Gri’Shak’s Story (by Taco Heuts)

Let me introduce you too my newest character who replaces Bak’Nor: Gri’Shak!

Since the time Mattie lost his character sheet new characters are rolled by distributing 24d6 over the six stats and keeping the best three. I started deviding to get a fighter but still put 4d6 on INT since I enjoyed playing a smart fighter with Bak’Nor. Then I started rolling with the DM and Joost as withnesses. I rolled the following stats:

STR:18/15
DEX:8
CON:18
INT:14
WIS:16
CHA:15

Amazing! You should’ve seen the look on the faces of Mark and Joost! I just rolled the highest ever of any character either of us had rolled for! This looked like a character you would roll ten minutes for in the CRPG Baldur’s Gate!

When I started on working on this character when DMark an Joost left, I just saw a Star Trek eppisode where they used a klingon weapon. It was a Bat’Leth, a weapon that looks like a banana from the side but which is very sharp and which can cut through opponents with ease. It would be pretty cool to use it in AD&D so I started putting stats on it, which I mailed to the DM. These are the stats we both agreed to:

Speed: 8
Type:S
Size:L
Wgt:7
Damage (S/M): 1d8+1
Damage (L): 1d10+1
Special: Block attempt with +1 bonus

It’s weaker than a longsword (when used two handed with two-handed specialisation) but it looks way much cooler, and Gri’Shak is one of the few that can use it. Then I started thinking about other weapons. I decided that, since his village was attacked by magic users, he would use special weapons that are very usefull against mages but still look cool. I decided to use darts (maybe not so cool but very fast and you’re able to disrupt spells), bolas (cool to throw and they can choke mages or capture them if they want to run) and chain (also a cool weapon and has some of the same advantages of the bola like choking, but is still useable as melee weapon).

Now for appearance. The other players normally roll for stuff like age height etc. but I like to keep it in hand. This is because by rolling the dice you can get absurd stuff like a human paladin who is 2.4m tall, weighs only 50kg. and has a strength of 18/56. Or stuff like that. I decieded to become 1.86m tall, weigh 90kg, have brown hair and green eyes. Since he is a pretty high level to start with (7), and the Lich started a few years before, he would be a little older than normal starting age. I decided 23. The alignment I took was CG, which I think is the least restrictive good alignment and I always play a little impulsive (like saying things like ‘Hé, eikel!’ which is dutch for ‘hey, shithead!’ (roughly translated) to an adult green dragon).

Next up: the NWP’s! The Bath’leth is a very uncommon weapon so I need to be able to repair it if it breaks and create new ones if I ever lost my first one. Weapon smithing it is! And while he is in the smithy let’s learn armoring! He acquired the Bath’leth in the house of his parents who claimed it was a family weapon. A family with an own weapon must be pretty wealthy so Gri’shak would have a good education. That, in combo with high INT and WIS, made me choose reading and writing. And because he is still young and hangs around in bars on his spare time, I took singing, so he could sing and make songs that everybody could sing along (I still have to make a song for him).

Languages…just common since in our world there are a lot of humans and the leves all speak common, so there is no need to take more languages.

Now for a history. The DM said to make something up, where I defeated one or two powerfull enemies in his campaign. Since the T-Rex defeated Bak’Nor in one attack, I decided it escaped the circus and we had to hunt it down and kill it (the DM okayed it). But this belongs in the later part of his history. Gri'shaks youth should be the start of his history. Gri'shak was the only child of Cro'Votch the blacksmith and his wife Chilandra. He had a pleasant childhood during which he heard tales about his great-grandfather Magistralis who came to this world as an adventurer from what he mysteriously called 'The Cage'. According to Gri'shaks father he was running from a powerfull organisation after he acquired a weapon from them, the familyweapon: the Bath'leth. A weapon he could wield with such skill that enemies fled after watching him displaying his mastery of the weapon. He also brought with him special techniques for forging weapons and a small amount of treasure of which he bought himself a weaponsmith and settled in the village. He married a woman and had a pleasant few years, raising his three kids and running his smith. The day that his firstborn son reached adulthood, tragedy struck. Out of nowhere came strangely armored figures who struck him down before he could react. His son grabbed the Bath'leth in anger and waved it menacingly at the armored figures hoping to get them away from his mortally wounded father. Much to his suprise the figures indeed fled away from the scene, but his fathers wounds were beyond healing. His son, went in pursuit of the armored men for revenge, but they were nowhere in sight. The only thing he found was a note stating:'the debt is paid'. The children then made a pact, stating that they would all learn how to use the weapon with great skill in the hope that someday they could get revenge for their murdered father. That day never came. They did teach their techniques to their own children, including Gri'shaks father Cro'votch, together with the tale of what happened, hoping that their children could extract revenge in their name. Some of the children became adventurers, but they al died before their time. Gri'shaks father was the onlyone who was left of the children when Gri'shak turned ten years old. His father began teaching him in the ways of the forge and a little of the fighting techniques he knew. He always hoped that Gri'shak would grow up without having to resort to violence, but he should be able to defend himself if it should occur.

