Marley
Marley is a skillful adventuring goblin with wizardly training who hales from Mythril Lode, the famous Alexandrian town in a sinkhole.
Companions
Marley travels with a raven familiar that answers to the name Geramee and a trained riding dog named Zantus.
Geramee
Geramee (pronounced just like the RL name Jeremy) is a raven familiar who has been Marley's companion since she was twenty when her master, Sullivan Keane a divination specialty wizard who resides in Mythril Lode, helped her bind him as her first familiar.
As a common raven he is just a bit under four feet long from beak to the base of his tail and has a wingspan in excess of four feet when his wings are fully extended. He is typical in coloration with black feathers, leg scales, beak and eyes.
In addition to the normal abilities of a familiar of a novice wizard (Alertness, improved evasion, share spells, and empathic link), Geramee has gained the supernatural ability to speak one of the languages Marley speaks. In his case, this language is Low Common (which allows him to understand and be understood by speakers of Tradespeak also).
Sometimes when they are interacting (outside of combat or other stress filled situations), Geramee and Marley almost seem like partners more than familiar and master, however Geramee always calls Marley "boss" (but sometimes laced with sarcasm).
(Geramee's stat block can be seen on his page here.)
Zantus
Zantus is a riding dog of a northern breed that Marley's uncle brought south with him when their family settled in Mythril Lode. Like all of his breed he is a solidly built animal with heavy bones, a barrel chest and a relatively short and well-muscled neck as well as a distinctive head shape dominated by a short muzzle and pendant ears.
He has a liver and tan coat color with the darker brown covering most of his body and the lighter tan underneath and in highlights such as his eyebrows. His eyes are brown, but so dark a shade that they appear black on all but the closest examination. (The picture to the right is of Zantus and includes a size comparison to Marley in solid black as well as the color picture.)
Zantus is trained for combat, including wearing barding. Like any combat trained riding dog, he knows the following tricks: attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel. He responds to commands given in goblin-talk as well as those given to him by a trusted rider though simplified handspeech (though the use of hand taps and leg motions).
He is extremely loyal to Marley who loves him as well, but not as unconditionally as he does her.
Marley owns studded leather barding for him to wear in addition to his military saddle and saddle bags.
(Zantus' stat block can be seen on his page here.)
RP Hooks
- Food and Drink
- Performing
- Taverns
- Acquiring Spells!
Inspirations
The following image and actor were the inspirations for the appearance of my character:
The picture is from Deviant Art and is by wosukoart and the actor is Archie Panjabi portraying Kalinda on CBS' The Good Wife.
Character Information
Stats
Below is a highlight of Marley's +sheet
| Race: Goblin | Gender: Female | Classes: Rogue 1/Wizard 1 | |||
| Height: 3'6" | Weight: 40 lbs. | Age: 25 years | |||
| Alignment: Chaotic Neutral | Diety: Holy Order of Ea | ||||
| Character Level: 2 | Total Hit Points: 14 | ||||
| Attributes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength: 12 (+1) | Dexterity: 18 (+4) | Constitution: 14 (+2) | |||
| Intelligence: 16 (+3) | Wisdom: 12 (+1) | Charisma: 14 (+2) | |||
| Abilities | |||||
| Skills: Acrobatics 1 (8), Bluff 1 (6), Craft: Bookbinding 1 (7), Craft: Calligraphy 1 (7), Disable Device 1 (8), Knowledge: Arcana 1 (7), Knowledge: Dungeoneering 1 (7), Linguistics 1 (7), Perform: Dance 1 (6), Perform: Percussion 1 (6), Profession: Innkeeper 1 (5), Profession: Scribe 1 (5), Ride 1 (5), Sense Motive 1 (5), Sleight of Hand 1 (8), Spellcraft 1 (7), Stealth 1 (12) | |||||
| Languages: Goblin-Talk, Low Common, Tradespeak, Yrch-Speak, Draconic, Eldritch, Handspeech | |||||
| Feats: Armor Proficiency: Light, Catch Off-Guard, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Firearms, Rogue Weapon Proficiency, Scribe Scroll, Simple Weapon Proficiency, Weapon Finesse | |||||
| Special Abilities | |||||
| Racial Abilities: Small Size, Darkvision (60'), Fast (30' speed), Goblin Weapon Familiarity, Marksman, Warg Rider (+4 riding wolves and wolf-like creatures) | |||||
| Rogue Class Abilities: Sneak Attack (+1d6), Trapfinding | |||||
| Wizard Class Abilities: Divination Specialist (Banned Schools: Illusion & Necromancy), Diviner's Fortune (6/day), Forewarned | |||||
Background
Amara Leigh Ehrlik (or Marley as she is called) was born in her family's inn in Mythril Lode: the Chirping Canary. As the eldest daughter of the family she was expected to help out with her siblings as well as putting in work time at the inn itself, but despite that she found time to hang out with other children of the community as well. In addition to her immediate family, her extended family included an uncle who had a pig and dog ranch on the surface a few miles away from the town proper, a cleric of Vardama who was both a family friend and who helped her mother though all of her deliveries as a midwife and a wizard who would later become Marley's master; unknown to the children these three and their parents had been an adventuring party before Marley's parents decided to settle down and form a family.
