====== Stoella Brookhollow ====== Stoella is a razorclaw shifter and a druid. In melee, she frequently adopts her panther-like form. Stoella has been in Lockenport for about six months. The one thing that annoys her the most about the city is the preponderance of dishonest thieves. In the forest, creatures like that get eaten. Stoella has some experience brewing potions. ===== About Stoella ===== {{ http://images.community.wizards.com/community.wizards.com/user/astromath/14209e18b0a6ba6c5c45194a33b3b1d7.png}} Hi, I'm Stoella Brookhollow. Maybe I'll let you call me Sto if you stay on my good side; that's the side that doesn't involve getting raked by these rather nasty claws. I am a [[shifter|Razorclaw Shifter]], trained as a druid before arriving in Lockenport. Oh, and in case you're wondering, I'm a female. It's not unusual amongst shifters to have this low-pitch, purring voice. **Were you born in Lockenport, or elsewhere?** No. Born and raised in the [[great_forest|Great Forest]] on the mainland, in the west. I've been in Lockenport for the past 6 months. **Do you have a big family? Do you stay in touch with them?** Parents, brother and sister (twins). I have only returned home once in the last five years, and that was to serve as a druid apprentice to my mother. Family ties are never strong with razorclaws. **What are your religious beliefs?** My clan were worshippers of Melora, however I have not had much exposure to the divine power of the gods. **Do you have any famous ancestors?** No. **What sort of education or training have you had?** Trained as an apprentice farrier (one year on the mainland), an apprentice druid (two years in the Great Forests), and an apprentice apothecary (six months, here in Lockenport). **Do you have a trade (other than "adventuring")?** Jack of all trades (see above), currently master of none. Let's see what happens with the adventuring. **Do you have many enemies?** Not that I am aware of. **What style of clothes do you favour?** Forest chic for special occasions, forest active wear for hunting :-P **Have you ever killed someone?** No. I've only killed nasty creatures and prey. **What is your opinion of the Lockenport authorities?** I don't trust them. I suspect that they are all a bunch of thieving opportunists, as bad as those scumbag rogues that wander the streets. ===== Stoella's Journal ===== ==== Leaving Edgemire ==== I leave Edgemire tomorrow for Lockenport. It was Carstina's suggestion that I keep a journal as I venture out in search of new adventures. I have never been one for doing much reading and writing, but I will give this journal a go. I have been here a little more than a year now and to be honest I have been putting off the decision to leave for the last 3 weeks. Carstina and I have grown to become friends, and have formed a bond that I hope will last beyond our time spent as teacher and apprentice. Under her guidance I have learnt much about these primal energies that lie within me. Mother will be proud. Lockenport was Carstina's idea. She believes that my best chances for adventures are with one of the guilds in the city. ==== Week 1 in Lockenport ==== I don't like Lockenport! The smells are unbearable and I have never seen so many people living on top of each other. I arrived a week ago and on the first evening found a room close to where I arrived with the ferry from Lodrens Gate. What a thoroughly unpleasant little hole that was. I have also already had half my coins stolen from me, and yesterday while out for a walk, I was pick pocketed again by some little thief. He didn't get away this time. I managed to get my coins back and give him a nasty slash across his face. The good news is that, thanks to the glowing recommendation letter from Carstina, the Lockenport Apothecary has agreed to hire me as an assistant. With some coin coming in, I can look at finding a better place to stay. Today I took a walk past the Lockport Irregulars, a guild known to offer some excellent adventuring opportunities. Every mission pinned on their noticeboard was way beyond something I could take on. For now I will take the work at the apothecary until something more suitable is available. ==== Week 3 in Lockenport ==== Been working hard at the shop. Riceak certainly is an accomplished apothecary. It has been very busy, which I believe is the norm here in Lockenport. I am happy with the experience I'm getting. I will be stopping past the Lockenport irregulars on the way home tomorrow. Hopefully there are some opportunities to get some adventuring experience. I have heard some amazing (and sometimes scary) stories from the locals coming into the shop. ==== Week 8 in Lockenport ==== Wow! Okay, so things aren't going to ease back any time soon then. Its seems we are supplying goods to both merchants heading north to the mainland, and people heading over to the lands across the seas to the south. I shouldn't complain, I am getting some valuable experience. Lots of it. ==== Week 14 in Lockenport ==== I am over-worked, bored, and rather exhausted. My desire to learn any further towards becoming an apothecary has been successfully extinguished. I went past the Irregulars last night, and it looked like there was a mission I could possibly sign up for. All the work at the