Roddy Sterling-Bell

Roddy is a male tortle bard played by Muse.

### Backstory

Years ago, back in the distant swamps, a Tortle child hatched. His father was Makah and his mother Ehawee. He had no name.

The first years of his life were spent with them. Makah would spend his days hunting for his family, and Ehawee would take care of their young son. It was a quiet life, but not a happy one. The little Tortle boy could never seem to get his father to speak to him, no matter how hard he tried. Ehawee encouraged him to be calm, surely Makah would come around eventually.

The little Tortle doubted it. Many nights, when he was supposed to be sleeping, he'd sneak out and listen in to his parent's conversations. 'You need to talk to him, Makah.' 'He needs to learn to survive, Makah.' 'We need to give him a name, Makah.' Each met with the same response. 'I'll do it later.'

'Later' never came. One day Ehawee went to sleep and never woke up. A funeral was held, silent and solemn, and then Makah turned to his son and spoke to him for the first time.

"I'm leaving now. Don't die."

"Okay."

The tortle child was alone. For a week, he scavenged as best he could, but it didn't take long for realization to set in. He wouldn't make it on his own.

And then he heard something. Music and laughter. Curious, the tortle child went to investigate. It was a group of people- all different kinds- and all different sizes. He had to know what was going on! He had to go say hi! And so he did.

The circus people were ecstatic to meet a young tortle- so much fuss, so much confusion. It was almost too much for the little tortle. But not quite. After the initial rush of feeding, questioning, and patting had all calmed down, he quietly asked if he could stay.

Why of course he could! This was a circus, and an unusual sight like a little tortle would be wonderful for buisness! And you don't have a name? Well we'll have to fix that. After much shouting and laughter, the little tortle was dubbed 'Rodger Hammerstein the Third'. And just as quickly, it was shortened to 'Roddy'.

Roddy was run through several different types of acts before settling on music. It thrilled him, even if it took him a while to reach 'passable'. And thus began several years of touring the countryside, scamming, picking pockets, and performing in front of crowds.

It was almost perfect. Except for one sour spot: Amren. Some might consider them 'brothers'. Roddy preferred to think of them as 'rivals'. Amren's parents were Roddy's caretakers, a dragonborn family. Amren was also a bard, and loved to rub in Roddy's face how much better he was. At music, in looks, in family affection...

But that didn't matter! Because dragonborn, even excessively short dragonborn, were not nearly as notable as tortles! The spotlight centered on Roddy more often than not, and he loved it.

And then one day in Calimport, it all came to a screeching halt. An important figure was found murdered. A few days later, a rumor started circulating that a tortle had fled the scene. It wasn't Roddy, he tried to tell everyone that, but even if it was true- the rumors wouldn't be good for the circus. Amren was very vocal about that. And convincing, the next thing Roddy knew he was asked to leave, before they had to turn him over to the authorities.

Stung, Roddy used a spell to disguise himself and bought a ticket to Skyport. Upon landing, he set to his old habits. lying, cheating, picking pockets, getting arrested. Now the latter, that caused some problems. Because as it turned out, sometimes the authorities in Skyport would sell prisoners into slavery. Prisoners such as Roddy.

Waiting was agony. Roddy did his best to escape- but never managed to. Just when he was about to give up, hope arrived. In the form of Guildmaster Joan Ripley.

The offer was simple: work for her guild, or be left to his fate. Naturally Roddy accepted her offer. So now he is an adventurer, gallivanting about, getting in trouble, that sort of thing. Only now it's legal! Ish.

### Vignettes (In Chronological Order)

* Roddy's Circus Diary: Amren
* How Do You Solve a Problem Like Lesaya?
* The Calimport Incident

* Roddy's Adventuring Journal The First
* Roddy's Fugitive Journal: (Untitled)
* Roddy's Fugitive Journal: Goggles, Families, and Spells Oh My
* Roddy's... Something Diary: Song and Danger Routine
* Letter to the Firnashes
* Roddy's Hero Journal: The Trouble With Goro
* Roddy's Hero Journal: Thoughts on Jonn
* Roddy's Hero Journal: Leaving Dad Behind
* First Letter to Dad

