Werebear NPC(s) up for adoption/use

**Elgate** Mon Dec 05, 2016 6:53 pm

For those not familiar with the Lycan system, it's possible for lycan PCs to have children, and for those children to then be 'adopted' which means you as a player get to play them. This means you get to play a 'Natural' Lycan character. Seeing as I'm not around much anymore and my character's children are now of 'playable' age IG (They're roughly 17-18), I thought I may as well put them up for adoption so that they don't just disappear with me.

If anyone is interested, we'll need Eriniel for guidance to make sure everything goes smoothly, and also for DM help as the 'PC Father' is unlikely to show up for the process. (This is the technical stuff, which can be dealt with when/if anyone is interested). I think the only thing necessary to adopting a Lycan NPC is that you have the same name and gender. Everything else is a bit more flexible.

Generic details:
Parents: Grace Fennerset (Brown Bear lycan) and Haven Blademantle (Human)
(Grace was 6'1, dark hazel eyes, dark skinned with copper hair. Haven was 6'3, with 1 blue and 1 green eye, black hair and pale skin. The kids being natural werebears may develop more ursine traits.)
Born: 4/09/507
Lycan Type: Dire Bear
Dyne and Geralt are twins (I'd say identical, but I'll allow that for player interpretation).

First 'Cub'
Fixed Details
Name*: Geralt
Gender: Male

(*The first name is most important. I'm not sure if you need the last name to remain blank, but honestly, I don't think Geralt would care. Surnames mean little to him. His Mother's is 'Fennerset' and his Father's real surname is a mystery, but often went by 'Blademantle'. Geralt is named after his grandmother 'Geraldine' and was named by Grace)

Slightly more flexible Details
Age: 17/18
( While technically 'fixed' script wise, the age is a little ambiguous and seeing that most players don't keep track of the passing years, you'd be forgiven for fudging your age)

Class: Druid and/or Fighter
(This is what Geralt seems to have favoured so far. I'd definitely suggest a Druid for this character, or nature class.)

Appearance:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The 'head' is obviously completely up to the player, as is future fashion sense. Colouration probably should stay close to the original, but you have a little leeway. His mother hard dark skin and copper hair and his father has pale skin and dark hair (The scripts took the mothers colouration). (He has a book because we gave it to him and he would use it as a weapon. You can interpret that as him being book smart or the opposite.)

Chosen Parent: Grace Fennerset (Mother)
*Lycan scripts 'split' the pups up between the parents if both stick around. They'd only spawn for one parent and would follow them around. Grace and Haven had a good relationship, but lived in 'different worlds'- Grace in the wilds and Haven in his lab- so the two sons rarely saw each other after the age of 10, only occasionally meeting up.

Background:
Instinctively choosing his mother when a tiny cub (and he was born a cub), Geralt grew up in the wilds mostly.

When the children were very young, Grace, Haven and Natasha (Haven's other lover, a drow from Faerun) attempted to raise the children first in Tivook and then moved to Andre Isle after unrest in Tivook made it dangerous for lycans and drow to remain. (Natasha was a barmaid temporarily at Tivook inn. Apparently she and Haven came from Faerun, but nearly centuries apart- The family dynamics are... complicated). Natasha soon had a daughter with Haven, a half drow named Lillian, born about four years after Grace's twins. However, idyllic family life was never a reality. While Natasha was comfortable in their new home, although the islanders found the strange elf a little 'unothordox' Grace and Haven couldn't settle. Haven's true lab called to him and Grace yearned to go back to the wilds. They'd all meet up on important festivals, including birthdays and holy days, and would send resources and gifts to one another, but otherwise they'd go their own ways.

Grace retreated to Esrogoth- druidic lands. Grace did her best to keep her young son away from greater dangers while showing him how to survive the wilds. However, lycans grow fast and Grace saw no need to constantly be holding his hand- Geralt had already hunted his own prey and killed things like goblins and giant ants before his teens. He did so in his natural bear form, or his human form, or many other forms he learnt from watching his mother (A druid/shapeshifter). He has never been in the city.

Geralt grew up with a mother who loved him dearly but also raised him in the wilds in an almost 'harsh' druidic fashion (Certainly it would be considered barbaric by any civilised person), and had an unorthodox family that valued independence above all else. However, Geralt has barely left his mother's side for the first 17 years of his life- unusually long for lycans, whose animal form and nature allows them to be independent far earlier.

Other info:

Geralt would probably be familiar with most of the wilds, especially the northern ones, and even more especially Esrogoth.
Geralt is familiar a few faces- His mother Grace, his father Haven, his 'aunt' Natasha, his brother Dyne and his half-sister Lillian would be the most familiar to him. He never met any of his extended family on his mother's side, as they all live in the city. He knew a few others when he was much younger, but many of them have moved on (Certain PCs might claim to know you- it would be fair enough to RP you can't remember them. The names ' Aunty Aria', 'Vrnea', 'Vhilnya' and 'Vanhalen' might ring a bell).
Geralt will be able to speak Animal and Common, but may prefer animal. He's unlikely to have picked up 'Drow' from his father and 'aunt'.

