Terminus 9.29.13

In the morning, the No Pants Brigade and the Nekhanj prepared to set out, with the Nekhanj speaking of clearing the entrance to the tunnels that would lead them south and the fact that it would take them a couple of weeks.  While the discussion was going on, the group received an SOS call from Gronton, whom they hadn't seen in quite some time.

The stalwart Minotaur sailor had been scouting along the coast of Celton along with other concerned captains from the nearby area and had seen the undead make attempted crossings to Brenna.  Most of these had been foiled by the coastal towns on the mainland, with the added aid of captains who managed to end sea travel to the island nation, depriving the undead of their source of ships.  But things had changed.

The dragon Krathnaraz had joined the fight, bringing flying undead and their Beholder allies to attack the coastal defenses from the air.  This had decimated these defenses, leaving the coast more open for an attack.  Meanwhile, scouting ships had discovered that there was a new invasion fleet, massive and full of undead, prepping,  The undead had built crude but large rafts which were being towed by Beholders and loaded them with hundreds of undead soldiers.  Soon, it seemed, these undead would sail to the mainland, which was now unready to repel them.

One of the last bastions of defense was the town of Polenta, which is where Gronton was asking for aid to come.  The party decided that they'd have to separate from the Nekhanj to get their in time and made preparations to do so.  Once the threat at Polenta was solved, their intention would be to push onto Celton and make for the Forge, to close the gateway which allowed the Beholders to cross into their world.

Vallo summoned flying boars and the party set out, flying rather uneventfully to Polenta.  But that changed once they neared the town.  Quickly it was apparent that the town was under attack.  An immense white dragon had landed on the docks and was rampaging through the town's defenders. Using the boars, the party got in fairly close before launching their assault.

Meggido moved in first, pulling the dragon towards himself and then Adah-kah unloaded with divine wrath, rocking the dragon.  Sardis and Sabriel followed up with theirown powerful attacks, getting the No Pants Brigade off to a good start.  Adah-kah hammered the dragon again with a critical strike, but that's when things started to go downhill.

Krathnaraz began to use his draconic power to stun the party, then dealing massive amounts of damage.  The party was able to get a few more hits in this period, but eventually the dragon put Adah-kah on death's door.  Vallo delivered timely healing, though, and got the Nekhanj back on his feet.  Once more, the party began to trade even blows with the dragon, though Krathnaraz was able to hurt Meggido more than the Warforged had been hurt in quite some time.

Still, the party appeared to have the upper hand and Krathnaraz made ready to escape.  Unfortunately, for him, the No Pants Brigade had other plans, and put him down before he could get airborne.  Upon a quick inspection, though, they discovered that one of his heel spurs was missing, likely taken by Samuria so that she could resurrect her ally should he fall.

The party moved on to another town, hoping to at least delay Samuria's discovery that they'd re-entered the fight against her and her undead forces.  Once there, the party notified Gronton of their location and asked him to come and meet us.  He came, and learned of recent events, including the plans of the Nekhanj.  In return, he gave the party the information he'd gathered in his time scouting, including the fact that undead have begun to count fallen Beholders amongst their number.  That gave the party something to think on as they prepared for their journey to Celton to find the Forge.

Last Recap.  Other posts on Terminus.

Contemplation

Adah-kah sat silently above the vast basin which had once been a great pool of water.  The hood of his cloak, so often worn up to hide his features in shadow, was thrown back and his legs dangled over the edge. Below, other Nekhanj milled about, regaining their strength and agility after years in stasis.  Many of them were nude, having entered stasis that way and not yet having gathered clothes.  The nudity didn’t bother him so much, he knew what the anatomy of his race was and he’d had years to practice an understanding of separating sexual urges from his moment-to-moment motivations.

Still, he was disquieted.  For a decade and a half he’d been alone.  His race a mystery and illusion, Adah-kah himself the only representative most of the people he’d met had known.  He felt more brotherhood for the other members of Ioun’s religion than for the Nekhanj around him.  I’m not sure what I imagined.  Did I think I’d be connected to them?

The luminescence above the cavern twinkled and flickered, almost like near stars.  Adah-kah stared out into the dusky light.  Did they think they’d be connected to me?

