{"id":26227,"date":"2019-12-23T22:30:24","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T11:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/?p=26227"},"modified":"2019-12-23T21:03:18","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T10:03:18","slug":"no-good-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/no-good-choices\/","title":{"rendered":"No Good Choices"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image by Alexas_Fotos<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

I have a character to offer for your next D&D \/ fantasy game. His is a story of hope, and desperation – but mostly, hope.<\/p>\n

Introducing Solyn<\/h3>\n

Solyn was nobody important, raised in the human community of Rospike. He tried his best to fit in, there, but never seemed quite on the same page as the townspeople, who he found to be rude and crude. Certainly, there were locals who did not fit this characterization, but they moved in different social circles to Solyn.<\/p>\n

Rospike was part of the domain of Duke Revin, who was niggardly and hard-nosed in most respects but capable of occasional turns of kindness, and scrupulously fair within the strict confines of tradition, protocol, and law.<\/p>\n

One of those acts of generosity involved giving all children within his domain a decent educational foundation, though – to be fair – this act of generosity was not entirely without the taint of self-interest. The teachers that he employed acted as scouts, identifying students with natural talents of value to the Duke.<\/p>\n

But Solyn was nothing special, and remained unimportant.<\/p>\n

Solyn’s Fascination<\/h5>\n

Solyn’s life was forever changed by Zuylick, the teacher that the Duke dispatched to Rospike. From the day that Zuylick mentioned Elves, Solyn knew that he had found his life’s passion. They were elegant, and educated, and wise; poetic and musical and artistic; yet passionate and – if anything – closer to nature than any human not taken into the secretive society of Druids. They were everything that Solyn loved, and nothing that he hated.<\/p>\n

From that day forward, Solyn sought out all he could learn of Elves, and despite his being a mediocre student at best, learned the beginnings of their language. But Rospike was a long way from the Elven Mountains, and other students learned Elvish more fluently than he could ever hope to do. Solyn was still unimportant.<\/p>\n

In time, his education was complete, and Solyn became a farmer, handyman, and dog’s body within the local community. Mediocre at many things, expert in none – but he earned enough to survive, and even to diligently save every copper coin that he could get his hands on, for he had conceived an audacious plan: he would earn enough, save enough, that he could buy freedom from Duke Revin, and resettle in the Elven Lands, where he would persuade one of these paragons of virtue to wife, and they would live happily ever after.<\/p>\n

As plans go, this was not entirely impractical, an ambition well within his limited abilities. And, in due course, he had enough saved that he was able to barter with the Duke for release from his obligations to crown and country, though it left him near-destitute.<\/p>\n

Solyn’s Quest<\/h5>\n

Solyn set out for the Elvenlands full of hope and boyish romantic dreams, dreams that with every step seemed to grow more tangible, more real. As he traveled, he traded his services for food and lodgings, eventually reaching the border in roughly the same state as that in which he had departed.<\/p>\n

He was welcomed with open arms by the Elvish community, and though nothing he could do was ever quite up to their standards, his earnest praise of all things Elvish brought him forgiveness and welcome – for a while.<\/p>\n

He even found stable employment teaching children within the Elven Lands about humans, and to speak the Common Tongue of Man, and received the occasional commission to translate documents or sales agreements into common, because trade with Humans was becoming more and more common.<\/p>\n

He even caught the eye of an Elvish Maiden of no great importance named Aelissa, and worshiped the ground she walked upon. In his eyes, she could do no wrong, and was everything that he had dreamed a wife could be, and – in the fullness of time – she presented him with a daughter, who the couple named Thien, from the Elvish word for Twilight – half one thing, and half another.<\/p>\n

For a while, the fairy-tale seemed to have come true, and Solyn was far more than merely content. He let go of the last ties to his homeland save those of birth, which brought in the bread, milk, and honey upon which his family survived. But life is no fairy tale, and things were about to take a turn for the worse.<\/p>\n

Solyn’s Downfall<\/h5>\n

Little by little, times turned hard. Unseasonably cold winters and dry summers turned into drought. Short-sighted and greedy merchants soured relations between Elves and Men, and the commissions dried up, and no-one was interested in teaching Elven children about Humans. The praise which Solyn heaped on everything Elvish began to sound hollow and condescending, because he was equally lavish regardless of the standard of achievement – from the Elvish perspective. Incursions into the Elvenlands by the neighboring wilder races, driven by hunger, increased the insularity of Elven society while further restricting food supplies.<\/p>\n

