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CHARACTER
BACKGROUND: AGNARR
You
are a member of the Tribe of the Red Elk (an animal
mythical to your people). Three seasons ago, after long years of
hardship, you
became a Leader of the Hunt. Only a few short weeks ago, you and your
hunting
band left the village of your clan for the most important hunt: The
Hunt of the
Mammoth. Successfully bringing down one of the wild mammoths beyond the
Barrier
Mountains
can provide enough food to
feed an entire village for a season.
The hunt went well. After only a few days beyond the mountains, your
hunting
band found and slew a mammoth. You spent three days preparing the
carcass and
salting the meat so that it could be transported back across the
mountains and
none would be lost.
But, on your return journey, catastrophe struck: Your band stumbled
upon a
crevasse covered by false ice. Your weight caused the ice to shatter
and all of
you fell to what you were certain would be an icy doom…
… but instead you awoke at the bottom of the crevasse. Your hunting
companions
were nowhere to be found. You climbed out of the crevasse and attempted
to make
your way back across the mountains. But you found your way stymied. The
paths
you knew no longer seemed to exist. After what seemed like endless
days, even
the directions of the sun and the moon and the stars had become strange
and
fey.
It was then that you first saw the snow leopard – a terrible beast much
larger
than any you had ever seen before. Its shoulders stood as tall as your
own and
every inch of it lean with hard muscle.
And it was hunting you.
You fended off its attacks, managing many narrow escapes. But, after a
time,
you realized that the leopard was winning – you were injured and weary.
In the
end, you lured it into a trap and slew it with the only weapon you had:
Your
bare hands.
Then, as your breath steamed into the thin air high atop the mountains
and
blood oozed from the deep and terrible wounds in your thighs and arms
and
chest, the Red Elk appeared, prancing lightly upon the snow-covered
rocks. Time
seemed to stretch unnaturally. You saw that it had a marking upon its
left side
with the appearance of a lidded eye. Upon its right side were markings
in the
form of nine symbols. About its neck hung a bell. It came close enough
that you
could reach out and touch it, and as you did so you felt a warmth rush
through
your body and a bright light seemed to rise up all about you…
… and you awoke back in the icy crevasse. The dead and frozen bodies of
your
friends lay all around you in gruesome spectacle.
With the last of your strength you dragged yourself out of the
crevasse. There
you found the frost-rimed sledge with your hard-won mammoth meat upon
it. You
fell upon it like a feast and ate your full. Then you slept for a long
while.
When you awoke, you returned across the mountains and took the paths
you knew
well back to your village, heavy in your heart.
But when you returned to your village, you found it gone. On the
plateau where
it should stand, only a barren strip of land remained. There was no
sign of
devastation. No sign of battle. No sign of any catastrophe. Simply…
nothing.
You journeyed from there to the next nearest village of your tribe.
There you
told your tale and were eventually taken before the witch doctors. They
listened as the others had before them, but when you came to describe
your
encounter with the Red Elk they fell to whispering and questioned you
endlessly
for the particulars.
They told you that, in the bottom of that crevasse, your spirit had
endured a
dream quest and received a vision from the spirits of your tribe. They
told you
that the nine symbols you had seen on the flank of the Red Elk were the
symbols
of Nine Old Gods who were worshipped in the empires of the south. They
told you
that the bell and other symbols they divined said that your tale lay
along a
southern road.
As for the lidded eye upon the Red Elk’s left side, this puzzled them
for they
knew not what it meant.
But as for you, this is what they said: Journey south. You will come to
a
village in need. And in that need the path of your future shall be laid
clear.
Perhaps you shall discover the fate of your village. Perhaps not. But
that is
the road the Red Elk has set for you.
And so for many nights and days you have journeyed south. If the wisdom
of your
youth speaks true, you must be drawing near the northern border of the
land
known as Hyrtan.
But now you stand upon a hill looking down upon a walled village. A
great hole
has been opened in that wall, and several of the buildings in the
village still
smoke in recent ruin…
Perhaps this is the village you were meant to seek.
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