Tindon Silversmith
Thom (a.k.a. The Dragon Slayer)
Hoid is an ex-agent of the Zhentarium who specializes in disguises.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Slim build
Facial Features
Without any disguises on, Hoid has no eyebrows, no facial hair, and looks utterly unremarkable.
Identifying Characteristics
Bald with no eyebrows (only when not wearing a disguise)
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Childhood
Hoid has mostly only ever known The Circle of Tricks and the Zhentarium. When Hoid was four his parents volunteered him into Godfrey's "program" in hopes that they could gain favor with powerful people. Hoid remembers very little of his previous life. He doesn't even know his own name. All he has is a memory of a woman with dark hair hugging him and telling him everything will be ok. Hoid doesn't know who that was.
Training
Training under Godfrey was terrible. There were probably around 15 children when Godfrey started. Less than half survived long enough to become agents. When training began each child was named after a god of trickery, to help forget their past life. Hoid was given the name of Cyric, God of lies and trickery. The only friend Hoid had was Leira, one of the older children of the group. Hoid relied heavily on Leira in order to survive, while Leira found purpose in looking after Hoid.
Agent of Tricks
Training never really ends for Agents of the Circle. There is always ways to improve and things to learn. 15 years after Hoid began training he began his work for the Circle. It started of with small time jobs. Such as infiltrating street gangs, but slowly grew into very dangerous ones. Such as infiltrating dangerous and wealthy aristocratic groups.
After many years, Hoid decided to leave the Zhentarium. He hates them for what they put him through and taking him away from one of the few people that truly loved him. Hoid wanted to play by his own rules and use his skills for his own ends. Not to serve the Zhentarium.
Leaving Zhentarium
Hoid attempted to fake his own death. The Circle of Tricks saw through his own tricks very easily. Once Godfrey found out that Hoid left, he was determined to remove him. Godfrey is a prideful man and wants Hoid killed for his betrayal. Godfrey formed his own task force to find and kill Hoid. The most prominent members are Godfrey and Leira. Hoid does not know if Leira truly wants Hoid dead. Godfrey believes she is to scared to betray him. Hoid knows that Liera is hurt that he left without informing her.
Currently
Right now, Hoid is being hunted by Godfrey. Hoid is terrified, he knows what Godfrey and the Zhentarium are capable of. Hoid figures that his best change to survive is to constantly be changing who he is. Godfrey can't find Hoid if he don't know who he is.
Employment
Ex-agent of the Zhentarium
Accomplishments & Achievements
Slayed a dragon
Mental Trauma
Severe torture and punishment at the hands of Godfrey for nearly all of his life
Morality & Philosophy
Will do whatever he believes will benefit him the most
Intelligent, arrogant, and ambitious.
View Character Profile
Alignment
Neutral
Age
30
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Blue
Hair
Blonde
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
White
Height
5"7
Weight
145
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Journey to Highscape (Eraddan)
After the fiasco at the ball with the Queen, we decided to journey to Highscape ourselves. We hired a boat on the river to take us most of the way. Gina has decided to part ways with us. She thinks that she will not be welcome in Highscape and says she would like to study with Salazar. I will miss her. While she was crazy, she was very smart. We could always rely on her to teach us about Centrelis. She will be missed.
Blue Dragon
Most of the journey was uneventful. Once we got as far as we could on the boat we traveled North by foot. While traveling, we had a few interesting encounters. A large blue dragon flew down from the sky to meet us. Everyone freaked out. I haven't personally fought any Dragons, but I know that they are intelligent, cruel, and extremely dangerous. Especially the chromatic ones. I was expecting a fight. The dragon was not. He merely flew down to get a closer look because he found us "interesting".
Efreeti
A few days later we fought some Efreeti's. We fended them off easily enough. Some of Gianni's followers died though. I did not think they would survive the journey, but they insisted. It must be the magic of those cards...
Warriors
Several days later we encountered some warriors. I forget their race, but they were very large. Around 10 feet tall, dark skinned, red of hair, and very tough looking. Only Slate could understand them because they spoke a dialect of Sylvan. They wanted to spar with us. The Jaws of the Lion was a bit disappointed with our skirmish with the Efreeti, so we agreed. They allowed us to position ourselves and we did the same for them. We where worried about grouping up, because spells like fireball exist. So while we were forming up we asked rose the distance for fireball. We thought we got just out of range with his guidance, but of course Rose being Rose, we didn't. The warriors had very quick reflexes and threw several fireballs at us before we could react. Since we trusted Rose, all of us where in the radius for fireball. Most of our members were downed very quickly. I was feeling weak myself but I wanted at least one hit in. I got close to one of them and attempted to strike them with my sword. They easily dodged out of the way and punched me. I have been involved in hand-to-hand combat many times. I have taken punches before, so when I write this down, it is from a place of knowledge. That punch felt like I had taken a maul to the face wielded by a giant. While I was down, the warriors stopped their assault. Slate claimed that it "wasn't fun for them".
