Dr Goodberry, Squall's Warforged Vitalist

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Squall255
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Dr Goodberry, Squall's Warforged Vitalist

Postby Squall255 » Fri Jun 26, 2015 3:43 pm






Image

Heals for all!

Passive:
18 Perception
18 Sense motive
19 Spellcraft

View of Allies:
Adoette: (20) Seems to respect plants, and helps with some investigations on certain edible plants.
Gaget: (5) appreciates the logic Gaget uses. Fought him once during the war, but there are no hard feelings. It's nice to have someone to talk with during the late nighttime hours.
Leah: (0) A human who is a bit too concerned with the baser needs of the mammals. Good for talking to about interacting with other people, but not much else.
Lord Ahz: (-10) He's a member of THAT forest, but is very smart. He will probably be useful while dungeon delving, and may have information that will help keep the grove alive. I shall give him a chance to prove he is better than his forest.
Koko: (10) enjoyed session and appreciates her interest in plant abilities.
Ashkharan: more info as personality is revealed
Gorin: (50) Branch brother from the sprouting land. one of the first members of my grove, and taught me a lot about nature and the plants and animals in it.

Background:
Built towards the end of the Last War (992) as a special commission for a group of the Brelish Rangers called the Green Company. He was sent into the Eldeen Reaches within about 2 days of being activated, and began working with a 3 man scouting and spec ops group including a shifter druid, a human rogue, and an elven ranger, under command of a human diviner named Reidgar Fortel. After working for a week in the harsh jungles he was able to start building what he had come to understand as friendship and was able to distribute some of his inherent powers to his friends. The elf and the human taught him about some of the various plants in the area and explained some of the basics of his Livewood construction, but it was the druid that he really seemed to connect with. He rather enjoyed the tales of the past that he wasn’t active for. Er, alive for. The Shifter called himself Gorin, but Dr. Goodberry always assumed there was something more to him.

It was almost 4 months before he entered his first city and was amazed at how many… what was the word? Humanoids. How many humanoids there were in the city. This was when he learned about professions and money. It was interesting how the humanoids needed to ingest the various plants and meats of other animals on a daily basis. He considered himself fortunate for not having this need and as such was able to spend his stipend investigating the various plants that were for sale. Gorin helped him pick out some seeds and sturdier plants that might survive travel with them and suggested he also buy himself a shield to help protect himself in fights, and a suit of Leaf armor from one of his druidic contacts.

6 months after first awakening he had a strange vision. There is a great tree among a forest of similar trees, called Livewood trees, only found in the Reaches. His vision starts among the branches as some birds flirt from branch to branch. There is some rustling below and the birds take flight. His perspective shifts suddenly and he’s at just above ground level. A buck is running through the forest and is being pursued by a tribe of shifters. Two of the shifters run up to the flanks and manage to somehow outpace the buck, while one with some ferocious fangs closes from behind and manages to take down the animal. The vision ends as the blood of the creature starts to soak into the ground at the root of the tree.

The vision ended after a short period, not more than 2 minutes. Fortunately his allies were eating and making camp at the time, and they weren’t on a mission. He sat down with Gorin and explained what he saw. The shifter explained that these visions happen sometime to those with the proper connection to nature, though Gorin wasn’t sure why Goodberry was having them.

With the war coming to a close(995), Gorin decided to leave the company and Goodberry decided he wanted to accompany him. However he was still technically property of the Brelish Rangers. He first got some forged travel papers in a town just outside the Brelish border, and tried to cross into Breland without warning his group. But the papers were poorly forged, and he was forced to run from the border patrol. Goodberry went into hiding trying to find a way across the border, and was eventually captured by members of House Tharashk for the bounty.

He was returned to the Green Company who reassigned him to a Brelish command center due to their fear that he would run again. Unfortunately he was assigned to a sadistic, win-at-any-cost general who forced Dr. Goodberry to keep prisoners alive during 'interrogation' sessions. This was because it allowed the the general to keep him chained or under guard, as well as making sure no prisoners were able to commit suicide or die before they had finished being questioned (Many of the Shifters and orcs in the Reaches had poisoned berries they would eat if they were captured).

