Damek, a brooding Slavic spirit hunter to be...

[sanjwise]

Hey everyone,

I've been tinkering with this character for weeks! Much of the discussion started on this thread http://burningwheel.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3508 but I've strayed very far from the original concept.

My thinking really changed when Alex and I got to thinking about how cool slavic myths are for a setting. Wolves, vengeful spirits, witches, and hags, vampires, gypsies, etc. The potential is amazing. So this dude, is all I ever wanted to play in a D&d ravenloft setting.

Hope you like him.

Damek - Fall Apples of Negoiu

Lifepaths: Born Peasant  Hunter  Trapper  Strider

Age: 24yrs

Will: B4 Percep: B5 Pwr: B4 Forte: B4 Speed: B5 Agility: B6
Health: B5 Reflex: B5 MW: B10 Steel: B4

Skills:
Hunting B4; Tracking B3; Stealthy B3; Cooking B2; Orienteering B3; Bow B4;
Trapper B4; Haggling B2; Forest-wise B3; Foraging B2; Fire-building B2; Brawling B2; Spear B4; Folklore B2; Aura Reading B2; Herbalism B2;

Traits:
Left Handed: Free for colour. All weirdos are left handed, of course!

Compact: Free racial trait – I’m going for a sturdy, swarthy, stern Slavic look

Loner: People don’t like me, they get uncomfortable and frightened by the things that I know, the things that I know of their hearts. Damek’s father was killed when he was 13. His mother died in childbirth. He raised himself, taught himself to hunt, and learned to trap from observing others. He has always been self-reliant and preferred to keep to himself because of his strange abilities to sense what others can not.

Second Sight: Damek grew up hearing voices, seeing things that know body else perceived. He could read people and know their motives. His father denied him his gifts, and tried to protect him from its dangers, as he had failed to do for his wife, Damek’s mother. Later, during his wanderings, the witch Louhi taught him that there is more to learn from his special gift (or curse), protections from the spirits that abound. So he learned a bit of control from her. Now the noises are more manageable. The power to see into the future is a powerful gift (or curse); Odin sacrificed an eye for it. I want Damek to make a similar choice one day as well.

Gear: Clothes, Traveling Gear, Boots, Hunting Bow, Arrows.

Relationships:

Louhi the Crone, (5rpts – 2 sexual, -1 forbidden), She found Damek when he was cold and shivering, almost near death. She was not kind nor was she gentle, but she healed him and made him whole again. She also used him. She tricked him and wore the guise of a beautiful woman and lay with him many times. She taught him about his gift and exposed him to the ancient laws of the spirit world. Damek hates her but at the same time feels a kinship to her. He thinks she knows something about his Ma.

Cantor Isaac the Singer, (5pts -1 forbidden) (villager, peddler, priest). A Jewish peddler and cantor from the village of Beth Shalom, he has always been kind and fair to Damek. For the last five years, Damek has gone to him to trade and barter for supplies. The rabbi is very nervous for the future and foresees dark times coming to his people. Perhaps it is the beginning of the End Times? He often talks about taking his family on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He jokes that he will hire Damek to guard his caravans for the long journey.

Lame Dabonista, (wolf companion 3). Damek learned much about the society of wolves during his lonely wanderings in the Slavic Forests. They were his only companions for many cold months. He found Lame Dabonista caught in one of his traps and felt pity for the creature. He brought him to Old Louhi for healing and ever since, the creature has not left his side. He is lame in his front left paw.

Beliefs:

1. It is a cold and dangerous country out in the wild, haunted by the ghosts of suffering, plagued by wild spirits. I’ve felt it all my life. They are restless and are preparing to descend upon us, just as the old crone has foreseen. I must learn as much of the old ways from the hag as I can.

2. Night is falling in these lands, and I will be brave and steadfast as mighty Svarog, lord of the fire that is in the sun, the earth and the forge. I will harden and toughen myself against the Anvil that is life and emerge anew, tough as cold steel. (Svarogi Ratnik prayer) I must train my body hard, learn the weapons of war, for the coming struggles.

3. I know now that father’s spirit is restless. He lingers and loathes the in-ability to find rest. I will ease his spirit and give him peace.

Instincts:

1. Always approach strangers cautiously, with stealth and/or the Sight.
2. Begin each day with offerings to Svarog, the Spirits of Nature and Death, and Leshii the lord of the Wood.
3. Exercise and train each morning and night.

