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PLAYER INFO
Player Name: Jay
• Player Contact: PM, discord (pepperedfox), plurk (goatsong)
• Player Age: 29
• Permissions: Here.
CHARACTER INFO
• Character Name: Renny Oldoak aka "Tav"
• Character Age: 35 years old
• Character Canon: Baldur's Gate 3
• Canon Point: Post Act 2, en route to Baldur's Gate.
• Character History: Born in the Gate's Lower City, Renny was raised by an entire adventuring party. His mother and father retired after deciding to start a family, but their friends remained in close contact with them. Renny's memories of childhood are bustling and vibrant. He remembers playing with his siblings, Lavnia and Halry, in his parents' apothecary, with a new colorful character to beg stories from every month. From a young age, Renny yearned to go on a great adventure worthy of telling.
Tragedy struck when he was 10 years old. A fire broke out in the Heapside, consuming the neighborhood his family lived in. While Lavnia and Halry escaped unscathed, Renny was severely burned on his face and his parents perished in the inferno. The newly orphaned siblings were taken in by Ahmira Copperherath, a family friend, who loved them as if they were her own.
For a good year, Renny was in a deep depression. It was Ahmira who helped him by providing him music lessons. While he went through the motions at first, everything changed when she taught him magic. She showed him how to listen to the memories of the world, how to tie the Weave and pluck it to form melodic spells. Given a new way to connect the world, Renny reemerged with a single desire: to become a great bardic hero.
Renny and his siblings began adventuring once they all came of age. Chasing off bandits, clearing roads of dangerous beasts, and escorting merchants made up most of their gigs. Years of such mundane work made Renny restless. He began pushing for them to take on riskier work, arguing it was important for them to make their names known. Eventually, Lavnia and Halry agreed. They located a hitherto unexplored dungeon in the Fields of the Dead and plunged into its depths.
A great reward awaited them: an ancient spellbook written by a witch. Renny didn't recognize the author, Vilhara, but that didn't matter. Among the pages were arcane spell-songs that'd been lost to time, promising forgotten power to the wielder. How could a bard resist such temptation?
The siblings began to bicker. Renny and Halry wanted Vilhara's tome for themselves, while Lavnia insisted they destroy it. Night fell. Wary of danger, they agreed to take some time to cool off their heads and to reconvene the following morning.
But Halry made off with Vilhara's spellbook in the dead of night. Incensed by the betrayal, Renny swore to find his brother and to take back what was his. He set off to find Halry...
... only to be picked up by the nautiloid.
For reference, Renny's choices as the protagonist can be found here. He'll arriving at the end of Act 2, en route to Baldur's Gate.
• Character Personality:
+ Optimism: No matter how dark the hour, Renny searches for the silver lining. Rallying Rolan in the Grove to stay and fight with this siblings because there's a chance to survive together, insisting to Karlach they'll find a cure for her engine even when her outcome appears bleak, telling Gale that there will be another way to defeat the Absolute outside of self-sacrifice. It's a habit born from fulfilling his Oath of the Ancients, which dictated that he nourish the light in others and in himself. He sees his hopefulness as a demonstration of faith in Lathander, his primary deity, and treats his songs as prayers for better days to come. He demonstrates this when he rebukes Kagha for siding with the Shadow Druids in order to drive a wedge between the tiefling refugees and the druids ("Harmony cannot 'defile'") while sparing her life despite her actions, believing she's capable of seeing the light and changing.
Even after becoming an Oathbreaker, he holds fast to this line of thinking. He reassures Shadowheart that she did the right thing by rejecting Shar and that she can at last learn about herself. He chooses again and again to help almost everyone he comes across - even the shadow-cursed inhabitants of Reithwin, such as when he chooses to keep Thisbold Thorm company by accepting his offer for a drink - because he believes the best in others and their circumstances.
+ Curious: Renny's hungry for new experiences and wants to see the world entire, be it good or bad. He's loved stories since he was young and always treats strangers as potential comrades. It was music and song that allowed him to reconnect with the world - and now he wants to sample all the world has to offer him. When Gale explains the Weave as "music, poetry, and physical beauty all rolled into one and given expression through the senses," Renny's quick to respond that "Magic is music, poetry, and beauty." He picks up books constantly throughout his adventure, rarely throwing them out, much to the chagrin of his party.