It was an uncomfortable thought.  Like his companions, he was generally thought to be the last of his race.  And in proving that untrue, Metkin had named him “chosen” and “waited for.”  He was a key figure to a race he’d never known.  Their culture had very little to do with his.  And does it have any semblance to what Nekhanj culture had been before?  These warriors who trained over and over to fight an enemy they’d never seen?  Who are, as a rule, little older than me?  What will they do when the fight is won?

Glancing down at his hands, Adah-kah sighed.  Will they look to me to lead?  Am I ready to surrender my studies now that I’ve found their goal, the people who I’d searched for?  And if they turn once more to conquest?

Below, some of the Nekhanj saluted him and moved to climb out of the basin. I would be forced to fight them.  The world has suffered enough war.  It’s time for peace, even if it cannot last.  Regardless of all else, that I know.

Resolve returned, he sat once more in silence, meditating on the questions he’d confronted himself with.  He sat there until someone came to retrieve him.

Related Recap.  Other posts on Terminus.

Terminus 8.18.14

The night for the No Pants Brigade began at the campfire we'd set on the paths shown to us by the dragon at the end of last session.  While we were there, Meggido was visited by the Watcher and when he woke he told the rest of the party a bit about what happened in the vision.  We waited a bit longer before setting out again.

As we descended into the desert, we ran across a group of sand elementals, which threatened to impede our progress.  Vallo launched a good initial assault, putting the elementals on the ropes quickly.  Meggido followed up by knocking one of the elementals prone, where it proceeded to throw a temper tantrum.  The party and elementals traded shots for a few moments, before the party began to gain the upper hand for good.  In among that chaos, the elementals tried to shove Meggido around, but he made like a dwarf and was unmoved.  A few more strong blows and the party came out the winners.

The party briefly rested before another elemental arrived to disturb us.  Unfortunately for him, he couldn't hit the broadside of a barn and that left him wide open to the party's onslaught, in which we basically beat him to a pulp.  Sensing that perhaps this desert trek wasn't working out, we set out again.

After a short time on our flying boars, we came across a circular stone cone surrounded by enormous statues representing the  five races of the party: Dragonborn, Nekhanj, Githyanki, Skeshuni, and Warforged.  We inspected the statues and pyramid-structure for a bit, with Adah-kah being able to identify that it had seems that faced each of the statues.  Once the party stood under the statues, they became animate, revealing themselves as constructs.  The moved, pulling the cone open and revealing an elevator.

We rode the elevator down to a room with what appeared to be an organic pod, a stone pillar, and beneath the pod was a pool of clear water.  Not wanting to rush into potential danger, the party searched the room.  Upon the pillar there was an imprint of an Nekhanj hand, so after the search was complete, Adah-Kah placed his hand upon it and the pod began to soak in the water from the pool.

After a few moments, it opened to reveal a naked female Nakhanj, who looked like she was a bit undernourished, but not terribly different in age than Adah-kah.  When Adah-kah questioned her, she  revealed her name was Metkin.  Adah-kah offered her food as Sardis offered her a smelly yeti pelt and Vallo produced fancy clothes he'd obtained earlier in our adventures.  Metkin took the clothes and some of the food before suggesting we move downstairs.

We went with her down another elevator, activated by Metkin saying "down" in deepspeech.  When we descended, we arrived in a room with a couch, a small changing area and a series of elevators which led further down.  Everyone shared more of the food.  Metkin offered that everyone could sit, but only Adah-kah did.  Metkin dressed and returned.  She then suggested that Adah-kah would be awakening the entire Nekhanj race.  He was shocked to discover that they were here.  Metkin explained that this place was built for "everyone" but mainly for the Nekhanj.

Metkin further revealed that the Nekhanj's piece of the linkage is here and Vallo gave her a 30 minute history lesson.  Metkin now explained that Adah-kah's blood, and her own, would be what awakens other Nekhanj.  Once more, Metkin told the elevator "down" and the group descended into a great hive, which was similar to the hive we'd visited before.  We descended for a very long time, eventually emerging into a huge cavern.  Metkin explained that here were housed 10 generations of Nekhanj warriors.

The pedastal from above was duplicated here with two hand prints.  Metkin explained that the caverns here stretched to the southern seas.  There, she said, waited boats which would allow the Nekhanj sail to Celton to combat the beholders there, as had been prophesied.  She shared more of the history she knew, explaining that the Warforged had chosen to shut themselves down to buy the other races time to shut down the link between the Forge and another plane which had allowed the Beholders to break through into our world.