[sanjwise]

Some cool sights for Slavic roleplaying flavor.

http://members.aol.com/hpsofsnert/index.html
http://www.xpomo.com/ruskolan/galery_index.htm

there are tons of other sites...check em out they rock.

sanj

[sanjwise]

I got permission from Alex to switch some of ther required skills out to allow for others. Instead of Riding I took Animal Husbandry for Dabhonista's training.

Concept: Strange Slavic Hunter Gifted (or Cursed) With the Sight

Character Name: Damek

Stock: Human

Lifepaths: Born Peasant, Hunter, Trapper, Strider

Age: 24yrs

Stats: Pe:B5 Wi: B4 Ag:B6 Sp:B5 Po:B4 Fo:B4

Attributes: Re:5 Ste:4 He:5 MW:10 Hesitation:6 Resources:0 Circles:2

PTGS: Su:3 Li:5 Mi:7 Se:8 Tr:9 Mo:10

Skills: Hunting B3; Tracking B4; Stealthy B4; Cooking B2; Orienteering B3; Bow B4; Trapper B3; Haggling B2; Forest-wise B3; Foraging B2; Fire-building B2; Animal Husbandry B2; Spear B4; Folklore B2; Aura Reading B2; Herbalism B2;

Gear: Hunting Bow, Arrows, Boots, Clothes, Travelling Gear

Property: Cozy Cave in the forest

Traits: Compact, Loner, Second Sight

Affiliations: None

Reputations: None

Relationships: Louhi the Crone, (10rpts – 2 sexual, -1 forbidden), Lame Dabhonista, (wolf companion 3). Wi: B3 Pe:B4(6) Ag:B3, Sp:B5, Po:B5, Frt: B5, He:B4, Ref: B4, MW: B11, Ste: B4, Traits: Loyal, Protective, Wolf’s Snout (MB p. 215), Woodland Ear (MB p.216), Submissive, Trainable, Lame

Beliefs:
1. There is a deep sadness to this land. Sometimes it turns to vengeful anger. The reasons why are secrets kept by the spirits of the Inner Forests. I need to force Louhi the Crone must teach me what she knows.
2. There’s no more denying it, I cannot sit idly by any longer as I had during the wars. The Sileneese dogs must be scared off of these lands. I will do what I can to attack and harry their forces until I die.
3. Men are strange and shifty, they think one thing and say another. But the red haired barbarian is different...can I test him, if I am to trust him.

Instincts:
1. Don't talk to strangers.
2. Be prepared for bad weather.
3. If lost in the woods, trust in Dabhonista.

[sanjwise]

Here's what I got so far for the Witch Louhi.

She's a cast out gypsy. Exiled from the Family because a foretelling of ill-omen. Years are spent in the forest where she survives, learning from the ravens. She goes insane and paranoid, predicting a future holocaust. She delves deeper into the Spirit World to uncover the truth of the story. She looses her mind and grows old.
Then one day she finds Damek.
Yes she is a tormented crone but there is a pin prick of sanity that is crying out for someone to free her. She must come back or the fate of the Forest is lost.

Born Gypsy (born village with appro. skills), Farmer (as as Born Gypsy), Augur, Scavenger (mix of pillager and strider), Deranged, Crazy Witch

Age: 57
Perception B6; Will B5; Power B3; Forte B4; Speed B3; Agility B3.


She found Damek almost dying on a bitter-cold winter’s day. She brought him in, nursed him back to health, and whispered to him many secrets.
She warned him of the spirits of the forests, and taught to him the Laws of the wood. She revealed to him, the Illusion. They need each other…almost as kindred spirits. But theirs is not an easy friendship. The two are loners, and cannot trust easily.
Yet, the stars cannot easily be thwarted. One night, not that long ago, Damek was seduced by an apparition in his dreams. She was raven haired and sad-eyed.

[Sydney Freedberg]

There's some cool stuff there. I miss the heresy/reformation angle from the original character, though -- that ties the character in to a whole set of story-potential-rich social issues. Maybe the oppressive enemy religion considers all the monsters Damek hunts to be mere folk tales, and the old techniques for warding against them to be mere peasant superstition? Conversely, maybe the enemy have a whole set of gods and demons of their own, terrible and powerful and utterly alien to Damek's experience? I'm struck by the idea of the old folk cult and its familar, local, earth-bound hags and haunts and wolves suddenly coming into contact with a formal, highly intellectualized, Platonist religion with a hierarchy of otherworldly Powers and Dominions with no ties to the land or the flesh at all.

