The following three
Player Characters will occupy the central roles in the Lukomorye campaign that begins in the village of Lazarevo. They are
a diverse bunch, but what unites them is their outsider status, and a facility
with magic.
Chonkorchuk, Human Warlock, Pact
of the Hag, Ascetic
A tall, very thin,
haggard-looking man with pale skin, dark hair, and blue eyes – one bigger than
the other – Chonkorchuk puts in a striking appearance. Born to Kuz’ parents in
Trofimka a few years before the Kochmak raid that largely destroyed the
village, he traces his descent to the original hunter people who populated this
part of the world before the Noriki arrived in larger numbers. Kuz’ and Noriki,
heathens and Gaalites, lived side by side when the village was the property of
Taras Trofimov. But when the land passed to the Church, and many of the
residents fell into dependence on the Lazar and Liudmila abbey, many of the
natives were pressured to convert. Chonkorchuk’s parents died shortly after
returning to the village as it was being rebuilt. Exhausted by their
wanderings, they nevertheless chose to remain free, and passed down some of the
old beliefs to their son. The boy was left to fend for himself, doing odd jobs
and living off what the forest provided, but he never abandoned his parents’
teachings, even after the head of his clan converted to the True Confession,
and went into service as a guard at the monastery. Unhappy with being
associated with him, his cousin and erstwhile playmate Tiutiulka informed
Hegumen Yaakov that he witnessed Chonkorchuk practicing sorcery. Chonkorchuk
was summarily expelled from the village.
Life in the woods requires hard work, but Chonkorchuk's eye is lazy |
Fleeing to the woods north of the Vydra, the young
man wandered aimlessly before falling into a dark hole. It led to a realm deep
underground (or perhaps elsewhere) that was ruled by the ancient hag Baba Yaga. Chonkorchuk remembers little of the realm or its nature, or how long he
spent there. But he remembers that he made a pact with the hag (whom he calls ‘The
Queen’), pledging life-long service in exchange for power – power he sought to
use to avenge himself on those that betrayed and mistreated him. She then sent
him back, charging him to take over an abandoned hermitage in the woods nearby,
and to keep the area clear of intruders. He was not to return or to seek out
the portal he passed through until being given explicit permission to do so. Chonkorchuk
later discovered that the hermitage was previously used by Hegumen Yaakov
during his time as an ascetic also. The place was covered in scratchings and
symbols – both Gaalite and heathen, though it was unclear whether they were
placed there by the same person.
Chonkorchuk remained at the hermitage for 16 years. Given his fearsome appearance, and likely, the influence of the nearby portal, he was generally left alone. Though survival was difficult, Chonkorchuk was able to supplement what he found in the forest by traveling to nearby villages, and using his gift to read fortunes. He also came to establish relationships with various denizens of the wild that the Church labeled as “unclean”, and learned to speak their language. He had grown increasingly wild and antisocial as a result of his solitude. He attributes his good fortune and survival to the Queen's goodwill and her promise to be allowed to return to the portal to learn more of her secrets. He has grown a bit choleric and unstable as a result of the long wait., derives meaning in his life by making plans to eventually confront those responsible for his exile. On those infrequent occasions when he interacts with others, he often raves about the great cosmic plan that the Queen has in store for him, and for the rest of the world. Nevertheless, when alone, he is a gentle soul, and cares assiduously for the forest. He has great reverence for the Old Ways, a deep sense of justice and believes in the equality of the great and the small.
Plamen, Half-Polevik Volkhv
(Druid), Circle of Kupalo, Healer
Plamen is a very
short, though somewhat stocky young man, standing about five feet in height. Reflective
of his partly non-human heritage, he is covered by thick, blond hair, which
becomes almost fleece-like on his torso and upper limbs. His father Gleb was a
human shepherd from Lazarevo, who wandered into a meadow about one verst
outside the village with his flock one day, and had a brief encounter with a polevik
woman, Tiaga. From this union, Plamen was born, into a polevik family that
lived in a series of underground tunnels underneath that meadow. Typically,
humans shunned it, not only because they were dimly aware of its residents, but
mostly because the meadow had an ill reputation anyway. It was here that the
Kochmaki drove their prisoners from Trofimka after the raid, and here that they
were inexplicably slaughtered. No trees have grown in the meadow since, and
people say that the spirits of the dead rise from time to time, and wander the
countryside around Lazarevo. This may be true, but they do not trouble the polevik
family that lives there.
Plamen - kind of like a dwarf, but much faster |
Plamen was fully
accepted by the poleviks. Like them, he developed a deep connection to the land, and learned their received wisdom about all the plants that grew in
the vicinity. He also developed a facility with flame as he raced joyfully and
frenetically through the field with his half-siblings in summertime. But he
always looked beyond the meadow. He liked to wander the woods, and would also occasionally
steal into Lazarevo by way of underground tunnels that led from the meadow into
the village. He would become fascinated with stray livestock that wandered
in from the village, and then tended to them, fed them, and healed them.
