(Thanks to PenelopeTheWeaver and Alton_Baenre2005 for couching me through my post "Let it go and let the blood flow". TLDR this is a revision of Let it go and let the blood flow where I clean it up make it easier to read.)
Amell was born in Uncle Sam's bar, son of a bard and a bar maid. (it's a bit of a joke for me to have all my characters be related to the same traveling bard.) Amell's mom didn't want her son's lack of a father limit him and worked her hands to the bone to afford tutors for him. His uncle didn't want his nephew grow up to be a sissy boy and and tried to teach him how to fight. Amell was absolutely terrible with large melee weapons but when he was given a bow things really took off.
In morning it was studies with his tutors, practicing with the bow in afternoon and working for Uncle Sam in the evening. When the bar fell on hard times Amell sign on with the Tanith marines for the money. It was after his first tour when his skill with bow marked him out for specialist training to become a sniper. In his second year was when Tanith fell.
Tanith was a small city by the sea, Amell was clean up the barracks for the winter when they came. Druids coming through the town with their ranger guards. a few come through regularly but this was a crowd of them. At first he thought of it as nothing and got on with it, but then the criers ran through the street calling up the militia and marines. They were to meet at the field in front of the town. It was autumn and their was a chill breeze in the air. The leaders were there and the oldest druid he have ever seen. They leaders told us orcs were on the move. Then the druid spoke he told us it wasn't just orcs but hobs as well and they don't just intend to siege the city. They intend to use sorcery and on coming winter to freeze the harbor and trap them in. There wasn't enough resources to stop them or time for reinforcements. If we didn't fight them and wound them here they would just keep marching down the coast. That left only the unthinkable. We could only evacuate part of the town by sea, before they arrived. The ships at anchor were setting up to winter to avoid the storms of the season. The captains didn't like suddenly having an entire town on their foot steps demanding passage. Their price was a steep one but they willingly paid it. Sending what few of the civilians they could off with some of them as arm guard to make sure the captains kept their word. those left behind set up for a long bloody winter. The orcs and hobs came. A pale woman wearing a pale blue dress was at their head. At a jester from her the harbor froze over, the air was so cold it was painful to breath and snow started to fall. Then the orcs charged. Amell was in one of the towers with his crossbow, his job was to snipe the leaders. The thing was with orcs you can hit them in the head and only thing it would do would be to annoy them. The first shoot is to crack their skull the next is to drop them. They kept them from the walls but the just pull back and charge some ware else. the druid's rangers were leading raids at night and druids at day were doing their best to keep us from freezing to death. the city gave them a good fight but the moral broke when the old druid died. He transformed a bronze dragon and tried to kill the witch. The witch and the druid dual on and off for a few months. Until she some how absorb the breath and shoot back an ice shard large enough to impale the dragon. He crushed the section of the wall. The orcs and hobs swarm over his corpse. We were driven back to deeper and deeper into the city. Until we were at the harbor master's manor with the rest the town taken over. Our last hope was the frozen harbor and the last druid in the city. She was injured early on and had to be kept back from the battle. She could shape change and carry enough supplies herself and few others to escape. Since those rangers all died when the hobs caught on and ambushed them all on one of those night raids. I was the only one fit enough even to think about escaping. She and I escaped and fled along the coast while the rest sold their lives dearly."
He barely escaped with Annabel Creed the last surviving druid of her circle. They traveled together for a year and found some comfort for their loss in each other. Until the day she revealed why Tanith fell. Her circle stole something powerful from an ice witch and hid it a way. He was livid that his people were scattered and impoverished for the circle's arrogance. Her grief grew into a desire for vengeance and wanted to find this artifact (insert curse artifact here) and use it to destroy the witch. She was hurt when Amell put his people over her vengeance and broke up with him and left.
Amell now is trying to make his way in the world, find his people, heal from the break up and eventually go after and help Annabel with her witch problem or save her from her self.
The build
race
Variant human
classes
16 levels of battle master fighter
4 levels of inquisitive rogue (the reasoning is mechanical, snipers are more scouts in real life then shooters) or 4 levels in gloom stalker ranger (the story reasoning being Creed teaching him the basics of druid craft)
feats
1 magic initiate (find familiar, message and mold earth)
(Thanks to PenelopeTheWeaver and Alton_Baenre2005 for couching me through my post "Let it go and let the blood flow". TLDR this is a revision of Let it go and let the blood flow where I clean it up make it easier to read.)