[sanjwise]

Sydney, you hit the nail on the head! Alex has already been working on similar ideas concerning the sudden rise to power of Emperor Ivid in the Kingdom of Silene. Whisperings of alien and unknown entities. Did the Spirits of these lands go insane because of their proximity to this corruption?

I can't wait to see what Alex does with this.

I know about what you mean about the change of direction. I was into the peasant rebel as well, but when I started thinking about the creepy Slavic woods and the potential stories therein, I couldn't resist.

I did however keep something about the old story.

Damek's family had always been the village's blacksmiths. Times grew tough and Damek's grandfather was forced out of the village because they could no longer afford to pay the taxes demanded of the local Boyar. They went into the forest and scrounged a living as poor farmers and trappers. When grandfather died from a fever, the family built a shrine to Savrog, lord of the forge, in an isolated cave and buried his body nearby.

Damek's father was killed by Sileneese mercenaries in their initial scouting of the Duchy of Karpa's southern border with Silene. He had been away on a hunt, and must have stopped by the Shrine to pay his respects. Somewhere on his way home, he was murdered by Sileneese outriders. When his father did not return home that cold winter night, Damek went out to find him. He discovered the body lying face down in the snow, arrows piercing his back. He was stripped of all his gear except for the families smith's hammer lying neglected beneath a thicket.

It was easy for Damek to follow the trail to his father's attackers.

He came upon the encampment, killed two men, but was then forced to flee for his life. They hunted him for days until Louhi found him barely alive in the highlands surrounding her hut.

Sanj

[sanjwise]

Hey gang,

I need some more feedback on this dude...
What do you think?
Is he too safe? What can be changed to make him cooler.

I'm a little worried that because the character is so cautious, i.e. about the forest, the spirits, other people, etc, it might be hard to get him into trouble.

Especially the instincts I was trying to find some cool if - then statement that would cause problems but I couldn't think of anything...

Thanks
Sanj

[Sydney Freedberg]

Some thoughts on tweaking the beliefs and instincts:

Beliefs:
1. I love and fear Louhi the Crone as I love and fear the dark magic of the land. I must overcome love and fear alike to wrest her secrets from her by whatever means necessary.
2. I sat by idly during the wars and people died. I can only appease the anger of the innocent dead by sending the souls of Sileneese dogs to join them.
3. I had lost my faith in men, for they say one thing and mean another -- but the red-haired barbarian is different. The dogs have sent him to me as a test: I must stand by him and trust him even when my reason rebels.

Instincts:
1. If something is wrong, speak up!
2. Always time to check things out before charging in.
3. If lost in the woods, trust in Dabhonista.

[sanjwise]

Dear Sydney,

These are great. Thanks. I love them all and am going to use all of them!

1. I love and fear Louhi the Crone as I love and fear the dark magic of the land. I must overcome love and fear alike to wrest her secrets from her by whatever means necessary.

I love the strangeness of this belief. Its so twisted.

2. I sat by idly during the wars and people died. I can only appease the anger of the innocent dead by sending the souls of Sileneese dogs to join them.

This one sends chills down my spine. The restless spirits of the innocent dead will not be satiated until Sileenese souls are sent to the spirit world.

3. I had lost my faith in men, for they say one thing and mean another -- but the red-haired barbarian is different. The gods have sent him to me as a test: I must stand by him and trust him even when my reason rebels.

Cool!

Instincts
1. If something is wrong, speak up!

This one is cool. It indicates that he is changing...he getting a backbone.

2. Always time to check things out before charging in.

Mechanical and tactical. So something that gives a free assess in FIGHT!

Thank you.

Sanj

[Sydney Freedberg]

Hey, glad to help. It's fun to help you develop this guy. He's cool.

You'd have to ask someone more rules-savvy than I whether that instinct gets him a free Assess, but it certainly should get him Persona points for ignoring the instinct whenever he decides "Screw it" and charges in headlong. And it should provide plenty of roleplaying fodder with your Norse berserker friend -- "Let's go!" "No, wait, we should..." "No, now!"

[sanjwise]

When I created the relationship between Damek and Louhi the Crone I wanted a character in his story that would push him deeper and deeper into the tortured ghost world that lies just beneath the surface of what is real in the Karpa Hills. These lands are cursed by the ghosts of the past. The deep forests are where no man may return. A place where hungry spirits are intent on devouring fresh souls.

Damek's second sight allows him to just barely see into this world. It also gives him the powers of an augur. He can sense within people's hearts with his aura reading skill. And at high ratings of the aura reading skill he even has the potential foretell the ones destiny.

