1. What’s your character’s name, race, and class?
Dyer’Mi Skaton (aka Dyer Blackscript), Eladrin, Star pack Warlock (may do the Binder Warlock variant from Heroes of Shadow)
(Note: I’m going for something of a Sherlock Holmes meets H.P. Lovecraft feel)
2. Where was your character born? Try to describe it: What kind of people lived there, how large was it, did it have a special purpose, etc.
Dyer was born in the Pylas Pryrial, The Gate of Joy, while the fayspire was still in the Feywild. While he was very young, his father, older brother, and Dyer left the City of Silver and Bone while when it appeared in Eberron due his father’s intellectual “disagreements” with the gnomes who share the spire. The three first tried to settle near the Library or Korranberg, but soon found themselves in continued conflict with the gnomes of Zilargo. They traveled to Morgrave University in Sharn, where Dyer’s father became a patron for various studies. Dyer grew up in Sharn, in the nice but Spartan flat within the Everbright magic district. It was a quiet, disciplined, and intellectual life, with Dyer taken up as an apprenticeship with a human professor when he came of age. Life was full of philosophical conjecture, books of religion and magic, and discussion of the great mysteries. This continued on, with Dyer studying religion and arcane studies under his mentor for several years. About five years ago (prior to the end of the Last War and the Day of Mourning if we are using the book timeline) something happened (see below) that ended that lifestyle.
3. What are your character’s favorite weapons and items?
Dyer’s priory weapon is a rod of twisted silver and lacquered ebony wood (+1 vicious rod). He enchanted the rod himself, having had it made to match the handle of the long sword his father game him as a gift when he came of age. Dyer carries long sword (Lifedrinker, +1), but primarily as something to use for a coup de grace. Meanwhile he spends time planning on how to build or refine the enchantments placed on these items. He also wears a suit of leather with brass studs that seem to flicker like weak stars as he moves (Dark Majesty, +1), having just recently completed the enchantment on the armor. He prizes these possessions, have worked hard to collect together the gold and favors needed. He also considers continuing to develop their power as an important part of his studies. Beyond those things, Dyer prizes his ritual book and the assorted journals, notes, and papers that he has collected. He is someone who loves trinkets and puzzles, including odd bits of things.
4. What is the most important event in your character’s life?
As Dyer continued to study and work as a research assist at Morgrave University, his father and brother worked to support some of the universities explorations, with his father providing money and his brother often accompanying these expeditions. In particular, his father was involved with a handful of professors (including Dyer’s mentor) who were interested in the Age of Monsters and current cults of the dragon below. Many of the expeditions were focused on looking for lost artifacts. The last of these resulted in the return of several unique items, including statues and odd pieces of something that appeared to fit together to form some kind of scepter or icon. The group of professors and students, including Dyer and his family, came together at one of their houses to inspect these items. Dyer remembers very little from that night, but often has flashes of darkness, twisted shapes, fire and magic, robed figures, and slaughter. What he knows is that he woke almost a month later, and the only known survivor. The place the group had met burned that knight, with nothing but charred remains recovered. Some say the fire started first, but others have told Dyer that the guard actually burned the rooms (either under orders, or to cover their looting). Even after Dyer awoke, he spent the next months recovering from wounds. Dyer also awoke to find that he now bore the dragon mark of scribing. He was also under suspicion for having caused the fire, with the guard for a time trying to close up the incident by saying Dyer caused the incident either through negligence or malice. They even went so far as to “detain” him for a year, during which Dyer found himself locked up with an elderly man who became his next mentor. An old man named Gilman was also locked up, with the guard being paid to take their time in determining if he was mad or evil. Gilman knew a lot, suspected more, and likely even imagined more yet. He though helped care for Dyer in his weakened state, and opened up strange doorways in Dyer’s pursuit of answers. By the time Dyer finally was released by the guard, he had taken on the mantel of a warlock.
5. What motivates your character?
Dyer is motivated by several things. The most mundane of these is the need to solve puzzles and learn mysteries. If presented a strange new problem, he feels compelled to match wits to it. He also has his personal need to buy materials, books, and resources for his studies…which means he has to work. Without his father around, Dyer has found the need to put his intellectual skills to work to keep himself supported. He in part wants to get to the point where he can finance others to explore, like his father once did. Dyer also still wonders about what happened the night of the fire, what happened to the objects the group had recovered, if there were others who lived, or who might be responsible. He sometimes suspects that a cult or rivals within the university killed everyone, but knows he needs to be very careful in looking into those mysteries.