That link had been discovered to suck the life from the other plane and the Beholders had widened it to emerge into the Forge.  Caught unawares, the Warforged were being overrun.  They attempted to recall their race to add to the defense, but they couldn't all make it back in order to establish their defense.  As a result they shut down the Forge.  At this point, Metkin and Adah-kah agreed to put their hands on the pillar to awaken the Nekhanj.

Hundreds, thousands of pods descended into pools of clear water.  The Nekhanj within revived, revealing many young, powerful specimines of the race.  Adah-kah asked Metkin, recovering from the draining experience, what had happened to his mother.  As he'd suspected, she'd died after leaving him.  Meggido remained untrusting of the word of Metkin about the Warforged's decision.  Metkin confirmed, also, that the Nekhanj here held Vallo, and his race, no ill-will, being focused instead on the extra-planar threat.

Last Recap.  Other posts on Terminus.

Terminus 7.21.13

Other posts on Terminus.  Last Recap.

The party slept in the relative safety of the artifact chamber and then decided to head back to the surface to hunt down Karus' Ent.  The party decided that the route back to the surface should be the one they'd entered through, choosing to ignore the arboleth hole.

At the entrance, the No Pants Brigade found that a weathered but solid wall had been erected across the open wall of the building.  As they approached it to determine a method of egress, it fell on them, revealing it was actually a transformed rock golem.

The party was hurt a bit by the surprise attack, but quickly rallied.  Vallo called his punishing eye and Adah-Kah shoved the golem through his lesser golem sidekicks, knocking them all over.  Meggido and Adah-Kah closed in on the big golem as the rest of the team decimated the minons.

The golem fell quickly, though not without having taken some serious damage as the golem collapsed on them again.  They took a break to tend their wounds and Vallo summoned a wilderness guide and asked it to lead us to the Ent's grove.  The party mounted their summoned boars and set out.  On the ride, though, both Vallo and Adah-kah were visited by the Watcher.  When they awoke, they shared a bit of what they'd seen and the party returned to hunting Karus' Ent.

The group was led to the grove and found the Ent, who didn't respond initially.  it looked old and nearly dead, but was clearly still a threat.  The party prepared itself and the fight was on.  Vallo gavr Adah-kah an enchantment to set his sword aflame, which Adah-kah was happy to accept.

Everyone sprang into action, scoring quick hits on the Ent.  For his part, Adah-kah stabbed the tree with fire in the face. TWICE.

The Ent tried to strike back, attacking everyone at once but it only managed to hit Sardis and Vallo.  It followed that up by starting to grab partymembers, especially Meggido and Adah-kah.  Unfortunately for the Ent, the party was happy to stay close and use the firey weapons they carried to set the Ent alight and finish it off.  As it burned, it revealed a semi-fetal Dryad-lich, Karus, who also died in the fire.

Taking a moment to assess the situation, the party discovered that Sabriel's sense pointed us at the desert.  They discussed going over the mountains or through the abandoned dwarven tunnels.

Terminus 6.24.13

Other posts on Terminus.  Last Recap.

Now that Karus was gone, the party set to searching his command post for access to the area we needed to go to.  After a little searching by Adah-kah, we spotted an area filled with junk that Sardis recalled might hide the stair down.  Under the direction of Vallo and Adah-kah, Sabriel and Meggido dug into the trash pile, revealing the stairs under the junk.  We set out to descend.

Going further down into the building for a while, we ended up at the entrance to a vertical tube which let out into a domed room below.  Sardis briefly wanted Adah-kah to go through first, but Meggido claimed the most dangerous position.  Vallo helped the party exit the tube into the room when the dome's current inhabitants noticed Meggido and prepared to attack.  They turned out to be arboleths, who tried to go insubstantial and dominate the party.  They sort of succeeded but only sort of at the insubstantial part.  The party beat them down and took a moment to gather themselves.

From the dome, we found a door way and went down a long passage where there was fancy art and jewels on the way.  Clearly, this was leading to something important to the Skeshuni, and the party was curious.  Unfortunately, what it led to was a wall that had been dug in and what appeared to be a treasury that was now a nursery for the arboleths and filled with hatchlings and arboleth-snot-monsters.  Which meant it was time for a fight.

