In The Night: App

[fjorgedinfire]

PLAYER INFO

Player Name: Maniette
Player Contact: Maniette or PM this account!
Character(s) In-Game: None

CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Fjord
Age: Early thirties
Canon: Critical Role, Campaign 2

World Description: Exandria, an alternate Dungeons & Dragons world created largely by Matthew Mercer in which the entire Critical Role series takes place. Functions identically to regular Dungeons & Dragons settings.

History: The wiki is somewhat lacking, but functional.

CRAU: NA

Death: Due to the fact that Fjord hasn't officially died-died in canon, I'll be taking him from episode 47, where we'll pretend that on attempting to escape a collapsing underwater tower, Fjord got caught in a slipstream resulting from it that separated him from the group, and got trapped under its rubble. I'd like to underline the fact that Fjord did not drown here - it was the ten tons of crushing rock that killed him.


What are your plans for this character in-game? I'm not terribly sure yet! I'm mostly getting the hang of him, but I'd love to get him involved in some kind of exploration shenanigans or other Dumb Shit.


What aspects of this game and/or its setting are you most interested in having this character engage with? Player plots seem like they would be really interesting, given Fjord's naturally intense curiosity and willingness to do something really stupid to see what happens, heedless of consequences. Falling into the service of powerful spirits also seems like a potential for him. I'm also a sucker for Consequences To Stupid Actions, and this game seems like it'll hit both of those very nicely.


How does your character generally get along with other people? Fjord will put on whatever face seems appropriate for any given interaction, in order to be seen as Useful and Composed. He can be your demon or your angle, your dutiful second-in-command or steadfast follower, loyal to a point but always to his own first. He's unfailingly polite, even when heavily flustered at being propositioned by a bartending matron or furious at someone, but he's somewhat casual about swearing. It takes some time and serious effort for him to actually, actively trust people. He's extremely secretive about himself, only revealing snippets of his backstory in canon when it becomes immediately relevant to the situation he finds himself in; to the point that his team-mates didn't know his Southern accent was completely fake for multiple months.


What is your character's mental state upon entering the game? At this point Fjord has just been killed in pursuit of helping his patron, so he's a little bit fragile. He's a tough guy, so he'll bounce back, but once he realises he's actually dead that'll take some working through. He will look and act a lot more composed than he's feeling, and will be reluctant to tell anyone that he's actually quite shaken up about it all, unless someone noticed and calls him out on his bullshit. The exception to this would be if he encountered another team-mate, and even then he'd be rather reluctant.


Skills/Abilities: A more detailed list can be found via that link, but the narrative essentials are below.

General Half-Orc Traits include darkvision up to 30ft; proficiency in intimidating people; the ability to, when an attack should knock him out, hang on to consciousness through sheer orcish grit; and extra savage attacks when he lands a critical hit strikes particularly well.

Magical Equipment - Fjord is currently wearing piecemeal leather armour that notably lacks pockets, with the Mariner's Armour enchantment that allows him to swim 30ft in six seconds, and also propels him surfacewards if he falls unconscious underwater; and a Cloak of Protection, which grants him some extra protection (obviously). He also has the

War Caster feat - Able to cast spells when his hands are otherwise occupied, and has advantage on concentration checks when casting them; meaning he has a much greater ability to not lose a spell in action when attacked, and can cast spells as a reaction to being attacked.

Warlock: Hexblade A sword wielding spellcaster, Fjord's skills lie in using the one to augment the other. It's not known how well he's studied the blade, or if he's done so formally, but he's good enough to be generally proficient with most weapons, both simple and martial, shields, and is comfortable wearing light and medium armour. Due to his limited spell slots, he tends to rely primarily on simple spells or his quickened actions using his Sword of Fathoms, elaborated further down.

Fjord has the following warlock abilities:

• Hexblade's Curse - Place a baleful curse that grants Fjord advantage and additional damage against a select opponent for one minute; if they die before the spell ends, Fjord regains some health.
  
• Hex Warrior - Allows Fjord to use his charisma modifier instead of his strength or dexterity when using a weapon of his choosing, until he finishes a long rest. There's no narrative way around that one, it just is.
  
• Pact of the Blade: A mystical falchion gifted to him by Uk'otoa. He can summon it from an extradimensional space, and on doing so a small jet of sea water shoots from Fjord's hand, and the blade continued producing sea water for as long as it's summoned. Focusing on the sword allows him to cast Misty Step, which allows him to teleport up to 30ft away. This pact also allows Fjord to attune to another sword, which takes an hour; the Sword of Fathoms will add its design to its shape, and if the attuned blade has any magical effects, they will override the Sword's previous ones. Currently, the Sword of Fathoms allows Fjord to cast Misty Step. The sword will disappear if left unattended for one minute, if summoned again, or actively dismissed.
  
• Accursed Specter - if Fjord kills a humanoid he can turn their ghost into his slave until after his next long rest.

