Campaign 1 (Fenrir) Episode 0: Character Creation Extra

Before there is a D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) podcast, there was a conversation about who and what we are doing. Listen in. Get some insight. Early episode with rough audio. Music by [Todd Ferguson, My Pet Machine on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/mypetmachine/) Logo by [Julie at Elaborate Flight of Fancy](https://www.facebook.com/ElaborateFlight/) # Transcript: *Music* **Nate:** Hello, hello, hello. I am Nate, your dungeon master and welcome to episode 0 of carrots and suffering, a D&D odyssey. This is a 5th edition D&D campaign where we do custom mechanics in a custom setting. You should probably expect a whole lot of intrigue and roleplay from us and probably a lot less dice rolling than you are accustomed to, if you are a classic D&D style player. I want to do a quick special thank you to Todd Ferguson of My Pet Machine for our tunes and to Julie at Elaborate Flight of Fancy for our Logo. This is episode 0, which means we don't actually get into roleplay we just sort of talk about the characters that we are going to play and the campaign that we are going to run. Hang in there and we will catch you on the flipside. And if your not up for that maybe just jump forward to episode 1. One last note, our audio quality for the first couple of episodes is god awful. We learned a lot and it shows. So see you on the other side of this podcast. *Music* **Nate:** Hi, I am Nate, I will be your dungeon Master. **Julie:** I am Julie, I will be playing a Wizard named Sylpha Lunari. **Mandy:** I am Mandy, I will be playing a rogue, named Jaelan. **Sandra:** And I am Sandra. I am playing a Druid named Sable. **Nate:** This is a campaign, that I ran once before with a very different group of people who did a very different job with it. And so I am expecting it to be fundamentally different. That is the probably going to be the limit of it because they were way in left field. **Julie:** That is true. One of my hopes for this is to discover what plot ideas and intrigue Nate might have had in mind when he ran it first. **Sandra:** It was that bad (laughter). **Julie:** It wasn't bad probably was far off the mark from what Nate intended **Sandra:** Oh, ok. **Nate:** No, they were the most Chaotic Neutral team by definition that I have ever seen. **Sandra:** Very Ohh-shiney. **Nate:** Yeah, well, I would be like, "All right the nobility is all getting up in your face for intrigue." and they would be like, "Aaaaa... Screw em!" (Laughter) **Julie:** F- the man. **Nate:** We are not going to do what you want, we are going to do our own thing. **Julie:** F-the man, we want to get out of here. (Laughter) **Sandra:** Get out of here. **Nate:** We hit some of the major plot points, sort of. **Sandra:** kind of like, bumped them with your hip and then moved on. **Nate:** Yeah. yeah. They were like... (Laughter) there was some semblance of what I wanted to accomplish in there and then a lot of just fly by the seat of your pants. *Music* **Nate:** So, when our campaign starts, there are some politics going on. So there is a bunch of royal families and I sent you guys an email that has the like listed out. We are probably not going to use all of them, but they are there for you to like add to your character background. The Regent is about to marry off his two kids. So he is going to make a marriage contract with other nobles children and who whoever lands those two jobs. essentially marrying into that family becomes the next regent or becomes the major domo and is responsible for all the daily activities of the city. And so it is really the two most powerful positions for the next generation are open now. So let's talk about your characters and maybe a little bit of how they fit into the world. Let's start with Julie on my left. **Julie:** My Character is named Sylpha Lunari and she is a young. I imagine her to be 17-19 years old. She is an aspiring mage and courtier in the kingdom. So Sylpha is inspired by a moth and her family manifests really insect like traits. So, her current mutation is she appears extremely slender very large dark eyes, very pale skin and covered in like a peach fuzz. **Nate:** Peach Fuzz. **Julie:** She is a... **Sandra:** Is it actually peach colored Peach Fuzz. **Julie:** No, I imagine, I imagine it is just a very fine hair like if you ever touched a moth and they are like... **Sandra:** Is it like human colored? **Sandra:** Like is she human colored? **Julie:** She's she is very pale. **Sandra:** Ok. **Nate:** So like a white. Moth. **Julie:** Maybe it has patchy colorations. She is very sensitive to light, when out doors she wears a proper large ladies hat. **Sandra:** like that is like a foot on either side **Julie:** well she needs to shade