= 'A Hideous Lament' Characters = This is the roster of pregenerated characters and player character selections in the [[A Hideous Lament|A Hideous Lament Campaign]]. ---- == Pregenerated Characters: == ||'''Steel Stomp:'''|| ||Chestnut earth pony mare, sunbleached blonde mane.|| ||Steel is the oldest of the numerous Stomp siblings, relatively prosperous but hard-working fruit farmers. Steel is also the largest of the family, rippling with muscles that allow her to buck fruit trees, draw a plough, or kick in the skulls of marauding diamond dogs with equal ease – all tasks that she has done in the course of her farm life. Although generally content and proud of her agricultural heritage and the honest living it earns her family, she's occasionally taken by bouts of wanderlust borne from a desire to make a difference in some more valiant way than just growing delicious fruit. She has some prior experience with conflict in the defense of her farm, great strength both of muscle and of character, and she happens to have just finished her shift vending at the family fruit stand in town...|| ||'''Merriweather Cloudheart:'''|| ||Pale blue pegasus mare, white mane.|| ||After serving a military enlistment as a weather specialist, Merriweather settled into civilian life as a cloud and precipitation management expert. She often finds herself bored with her regular work, however: farmers only want calm, steady, moderate rains, but what truly excites Merriweather is the crash of thunder and the whipping of cyclone winds. Her delight and skill in tackling even the most severe storms has gained her local admiration as a weatherbreaker, courageously protecting the town and surrounding farms from even the most ominous of approaching squalls. Needless to say, she is both strong and skilled in pegasus magic.|| ||'''Wonder Wish:'''|| ||Earth pony mare (1/4 zony) with tan coat and faint dark stripes, patched brown mane.|| ||Blessed (or cursed) with the somewhat mercurial temperament of an artistic type, Wonder Wish has often had difficulty finding steady employment. She turned instead to honing her skills in stage magic, fortune-telling, and other forms of showcraft, while also leveraging her exotic appearance as a quarter zony in a land where zebras are unheard of to draw curious crowds. Although now an accomplished illusionist who makes a tolerable (if very modest) living, she's still not looked upon highly in the community, with street performance often considered a disorderly frivolity. Also, the town is only so large, and she feels as if she's hitting the limit of what it can offer to an entertainer of her kind. Growing tired of a situation she sees as a dead end, she seeks an opportunity to prove her true worth and earn greater respect and a path toward upward mobility through exploits more heroic than simple card tricks. Her wits, stealth, and ability to misdirect with talented sleight-of-hoof could be quite useful for more than just astonishing onlookers and drawing applause.|| ||'''Citrine Star:'''|| ||Orange unicorn mare, pale yellow mane|| ||A bit of an early-blooming hedge wizard, Citrine showed a better than average affinity for telekinesis and pyrokinesis as a young filly. Somewhat rambunctious and reckless at first with her abilities, her family sent her to apprentice under a local mage. She did fairly well, refining and widening her skills while learning some much-needed discipline as she matured. She makes a fair living now as a generalist mage and minor wizard, but feels held back by a lack of formal education at one of the more prestigious magic schools. Her level of magicality, knowledge, and talent would surely be sufficiently competitive for her to be accepted somewhere, but she and her family simply don't have the means to afford tuition. Perhaps proving her worth in some impressive way would earn her the needed sponsorship or scholarship from somepony who sees her potential.|| ||'''Lofty Lantern:'''|| ||Sooty grey pegasus mare, blue and white striped mane|| ||Lofty is a very fast flier, but prefers calm clear skies and is generally flying away from things, rather than towards them. She's timid around both bad weather and ponies, and prefers birds over other pegasi as her flying companions. Often bullied as a filly, her introversion and lack of social affinity haven't served her well in advancing any career prospects. Although found by employers to be capable and agreeable, she's never been able to bring herself to stand out sufficiently to rise above drifting around between jobs involving menial unskilled labor. Nonetheless, she has a special spot in her heart for defending those who can't defend themselves, making her known for having an unexpected fiery streak when she sees others in duress. Hearing about the plight of the flutterponies has appealed to these sympathies, so to everypony's surprise, she has stepped forward and volunteered to help. Deep inside, she knows she's worth something, and is eager for some big chance to validate her own inner steel to herself and everypony else in the hopes that it will finally give her the desperately needed confidence to truly spread her wings and fly.