He helps Alfira, a struggling bard he comes across, in the Grove with her song despite her awful performance, as he wants to know more about her. He frequently peppers Lae'zel with questions about githyanki culture, asks Wyll for stories of his time as the Blade of Frontiers, and wants to know all he can about Sharran worship from Shadowheart - at least, the parts she's open to sharing. When one of the tiefling refugees in the grove wanted to shoot a goblin captive, Renny stood between them and insisted he needed to hear the story the goblin had to tell. When he hears strange noises in the barn, his curiosity overcomes him and he chooses to throw open the doors, despite numerous clear warnings from his companions and the involved party inside that there's a very private affair going on within.
Even with strangers, he's first to jump to the 'who, what, why,' seeing them as an opportunity to learn something new. When at last confronting Ketheric Thorm - the general commanding the Absolute's forces - Renny's first action is to talk to him, seeking to understand his motivations and attempting to persuade him to stand down.
+ Determined: A common trait among halflings is 'bravery.' This is exemplified by the passive racial trait 'Brave,' granting the player character advantage in remaining calm in the face of horror and danger. Even against insurmountable odds, Renny is able to push through. Upon awakening from the Nautiloid, his first instinct is to fight his way out, even with minimal equipment or understanding of where he was. He openly insults True Soul Nere in the Underdark despite being surrounded by his minions, calling him a 'twat-soul.' And despite the horrors of the Shadow-Cursed Lands, Renny agrees to help Jaheira's Harpers to infiltrate the heart of the Absolute cult. Once he sets his mind to doing something, little can stop him - and he's willing to scale the depths of the Underdark to the dreary mists of the Shadow-Cursed Lands in order to learn more about the parasite in his head.
He sees his word as binding and strives to finish what he starts, no matter where the journey may take him. Renny promises the refugees of Last Light he'll free their loved ones, despite the massive complications of the task. As an Oathbreaker, he insists his path is his own and holds fast to doing what is right, no matter the means or the cost. After he broke his oath by failing to kill a shadow-cursed Rolan, he accepted the Oathbreaker Knight's offer to become a self-determined paladin rather than remaining in grief. The Knight helped him come to an understanding of what exactly Renny had sought from his oath:
Although Renny's been stranded leagues away from home - although a parasitic death sentence has been placed within his head - he refuses to succumb to his circumstances. He actively seeks out companions with the same affliction, assures the tieflings in the Grove that he'll take care of the goblin problem - then proceeds to do just that, despite the insurmountable odds - and combs the entirety of the Shadow-Cursed lands to aid Halsin in breaking the curse. And when he finds the trapped spirit of a cursed monk in the Underdark, who asks to be returned to his granddaughter in the Gate, Renny readily agrees despite the dangerous, cursed nature of the spirit's vessel.
— Romanticist: Renny idealizes the adventurer's life. All his life, he's grown up on stories of heroism and sees almost everything through rose-tinted lenses. What's miserable now will make for a wonderful song in the future! The right choice will be clear-cut and certain! He frequently makes references to famous bardic songs, insists on refusing all payment from those he helps even when it's a clear detriment to the party, and speaks often of finding a new adventure once this one has wrapped up. He also has a tendency to overlook other's faults in favor of presenting his companions as a united, heroic party setting out to help the little man. The myoconids and gnome slaves in the Underdark were an unnecessary detour in the party's quest, and fighting for their freedom cost precious minutes that they may not have had - yet Renny would not leave either groups behind. This is what a true adventurer does, after all.
— Hungry for Fame: Renny wants to make a tangible difference in the world, be it through heroic deeds or being immortalized in song. Adventuring is a common profession in Faerun, and he isn't satisfied with being only one of many. He wants to stand out, to be recognized, and to be known. This drive is what splinters his relationship with his siblings, and the cause of his poorer choices. Rather than being content with the steady employment he and his siblings had, Renny actively pushed them to seek more dangerous jobs in order to increase their reputation. He refused to let his brother have the spellbook, because he felt he was owed the power and subsequent fame for having helped with the discovery.
