The Characters
Basil Blackfeather is the eldest son of one of Absalom’s more noteworthy tengu families. His father Mortimer started the Sylvan Bounty Tobacco Company and parlayed an intriguing blend of pipe-weed and a gift for well-spun tales into a career in local politics; his mother Annabelle – the Honorable Annabelle Duskwing – is the arbiter criminals most fear appearing before. While not of noble birth, the Blackfeather house is one with a finger on Abaslom’s pulse and a curiously influential connection of friends.
Basil’s older sister Eleanor got the green thumb… talon… of the family and runs the farm where the Sylvan Bounty grows its tobacco crops. (The less we speak of his younger brother Linus, the better. That one’s a troublemaker.) Basil, with a keen mind and a knack for observational skills, was drawn to his mother’s law books, but flavored with a young boy’s fascination with mystery and investigative work. Some say Basil’s mother encouraged this behavior by letting Basil read the files of tricky cases the authorities were having trouble; there are even whispers that a few criminals were brought to justice thanks to the lad’s eye for detail.
As we meet Basil as an adult, he is enrolled at one of Absalom’s most respected law colleges, but Basil’s friends have noticed an increasing restlessness: a desire to do more than burn candles into the late-night reading books. And then, at a break between terms… Basil’s dorm room starts to show signs of having been vacated, as a “B. Blackfeather” appears on the enlistment sheet for the newest Edgewatch recruitment class…
Basil Blackfeather is played by Jason McDonald.
“When I was a kid growing up, I used to hate the city guard. We and the other kids in the neighborhood were always getting into trouble – fights, gang fights, petty theft – always getting harassed by the cops. Parents never seemed to care, we were punks, and we liked it.
But as you grow a little older, you begin to realize what city guard is all about. They’re just doing a job, enforcing the law, and raising families. If you break the law, you get busted and booked. That’s about all there is to it. I learned to respect that. I even began to realize that the only people I knew who stood for something were the city guard.
So when I got old enough, I joined up. I joined the city guard. I joined the Edgewatch.
I have this dream of one day breaking that big case. Maybe one day, that dream will come true.”
Gomez is played by Seth Lipton.
Lo Mang is a towering hulk of an Orc. 6’5” with greenish skin and black hair in a ponytail from the center of his head. Tattooed and scarred over his body, one tattoo is prominent on his chest, a crane with red eyes and a bloody beak. Other features include cloven hooves below his knees, a tail, and what look to be vestigial wings on his back. He is an impressive, if not somewhat off-putting sight to some.
Lo Mank is fairly soft-spoken, preferring to speak with his fists. He does have an affinity to the natural world, but city life suits him just as well. He spends much of his off time in physical training and meditation.
Lo Mang is played by Chris Beemer.
Cadet Dougie McDougal is the product of a sheltered childhood and only knows what he’s memorized from dated recruit manuals. He holds himself to odd, contrived standards, equipping himself only with earned trophies, and will spend his money only on magic items. Dougie misreads social interactions and survives by the providence of a strength that seemingly comes from nowhere.
He is cheerful and possesses a positive outlook on life. He doesn’t seem to have a care in the world, aside from his self-imposed battle against lawbreakers. Unfortunately for his companions, he speaks his mind and doesn’t filter his opinions, which are often wrong.
Cadet Dougie McDougal is played by John Staats.
Darius Varus was a strong child and a powerful boy, so his father got him involved in training as early as he could. During his training, he learned multiple styles and fighting techniques from local pit fighters and local gladiators who all did side-stints in the circus for extra coin. His main teacher was a dwarven Monk named Durgann Bloodhammer, who taught him the ways of the Unrelenting Avalanche and honed his body into a powerful force of offense and defense.
But it wasn’t all fighting all the time. Darius was also taught how to heal broken bodies and volunteered his help to the local Hospitallers to hone his craft. Of course, there was no shortage of accidents, falls, equipment failures, and misjudged acrobatics while in the circus, so he had the chance to utilize his medical skills quite often.
In his adult life, he is an extremely friendly person, very protective of his sister, and those he calls friends. He always goes the extra mile to help, even if it means taking on burdens that are not really his to bare. Darius is usually the instigator for revelries and nights of raucous post-performance drinking parties and always tries to be the peacemaker among disputes. Many times, he has turned a dour mood into levity with his wit and positivity, which has often changed the course of a show for the better following a failed act or mishap. He’s a mountain of a man, and a mountain of happiness!
Darius is played by Rob Trimarco.
