Heroes: Seppo, Foliage

Below are two more heroes which joined the madness and mayhem in Poori:

Seppo The Protagonist

At only fifteen, Seppo was the youngest and slightest of Gurgrock and unfortunate Nikko, three best friends from the docks of Poori whose lives turned out just as fate and fortune would dictate but differently than their mothers had hoped.

Seppo's small frame and naivete to the wider world is tempered by his good heart, nimble hands, and creative mind. A compulsive fast-talker and easily distracted, he has served many jobs, including as a fletcher, apprentice carpenter, and cutpurse. He prides himself on his handiwork, including a crossbow he uses for hunting, trick-shooting for coin, and sometimes to less legal (but never dishonorable) ends.

After he learned of the violent death of Nikko, Seppo set himself to joining with Gurgrock's trustworthy-enough gang of heroes to track down his friend's killer, while at the same time seeing the world for the first time.

Motivations: Be the local boy done good in the wide world; find Nikko's killer

Heroic Flaws: Naivete; focus

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Foliage The Warped

Foliage is a Druid from the wilds north of Poori, long ago driven mad from a scourge of evil humanoids who burned down his sacred grove. Now without a home to bind him, he has been thrust into a wandering life of vengeance, vigilantism, and prolonged alcoholism. Often he sees himself as an aggravated foster uncle of sorts to his young and often-wayward traveling companions.

With the appearance of an unkempt wild man, Foliage wears untanned furs; a wide-brimmed hat; a brace of liquors, moonshines, and narcotic roots; and bears a giant beard which is home to a host of critters and plants. At his waist is the Branch Cutter, a giant bronze knife often bloodied in joyless revenge against the enemies of nature. Around his neck is the feather-and-bone Amulet of the Three Sylvan Brothers, a relic of his faith and more peaceful times, which allows him to channel his inner spirit by transforming into the form of fox, deer, or hawk, although at the cost of quickly draining his human nature.

Motivations: Vengeance against those who ravaged his sacred grove and groves all over

Heroic Flaw: Aggression, hotheadedness

Heroes: Aldan, Rast, Samaras, Vrannian

Below are the first of the personalities at the core of the Dark Journey. Over time, some will come, some will go; so rotates the wheel of fate.

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Aldan The Righteous Deliverer

Charismatic and strong if intellectually inflexible, the young Paladin of the New Faith, most recently affiliated with the Temple of the Searing Light in Gar. Aldan represents the vanguard of the Faith; eager to enforce morally absolutist tenets with strong proclamations, cold steel, and the light of his gleaming Hero's Harness.

The New Faith tests its proudest adherents harshly -- bound by a litany of restrictions and requirements, Aldan's is a life of endlessly atoning for temptation and the whims of fate; he is sworn to 1) always undertake quests for the Faith, no matter how hopeless or impossible; 2) never touch meat or flesh; 3) remain ever clean and spotless; and 4) never come in contact with a woman. It is the last of these made most troublesome by his Curse of Venus, which draws the eyes of the most beautiful maidens and matrons and into an (unwilling and spiritually draining) embrace.

Aldan's Back Talker bastard sword grants him the power to smite those who have drawn his blood, but contains a sinister intelligence which increasingly compels him to violence the longer it stays unsheathed.

Motivations: Rescue humanity from evil through example, courage, and righteous combat

Heroic Flaws: Absolute moralistic righteousness; held to impossible standards

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Rast The Amazing Spellcaster

Rast is typically the most intelligent, most literate, and best-dressed in the room, and he wants you to know it. A dropout of The Academy in more civilized lands, he is both a student and rare active practitioner of magic, specializing in illusion and pyromancy. He seeks to make his mark on the world through plundering the ancient dweomers of legendary beasts and artifacts, while straying as little as possible from the easy life. His red cloak and wide-brimmed hat complement his multiple changes of fine clothes, even when talented tailors in these parts are few and far-between.

Motivations: Prove to his fellow magicians and mundanes his competence, heroism, and manliness

Heroic Flaws: Hubris; lacking compassion

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Samaras The Unlucky

Agile, lithe, and wise to the world, Samaras is a Ranger -- a hunter and man of the wilds. He is also a fatalist killjoy who seeks nothing more than to heroically throw his only life away in the service of others, knowing full well that he is doomed to die in vain, like water splashing off a stone. His fate is tied to the Splinter of the Fallen Hero, a relic from a dead and unmourned warrior -- a longbow which is fated to lead to its wielder's eventual demise.

Motivations: Die a forgotten hero

Heroic Flaws: Doomed and he knows it; martyr complex

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Vrannian Nimbus

Tiny, lithe, hyperactive, chatty, and wide-eyed, Vrannian is a Gnome, one of the last of his strange and ancient kind. He seeks little in the way of changing the world, but will always share his talents and treasures with those who need them more. After all, he can always find another gold coin or shiny jewel to add to his rucksack of finds. He is armed with the enchanted crossbow The Dart and a satchel of black powder bombs, along with a collection of yet-to-be-revealed tools and toys.

Motivations: Endlessly curious and generous with his abilities, kindness, and accumulated treasure

Heroic Flaw: Innocence