Character Sheets:
Taylar 1
Taylar 2
Taylar 4
Taylar 9
Taylar 13
Posts:
(most recent listed first)
"Clearing the Air"
"Taylar's Lyndune Fantasy" (Adventure 7)
"Good Morning" (Adventure 7)
"The Weight of Vengeance" (Adventure 7)
"Moral Compulsion" (Adventure 4)
"Living Fire and Living Shadow" (Adventure 4)
"Beast Within" (Adventure 4)
"Small Ones" (Pre-Adventure 1)
HISTORY:
Taylar Nar Nay Lai La Kail: Taylar:
Taylar’s father, Roberto, was a wealthy gnome merchant trading in salt, spices and alchemy. However, Roberto’s success drew the attention of some powerful human merchants whose tactics were more like those of brigands than those of merchants. When Taylar’s father refused to buy into their extortion and protection rackets they started to issue threats, and eventually they were forced to act publicly because Roberto’s defiance was giving heart to others and causing resistance. The ambush set up by the merchants was successful and the gnome’s entire household was wiped out.
Taylar was born in the gutter, literally. His father and his pregnant mother were walking in the street when they, their servants and their guards were met with a hail of crossbow bolts. Taylar’s mother was struck in the upper chest and the shock cased her muscles to start spasming and, in her death throes, she expelled the child within her into the muck and excrement of the gutter. Taylar was noticed struggling by an old halfling vagrant called Hetty. The vagrant used a broken shard of glass to sever the umbilical cord and slapped the baby hard until it took its first breath and its lungs filled with the scent of human excrement.
Taylar was raised by the vagrant Hetty. Taylar does not know how he was fed while he was a babe in arms, but Hetty begged assistance from wet-nurses and fed him water from a discarded beer bottle. Taylar grew strong fast having to fight the rats for every scrap of food. His childhood is only a blur, but he learned a lot of survival tips from the streets. As a kid, he learned every trick of the streets and that has helped him prepare for the real world. He learned how to sweat and clip coins, to hunt tosheroons, to mud-lark, to turtle dove and to survive.
Taylar grew up disliking humans and the other taller races, much as dwarves hate ogres and giants Taylar grew up to hate humans. At the age of nine, Taylar murdered a petty noble. He had been begging in the street and when he begged from the petty noble he clubbed Taylar with his cane and proceeded to kick Hetty to death. When Taylar became conscious, he saw the noble kicking the lifeless form of Hetty and saw red he dragged his concealed shiv from under his rags and knifed the noble before eviscerating the noble and biting out his throat. The gnome judge listened to the case. He sat and looked at the defiant nine year old whose parents had been killed before he was born. The judge looked at the arrogant noble and their indignance, the judge knew that had the noble been brought in alive his families lawyers would have fought until their son was free. The judge sided with the defense and remanded Taylar to the work-houses of Landsbreak.
Poor houses, orphanages and workhouses in Landsbreak were not nice places and even the few hours that Taylar spent in them were a sting of nightmares and indignities. Whenever he could he would disappear onto the streets only to be dragged back by the hoodlums who worked in the poor houses. As he grew up he was thrown into all sorts of situations he was taught how to clean chimneys because he fitted in them, other children were sold to the armies as drummer boys, to the brothels for specialized clientele and to all sorts of other undesirable positions.
As soon as Taylar was fourteen he swore to the magistrate he was sixteen and left the workhouses. He joined the criminal underworld. He made his money running tricks and scams but a wooden plaque from the work-house kept him from going totally off the rails, the plaque read “Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out.” Taylar is a thief, a pickpocket and a con-man, but he stayed away from violent crimes and never stole from those who couldn’t afford it. The thing that has made Taylar see red is violence towards the small races (hobbits, gnomes and dwarves) by humans or other large races.
Taylar rarely had any friends and never had any racial influence. He doesn’t know that his father was not a regular gnome but was a Glimmer Gnome from a tribe of gnomes who spend their lives defending the other gnomish peoples. Taylar has recently learned how to use the magical heritage of the gnomes but he is unsure of the limits of his power. Gnomes who knew Roberto have suggested to Taylar that his father’s brother would welcome him and Taylar has considered travelling down to the UnderDark to find his uncle.
One of Taylar’s pleasures was fire, and dancing with it. He learned how to use fire chains and he would spin fire chains while dancing. He made a few acquaintances around the burning trash cans in the cities slums, but Taylar never let any of these acquaintances get within his armour of dirt, grime and attitude.
Recently while Taylar was robbing some ships in dry docks he noticed a dwarf being taken away by a crew of human sailors. The humans were laughing at the small figure and joking about throwing him into the dock. Taylar looked at the dwarf, weighed up how likely the dwarf was to float and decided to act. He stepped into the melee slicing the sailors so that the dwarf was soon free to fight for his own freedom.
Taylar and Tamarack soon struck up a friendship. The pair of them decided to leave Landsbreak before the watch decided to track the pair who were responsible for the maiming of a dozen or so sailors. Taylar was happy to take a back seat for a while and let the headstrong dwarf lead him to a new environment, here he would hone his skills further and gather wealth before returning to Landsbreak.
