Kelasheway of Whiteriver Clan, Kagonesti Fighter/Barbarian

[BuyCrom]

Kelasheway of Whiteriver Clan

 

"The House Elves think they own everything. Shake hands with them, and they'll claim your fingers."   Gender: Male Race: Kagonesti Elf Alignment: Chaotic Good   Class: Fighter 6/Barbarian 4 Background: Outlander Passive Perception: 16 Passive Investigation: 12 Passive Insight: 16   HP:125 Hit Dice: 6d10, 4d12 AC: 17 Initiative: +4 Size: Medium Speed: 35 feet

 Abilities & Skills
Proficiency Bonus: +4

STR 19(13) (+4)	DEX 18 (+4)	CON 16 (+3)	INT 11 (+0)	WIS 14 (+2)	CHA 10 (+0)
+8 Saves	+4 Saves	+7 Saves	+0 Saves	+2 Saves	+0 Saves
+8 Athletics	+4 Acrobatics +4 Sleight of Hand +12 Stealth (e)		+0 Arcana +4 History +0 Investigation +4 Nature +0 Religion	+2 Animal Handling +6 Insight +2 Medicine +6 Perception +6 Survival	+0 Deception +0 Intimidation +0 Performance +0 Persuasion

 

Proficiencies	Languages	Class & Background Features	Race & Feats
All Simple and Martial Weapons All Armor and Shields Tinker's Tools Musical Instument - Ocarina	Common Elven - Kagonesti dialect Ergot	L4 Barbarian: Rage x3 (+2dmg), Unarmored Defense, Reckless Attack, Danger Sense, Primal Knowledge: Nature, ASI Primal Path: Totem Warrior Spirit Seeker – Beast Sense and Speak with Animals as rituals. Bear Spirit: Rage dmg resistance to all except psychic. L6 Fighter: Fighting Style: Archery, Second Wind, Action Surge, ASI, Extra Attack, ASI Archetype: Battlemaster Maneuvers: Trip Attack, Menacing Attack, Precise Attack Kagonesti Heritage: You have an excellent knowledge of not only your tribe's territory, but also the terrain and natural resources of the rest of Southern Ergoth. You are familiar enough with any wilderness area that you find twice as much food and water as you normally would when you forage there. Additionally, you can call upon the hospitality of your people, and those folk allied with your tribe, often including members of druid circles, and the priesthoods devoted to the gods of the First Circle.	Elf Weapon Training. You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow. Fleet of Foot. Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet. Mask of the Wild. You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena. Darkvision. Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray. Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep. Trance. Elves do not sleep. Instead they meditate deeply, remaining semi-conscious, for 4 hours a day. The Common word for this meditation is "trance." While meditating, you dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive after years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit a human would from 8 hours of sleep. Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill.   FEATS: Greatweapon Master Sharpshooter Skill Expert

 

 Attacks

Weapon	To Hit	Damage	Type/(Range)
Wildfire Longbow Handaxe Dagger	+8 +10 +8 +8	2d6 slashing +2d6 fire +4/6 1d8 piercing +4 1d6+4/6 1d4+4/6	melee 150/600 melee, thrown 20/60 melee thrown 20/60

 

 

 Money

 

Copper: 0 Silver: 0 Steel: 0 Platinum: 0

 

 Encumbrance

 

Weight: lbs. / lbs. max.
Status: Unencumbered
Penalty: None

 

 Equipment Readied

 

Equipped Items: (12.16 lbs.)
 

Armor	Weapons	Readied Items
	Wildfire(Flame tongue greatsword) Longbow Handaxe Daggersx2	Arrows, 20

 

 Equipment Stored

 

Stored Items: 

In Backpack	Strapped To Backpack
Explorer's Pack contents (a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin.)	50ft rope

 

 Magic Items

 

Magic Items: (0.0 lbs.)
 

Non-Attuned (0.0 lbs.)	Attuned 3/3 (0.0 lbs.)
	Boots of Springing and Striding, uncommon Wildfire (Flame Tongue Greatsword), rare Gauntlets of Ogre Power, uncommon

Background: Outlander

 

Personality Traits:

When I set my mind to something, I follow through no matter what gets in my way.

