Erdan Ilphelkiir

Fact File
Wood Elf, Druid of the Land (Forest), Outlander. [1]

Childhood Name: Eryn Ilphelkiir [2]

Adult Name: Erdan Ilphelkiir [2]

Age: 93 years (looks about 17)

Birthday: Autumn 1, 8795 P.F.

Alignment: CG / LN

Height: 5'9" (1.75 m)

Weight: 113 lbs (8 st 1 lb / 51 kg)

Languages: Common, Druidic, Dwarvish, Elvish, Mari's Code, Sylvan

Current Home: With the forest/coastal Druids / his farm in Yoikoko

Appearance
A slim 5'9" Wood Elf, in mud-stained clothes (which have been prestidigitated by Mari, but it's so deeply ingrained, it only gets slightly better). He has pale copper skin, emerald green eyes, and messy, long black hair that covers most of his ears and the base of his neck. There's a sprig of mistletoe (his druidic focus) hidden tucked in his hair behind his ear which is subconsciously kept healthy and fresh by his Druidcraft. His hair also hides a small pink birthmark on his neck in the shape of an acorn. Stray leaves and twigs constantly stick out of his hair, and even when removed, there always tends to be another there. It is likely that they are created by his Druidcraft without him being aware of it.

His face and neck appear mud-streaked, much as his clothes, although as no amount of washing will ever remove it, this is probably part of his natural colouring at this point. Around his neck, he wears a necklace with an amber acorn on it - his mother's holy symbol - and a piece of string with the key to the safebox from the Guild on it. These remain hidden under his clothing most of the time.

With a slim body type, he is of average height, although probably considered a little short by many Elvish standards. He wears studded leather armor, which is magical, and so likely repels the dirt that would normally be ingrained upon the rest of him, and while he once wore traveller's clothes, he has since discarded these in the Guild, favouring his armor. He also wears four rings on his fingers, going largely against what the Druids normally do. Three of these rings are magical, the other needs to be returned to the Druids in memory of a deceased druid that the party found.

Animal Forms
In animal forms, very little of his regular appearance remains except the little acorn birthmark can be seen somewhere on his body if inspected close enough, either as a pattern in his fur or beneath that on his skin. His eyes, where the form has an iris, also remain a bright emerald green.

Item Descriptions
His dagger has finely carved wooden handles made of oak, and is engraved with oak leaf etchings, normally kept in a leather sheath. It was made by the druids and bought from the blacksmith in Yoikoko. This dagger is well-balanced for throwing.

His wooden staff is also made from oak, and is decorated with carvings of vines up and down it, with the top carved into the shape of a pinecone. This staff belonged to his father, who used it as his arcane focus, but Erdan simply uses it as a staff.

Personality & Interests
"Oak trees represent strength and vitality. Meditating under an oak fills your body and mind with resolve and fortitude."

Personality Traits
Erdan is a very distractable person. He often zones out of conversations and gets lost in his own thoughts and contemplations - which also results in him trailing off mid-sentence sometimes. Often, he is thinking of his time spent in nature, and the lessons he has learned, and this is also the focus of his mental exercise while in a trance. By drawing upon these lessons, he is able to make connections to the now and hopefully find paths through difficult times.

He has also become a collector. When in the wild, he collecting things he needed to survive. Now, like many animals he has observed, he collects things that he both wants and needs, particularly useful or magical items. They tend to be squirrelled away in places that he can access them easily, and he rarely sells things, instead preferring to rely on payment and found money to purchase new things.

Because he cares for nature so strongly, he is a vegetarian. However, this is not the case for all druids, and because he is open to change, he is willing to accept meat-eating if it is absolutely necessary, and also if the meat has been farmed responsibly and compassionately. His favourite meal, however, is roasted butternut squash with minced mushroom and a side salad. He does not drink alcohol, preferring instead to have simply water.

