Jin's Journal
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Jin’s Bio

Born on the coldest day of mid winter, Zarantyr Sar 14, 978 YK, Jin was the youngest of three in the changeling family. His father Toox and mother Bin were very proud of their heritage and helped work for peace between the nations. Yug, Jin’s brother, was rather talented as a sorcerer and being a good five years older joined the military to fight for Breland and its allies. Nit, Jin’s sister, was a almost three years older and had a bad habit of acquiring other people’s belongings.

Jin was only eleven when his brother Yug left for war. Yug was excited to go, even though his parents were disappointed that one of their children would willingly go to fight in this war. Yug would send letters home almost weekly. Jin thought they were amazing tales of battle and victory. One day almost three years after he left the letters stopped coming. Unable to get any information on Yug the family just prayed for his survival and attempted to move on with their life.

Nit was always changeling shape and had many personas. One of her favorite things was to look like someone and walk right into their house. She’d take a few things and leave. Toox and Bin had suspicions that she worked for a local guild, but were never able to find any proof, and then shortly after Jin turned thirteen she just vanished. By this time she was an expert at assuming another’s persona and she could be anywhere.

Toox got a chance to help end the war. Jin was sixteen now and wanted to go along, but was told he needed to stay behind and take care of his mom. Bin was ill and nothing seemed to work. About two weeks later Jin got a message that the caravan his father was on was ambushed. There were no survivors. Bin died after hearing the news and with Jin being the only available heir the house went to him.

Two years later the war ended. Jin barely made ends meet freelancing his services as a mediator. Taxes were starting to pile up when out of nowhere his brother Yug showed up. Apparently he had been so far out in enemy territory that sending letters became impossible. Yug had enough money to pay off the debt and settled in as a teacher at one of the local schools. There was still no sign of Nit although Yug had seen her once during the war. Yug never talked about it except to say that Nit was different now.

Jin still freelanced as a mediator and aspired to be a diplomat one day if he could just get an apprentice job. But being a changeling no one truly trusts you. Without telling anyone, Jin assumed a half-elf persona. He was able to convince an old friend of Nit’s to get him some forged documents and thus Enialis Amakiir was born. A young half-elf who was extremely good at negotiating deals between people. After a year of this it started to make some good money. Now Jin works under his persona, and enjoys life as himself.

Jin, image (c) Kristin Johnson

Character sheet: Jin [Changeling Rogue]

Posted by Fred on July 23, 2005, 14:35

Utterly Disgusting

I bumped into Captain Jak late yesterday evening and thankfully enough I was already in my natural form. Jak, like so many others, is a little unsettled with my ability to be anyone. She had another friend with her, an elf by the name K’ehleyr. She seems an interesting type. Gib and I were on our way to get a drink and somehow Jak just seemed to already know this. It’s a good thing too; Gib was starting to eye up some purses as we stood there and talked so we decided to be off. I can tell she’s attempting to hide something; she’s wearing her clothes a bit differently. I was about to ask her if she got a tattoo or something while she was out. My question was interrupted by a dead man on the bridge. Jak immediately started blowing her whistle. Honestly, sometimes I wish she didn’t follow the law so much. Gib and I started to examine the corpse and K’ehleyr was watching when Gib suddenly pulled a blade and jumped up.

“Damn it, I need a dagger or something.” I muttered having left my rapier at home.

Gib dropped a dagger for me and suddenly we were all attacking this warforged. It’s strange but I thought they would be very difficult to hurt, but it fell rather quickly under our combined steel. As the creature fell, I dropped the dagger Gib had allowed me to borrow, and stepped away from the now dead creature. Nearby residents were yelling and seconds later the night patrols had arrived. We explained ourselves and I believe we are going to have a friend in the town guard, which is always a good thing. After allowing us to be on our way I couldn’t wait to see what Gib had snagged off the now two dead bodies. I know Jak hadn’t caught him doing it or she would have told the guards. And I’m pretty sure K’ehleyr would have done the same, she’s a decent enough elf. On the way we were stopped by a cloaked figure who told us to be at the Cracked Anvil at dawn, to hear the truth about this guy’s death. So after a few drinks and some examining of the dead human’s possessions, we talked about where everyone will sleep. K’ehleyr went with Jak, being new to town that seemed like a good idea. Gib surprised me by taking me up on the offer to crash in an empty room at my place. Well technically it’s my brother’s now, but it’s home to me. He normally refuses and I never understand why. We made a quick stop for some more ale on the way home. I noticed again Gib’s eyes on someone’s purse, so I half carried him to my house and put him to bed.

