Based in upon two things: 1) the Haunted One Background, where one of the mentioned origins is being kidnapped and raised by a hag, ad 2) the description of the Annis hag, who gives iron tokens to children to communicate with them in secret and then spends years corrupting them until they're driven out of their homes.
Natanael Chauvel was born in the village of Calcheth was a small, poor settlement, located in the foothills of the southern tip of the Frosthills, at the southeastern edge of the Lurkwood. His father had been a travelling merchant who stopped in the village but for a single night; his mother had been a tavern wench in the local tavern, the Whispering Maiden, who had no family left and suffered from poor health, such that her pregnancy ultimately claimed her life. Thus orphaned, he was raised by the local priest, a servant of Chauntea who was often too busy administering to the struggling townsfolk to pay much attention to the child in his care.
One day, when he was 7 years old, Natanael was playing by himself on the outskirts of the village when he encountered an old woman he had never seen before. The kindly old crone asked him his name, and why he had wandered so far from his parents. Natanael told her he had no parents, and his caretaker, Father Vincent, was busy. The old woman introduced herself as Granny Annie, a simple hermit who lived by herself in the mountains, who sometimes came down to villages like theirs, but was often treated poorly as others thought her strange. She asked if Natanael would talk with her and keep her company, and the boy, starved for attention and affection, happily agreed, spending several hours telling her about his life and the other people in the village.
As dusk approached, Granny Annie finally said she must leave if she would make it back to her home in the mountains before dark. But before she left, she offered Natanael a token--a strange iron coin. She told him it was magic, and that whenever he wished to speak with her, he need only whisper into it, and she would hear him, even from miles away. But she told him to keep it a secret, or Father Vincent might take it away from him, not wanting him to talk to the strange hermit lady. Natanael swore to keep the token their little secret, and kept it hidden when he returned to Father Vincent's home that evening.
Over the next couple of years, Natanael continued to speak to Granny Annie every night through the coin, and Granny Annie would always answer him. He would tell her his woes, of being neglected by Father Vincent, of being bullied by other children, and she would comfort him and offer him her sympathy. As months passed, she began to offer him advice--little simple things at first, like how to escape from the bigger boys who bullied him. Then, she began giving him ideas on how to get them back; simple childish pranks, ways to outsmart them, but some of them were mean spirited, and as he grew, he began to be known as the one to bully others.
Given newfound confidence by his ability to outsmart the other children, Natanael became bolder, and Granny Annie's advice began to become more insidious. She took his jealousy and bitterness of the other children, and fostered it; she taught him to steal from them, saying it was only fair that he got to have some of their things, he who did not get to have a family as they did. When they became angry with him, or told the adults and had him punished, she taught him to pay them back by breaking their things and playing tricks--sometimes even hurting them. Natanael's reputation as a troublemaker continued to grow worse, and Father Vincent tried to take control of the situation, to become more active in Natanael's life as a proper caretaker and steer him back towards a path of good behavior.
But during Natanael's 9th year, Calcheth was struck with the fiercest winter it had ever experienced. The snows came early and harsh, making travel to and from the village difficult at best, and dangerous at worst. Storms came unpredictably and frequently; heavy sleet would trap the townsfolk within their homes for entire days, fierce blizzards would outright bury near entire homes. And during those early snows, an avalanche roared down from the mountains, killing several townsfolk--including Father Vincent, leaving Natanael, the bad seed of the village, without anyone to look after him during the worst winter in their history.
As the winter drove on, the food the people of Calcheth had stored away began to grow thin. Months past, and the snows showed no sign of relenting; people began to fear they would starve before the foul weather finally broke. Natanael found himself at the mercy of the families of the other children whom he had mistreated, and with the survival of their own kin to worry over, none of them were much inclined to show much compassion towards the wayward child. Hungry, cold, and increasingly frightened for his own survival, Natanael continued to contact Granny Annie, and plead with her for help. Granny Annie said she was safe up in her mountain home, but had no way to come down and help Natanael; still, she gave him guidance.
