Fetzen

SANDSTRIDERS: A Lost Land

Clack. Clack. Clack.

It almost sounded as if the innkeeper had cramped his wine glasses a bit too close together on the narrow shelf, causing them to touch each other and emanate the typical sounds of glass hitting glass whenever there were vibrations coming from the floor above. However it just were the hands of a lonely Ayiralite, or rather the hard tips protruding from their fingers, who made contact with individual items of a whole heap of glass shards. It was not a scattered mess, but a well organized pattern Dalani had laid out on the wooden table in front of him. Every piece had been arranged in a way that correlated with the level of confidence he had about it belonging to those pieces next to it.

Trying to reassemble broken bottles randomly picked up from the dirty streets was a task likely to be considered completely unnecessary and horribly boring by the patrons sitting at the adjacent tables, but for Dalani nothing could have been further away from the truth. He was creating small miracles in the minds of those who could not understand: bottles that clearly showed signs of having been shattered once in their past, but then again fully functional without any treacherous seams only the melting of glass could cause! A good way to earn a few tiny coins and to make people both curious and happy.

More importantly however he was creating a small miracle for himself and that was being able to concentrate on something else than just how wicked this place seemed to be. Maatrho here, Maatrho there, Maatrho everywhere! If this was some sort of delapidated outpost of Tawr, just how bad must things have turned in their heartland since he had been there for the last time ? Couldn't just some bad guy buy a big bat and batter this blue skinned benefactor's beautiful bottom to bits ? And then set fire to the palace, just to vaporize the evidence of an injured god king for good measure. No, really, Dalani had nothing against his own kind, but just how an entire human population of such size as the Tawr could deliberately and effectively enslave themselves and just how a single Ayiralite such as said 'god king' could obviously dare to do nothing against this kind of belief he himself profited the most of was a shame. And yet at the same time there were other people in this world who could certainly use some of the respect for Ayiralites those in Tawr seemed to have in utter excess.

The bottle reassembly thing just helped to take his attention away from his surroundings while he was stuck here, making it a lot easier to ingore those humans around him who were all too eager to make him feel superior while he actually did not want to. Now if he only could find the right piece that matched this oddly shaped breaking pattern...

Bang!

The entirity of Dalani's right arm twitched as he suddenly felt something warm, soft and odd on the back of his head. The large piece of glass still in his hand scraped across the table and sent its fair share of the careful arrangement hurtling towards the ground, multiplying the overall complexity in the process. He twisted his head and upper body so fast it almost didn't seem good for the stool's integrity, only to then look into the wide, brown eyes of a small boy who had crawled onto the table behind him. The young man's hand shook quite a little as he, very slowly, retracted it. No words were exchanged, but Dalani could see the fear and anger written on the faces of those two individuals who sat at the other end of the table their child had just used as a shortcut.

The Ayiralite raised his hand and made a waving gesture, trying to indicate that he was not angered by what had just happened. A small touch just to know how his upper head felt like was a very harmless way to take a sample, no reason to be worried at all. It didn't seem to be of much help however. The couple still just sat there in a rather shocked and frozen manner.

Dalani tried to muster a smile when he said "I think my hands got the same feeling to them as my head. You could touch them a lot if you'd help me to reassemble my little puzzle.". He didn't even have to point at the now completely unordered pile of glass shards down on the floor. Of course he'd pick them up for his skin didn't suffer from cuts that easily, but he really could use some assistance now with holding a few things in place while he worked his magic.

The boy's lips parted, but no words were to be heard. Was he afraid of punishment from his parents for he had sneaked up to and touched one of their 'divines' faster than they had been able to react ? Or were all three of them now anxiously waiting for said divine's verdict ? Dalani couldn't help but let go of a sigh he tried to suppress at the same time. He could see in the boy's eyes that the latter would be all too happy to join the earth man in front of him, then decided that sometimes one had to just force somebody's luck onto them.

Dalani reached for the boy's ankle, dragged him over the remainder of the table gently and let him extend his legs down to the floor again. "Come on, sit down and help me a little." and a chair was pulled out and offered quickly. Those two individuals behind their backs ? Dalani slowly stopped caring for their facial expressions. These two wouldn't intervene against the decision of someone who had descended from the heavens above, would they ? At least sometimes even the most stupid superstition could be good for something...

Old Glory: Land of Opportunity (Post Apoc Dungeon Diving)

@Fetzen@Jarl Coolgruuf@DX3214 Any status on character sheets?

@Arhestoval Welcome aboard! You got any ideas?

@ClocktowerEchos

Mine should be ready this evening :)

SANDSTRIDERS: A Lost Land

Dalani

Dalani

I can see the greed in your eyes to harvest the minerals on my head. You can ask me for advice on how to find some or you can threaten me and pick them up from within your guts. Your choice!