It was during this service that Dr.Goodberry had his first experience with the loss of one of his Grove. He was maintaining the life of a half-orc ranger that had been captured, but would not cry out in his pain. This greatly annoyed the general and Goodberry was worked until he was wilting and weak from taking in the half-orc's wounds. Afterwards, the half-orc was still in telepathy range, so Goodberry was able to ask him his name. "Durgash" came the reply, "And how who is this?" shortly followed. Goodberry explained who he was and asked Durgash what he knew about what was going on outside of the dungeons. There wasn't much to report, but the two became friends. One day Durgash lamented that he had never gotten to see Goodberry in the sunlight, and the warforged realized that he too missed the feeling of sun on his branches (a thought that hadn't occurred to him until Durgash brought it up). The two planed to help Durgash escape, and Durgash promised to bring Goodberry with him, and help him make his way after Gorin.

After roughly a month of planning they began to make their escape. However, things quickly went south as they were quickly separated by a patrol. They were able to keep in communication, and Goodberry eventually made it to a second floor balcony of the keep where he realized another problem they hadn't anticipated: There were 3 near full moons that covered the courtyard in light. Durgash didn't listen to Goodberry's warning, thinking he could make it out in time. As the half-orc began his sprint across the grass towards freedom the guards on the keep's walls raised their bows, took aim, and fired. As Durgash fell, he turned and saw Goodberry outlined by one of the moons and sent one last message, "At least I got to see you in a proper setting. Goodbye my friend." and then he hit the ground and died.

The moment Durgash's life left his body, Goodberry felt like a part of his mind shattered, and he fell to his knees. It was an oddly painful feeling, unlike anything he ever experienced, and he was confused why it happened when this particular half-orc died. He'd killed plenty of other humanoids, and seen dozens more than that slain in front of him. He'd even seen other allies killed. All he knew was that he never wanted to feel it again. A few days later he concluded that it must have been because Durgash was a member of his Grove when he died, and the mental snapping was the connection being severed. He continues to wonder if other humanoids feel something similar when their grove members die. Surely they wouldn't be so aggressive and engage in so much combat if they did.

The end of the war happened and warforged were granted personal rights, but the general had become use to having the warforged around to help with his hobby, and kept him under the pretense of imprisonment for his earlier desertion during the war, and aiding in the prisoner's escape. It took him nearly a year, but thanks to the sweet talking of the elven ranger (and a fair bit of gold exchanging hands, Goodberry left with barely a handful of gold, and a few of his plants) he was able to secure his personal freedom and some legal travel papers. This also resulted in the general being dishonorably discharged when his 'interigation' techniques were brought to light, and a Captian was brought in to manage the keep. Goodberry was finally able to head south after his friend.

In 998 Goodberry eventually made it to Sharn where he heard of a Shifter who had recently secured passage to Stormreach. Upon reaching the docks he was informed that he would need new Travel Papers to book passage. Frustrated, but not wanting to draw the focus of House Tharashk's merciless efficiency, Dr. Goodberry began to take up jobs around the city. He spent his first week wandering the city and finding places where he could help out. He was able to volunteer in a few hospitals until he proved he was skilled enough to start being paid.

The Gnomish residential areas also called to him, as they seemed to enjoy having gardens and plants outside their windows. Goodberry talked to one of the curious little folk, and after expressing interest in the gnome's garden, was asked to weed the gnome's outside plants at night as a test of his green thumb before the gnome would hire him. The garden in question wasn't that large, and Goodberry finished in under an hour. With his task for the night complete, and finding the activity of weeding stimulating at the moment, he continued down the street quietly weeding everyone's gardens. In the morning, the entire street was buzzing with rumors of The Weeding Tree that some of the children had seen from their bedroom windows, and many of the other gnomes were hopeful they would be visited by this mysterious helper. After 2 or 3 days, Goodberry realized that there wasn't anyone else doing the weeding, and that HE was The Weeding Tree everyone was talking about. He talked to the gnome who originally asked him to weed his garden and after informing the gnome that it was Goodberry who had done all of the work on the street, was promptly hired. The Gnome helped him get a business license and Goodberry was soon swarmed with people offering him money to care for their gardens.

