Flynt Locke – Human Freebooter
Flynt was born and raised in Magnimar to Varisian parents, who found themselves residents of Beacon’s Point due to fact they could find steady work around the shipyard. His father, Martin, was a sailor and fisherman. Martin met his wife, Sal, who works as a barmaid at the Left-Handed Lobster, one of the small seedy taverns surrounding the shipyard and worker’s district. As Martin got older he suffered an injury on the job that caused him to give up fishing. But not before he taught his son Flynt a thing or two about making a living as one of the sea faring folk. Martin turned his talents towards net repair and this led him to meet the Fortuna family. The Fortunas, led by their matriarch Mommy Fortuna, run the dockside Fortuna Fishing Company. Being full blooded Varisian themselves, the family gladly hired Martin to repair their many nets. Through this association, Flynt soon found himself also in the employ of the Fortuna family. Working as a dockhand, fisherman and occasional sailor, Flynt eventually found himself overseeing the distribution of product among the warehouses and the various businesses the Fortuna Fishing Co. supplied. It was a lot of fish. So much fish that Flynt figured if some of those fish went missing they would most assuredly go unnoticed.
Growing up in Beacon’s Point it’s hard to ignore the desperation and poverty of the district. Rag’s End, the poorest neighborhood in Beacon’s Point, was but a stones throw from Flynt’s tiny one-room apartment. So Flynt began to skim fish off the top and in the classic sense, stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Handing out fish to the hungry and impoverished. What Flynt didn’t and couldn’t know, was that his employers, the Fortuna family, was a Sczarni crime family. A family one doesn’t want to cross.
Mommy Fortuna may come off as a sweet, yet stern, old woman. But the truth of it is Mommy Fortuna is a witch. A witch who utilizes her magics to keep close watch on her business and all those in her employ. She saw what Flynt was doing. Mommy had some of the family follow him over the course of weeks where he betrayed them. Although Mommy was surprised and somewhat impressed that Flynt wasn’t selling the fish to fill his own pockets, he was still essentially taking money out of the Fortuna’s coffers. Flynt needed to be punished. Yet Flynt was Varisian, same as she. So when Flynt showed up to work his shift, he was gagged, bagged and dragged off to somewhere private.
To say the Fortunas were rough with him is an understatement. He was beaten quite soundly. When Mommy Fortuna finally stopped the “discipline” she told Flynt that she was very disappointed in his actions. Of course the bond of trust was broken and because of this he could no longer be associated with the company. But since he had taken a piece from the Fortunas, so too would they take a piece from him. Mommy herself cut the pinky finger from Flynt’s left hand and after wrapping it in a rune covered piece of cloth, sealed it with wax inside a small, non-descript clay jar. Mommy told him he still owed her and he would be summoned to begin repaying the family within a day or two. Flynt was then escorted to a lovely refuse filled pit and deposited therein.
Flynt crawled to the shore and soaked himself in the bay, washing away the filth and blood before slowly limping his way home. Just as Mommy said, there was a knock on his door two days later. There, standing before him was a member of the Magnimar city guard. The guard said nothing but silently handed Flynt a note with a wax seal bearing the Fortuna Fishing Company’s mark. The note said since Flynt wished to serve the community he would do so under the eye of the law and by doing so he would in turn be helping the Fortunas stay within the good graces of Magnimar’s law enforcement. Mommy had set it up that Flynt would serve community service time as a hired blade for the over-extended Magnimar city guard. Only then would his debt be repaid. The guard simply said, “Tomorrow, a man named Druce will come to collect you, so lick those wounds pretty boy. You’re just gonna love serving your city.”
Note: You may recognize the name Mommy Fortuna. Yes, I burrowed the character name from the book “The Last Unicorn.” Being a fan of the book, and Mommy in particular, I thought a similar character would make a great crime family leader. Since this is all for a home brewed game, no harm, no foul.
Character Choices Defined by Backstory and City:
I really wanted Flynt to be tied to Magnimar. So all of my choices for the character were inspired and designed with the city in mind and the story of his life within Beacon’s Point.
Skills: Profession- sailor, Knowledge- Local, Perform- Shanty (sing)
Having spent time working on fishing boats and trade ships alongside his father, Flynt knows just what to do as part of a crew. He also knows his district like the back of his hand. From the docks and warehouses, to the alleyways and streets, there’s not really an inch of Beacon’s Point the guy hasn’t tread upon. With a barmaid for a mother Flynt spent many years of his youth in and around the Left-Handed Lobster. It was there where he first got exposed to the shanties many of the local fishermen and sailors would break into during their nights of drinking. Once Flynt became a crewman himself, he was exposed to even more songs the pirates and sailors onboard would revel in. It’s a rather common thing for Flynt to burst out into song once he has had a few drinks.
Languages: Halfling & Dwarf
After human, halflings and dwarves make up the largest population of residents in the city of Magnimar. Growing up with these other races it was almost a necessity for Flynt to learn their languages just in order to get through the day to day.
Weapons: Cutlass and boarding axe
I wanted his weapons to reflect his profession. Almost as if they were tools hanging from a tool belt whose secondary function was as weapons. Plus I knew he was going to dual wield so his off-hand weapon needed to be light to lessen the penalties involved with that style of fighting.
Cutlass: Pirates and sailors favor cutlasses because the blade is sharp enough to cut through rigging (and enemy sailors) but is short enough to use in crowded shipboard melees.
Boarding Axe: Basically a hand axe with a backward-pointing spike, a boarding axe is used to chop through hatches or rigging, to drag burning debris off a ship, or as a weapon. In addition, the spike grants a +2 circumstance bonus on Climb checks on wooden surfaces.
Character Trait: Serpent Runner
Before Flynt began his little “Robin Hood” scheme he got swept up in a performance of sorts, held at the Serpent’s Run arena. For a series of three weeks, the hippodrome featured a grand reenactment of the Battle of Charda. A recruiter visited the taverns favored by pirates and sailors offering money to any who would be willing to step into the arena and mock battle for the crowd of thousands. Flynt jumped at the chance and was not only able to make enough money to purchase his small apartment, it also helped him hone his two weapon fighting style.
– Written by Jared Cvetas (@WoolyToots on Twitter)
Douglas And Dragons 