Dapper
Dapper
Rakish vagabond half-elf from The Changing Desert. Whatever you need, she's your girl. If she can't do it for you or get it for you, she knows a guy who knew a guy who saw someone that one time who knows exactly where to find it.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Wirey-lanky sort of muscular? Visibly fit, but maybe not terribly well fed.
Facial Features
Varios Piercings - Currently a nose ring and a variety of ear piercings.
One of her canines is capped with gold.
One of her canines is capped with gold.
Identifying Characteristics
Cuts her own hair, very poorly. Probably the first thing most people notice about her - she has the sides mostly shaved, but unevenly. There’s long bits near her ears and a mid-length mohawk thing going on.
Apparel & Accessories
Dapper likes warm tones and loud patterns. Most of her clothing is stolen, scavenged, repurposed, and/or poorly repaired.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Age 0:
Born to the Vriende, a nomad clan of the Changing Desert, to parents Saffron and Adom.
Childhood and Youth 0-17ish: Travelling with the Vriende! The Vriende typically make a meandering annual primarily dictated by by the schedule of the biannual Grand Caravan of the dwarves in Dvarg Mark. 2-3 months after the first Grand Caravan of the year, the Vriennde find their way to an approved entrance to Dvarg Mark, purchase as many of the highly-sought-after trade goods at they can afford and carry, and then they journey up through Siota, Varcrast, then east and north along the coast to Ornesk, West along the north coast to Viraka. They generally reach Viraka about a month before the second Grand Caravan of the year sets out. Some other small nomad Tribes try to make both "off-caravan" cycles, but the Vriende usually only do the one and then meander back south much more slowly, making their way through the various smaller encampments and temporary settlements of the desert in a slowly snaking path from Viraka to Varcrast. Along this leg of their journey, they run odd jobs, scavenge what they can, and mostly just focus on making relationships and connections with other desert nomads. There's a lot of partying. During this leg of the journey, many members of the tribe wander off on side jobs, or to fulfill the needs of the tribe that must be met off of this typical route. The Vriende number only half as many folks when they arrive back in Varcrast as they had when they left it. Those that stray know to meet back at the entrance to Dvag Mark at the appropriate time of year. One of Dapper's fondest childhood memories was the time her parents agreed to rush ahead and venture south to Grenzlinie to arrange for a shipment of something (Dapper has no memory of what exactly) from Grenzlinie that the Vriende promised to procure for someone in Ornesk. It wasn't Grenzlinie or this region that captivated her, and her father complained the whole time. but the new-ness of the situation and getting to travel with only her parents on a special task felt magical. Age 17-25 At 17, Dapper volunteered to run a small cache of something or other up from another tribe they encuontered on their way back to Varcrast from Viraka to small town on the coast with two others her age. It was a short trip, fast enough to reconnect with the Vriende in Varcrast, but she was hooked. She loved new, loved the adventure of it, and loved the people she met along the way. She started making her own connections and taking on her own side-jobs. By 22, she was making her own trades and drops outside of the Vriende's usual markets (this sort of side hustle was something encouraged by her clan, not something to hide). 23 was the first year her solo-trips occupied so much of her time that she missed a clan gathering at Dvarg Mark and decided to roll with it and keep doing her own thing until the next one. At 25 she realized that at least half of her work was in some way shady or "illegal" but decided this was a fun fact and not something worth trying to change. Age 26+ At this point, Dapper more or less stopped trying to make it back to the Vriende's gathering at Dvarg Mark. She still tries to meet up with the Vriende somewhere once a year or so, but only stays with them for a couple months at a time. At 26 (352 PA) was also the first year that Dapper spent a meaningful amount of time in Tact. She'd stopped there very briefly twice before on sketchy courier/drop jobs, and she knew it was rife with opportunity resulting from the influx of people brought in by The Homecoming, and then when she stopped on another drop job and saw the population boom brought on by refugees from Reticence, she decided to stay for a couple of months to build relationships, working odd jobs and doing her connecting-people thing. "A couple of months" turned in to almost six, and by the time she left to catch back up with the Vriende in Viraka, she had a reputation with small part of the immigrant community as a decent fixer who could help find you safe work (honest or otherwise) and some vague connections to the local thieves guild. She only stayed with the Vriende for six weeks before heading straight back to Tact. At 27, she rescued Gryas from some scummy fuckwaffles running shifter-kid pit fights. The scummy fuckwaffles had actually hired Dapper to forge identity papers for Gryas, lying outright about who Gryas was to them or why a shifter kid would need false papers, and the whole situation smelled. Dapper figured out what they were really doing and decided this was a business line she couldn't cross. Turning on them to save the kid was very foolish, and very costly, and hurt her reputation in some ways with some people. It also resulted in 3 dead fight-runners and four different hard-won favors cashed in to get the kid to safety. Dapper kind of tried to wash her hands of the whole incident, feeling good about getting the kid out and set up somewhere safe, and moved on to the next thing, except a week later Gry ran away from the people Dapper had set her up with, tracked Dapper down in a city of thousands, broke into the room Dapper was staying in quietly, and Dapper woke up to find her curled up on her floor. This repeated three more times over the course of a six months before Dapper gave up and decided to just let Gry stay with her. By that point she'd realized Gry was already her best friend and things were infinitely more entertaining with her around than not. Dapper started taking Gry on jobs, and they turned out to be amazing partners. That brings us to now, at age 32.
