Crew of the Bear's Claw
Captain
Name: Captain Theodor Bearcharger
Age: 125
Sex: Male
Height: 5’ 9”
Race: Half Elf
Class: Fighter / Privateer
Level: 15
Everyone knows about how the captain earned his name. (Bearcharger, not Theodor.)
When he was a young boy of 14 years, he was out for a walk in the woods with is young Elvin cousins. Suddenly a large black bear came out of the woods blocking their path. While his cousins froze in fear not knowing what to do, he instead ran up to the bear, striking it as hard as he could on its nose. The bear roared in pain and ran away.
A lesser known story is how many years later a young adult Theodor tried the same trick on a young red dragon with very different results. Captain Bearcharger has a mechanical right hand and forearm. Unlike most Elvin prosthetics, it is rather bulky and strong looking. Although the bear story gets brought up form time to time especially in the presence of new acquaintances, the dragon story never is brought up in front of the captain.
As captain Bearcharger’s name would suggest, he is a strong captain willing to run head on into the jaws of danger. His life experience has taught him to not do this unless you know you can defeat your enemy. To this end Bearcharger keeps his ship stocked with the latest weaponry and best crew he can find. Many say that there is a fine line between stupidity and bravery, but the Captain embodies only the latter. His commanding flights into danger that may seem foolish to some are actually well calculated attacks.
Though he often speaks harshly in front of the crew commanding them strongly, it is well understood that he would give his life for any one of them if needed. His outlandish threats are also considered to not have any bite as no one knows of any that were ever carried out.
Captain Bearcharger is starting to show his age. His hair has turned grey, his skin is worn and somewhat wrinkled, and his voice is rough. His energy and strength on the other hand are that of a youthful man and not the aged looking shell he inhabits.
About 4 years ago is when the Captain joined CKS Enterprises as a privateer. He was given his own ship outfitted to his specifications and has over time assembled a crew that works very well together.
First Mate
Name: Adrian Leofire
Age: 36
Sex: Male
Height: 5’ 7”
Race: Human (Brimstone)
Class: Fighter
Level: 9
Adrian Leofire is a human male from the world of brimstone. His father, and his father before him, and his father before him were fire mages. They were grand mages with a strong influence in society. Adrian was trained in wizardly studies as a child, but always seemed bored with them. By age 16 when he was suppose to be starting his studies, he instead signed up for a tour of duty on the town garrison. This of course greatly upset his father but he saw it as a sort of phase that he would grow out of and was convinced that once he had finished his commitment to the garrison he would resume his studies. At age 20 upon finishing his time with the garrison, he immediately signed up with the Elvin Navy. The last words his father said to him were “Every male Leofire for generations has been a mage. If you are not a mage, then you must be no son of mine.” Adrian did not see or speak to his father after that. He passed away a few years ago. Adrian did not attend his funeral.
Adrian went on to serve in the Elvin Navy, quickly rising through the ranks. He has served many distinguished captains in many different positions. He has been offered the rank of captain on a few occasions, but has so far turned them all down. After three consecutive tours in the Elvin Navy, he finally decided to leave and get out into the realm on his own. He served on a few different ships before finally landing onboard the Bear’s Claw. Captain Bearcharger had Elvin friends that served with Adrian and recommended him when he was looking for a first mate for his new ship.
Adrian fights with a scimitar and pistols (Carrying at least 2 most times.) He likes to work on the paperwork aspects and day to day running of the ship more than any personal issues the crew may have. He sends them to Drukus for that.
Quarter Master
Name: Drukus Waveheart
Age: 29
Sex: Male
Height: 6’ 1”
Race: Half-Orc
Class: Barbarian
Level: 9th
A Quarter Master’s duties are first and foremost leading the crew from the main deck when boarding another ship. He is also responsible for keeping the peace on board and any problems the crew may have would go to him first before going to the captain. In these duties Drukus excels. His Half-Orc stature is an imposing site when he is leading boarding parties. He is a devastating hand to hand combatant with his double headed hand axe and whatever else he can grab and smash into people.
Though he obviously has the rough fighter reputation, he doesn’t do too badly at his other duties either. He sometimes looks at problems simplistically, but he does get them resolved effectively.
