Character Sheet
The Mysterious Orphan

Name: Lotte, daughter of Henrik and Anelie
Sexuality: Pansexual
Age: 18
Species: Lamia, Central Lands Human Culture
Level: 3
Class: Hunter
Weapons: Bow, Knife

XP: 2/18

Description: A tall lamia, with short blond hair, and blue eyes, dressed in a protective vest and a noble's hunting shirt. They are muscular, well-formed and handsome, and have slightly yellowish eyes and a forked tongue. Their snake-half is in a forest pattern that helps for blending in, except for the occasional splash of Tyrian purple.

Traits:

Just Devotions (Racial--Human, Central, Cultural)(Level 0): Humans in some parts of the world worship the Gods, vast and sometimes unknowable beings that do grant blessings to those that believe in them, magical blessings. But even the lowliest of the pious knows how to pray to them, how to do the right supplications, how to act in the proper ways. This knowledge can sometimes be put to good use, though the Gods rarely turn their eyes to every little prayer.

Wholesome Farm Looks (Human, Central, Physical, Level 1): Though most of the people of the Central lands, that mass of Kingdoms, Princedoms, Dukedoms, Duchess States, and more, are of course quite poor, they are a hardy, hard-working people, and sometimes this life less beats a person down and more hones them. They have reasonably good looks, and even more importantly, look trustworthy, clean-cut, and otherwise like the kind of person who'd never lied a day in their life or slacked off a single hour, either. This remains even after becoming a lamia, though it is... tempered, obviously.

Snake Eyes (Level 1, Physical, Lamia): You can see in the dark pretty well. It isn't perfect, but the night is not nearly so dark and full of dangers as you expected it would be, for whatever reason.


Forest Wanderer (0, Pre-Class): The forest is a fascinating place for a child, as long as they don't go too far. As one gets used to it, one learns more about its ins and outs, and while some of it only applies to the forest that such a child lived in at first, much of it is quite helpful later.

Forest Eyes (Level 1. Class): As one could have eyes that pick out every tiny detail of the tundra, so can one be used to seeing in the dark forest tracks, possibilities, old growth, traps, and anything else, especially when one knows how to use your ears and nose to aid it. It is remarkable how much you can see, when you see what is actually there.

Hunter's Mettle (Level 1, Class): To hunt, one needs a bow, an arrow, and perhaps a knife for self-defense. Having some skill at them is inevitable, having solid skill at them is admirable, and quite useful.

Steady Arm (Level 2, Class): You have a strong, consistent aim. You're not a superlative archer, at least by the standards of adventurers, but you don't have off moments, and you don't waver from being able to hit your target, even if you're not doing the fancier tricks.

Leave Few Traces (Level 2, Class): The experience of being on one side of the hunt makes you wonder how you'd hide your tracks if you were being hunted, or tracked by hostile enemies, as sometimes does happen in adventures. You've begun to practice how not to be followed in the woods, and perhaps elsewhere.


Mending Knowledge, Basic (Level 0, Pre-Class, Healing Priest): You know how to apply poultrices, and you know the basic ingredients of a number of potions that cure headaches, deal with common pains, put someone into a gentle sleep, and other minor things. You can also bandage someone properly. You are not very good at this, merely adequate... but that's more than what most people are.


Whitlin' Ways (Level 1, Common): A man or woman who knows how to whittle will never want for whistles, or spoons, or any number of goods. It's a useful, solid sort of skill, and one that could be made into a trade. It also makes a pretty decent way to pass the time, and the person who whittles never lacks for a knife in sticky situations.

Penny Pincher (Level 1, General): You know the value of a Pfin, and how to keep from wasting all of your money, even if you're far from a merchant. Money is something you're familiar with.

Steel Nerves (General, Level 3): You've seen enough strange places and done enough fantastic things that you are less likely to panic in terrible situations, and more likely to think things through, however difficult. This doesn't mean you can't panic at all, but you have a grip on those nerves. In battle and danger only, this unfortunately doesn't help at all with social anxiety.