She comforted him, telling him that the people of Calcheth were heartless to turn him away so, that they were cruel to let him starve--and used the truth of her words to feed his bitterness and hatred of them. She gave him advice on how to take what ought to be his--what he needed to survive!--to steal from them the food he so desperately craved, and the clothes that would warm him during the brutal nights. Yet when these thefts were discovered, the people of Calcheth became even more hostile towards Natanael; no longer merely a bully, he was endangering the survival of their own families. When he was caught in the act of stealing food from one such family, he was beaten quite soundly for the crime, and the townsfolk became even more convinced that they were blameless in putting the survival of their own above caring for this terrible child.
Hurt, scared, and more angry and full of hate than he'd ever been in his short life, Natanael only hesitated for a moment when Granny Annie gave him her next advice: If they would not share their food with him, then he should share his fate with them. Following her instructions, he used what little oil he had left from Father Vincent's belonging, and set fire to the barn where most of the town had stored their food supplies for safekeeping. When the townspeople realized their food was burning, the outrage was immediate, and the child was forced to flee with an angry mob at his heels, climbing desperately into the Frosthills, for fear that they would kill him for what he had done.
The people of Calcheth were eventually forced to give up the chase, and return to try and salvage what they could. Hope was dim, but they managed to last another week, during which Natanael did not return, and it was assumed that the wicked child had succumbed to exposure in the freezing cold. Then, finally, their fortune changed; the terrible weather finally broke, and began to warm, the snows finally melting enough that they could send messengers to other towns to beg help. Despite the harshness of that winter, and the lives that had been lost, the town survived, and with the coming of spring, celebrated with joy.
Months passed, and few remembered the boy they had driven out of the village. Summer came, then turned into fall. Then, just as the leaves began to change colour, a terrible tragedy struck: in a single day, thirteen of the younger children of the village vanished, with none of the adults having any idea where they had gone. A search was mounted into the Lurkwood, but turned up nothing. It was only as night began to fall, that a young girl finally spoke up, saying she knew where they had gone: Into the mountains, following Natanael Chauvel.
Natanael had come back, she told them. He had looked fine, unharmed and healthy, even wearing fine leather, but most of all, tossing about a huge, sparkling jewel as if it were a toy ball. He said he had found it in the Frosthills; he said a kindly dwarf had taken him in, and cared for him. He said that dwarf had marvelous treasures from Mithral Hall, that she had no need of. He offered to take them to meet her, promising to lead them back before their parents even noticed they were gone.
That night, the adults continued to search, and found nothing. It wasn't until three days after the children had disappeared, that they found thirteen stone cairns on one of the paths deep in the Frosthills; under each was one of the missing children, skinned, cooked, and eaten, identified only by the tattered remains of clothing that remained mockingly draped over their bones, seeming to have been removed and then replaced after the children had been butchered and consumed.
On the night he had fled from Calcheth all those months ago, Natanael had escaped into the Frosthills searching desperately for the home of Granny Annie, the only person he felt even remotely cared for him. Nearly frozen and dead from the cold, he found himself face to face with a terrifying monster: an ogre, which caught him with ease and carried him away. Deep into the Frosthills it carried him, until he began to lose consciousness from the cold, but he saw a strange place--a massive tree, dead and hollow, with smoke rising from out one of it's shattered branches as thought from a chimney, in the center of a circle of crumbling standing stones.
It was inside that lair that he finally found Granny Annie, and this time, saw her for what she truly was--a hideous annis hag, wicked and cruel. Seeing her, Natanael wept, yet did not plea to be released, or for his life.
Instead, he pleaded with her to let him stay--that he would do whatever she wanted, only please let him stay, as he had no where else to go, and no one else who cared for him. Granny Annie, as a hag who delighted in the corruption of others, was only too delighted to keep him, and further twist him as she desired.
