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Darth Wiki / The Prisoners Of Santobal

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The Prisoners of Santobal is a group of people playing a game of The Dark Eye.

The First Game in General

     General 
  • After Action Patch Up: After their first fight with the wolves Walla blesses both Perainian and Marik. Vennio then tries to bandage Perainians wound with less than satisfactory results. Not that He noticed.
  • All-Natural Gem Polish: Averted. Walla makes a point of getting the gem she acquired during their first mission appraised and cut, while Perainian, who skips this, uses his uncut saphire to pay for some lockpicks.
  • And Your Reward Is Edible: Perainian gives some of the fruit and spices they just retrieved for a merchant to the logger that let's them spend the night at his cabin.
  • Badass Boast: "I'm Marik Haubeiler, the strongest man of Andergast."
  • Backstory: What the characters did previous to meeting in Lowangen. Marik was a traveling warrior, Naheniel took the offer of a carriage ride to Lowangen, Perainian was on a messenger run, but his horse died and left him stranded in the city, Vennio was also just traveling and Walla had left her hometown after the death of her father in search of better prospects.
  • "Begone" Bribe: Walla uses this on the drunk who was beating up Marik.
  • Bonding over Missing Parents: Vennio and Wallas relationship becomes significantly more congenial after the former tells the later about missing his father. [[This Walla can relate to, since her father died a few weeks earlier.]]
  • David vs. Goliath: Happens during the show fight, as the 12-year old Vennio is faced with older and much bigger fighters and wins. It's implied however, that in a real fight the encounter between him and Blood Knight Marik would've gone much differently.
  • Disapproving Look: If one of them acts without telling the other first, expect Perainian or Walla to throw these.
  • Do You Want to Haggle?: Expect Walla to haggle over every price. She's good at it too.
  • Edible Treasure: The wagon the group retrieves during their first mission contains fruit and spices, which are enjoyed liberally by them.
  • Exact Words: During their first mission, where they have to retrieve the stolen goods wagon of a tradesman, Walla and Perainian steal some precious gems from it. When the merchant asks about them, Walla invokes this trope.
    Corvan Bishar: There didn't happen to be a small chest on the wagon?
    Walla: The deal was to bring back your horse and wagon filled with fruits and spices. You never mentioned anything else.
  • Facepalm: Walla is prone to these.
  • Five-Finger Discount: Naheniels preferred method of acquiring anything.
  • Friend in the Black Market: Perainian is good at finding these. Also Walla counts as this, by virtue of being basically an ordained smuggler.
  • Impossible Theft: When Naheniel announces, she'd like to steal from Perainians bag, while sitting across from him, a big barrel of beer between them in a tavern full of people, the others react incredulous. However, after explaining how exactly she's going to achieve this feat, the GM is impressed with her ingenuity and lets her try. She succeeds.
  • It Amused Me: Naheniel instigates a drunken brawl between Marik and two random passersby solely for this reason.
  • Just a Kid: Perainian insists that Vennio is this, even though by now, he has proven himself to be quite capable of handling himself.
  • Meaningful Look: Most often between Perainian and Walla.
  • Most Definitely Not Accompanying Us: Almost verbatim what Perainian tells Vennio during their first adventure.
  • Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: The main reason Walla is much more hesitant to get involved in fights, since her main weapon are simple fisticuffs. She's aware that any encounter with a sword or something similar would go poorly.
  • Offerings to the Gods: So far Walla, as well as Perainian and Marik have made these.
  • Paranormal Gambling Advantage: Walla can improve her chances with a quick prayer to Phex, her Patron god. She still manages to lose.
  • Pet the Dog: While Walla is mostly dismissive of Vennio, she does buy him a book with fairy tales of his home country and gifts it to him after he wins the show fight.
  • Racial Face Blindness: Played for Laughs When the GM introduces an NPC as "a Thorwalian women" the group jokingly assume it's Walla.
  • Religion is Magic: Her faith provides Walla with some special abilities.
  • Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: When Walla shapeshiftes, she leaves behind her clothes and is naked upon turning back.
  • Stress Vomit: Vennio vomits after winning his show fight against Marik.
  • There's No Kill like Overkill: Marik absolutely pulverizes one of the wolves that are fought during the first evening. So much so, that there's nothing left to loot.
  • Thieves' Cant: So far, we know that Perainian can read Foxian. Looking at the character sheets so can Walla and Naheniel.
  • Thieves' Guild: What the Phex Church functions as, apart form being also the god of commerce.
  • Turn to Religion: Because Walla spend most of her childhood roaming the streets to avoid going home to her abusive father, she found the secret temple of Phex and eventually became a priestess.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Walla gives one of these to Marik after they took out some adolescent thugs and Marik nearly killed one of them.
  • You All Meet in an Inn: Averted They all met at the winter solstice festival with the exception of Naheniel, who joined later.

