This week’s random rolls were tough. Although the class seemed pretty cut and
dry, with her being the follower of a savage god and having a high strength and
constitution, the low dexterity meant being someone who uses lighter armor
would be a problem. Still barbarian was the glaringly obvious choice and I went
with it.
Where I had my problem was canon lore to build from. So
little is written about lizardfolk that it was hard to find a the hook I was
looking for. I actually had to search into the adjacent region to The Shackles,
a place called the Sodden Lands, to find what I needed. A little tidbit there
sparked the idea and I just ran with it.
Kalissa
In the south part of The Sodden Lands the lizardfolk
tribes make their home. For generations the tribes lived in harmony with each
other; aiding one another in times of trouble. In recent years that harmony has
been disrupted. Some of the lizardfolk tribes have fallen under the rule of
powerful warlords who call themselves the “Terwa Lords.” Although each Terwa
Lord is sovereign, they seek power at the expense of the weaker and more
peaceful tribes.
Kalissa was one of the youngest of her family, or clutch,
when the raiders game to her village. They killed her parents and her one older
brother. Her brother’s death was an act of sacrifice so that her older sister
could take the remaining children – all girls – away to safety. The Terwa Lords
would destroy her home and force her people to become refugees.
The clutch of females made it across the southern border
to the pirate kingdom of The Shackles. This was before the Terwa Lords riled up
their people to begin raiding that far south, so the reptilians made their way
in the city of Neruma. They were accepted, though as second class citizens,
within the walls of the human enclave and Kalissa’s eldest sister managed to
keep them out of the slave pits.
Living in the slums of Neruma was no easy life. The
sisters scraped by working on jobs around the city. Living away from the coast
made their life more difficult as their parents had been sailors and that was
the only life the girls really knew. As Kalissa grew up she fell in with a
number of street kids who all learned from criminal named Kerbus Trout.
Trout would teach Kalissa how to navigate the city, what
areas to avoid to stay out of the slave pits, and how best to con some of the
local vendors out of a loaf of bread or round of cheese. Although he himself
was a well-known criminal – no small task in a land of criminals – he never
asked any of the children to follow in his footsteps. He had a soft spot for
kids, especially those who were growing up on the streets like he did.
When the raids started the lizardfolk who resided in
Neruma were all looked upon with suspicion. The Terwa Lords had turned their
eye from the traditional home in the southern Sodden Lands to the north of The
Shackles. There were whispers among Kalissa’s people that this city was once a
breeding ground for the ancient tribes and the Lords were seeking to reclaim
it.
With the turn against the reptilian citizens some of the
gangs of thugs would come to drag off the lizardfolk to the slave pits. It
became common to see those who looked like the raiders to be cheated by
merchants of all sorts. These actions bred fear and hatred among the
lizardfolk, which in turn gave more excuses for the other citizens to treat
them poorly. It was a vicious cycle.
Although the Terwa Lords were the driving force among the
lizardfolk for domination of the region, other groups used their movement as a
way to gain their own power. Among these were worshipers of the Daemon
Harbinger Ealdeez. These degenerates used the aggressiveness of the Lords to
promote reversion back to a more animalistic, or natural state.
Watching her people fall from their already low place in
the city, Kalissa felt anger in her heart toward the people mistreating them.
When a local leatherworker began abusing some of his help she lost it
completely. She confronted him in front of his shop in full view of any
bystanders and accused him of terrible things. The problem was that, because of
the skills taught her by Kerbus, she knew these things to be true. Many of the
people he traded with looked upon the leatherworker unkindly but Kalissa didn’t
care.
Eventually the remaining lizardfolk that weren’t killed
or enslaved were driven from the city. Kalissa was separated from her family
and fell in with a group of raiders heading home to the Sodden Lands. It was
here she first heard the teachings of Ealdeez. She learned to reach deep and
use her hatred to release her inner beast. They taught her to fight with tooth
and claw.
Kalissa’s rage was focused on one thing and one thing
only, the people who had treated her and her people so badly. She would join
the raiding parties and seek to punish the people of Neruma. One day she also
hopes to find her sisters, if any remain. But for now the destruction of the
warmbloods will fill that void.
Is this what you envisioned when you first laid eyes on
the random rolls? What class did your lizardfolk choose? What happened to her
parents? What disaster did she witness? Why did the end up in a human city? How
did she come worship Ealdeez?
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