I won't pretend to give enemies courtesy, but other than that show me basic respect, you get basic respect. Anything more is earned by actions, not words.

Ideal: Nature – everything has its place in nature, to stray from it is to lose your soul.

Bond:

I will bring terrible wrath down on the invaders, drive them from our homeland and free my people.

My family before my clan, my clan before my people, my people before the world

Flaw: I am slow to trust outsiders.

 

Edited April 21 by BuyCrom (see edit history)

[BuyCrom]

Background

Listen and remember to a story of the Kagonesti, a story of Whiteriver clan. Listen and remember as the words pour in your ears to match the song in your heart. Listen and remember to the story of Kelasheway – A traditionally worded introduction to the song of Kelasheway Lancebearer, 112th warden of the sword Wildfire.
 

Kelasheway belongs to the founding family of Whiteriver clan, as most of the clan’s chiefs have been. His paternal grandfather was chief, but for most of his life Kelashway’s family has held a different honour – as his father bore the greatsword Wildfire. The Whiteriver clan have been the guardians of the magical blade since the Kinslayer wars, and it’s wielder was always the clan’s greatest warrior. Anyone in the clan could challenge the current warden for the right to wield Wildfire, but only once – the warden of Wildfire leads Whiteriver and allied clans in times of war, so they must not only be skilled warriors but have the wisdom to know when to strike most effectively. Future elders, when they tell they tale of this time, would say Wildfire was lost for two failures. The father’s failure was pride, when age slowed him and dulled his skills he did not pass the sword on. He refused to admit he was no longer the warrior he was, convinced his experience compensated for his age. Kelasheway’s failure was a son’s loyalty. As his father grew old, Kelasheway had distinguished himself as a great hunter and remarkable fighter. He knew, the future elders would say, he was likely the best warrior in the clan. But he also knew how much wielding Wildfire meant to his father, much more than it did for him. It was a peaceful time for the clan, and his father could still outfight most. So, what harm was there in keeping an old man, who had done so much for the clan, happy? When others seemed like they would challenge his father, Kelasheway would press them in trainings or premptively challenge them saying “I have never beaten my father in a challenge, so why waste your chance if you cannot beat me?” But as the seasons came and went, while Kelasheway delayed his challenge some began to notice he never trained or sparred with his father. Elders began to pressure him, but he always refused. “It is not my time, yet,” he'd say before briefly explaining a technique or weakness he was still working on.

Then, two years before the War of the Lance, “adventurers” from Ergoth raided the clan on their way to whatever they sought. Kelasheway was away as part of hunting party, but his father was killed in the fight and one of the raiders stole Wildfire.
Kelasheway was tasked with retrieving the artifact, and tracked the raider who stole it to Northern Ergoth. He learnt the raider had been killed in turn, by a cult dedicated to dark new gods. The elven warrior fell in with a group of people opposing the cult and its designs to take over the kingdom. Fighting the cult took them from the courts of Ergoth to the countryside, through the horrors of an ancient ruin and finally a dramatic showdown with an undead wizard with ambitions of ascending to true godhood. The cult defeated, and Wildfire retrieved, Kelasheway left his new friends to return home.
 

He arrived home to learn the Qualanesti and Silvanesti had been welcomed by his people as refugees, only to betray and enslave them, several months before. While the elders and chiefs of the remaining Kagonesti clans debated in hiding how best to respond, the charismatic Arranthis declared himself Pathfinder of the Free Kagonesti. The story goes he was one of the few to escape when the previous Pathfinder’s clan was destroyed and had been given care of the Ram’s Horn. The artifact is a symbol of the Kagonesti’s eternal bond of friendship with the silver dragons, and traditionally however holds it is the leader of the Kagonesti. But many elders didn’t accept Arranthis’s claim to it, considering him only a caregiver while they decided which elder would take up the responsibility.
It did however give Arranthis high-standing with many younger Kagonesti, especially since he was calling on all Kagonesti to fight the invaders. Kelasheway fell in with him, leading raids on the House Elves’ camps and the farms springing up around their new settlements, ambushing hunting parties, burning and stealing supplies.