This carries on through the game's storyline. He brags when introducing himself, often bestowing tongue-in-cheek titles despite being a relatively unknown adventurer, and exaggerates details, such as describing a goblin attack as a full scale battle involving a dragon. When Withers asks him what the worth of a life is, he answers, "A life is worth only as much as the legends remember it." He hoards the Necromancy of Thay for himself despite the entire party expressing alarm at its obviously cursed nature, and risks his own mind to learn its contents for the sake of learning new and powerful spells. He's all too pleased when he meets Jaheira in Last Light and immediately tries to appeal to her by mentioning the songs he's heard her in, in the hopes of getting on her good side.
— Stubborn: The flip side of determination is plain old stubbornness. Once Renny sets his mind to something, almost nothing can change it. When he runs across two men looking to save their sister from a hag, his companions make comments about not needing to get involved. Needless to say, Renny immediately inserts himself into the situation because that was the course of action he decided from the beginning. He's made up his mind about the tadpoles - that despite how desperately he wants to live, he will not imbue in their powers - and every time the Dream Visitor chides him for it, he continues to staunchly dig his heels in. It takes tremendous force to change his mind, for better or worse.
• Character Skills: Does your character have any particular skills that might help them in game? Maybe they have knowledge of firearms, carpentry, fishing, maybe foraging or how to make clothes. List them here in bullet-point form:
• basic herbalism
• animal husbandry
• basic foraging
• basic survival skills
• basic first aid
• trained in swords and archery
• Character Inventory:
— ITEM ONE: Rapier
— ITEM TWO: Lyre
— ITEM THREE: A battered buckler
• Important Notes: The only thing of note would be the mind flayer parasite within Renny's head, but I'm assuming it'll be 'frozen' upon arrival.
• Writing Samples:
— SAMPLE ONE: Here
— SAMPLE TWO: Here
Player Name: Jay
• Player Contact: PM, discord (pepperedfox), plurk (goatsong)
• Player Age: 29
• Permissions: Here.
CHARACTER INFO
• Character Name: Renny Oldoak aka "Tav"
• Character Age: 35 years old
• Character Canon: Baldur's Gate 3
• Canon Point: Post Act 2, en route to Baldur's Gate.
• Character History: Born in the Gate's Lower City, Renny was raised by an entire adventuring party. His mother and father retired after deciding to start a family, but their friends remained in close contact with them. Renny's memories of childhood are bustling and vibrant. He remembers playing with his siblings, Lavnia and Halry, in his parents' apothecary, with a new colorful character to beg stories from every month. From a young age, Renny yearned to go on a great adventure worthy of telling.
Tragedy struck when he was 10 years old. A fire broke out in the Heapside, consuming the neighborhood his family lived in. While Lavnia and Halry escaped unscathed, Renny was severely burned on his face and his parents perished in the inferno. The newly orphaned siblings were taken in by Ahmira Copperherath, a family friend, who loved them as if they were her own.
For a good year, Renny was in a deep depression. It was Ahmira who helped him by providing him music lessons. While he went through the motions at first, everything changed when she taught him magic. She showed him how to listen to the memories of the world, how to tie the Weave and pluck it to form melodic spells. Given a new way to connect the world, Renny reemerged with a single desire: to become a great bardic hero.
Renny and his siblings began adventuring once they all came of age. Chasing off bandits, clearing roads of dangerous beasts, and escorting merchants made up most of their gigs. Years of such mundane work made Renny restless. He began pushing for them to take on riskier work, arguing it was important for them to make their names known. Eventually, Lavnia and Halry agreed. They located a hitherto unexplored dungeon in the Fields of the Dead and plunged into its depths.
A great reward awaited them: an ancient spellbook written by a witch. Renny didn't recognize the author, Vilhara, but that didn't matter. Among the pages were arcane spell-songs that'd been lost to time, promising forgotten power to the wielder. How could a bard resist such temptation?
The siblings began to bicker. Renny and Halry wanted Vilhara's tome for themselves, while Lavnia insisted they destroy it. Night fell. Wary of danger, they agreed to take some time to cool off their heads and to reconvene the following morning.
But Halry made off with Vilhara's spellbook in the dead of night. Incensed by the betrayal, Renny swore to find his brother and to take back what was his. He set off to find Halry...
