:: Meet Some New Faces—Frederick the Leader ::

I was recently inspired by a favorite gaming company of mine, Silver Gryphon Games, who post a weekly description for an RPG setting with randomly rolled characteristics. I offered to contribute some content for them along the same lines for NPCs, items, and places of interest based on my own randomized tables. They liked the idea and said they'd try out several to see what kind of reception they got.

Then I realized: I've got my own darn blog.

With the randomized tables, I figured I could come up with any number of possible people, places, and things. It would be a great creative exercise, and who knows? Someone from one of the bigger RPG companies (Paizo, and Wizards of the Coast, I'm lookin' at you) might see my work and like it. If nothing else, it lets me spill some ink. So without further ado, let's do this:

Frederick the Leader

by Wm Jay Carter III, 5/10/15

Homeland: León

Age: Young

Gender: Female

Stature: Short

Physical: Hunchback

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Jet

Outwardly: Uncomfortable

Inwardly: Ecstatic

Money: Working Class

Profession: Blacksmith

Catchphrase: "Um, hullo. What can I… That is...do you want something?"

As you pass through the market, your attention is drawn to the blacksmith’s stall—not because an attendant is calling at you, but because there is no attendant at all. Approaching, you see the misshapen hunched figure of a small child beating away at warm metal in the corner. Realizing you’re there, the child turns around, surprising you to learn that not only is it a girl, but that she is much older than you originally thought. “Um, hullo... “ she begins uncertainly, playing with her long jet hair. “What can I… That is...do you want something?”

Geoffrey the blacksmith always wanted a good, strong son to take up his profession one day. When his daughter was born, he got neither of the things he wished, for she was misshapen with a hunched back. Already having decided on Frederick as the name of his child, Geoffrey let the name stay, deciding it was not worth thinking up a better name for such a horrible failure.

Fred was naturally enthusiastic as a child, and loved pretending to do the things her father did, no matter how often he chided her for doing it wrong. Finding friends who would accept her, this enthusiasm made Fred the natural leader of all the pretending games. After some time, however, her father insisted that if she could not one day be married off she would have to work like any other animal. Thus Geoffrey forced her to work in his stall at the market.

Easily mastering the simpler items, such as nails, hooks, and horseshoes, Fred is determined to learn the more complicated things, like weapons and armor. And so whenever her father is away drinking off his sorrows (as he often is on market day), Fred gets to work. Without any formal training on how to run a stall, and convinced that all adults must hate her for the same reasons her father does, she is timid with buyers. Met with an equally enthusiastic craftsperson, however, Fred shines like the leader she is.