Childhood and Youth 0-17ish: Travelling with the Vriende! The Vriende typically make a meandering annual primarily dictated by by the schedule of the biannual Grand Caravan of the dwarves in Dvarg Mark. 2-3 months after the first Grand Caravan of the year, the Vriennde find their way to an approved entrance to Dvarg Mark, purchase as many of the highly-sought-after trade goods at they can afford and carry, and then they journey up through Siota, Varcrast, then east and north along the coast to Ornesk, West along the north coast to Viraka. They generally reach Viraka about a month before the second Grand Caravan of the year sets out. Some other small nomad Tribes try to make both "off-caravan" cycles, but the Vriende usually only do the one and then meander back south much more slowly, making their way through the various smaller encampments and temporary settlements of the desert in a slowly snaking path from Viraka to Varcrast. Along this leg of their journey, they run odd jobs, scavenge what they can, and mostly just focus on making relationships and connections with other desert nomads. There's a lot of partying. During this leg of the journey, many members of the tribe wander off on side jobs, or to fulfill the needs of the tribe that must be met off of this typical route. The Vriende number only half as many folks when they arrive back in Varcrast as they had when they left it. Those that stray know to meet back at the entrance to Dvag Mark at the appropriate time of year. One of Dapper's fondest childhood memories was the time her parents agreed to rush ahead and venture south to Grenzlinie to arrange for a shipment of something (Dapper has no memory of what exactly) from Grenzlinie that the Vriende promised to procure for someone in Ornesk. It wasn't Grenzlinie or this region that captivated her, and her father complained the whole time. but the new-ness of the situation and getting to travel with only her parents on a special task felt magical. Age 17-25 At 17, Dapper volunteered to run a small cache of something or other up from another tribe they encuontered on their way back to Varcrast from Viraka to small town on the coast with two others her age. It was a short trip, fast enough to reconnect with the Vriende in Varcrast, but she was hooked. She loved new, loved the adventure of it, and loved the people she met along the way. She started making her own connections and taking on her own side-jobs. By 22, she was making her own trades and drops outside of the Vriende's usual markets (this sort of side hustle was something encouraged by her clan, not something to hide). 23 was the first year her solo-trips occupied so much of her time that she missed a clan gathering at Dvarg Mark and decided to roll with it and keep doing her own thing until the next one. At 25 she realized that at least half of her work was in some way shady or "illegal" but decided this was a fun fact and not something worth trying to change. Age 26+ At this point, Dapper more or less stopped trying to make it back to the Vriende's gathering at Dvarg Mark. She still tries to meet up with the Vriende somewhere once a year or so, but only stays with them for a couple months at a time. At 26 (352 PA) was also the first year that Dapper spent a meaningful amount of time in Tact. She'd stopped there very briefly twice before on sketchy courier/drop jobs, and she knew it was rife with opportunity resulting from the influx of people brought in by The Homecoming, and then when she stopped on another drop job and saw the population boom brought on by refugees from Reticence, she decided to stay for a couple of months to build relationships, working odd jobs and doing her connecting-people thing. "A couple of months" turned in to almost six, and by the time she left to catch back up with the Vriende in Viraka, she had a reputation with small part of the immigrant community as a decent fixer who could help find you safe work (honest or otherwise) and some vague connections to the local thieves guild. She only stayed with the Vriende for six weeks before heading straight back to Tact. At 27, she rescued Gryas from some scummy fuckwaffles running shifter-kid pit fights. The scummy fuckwaffles had actually hired Dapper to forge identity papers for Gryas, lying outright