her eyes from the bright light.. **Sandra:** Ah, ok. **Julie:** of which she is adverse too, but she sees rather well in the dark and appreciates night life. I want to play this character in contrast to the last character I played in your campaign as someone who is instead of happy go lucky hippy someone who is a little more focused and aspiring and has some amount of concern for political dynamics and power hungry isn't the right word yet, but is invested in accumulating knowledge and yes ambitious and is a little naive. I am looking forward to that. Naive enough to make deals. **Nate:** OK. **Sandra:** I see what you did there. **Nate:** Julie is why into naming things, those are like from moth genie right? Like species genie? **Julie:** Well Sylpha is like an air spirit and moon moths are a thing. **Sandra:** Hence Lunari **Nate:** Ok, ok cool. **Julie:** I said that I imagined her to be like from like 17 to 19 so I will go with 18. let’s say she is 18. **Mandy:** She, she is human? **Julie:** She is human. **Mandy:** Is she affiliated with one of the houses? **Julie:** Oh, in my concept of her most recent life event is that she has experienced adolescent heart break so obviously, the world has ended, life is over. **Mandy:** Right, right. **Julie:** Just wants to shrink back into the shadows. **Mandy:** The pit of devastation. **Julie:** She was rejected in a rather public way and so some part of her motivation comes from wanting to show this person what they missed out on. And I imagine her to be sympathetic to lady Maeve in solving the problem of the cursed kingdom. **Nate:** Just for background Lady Maeve Is the last of her line one of the reasons for that, is that her mutation is a venomous bite. And the rumor is that cost her a husband and now she is kind of unmarriageable. (Laughter) So the hope for her is that she can land this marriage contract for herself but she is going to have to go big, like real big like maybe solving this curse big **Sandra:** oh wow. **Nate:** otherwise it is not going to happen. Mandy! **Mandy:** Alright, my character's name is Jaelan J.A.E.L.A.N. She is Jessica's age. **Nate:** Jessica is one of the NPCs from the Evans family. Who is known to be pretty ruthless but is just turning marring age, so what did you say, 16? 16, that is what I had. **Nate:** Ok, let's go with that. **Mandy:** Initially, but uhm ok. So Jaelan is an orphan and she was adopted into the Evans family and raised along with the children, but she is definitely not on a status with the kids, like she was raised as their playmate, especially as Jessica's play mate and she is also an assassin (laughter). They have raised her kind of to be, I guess a playmate to Jessica and a companion and you know, hopefully that she will be loyal to her as they grow into adult hood and... **Nate:** Every royal family needs an assassin. **Mandy:** Right! You know. Protect her to a certain extent and if need be to kill for her. Now Jessica is kind of ruthless and not above assassination in her own terms. I have to think about the nature of their relationship a little bit if it started off warm and fuzzy and has gotten strained or if they are closer than ever because they are kind of a lot a like. or I have to think about that a little bit her, Jaelan's mutation is that she is chameleon skinned. She is not green as a default but she can blend in. **Nate:** Is she scaled? **Mandy:** No. No, she has human skin. but she can take on... but it changes color to match a background. **Nate:** But it changes color based on what she is around. **Mandy:** uh.. there might be a lack of control if something is agitating her maybe she disappears when she needs to be seen. (Laughter) That was something I thought of. She is kind of low... She is high on intelligence but she is pretty low on wisdom **Julie:** That’s, that’s where my character is as well. **Mandy:** Yeah, so she she's uhm I thought maybe one of her flaws could be a certain compulsiveness **Nate:** ok, **Mandy:** uhm... I don't know. I don't know... **Sandra:** You all are going to make me be the grown up aren't you. **Mandy:** Yeah....