The Mountain
Once we made it to the mountain near Highscape we began to climb. Most of the other members struggled with overcoming the mountain. Their first idea was to fly over it with spells and such. But there was a thunderstorm, so that idea was not an option. We had to do old-fashioned climbing. After climbing for a while, there was a rockslide. we fell into a cave of sorts, then the cave collapsed. Several of us were buried under rock. That is when the rest of Gianni's group died (save for the knight). I had to use a bit of magic to escape. Slate began using some magic to move the rocks, but it was taking a while. After a bit Gianni ordered his knight to use the Deck of Many things. His knight did as instructed and found a way out deeper in the cave. For the next several days the knight guided us. We eventually found the exit/entrance to Highscape.
Our cave exit led us to a very large crater that is filled with a jungle. Right in the middle is a pyramid. I could sense that was our entrance into Highscape.
I still have the same doubts about my capabilities. Especially after our sparring match with those warriors. They defeated us very quickly. We definitely could have planned that better. I bet Gina would have been very helpful. I don't consider myself to be much of a tactician, but perhaps that is something the group needs.
There was something I had been meaning to ask Gina, but I never got around to it. She is very intelligent and I figured she would be the best person to know the answer. I wanted to ask her what she thinks makes a good monster hunter. I would have liked to compare my own qualities to her answer. I guess I won't get the chance now...
Helios
William
We decided to follow through our plan on stealing the writ of passage from the Sealer's. We tried getting them drunk the night before, but like other members of our group, they can resist drink. We discovered that the writ of passage was in one of their bags, before we could create a plan to snatch, several guards came into the inn and escorted us outside. Gianni look very nervous, I was worried that him and the others did something bad. My worries where unfounded, the guards simply brought us to their captain, who is named William.
William is very interesting. William had died several months ago while in Ravenloft. Ludwig/Fearon has supposedly brought him back to life. William informed us that he has no memory of being in the Jaws of the Lion. He only knows that he is from Faerun and would like to return. Because we have the same goals he has joined the group. We informed him of our plan to "borrow" the writ from the Sealers.
Traveling to Helios
William and Rose came up with an interesting idea, Rose would pretend like he stole something and William would take his guards and search him, but also search and confiscate the writ of passage. It didn't go well. Talcotl refused to let William and his men into their room to conduct a search, and I saw the rest of the Sealers sneak out of the Inn and seek refuge with Fearon/Ludwig. Afterwards the Jaws decided to pay our way onto a faster boat. William got us a discount. We would arrive in Helios a week before the Sealers. The trip to Helios was uneventful. We were attack by pirates, but because we have many powerful spellcasters it was nothing to worry about.
Helios
When we arrived in Helios Slate, our druid, was very confused. He did not know who any of us were and why he was traveling with us. It is very strange. At first we thought this was some silly prank he was trying to pull, but he seems very honest. I wonder if Helios has a strange effect on memories. The John fellow that we helped several months ago was form Helios and he had lost his memory. I thought it was because John had been hit in the head, but maybe there is something more. I gave Slate a summary of who we were and why he joined us. He seemed very casual about the whole thing. I hope his memory comes back soon.
We decided to meet with Salazar, a Lupeque who has managed to retain his sanity. He was in a temple of Strenteesa. We talked with him and he informed us that our best chance of leaving Centrelis would be through Highscape. If we can't leave that way, there are beings there who know how. Salazar had some strange magic with him. It masked some of his 'Lupequeness' but not all of it. It apparently fooled William. He said he could only see a man with a strange mask.
We did some research and discovered that the royal family of Helios as a ritual that involves Highscape. They send a Princess there once she is of age as a trial of sorts. The path that the Princess takes is sacred and only she is allowed to walk it. Rose and William managed get us an invite to a ball hosted by the Queen of Helios. I thought that perhaps we could earn some favor with the royal family and get permission to travel to Highscape. Rose decided that the best way to earn favor was to very rudely yell at the Queen and tell her how great the Jaws of the Lion are during the party. William and Slate quickly separated themselves from Rose, I wish I did the same... Rose was doing was Rose does best, and got both of us kicked out of the party. I am not fond of parties (especially since I couldn't take any weapons) but I was still very angry with Rose for how he approached the situation.