shop has not left me much time to follow up on these opportunities. ==== Week 18 in Lockenport ==== Oh for the love of Melora... enough with the potions! I didn't manage to sign up to that last mission in time. Another missed opportunity thanks to that damned shop. Thankfully all the coin has been good, and I have managed to purchase some decent adventuring gear. Now all I need is the adventure! I have the day off tomorrow so I will be unwinding at Burly Wench later this evening. ==== Week 22 in Lockenport ==== === A Diplomatic Mission === Finally! At last a mission in this strange smelling city. Before the mission I was considering returning to the mainland to travel back west along the coast. The limits of my tolerance have been stretched staying here, especially when it seems like I am dealing with petty thieves on a daily basis. The coinage will come in handy when finding some more suitable accommodation. The Lockenport Irregulars certainly seems to attract a strange bunch of people! Where shall I start? Oh yes. WTF?! Seriously. What's up with a Iron Golem? Does he just do what we tell it to? Got to learn more. It doesn't seem right. (Why do we give it a share of our gold?). QiRa, the human barbarian is a wonderful teammate. She certainly had a close call when she was savaged by the vicious kruthiks. I hope that feeling of helplessness I experienced will not be a common occurrence in these missions for the guild. The gnome mechanic is another strange one. He did things I have never ever seen before. The dragonborn seemed distracted and his courage bordered on reckless at times. He's an interesting guy though and I will try and get to know him a bit better. All in all the mission went well. We managed to sort out the situation with the lizardfolk. Lets see what further adventures the guild provides. [XP awarded 2010-10-17] ==== Week 24 in Lockenport ==== === Stolen Goods === I guess every mission can't be a roaring success, and this this one most definitely wasn't. Ok, so no one in the party died and we managed to uncover some useful information, but the team wasn't on form for this mission. It all started when Dresk contracted the guild to investigate some ongoing thefts happening at this warehouse. We were hoping to find out who was behind these activities and possibly also recover some of the valuable goods that had been stolen. The mission kicked off with a stakeout in a warehouse. This was a learning opportunity for me; I learnt that sitting and waiting is a tactic that I don't enjoy in the slightest. At least the thieving bastards (wererats) pitched up before my patience ran out and I injured one of my freakshow teammates. Things got a bit heated in the ensuing combat and I accidentally set fire to some crates in the warehouse. Fortunately Zulak has no shame in using bodily functions in the heat of battle, and he managed to put out the small fire. We managed to apprehend one of the slimy rat bastards before they could escape, so hopefully he can help the authorities shed some light on their activities. The wererats has entered from the city sewers, which is where we next went to see if we could find where these thieves were hiding out. Zulak didn't stop whining about the filth and I was slightly amused on several occasions to see him accidentally step into the smelly turd-ridden sludge that overruns the sewers. After some time we managed to locate the wererat lair and confront the creatures. Things got a little crazy. Our not-so-well-thought-out plans didn't pan out, and most of the wererats got away. Of greater interest was some bitch with a bad attitude who tossed an urn at us as she tried to escape. When the urn broke, some scary monsters were released, and not knowing what we were up against (I'll be honest, it didn't look good), we decided to flee as fast as we could. So no goods were recovered, and this adventure ends with us running away. I'm tired, and I think its time to get some sleep. Hopefully my next journal entry speaks of better successes. [XP awarded 2010-12-13] ==== Week 25 in Lockenport ==== === Crypt of the Dragon Prince === Another adventuring opportunity has come up at the Irregulars. It seems that another group discovered an unexplored crypt whilst searching for and retrieving a lost fisherman. The Lockenport University has commissioned a mission to escort Dean Cargill to investigate further. Escort missions are tricky. Inexperienced and fragile human cargo can turn out to be a bit of a burden, especially if they are one of those academic types. I am heading off to the guild now to meet up with the others and begin preparations for the mission. Oh yes, met two more guys joining us for this mission; Eckhardt, a gambling priest with some questionable motives, and Petru, a charming, singing, and dancing shadar-kai . More updates when we return. Back again, finally, after a long journey. We travelled by sea to the Badlands and then spent a few more days travelling over land to the crypt. Once inside the crypt, things got very hairy, and we found ourselves in conflict with the Dragon Prince. Thanks to our superior tactics and combat ability, he surrended and told us that another group had already been into the crypt and taken his sword. The Dean was strangely obsessed with