Divine Sense (Level 0, Divine): You can sense when someone is a Demigod, and there's at least the potential ability--though you have not figured it out yet--to try to track people through their divine 'scent.' A person's 'scent' gets stronger as they get more magically and divinely powerful... but on the other hand, you now have a 'scent' of your own, that will allow other demigods to know you for what you are, increasingly as you grow more powerful yourself.

Captivating Eyes (Level 2, Divine): You can sometimes 'catch' people with your eyes. If you're concentrating, they'll find it slightly more difficult to look away, though any sense of threat or danger breaks it immediately, and they'll hear your words clearly, actually listening… or at least hearing them. There's no requirement to listen to them, nor does it seem as if anyone's mind is being altered in any way, but it's an interesting, if bizarre, power, and certainly is a new take on 'lost in their eyes.'

Slithering Shadows (Level 3, Divine): You can blend into the shadows better than you should be able to. At night, and in darker areas, you can seem to shift away from sight. It doesn't work well in a wide-open space, but that little bit of extra secrecy can be very useful as a hunter, and as someone who might need to sneak through various areas.
 
Last edited:
Dog can be a good lookout - as in, if we pick a dog there is less value in Light Sleeper, and vice versa.

Not sure about anything else though.
 
Lotte didn't know what to say. He thought Ingeld-Guilliam meant it, but that didn't mean all that much. She'd been told "I love you" before by people who meant it and then later blamed her for things she could not control.

Is it about gender confusion, or just a typo? Since all the times after that Lotte still refers to themselves as "she".
 
So, of all the options available, these are the ones I like best:
Light Sleeper (General, Level 1)
Killer Instinct (General, Level 2)
The Glance Of The Nachtmater (Level 2, Human-Central Lands, Cultural)

Steady Arm (Level 2)
Tracker's Ways (Level 2)
Leave Few Traces (Level 2)

Now, I assume that most of these will remain available for later levels, so I'm not *too* worried about them disappearing, but, like usual, I wish that I could just choose all the options I like instead of settling for a couple.

That said, I think that our most immediate concern- given how we've been playing so far- is going to be to improve our ability as a tracker. Additionally, if any of these options goes away, I suspect it will be The Glance of the Nachtmater. So, that's my vote:

[X] The Glance Of The Nachtmater
[X] Tracker's Ways
 
[X] Steady Arm
[X] Light Sleeper

Steady arm because aiming well and not killing people is what Lotte wants,
Light Sleeper because Lotte as an adventurer will always travel in dangerous conditions, he needs to always be on top of his game when he awakes. I don't like Penny Wise right now because it's not our priority: the priority is to get into shape and not be killed like a large part of newbie adventurers. Coin is nice but Lotte can always hunt and find food in the wild, plus he just got paid. Coin will be needed when things will become a bit more serious.

Edit: So to summarize, right now our objective is to survive our newbiness by not getting killed. So our first traits should be focused on that. We can always take the less danger relevant skills a bit later.
 
Last edited:
[X] Light Sleeper
[X] Steady Arm


I find The Glance Of The Nachtmater interesting but because we wouldn't know it immediate benefit, I think Light Sleeper would be more useful at the current level. Also, like Way With Animals and beast companion but I think Steady Arm is more important too (as to not accidentally kill people by misfire).

Edit: But wouldn't It's be more thematic if Lotte got The Glance Of The Nachtmater after meeting them? Umm, really hard decision (for me lol).
Edit2: Okay, who am I kidding? I want to go for the thematic option so...

[X] The Glance Of The Nachtmater
[X] Steady Arm
 
Last edited:
Its a good update but:
Guilliam was a Troubadour, and Ingeld was powerful in the way martyrs were. So Lotte backed up, grabbing an arrow, pulling back, and loosing it as one of the adventurers began marching towards them. He had a helmet on, and a rough, scarred face, and was wielding a spear like he knew how to use it.

She shot him in the knee, which was padded but not quite as padded as the rest, and he stumbled, roughly shoved aside by a woman in a dark cloak, whose hands were glowing with some magic or another.
Lotte almost missed the next two men to come up, one of them preparing to throw an axe. Lotte decided to deal with him first, and her arrow missed his upper leg and buried itself just below his knee.
All I could think of is that these guys are bound to be guards.
#SkyrimMemes


[X] Penny Wise
[X] Faithful Companion

I want a pupper
 
I really liked the way Lotte pushed back on Ingveld for the troubadour's sake, it was well done and very character-affirming. Thanks for the update!