In those months that followed, he came to know the true nature of Granny Annie--a creature whose moods and whims changed on a dime, who was abusive and cruel to her minions and servants, who made deals that never ended well for those who dealt with her. She was an ancient hag, a grandmother among hags, whose influence over the towns and villages that bordered the Frosthills was great indeed. She knew secrets about nearly everyone--even the people of Calcheth--and was owed debts by nearly as many. And in Natanael, she saw an opportunity to extend her influence to an even greater degree, by using him as her spy and minion, a human who could go into human towns and do her bidding. Natanael, having no other options, embraced her orders wholeheartedly, and became exactly what she wanted him to be.
When she eventually sent him to lure away the children of Calcheth, it was no random act of vengeance against the people of that town; each of those children belonged to someone who had made a deal with Granny Annie in the past, and who, together, had decided to try and renege on their parts of the bargain. She told Natanael of this, and he was only too eager to assist her in punishing those treacherous snakes. Even then, when he was only vaguely aware of what she might do with those children once she had them, he knew something was terribly wrong: but she was the only one who cared for him, the only home he had, so he did it anyway. When he witnessed her kill them, and cook them, and eat them, he became sick with horror, and Granny Annie only laughed and mocked him for his reaction. After all, hadn't he wanted them to pay for leaving him for dead?
Despite his horror and revulsion, he stayed. She was the only one who cared for him, the only home he had; so he stayed anyway, and continued to do her bidding.
He spied for her, and passed messages for her, and led people to her door who sought to make deals with her. He helped punish those who did not keep their ends of the bargains, and lured many, many children to their deaths. When she made for him clothes from the skins of the children she killed, and fed him the leftovers of their meat when she was done feasting, he swallowed back his disgust and fear and bore it. And over the years, he became numbed to the horror that surrounded him; he accepted the abuse that Granny Annie treated him with as normal, even when she clawed at his face and plucked out his left eye in order to make him uglier (and thus more pleasing to a hag's sense of aesthetic), and even fell into treating other minions of hers just as cruelly. He began to relish the terrible acts he committed under her command--taking a terrible satisfaction in making others suffer as he had. By the time he was thirteen years old, he was well and truly twisted into a creature of evil. She had even begun to share her magic with him, making him into her own little fledgeling warlock.
Then it was that the heroes came.
They came, having heard rumours of the towns that had suffered such hardships. They came, having heard of the children stolen from their homes. Though the villagers under Granny Annie's sway dared not speak to them of the hag's whereabouts, and even tried to sabotage them, still they trekked into the mountains, seeking the lair of the hag.
When they found it, the battle was brutal. They killed her ogres and trolls; they killed the servants within, her scarecrows, her kenku; and though she tried to barter her way out of death and unleashed all manner of strange and weird magic, they came to kill her.
Natanael, seeing that defeat was inevitable, tried to flee. Granny Annie, vicious even in defeat, struck him with her claws, tearing his flesh and leaving him to bleed out on the floor of her lair, before fleeing herself. The heroes chased after her, not bothering to make sure the boy was dead.
In their wake, it was another servant of Granny Annie's who saved Natanael's life. Cutter was a kenku who had been serving Granny Annie longer before Natanael had, out of a debt she owed the hag; gathering the few that had survived the attack, she dragged them away from the hag's lair, until they found a hidden cave to take shelter in.
Scarce minutes later, Natanael felt the magic Granny Annie had given him be suddenly stripped away, leaving an empty void he knew could only mean the hag had met her demise.
In the aftermath, with the confirmation that their leader was gone, most of the other monsters wandered off, until only Cutter and Natanael were left still hidden in that cave. Cutter nursed Natanael back to health, and silently kept watch over him as he struggled to figure out what to do next. He was lost without Granny Annie; he was left bereft of the magic she had just begun to teach him how to use, left homeless and once more without anything even remotely resembling a family. Even though he felt betrayed by her, as she had tried to kill him for fleeing when she had herself ran away from the fight, she was still the only being that had cared for him in so many years, and once more he had been left orphaned and alone--except for Cutter, who was helping him, yet he hadn't the faintest idea why.
