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I would like to cackle in an evil fashion thinking I’ve thwarted you guys with another combo-extra-sode…but it seems that these don’t actually bother people so I’ll have to leave the cackling to Chagur. A little less talk on Baybreeze’s background then due to him, but hopefully you find the discussion meaningful or entertaining or you get mad or something. Come to the website if you can’t see the full background below www.pathlesspod.com.
- Born in the Kingdom of Cecil, Baybreeze Wimble Korren lived in a quiet forest town near the ocean with his gnome father, a woodworker by trade who is known for his wooden masks, and his mother, who assisted in the sale of these wooden items. Baybreeze watched day in and out as men and woman of all shapes and sizes came and went. He sat by the docks and listened to stories of love, loss, and triumph all due to the great sea. He could not accept a life of whittling wood like his father, especially for the creepy witches that would buy his masks. So one day he resolved that next time the tide came in, he would be follow it out.
- Baybreeze stowed away on the ship of Captain Basset who upon finding him, told him that one rule of The Craw is that all stowaways must fight for their lives. He handed his rapier to young Baybreeze and told him to fight if he wanted to live. Baybreeze with no hesitation picked up the rapier scared for his life and the crew all changed from threatening to laughter. Baybreeze has captain Basset’s rapier to this day.
- After 50 long years at sea Baybreeze worked his way up the ranks and built a name for himself on the seas. One night the Captain asked to see him in his quarters, the First Mate, a Tiefling named Tarta was discussing their next big take when Baybreeze arrived and was told to go to bed for the night. The Captain then took this time to explain to Baybreeze that though Tarta was the first Mate she values death over booty and no true pirate can live this way. He was getting old, being human, and in his 20’s when he first found Baybreeze as a stowaway and it was time for him to give up a life of sea. He dare not break the pirate’s code and give Tarta her spot as captain as she had been with him from the beginning, but he wondered if he could convince Baybreeze to retire as well and start a new adventure on the dry land of a new continent along his side. He claimed the next port was his destination and he was sure there was treasure and adventure waiting there, along with a reliable warm, dry, bed for his old body.
- There was only two days left till port when a sudden and violent storm hit the ship. Things were chaotic as they tried to hold the ship and all its cargo together and somewhere at the end of the storm Captain Basset was missing. Most chalked it up to his old age no longer being able to handle the high seas, some only thought but dare not blame Tarta who stood to gain from the loss. Regardless everyone drank all of the cargo worth of ale until they more or less crashed into a dock at port and stumbled onto dry land.
- Baybreeze was in the land of new adventure, and even if he didn’t know before whether he was ready to leave the seas he knew he no longer had a captain he could follow back out at this time. He traveled inward, maybe as a final gift to his resting friend’s spirit.
- He ported in Piazza, a large city with large houses that housed many in separate dwelling. There were men that opened the doors for these houses as if that were their full time job. What else was interesting about this town was that they seemed to have many independently moving mechanical objects. Some for work and some for pleasure, the town was full of vendors that sold little toys that could talk and move their arms with the wind of a key. While he was in port he also looked at the ships, amazed to see that even a dingy cost 2000 gold. The people in this land were definitely something else.
- As he walked around and talked to individuals he found that the city is full of many skilled artificers and even those who work for and with these people are very well off.
- He heard that the land was currently in a war, but not to worry as it has been in one for 200 years now with the neighboring land of Gorm.
- As he walked the streets of town his eyes caught a platinum necklace with a large topaz at the end and two bracelets covered in jewels. He then noticed that they were on a beautiful half elf girl.
- He suavely introduced himself to her as a lonely world renowned pirate in from see in desperate need of a guide through this town, she was not scared nor impressed, but seemed oddly fascinated with him. He later found that there were few gnomes in the land of Felicia and she was greatly attracted to his style of dress (and tattoos?) which was refreshing from the standard trends of their town.
- Within hours Baybreeze found his way into one of the fancy houses with door holders but he was insisted on having to climb through the window around back by the young half elf Adelaide. This house unlike the others only housed one family, and was full of expansive art work and ornaments that Baybreeze could just see the gold pouring out of. Before he had a chance to choose which items to carry he was whisked off by the hand upstairs to a room that seemed rather juvenile for Adelaide unless he had greatly misjudged her age…he hope he didn’t. There were light colored walls with paintings of forests and horses. Around the room were what looked like children’s toys, just more detailed and intricate than he had ever seen. As he looked around the room he saw a shelf in the room with jewelry similar in quality and size and value to what she was wearing. He walked over and asked about each piece gathering appraisal information to save some effort for later. It was while she was talking about the make and specific Jewels within a tiara that the Man whose job it was to open Door shouted “Announcing the arrival of Duke Greggors” at this Adelaide freaked and insisted that Baybreeze go out the window of her second story room. She began to herd him towards it as her father voice trailed toward her room. Baybreeze attempted to grasp just one of the items as she pushed him away from them toward the window and failed. In final attempt he asked for a token to remember her by, something of great beauty and value much like herself that he would have to return so they could see each other again. She agreed and quickly reached toward all the expensive jewelry to grab a rather drab looking stone horse. She told him that her father brought it home from a trip he took up north a couple months ago and strictly told her to keep it safe and hidden because though you can put a value on jewelry and art works you can’t put a value on true magic. Putting this within Baybreeze’s hands and pushing him out the window she called to him that the horse would bring him back later that evening. This yell had called the attention of some wandering town guards whose post the perimeter of the Duke’s Mansion. They then yelled that there was a half man coming out of the Duchesses bedroom and began to pursue. Baybreeze was able to get the slip of them but before doing so yelled you have not seen the last of the great pirate Baybreeze Wimble Korren. In his hiding and keeping distance he found that more and more people were looking at him and it was later that night when a new guard interrogated him of being a gnome near the Duke’s house today that he knew he’d have to leave the town. He really wished he had one of his father’s wooden masks at a time like this.
