Florence

Florence

Chapter zero: Introduction

Florence, a dwarf blood hunter. He won't make a good impression on you, it's very rare he would. Combination of his dwavish insolence and blood hunters ruthlessnes doesn't make him too charming. Which, weirdly enough is charming in it's own way. Although he may seem careless and toxic, he very deeply cares about people around him, their well being. But, he'll never admit it. His motivation, unsurprisingly is coin - pretty common around blood hunter's. He'd track and slay monsters for cash. Not to get absorbed by the stereotype, he'd ocassionally smoke or snort poison from his pipe... What a weird hobby.

Chapter one: Origins

Florence is a dwarf from Gol'Dur. He was taken to a bloodhunter school called Y'order in a very young age. He doesn't remember his parents nor his birthname. Sometimes, Florence himself woderes why he was taken to the school, since he wasn't a talented student. His master is called Galan Birona - a former adventurer, who has achieved much in his life, even slaying an adult dragon while riding on it's spine.
His only friends are his fellow students - Aik and Mike, both humans. They were far fasterlearners. By the time Florence was not able to strike with a real weapon, both of them were already agile in battle. Although, Florence was better at studying literature and theoretical knowledge. That migh've been the only thing that kept him in the school, since his master Galan Birona wasn't very stisfied with his results. Most of the literature Florence studied was about fey, undead and his favourite part - fiends, devils and demons. He love reading about them so much because he saw an idol in master Galan. Oh the stories Galan always told them, young Florenc adored them. He said he sold his soul multiple times and didn't give a shit!

Four years flew by like nothing and the Y'oreder's future blood hunters have improved and grown up young men. After Florence's first failures with combat, he started to train, doing push-ups every day and getting stronger, eventually, he was able to properly lift a greataxe and strike a dummy for the first time. Altough this was a small victory, it felt big to Florence. He would train his weapon fighting every day, every week. He became so obssesed with his first achievemts, that his grades started to worsen.
Shortly after Florence's first successful weapon strike, the time for the students first exam had come. They left to the forest with no gear and were supposed to spent a whole day there each on their own. Florence decided that it would be easiest to pick mushrooms, he's read about them in books and felt pretty confident. One of the mushrooms he picked was slightly poisonous though, and Florence felt incredibly sick the whole night. Luckily, the night was calm and he was able to come back to Y'order the next day.
All the other students have successfully come back as well. All the students were given spare time, Florence, still celebrating his combat success trained his combat too often and started to slack on his studies. Until master Galan didn't correct him after 2 years - before their next exam, to see whether their bodies are even capable of becoming blood hunters. Galan added a small dose of poison into their food. Aik and Mike were vomiting blood, falling in and out of conciousnes and felt incredibily sick. Florence on the other hand, discovered his strenght in overcoming poison - he just sat there and ate, like there was noting in the food.Galan continued to increse the doses of poison in their food. Florence was bored, since the test lasted for a whole year. And so, since he had nothing else to do, he studied and practiced fighting again. Florence discovered, that his armor was feeling very light and demanded a hevier one. His master refused to buy him one, since he was not ready for a heavy armor in his opinion.

Chapter two: Cursed blood

Then one day, Galan had to go to a close city named Vaemur for two days. He left the studends alone and told them not to let anyone through. Florence was sure he is ready for heavy armor and decided to sneak into Galan's office at night and steal some gold to buy armor for himself. This would change his life. There was a chest filled with gold in the office, however, Florence realized he might wake up the others if he tries to put the gold into a bag. He decided to look for a potion or poison, that would knock his classmates unconscious for an hour. One phial in particular cought his eye - at the time he didn't know it was purple worm poison, one of the strongest poisons out there. He meant no harm to his classmates, so he decided to try the effects on himself, thinking he's resilient to poisoning. He drunk the poison and his head strted spinning, then he felt unbearable chest pain. The pain got worse as the dwarf starts falling unconscious from pain on the ground. Then he had a vision of Galan standing next to him, asking if he really tried to steal from him. Florence tried deny and then, when he looked into Galan's demonic eye, he saw the nine hells itself. He told the truth to his master and then, the vision ended. After the poison's iteraction with his dwarwish blood, his body started to change and cause an effect that altered his life’s blood, forever binding him to the darkness and honing his senses against it. This was meat to be done by a ritual and after many more tests. After that, there was no way back from becoming a blood hunter. His blood's been cursed and Florence is now medically a blood hunter, altough he cannot control or feel his blood hunter powers. His friends woke him up in Galan's office after a few hours.