When he finally recovered enough to travel, Cutter led him out of the Frosthills, and together they fled to the south. His trust was shattered, but Cutter still managed to get past his fear and wariness enough to teach him her own trade--that of the rogue. Together, they kept travelling until they reached the city of Neverwinter, where they dwelled for several years, making a living as thieves and spies, with Natanael adopting the name of Crow to try and shed his past life.
As he recovered from his time with Granny Annie and once more learned to be around other people, however, Natanael found himself haunted by the things he had once done under Granny Annie's influence. He could no longer relate to other people; his sense of right and wrong had been skewed, his emotions warped, and the more he was around other people, the more he realized just how corrupted he'd been. He became repulsed by people of wicked ways, who enjoyed cruelty, as he saw himself in them and came to loathe it; he saw kind priests and clerics of Chauntea and other deities and became homesick for the days spent in Father Vincent's home, wishing for a return to those days, imperfect though they had been.
Eventually, he could not bear to stay in Neverwinter any longer, leaving Cutter behind as he sought something he could not even put a name to--a new life perhaps, or a new meaning to his life. Something to free him of his guilt, and absolve his blackened soul of the stain the annis hag had left upon it.
I classify him as chaotic neutral, but I'm not sure that really describes him. He's a very superstitious character, and as a result has rituals he follows almost obsessively. For example, when he buys items, if there's an item he's buying more than one of, he always tries to buy it in threes--three vials of alchemist's fire, three flasks of oil, three bottles of healing potion. If he can't buy it in three, he won't buy any, in the hopes that he can save up for three. He also takes contacts extremely seriously, and if someone makes a deal with him and then seems to back out of it or betray him, it makes him fly into a rage. In a sense, he's a lawful character in that way? Yet his temperament and the simple fact that these rituals can be random and interfere with daily life create results that are ultimate chaotic?
I describe him as neutral on the good-evil spectrum largely because he wants to be good, but has no idea how to go about it, and tends to do bad things unless someone else tells him not to. But perhaps I should classify him as evil, as, regardless of his intentions, if he murders someone in a fit of rage that's still an evil act?
Whoa that is wonderfully horrifying backstory! From my reading, I see a tortured soul with a strong moral compass searching for absolution. Obviously, his serious flaws (and likely mental illness) that he developed during his childhood are hindering his moral progression. It sounds like you plan on leading this character down the path of redemption? I would characterize that as Chaotic Good not Chaotic Neutral. I’d like to hear the thoughts of others…
Just wondering – Is this a character a Warlock or Rogue?
Mike Mearls does a very good job of summarizing alignment. You can find his explanations here. You should look into it.
Great background by the way. Would definitely make for an interesting choices and dramatic role-playing if your group can handle it.
That being said, whatever you feel or understand your characters alignment to be is what you should play. With the mind set of Law being rules, hierarchy, traditions, organized groups, and a civil society. Chaos being, the opposite. No rules, no one is above anyone, the individual is the most important. Neutral is selfish. I am the most important. My needs come first, but I will not hurt others to do it. Evil is selfish, but willing to do things that hurt others or to the detriment of others. Good is selfless, and willing to put others needs before the needs of self, even to the point of self detriment. I believe CN is a good choice for the character. He could the right things for the wrong reasons or the wrong things for all the right reasons. Which is why he is never fully a "good" character. An example of this would be, saving and feeding an orphan from the streets, but later, he holds what was a selfless act over that orphan to get the kid do something selfish for the character. Or another example, your character finds out that the orphan has a parent that is still alive. Your character, not understanding that maybe that parent doesn't even know the child is alive your character just assumes that the parent is "evil" and doesn't want the burden of a child, goes and murders that parent so the orphan can inherit the land and money so the orphan can survive on their own better. The ends justifying the extreme action taken. He would be projecting a lot of Granny Annie's motivations onto others and not understanding that people are more complex because he has never seen the other side because even his "good" caretaker never showed him the way or at least the why of doing good.
