Let's start close and intimate, shall we?

Family

Where did Frilia grow up?  Was it a small town, or a large city?  Did they move around often, or stay in one place?  If they moved, where has she lived previously?
You mentioned in the PM that her father was a merchant.  What was his name, and what did he sell?  How successful was he?  Was he a travelling merchant, or a shop owner?
Are both of her parents still in the picture?  If not, why, what happened, and how did that affect Frilia?
Does she have any siblings?  If so, how many?  What's her position in the birth order?  What are her siblings like?  What's her relationship like with each of them?

Give me names for each of the family members you end up detailing.

If you have no clue, I'd suggest rolling dice, and then just build the story around what you roll.  You can using the Family Size (City) table or the Family Size (village) table on Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p193, depending where you decide she grew up.  Or make it up entirely.  Please give me story hooks I can use.

Roll 1d3 for the number of significant relationships in the family, and then roll once for each of these on the Family Relationships table on p194.  Note that it does not have to be immediate family either.  Aunt/Uncles/Cousins/Grandparents are all fair game for these.  The idea here is that the relationship is close, personal, and too powerful on the emotional scale to discount entirely.

We're stopping at the early childhood stage here, and then we'll move everyone forward into teenage years and early adulthood next.  Save some of the history for then.

Note that you may gain Allies and Rivals as a result of the family relationships rolls.  These allies and rivals do NOT have to be within the family (though they might end up that way) -- just note how many you end up with; we'll discuss these further down the track in the history.

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I have shared all my sourcebooks on dndbeyond with the players in the campaign.  If you've joined the campaign when submitting your character sheet, these links should work for you.  Let me know if they don't.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/sour...sses#HeroicChronicle
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sour...-subclasses#Homeland
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sour...#FamilySizeCityTable
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sour...lyRelationshipsTable

30 Years ago

"No! I will not allow it! Never will the blood of a simple merchant soil our noble heritage!"

"But Grand-father, I love him!"

The wizened gnome had a laughing cough at the reaction of his grand-daughter, wiping his eyes with the lace on his cuff.

"Love! Love is for bards and poets! We Silverstrings are pure nobles and will stay that way until the end of time! You will never marry that clockmaker, Lisarin!"


But 3 years later, the patriarch of the Silverstrings died and in the confusion of the succession, Lisarin quickly jumped on the occasion and married Guerans Threepikes, a successful clockmaker and businessgnome. Taking the name of his wife, they stayed low keyed and by the time anyone noticed Lisarin was married, she was pregnant with her first born, a baby girl named Frilia. The new patriarch was not happy that his cousin had married a commoner and tried to have her divorce him, but the strongheaded gnomish noble adamantly refused, pointing how much money her husband brought to the family. Greed won the day and for a few years, the couple raised their daughter and her younger brother, Julan, in relative peace in the small estate of Lisarin Silverstring.

Frilia had an happy childhood, always outside running alongside the goats and sheeps of the gnomish and halfling farmers, climbing trees and swimming in the lakes the prosperous land of her mothers sported. While her brother was more interested in intellectual pursuit, the little gnome learned that she was a natural athlete and pushed her body to grow, quickly becoming faster than most other gnomes and even big persons.

Her mother had insulated her children from the politics of the clan but when Frilia was 10, her father hired a grizzled human veteran, Harris Griswat, to teach her how to fight. Frilia loved every minute of it, the physical training being a game for her. But she soon learned that there had been threats on the family, and she became more focused on her study, the training not a game anymore.

The reason was an old one, as the patriarch of the Silverstring had decided that the monthly tribute her cousin gave him was not enough, that he had to cleanse the bloodline, with blood if necessary. Suddenly, life was dangerous and the loving couple said goodbye temporarily , as Guerans took a part of his fortune, his daughter in tow, and left Issylra to sail to Wildemount, Julan staying behind, as he was now apprenticed to a powerful wizard, Illiskar the Wise.

Soon after arriving in Wildemount, Guerans took a human partner, Silas Hortens, as he didn't know the land very well. Setting up shop in (starting city), it didn't take long to realize that Silas was a silvertongued liar, and he disappeared one morning with most of the fortune of the Silverstring duo.