It always surprises me how early he gets up. I was struggling to get around early enough to be at the Cracked Anvil on time and Gib was up and ready well before I got out of bed. I was thankful the Inn was in a lower side of town; I carried my rapier with me and we met the ladies there. Lady Elaydren d’Vown met us with breakfast and a job. She said the man who was killed had discovered the location of an object that we need to recover. So we went shopping for a few supplies and I got a weapons permit to carry my rapier anywhere in the city. We then went down into the depths of the city to find this entrance that’s located on the map. We got a little turned around and Gib went to ask another goblin merchant for directions, but was rudely ignored, so I got his attention and used a little intimidation to get the right answer. Apparently the ladies thought I was doing something wrong and refused to go any further at that time. As usual Gib had vanished, probably doing his thing. The ladies seam to think I made us a target for some lowlife. I told them that the wealth of our clothes while walking through this filth had already made us a target and that we really stood out among these unfortunate souls. K’ehleyr then had the notion to soil my garments. Utterly disgusting. At Jak’s request I turned to look like a shifter and after Gib had reappeared we all went down into the sewers below this already filthy area.

Suddenly Gib tossed his dagger at something and seemingly out of nowhere a warforged jumped down to attack us. Then we were in a rather small stairwell, but the ladies decided to push past me and attack the thing. It fell with surprising ease, but only a few feet later two shifters came at us. During the fight some water valves opened and knocked our attackers to the ground. I was able to dispatch the one, and the other was dead before I turned around. We walked up a little ways and found the entrance we were looking for. It was glowing red. As Gib was examining it a trap went off. I mentioned that it was beyond my abilities to disable, so Gib tried and I was hit hard with some kind of spell. I’m barely conscious, so if we are going to go get healed, someone will have to help me out of this filthy sewer and to a temple.

Posted by Fred on August 26, 2005, 09:50

Drifting In and Out of Consciousness

Looking back the world does seem different when you’re drifting in and out of consciousness. The pain from my wounds was intense and although I tried to keep awake I only remember parts of the journey to get some healing. As it turned out my money was stolen by those people living just above the sewers, so Captain Jak and K’ehleyr split the cost of having me healed. I’ll need to do something to show my appreciation, but that will have to wait till I acquire some funds.

We went to the Broken Anvil to get something to eat and send a messenger to Lady d’Vown. I thought it would be better if we told her in person what we needed but Jak thought the messenger would be safe. We had some dinner and a couple of drinks and went our separate ways for the night.

In the morning we meet back at the Broken Anvil for breakfast and as we ate the messenger returned with the journal. Jak flipped through it quickly as we got ready to go. It was mentioned that I should be someone else as we headed back down to the sewers. I still don’t understand why, but they don’t seem to understand that if I’m going under a different persona, I need to make sure people don’t know. They only know because it’s better for us as a group if they do.

We took the journal and headed back down to the sewers, and to our surprise the area was empty. There were some stragglers here and there, but nothing like it was the day before. As we walked down the narrow stair well to the sewers below, we kept alert for any attackers. My guess is that the Lord of Blades we were warned about thinks we gave up. K’ehleyr took the journal and went to place it over the hatch in the wall. The rest of us hid around the corner half expecting the whole place to blow up. When we noticed we were all in one piece we looked only to find this shaft that extends both up and down as far as we could see. Gib dropped a stone down the shaft while we were discussing how to best proceed. In the end we just had to climb.

It felt like we climbed for days down that shaft till it started to level out and we could walk. Gib insisted on traveling ahead of us so he can scout a bit. Then suddenly there was a thump. I ran forward to see if Gib was alright only to see this black mass of beetles coming at him. K’ehleyr helped Gib back up into the shaft as Jak took one of my oil flasks, lit it, and through it on the floor in front of us to keep the beetles at bay. After a bit the beetles scurried away and we went to explore. Out of nowhere two strange looking rats attacked us. I tried to fight back but I’m not very good at fighting, so I went to back away and that’s when everything went dark.

I felt cool water being poured into my mouth and woke up with the strangest feeling of peace. We were all alive and mostly well so we decided to continue exploring. Gib saw the building first and led us to what was the foundry. After much discussion we all ended up on top of the building. I read the journal and discovered the three keys needed to open the vault hidden behind the forge. Unfortunately there were two metal dogs guarding it. We tried several different things to lore them out as we attacked from above, but it didn’t work. So we ended up down inside the building fighting these things. The next thing I know Jak is making me drink a healing potion. Awake and with no immediate danger I took my time to explore the building and search for anything of value. We found some nice things, and I have an even better rapier for it.