Chapter three: Robbery

The next day he decided to steal the gold during day, when his classmates were training. This went much smoother, since the house was empty. He stole a whole back of gold and went to Vaesmur to buy heavy armor. Upon his entrence Galan saw him carrying the gold. He got expelled for a week, with no food, without a weapon and was suppsed to survive in the forrest as a punishment. He decided to go to the city of Vaesmur instead. He found a place to sleep by helping out in the tavern, but still had nothing to eat. The innkeper gave him bread in an exchange for his food. Florence tried to keep a low profile and hasn't told anyone about his teacher, since he doesn't want to be discovered by Galan. A week passed by he's successfully survived in the tavern. When he tried to return to Y'order he was expelled again.
"I was assaulted by bandints and they too my shoes! ", Florence tried to lie.
"There are no bandits around here.", answeared Galan calmly.
"You can't enter until you get your boots back."
Florence knew he has sold his boots to the tavernkeep. He decided to steal a pair of boots from a random peasant passing by and waited in the bush. Then a man with an empty cart came by.
"Shut up an' get yer boots aff, bastard!".
The peasant man was scared to death, giving Florence the boots without a second tought. And so, Florence could return to Y'order.
But the robbery instantly backfired, as master Galan told them he's leaving for a few days again. Once again the students were supposed to let noone inside. Apart from the tax collector, who's supposed to come the next day. Florence realized the person he robbed had to be the tax collector, since there was noone else on the road. He rushed to Vaesmur as soon as he could, right as he arrived to the city gates, the man he had robbed was about to walk out. He wore new, expesive looking boots and was accompanied by two guards, who walked with him the whole way. Florence tried to disguise himself by drawing a fake mustache with mud and rushed over to the man, while carring a new pair of boots from Y'order.
"Oi there lad, ye have ta be tha man, which me twin brother has robbed! He be a pain in tha ass, always stealin' somtin. Here take this new pair o' boots as an apollgy. It be from me school, Y'order." Said Florence, rushing towards the tax collector.
The man was shocked. But he believed the dwarf, took the boots and asked, whether he could take him to Y'order, where he was supposed to collect taxes. Florence was relieved that all has worked out well for him, until they arrived to Y'order.
As Florence was approaching Y'order accoompanied by the tax collector and two guards, he noticed that the two humans Aik and Mike were about to ambush them for trespassing. But Florence noticed them too late, the two students have kockned the guards down and Florence was stading next to frightened tax collector.He gave up and knew there's going to be consequences anyways.
"Well, this be already focked enough. Time ta wipe our arses afta taken such a big shit.", said Florence, while turning around to look the tax collector in the eyes.
"Shut up an' get yer boots aff, bastard!", said Florence once again.
The tax collector gave him his boots, again.
"You won't get away with this! You will pay for this!" yelled tax collector as he was running away towards Vaesmur. After Galan came back and found out what the students did he expelled them all, again.
"Do not come back, until you have collected a wolf skin, idiots", said Galan.
The students were going trough the forest a they noticed something - a wounded Green Dragon Wyrmling. They know Galan would not only let them in, but also allow them to finally become blood hunters. As he always tought them that after they slay a dragon, they are real men. The two humans tried attacking it with daggers they have snuck out of Y'order, but failed miserably. One of them was dying on the ground the the other one had serious injuries. Florence had no weapon but he wouldn't let his classmates die. Galan always had a tapestry of himself, riding on dragons back while piercing it's wings with daggers. Florence, who always saw an ideal in Galan rushed onto the wyrmling's back and started to smash it's head. The wyrmling was about to spew it's poisonous breath onto the humans in an attept to kill them and save itself. As it gasped for air Florence crammed the stone deep into the wyrmling's throat, killing it with his bare hands. His friends left to Y'oreder to heal their wounds and took the wyrmling's body with themselves.

