Badger

Badger is a Changeling Cleric/Rogue in The Collective campaign. He also appears as an NPC in the Kosvir's Band campaign.

Early Life
Eric was born to two Changeling parents whom he has never met. He was raised in an orphanage for the first few years of his life, where he was often bullied for his unusual race and was generally treated poorly by the orphanage staff. Not happy with his situation, he decided to run away in the night along with another mistreated orphan, Vhonlia. The two spent a couple of nights on the street unsure of what to do with themselves, before they were taken in by the benevolent leader of a local gang, Kosvir.

The gang, Kosvir’s Band, taught him everything he knew, including how to read, write, and speak Undercommon, how to pick a lock, how to climb a building, how to throw a dagger, how to steal, who to steal from, who to kill, when to kill, and many other lessons. Though they were criminals, the ideals of the gang were not unjust. They had rules against senseless violence and they would never steal from someone who wasn’t worth stealing from. They would even occasionally help a family or two who were down on their luck. During this time, Eric adopted the new persona of Alnan, a dedicated member to Kosvir’s Band. As he grew old enough to begin earning his keep in the gang, he discovered his natural abilities as a Changeling gifted him the opportunity to perform some convincing infiltration operations. Alnan knew appearances wouldn’t always do the trick in some cases, so he taught himself how to forge documents, which made him even better at his role.

One unpleasant day, the Kosvir’s Band got word of one of the members, Cyndra, had been abducted by a rival gang and was being held for ransom. Word was sent by Kosvir that they would agree to pay the ransom, and a meeting point was arranged. The time came for the exchange in an old abandoned house in gang neutral territory and everyone was in position if something went wrong. Alnan’s job was to make sure there was an exit ready for a hasted retreat, should the meeting go south. Both parties arrived with the promised cargo and the deal was set to begin. The rivals demanded the money be handed over first. Kosvir agreed to this, knowing someone’s life was on the line. As soon as they finished counting the money, they prepared to release their hostage, but at that moment, dozens of town guards burst through the doors; they had received a tip that two criminal organizations were making a high-volume exchange of gold, and they were ready for the bust. The rival gang boss, having not handed over the hostage yet, determined that the guards had cut a deal with Kosvir, so that he could keep his gold, save his girl, and lock them up. In that moment, he cut her throat clean open as him, his men, and his gold were all seized by the town guard. As soon as this happened, Kosvir’s band began to make their escape. Luckily most of the guards were more interested in the party that had the gold, so the group was able to slip away relatively unnoticed, with any stray guards being handily put down by Therask.

This was a traumatic day for the whole group, and many weeks of mourning followed the loss of a dear member of the group. After a while everyone got back into the swing of things, but Kosvir wasn’t his normal self. He had seemed off, but that was to be expected following Cyndra's death; everyone expected him to take longer to recover and they attributed his odd behavior to that. But when they went out to do some jobs with him, he was much more reckless and aggressive than usual, opting to senselessly kill guards when it was just as easy to sneak past them. He had began violating the rules and ideals that he had set in place for everyone else. While the group wasn’t necessarily comfortable with this new change, they had again attributed his impulsive behavior to the mourning of his loved one and stomached through it.

Eventually Kosvir betrayed the gang, and Alnan found himself unconscious in an alleyway through events not currently known to The Collective

Alnan awoke the next morning in an alleyway with what gear he had on him when he passed out. He returned to where the camp was last set up to find that everyone had abandoned it. Determining that the events of last night were the tipping point that pushed everyone to go their separate ways, he decided it was time for a change in his life, and that he should invest his time doing something good in order to make up for his crimes. After some time wandering around the town looking for a new place to call home, he discovered the local Church of Arabella. Knowing Arabella’s dominion was over healing, he decided working with them would be a good way of redeeming himself. Unfortunately, Alnan wasn’t exactly magically gifted, so he had to find an alternative method or service to provide the group. He remembered seeing Vhonlia brewing different types of poisons all the time, so perhaps health potions could be the way to go. He made his way down to the local bookstore and acquired (stole) a few basic books on herb-lore and potion making. During his time spent reading and practicing brewing, he developed the new persona of Cedric.

Church of Arabella
After a couple weeks of practice, Cedric decided he was proficient enough to take his services to the church. He went ahead and forged himself a document of his theological credentials and made his way to talk to the head of the Church of Arabella, Heshar. Cedric claimed he was a professional alchemist who was looking to devote himself to a greater cause. He offered his potion making services in exchange for room and board, as well as compensation for the materials he needed to make these potions. Many months passed while Cedric worked with the church, and eventually he even began to develop divine powers, an incredibly rare talent. After a couple years he became well known by many folks who were there looking for healing or spiritual guidance, and he was trusted among the other members of the clergy. He was also taught how to speak Celestial by his fellow clergy members and by studying some translated sacred texts.

One night, Heshar had been summoned to speak with Arabella in his dreams. It was revealed to him that Cedric was in fact a Changeling and he had been dishonest about his credentials. Heshar went to the city guard and reported the imposter and had ordered them to arrest him in the church. As the guard moved in, Cedric overheard the guards moving into position. He grabbed what little he could and fled out the window to his room.

With his nature now known by city officials, Cedric had no choice but to lay low and avoid drawing any unnecessary attention to himself. Living as a homeless man was likely the last place the city would check, as he believed officials would be questioning local guilds and groups about new members or employees. To cover his identity, he created the persona of Badger.

Pre-Collective
Following his excommunication from the church, Badger created a makeshift amulet made of metal that had been bent into the rough shape of a hexagon, which he then tied around his neck with some loose twine. This, surprisingly enough, enabled him to continue utilizing clerical magic without being devoted to any particular deity. Badger spent some of his time learning how to utilize his clerical magic for trickery (taking inspiration from his old gang member Nilros), while also trying to survive on the streets as a homeless man. Eventually Badger would find himself attending the Festival of Life for food and to perhaps make a bit of money, where he would go on the meet the other members of The Collective.

Alnan
Coming soon...

Badger
Very

Cedric
Very chill, and overly relaxed. He may find himself trying to smooth over social tension and keep the peace. When working on a quest he will generally not be super interested and not try very hard.

Delorean
All about doing business and making business happen. Decisions made are heavily based on monetary gain and return on investment.

Combat
Badger (primary combat persona) is the weakest member of the group. Because of this, he can usually be found running away and/or hiding and/or attacking from range. Lucky for Badger he is able to make up for his tragically low amount of hit points by hiding behind various illusory magics.

Notable Quotes

 * "Loot is what you make of it"

Trivia

 * Badger's favorite food is clam chowder
 * The original first draft of Badger's backstory included a short portion of his life where he worked as a prostitute right before joining the Church of Arabella
 * Health potions made by Cedric use tall, grande, and venti to indicate their size
 * Alnan and Cedric often don't get as much "screen time" as Badger mainly because they are both wanted criminals in the primary city for the campaign. Whoops