Prejudice began to arise against the few Half-bloods who had been born, like Thien. The Elves began to view Half-bloods as ‘contaminated with human fragility’ – referring as much to their morality as to their physical, mental, and social capacities. Humans held a similar attitude but to them it was loyalty and honor and flexibility that had been compromised with Elvish airs and stiff-necked unwilling to compromise.<\/p>\n

When Thien fell ill, subjected to one of those human frailties that the more rabidly xenophobic, Solyn was forced to take her to an Elven Cleric who at first refused treatment, and then demanded an almost-impossible price for bestowing the Grace of his deity upon the child, and times grew harder still for Solyn.<\/p>\n

No longer made to feel welcome or wanted by his neighbors, he reached out to the one group with which he could still claim affiliation, however strained and remote – the Duchy of Revin. But, in the meantime, the old Duke had passed away, and his son – a hothead who was failing in every way to live up to the standards set by his forebears – issued a harsh penalty for what he considered the “personal betrayal of all humankind” by Solyn and others like him: they could return, but only if they abandoned all pretense of Elvishness and spoke out against the “Perfidy of the Elves”. Certainly, this would mean Solyn abandoning the wife and child that he treasured above all else, and more, the denigration of their memory.<\/p>\n

What’s more, if he were to leave the Elvenlands, he would be adjudged a criminal for abandoning his family and never permitted to return for them.<\/p>\n

His only hope was to somehow raise enough money that he could buy a welcome in some other Noble’s domain for both himself and his family, but with work becoming scarce and his resources already depleted, this seemed a forlorn hope. He could only beg for the charity of others and make increasingly desperate appeals and wildly optimistic and fruitless plans.<\/p>\n

Depression and cynicism set in, and he took his frustration out on many who might have helped, because the offered aid did not further the latest wild scheme for escaping the plight in which he found himself. His reputation began to suffer, as a result. With the failure of ambitious plan after ambitious plan, humility was slowly ground into him, but in many cases, it was too late; both Races are experts at holding a grudge, and the “desperate orphan of circumstance in a distant realm” had long been a staple of con artists in both Realms.<\/p>\n

Contact<\/h5>\n

It is at this time, and in this state, that the party encounter Solyn and his family. While grateful for the smallest concession or assistance, he always needs more, and his desperation often leads his gratitude to be short-lived. His pride, though wounded deeply, is nevertheless prone to flare up at odd times, making him seem short-tempered to any who linger long enough to offer assistance.<\/p>\n

This is a character with no good choices left for them to make – only less-bad ones. And that makes him desperate enough to make mistakes. He will take every setback personally, and lash out, and fall prey to wild conspiracy theories when things don’t pan out, no matter how inevitable that outcome might be. These things, in turn, only fuel his desperation – a vicious cycle.<\/p>\n

There are also those who are prone to attack any who have dealings with him, either out of prejudice against his Elven wife and half-blood daughter, or who assume that he is just another con-man and any who take up his cause are soft-headed and gullible.<\/p>\n

Because of the desperation and resulting inclination to clutch at straws, Solyn can be encountered almost anywhere, in almost any circumstance – so long as that focal need remains unfulfilled and unfulfillable.<\/p>\n

The PCs should not be expected or permitted to solve Solyn’s problems, which have all been made worse by his own mistakes, something that he will admit, but which he has difficulty taking responsibility for. He knows enough obscure lore, and is better than most at translating it into a form that others can understand, that he is not without value as a contact, but that value always comes with a price. That makes him a character who may be helpful, and whose qualities make him both admirable and yet – at times – uncomfortable to be around. He is a difficult friend to have, at best.<\/p>\n

All of which makes him a very interesting character to interact with, in-game, and a compelling persona with a fascinating – and heartbreaking – story to tell, if the party will only listen.<\/p>\n

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Richard and Wysoka<\/p><\/div>\n

The Reality<\/h3>\n

Some people may have recognized the above as a somewhat-romanticized and heavily-fictionalized recasting of a real-life person’s story, warts and all (perhaps, to appease the doubters, I should have written “alleged” story).<\/p>\n

