Reffins Sinep

Reffins Sinep

## Summary & Background

Played by Logan, Reffins Sinep is a Wood Elf College of Lore Bard.

Link to Reffins's D&D Beyond Character Sheet

Reffins was born a wood elf in the elven kingdom of (wood elf homeland). Typical wood elf childhood tradition dictate he learn to hunt, forage, and train in magic arts, and though he excelled at this all, he preferred music still. He eventually crafted a way to infuse his music with his magic, causing profound effects through his art.

Eventually outgrowing his homeland, he decided he wanted to see what was out in the world for him. Taking his talents town to town until he settled in (name of big kingdom), the human kingdom in the south of Tauriel. Fitting in right away, he learnt the harshness of the urban city life of humans, having to make his living sharing his music with the taverns during the night and with the locals in town squares during the day.

Around the same time, the crown prince of (human kingdom) Krum, being sheltered his whole life, wanted to go out and see the city, and be one with his people. He wanted to feel normal for once, having only spent time in the palace.

One day, finally having enough, Krum has his best friend and royal bodyguard Taric, cover for him as Krum escapes the palace and disguises himself. Being free for the first time, he goes makes his way around the city, taking in the joy of anonymity and being unnoticed. He finds himself making his way to the tavern, being drawn in by wondrous, enchanting music.

Krum becomes enamored with Reffins, and after he’s done with his set, pulls him aside and requests him to be the royal musician on behalf of the crown. Reffins, not being from the kingdom, isn’t familiar with who Krum is, and thinks it’s a request from a servant of the royal court.

Reffins begins to play for the court instead of his lowly gigs at the local taverns and learns that Krum is in-fact the crown prince. Eventually their interest in each other turn to fascination as they fall in love, though it is forbidden, especially being the crown prince, as he would have to wed to a princess as royalty dictates.

One day they decide to leave, but their plans overheard by Glen’s younger brother Rekcil. Rekcil secretly loathed Glen, as he grew up in his shadow his entire life. On the night the two were going to leave, they’re confronted by Rekcil and the 10 of the kings guard. Rekcil wants the crown for himself, exclaiming that him leaving will cause a international search that could be prolonged indefinitely, and he would still be 2nd in line to the crown.

He goes to have Reffins arrested and tried to be hung, but Taric intervenes and holds off the king’s guard while the two go to escape. Leaving a couple of guards to slip by and Rekcil. They almost make it out but Reffins takes some arrows on the way, handicapping his movement. Rekcil takes a crossbow himself, and goes for the kill but the prince pushes Reffins out of the way, mortally wounding him.

His plan deviating, as he intended only to implicate the prince brother in a crime, he now had all the guards blame Reffins for the death of the crown prince. Reffins escapes, now in exile and being hunted by his former home. Finding refuge in a small local town that recognized him, they nursed him back to health and he made his journey in exile, on the move constantly as he's being hunted. He makes his way through town to town, he made way eventually into the company of Brig and Equuleus, who took him in as one of their own.

## Cantrips

1. Mage Hand
2. Vicious Mockery

## Known Spells List

1. Animal Friendhsip
2. Charm Person
3. Disguise Self
4. Healing Word
5. Cure Wounds
6. Shatter

## Story Summary

Tagging along with their adventuring ways, they eventually made their way north through the lands of Tauriel and into the mountain town of Vorgshire, where they uncovered a devious plot from the mayor and a new invading Troll. Convincing the goblins to help them, together they slew the Troll. Using his wit and charm, he and his companions helped foster a symbiotic relationship between the local goblins and the citizens of Vorgshire. Shortly after their well earned rest, they receive an invitation to meet with Prince Strahd in the land of Barovia to help him gain prominence. During the night they all have a dream and wake to a blank card within their grasp.

Wanting to continue their journeys, they agree and follow the road north into the land, quickly becoming lost. Meeting the hunter Davish, he escorts them to the Vistani Settlement nearby and they quickly get a small lay of the land from Stanimir, who's the patriarch of this caravan. He also tells them a quick backstory of Strahd, and hints that they should visit Madam Eva.

Heeding his advice, they are ushered in by her and have their fortune read, with the cards they received the previous night revealing themselves. Reffins receives The Beast Card. Afterwards, preparing to return to the bonfire, Reffins decides to flirt with Radka, Stanimir's very handsome son, but gets utterly rejected. Sleeping it off, the crew leaves the encampment in the morning and stumble upon Davish once again, who escorts them out of the woods. They come across a few abandoned buildings, one of which is a barn that Brig destroys, nearly collapsing it on the trio. Shortly after, they run into a pair of children outside a building, exclaiming that their parents are within the house with a monster.

Entering, they search the house and Reffins comes across a little white dog, whom he feeds and decides to take care of. He also reads a book perfectly detailing the events of his life leading up to this moment, as a creature of darkness creeps up upon him in the book, leading to a splash of blood on the last page, turning he sees nothing. With the help of Laila, he also finds a hidden compartment in the library that uncovers many titles, deeds, and spell scrolls. As the trio ascend, the end up in a fight with an animated armor, to which they dispatch. Reffins lands the final blow with a mighty drop kick off the third floor banister railing.