As we were leaving and talking about possible alternate ways back to the upper layers of the city, a flaming bolt flew seemingly out of nowhere and almost hit Jak. A booming voice claimed to be the Lord of Blades and demanded the item we were sent to get.

Posted by Fred on September 3, 2005, 10:28

In the Darkness

We found ourselves face to face with another warforged. I thought this one would fall as easily as the rest, but I was gravely mistaken. Round after round of blows came and went as this thing focused most of his attention on K’ehleyr. She fought as best she could but fell under its attack. Then the thing turned its attention on me. I wanted to run, but I figured I could hold my ground for a little while, so I stayed and fought knowing I would die as soon as the creature hit me. Gib was trying to get its attention, but he was having no luck with that. Captain Jak dumped a healing potion down K’ehleyr’s throat. She was up before I knew she was healed and in moments her revenge was complete. The warforged is dead, and to be honest we are no worse for wear.

Now it was brought to my attention that warforged naturally cannot see in the dark. After we searched the body I noticed the it had no light source of any kind. We discussed this for a bit and decided to explore a little. We searched the ruins for hours and all we found were some fire beetles we needed to kill. So we took our time climbing up the shaft and went to the Brocken Anvil. We sent Lady d’Vown a message and she came down that night to retrieve her item. While we waited for the Lady to show Captain Jak realized she didn’t have the journal anymore and started to ask us if we had it. She focused her attention on Gib, but I told her I believed him knowing full well he had it. Later on that night I told him I knew but I wouldn’t tell anyone. He still denied it. That hurt, after I backed him up and convinced Captain Jak for him he still didn’t trust me.

In the morning Gib and I went for a walk to see an old friend of my sister’s. The same guy who was able to get me the forged papers. I thought he would be able to either buy or get us in contact with someone who would buy the warforged plating Gib had taken off the creature. After some beating around the bush Gib and I left without any useful information. We were on our way back to see the ladies when I noticed we were being followed. I mentioned this to Gib and he led me down and alley. We hid opposite of each other. I couldn’t see a thing and was waiting for Gib’s signal when I heard some footsteps approach us and stop dead in front of me. I heard someone attack and thought the thing following us was sent by the Lord of Blades and it had found Gib. So I jumped out of my hiding place only to find a really old man dying on the end of my blade.

I was stunned of a second and then noticed someone standing at the far end of the alley yelling “Murderer”! Gib grabbed the money pouch and ran. I followed. We ended up at a bar in a rather undesirable part of town. After a couple of hours of deep thought I figured that this guy was up to no good and it’s better that he died then having the rest of us be led into a trap. On the way to meet up with our lady friends I wanted to get some new clothes. Gib came with and I bought two new outfits. I also got some of the coin Gib took off our follower and the day ended rather well. That night however I didn’t sleep well at all. I find it’s easy to justify some things in the light of day, but at night when your mind wanders….

Posted by Fred on September 17, 2005, 10:06

Haunted

I wake with a start, a scream stuck in my throat. It’s the third time since the incident with Gib. I wash my face in the basin I keep in my room and look into my mirror.

“I have to get over it.” I tell myself, but I am unable to do that. “This is going to kill you if you don’t deal with it.” I say to my reflection. It’s still hours before sunrise. The blessed part of the day where my haunting dreams face and I seem to find some sort of peace. Until then I wander the shadowy halls that my mind seems to have become. It was all very clear two weeks ago. I did what I needed to do in order to survive. The catch is this guy was defenseless to me. He was totally unable to defend himself against my attack. Granted he was doing something that obviously he shouldn’t have been doing. That, however, is a small comfort.

I awake again a few hours later. My brother is up and getting ready to go to work as I lay in bed unable to face him. My thoughts are clouded and I’m begging for some sort of distraction.

Gib stopped by sometime after lunch to see how I’m doing. I think he sees it but he won’t discuss it with me. Several hours later we receive a letter from Captain Jak to meet her and K’ehleyr at the Broken Anvil at breakfast. I’m thankful when I wake without these troubling dreams and hope I can get through the day.

Outside the inn Captain Jak hands me a slip of paper and the message on it is rather disturbing. We four enter the inn and barley get a “Morning” in when Lady d’Vown tells us to take the backpack and get out. Immediately after, aother warforged with four kobald companions enters and attack Lady d’Vown. We fight as best we can and kill the four kobalds, but it cost us. K’ehleyr was down and we are no match for the warforged without her. Suddenly the inn fills with a pure white cloud, and Lady d’Vown takes her leave. I run and grab K’ehleyr and head towards the nearest house of healing. Looking over my shoulder I see Captain Jak and Gib right behind me.