Chapter four: A new beginning

Excited Florence took the dragon's head and went back to Y'order shortly after, only to find out, that Galan has left again. His classmates were packed and were leaving as well, saying there's a note for him and that Galan went to Aldur. Florence found a letter from his master Galan, saying all of them are ready to go outside, proclaiming them blood huntes. He also left another note with 1 000 gold pieces next to it.
"To buy a horse, idiots."
Florence packed his stuff, took the dragon's head, bought heavy armor, a horse and ventured to Aldur, to find his master and show him, that he's ready to be like him, to sell his soul to devils like copper pieces, since he's already killed a dragon by himself. That was the condition Galan always told him as a child, probably trying to protect him, since there are terrible drawbacks, but Galan always could make a better deal for Florence if he really wanted to.
And thus, the blood hunter Florence, an adult dwarf, and most importantly an adventurer decided his adventure begins.

Ye, I remember tha road ta Aldur. Pretty noice it was, apart from tha forest, near Embernam. Me was travelin' with a group of bloody course, me could smell dat sour stench of elvish sweat. It be filled with hatered, they did not want us in tha forest. Apart frum dat, the roads be as quiet as mouse. Haha! That meant me could be trippin' on poisons all day long! -Florence

A huge advantage on the roads was his horse, by now Florence already gave him a name - Pepek. The horse may seem ordinary to others, but Florence has a special relationship with him, even though he will never say it. Florence tries to play it cool and rough (as he does with other people), but he loves the horse. And the horse loves him, everytime it got lost or Florence had to travel on foot, the horse would be somewhere around. Whenever Florence would snap his fingers and yell his command "Koňu, pocem!" the horse would appear seemingly out of nowhere ready for it's next ride. '
Florence was about to reach Aldur's borders. As he was getting closer, he could feel evil presence stronger and stronger. The moment he crossed the borders, the atmosphere immediately changed, to much heavier and more sinister. There were no more members left from his travel group, since everyone refused to even come near Aldur. And so, his search for fellow adventurers had begun. He kept riding on the road, there were cliffs followed by ocean on his right, a forest and mountains in the distance on right. A few hours passed by and Florence stumbeled across a hooded man. He introduced himself as Delru, an adventurer rouge, he was an elf. Florence, even though he didn't show it, was happy to meet another adventurer and offered Delru to join him on his adventure. Finally, the fear of solitude is far past him and another hand in slaying monsters always comes in handy.
Another hour or two on the road had passed and they could see a man with dragon shaped head. It was a dragonborn cleric, an adventurer as well. Florence offered him to join his party again. Weirdly enough, Florence didn't hide his love for the cleric since the begining, but the cleric didn't really enjoy Florence's comapny. It probably was Florence's inability to make a good inpression, he swears a lot and doesn't go far for insults. The cleric was of a good aligned deity Selune. Altough they didn't get along too well, they sticked together.
Then, out of the forest came a female half-orc. A druid. Long story short, for a while she's going to be the last adventurer to join the group, but she hates Florence, for he doesn't get along too well with druids in general and he's very vulgar towards her.
And so, Florence and his new group of friends have all ventured south of Aldur. Few hours of travel, they have encountered cave, where 3 Ogres had their camp. They were able to slain one of them, however they decided not to attack the other two as they though it was above their strength. After another few days of travel, the group has encountered a strange man, who inotroduced himself as Zolan. He gave the group a lot of useful information - the forests are filled with demons, don't go there unless you have to, the first safe haven you'll come across is a city far on south called Voxentrul. Not really words of courage, but the knowledge always comes in handy. Zoltan acompanied the group to a camp, where they got to know his leader - Viper. Viper wasn't very talkative and requested a few flowers to be collected by the group - Florence didn't give it much attention, as he thought it's druidic bullshit and decided to trip on poinson instead. The trip lasted a few days - Florence doesn't remember much of it, but at least if was fun.

