I said I was going to post a small review about Mass Victory, however I don't feel that my memory is actually up to recalling all the pros and cons of that game since it has been months since I actually played it. Instead I'm revisiting one of my older D&D characters and will likely continue to go back and flesh out a few back stories that have been lost or where very short.
Dalin grew up as a fairly normal child. His father and mother loved him and he had many friends. His father was gone on business often and his mother stayed home and read. He occasionally went with his father on business trips, and brought back souvenirs. His favorite was a small ornate knife that he had found after his father had slain a Wight in one of the numerous graveyards to be found across the world. He and his family got along extremely well. There was only one problem; he was expected to continue the family traditions. Both his parents came from long lines of adventurers. His fathers fathers fathers father had been Reinguilder the giant tosser, whose name had actually been an understatement, while his mothers family had for eight generations been wandering wizards. Dalin however had different ideas of what he wanted to do with his life; fighting was too strenuous and it made one lose brain to maintain brawn. Dalin also disliked his mothers profession; while yes, he was gifted with a natural talent in the arcane arts, he hated the idea of dedicating hours a day to poring over ancient spell books and smelly ingredients. No, what Dalin truly wanted to do was sing.
He had always wanted to become a performer, however, he was never given the chance. His father would make him practice fighting and his mother would have him do chores with magic. He would try to turn those into performances, but it was very hard to keep his spirits up when the kitchen never applauded for his “Boy Washing Floor” dance. Over time Dalin learned of an uncle on his mothers side that had actually abandoned the family tradition ,and was disowned for it, in favor of developing a new magical instrument. The very same day ,his 15th birthday to be precise, that he heard of this uncle he ran away from home. After a week of travel had managed to get himself lost; after another week he had managed to get him self found and heading in the right direction toward the kindred uncle.
Over the next month he learned how to make a living performing dance routines and stand-up comedy ,a very rare form of entertainment in those days, at local taverns, he also learned of the amazing custom of gambling which cost him several meals. After two months he made it to his uncles house, only to find that his uncle was also insane and didn’t know who Dalin was. Never one to let little things like crazy people daunt him, he convinced his uncle that he was a mail-order-musician and was here to help develop the magical instrument. His uncle seemed to believe that and let Dalin enter. The house itself proved that his uncle was crazy, the walls were colored in pastels while the floor had some fungal growth that his uncle ,Barty, called shag . To make a long story short, after a little over a year Dalin and his uncle perfected ,well almost perfected, the Whaliendo. Thought it did come at a price, Barty lost the upper left half of his conservatory and Dalin is still missing his left eyebrow.
The Whaliendo is a six foot hollow rod with a crook at either end. Eight strings run the whole length of the stick and stretch across the crook where feathers are tied to them. It is played by making the feathers catch air which makes the strings vibrate; this is usually accomplished by dancing ,Barty created several unique dances. All along the six feet of rod are a total of nine hand positions with buttons used to manipulate the sound of the instrument. After this wondrous creative feat, Dalin’s Uncle magically regained his sanity stripped the paint from his walls returning them to a wizardly stone, evicted the shag infestation, and decided to return to being a wizard leaving the Whaliendo to Dalin. Dalin couldn’t ever understand why all the previous events had happened to him, but decided it must be his fate to be a performer, perhaps even to be the most sought after musician in the world! Then he ran into his father a week later.
Dalin's father was overjoyed to have found his son after almost two years of searching, and took him back to the familial manor ,which had belonged to Reinguilder. His mother was not as pleased; she immediately set him back to his chores and made him study fighting even harder. She was determined that her son would be the greatest adventurer ever to walk the earth ,she claimed to have had a vision but Dalin didn't believe it. Over the next year Dalin made it clear that he did not want to be an adventurer; while his father only seemed a bit disappointed, his mother would fly off the handle and begin casting minor spells without thinking about it ,which lead to the loss of Dalin’s pet dire gerbil Hammmy.
The dispute came to a head on Dalin’s eighteenth birthday. His father was away and was due home later that day; Dalin and his mother had been arguing again about adventuring when suddenly Dalin’s mother had started performing a strange spell which immobilized Dalin. Before it was finished though, Dalin’s father opened the front door and shouted “Honey I’m home!”. This so surprised Dalin’s mother that she miscast the spell. Fortunately no one was hurt however Dalin had been given the worst birthday present ever, an incomplete geass and Dalin found himself compelled to seek out the nearest cave and exterminate all that lived within in hopes of finding some rare armor and a cache of gold. All he found though, was a very unlucky family of hedgehogs whose corpses didn’t contain anything of value. After this adventure Dalin had to keep adventuring and shortly found that Bard was an acceptable adventuring profession for the geass and has learned to coexist peacefully, to some degree at least, with his mothers birthday present.
Random things:
Family: (father) Roy (mother) Elizabeth (uncle) Barty (and a large extended family that he doesn’t really know
Favorite Color: Deep Blues
Most memorable family moment: The time he was adventuring with his father in the Crypt of Undeath ,he knows it was named this because as they entered ghostly letters spelled it out in front of their eyes, and he killed four skeletons by using them as xylophones to perform the Hallelujah Chorus.
Likes: Gambling, performing, making beautiful music at the casbah, women, the Whaliendo
Dislikes: monsters that don’t make sounds when you hit them, old ladies that have endless lists of chores, his mother for geassing him.
Favorite performances: The chicken dance ,created by Barty and adapted for use with the Whaliendo, and whatever he had been doing the night he caused the entirety of the Roasted Familiar ,a pub, to collapse out of amusement .Dalin can’t remember because he was drunk
Most sorrowful moment: When Hammmy was incinerated by the flame arrow his mother accidentally cast.
Life dreams: to becomes the best musician, to regrow his eyebrow, to break the geass on him, to find another musician to marry (so he can screw family tradition)
Something he doesn’t know about himself: His mother really did have a vision of him becoming one of the greatest adventurers in history.
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