After some healing we examine the backpack finding our mission and a lot of supplies. We spend the next couple of hours discussing our options and getting additional supplies. Now we’re on a ship toward our destination. I attempt to occupy my time by learning as much as I can. The only other distraction was a fight with some skeletal creatures that climbed aboard.

We docked today, I haven’t had any dreams yet, and I hope they are done. At least till this is finished.

Posted by Fred on September 24, 2005, 01:12

Left for Dead

As I drift into the dark void of oblivion one thought crosses my mind. They left me to die. Now I understand why. If they’d have stayed no one would be alive to complete our mission. That, however, does not change the fact, they left me for dead.

The goblin city was a strange place; the only real similarity is they like to give false information, especially when coin is offered. Eventually we were set on the right track and found our contact. We had to pay him up front so he could pay his bill. Once Gib retuned from doing his thing, we were off. There was a small misunderstanding with a couple of “people” who our contact apparently owed some money to.

It was fun to ride in a land vehicle that was moved along by an earth elemental. It was a quiet ride, and I was grateful to stretch my legs afterwards. That was when we realized we were not the only ones at this ruined city. Jak, K’ehleyr, and I went to look around at one area while Gib scouted another. We were attacked by some strange creature that appeared to be covered in ice. We fought as best as we could until K’ehleyr fell. I obtained the full attention of our attackers and lured them far enough away from my fallen companion to allow Jak to dump a healing potion down her throat. I watched K’ehleyr get up. I heard Jak yell “run.” I saw them turn to leave. Then the dark void I now reside in took over and I feel as if I’m holding on by will alone.

Posted by Fred on October 17, 2005, 16:35

Time to Regroup

“Wake up Jin” I tell myself as I hang on to life with every fiber of my being. “Get off your lazy %** and get up.”

Suddenly I feel a liquid run down my throat and as I look up I can barley make out the familiar face of Jak. I wipe the blood and dirt from my eyes as I stand up. “Thank-you” I say knowing full well this is not the first time she saved my life. We head back to the land cart only to find that we are the only ones there, aside from the driver anyway. After some discussion we sneak down the small crevice on the one side and go clear down to the opposite end of the ruined city. It’s really dark as we slowly sneak up to the only two buildings still standing. After carefully looking around we sneak inside the one with noise coming from the inside. We saw two guards and a zombie dwarf. We had one close call as we left. I ducked around the corner of the building as Jak slipped inside the building across the street. She waved for me to get over their, but some careful looking around it became clear that was not going to happen. I noticed one of the guards looking at the building Jak was hiding in. I waited for a long time before Jak came out. Unfortunately she had a new “friend” come after her. Jak was able to trip this guard and I shoved my rapier into this Emerald Claw’s throat as another came around the corner. I swung and missed and as his blade cut me life went dark again. And again I awake to Jak pouring a healing potion down my throat. As I got up Jak and I put on the uniforms of our fallen adversaries, and did a little experiment. She walked into the first building again and to our surprise the zombie dwarf did not attack her. We searched the room and Jak found what we believe to be the information we need. I think it’s time to regroup and get out of here if only we can find Gib and K’ehleyr….

Posted by Fred on November 2, 2005, 19:48

Bluffing

As I waited for Jak to get done figuring out the map I turned my attention to looking as much like the fallen male Emerald Claw as I could. Going over the two ids I found on him, I realized one of them was a fake, but was unable to determine which was real and which was the one he was going under. Once Jak had the information we needed she told the dwarf zombie to destroy the statues, and parts of the floor. As she made her way back to the land cart I staggered into the camp either to save my friends or die trying. I was pleasantly surprised to find they bought my disguise and was explaining to them how we were ambushed and how the other one didn’t make it. That’s when they called for the vampire to come over. I was petrified, especially when it licked his lips at me. I like my blood right where it is.

“Did you get the information?” the creature asked.

“We had a couple of ideas, but we were unable to figure it out before the attack.” I responded.

“Then you failed.” he said. I thought I was going to die right then and there, but the vampire had other ideas. “Wait in your tent until I return, and decide your fate.”

With that, most of the camp left with the creature, and most everyone else just ignored me. I quietly went over to K’ehleyr and as I was cutting her bonds I told her to get up we’re getting out of here. She instead looked around for her belongings. I undid Gib’s bonds, but he still didn’t move. I ran from this camp to the waiting land cart dropping my form as I ran. I got there just seconds before K’ehleyr carrying the still-unconscious Gib. We all left and I’m happy to say we quickly outdistanced the mob of Emerald Claw behind us. We rode for a while and Jak was attempting to talk our driver into taking us into the Mournland, unsuccessfully at that. I got her to hand me one platinum piece and I told him there were more of these for him if he drove us.