Sometimes, he returned them to Lazarevo’s outskirts, and encountered villagers.
Soon, several of them would seek out his help, bringing sick animals and calling his name
in the meadow, hoping that he would emerge while they are gone, and then return
the healthy animal to the village. More bold people would call on him to help
with their own injuries, and waited for a face-to-face encounter. As he began
to take a greater interest in the outside world, Plamen also came into contact
with an uncle – Yegor - another half-polevik – who had been trained as a
heathen priest. When he came to stay with his family in the meadow, Yegor would
help Plamen hone his skills as a healer, taught him the ancient dialect of the
Volkhv Order, and began revealing its secrets rituals and stories about the old
gods.
As his reputation
spread around Lazarevo, he began to wish for closer contact. Roughly a year
ago, he met his father for the first time, and soon came to stay with his family in
the village. He helped in the field, and supplementing the family's diet with wild
fruit, herbs and nuts that he gathered in wood and meadow. But soon after he came
to stay in Lazarevo, people stopped coming to seek his aid. This may
have been because of his background and his heathen beliefs, though many of his
supplicants said that their needs were now better served by Hegumen Yaakov, who
had acquired a mystical glowing shrub that greatly increased his effectiveness
as a healer. To remain in the village and stay useful, Plamen went to the
island, and asked, Yaakov, against his Polevik family’s advice, to allow him to
stay in the monastery to practice his craft. Yaakov replied that this was
impossible without conversion, and even in the latter case, Plamen would have
to stop using his powers, which, he said, had as their source Bies the Devil,
and not God. So Plamen returned to the meadow.
In person, Plamen is
rather a sweet 16-year old boy, though his furriness makes him look older and a
bit bestial. He doesn’t really understand divisions between humans, poleviks,
other nechist’ beings, and animals,
and tries to help and become friends with everyone he meets. He does go in for
creature comforts, when he can get them, and has a bit of a weakness for a
certain herbal intoxicant.
Rodion “Raskel” Raskolnikov, Fox
Skinshifter Wizard, Kabbalist, Mountebank
Rodion, or “Raskel”, as he likes to be known, is a
man of many names. He is in his forties, though still has fiery red hair,
streaked with gray. He is of slightly above average height and weight – in
human form. Being a fox skinshifter, he can also change into a humanoid with a
fox head, a body and limbs, covered in red fur, and prehensile hands (and
shoe-ready feet). He was born human, of skinshifter parents. As such
parents are unable or unwilling to raise human children, he was placed in a
basket outside a priestly household in the city of Krinets – a trading
metropolis, and for most Noriki, the largest city in the world. He was raised in
the household as a family dependent (not an adopted son). Spending his
childhood among the servants, he did have some attention lavished on him in
childhood by Yaroslava, the priest’s daughter, though little by Zinovii
Raskolnikov himself. Raskel has never sought to discover his birth parents, and
has no interest in doing so. A Raskely form - good for a bonus bite, but not very trustworthy |
His ability to change shape became manifest in
early adolescence. At this time, Yaroslava took pity on him, and began to teach
him skills he would need to survive in human society, which treated him with
suspicion. From her Raskel learned letters, as well as magical formulas for
changing appearance and creating illusory images (she, though in training
for the priesthood herself, had picked up a smattering of lore from foreign
Kabbalists). Soon, Raskel would fall in with swindlers and scam-artists,
and began to engage in various schemes involving the sale of supposedly magic
beans, smuggling, and impersonating officials, especially ones of an
ecclesiastical variety. Pretending to be a priest or holy man became his go-to
con, though it also proved to be his downfall. He tried to get a man to part
with his money by having the voice of God order him to do so. Unfortunately,
this man turned out to be the future Hegumen Yaakov, who had just arrived in
town to enter the seminary. After Yaakov reported Raskel to the Archbishop,
Raskel fled, and Yaroslava helped smuggle him out of town in a box. He has
lived on the road ever since, though he is curious about how his benefactor has
fared since his forced departure.
Primarily,
Raskel-Rodion teams up with other traveling mountebanks to smuggle goods traded
along riverine routes, using his magical talents to make containers appear
empty to avoid paying duties. Sometimes, he also impersonates tax or church
officials to avoid paying, or to get out of sticky situations. And he still
uses his fairly considerable knowledge of religion to get people to part with
their possessions in the name of outfitting new churches or launching
crusades. At one point long ago, he partnered with Taras Trofimov, and even
stayed with him before his village changed its ownership, and its name. Raskel
thought of that boyar's village as a safe space, and has recently come to town looking
for a place to lay low in after an unsuccessful venture, and before the start
of the winter trading season. After arriving in Lazarevo, however, he received an unpleasant surprise
after finding out that Yaakov is now the village's de facto ruler. While staying at
the waystation for the last week, he has avoided running into the hegumen,
though he has come to learn that the village has had a very unsuccessful
harvest, and that Yaakov is stockpiling grain, which he plans to use as
leverage to get people to become the monastery’s peons. He has also learned
that a mysterious and ill-aspected stranger – the blacksmith Zhitko, has
arrived in Lazarevo, and is staying in the household of the local smith.