His evenings with the gnomes and afternoons in the hospitals were helping him earn money, but it was slow going. If Goodberry was ever going to get to Stormreach to find Gorin, he'd have to do something more. This is when he found the Wayfinder organization and began spending his mornings around their various shops, and keeping an eye out for strange or rare plants to add to his collection. Of course this added expense exacerbated his need for funds even more, and so he began looking into the adventuring parties that were bringing in the plants that he was buying. This is how he met Lysette and the company Heroes for Hire. After doing a few house calls to help heal her party after some rough missions, and assisting her by providing comms for 2 covert missions, Lysette asked what he was spending his money on. When he told her that he was saving up to get travel papers to Stormreach, but was having trouble with the bureaucracy, she told him about a recruitment opportunity she had for warforged in Stormreach. He was offered transport to Stormreach to meet with the Iron Watch. While unsure about whether he would actually join, Goodberry was interested in meeting such a large collection of warforged, and getting the opportunity to continue his chase after Gorin was too good of an opportunity to pass up. He bid farewell to the gnomes and wished them luck with their gardens and set sail with Lysette to Stormreach.

Upon arriving in the town he went to speak with the recruitment office of the Iron Watch. While the number of warforged was amazing, Goodberry was sad to find he was the only one made the way he was. There were a few Ironwood warforged that he talked with, but none of them really related to him. With some sadness he declined joining the Iron Watch, but still volunteers his services for them occasionally, and is not against being hired by them to help out if there is a need. He still talks with some of the Ironwood warforged that he met there about their reasons for being in the service, and their goals.

He eventually took on a job that helped the Tents of Rusheme and was unexpectedly reunited with his friend from birth. Gorin had taken to the giants and was working around the city as a tattoo artist. Goodberry told his friend of all of his adventures and what he had learned of the world but knows that he still has much to learn. He’s only 8 years old after all.

After being in the city for 6 months, Lysette looked up Dr. Goodberry and proposed the Xen'drik Outreach Society (Gmbh) to him. Goodberry thought that it would be a good way to generate income and provide facilities for continuing his research into both himself, and nature in general. He also managed to convince Gorin to join the company too.

With some space in the city, he has started growing plants again. He is fascinated with life of all kinds and seeks an understanding of his place among the living. He is particularly fascinated by sleep and dreams, using his telepathic connection with his friends to try to learn as much as he can about the crazy phenomena. Every night all the humanoids stop moving and hallucinate wildly for 8 hours, then they wake up and experience amnesia about the whole thing? On a daily basis? Fascinating. Goodberry remembers every moment since he first started activating, though sometimes it takes him a while to get exact details.

Goodberry still occasionally has visions like the one with the stag, always set around that one tree, but never the same event twice. Sometimes the tree is tall and mighty, others it’s a young sapling. He is still searching for the cause of the visions and what they might mean.
Last edited by Squall255 on Sun May 08, 2016 7:43 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Look! He's a brainless, life-sucking god of death. At sunrise he'll vanish like a bad dream. ~Jigo (Princess Mononoke)

<Tal> Our chem teacher said it didn't really matter how we titled the graphs and tables in our semester prac
<Tal> but i still lost marks for having a Table of +2 Undead Slaying and Graph of Destiny :(

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Re: Squall's Warforged Vitalist

Postby Zanaikin » Mon Jun 29, 2015 3:02 am

have this for your backstory fluff:

