complete Adalmar, Dwarf Shaman of Sea and Tooth, Wind and Claw

[namo]

Adalmar Skimwave
Shaman of Sea and Tooth, Wind and Claw

Reminiscence of the Seacliff Shamans

In the happy days of yore
We soared through the sky
Then came the dragons
They swatted us down
Chased us away

In the happy days of yore
We danced atop the waves
Then came the monsters of the abyss
They tore us apart
Chased us away

In the toil and gloom of the days of now
We are bound to the earth
But ever we go back to the shore
There, with the wind and surf for lullaby
We dream of what used to be.

Details

Gender: Male
Race: Seacliff Dwarf
Nationality: Andorin, mostly (see backstory)
Age: 61
Possible Offices: Windmaster >> Master-at-arms & DoctorBoth together is a good combination: you want to listen to and obey the person who can be the only thing standing between you and death... > Quartermaster > Navigator (in order of decreasing preference)

Role: melee, battlefield control, skills
Build: Ranger (wildshape variant) 5 / Master of Many Forms 4 || Druid (Avenger, Swift and deadly hunter) 9 
Alignment: Neutral Good

Appearance

The picture above shows Adalmar when he cleans up.

Aboard a ship he tends to dress much more simply: a simple, roughspun woolen shirt and breeches. He spends much of his time in other shapes anyway, so he cares little for clothes.

What little vanity he has does show up though his jewelry: he likes his baubles, be they ring, earring, anklet...
His wilding clasps, that allow him to keep using some items while in wildshape, take the shape of silver piercings.

His hair and beard were originally light brown but have been bleached by sun and salt. He is stout, as befits someone who indulges food and ale a little too much.

He has tattoos all over, but they're all small: waves on one bicep and clouds on the other, an outstretched raptor claw on his back, fins on his feet and, most visible, some celestial bodies on his face and neck.

Personality

Adalmar is a serious dwarf, not prone to laughter.
He is not shy in the least, and he likes company - but he himself is hardly companionable for, while he is a great listener, he talks little - and does not, for the life of him, know how to engage in small talk.

He is reliable to a fault, and will see things through to the best of his ability, even if it may take years. He is the kind of person that will remember you forever, and "repay" you, if you do him the smallest of kindnesses.

He hates and is afraid of fire in all of its shapes - even a little cooking fire will have him keep his distances.
He is otherwise scared of very little; this is not quite bravery, but rather that he feels he has very little left to lose.

Backstory

Beginnings

Kazonn, Adalmar's birthplace, was a troglodytic village carved into the cliffs of the island of Zidra, about a day's trip (20-30 miles) from the Rodanese enclave in Darsha. It housed a lively community of seacliff dwarves, who earned a living as fishermen or divers: the area is the main provider of the precious red pearls. These milky-red gems don't come from oysters at all, but are actually the "heart" of a little aquatic magical beast called dithus, whose only defenses were their camouflage abilities and a strong paralytic poison. Red pearls are used as jewelry mainly, but there is a legend that they can be used to power certain forbidden rituals.

Adalmar's youth was happy and carefree, with loving parents and a handful of siblings. He loved to dive, and carve driftwood; he learned to weave the local purple kelp into nets, to clean jellyfish to turn into nutritious paste. And he showed some affinity with spirits and the unseen world, so he apprenticed to a shaman, Merrow (that was her nickname, for she had been taught by seapeople).
She taught him to work wind and wave, to read the clouds and to take the spirits of animals onto himself.

Voyages

When he came into adulthood, the call of the unknown gripping his heart, he decided to go abroad. It was not unknown among seacliff dwarves, this sea madness, and though it was frowned upon, it was not forbidden: Adalmar was judged to be a serious young dwarf who would eventually return to serve his community.

In preparation for this, he had learned Rodanese - for his people traded with Guancho, the Imperial enclave, frequently. That definitely helped him get hired aboard a ship, as deckhand first. He took on short contracts, choosing the next one based on which island he wanted to visit next. He got to experience that the world was much bigger than Zidra, something he had been taught but couldn't quite fathom.

