Dalin of the White Bear (WIP)

[ariel]

Basic Info

Name: Dalin Ghillison

Race: Dwarf (hill)

Class: BarbarianArmor: Light armor, medium armor, shields

Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons

Tools: None

Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution

Skills: Athletics, Nature

Path of the Totem Warrior (the Bear):

* Can cast the beast sense and speak with animals spells ritually (only)
* While raging, you have resistance to all damage except psychic damage. The spirit of the bear makes you tough enough to stand up to any punishment., but not by choice

Alignment: Chaotic good

Religion: Teekond

Background: CaravaneerWith the industrial advances of rail and steamboat, a life working the caravans must push further and further into the edges of civilization. As such, those who work it must have courage and be able to tolerate and thrive in conditions many city-dwellers would find intolerable.

Skills: Animal Handling, Survival

Tools: Carpenter's Tools

Language: ?

Equipment: A staff, a hunting trap, a trophy from an animal you killed, a set of traveler's clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp

Feature: You have an excellent memory for maps and geography, and you can always recall the general layout of terrain, settlements, and other features around you. In addition, you can find food and fresh water for yourself and up to five other people each day, provided that the land offers berries, small game, water, and so forth. (custom, modified Outlander)

 

Description

Except for her dramatic white hair, Dalin looks like a typical hill dwarf. She is short, broad, has swarthy well-tanned skin and hazel eyes. Her smile is lop-sided, but easy, broad and generous. She will laugh at any joke as long as its not cruel.

Typically, she dresses for comfort, never wanting what she's wearing to stop her from trying something. However, she will, on occasion, have fun with her appearance, creating intricate braids with feathers or swapping a typical clan piercing with a carved bone or beautiful spiralling glass.

 

Personality

Fundamentally, Dalin is a social creature. She doesn't like to be alone and desires relationships she can nuture and be nutured by. She loves meeting new people and trying to find common ground upon which they can form some kind of bond. She may be clumsy in her attempts, but she is good-natured, trusting and will endure much before abandoning an effort to befriend someone.

She loves fresh air, trees, distant mountains and horizons that beckon. She wants what is new and is curious, sometimes beyond what is reasonable. If she's never done it before, she will try it, twice.

Dalin is also appreciative of the small things in the life, particularly when the big things seem too heavy a burden. A good meal, an excellent ale, a beautiful sunrise... this is the stuff of today. Tomorrow... can wait.

 

History

A year ago, Dalin had been hired to take merchant goods north-west, to a remote dwarven settlement in the Uplands. It was a long trip, but she had no qualms. If she could have afforded it, she would have done it for free.

She's not sure what happened during the trip. Her memories are like an unfortunately patched quilt, with the edges frayed and whole sections resewn with what seems like plausible colours and textures. It hangs together, but it doesn't all make sense.

She remembers setting up camp, just off the main trail. It was warm, clear and she laid her bedroll on top of the boxed wagon goods. Better to see the stars, she thought.

Then, her memories skip to being dragged into the trees. The sweet smell of pine enveloped her senses and somehow brought focus to the sharp stabbing pain in her shoulder. White fur, teeth, hot rank breath. She lost consciousness.

Silence. Her eyes slid open to see that the moon had risen. She was on the ground, lying in a warm pool of blood, her own. She was tired and decided to give in to the fatigue. Her last thought was to her best friend, Bradran and their plan to work the barges next summer. It was to be her first time seeing the Glammer Sea. 

The next she remembers is the sound of a woodpecker. Strange. Didn't I die? Curiosity prompted her to open her eyes and see the small family of native humans bending over her. A little girl of rosy cheeks was smiling. Dalin tried to smile back. Maybe I will see the sea.

She stayed with this family of the lower Uplands for one month and a day, healing. As it turned out, that was one day too long. When the fever came, a burning cold sensation was born in her throat and travelled out to her limbs. A painful flood of adrenaline rocked her to the core and she lashed out against it. The child, the girl... she shouldn't have been standing there. The sickly thud of her small body on the wall was the worst sound Dalin has ever heard. No, no, no!

Dalin ran from the home, she ran as long and as far as she could, collapsing in the heap, exhausted. She willed the ground to swallow her whole. And, she probably should have died. But luck was with her again and a caravan returning south found her. They gathered her up into the wagon and she awoke days later, hardly believing that any of it had transpired.

She wouldn't have believed it except for two things... there was a healing wound on her shoulder, the bite of a great bear, and her brown hair was now stark white.

 

Recent Days

When Dalin came back from the hills, she did what she always does when things get heavy... she concentrated on simple things. The sun still shone. The breeze was still cool. Bradran was still her best friend and they could still make plans for future adventures. What of the family? The smiling girl? Dalin simply couldn't face going back to find out if she'd really killed the child. She certainly did not want to face the parents if she had. She absolved herself with that thought that she would pay it forward. Someday, somehow, she would save a child. If the opportunity presented itself, she wouldn't hesitate.

However, she had two of her own problems to face.

The first problem was the burning cold rage that still lingered in her chest. She'd tried to ignore it, but when she did for too long, it would come out unbidden. Her hazel eyes would turn ebony and she found herself drowning in a rush of adrenaline. She would have arguments she didn't want, or scare her favoured pets or simply break whatever she was holding. To deal with it, she would try to use the energy, focus it on a task, but it was an imperfect application. Dalin doesn't understand the blessing or curse the white bear has given her.

The second problem was that she was now in horrible debt. She'd lost a whole wagon load of goods and the merchant, Master Goffard of Hethton, wanted reparations. She travelled to Hethton and never even asked why he wanted her to answer the call of the mage to find his missing amulet. She agreed immediately - it was a distraction from everything else and besides that... it sounded easy?

 

Build thoughts

Str: 11 Dex: 8 Con: 20 Int: 9 Wis: 14 Chr: 14 => her con was "normal" until the bite.

Racial (hill dwarf) traits:
* Con +2, Wis +1
* Darkvision
* Poison - advantage
* Tools: Brewer's kit => she's a bit of a gourmand, likes to eat and drink... but wants "the good stuff", plans to sell her own stout someday.
* Stonecunning
* Languages: Common, Dwarvish
* Hit point maximum +1 per level

Barbarian traits:
* 1: Rage, Unarmored Defense
* 2: Reckless Attack, Danger Sense
* 3: Primal Path (Totem Warrior: Bear)
      * beast sense & speak with animals
      * resistance to all damage except psychic damage when raging
* Light armor, medium armor, shields
* Simple weapons, martial weapons
* Skills: Atheltics & Nature

Background traits (caravans):
* Skills: Animal Handling, Survival
* Tools: Carpenter's => wagon 
* Language: Native human (TBD - do they have their own language?)
* Feature: You have an excellent memory for maps and geography, and you can always recall the general layout of terrain, settlements, and other features around you. In addition, you can find food and fresh water for yourself and up to five other people each day, provided that the land offers berries, small game, water, and so forth.

A pet:

* I think it would be nice for her to have a pet... nothing fancy. A pet mouse? She finds taking care of animals and communing with them tends to keep her calm.

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by ariel (see edit history)

[ariel]

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Dalin 

AC: 14 / 16 (with shield) | HP: 58/58 | Rages: 3/3  | Passive Perception: 12 

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Text goes here. "Speech like this." Thoughts like this.

 

 

 

 

OOCAny notes go here.

 

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by ariel (see edit history)

[Whitleyrr]

I think a pet is highly appropriate for Dalin!