Skellion

Skellion is a flyer Saurial thief from the small saurial settlement of Scrub Haven in the southwest of Arin. He left that city and currently resides in Nazivonema, where he is a member of the local thieves' guild.

History

Skellion was born the only hatchling to his parents when they were late on in years. Perhaps due to their age, his parents were insular even within their own close-knit community, rarely leaving their home and mixing with others, even avoiding community festivals. Likewise, they never had anything to do with outsiders, not even those few Dwarves from the nearby Thair Mountains with whom the community had established trade. Skellion himself was expected to follow suit, and he was mostly prevented from mixing with the rest of the younglings of his community, spending most of what should have been his carefree youngling days helping to look after the family's small farm plot with his father. Unfortunately, much to his father's dismay and frequent annoyance, he showed no aptitude whatsoever; his talents seemed to lie in a rather different direction.

From a very young age, Skellion had an almost insatiable curiosity for anything barred to him, and he could find his way into places thought to be secured against one his age. His curiosity was matched only by an almost equally insatiable attraction towards anything bright and shiny. Before he was able to fly he could and would take and hide any small baubles he could get his hands on. Oddly enough, he seemed to take just as much pleasure in putting them back again when no-one was looking, as if they had never gone.

Once he had learned to fly he would often perform more daring exploits in an attempt to impress the other younglings, none of whom where ever quite able to match him. However, his attempts to fit in with his peers had only limited success. The aloof behavior of his parents toward the rest of the community, along with his own sporadic contact with the other younglings, led to mistrust and even open hostility on occasions. The adults of the community were a little more forgiven of him however and his actions were largely overlooked by the larger community, who took it to be just childish games normal for one his age.

His parents, though, took a rather different view when they learned of his shenanigans. Often in the years before he reached full height his father sought to discourage him by means of grounding him -- a rather cruel and humiliating punishment for a flyer, as it involved strapping his arms tight to his sides to preventing him from taking to the air. This punishment could often last for days at a time, and it only served to distance him even more from others his age, making him the butt of all their taunts.

Over the years of harsh treatment, Skellion resorted to indulging in daydreams and fantasies of grand adventure to get himself through his almost solitary existence. When he reached full height, he would no longer submit to being grounded, and took to defying the wishes of his parents by disappearing from home -- sometimes for days at a time -- wandering off to explore the limits of his settlement and the area surrounding it. His daydreams of adventure began to take a more concrete form, and at the age of 8 he finally left his homeland for good to find adventure.

Skellion traveled west to the Vorilon River, then south along it, relying on his skills to get food until he reached the city of Glespi. It was the biggest place he'd ever seen in his young life, and it was here where he reckoned his adventuring career would begin in earnest. However, days and weeks went by with no sign of anyone recruiting keen adventurers like him, as he had heard tell of on the rare occasions he had sat around the storytelling fire on one of the festival days in Scrub Haven. His ill-thought-out notions of finding work to save coin for his adventuring also came to naught, as it seemed no one had much use for a Saurial with no real skills. He found it easier to simply fall back on the skills that brought him to the city, and he quickly learned to pick pockets by observing street thieves.

It wasn't long before he drew the attentions of a couple of enterprising freelance thieves who saw potential to make a great deal of money from his talents. It wasn't hard to win his trust with offers of food and a warm bed, and though communication was fraught with difficulty in the beginning, within a year he was able to understand and communicate using a basic form of thieves' cant. He was shown the ropes of lock picking and served as a lookout and a messenger for his companions, but the relationship was far from equal and though they taught him much they gained far more than they lost out of the deal. Unable to appraise the items he managed to snatch, he often received far less than he should have for his efforts. Nevertheless, things seemed to be working out for him until he made a drastic misjudgment.

Thinking to impress his companions, he took it upon himself to steal from one of the city's small temples. Knowing that temples often had valuable artifacts, this seemed like a good idea, and in fact he found it surprisingly easy to grab one such artifact. When he proudly presented his loot to his companions, however, they where less than pleased, and threw the item straight back at him. To his shock and confusion, they grabbed him, stuffed him in a sack and brought him to the door of the local thieves' guild claiming reward for catching him plying his trade without guild permission. Things might have gone very ill for him had a priestess of the temple where he had stolen the artifact not turned up soon afterwards, having tracked the item via spell. She argued that he was their responsibility to do with as they chose, and was thus able to wrest him from the guild. However, he was barred from joining them, and was told to leave the city and never return, since the temple from which he'd stolen was the house of Helandra, the patroness of thieves.

The priestess, named Brianna, agreed to escort him out of the city forthwith, stopping only to replace the item and retrieve her belongings. She grudgingly allowed Skellion to keep the tools of his trade which, although they weren't technically his, he felt were owed him due to his betrayal. This was how Skellion would come to know the person he has traveled with ever since, and over time she helped improve his communication, teach him the ways of traveling, and eventually help him start a new life and maybe -- just maybe -- find the adventure he so desperately sought.

After leaving Glespi, the two journeyed to Nazivonema. Once there, they spotted a poster advertising for would-be adventurers to join a party being organized by a man named Rhone. At Skellion's insistence, they sought Rhone out at the Red Dragon Inn in an attempt to enlist themselves. However, when Rhone left the city, they instead joined a party led by a Dwarf named Kurzik. In the meantime, Skellion joined the local thieves' guild. He was taken under the wing of an experienced hand named Melio, and began doing the occasional job that called for his particular talents. After a couple such jobs, however, it was suggested that he might benefit from more experience, so he went back on the road with Brianna. However, Kurzik's mission also soon fell apart while on the road in nearby Ezrick, and the two have since returned to Nazivonema.

Physical appearance

Skellion is 10 years old, is 3 feet tall when standing upright and weighs 26 pounds. He is predominantly a bright green in color except for a light greenish-yellow front. He also has red splotch scale markings on the backs of his wings, though these only show up in bright sunlight, where he is overall brighter. At night or on overcast days his colors are duller and muted.

Like all flyers, Skellion has wings attached to his arms enabling him to fly. He has a short stumpy tail and sharp claws on his feet. His face has a blunt all-over reptilian appearance with a shortish muzzle filled with small needle-sharp teeth. His eyes are golden yellow with a narrow copper-colored band surrounding each black slit pupil. His eyelids open upward and he has nictating membranes at the corners of each eye. His golden irises reflect back in dim light, giving him a nocturnal appearance.

Other information

Skellion is a PC played by Lou McLeary.