Going one step further building off of GhastlyOrphans' question. He could make a pact and become a warlock. He could likely see a warlock pact as no different than a cleric serving a God. Both serving something else for power. Looking to use that power to do even more good. But the power he ends up serving is the same power that Granny Annie served, or one like it. Now he has to figure out how to serve a pact with an evil entity, but make the ends come out good as well. This would be something to work out with your DM. The quests the power wants done would have to be opened end and open enough to interpretation. The easiest way would have to be the "evil" way, but your character should be able to accomplish things the "good" way.
This character has a very complex background the would be very interesting to work through. The normal moral boundaries and bonds of trust of w/ a care giver would not be there. I would love to play in a game with this character where I am playing a character with a strong moral compass. Especially if in a dramatic role-playing moment it could come out that, the character is trying but just doesn't understand the complex interactions, that my character would just take for granted. There are lots of moral and society philosophies that could be explored as he seeks redemption or falls farther and farther into darkness and the Abyss.
So that said, having interesting compulsions such as buying things in threes, is not necessarily a choice, thus it doesn't dictate that the character is lawful. It can be a role-playing result of how the character is dealing with his days as a child. It could be a curse left on him by Granny Annie, that marks him to other Hags. There are lots of ways to explain a role-playing "tick" without having to result to alignment.
Great character. I might have rambled on a bit, hope I answered what you were looking for. Good luck and have fun.
Crow was a warlock in the past when Granny Annie was still alive; I don't think he would become a warlock again, simply because, having existed for those years completely under Granny Annie's thumb and having experienced so harshly what it's like to have your debts held over you in such an awful way, Crow would be extremely wary of ever intentionally putting himself in that position again. He takes contracts and debts very seriously, because of his keen awareness of how they can be used against someone. Functionally and stats-wise, his being a warlock with Granny Annie as his patron served a purpose to explain why I started him with the feat Magic Initiate with warlock spells (he's a variant human, hence starting with a feat), and also why, as a rogue, he would eventually specialize as an arcane trickster. Story-wise, him being connected to her as her warlock made it so he'd have a real reason to believe she was dead without having ever actually seen the body; whether or not she actually is, could be up to the DM. She may have simply chosen to cut him off from her power because she needed all of it to escape the heroes who were trying to kill her, after all.
Still though, that's definitely some good insight on how he would view other warlocks he encountered, and a pretty interesting insight onto how he might view clerics, too. While he was raised as a child by a priest, that priest never had true divine magic, and he was still quite young when Father Vincent died and he fell into the hands of Granny Annie.
Thanks for the insight on alignment theNordmann, it really did help a lot, and hey, if you ever join a campaign you think Crow would fit into, you know where to find me lmao
Very nice back story! I didn't expect to read something that felt like the back story of a character from a new book or something. I do have trouble understanding his compulsive disorder with buying things in 3's as not much is laid out in his back story about why he has this disorder or what may have happened to create the disorder. Maybe Grannie Annie forced him to do punishment in 3's or always used 3 claws to slash across his body when he messed up. Leaving sets of 3 scars on his body that are permanent reminders of his failures and poor choices. Disorders in them selves can be great items used to story telling as well. But can feel clashing to the rest of the story if they don't have anything to make them feel relatable.
Yeah, I felt that the backstory was already ridiculously long and didn't want to overwhelm with more explanation lmao. The reason behind him doing things in threes is that hags have a strong superstition that the number three is powerful. That's why a hag coven always contains three hags. Over the years, Crow kind of... adopted this belief? It's not to the point of an OCD compulsion, so he doesn't own like, three crossbows (which would be kinda useless, even if they were handcrossbows you only need two) or three backpacks or three sets of travelling clothes. But if there's something that would make sense to buy multiples of, like daggers (which can be thrown), or health potions, or alchemist's fire, he always tries to buy it in threes, like a good luck charm.
What about a Crossbow that has 3 levels and fires 3 bolts at the same time. And has a mechanical crank/lever that allows reloading. But he hast to skip a round to reload it. But hitting delivers 3 bolts instead of just 1. lol obviously that's Homebrew. But stuff like that can lead to some epic role-playing or monster kill moments. Or he quests to find a enchanter that can make a 3 tier hand crossbow that fires magic bolts each round but each is normal bolt damage but -1 damage from the rolls. Excluding 1's on the dice.