That was a hard blow that Frilia took very badly. While her father rolled his sleeves and started to work even harder to rebuild what he had lost, Frilia started to frequent street toughs and thieves, gaining enough respect with her athleticism and sword-play to not be eaten alive in the rough parts of town. There she met a pair of brothers (Minho and Felix), that taught her to sneak and steal. Frilia was obsessed with revenge on Silas and on the Silverstring patriarch that had broken her family, and with her father so intent on his job, she spiraled into a life that her mother would have disapproved. One night, she followed one member of the street gang into stealing in a manor house, and got caught by the city watch, as her partner abandoned her to her fate.

Fortunately, the captain of the watch knew her father and advised him. It costed a lot of gold, nearly bringing them to bankruptcy again, but she avoided having her hand chopped off. Her father gave her "the talk" that she needed to realize that this was not the life for her, also apologizing for having neglected his daughter so much.

But she now had to refund all the gold getting her out of jail had cost. She started by being told by her father to guard the single chariot he had managed to hire for his merchandise, in a convoy led by a family of Tabaxi -- that got attacked by evil goblinoids, and where she fought side by side with Rain.

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OOC: updated by the GM minorly to fill in place names
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:33, Sat 19 Mar 2022.

Okay, let's dig in:

I'd like to know more about Frilia's childhood life  Nobody grows up in a vacuum; what was Frilia's life with the other Gnomes like, assuming there was a largish community around them.
 In particular, I'd like to know more about her relationship with her brother Julan -- it's likely one of the most important relationships she would have had growing up.  Did she have friends?  Cousins?

If you're looking for a city to start from, there are three on Issylra on my map of Exandria:
Vassalheim, Pyrah (which is probably not the best choice; it's a city with purpose), and Shorecomb (links below).    If you're going with a smaller, more insular community, it could be called anything and placed anywhere on Issylra.  The northern part of the continent is in the country called Othanzia.

For where you end up on Wildemount, there's an entire book about it.  If you really don't care and want to let fate play a role and see what develops as a result (sometimes on of my favourite ways to develop a character) you can roll on the Homelands tables in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount to choose a homeland, and then a city within that homeland.

I'd suggest you talk to Felix and Minho about where they're located -- that might give you an idea rather than needing to roll.

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https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Vassalheim
https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Shorecomb

https://www.dndbeyond.com/sour...asses#HomelandsTable

If I am to be trained in urchin skills by Minho, I need to spend at least a few months doing mischief with him to gain the skills. And my father needs to be in the same city Rain's parents are in, so they can be build that caravan together... well my father would only have hired one chariot in it, rebuilding his fortune again. I figure Frilia is sent as a free caravan guard right after being bailed from prison, to remove her from the heat her arrest created. If it can be the same city for all that, it makes it way easier. You suggested Rexxentrum, and I think it would fit.

But if Rain's parents are not there and the starting point of the fateful caravan is elsewhere, I can see Guerans sending his daughter to the caravan before it leaves, to supplement the guard contingent already hired, and to bring Frilia back in the right track. Just makes it a little more complicated time and distance wise.

Frilia would fell shame for having let her father down and will want to make him proud, by earning honest gold to repay her debt to him.

But if she crosses paths with Silas, that her father already forgot, all restrains are off. She will do anything she can to get the gold he stole back, not necessarily kill him, but that would be a sweet bonus. So you can say that he his her enemy.


For her childhood, as a half commoner herself, I see Frilia having a good relationship with the farmers of the estate, helping them in their chores as she loves physical activity and playing with their kids. With her brother, it was more complicated, as he's a bookworm. She would have had to force him to go play outside, and he didn't enjoy that, as Frilia did not enjoy her studies. So their mother had to intervene and broker a deal with them : after their tutoring time (school basically), both needed to go play outside for  an hour, then, for another hour it was reading time, afterward they could then choose their activity. They buckled at that rule at first but their mother can be forceful and they complied, slowly growing into it, especially after Frilia discovered travel logs and adventures to read, firing her imagination. That's why she didn't fight it when she had to follow her father, she was living an adventure!

She still tries to read an hour a day out of that habit.

Her prized possession is her rapier, a gift from her parents after she graduated from Harris' tutoring in the fighting arts.