His deeds earned him a place in Arranthis’ inner circle, even though he was not entirely comfortable with or well-suited for leadership. Stories began to spread about him, reaching even the enslaved Kagonesti. By the time their masters heard the tales and connected them to the reports of shocked surviors of Kelasheway’s raids, some details had grown garbled. Now, those Silvanesti and Qualanesti who have heard of him know him as The Wildfire - a vengeful and all-consuming spirit of the forest that appears from nowhere with an unearthy cry, taking the form of a giant elf wielding a flaming sword. So, most of them don’t believe he truly exists.

Secrets, shh

• While off adventuring on his quest to retrieve Wildfire, Kelashway fell in love with a Silvernesti woman named Aleaha who was part of his group. If other Kagonesti knew, it could undermine his standing.
• Something he doesn’t know is Arranthis Pathfinder, the leader he follows, does not possess the real Ram’s Horn. There is no true Pathfinder yet, the real Ram’s Horn is held by a Silvanesti noble who doesn’t really know its significance. They took it as a trophy after the last Pathfinder’s clan was killed or enslaved.

Goals

• : In character – Kelashway wants the Silvernesti and Qualinesti driven out, and the Kagonesti they’ve enslaved freed – particularly his daughter Hassana. (I’m thinking he could help make a deal with the Knights of Solamnia and their allies for the Kagonesti clans aid in the war in exchange for them helping the Kagonesti fully reclaim their homeland and people.)
• Player goal – Besides making at least a good start on the in-character goals, One thing I’d really, really like to do is to have Kelashway pull off an awesome and crazy stunt while fighting with a dragonlance and riding a dragon.
• Player goal 2 - If the opportunity comes up, I'd like to see Kelashway and his bitter enemy Valferan forced to work together by circumstance.

People

Hassana
Hassana is Kelashway's grown daughter, passing her adulthood rite 20-odd years ago, five years after her mother died of an illness that could easiy have been cured by druids Pre-Cataclysm. She married into another clan and wears their clan tattoos on her face and arms according to her in-laws' tradition. She was taken by the Qualinesti a month after they arrived. Hassana inherited her father's hunting skills, and a patient stubbornness from both parents. Among her own people she has a sharp tongue and a quick wit, and from an early age many expected her to eventually become a clan lorekeeper and storyteller. With outsiders, especially as a slave, she shows the stoicism that is a point of cultural pride to many Kagonesti. She keeps her mouth shut, and her eyes and ears open for opportunities.

 

Arranthis Pathfinder

Although he is short, even for a Kagonesti, Arranthis' silver hair and presence make him seem much taller. Approching middle age in his mid-300s, Arranthis was the apprentice of the previous Pathfinder. After his escape from the destruction of his clan, he spent several weeks hiding and wandering the forest in despair until he chanced upon a wild ram. While his heart burned for vengence, past experience with the Kagonesti elders told him they would be slow and cautious about committing to a real war. Seeing the ram, he Realized that although every Kagonesti knew the story and importance of the Great Ram's Horn, but few had ever seen it up close, and Arranthis saw his chance for vengence. He killed the ram and made a fake. Stirring the angry Kagonesti up with passionate speeches, and showing he was willing to share their risk. Arranthis often makes his points with nature metaphors, and emphatic gestures. Although he never shouts, his voice always carries an undercurrent of fierce and bitter anger.
 

