In case none of you have noticed, yet, there's now a map of Eylirith posted in the QA thread. It's a beauty! You should have a gander!

Also, I scanned that sketch I did of Castien and tacked in on to his History/Description post... just in case you're interested.

Love the sketch Eol!  It looks fantastic  I'm a terrible artist so I was picturing something akin to what I draw, (which is basically stick figures and rough notes beside it)..  

Really liking the image of the character!!

As for what you have proposed, that is great.  I was wondering if, (I think his name is Karos) would have interacted with you before or your order and have seen you around.  That way, perhaps he sought help from you/ your organization beforehand and got it, then tried to venture off and you found him beaten up and broken.  

That way it would A) Establish that he trusted you enough to ask for help
B) He knows that he cannot venture off on his own and again, you helped him without him even asking you.  

Lemme know what you think!

I'll PM you tomorrow. 

The description about magic generally says "magic users."  I assume this means any and all magic users whether wizard, sorcerer, cleric or even those paragons of goodness and vitue, druids.  Correct?  Before I can get to far into the background and nature of the druid I am wondering what druidic groups might look like on the continent of . . . .(Can't remember the name - the one with Ghosttown on it.)  Do they usually register?  Are they usually or sometimes hidden?  I am envisioning a druid that uses the circle of the moon and makes use of wildshape a lot.  But that seems like a rather obvious use of magic.  I'm not against the semi-hermit type option either, I'm just not sure where groups of druids fit in.  Gotta have had a mentor at some point.  

You're absoutely correct, any and all who sling a spell or utter a cantrip. In Khadask, the Arcaren Authority is where anyone who uses magic has to register, or risk being hunted. Druids tend to live in the Deeper Wilds, a section of land in upper middle Khadask, but have been known to practice esewhere.

The decision to operate in hiding or openly, to register or hide, generaly would be determined by your personality. If you're a Fight The Power kind of person, then you're probby not going to want the Arcaren all up in your business. If you're one of those silver linig everything happens for a reason make lemonade out of lemons people, you'll probaby end up registering because it's the "right" and "lawful" thing to do. 

This might also be colored by where you live. If you're from a big city like Watertown or Port Sacrifice or Ahl-Jhian, you would be more aware of them, since they're more prevalent there. But as you get further inland, they are much less visible, and are looked upon by the more remote vilages and towns as interlopers, annoyances, and in some parts of the continent, even agenst of a greater evil. 

See your PMs for some thoughts on the nature of Karos' relationship with Castien.

Also, thanks for the kind words re: the sketch! I was waiting for a load of laundry to finish drying, enjoying a rum, and thinking about this world that Lady Dark is readying to plunge us into when I started to work that one up... I do that from time to time... aaaaaand, once I see descriptions for other characters coming though, who knows, I might just get inspired and work up sketches for the entire party. I've been known to do that, as well.

Anyway... as always, looking forward to seeing what the rest of you bring to the table! Very excited to start playing this one! 

A sketch of the gnome druid Borborybodboddynock would be awesome!  

Yes, that is a spoiler.  I'm working on him now.  Although I haven't gotten much past the names yet.  

Thnaks for the info on the magic - one last question.  It sounds like magic isn't so much suppressed as controlled or regulated.  Is that a fair statement?  So people can be be seen using magic - that alone won't draw suspicion, correct?  Also, the tatoo - it isn't always visible, is it?

Ok, so I admit I might have gotten a bit carried away by the name.  First I decided I wanted to make a druid.  Then I had to figure out the race - I tend to run humans and I didn't want to do that here.  So an elf?  Kinda bland.  So no.  I settled on gnome, even thought they tend to be tinker and rogue types.  So now I needed to figure out who this gnome was that he would love nature as much as most gnomes love gadgets and alchemical stinks.  And the name.  Names can tell  you a lot.  So I got to thinking about names.  And gnomes can have a lot of names.  And it grew from there.  Well, the first name grew and grew and then the other names multiplied and pretty soon you had . . . .

Borborybodboddynock Eric Heatherplanter Ezuri Badger Packmaster Rootwalla Meadknocker Waterknott Daergel

(The order doesn't really matter as long as it starts with Borborybodboddynock and ends with Daergel.)

And yes, you can call him Bory.  If he likes you.   

Borborybodboddynock – It is a family name, ok?!  My great grandfather had that name when he single-handedly beat the ogre of the High Moors in one-on-one combat!  Not bad for a 38 pounder, is it?  It is a proud name, so take that, “Bob.”   (But you can call me Bory, most of the time.)