I read on Issylra and there is not much there! I guess I'll have to invent something to locate the Silverstring clan. What about a valley where the weather is nicer because of the configuration of the valley walls, that the first patriarch of the clan discovered and developed into a prosperous barony/town, as one of the grain cellars of Issylra? Internal politics are complex, but a gnome has always been at the head of the barony. Lisarin is blood related to the hereditary main line to power but she has no intentions towards the throne. Her estate controls one of the main trading cities, where she met Guerans, and is prosperous. Only the bigotry of her cousins forced her to, hopefully temporarily, separate from her husband she loves very much, and it's reciprocated.

For the valley, I'm thinking about the Okanagan valley, or the Annapolis valley, both in Canada, where crop production is way better than in the surrounding areas.

Rain, Minho, Felix, GM, any thoughts?

Minho grew up in Rexxintrum as that's where his family lives and it was there he got in trouble. So if you're going to be around him for a few months to learn the skills, perhaps it was here and we had to leave at about the same time? Obviously, it wouldn't have been Minho who abandoned you because that would make for an awkward start to the adventure, that I personally don't want to have to workaround. But I think I remember Rain's parents being somewhere to the south of Rexxintrum, so that would be where we went after leaving the city.

No, before it was edited by the GM, I had specified that her failed heist was not with Minho, so don't worry about that, we can still be friends lol

So I rolled on the family relationship table and got one significant relationship

This family member owes you a debt, and they don’t like it. They’ll help you out when you need it, but only to clear the slate. You gain one ally.


So for that one, I'm thinking maybe an uncle, my mother's older brother, Hurbert. He had never approved of my father being a commoner, and took great strides to avoid us. But one day, has he was coming to talk family matters with my mom, he got ambushed by a rival and would have died if not for the presence nearby of Frilia, that was practicing her forms. The gnome used her speed to arrive on time to save her uncle and earn his reluctant alliance.

All good so far.

Let's add a random bit of Chaos:

A famous mage saw potential in Frilia and tutored her in the arcane arts. She has a spellbook and the Magic Initiate feat (INT is your spellcasting ability, and you get two cantrips and one 1st level spell from the Wizard spell list).

Tell me a microstory about this.  How did it happen?  Who was the wizard?  How did she show her "promise" and how did she feel about the art of spellcasting?

"What are they saying?"

"If you stopped pestering me, I might be able to hear!"

The little gnome glanced angrily at her little brother, who had just turned 10 years old the week before. Putting her overlarge ear back on the door, the 13 years old wrinkled her nose in concentration. Who was this tall elf that had come to see her parents?

She was so intent on her snooping that she fell over when, suddenly, the door opened, and she looked at boots with enough leather in them to build her a jerkin.

"It seems we have spies, Mistress Silverstring."

The visitor stooped down and picked the little maiden by the collar of her dress, lifting her up, and up and up. Frilia had a close up look at perfectly cleaned sturdy travel clothes, when the elf had just came off his horse not even an hour ago, a green coat that sparkled with elaborate gold stitch-work, up to the pointy chin and ageless face of a long-haired, grey eyed elf. By that time, the gnome maiden had her arms crossed over her budding breasts and a fierce look in her blue eyes.

"You will put me down right now!" she said in a high pitched growl, "or I will punch your eye!"

"Quite the tiger you have there, Lisarin. I think I feel my little toe trembling in fear", the elf said with an amused smile.

Frilia was not amused and she tried to punch him with her right fist, then her left fist, but the stronger than he looked elf just held her at arms length.

"Arrrggghhh! PUT.. ME... DOWN! You have no rights to treat me like this! PUT ME DOWN!" She screamed, kicking and punching.

"Not before you apologize to Master Illiskar, Frilia"

Looking down, the maiden saw her mother's stubborn scowl, the noblegnome not happy at all at the antics of her daughter. She heard her brother gasp and looked at him, petrified with awe, staring wide eyed at their elven visitor. But Frilia could be as stubborn as her mother and she clamped up, still struggling, under the amused gaze of the elf. That amusement suddenly turned to shock when, for less than a second, shadows coalesced on his extended arm, a translucent form punching him right between his almond shaped eyes, causing him to drop the gnome he was holding. Landing on her feet, she didn't waste a second and kicked the elf on his shin, before fleeing down the corridor... she knew she was gonna pay for that but didn't care.

They had to catch her first.