Eldritch Invocations - Fjord has access to the following magical innovations:

• Mask of Many Faces casts Disguise Self at will, which allows him to completely change his appearance for one hour. He must remain humanoid and within one foot of his usual height and fails to hold up to physical inspection or intense scrutiny.
  
• Agonizing Blast increases damage to his Eldritch Blasts.
  
• Thirsting Blade means he can attack twice with his pact weapon specifically.
  
• Gift of the Depths allows him to breathe and move underwater as on land, and can cast Water Breathing for free once per long rest.
  
• Bond of Uk'otoa lets him cast Control Water once per day (link provided bc it's hard to summarise); narratively, he's also shown controlling water with much more finesse than the above.

Warlock Cantrips - Fjord can cast these spells without limit, but can cast them more powerfully by using his spell slots.

• Eldritch Blast fires two beams of crackling energy at a single target.
  
• Minor Illusion creates a sound or image of max 5ft dimensions anywhere within 30ft of him. This can be realised as false with some effort.
  
• Booming Blade causes an enemy, after being struck, to be surrounded by thunderous energy that moderately damages them if they should try and move before Fjord takes action again.

Warlock Spells - As a 7th level Warlock, Fjord has two level 4 spell slots that recharge after a long (~7hr) OR short (>30min) break. While using a concentration spell, he can't cast a second one.

• Hex - A concentration spell. Curses a creature for an hour, during which attacks to them deal necrotic damage, and they make some ability checks with disadvantage.
  
• Wrathful Smite - A concentration spell. Attacks deal psychic damage, and may cause the struck target to be frightened of Fjord.
  
• Armor of Agathys - Spectral frost covers Fjord's armour and grants him extra (20) health; if something attacks him, they take the same in cold damage until the health is fully depleted.
  
• Witch Bolt - A concentration spell. A beam of crackling, blue energy lances out towards a creature within 30ft and forms a sustained arc of lightning. So long as Fjord only focuses on attacking with the lightning, and the creature remains in range, the spell can last for up to one minute. There is no indication this can be used as a power source.
  
• Crown of Madness - A concentration spell. A twisted crown of jagged iron appears on a creature and drives them insane; Fjord can command them to attack and move, in that specific order. This lasts for one minute, either until Fjord stops maintaining control, or the creature successfully throws off the enchantment.
  
• Hunger of Hadar - A concentration spell. Creates a gateway to the eldritch zone for up to one minute, complete with icy cold, maddening whispers, and slurping noises; no light can illuminate the 20ft radius sphere, and anyone within is blinded and suffers moderate cold damage. The area is difficult terrain, and anyone within must make be agile enough to avoid getting burned with acid from the milky, otherworldly tentacles rubbing against them.
  
• Blink - Randomly teleport between this and another plane of existence (specifically the Ethereal plane) for one full minute. Fjord returns to an unoccupied space in the physical world, up to 10ft from where he left it. While on the other plane Fjord can see and hear the physical world in shades of grey with no other lighting, for up to 60ft of distance, but can only affect things on the plane he's on, until he returns. He cannot be seen on the other plane, barring exceptional circumstances.
  
• Thunder Step - Teleport to a spot Fjord can see up to 90ftaway. Anyone within 10ft of his departure point gets caught in an intense sonic boom, which can be heard up to 300ft away. He can take a willing smaller person or his weight in luggage with him, so long as there's space where he lands, or else it gets left behind.
  
• Hypnotic Pattern - A concentration spell. Create a twisting pattern of colours that weave through the air inside a 30ft cube for a few moments. Anyone within 120ft that sees it is incapacitated for up to a minute and can't move until shaken out of it somehow. Hitting them works.
  
• Major Image - A concentration spell. Create an illusion that fits within a 20ft cube, within 120ft of Fjord. It seems completely real, including sounds, smells and body temperature, but it cannot harm people via those senses. So long as Fjord's within range, he can make it act appropriately, such as looking like it's walking when he moves the image somewhere and making (harmless) attacks. Physical interaction reveals it's fake, but it takes a good bit of investigation. A concentration spell.
  
• Summon Greater Demon - A concentration spell. Fjord summons a fucking demon within 60ft of himself. There is a chance that the demon will break free of Fjord's control and go on a mindless rampage.

Other - Fjord is proficient with light and medium armour, simple and martial weapons, shields, navigation tools and ships, having spent some years as a sailor. He also speaks Orcish, and has a mild Southern accent when he talks this is fake, however, and his true accent is actually English, but only one other team-mate knows this.