Alhara is a child of the circus. Her earliest memories were swinging from a training trapeze with her father, Marcel, standing by to make sure she was safe and her brother, Darius, cheering her on. She even recalls one particularly bad tumble when the rope she was swinging on broke and Alhara went flying twenty feet before hitting the ground and rolling to a stop. As her father and brother rushed over to check on her, Alhara lept to her feet and shouted, “AGAIN!”
On her 6th birthday, she announced to her family that her birthday wish was to “be a girl.” Her father helped her pick out a new name; she choose the elven name, Alhara, meaning light on her feet. Some of the other girls in the circus gave her gifts of clothes, shoes, and ribbons for her hair.
Growing up in the circus was great for Alhara; she got to meet interesting people with a wide variety of talents and she wanted to try them all. Being naturally athletic, she excelled at feats of strength and agility. Over time she would try and duplicate the tricks of other performers, trying to learn them all so that she could be the best. Alhara believes there’s nothing she cannot accomplish if she puts her mind to it.
As a half-elf, she knows that since her father is human, her mother must be elven or half-elven. However, asking Marcel about it is heartbreaking as he always gets that far away look and says he doesn’t want to talk about her. Unsure how her mother died, Alhara decided to choose Gozran 27th, 10 days after her own birthday, to grieve annually for her mother’s passing.
She enjoys risky activities that challenge her abilities; the more danger the more adrenaline! Her circus career started working as a clown doing physical comedy, then doing side-shows to show off her acrobatic talents. Now she has a shot at the big time in the main tent, and she’s not going to let her family down!
Alhara is played by Vanessa Hoskins.
Ateran didn’t grow up in the circus. No, they weren’t even part of the previous company that fled Mistress Dusklight’s Celestial Menagerie. However, it’s been long enough since they joined the Circus of Wayward Wonders for this new company to learn Ateran shares only shrewd words and sharp glances. It was months ago that Ateran was at a coastal hamlet selling minor alchemical poultices and quick repairs, whatever you might need. Tall and dark-haired, the mysterious tone they used was terse if not polite.
They’d traveled the ocean for some time, heralding from some town or country Ateran would not say. Though the affectation of Ateran’s voice betrays a distance — as does the oddity of their attitude and curious magic — there is little they say of where it was they learned of such things. Even the oily midnight plumage of their raven Csillagos is foreign with a curious intelligence behind its eyes. The rest of the circus says they’ve heard Ateran whispering dark promises to the raven in the night as they worked over frothing flasks, glowing vials, and a bubbling cauldron. Whatever they’re planning it at least serves to keep the circus in alchemist’s fire for its pyrotechnics and sturdy clothing, no matter what rip may come of a performance.
But as avoidant as Ateran may be, come dinner time ‘round the fire or at taverns as the circus passes through towns, they’re always watching and listening, clearly vigilant in their work for the new company. Those violet eyes are bright in the darkness. One thing is certain: their focus has you and you won’t escape it.
Ateran is played by Rob Pontious.
As a baby, Hap was abandoned by her parents and left as an orphan at Mistress Dusklight’s Celestial Menagerie. She was discovered by Professor Zarlian Kyosophus, the juggler and fire-eater, who reared her as his own daughter. When she was old enough, Hap earned her keep in the circus by feeding the circus animals and cleaning their cages, and her favorites were always the birds.
As Hap neared the date that was approximated to be her 10th birthday, The Professor began to notice that her brown eyes were beginning to turn a bright and fiery orange. Fearing the worst, he sought medical attention for the girl who called him “dad,” and when no answers were found among the curative arts, he sought the help of a more arcane nature at the Arcanamirium in Absalom. It was there he learned that while Hap’s biological parents were likely of human descent, her blood also bore the taint of an Efreeti.
Fortunately, Zarlian was a well-traveled and worldly man; he earned his title, The Professor, by always being able to know a little something about almost anything. He helped Hap learn to draw out the raw elemental power of her blood and taught her how to use it for entertainment rather than destruction. And when the cruelty of the Celestial Menagerie grew too much to bear any longer, The Professor and Hap departed with a slew of other performers to start a new circus — a kinder circus.
Hap has always had a deep love of animals and of people, and she adored being a part of the circus because it brought laughter, wonder, and joy. She always dreamed of being allowed to have her own act and has been practicing her craft for just such an occasion, but Mistress Dusklight never decided to give her a chance. Zarlian promised that in the newly formed Circus of Wayward Wonders, Hap, now at the age of 15, would finally have a shot in front of the audience.
Hap is played by Loren Sieg.
Most lives learn of hardship as time marches on. Others are born of hardship and know no other existence.
