begins, by finding that which is common between adversaries. At times, though, they do not listen, or cannot speak. At those times must I fight.
If I am fighting alone, I wait for the aggressor to weary himself on my shield , while waiting for an opening to pierce him with my spear. When such an opening appears, I take it. Those men in metal tire very quickly, and I usually can outlast them before they can get through my defense. If there are too many for me to fight, I will run, and the metal men will tire themselves out long before they catch me.
When fighting in a band of warriors, I lay down my spear and shield, and begin the drumming to summon forth the spirits to aid in the fight. I keep the spear and shield close at hand, in case someone defeats my brothers and attacks me, but with the spirits aiding them, that did not happen often when I was fighting alongside the tribes.
Describe your physical appearance, including eye and hair colour, clothing style etc.
Blue Hawk has just waved at me to indicate that I should take care of this question myself, so I shall do my best to describe him.
Blue Hawk is a bit shorter than average height, with a wiry build. He does not look like he can wear a suit of armour or carry a longsword; he has a build better suited to a runner or a dancer. His eyes are green and his hair is black, braided in a ponytail down his back to his coccyx.
The shaman wears a roughhide vest and pants; in the winter he wears furs to keep warm; in the summer, he might go bare-chested. On his back, he carries a drum, slung across one shoulder, and across his chest he carries a waterproofed bag, made of the skin of some animal, in which he keeps his herbs and salves.
On his chest lies a necklace of bone and horn, which I cannot see clearly; when I look at it, it seems blurry, and it wearies my eyes to look upon. Blue Hawk has told me that the shapes of the carved bones are a secret that are only for other shamans to know.
What is your attitude to religion, native and foriegn?
I am far away from my own land, and I understand that the gods of this place are not the gods and spirits of my own land.
I am confused, though, about some of the strange things the gods of this land ask their followers to do. One god says that he is the only god, and must be the one to be worshipped, and another god says the same thing about himself, and then each of the priests claims that they know the one true way to worship their one true god…
This is not my land, and I will treat any gods and their followers with respect in their own lands. Even if their gods command their followers to bicker like young children.
Magic is a gift from the land and from the spirits, and it is to be used to protect the land and the people of the land. It is sacred and the power to use it is always attached to an equal responsibility to use it wisely and for the purpose it was intended.
There are those who treat it as a lever to perform trivial tasks: “Move me here! Move that item there! Warm me up for I am cold, cool me down for I am hot.” These people annoy me, as they disrespect the gift they have been given by the spirits for using it frivolously.
The legends of our land speak of times long ago when the tall men of the trees came to aid us in battle, and the short men of the mines came to give us mighty weapons.
We will respect anyone who comes in friendship to aid us, and smite down any who come to make war on us, whether they be metal man or tree man or short man or lizard man or any other man.
Your merchants try to treat me like I am too stupid to understand money, and so I give them itches when they sleep. Money is easy to understand. I have what you want, but you do not have what I want, so you give me something that I can take to the person that has what I want, and they give it to me.
I do not understand the people who collect these tokens, as if they are beads of honour to be added to a necklace to show the great deeds done. They say they are saving to buy great things, but I know of no great things worth a thousand days of food, or the skins of fifty deer.
I keep what tokens I need to buy the things that I will need, and discard the rest, for they are not worth the weight of carrying them around.
Um, he’s starting to get irritated with me, so if you have any other questions to ask him, they had better wait for a later time.
Thanks. 
Just to clarify: the peak of the Banestorm was 1,000 years ago. There may still be occasional activity, but the overwhelming majority of people on Yrth were born on Yrth (although their ancestors weren’t).
Are you seeing Hawk as an Yrth native, or someone just arrived from Earth? We can work out either, but the first option is a lot simpler.
Ah, I thought this was more of a Sliders or the ST:VOY episode “Shattered” situation — that the Banestorms were continuing, and that’s how the different TLs were interacting.
