A journey through a land of fantasy…

(Spoilers)

(Note:  My descriptions here will be about both the character and player, because you cannot separate the two.  Thus, some of what I write may seem harsh or critical.)

The next character to discuss is Falco Bors, played by Kyle.  The reason for this is that the other two characters, played by Robert and Mel, are rather complex and will take some time.  Falco is a lot easier to define.

Kyle assumed the mantle of rogue for the group, but didn’t want to play a classic rogue.  He instead created a scout/ranger with a tragic past.  Falco is a native of Lasquibur, the region which is perpetually in territorial and racial struggles with its neighbor, Chondheim.  Falco grew up in a peaceful fishing village, but it was invaded and razed by Chondian forces, and he barely got away with his life.  His anger over the event prompted him to join the Lasquiban military, where he specialized in scouting and reconnaissance.  However, he soon tired of bloodshed, and when he got the opportunity, he left the military and his home region, seeking peace.

I pegged him as the unknown wild card in the group and added a bit more to his background.  While he was in the military, his abilities were noted by those he didn’t know were watching him, and at some point, he was offered a position in the Obsidian Guard, the king’s secret service.  I thus had to create how exactly the OG worked, so that Kyle could adjust his character accordingly.

The Obsidian Guard (or kingsmen) live incognito among the citizens of the realm, watching for any possible treasonous activity.  They are unmerciful and ruthless, and those who speak against the king may suddenly disappear, never to be heard from again.  The kingsmen have a more open presence in Nemeril, where the officers of the corp run it day-to-day, but in the rest of the kingdom, no one knows if the person sitting next to him is a kingsman.

In order to make this plausible, I gave the OG a secret language, like a thieves’ cant, in which words and gestures made during normal conversation convey other messages.  Kyle was required to take the language normally (one of his starting languages).  Thus, one OG can identify other OGs by observing someone talking and seeing if their language makes OG-sense.  News and information is passed by word of mouth, which is often very slow — a piece of information, even when the OG is trying to spread it, may take weeks or months to travel to the next town, depending on the travels of the kingsmen.

The kingsmen are divided into two “ranks.”  One is the “observer” rank. These kingsmen live their lives and if they see a problem, report it in rather than do anything about it.  Thus, they are not required to have combat or stealth capability, and they are more successful at maintaining their cover.  The other is the “operative” rank, those that actively do missions, kidnap, arrest, or execute people, etc.  They are less concerned with maintaining cover, since their work is much more open.  Falco is actually a member of the second group, though he infiltrates like the first.

Falco does get paid for his work periodically (I’m not sure I’ve paid him recently; I better check).  He, however, has only met OG that either trained him in Lasquibur or he has established contact with on his journey.  He has never been to Nemeril and has never met the established Guard there.

Kyle accepted this bit of subterfuge very readily.  He decided that Falco joined them for idealistic reasons, believing that they actually are bent on doing good for the realm and the king, rather than being secret police.  In the course of the game, Falco has been discovering that all is not as it seems, and is wondering if anything in the world is good.  As yet, the party has not discovered his secret agent status, though, unbeknownst to Kyle, two of the party suspects him.

(As a note, this wasn’t the direction I was hoping Falco would take.  I wanted Kyle to use his connections in the OG to eventually start funnelling information to the party, but as it is, Kyle is straddling the fence, trying to live up to his obligations on both sides.  It is starting to crumble, but not completely yet.)