(laughter) I don't know yet how she feels yet about the Evans family as a whole. I mean she is a teenager at this point. If she is feeling rebellious this would be the time. I don't know, I will have to think about that. **Nate:** And I think given our brief sentence or two that describes the Evans family their ummmm Shady folk. So if you wanted to rebel against them, you would be… **Mandy:** going straight laced. **Nate:** Yeah, you would be going straight laced. **Mandy:** Well, I wouldn't be totally opposed to her possible double dealing on them **Nate;** ok. Mandy: Like fishing for other loyalties or whatever, but she could potentially could be an inside person of one of the other families even. **Nate:** Great. Oh, and your class? You went with rogue **Mandy:** Yes. Nate: Ok. **Mandy:** I was thinking about multiclassing when we start leveling up with fighter **Nate:** Ok. And rogue powers, you get you get to be really good at like two things. What two things did you choose? **Mandy:** There were four it told me to pick proficiencies at, which was acrobatics deception, investigation and stealth **Nate:** ok. That just sort of paints a picture of what you're going to be good at. Alright. Sandra. **Sandra:** My character's name is Sable Mirkwood. She's also 16 years old and was raise with thee Matron Baroness Verathi, who is a druid and known to be a druid. So she has kind of dark straight hair in the bright light flashes colors, red/purple more than anything else, tries to keep it up and out of the way. Raised by the baroness so probably follows the druidic ways So she worships nature she always, anytime that she is seen is wearing the garb she always has the gloves on she always has the long sleeves, she always has the leggings on and the boots. She wears a tunic over that with a belt. And a very functional knife hanging off of it, a couple of pouches handing off of it. And has a hand carved walking stick that could clearly whack someone over the head pretty good If need be. She's also got really dark eyes. So obviously still has the whites of her eyes, but it’s hard to tell what color her eyes are. She’s thin and small, so maybe 5 feet tall. She is human. And thin but she doesn't look frail. I mean she carries herself pretty well. As far as her curse what you can see is... I mean she covers up so whatever that is. And I would think that her curse is pretty darned hidden. **Nate:** Ok. **Sandra:** She doesn't make it abundantly clear. So should I Tell people what it is. Should I... **Nate:** I think for our audience it would be better to know what it is. So she has poison skin. So, like frogs, like the tree frogs that older groups would use to, their skin secretions to tip the ends of their arrows. That kind of thing. So she has got poison skin and it killed her mom and was poisoning her dad so they literally just left her out in the forest. **Nate:** Woops. **Sandra:** Which is how she came to be the Baroness's **Nate:** Ok. **Mandy:** Is she pretty well known as the baroness's? Everybody knows who you are? **Sandra:** I would think the Baroness would say that she is her… **Nate:** Charge? **Mandy:** Ward? **Sandra:** Yeah, ward or charge. **Nate:** Ok. **Mandy:** Yeah. **Nate:** the druid can turn into animals and has other powers. **Sandra:** Yeah, can talk to them. Control them, things along those lines. **Nate:** Yeah. The rogue eventually gets extra mobile, their main power is usually stabbing things very well. (laughter) and then our wizard just gets progressively more powerful magic. *Music* **Nate:** So that brings us to my next question. Which is really directed toward all of you, which is how do you know each other, I mean, its a small town it is very hard to hide in this town. So, no matter what, you are probably aware of each other But I am assuming you want to have a more positive relationship than that. **Sandra:** I thought, the original idea wasn't it, that we like met at school in some way, like none of us are actually of the noble class, correct? But we are noble adjacent. **Mandy:** Right. Maybe we all went to finishing school. **Julie:** noble adjacent, yes. **Sandra:** ya. **Nate:** Ok. So you guys were all basically tutored together. Julie: or minor noble family. So you guys were basically tutored together, so you are not serfs in the sense that you guys are poor and uneducated you went to school and you all went to school together. **Mandy:** And I would think we all, I mean I say finishing school because I think we probably all know how to behave in noble social situations. Like we have probably all been to the parties and gatherings of **Sandra:** Though we would also have our own quirkiness, like I am raised by a druid who... **Julie:** all the etiquette classes. **Sandra:** Like you would probably be better... Mandy: like we know which fork is which at a 16 course dinner (Laughter) **Nate:** ok, you've got the skills. All of the important ones. **Sandra:** well to some degree, I mean Sylpha I would see as probably being best it. I mean your mom, literally is a social butterfly, right. **Julie:** Yeah Yes, and she wishes that I were more gregarious and interested in involving myself in politics where as I would rather, sit back, observe, and am kind of a book worm. (giggle) **Sandra:** Oh, my god! The puns in this are going to be terrible. **Nate:** they are, yeah, because Julie is here. **Sandra:** They really are. While they are going to be... with the moth yeah. \Nate: But there