This campaign has been life changing. I, like many of you, believe that I have the best DM AND best fellow player characters in the world. The story was so amazing, and the amount of fun we had and shenanigans we've caused should be illegal. If the community would like, there are lots of stories that I can share about the campaign. Titles include:
Operation Soaring Cephalopod (Our plan to escape the undead)
The audition. (Gio frames a man and gets him savagely beaten to save 10 gold)
Knarland and the Greeblies (The backwards plane of existence and the creatures that suck constitution from you by tickling you)
Order 66 (Giovanni betrays the party right after they defeat the god of death)
The Plane of Dais (A.K.A a plane of chaos that also happens to be one large dais)
Daytrip to the Dwarves (Went to buy a ring, ended up killing 700,000 devils in the process)
From Life to Death Domain? (Reinhardt the Cleric kills 300 innocent)
The One Under the Dais Arises (Through sheer annoyance, we make the once most powerful wizard to ever exist come out of retirement and we appease him through chocolate)
A god vs the LofNH vs the Demogorgon. (We watched and collected their blood and body parts)
Dais falls in love. (Dais falls in love with a woman, dictates love notes to an idiot who happens to be able to write, and nails a bird to her door)
And many more. If you want an example of what our adventures are like, I posted a while back about how we made two Pit Fiends kiss so read that if you'd like.
But I guess to start, if you wouldn't mind, I'll tell you the backstory of my character known as Giovanni The Fresh.
Giovanni was abandoned by his father. He does not remember exactly why; some murmurings of no work to be found in the city, but abandoned none the less. He was an elf, Giovanni’s father, and his mother a human, making Giovanni what was known colloquially as a half-elf. A week passed after Giovanni’s father had left. A bardic troupe known as The Fresh had arrived in Terragothia. Giovanni had seen advertisements of this troupe around town here and there, but as they marched into town, they played the most beautiful of music, and put on the most spectacular of light shows created seemingly only by the gestures of some of the performers. Entranced, Giovanni followed them until they came to a stop in the middle of town. One of the performers took a small cube from his pocket, and asked that the crowd that had gathered around them stand back. He placed the cube on the ground, pressed a button on the center of the cube, and then ran back as the rub transformed into a stage fit for a concert, play, or anything that a bardic troupe would use to dazzle a town. Giovanni watched. He watched with innocent awe at the performers working together to sing, play and act. There was no sense of abandonment between them; no, there was only family present there. At the end of the show, the crowds cheered uproariously and threw all sorts of coloured coins in the hats the performers placed on the stage. This is what did it for Giovanni. Family, of which Giovanni’s was broken, and money, of which Giovanni’s broken family had none. He had to be a part of the troupe. He had to be one of The Fresh. A fitting name, for, for Giovanni, this would be a fresh new start for him. Ironically though, his joining of The Fresh would mean that he would be abandoning his mother. He, with no other siblings, the only thing his mother had left, would leave her too. Too young to understand this, he would join The Fresh with intentions to make enough money that he and his mother could live as nobility for the rest of their lives, with enough left over to hire the best tracker in all the Kentor Empire that would find his father so that he would have to answer for his crimes against his own family.
After the show, Giovanni planned that, in the morning, he was going to hide himself in the cart that The Fresh used to pull along their instruments and costumes. He went home, wrote a note to his mother that he was going off to make some money, that she should not worry, and that he would be back as soon as he made enough. In the very early morning, Giovanni put on his most raggedy clothes, which to be fair, was a toss up between just about all the clothes that he had, and he snuck out of his home with blanket in hand for warmth and extra emotional appeal should he need it, and set off for the one tavern in town where The Fresh were surly staying. He found the cart which was out back behind the tavern guarded only by a drunk, sleeping bard, and he very quietly slinked his way to the back of it, and covered himself up with his blanket. Not sleeping that night in preparation, Giovanni quickly fell asleep in the cart with thoughts of music, magic, and money dancing through his head.
Giovanni was awoken by a bump on the road allowing his body to levitate for just a moment before it came crashing back down to the cart. Hurt and groggy, he called out for his mother. Some muffled shouting from beyond the cart, and the cart came to a stop. The mother that still groggy Giovanni had expected to come comfort him turned out to be a large hairy man with a deep bellowing voice. After seeing Giovanni, he called out to another man, and after a moment, Giovanni was asked by a not quite yet embodied voice to come out of the cart. In fear, not for his life, but for a scolding, he slowly came out of the cart. He was encircled by the entire troupe, all of them looking familiar from the performance that they put on. A man that Giovanni recognized as the leader of the troupe stepped into the circle with Giovanni and asked him who he was. Giovanni responded confidently that he was one of them! One of The Fresh! Their newest and best member! Giovanni bowed low and fancily as he remembered their bows at the end of their performance, and as he rose, he expected to see a smile on the face of the man, but he was just greeted with an annoyed yet curious face. The man asked Giovanni again, slowly, and expectantly.
