BLAMM's Character: Finley O’Flynn

[BLAMM!]

Finley O’Flynn

Orphaned at a young age, Finley O’Flynn never knew his parents. He grew up in an orphanage where a natural ability to go unnoticed allowed him to get away with more bad behavior than his compatriots. He spent more time on the streets than he did under the watchful eyes of the matrons, mostly to get away from their mistreatment. Eventually, as a young teen, he simply failed to return to the orphanage and struck out on his own. His basic fear of standing out too much never let him spend much time in any one place and he began gathering a collection of various talents and skills as he found himself in different circumstances. He has spent time as a cabin boy (then sailor) on a merchant vessel, aide to an Explorer’s Society member, an acrobatic street performer, a travel guide for a family of Eisen nobles, and many other's occupations which lasted for less time than it takes to describe them. The similarity in all of them was that he always tried to be overlooked. Never draw attention, just be part of the crowd, part of the background.

One of his more lengthy vocations was as a pirate, under a captain that will remain unnamed here. His success at this endeavor was mainly due to the interest he drew from an experienced crew member known only as Old Salt. For reasons Finely still does not understand, Old Salt took him under his wing and showed him the ropes, both literally and figuratively. Under his tutelage, Finley learned how to handle himself on a ship and off, how to avoid a fight, and how to handle a knife when fighting became inevitable. When Old Salt finally won his last fight, he bequeathed Finley his dagger, claiming it brings good luck. Finely quit piracy that day, fearing that anyone seeing him with Old Salt's lucky dagger might get the wrong idea about how he got it.

Despite his ideas about anonymity, he had never been one to let the law get in the way of what he sees as just and so has spent as much time pursuing illegal activities as he has legal ones. And although his knack for going unnoticed often lets him get away with his crimes, this is not always the case. He failed to escape once when attempting to relieve a notoriously greedy and unscrupulous tax collector of the day's receipts and now bears a mark on his chest that brands him as a thief. However, this mark and the story that goes with it, earned him the interest of of a gentleman by the name of Ronan Delaney who claimed to be the descendant of one of Goodfellow's Merry Men. Impressed by Finley's skills, he convinced the young scoundrel to continue that band's work. After a few successful burglaries of items of value and relieving wealthy noblemen of what they clearly didn't need, Ronan brought Finley into the Liberation Order of the Rilasciare. In the Liberators, Finely has finally found something he can believe in. To fight for what he believes is right and just, despite what those in power claim.

There was one other occurrence that had a profound effect on Finley. He'd apprenticed with an old medicine woman, a position that had lasted several months, but did not continue after this event. She had sent him to collect various herbs; a task which took him deep into the woods. While walking, head down, concentrating on finding some rare mushroom or other, music began to play as if coming from the air itself. Intrigued, he followed the sounds, no longer paying attention to where he was going. He crested a rise and through the trees witnessed a sight that held him spellbound for many minutes. A city of silver reflected the rays of the sinking sun. He could see people walking through the streets, many of whom played musical instruments, some who simply sang along to the tune. After catching his breath, he ran toward it. He ached to get closer and talk to these beautiful people, to walk those silver streets, to join the song and become part of it. As he closed the distance, the sun sank behind the distant mountains, and the entire town disappeared, like a mist in a breeze. He spent the rest of the night walking through the dark woods, hoping to find it again, but it was not to be. To this day Finley tries to discover just exactly what it was he saw and how he might find it again.

Custom character: 130 HP

Traits (56)
Brawn: ●●○○○ (8)
Finesse: ●●●○○ (16)
Wits:●●●○○ (16)
Resolve:●●○○○ (0)
Panache:●●●○○ (16)

Modifiers (-10)
Background [Moment of Awe] (3)
Arcana [Cowardly] (-10)

Skills (26)
Acrobat (2)
Athlete (2)
Criminal (2)
Engineer (2)
Fence (2)
Dirty Fighting (2)
Guide (2)
Herbalist (2)
Knife (2)
Performer (2)
Sailor (2)
Servant (2)
Streetwise (Scoundrel)
Urchin (2)

Knacks (22)
Acting ●○○○○ (Performer)
Appraising ●○○○○ (Fence)
Architecture ●○○○○ (Engineer)
Attack ●●●○○ (dirty fighting) (Dirty Fighting + 2)
Attack (knife) ●●●○○ (Knife + 2)
Balance ●●●○○ (Acrobat + Sailor + 1)
Climbing ●●●○○ (Athlete + Sailor + 1)
Cooking ●○○○○ (Herbalist)
Dancing ●○○○○ (Performer)
Diagnosis ●○○○○ (Herbalist)
Drafting ●○○○○ (Engineer)
Etiquette ●○○○○ (Servant)
Fashion ●○○○○ (Servant)
First Aid ●○○○○ (Herbalist + 1)
Flora ●○○○○ (Herbalist)
Footwork ●●●○○ (Acrobat + Athlete + 1)
Gambling ●○○○○ (Criminal +1 )
Knotwork ●●○○○ (Sailor + 1)
Lockpicking ●○○○○ (Liberation Guild)
Mathematics ●○○○○ (Engineer)
Menial Tasks ●○○○○ (Servant)
Oratory ●○○○○ (Performer)
Parry (Knife) ●●●○○ (Knife + 2)
Perception ●●●○○ (Sailor + Streetwise + 1)
Ride ●○○○○ (Guide + 1)
Rigging ●●○○○ (Sailor + 1)
Shadowing ●●○○○ (Criminal + 1)
Singing ●○○○○ (Performer)
Socializing ●●○○○ (Streetwise + Fence)
Sprinting ●○○○○ (Athlete)
Stealth ●●●○○ (Criminal + Urchin + 1)
Street Navigation ●●●○○ (Streetwise + Urchin + 1)
Survival ●●○○○ (Urchin + 1)
Throwing ●●○○○ (Athlete + 1)
Tracking ●○○○○ (Guide)
Trail Signs ●○○○○ (Guide)
Unobtrusive ●●●○○ (Servant + 2)

Advantages (40)
Area Knowledge [Canguine] (3)
Combat Reflexes (3)
Connection [Confidant] (Membership)
Home Neighborhood [Canguine Spokes] (2)
Keen Senses (2)
Language [Avalon] + Literacy (1)
Language [Castille] + Literacy (2)
Language [Eisen] + Literacy (1)
Language [Inish] + Literacy (1)
Language [Vendel/Vestenmannjavnjar] + Literacy (1)
Legendary Trait [Finesse] (1)
Linguist (2)
Membership [Rilasciare (Liberation Guild)] (5)
Patron [10g/month] (2)
Pirate Trick [Sea Legs] (3)
Scoundrel (3)
Sidhe Blood [Small, Slow Aging, Huge Appetite] (2)
Sidhe Weapon [Dagger] (2)

[Black Jack Rackham]

Like the backstory Bob, only thing I'd point out is Robin Goodfellow and his merry men disbanded in 1199 (almost 470 years ago). I mean, unless you're saying you've met them (not an impossible feat here in Avalon). But it could also be just someone claiming to be a descendant of the Merry Men.

[BLAMM!]

Well, that's annoying. I'll have to rethink things. Mechanically, it's easy enough to redistribute points, but editing his story will take a bit in my head. I'll update the character here once I've figured out what to do.

[BLAMM!]

Updated. Replaced Goodfellow's with the Liberation Guild and updated the backstory. Removed all items that do not appear in the RoC Cheat Sheet, which caused a dramatic shift in the character concept. Added a Background blurb to the backstory, but I also posted that in the Background boards.