Amell was born in Uncle Sam's bar, son of a bard and a bar maid. (it's a bit of a joke for me to have all my characters be related to the same traveling bard.) Amell's mom didn't want her son's lack of a father limit him and worked her hands to the bone to afford tutors for him. His uncle didn't want his nephew grow up to be a sissy boy and and tried to teach him how to fight. Amell was absolutely terrible with large melee weapons but when he was given a bow things really took off.
In morning it was studies with his tutors, practicing with the bow in afternoon and working for Uncle Sam in the evening. When the bar fell on hard times Amell sign on with the Tanith marines for the money. It was after his first tour when his skill with bow marked him out for specialist training to become a sniper. In his second year was when Tanith fell.
Tanith was a small city by the sea, Amell was clean up the barracks for the winter when they came. Druids coming through the town with their ranger guards. a few come through regularly but this was a crowd of them. At first he thought of it as nothing and got on with it, but then the criers ran through the street calling up the militia and marines. They were to meet at the field in front of the town. It was autumn and their was a chill breeze in the air. The leaders were there and the oldest druid he have ever seen. They leaders told us orcs were on the move. Then the druid spoke he told us it wasn't just orcs but hobs as well and they don't just intend to siege the city. They intend to use sorcery and on coming winter to freeze the harbor and trap them in. There wasn't enough resources to stop them or time for reinforcements. If we didn't fight them and wound them here they would just keep marching down the coast. That left only the unthinkable. We could only evacuate part of the town by sea, before they arrived. The ships at anchor were setting up to winter to avoid the storms of the season. The captains didn't like suddenly having an entire town on their foot steps demanding passage. Their price was a steep one but they willingly paid it. Sending what few of the civilians they could off with some of them as arm guard to make sure the captains kept their word. those left behind set up for a long bloody winter. The orcs and hobs came. A pale woman wearing a pale blue dress was at their head. At a jester from her the harbor froze over, the air was so cold it was painful to breath and snow started to fall. Then the orcs charged. Amell was in one of the towers with his crossbow, his job was to snipe the leaders. The thing was with orcs you can hit them in the head and only thing it would do would be to annoy them. The first shoot is to crack their skull the next is to drop them. They kept them from the walls but the just pull back and charge some ware else. the druid's rangers were leading raids at night and druids at day were doing their best to keep us from freezing to death. the city gave them a good fight but the moral broke when the old druid died. He transformed a bronze dragon and tried to kill the witch. The witch and the druid dual on and off for a few months. Until she some how absorb the breath and shoot back an ice shard large enough to impale the dragon. He crushed the section of the wall. The orcs and hobs swarm over his corpse. We were driven back to deeper and deeper into the city. Until we were at the harbor master's manor with the rest the town taken over. Our last hope was the frozen harbor and the last druid in the city. She was injured early on and had to be kept back from the battle. She could shape change and carry enough supplies herself and few others to escape. Since those rangers all died when the hobs caught on and ambushed them all on one of those night raids. I was the only one fit enough even to think about escaping. She and I escaped and fled along the coast while the rest sold their lives dearly."
He barely escaped with Annabel Creed the last surviving druid of her circle. They traveled together for a year and found some comfort for their loss in each other. Until the day she revealed why Tanith fell. Her circle stole something powerful from an ice witch and hid it a way. He was livid that his people were scattered and impoverished for the circle's arrogance. Her grief grew into a desire for vengeance and wanted to find this artifact (insert curse artifact here) and use it to destroy the witch. She was hurt when Amell put his people over her vengeance and broke up with him and left.
Amell now is trying to make his way in the world, find his people, heal from the break up and eventually go after and help Annabel with her witch problem or save her from her self.
The build
Outside the Lines Fantasy – A collection of self published fiction stories.
Wow, Bard the Bowman got some cool face tattoos. :-)
Sounds like a fun character, I'm glad you're excited to play them! Let's hope they don't die at level 1...
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
here is Annabel's backstory
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/story-lore/84368-by-the-moon-in-winter
Outside the Lines Fantasy – A collection of self published fiction stories.