Chapter five: Friends, foes and goblins

After a week of travel, Florence and his group arrived to the cathedral of Indaril. A fresh looking building, quite beautiful. As the group arrived a circle surounded by two statues was overlooking the hallway - they noticed another person, that tried to enter - they obviously had bad intentions, as they looked like a thief. The moment the person stepped inside the ring, they vanished to nothing but dust.
[/br] "Only those with good in their heart may enter!", yelled a priest, standing on the other side of the ring.
[/br] All of his companions were able to go through, not Florence though. In the end, he's nothing but a machine made to slay monsters. Florence decided to wait for his group in front of the cathedral and brew a potion, as this can take a while and there won't be much more oppertunities to make one. Right as he was done with the potion a man in black robes approached him.
[/br] "They didn't let you through did they?", asked the man
[/br] "Nay, bastards."
[/br] "Then come with me child, we shall cleanse you and let you inside."
[/br] Florence knew he didn't have much of a choice and agreed to go with the man. They walked around the cathedral, to it's backside. Florence could see a cave and started to grow suspicious, though it was too late. He could hear words of magic being used and fell on the ground, magically asleep. The last thing he could see was the black-robed man calling for reinforcements. Florence woke up in a crypt, with two dead bodies around him, no armor nor weapons on him, his body full of scratches and almost dead. He found a crossbow and a bad looking sword in the room and decided to leave with minimal gear he had. He could see a rock blocking the way out, so Florence climbed it to a fearful sight - a room full of coffins and filled with stench of undead. Unsurprisingly, two undead attacked Florence, he fought them and slew them both. Florence decided to go further into the crypts. A crossroad - on one side Florence could hear chants, on the other
"Ugh, fucking ugly ghouls!"
the route he'd take was obvious.

Chapter ???: Destiny

Time for the coin, thoguht Florence. The face of an old, defeated woman trying her best to keep lycantropy in check still lingers in his head. As Florence was comming back to Henlandyr he spotted a bard, being attacked by four bandits. The bandits were quickly taken care of by the blood hunter.
"Do not interfere when a blood hunter is working, you could've gotten yourself killed if I evaluated the situation wrong.", Said Florence, hiding his concern for others behind anger.
The bard introduced himself as Rolo Velkoprdelník, a bard looking for a blood hunter to write tales of. And so, Florence found a new friend. Then the blood hunter collected his reward for the werewolf, the contractor also told him of Florence's friend, who's wating for him in the tavern. Florence was not expecting any friends around here and the description matched noone Florence knew. He decided to go to the tavern anyways, a bit curious. The moment he opened the tavern door - everyone stopped moving. Even though, Florence could move. A strange feeling, that Florence has never ecnountered before.
"So, you've come, blood hunter. Good." Said a voice behind Florence's right shoulder.
Florence turned around and saw a person he knew - but they weren't his friend - mr.T.
"I've an offer, let's talk somewhere safer.", said Mr.T. as he waved his hands to created a portal into a small hut, with table, a chicken, and beches.
Florence decided to enter and so did the mage. As the portal door closes the mage waved his hands again and the room began to stretch. A massive feast, seemingly ednless table of food and drink appeared.
"I need you to fulfil a quest."
As Florence was about to ask why, Mr.T. started his speech
"I'm sure you're wondering why I need you, a beginner blood hunter. You're in a bad place to ask then, since even I do not know why the destiny's chosen you. In a far land, there is a swamp called The Swamp of Gilgar, in it a witch called Mirci. The hobgoblin leader Gilgar had a dispute with Mirci. There's a lost mine deep within Phandelver. In the mine there's a cave in which a drow baby. The baby has been chosen by Destiny. Save her from the witches grasp. You need only to hold her and you'll know what to do. Are you ready to go?"
Mr.T. then gave Florence a master made elvish sword and a ring, that he said he'd need.
Florence was confused by this whole situation and was asked whether he wanted to bring his friend with him, he agreed. Then, Mr.T. cast a spell and Florence along with Rolo were teleported to a swamp. As they were exploring, the came uppon a talking frog. He introduced himself as Blok Blok the king of Ribbia. Ribbia was a magnificent kingdom the size of almost a whole lake. He agreed to join Florence, if florence became the supreme general of Ribbia, and so Florence of Ribbia was bored. Probably, just to get a guide in the swamps is the reason Florence did it. If that was the case, it came out successful - Blok Blok warned Florence about a monster north of the self-proclaimed kingdom of Ribbia. And so, Florence decided to take a different path - west. After a while they came to a muddy area, with only a small path solid enough to walk on it. There, an undead hobgoblin appeared.

View Character Profile

Alignment

LE

Age

22

Gender

Male

Eyes

Yellow, with a cat shaped pupil

Hair

White

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

White

Height

147 cm

Known Languages

Common, dwarvish, infernal