Hanshi

Name: Han'shi Drakeglade

Race: Firbolg

Alignment: Neutral Good



Class: Cleric

Domain: Light

Deity: Sirrion - Neutral God of Fire & Change

Holy Symbol: A rainbow opal cut into the shape of a flame. He currently has it embedded in the middle of his shield, to symbolize that he stands between the darkness and the light.

Background:

Han'shi Drakeglade is based off of my Dungeons and Dragons character in my first ever campaign. He is a Firbolg Light Cleric who follows the nature god Sirrion, the deity of fire and change.

He is utterly serene even in the face of danger, and believes that once you finally know yourself there is nothing else you need to know. Han'shi fears losing those he cares about (also spiders), and has an extreme soft spot for children. He will risk everything to save them.

When he was younger Han'shi had to kill his own sister, Sparrow, when she seemed to go insane and razed their home forest to the ground. She had killed all the elders and children, but in the end it turned out she had been possessed. He had killed her for nothing...and so Han'shi entered seclusion to hide from those individuals who know what happened with his sister. His guilt weighs heavily on him though he tries not to show it.

During his seclusion he devoted himself to Sirrion and learned the ways of the Cleric until he joined up with a ragtag group of adventures to try and set his demons to rest. Overall he's a sweet, caring man who just wants to make sure the people closest to him are safe and happy.

After a time Han'shi fell in love with a Dwarven bartender and war cleric named Escobert who was formerly part of a heroic adventuring party. As the two grew closer, Escobert confessed that he had lost a lover before- Hadley -when she sacrificed herself to save their group in a liche's lair. Han'shi confessed his own past in return and the two were forever inseparable.

After finding Hadley's body and laying it to rest, Escobert and Han'shi were married on June 2nd, 2019!

However, fate truly loves to tug at heartstrings.

The very next morning a hydra rampaged through the wedding party that had continued on through the night, disrupting the village of Barrel Bottom and sending the party chasing after it. Escobert and his half-orc friend Bethany split from the main group to try to head the monster off, and after Han'shi and the others managed to slay it he alone reappeared from the woods unharmed.

He asked the party to join hands and assist in a scrying ritual in order to find the individual, Lord Thirstin Thornwood, who had sent the hydra careening through the wedding. But once everyone did they spotted a naked, wounded Escobert dragging an unconscious Bethany come stumbling out of the woods. Before they could react the group was forcibly dragged through the planes of existence and dumped into the Feywild.

Turns out it was Lord Thornwood's son who had taken on the guise of Escobert to trick them, and he shifted back to the Material Plane, laughing in triumph. Han'shi, Sutha, Barakis, Dirk, and Fern were all trapped.

And so began a mad dash through the Feywild including being captured and tortured by centaurs, thwarting a unicorn genocide attempt on said centaur camp, getting captured by slavers after saving a baby from being abandoned in the woods, and fighting a kraken after talking to a sorceress and learning it guarded the portal between worlds.

Finally, after so long in the Feywild, Han'shi and the remainder of his party were finally back on the Material Plane. They appeared in the middle of the ocean and through some clever spell-work managed to get to the surface of the water and walk until they found a passing pirate ship. Upon being pulled aboard the Sanctuary Moon, it turned out that their old dwarven friend Arinda and her now-wife and first mate Bonnie captained the ship...and twenty years had passed since they had been forcibly cast into the Feywild.

Time passes differently in the other realms...

Lord Thornwood- or at least, the fiend calling himself Lord Thornwood- now reigns.

During the time they had been gone, Escobert led a berserker assault on the demon soon after the party was transported, blinded by his grief and rage. He barely escaped with his life. After that he went underground and began to plan a rebellion, leading a growing resistance. In order to unite the Dwarven clans however, he required an heir...so he did what he had to do, and bore a son.

Bonnie assured Han'shi that Escobert never forgot him...

With the rebellion growing, Escobert did his best to thwart Thornwood's plans. However, it wasn't until Dirk Dirstley returned alone and spread word of the paladin Anadraste's death at the fiend's hands that stronger allies were mobilized. Brace Fellwynd, her original party member, was furious and called upon the corsair clans to help avenge his friend. Anadraste's order and Dirstley's wizard contacts likewise mobilized to get revenge and neutralize the threat.

Things have not gone well, as Thornwood's plan to align the planes of existence was successful. But her banner is still as symbol of hope and the emblem of the rebellion.

Gathering their forces, the rebellion put a lot of resources into a final push on Thornwood's stronghold to end the alignment and slay the tyrant.

Only to fail...

Many were slain during that fateful night the hammer fell...and no one truly knows what happened in that throne room.

Exhausted, downtrodden, and heartsick, after hearing this tale Han'shi burned his only remaining spell slot (a 7th level) to try and contact Escobert via a sending spell...and received only silence in return.