- Heading further inland not by the traditional roads for fear of being recognized he got to a field of food which seemed to be a farm. Arriving late at night he crashed in a barn and stole water and feed from the animals housed there, he was amazed to see how many animals there were and belts of metal that made long stretches from the feed bin down in front of all the animals in wooden stalls. It was the morning whirring of machines that woke him up. Assuming he was at sea and not expecting all the mechanical noise he made a startled grunt which drew the attention of a nearby Human who was winding these metallic objects with a large key not too far from his location. This man threatened Baybreeze, but Baybreeze was easily able to explain off the situation and get the Man’s name. He was a head Tech, a term foreign to Baybreeze, named Lecky, and they were on Hick’s food processing center.
- Lecky took a liking to Baybreeze who shared stories with him and gave him more attention than most, so he explained the way the food processing center worked which was actually just a really weird farm. The workers were generally underpaid, but the Felicia outlawed slavery so it isn’t slave labor. It functions of using technology to feed and care for more animals and produce more food at a lesser price. Hick’s owns the farm but is never there. He lives in the city of Piazza and actually recently purchased dukeship of the land 5 years ago. Lecky explained this was typical of land ownership, it was traded based on value and possible income. That actually this used to be more wooded and ran by elves back in the day, or so they say. He got excited when he talked of the elves and insisted on bringing Baybreeze to the ruins of the original owner’s home.
- He stated that the owner’s home predated the start of Felicia, though he doesn’t know much else about it. Within the ruins Baybreeze could see it was remarkable architecture with more feeling than functionality, in contrast to the farm/food processing center that ran around it. Lecky excitingly hurried Baybreeze along to his favorite part. A wall sized Marble tapestry that was cracked in crumbling over 80% of its image. It truly must have been a site in its full glory and gave Baybreeze that awe inspiring feel that he thought only the sea could provide. He spent a good amount of time looking over the marble, trying to make out details and ultimately could only piece together an image of people with hands in the hair and in front of their faces with some sort of lines connecting from what may have been the sky to the people. In the corner of the tapestry he also found an inscription in elven that Lecky did not know what he meant, so Baybreeze wrote it down and took it with him.
- In conversation with Lecky Baybreeze also learned of the major highways that connect the north to the south with the capital at the center. The south to the Capitol is Darius Pass, the North to the capitol is Belvin’s way. Lecky encouraged Baybreeze to visit the capital if he really enjoyed the experience of the elven ruins.
- They also discussed magic to a tiny bit and Lecky knew little about it, but states that the Greyjaws up south hold on to much more mystical beliefs and embrace tech less so maybe Baybreeze will find something up there.
- Baybreeze makes it to the capitol hitching a ride on the many caravans that travel Darius’ Pass.
- While there he is greeted by very nice guards, offered free tours of the capitol. See beautiful floral arrangements and very skilled wood work of statues overlaid in silver as well as signs similarly made. He finds that the majority of population in Felicia is Human, Elf, and Half-Elf. That it was founded by slaves on the run from their Master by a guy named Murdok.
- He also couldn’t find anyone who could read his inscription but was told that it was ancient Elvish and only an elf from the old world could read it and there was one such further north, the Duke Penlod.
- He traveled alongside Belvin’s Major Trade River Trinada seeing minor trade towns along the river until he reached Penlod Xiloscient: Duke of MericÍ (Mare-uh-see) which also happened to be the gathering grounds for the armies new recruits. He was surprised to see nothing else on the land other than tents, fires, and one large mansion similar to the elven ruins he saw, but it felt as though it had less heart at least from the outside.
- The door to the large mansion was answered by Penlod who introduced himself as such. Baybreeze noticed over their time together that he was a rather twitchy man and a bit off though very friendly toward Baybreeze who won him over with his wit and charm and most of all the fact that he carried a rapier.
- Baybreeze gets tour of house, notices that Penlod lives completely alone with no servants. He has a son who is out traveling named Quarian and these are the only painted pictures on the wall, though some pictures were taken down or missing given the empty space in certain areas. Penlod showed him his rapier collection and talked of his dream to get a Diamondback rapier, a rapier made out of pure Diamond. When asked why he doesn’t have one he stated they only come from a hidden location in the north east and Penlod only owns rapiers that can be shipped to him or brought by another party. His collection was very impressive and well cared for. Feeling a bit sorry for Penlod and happy for his hospitality Baybreeze offers him Captain Basset’s rapier thinking that this would have been a wonderful resting place for the Captain in his old age, and knowing that the rapier would be cared for much better than he ever could.
- Penlod is unable to read ancient elven anymore as he barely speaks the tongue this past 300 years since he struck his deal with King Murdok and Felicia was formed. Also feeling trusting of Penlod, Baybreeze shows him the house, and Penlod states that he can still feel the magic flowing through things and though he is out of practice this small horse has a great power hidden within it. He suggests that Baybreeze go to Tribeck to the great library there to see if his Elvish could be translated. Additionally there may be someone who knows about his stone horse or at least a book about it. Penlod hopes Baybreeze will come back soon and asks him to stay the night before leaving.
- Baybreeze arrives at Tribeck when the story begins.