Progressing further, they find clues to the true history of the house through the form of journals of Gustav and Elizabeth Durst in the master bed, and the suicide note clutched in the body of the master of the house, Gustav Durst. They eventually come to find the bones of the children and the Nursemaid Anya. Reffins manages to convince the children to let them take their bones to be laid to rest and they enter into both Brig and Equuleus so that they may tag along. Reffins finds their crypts down in the basement and with much effort finally lay the children to rest.

Continuing to explore, they come across a Grick, to which Brig provokes it and they deal with it swiftly, as Reffins manages to pin it against a wall with a swift arrow. Returning to explore and loot, Reffins manages to lockpick a few chests and loot the footlockers. Going into a trance, he meditates on the recent events that took place and uses these experiences and absorbs it as it own power, gaining proficiency in many of his skills.

Going back to the dining hall, the group encounter a couple of ghouls, to which they dispatch with relative ease. As they do that, they hear shambling as a handful of zombies approach, which they also deal with but not before they take down Reffins and injure him in the process. Brig stabilizes Reffins with his own healing potion and he comes back to.

They move south to the dining chambers and fight a Grick, to which Equuleus feels sorry for thinking that they slayed a creature just defending it's nest. She prays for it and then follows the group to a chamber with beds and rests. During her rest she dreams of being back in Ado Vandor, training with her master. When she awakens, she remembers how to use her Ki, unlocking it by remembering the lessons Grandmaster Kane taught her. When everyone awakens, they continue southward and encounter a couple ghouls and a handful of zombies, to which they dispatch but not before Reffins is injured. Brig takes a potion of healing off his body and stabilizes him Reffins.

Moving forward, the group head downstairs while Laila refused to head down, whimpering at the top of the staircase. Reffins, not wanting to leave Laila, returns and continues to explore that floor of the basement. Reffins finds a standalone room that he discerns to be of some import, and enters an adjacent room that has a big statue with a crystal orb that he really wants. Equuleus and Brig alone go down to check the nearby area. Noticing Reffins is upstairs, they leave and go to rejoin him. Reffins instructs Equuleus to grab it for him. As Equuleus goes to fetch the orb, the other two get ready for some sort of attack, while they all notice when she does touch the smokey gray orb, a shadow coalesces along the ground from a skeleton in the corner and forms into a tall form. Three Shadow figures appear and are dealt with, as they continue to search the floor together, they return to that original room that they thought was important. As they go to search the room, the wall crumbles slightly as a ghastly figure emerges.

They go in and investigate the voice, finding a Whispering Cloak that Reffins takes and discovering a second piece to the smokey grey orb, to which Brig reveals is a Driftglobe, an item originating from his homeworld. Reffins sets the command words to the orb, Light: Float - Daylight: Uhhhhh. They continue down into the basement and enter a sacrificial chamber with a stone dais and altar in the middle of the murky room. Here in this room the chanting has stopped until Equuleus steps on stone dais, to which they start chanting "One Must Die!", as thirteen apparitions appear around the room. Reffins goes to take a femur off the pile of corpses and begins to walk away. As they investigate further, Equuleus steps off and the chanting once again changes, prompting a mound of flesh and refuse to take form in the southern corner of the room. Resisting the femur's pull to the pile of flesh, he realizes he will get dragged in to it and lets go.

Reffins takes this time to set Laila up top of the slide behind the portcullis and engages the animated corpse pile with his companions, not making much damage with his arrows.

Making their stand on top of the stone dais, the group engage the shambling monstrosity, as it clumsily makes its way forward towards them. It swallows Brig within, and goes to swallow up Reffins but is tugged out of the way by his cloak.

Equuleus critically fails and stumbles inwards as well, but manages to spot a baby corpse at the core, to which she relays the information to Brig. Brig spots it as well with Equuleus's help and blasts a path open towards it for Equuleus to make her move. She moves forward and grabs the baby and initially goes to attack the baby, but she remembers from her time back at Ado Vandor, having to deal with infant orphans at the monastery, she realizes that the baby is just scared. She begins to instead rock the baby and sing a lullaby to it, which causes the fleshmound to dissolve and dissipate around them, as the baby slowly takes a few last shallow breaths in relief and dies.

From the outside, Reffins sees a giant explosion of green light come from within the flesh pile pushing against the corpses but is contained, then the bodies start to dissolve as Brig and Equuleus are seen with the bodies dissolving around them, with Equuleus holding a baby corpse.

With the baby turned to a pile of bones, they ascend again, making their way to the foot of the stairs towards the attic. Here they encounter Nursemaid Anya once again, having felt a disturbance emanate from the basement. Reffins nudges Equuleus to hand over the baby. Handing over the baby bones, baby Walter takes ethereal form and they fade away cooing and giggling together.

Reaching the top of the stairs, they are met with a very different house, as the windows all brick up, the doors are changed into scything blades, and the room is quickly filling with deadly poisonous smoke. Equuleus and Reffins blockade the doorframe to stop the blades and attempt to make it to the stairs as Brig opts to spend most of his time attempting to break the windows, to little success on the top floor, and begins to follow the other two down the stairs. Mistiming these second set of blades, she is badly injured and stumbles down to the third floor.

