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 Branna of the Fenlands An occasional sight in the city of Neverwinter where she tends to go in an effort to sell hides and the other various commodities she harvests in the nearby wilds, Branna manages to be a rather friendly and surprisingly cheerful young woman. Something of a rare commodity herself in these trying times. Although she has never professed to be an adventurer, on more than one occasion adventure seems to have found her; and be it an encounter with undead in a half-sunken woodland ruin or just a straight-up skirmish with unscrupulous bandits along The High Road, she's always managed to fare well enough. To some, particularly her estranged kin, her success is rather surprising considering the nature of her birth. Born into the Grey Wolf tribe of the Uthgardt barbarians, Branna was the younger of a pair of fraternal twins. Significantly smaller than her twin brother, Branna was thought a runt: small, weak, and better off dead. The tribal elders were convinced that such a child would not only be incapable of carrying her weight among the Grey Wolves if she were permitted to survive, but was also an affront to their namesake god. When tasked with ending his daughter's life, Branna's father accepted the duty but balked when carrying it out. Instead, he simply abandoned her in the woods to let nature take its course. So when Tamm Mottstone, an aged druid who frequented the Wood in those days, stumbled across the mewling baby he made certain that nature did. It was he who gave Branna her name and at first, raising the orphan didn't seem all that difficult. The girl seemed predisposed towards the wilderness, and under the guidance of the elderly druid, many of the mysteries of nature became known to her. But a druid's temperance was not to be hers, the blood of her tribe burned too hot for such things, and Branna placed more focus on things like tracking and hunting than on preserving nature's balance. For much of her later youth she and her foster father butted heads, and when Branna's lycanthropic nature reared its head, Tamm finally understood. From Tamm, Branna learned about the Grey Wolf tribe, of its curse (though she hardly thought of it as such, and even seemed to revel in it), and where they might be found. Against his advice, she approached them but was only met with hostility. Those she encountered (a band in which her father was a part, and who immediately knew who she was) handled it poorly, and in the ensuing flight, she adopted her wolf form to aid escape. This enraged the Grey Wolves even further, who sought to hunt her down but she proved too elusive. Her father pursued only half-heartedly, filled with a sense of pride. She had inherited the ability to transform, and she had survived all these years. His daughter, as it turned out, wasn't weak at all. After the passing of her foster father, Branna struck out on her own, abandoning her forest home to mainly operate in the fens south of the Neverwinter Wood. But it simply wasn't in her nature to be alone, and soon she actively began seeking out other people, if only for occasional human contact. Neverwinter, home to a vast array of people from all walks, many she'd only thought were stories until she'd seen them with her own eyes, was an exciting place to visit, and these days selling goods there is always the perfect excuse to go! bahamut fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 5, 2014 09:19
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Arivia posted:Bahamut: You look like you have one too many feats - 1 human, 2 levels, 3 house-ruled. The High Road doesn't capitalize the article - just "the High Road" in general. Does Branna have any friends or places she likes in Neverwinter itself? Where would she go in the city - where does she generally sell her wares? On Feats: When you pointed that out I went back and had a look. Sure enough, there was a mysterious Quick Draw feat in there. I didn't select it, so I did some digging around and found the cause! Branna's ranger fighting style is Hunter Fighting Style (from Martial Power 2) is the culprit, granting Quick Draw to her as a free feat! (Many of the Ranger fighting styles seem to provide a free feat.) Branna and Neverwinter Branna has been visiting Neverwinter for the better part of a decade now, and she's gotten much, much better at cities than she used to be. Her earliest visits quite handily fall somewhere in between comic mishap and adventure, and largely consist of her blundering into obvious trouble that these days she knows how to avoid. Because she hails from south of the city, the Protector's Enclave is the easiest section of the city to access, and rather than staying at more popular places like the Moonstone Mask (the floating feeling makes her feel a little queasy) she's become something of a regular at The Wayfarer's Respite. An inn she selected based on two criteria: it was the inn closest to the southern gate, and it was reasonably