[X] The Glance Of The Nachtmater
[X] Steady Arm
 
I'm wondering what tangible benefit Penny-Pinching offers, given IIRC we don't really like... have mechanics for money in this quest?

Like, what difference exists between having the Penny Pincher trait and stretching our money (which we never see or control directly) out, or not having the trait and... also never seeing or controlling our money directly?
 
Like, what difference exists between having the Penny Pincher trait and stretching our money (which we never see or control directly) out, or not having the trait and... also never seeing or controlling our money directly?

Narratively, Lotte will get taken advantage of less when buying goods or inns and might end up with more supplies on trips?

Anything you pick we'll try and find a way to have it matter in the story. But you're right that we probably won't be going through and adjusting prices or something.
 
Interesting!, So, people definitely want Lotte to have more ranger skills, but the choice between religion and money is a bit tighter.

As it ever is, I suppose. :p
Adhoc vote count started by NemoMarx on Oct 1, 2019 at 11:39 PM, finished with 17 posts and 11 votes.
 
3:1
3:1

Lotte had wanted peace and quiet. Her previous two adventures, and the past few weeks, had been traumatic, exhausting, and though she didn't wish to be greedy, rather unprofitable. She hadn't ventured forth to gain a fortune and retire in a year, but the stories had always had their adventurers turn out better than when they'd started. Usually, at least.

Lotte was heartsick and exhausted, and she didn't want to kill again, not yet. Not while she still dreamed of it.

At least she got peace.

Lotte took on a few simple merchant escort jobs, and not once during them was there any attack. She wasn't even going long distance, instead escorting town by town, job by job. It wasn't glorious work, but it gave her coin, and she kept that coin close to her, despite all of the attempts of the world at large.

She thought that there were heretics who didn't believe in anything at all who would still be ashamed to act the way some of the people she met did towards adventurers. If she sat down at a bar, the tavern keeper doubled the price of the drinks because she was an adventurer, and surely that meant she had a dragon's treasure-hoard hidden away and a deep desire to burn through it. So you learned to notice two things, first what taverns generally charged, and then what you heard them charge others. Lotte would then stride forward, put the proper amount of coin down, and if the tavern keeper tried to lie about the prices, she'd just stare at him until she either got bored and left, taking her coin with her, or he learned some manners.

It was a frustrating process, and of course there were a thousand snares for an adventurer. She resisted the temptation to buy new clothes. Some of that temptation was rather weak, such as when a merchant had pointed out that for formal presentations in the future, if she ever guarded nobility, a dress might be useful. It hadn't been hard to convince herself not to waste that money. It was harder to keep from spending a little extra for the nicer meals at the taverns. It was harder not to be taken in by promises of arrows made with a wood somehow superior to those she already had. Surely the adventurer--the blacksmith had said--would like some armor, or a better knife than the cheap whittling one she'd had to purchase?

She did, but she also knew she was too poor to afford any of that. So instead she saved her coin, carefully building up her emergency funds. If they grew large enough, she could take them to a city, and go into a bank. She knew of banks, in a vague way, that they took the coin adventurers had and then sent word to other banks so that they could withdraw their earnings later. They figured in some of the newer stories, in which peasant heroes won fortunes by their bravery and stored them in banks for their family after their tragic and heroic deaths. Certainly, it was better than carrying all of their wealth with them.

She was thinking a lot about money, especially since she was around so much of it. None of the merchants were all that rich, or they'd have hired more than just a few ex town-guards and Lotte, but by the standards of the village Lotte had come from, each was exceptional. She did nothing more than scouting ahead at times, sitting in a cart with her bow at her knees at other points. It wasn't hard, but she was good at it, had a keen eye for danger, and the closest she'd gotten to a conflict had been when she'd spotted a rained out path up ahead and had advised going around the hill, even if it was the long way around.