(trait): use a 0th-level druid spell as a spell-like ability 1/day

Bonus Background Feat (Custom): Livewood Prototype
Your internal layout was built using livewood. You may heal naturally when it's raining or by consuming twice as much water as a humanoid; this is not boosted by the Heal skill. You also receive bonus hit points from healing spells and supernatural abilities equal to your Constitution modifier, up to the normal amount healed by the ability. Lastly, your livewood construction gradually sprouts small branches and leaves; letting them grow grants your Stealth checks to hide in woodlands as though you wore camouflage.
However, because you are one with the living wood, spells and supernatural abilities that affect only Plants now consider you a plant. For example, Speak with Plants may converse with you, while Plant Growth causes you to sprout small branches and leaves. Spells like Horrid Wilting will inflict more damage upon you as though you were a plant, but Blight and spells that target only plants deal only half damage against you. Spells that do not affect plant creatures (i.e. Defoliate, Diminish Plants) do not affect you. Like everything made out of livewood, it is possible for a dryad to settle in and consider you their home.
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Squall255
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Re: Squall's Warforged Vitalist

Postby Squall255 » Wed Jul 01, 2015 2:08 pm

Musings and characterization:

During 8hr rest period (recover /day abilities and PP) he grows [uses of Transfer Wounds] leaves on his head branches. With each use of Transfer Wounds, one leaf wilts and falls off.

Calls Collective ability his "Grove".

Breland is his Sprouting Land

Children are Saplings or Seedlings

Age = Rings (i.e. You don't have enough rings yet == you're too young)

From his visions, he gets the impression that plant life has at least some latent sentience as well and is confused why he can't add any plants to his Grove and communicate with them like he can the humanoids. His downtime botany efforts are in the interest of finding out why this is the case.

Warforged Psychology (From Races of Eberron):
NEED: Needs to understand his few visions. Also needs to understand why he can't add plants to his Grove and communicate with them like the humanoids. Can he join animals?
BATTLE: Seeing the last war from small skirmishes, he doesn't have much of a sense of scale of the war. This also includes his sense of size for organizations. Cities like Sharn and Stormreach seem huge and contain many tribes/organizations. He has trouble with things like the concepts like the House establishments in one city being a part of the same organization as the House establishments in another. This is a sharp contrast to most other warforged who only seem to grip battle on the macro scale, further imposing his sense of 'otherness' even among fellow warforged.
FREEDOM: He has strong gathering insticts and usually only sees items in terms of their immediate or near-term use. He has trouble thinking out more than about a week into the future and often relies on Gorin or others to help make long term choices for him. He doesn't seem to have much trouble with his freedom as he has a fairly well defined NEED that doesn't have an obvious solution anytime soon. When presented with a choice with no obviously superior option, he will often ponder his choice for up to hours at a time, weighing pros and cons. He will always eventually pick one of the options (as opposed to the "I can't decide so I'll take them all" example given in the book).
SOLDIER MINDSET: Dr. Goodberry's mindset is more of a pack mentality than a Soldier mindset. He generally considers Gorin to be his pack's alpha, and will think of people in terms of Alpha, pack member, member of a rival pack, member of an allied pack. He will also judge them based on other basic traits, such as Predator, Scavenger, Prey.

Upbringing: missed out on a lot of the typical Warforged combat training/raising period as he was ordered special and the contract was made top priority. As such his views are more shaped by his time with the Green Company than other warforged who had the standard Cannith upbringing.

Goal: Am I a plant creature? Can I become a plant creature?

To each according to the aggro they draw, From each according to the depth of their HP pool
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Look! He's a brainless, life-sucking god of death. At sunrise he'll vanish like a bad dream. ~Jigo (Princess Mononoke)

<Tal> Our chem teacher said it didn't really matter how we titled the graphs and tables in our semester prac
<Tal> but i still lost marks for having a Table of +2 Undead Slaying and Graph of Destiny :(

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Re: Dr Goodberry, Squall's Warforged Vitalist

Postby Squall255 » Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:37 pm

Regular Downtime actions:
Skilled Labor[Work]: Profession [Herbalist]: generate goods, working for self
Skilled Influence[Work]: Heal: work at Medical facility in Respite. Generate Influence.
Craft Mundane Item: Craft baskets to hold my plants. May also make gift baskets. He considers it a relaxing activity. (DM edict: as long as not used to generate $, not [Work])
Improve Relationship: Diplomacy vs NPC's!
Research Information: learn more about plants! Or me!
Skilled Magic [Work]: Also at the hospital, using healing spells to save peoples lives. Generate Influence.
Skilled Labor [Work]: Train mounts and pets. (Do not do this yet. wait for RP to advance personal quest beyond plants.)
N/A: Maintain Garden
N/A: Visit Ironwood Warforged in the Iron Watch.
Unknown: experiment on existence/ with plants in my garden.

