Shar

"If we're going to make the kid a boat, let's make the kid a boat."

— Kurt Marlowe

While journeying across the Kingdom of Delryn, seeking to safely return a trio of gryphon hatchlings in their care to their parents, an adventuring party happened upon a cave near the border of Delryn and the United Tribes of Mare'n. They were drawn to the cave for two reasons - first, the crystals seemed to be of the same rare type that they had been seeking information about; and second, because it seemed the cave itself was somehow sentient, and was calling to them.
The party spent some time learning about the sentience in the cave, who couldn't quite remember exactly how long it had been since they'd been trapped in the cave, but telepathically shared enough memories with the party that they were able to determine it had been probably hundreds of years; long enough by far for returning the sentience to its physical body to not be a possibility. But the "cave kid", as they referred to the nameless sentience at first, told them he had been alone for quite some time, and expressed a longing to not be left alone again. The mages of the group decided that a small number of even these remarkable Lirilite (Star Opal) crystals, known for how well they store and handle magic, would be able to ensure no piece of the sentience's "brain" was lost, and they could bring him along inside the crystals.
He, in turn, was delighted by the concept of their sailing ship, which they already intended to augment with some of the Lilirilite that would allow them to embed magics into its very hull, for safety and efficiency. He chose a new name for himself - Shar - and asked to be transferred to the ship for now. The party agreed to try, and it worked. One could say it worked a little too well; upon completion of the process, found themselves aboard a sentient ship, with all of the blessings and drawbacks you can imagine of such a scenario.

Abilities

Magic User

Chances are, in life, Shar was a magic user when they were human. As a person of Tribal descent of his age, there is a high likelihood that Shar was a Vasati, or of Folk descent. Shar cannot generate magic of his own, but he can use/redirect magic that is embedded in the crystals by others or caught up by the crystals.

Telepathy

Shar is a fairly strong telepath. He can send dreams and images to both sleeping and awakened sentient creatures, and communicate with words mind-to-mind with anyone who is otherwise capable of telepathy as well as some other strong magic users.

Personality

Curious & Impetuous

Shar has not matured much past the age of adolescence - around 12 or 13 years. In turn, he retains the avid curiosity of your typical adolescent, and the act-first-think-later attitude that sometimes comes with it.

Loyal

Brave and protective, Shar is loyal to those he is attached to. He was willing to put himself in harm's way for his family and friends in his first life in his physical body, and he remains stubbornly loyal to those he loves now.

Meddlesome

'Private', 'confidential', 'personal', etc. are perhaps nearly foreign words to Shar. Combined with his wild curiosity, he has never met something he doesn't think is his business, and likewise, rarely finds something he isn't willing to stick his (metaphorical) nose into.