The First Group

    In General 
  • Aerith and Bob: Naheniels name sticks out as being the only one with an elven name in an otherwise human team. Justified as she is a half-elf.
  • Anti-Hero Team: Not all of them, Vennio is definitely the Token Good Teammate and Marik, while always eager to fight hasn't done anything truly immoral so far. Meanwhile Perainian and Walla are more inclined to manipulate and swindle for their gain and Naheniel is a straight out thief.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Marik and Vennio have blonde hair, Perainian and Naheniel black and Walla flaming red hair.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Most of them, as it turns out.
    • Naheniel is a Child of Two Worlds and was left to fend for herself at an early age, growing up on the streets.
    • Perainian also grew up on the streets.
    • Vennio is only 12 and already traveling the world on his own. The reason is unknown as of yet.
    • Walla grew up with an alcoholic and Abusive Parent.
  • Character Alignment: All over the place:
  • Dump Stat: Different for everyone, so far we know:
    • For Marik it's of course Intelligence, being the Dumb Muscle and having an intelligence score of 8. To put this in perspective, a score of 12 is considered average.
    • Perainian is almost as bad with his Strength score of 9.
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief: Marik as the fighter, Vennio as the mage and Naheniel, Perainian and Walla as the thieves. Though Wallas abilities as a Phex priestess also qualify her as a mage, as do Perainians magical talents and Vennio is a skilled swordsman along with his arcane talents.
  • Height Insult: Walla likes to remind Vennio of his vertical disadvantage.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Both Perainian and Walla tend towards this. They don't even shy away from doing it to Praios priest, the god of truth.
  • Meaningful Name: Most of them in some way:
    • Mariks last name "Haubeiler" (meaning something like "hit-axe") is quite fitting for a warior, even though he uses a flail instead of an axe.
    • Naheniels elvish name foreshadows her half-elvish heritage.
    • Perainians name is conspicuously common, giving a clue as to it being an alias. Which it in fact is. His true name, Answin Aurentian von Löwenthal, might hint to a noble background
    • Wallas last name, Jorasdottir gives an indication to which of her parents was more dominant. Since in Thorwalian naming customs a wrestling fight between the parents decides, whose name the children carry.
  • Multinational Team: Marik is from Andergast, Naheniel is from the autonomous city of Donnerbach, Perainian is from the Middle Realm, Vennio from the Zyklop Isles and Walla from Thorwal.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Naheniel and Vennio are clearly the Red Onis, both being enthusiastic, talkative and extroverted, while Perainian and Walla are the Blue Onis, being more shrewd in their approach to things and generally more guarded. Marik can go either way, depending on circumstance. His behavior with the group is very laid-back, but his Blood Knight tendencies make him quick to jump into fights.
  • Running Gag: Multiple:
  • Sanity Ball: Though Walla acts as the teams Straight Man, sometimes she will share with Perainian. However, other times he is just as zany as the rest of the group.
  • Straight Man and Wise Guy: Perainian and Walla share this trope, with Perainian being the Wise Guy who often takes the piss out of a given situation, while Walla plays the Straight Man.
  • Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Walla is the tallest member of the group at 5'10, both Vennio at 4'10 and Marik at 5'8 are noticeably shorter.
  • Token Religious Teammate: Averted. Though one would assume that this spot would go to Walla, as an actual priestess and devout believer in Phex, Perainian is also shown to be very religious and even carries around pictures of saints. Even Marik is shown to sacrifice to the gods.
  • Two Girls to a Team: Walla is joined by Naheniel early on.