A little too gimmicky for my tastes. XD I prefer to have it be a good-luck charm he just really strongly believes in, but won't go to ridiculous lengths just for the sake of satisfying.
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Based in upon two things: 1) the Haunted One Background, where one of the mentioned origins is being kidnapped and raised by a hag, ad 2) the description of the Annis hag, who gives iron tokens to children to communicate with them in secret and then spends years corrupting them until they're driven out of their homes.
I classify him as chaotic neutral, but I'm not sure that really describes him. He's a very superstitious character, and as a result has rituals he follows almost obsessively. For example, when he buys items, if there's an item he's buying more than one of, he always tries to buy it in threes--three vials of alchemist's fire, three flasks of oil, three bottles of healing potion. If he can't buy it in three, he won't buy any, in the hopes that he can save up for three. He also takes contacts extremely seriously, and if someone makes a deal with him and then seems to back out of it or betray him, it makes him fly into a rage. In a sense, he's a lawful character in that way? Yet his temperament and the simple fact that these rituals can be random and interfere with daily life create results that are ultimate chaotic?
I describe him as neutral on the good-evil spectrum largely because he wants to be good, but has no idea how to go about it, and tends to do bad things unless someone else tells him not to. But perhaps I should classify him as evil, as, regardless of his intentions, if he murders someone in a fit of rage that's still an evil act?
Holy giant blocks of text what the hell happened to all my paragraph spaces!?
Edit: Fixed the paragraph spacing so it will be easier to read, and did some minor tweaks to grammatical choices and the like.
Whoa that is wonderfully horrifying backstory! From my reading, I see a tortured soul with a strong moral compass searching for absolution. Obviously, his serious flaws (and likely mental illness) that he developed during his childhood are hindering his moral progression. It sounds like you plan on leading this character down the path of redemption? I would characterize that as Chaotic Good not Chaotic Neutral. I’d like to hear the thoughts of others…
Just wondering – Is this a character a Warlock or Rogue?
Mike Mearls does a very good job of summarizing alignment. You can find his explanations here. You should look into it.
Great background by the way. Would definitely make for an interesting choices and dramatic role-playing if your group can handle it.
That being said, whatever you feel or understand your characters alignment to be is what you should play. With the mind set of Law being rules, hierarchy, traditions, organized groups, and a civil society. Chaos being, the opposite. No rules, no one is above anyone, the individual is the most important. Neutral is selfish. I am the most important. My needs come first, but I will not hurt others to do it. Evil is selfish, but willing to do things that hurt others or to the detriment of others. Good is selfless, and willing to put others needs before the needs of self, even to the point of self detriment. I believe CN is a good choice for the character. He could the right things for the wrong reasons or the wrong things for all the right reasons. Which is why he is never fully a "good" character. An example of this would be, saving and feeding an orphan from the streets, but later, he holds what was a selfless act over that orphan to get the kid do something selfish for the character. Or another example, your character finds out that the orphan has a parent that is still alive. Your character, not understanding that maybe that parent doesn't even know the child is alive your character just assumes that the parent is "evil" and doesn't want the burden of a child, goes and murders that parent so the orphan can inherit the land and money so the orphan can survive on their own better. The ends justifying the extreme action taken. He would be projecting a lot of Granny Annie's motivations onto others and not understanding that people are more complex because he has never seen the other side because even his "good" caretaker never showed him the way or at least the why of doing good.
Going one step further building off of GhastlyOrphans' question. He could make a pact and become a warlock. He could likely see a warlock pact as no different than a cleric serving a God. Both serving something else for power. Looking to use that power to do even more good. But the power he ends up serving is the same power that Granny Annie served, or one like it. Now he has to figure out how to serve a pact with an evil entity, but make the ends come out good as well. This would be something to work out with your DM. The quests the power wants done would have to be opened end and open enough to interpretation. The easiest way would have to be the "evil" way, but your character should be able to accomplish things the "good" way.
