PLAYER CHARACTERS

Alan - Walt Vichi, Postman - Dronga Delldrad, Gnome Illusionist

He is currently working as a postal delivering worker in our home town.  His character is a complicated mess. You are the only people that know that he is a gnome illusionist named Dronga Delldrad. He, however, absolutely never appears as himself. Instead he has a half dozen or more established personalities that he travels around as.

Primarily that is a human wizard named Penric who has founded a "secret" cabal that all wear these crazy living darkness cloaks as their symbol. Other personalities include but are not limited to:
    an elven hunter and scholar named Elka (female)
    Wisdom, a human merchant (female)
    Mondus, a gnome alchemist (male)
    Gnurt, a goblin rogue (male)
    Kio, a human druid (female)

None of you are members of his secret cabal, because none of you are him, and none of you are good enough liars to pull it off. In fact, many of your actual characters may not know the Dronga is any of these people. Sometimes, of course, these cabal members are seen together.

His personalities vary by personality too. Penric is outgoing and friendly. Elka is reserved and quiet. Wisdom is warm and kindly. Mondus is hyper and a bit jumpy. Gnurt is nasty and rude. Kio is feral and  aggressive. All of them, of course, are beautiful (except perhaps Gnurt...)

Dronga is insanely secretive about who he is and his past. It probably took years for him to even admit to you that he was an illusionist, and only then because you needed to know to survive some of his more elaborate tricks.

Darren - Thomas Gibbs, Novelist - Razor Grayweather, Human Rogue

(Childhood) Thomas was an introvert when he moved to Hawkins.  He spent a lot of time reading books , but mostly those his parents had lying around, which were the classics.  His enthusiasm for Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein during a book report got him noticed by the other gamer kids.  They introduced him to JRR Tolkein, which blew his mind!  After that it was very easy to get him to play D&D.  He loved gaming though he admits he was never the star of the campaign.

(Adulthood) As a published novelist, his first book, The Barren Soul, was not a financial success but critics noted how much promise he held.  That made the second novel, Branches, all the more disappointing when it failed to gain fans, and critics viewed it as a let down from the promise of his earlier book.  Thomas didn’t find his groove until he wrote something as a writing exercise for fun: a retelling of his D&D campaign as a kid.  And so he wrote The Sunset Company, loosely based on the campaigns of his youth.  It struck a nerve with fantasy enthusiasts and the sales pleased his publisher although he felt like he was turning his back on his “serious writing”.  He’s done a couple fantasy conventions and several book signings.

At the time of the reunion, they are a couple months away from the publishing of the prequel, Grayweather, which focuses on the early days of his character, “Razor” Grayweather, which would fill in backstory that would have happened before the game campaign began when he was a kid.  He's hoping the reunion will lead to talk about the old game and the opportunity to make notes on the stories so he can plan the sequel to the Sunset Company.  He has no idea what the others think of the books.  They do center on his own character though he tries to be accurate to who-did-what, as he remembers it.

(D&D Avatar) Razor’s father was a meek man until he got drunk, at which point he’d shoot off his mouth.  This got him beat to death in a bar when Razor was a kid.  His mother tried her best to raise him but died during his early teens due to plague.  Razor had by then fallen in with a local gang who ran the streets from a barber shop.  Razor had little patience for blowhards, his father’s drunken death still weighing on him.  So when the competition, a handful of thugs who ran the docks, came by for a shave and to collect their kickbacks, Razor stepped up and slit the throat of their leader.  This set off a gang war that forced Razor to leave  the port or else the gang be forced to turn him over to the enemies.

Razor wound up ultimately at the campaign’s starting city, a reckless 1st level rogue youth with little self-control.  It took multiple near-death incidents (and at higher level a few actual deaths) for him to learn patience.  Still at any given moment he looks like a wound up spring, ready to leap into action.

Jeff - Cidrick Macias, Martial Arts Teacher - Jinsoku Chishi-to Mabuni, Human Samurai

Joe - Tim Statton, Toner Salesman - Fleabag Thundersox, Gnome Druid

When you were all friends, Tim Statton was one of those happy-go-lucky kids that had an easy grin and enjoyed life.  He got along with his family, was close to his group of friends, and played at being a bit of an animal rights activist - as much as any young kid can be.  D&D was definitely one of his highlights especially playing Fleebag - his favorite gnome druid.  If you had asked him back then, he probably would have told you that he had an exotic personality, but the simple fact was Fleebag was basically Tim with an albino panther animal companion and some kick-ass shape change abilities. 

Many of you probably attended his wedding to his local junior college sweetheart, Jenna.  They moved right after the wedding, and if you were the type to stay in contact, you know he had a little boy soon after.  You may also be aware that his son died in a car crash at the age of 9, and he and Jenna divorced soon after.

When everyone gets together, it's immediately obvious that none of the happy-go-lucky attitude is left.  He appears to have been beaten down by life and looks like  the type you might find standing on a corner begging for change.  He tries to smile but it does not do much to hide the haunted look that dominates his features. 

Game note:  Turning into Fleebag is going to give Tim a new lease on life, which he will desperately cling to.  He will find himself immediately fully engaged in this new life and will find the opportunity to do heroic things a fitting tribute to his own "heroic" son that he tragically lost way too early.  Since I won't be at the first game, think of him as the type that cries when he first hugs Ares, his animal companion, immediately flies just to experience it (and offers fly spells to anyone else that want to fly with him).  This may wear off as we find the adult life was itself the dream...but he will hold on to the memory of his son regardless.