My friend  SurferOtter is hosting a game of Dungeons and Dragons. This is my character

Art by Inu_Chan

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Nip is a kobold warlock. His name is from a nickname he got as a a hatchling when he was a bity little shit. He would Nip at everything. When writing the backstory of the character I imagined this to be more of playfully nipping at things. Similar to how a ferret will playfully nip at things. Rather then deliberately trying to cause harm. Dax did some homebrew, so kobold live longer in his version. As opposed to most dungeons and dragons sources. Where Kobolds live about as long as dogs.

Here's an early rough draft of the backstory I wrote for this character.

More backstory stuff

Nip the kobold was born 30 years prior to the current campaign. His kobold clan Kanalizace occupied and controlled the deep sewers and catacombs of the faebrook. (Think catacombs of Paris type situation). His clan alone knew the safe passages through the sewers the sewers and catacombs of the city. The labyrinthine passages were so complex. That it was very easy to get lost for days, or accidentally stumble off a ledge, or die in a cave in. Clan kanalizace primarily made money acting as guides. For a few, they’d smuggle illicit goods and unsavoury individuals through the sewers. Bypassing the guards who kept vigilant watch over the town gates.

Nip learned magic at a young age, studying lost text books and other trinkets that had been discarded from the city’s college of mages. He spend hours reading and rereading various scrolls. Nip also studied under the tribe elders and managed to work his way up to a novice mage. Some basic spells, nothing too impressive. But just enough to fool the commoners of the city.

Nip took part in helping the guilds smugglers various goods from time to time. But he also made money on the side through fortune telling (he can’t really tell fortunes, he’s just a fraud) and selling potions, that sometimes worked. He never tried to defraud any members of his own clan, and never sold potions to his own clan. He was a fraudster. But his was loyal to his own.

He gained a bit of a reputation as a fraudster. He preferred these jobs. It was an easy way to make money and keep a low profile.

One day he was studying scrolls in the sewers. He sat in one of the more secluded rooms away from the clan. It was a simple stone room with an iron door and a small air vent on the ceiling. His bed consisted of a wooden crate filled with straw and topped with a fancy silk blanket that he’d stolen from some merchant years ago.

He sat on the stone floor with a spell book laying on the floor infront of him. He had been studying the archaic tome for hours, he felt tired and needed to rest. Nips eyes felt heavy, he yawned and tried to focus on the texts of the book. But sleep slowly overtook him and he slowly drifted off.

(I also never really came up with a backstory for my characters warlock pact, I’m going to go with Cthulhu. I think the players handbook calls it the old ones or the old gods or something)

(Writers block, took a while to write this)

Nip fell asleep, and dreamed. He stood on the shores of an underground lake. The arched cave ceiling loomed hundreds of feet above his head. The beach consisted of small round pebbles rather the sand. Before him lie a huge ink black lake. The lake seemed to extend forever into the distance. The waters were perfectly calm, not a wave, or ripple or sound. The entire cavern was deathly silent. The whole cave was lit by a dim light that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

A voice spoke to Nip, the sound seemed to be coming from everywhere at the same time. A soft, deep toned voice. It spoke unlike any creature he had ever encountered. It’s spoke in an incomprehensible language. The sounds.

Nip senses a strange presence for the inky black lake. Thought the waters were still as death and inky black. He still knew something was down there. It was a strange presence, unlike anything he had ever felt before. He had been around various magical and fey creatures before. He had practised and witnessed various schools of magic. But this was something new. It seemed to be different in way.

The strange voice continued to speak in its unrecognizable language. Nip felt dizzy, he wobbled on his feet for a moment. Before falling down face first on the rocky beach.

Nip was laying face first in a small puddle of his own saliva. He pushed himself up off the hard stone floor. He felt dizzy at first, but the feeling quickly dissipated.

(Old gods are kind of vague and mysterious, they have a plan, but aren’t explicitly telling nip what to do, also I don’t really have an overarching thing, just rolling with improv)

Nip felt a strange energy coursing through his body. He felt infused with a type of magical power. Over the next few weeks, he learned new spells at an accelerated rate. He quickly mastered the few spells and scrolls that he had.

Over the next few months, Nip felt an urge to go out and collect more. More artifacts, more spells, more scrolls, more gold. Previously he’d only worked in the city. He had never been outside the city. He deeply desired to go out into the wider world, but didn’t want to go out alone. Bandits and other horrors lurked the roads. It was suicidal to go traveling out in the country side alone.

After weeks of hanging out around the inn and listening to rumours, and gossip. Nip finally found a band of mercenaries to travel with. He’d tag along and collect some loot, possibly gain access to new powerful magical artifacts to take back to his tribe, learn new spells, and make a lot of gold.