What all of that travel time had given her was a chance to train her aim. She hadn't ever consistently practiced her shots the way she did in the weeks after the Ingeld-Guilliam affair, as she thought of it. She needed not only to hit her target, but hit her target well every single time. Obviously, in a fight the target would be moving and she'd have no time to aim, but it began with a steady arm and a calm heart.

She also had a chance to see more varieties of birds than she'd known had existed. It was relaxing, to train, to scout nearby forests, to fall into the rhythm of a life lived not by farmyard chores, but by her duties. She'd continued south until she'd reached the Vaspel Mountains, and then gone west from there, looping around, eventually, to perhaps return home in a few months, or a year, to give her family some of what she'd earned.

She did want to one day visit one of the Sepult mountains, to see their cities, and she wanted to see crowded, bustling cities in general. She wanted to gaze upon the ocean, and imagine what lay beyond. She wanted so badly to see the world, but she also knew that she had years to see it, and that even more than that, she wasn't ready for it. There were not strong Kingdoms and weak ones, but there were also familiar and unfamiliar ones. If she was injured, if she died, she could probably trust someone to bring the word back to her family around this region.

Beyond that?

She'd have to hope.

So she walked through the woods, enjoyed the breeze, and the sights and sounds, kept away from the gambling and the hard drinking and the prostitution, and found herself remarkably happy. Every so often she'd go have a beer or two with some of the workers and guards of the relatively small merchant caravans, but she'd never feel more than a little light-headed, and despite their flirty behavior, she'd just wave them off.

She felt at one with her body, and yet a little detached, and not even the onrushing coming of her monthlies could dampen her good mood. She didn't strain her body any more than usual, but everything felt a little better. Other than the unfortunate merchant who suggested the dress, quite politely, few people paid attention to her sex as opposed to her status as a hunter, archer, and guide willing to work for cheap enough and do well enough.

She slept well, though she had strange dreams she could almost remember, and she ate better than she had in some time, since she also hunted for the merchant parties, to help fill out their diets. The caravans were small, a few carts at most, and so it wasn't hard to feed everyone well.

Of course, she knows that many of the nobles are jealous of their hunting grounds, but it hadn't been a problem for her. She'd just acted as the merchants had said she could, and left the laws for people fancier than she was.

She learned plenty, of course. One of the merchants was a thin, straw-haired woman who seemed to divide up her goods the way a good butcher divided up a deer. Lotte, who had seen many of them work before, liked to take on the task herself, despite her lack of expertise in some of the particulars. But one started with the loins, the choicest parts, and made sure to use everything, saving the brains for just the right moment, since they, along with other parts, could make for delicate eating. You also wanted to get everything, because even the gristle could be ground up and given to dogs, and so could the bones of the deer. You wasted nothing, but you did not throw tenderloin before swines. It was just common sense.

Similarly, Merri had all the right goods for all the right places. She didn't sell wool in the high hill villages where sheep roamed, and she didn't sell metal goods down in the valleys where the blacksmiths had no trouble providing for everyone. Instead she set aside the choicest delicacies, like the brains of a deer, for those most inclined to appreciate them. Lotte watched her dicker with a noble for nearly an hour about an old Sepult magical artifact, which did very little but was a symbol of power and wealth. Meanwhile she passed off to the poor families cloth to make their clothes, and to everyone little treats, bits and bobs of candy, honey, and other things not easily gotten.

And to most everyone? What they needed, always what they needed, until at last there was nothing left to her caravans but quite a few coins, and goods to trade further down the line. By the time Lotte parted with her, she had made a fortune that it would take Lotte years to match unless she became famous.

It impressed Lotte, for all that she could never have done anything like it. Even the bones would be sold off eventually, and Merri had asked if she wanted to keep on going south, down to the cities there. She was going to sell off the carts, and everything else, and find a blushing husband to marry her that she might--she hoped, eyes shining with something between avarice and lust--start a sort of mercantile dynasty, over time.

Lotte had left anyways, and continued her slow, careful circuit. Perhaps in some other life what had happened didn't. Perhaps she continued around and around until she stumbled into danger and faced it or died.

There were a lot of things that might have happened. But they didn't. Instead, she had weeks of relative peace, comparative prosperity, and occasional bad dreams.