Quen

Quen is a Qualinesti exile, his people would say he's gone native. Unable to stomach the "civilized" elves' treatment of their Kagonesti cousins, he freed as many "servants" as he could and fled into the forest with them. Kelasheway met him after he stormed away from a meeting of clan chiefs, frustrated they wouldn't listen to either his advocacy for making a definite peace with the other elven nations, his advice on how to fight them or offer to build them weaponry and defences . Kelasheway had left the meeting a little earlier and was sitting at a nearby fire when Quen came past kicking rocks and muttering about how stupid and stubborn the chiefs were. Kelasheway burst into laughter. He mocked the Qualinesti for thinking he would come save the poor noble savages, who would be so wowed by his advanced knowledge they'd follow him to freedom. They argued, and argued until Quen finally understood the Kagonesti society was every bit as sophisticated as his own, even if it was very different. Although he wasn't convinced by Kelasheway's claim their lorekeepers knew a lot of the engineering, building techniques "civilised" people did, the Kagonesti just chose not to use or widely spread the knowledge because they didn't usually need it. Quen decided if he wanted to be listened to he needed to earn standing in the Kagonesti's eyes - Kelasheway told him righting a small part of the wrong his people had done to them wasn't enough. He needed to do something to prove he was useful, and committed. Over the past six months they've become close friends, although they still argue and disagree more often than not.

 

Valfaren Selthil

Valfaren is a captain of House Protector, and carries himself with the haughty arrogance typical of the Silvanesti. A true believer in his people's superiority and duty to "educate" lesser peoples, he will make a show of trying to avoid violence. But is reluctant and slow to make more than minor concessions to anyone disagreeing or, worse, opposing the Silvanesti. He can be ruthless in carrying out his goals and orders, but he is never pointlessly cruel and is sometimes capable of surprising acts of kindness to those non-Silvanesti he doesn't consider a threat to his people. Valfaren's reputation as a skilled archer and hunter got him tasked with tracking down and killing the Kagonesti raiders who've made themselves such pests. He and Kelasheway have nearly killed each other several times now. Valfaren found the challenge of a worthy opponent a thrilling professional challenge at first. Then Kelasheway went and killed his second-in-command and friend of a couple of centuries, and it became very much a personal vendetta.

The Memory Hole

Kelasheway remembers when he was young, long before he earned his adult name, his grandmother took him to a part of the forest a wildfire had swept through awhile back. He asked the young elf what he saw, and the child answered destruction that everything was dead and gone.

The elder knelt and uncovered a small, newly sprouting sapling, and explained how wildfires cleared dead wood and old growth, they regenerate the soil and make new habitats for plants and animals to thrive. “Everything has a role to play in nature, destruction and creation, predator and prey, wind and fire,” he said. “There is balance to everything. When wolves are blessed with an overabundance of life, and their numbers grow too large, they eat all the prey around them. Then they starve and die in great numbers, and it is their prey’s turn to be blessed with an overabundance of life, as others of their kind spread into an area that is safe from predators – until there is enough of them for the wolf population to grow again.”

Off in the distance, beyond the bounds of the forest but visible through the gap the wildfire had made, a group of travelling humans crossed the horizon. The elder elf pointed to them.
“Some think human and other races just destroy nature, but nature is not only the forest. In their treeless lands and stone villages, they keep animals that would not survive in the same numbers without them. They create different habitats for different animals to thrive. And when the grow too many or spread too far, the balance tips against them. Because no matter what they, or others of our people think, they are part of nature too. They have their role.”

The young elf who would be Kelasheway asked, “But how do they know what to do? What do I do? I don’t even know our role” The elder smiled and tapped the youngster’s chest. “In here you do. You just don’t have the words for it up here,” she tweaked one of the youngsters' ears, provoking a giggle. “I must pour them into your empty young skull, as my elders once filled mine.”

 “Nature always finds its balance, but in the beginning, it was blind with each living thing acting out its role and reacting to those around them. But the shifts in the balance, back and forth, were often great, causing much suffering. This saddened the gods and spirits, so they decided to create the first people, Elves. They blessed us with the ability to think, to reason and plan. They gave us long lives so we may consider those plans and see them through. All to serve our role – to see a tipping in the balance coming, and to make small interventions, soon enough, that great death is not required to restore the balance.

That is why the Kagonesti live as part of the forest and leave no permanent mark, except the ones we make on ourselves to remind us of our duty and connection to nature. We play whatever role we must to maintain the balance of Nature. We are predator, and sometimes prey, sometimes we plant and others we uproot. And sometimes, although I hope you never live in such times, spirits help us, sometimes we must be the wildfire.”