This character has a very complex background the would be very interesting to work through. The normal moral boundaries and bonds of trust of w/ a care giver would not be there. I would love to play in a game with this character where I am playing a character with a strong moral compass. Especially if in a dramatic role-playing moment it could come out that, the character is trying but just doesn't understand the complex interactions, that my character would just take for granted. There are lots of moral and society philosophies that could be explored as he seeks redemption or falls farther and farther into darkness and the Abyss.
So that said, having interesting compulsions such as buying things in threes, is not necessarily a choice, thus it doesn't dictate that the character is lawful. It can be a role-playing result of how the character is dealing with his days as a child. It could be a curse left on him by Granny Annie, that marks him to other Hags. There are lots of ways to explain a role-playing "tick" without having to result to alignment.
Great character. I might have rambled on a bit, hope I answered what you were looking for. Good luck and have fun.
Crow was a warlock in the past when Granny Annie was still alive; I don't think he would become a warlock again, simply because, having existed for those years completely under Granny Annie's thumb and having experienced so harshly what it's like to have your debts held over you in such an awful way, Crow would be extremely wary of ever intentionally putting himself in that position again. He takes contracts and debts very seriously, because of his keen awareness of how they can be used against someone. Functionally and stats-wise, his being a warlock with Granny Annie as his patron served a purpose to explain why I started him with the feat Magic Initiate with warlock spells (he's a variant human, hence starting with a feat), and also why, as a rogue, he would eventually specialize as an arcane trickster. Story-wise, him being connected to her as her warlock made it so he'd have a real reason to believe she was dead without having ever actually seen the body; whether or not she actually is, could be up to the DM. She may have simply chosen to cut him off from her power because she needed all of it to escape the heroes who were trying to kill her, after all.
Still though, that's definitely some good insight on how he would view other warlocks he encountered, and a pretty interesting insight onto how he might view clerics, too. While he was raised as a child by a priest, that priest never had true divine magic, and he was still quite young when Father Vincent died and he fell into the hands of Granny Annie.
Thanks for the insight on alignment theNordmann, it really did help a lot, and hey, if you ever join a campaign you think Crow would fit into, you know where to find me lmao
Very nice back story! I didn't expect to read something that felt like the back story of a character from a new book or something. I do have trouble understanding his compulsive disorder with buying things in 3's as not much is laid out in his back story about why he has this disorder or what may have happened to create the disorder. Maybe Grannie Annie forced him to do punishment in 3's or always used 3 claws to slash across his body when he messed up. Leaving sets of 3 scars on his body that are permanent reminders of his failures and poor choices. Disorders in them selves can be great items used to story telling as well. But can feel clashing to the rest of the story if they don't have anything to make them feel relatable.
Other wise VERY WELL DONE!
Blackmail
Yeah, I felt that the backstory was already ridiculously long and didn't want to overwhelm with more explanation lmao. The reason behind him doing things in threes is that hags have a strong superstition that the number three is powerful. That's why a hag coven always contains three hags. Over the years, Crow kind of... adopted this belief? It's not to the point of an OCD compulsion, so he doesn't own like, three crossbows (which would be kinda useless, even if they were handcrossbows you only need two) or three backpacks or three sets of travelling clothes. But if there's something that would make sense to buy multiples of, like daggers (which can be thrown), or health potions, or alchemist's fire, he always tries to buy it in threes, like a good luck charm.
What about a Crossbow that has 3 levels and fires 3 bolts at the same time. And has a mechanical crank/lever that allows reloading. But he hast to skip a round to reload it. But hitting delivers 3 bolts instead of just 1. lol obviously that's Homebrew. But stuff like that can lead to some epic role-playing or monster kill moments. Or he quests to find a enchanter that can make a 3 tier hand crossbow that fires magic bolts each round but each is normal bolt damage but -1 damage from the rolls. Excluding 1's on the dice.
A little too gimmicky for my tastes. XD I prefer to have it be a good-luck charm he just really strongly believes in, but won't go to ridiculous lengths just for the sake of satisfying.