Heatherplanter – What sort of name was that?  There were stories about his other great grandfather and a young gnome lass named Heather that everybody wanted to get to know and great gramps won her hand.  And greatgrandma was named Heather.  At least one of her names was Heather.  But Bory wasn’t so sure.  There were always stories. 

Eric – What??!!  What sort of a name was Eric?  It wasn’t ‘Bob,’ but what else did it have going for it?  “Hi!  I’m Eric.”  How exciting was that?  Why’d they give him the name Eric?  But at least it was better than that boy down the road named Sue.  His father had really done him wrong.  Poor kid kept getting in fights.  But then, how can you not laugh when someone says, “Hi!  My name is Sue.”?  You respond with “Hi.  My name is Eric,” to let him know he isn’t the only one with a dumb name. 

Meadknocker – He’d earned this one early on when only a young lad and he had raided his father store of mead.  Honey and booze.  What was there not to love???!!   Yeah, he’d earned this one and had a few friends back home that still just called him “Mead.”  The thought made him smile.  And thirsty.

Ezuri – the legendary elf warrior.  Supposedly his great grandfather had fought with the great elf once upon a time.  He was beginning to wonder how many great grandfathers he had.

Waterknott – He’d been known to sit and stare at the swirls in the water for hours.  It fascinated him.  Nature.  It was almost like the other gnomes and their tinkering and chemicals.  He could stare at nature for hours and try to find the mystery in it.  It worked for a glass of mead as well.

Badger – kinda boring, but he liked this one.  He wasn’t sure if it was about when he raised those young badgers he’d found or about a personality trait, but either way it was kinda flattering in a stubborn sort of way.  Not all names can be as good as BorBoryBodBoddyNock. 

Packmaster – It was wolves that time.  Who didn’t think running a pack of wolves through the center of the village was funny?  I mean, come on!  You should have seen . . . ok, so a few things got broken, but they could be fixed!  Now those faces – they might be forever frozen that way!

Rootwalla – This was a personal favorite.  He’d earned this one.  He’d managed to make a wall of thorns and roots that saved several gnomes from some attacking goblins.  He’d had a scroll.  But ‘wall of roots’ really doesn’t sound great, so over a few mugs of mead the name had morphed.  He liked this one. 

Daergel – A clan name.  A good name.  Nothing interesting though.  Except the family history.  All those great grandfathers.   That was interesting and something to be proud of.  So a good name. 

Yes, the rest of the character is under construction as well.  

Dude! That is a MOOOOOOOOUTHFUL!!!!

I like it!

Bory sounds awesome, I can't wait to see more! 

And yes, it's really just regulated and controlled. If you're seen perforing magic of any kind, and a gurad or someone with some importance, as opposed to commoners and the average riff-raff) you might be asked to show your "papers" to verify that you're registered with the Arcaren, which means flashing your tat or showing actual papers. In some cases, specific maic users are given restrictions and limitations if they've, say, accidentally blown up a building, or levelled a town, or caused significant damage due to neligence or incompetence. 

haha Bory sounds wonderfully fun!  Excited to meet him. 

Concerning Karos, I am actually wondering if I should go play him as a tiefling.  They are allowed in the world right?  And hopefully not discriminated against... (though i could use that)

Tieflings are absolutely allowed. As for how welcomed they are, that depends on where you go. In the denser populated areas (Port Sac, AJ, and Watertown) there are large communities of many races. Some own businesses, are involved in politics, teach children, etc. And then there's places like the Deeper Wilds, where people are occaisionally less tolerant. 

I was looking at spells for Bory and while I do plan on taking goodberry - I was not planning on using either Cure Wounds or Detect Magic for his other 1st level spell, instead opting for entangle.  But depending on the party makeup, I'm not sure if that is a good idea.  Will someone else at least have the detect magic bit covered?

As far as I know, Cas will be starting with a single cantrip at his disposal.

...and look around to see who Ayrn might show up as.

This is going to be an interesting group from the looks of it!

Scribbled in my sketchbook a bit, last night... haven't drawn a gnome in ages and, for the life of me, can't recall ever having drawn a tiefling (odd as that feels to admit). I have a feeling that this adventure is going to light a fire under my recently dormant need to draw... Soooo, when you fine folks get around to putting some physical descriptions to your characters, I'll likely be hovering about and looking to snatch them up for character pics.