Helmsman
Name: Thentiel Silverrain
Age: 356
Sex: Female
Height: 4’ 8”
Race: Elf (Sormian)
Class: Wizard / Archer
Level: 7 / 4
Thentiel started off life learning the ways of magic on her home world Sormian. She focused very deeply into her studies and came up with new and interesting ways to work with her spells. Whatever she applies herself to gets her full attention. Having thought that after 200 years she had learned all that she had wanted to learn from magic, she left her planet in search of other goals.
She struck upon the art of archery. Though simplistic in concept, she saw many points in the form that could be improved upon and studied for a greater advantage. She started paying for lessons from master archers and comparing their style in her journals to create her own form. Unfortunately, stylistic archery isn’t a big paying job, while needing gold to pay masters is expensive, so she decided to fall back on her wizardly knowledge as a source of income. Thentiel became a helmsman and quickly learned the arts of guiding and maneuvering the ship. She works very well with Captain Bearcharger, almost anticipating his commands. She is also an accomplished combat caster when she needs to be, (Though more often than not her spell related duties lie in powering the ship.) She performs these duties well, but with no soul, tossing aside compliments and suggestions to learn more. Her heart’s desire at least for the next few decades will be archery.
The current form that she is focusing on is a sort of Zen Archery involving attuning yourself to the target to strike it. She isn’t consistent with the new style yet, but can perform some amazing feats that others couldn’t do even with magic. All of her bows and arrows are non magical as she wants to truly capture the essence of Archer in its most base form.
Ship’s Chaplain
Name: Kit iTarru Hikkura Aeona
Age: 28
Sex: Male
Height: 6’ 2”
Race: Human (Ahkinahri from Galious)
Class: Cleric
Level: 7th
Kit (as everyone eventually calls him) is the ship’s captain. He originates from the planet Ahkinahri in the Galious Sphere. His main religion is called The Sum of Wholeness. (The self proclaimed first interspherical polytheistic religion.) The religion first started on his home world as the concept of worshiping all gods in the world. As they found out there were other planets with other gods in their sphere, they included those. As they then traveled to other spheres, they added even more gods.
Sum worshipers (as outsiders call them) believe that they can mathematically divide their worshiping time among all gods in a way that will please them all and provide them with the best spiritual rewards in life. It is not as simple as just giving every got one minute as those more powerful gods with more followers require less time devoted than the smaller gods with fewer followers, and many other considerations. One drawback is that they spend just as much time contemplating and calculating how to worship all the gods as they actually spend worshiping them. Some outsiders to the religion have theorized that perhaps this calculating in and of itself is a form of worship.
Kit will pay attention to his personal religion whenever his duties allow time, but when conversing with the crew, he always takes on the helpful outlook of a cleric of that particular religion. He never tries to preach conversion as he believes everyone must pick his own path. He is well versed in many religious ceremonies and can perform them as the individual crew’s desire.
Kit is a tall human male with dark brown skin and dark black hair that the wears in long braids. His clothing is multi colored and adorned with many symbols and trinkets as he tries to follow as many religious tenets as possible. When presiding over a specific religion he will try and follow their rules as much as possible in regards to his dress. He carries no weapon. Over all he is for peace an non violence and says that the war gods that demand such things mean for one to do so in thought and spirit, and not in form
Ship’s Surgeon
Name: Sil Vianna
Age: 54
Sex: Male
Height: 7’ 2”
Race: Skari
Class: Healer (Druid)
Level: 18
Sil is a native of Skilar with its lack of land and mild gravity throughout the sphere. When on the ship and no longer in his element he needs to have a magical levitation belt strapped to him as his legs are not strong enough to walk in normal gravity. He never lets this limitation bother him. His deep dark red hue shows his age a bit but mostly labels him a Healer. He may be older for a Skari, but his wisdom and knowledge in his field far surpass any limits his age may impose.
Sil is familiar with Magical healing potions, Clerical healing spells, herbal medicines, even psionic forms of healing. He keeps supplies of these things at the ready incase they are needed and has no problem suggesting a cleric when appropriate. Where his focus of expertise lies is in non magical forms of healing. He owns a large array of instruments especially made for his craft. He owns volumes of books on the nature of all manner of beings in the Known Realm and beyond. Whenever possible, he will turn to a thread and needle instead of rubbing herbal pastes on a wound or downing a potion. His ways of healing and his tools and machines may seem strange to some, but their effectiveness are equal to and in some times better than even magical means. His skills come especially in handy when traversing magic dead zones in the Phlogiston.
