[hider=Shel "Surefoot" Applewood] [b]Name:[/b] Shel "Surefoot" Applewood [b]Age:[/b] 34 [b]Race:[/b] Halfling [b]Appearance:[/b] Shel has very light green eyes and a mop of curly brown hair. He cannot grow much of a beard, virtually no beard at all in fact. He is slightly skinny for a halfling, which leads some to question his cooking ability but they quickly learn the error of their ways. He stands at 3'4, right about average for a Halfling. [img]https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2324946.jpg[/img] He wears a deep green tunic with a brown leather vest over it. The vest has some padding in the shoulder to help him carry his bag. His pants are beige and held up by a custom made Halfling sized buckled belt with attached (empty) sheathe. [b]Role:[/b] Chef, Scout, Diversion [b]Bio: [/b] Shel Applewood led the happy safe life that it typical of his people. Halfling's don't take up much space, enjoying homes that are small and cozy (even for them) rather than vast and expansive, and that coupled with their famous hospitality allows them to get along rather well. As a young man Shel wanted to follow in the footsteps of his parents who ran a famous bed and breakfast, he wanted to become a famous Chef. At the age of 24 he came to realize that he had gone as far as he would as a Chef. For every step forward he would have had to sacrifice increasing amounts of time and freedom. Already he was well liked by his village, but if he wished to become truly famous as a Chef he would have to dedicate his life to recreating recipes created years ago by some other Halfling. He didn't want to follow in another's footsteps; he wanted to blaze a trail of his own. Always a rather curious Halfling, Shel seized the opportunity when a large mercenary company was passing through his town. He prepared a particularly sumptuous meal for the company and presented it to them himself, explaining what he had made and how he had prepared it. He had hoped the leader, a stern faced man well past his youth, would hem and haw and heap praises upon him, but instead they simply ate their meals quickly and headed to their rooms. He had given up hope when the mercenary groups second in command came into the kitchen and invited him into the company. Their cook had never made them sick, but that was about the best they could say of the man. They were not what you would call a friendly group, but alongside them Shel was able to explore the world and devise recipes of his own. He found that he had another skill as well. As a Halfling he was rather dexterous and among a crew of humans, particularly among a crew of often drunken humans, he learned how to stay out of the way and (remembering again that they were drunk lonely men) how to stay hidden. On his trips out from camp to gather flora and hunt he learned to scout out the road ahead, and in order to better scout he learned to draw maps. With the tiny hands he was given at birth and the attention to detail he had learned as a cook a regular piece of paper was a canvas, he found to his delight that he was able to make maps that were uniquely intricate. Since then he has always traveled, though his maps and meals brought him enough fame that he was able to move from indiscriminate mercenary camps to proper armies. On his last journey he heard rumor of an expedition into lands unseen by man and knew that that would be where he could make his fame and fortune. He would journey where no one had been, he would map out the lands, and he would keep his fellow travelers happy and full. It was all a curious Halfling could ask for. [b]Skills: [/b] Foraging, cooking, stealth, hiding, wishing the baddies would go away, climbing, basic (informative) reading and writing, and map making. He can also sing passably, and knows a number of songs learned during his travels [b]Magic:[/b] Shel has no real connection to magic. He has found that as a Halfling animals do not tend to see him as a threat, so long as they are not starving. His abilities however derive purely from his curious good-hearted nature and small stature. [b]Equipment:[/b] A leather backpack with one strap from right shoulder to left hip, normal size and so quite large on him; inside of which is: Butcher's Knife which he hopes never to use outside of cooking Several pencils and drawing accessories A sling and 4 shaped and smoothed decorated stones A pot filled with vegetables, fruit, a loaf of bread, nuts, berries, herbs and the like A pan tightly fastened over the pot to keep everything together A light blue cloak made by his mother for when it gets cold, or windy, or he misses home Tucked between his tunic and his vest he carries a normal sized ledger of fine paper with many sheets of cheaper paper stuff inside. [/hider]