"Vacation/Weekend": Take trips to Sharn, stop by wayfinder's for new plants, visit Gnomes.
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Look! He's a brainless, life-sucking god of death. At sunrise he'll vanish like a bad dream. ~Jigo (Princess Mononoke)

<Tal> Our chem teacher said it didn't really matter how we titled the graphs and tables in our semester prac
<Tal> but i still lost marks for having a Table of +2 Undead Slaying and Graph of Destiny :(

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Re: Dr Goodberry, Squall's Warforged Vitalist

Postby skychan » Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:10 pm


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Re: Dr Goodberry, Squall's Warforged Vitalist

Postby Squall255 » Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:35 pm

I'm still deciding how I'd like the sidequest to go. It's either going to be "Halp, there's a dryad in me and I can't get it out!", or "I want to be a real plant creature, and an important step is getting a Dryad to agree to live in me."
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Look! He's a brainless, life-sucking god of death. At sunrise he'll vanish like a bad dream. ~Jigo (Princess Mononoke)

<Tal> Our chem teacher said it didn't really matter how we titled the graphs and tables in our semester prac
<Tal> but i still lost marks for having a Table of +2 Undead Slaying and Graph of Destiny :(

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Re: Dr Goodberry, Squall's Warforged Vitalist

Postby Kadi » Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:55 pm

That. Sounds. Hilarious.
How would you involve the dryad mechanically? Will she just be a be a passive observer of everything (TM)? Someone else's character? Cohort via Leadership feat? Something I missed? Home-brew feat "Long Range Dryad-tree-bond" for a stay-at-home dryad? (I don't care either way, we need that dryad)
Stormreach Company: ( / )

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Squall255
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Re: Dr Goodberry, Squall's Warforged Vitalist

Postby Squall255 » Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:06 pm

short answer: DM run Monster/NPC. I figure we have until around level 7 or 8 before we get around to this sidequest as even an option. Dryad's attitude will also likely be based on Role Play, and may be helpful or harmful depending. Could potentially become Cohort, though TBH I think we have enough party members, so the Dryad would likely assume a non-combat role. Still, in theory if I started growing a Livewood Tree back at our base, the dryad could be used to ferry stuff between my body and base, which would be fun.

IIRC there is also a spell that allows creatures to warp between livewood trees, which makes me a walking portal. We need to be careful about abusing that though, or Dai will start having vengeful druids send monsters out of me, FLCL style.
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Look! He's a brainless, life-sucking god of death. At sunrise he'll vanish like a bad dream. ~Jigo (Princess Mononoke)

<Tal> Our chem teacher said it didn't really matter how we titled the graphs and tables in our semester prac
<Tal> but i still lost marks for having a Table of +2 Undead Slaying and Graph of Destiny :(

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Re: Dr Goodberry, Squall's Warforged Vitalist

Postby skychan » Mon Jul 27, 2015 2:44 pm

Hey, you mean something 'good' will come from FLCL? I say we abuse it just for that.

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Re: Dr Goodberry, Squall's Warforged Vitalist

Postby Mr_Praetorian » Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:13 am

*Eyebrows*
You! Your character's build displeases me! Come to the boards for nerfing!

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Re: Dr Goodberry, Squall's Warforged Vitalist

Postby Squall255 » Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:31 am

. That's what makes me a portal. As long as we have another sufficiently large tree somewhere else within range.
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Look! He's a brainless, life-sucking god of death. At sunrise he'll vanish like a bad dream. ~Jigo (Princess Mononoke)

<Tal> Our chem teacher said it didn't really matter how we titled the graphs and tables in our semester prac
<Tal> but i still lost marks for having a Table of +2 Undead Slaying and Graph of Destiny :(


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