A couple things in the past week have reminded me of these characters. First, I saw a old man last week here in downtown Rochester that reminded me a little of my idea of Fonzazzle. He even had a gnarled wood cane and crazy wild hair. Then, I had a cool dream the other night about the continuing adventures of Ceptaar. He's a tank in battle and smooth with the ladies, too.
Ceptaar is a blatant ripoff of Conan the Barbarian and I have no delusions of being a good author, but, if the muse strikes and I have nothing better to do, maybe I'll write some short fiction about these characters.
Ceptaar the Altanian
Well built with copper skin, sandy hair, and green eyes, Ceptaar is of common herdsman blood, but clan elders see him as potential high ruler and uniter of many clans. For this reason he has been sent to the City State to be cultured and seek alliances, but mostly he just wants to travel the world in glorious adventure. He wears only a loincloth most of the time, but dons a large belt and cape for formal occasions. He carries a two-handed sword, unsheathed at all times.
What set apart Ceptaar from the other characters here is the unusually high attribute scores and hit points that the campaign's DM rolled:
Attributes (racial modifiers)
STR 16 (15+1)
DEX 12
CON 17 (16+1)
INT 13 (14-1)
WIS 12 (13-1)
CHA 15
Hit Points: 11 + 2 CON bonus = 13
Fonzazzle the Wizard of no great accomplishment
A quirky, knob-kneed old wizard of no great accomplishment except his wild head of hair and ridiculously long beard. Also of note is the assortment of adventuring equipment that he usually carries on his person:
Quarterstaff, Dagger, Backpack, Rations, Flint and Steel, Boots (Soft), Bedroll, Cloak, 3 Candles, Map/Scroll Case, Quill, Ink 1 oz., Parchment (10 pcs), Diggery-do, Smoking Pipe, Tobacco 1lb, Tea leaves 1lb, Mug, Canteen, Robe, Scarf, Bandages, Bag of 25 marbles, Incense (2 sticks), 6 Glass Vials, String (50 ft)
Starflash the Elf Rogue of Dearthwood
My vision of Starflash is a little bit like an aloof Keebler elf with three-day growth. The elf from Hawk: the Slayer reminded me a little of Starflash, too.
Matthau the Cleric of Kadrim, god of small birds
Very tall and lanky, my vision of Matthau is like the characters Walter Matthau played in The Odd Couple and Bad News Bears.
How did the campaign end? It's all my fault...I ruined it! While exploring Tegel Manor with the party and another player's party, Fonzazzle found the mansion's smoking room. Hankering for a long puff from his pipe, the old wizard, like he always does, shed his robe and enjoyed a smoke bare naked.
Then a strange beggar arrived and they started a conversation. Somehow or another, the beggar got all excited and revealed his true form: a Type III Demon.
Fonzazzle, in a bit of a tight spot now, kept his cool and moved the conversation to a topic they both had interest in: virgins. At this point, the rest of the party had continued further down the hall and wasn't aware of what was going on. Long story short: he offered to give a virgin to the demon in exchange for a guided tour of the mansion.
Fortunately, there was a virgin priestess NPC in the party and Fonzazzle managed to trick her to come back into the room. The demon promptly ate her and then it fulfilled its side of the deal. He climbed onto the demon's shoulders and they ran out to tour the mansion. (This scene would be great if done in Harryhausen animation)
Then, unannounced and unexplained, the DM stopped posting for a few weeks. When he finally resumed, he and the other player expressed dissatisfaction about Fonzazzle's encounter with the demon. By my estimation, losing only an NPC in an encounter with a Type III demon wasn't too bad, but maybe it was just all too bizarre for them.
The campaign ended there. It was fun while it lasted, and was especially worthwhile in that I got see what it was like to be a player in a play-by-email campaign. The image of hairy old Fonzazzle racing through the halls of Tegel Manor on the shoulders of a demon is one I'll never forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment