# Character Background



## Cedric (Jun 6, 2002)

So, here's the deal...I rolled up a character background from some home grown rules and partly out of the book...

I came up with some weird stuff for my would be Cleric of Athena.

Dirt poor
Youngest of 10 kids
Small Town
Speaks Goblin
Tracking
Secondary Skills of 
   Gambling
   Weaving/Tailoring

So, here's the background story that came from that mess. <grins>

I was born to a poor family. My only real skill as a kid, if you can call it one, was playing hide and seek with my siblings in the woods near home. I had a knack for figuring out from the tracks just where they were hiding. Not much of a claim to fame, but it was good enough when you’re 9 years old and the youngest of 10 kids.

My father was a master of his trade and my mother a master of hers. Together, with his tailoring and her loom work and weaving, they made a fabulous pair.

However, along with my father’s skill, came a great sense of … giving. I suppose he can’t be blamed really, it’s just his nature. 

Of course, this never made our lives easier. You see, I wasn’t born a poor child because my parents made no money, I was born a poor child because my father could not say no to his younger brother. 

Years would pass and I would be a man before I would truly come to realize who my uncle was though…and especially before I would come to know how he’d changed our lives.

My uncle gambled…badly. Constantly in debt to my father, bookies, loan sharks and the thief’s guild, my uncle was just pure trouble. But to a short, poor, futureless 15-year-old boy, he was made of Gold.

I waited eagerly for my Uncle’s trips from Ruzzlin to visit us. They were always too far between and never lasted long enough to suit my tastes. While he visited I would hang on Uncle Peter’s every word and when mother Doris wasn’t watching, pick up tips on how to gamble. 

Undoubtedly, this is what led to my salvation. Sound strange? Well…it’s a strange story. 

The youngest of 10 kids, 6 boys and 4 girls, I was destined to be nothing. Sure, I could sew and weave, same as my pa and mum, but no town that small needs that many people who can sew and weave. Also, I hadn’t the money to buy supplies to start up in another town.

Sure, I worked odd jobs here and there and I made my copper and the occasional silver. And you know what I did with it, I gambled. I gambled with passing travelers, mercenaries, other boys, men from the Mill’s…and I was good. At least I was good enough to keep winning against them.

So my few silver and few copper turned into a few gold and a few electrum and I knew I had found my career. Pennies saved and lessons learned, I set out for Ruzzlin at the ripe age of 16. 

Most of what happened that night is a blur. I know it involved drinking, gambling, dwarves and me losing more money then I brought. Instead of trying to speculate, I’ll put it this way…I was in debt to the dwarves for more money then I’d ever seen.

So, it stands to reason that when they left, I left with them…I was set to work off my debt.

You know, I never became a good miner, to this day; I can’t say what the first step is. But I stood my spot in line next to the Goblin slaves and I beat my hammer and swung my pick.

In those 2 years and 2 days, I worked and sweated off a sizeable debt. Not important how big it was…what matters is that I learned my lesson. Gambling is for fun, gambling as a way of life is for fools. 

My only friends in those days, sad to say, were some of the Goblin slaves. Oddly enough you know how I got enough food to survive? I gambled for it. But let’s be reasonable, I can still beat goblins, I wasn’t that bad.

At any rate, my 2 years and 2 days were up in the summer of my 18th year. Now a free man again, out of debt, I was also a poor man. Heh, and I was a lost man.

You see, the dwarves, still feeling no love for me, probably due to my superb mining skills (uh huh), turned me out in the forest to walk back to the city. While there are roads and towns in between, it’s miles and miles of mountain and wilderness mostly and I was lost.

I wandered along the roadway for what must have been hours, until darkness was setting in. I was looking for a place to set up a camp of sorts when I heard riders on the road behind me. 

Maybe they were merchants, soldiers or members of the church, but I’ll never know. I hotfooted it into the cover of the woods to let them pass. Problem is, they seemed to decide to set up camp where I’d been walking. 

So I was off in the other direction to see if I couldn’t find the road again and a place to stay for the night. Of course you can see where this is going. I was lost completely now and couldn’t find the road. 

I wandered for the next day and most of the third when I was about worn out. No shoes, threadbare clothes and a lack of food and water had done me in. That’s when I found salvation…sort of, but I’ll explain the sort of more later.

You see, I came across a clearing and a large stone…keep? That wasn’t the right word for it, but with its walls and towers it was different from any town or building I’d seen…and it was gorgeous.

I came to find, at the gate, that I’d come across the Temple of Athena. Reluctantly, probably from the way I looked, they let me inside. This was to be my home for the next 4 years and arguably the rest of my life.

You can joke or laugh about it if you want, but yes, I found religion or maybe religion found me. I did basic labor and helped around wherever I could at first. After they found I could tailor, that’s what I did from then on.

Two years would go by before I’d be known as more then boy or trusted with more then mending robes and darning socks. In that time, I learned, studied, received education and worked for just that and my food, never receiving or thinking to ask for money. 

With the two years gone by, I was presented a choice. Stay and continue study to enter service to Athena or be paid a small sum and provided caravan transport to Ruzzlin. Without hesitation I stayed, now that was truly my salvation. 

I would not be alive then or of course today were it not for the wonder of Athena and her followers. I owed them a debt for my life and my sense of self that could never be repaid with two years of menial tasks, but only with a lifetime of diligent service. 

As you can see, I became a cleric. The time would wind by quickly and I took to my studies well. In fact, in the end, I think even the most hardened of the priests and priestesses were impressed with my service to Athena and dedication to her word. 

Sent then to make my way on my own, not as a vagrant but as a Cleric of Athena. I wasn’t exactly ready to take on the world but I was much, much better off then I’d ever been before. 

I returned to my hometown of course. A part of me might have wanted to show them that I had become something, but mostly I just missed my brothers and sisters, and my ma and pa of course. 

Things never went the way I thought they would though. My family was happy to see me, but things had changed. I now saw a whole wide world around me and they still saw just our village. 

I caught up on old news, my Uncle had been killed in a bar fight, apparently something to do with a debt being collected…in Full. My family was better off then they’d been in years, with most of the kids having moved to nearby towns, my Uncle being gone, and my father and mother making as much money as ever. Only now it went to their needs, not the needy.

I learned from my older brother that a friend of his, a magic-user in training actually, was en route to Sanctuary, but had stopped in town a few days. After being introduced we sort of hit it off and decided, after a bit of discussion that I would join the caravan he was taking in the trip to Sanctuary.

I honestly have to say that while my life may have just been beginning at that point, I always got the feeling that I’d lived for so many years already. Still, there were hopefully many, many more years left in me and I intended to spend them all in service to Athena. 

With luck stranger, when you read this, you’ll have the chance to track me down and find out just exactly what happened during the rest of those years.  

-Cedric


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## Barendd Nobeard (Jun 6, 2002)

Very nice!



> *With luck stranger, when you read this, you’ll have the chance to track me down and find out just exactly what happened during the rest of those years. *




OK, when do you post the rest?


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## Cedric (Jun 6, 2002)

> OK, when do you post the rest?




Heh, thanks...but I don't start playing that character until Saturday...so it might be a bit. I don't know though...if enough people read it and like it, I might add a column after each game session. 

I pretty much just posted it here to get some feedback. I figure anything I spent that much effort on, should at least be read by more then the game master. 

Cedric


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## cthuluftaghn (Jun 20, 2002)

I like the way you spun such a detailed story from some randomly generated traits 'n stats.  I'd like to see what becomes of Cedric as well.  If you take the time to write it, I'll be sure to read it.


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