I have written a couple of times in the past about the personal crisis that has enveloped R. A. Whipple – and been attacked, and threatened, for doing so. One person even alleged that I was the “con-man” responsible and threatened to report me to the authorities.<\/p>\n

In response to any such allegations this time around, let me simply say that if it’s a Con, it’s the most inept one imaginable, based on the results to date. The goals set for various fundraising campaigns have been modest, even overly so, but not one of them has come close to achieving those targets.<\/p>\n

I first appealed on Richard’s behalf with a sidebar in the March 2016 article, “Boogie to the tune of the hidden Mastermind in your ranks<\/a>“, and gave a much fuller description of the situation as the final item in a post from later that year, “Periodic Goodie Roundup October 2016<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, he relocated to Poland because there was a lot of work for English speakers and because the old-world values appealed to him; he married and had a daughter; his job vanished in a recession, his work visa ran out, food became scarce and less wholesome, his daughter became sick as a result, and he became desperate to try and raise enough money to relocate his entire family back to his Canadian homeland. Well, that goal didn’t happen, so he made a second attempt to bootstrap his situation by writing a book – one that would have appealed only to a few readers in specific fields, but that drew heavily on his expertise and education, and that required extensive research.<\/p>\n

That plan, therefore, also failed, and now – three years down the track – Richard’s own physical and mental health has him facing the prospect of leaving his wife and daughter and re-entering Canada on his own to seek medical treatment (all along, the Canadian Embassy has been willing to assist him<\/em> but not the rest of his family. They might want to do more, but rules and regulations wouldn’t let them even if that’s the case). <\/p>\n

If RA does return to Canada, he will effectively be homeless – with no job in prospect and no current credentials to obtain one, the possibility is vanishingly small that he will ever be reunited with his family. And with him in such a position, they would not be permitted to Emigrate in any event.<\/p>\n

No-one likes to think about a family abandoned to their fate. It’s certainly not something that RA wants for his<\/em> family. But he’s being left with little choice.<\/p>\n

That’s his story, and though you may have doubts about it’s veracity, I am convinced. First, because I’ve been in contact with RA for longer than this situation has existed – he was the first person to post a comment here at Campaign Mastery – and second because, as I said, if it is a hoax it’s a singularly unsuccessful one. I can’t imagine any criminal sticking with such a plan whose returns were so slight – they would literally get more reward begging on the street.<\/p>\n

It might seem too little, too late, but there is still time to help out. Even a couple of dollars, multiplied a few hundred-fold, would make an enormous difference.<\/p>\n

I know that there are always worthy causes and people in need; here in Australia, for example, an unprecedented bushfire season has already cost several lives and resulted in the destruction of more than 700 homes, including one entire small town that was virtually wiped out<\/a> overnight. That’s 700 now-homeless families who won’t be enjoying Christmas this year, no matter how much assistance they might get to rebuild their lives.<\/p>\n

But Richard deserves a little compassion too, especially at this time of year. I will be giving what little I can to both causes. It won’t be much. Can you do the same – give something to a worthy cause, and a little on the side to help Richard?<\/p>\n

That’s all anyone could ask.<\/p>\n

You can donate to help Richard’s cause at A New Life in Canada for Wysoka<\/a> (Wysoka is the name of Richard’s daughter), where you can read other people’s accounts of the family and the situation. And remember the gofundme guarantee, “If something isn’t right, we will refund your donation”, for those who still have doubts.<\/p>\n

I hope everyone reading this has a safe and happy Christmas. And wouldn’t it be nice if we could make someone else’s Christmas-time that way, too?<\/p>\n

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Image by Gerd Altmann<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a>, color tweak by Mike<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a character to offer for your next D&D \/ fantasy game. His is a story of hope, and desperation – but mostly, hope. Introducing Solyn Solyn was nobody important, raised in the human community of Rospike. He tried his best to fit in, there, but never seemed quite on the same page as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[67,74,89,213],"tags":[314,155,172,218],"series":[],"class_list":["post-26227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dnd","category-mike","category-npcs-etc","category-pieces-of-creation","tag-charity","tag-dd","tag-npcs","tag-pathfinder"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1toiD-6P1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26227"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26234,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26227\/revisions\/26234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26227"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=26227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}