The No Pants Brigade set to killing the hatchlings and snot-monsters, which fell fairly quickly, especially to the area effect attacks of Sabriel and Sardis.  Adah-kah and Meggido pushed into the center of the room and the mother arboleth appeared in the hall behind the party, particularly Vallo and Sardis.

As Sardis retreated, Vallo got dominated by the mom.  He took a swing at Sardis, but not much came of it.  The rest of the snots and hatchlings were pushed to their limits, so Adah-kah turned to attack the mother arboleth.  He sprinted to it mightily, but missed his attack.  In the meantime, Vallo got free.  The last of the hatchlings and snots died at this point, which was good, but then Adah-kah got dominated after attacking the mom but missing because he was dazed, which was bad.

The Arboleth, positioned as it was, couldn't make Adah-kah attack the party, so it sent him around the corner and sought to dominate Meggido, which it succeeded in, but the battle was on it's downswing.  Adah-kah tried again to attack the arboleth, but missed.  Fortunately, though, Vallo and Sabriel had no such issue and we won eventually.  As we counted the money in the room and looked around, we spotted a golden seal upon the roof.

Sardis and then Adah-kah swam up to inspect it.  It really was gold and there were five knobs upon the seal which had symbols which corresponded to the five races of the party and council.  Pushing at the knobs, we opened the seal, but it only opened a little.  Sardis went into the small hole and swam up to a chamber like the ones we'd seen before when finding the Linkage and the Base.  There, Sardis found the Receptacle, which looked like a metallic-glass cylinder and series of increasingly sized glass orbs.  Sardis brought the party up to the room and they settled in to rest.  Sardis passed out pieces of the receptacle to the party, but Adah-kah refused to take some and Sardis questioned his faith.

Terminus 4.21

The DnD group met up for our second Terminus session in as many weeks and it was a pretty entertaining one, though it was more roleplay light than the last one.

We picked up where we left off the last session out.  We started moving deeper into the ruins and in a marshy area, where we yet again were ambushed by plant-looking creatures.  Vallo voiced his disappointment in Adah-Kah (who has a +25 to perception checks) for missing them.  Out of character I joked that I was trying to smell them instead of looking around.  In character, we set up for battle as mossy looking monsters rose from the murk to attack us.

We quickly noticed that there was a larger, mossier creature that seemed to be organizing the others and that the smaller moss creatures were augmenting its strength in turn.  We also realized that they were essentially surrounding us, so we needed to pick a direction to attack.  Meggido did a good job of positioning the monsters and Adah-Kah immediately used the bonuses given to him (and the rest of the party) by Vallo and went after the lead moss monster. It ended up being a fairly quick and brutal fight.  The moss men tried to use the party's powers against the party, but rolled low and the party did not.  The smaller moss men seemed to heal the big boss moss as they died, but it was too little too late and some massive damage from Adah-Kah, Sabriel, and Meggido did it in.  It should be noted here that it was a pretty crit heavy night on my part.  I got one in this fight and "wasted" a second on critting my initiative.

At this point we had the option of going to higher, more visible ruins or lower, less visible ruins.  We quickly decided to go for the high road.  Once we got to the more visible ruins, we ran across some Wood Woags and an Ivy Heart in another pseudo-ambush (still smell checking!).  This was also a fairly quick and brutal fight, but much harder on the party.  The Ivy Heart and Wood Woags got to attack first and managed to bloody three fifths of the party in the first round and a half.  Adah-Kah helped to focus fire down one of the Woags and moved on the Ivy Heart while Meggido pinned down the other Woag.  I got two different crits on the Ivy Heart in this fight and we got pretty massive damage off on it at one point thanks to Vallo buffing the party.

During that fight, Adah-Kah spied (no more smell checking) an older Kuo-toa woman spying on them and then scurrying off.  Her tracks were fairly obvious, so it was easy for Adah-Kah to follow them back to her hut.  Adah-Kah knocked on her door and when she answered explained that he'd seen her watching them.  The inside of her hut appeared to be full of animals.  When the Kuo-toa woman asked Adah-Kah why the party was in the ruins, Sardis exclaimed that they were one world saving business.  The old woman chuckled and Sabriel finally stepped in and explained a bit more and the old Kuo-toa was given a description of the room we suspected we'd find with a piece of the artifact we've been collecting.