Raskel is worldly and
has a wide network of contacts. He is light on his feet, and would rather hit
the road than to have to sort out his problems. As an experienced swindler, he
knows how to find the right mark, how to disguise his true appearance, and how
to say the right thing to win people’s confidence. He is, however, a bit of a
gambler, and sometimes bites off more than he can chew. His overconfidence
translates into a belief that no one can fool him the way he fools them – a
belief that has nearly led to his downfall on several occasions. Though he is
baptized, and even knows enough to pass as a priest in front of a layperson, he
is in fact a freethinker, and does not tie himself up with religious dogma or feelings
of guilt.
Dmitri Vladimirovich, Wolf
Skinshifter Ranger, Soldier
Dmitri is a large,
bulky man with scraggly dark hair and a scruffy beard. His brown eyes have a
noticeable yellow tinge, and his unsettling grin shows off a pair of oversized
canines. Dmitri is in fact a wolf skinchanger who was born to packmaster
Vladimir Draganovich roughly 20 years ago. The pack lived near the village of Orlovka
south of the Vydra River, and preyed on the village for generations, but in a
controlled way. When Dmitri was a young child, the landlord – a boyar named Viacheslav
Orlov married a close relative of the Prince of Kliakva. In so doing, he
acquired a powerful protector for the still half-heathen village. The boyar’s
new relatives commenced building a new fort near the Orlovka, and impressing
what remained of the village youth into service to the Prince. Meanwhile, the
nearby Lazar and Lidmilla abbey began to offer spiritual protection to the
villages. Vladimir, who saw that antagonizing the new authorities would be
unwise, decided to try to deal with them. Before his son’s shapechanging
ability became manifest, Vladimir took him to the fort, and gave him over for
training. Since the youth was sizeable and came across capable and fierce, the Kliakvites
gladly took him on.
Now if only stitching limbs were as easy as stitching that cloak... |
Dmitri spent the next
decade in the Prince’s service. He was stationed at various outposts, and
because of his facility with wilderness survival, he was recruited by a ranger
lodge in the Kliakvite domains. It was when he was with the lodge that he
gained the power to change shape, but as he was careful, and as his superiors
and comrades were happy with his service, so it never became an issue. Soon, however,
the lodge would have a new assignment for Dmitri and several of his companions.
They were to return to the fort near Orlovka, and to serve as caretakers and
hunters who had to provide for the boyar’s table. Dmitri soon learned that
their real job was different – he was to exhaustively scout the trails,
settlements, and defenses of his home region. Clearly, his information was
being used by the Prince’s people to prepare an invasion.
After spending several
months preoccupied with his new task, Dmitri was suddenly called in for an
audience with Viacheslav Orlov. The boyar informed him that his unit was being
disbanded, because the Prince of Kliakva had apparently reached an
understanding with the local prince. Later, intimated that the real reason for
his dismissal was the resumption of the pack’s attacks against Orlovka. After
it became clear that no help would be forthcoming from Vladimir, Dmitri appealed
to Orlov for aid. In view of his years of faithful service, the boyar found a
solution. Another nearby boyar – Yurii Yelizarov, based just north of the
river, needed help tracking down a smuggling ring that was apparently operating
from one of his villages. Orlov gave Dmitri a letter of introduction, and the
skinshifter entered Yelizarov’s employ. While tracking the smugglers through
the woods, he fortuitously encountered Katarina’s suitors.
Dmitri is a dogged
fighter, who treats whichever allies he is working with as members of his pack.
He is used to leading his unit into action, and has stared down many dangers,
from wild animals, bandits, rival lodges, to relatives who threatened him in
order to test his mettle. At the same time, Dmitri knows that being an
effective soldier means using good judgment, not giving in to emotions, and not
leaving unsound commands unquestioned. In the heat of battle, however, Dmitri
occasionally loses control – his lupine heritage is strong inside him, and
sometimes, he abandons himself to his bloodlust.
Druvvaldis, Human Shaman, Heathen
Where others were shy, Druvvaldis made wandering into small villages with a raven companion a new fashion |
Druvvaldis walked for hundreds of miles. There were many places that seemed to fit the description of a crow's meadow along the way. But after he stopped to investigate, it always seemed that there was nothing significant about them. And after a time, the raven urged him onward once more.
Recently, he has been traveling along a river
called the Vydra.
The winter colds had just set in, so Druvvaldis began to
think about finding shelter for the winter.
But his raven has also been pushing him on,
claiming, at night, that the place he was sent to find was nearby.
Perhaps, if he were to cross the river that had just
frozen over, he would find what he is looking for…
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