I'm aware that Fjord's darkvision will be nerfed to human levels. Also that Eldritch Blast, Witch Bolt, Hypnotic Pattern and Major Image won't be able to cast light despite otherwise being bright and colourful spells. And that his various curse-related spells would need player permission to use on any other character. I imagine Accursed Specter won't work at all, since everyone's already dead. Summon Greater Demon is probably a player plot. Hunger of Hadar is portal-adjacent, but it's overlaying a different dimension onto this one rather than sending people to a different realm, so I'll leave that one to your discretion. Blink only allows ten feet of movement, but it does involve actively inhabiting another plane of existence, so maybe an exploration if he uses it somewhere weird? Similarly, Misty Step already has a 30ft range so probably doesn't require much other nerfing; Thunder Step might, but it already explicitly requires line of sight and can't teleport behind objects like the other two can.

The magical abilities listed above are, in their entirety, provided to him by his patron - an eldritch leviathan known as Uk'otoa. Being cut off from Uk'otoa's influence has canonically proven to strip Fjord of his magic in totality; but I saw on Castiel's app that his powers are tied to his lamp now, and I wonder if the same could be said for Fjord? I already planned on making his lamp use Uk'otoa's symbology, so having actual power tie-in could be cool!

Flaws/Weaknesses:

THE MIGHTY NEIN: Fjord considers the group the closest thing to a family he's ever had. He is fiercely protective of them all, as well, and harbours severe guilt about believing himself to be one of the leading, direct causes of the death of one of their members, Mollymauk Tealeaf (in-universe, this was three months ago for Fjord). He's aware the others look up to him as a leader, especially with their recent adventures at sea where he naturally took over as Captain (since. None of the others do ships); and is therefore deeply insecure about that cool, self-collected image being shattered enough that the others won't want to keep him around, as part of him still believes that that's all anyone wants him for.

INSECURITY: Fjord seems to define himself by other people's impressions, and goes out of his way to make sure he comes across as exactly the kind of person that his conversant wants to keep around, be it an experienced soldier, second in command, loyal vassal or anything else; and he has the natural charm and persuasive ability to really sell it. It's not just mental, either - growing up as an orphan who was bullied relentlessly, Fjord has deep-rooted discomfort in his own appearance and takes slights against his personal appearance remarkably poorly. He insists that he's strong and muscular (this is true, but not as much as he insists), and takes great care in his appearance and what impression that gives people of him, even going so far as to regularly file down or somehow otherwise destroy his tusks to make himself look less intimidating, though he's recently stopped this. At his core, Fjord is deeply afraid of being abandoned for not being useful, or worth someone's time.

CLAUSTROPHOBIA: After being kidnapped by slavers, physically and mentally tortured while hearing the same happen to others (including two close friends) for at least a week, being forced asleep by enchanted manacles and kept locked up in cages, Fjord is deeply uncomfortable with being forced into small spaces and forcibly knocked unconscious. As well, the cause of his death has, for the immediate future, deeply exacerbated his claustrophobia, as well as introduced a mild fear of suffocation.

ELDRITCH MAGIC: Fjord's magic is a direct result of an eldritch patron taking an interest in him: the leviathan Uk'otoa. He's come to rely on this magic in combat, and in general everyday life - Eldritch Blast is his go-to combat spell, he has a magic sword, and Mask of Many Faces is at the core of many of their subterfuge-based plans. All of his magic is powered by his bond to Uk'otoa, and he has reached a point where he feels like if he doesn't have that magic, he is Useless and the rest of the Mighty Nein will drop him. He also has an unhealthy relationship with Uk'otoa itself - his patron sees him as having POTENTIAL, and sends him threatening dreams to PROVOKE and CONSUME, most of which end with Fjord coughing up saltwater when he wakes up. He's also, currently, a bit too willing to please Uk'otoa; at this point in his timeline he's just unlocked the second of three seals that bind his patron, had earlier swallowed a sword at its behest (with all the blood and pain that implies), and entered semi-unwillingly into sexual relations with another of Uk'otoa's chosen.


Personality: Fjord has a very dry, often black wit, using it to highlight the worst possible way an event could turn out to lighten the mood through shock value. It's one of the only times he breaks his polite facade; the other is when he feels the need to make genuine threats to people. And when Fjord makes a threat, generally it goes down very effectively, since he's not afraid to use magic or weapons to hammer his point home.

His alignment is allegedly Lawful Good, but Fjord is shown to be more than willing to do things that would be directly against that code without hesitation. Summoning demons, chopping off a man's hand unprovoked, threatening with blackmail or bodily harm. However, he does still seem to have something of a strong moral code. He doesn't punch down, doesn't seem to condone brazen theft, and strongly supports the concept of taking matters into your own hands. Has been described on Tumblr as a "compulsive liar and general bastard".


Items: The aforementioned enchanted leather armour and cloak, as well as the clothing beneath it. The Sword of Fathoms, kept in an eldritch hammerspace. A Bag of Holding strapped to his waist containing: a letter of recommendation to a wizarding school; an orc tusk; a set of enchanted manacles that put the wearer to sleep; and a sizeable amount of platinum, gold, silver and copper coins.

SAMPLES

Log Sample: Link
Network Sample: Link