On his free time, Sil enjoys strapping on a breather and a specially designed compressed air rocket pack to “stretch his wings” in space away from the ship. Even though he understands his wings are not really making him fly, he enjoys the sensation and can often be heard saying that his wings would fall off if he didn’t use them once in a while. Captain Bearcharger doesn’t like his chips surgeon dangerously flying around in the void, but he doesn’t say anything directly to Sil because he does seemed skilled at the maneuvers, and the Captain understands that it may be more dangerous to his health to order him to his quarters.
Sil has a dry sarcastic witty humor and a blunt way of speaking about conditions that can come as a shock to new patients, but has become a welcome type of playful banter to those who have been fixed up by him many times before.
Navigator / Shipwright
Name: Qyn
Age: 26
Sex: Male
Height: 5’ 10”
Race: Ayqylan
Class: Engineer / Sailor
Level: 8
Qyn is an Ayqylan. He is humanoid, thin, hairless, with smooth light blue skin. He still has a small pair of gills on his neck, though he mainly breaths air. His race has a special kinship with the oceans. He is a vegetarian and frowns on others that eat fish. (Probably for a similar reason of why humans find eating a monkey taboo.) His race has a long history of maritime engineering and Qyn’s skills are put to use as the navigator and shipwright of the Bear’s Claw. The captain has been quoted as saying “I should get the ship damaged more often, Qyn seems to fix the dang thing to be better than it was to begin with.”
Though Qyn enjoys space, his true ambition is to sail the oceans. On more than one occasion the ships charted course just happens to go past a particularly nice body of water, or one he had not visited yet. He takes every opportunity that he can to go swimming. Something that he admits he did not do so often back on Ayqylan but when you are never by water, you tend to miss it.
In his spare time he enjoys creating model ships. His detail in carving is superb. He even has a model of the Bear’s Claw with little wooden figures on it that are obvious representations of each individual crew member. A common tradition is that when a new member comes on board, Qyn will pester them for days until they will pose for him long enough to make their figure to go on the ship. It has become a symbol of good luck. (One former crew member joined the ship and kept pushing Qyn aside, not caring about the figure. Four days later, while on look out on deck, he was struck square in the chest by a ballista bolt from an undead surprise attack. Since then new crew members are encouraged to indulge Qyn as soon as possible.) When the crew member leaves, they are given their figure to take with them, or in the unfortunate event of a burial at sea, the figure is placed with the body.
Master Gunner
Name: Barent Tholduun
Age: 25
Sex: Male
Height: 4’ 4”
Race: Dwarf (Gournar)
Class: Fighter
Level: 6th
Barent is a fairly atypical dwarf. Although he is proficient with an ax, it more often than not just hangs on the wall of his room in the lower decks. He instead prefers the cold iron of a well polished cannon as his weapon of choice. Barent has spent years on Giff and Dwarven ships where he has learned all about how to efficiently run a cannon crew and keep the weapons in working order. He knows the exact powder load and shot for any occasion. He spends little time with the rest of the crew, instead staying on the lower deck making sure the guns are polished, cleaned, and in perfect working order at all times.
When not working on the canons he can be found disassembling and cleaning his extensive collection of pistols and rifles. He always has at least 2-3 on him loaded at all times. He sleeps with one under his pillow, hand almost on the trigger. Although he is an excellent sharp shooter with his weapons, he seldom goes on boarding raids or hunting, instead preferring to stay onboard just incase there is trouble. He constantly is trying to convince Kurak the striker to turn his bow in for a decent rifle instead, saying he is tired of only eating the slow animals.
He drinks, and smokes a pipe (a habit not fondly looked at by the Captain or the rest of the crew considering his proximity to the powder room.) His prized possession is a five barreled gnomish pistol that can spin and fire each barrel before needing to be reloaded again. To the best of his knowledge, it is one of the only ones of its type in the Realm. The Gnomish inventor died soon after creating it and Barent won’t let it out of his site to be disassembled and researched by other gnomes. He can be quoted as saying “If the Gnomish god of guns wants another one around in the Realm, I’m sure he’ll give one of his loyal subjects the knowledge to make another.”
