| APPEARANCE |
|
Age 18 | Height 4'11 | Weight 112 lbs. | Plumage White and Blue | Eyes Pale Pink | Complexion Downy Blue is a white plumed Heru with tips of blue on her head feathers and along some of the vestigial wing feathers. While her stature is just shy of average for a Heru it doesn't show in how she carries herself. She moves with a spring to her step, an attempted grace that has the awkwardness of youth bleed through the facade. Her excitable nature is visible in her almost constantly shifting stance as she tries to capture everything she sees and experiences for all time to be told and retold - everything is a story to be captured and told, some of them just need a nudge to get moving. She lives for her passions, but also lives for the passions of those she deems her friends and can be swayed from a decision if needs must, she might sulk about not having her way however. |
| BACKGROUND |
|
SCOUNDREL
Background Feature: Urban ExplorerYou are familiar with the layout and rhythms of towns and cities. When you arrive in a new city, you can quickly locate places to stay, where to buy good quality gear, and other facilities. You can shake off pursuers when you are being chased through the streets or across the rooftops. You have a knack for leading pursuers into a crowded market filled with stalls piled high with breakable merchandise, or down a narrow alley just as a dung cart is coming in the other direction. When you make a d20 roll for a Chase Complication (see DMG), you can choose to do so with a −5 penalty, making it more likely for the participant behind you to run into a complication. BACKSTORY Blue grew up in one of the nameless village communities between Makuria and Per-Bastet along the edge of Nuria river to 'traditionalist' Heru parents, as in, they kicked her out of the house when she turned ten for her to "figure out how to fly". With basically no life experience and an perchance for 'excitement' Blue initially survived by planning and executing 'heists' on her parents, neighbors, shop keepers and nearby travelers. While most of these heists were harmless (and typically 'set-up' by the ones being heisted for her to succeed) she eventually found that doing this to survive wasn't exciting enough. That's when blue was propositioned by a local 'organized group' of similarly aged Heru to join the "Crests" and help push their childish games of survival to the next level. The Crests' main tenant was that local Heru families and businesses were out of bounds, as they were basically family, but outsiders, non-Heru and travellers were fair game.
Blue-crest became the defacto 'face / grifter' of the group as they found out her knack for telling stories and her ability to mimic people. She performed the role of the distraction while the rest of the crests pick-pocketed and stole unattended goods from the enraptured (or mildly amused) audience. As she got better, the distractions became more and more elaborate, including using costumes, singing, music and stories. It was the stories that Blue loved the most, and she avidly listened to all of the travelling story-tellers that she could find to hear more stories for her to tell herself, with embellishments of course. Retelling one of her favorite stories to a crowd of travelers her started picturing the scenes so vividly that images of the scenes started appearing around her showcasing the wonderous vistas she could only have described before. Things were good for the Crests, they would go out and fleece people while Blue would perform, she would often even get tips for the performances. It was a decent life, a comfortable life. Something inside Blue protested at this, demanded more of a challenge, demanded they do something exciting, something bold, something worth becoming a story.
The head elder of the village had a jeweled magical necklace, he wore it for all major functions and duties he had to perform for the village. The rumors around town were that it helped focus peoples attention, and as Blue thought back to some of the speeches he gave she could recall an odd sensation of being drawn to the elder's words. While the Crests continued their daily ministrations Blue plotted and thought about the item. It became an obsession to steal the necklace, not because she needed the money, or needed it to perform. Blue desired the infamy the heist would bring, the tales people would tell, the secret that she would know it was her who did it.
It took a full month to convince the rest of the Crests that it was worth it, that the infamy would bolster the groups position, and the magic item could let them get a hold of large crowds in cities, where they could increase their riches and live like kings. Blue had convinced them that she would do the stealing, and they would be the distraction, make a large enough fuss in the market place that even the elder and his guards would have to investigate. They initially balked, but ceded to her demands and the day of the heist came. At the allotted time Blue snuck into the compound, using her magic and her lessons on the street to good use and making headway to where the necklace was stored. The final hurdle remained, the Crests would make the distraction and it would leave the final stretch open for her. Blue waited, and waited, an hour passed without any changes to the guard rotation and the elder remained in his mansion. Thinking her friends had been caught, or something came up that prevented the distraction Blue weighed the option of abandoning the plan - sneaking out with the guards present was almost as risky now as if she continued the heist. She decided to go ahead, to become the story - what is a story without a few twists? Waiting for the guards to rotate she used the last of her magic to distract them and slipped into the elder's room. Luckily for her he was elsewhere in the mansion and she was able to locate the necklace. Unluckily as she picked it up the captain of the guard stepped into the room.
Prison wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, at least the holding cell of the guard barracks wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. The Captain of the guard informed her that the 'Crests' had ratted her for the guard to officially turn a blind-eye to their activities. She was too ambitious, too focused on stories, too much in her own head for them he claimed. Blue didn't believe him. They were her friends, her family. No matter how the Captain tried to convince her she was the reject, the sacrifice she refused to believe it. To believe it was to throw away all her memories, all the stories she made with the crests. Unsatisfied with Blue's response the Captain left her to think, which she heartedly tried to avoid. As the sun-fell behind the sand dunes and the cool night kissed the lands a Heru guard with similar blue markings as Blue's came to see her. He talked about his struggles after being kicked out of the nest, being a lost soul afloat in the air until he had a vision of Horus, the lord of the skies. After that encounter he devoted his life to service of Horus' laws, but Horus wasn't without mercy at times. And the guard opened the cell, handed Blue a pack of equipment and told her to find atonement, and one day repay Horus.
Under the cover of dark Blue fled. She couldn't risk returning to the Crests, not so soon after 'escaping', not so soon after what they could have done. So she travelled along the river. Walking the trail the travelers would take, sleeping in the height of day in any shade she could find, hitching a ride where she could - repaying her debts with smiles, stories and performances. Eventually she found herself on the outskirts of Per-Bastet with a few tasty rumors from other travelers kicking around in her head. |