... only to be picked up by the nautiloid.
For reference, Renny's choices as the protagonist can be found here. He'll arriving at the end of Act 2, en route to Baldur's Gate.
• Character Personality:
+ Optimism: No matter how dark the hour, Renny searches for the silver lining. Rallying Rolan in the Grove to stay and fight with this siblings because there's a chance to survive together, insisting to Karlach they'll find a cure for her engine even when her outcome appears bleak, telling Gale that there will be another way to defeat the Absolute outside of self-sacrifice. It's a habit born from fulfilling his Oath of the Ancients, which dictated that he nourish the light in others and in himself. He sees his hopefulness as a demonstration of faith in Lathander, his primary deity, and treats his songs as prayers for better days to come. He demonstrates this when he rebukes Kagha for siding with the Shadow Druids in order to drive a wedge between the tiefling refugees and the druids ("Harmony cannot 'defile'") while sparing her life despite her actions, believing she's capable of seeing the light and changing.
Even after becoming an Oathbreaker, he holds fast to this line of thinking. He reassures Shadowheart that she did the right thing by rejecting Shar and that she can at last learn about herself. He chooses again and again to help almost everyone he comes across - even the shadow-cursed inhabitants of Reithwin, such as when he chooses to keep Thisbold Thorm company by accepting his offer for a drink - because he believes the best in others and their circumstances.
+ Curious: Renny's hungry for new experiences and wants to see the world entire, be it good or bad. He's loved stories since he was young and always treats strangers as potential comrades. It was music and song that allowed him to reconnect with the world - and now he wants to sample all the world has to offer him. When Gale explains the Weave as "music, poetry, and physical beauty all rolled into one and given expression through the senses," Renny's quick to respond that "Magic is music, poetry, and beauty." He picks up books constantly throughout his adventure, rarely throwing them out, much to the chagrin of his party.
He helps Alfira, a struggling bard he comes across, in the Grove with her song despite her awful performance, as he wants to know more about her. He frequently peppers Lae'zel with questions about githyanki culture, asks Wyll for stories of his time as the Blade of Frontiers, and wants to know all he can about Sharran worship from Shadowheart - at least, the parts she's open to sharing. When one of the tiefling refugees in the grove wanted to shoot a goblin captive, Renny stood between them and insisted he needed to hear the story the goblin had to tell. When he hears strange noises in the barn, his curiosity overcomes him and he chooses to throw open the doors, despite numerous clear warnings from his companions and the involved party inside that there's a very private affair going on within.
Even with strangers, he's first to jump to the 'who, what, why,' seeing them as an opportunity to learn something new. When at last confronting Ketheric Thorm - the general commanding the Absolute's forces - Renny's first action is to talk to him, seeking to understand his motivations and attempting to persuade him to stand down.
+ Determined: A common trait among halflings is 'bravery.' This is exemplified by the passive racial trait 'Brave,' granting the player character advantage in remaining calm in the face of horror and danger. Even against insurmountable odds, Renny is able to push through. Upon awakening from the Nautiloid, his first instinct is to fight his way out, even with minimal equipment or understanding of where he was. He openly insults True Soul Nere in the Underdark despite being surrounded by his minions, calling him a 'twat-soul.' And despite the horrors of the Shadow-Cursed Lands, Renny agrees to help Jaheira's Harpers to infiltrate the heart of the Absolute cult. Once he sets his mind to doing something, little can stop him - and he's willing to scale the depths of the Underdark to the dreary mists of the Shadow-Cursed Lands in order to learn more about the parasite in his head.
He sees his word as binding and strives to finish what he starts, no matter where the journey may take him. Renny promises the refugees of Last Light he'll free their loved ones, despite the massive complications of the task. As an Oathbreaker, he insists his path is his own and holds fast to doing what is right, no matter the means or the cost. After he broke his oath by failing to kill a shadow-cursed Rolan, he accepted the Oathbreaker Knight's offer to become a self-determined paladin rather than remaining in grief. The Knight helped him come to an understanding of what exactly Renny had sought from his oath:
Oathbreaker Knight: You swore to protect life itself. To serve the natural order. To protect those who value life, and vanquish those who would destroy it. Tell me, why did you abandon your oath?It is this core tenet of being an Oathbreaker - of being a spark of light for those in the darkness - that now motivates Renny. Regardless of what others tell him, he chooses to enact what he believes is right.