The Kuo-toa also explained to the party that Karus (Karus, Karus is on fire...) was a dryad and with some banter, the party also intuited that Karus' tree is actually an Treant and that Karus believes he is as powerful as (or has become) a lich.  Karus was also behind the spread of the darkwood and had recruited most of the local Kuo-toa to his service.  Given past experiences, it seems pretty likely the party will need to end Karus' control of the area in order to get what we need to save the world.  In the past we've done fairly well when directly searching for the artifact and gotten rid of this kind of threat, but when not in that situation we've often left enemies alive to haunt us later.  Hopefully, we'll remember to put this one down when the time comes.

Anyways, we followed the old Kuo-toa lady to a bridge near a large waterway.  As we went to cross the bridge, we were ambushed (smell checks are back!) by a group of three Kuo-toa, one of whom rapidly grew into a raging behemoth.  This fight definitely qualified for brutal, but was by no means fast.  The Hulkuo-toa smashed into the party doing fairly significant damage and the other two Kuo-toa were no slouches either.  The party had to do some fancy positioning to get the best impact out of our attacks and it took a bit of time to whittle away the health of our three opponents.  One of the regular Kuo-toa fell first and then we focused on the Hulkuo-toa while keeping the other smaller Kuo-toa pinned down.  Eventually the big guy fell and we pressed the small Kuo-toa to surrender, which it refused to do.  We had to knock it out with the intent of questioning it on if Karus knows we're coming, what Karus' defenses and plans are, and where Karus' Treant is.  There are vague suspicions that the Treant that we encountered last session might be the one Karus' is bonded to.

We're back to a more normal rotation of gaming after this so it may be a brief bit until the next Terminus posting.

Terminus Session ?.? (Calling it 4.14)

Terminus is the campaign of my DnD group and has been running for over two years. We began it not too long after DnD 4th Edition released and have gone from starting level characters to level 16 world travelling heroes. I play Adah-Kah, a Nekhanj (based on the Dromite from previous editions) Avenger of the goddess Ioun.

To give a breif summary of the plot, each of the player characters is the lastor nearly last representative of their respective races. Adah-kah was found on the edge of a desert in the arms of a Nekhanj statue and adopted by a temple of Ioun. Over time, he trained in the teachings of Ioun and the ways of an Avenger. Being always different and ever a subject of study, Adah-kah learned to keep his appearance semi-obscured when in public. He also made it his goal to find his vanished people. Eventually he set out on excursions first to the desert, then the great library in the city of Span to see what he could discover.

Span is a city built on a bridge over a swift moving inland sea called the Scarring. The Scarring also refers to an event in the world's history in which magic users of the Dragonborn race very nearly destroyed the world and broke their continent in two. The Dragonborn had a magi-tech empire that crumbled after the Scarring, leaving a sole representative (the PC Sabriel). The Nekhanj previously warred with the Githyanki, but retreated suddenly and the Githyanki empire went into decline until their former slaves the Lizardfoll began to hunt them down mercilessly. It's possible the PC Vallo is the last Githyanki.

Once, the Warforged race were born at a great factory called the Forge, but the Forge is now missing and the Warcorged are shut down, save for the newly awakened PC, Meggido. It's possible that the Skeshuni, who later became unable to breed, may have had something to do with those events. Their final representative is the PC Sardis. The PCs ostensibly are working for the Watcher, a mysterious godlike being who typically does not interfere with the world but who has gathered this group to face a cataclysmic threat. The Watcher, on occasion, sends visions to the heroes which expand on their powers beyond the normal hero's. The PC's are occasionally aided by Grontonn, a Minotaur ship captain, his crew and a dog Vallo rescued named Kun Kun.

The PC's have helped re-form the Talminar Province, stop a vampire (twice because we avoided her the first time), shut down an army of false Warforged, released a Dragonborn lich (uhhhh...), awoken the lich's dragon ally (UHHHH...), rescued several towns, gathered a war effort against undead forces, crushed a gang called the Firehawks (Firehawks suck!), investigated mines and caves including an ancient Nekhanj city, found two pieces of a device which might save the world, discovered an invasion by Beholders, and most recently maybe, kinda sorta permanently collapsed a demi-plane used for rapid travel (oops!).

