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Portho's Origin     feel free to edit locations    they are fairly FR specific  but at the same time  they are nothing but names on a map when it comes down to it.




Origin:
Portho  was born in the wild lands in the southern half of the High Forest, beyond the bounds of what most consider civilization, in a tiny forest gnome hamlet of Vallonde. 
He was raised by his birth parents, who are still alive.  His clan has a tradition of keeping an oral history and his mother is now the village lorekeeper, after his grandfather, the old lorekeeper,  passed when he was young. 

He grew up with his mother telling him stories at her knee, but it was always his grandfather's stories that he liked best, tales of the lost gnomish city of Dolblunde, once part of the short lived realm of men, dwarves, elves, halflings, and gnomes that was once known as Phalorm.  IAs the stories went, in the time of his Grandfather' grandfather the Nihilbuck family lived  among the Ardeep Forest, among the elves that still dwelled their, as emmissaries of Dolblunde, important diplomats that helped the gnomes keep good relations with the elves.  Portho's great-greatgrandfather had made many friends among the elven people, but when the Kingdom of Three Crowns (Phalorm) disintegrated in 615DR they were forced to leave Ardeep to return to the underdark gnomish city of Dolblunde, whose numbers were severely reduced from the rexent sieges by goblinkind that had caused the alliance of kingdoms to fall apart.

When Dolblunde was abandoned after being sacked by followers of Urdlen in 698DR the Nihilbuck family, always more at home among the elves on the surface, than they were among the rock gnome brethren fled instead to the High Forest. However, Portho's great-great grandfather, now quite old refused to make the trip, choosing instead to give his family time to flee the followers of Urdlen, along with the other denizens of Doloblunde.  Waltin  Nihilbuck joined other stalwart defenders in a doomed last stand, never to be heard from again.

Unlike his grandfather, or his mother, the stories of the great gnomish city being ransacked by followers of Urdlen, and of the hordes of orcs and goblins that had overrun the greatr alliance of kingdoms did not serve as the cautionary tales that they were meant to.  Instead they fired in Portho a great desire to see these places for himsef, as well as the other kingdoms he had heard of like Waterdeep, and Silverymoon, places where the small folk could blend with the big. It also fired in him a feelinmg of dissatisfaction, if his family was so important all those years ago, why could they not be anymore. 

Finally at the age of 60 the wanderlust finally got to be too much. He left his home and followed the Delimbyr River south, hoping to seek glory and find his family's ancient home. Hoping maybe the elves of the Ardeep would know where the city of Dolblunde was, lodt as it was in he Underdark. His journey itself was frought with danger, and he learned to defend himself by banding with tall folk along the way. He joined a caravan in Loudwater, bound for the city of Waterdeep,but left the caravan after it reached Daggerford.  He decided that from there he would head into Ardeep alone.  Of course arriving in the forest he found it abandoned.. the Elven kingdom of Ardeep abandoned decades ago, the elves having Retreated from the encroachment of Men. The forest, no longer under the stewardship of the Elves has become much more dangerous, and he was lucky to escape that foray with his life. 

Since then he has allied himself with several different adventuring groups over the years, either to make forays into Ardeep forest, or to gain enough coin to seek information in the libraries of Waterdeep. He still has not found the location of the lost gnomish city, but he refuses to give up, his dedication to finding the place his ancestor died defending now becoming almost obsession.  He is convinced that the elves of Ardeep, being longer lived would have kept better records than the shorter lived humans, as it is only a few generations of elves since the city was abandoned, so between bouts of research sometimes lasting a year or more, he joins any adventuring group that is headed into the forest to seek the ruins of the elves.  

It was with one such adventuring band that he earned his armour and sword.  He had allied himself with a group of mostly human treasure seekers that were seeking a magical portal hidden within the Ardeep, said to lead to  the resting place of a great store of magic and knowledge.  Only too late did he realize that his chosen afventuring companions did not have noble intentions, for they did inded find the portal they were looking for, but it was guarded by very much alive and breathing elven priestesses. While listening to his erstwhile companions plan to ambush and slaughter the elven priestesses, whom he had realized with his bardic lore were priestesses of the elven goddess Sehanine, he realized he coukld not allow the slaughter.  Just at the moment of the attack he used his illusion magics against his allies,  catching them completely by surprise, allowing the priestesses to  thoroughly overwhelm their ambushers.  They would have slain him as well, but when he revealed thgat it had been him who had saved them, they decided instead to name him friend and grant him a boon.  

Unfortunately, neither they nor their mistress, who lay beyond the portal (The Glen of Aloevan), could tell them where the lost gnomish city lay, aside from a vague notion of below the hills north and east of Waterdeep somewhere. Wishing to have some reqard for this young elf-friend, their mistress Aloevan, the half mad former Laranla of Ardeep, used her magics to create and enchant armour and sword for him using her magic, something which she considered trifling.