Unknown to him just yet, Escobert was slain in one on one combat with Thornwood that night, and the other generals Fellwynd and Dirstley were imprisoned. But Escobert's son, known to the party only as the rebel Ashenforge, believes these survivors have information to end all of this and set things right.

Utilizing caution and a bit of stealth, Han'shi and his friends successfully extracted the generals from an island prison, escaping aboard the Sanctuary Moon...though not before alerting and having a fight with it's guardian demon. Thankfully, they managed to destroy the only portal on or off the island, preventing the Thornwoods and their allies from accessing it easily.

Upon giving Dirk and Brace time to recuperate, Han'shi and Sutha interrogated them as to what they knew and why Dirk in particular had left them behind in the Feywild. They learned that he believed their group to be a trouble magnet, and left them once his illusions dropped and revealed him as an Eladrin elf, a subspecies that would be hunted down in that plane of existence. He figured he could escape more easily and safely on his own.

Which, he did, to be fair...ten years earlier.

This did not endear the wizard to Han'shi, however...they needed him and his information. Besides, Brace seemed to have developed a friendship with Dirk...and Han'shi couldn't rob the man of that.

After this explanation, Dirk continued on by saying that when Lord Thornwood aligned the planes, it spelled the beginning of his undoing. It turns out the being masquerading as Lord Thornwood was a Rakshasa, a demon of the Nine Hells that could only be truly killed while in it's home plane. But now, with all the planes aligned...the Material Plane and the Nine Hells are effectively one singular place.

If he is killed now, before the planes are split again...Lord Thornwood will be truly dead.

Furthermore, as the Feywild's seelie queen struck a bargain with the Rakshasa to keep her plane separate from the others, it provides the party with a unique opportunity to change aspects of time itself. Should they utilize the anchor stones they found in the Kraken's lair, use them to bend this strange flow of time to their will...not only could they break the alignment...but they may be able to stop it from having ever happened at all.

Perhaps those they had lost...could even be returned to them.

The party then ventured to Dirk's secret laboratory in a secluded mountain cave on a nearby island, and managed to gather the two general's supplies before they were discovered by a group of barbed devils. Making quick work of the spiny little beasts, they all transported via teleportation circle to what Dirk and Brace called "The Glade". Apparently allies would be waiting for them there.

This turned out to be the hidden underground home of what remained of the resistance.

And it was here that Han'shi finally met Escobert's son.

Young Drakeglade Ashenforge, known as Drake to his friends, looked so much like his father that at first the firbolg could barely stand to look at him.

Neither knew what to say as they stood before each other, but Han'shi finally broke the silence.

What followed was a conversation among the two men about how Escobert had told his son stories about Han'shi...about how the dwarven cleric had never forgotten him. How the boy missed him every day since the hammer fell. How Drake felt like Han'shi was as much a father to him as Escobert had been...

Breaking down into tears as Drake hugged him, Han'shi whispered how Escobert had been torn away from them both...and how he promised to make those who took him pay. And though he didn't say it out loud, Han'shi poured all the love and hope that he thought he'd lost into that hug and vowed to live...if not for himself, then for this dwarven teenager who was all he had left of his husband.

Who deserved love and a family who cared for him. Who didn't deserve to have the burden of leading a resistance rest on his shoulders alone.

Unfortunately their touching moment was cut short as doppelgangers attacked the remaining rebels, killing many before the party could dispatch them. Furious, Han'shi managed to cut down most of them...

This included the final creature, which dared to try and morph into Escobert right in front of him.

Unsure how these doppelgangers managed to infiltrate the hideout, the group worked on their plan of attack while Han'shi set about healing the wounded and resurrecting as many of the fallen as he could.

And always on the edges, watching him as he went about his own work, was Drake.

Eager to get to know this man his father had loved.

Over the course of the next month, the party prepared for a siege. They learned from Dirk how Thornwood was truly a Greater Rakshasa, and that if they had any hope of defeating this fiend so he could never return, they'd have to destroy him on his own plane of existence. Thankfully for them, thanks to the melding of the planes Thornwood himself had instigated, he'd ensured his own demise. All planes except the Feywild were one, meaning if they killed him now...he'd be wiped from existence completely.

Han'shi set Hallow spells throughout the hideout, preventing any individuals working for Thornwood from being able to enter easily. He traveled with the group on their missions to gain allies, such as the barbarians of Sutha's tribe or his own Firbolg clan. He helped them find artifacts of power, weapons and tomes left in the sieged city of the northern dwarves.

And on the eve of the final battle, Han'shi and his party took to the skies in Arinda's airship and made their way to Thornwood's stronghold. Their entire armada joined them, via both the sky and sea, and the twin dragons that had guarded his old glade arrived in a breathtaking aerial reunion. Suibian, the massive Blue Dragon, and Bichen the lawful Silver Dragon, had come to lend aid to their former ward.