In the end we decided to take a boat to Highscape and get as close as we can. The real challenge will be climbing up the mountain that separates Highscape from the rest of Centrelis. But with plenty of water we should be able to make it. It would be much easier if we could take the sacred path...
While at the party I learned some dangerous information about William. William is eager to see his home, but from what I know his home is destroyed. Rose knows this too and told me that William is the one who destroyed it, he simply doesn't remember. Rose has asked me not to tell William and I have agreed to for now. I am not sure if I trust William. He is much more reasonable and level-headed then the other members of our group, but if what Rose says is true, he is also very dangerous. If he can destroy a whole city, I don't think we could stop him he decides to destroy another... I will be keeping an eye on him, and I will ask Rose for more details later. It is very possible that Rose is merely pulling my leg.
Meeting Fearon
We finally met with Ludwig, the other members of the Jaws of the Lion immediately recognized him as Fearon. The man who had supposedly pulled most of them into Ravenloft and promised to send them home. Most of the group was understandably angry with Fearon, only Gina and I remained level-headed. Gina was able to communicate with Fearon with her mind and got us a meeting with just the two of us. Once Fearon/Ludwig had dismissed us the Sealers petitioned him. Ludwig agreed to fund their goals in sealing Centrelis off from other worlds. Gina, Brutus, and I met Fearon the next day in hopes that he would provide us a path to get us back to our home worlds. He was not very helpful. Fearon only knows of one way to get us home, and that is through the "Planar Shift" spell. That isn't an option because it requires a forked tuned to our destination.
After meeting with Fearon we conferred with the rest of the Jaws of the Lion. We agreed that our best option was through the Legs of the Centipede, because they appear to be the only ones consistently traveling between worlds. We approached the Sealers, hoping that the would allow us to tag along with their mission. We figured that the Legs of the Centipede would attempt to interfere sooner or later. They did not want us to join them. So we decided to get to Helios before them. Perhaps we can find whatever they are looking for before them.
It would be a while before the next ship leaving to Helios would arrived, so Brutus, Gina, and I took up a few jobs on the task board. We investigated an abandoned barn and discovered a banshee. Before I could take action the banshee let our a soul-rending scream that immediately rendered me unconscious. Gina and Brutus picked up my slack and slayed the banshee before I woke up. Gina found a "Deck of Many Things" in the hands of a corpse while in the barn. Gina hasn't said much about this magical deck of cards. Only that it contains a significant amount of power, that may be beneficial, or harmful to us. I am hesitant to tell the other members about this deck. They lack self-control, especially when it involves dangerous magical artifacts.
The entire Jaws of the Lion took up the next job. Someone wanted evidence of a "strange creature" nearby. We found a herd of horses about a days travel from the city. One horse had golden fur. It remined me of the golden deer he had encountered several months ago. I believe Gina had called them "Sylvans". We asked for a lock of the Sylvan's hair but it denied our request. The more erratic members of our group would not accept that as an answer and things began to escalate. Dragnar flew onto the Sylvan's back and attempted to ride it. The Sylvan knocked him of and kicked a few of Dragnar's teeth in. For a few seconds it looked like Dragnar was going to attack the Sylvan. If that was the case I was ready to step in and defend the Sylvan. While I do not wish to harm any members of the Jaws of the Lion, if they decide to attack innocent people and creatures I will step in and stop them. Dragnar didn't attack the Sylvan and Gianni was able to obtain a lock of hair without harming the creature. So no intervention was necessary.
Right now we are planning on stealing a writ of passage from the Sealers, that Fearon has given them. It was my idea and I feel guilty about it. The Sealers are decent folk and are only doing what they think is best for their world. If I was in their shoes I would be doing the same thing. It is unfortunate that our goals do not coincide. Hopefully Tove can obtain that writ without violence.
After the encounter with the Banshee I have been doing some self-reflection. For most of my life I have trained to be a Warder. A monster slayer, yet there have been many times where I feel grossly incompetent as a monster slayer. During our encounter with those large insect like creatures deep underground, the let out a terrifying scream. I could not move. I was terrified. I have not felt like that since the day Eve's death... I promised myself I would never be to afraid to take action. If it wasn't the Jaws of the Lion I would certainly be dead. Later when we encountered our first lupeque the same thing happened. It let out a horrible scream and I was frozen in place by fear. When the banshee let out a scream I instantly dropped. What kind of Warder am I? I thought I had overcome my fear of monsters long ago. Yet every time we encounter a fearsome creature, I freeze in place, or fall unconscious. How am I supposed to protect people from these creatures if I can't even protect myself???
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