“I’m Giovanni.”
“Mhmm. And why have you hidden in our cart?”
“Because I want to be one of you!”
“Right.” said the man dismissively. “We’re taking you back to your parents.”
“You can’t!” said Giovanni wide eyed; his mind searching for an excuse.
“Can’t we?” said the man as his eyebrow rose.
“No. I don’t have any parents.”
“Is that so?” The man reached onto his puffy shirt and produced a musical pipe which he blew into. The pipe produced a curious melody and a magical circle lighted with strange runes on its circumference and weight scales in the middle of it encircled Giovanni. Giovanni recognized it as a circle of truth. He knew that he couldn’t tell a directly lie. But he could half truths.
“No, that’s not true.” Admitted Giovanni. “But I have been abandoned by my father so it kind of feels like it.”
“And what about your mother?”
“What about my mother?”
“Did she abandon you too?”
“Is she here now?”
“I suppose not.”
“So…” Giovanni lifted his hands and shrugged his shoulders prompting the man to answer his own question in the affirmative. The man nodded and dismissed the circle.
“Alright crew, we’re off.” Said the man.
“So can I come?” asked Giovanni with as much hope as he could muster.
“You are a good little actor Giovanni.” said the man.
“Thanks!” said Giovanni, the words coming out of his mouth too quickly to be able to stop them.
“But next time, be sure to stay in character.” Whispered the man. Calling out to the large, hairy member of the troupe, “Gian, take little Giovanni home to his mother.”
“No!” screamed Giovanni. Giovanni explained exactly what had happened with his father, and the financial situation with his family. This information should not have been enough to persuade the man to let him stay, but right before he was about to insist, he stopped short of uttering a word, the pupils in his eyes visibly dilated, and he agreed to have Giovanni join them. The rest of the troupe questioned this decision, but all the man could answer was that he had this feeling deep down inside himself that Giovanni would make an excellent bard. He told Giovanni that he would have to work incredibly hard to learn the instruments, to memorise any lines he would have and surprisingly, to learn to be adept at swordplay. The man informed Giovanni that The Fresh were not just a band of performing clowns. At times they hired out as mercenaries and went on quests at the patronage of kings and lords. Lastly, Giovanni was told that fifty percent of the money he made from now on would be sent directly to his mother. Giovanni happily agreed to the terms. The rest of the troupe were still shocked at this sudden change of heart, but they knew who was in charge and they wouldn’t question too much. Perhaps, as is often the case, he knew more than they of the situation.
“I’m Vincenzo by the way.” Said the man to Giovanni.
“Nice to meet you! And thank you for letting me join you guys! I can’t wait to learn everything you guys have to teach and to hang out with you guys at the taverns. My mom never let me go into the taverns. She always said…” And Giovanni went on regaling Vincenzo with stories about the happy times he remembered. For years, Giovanni found a new father in Vincenzo. Giovanni excelled in his bardic studies. He was beyond anyone his age in the fine arts. But it was the art of the blade and of valor that enticed him most, and even though he was not quite as naturally gifted in those qualities, Giovanni worked hard at them, but never excelled. Giovanni performed and worked with The Fresh for many years before suddenly, as if finally after years of realized what he had done, Vincenzo abruptly asked Giovanni to stop performing with them. Vincenzo told Giovanni as if to find an excuse to get him to leave, that he should go back home to his mother. He’s been gone a long time, and no doubt, despite her being taken care of, she misses him. Despite his protests, Giovanni was kicked out of The Fresh. Giovanni was once again abandoned. Giovanni did not travel back home because he had not kept his promise yet. He promised that he and his mother would be able to live as nobility for the rest of their lives, and if he could not, he would hire someone to find his father so Giovanni could experience some kind of justice. If he could no longer travel with The Fresh he would just have to find a way to become famous on his own. To get rich because of his own talent. To become the best bard in the world. So he made his way to the nearest by town called Wave’s Rest where he would make his first individual coin. And on his way there, Giovanni ran into a seemingly always angry half-devil (tiefling) named Drayleth. This meeting would change the course of not only Giovanni’s life, but the fate of the entire multi-verse forever.
Submitted March 26, 2019 at 09:51PM by GiovanniTheFresh https://ift.tt/2Ws2Boa
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