Prue Frosthammer comes from the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, and she takes the familial name of her adoptive father, a frost giant called Golgot Frosthammer, who slew her birth father, a savage orc named Rok Grimtusk, who murdered her birth mother, a half-elven traveling merchant who’s name Prue never learned. Prue was discovered by Golgut in the flames of a burning orcish yurt after his tribe decimated a band of Grimtusk marauders that were causing trouble in his territory. Golgot trained Prue to wield her anger as a weapon in defense against a cruel and uncaring world. He taught her martial skills and runes to bind spirits to her call who had been wronged in life. Finally, after he could teach her no more of his ways, he arranged for a squire-ship in Lastwall, that she might have an attempt at a better life.
Then the Whispering Tyrant and his horde of undead destroyed Lastwall. Prue soon found herself on a cart traveling South away from the Tyrant’s destruction and even further away from her home.
Prue is played by Loren Sieg.
Celes has always been adored, even as a baby. Her parents were delighted when she turned into a beautiful and social young woman. They immediately started to make plans for an arranged marriage, one that would save the family’s wealth and status from the certain ruin it was heading for.
Celes resented being used as such a tool and ran away from home to forge her own way, but soon found she was naïve of the world around her. When her brother came to collect her and bring her back home, he became the target of some local ruffians. Though he was able to fight them off, he received a nasty slash down the side of his previously pristine face. As Celes rushed to her brother’s side to comfort him, a radiant white light enveloped his face and sealed the wound, but left a scar behind.
News of Celes’s magical powers quickly spread. Many of the would-be suitors were nervous about wedding a sorcerer and what that bloodline contamination might do to future heirs. Celes’s parents were devastated for how would they save the family?
As Celes started to explore her new powers, her father seemed to be coming around and started to get excited for each new spell Celes learned. The reason for his excitement became clear when a gathering of the local townsfolk came to the manor and insisted on seeing the new herald of the gods. Over the next several months, Celes’s father exploited her powers for wealth and influence, as magical healing was rare in their part of the country. He played up the “divine gifts” as a godsent miracle, featuring his daughter as the Chosen One. Against Celes’s protestations, he sent her on a tour of the Inner Sea to gather more fame, followers, and most importantly fortune.
When disaster struck, she found herself alone in a caravan headed to Almas. She had family there, a cousin, and perhaps this was her chance to make her own way in the world. After all, she never wanted these powers; they’ve been nothing but a curse.
She attempts to travel now in disguise, not wanting to attract the attention her minor celebrity entails. There are those who would press-gang her and force her to use their powers for their own ends, not unlike her father. If she has learned nothing else from growing up in Andoran it’s that ones personal liberty is paramount. She won’t give it up for anything.
Celes is played by Vanessa Hoskins.
Some halflings love the comforts of home. Some halflings love to meet new people and celebrate. Some halflings are jolly little people with a song in their heart and a constant smile on their face.
Cade Thistlerot is not one of those halflings.
He’s sarcastic, dark, and decidedly non-jolly.
Cade Thistlerot is a halfling that gets things done. He is not afraid to get his hands dirty, or bloody, for the right reasons. He was raised on the streets and survived as a thief. He now uses those talents as an adventurer and blade for hire.
Cade is played by Rob Trimacro.
Brixley Silverthorn spent his formative years in relative luxury as the son of a lesser gnomish noble. However, as he approached adulthood, his family’s title and lands were negotiated away as part of a treaty between two larger powers, robbing Brixley of his family legacy.
Looking for a new way to make a name for himself in the world, he turned to the teachings of Cayden Cailean, and put his efforts into training as a champion of his faith. Armed with a sharp rapier, a youthful exuberance that sometimes borders on naivete, and a keen awareness of the difference between “the law” and true justice, Brixley emerges from his training to seek adventure and help those in need.
Brixley is played by Jason McDonald.
Tuttle Blacktail – that’s DOCTOR Tuttle Blacktail to you – is a junior researcher at the Perihelion Institute of Cybernetics on Verces. Tuttle started out as a ship’s mechanic but quickly discovered he had an aptitude for computer systems, at which point he turned his eye to the world of academia to further his training.
Years later, after achieving his doctorate (a fact he is sometimes obnoxiously proud of), Tuttle took a junior position at Perihelion, but his projects tended to be on the low end of the priority list due to his unconventional ideas and general lack of people skills. As a result, Tuttle has recently returned to his early spacefaring ways to help secure his own funding for his research.
Tuttle’s most recent creation is the Cybernetic Hybrid Dynamic Response Rover (C.H.D.R.R.) to assist him in his travels, both to serve as his bodyguard and to field-test some of his more advanced AI designs (two birds, one stone!), a design which he is constantly fine-tuning.
