Griffin
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“I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.” - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Contents
Origin
Six months ago, Griffin woke up.
He woke to pain and thirst and a shocking hollowness. Where there should have been memory, identity, self, there was nothing. All that he had been was gone, swallowed into a black, aching void inside his mind.
His life began in a modest private room at a charity hospice in Dulnai. The healers there told him he’d been found in one of the rougher areas of the city by a pair of watchmen. He’d been badly beaten and near death, still half-buried in the shallow grave he’d clawed his way out of. The watchmen would likely have let him die in a jail cell had it not been for the surprising appearance of a young noblewoman, Lady Jinala of House Bannik.
How Jinala knew to be at that watch house on that night was a mystery. She’d brought along a priestess of Selune to heal Griffin enough to keep him breathing, then had him moved to the charity hospice (which she’d given a generous donation to only days before). Despite the priestess’s healing magic, Griffin had remained comatose for weeks. The hospice healers admitted to being stunned at his recovery; they’d never expected him to wake up.
For the first few weeks after Griffin regained consciousness, he saw no one except the healers who tended to him. Then one day, without invitation or announcement, Lady Jinala and her priestess friend came to see him. The priestess looked Griffin over and determined that his amnesia was not caused by magic, proclaiming unhelpfully that the memory loss was “an injury to the mind of your spirit and not the mind of your body.” Such hurts were beyond her ability to heal. She suggested rest, regular meditation, and inward reflection. Perhaps with time, Griffin’s memory might return.
After the priestess left, Jinala explained to Griffin that rescuing him was not wholly altruistic on her part. She needed a way to escape the machinations of her sister, who recently ordered her to accompany the Baroness Malnova as part of a new settlement in Katrica forest. Jinala had no intention of going, so Griffin would be repaying her kindness by going in her place. As her “champion,” as she put it.
Griffin only half-listened as Jinala proceeded to expound on what a grand opportunity this would be for him. His mind raced. He didn’t know who he was or where he was from or why anyone would want to kill him, and now this strange woman wanted to send him even further into the unknown by exiling him from the one place where he might find answers. He wanted to refuse her, but was terrified to do so. He was alone, in pain, without identity or resources, unable to walk or care for himself. He was utterly at Jinala’s mercy, and though she hadn’t threatened him, he didn’t want to know what would happen to him if she withdrew that mercy. So when she asked him if he agreed to her terms, it wasn’t logic or greed or hope that made him say yes. It was simple, stark fear.
Griffin spent four months at the hospice recuperating from his injuries. His physical recovery has been remarkable, or so the healers tell him, though he still walks with a limp at times. But while he’s rediscovered some skills and an unsettling (and likely illegal) talent for magic, he is no closer to remembering anything about his past, his home, who might be missing him, or who wants him dead.
Character Record
CG Scindo Elf Sorcerer, Level 3
- Ability Scores: Strength 13 (+1), Dexterity 15 (+2), Constitution 13 (+1), Intelligence 16 (+3), Wisdom 15 (+2), Charisma 17 (+3)
Proficiencies
Current Bonus: +2
- Saving Throws: Intelligence, Charisma
- Skills: Arcana (Int), Insight (Wis), Perception (Wis), Search (Int)
- Tools: Mounts (land), Navigator's tools, Gaming set
- Weapons: Quarterstaffs, daggers, darts, slings, light crossbows, longbow, shortbow, long sword, short sword
- Armor: None
Traits & Languages
- Traits: Wanderer, Arcane Recovery, Ritual Casting, Spellcasting Bonus
- Wanderer: You have an excellent memory for maps and geography, and you can always recall the general layout of terrain, settlements, and other features around you. In addition, you can find food and fresh water for yourself and up to five other people each day, provided that the land offers berries, small game, water, and so forth.
- Arcane Recovery: Once per day during a short rest, you can regain some magical energy. You choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is less than or equal to half your level (round up), and none of the slots can be 6th lvl or higher.
- Ritual Casting: Cast any mage spell as a ritual if the spell has a ritual version. To cast a spell as a ritual,you must add 10 minutes to the spell’s casting time, during which you undertake a prescribed ceremony.
- Spellcasting Bonus: If you are holding a magic focus—component pouch, orb, rod, staff, wand, spellbook—when you cast a spell, you can add your proficiency bonus to the spell’s saving throw DC.
- Languages: Threxantran, Misantil, ??, ??, ??
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Interactions
- Ideals:
- Discover who he is, and more importantly, who tried to kill him.
- Don’t draw any attention to himself.
- Atheist: Yeah, okay, he knows the gods exist. Technically. But he doesn't have any faith in them. What do they care about mortals? They've got their own agendas.
- Be good. No. No, be selfish. Always look out for number one. Well, as long as no one else gets hurt. No, dammit. Everybody else is on their own. But what if-? No buts!
