Haru Matsuura

Haru Matsuura is a player character in Weebs and Wanderers. She is played by Ian.

## Description

Haru Matsuura is a traveling entertainer who wishes to become an idol. To this end, she pursued a career as a bard, specialising in the College of Creation so that she can create different sets of costumes for her performances.

## Appearance

Haru is a girl in her late teens, wearing plain mage robes. She is never seen without her guitar around her back, since she primarily uses it to perform. Her appearance would be described by most as that of a background character's. Her eyes are usually covered by her long, messy bangs; her hair is thick, messy and poorly kept; she is of a short stature for a human, standing at just 1.5m tall.

## Personality

Haru is a very soft-spoken person, shy and reticent around pretty much everyone. She has very little self-confidence despite having a very strong ethical code, making it very hard for her to do anything other than watch others. To the people closest to her, however, she is a straightforward, serious girl who works hard for the sake of the people she cares about.

As she has adventured with the group, she has become more emotive and open with others, occasionally even making jokes and expressing shock at others' actions.

## Background

Haru seems to be from a time period of around 2,000 years ago.

## History

### Prologue

Haru is performing in the Demon kingdom when a hooded figure walks up to her. He tells her "we know who you are," before she is engulfed in light.

Haru wakes up in a jail cell along with the other members of the party. She quickly comes to trust the cat, despite the warnings that the cat may be more as it seems. After the rest of the party come to, she introduces herself as Haru, shrinking as the gaze of the group comes upon her.

Thinking picks the lock of the cell, and the group walk out into a strange world surrounded by void. Following the river, the party finds a lake in which Haru sees her old friend Katy. She immediately rushes to save her friend, but it is in fact a trap. The corpses in the river attack the party; when Haru snaps out of it, she runs away from the lake in fear, casting spells on instinct.

The party defeats the corpses and they coalesce into a tall mound, topped by a strange woman who simply stares at the group. The group goes around the lake and towards the forest, where they discover Haru's home village, Takikawa, in a state of destruction with bodies everywhere. Although it is not quite her hometown as the buildings are all in the wrong places. She finds her own home, only to discover that her parents, Kurihara and Tanji, are dead: her father, Kurihara, is sliced in half and her mother, Tanji, has been reduced to basically a mush. Haru is frozen in indecision, unable to decide how to feel about the whole situation, and unable to help, timidly agrees to Simo's suggestion that the rest of the party help to bury her parents. She spends a short rest crying. After calming down, she hesitantly bows to the graves and continues on her journey.

The party then enters a large building with the number 16 written on it in celestial. After exploring it for a little bit, the group fights a strange knight wrapped in a loose straitjacket that transforms into a strange creature that can move as any chess piece it wants. Haru is severely injured, but in her unstable mental state is unable to contribute much to the fight. Afterward, she recieves the True King as one of the spoils of the fight.

Defeating the knight and walking through a door, Haru sees a vision of the future: the party, at level 20, looking over a tower that has been blown up, having failed their mission.

Haru is then teleported into a strange location in the mountains along with the rest of the group. They collectively decide to walk towards the closest settlement, and begin a search for answers as to what exactly happened to them.

### Act 1

The party walks towards a small town, as Simo deduces that this place must be part of the Human Empire. Right before going into town, Haru decides to use Disguise Self to give herself blonde hair. As the city guards begin to question the party and it becomes clear that they suspect them to be chosen by Dalarius, the humans' major god, Haru grows nervous as she realizes that her disguise will soon fade and expose her identity. The party decides to sleep in the town for the night to stall for time, and figure out a way to deal with the guards the next morning as they are transported to the capital.

The party is told that they have just walked out of what is commonly known as a God's Wrath event, which usually severely damages the region around the epicenter of the event. If the party was unharmed, the humans have reason to believe that they were chosen by the god Dalarius himself.

After some deliberation, Simo gives Haru his helmet, and the party continues on to the Human capital, Imperitus, without much fanfare. On arrival at the palace, the party is told that they will be prepared for an audience with the King in a few days. Before that, however, they must be washed, dressed, and fed; this risks exposing Haru's identity. As the others are whisked off to their own rooms, Haru is stuck, petrified of the consequences should she be caught.

It is at this point that Oro shows up, trying to resolve this predicament. Oro reveals Haru's identity as a potential criminal, and tries to negotiate with one of the maids to give Haru clemency, at least until the group meets the King, at which point judgement will be delivered. At the point of this revelation, both Haru and Oro are whisked away to an interrogation room, where Haru is forced to take off her helmet. She manages to use Disguise Self in time, but the questioning of the interrogation officer finally results in her letting down her disguise and admitting that she deserted the military. Ultimately, Haru is granted immunity until the audience with the King, at which point she will be judged for her actions.

After this episode, Haru is whisked away to be properly dressed (despite the fact that the royal hairdressers cannot find a way to deal with her bangs), after which she is presented to the king along with others. Haru tells the king that she is a deserter, who did so due to her own weakness after seeing her entire army die. When words fail her, Oro gives her the correct words through telepathy to convince the king that she will try her best to right the wrongs she has committed. She is granted clemency by the king, and the group is officially declared *chosen*, and invited to a ball that will take place in five days.