If asked what her fondest childhood memories are, Marley would quickly inform the asker that they are tunnel running with her friends and learning to dance to the performances of various entertainers and bards who visited the Chirping Canary's common room. She would not, however, also mention the hours spent reading books about arcane theory or the sound of a quill scratching against parchment at the direction of her master as he drilled into her a love of books, magic and word crafting despite the fact that it worked wondrously. She hides these facts, not out of embarrassment, but because she considers this a private matter and likes to keep an ace up her sleeve: the fact that she is a wizard, fairly uncommon for a goblin, is such an ace.
Tunnel running is a long standing tradition among children in Mythril Lode. Blending aspects of spelunking and athleticism it is seen by adults variably as a wonderful way to learn about subterranean environments, an absurd risk that no child should be allowed to take, or a minor annoyance when a gaggle of children rush though your workplace leaping over chairs and sliding under tables. Marley's little gang of tunnel runners occasionally brawled with others over turf, each trying to lay claim over the best "runs," leading her to learning how to fight better than the average citizen.
Possessing a strong streak of independence even as a child, Marley always felt infuriated when her parents discussed plans to find her a husband, talk that took a more serious tone as she approached her tenth birthday. She was so greatly set against this plan that, when she heard she had the option of becoming apprentice to her father's friend - Sullivan Keane, an arcane divine of some note - that she leapt at the opportunity to gain greater control over her life.
For most of the first two years of her apprenticeship, Marley felt like she had signed on to be Master Keane's slave. Every day she was set to wash dishes from his previous night's meal, cleaning furniture that seemed to attract dust like candles attract moths and sorting the books on his bookshelves - sometimes by subject, sometimes alphabetically by author or title, and sometimes by the color of the cover or even the text on the spine. In addition to the menial tasks, Keane would spend days drilling her on her lettering, so as to teach her proper calligraphy, and the techniques of bookbinding as he considers both skills crucial for being a good wizard due to the importance of books and words in the practice of wizardry.
Slowly, between her eighteenth and twenty-first month as his apprentice, Keane began to teach him the fundamentals of magic including knowledge of arcane facts and the basics of spellcraft. While she found the practical lessons more appealing than the theoretical aspects, her master drew out these lessons until she had begun to show signs of savoring the knowledge before he started to have her actively practice magic - her first spell being prestidigitation which he had her use to do the cleaning he had previously had her do with mundane tools and "elbow grease" so that she would all the better appreciate the cantrip all the more.
Throughout her apprenticeship with Master Keane, Marley continued to work at the Chirping Canary in the evenings and, on her free days, exploring the inactive mines and other tunnels with her friends, feeding her desire for adventure without curtailing her education which she had come to love as well. After she turned twenty, Master Keane helped Marley summon and bind a raven as her familiar (who she named Geramee); he also set her to making her first spellbook, having her work with specialists on each stage of the process - making the paper, constructing the boards for the covers, tanning the leather, brewing the inks, etc. It took a year for her to finish making the book before he was willing to let her begin to scribe spells into it. Master Keane only began to teach her spells of the first level after she had filled the first twenty pages of the book with arcane symbols, notes the two of them agreed should be in the book and the seventeen cantrips he had taught her.
By the time Keane declared her training complete, her parents had handed control of the Chirping Canary to her brother (Kobner Ehrlik the Younger, or "Junior" as most people called him) who had goblings of his own. When she announced at a family gathering that she had decided to travel not only was nobody surprised, but they had parting gifts ready to give her. Notable among those gifts are the dragonspitter her father gave her and a riding dog, named Zantus, that her uncle gave her.
For three years she travelled across Arcania and Vantyre. During her travels she has seen the streets of Bryn Myridorn and Tashraan as well as many cities in between, the has dipped her toes in the waters of the Southern Ocean off the Golden Coasts and she has seen the sun rise over the Icewall Mountains in the far north.
Having travelled for a few years a message caught up with her in Veyshan telling her to return home as her parents health was failing, however, when she got to Alexandria City another message arrived from Junior telling her to stay away as mother and father had both died and he didn't want to see her after dealing with the grief of her absence in their last hours.