Griznuq Gaming

D&D Campaigns => Mid Sea Isles => Character Info => Topic started by: Johan on April 29, 2005, 12:45:15 PM

Title: Would the *real* Mel please step forward...
Post by: Johan on April 29, 2005, 12:45:15 PM
Griffen was born in a rural community (country hobbits - much like the shire). Dad runs a weed farm, growing weed primarily for export (slightly better than trash for the community's consumption, but plenty good enough to sell to the Dwarves and Humans). He made a viable life, but Griffen (the youngest of several) wanted nothing to do with it - booaaringggg!

When Griffen became old enough to work the farm, he began to rebel (shirk his errands). He would rise early in the morning and sneak out of the house to live the free life, as he referred to it. In this endeavor, he became very adept at sneaking out in silence and hiding from dad and the brothers, who couldn't really spare a lot of time in searching for him since they had a farm to run. Griffen spent his days running from work and family and exploring the countryside, which he found was teeming with life that one might never see (brownies, gnomes, and elves and such living everywhere from forest to rolling hills...).

The first brownie he ran into was being chased by a fox; Griffen lent his throwing arm to scaring the critter off, only to find that the brownie was more playing with the animal than not. Still, the brownie acknowledged that Griffen was trying to help and befriended him. His brownie (Sylvan) name became Magnus, which means big blunderer (compared to a brownie, Griffen is really quite large, clumsy, and noisy). Magnus spent a fair amount of time in the company of brownies, and their allies, while hiding from his responsibilities.

Eventually, Griffen was given the "my way or the highway" speech and he chose the highway. The parting was actually quite amiable. So much so that he sends money to his family every now and then (and filches a pie on the way out).

As Magnus, he wandered the regions around his home for a few years, learning what he could from the indigenous folk (elves, centaurs, gnomes...) including languages, moving about unseen and unnoticed (move silently and hide), music...and contributing as best he could to their way of life (he had to earn his food somehow).

At length curiosity got the better of him and he wanted to see what city life was like. The answer: "not so good". Going into the city, at the suggestion of his forest friends, he adopted the name "Cam". He found that people were a lot less accepting. He found himself in bad shape and had to help himself to some food. The following morning he awoke with a charming older man sitting in the hay that was Cam's bed. This fellow introduced himself as Gurdion, and told Cam that he was a representative of a group that specialized in helping wayward souls find their way back onto their feet. Gurdion had noted that Cam had filched food the previous night, and assumed that Cam was in need of work. He offered Cam a job within his organization, which was so large that they would surely be able to find Cam's brighter talents and put him to good work. Without options to speak of, Cam accepted.

Thus was he inducted into the IBEW (The Intra-Borough Entrepreneurial Worker's Guild), where for the first few months he did only straight work (this was his "trial membership") in shipping, porting, locksmithing, and a variety of other tasks. In fact, during this time it was Cam's understanding that the IBEW *only* did straight work; the guild was tantamount to a temp agency with clients throughout the city. When the guild leaders felt that he could be trusted, he was indoctrinated deeper into the guild for...special assignments. They provided training, and suggested that he take on a new name: Maxmillion. As Max, he worked in various nefarious trades from smuggling to burglary, plain theft and so forth. He was never very good at muggings, as being very small tends not to be too intimidating. Occasionally, he would also do "straight" work under the name of Cam; a guild's gotta keep its reputation, after all.

The IBEW proved to be a very comfortable home for Max; it was never boring as folks would get rotated through assignments to some degree, and it provided him an opportunity to learn new skills, including some rudimentary training in foreign scripts and the use (tricking) of magical devices, the latter provided by Gurdion, who appeared to also be a sorcerer of some ability. It was through the revelation that Gurdion was a User that Max learned that his mentor was a friend of one (or more) of the elves in the forest; he had been sent to keep and eye on (then) Cam for recruitment purposes - it all tied together rather neatly. Although, Max has yet to learn which elf or elves had been responsible for this introduction.

Lately, Max was given the opportunity to participate in a new venture for the kingdom: the establishment of a mid-sea port. He eagerly accepted this new challenge, and, under the nomen of "Meltin" (Mel), was assigned to a group headed for a sea journey of unprecedented opportunity.

And that's the way it was...