In his youth Gri'shak loved to go to the bar and drink, sing and drink some more. He would occasionaly get in a barfight, the one form of fighting his father didn't disaprove of. In this particular bar it was customary that fight broke out, but these were always honest fight in which nobody got seriously hurt and al fighters had a drink together afterwards.

The Bath’leth was first used in mortal combat when the house got attacked by undead. They killed both parents before Gri'shak was able to kill the intruders. Then Gri’shak and some friends (a mage, a thief and a cleric) set out to find the cause of the undead infestation. It was then that Gri’Shak became an adventurer. This group found a temple of shadows, which they destroyed with the help of some elfs and a lot of holy water. This temple was desicrated by the Lich in an effort to open a doorway to the demi-plane of shadows. This group stopped adventuring when the Lich died, and where about the same level as the invincibles. They returned to their village and set up for a peacefull life. But at the time the castle became under siege, a couple of stray mages from the army attacked the village and the group had to re-unite to fight them off. At the battle that followed the mage and thief died and the cleric and Gri’Shak led the rest of the villagers into the woods where they would start guerilla actions against the mages. At this point Gri'shak decided he would stop trying to live of uncertain peace and start living a live where he could make a difference in the world, because it seemed that everytime you try to settle down something bad happens to the people you love.

When they heard the news of the siege they decided that Gri’Shak would investigate and see if that party could help them against the mages. Then the mages just left but Gri’Shak was still went to find out if the people in the castle where a threat or not. An ambassedor from the castle came earlier, looking for a weaponsmith and armorer to work at the castle. This was a good cover and Gri’Shak and others went with the ambassedor. On route they where attacked by Ogres, Gri’Shak held them of, while the rest ran into a small cave. The ambassedor and another escaped to the castle to get help. Gri’Shak decided to stay and protect the people. This was also an chance to check out how the people from the castle would deal with this kind of situations. The only one from the castle that came was the cleric Questor who used a well placed Flamestrike to kill all the Ogres. Questor claimed to be a priest ‘of the rising sun’. A wierd fellow, but a pretty good aim. At the castle Gri’Shak met with Gramber (who was still recovering from the Wish), Aremus (a human ranger and a nice guy) and Florgan (a wierd little elven cleric who calls herself ‘Lord of the ladies’). He now has clear oppinions about all the party members and has taken over the role off Bak’Nor as the man who runs the castle.

Update:

After the last adventures, during which he fought against overwhelming odds and losing contiousness several times (including dying ones, but because he wears a amulet of lifeprotection, he never knew about this), he became a bit more carefull. He doesn't want to put himself in mortal danger the way he did before, but still wants to keep an active role as an adventurer, lord of Bak'nors Rock and protector of the helpless. Because of this he will now retreat from battle sooner, plan more ahead, expect more from his fellow adventurers and just be more carefull in combat. He is now working on improving the infrastructure of Bak'Nors Rock, trying to create a vast buisness empire, that he can use to unite all the cities under one flag. His dream of one kingdom under his rule is slowly taking form, but will probably take several years to complete. He is also starting to think about starting a family, but seeing as his obligations as a powerfull adventurer and ruler of the immediate area are now greater then ever this will have to wait until the appropiat time.