---

___________________________________ P R O F I L E Age 32 Race Ayiralite Sex Male Height 6'1" Weight 245 lbs Alignment Chaotic good Class Archer Level 1 Planar Lineage Earth Health Points 28 ___________________________________ I N V E N T O R Y - Water flask - Provisions for a day or two (bread, salt meat) - Coin purse (half empty) - Bed roll - A few small, shiny stones probably not worth anything. He picked them up because he liked them. - Large cloak for cold nights - Clothes - Flint & tinder - Primitive robe, suited as a standalone dress but also compatible with his armor ____________________________________ E Q U I P M E N T - His longbow and a quiver full of arrows can be considered his primary means of hurting others. - Said longbow would be less effective just using ordinary arrows. Dalani is not hesitant to add some magical enhancements to his projectiles, making them more deadly or more useful for other applications. - He wears armor on the more exposed parts of his body, trying to achieve a compromise between protection and comfort. It is a strange material: jet black, heavy and more coarse than any steel. Whether its property to shatter into pieces and thereby no longer providing any protection instead of buckling and thus impeding its wearer's movement upon impact of blunt weapons is a blessing or a curse is up to debate, but it's interesting still. Is this an ongoing experiment or an evil looking improvisation only one of his kind could produce ? ____________________________________ A T T R I B U T E S Athletics: 11 (+1) Dexterity: 15 (+2 class, +3) Intelligence: 14 (+2 race, +2) Wisdom: 12 (+2) Charisma: 10 Constitution: 14 (+4) ___________________________________ S K I L L S (A) Strength: 3 (+3) (A) Agility: 2 (+2) (D) Stealth: 0 (D) Acrobatics: 0 (D) Trickery: 0 (I) History: 0 (I) Nature: 1 (+1) (I) Arcana: 4 (+4 race) (I) Religion: 0 (W) Perception: 4 (+4 class) (W) Medicine: 1 (+1) (W) Survival: 1 (+1) (C) Persuasion: 0 (C) Deception: 0 (C) Intimidation: 0 (C) Performance: 0