clean. The inn's proprietor, a young dwarf named Grayin Goldhammer (who took over from his father as proprietor the same year Branna first visited) actually knows the fenlands ranger quite well. She has not particularly concerned herself with the politics in the city so long as she can continue to sell things. Although Dagult Neverember has professed to support trade, Branna has found the costs of doing so in the docks prohibitive and troublesome for an operation as small as hers, but has found the strange merchants from Tarmalune to be more hospitable. It's also just as easy to cross the river and head north into the Blacklake district to conduct deals there, out from underneath the control of the Open Lord. Regardless of who she's dealt with, since many of the merchants seem to change in between her visits, Branna hasn't really built up any particularly strong business relationships. AXE_COP on IRC posted:does she have any particular reason to care about neverwinter and its situation other than selling stuff and being around people, though? Also i'd like to know a little more about her personality beyond "cheerful and friendly" I saw this in the backlog and figured I might as well post about it also. For the most part, I don't think Branna has any particular reason to care about Neverwinter, no. Of course, with the passage of time she's gotten to know Goldhammer quite well, and were something to happen to him or his family she might be distressed. I guess she appreciates the relative stability of the city, but she's not on any sort of overt quest to do good. She just does what she feels is right on a day to day basis. Maybe because she could turn into a wolf, maybe because druids are just terrible parents, or perhaps a combination of both, but Branna spent a lot of her early life just being wild. Although she's mellowed considerably over the years, a number of these traits still continue to show. Branna is curious and inquisitive, more so with inanimate things then people. She'd rather throw a mysterious lever than interrogate some stranger. She can at times be stubborn, but she's never reckless. She might be cheerful and friendly, but she isn't exactly outgoing. In the company of strangers, her emotions tend to be subdued, whereas in the company of people she feels she can trust, she's much more open with her feelings. She likes to project confidence and positivity even if it isn't how she actually feels at the time. Prior to coming to Neverwinter, Branna's experience with other people was rather limited. In the lead-up to her actual arrival in Neverwinter she spent a lot of effort trying to figure out how city-people operated. At first, it was a matter of pretending to be like other people rather than being a person herself. But the transition from pretending to be a person to being herself was something that happened naturally the more she interaction she experienced. These days she's about as well adjusted as the next individual, but occasionally she might run into something that trips her up. That something tends to be bad humor. bahamut fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Jun 7, 2014 |
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Jun 7, 2014 02:28
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Branna's Bow: Almasen's Deliverer Although she doesn't know it, the bow Branna uses had traveled hundreds of leagues, very nearly the breadth of Faerun, before falling into her hands. In celebration of the conquering of Procampur, the Tuigan general Kasir Almasen had commissioned the creation of an ironwood bow with which he intended to deliver disparaging notes into other resistant cities in an effort to discourage them from resisting the onslaught of the Taanish Horde. However, at the opening of the battle of Phsant in Thresh, Almasen rode out from the Horde with the intention of delivering his message to the defenders of Phsant when he was struck down by an arrow from Saerva Tarivan, a half-elven archer in the service of King Azoun IV. The death of Almasen heralded the defeat of Yamun Khahan's forces at Phsant in 1360DR. In one of her youthful explorations, Branna came into possession of the bow after stumbling upon a poorly defended merchant caravan waylaid by bandits just north of Leilon. In one of her earliest attempts at heroism, Branna attempted to lend aid, and although although it didn't quite go according to plan, she did ultimately help in saving the traveling group. Unfortunately, the caravan reacted poorly to their assistance from a wolf, and even worse so after she transformed back into a girl. After the merchants fled, Branna was left alone to survey her handiwork and took the storied bow from one of the slain bandits. Although worn and weathered, it was impossible not to recognize that there was something special about the weapon, and she has come to rely on it ever since.
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Jun 9, 2014 08:55
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