Head Canons (Things we RPed light heartedly, but you can use or ignore)

Both Dyne and Geralt had an obsession with helmets when young. Possibly because their father never removed his hood. Ever. (Also because they were 'born' with helmets on due to the random head selection by the script- they were [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.])
He and Dyne fought over books- Dyne liked reading them, Geralt liked hitting things with them. Or eating them. (Ah, NPC AI and cubs being cubs.)
Geralt's a mama's boy- She's often the only person he sees for months at a time. (Also- we had difficultly completing the script requirements that would allow the kids to be 'independent', and even afterwards Geralt hung around more than he should. Most other lycan kids left their parents when they were 4 years old, pure script wise.)
He had to toughen up fast (The scripts made him immortal. I could leave him to fight hordes of goblins. He was fiiiine.)
Social norms? What are those? (See; his background and his family.)
We felt like he got along well with his siblings, although they grew apart later in life.
Geralt had a more open personality- somewhat shy around strangers, being unsocialised, but also far more extroverted than his brother.
He might have a few arcane tattoos. Grace was against the children having tattoos, and with Geralt being in her charge, he likely only gained these when he was older and agreed to them.

It's up to you how you want to interpret all this. Feel free to message me about it.

'Second' Cub

I, as a player, don't have full access to this cub. You could only adopt him if the father pc's player returns to allow the procedure, or Eriniel finds a way of gaining custody.

Fixed Details
Name*: Dyne
Gender: Male
(*Again, not certain about last names being important. Dyne was named by his father, because he liked the sound of it. Dyne might take his mother's last name (Fennerset), his father's title (Blademantle) or even his Father's actual last name- Which I want to say is Arnimane.)

Details on Dyne are a bit sparse, because the Player couldn't play as often. For the most part his details are the same as Geralt's, except he chose his father to live with. He'd look pretty much like Geralt.

Class: Script decided he was a sorcerer. His father was a Fighter/Weapon Master/Wizard, emphasis on Wizard. Dyne might also be a wild mage- we were unable to test this, but both cubs were born in a high wild magic area which gives them a chance of becoming wild mages if they develop arcane skills. I cannot guarantee this, but it's a possibility, especially as Dyne leveled into sorcerer, not wizard.

Other Details:

Choosing to live with his father, who was notorious for spending weeks, or even months, on end in his lab working on another arcane project, Dyne spent a great deal of his life in the lab and the few rooms attached. Haven would assure Grace that Dyne was being perfectly cared for by the 'Nanny golem' and the rescued half-drow slave he kept around as a maid/servant/What's-her-name?/person-who-he-forgets-is-there. Whether that was truth or a poor joke is up to debate. Haven never expected one of the cubs to latch onto him, however, and both parents had originally planned for Grace to be the main caretaker.
Dyne may have arcane tattoos- His father was fond of tattoo magic, and often tattooed family members in order to keep track of them or in an experimental attempt to help the subject control their lycanthropic urges. With Dyne being at his father's 'experimental mercy', he may have numerous tattoos, and may not even know what half of them do.
Dyne might be able to speak under common due to where and who raised him. His animal is instinctive, but rusty- His father barely spoke it and there weren't many animals or others who could speak it with him. (It was joked that Dyne would barely speak at all, considering he was usually left to his own devices with a golem and nervous 'maid')
Social norms?.... Social?.... (Dyne was brought up mostly in a few rooms underground, and wouldn't be able to explore the dungeons and mazes around the labs freely. His main forms of social contact was the Half-drow maid, Nanny golem and summoned creatures- and his father. He'd still see the rest of his family and visit the surface occasionally on special occasions like holy days and so on. Occasionally Grace would ask Haven to give her Dyne for a few days, but lycan instincts would drive Dyne to wanting to return to his father.)

Head canons:

Dyne had ADHD (All lycan cubs tend to be a bit 'spammy' and will fill up the chat log with things like 'Looks around'. However, while I as a druid could animal empathy Geralt and stop it, Haven had to put up with Dyne 'Looking around' every six seconds.
Dyne was a book worm- being stuck down in the labs and unable to explore freely, Dyne's main form of entertainment were books, strange magics and the tales the maid told.
Dyne was introverted on top of being even less socialised than Geralt. He'd be familiar with his immediate family (Grace, Haven, Natasha, Geralt, Lillian). The Maid (Seriously, what was her name?... Make it up. Dyne's probably the only one who knows it anyway.) He might be more familiar with the mad woman named 'Aria' who was a close friend of Grace's and a student of Haven's. She was that crazy woman with blue dragon wings and gnoll legs, but said she was half-elf.

Lillian the half-drow?

Technically, she can be played as well. There's not 'adoption' process, you just need to make a half-drow. If Geralt and Dyne are about 17/18, then Lillian would be about 13/14, so she might be be best to wait or let her just be a background character. This character never really got to see any playtime, as the DM responsible for Natasha and Lillian had to leave. You're free to make up anything you like about her. The only things we came up with was:

She'd likely grow up on Andres Isle, a tiny isle with a few fishermen. Drow were unknown there, so all she and her mother would be to the locals were very strange and exotic elves. Grace suggested Natasha should offer services of schooling and minding the isle's children, if the locals allowed it.

You could make up near anything to be honest. Natasha wasn't fully developed herself; She was originally the voice that kept Haven sane during his time in drow captivity that he believed was only a creation of his mind- and the DM decided to plot twist this into Natasha being a drow who also believed Haven was a figment of her mind, keeping her sane during her own captivity? She later lived in Waterdeep, then 'fell through worlds' into this realm. I was privy to all the details, but with that DM no longer around, and Haven's Player not playing much anymore, you can probably fill in the blanks yourself and do just fine.