### Allies List (Alphabetical. Mostly.)

* Amari. Goro's main mom. Weirdly nice. Made her cry, Roddy should try to make up for that. Still, a good person.
* Goro. Psychotic Teammate #1. Weird. Roddy doesn't know what to think of him. He's a friend though. Will watch Roddy's back, and Roddy will watch his.
* Gwydion(?) He just showed up and then disappeared. Seemed okay though?? (Is he okay??)
* Hansel. He's dad, he's great! Proud of Roddy (for some reason??). Seems to be dating both Mishka and Goro? Doesn't play favorites as much as initially thought. Good for hugs and reassurance. Terrible at mandolin.
* Jonn. Everyone but Roddy seems mad at him. But he cares about Hansel too and he promised (pinky swear!) to not abandon Roddy. In trouble with Morgan Wyn (see Enemies). Everyone has agreed not to kill him at least and we're working to take down his guild.
* Larkin. Psychotic Teammate #2. Wants to murder Jonn, but has agreed not to. Kinda mean but in a fun way (mostly). Maybe should try to get along better.
* Luci. Roddy's sister. Pretty nice? Quiet mostly. Hard to read. Bookworm (but not for adventure novels).
* Mishka. Maaaaaybe also dad? (Haven't talked about it, probably shouldn't get too set on it.) Kinda weird, but he's nice, Roddy likes him.
* Ombre. Awesome person. Gives good loot, fun to hang out with. Needs more friends.
* Raef. Pretty useless, took off for a bit but he came back! Good for buying drinks.
* Ripley. Awesome fighter! Very patient. (Lets Roddy take advantage of that.) Better coworker than boss. Good friend. (Goro's mom but won't hold it against her.)
* Sugar. Dumb, but sweet. Don't trust her judgment on people. But is fun to hang out with, lets Roddy do her hair and her nails and paints his shell! Also good at killing things. Mom is a lich? And Sugar told her about us? But it should be okay. It'll be fine.
* Urdan. New dwarf. Not that nice but at least hasn't tried to decapitate Roddy.
* That one other teifling guy. The one that helped fight Diva. Good at his job, couldn't tell much else about him.
* Not-Hansel Half-Orc whatever his name is. Dunno him very well. Seems okay.

### Enemies Ranking

1. ***AMREN!!!!!!!!***
2. Morgan Wyn. Very scary. Jonn's boss (he doesn't like her). Is way too powerful and probably needs to die.
3. Freaking bandits. Poisoned me!! I nearly died!! But they're all dead or run off now at least.
4. Calimport in general. They want to feed me to a dragon or something over there!
5. Debt collectors from the Crooked Coin. I saved the city, the least they could do was cut me a little slack!
6. Diva. Creepy and almost *killed* me. But she's dead now, otherwise would be higher on the list.
7. *Mormiir* (sorta). Has yet to apologize for trying to *decapitate me*. Did help kill Diva otherwise he might be higher.In-Betweener)

### Testimonials

"How does he have this many feet to stick in his mouth?" --Lina, after Roddy insulted Sugar and Amari in short succession when talking to Goro.

"Roddy just has so many feet and such a big mouth, bless him."-- Izzy

"is Roddy the only person who can cast Silence? someone needs to cast Silence on Roddy." --Coyote

"This kid. He was *extremely* good at worming his way into your soft spots." -- Ripley (she's not wrong).

"Because nature is done with your shit." -- Urden

"Roddy was like Jonn, in that way -- already fucked up by the time Hansel'd gotten there -- just that Jonn had turned to all sharp edges and Roddy had turned to armor." -- Internal narration by Hansel in Cards TRP.

"Roddy is a bright and capable student. He does need frequent reminders to focus on his work instead of socializing. We value his love of music and his willingness to reach out to all students in friendship. Homework Assignments Completed: 1/10" -- Lina doing 'report cards' for the characters, this was Roddy's.

“Roddy has proficiency in killing moods and I love him”-- Izzy

"He has a survival instinct" -- Izzy joking around as Hansel in OOC. (Accurate though.)

"Roddy knows how to respect boundaries! Without having to be stabbed over it." --Me. (Unlike Gavi.)