Now, things didn't go wrong. Actually, what changed the trend was her time in a small town called Mares' Hollow, where her good luck had finally gotten stuck in the mud. The merchant was frustrated, the wagon had tipped over trying to dig it out, and now they were in no position to continue hiring an adventurer as a guard.

This left Lotte to drink in the small not-quite-tavern. The ale-wif lived in the back of it, and it was really just a place to drink. There was nothing much to recommend it, but the ale (not beer) was cheap, and Lotte had drunk two glasses of it. The woman didn't seem to have a head for cheating Lotte, and so she stood and downed the second ale, slowly at first, and then quicker as she felt the liquid courage pool in her stomach. She looked around at the rowdy group of men and women, and for the first time in weeks allowed her eyes to roam.

She wasn't going to do anything about it, but she felt as light as if she were about to start dancing, and she wanted to sing but didn't know what to sing… maybe she should get a third drink?

But her eyes roamed over bared calves and strong chins, short-haired women and long-haired men, bodies in motion, bodies sweating, bodies pressed together. She spent so long looking that she instantly noticed when new people entered the already overcrowded room.

The room itself had a dirt floor, and boots trod over straw. Three sets of boots, one soft-soled shoe. The person in the lead was a woman who looked like she was a noble. Everyone stopped to look at her, to look at the dashing cut of her cloak and the silken nature of her hose, all of the cuts remarkably masculine, her dark hair just long enough to look glossy, her face thin and sharp.

Shoving past her was a short, muscular looking blond man dressed like an adventurer from a story, in leathers and with a ragged cloak. Behind them came two people who were unmistakably adventurers, a thin elf just behind the noble-looking woman, and a short woman still in mail, helm under her arm.

"Can we find Lotte the… Lanky, was it, here?" the elf asked, peering around as if someone was just going to jump up. "We wish to talk with this bold adventurer."

"No, we wish to talk with the bold adventurer, Lotte, first," the blond man said. "We entered this alehouse first."

"This… fine establishment doesn't matter," the noble looking woman argued. "What matters was that I got to town first, and thus it is my honor to speak with her first."

If they had come in and demanded Lotte's head for some unpunished poaching violation Lotte hadn't known she'd made, Lotte would have been less surprised. The...honor? What honor was that? She certainly felt like perhaps she should have had her bow along, or not have drank down a little too much ale. Lotte stepped forward, "I'm Lotte."

"Are you?" the elf asked, leaning closer. "Prove it."

"How?" Lotte asked, a little baffled.

"She does seem to have a noble countenance. In fact, she looks quite handsome," the noble woman said, looking her up and down.

"I don't know, but she does seem like the song described," the man, clearly her rival in some respect, said. "But I suppose if she truly wants to demonstrate her prowess for us… it'd be good for her business, eh?"

"You wish to hire me?" Lotte asked.

"Exactly," the noble woman said, stepping forward. "I am Naja von Siebert, gentlewoman scholar and explorer of ancient ruins."

"I am Karle, actual scholar and explorer," he said, with a tight smile, his voice as rough as stone. "This is an adventurer I hired, the honorable warrior Pippa."

By now they had a very large audience. Everyone was watching and listening, and Lotte, nervously suggested, "We should talk outside."

******

"What is this about?" Lotte asked, staring at the group of them. It wasn't night yet, and they weren't that far from the small house she was staying at, where her bow was kept.

"We heard your song! Well, not yours, but you were in it. You are Lotte, aren't you?" Naja asked. "'Lotte the lanky, kind and humble/ skilled hunter of the forest?' friends with 'Clemencia the Sepult, ancestor-famed/ clever and wise advisor and warrior' and comrades with 'Oscar, the virtuous Knight/ Who fought with holy skill?' and 'Guilliam the cunning, sly-tongued troubadour/ Who became one with Ingeld'?"

Lotte stared, and then stared some more. "...Yes? What is…"

"You have a song," Karle repeated. "About an event a few weeks ago. It's spreading quite far and wide, in light of all that has happened."

Lotte didn't know what that was, in fact she'd almost gone out of her way not to hear gossip, and to keep ahead of rumors. "What happened?"