The group is allowed to roam the capital. During this time, she visits the library with a group of party members, where they learn that many of these God's Wrath events have taken place in ruins which had unconventional layouts, indicating that possibly they are retribution from the gods at their unconventionality.

Thinking is told by the maid Lydia that the princess, Elaina Imperitas, will experience danger at the upcoming ball, and is requested to help her escape. He reveals this information to the party, and Haru, along with the rest of them, agree to help. They draft a plan to use code words to indicate the type of threat that the princess will be facing, map out an escape route, and consider using either Haru or Leo as a decoy. Ultimately, Thinking negotiates with his contact to have the party drop into a hole that will be opened up in the toilets.

Before the ball, the party is invited to a meeting with the princess, where she asks the party to refer to her as Doctor Geal instead of "Your majesty". She is a Thaumatologist (the study of miracles), and seems relatively upbeat despite the imminent threats to her life at this point in time. Haru learns that idol music, or "idol trash", is actually actually an ancient art form 2,000 years old. During this period of time, the demons were racist against the humans and invaded; there are some records of idol music being used to decimate armies.

During the ball, Haru is put into an emerald green dress. She is free to roam but decides to mostly follow Simo as he engages with an elven woman who seems like a contact. As Simo requests for some privacy, the princess enters the room, making her way towards the party. As the party turns around, the princess suddenly takes the place of the elven lady as a chandelier drops on Haru, Oro and Reina, who were walking towards her.

Haru manages to nimbly avoid getting hit by anything as a person wearing a strange suit of armor and a large helmet walks into the room, accompanied by a dog that emits a gas. Elaina tells the party she will be waiting for them outside and turns invisible; Haru immediately runs behind Simo and is healed by the princess, who has simply turned invisible. Haru tries to use vicious mockery but fails dramatically. Although she manages to successfully blind the man using her spells, he scans the room with his tech and manages to fire at Thinking. The party successfully repels the attack, but not before the man's dog

## Relationships

Not on the best terms with her parents.

**Katy:** A friend from her past she was on good terms with. During their reunion, despite both characters being happy to see each other, Katy is tight-lipped about her current activities to Haru and warns her that she should probably not be journeying with this party.

### Player Characters

Haru trusts all the members of the party, but her opinions of them vary.

**Simo:** Haru sees Simo as the *de facto* leader of the group, and treats him as such. Their mutual appreciation of books, even if they are of different areas of interest, makes her see him as a kindred spirit. That being said, his unwillingness to share information prevents her from fully trusting him, even as she sees him as a friend.

**Oro:** The member of the party who has done the most to try and help Haru. Oro helped calm Haru down after discovering her village, and has tried in many ways to help Haru out - to varying degrees of success. Haru trusts Oro, but is very concerned with how much Oro likes to reveal information unnecessarily to others; despite this, Oro is the one Haru will usually turn to for help if she finds herself in emotional turmoil.

**Leo:** Haru still sees Leo as a cute cat, and treats him as such, despite all the signs that Leo is almost definitely not normal.

**Reina:** Haru sees Reina as a friend, if a bit overzealous about her research at times. Her love for research is a factor in Haru's trust in her.

**Thinking:** Haru doesn't know what to think of this guy.

### NPCs

**King Imperitas:** King Imperitas clearly looks down on most people below his rank, but with Haru especially, since she is a defector. Haru, despite having a timid attitude towards him, dislikes him a lot. The one interaction she had with him was driven primarily by fear, however, and as such this emotion still currently overrides all others during these interactions.

## Notable Items and Abilities

### Items

**True King**

* This chess piece has one charge per day, during which it can move as a rook, bishop or knight. Used as a bonus action.
	+ Rook: The user moves vertically along the world grid until they come into contact with a solid object.
	+ Bishop: The user moves diagonally along the world grid until they come into contact with a solid object.
	+ Knight: The user moves like a knight on the world grid, avoiding opportunity attacks and ignoring obstructions along the way.

**Musical Instruments**

* Haru carries a Guitar and Lyre with her, but is also proficient with a piano.

### Abilities

**Song of Creation**

* As an action, once per long rest (or for a 2nd level spell slot or higher), Haru is able to channel the magic of the Song of Creation to create one nonmagical item of her choice, within 100 GP value, for 3 hours. She usually uses this ability to create various costumes for her idol performances.

**Alert**

* Haru cannot be surprised while conscious, and is not disadvantaged against attacks by creatures in hiding.

**Spellcasting**

* As a Bard, Haru is capable of spellcasting. As of level 5, her spells are:
	+ Cantrips: Blade Ward, Minor Illusion, Vicious Mockery
	+ 1st Level: Detect Magic, Disguise Self, Dissonant Whispers, Healing Word
	+ 2nd Level: Blindness/Deafness, Calm Emotions, Pyrotechnics
	+ 3rd Level: Hypnotic Pattern

## Trivia

* Haru is very bad at using Vicious Mockery. Her (albeit muted) straightforward, positive attitude make it hard for her to think of insults towards other people, meaning that she often resorts to mere name-calling.