If I can get more details on the setting, I can change Blue Hawk to suit the setting better; I just need a peril that threatens his homeland, a reason to be facing that peril here instead of in his homeland, and some reason to believe that joining the party will help him on his quest to defeat that peril.
The Nomad Lands are in the far north of Ytarria, bounded by the dwarves of Zarak to the southwest and the human/goblin empire of Megalos to the south.
The Nomad lands are mostly steppe, populated by a mix of celtic, viking, mongol and native american people, along with a scattered population of giants and centaurs.
Mana levels in the nomad lands vary a bit more than in the southern nations, with occasional magical dead zones balanced by areas of exuberant wild magic. The mountains on the southern border also provide a generous supply of exotic monsters.
The tribes individually are always in danger of destruction at the hands of their neighbours. The Nomad Lands collectively are under constant threat from Megalan invasion and subversion. There are also some unpleasant things down on the Zarak border, and the Styx has always been an unwholesome body of water.
We’re currently in Cardiel, south of Megalos. The basic plan was to start you off with some light bodyguard work, heading vaguely northwards. Hawk could be chasing a particular person, or he could have been chased there himself while poking around in Megalos.
Or he could be in Cardiel looking for knowledge or resources to defend the homeland; either an urgent need, or just a “wander the world and become wise” sorta thingie. His character is currently written up as having adapted to medieval-level technology; he’s still got the barbarian social stigma, but he knows how a crossbow or a windmill work (in game terms, the Nomad Lands are TL2, while Megalos and Hawk are TL3; TL3 is medieval, TL2 is late iron age).
Jibrīl Al-Las’ah, a rogue, exiled from al-Wazif. A younger son of a minor noble house, he has wandered far from his home for many years, after the Sultan exiled him for romancing his daughter. He hopes to return, but can not see how that can happen while the Sultan still rules.
Jibrīl wears a loose sleeved tunic and pants, and a coarse woolen hooded cloak. Now in his early middle-age, he retains his athletic, if not overly muscular build, and youthful looks. He is of slightly above average height. He is clean shaven, with dark hair and eyes, olive skinned.
Jibrīl likes to look his enemies in the back before he kills them. He favours a pair of janbiya daggers. He is a competent swordsman with the tulwar (of course, he was trained as a child), but why take the risk if it can be avoided?
An educated man, Jibrīl has seen many things. He knows it is not wise to deny either the gods, or magic. He has seen for his own eyes the power of the djinns.
Jibrīl is well-travelled, and has met many manner or humans and non-humans. He has more affinity with the refined elves than the barbaric inhabitants of the Nomad Lands, to say nothing of dwarves and goblins, with their guttaral languages.
Having been born with money, he has never learnt the knack of keeping it, being both generous and profligate. Still, making more is always fun.
I think what I’m going to do is that he’s received information that the threat he’s looking for is going to be coming from Megalos, but he doesn’t know any more than that. He’s now looking for a group to hire onto with a legitimate reason to head into Megalos so that he can find out more information.
Past that, I’m going to have to leave the nature of the threat up to you, because I don’t want to screw around with your campaign.
That’d fit nicely, actually. One of the tribal seers had a disturbing vision, sent the young 'un out to investigate?
Something like that. As I said, his birth is kind of a sign of ill omen, so they’re happy to get rid of him so he can take care of whatever foreboding thing his birth is supposed to signify. A vision would be a good idea to point him in the right direction.
Here’s a question for y’all: how to deal with secrets?
There are two options:
Use private messages. This keeps secrets secret unless revealed by the players. Upside: suspense, makes roleplaying easier.
Post secret information publicly. This relies on players roleplaying appropriately, but has the advantage of simplicity and keeping the audience in the loop as to what’s going on. Roleplaying ignorance of “secret” information can be fun in itself.
For example: if I’m going to tell nimelennar about the seer’s vision, do I do it privately or publicly?