Cook
Name: Hedgkins Burfoot
Age: 27
Sex: Male
Height: 3’ 2”
Race: Halfling
Class: Chef
Level: 6th
Hedgkins one and only joy is to cook for people. The more exotic the better. The more of a challenge the better. Though he mostly has to work with minimal rations and simple meals, he takes any opportunity he can to procure special meals for the crew. He excels in learning native dishes to help the crew feel at home. Many sailors confide that his cooking is better than their mother’s.
Hedgkins truly has no other interests besides cooking. As a hobby he likes to cook decorative pastries. He either reads cook books, or books on local vegetation to see what he can make out of them. His favorite songs are about foods or feasts. He is an accomplished painter, but of course all he paints are still lifes of bowls of fruit and the like.
He is actually a rather fair if not exotic fighter. On the few different occasions the ship has been boarded, Hedgkins can be seen fighting right next to everyone else brandishing a meat clever and an iron frying skillet. “For scrambling eggs, and bashing in undead skulls” as he says.
Striker
Name: Kurak Blackforge
Age: 23
Sex: Male
Height: 6’ 0”
Race: Mul
Class: Ranger
Level: 5th
A Striker’s main job is to hunt animals while the ship is in port to supplement any supplies that are picked up. They also tend to have a good general knowledge of all local flora and fauna. This is helpful for determining what to use for medicines, what not to eat, etc.
Kurak lives to be a hunter. He feels most at home when tracking a deer, but is also a fairly accomplished fighter in boarding missions. He has managed to get the first hit on some raids, placing an arrow between the eyes of a commanding undead on the enemy ship long before boarding has even begun. He becomes wrestles when the ship is in space and can often be found on the main deck setting up targets to practice his archery. Though he has a bunk, he is seldom in it, preferring to set up a hammock on deck whenever possible.
Kurak constantly carries hatchets that he will use in close quarters fighting or even throwing at targets. These are his main tools that he uses for everything from gutting animals to cutting his dinner (much to many crew members disgust.)
As a Mul, he is tall and very muscular. Whenever he can, he will only wear his boots and a leather skirt along with different leather bracers and jewelry. He has a few different fur coats that he wears when on colder planets. Coming from a desert planet, his notion of cold tends to be greatly expanded from most people’s definitions.
Kurak craves the open air more than the cooped quarters of the ship or a port. He is always eager to set down and head to the nearest forest. He prides himself on being able to hunt interesting and exotic creatures for the ship’s chef to prepare.
Cabin Boy
Name: Jamaal
Age: 15
Sex: Male
Height: 5’ 6”
Race: Human (Vyajero)
Class: Rogue
Level: 1
Jamaal is a young Vyajero that Captain Bearcharger quite literally found floating in space a few years ago. His parent’s ship was attacked and destroyed by undead. The captain came across the moments later after the undead had retreated. Jamaal’s immediate family was killed. Vyajero’s have very closely connected extended families, and certainly one of Jamaal’s uncles, or cousins would have taken him in. However, by his own request, he asked to stay with the ship to repay the Captain for saving him.
Jamaal is fiercely loyal to Captain Bearcharger and does whatever he asks. The captain doesn’t abuse this loyalty. He realizes Jamaal will give 100% to try and somehow repay him for saving his life, so he is careful of what he requests of him.
It is fairly well known that the Captain plans to convince Jamaal to return to his family, or move on to his own path in life when he turns eighteen. In the mean time the captain puts forth an effort to teach Jamaal about his heritage, and have him instructed as best as he can to give him a Vyajero upbringing.
He knows his way around a ship and climes the rigging with ease. Whenever landing on a planet however he tends to stay in his bunk. Vyajero are not comfortable being planet side, much less actually setting foot on land. The Captain usually lets Jamaal hide in his bunk while in port and has never forced him to actually go into a town.
Jamaal is thin, and dexterous. He has dark brown skin and jet black hair worn in a pony tail. He wears only a leather vest as armor. His clothing resembles that of the Vyajero with its loose fit and vibrant colors, however he does not wear the trinkets, scarfs, and other markings of his family that a common Vyahero would have. His only link to his family is a first tattoo on the left side of his neck. A sign that he was starting his path to manhood in the family. This would have been the first of many he would have gotten had he stayed with the Vyajero. He fights with a dagger in his main hand and a Khopesh in his left hand held point down in a defensive posture. This is a common fighting style of the Vyajero that he has learned from Vyajero sword masters that the Captain has paid for to instruct him.