Matt's Character - Fransicso Caravello

[svensven]

Background for Fransicso Caravello

(Letter to his yet unborn son)

Son,

I’ve asked your mother to name you Giuseppe, after my 3rd Father, although in the state she was in when I left I would be very surprised if she did so. She would not even take this letter, so I have asked Padre Ottovani to hold it vouchsafe for you until you were old enough to understand it. I have the strangest sense that it will be some time before I am allowed to see you again. Theus works as Theus wills, after all, and there is much for me to do to earn enough favor to know the things I need to know.

Your grandmother was a caravan guard. That seems as good a place to start as any. She worked the trade between the northern provinces of Vodacce and Ussura, and as such met many people of Theah and saw many things. She had a fire in her, I am told, that she tried many ways to quench. Drink was her quencher of choice, again I am told because she was a somewhat different woman to me than I am told she was when I was not underfoot. My father, I am told, was a brigand, the last survivor of his band that assaulted a caravan under Mother’s watch. She said he had good teeth, which I suppose is rare amongst brigands, and perhaps what drew mother to him. I was born some time later, and I am told mother took an entire month off of guard duty to bear and raise me before leaving me with cousins near Numa.

She came to get me when I was four. From there I was a caravan guard, or at least, someone learning the teamster’s trade. I would help the camp cook, learn sums and inventories, practice negotiation, learn to watch for ambush and trail signs, and frankly any other menial task that one could learn living aboard carts and donkeys for 10 years. My mother also used this time to teach me the blade. She would find me an ever increasingly heavy branch to practice with, as she was not a “dainty lady fighter with a pigsticker” but rather a mistress of Broadsword. She’d take great delight in hammering down on lithe Westerners with their silly pointy weapons and knives in their off-hand. “Hard to parry a thunderbolt with a piece of tin” she was won’t to say as she pummeled me with fist, pommel, and cleaver.

Your grandmother died when I was 14, not long after killing my fourth father in a drinking contest. It should be noted that Mother’s fire ensured I had numerous father figures. This was helpful as I never met the father who sired me. My third father, Guiseppe, was a scout in Mother’s employ, and was everything a boy of 9 could have wanted in a real father. He’d patch me when Mother’s sword lessons got over-vehement. He taught me to survive in the wild, to lay snares and traps for animals (or fat merchants tagging along being annoying) and generally just cared for my well-being. Mother fired him after a particularly long night of drink when I was 13, which saved his life, come to find out. In the years that followed I’ve oft wished I had his luck (which is why I wished you to have his name).

Our caravan was struck by Crescent raiders and wiped out to a man. I was stunned and left alive through some strange superstition surrounding Mother’s sword, which I had picked up to defend her body from them. They took what they could carry and left me there penniless. I had only basic clothes and my mother’s sword, and of course a bellyful of childish revenge fantasies to sustain me. I spent the next few years living in those mountains, heading generally southward in a vainglorious attempt to avenge my mother. I ended up some six years later at the border of the Crescent Empire, wan and poor save for Mother’s sword. Twas there that I met Ulf, son of Snorri, son of Sven, son of Magnus, Knight of the Rose and Cross. I guess he had come to seek a legend of one of his order, a man who had set himself to stand at the border staring into the Empire. He had been camped there for several days and never quite found him, so took it as quite a surprise when I came limping out of the brush, dragging mother’s sword through the sand. He kept me from crossing the border, and fed me to hear my tale.

“Vengeance is an empty purse,” he said after I grunted out a bit of what happened to our caravan. “Spend it, you’re broke. Eat it, you’re hungry. Seek it, you’re mad”.