Sharing a Heroe's Feast that night, the group prepared for what the dawn would bring...all set on one goal.

Infiltrate the fortress.

Kill the Rakshasa...and set the world right.

What followed was a battle the likes of which the world had never seen before. Their fleet of airships clashed with Thornwood's army of wyverns and shadow dragons, attempting to get the Sanctuary Moon as close as possible to the fortress so the party could penetrate it's defenses. Bodies were thrown from the decks, balistas flew through the smoky morning air, the roars of dragons on either side were deafening.

Pushing the Sanctuary Moon to it's brink, the party encountered resistance from a small pack of wyverns, who attempted to gut their ship's engines and drop them from the sky. This was mostly unsuccessful...until Han'shi spotted Bichen's body fall from the sky to the waters below, bloodied and in it's death throws...

A massive shadow dragon appeared beside their ship a moment later, and to their horror it engulfed the entire back of the ship in flames...burning Bonnie alive and destroying their engines.

They were falling...and they still hadn't reached Thornwood's stronghold.

Realizing the futility of this fight, Dirk called out for everyone to join him so that he could instead teleport them inside.

Bethany and the remaining crew however refused to join them.

"Go," they insisted. "We'll buy you as much time as we can!" And they returned to the Ballistas, heckling the shadow dragon to allow the party time to complete their mission.

Sutha's heart broke as she had to leave him behind.

Finishing the spell, Dirk pulled everyone through to the tower...and they found that they had managed to make it just below the throne room. Apparently, Thornwood had put the planes of fire, water, shadow, and so forth into the tower itself, so that each floor was an entire plane unto itself. A good security system to be sure...but luckily for them, they had bypassed it completely.

Steeling themselves for battle, the group traversed the staircase, collapsing it behind them to prevent enemy reinforcements from coming.

In the throne room, Han'shi was shocked to see what appeared to be Escobert, chained and suffering, before an altar with the shattered pieces of his warhammer. Dirk however, having cast Truesight, saw that this was an Incubus attempting to trick them. Disappointed that her disguise hadn't worked, the Incubus ceded the floor to Lord Thornwood, the Rakshasa laughing as he began the fight.

It seemed that the Incubus was his wife, and he was hesitant to let her go into battle herself. Unfortunately for him, she wished to defend her love, and died at Barakas' hand as she attempted to stop them.

What followed was a fairly difficult battle, psychic damage radiating out from Thornwood in painful waves as he utilized every trick he knew to try and wipe them out. To prevent them from opening the twin portals in the room and ending the convergence of the realms.

But it was all for naught. Rallied by the effects of last night's Heroe's Feast and with burning rage in their hearts, the party completed their mission. The portal to the material plane was opened by Dirk, while a heavily injured Brace managed to uncover the portal to the Feywild. If ever there was a time to defeat this Rakshasa, it was now.

They fought on until, bruised and bloodied and on his last leg, Thornwood attempted to flee.

Unfortunately for him, Dirk was faster and landed the killing blow.

Before they could be trapped in this terrible universe, the party had to choose which portal...and thus which world...they wished to return to. Brace and Dirk leapt into the Feywild, two friends looking for new adventures.

And the others...with their hearts in their throats...were swept into the material plane...

And spat back out on a familiar city street, with long gone faces at their sides again.

Anadraste the paladin was again looking for a tavern and a drink. Shortround the little urchin boy was once more attempting to steal Mitchell the bard's coin purse.

Dumbfounded, Han'shi, Arinda, and Sutha raced ahead and saw Hadley's Hope Tavern...exactly as they had first seen it oh so long ago. Bethany the half-orc had his usual place as bouncer in the front, and when Sutha threw herself at him in joy and insisted they get a room, the party even saw Sweep the elf come to take his place. Bonnie was again a barmaid weaving expertly between the crowded tables, eager for some help.

They were back on the material plane, yes...but at the beginning of their adventure.

And Escobert was again there, behind the bar...just as he had been the first time he and Han'shi had met.

And as their eyes locked, a curious gaze meeting his shocked one, everything began anew.

Struck by memories and longing and with an ache in his chest that had more to do now with joy than the grief that had clouded it for so long, Han'shi stepped forward at last as the dwarf's eyes took in his engraved armor...and the ring on his finger.

"You don't know me...at least, not in this life," the firbolg had whispered softly. "But we knew each other in another...I'd love to get to know you again in this one, if that's alright?"

The dwarf had laughed and stated that it must be a hell of a story.

Han'shi had agreed, saying that he could tell him about it now, if he wished.

And with that grin that had so long ago stolen Han'shi's heart...Escobert looked up at him with a familiar twinkle in his eye and replied, "I don't think I need you to."

And finally, after what seemed like forever, everything was right in the world.

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Faceclaim: Tony Thornburg

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