The first characters start to emerge

So players have started envisioning their characters for the game, both in description and in visual depiction. And I wanted to share the concepts, so people could start to get their own sense of what characters they are playing and how to distinguish themselves from the others.

From Brad:

Brad is focusing on playing a sea raider barbarian, and here's the short description he wrote up about his character:

"I was thinking of going half elf.  My father used to be an adventurer and had me with an elf woman.  But she died and he we moved from port city to port city while he worked as a longshoreman.  I worked in various pubs as a barkeep, table waiter and cook.  We would go fishing on his days off and work on building a nice small fishing boat – then one time we were attacked by a huge shark that killed him and mangled my leg. I’ve hated sharks ever since. I started to develop a real temper after dad died, particularly when the patrons would get out of line and make comments about my leg. I would wreak havoc.  I lost a lot of pub jobs that way but managed to get some merc work outside of town here and there."

From Kevin: 

Kevin's descriptor of his bard is short and sweet thus far: "Half elf bard traveling salesman who goes with a new persona in every town. Got a little too piratey in Port Peril and was shanghaied for it."

But the best part is we have a picture of his Bard: Gilbert.

From whence did this amazing picture come from? Das interwebz?

From Dan:

Actually, that amazing digital painting was done by Dan, who has started to work on illustrating his character's backstory--and conferred with Kevin to have a bit of shared history. Well, at least the two characters met up in Port Peril before shanghaied by ruffians! Dan is an amazing digital illustrator, and has produced so many good images for his own Pathfinder game (in which I'm a player--check them out here), as well as doing his own Pathfinder/Dungeons and Dragons thematic comic book (which is amazing and you can buy super cheap for Kindle devices right here on Amazon).

Dan wanted to play a druid, but knowing that another druid was taking the aquatic route wanted to develop his own distinct druidic flavor: "Chaotic Good, a non-hypocrite druid who knows that humanoids are animals as well, and humans using weapons, tools, building stuff, etc. is no different than birds and wasps building nests and apes using tree bark and sticks to gather bugs as simple tools. Will just have to see what the rest of the group and story is like to shape her more."

Here's Druna relaxing in an abandoned jungle temple near Port Peril

Dan intends to keep doing portraits of Druna's adventures, and I imagine that other characters from this campaign, as he goes on a blog which you can click to here or save and follow at the following address: http://drunadruid.tumblr.com/

From Alex:

And finally, a quick note from Alex about his character. He took the Buccaneer's Blood trait, which means he is descended directly from a famous pirate of the Shackles region--and was given the same name as that infamous pirate. Nearly twenty years ago the human pirate Captain Patrick "Salt-Eye" O'Shaughnessy wedded a woman then promptly ditched her and her newborn child. Whether Captain O'Shaughnessy and his ship, The Darcy's Pillage still ply the waters of the Shackles is unknown. But the O'Shaughnessy name carries steep recognition on the waters, as everyone knows the very tale of horror where old Salt-Eye (who must be over 100 years of age if he still lives today) earned his notorious nickname...

From Chris:

Another quick note, as Chris is waiting for others to really lock in their ideas. But he's leaning toward rogue, with a campaign trait substitution that is something like "outrageous flirt"--which gives a clear reason for why he gets shanghaied. His preliminary descriptor: "I envision a young, fresh faced, swashbuckling, happy-go-lucky cad with not particularly discriminating sexual tastes."