Reffins takes his time to make his way through this next doorway and successfully makes it through, only to have Equuleus stumble past him bloodily injured from mistiming it herself. The group then take their time in the nursery window attempting to break it open together, but Reffins cloak starts tugging him away from there, forcing him to go the traditional route. As he attempts to time this next doorway with Laila in hand, he mistimes it. Just as the blades were about to gravely injure both him and Laila, Nursemaid Anya appears with baby in hand and pushes them forth and out of the way.

Making it to the first floor relatively easily after this, Equuleus and Reffins are stuck at the front door as the smoke closes in on them. They can't quite get the timing and decide to go for it. Mistiming it quite badly, Equuleus is racked with slashing blades and collapses on the floor in front of the doorway. She is quickly brought back by Reffins who also takes a few slashes, to which Equuleus then absolutely destroys the front portcullis. They sit outside as they watch Brig descend from the third floor balcony. As they relax, they notice Davish is next to them looking at the house in astonishment as it catches fire.

After a brief moment to catch their breath, Davish urges the group to follow him through the woods away from the burning house, as it will attract monsters of the night. Finding a clearing a few minutes off trail, they rest as Davish stays up to watch.

Morning breaks and they get back onto the road as Davish departs again. The temperature slowly drops as they near the snowy town of Krezk. They aren't welcome here, as the guards seem to be wary of strangers. Brig uses his imp to play some childish pranks, and the guards throw down a crudely drawn map for the party to use. If they want entry, they would have to check on their scouts and shipments of wine from the Wizards of Wine Winery to the south.

Following the map, the group eventually make it to a clearing where Brig unsuccessfully hides and is engaged upon by Twig and Needle Blights. Easily dispatching them, they go to move on when a man emerges from the treeline and ushers them over. He introduces himself as Adrian Martikov, acting lead of the Martikov Family and owners of the Wizards of Wine Winery. More family members emerge from the treeline as he explains that his father Davian stayed behind so that the group could escape and were being pursued by these blights.

He shows them to an overlook and introduces the winery exterior to the group. The children and other members point out what they can spot are blights guarding the exterior. Brig then takes this time to use his imp familiar to explore the interior, before he dismisses it after being caught. They then decide to go forth when Dag Tomescu, a member of the Martikov group, suggests a plan for them to use a decoy to lure the perimeter guards away. He and Adrian go back and forth about volunteering themselves as decoy until Brig convinces Elvir Martikov, Adrian's younger brother, to be the decoy. Reffins and Brig start calling Elvir, Uki Guk.

With that, Elvir, Adrian, and our trio head towards the winery and set up an ambush spot in a clearing. Before Elvir heads off, he asks the party for any tips or help they can offer, to which Reffins offers his cloak once again. He notices that Elvir is unusually apprehensive, to the point that it becomes a concern. Pressing Elvir further about it, he seems to find that Elvir is holding back information but is saved when Adrian interjects.

Reffins then takes part of the slaying and hiding of blights as Elvir successfully lures back several small groups of blights to their ambush location.

## Key Events

* Partook in the slaying of T the Troll in the village of Vorgshire (During Session 0)
* Managed to create a symbiotic relationship between the goblins of Vorgshire and the citizens of Vorgshire (Session 0)
* Ventured into the Mists of Barovia (Session 1)
* Hit on and got utterly rejected by Radka
* Helped lay Rose and Thorn Durst to rest (Session 3)
* Returned Anya's bones to her (Session 3)
* Helped return baby Walter's bones to his mother Nursemaid Anya to bring them peace (Session 8)
* Escaped Durst Manor (Session 8)
* Chose College of Lore (Session 8.5)

## Notable Items

* The Beast Card
* The Abjurer Card
* The Charlatan Card
* The Conjurer Card
* The Horseman Card
* 1x Bless scroll
* 2x Purify food and drink scroll
* 2x Remove Curse
* Red Covered notebook detailing Reffins Life Story
* DriftGlobe
* Whispering Cloak

## Notable Feats

* Rolled a crit to drop kick an animated armor over a banister and down 3 floors

## Notable Quotes

* "So, lean here often?" - To Radka in an attempt to seduce him, while he was leaning against a wagon at the Vistani Encampment in Tser Pools (Session 1) Then "I don't know what I'm doing it's been a while." Then proceeds to laugh in his face hysterically.
* "What does Borgleton even mean? Chode of the Genassi?" - To Brig in Session 1
* "It's my porn book." - Referring to the red covered book he obtained in the Durst Manor
* "Guys my rock turned into a vibrator, so it's a handy lamp." Brig: "Does it eat ass?"

## Notable Kills

* 1x Animated Armor (Session 2)
* 1x Grick (Session 4)
* 1x Shadow (Session 5)
* 1x Ghoul (Session 6)
* 2x Twig Blight (Session 11)

## Trivia

* Spell Reffins Sinep Backwards