about who Gryas was to them or why a shifter kid would need false papers, and the whole situation smelled. Dapper figured out what they were really doing and decided this was a business line she couldn't cross. Turning on them to save the kid was very foolish, and very costly, and hurt her reputation in some ways with some people. It also resulted in 3 dead fight-runners and four different hard-won favors cashed in to get the kid to safety. Dapper kind of tried to wash her hands of the whole incident, feeling good about getting the kid out and set up somewhere safe, and moved on to the next thing, except a week later Gry ran away from the people Dapper had set her up with, tracked Dapper down in a city of thousands, broke into the room Dapper was staying in quietly, and Dapper woke up to find her curled up on her floor. This repeated three more times over the course of a six months before Dapper gave up and decided to just let Gry stay with her. By that point she'd realized Gry was already her best friend and things were infinitely more entertaining with her around than not. Dapper started taking Gry on jobs, and they turned out to be amazing partners. That brings us to now, at age 32.
Rakish vagabond half-elf from The Changing Desert. Whatever you need, she's your girl. If she can't do it for you or get it for you, she knows a guy who knew a guy who saw someone that one time who knows exactly where to find it.
View Character Profile
Alignment
Chaotic Sweetheart
Birthplace
Somewhere on the road in the Changing Desert
Children
Current Residence
Tact
Gender
Idk, gender is a construct. She/Her pronouns.
Eyes
Brown with flecks of Gold
Hair
Auburn
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Very tanned, olive-toned, Frecklessss
Height
5'9"ish
Weight
130lb
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What is even happening
29th of Deepsnow, 358 PA
Alba is a force of sheer, unrestrained chaos.
Seriously, I've never seen anything like it. I thought _I_ was the chaotic one. I've just been along for the ride since the moment we met her, really.
This morning we went to go tell Romaris that we handled the goblins. Got a small payment. Was trying to figure out how best to awkwardly leave when Alba just...asked Vigni to go hang out? With us? And she accepted?!
We got pretty clothes. I didn't want to, but it made Gry really happy I think. She looked so beautiful in her dress.
We hit up a bakery. We went dancing. Everything was weird.
It felt like it could've been a nice day day if I wasn't so fucking anxious about hanging out with the assistant to the Green Shivi. And every other terrible thing we're dealing with.
But somehow, it resulted in more progress than I feel like we've had since this all started?
Because Chaos. And Avariel, I guess.
Vigni told Alba that Romaris and Salazar have been meeting (secretly?) off books and alone, very very frequently.
That's not much to go on, but it's something. Now we just need to figure out what to do with that information.
I guess we weren't in trouble?
28th of Deepsnow, 358 PA
I mean we're probably definitely still in trouble. But we appear to have maybe gotten out of the most immediate danger.
First thing in the morning several agents of the Shivi came to collect us. Kinda thought we might die but played it very cool. (Screaming internally).
We met with Romaris and I was TERRIFIED. The Emerald Spire is full of servants (who I can't imagine are there totally of their own free will) many of whom were literally just being living furniture, standing perfectly still and being creepy as heck. In another context that might be kind of hot but not when you're fearing for your life.
For once things went okay. I decided to just be totally honest about everything, like complete truth. Crazy. I never do that. Still feel weird about it. I told him I did tell Salazar that I was looking to get into that business, but I told him that I was lying to Salazar about it because I'm looking for a missing friend. He seemed to believe me?
He sent us off to go clear out a goblin encampment on the coast that may or may not have been kidnapping people at some point.
We did that. I hoped we'd find...something. We found some loot. A lot of money's worth of gems, which is nice. Some fancy glasses? They're real weird.