I hadn’t really been thinking like a man for 6 years so I wasn’t quite ready for basic philosophy. Still, it had a profound effect, as if this was the Wisdom of Theus made flesh. (Later, I learned this was from an Epic Poem told in Vestenmannjavnjar about a callow prince who kills a beast with an ensorcelled throwing axe to save his fire-haired bride to be) I became his Tyro and eventually a Poor Knight of the Order, a distinction I hold to this day. In the years that followed my elevation to Poor Knight I wandered northern Vodacce, righting what wrongs I could, fighting duels for those who could not get justice by other means, and generally inserting myself where I didn’t belong. In all of this, though, my motivation has been constant. I will do as much good as I can so that someday Theus will place my mother’s killers into my sight so I can reward them properly for their act of brutality.

Twas in Numa, as coincidence would have it, that I met your mother. I defended your Grandfather’s honor from a swaggering Castillian bravo who had dishonored your Grandmother. I learned AFTER the duel that in truth, he had only dishonored your Grandmother’s cooking, which I can say from experience dishonors all of Theah (please don’t repeat this to your mother). He invited me into his home, introduced me to his 4 daughters, of which your mother was the kindest. She was very kind to me later that evening, and some time later informed me that there was a creation from kindness, and this was you.

Now I am certain you will call me faithless or honorless for leaving you before you were born. Twas not my intention at all. You have to understand that I have been penniless since the day your Grandmother was killed. This is not to say I have not earned any income. I’ve been rewarded many times for actions I’ve taken in defense of others. However, something always comes up that seems to need my income more than I… a hungry child in the street, a shopkeeper recently robbed, and the like. Your mother thinks me cursed, so when she learned that there was need for Knights in Castille, she bade me leave. She bade me most vigorously with her favorite cast iron skillet, and I got the message. I suppose she wanted the chance at a father for you who was more than a poor knight, a decision I can certainly understand as I have naught to give you but this letter.

I am on the road to Altimira. I have a strange feeling that this might be the adventure that earns me enough of Theus’s favor to learn the fate of my Mother’s murderers. If nothing else, I’m told it’s a lovely town…

Be the man you wish to be. Theah has room for all.

[svensven]

Mark,

Do you need me to post my stats and such here too, or is the background enough?

Matt

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Well, you can post your info here, or if you don't want others to see it, you can pm it to Mark. That way if you ever forget it, we can pull it up for you (which is why you need to keep it updated), as long as we have Wi-Fi.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Like Laura said, whatever you want to post is up to you. Some folks provide a link to an online PDF which has all their exp, expenditures, and the cards they've earned (Like spizio does) other's post their stats and just add posts containing their updates.

Me? I want you to do it whichever way is easiest for you to keep track (so I don't have to).

[svensven]

"Cards they've earned"?

[Black Jack Rackham]

"Cards they've earned"?

Muhahahaha!!! You'll just have to wait and see...

[svensven]

Ok. I guess I'll post the stats here:

Francisco Caravello
Vodacce by Birth
Ussuran by demeanor
Vesten by training

Wits: 3
Brawn: 3
Finesse: 3
Resolve: 3
Panache: 3

Advantages:
Left Handed
Indomitable Will
Twisted Blade
Memberships: Swordsman's Guild, Poor Knight of the Rose and Cross
Speaks: Vodacce, Ussuran, Vesten (with not even CLOSE to a passable Vendel accent), Castillian

Swordsman School: Lucani (Apprentice: No penalty using Broadsword in one hand, 1 free raise on Footwork Active defense)
Beat: 1
Pommel Strike: 1
Corps-a-Corps: 3
Exploit Weakness (Lucani): 1

Heavy Weapon:
Attack: 3
Parry: 1

Pugilism:
Attack : 2
Footwork: 3
Jab: 1

Athlete:
Climbing: 2
Sprinting: 1
Throwing: 1

Bodyguard:
Interpose: 3
Shadowing: 1
Unobtrusive: 1

Guide:
Ride: 1
Street Nav: 1
Survival: 2
Trail Signs: 2

Hunter:
Traps: 1

[Black Jack Rackham]

I've written this elsewhere Matt, but just a suggestion to add in the list of cards you've earned (in case you lose/forget them) and the backgrounds you've earned in game.