Shar's Story: A Cave Discovery

Before them, it had been quiet for so long.
Before them, there had been none else except the murmur of the gryphons nearby and high overhead. For a while, the gryphon nestlings and fledglings occasionally tumbled curiously around his depths, but one of the fledges had told too exuberant a tale and they had been sternly warned away. Notoriously overprotective parents, gryphons, and the-cave-that-talks-in-our-head hadn't been a place they wanted their children to be.
(For a time that cannot be accurately counted, for he no longer has eyes to see the passing of days, he wonders whether his life might have been different if his parents had been as vigilant as the gryphons.)
Before the gryphons, and after, there have been travelers, but they have been similarly frightened of the voice in their heads, or they couldn't hear it at all. The trader-children come sometimes, trading stories with the cave-he-is, but their visits are few the time between is long.
(Before that, it had been Nita, his bear-heart. She had stayed, loyal until the end, but mortality had crept upon her and one spring she had not awoken from her dozing. That had been the first time that he despaired, but there was nothing he could do but wait and wait and exist and exist and wait and time was immeasurable...)
The first of these strangers is the man. His mind is kind of fuzzy, but not stupid-fuzzy; more like deep-under-the-water-fuzzy. He doesn't reach out at first, shy of the strange feeling, until he can 'feel' the man settle onto the rocks outside the cave-he-is, and a hand reaches out to touch the outermost crystals, sending a faint vibration deep into the cave depths. That's worth a greeting, at least.
{Hello!}
The underwater-man scrambles to his feet. "Who's there?" the deep voice bounces around the depths of the cave, and the cave-he-is hums a little in consideration, before he sends an image of himself - or at least, he sends the image he remembers from the most before. Thin, still gangly with a growth spurt that hadn't turned to muscle, tanned skin and dark hair, barefoot and carefree in the forest with his friends while the adults were off trading and talking. Belatedly, he remembers his form has changed, and he sends an image of the boy-he-was entering the cave-he-is. In the sending, a darkness swallows the boy-he-was, swirling and oozing, but it fades to leave just the cave, rainbows glinting from the opening when a stray ray of light pierces the trees above.
"You're trapped in this cave, kid?" The cave-he-is feels the vibrations as the underwater-man edges a little bit closer back over towards the opening, but he doesn't touch the crystals again.
Trapped? That word doesn't fit, somehow, but it's been a while since he had to converse with a person using words, and they come slowly. {Am cave.} He sends a new image - this one with the boy-he-was melting into the crystals of the cave-he-is, face calm.
"Yeah, you're [I]in the cave," the man says. "I got that. But clearly you're a boy, not a cave. But I don't plan on triggering any traps in some rash rescue attempt, either, so I'm going to need some more details about your situation."
Frustration. He lets it lick out, touching against the underwater-man's mind, and shows the same picture again. {I AM the cave now} he insists, {a bad mage put me here. The trap is already sprung.}
"Look, kid, caves don't talk," the underwater-man says, tapping a fist against the stone of the outside.
"Caves don't what?"
There are more of them now, three more minds standing outside the cave-he-is. One is of The People, the speaker, though many turns of the world older than the cave-he-is will ever get to be now. The last two are different, the ancient ones, creatures hiding in the minds of other creatures, and for the first time in a long time his curiosity overwhelms him. He sends - {Hello?} - and to his (shockdelightwow!), they are not afraid. Curiosity is returned with curiosity, and they come closer, rather than fleeing.
"Who's there?" she asks aloud.
He sends them the same image of the boy-he-was turning into the cave-he-is that he'd sent the underwater-man.
A pause, long, long enough for him to panic. Has he scared them away too, despite their ancient years? Do they think the darkness will eat them too? It won't. He was enough - the darkness was sated and vanquished, there was no danger left then for the boy-he-was's friends, and there is no danger now for the ones-who-hide-themselves.
{I'm not afraid} the woman-who-hides-her-self says, before he can truly work himself into a tizzy. {Be calm.} "I'm Lark. This is Oyik, Tomas, and Kurt. What's your name?"
He doesn't know. He doesn't remember, and anyway, he's not sure the word that would have named the boy-he-was still applies to the cave-he-is. His confusion must drift across well enough, though, because she tries something else.
"Are you stuck in the cave?"
{No.} Vaguely, he can hear the underwater-man explaining his misconceptions about how he has to be a boy stuck in the cave out loud to the boy-of-the-people, but they're just wrong. {I am the cave.}
The man-who-hides-himself surfaces from a deep trance with a feeling like he's shaking feathers into place. To the cave-he-is, it's itchy. If he could still sneeze, he thinks he would sneeze. "The crystals are definitely Lirilite, and there's been transmutation done here."
"Well," this the underwater-man says, "if there's a kid in there, we best be seeing about getting them out, even if he thinks he's a cave now. And if these are those Liri-whatsit magic crystals, we best take some of those along too. You said they're worth a fortune."
"I don't think it's going to be that easy," the woman-who-hides-herself says quietly, and there is a Very Unpleasant cacophony of echoes as they all ask her questions at once. "I don't think there's a body to rescue anymore."

to be continued...

Shar

your friendly neighborhood childlike sentience

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Physical Form

Sentience - formerly trapped in a crystal cave, now embedded in a sailing vessel

Age

Unknown, Ancient

Current Status

Being a Ship
Sailing the Seven Seas

Ethnicity

Tribal Culture

Birthplace

Mare'n

Header image created from Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash.

Shar's Cave

The party happened upon Shar trapped in a cave tucked into a section of forest well off the path. The opening of the cave is narrow but deep; deep enough for a dozen people to enter but barely wide enough to allow for the swing of the hammer to mine the crystals. With the cover of trees preventing sunlight from glinting off of the crystals most of the time, regular stone outside, and lots of dense foliage all around, the cave is quite easy to miss.

Lirilite or Star Opals

These gemstones form in layers of milky white and a clear with a rainbow sheen. They are prized both for their beauty as well as for their magical properties. They can hold more magic by sheer volume or complexity than any other gemstone. They are rare and expensive, with no known current mines in the world.

Image AI generated at gencraft.com

Shar

The boy-he-was. While the Tribal people of current times are known best for their raising of certain animals - mostly horses, hounds, birds, and big cats - the Tribespeople of times past are said to have bonded to individual wild animals. Shar was 'bear-hearted'.

Imperfect Memory

While it is admittedly spotty, Shar does remember bits and pieces of his history. He was not yet a teen, probably 12 or 13, and his parents traveled doing some sort of trading; the children were allowed to run and play in the forest and plains. He had an animal companion, a black bear named Nita. He and his friends played frequently near this cave, their 'secret spot'.

One day when they were playing they were approached by something Shar remembers as a monster that wanted to hurt them. He fought it, and defeated it but it resulted in him being trapped in the crystal cave, though his friends did escape. Most beings who stumble across the cave are afraid or suspicious of the magic talking cave so he's been mostly alone ever since.