There was some evidence that the goblins had kept captives at some point, but there weren't any there currently. And we didn't find any evidence of anything else connected to the things we're looking for. We didn't even get the chance to talk to them - they opened fire with arrows as we approached and then it was just bloodshed until we were the only ones standing. Honestly the fight was pretty fun, it's been a while since we got our blood pumping like that. But still, disappointing.
We're back now, but I'm afraid that us being there had some significance or purpose that I don't understand yet. And we're still not any closer to finding Rasheem or Celine.
At least we have more money to work with.
Well, that could have gone better.
27th of Deepsnow, 358 PA
Yesterday was delightful. We went to the beach. Alba made a shark friend. I danced in the sand. Gry and I got a little drunk and literally nothing bad happened.
It was magical.
Then today happened, and now we're all going to die.
Ripos set us up as perfume makers? Or, Alba as a perfume maker, I guess - that's what we went with anyway. Honestly I think she has a knack for it, what with the flower making. It made sense. I guess Ciavy is in the market for good perfumes. We showed up, Alba did her best.
Honestly, I should give Alba more credit. She uhh credibly accidentally fumbled the not-that-great perfume, broke it, got herself kicked out. I convinced Salazar to talk to me privately.
I convinced him that I was interested in selling Alba. I mean, CONVINCED. Credibly. It was some of my best work. I lied as well as I've ever lied in my life.
It was glorious.
Looking back, this is probably also the moment that got me killed.
Salazar believed me, wholeheartedly. And told me that such things are illegal and said he was bound to report me to the Green's Shivy.
I misjudged him, I guess. He seemed FRIGHTENINGLY truhful when he said this. Maybe he really is as opposed to the trafficking as we are. I'm wondering, now, hours later, if he could even be an ally. Gry would never trust that though.
I don't know. Maybe "The Green" isn't Ciavy. Maybe I was wrong.
Either way, I'm fucked. This is fucked.
I don't know where to turn from here.
I'm an idiot
25th of Deepsnow, 358 PA, late evening
Dear diary,
Miss bird brain has been TERRIBLE for my focus. I realize what that's saying. It's not like I'm known for my attention span.
We should've gone to talk to Ripos ages ago.
Paid the greedy little fuck 11 gold in total, but I found out that:
A.) He knows OF Rasheeg Crastfunky, and knows he's been disappearing people for years. He said "no one" knows where to find him though (I'm skeptical of that claim but i don't have the gold to challenge the matter.
B.) He knows Salazar Rift, and is going to set up a meeting for me.
Right, I should back up. We went looking for Almond Starbone, got distracted, stumbled into her haphazardly anyway (of course we did). Alba turned into a dog. Alba got kicked as a dog. Did I mention that girl is terrible for my focus?
Almond told me that she works for Salazar Rift (who I am prettyyy sure is the Sal / S.R. that has Celene so yay right trail) who works for Ciavy. Cool. Glad we could verify that we are, in fact, all going to die.
I told Almond that I maybe had a business proposition for her boss and that he should contact me, so maybe paying Ripos was throwing away money, but eh. Spend it if you got it.
Either way! Current plan:
Meet with Salazar.
See if I can get him to bring up Celene, somehow. Maybe if I flirt with him and get him to say he has a girlfriend and then ask followup questions? That could totally backfire. Whatever.
Talk "business", vaguely, and see if we can learn any meaningful information about Rasherm Crestferm.
Improvise?
And then go kick some slaver ass, hopefully.
We should probably also pencil in time in our busy schedule to get murderated by Ciavy for meddling or whatever.
I'm worried about what I dragged Gry into.
The Fucking Green
25th of Deepsnow, 358 PA
Sup diary.
Everything is fine. Just cool. We're goood. Yup.
We're totally gonna end up on the wrong end of a fucking dragon.
The night we picked up Alba I started translating the leger out of that stupid code. (It's not even a very complicated code by the way! Stupid thugs think they're SOOO clever with their little shift cypher. Betcha the thieves guild kids can do this before they can walk.) Anyway I kept seeing that they attributed some of the purchases to different neighborhoods of Tact. The weird thing was that "The Green" came up way too often considering The Greens are a bunch of fucking pastures, and the weirder thing was that they always wrote it out as "The Green" instead of The Greens (plural). It just gave me a weiiiird feeling.
Sigh.