____________________________________________________________________________ APPEARANCE Dalani could be pestered with saying that he looks like a miniature mountain, but that's not because he'd have such a gigantic physique, but because he'd probably have a very easy time camouflaging right in the open just by leaning against or sitting on a true mountain as long as it is of a gray-ish color. His skin not only looks rather similar with its complexion and extensive network of ridges that follow a pattern far too irregular for having been created in a fight, but it also feels quite tough even without being callhoused. There's no hair on his scalp. Instead it seems more like the bone underneath it has thickened and become overgrown with not just bony, but partly really stone-like material. His chiselled jawbones, eyebrows and nose give his face a quite stern look by default though he is definitely capable of smiling. His eyes are brown with hues of ember breaking through in strong sunlight and their iris lacks the detailed texture of a human's. Rock-like protrusions are not limited to the upper part of Dalani's head, but also occur on many other parts of his body as well such as shoulders, elbows, knees, fingernails and feet. Combined with the fact he still bears some very significant muscle he gives the overall impression of a very dense package. ____________________________________________________________________________ BACKSTORY Dalani was born into a caravan of traders that had formed sort of a loose joint venture that sought to help profits and reduce risks by moving together. It was a quite mixed bag of humans from different origins who prioritized personal wellbeing over the grand scheme of politics, thus allowing Tawr, Esaad and even Baneghoran to work together at least as far as lingering competition allowed for it. The group made stops at pretty much every major settlement of importance, always trying to avoid the depths of the desert even if that meant denying themselves huge shortcuts. Bandits ? Yes, that was one of the threats they were afraid of. Giant scorpions too, maybe. But Jinn ? Yeah maybe they existed, but certainly nowhere near their fancy trade party! They were all wrong and Dalani is the very proof for this. His mother, a large and equally pretty Baneghoran female who had tried to escape the chaos and violence in her homeland by joining other people far away, had no idea that the man she shared her beddings with was anything but a real man at least according to common sense. The jinn had been with the caravan for a substantial time and had taken all the hardship of walking endless days on him so to satisfy his urge to mate. Also, last but not least, he actually loved her. At first there were only very subtle signs that something might be off with the newborn and it seemed that all the jinn's hopes of his child's features being as subtle as his own would work out, but while the jinn blood was sluggish to make itself truly seen, his father continued to enjoy life and helped to give birth to Dalani's brother Odym. It was a lust he might not have succumbed to had he known how things would change one day. Dalani started to develop much stronger signs of not being a human, almost as if the merger of two so different origins was bound to cause creational chaos. Of course then everyone in the caravan knew the truth. It would have been a pretty straightforward affair if their Baneghoran mother had been the only one to have a say in the whole thing, but with Tawr and Esaad people being part of the caravan, too, it became a lot more complicated. Being the key subject of a debate with opinons ranging from 'curse' to 'divine' and a lot in between, Dalani's and Omyr's situation quickly deteriorated into a quite hazardous affair even without the young boys truly being aware of it yet. Nowhere near being old enough to break more than a twig they threatened to tear the joint venture apart by their sheer presence. The leaders took a lot of time to come to some kind of decision, but by the time the decree was made that the three had to go for the sake of the community, someone had already arranged for hard facts. The two boys were gone, abducted by a sub-group of human Tawr people who had not been willing to wait for some kind of higher up decision -- or someone to murder the childs for ideological reasons. It took the two out of the heart of trouble before they became old enough to realize just how screwed up everything was, yet at the same time it also completely destroyed their family. In their efforts the Tawr had taken shortcuts and not been willing to risk abducting a grown Jinn male as well. They had also deemed their Baneghoran mother unworthy and incompatible to the kind of society they had in mind. The two were to be revered and not to live in any lack of materialistic goods, but it still was a very selfish move, driven by yet another ideology and not respecting the jinns self-determination at least to the same degree the decision by the caravan's higher ups would have. Dalani had the advantage in terms of age and was the first to realize that. Maybe biased by the kind of approach of his caretakers which he did not agree with, he perceived Tawr more and more as a cage with golden bars. He liked the training and all, but did not want anybody to lick his feet or to just treat him like a raw egg. It felt like not having been in full control of his own life for many, many years. Dalani wanted to leave, but at the same time did not want to make the same mistake as those around him by forcing his personal decision onto his brother Omyr as well. The Tawr around him were not happy to see him abandoning them, but they also did not dare to start a fight about it. Since then Dalani has become sort of a vagabond. He's not at the very bottom of society, but he has to make his coin on a daily basis just like every commoner -- in his case by offering his skills to those willing to hire him. ____________________________________________________________________________ PERSONALITY Dalani has seen an extremely wide range of attitudes towards his own kind and built a high wall around his inner self to protect against this spectrum. It is as hard as his stone-like skin is tough, but should anyone manage to drill his or her way through all of that said individual might discover that there's a precious gem of friendship at the core. He tries to enjoy life, but he also tries to do that for himself unless you find that gem or are just deceptive enough to tunnel your way through the barrier. The latter is very well possible for Dalani is socially clumsy, partly having fallen victim to the very isolation of his own making. He is too honest and respectful to be a killer and sees that there is no rule dictating that orders are something one is not allowed to have an own thought about. There's also no rule forbidding to make one's own rules if there's nobody there to watch his doings and punish him. Lies usually are bad, but sometimes they can be an acceptable means. There might be a bit of arrogance to him when it comes ot magic, but that is mostly because he has had a very different point of view on things since the very beginning and not a deliberate act. Apart from that however it can be said he's a modest person, except for the occasional overdrinking maybe. Women ? Not a high priority so far, and to his defense one might add he's facing a few additional challenges in that respect as well. ____________________________________________________________________________ MOTIVATION AND OUTLOOK Asked straightforwarldy, Dalani would probably hesitate and then say that he has no overarching goal in his life currently. He can see the many wrongs about how his kind is treated sometimes, but what should he do ? Try and start a revolution ? The thought has crossed his mind, but he deems himself too humble and too consumed by daily business to do that. ____________________________________________________________________________ MISC ...

SANDSTRIDERS: A Lost Land

I'm almost certain @POOHEAD189 can already predict what kind of character I have been thinking to make for at least quite a while :)

Old Glory (Post Apocalyptic D&D-style Dungeon Diving in a Medieval America | Inspired by After the End)

I'll see to get started on a character sheet tomorrow or maybe even this evening :)

SANDSTRIDERS: A Lost Land

I have first seen this as an invite-only RP, so I'm wondering whether the 'Apply' join status might just be accidentally there ? If not I'd like to ask whether anyone would not be happy about me trying to come up with something for this :)

Old Glory (Post Apocalyptic D&D-style Dungeon Diving in a Medieval America | Inspired by After the End)

Sounds totally cool to me :)

Sorry for asking so many things, but I'd like to know a bit more about the skills. Could you maybe give an example or two about what kind of skills would be possible or appropriate ?

Old Glory (Post Apocalyptic D&D-style Dungeon Diving in a Medieval America | Inspired by After the End)

@ClocktowerEchos I think he'd be an European one. I'd be glad about some details since I'm afraid I don't know the mod very well :)

Old Glory (Post Apocalyptic D&D-style Dungeon Diving in a Medieval America | Inspired by After the End)

Okay, so I'll probably go for the Norseman :)

Old Glory (Post Apocalyptic D&D-style Dungeon Diving in a Medieval America | Inspired by After the End)

I'd have a tendency for the Neo-Norsemen, but maybe if these exist there are reincarnations of other, more southern European cultures as well like, for example, Cherusci, Vandals or other tribes that were around roughly the same time the Romans were.