    Marik Haubeiler 

Marik Haubeiler

Race: Human
Culture: Andergast
Profession: Warrior
A quiet warrior out to kill as many orcs as possible.
  • Blood Knight: Marik loves fighting. There is nothing, he won't solve with it.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: He boasts himself to be the strongest man in Andergast and is the groups primary source of damage.
  • Can't Hold His Liquor: Gets quite drunk as the group hits their first tavern. Walla leads him back to her inn, on the way to which he has a drunken brawl with some like-minded fellows.
  • Epic Flail: He deals a lot of damage with it. Until he hits himself, that is.
  • Hunter of Monsters: He is out to kill orcs, goblins and Nostrians.
  • Luke Nounverber: His surname, Haubeiler, means something like hit-axe.
  • Mighty Glacier: He boasts the highest damage output, highest armor and the lowest speed in the team.
  • Money Dumb: After he is drunk, Marik tries to pay about ten times as much, as he was asked for, but since he is unable to count it out, he ends up paying just four times as much.
  • One Stat to Rule Them All: Strength seems to be this for him. Marik has outright stated, that he can not fail Strength checks outside of them being heavily modified.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Andergast culture tends to glorify war, having been locked into a perpetual war with it's neighbor, Nostria.
  • The Dreaded: When Marik, Perainian and Vennio sign up for a show fight during the winter solstice festival, the later too dread being forced to fight the former.
  • The Stoic: Outside of being ready to fight at the drop of a head, he is generally laid-back and quiet.
  • World's Strongest Man: Well, Andergast's strongest man, as he likes to remind people.

    Naheniel 

Naheniel

Race: Half-elf
Culture: Middle Realm
Profession: Thief
A young homeless woman with a kleptomaniac streak and a mischievous temperament.
  • Affirmative Action Girl: Joined the group a little later as the second female.
  • Chaotic Stupid: When she first meets the group, it's as Marik has just announced the next round of food and drinks for the whole tavern is on him. Instead of taking him up on his offer, Naheniel, who at this point is living on the streets in a city unknown to her and has neither job, nor money, decides to follow Perainian out of the tavern and steal from him. Lucky for her Perainian is Chaotic Good and decides to help her anyway, which she initially also refuses, only to follow him back to that same tavern, eat the food Marik has paid for and then steal from Perainian again, giving the item back to him...and then steal from him again.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: A half-elf to be exact.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: She steals, even if she doesn't intend to keep whatever she stole.
  • Parental Abandonment: The victim of this.
  • Put on a Bus: Leaves just a few sessions after she joined.
  • Ugly Cute: Described this way.
  • Sticky Fingers: It seems to be more of a compulsion, than a conscious need that drives her to steal.
  • Street Urchin: Naheniel is introduced as one.
  • The Artful Dodger: Tries to be this.
  • Token Non-Human: The only Non-Human in the group. A half-elf.
  • Younger Than They Look: Living on the streets is not kind on ones appearance.

    Perainian Garether / Answin Aurentian von Löwenthal 

Perainian Garether

Race: Human
Culture: Middenrealm
Profession: Messenger / KGIA Agent
A mysterious man, who introduces himself as a messenger whose horse died after his latest mission to Lowangen and who is thus stuck in the city.
  • Can't Hold His Liquor: Gets so drunk in their first tavern, that he falls from his chair.
  • Chaotic Good: To say that Perainian has a peculiar moral codex is an understatement. He has no qualms about giving away goods that he was paid to retrieve, but he is also the first to give money and assistance to the less fortunate and seems to be quite religious.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He follows his own set of morals, but will give assistance where he feels it's needed and/or earned.
  • Mysterious Past: While the group hasn't known each other long and thus none of them have disclosed all details of their past life, Perainian is the only one who is actively hinted at hiding something. At one point, he visits the Nordlandbank and deposits money using the name von Löwenthal. The backstory he gives is actually a cover for the facto that he is a member of the KGIA, the Middenrealms Secret Service.
  • Parental Abandonment: For whatever reasons, his parents weren't around when he was growing up.
  • Secret Identity: He is actually an agent for the KGIA and uses the alias Perainian Garether instead of his real name Answin Aurentian von Löwenthal
  • Special Person, Normal Name: Perainian Garether is the aventurian equivalent to John Smith, being named after a popular goddess and the biggest city of the continent. It's implied this might be a case of Mr. Smith.
  • The Sneaky Guy: Actually even better at sneaking, than Walla, a priestess of the thieves god is. As a secret agent this is of course his job.