|| ||'''Silver Satin:'''|| ||Dappled white and grey unicorn mare, bluish-silvery mane|| ||Silver Satin is the mage Citrine Star apprenticed under. Before hanging up her armor and settling as a civilian generalist mage, Silver was a mage-knight specializing in telekinetic barrier and shield magics who saw service in several different campaigns some decades ago. Her background in the military served her well in training the young and unruly Citrine, reining her in kindly but firmly and imparting her with essential discipline over her power. With numerous similar successes over the years, Silver is generally considered a good mentor and influence to the young ponies of the town. She's thought of by other ponies as very upstanding, with the exception of one controversy: well into her sixties but appearing no older than maybe forty, Silver is rumored to be experimenting with the newly emerging field of life extension magic. Some ponies look upon this as exciting and promising; others fear it to be perhaps something sinister and unnatural. Although she would rather not find herself wearing armor again, the call to aid has reignited her old sense of duty; the attack on the innocent flutterponies is not something she feels she can allow to go unchallenged and still be able to show her face in town.|| ||'''Lavendar Dreams:'''|| ||Mint green earth pony mare, pale purple mane|| ||An assistant to the proprietor of a small alchemist's shop in town, Lavendar often ends up putting much of her own pay back into the shop, spending it on ingredients to make medicinal potions for creatures who can't afford them (such as wild animals). Though friendly and fearless, Lavendar is also young and naive. Still, she seems to have a knack for adventure, and knows some useful first aid skills. Notable around town for getting into and out of jams, nopony was particularly surprised when she immediately jumped forward and volunteered to help, displaying her usual bubbly attitude about it all. She dreams of eventually studying to become either a veterinarian or a doctor – she hasn't yet decided which – if only she had some way to pay for the schooling.|| ||'''Clever Crystal:'''|| ||Midnight blue unicorn mare, cornflower blue mane|| ||Nocturnal and reclusive, Clever Crystal's passion is astronomy. She uses a telescope that she hoof-built from special high precision made-to-order metal parts and crystal lenses that she carefully ground and polished herself. Not highly magical for a unicorn but always mechanically inclined, she enjoys tinkering around with various inventions, such as automated star trackers for her telescope, and various orreries. Her inventions don't tend to be highly marketable, however, and out of necessity she supports herself by acting as the town's official astronomical calendary synchronization verifier (although few ponies are entirely certain what this entails precisely, she's managed to convince the local government that it's important enough to have as an office) and by publishing an annual almanac used widely by many farmers. The witch Hydia has a fondness for drear and a tendency to express it by spreading gloomy dark clouds from her castle atop a volcano, and as such, Crystal has been rather displeased in recent years with the interference this sometimes creates for her astronomical pursuits. That in itself wouldn't be cause enough for her to resort to violence, but the new developments of recent days have given her legitimate cause for grave concern: between the flutterponies' perilous situation and the prospect of Hydia growing powerful enough to create permanent cloudcover preventing any astronomical observations, and the resultant potentially disastrous inability to keep track of the seasons with precision, she's decided that something must be done, for the good of everypony! Also, perhaps, for the good of convincing the town that she merits being awarded a grant to fund building a more powerful telescope. That would be nice too.|| ---- == Player Characters Selected: == ||Merriweather Cloudheart|| ||Silver Satin|| ||Steel Stomp|| ||Citrine Star|| ||Golden Touch (custom character):|| ||Yellow unicorn stallion, yellow mane, green eyes|| ||Golden Touch is a unicorn noble and bon vivant who has a knack for obtaining wealth, which he lavishly spends on feasts, festivals and tourneys, enjoying the best foods, wines and mares gold can buy. But wherever he prospers, others seem to lose their fortune, and he has been driven out of his manors and castles by ponies he somehow angered. Either surviving by silver-tongued pleas to be spared or making himself nowhere to be found, his fortunes have driven him to Flutter Valley. His skills are mainly in security and how to circumvent it, with some spells like invisibility and illusions, along with the standard unicorn telekinesis and teleportation.|| ---- See also: [[A Hideous Lament|A Hideous Lament Campaign Introduction]] [[A Hideous Lament:Player Briefing|Player Briefing]]