He has since returned to waterdeep, still believing that the lore of the location of Dolblunde must lie in some forgotten trove in one of the many ruins that lie in the areas that were once the Fallen Kingdom of Phalorm (pretty much the whole area around Waterdeep south almost to Balders gate, east to Loudwater and north halfway to Neverwinter).  So whenever he hears of adventurer's headed into the many dungeons of the area his curiousity is piqued, and he will attempt to join if he can.
I just have to select Portho's spells and record his class abilities on his sheet (standard l7 bard though so nothing fancy there)
Toot Landgrave:  

Landgrave Cole, a nearly blind and senile old Druid who resided in a large magically hollowed out Oak Tree, had a love for animals.  He especially enjoyed the company of creatures that most people shunned as he felt they are never given enough love and respect that they deserved.  His oak tree was home to scores of rats and other critters which he loved and would even name each and every one.  

One particular "rat" seemed smarter than the rest.  He called him Wiffle.  Wiffle was a Jermlaine whose family abandoned him for being too 'cute' and a smarty pants.  No human would see the difference between him and his kin but the other Jermlaine could see that he had hints of their heritage from when they were gnomes, which was something they couldn't tolerate.  Gnomes were too happy and friendly and his grumpy kin didn't like to be reminded of their past.  So one day when they were out on a hunt for beetles, they tied him to a dire ferret's tail and scared it away.  Trying to get the Jermlaine off of it's tail, the ferret bounded away and after what seemed like ages of bouncing off rocks, twigs and animal droppings, the ferret finally found it's way to Landgrave, the Druid.  He helped the poor ferret release the dirty clump from it's tail when he realized it was alive and looked to be some kind of ugly rat.  Landgrave cleaned him up a bit and soon discovered that this weird looking rat was much smarter and cleverer than the other rodents.  Since Landgrave loved ugly critters that most people shunned, he nursed the "rat" back to health.

A few months later, while out looking for nuts and berrys with Wiffle, the old druid stumbled and fell down a ravine and was knocked out.  Attracted by the noise, a troll came to investigate and upon spotting the druid from afar it thought it would have a nice meal.  But with some quick thinking, Wiffle farted up the old man's nose which was so nasty it woke him up in an instant!  Landgrave was then able to Flame Strike the troll and chase him off with a few more fire spells.  Afterward, the old Druid was so impressed by Whiffle he changed his name to Toot and decided to teach him the ways of the Druid.  Toot was a natural and learned the Druidic ways much faster than Landgrave ever thought possible.  

After a few years, Toot and the Old Druid grew closer.  They were more like Father and son than Master and pet rat.  But then one day Landgrave had a heart attack.  Toot tried everything he had learned to help his Old friend but nothing worked.  It was truly his time to go.  Before Landgrave took his final breath, the senile old man told Toot how much he loved him and he wished he could always guard and protect him from the people who shunned all his kind.  So over the years that they were together, he had enchanted special magic items for the time when he wouldn't be there to protect his little ones any more.  Landgrave showed him a small chest filled with enchanted items that the old man thought would help that were just his size.  Then, as they said their final goodbyes, Toot cried for the first time over the loss of his beloved friend as he had never before known love. 

After grieving for weeks, Toot decided to leave and look for adventure.  Landgrave wouldn't want him to hide away from the world like the rest of his kind.  He would want him to explore it.  So in honor of his old friend, Toot took the last name Landgrave and then put on his new equipment and set off to parts unknown for adventure.  He had many small adventures with his pet (DM and I haven't decided.  Maybe dire bat or dire rat or a spider of some kind) and has learned a lot about the outside world of the Giants.  Which were pretty much anyone bigger than him.
Cool and clever, from all fronts. Excellent hooks.

I already have an idea for the solo adventure for Portho and working on Toot's character hook. But let me revise your sheets once more and expect your first turns Monday morning.
Big question is how you'd like to play those out:

a) in private messages. This is the simplest and the least usable form if you ask me.
b) in emails. I prefer these to PMs but if you wouldn't like to disclose your mail address to me...
c) in a separate thread for each character (until you meet either with each other or with the "main force"). This could be the best if you don't mind some publicity.
I don't mind separate threads. I'm not really a fan of emails

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk
Separate thread works for me too. My turn will end up being Monday evening. I am out f town all day tomorrow for Hamilton Pagan Pride Day, then in training 10am - 6pm EST on Monday. I will be able to read posts, but don't expect time to post.

I will try to get my spells known list done Sunday evening once I get home from Hamilton.
Apologies. Having some serious rl issues.  I'll put some more definite work on my character asap.
Spells are selected and bard class ibformation is now on the sheet.
Okay guys, solo threads will be up tomorrow (probably in 12-16 hours from this post)
Solo threads up for Torin, Toot, Portho.
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