Baka

## Pre-Campaign

### Born Yesterday

The first thing Baka remembers about when he “got smart” is the awareness of it all. He saw the same things as he did earlier in life, the same sand, the same water and the same brothers and sisters he hatched with. Only now he understood more of what he saw. He had thoughts now, more complex than before. A voice in his head put words to those thoughts, and his feelings were now somehow sharper.

He lay helpless in the sand, as his body grew noticeably and painfully, minute by minute. He saw reef sharks circling in the water off the shoreline, waiting as his fellow hatchlings dumbly crawled into their hungry maws. The voice in his head cried out in alarm, desperately wishing he could make his siblings realize their fate if they didn’t alter their course, but it was hopeless. Baka wept, filled with pain and anger, until he was conscious no more.

### Wanderer

When he woke, the sun was gone. The world around him was cold and wet. He was much larger now, and there was an odd symbol on his underbelly: an eight pointed star glowing like a solar eclipse is behind it. He gazed over the surf, no longer any signs of the hatchlings or the reef sharks. With a pang of guilt, he wondered how many, if any, of his brothers and sisters had made it to the deep ocean. And then he walked on.

Baka walked, not knowing where, wishing only to get away from the ocean that had consumed his family. He walked until the sun began to rise, and as it did, sunlight poured over a small cluster of buildings in the distance, open at the top with strong, proud walls of pale reds and yellows, ringed by neat rows of crops. It was the most beautiful sight Baka had ever seen.

### Cloistered

Baka spent many months within those walls of the Abbey there called the Temple of Vitality. The temple belonged to the clergy of Aubade. The Abbot of the monastery, Brother Walerin, took Baka in on that morning, and began teaching him about the world of which he was now part. He taught Baka of the Sun, and how it gave life to everything it touched. He taught Baka of the beauty in working the fields, and the joys brought by a harvest. He taught Baka of everything Aubade loves and warned him to be weary of those things their god despised. Baka learned and loved, and eventually said the words to join the brotherhood of the abbey, feeling once again at home in this new, frightful world.

One day, Brother Walerin told Baka, “You love Aubade and have shown your devotion here at the monastery, but what do you truly know of the things Aubade loves? Have you been to the places most desperately in need of the light of our Lord? Until you see how dismal life is in the places who reject the love of Aubade, you cannot understand what it means to truly be devoted to him. Baka, you must go and travel the world, experience the life Aubade makes possible for all, and bring his Light to those places that need it most. Once you do this, return to the monastery and we will speak together of your travels, as Brothers in His Light.”

### On The Road Again

So Baka left the next morning, in search of those things that Aubade loves. He quickly discovered most people in the world were not as kind as the brothers of the abbey, and many eyed him nervously and moved away when he drew near. In one town, he met a man who recognized the symbol on Baca’s underbelly. The stranger, stinking of beer, told Baca that he once met a Moon Elf woman who wore that symbol, and when he asked her what it meant, she barked a laugh and told him he could no more understand the **“Tower”** than the meanest crab could understand the tide. Baka had absolutely no idea what this meant, but the talk of a tower being connected to his symbol intrigued him.

Not too long after that, Baka met a strange masked man who eagerly told him of a job he was planning…