As she was about to turn the corner, she saw black tendrils surrounding her, binding her in place. Struggling futilely against the magic, she was turned around by the tentacles and had the satisfaction of seeing the elf limp towards her. He squatted beside her and she saw the red mark the shadow had left on the elf's forehead. For a long time, they looked at each other, ignoring her parents and sibling. Then he finally rose and turned to her mother.

"She comes with me too"

Expecting her mother to refuse, she was shocked when the older gnome simply nodded her head.

(break for now, chapter 2 coming up after!)
This message was last edited by the player at 01:32, Mon 21 Mar 2022.

One year later, in the heart of Vassalheim, the gnomes siblings were hard at work in the tree like tower of Illiskar the Wise, a powerful wizard heavily involved in the politics of the kingdom. Julan was thriving in the studious atmosphere as much as Frilia was struggling, but she was stubborn and was working very hard to outperform her brother. Deep inside of her, she doubted she could ever do more than creating the few magical effects she was able to do. She did have fun with the illusions she had managed to master relatively quickly, tapping into her forest gnome heritage, but that was her only strength. Julan was already lobbing firebolts, manipulating object at a distance, even sending her messages when she least expected it, and had that annoying lizard always with him.

For the 40th day in a row, she reviewed the mystic words in her small spellbook, seated cross-legged on the hard marble floor, her little nose wrinkled with concentration. Lifting her eyes, she looked at the ingredients she had gathered in the seemingly endless stockpile of the tower. Carefully, meticulously, she picked each one and examined it thoroughly. She couldn't fail again, when Julan had managed it after 5 days. Six months ago.

She just couldn't!

Hearing a crack, she looked down, at the spell component she had just broken in her hands. Resisting the urge to scream, kick everything and flee the tower, she got up and went back to the store, seeking another branch of that particular tree. Back in the summoning room, she started again her examination of her spell and component. She couldn't fail!

With a sigh, she put the ingredients in the little brass burner and using the powers she had acquired, lit them on fire. Quickly she started her incantation, repeating the mystic phrases over and over again, thinking about the cat she wanted to summon, nose pulled up in concentration... when a message from Julan reached her, breaking her train of thought. Scrambling with her invocation, she messed up the mental image she was looking for and started thinking of a bird, before coming back to a cat, her anger at her brother manifest in her summoning...

She couldn't fail!

Without realizing it, the smoke from the brazier increased to proportions that the small stack of herbs should not have been able to achieve and she started coughing, stubbornly continuing to cast her spell.

Slowly, the smoke evacuated to the ceiling of the room and, eyes closes, she was still repeating the mystic words.

I think you can stop now

Stunned, she opened her eyes, then blinked the residual smoke away.

Hello, you called me. My name is Yukiko, what is your name?

Fri.... Fri... Frilia.

Pleased to meet you, Frifrifrilia

Where was that voice in her head coming from? She had imagined a cat but there was nothing but the brazier and her spellbook on the ground.

No, my name is Frilia. Frilia Silverstring. Where are you?

Swooping down from the ceiling, a creature she had never seen before landed in front of her and she rubbed her eyes to make sure it was real. A small cat, with brown fur stripped with black, it's paws and muzzle white, was in front of her, like she had imagined. But that cat had wings! Feathered wings came out of it's back, dazzling colors in its plumage, reds, blue, green, yellows, orange, almost like a butterfly wings.

The cat-thing looked at her with unblinking yellow eyes, then started to lick it's paw, very cat-like.

Are... are you my familiar?

You called me. I am here.

Frilia started to feel tears of joy slipping down her cheeks... she had succeeded! She had succeeded!
This message was last edited by the player at 01:55, Tue 22 Mar 2022.

Just to put a perspective timeline (and since I'm bored), putting in order the events in Frilia's life

30 years ago : Mom meets Dad, they fall in love. Patriarch refuses the marriage, Dad is a commoner

27 Years ago : Patriarch dies, succession intrigues at their max. Mom marries Dad, Dad takes her name.

25 Years ago : Frilia is born, Mom makes a deal with current patriarch to pay off Dad's inclusion in family

22 Years ago : Julan is born

15 Years ago : Frilia starts her fighter training

12 Years ago : Illiskar visit, he comes to evaluate Julan but ends up with the 2 siblings after Frilia shows a spark of magic too.