"The family has been slain, except for one of their daughters, seventeen winters of age, who has fled. She is being hunted, the last of them. Or so I've heard," Naja said. "My brother--"

"Is a fool and has always been a fool," Karle said.

Oh. So this hatred between them was personal, if they knew each other that well and felt as they did.

"But they've found proof, or so the word was, that the family was as Ingeld claimed!" Naja said. "Back to business, I discovered--"

"I did, Naja, I did," Karle insisted.

"I was the one to open the book first," Naja said.

"I read the page first," Karle said. "She's a dilettante, who simply wants to mimic my profession."

"And he's a crude thinker," Naja said, with a disappointed shake of her head. "It's often been so."

"Sir, ma'am, I am…" Lotte hesitated. "I am not here to… to be a judge in your disagreements. I am sorry to be so rude as to say so, L-lady Siebert, goodman Karle. But--"

"Right, yes," Karle said. "Whichever one of us named Karle that was the first to find it, both of us know about a Sepult ruin that is in a forest--"

"Your forest!"

"No, it is nearby, but it is not the same one," Karle said. "The ruin must be opened by a sacrifice of hunted animals, and you know the region, at least in a general sense."

"If I'm being honest, as Karle isn't," Naja von Siebert conceded, "Your fame is also a factor, since we wish for this discovery to be known far and wide. Well, I wish it, and so does he, being who he is. But you can only select one of us!"

"Oh. You cannot work together?" Lotte asked, eyes wide.

"Never!" Karle said. "You should pick me."

"I'll give you this," Naja insisted, taking out a…

Lotte stared. It was not a huge coin, but it didn't have to be, because it was gold, and had what looked like a regal looking woman and scribbles on one side, and a dove on the other. "It is a coronation coin from Louisa VI, Queen of Galincia and it is worth plenty to you, or anyone at all."

"I'll match its value in white Pfins," Karle said, though he looked pained. "I'll also give you ten percent of any treasure we fine."

"I'll give you this one coin, and then another gold coin, though not of the same provenance!" Naja insisted. "I'm a noble, I can always win bidding wars, and you should choose to work with me. I cannot go without two guides, and--"

"Let the woman make her choice," Karle said.

"But, I'd be so helpless out there without her," Naja said, and her eyes were wide in a way that made Lotte blush.

"Oh, by the Gods," Karle muttered, looking at Naja incredulously. "You're really going to do this?"

"Do what?"

"Listen, Lotte. I think that my expedition will have the most chance of success. And I understand where you're coming from, you were born a peasant like I was, I know what kinds of expectations and hopes you might be having, and--"

"And by the Gods, what is this?" Naja asked. "You know that my father loved your father, and raised you as if you were his son."

"As if, she says," Karle said, with a sneer. "Another word for 'like'. If she gave you a coin that was 'like' gold, would it be so?"

"Uh, no," Lotte said, playing along.

Rather more gently he said, "No, and even the greatest alchemist couldn't make it into gold. I was never her father's son, Naja. Claiming I was is nonsense."

"Uhm," Lotte began.

"You're scaring the hunter who is, I remind you, a bizarrely young eighteen year old human, if she is truly who she says she is," the elf said. "She should have time to consider this, rather than be scared away by your arguments."

"I need to pray on the matter," Lotte said. "But I shall have an answer soon."

"Oh, of course," Karle said, quietly. "Take what time you need."

As sweet as honey, Naja echoed his sentiments.

Lotte left to walk, and think, and pray.

Who does Lotte go with/work for?

[ ] Karle.
[ ] Naja von Siebert
[ ] Both They refuse.
[ ] Neither Lotte would do a lot more for a single golden coin than this.

******

A/N: And so begins the third adventure!
 
Last edited:
[X] Naja von Siebert

I smell significant chances of miscommunication and class divides between Naja and Lotte, poorer grounding in actual academic study of the ruins, and all around general shenanigans. Let's do it!
 
[X] Karle

He isn't rich and seemingly about to make a discovery that will gain him some fame and success. Being one to help in his rise would be remembered, and maybe later, be a useful contact.

Also peasants stick together.
 
Back
Top