This session was focused on getting on to our next objective. We checked in with the folks we'd last worked with and discovered the trolls we'd fought/allied with were moving in to support the other races fighting the undead. The maybe-not-a-Succubus who'd accompanied us was turned over to Sardis' old university for investigation. And Sabriel, using Dragonborn directional senses that the Watcher may be tapping in to, directex the party into a forest to the southwest, quite near to Sardis' home. On the way we fought some assassin vines which put a severe hurting on the party (three or four of us were bloodied within a round and a half). Adah-kah did get a couple good shots in, as did everyone else, but it was a rather unpleasant fight overall.

We continued on riding our magic flying boars (because we're awesome) and came across a Treant (which we immediatelt redubbed an Ent), who told us about a corrupt "pink fleshy thing" (I forget his name) who is spreading kudzu-like Darkwood through the forest, which is increasing the population of plant mosters such as assassin vines. We continued on, flying over an encounter (yeah, our boars are awesome) and then finding overgrown Skeshuni ruins, actually the Skeshuni capital, where Vallo summoned up a guide to help us find the seat of governent. And I believe that's where we left off until next week.

Characters I've Played: Thorren

The goal of this type of post is to update a character that I've played before and intend to play again, though on occasion I may share a character who I probably won't play again.

Thorren was a character I created for Sunday Game Group's Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition campaign in a homebrewed setting in which our group would be playing "monsters" struggling to overthrow a human-elf-eladrin kingdom which enslaved or oppressed all the other races of the world. The intent, eventually, was for the PC's to raise an army and lead the assault on the corrupt kingdom and overthrow it.

Thorren Bluffwatch was a Minotaur Seeker. Given that most of the members of the game played World of Warcraft or WarCraft III, we often referred to him as a Tauren, and the Bluffwatcher NPC type from WoW inspired Thorren's last name. As a Seeker, Thorren was of the primal power source and focused on using that power to aid him in making ranged attacks.

Rather than making Thorren an archer, I chose to make him a thrown weapon focused Seeker, giving him a hammer bound to return to him and a number of axes, javelins, and knives to be thrown situationally. Thorren's abilities generally focused on the production of ice or lightning effects.  He was great fun to play even though the Seeker is a fairly underdeveloped, flawed, and unsupported class in DnD 4e.

In the interim, I've picked up playing WoW and Thorren became a Tauren Shaman, with a leaning toward lightning and fire powers.  So in remaking him for a potential RPG, I'd like to incorporate both versions of Thorren.  As is typical based on Sunday Game Group's system of choice, I'm going to do this exercise in Fate Core's ruleset (just as I did for myself, here).

As a quick reminder, this means I'll need a name, a high concept, three phase aspects, a skill pyramid, and some stunts.  If you'd like more of a breakdown on these, go back and check out my previously linked post for a more detailed rundown.

Naming this character is a simple choice.  The name was inspired by the videogame and transferred out and then back in, so keeping it the same is a no-brainer.
Name:  Thorren Bluffwatch

Next up is the High Concept.  As the most likely place for me to play Thorren is in a Fate WoW RPG as has been discussed several times by SGG, it seems to make sense to involve his race and class here.  Tauren Shaman would be the simple way, but I always try to aim for making the High Concept more dynamic, so I'll try to add a bit on here.  I think Thorren's personality is probably the element missing in this situation.  Thorren's personality, in my mind is based strongly on his loyalty to his friends, people, and the Horde, so I'll call him a Steadfast Tauren Shaman.
High Concept: Steadfast Tauren Shaman

As before, I think of the first phase aspect as "back story" so here's a good opportunity to get in why Thorren is called Bluffwatch.  Tauren have a clan society (pretty clearly influenced by Native Americans) in which children can take on either their parent's surname or a name created by their deeds.  I've always intended that Thorren's family took the name Bluffwatch for being renowned defenders (with keen perception) of the bluffs (or, in WoW terms, Thunderbluff) that are their home.  Thorren carried on in this tradition for a time and took the name, but has since set out on broader adventures.  I summarize this in Generations Watching the Bluffs.
Phase One (Background): Generations Watching the Bluffs