    Vennio Aschenhaupt 

Vennio Aschenhaupt

Race: Human
Culture: Zyklop Isles
Profession: Mage
A 12-year old prodigy who is out to see the world.
  • Adorably Precocious Child: Though only twelve years old, he is already exploring the continent on his own and seems to have done quite well so far.
  • All-Loving Hero: He has yet to meet anyone he doesn't like.
  • Badass Adorable: Twelve years old but skilled with a long sword.
  • Cheerful Child: Vennio is excited about adventuring and most things he encounters.
  • Luke Nounverber: His surname, Aschenhaupt, means ash-head.
  • Magic Knight: While not a true knight, he is skilled with a blade and manages to win a fighting contest against Blood Knight Marik.
  • Master of All: He is a mage and equally skilled fighter as well as being well-educated. This however is balanced out by his age appropriate naivety.
  • Pintsized Powerhouse: As the shortest of the group he's still the second most capable fighter. Dealing twelve points of damage with one hit. Something only Marik has topped so far.
  • Tagalong Kid: Even though Perainian insists that he's too young.
  • The Baby of the Bunch: He is by far the youngest, being six years younger than the next person, the 18 year old Naheniel.
  • The Heart: Wants everyone to get along and is the most unambiguously good character among them.
  • Token Good Teammate: He is the most outright good character in the group. Whether this is a a character trait or simply the result of his age and naivety remains to be seen.
  • Token Wizard: The only true mage in the group.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: A twelve year old traveling the continent on his own, Vennio is quite capable at fighting with a longsword and sometimes spouts creepy poetry.

    Walla Jorasdottir 

Walla Jorasdottir

Race: Human
Culture: Thorwal
Profession: Smuggler (Priestess of Phex)
A cynical smuggler out to make a profit.
  • Abusive Parents: Her father was a violent drunk and used to hit Walla, her mother and her siblings.
  • Action Girl: Though she avoids direct confrontation if she can, Walla is quite capable of handling herself in a fist fight.
  • Alcoholic Parent: Her father as a result of having lost is job.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: She is a priestess and prefers to fight with her fists.
  • Beautiful Singing Voice: The others are surprised to learn this.
  • Catchphrase: Averted. Multiple times someone in the group will answer to something with: "As my Thorwalian companion would say: Das wohl! (roughly: To be sure)", a traditional saying of Thorwalians. Walla points out that she has never once used the phrase.
  • Child of Two Worlds: As the child of a whaler and a Thorwalian women, a community to whom whales are sacred creatures, Walla is this.
  • Deadpan Snarker: She reacts to most of her teammates antics with sarcasm.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Her father was a violent drunk, which led to her mother eventually divorcing him and taking the children with her, when he hit Walla with a broken bottle, scaring her for life. Walla still returned to him when he got sick and took care of him until he died shortly before she joins the group.
  • Evil Redhead: Downplayed Not evil per se, just morally ambiguous and money oriented.
  • Evil Stole My Faith: Zigzagged Despite being raised Thorwalian, she saw how their belief in Swafnir took away the livelihood of most inhabitants of her hometown and most prominently, her own father. Consequently Walla isn't to fond of Swafnir or religious principles on the whole. She is however a stout believer and priestess of Phex, since one of his most important principles is "Help yourself and Phex will help you".
  • Fiery Redhead: Averted She is actually quite levelheaded.
  • Glowing Gem: Her Moon Amulet can serve as a light source for her and anyone she chooses.
  • Good Old Fisticuffs: They work against wolves as well.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While she is initially dismissive of Vennio, she later buys a book with fairy tales of his home country for him and gifts it to him after he wins the show fight. This happens, after she had previously angered him by trying to take his diary from him.
  • Justified Criminal: Growing up in a poor town, where the traditional way of life (whaling) was destroyed by the occupying Thorwalians to whom whales are sacred animals, she didn't have a lot of prospects. Her family's circumstances didn't help either.
  • Magical Accessory: Her Moon Amulet. Though it's more like sacred accessory.
  • Master Forger: In just a few minutes, she changes the writing on the merchants paperwork, doubling their pay.
  • Master of None: It's been mentioned, that Walla is the least specialized member of the group and her stats are fairly spread out. This means she is almost always overshadowed by another party member, even in skills she is relatively proficient in. Her sneaking skill is lower than Naheniels and Perainians, so is her pick pocketing and lock picking, Perainian is also better at persuasion and perception.
  • Never Gets Drunk: Enforced. Her skill in drinking isn't actually that high, but her character sheet includes the ability binge drinker III, meaning she can ignore up to three alcohol units, before she needs to roll any checks. While drinking with the guys (minus Vennio), she has six beers and isn't even remotely drunk. The guys meanwhile...
  • Non-Action Snarker: Walla avoids direct confrontation where she can and is quite snarky.
    Marik: We fought three orcs to get your wagon back!
    Walla: Which was completely unnecessary, since we could have just taken the wagon without them even noticing.
  • Patron God: Phex, the god of trade and thieves.
  • Religious Bruiser: A priestess and capable fist fighter.
  • Rugged Scar: Four long gashes along the right side of her head.
  • Shapeshifter: See Shapeshifting Trickster.
  • Shapeshifting Trickster: Adhering to her patron gods principles gives her the ability to transform into his sacred animal, a fox.
  • Statuesque Stunner: Thanks to her Thorwalian roots.
  • Storyboard Body: Spots a large whale tattoo on her torso in remembrance of her parents.
  • Straight Man: To the others antics.
  • Tattooed Crook: Tattooed, check, criminal background, check.
  • Team Mom: Though not exactly nurturing by nature, she is the most down to earth member of the party and tries to keep the others out of trouble, such as breaking up a drunken brawl Marik had gotten into.
  • The Prankster: Downplayed Far from it being a main character trait, but she does like to mess with Perainian in revenge for often getting in the way of her plans. So far she has dunked his underpants in water and laid them out on his pillow and put a stone in his soup for him to choke on.
  • True Neutral: Walla is just trying to make a living and doesn't follow any particular set of ethics.
  • Venturous Smuggler: Used to be this back in her hometown.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: She can transform into a fox, one of the sacred animals of her patron god.