But his only teacher is Louhi the Crone. To make life difficult for myself, I then even wrote
a belief where Damek is appalled and sickened by the hag, and wants to kill her. Why? Long story:

Damek’s father raised him after his mother abandoned their family at a young age. His father raises Damek as best as he can. Life is hard. He’s made tough and hard-working and is taught of his proud heritage from his father’s side. We come from a line of blacksmiths. In the olden days we used to even make weapons for the King.

Nothing is ever spoken of Damek’s mysterious mother. But as a young child Damek was always a little ‘strange’ and his father would often bitterly say, ‘you’re just like your mother!’

One day Silenese raiders came to their modest hut in the Hills and savagely murdered his father without cause. They were drunk and looking for some sport. They made Damek watch while they played with his father’s life. Finally when they killed him, Damek was numb. His third eye, the eye through which he is tied to his mother, the eye through which he is tied to the spirit world, was throbbing. He was totally out of it. Somehow he managed to escape and ran away. Before leaving he snatched up his grandfather's ancestral blacksmith's hammer as a token of home and his identity.

He ran and ran, and disappeared into the wilderness. He was lost in the forest for months. It was early fall when the white cloak's struck and by winter Damek was a changed man. Alone in the wilderness - gone feral. It was at this time that he met and developed a strange friendship with a timid and crippled wolf – the three legged Great Wolf, Dabhog. He disappeared for months into the wood. He survived the fall, but by winter he was finished. Starved and desperate, he tried to escape his isolation and headed south to look for shelter. The attempt was ludicrous in his condition. He passed out from exhaustion, hunger and cold in a cave somewhere in the night. The last he remembers is a low stoopped figure reaching down to grab him and drag him to warmth

Next, he found himself asleep in a cozy little hut with a fire cracking and soft furs to keep him warm. There was tons of food on a table next to him. He devoured everything and was greeted by his saviour Louhi the Crone! She nursed him back to health, and taught him about his stange powers. He has the Sight, she said, an ancient and terrible gift. To see the future and to look into people's hearts. To peer through the veil and see into the spirit world. She taught him aura reading, folklore, and herbalism. She wasn’t kindly though, she was old and complaining. Cranky and demanding. She made feel Damek weak and insignificant.

One day, she is summoned by her elders to discuss Damek. They question her harshly about him, and when she gives up that he has the Sight. They decree his death. She argues, no let us use him. We need his genes - the power of the sight cannot be squandered. They relent upon one condition, she must bare his child.

She goes back trains him and then shape shifts into a beautiful apparition and sleeps with him. Over nights and nights of drugged amnesia, she eventually feels satisfied. She might be pregnant with his baby.

When he wakes from days of tormented and anguished sleep he is horrified. The reality of her acts freaks him out totally. He runs away from her and returns to the wilds.

He becomes obsessed with the White Cloaks, and stalks them throughout the Duchies, but never does anything. One
day he sees a bloody massacre and from it rises a red haired barbarian. He sees him as a sign, as an avatar of Svarog the Slavic God of Fire that is in the Sun and the Forge. This is Gunnar. Maybe now he can escape the dependent world of the witch and become the hero that he wants to be. He decided to walk a new path and turn his back on the shadow world of the Witch. Gunnar tells Damek that he must travel on to Steel Hill where other soldiers friendly to Gunnar will help him claim vengence. Though the journey is long, Damek sees it as his excude to escape the Witch.

But as he nears the trails that lead to louhi's hut, he weakens; her power over him is strong. He is somehow compelled to have one more row at her, One more chance to understand. He veers off the path and tells Gunnar to wait, he has important business to take care.

He confronts her. “Why? Why did you sleep with me he asks? Why? She shuts him up fast and reveals nothing but scorn! She orders him to do her bidding, and leaves all questions unanswered. "Now there are two in the village Aldiss that I seek, bring them to me. And beware the White Cloaks, they are finally making their move." He wants to discuss more of his needs but she hammers him down and screams "Fetch me the gypsy witch and the Gold Coast Dreamer! Now!" When Damek threatens to kill her, she laughs and mockingly, says, you can't and never will. Get out or I'll tell your mommy on you." "My mother? What do you know of her, witch?" “Only that you are definitely her child…an outcast, a nobody like her...like me. She would be proud!"

I remember how stunned I was when Alex and I opened with that Duel of Wits way back in our first session. Damn!