Uhh we continued following the threads we had. We "followed up" with Valerian, by which I mean we assaulted him in his home and interrogated him, so that's cool. Yet another bar I can never set foot in. Also Alba kinda maybe got her heart broken. I mean, she knew the guy for like, less than 24 hours, but she's just a kid. A 64 year old kid. We've all been there. Poor thing.
Val told us that he's just a middle man - Veil's payments come through him from another bar patron named Allie, short for Almond Starbone. Allie who, by a HELLUVA coincidence, we met earlier that night and who I totally played it cool with and didn't ogle like a teenager because ANTLERS. Allie who, Alba maybe already pissed off because she was flirting with Val? Unclear, that was weird. Also when I was totally flustered by Allie Gry got all angry? That was weirder.
So, this attractive antler lady is the next link in the chain. Before we really had the chance to talk about how to track her down, Alba did some crazy magic and WROTE A MESSAGE IN THE SKY.
I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT WE'RE DEALING WITH ANY MORE. Alba is clearly much more powerful than Gry or I realized. That shit was crazy.
What was I saying?
Oh right, so the skymessage was asking Allie to meet with us at the Mountain. Didn't pan, but Suga loved the free publicity. Hey if this whole adventuring together thing doesn't pan out that's a surefire job prospect for our little bird. Maybe I could be her manager.
Focus, Dapper. The Green. The Fucking Green.
By a ridiculous stroke of the incredibly unlikely, Alba found out where Allie lives. I think the chain of events went something like:
Alba had one (1) bloody mary -> avariel are incredible lightweights -> Alba flew away and landed in some random part of town god knows where -> Alba asked random strangers, drunkenly, for directions to Almond Starbone -> A random stranger ACTUALLY KNEW HER and led her to her place of residence.
Which is Ciavy's house, by the way. Ciavy, I presume, is THE FUCKING GREEN.
So anyway we're off to fight a dragon, or something. Wish us luck, diary.
Another Stray
23rd of Deepsnow, 358 PA
Dear Diary - Found a sweet little bird today.
Gry and I were hanging near the Gate, killing time and keeping the business open, you know? Mostly just the usual run of folk fleeing Reticence, but an airship came in from Galeland. There was this winged elf, the Avariel I think they're called? Poor thing was so fresh she might as well've taped a "scam me" sign on her wings.
Was thinking we might try to land her work, somewhere safe, if she didn't have plans, when Veil of the Sun showed up and dragged her away.
That MANGEY little hairball. They've been tricking newbs into signing indentureship contracts. Terrible ones. They KNOW better than this! I'd wring their stupid little cat neck if I didn't imagine they'd be been manipulated into doing it by someone else.
Ugh. Maybe I'm not being fair. Veil's just...well, kind of an idiot.
Anyway, we got the Avariel out of there. Her name is Alba. Brought her to the Stag, wrote her some papers. I was really just going to do the normal job this time. Maybe give her the papers for free, to make up for Veil's shittiness, point her in the direction of a decent job, and forget about her.
Anyway, now she's asleep in my bed, so obviously that went well.
Gry wanted to look into it more. And Alba wanted to look into it more. Sooo I let them twist my arm. I definitely wasn't already wanting to dig into it on my own. Nope. That would be foolish and dangerous and I have already picked up enough strays.
I should really stop lying to my diary.
We went back to the warehouse that Veil had took her to. There were some scumbag cronies there. They didn't know anything, really, but pointed us to The Blue Wench. Warehouse also had a fake boat full of cages that had clearly housed slaves, a bunch more indentureship contracts, and a coded ledger. The contracts were made out to give ownership to...Rashey Crustfully? Rasher Crestfurry? Something like that. I've got the contracts in my bad I'm just too tired to go check.
Off we went to The Blue Wench, where we found Veil again. All we learned there is how to decode the ledger, and that Veil was being paid by the Wench's barkeep, a dangerously handsome redheaded human.
Alba, it turns out, is surprisingly capable. I mean, she's danger. She's too innocent for her own good. She'll probably get us killed. But she's sweet, and Gry seems uncharacteristically attached.
So...now we have a little bird. Who can talk to rats, by the way. And also a mystery. A shitty, horrible mystery.
I just wish Gry hadn't seen those cages. The look on her face broke my fucking heart.
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