The Second Game in General

     General 
  • Backstory: What the characters did previous to meeting in Thorwal. Gonkel was on a study excursion with a colleague, Myhia received a vision and Zephirina escorted a slaver from the south.
  • Facepalm: Myhia does this, when Gonkel can't understand her.
  • Hand Signals: How Myhia communicates most of the time.
  • Intimate Healing: After rescuing several men from the sea during a storm, Myhia and Zephirina bed down together to warm up, naked, while their clothes are drying. Enforced As they stick to this arrangement for the rest of the journey, which helps Myhia regain her magic, because it's counted as a good rest.
  • Talking with Signs: Myhia will sometimes write what she wants to say.
  • There's No Kill like Overkill: Zephirina chops one of the attacking pirates clean in two.
  • You All Meet in an Inn: Averted They all met in Thorwals harbor.
  • You Must Be Cold: Myhia lends Zephirina her coat.

The Second Group

    In General 
  • Aerith and Bob: Myhias and Zephirinas names are fairly normal for their cultural background, Gonkels' however is decidedly odd.
  • Handicapped Badass: Myhia is a mute 750 year old elf and Zephirina can barely get two words out without stuttering, but is a terrifying opponent.
  • Immortality Begins at Twenty: Elves look like they are in their twenties for most of their life.
  • Intimate Hair Brushing: Myhia does this for Zephirina while they are on the ship. She is less good at styling it though.
  • Language Barrier: Technically all of them speak Garethi, but since Myhia is mute and Zephirina can't read, while Gonkel has a hard time understanding Hand Signals, this happens a lot.
  • Multinational Team: Gonkel is from the Middenrealm, Myhia from the far north and Zephirina from the deep south.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: Both Myhia and Zephirina. Justified in Myhias case, as elves traditionally don't care about such things, while Zephirina is just that affectionate. This is often uncomfortable for Gonkel, as he does not like touch.
  • Purpose-Driven Immortality: Elves are immortal, until they fulfill their lives goal.
  • Skinny Dipping: Myhia does this on the ship.
  • Sleeps in the Nude: Myhia and Zephirina. Justified at first in that both their clothes were wet. Not so much the days after.
  • Token Wizard: Averted Since all elves are able to do magic, Gonkel isn't the only wizard in the group.
  • Two Girls to a Team: Myhia and Zephirina.
  • Unfortunate Name: Lampshaded by the characters themselves:
    Gonkel: Gonkel Donkel. I know you're wondering "Who names their kid that?".
    Zephirina: A-At least you-you ca-can say your n-na-name wi-w-with-without problems.

     Gonkel Donkel 

Gonkel Donkel

Race: Human
Culture: Middenrealm
Profession: Black Mage
A demon summoning Black Mage.
  • Brainy Brunette: Black haired and certainly the most academically accomplished in the group.
  • Hates Being Touched: Hate might be a tad strong, but he dislikes it.
  • Translator Buddy: Since Myhia can't speak but write, while Zephirina can't write but speak, Gonkel has to read Myhias notes for her.

    Myhia Si'l Kisa'ana 

Myhia Si'lKisa'ana

Race: Elf
Culture: Firnelf
Profession: Ranger
A mute elf following a vision.

    Takate Elburumi 

Takate Elburumi

Race: Human
Culture: South Aventurian
Profession: ?
A young Half-Moha trying to free his father.

    Zephirina Lupinez 

Zephirina Lupinez

Race: Human
Culture: South Aventurian
Profession: Mercenary
A blunt mercenary.

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