The second phase-aspect is generally the first "guest star" situation that will link a character to the others in the party.  Given that I don't know who else will be in the party, I'll try to leave it a bit open ended.  In terms of the original game, Thorren met his companions because he had been captured by humans who hoped to sell him into gladiatorial slavery, but he escaped with his band of adventurers.  In WoW terms, I tend to consider that Thorren should have entered the lore of the game about when I started playing, and so probably first began his wider journey during the Cataclysm.  So I'll attempt to incorporate those things together.  I think something like, Forced to Battle, talking of Thorren's duty and the fact that he doesn't always look for the battle.  Fighting for Others might actually better sum up my general concept and get back to Thorren's personality, but lacks the outside influence.  I'll split the difference as best I can.
Phase Two: Called to Fight for Others

Third phase is another "guest star" with the same limitations at the moment.  In this case I think it's time to speak to Thorren's connections to nature.  In the original version, he was tied to lightning and ice, and in the WoW version he was tied to lightning and fire.  But in both, he could call upon spirits to aid him.  I think I'll focus on the lightning (or something near to it) and the spirits since they're a commonality.  And I think I have something that sounds cool.
Phase Three: By Ghosts and Thunder

Now for skills.  In the DnD game, Thorren was noted for his perception (which has lived on in SGG by the phrase "what do your ____ eyes see?" since we riffed off Lord of the Rings' "what do your elf eyes see?" by replacing "elf" with "Tauren").  In WoW terms, he's also renowned for his vigilance.  Seems only fitting that his strongest skill be notice.  From there I think fight and empathy make a lot of sense, given that he's a strong fighter in both settings and Shamans in WoW theoretically gain their elemental powers by communicating with and understanding the spirits.  Trailing along with that empathy would have to be rapport and lore, given that they'd strongly correlate the same connections.  I'd include shoot in that same tier as Thorren has always had an element of ranged combat to him, though less so in WoW than in DnD.  I think his Tauren size lends Thorren the physique and athletics skills, he has some ability to ride (aka the drive skill),  and his work and loyalty to the horde have gained him the contacts skill.

Great(+4): Notice

Good(+3): Fight, Empathy

Fair(+2): Lore, Rapport, Shoot

Average(+1): Physique, Athletics, Ride, Contacts

Now to finish off with stunts.  These are the most likely things to change upon actual game play dependent on how we work elemental powers in game. That said, I think the first stunt I should take is one that allows for Thorren to use Empathy to make attacks using elemental powers. To make it aspect-y I'll dub it Speaker to Elements. Next I think I'll add an ability to play off Thorren's ability to notice at a prodigious rate. I'll use it to allow him to use his notice for a trapping of investigate. It seems only right to call it What Do Your Tauren Eyes See? The final stunt should be about Thorren's connections, I think and his ability to call on allies. I'll take a line from the game and call it The Horde is Family.
Stunts: Speaker to Elements
What Do Your Tauren Eyes See?
The Horde is Family

So someday, Thorren will be ready to play again. I'm looking forward to it.

Concept Characters: Skark

As I said earlier, I sometimes have the idea for a character that I'm not going to get a chance to run.  Mostly, these characters are about the background/personality rather than the stats, but I'll share whatever I've got.

This character came up when what I call "my Sunday group" was playing DnD 4th edition set in a world where we were playing monster or non-human-looking races that we're rising up to free themselves from an oppressive Human-Elf-Eladrin regime that had enslaved all other races.

Skark
Race: Kenku
Sex: Male
Age: 16
Height: 5'0"
Weight: 110 lbs.
Alignment: Unaligned
Class: Seeker
Concept: Most Kenku are out for themselves and their flock, and occasionally become particularly eager to rend, maim, and steal. Skark is most certainly out for himself, but probably wouldn't be considered a model Kenku. His "flock" consists of a group of adventurers he's worked with for several years and his desire to cause mayhem isn't particularly well developed. Skark also has a great love of shiny things, but in a display terribly unlike the average Kenku he's learned that doing deeds to help others often sees him rewarded with the baubles he wants. And because everything everyone else wants done seems easy with the aid of his flock, Skark rarely goes out of his way to thieve. Finally, Skark uses a fairly simplistic guise much of the time to lower other people's mistrust of him. He remains mostly mute, save for a few bird-like squawks and his own name, using his seeming inability to communicate to convince others that he has no true intellect. While Skark is not a genius, his intelligence is on par with the average person's and there have been a number of individuals who have let their underestimation of the Kenku Seeker guide them right into his schemes.