“How much more?” He asked with an all too familiar look of greed in his eyes.

We bartered for a few minutes and agreed on twenty pieces. He took us just outside the devastated wasteland and rested for a few hours then headed right to our destination. We saw some strange things on our way, but were able to outdistance all possible problems and soon came to a mine shaft opening. We left and land cart and its driver and walked into the mine and came across a metal hatch in the floor. Gib, the little sneak that he is, caused a distraction and was quickly unconscious again as we turned around. I got to thinking. This one is a decoy. We were given three healing potions.

“There are there more hatches only one is the real one.” I told Jak and K’ehleyr.

Jak took Gib’s unconscious body to the land cart, and we moved on when she returned. It wasn’t long before we came to another hatch. There’s nothing to bluff my way out of, I say to myself as I take the key and go to open the hatch.

Again the all too familiar darkness of my mind.

Posted by Fred on November 7, 2005, 09:37

I’ve Lost Count

Once again I awake to find Jak pouring a healing potion down my throat. That makes what, six, seven, or so in about two days. I’ve lost count, but she seems to be preoccupied. Jak keeps talking about this wolf that can speak. So Gib and I followed her down yet another mine shaft to a rotating room. This room moved to reveal another door, and with it a talking wolf. Rorsa seemed delighted by my ability to change form and after a quick talk, it was decided that we would help her release her pack mates.

Rorsa led the way from one of these rotating rooms to another. From there we went down a small hallway and at the opening of another room we came face to face with a wolf that appeared to have stone fused to its skin. I’m not much of a fighter and in the cramped hall I figured it would be better to have the fighters take care of this. After a few round of this K’ehleyr fell. I dragged her away from our adversary and again watched. When Rorsa fell that’s when I jumped in and attacked it. As least, I figured, this will distract it a little.

It was a short time later when I awoke. Gib had already taken my lock picks and other tools, and I think he has some other things of mine, but that’s just Gib. For as much stuff as he takes I’ve found enough things in my house and on my person that I never even looked at before. We explored a little more and came to this room lined with mirrors wall to wall, floor and ceiling, nothing but mirrors. We all noticed two things at this point. First, there seemed to be a mass of colors swirling around. Second, there was no sound of any kind. As Gib went to pass through the room and open the next door the mass of lights attacked him. It was an interesting battle, it never touched us, and we never hurt it. Eventually we got bored, ran quickly into the next room and closed the door. Thankfully we could talk again. This room had as illusion on it that made it look like another room. We all saw through it. Gib did find another key and after making our way back through to the rotating room and a little trial and error, we found our way down a different corridor.

Upon entering a very large room we were attacked by what I believe to have been fire elementals. K’ehleyr fell and caught on fire. I was able to put her out and I too soon fell before these creatures.

And again I owe Jak my life as I look up into her face. We found what we came here for and now we’re doing a little exploring in order to acquire some funds. This is going to be fun.

Posted by Fred on December 1, 2005, 16:12

Real Old, Real Quick

Well, the attack on this fire creature didn’t work out so well. Gib, K’ehleyr, and I lost all the clothing we were wearing, and Gib and I both lost our leather armor. Gib and K’ehleyr had taken potions to prevent themselves from being damaged by fire so I left them to deal with it as I took one of the nice outfits I acquired from another room and tried it on. I had to change gender to make it fit right. I think this bothered Jak a little because she said she just gets her clothes to fit her. I replied with it’s much easier when you can adjust yourself to fit the clothing. A few minutes later Gib and K’ehleyr had wrestled the fire thing into some water, and I offered K’ehleyr one of the outfits I now have. After she tried it on, she put her chain shirt over it and put on some pants.

I figured we were just going to get into the land cart and leave this place, so I didn’t see any reason to make any adjustments to my attire. No sooner had we reached the land cart then I realized the flaw in my reasoning. The driver was slumped over the steering mechanism and there were several emerald claw solders and skeletons waiting for us. A very familiar voice told us to hand over the schema and we’d be allowed to live. After some discussion we decided that giving him one without telling him we had two would be the best solution to leaving alive. Gib took the item and walked up to hand it over. After it was received by our adversaries the vampire left with two others and told the rest to kill us. I fought for all I was worth, but darkness soon came over me, as I drift in oblivion once again. This is getting real old real quick.

Posted by Fred on December 10, 2005, 20:07