6. What is your character’s family like? I try to incorporate NPCs into the game, so feel free to mention best friends, distant relatives, mentors, etc. I don’t use them as ways to attack the character indirectly; instead, I use them to motivate the characters into the campaign. Be sure to name the NPCs you create.
Dyers father and brother were intellectuals, wizards, and polite upper crust academic sorts, same as the professors and other students he knew at the university. Everyone he was close to from that period of his life disappeared, and the few others he was familiar with at the university have shunned him. Still, he was well liked there once…so if a friendly face came looking for him, he would be inclined to listen to them for old times sake. He’s tried to keep an eye on the university, but has not been back there in years. Gilman is still being kept in tower room, under arrest but not officially a criminal while the guards continue to think about if he is mad or guilty of something. Dyer sometimes visits him, and believes Gilman is the source of the money going to the guards but does not know why Gilman would want to be in prison. Over the last few years, in addition to coming into contact with the other PCs, Dyer has worked to help low level merchants and thieves needing to identify the value of objects of arcane, acting as a intermediate in negotiating sales or services involving magic, and doing recovery work. While his mood can get dark and grime, he generally tries to be a friend to anyone (even the “evil” street thugs). As far as he’s concerned, it never pays to get on to anyone’s bad side…because if you do need to kill them they are best off not suspecting you beforehand. Besides, their gold is just as good, and they often need things translated as well. As long as there is no overt evil involved, Dyer doesn’t concern himself too much. As someone who can read and write several language, including a few that most people would shudder to know but still have occasion to need translated, Dyer has promoted himself as valuable to translators. He typically takes these cases through a rather sneaky halfling bookdealer named Legrasse, who also at times has Dyer make use of his ritual skills. He has occasions to visit a sights in the red light district, and is friendly with the burlesque dancer named Keziah there.
7. What does your character fear?
Dyer does not fear evil or the nasty bits of life. What he does fear is madness and the things that do not fit into this world at all. Part of this is fear is that he things he might be slowly going mad himself, or that he did do something the night of the fire. He can face the manifestation of the far realm of Xorial, and sees his pursuit of power as a warlock as a way of mastering these powerful forces. He is very afraid though of succumbing or being taken by these forces or their servants. This bleeds over into a fear/loathing of deformities or mutations of living things. Dyer himself has scars from the night of the fire, places where his flesh appeared to have been drained of life, burned, and frozen to the bone. While his health has recovered, he remains physically weak…a condition not improved upon by his tendency to think rather than exert his body. While he does not fear people knowing about his scars or weakness, he’s not very comfortable with it either.
8. Does your character have any dark secrets or hidden shame in his past?
The mystery of what happened during the fire even haunts Dyer. Did someone kill his family, did he do something to cause the tragedy, how did he survive? In addition, Dyer has done a few things over the years that cross lines of good/evil as well as the law. When it comes to what he actually does, Dyer would rather remain quietly in the background in just about every way imaginable. He does not like talking about his past, and would rather engage in intellectual discussion. Finally, there is always to mystery of why his family left the feyspire. All his father would ever say is that it was due to the gnomes having an intolerant attitude toward his ideas, but Dyer has no idea if that is true. He is also not sure if he has other family, as Dyer’s father would not discuss the feyspire in any detail (he seemed to consider it an inconsequential topic, as at the time the feyspires were still were not stable in Eberon, so Dyer should not expect to ever necessarily see it). As a result, Dyer has some curiosity about the place.
9. What goals does your character hope to accomplish? What will your character achieve during the course of the campaign?
In game, Dyer is looking to establish himself as an expert in arcane and with issues related to the Age of Monsters. He would like to be acceptance at the university as such an expert, but knows that might not be realistic given his past. He does know thought that with enough money, there are people at the university that would kiss his feet and hang on his every word…which might be good enough. He, like many academics, also enjoys the idea of being involved in that one great find that will change the academic community. As such, he collects all kinds of notes and trinkets, and would go to some length to get objects (even mundane ones) that might be considered rare or meaningful. Metagame goals include maybe solving the mystery of what happened the night of the fire, or embarking on a trip into the ruins below the city where his brother went on his last trip. There could also be plots delving into the Dragon Below Cults, their influence, or working over time to slowly take down some sort of evil mad cult master. There could even be some work in looking into the reach of the daelkyr would be interesting as well.