- Flaws:
- Amnesia and its associated terrors: fear of never getting his memory back; fear of his would-be murderer finding him again; fear that who he was is someone he wouldn’t like.
- Fear of his “unnatural” magical ability being discovered.
- Misanthrope: He doesn’t want to have anything to do with other people or their problems and needs.
- Cowardice: Bravery is overrated. There’s nothing wrong with running away from danger.
- Bonds:
- Who or what does Griffin care about? What an excellent question!
Combat
- Hit Points: 19, Hit Dice: 3d6
- Initiative: +2, Speed: 30 ft
- Armor Class: 12 (10 + Dex Mod: 2); 15 with Mage Armor
Attacks
- Quarterstaff: Bonus: +3, Damage & Effects: 1d6 + 1 bludgeoning; two-handed 1d8 +1, Weight: 4 lb
- Long Sword: Bonus: +3, Damage & Effects: 1d8 + 1 slashing; two-handed 1d10 + 1, Weight: 4 lb
- Light Crossbow: Bonus: +4, Damage & Effects: 1d8 + 2 piercing; (range 80/320); two-handed, Weight: 6 lb
Spells
- Spells per Day: 1st: 5
- Magic Ability: Charisma
- Saving Throw DC Total: 11 (13 with focus)
Spells Known
- Spell Descriptions
- Cantrips: Light, Mending, Message, Prestidigitation, Read Magic
- 1st Lvl: Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Thunderwave
Magical Equipment
- Primary magical focus: Dark wooden staff very subtly inlaid with runes and magical symbols in pewter & blue mother-of-pearl
- Magical foci charm bracelet (each charm represents a school of magic and has an appropriate rune carved into it):
- Abjuration: bronze shield (algiz; elk)
- Conjuration: ivory rallying horn (nauthiz; need)
- Divination: obsidian scrying mirror (dagaz; day)
- Enchantment: playing card (perthro; game)
- Evocation: fiery red crystal (hagalaz; hail)
- Illusion: round mirror framed in silver (kenaz; torch)
- Necromancy: skull carved from bone (isa; ice)
- Transmutation: crescent-shaped moonstone (cweorth; fire)
- Clear crystal focus for Read Magic cantrip
- "Component" pouch
Familiar
"Hey, You!", Hawk
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- Ability Scores: Strength 2 (–4), Dexterity 12(+1), Constitution 6 (–2), Intelligence 2 (–4), Wisdom 10 (+0), Charisma 2 (–4)
- Hit Points: 10 (+2 for each of your levels beyond 3rd)
- Armor Class: 12
- Speed: 5 ft. ground, 30 ft. fly
Your familiar acts independently, but always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar cannot make attacks. Within 100 ft. of your familiar, you can communicate with it telepathically. As an action, you can see and hear through your familiar's senses until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special senses the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses. Within 100 ft. of your familiar, you can have it deliver a spell on your turn that requires touching a creature. The familiar touches the creature on your behalf, provided nothing is preventing it from taking actions. If the spell requires an attack roll, you use your attack modifier for the roll. If your familiar drops to 0 HP, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. Your familiar can't reappear until you recall it by performing a minor ritual during a short rest.
Resources
Coin
- Carried: 152 gp, 0 sp, 0 cp, 0 gems
- Stored: 0 gp, 0 sp, 0 cp, 0 gems
Equipment
- Mount: a horse named Corsair
- Carried:
- Well-made traveling clothes
- Badge bearing the crest of House Bannik: an owl in flight holding a sword in its claws
- Belt pouch & backpack
- Ink & pen, loose paper, chalk, sealing wax, journal
- Navigator’s tools, gaming set
- Soap, candles, tinderbox, lantern, & oil
- Mess kit, waterskin, knife, & whetstone
- Bedroll, blanket, tent, & rope (50 ft, silk)
- Stored: None
Lifestyle
Modest (25 gp/month)
Other Important Individuals
- Lady Jinala of House Bannik: Griffin's unusual sponsor. The second child of the Lord of House Bannik is well known as a dabbler in divination and chicanery. Her older sister and heir to the House of Bannik has been trying to marry her off for years, but Jinala has thus far slipped away or chased off every intended suitor brought before her. Recently she had been chosen by her sister to accompany Baroness Malnova as part of the new settlement in Katrica forest. Instead Jinala found herself a proxy, her "champion" she called him. Some poor scindo elf with amnesia that the City Watch had found beaten nearly to death in a gutter. With a little help from her friends at the Temple of Selune, she assured that her champion would survive and recover just in time to make the journey in her name. Her sister was most certainly not amused, but it was a valid diversion from her plan by the law, which Jinala was all too happy to drag a Tribunal priest before her sister to confirm.
Jinala is 19 years old, unwed and gorgeous with big blue eyes, a devilishly playful smile and long raven black hair past her waist.
Projects, Goals and/or Downtime
- Current goal: Don't suck, don't die, don't suck, don't die.
Experience Points
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Earned: #xp
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