Renny: I had no choice. To follow it was to act against my conscience.
Oathbreaker Knight: A noble choice. [...] I wielded the powers of darkness, yet held a candle for those who needed the light. My actions followed no teaching apart from my own justification. Good or ill, I made my choices.
Although Renny's been stranded leagues away from home - although a parasitic death sentence has been placed within his head - he refuses to succumb to his circumstances. He actively seeks out companions with the same affliction, assures the tieflings in the Grove that he'll take care of the goblin problem - then proceeds to do just that, despite the insurmountable odds - and combs the entirety of the Shadow-Cursed lands to aid Halsin in breaking the curse. And when he finds the trapped spirit of a cursed monk in the Underdark, who asks to be returned to his granddaughter in the Gate, Renny readily agrees despite the dangerous, cursed nature of the spirit's vessel.
— Romanticist: Renny idealizes the adventurer's life. All his life, he's grown up on stories of heroism and sees almost everything through rose-tinted lenses. What's miserable now will make for a wonderful song in the future! The right choice will be clear-cut and certain! He frequently makes references to famous bardic songs, insists on refusing all payment from those he helps even when it's a clear detriment to the party, and speaks often of finding a new adventure once this one has wrapped up. He also has a tendency to overlook other's faults in favor of presenting his companions as a united, heroic party setting out to help the little man. The myoconids and gnome slaves in the Underdark were an unnecessary detour in the party's quest, and fighting for their freedom cost precious minutes that they may not have had - yet Renny would not leave either groups behind. This is what a true adventurer does, after all.
— Hungry for Fame: Renny wants to make a tangible difference in the world, be it through heroic deeds or being immortalized in song. Adventuring is a common profession in Faerun, and he isn't satisfied with being only one of many. He wants to stand out, to be recognized, and to be known. This drive is what splinters his relationship with his siblings, and the cause of his poorer choices. Rather than being content with the steady employment he and his siblings had, Renny actively pushed them to seek more dangerous jobs in order to increase their reputation. He refused to let his brother have the spellbook, because he felt he was owed the power and subsequent fame for having helped with the discovery.
This carries on through the game's storyline. He brags when introducing himself, often bestowing tongue-in-cheek titles despite being a relatively unknown adventurer, and exaggerates details, such as describing a goblin attack as a full scale battle involving a dragon. When Withers asks him what the worth of a life is, he answers, "A life is worth only as much as the legends remember it." He hoards the Necromancy of Thay for himself despite the entire party expressing alarm at its obviously cursed nature, and risks his own mind to learn its contents for the sake of learning new and powerful spells. He's all too pleased when he meets Jaheira in Last Light and immediately tries to appeal to her by mentioning the songs he's heard her in, in the hopes of getting on her good side.
— Stubborn: The flip side of determination is plain old stubbornness. Once Renny sets his mind to something, almost nothing can change it. When he runs across two men looking to save their sister from a hag, his companions make comments about not needing to get involved. Needless to say, Renny immediately inserts himself into the situation because that was the course of action he decided from the beginning. He's made up his mind about the tadpoles - that despite how desperately he wants to live, he will not imbue in their powers - and every time the Dream Visitor chides him for it, he continues to staunchly dig his heels in. It takes tremendous force to change his mind, for better or worse.
• Character Skills: Does your character have any particular skills that might help them in game? Maybe they have knowledge of firearms, carpentry, fishing, maybe foraging or how to make clothes. List them here in bullet-point form:
• basic herbalism
• animal husbandry
• basic foraging
• basic survival skills
• basic first aid
• trained in swords and archery
• Character Inventory:
— ITEM ONE: Rapier
— ITEM TWO: Lyre
— ITEM THREE: A battered buckler
• Important Notes: The only thing of note would be the mind flayer parasite within Renny's head, but I'm assuming it'll be 'frozen' upon arrival.
• Writing Samples:
— SAMPLE ONE: Here
— SAMPLE TWO: Here