is opportunity too. (Chuckle) **Julie:** Let me tell you about my Ant (laughter) *Music* **Nate:** The next question for you all Is there anything you would like to accomplish with your character over the course of the campaign and we will start with Sandra this time. **Sandra:** well honestly if she could find a cure, she would want to. **Mandy:** For the poison skin? Nate: OK. Sandra: Like staying wrapped up for the rest of her life is not exactly how she wants to live. I mean she is a teenager, it would be nice to hold hands with somebody. **Nate:** Without sticking to them and then killing them. **Sandra:** Yeah. **Julie:** perhaps you can find somebody equally deadly. **Sandra:** But then we would just kill each other. **Nate:** A porcupine lad? (Laugh) **Sandra:** that doesn't seem very workable. **Nate:** no no. **Sandra:** we just look longingly at each other from across the room. **Mandy:** I poison you I make you bleed. **Nate:** We touched once it was magical. **Mandy:** its like the x-men rogue problem. **Sandra:** Right, exactly. I have got the rogue problem. **Nate:** Alright, Mandy? **Mandy:** I, I hadn't really thought about goals in the game to the honest, I think she probably understands her role as Jessica's companion as probably about to get a little more intense, because they want this marriage contract and she is probably part of making sure it happens so that is probably an official goal for her (Laugh) but I haven't really thought about what she wants. **Nate:** Alright. Sandra: Maybe she hasn't even thought about it. Mandy: She hasn't really thought about she, I mean she raised in this particular capacity, so yeah, she may not have given that much thought. **Nate:** I think what we are going to focus on, what I would then take away from that to focus on as the dungeon master is the relationship that you have with this sister like character As sort of the back drop of what we are going to figure out. at least in the short term. **Mandy:** I see, based on what you have told us about Jessica, I see Jessica as being a bit over her. Probably, even, you know as in the relationship she has probably got a superiority thing going over her, over Jaelen. I mean that could be a thing. **Nate:** Ok. What do you think Julie? **Julie:** As far as character goals, I think the character is generally apathetic about the outcome of who marries who in this current drama that is all the buzz but she is sympathetic to lady Maeve and this character is naive but ambitious and so she does want to propel herself into some kind of permanent, perhaps court mage and establish that kind of opportunity, or solve the problem of the thorns and be able to explore opportunities elsewhere. But I think she is vested in creating some sort of opportunity for herself and advancement in the kingdom. **Nate:** Ok. *Music* **Nate:** And that ends our episode zero. Thank you very much for listening. It is really remarkable how much the characters change from this initial version we lay out here. We have come a tremendous long ways from this particular recording. After this, I make people put down there pencils and stop turning their pages and take their elbows off the table, and on and on and on and on. So all of that thumping goes away and we get much smoother. You should keep hanging with us and you'll really enjoy the product I think starting around epiode 4 or 5 and we go for a while so...See you next time on carrots and suffering, a D&D odyssey. *Music* **Nate:** Ok, so. Next question. What do we want to call this podcast. *Laughter* **Sandra:** Oh, god. **Mandy:** Should I start making a list of all the... or should we pull out our favorites. **Nate:** Let's write down our favorites first. **Mandy:** Ok **Nate:** Let's write down our favorites first. **Mandy:** Well, we had Chicken Pants. **Nate:** We did have Chicken Pants. Now for the listening audience Chicken Pants is an inside joke because we had character notes and basically we went back to read them to figure out what had happened in the previous session and we didn't know what chicken pants meant. **Sandra:** Yeah, Nevita was just like, "Wait, can anyone tell me why I have chicken pants in my notes?" **Julie:** In this moment I am remembering why. I believe it was when we encountered a Baba Yaga like hut and we made jokes baout it laying boulders. **Sandra:** and we would need chicken pants to hold em? **Julie:** and we need chicken pant. We should put chicken pants on the hut to defeat it. **Nate:** I like that this has been months and this is the moment that someone remembers what the hell that meant. **Mandy:** I don't know wether I am relieved or disappointed that we have an answer to this riddle. **Julie:** That there was a reason to write down Chicken Pants. **Mandy:** This is probably a year!