He spent much time in the Hebdiren archipelago at first, and then ventured beyond. His skills grew, and he was to apply to for other positions such as lookout, or minor weatherworker.
He wised up to the greyness in the world too: greed, pettiness, unexpected kindness, absurd generosity, senseless violence.

He dabbled in magics that the pure-hearted shamans back home would have frowned upon, like shapeshifting into non-natural creatures. But he was careful not to lose himself.

When he came back to Kazonn, years later, he was changed, yet he found his place again among his people, serving as shaman. He had some long, happy years again, putting his heart and his hands to work at simple tasks.

This ended when Kazonn was destroyed.

The Last Dive

He had been diving deeper than ever, so deep that he had to shapeshift into aquatic creatures to withstand the pressure, and even then he had to be careful to make stops on his way down, and even more stops on the way back up: the dive lasted days, with him feeding, like a true beast, on raw fish caught in his jaws. When he emerged, he knew at once something was wrong: there were columns of dark smoke coming from the village, the air smelled of ash, and part of the cliff seemed to have melted, even.

All in the village had perished.

He spent some time organizing the survivors, the ones who had been away like him, sending them away to another dwarf community.

 

Then he cast out again into the world, only he knowing why or to where.

 

Faith

Adalmar worships an ideal, not a god.

He worships Nature first, but he is not a radical putting its supposed purity above everything else.
Indeed, he worships Knowledge second, for sentience is a treasure! Whatever depredations sentient beings cause, he won't reject them as a whole, because he won't reject himself.

...as you can probably tell, Adalmar likes to think, and talk, about religion, and theology, and philosophy. He has not formally studied any of the above, however, so he will get easily outmatched when debating with actual clerics.

Hooks

Contacts

• Merrow, Female Seacliff Dwarf [Skill]:
  his old mentor is still alive, but retired. She has for a while been living as a hermit some ways away from Kazonn, which is how she escaped the massacre.
  But in her very old age, more than 220 years, she has detached herself from the world; instead she remains deeply in touch with the spiritual world.
• Celia, Female Andaroni Human [Information]:
  his informant in the Andaroni navy. He has bribed her over the years... until she became a bit more than just an informant, though less than a friend.
  She has allowed him to (mostly) rule out a possible implication of the Andaroni navy in the burning of Kazonn.
• Ding (nickname), Male Rodanese Halfling [Influence]:
  Ding and Adalmar have known each other for a long time, and shared months aboard the same ships - Ding also likes to switch up contracts rather than stay forever with the same crew. He mostly works as a Quartermaster, and haggles with the best of them in each harbour.

Edited March 8 by namo (see edit history)

[namo]

ABILITY SCORES
 9  8 16 14 18 10  point buy 35
      18        8  racial bonuses
11 10 20 16 20 10  level increases
13          22     items

HIT POINTS
117 = 8 x 9 class + 5 x 9 Con

SKILL POINTS
162 = (10 x 8 + 7 x 4) classes (Ranger + MoMF) + 3 x 12 Int + 2 x 9 Lore

BAB
8 = 1 x 5 Ranger + 0.75 x 4 MoMF

BASE SAVES
all good saves throughout the levels => +6 / +6 / +6
(Ranger / MoMF have good Fort/Ref saves, Druid has good Will saves)

OOC notes

Character Points (19):

• 15 spent on 5th level spells
• 2 spent on improving the Point Buy
• 2 spent on feats

Edited March 1 by namo (see edit history)

[namo]

Reserved

[dalamb]

If this makes it to the application short list I might want a bit more of the mechanics information in the second post. But don't bother just yet. Other than that, is the application complete now? If so could you remove wip and add complete as a prefix?

 

[namo]

No, I'm not finished yet. I'm afraid the backstory is going to grow longer still. 😅

OK, as mentioned I keep breakdowns on the character sheet, but I'll copy-paste them here. edit: done!

Edited March 1 by namo (see edit history)

[namo]

Application complete.

The backstory is probably too wordy, and in need of editing/tightening, but most everything is there.

Edited March 8 by namo (see edit history)