Need a character background written up?

[Tawmis]

I love it!
It adds extra flavour to both Lars and the world he moves in. The addition of Laurak is very clever, it give my DM the opportunity to create hostile NPCs within Lars' own walls. And I really like the "aggressive benevolence" you added to Lars
This is pure gold!
I always struggled to give Lars a different connotation of the bard, this is why I did not make him a musician, but a politician. Nonethless he always felt kinda flat. But this adds so much depth!
Thank you again, you are very talented

Thank you! I enjoyed writing it!

Reading Tasha, I really enjoyed the rune knight, so I wanted to create something.
Considering the feature "Giant Might", which is crucial for the archtype, I imagined a small character becoming large in combat. I find it both funny and interesting to see a large gnome, in plate armor charging the enemies.
Keeping in mind a small race and somebody "tinkering" to write runes I thought of course of a gnome.
Even the rune knight has a very nordic/viking flavour (which you ave guessed I am really into ), but that is all I have for now. Just a gnome rune knight that for some reason has started to carve runes and is very much inspired by Giant magic.

This one was very fun to write. I had to read up on Rune Knights, as I have never played one...
Nor have any of my players, so I had only skimmed knowledge.
But upon reading it - and you saying you wanted a gnome for that fun flavor of going to Large size...
The background literally wrote itself...
This time, no hostile NPC, but a friendly one, your DM could use if you ever head back to the (unnamed) mountains of your homeland as a Rock Gnome...
I'd love to hear feedback!
As always, enjoy!
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“Are ye out of yer mind, Kasgin Squiggletoes? Ye’ve hit yer head one too many times, or been close to one too many explosions,” Thurakor Greystone grumbled beneath his dwarven, bristling beard. He’d met Kasgin a long time ago – much to his own chagrin he’d tell you, if you gave Thurakor half a moment to bend your ear. “This far down we’re gonna run into them blasted duergar, Drow, or even worse, the blasted Mind Flayers.”

“It’s just a little further down,” Kasgin assured him.

“A little further down?” Thurakor spat. “That’s what ye said about two hundred feet back! ‘Just right around this bend here,’ ye said! Well, we passed that bend and about six other bends. Are ye sure you know where yer goin’? This far down the gases can play tricks on the mind.”

“I am telling you, I saw runes, they’re –“ and at that moment, Kasgin halted so quickly that Thurakor who was still complaining bumped into him nearly sending Kasgin perilously over the edge into the searing lava river far below. “Look. Look at these runes.”

Thurakor looked at them. “Fine, fine. It’s runes. And sure, they look like Fire Giant runes.”

“But they’re not in a language that the Fire Giants use,” Kasgin pointed out. “There’s similarities – see how, right here – this has an extra curl. And this, this over here, lowers down and cross across here – and creates that odd ‘v’ shape. This is something very similar to the writing of Fire Giants,” Kasgin began to explain.

Thurakor cut him off, “All the more reason we shouldn’t be this far down. Listen, I am a good fighter’n’all – one of the best, if I might say so myself, but Fire Giants, they’re a tough lot. If one of them comes aroun’ ‘ere and sees us we’re goin’ to have a fight on our hands.” Kasgin, Thurakor knew, was unlike most gnomes – his interest in tinkering was there, it was just minimal. Kasgin, Thurakor used to joke, had Dwarf blood somewhere in his bloodline, because Kasgin enjoyed a good fight more than he did tinkering.

Kasgin unrolled a parchment, that already began to burn at the edges because of the intense heat in the area, and traced the runes. “What are ye doin’?” Thurakor asked.

“Tracing the runes,” Kasgin explained, as if it were obvious.

“I can see that with me own bloody eyes,” Thurakor sighed. “I mean why are ye tracin’em?”

“I want to see if I can find out more about them,” Kasgin said, finishing the three runes he could see, the rest had been damaged.

“Since when have ye been interested in literature,” Thurakor asked, “unless it was trying to read the ingredients of the last drink ye had.”

Even as Kasgin had traced the letters, he could feel energy from his ink dotted feather, channeling into his body. He wrapped up the parchment and looked at his dwarven friend, “There’s something about these runes, old friend. Something different. They’re older, it feels like than when the giants first moved in here. I want to see if I can find out more information about them. Could be an omen of some kind.”

“Omen!” Thurakor spat. “Omen! Who believes in that nonsense? There’s no predestined thing awaiting me!”

“Ever the skeptic,” Kasgin smiled. Kasgin could feel the parchment tingling, his body felt energized. His own father had been a well-known and well respected mage among the gnomes – some, beyond the mountain, even knew his name. His father, Hazagin, had hoped his twelfth son, like the eleven other siblings before him, would follow in the same path – but Kasgin was different from the moment he was born. He was insanely curious, which many gnomes are, but to the point of often forgoing his own safety, which meant learning to fight to defend himself when he got himself in awkward situations.

To Kasgin’s surprise, he could find no information in the Great Dwarven Library (which was not much of a surprise – since most of what was contained there was the infinite lineage of each and every dwarf – and all the battles the dwarves had engaged in – little to do with anything else!), but when he couldn’t find anything at the Thirty Second Tower of Documented Historical Findings of the World Inside And Out (TSToDHFotWIaO as it’s often abbreviated), that had surprised him – the gnomish historian were ever curious about everything – mostly in hopes of gleaming knowledge that could help them in their endeavors in improving some of their tinkering – or creating something that seemed like it could be historically beneficial (thus getting their names documented in one of the many tomes of history).

When Thurakor saw his friend next, Kasgin had a backpack on, several daggers, a sword strapped to his back and a look of determination like he’d never seen before. “Don’t tell me yer headin’ back down to them blasted rocks with the runes,” Thurakor grumbled as he took a deep drink from his stein.

“No, I am venturing to the outside world,” Kasgin smiled.

Kasgin, in the next moment was wearing all of what Thurakor had taken a deep drink of. “What do ye mean yer goin’ to the outside world?”

“Our libraries don’t have anything about these runes,” Kisgin shrugged.

“And ye think some humans, or maybe them hoity-toity pointed ears might?” Thurakor spat.

“I won’t know until I go,” Kisgin shrugged.

“They’re probably the writings of some illiterate fire giant,” Thurakor shouted.

“Maybe,” Kisgin nodded, although he believed differently. Even now he could still feel the runes he’d copied energizing his body. “And if that’s the case, that means I will be home in no time and I’ll buy you enough drinks until you pass out and stop saying ‘I told ye so’,” Kisgin mocked his friend’s voice.

“I don’t soun’ like that,” Thurakor muttered beneath his beard. “I could go with ya but me duty to the guard…”

“It’s probably nothing,” Kisgin placed a firm hand on his friend’s shoulder, “just like you said. So no reason to come with me.”

“Well, hurry back, and watch out for them tall ones, and pointed ears,” Thurakor grumbled. “And them furry footed ones, even though they’re our height – thieves, the lot of them. Don’t trust them much either.”

Kisgin smiled. “I appreciate the warnings, my friend.”

It’d been two weeks, and Kisgin had already gone through several towns; which to his surprise, many didn’t even have libraries… how did these people know their history? But he’d gotten a tip of a major city, with a massive library, and that’s where he was headed. That night, he unrolled the parchment, and they seemed to glow – but they gave off no visible light. He traced one, thoughtlessly drawing it with his hand, unaware that he was doing so on the corner of his shield, which he’d laid on the ground next to him…

To his surprise, his shield began to emit a glow and he sense magic.

“The runes,” he muttered, “they’re magical… they enchant… weapons?”

He quickly packed his belongings and pushed himself ever harder to find this major city to see if he could find out more…