Mannerisms and Quirks

• The angrier Kelashway gets, the closer he is to violence, the more he talks. Until it’s time to act and he suddenly falls silent. It’s a habit from when he was a nervous young warrior, that he’s never been able to shake – although at least now he manages not to keep blathering when he should be concentrating on fighting.
• Like many Kagonesti, Kelasheway often uses hand gestures from their hunter’s sign language for emphasis. Sometimes he will reflexively use a sign without speaking at all – eg. Holding a fist up and flexing it forward to mimic a nod instead of saying  something like yes, ok or I understand. Or tapping his chest instead of saying something like “follow me” or “I’ve got this.”
• Kelasheway, and all Whiteriver clan, never tattoo their faces with permanent markings. They remain clear faced day-to-day but use woad and paint to draw different patterns on their face according to the occasion – the patterns signal their intentions and disposition going into negotiations, while celebrating or mourning, and when going to war.
  These days, when Kelashway paints his face, it is usually with a thick slash of dark color across the eyes, with six streaks pulled down his cheeks by his fingers. A pattern for war without quarter – usually applied with the ritual phrase “While my cheeks are stained with the tears of my people, my hands will be stained with the blood of the enemy.”
• Kelasheway is very proud of his people and their ways. If someone talks up their culture or people, he will match them boast for boast, and if someone says something wrong or disrespectful about the Kagonesti he'd struggle not to correct them. As far as he is conserned Kagonesti loremasters know everything there is to know. Any marvel or benefit of engineering and civilization, no matter how novel or new, he will insist the Kagonesti totally know how to do it to - and probably thought of it first - they just choose not to use that knowledge because it isn't useful in their way of life.
   

Appearance

Kelasheway is big for a Kagonesti, just slightly below average height for a Silvanesti elf - although he is much stockier and his skin is a darker, bronze hue like weathered mahogany. He wears his hair in a thick tangle of braids, laced with silver and white thread and bound and decorated with beads and carved wood and bone cuffs. He typically wears an elaborately patterned dark-green leather vest over a sleevless fringed tunic and dark buckskin pants. Both arms are covered in intricate tribal tattoos; flowing geometric shapes representing rivers, leaves and trees with the occassional stylised animal pearing out from the ink-forest. On his torso there's a tattoo of tree, the line of the trunk starting at his navel and branches streading across his chest. A snarling bear perched among them.

Personality

Kelasheway was raised to believe the spirits speak to those who listen, he is always watching for omens in nature or unlikely occurrences. He factors any he happens to see into his thinking but doesn't wait for them or seek them out when he needs to make a decision. He considers that presumptuous, and for a similar reason he doesn't get praying. Spirits and gods know what is happening; if they want to aid you, they will, if they want you to know something they will tell you, if they don't they won't. So why risk annoying them by pestering them about it.
He's very straight-forward like that.
When he was younger, Kelasheway rarely rushed into anything, but these days there is a constant, simmering anger in him that drives him to action. He can still be patient, as long as he is certain it will advance his goals the urge to do something is sated. Otherwise, he distracts himself with music or small tasks and repairs that require focus. Until new people really earn his trust he generally remains fairly stoic. Although his journeys among the wider people of Krynn have taught him to loosen up a bit, and the mask slips occasionally letting out his dry, sometimes absurdist sense of humour.

 

Edited April 22 by BuyCrom (see edit history)

[BuyCrom]

 

Kelasheway of Whiteriver Clan

Fighter 6 Barbarian 4

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AC: 17 | HP: 125/125 | Maneuver DC: 16 | Passive Perception/Insight: 16/16
Superiority Dice: 4/4 | Rage 3/3

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"Speech should always be in quotes and in bold." Thoughts should be in italics

Mechanics Main Hand: Empty Off Hand: Empty Action: Your action goes here. Bonus Action: Your bonus action goes here. Move: Your movement goes here. Manipulate: Your one free object interaction goes here.