Thanks for the advice on the weapon choices and feats.
Also, what is Wushu?
EDIT: This is the background I had written up that I adopted to this campaign.
Background:
Driders are among the most feared of the underground inhabitants. A blend of the dark, elfish drow and the form of the spider goddess Lloth herself, the Driders are her personal servants and priests. She herself chooses the most skilled and cunning of the Drow to imbue with a bit of her own essence to change and corrupt them into monstrous half spider forms.
However, a few Driders are not chosen by Lloth. Though they are her servants, the Driders still have minds, wills, and passions of their own. It has arisen before that Driders have been born by natural means, by the union of two Driders, or more commonly, a Drider and a drow. These natural born Driders often lead short, bloody lives. They are often killed to hide the evidence of such a union, or are destroyed by Lloth herself, in her anger of Driders that have not been chosen by her existing. Still, some few natural Driders do manage to survive, often by being carried out of or fleeing the underground realms altogether.
Safia was one such of these natural born Driders. She came through the secret affair of a Drider woman and a drow man. Unfortunately, shortly after Safia was born, Lloth discovered what had happened. As with all such matters, Lloth was angry at the two, once she found out about the affair. The Drider and the drow were condemned to death, along with their newly born child. The Drider was soon found and executed, however, the father, fearful of Lloth, had taken the baby and fled.
The father and baby were pursued constantly throughout the underground caverns and tunnels. Fleeing blindly, the tunnels he chose, through chance or fate, led to the surface, and he found himself within the mountains, on the border of dwarven territory. He decided to take his chances on the surface, better to deal with a bitter enemy, the surface dwellers, rather than the bitter enemy who was actively hunting for your head. In the bright sunlight, though it stung his eyes and irritated his skin, he managed to lose the pursuit Lloth sent after him.
Even though he had survived Lloth’s anger, his own inexperience with the surface folk would prove to be his undoing. After some time of wandering, he happened upon the farmland of an isolated monastery dedicated to the dwarf god Marthammor Duin. There he saw a dwarf working the fields. He assumed him to be a slave working to grow food for his master, and the father decided to attack him, to steal his food and goods. But this was not a slave, but a strong and learned monk by the name of Dain Gemback, who spurned the military and chose the peaceful life of a simple farmer. The monk defended himself with a skill and lethality the father did not expect. The drow who survived the spider goddess’s wrath died at the hands of a dwarf farmer.
But Safia was still alive though, and the dwarf soon heard her hungry crying. He found the drider babe where she had been hidden by the father when he went to attack him. Dain, though, was a good dwarf at heart. And though he would be willing to kill in self defense, leaving a helpless baby, even a drider baby, to die in the open was unthinkable. He decided there was nothing he could do except to carry the baby home with him.
Naturally, the little Safia caused quite a stir when Dain returned carrying her. There was much debating on what should be done with her. Dain, however, decided that since he orphaned this child, he would be responsible for it’s well being, and provide her with a good father. Besides, he argued, if the evil gods such as Lloth could corrupt, could not Marthammor purify and heal? In the end, he and his wife Filia adopted Safia as their own daughter. It was from them the drider got her dwarfish name Safia Gemback.
At first, many were doubtful, but before long, time seemed to vindicate Dain and Filia, if for the most part. The two of them cared for Safia as best they could, teaching her their arts and knowledge, and educating her on Marthammor Duin’s ways and teachings, and providing for all her needs, food, shelter, clothing, and above all else love. The influence and essence of Lloth, though it was present at her birth, was gradually diminished, isolated, and ultimately removed and replaced by the wholesome values taught to her by her adoptive parents. The other inhabitants and monks of the monastery were eventually won over, and accepted Safia as one of their own. She wasn't the ideal child though, as her drow heritage still did show from time to time. She possessed an arrogant attitude at times, and she had a liking for petty thefts.
Time passed, and Safia grew. She bore the form of the dridder, but her mind was more pure and wholesome than any servant of Lloth. She adopted the dwarf gods as her own, and followed their teachings. Still, as she came closer to adulthood, she became curious. She began asking questions, that Dain and Filia did now know the answers to. Questions such as where she had come from, why she alone had the half spider form among the dwarves, and most puzzling to her, why visitors to the monastery where she lived feared or despised her. Her parents always tried to answer, but they simply did not know of Lloth and the drow, save for vague ideas and rumors that only raised more questions than they answered.
When Safia came of age, she decided to leave the monastery for a time, and travel abroad to find the answers she sought. Preparing for her journey, she armed herself and bid her parents a fond farewell. She struck out for the world, to find the truth that had long eluded her.
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Topic: (D&D 4E: Maptool) Schedule Killed (Read 36371 times)