11 Years ago : Frilia summons Yukiko, the peak of her magical abilities. She soon gets released to train with an echo knight (Kursak's father) since she has that potential. She gets to train with a half Goliath and build a friendship with him.(Kursak)

3 Years ago : After another patriarch change, the new one more interested in pure bloodlines than gold, Dad and Frilia are forced to flee, get to new city, on new continent. Human partner soon steals the gold and disappears. Frilia takes it very hard and seeks an escape for her frustrations.

1.5 Years ago : Frilia and Yukiko foils an attempted burglary of Dad's shop. Unknown to them, Minho sees the scene and notices the gnome. Later on, when Frilia approaches the Mudfoot, Minho is intrigued enough to train her. She does butt heads with Sari, that tries to intimidate the small gnome, until Frilia makes her realize that she has double her age and already trained with an archmage and 2 battle masters. Yukiko finds the episode very entertaining.

6 months ago : Frilia is caught by the watch attempting a burglary and her father has to bail her out. She's under house arrest until he finds a way for her to redeem herself

Present day : She now works as an unpaid guard for the chariot her father hired to bring his merchandise in the trade caravan. There is a small tabaxi that intrigues her and she wants to know more about her (Rain)



Minho, Felix, Kursak, Rain, GM, any comments? things to change?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:44, Wed 23 Mar 2022.

The parts about Minho seem fine, other than introducing her to Felix. Minho's very protective of him so that probably wouldn't happen until way later than you initially put it down for. Unless Brian chooses to have Felix meet you on his own, which is also possible. I'll leave when you two meet up to you two unless you want me to choose, and then I'd say it would be closer to the 7-9 months ago timeframe.

Made a small change on the reason she has to flee her home, and struck out the felix part until felix gets his word in

Out of character, Brian annoyed me. Frilia and Felix can come up with their own way of meeting. Either prior to joining the caravan or after we arrive.

Out of a bit of reflection: If Fred wants me to have Minho introduce Frilia to Felix, there is going to have to be actual in-character roleplay of our training sessions. Otherwise, at this point all Minho knows about her is that she's a gnome and she can fight and wouldn't trust her enough to introduce her. In character, the only person from the gang Minho has introduced to Felix is Chan, his partner. There might be some concessions to be made for Felix knowing the leader, Jisung, but most likely Jisung doesn't know Felix either. Minho is overly protective of Felix, he has to have a reason to introduce people to Felix unless the two are together when they meet someone and in all the scenes I've had of Minho and the gang as a whole, Felix is not there. So, the most likely conclusion is that either I introduce them after we've joined the caravan or they have their own meeting once there.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:45, Wed 23 Mar 2022.

Brian talked to me and our introduction will be IG, Felix and Frilia will not know each other to start
This message was last edited by the player at 17:12, Wed 23 Mar 2022.

Looks good to me. I think the concept of echo knight fits for how I imagine Kursak's father's fighting style, so having him be the one who trained you fits, and it ties us closer together as well.

Hrm.  I'm getting the sense that Minho's maybe crossed the line from protective to controlling.  Is that intentional character development?  If so, how does Felix feel about it?

That seems OK to me too on my end

It's not my intent to be controlling, but think of it from a real-world perspective....how many of your thief "friends" would you introduce to your family? Probably not very many, if any at all. Especially, if you're trying to hide the fact that you're a thief from your family. Minho knows Frilia from the thief gang...and that's probably the only place he interacts with her before meeting up on the caravan, but Fred and I haven't talked about that so I don't know.

Out of character, I know Frilia won't be a danger to Felix, but in character, Minho isn't sure.

Another point that needs to be made is that in-game Felix is 16, Minho is 18, and Frilia is 25. Why would he introduce adults to a teenager?

Age
Gnomes mature at the same rate humans do, and most are expected to settle down into an adult life by around age 40. They can live 350 to almost 500 years.

A 25 year old hanging out with a 16 year old and an 18 year old = weird.

Cool.  Just needed to ask the question to make you think about it.

But she does look young! Lol a 13 year old took her for just another urchin that was taken in the gang!

I have no issues with not knowing felix at the start, and I accept minho's reasons. I'll just have to discover him IG ;)