Since then, Damek has been struggling. He found the gypsy and the gold coaster in the village. He fought beside Gunnar and Azad and killed 3 Silenese. He unwittingly delivered the gypsy to Louhi. He and his friends attempted to finally end her life, but she fought back with sorcery and ensnared Gunnar and sent he and Azad running in Fear. Damek has retreated to the wood and he has some heavy choices to make next session.

Alrighty-then.

Heavy shit.

Belief 1, I hate her, the Witch Louhi the Crone, I hate her. One day I will kill her, but first she's will tell me about my mother.

With Gunnar drawing me towards a life of, warriorship, camaraderie, honor and war, and louhi, jessun, and lubna drawing me into the world of the occult and shadows, playing Damek tomorrow is probably going to be the best roleplaying I have ever done. Thanks everyone! Thanks Alex.

Going with Gunnar plays AGAINST my loner trait.
Going with the Witch pulls me deeper into the world of my Second Sight.
Two of my beliefs are now OPPOSED to each other.
and I am in the woods, which is my element.

Fun Times.

Can't wait!

[JamesD]

Sanj, can't wait to hear what happened in this last session!

[sanjwise]

Sanj, can't wait to hear what happened in this last session!

The session was amazing.

I chose to join with Gunnar and Azad in the fight against the White Cloacks. Louhi did not try and harm us and basically gave us freedom to decide what we wanted to do so long was we didn't harm her or her plans right away.

The party is now officially split, and we are basically retiring Damek, Gunnar and Azad for one off style play when I return to Montreal after my move to Toronto. Which is cool, cause Damek is awesome.

In the trait votes I received the following traits:

Addicted: Throughout the campaign I roleplayed Damek using his herbalism skill to smoke joints to get high, and achieve somekind of deeper connection with his Sight powers and Aura Reading.

Paranoid Ear: I always played Damek a little keyed up and alert to the slightest disturbance. This was awesome and want to turn into a 'he hears the voices of the dead' eventually when we travel through the Dark Wood.

Fleet of Foot: I did a lot of running with Damek. Alot. Throughout the campaign I spent 3 fate points and 3 Persona points of Speed.

Disturbed: Character trait, Damek is a little crazy and tortured.

I also won two persona points for resolving partially resolving Belief 1, and for firmly resolving Belief 2. Also, I won the workhorse Persona Point for skillful use of tracking, forest-wise, orienteering etc. throughout the game.

--

I think the other cool trait vote was for Jessun, who was a Pilgrim and now has the Faith trait!

--

When I have time I'll post some more on Damek's story.

Sanj

[Justin in Oz]

Addicted: Throughout the campaign I roleplayed Damek using his herbalism skill to smoke joints to get high, and achieve somekind of deeper connection with his Sight powers and Aura Reading.


The Slavic links were great. Thanks.

You may already know this, but the first historically recorded usage of cannabis was from that part of the world. It comes from Herodotus. He was describing the Scythians rituals surrounding the burying of their dead.

"they set up three stakes leaning towards one another and about them they stretch woollen felt coverings, and when they have closed them as much as possible they throw stones heated red-hot into a basin placed in the middle of the stakes and the felt coverings. . . . The Scythians then take the seed of this hemp and creep under the felt coverings, and then they throw the seed upon the stones which have been heated red-hot: and it burns like incense and produces a vapour so think that no vapour-bath in Hellas would surpass it: and the Scythians being delighted with the vapour-bath howl like wolves."
Herodotus Histories Book 4, 73-75.

These stakes and braziers have been found in steppe mound burials.

[JamesD]

Nice! Barbar, I want to hear your side as well!

Sanj, so does that mean Siegfried is gonna show up in Clan Bok?! :)

[sanjwise]

I'm changing Damek's beliefs to reflect, Chapter 2 in his story.

I'll be running him for one-shot's mission probably played solo for with Dave's character Gunnar.

So...

Louhi has taught me that one’s trust should not easily be given. I will watch everyone for lies and keep myself safe from treachery. I will not let that Witch’s scheming go unchecked in these lands.

There is a need for strength and bravery in the coming fight for Karpa. The White Cloaks will fear the name of Damek White Stripe, Hunter of the Wood. The Black Knight shall be the first to fall.

Gunnar is Svarog Returned. Together we shall become immortal in song and story. When the blade must fall upon the Black Knight’s head, Gunnar shall have the glory of that victory.

What is the secret to these fell woods? I know that it exists and that it had drew my mother from me when I was but a child. I will uncover it, by my blood, I will uncover it so that father's spirit can finally be set free.