So @SpydersWebbing got talking with me one day, and decided he’d run a solo campaign in his setting. We spitballed a few ideas, and settled on the Dwarves, who hadn’t been heavily defined yet. Man, there was some cool stuff we came up with. Anyhow.
Core premise of the game is that there’s human magic guilds in conflict, and my dwarf gets dragged into the middle of all of this, because one of the guild leaders has heard legends of the strange powers of the dwarves, powers which my character doesn’t even remotely possess. So I’m going to con the humans.
He gave me five lifepaths to work with; he may regret this decision, because here’s what I whipped up.
Spar (he/him), Dwarf Huckster (5 LPs, 124 years old)
Stats, Skills, Gear
Lifepaths: Born Clansman -> Tinkerer -> Hawker -> Trader -> Gambler
Perception: B6
Will: B7
Power: B4
Forte: B5
Agility: B4
Speed: B3
Health: B6
Steel: B7
Greed: B4 (riches, physical beauty, power)
Circles: B3
Resources: B4
Mortal Wound: B11 (rounded up because of Tough trait)
Stuff-wise B3, Inconspicuous B6, Stentorious Debate B3, Games of Chance B3, Persuasion B5, Sleight of Hand B2, Falsehood B4, Scavenging B4, Streetwise B3, Haggling B3, Shrewd Appraisal B3, Knives B2
Gear: Clothes; sturdy shoes; dwarven knives (+1D balance die); dwarven tools (Games of Chance skill, +1D to skill), Keg o’ Nog (12 mugfuls)
Reputations: 2D among surface dwarves (“Kin”, colloquially) as “The Silverbeard”, who helps integrate surface dwarves into their society
Affiliations: 1D financier of the Shadestone Traveling Players; 2D operative of The Processors/Death’s Brothers
Relationships
- Onyx (she/her), leader of my clan of underground Kin, my former lover
- Salt (she/her), my daughter, working in Otoh City with the surface Kin community there
- Tara (she/her), a guildsmage past her prime, cultivating a romance with me
Starting Situation
So, there’s a castle (Sabina Castle) that I’ve been hired to go to. It acts essentially as neutral ground for several mage guilds (Art Magic), as a safe spot for them to meet with one another. Accordingly, it’s a hotbed for intrigue and spies. So why am I there?
Well, there’s a few guilds who frequent this castle. There’s The Shield, armed mercenaries. There’s The Kami Guardians, an agricultural guild. Then there’s Death’s Brothers…a sanitation guild. They’re more commonly thought of as The Processors. And it’s The Processors who hired me, because they’ve got it in their heads that dwarves can listen to the stones and hear the things that were spoken aloud before the stones.
Which is sorta true. In this setting, yes, stones have a sort of presence that dwarves can attune to, but it’s a specially-cultivated skill and many dwarves certainly do not have it to begin with. Not to mention the fact that you’d need to be highly-trained to hear specific things spoken in front of the stone walls of a castle.
But scam these ignorant humans I will.
Here’s what we’ve got, going into the starting situation: Caius, son of the guild leader for Death’s Brothers (Germana Corvus), was witnessed using fire magic to kill someone, while working with The Shield. Fire magic is forbidden to be used against humans; The Processors are the only ones allowed to use it, because fire is very good at cleaning out gunk, but to be caught using fire magic against a human? Execution. Germana wants him exonerated.
Beliefs
Humans are ignorant, and I may as well exploit their ignorance.
Tara is surprisingly intelligent, and her advice is always worth following.
Germana is exceptionally numbskulled for a human; I’ll make whatever evidence she wants.
(Oath) I swore to Onyx-sama that I would make humanity see the strength of the dwarves.
Instincts
Always find an exit.
If among strangers, gather information about them.
Never acknowledge a dwarf in Sabina Castle.
Traits
Curious (char), Stone-Faced (Dt), Ear for Voices (Dt), Aura of Innocence (C-O)
I’ll pick up with the actual session 1 when it’s not absurdly late at night.