Tuttle is played by Jason McDonald.
Even Dr. Blacktail himself would admit that C.H.D.R.R. Version 1.0 is a fairly rudimentary implementation of his overall plan, built almost entirely for combat operations.
Jump jets for limited vertical mobility, an advanced sensor array that allows limited threat detection outside the visible spectrum – unfortunately, his weaponry is rudimentary, as Dr. Blacktail’s requests for military-grade weaponry were met with pushback from the local authorities on Verces.
As C.H.D.R.R. grows and evolves, the hope is to create an independent entity capable of a more diverse array of tasks, not just beating things with a glorified stick. But for now … BEATING PROTOCOL ENGAGED!
C.H.D.R.R. is played by Jason McDonald.
Growing up on Castroval is not easy, even if you have a family. Hirogi had to use his wits and stealth to survive the many predators that populated the areas he called home. As an outcast orphan, Hirogi struggled to stay 10 steps ahead of the fauna that sought to make dinner of him daily.
Eventually, through wits, stealth and, in no small measure luck, Hirogi managed to find himself in one of the larger city-states. There he thrived and was able to devote his time honing his skills as a petty sneak thief and all-around rogue.
It was no surprise that at the ascension to manhood he became Damaya and not the crude Korasha. Charismatic and quick, Hirogi caught the attention of a trained operative named Darvin (only after a horribly managed pickpocket attempt). Instead of calling the authorities – or worse – Darvin took him into the fold and trained him in the stealthy arts. After 3 years apprenticeship and becoming one of his best earners, Darvin set him up with some basic equipment and bid him good luck, to seek his fortune among the stars.
However, Hirogi, had some unfinished business to take care of. Thus, began the Great Hunt! Hirogi was relentless in his pursuit of the predators of his homeworld, meticulously tacking down and killing each one while taking a trophy commemorating each victory.
With his lust for revenge on his childhood tormentors sated, Hirogi ventured back to the city-state and decided it was time to study the other life forms in the vast reaches of the galaxy. He needed to understand every aspect of life and what to expect, as only through understand could he prove his superiority. Hirogi now seeks to explore the galaxy as Hunter, ever searching for challenging new prey!
Hirogi is played by Chris Beemer.
If one were to ask him, Rusty Carter might tell you that he was the son of an important member of the Pact Council or a decorated Steward, or maybe he might hint at some sinister connections from the lower decks of his native Absolom Station. It depends on who asks him though. Rusty has a long history of making sure to impress the person he’s speaking with while never quite saying anything that one might, objectively and boringly, call “the truth.”
In reality, Rusty’s family was, if anything, dull. He was raised middle-middle class in a section of the Station that most people wouldn’t recall five minutes after walking through it. It drove young Rusty crazy. He imagined such a universe of excitement while only seeing banality around him. He ran from that life quite early, and if his parents hadn’t quite planned on giving him his full inheritance then he was confident it rightfully belonged to him. So, no need to waste time on remorse. Life was just beginning then, looking back was a waste of time.
Rusty can, and will, talk his way out of every problem he can (which is ironic since he often talks his way into said problems). In a pinch, he knows how to use a gun, and he got his pilot’s license early in case he ever had to jump stations, but he’s always happiest with a pocket full of someone else’s money that they freely gave him because they liked him so very much.
Or at any rate, they liked the man he claimed to be.
Rusty is played by Bob Markee.
In this world, a fella couldn’t catch a break if he fell onto a carton of eggs. Maurice’s old man had saddled him with a name that was downright rotten, and his luck wasn’t any different. Maury’s glory days, if you could call them that, reached their zenith when he served as an ordinance officer in the Vesk army. He didn’t see a lot of action, but at least the fellas in his squad renamed him Mo. He won their friendship during his losing streak (still unbroken) at poker. The fellas were always eager to welcome him into a red-hot game.
Mo left the armed services early, giving him the freedom to really screw up his life. He soon earned the street-rep of undependable low-life, whose bad judgment and bad luck seemed to compete with one another for dominance. His heady schemes always failed, usually before they had enough momentum to even land him in jail. Soon even the Vesk criminals shunned him as an “untouchable.”
Being rejected by anyone capable of landing a big score has made Mo sore at himself forever leaving the army. These days, a world-weary Mo picks up weapons again, perhaps to relive a past he never had. If capers were going to blow up in his face, at least he’d have heavy weapons and explosives nearby. They would compliment both his short temper and knack for desperation.
Mo is played by John Staats.