regards to this item. Thankfully my tracking skills are still as good as they ever where, and it was quite easy to track the group that had taken the sword. We had some minor annoyances along the way which we managed to dispatch (did I mention our superior tactics and combat ability?). The path finally led to Stitch. There we confronted the group that had taken the sword, headed up by a guy by the name of <del>Origanum</del> Tarragon. We applied some diplomacy combined with our superior tactics and combat ability, and managed to recover the sword. There were still many unanswered questions regarding Tarragon and his team, but that is for another day. I am really glad I joined this mission, as I got to keep a very nice magical cloak. This adventuring career looks like it will be quite lucrative for me, and I am starting to become acquainted with some interesting folks too. [XP awarded 2010-12-24] ==== Week 32 in Lockenport ==== Its been an interesting week here in Lockenport. The city hasn't grown on me much; the awful smells, and the sour people are a depressing contant around here. When I am not working for the Irregulars I take the time to explore some of the more natural parts of the island. I have discovered an exquisite little place for a garden out west of the city that I will invest some energy in. It is tucked away in a beautiful undisturbed little place and I spent almost every day this week exploring it; making some plans on how I can tend to it. It is going to take some hard work, however I am eager to learn something new about the island. It makes me think back to my garden in the forest; that was many centuries old, a gift from my grandmother, and required hardly any tending... it was a place to sit and chill. Its time to put some of my childhood education to test. Also, I popped passed the Burley Wench earlier in the week (I drop in very occasionally for an ale) and Bentar introduced me to two half-orcs, also druids, who arrived in Lockenport a week ago. Their names are Grigri, and Dorn. They have travelled in from the Plains of the Horselords on the mainland and I have met up with them twice, for an ale or two, this week. They are taking a slow journey south, busy on a mission, and plan to be in Lockenport for another week before they head out on a trading ship. We have been exchanging "warstories" and it has been fun finding out what other professional adventurers get up to. They are both far more experienced than I am, and their names have been sung by many a bard. [XP awarded 2011-04-25] ==== Week 33 in Lockenport ==== === Behir Hunt === Ok, so we've just returned from an interesting mission. We were commissioned to capture a live Behir for a client of the Guild. This mission was interesting for two reasons. Firstly we were joined by a newcomer, a halfling rogue who seems to be mentally challenged. For now, let me put aside the general ill feelings I have for rogues, especially those that are halflings. This one, his name is Acorn, was initially introduced as somewhat of an expert on the subject of behirs. It later turned out that this experience involved being eaten by one after a failed attempt to strike up a conversation with it. My initial thought was that he clearly had some kind of learning disorder and this was later confirmed by some of the wierd ideas he came up with to capture the behir. For the first time since arriving in Lockenport I felt compelled to look after this poor little fellow to avoid having to return to the guild with his remains in a jar. Secondly, it seems that the mission itself was a devious ploy to get us to assist the fey council in the fey wild. I found the whole experience quite unnerving as it undermined the integrity of the guild information, which up until this point I have put much faith in. Nevertheless, it was a valuable learning experience, and I have my trusty companions to thank for their unwavering guidance in dealing with the uncertainty we encountered. [XP awarded 2011-03-14] ==== Week 36 in Lockenport ==== It has been an eventful two weeks here in Lockenport. I returned to the Lezhar marshlands with some of the other Irregulars, to look into some concerning activities happening in the region related to Vedroch's advancing horde. Honestly, the unrest on the mainland is becoming rather worrying and it looks like we are rapidly heading towards some serious conflict. Last week, Lockenport held the festival of the moons and all the guild members were on (unpaid) duty, protecting the festival-goers from harm. We had our hands full dealing with a few incidents over the festival period. Aside from work, I have spent a fair amount of time out west, preparing my garden and becoming familiar with the space where I will, quite literally, be laying down some roots. [XP awarded 2011-10-22] ==== Week 37 in Lockenport ==== Another halfling rogue has been poking around at the guild recently. It seems that the riff-raff are overflowing off the streets and into our place of work. This city is becoming more of a sewer with every passing day, and I shall be doing my best to steer clear of the thieving ankle-biters. They need to go back to the sewers where they below. ===== Stoella's Stats ===== {{:stoella9.dnd4e|}} ===== Player ===== [[rich|Richard Askham]]