Ideals
Erdan believes strongly in the way that nature is supposed to change - ie. following the seasons. To this extent, he believes that people must also be flexible in their beliefs and values to allow the greater good to be achieved. He's also very good at adapting to different situations, and does not often show reactions to events that others would react to. Despite his acceptance of situational change, however, he does not like things that he deems to be unnatural - such as the unusual weather patterns that have been going on lately.

He also feels that his gifts are meant to help the world, not only himself. This is in particular in relation to nature, and he often uses his powers to save animals from hunters traps or other wildlife-endangering activities. He also uses them to help those he feels a connection with. Despite it being difficult for him to form a connection, once he does he will try to protect them the best he can.

However, he is very strongly against all that is unnatural. This particularly includes aberrations and undead, but also constructs and some monstrosities - dependent on how they came to be and their intentions. He also strongly dislikes orcs due to personal history much more so than other races.

Bonds
His main priority is to protect the earth. Land or sea, makes no difference. He just wants it to be safe in every possible way. This even goes so far as believing that the natural world is more important than the constructs of civilisation. While he will not actively fight the expansion of civilisation, he is very aware of the harm that it could do to the environment. However, he has awful dreams of a coming disaster in the world, which he will do anything to prevent, and this is a bigger priority to him than anything else. This is the main reason he is travelling with the party - to stop the environmental shifts that have been occurring lately.

In addition, he has become increasingly curious of late about whether anyone else from his village survived the orc raid. As far as he knows, he is the last, but it is possible that someone else escaped.

Flaws
Erdan does not easily trust those of other races, or even those from other societies, easily. He finds it difficult to trust new people, and this can make it hard to build new relationships with him. In fact, he finds it far more comfortable to be around animals than people, and this is clear to anyone who witnesses him in the two situations. Because of the large amount of time he spent around nature, he also has a bad habit of growling or hissing at people who he doesn't like, particularly those who are being threatening to him or his friends.

He is also a very quiet person. He has a habit of forgetting to speak up because he is so used to being alone, he forgets that he needs to sometimes. This is something that he's working on, but, as he also likes to keep secrets to himself, it will be a hit and miss improvement. When he has a secret, he is good at keeping it. On the other hand, he's really not a good liar, so where possible, he tries to make the "lie" into a new reality.

Hobbies & Interests
Collecting

Cooking

Farming

Herbalism

Reading

Woodcarving

Abilities & Magic
For a full list of Erdan's current inventory, both on his person and at the guild, you can find it at here.

Proficiencies
Armor: Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields

Simple Melee Weapons: Clubs, Daggers, Javelins, Maces, Quarterstaffs, Sickles, Spears

Simple Ranged Weapons: Darts, Shortbows, Slings

Martial Melee Weapons: Longswords, Scimitars, Shortswords

Martial Ranged Weapons: Longbows

Animal Handling, Nature, Perception, Religion, Survival

Herbalism Kit

Elven Abilities
Darkvision (60ft)

Fey Ancestry - advantage against being charmed & immunity to sleep

Mask of the Wild - hide when lightly obscured by natural phenomena

Trance - meditate 4 hours instead of sleeping for 8

Druidic Abilities
 Cantrips 
 * Druidcraft
 * Mold Earth
 * Primal Savagery
 * Produce Flame
 * Shape Water

Land's Stride - move through non-magical difficult terrain and plants unhindered + advantage against magical plants

Natural Recovery - recover spell slots

Nature's Ward - immunity to poison, disease and being charmed or frightened by elementals or fey

 Spellcasting & Ritual Casting 

Erdan can access up to fifth-level Druid spells, and has one free use of each of his circle spells:  Wild Shape 
 * Barkskin
 * Call Lightning
 * Commune with Nature
 * Divination
 * Freedom of Movement
 * Plant Growth
 * Spider Climb
 * Tree Stride

Any beast seen up to CR1

Background Abilities
Wanderer

Feats
Perceptive

Resilient (Dex)

Clothes & Bags
Bag of Holding

Boots of Water Walking

Bottomless Quiver

Cloak of Protection [attuned]

Comms Earring

Guild Purse / Party Purse

Mariner's Armor

Necklace of Fireball [attuned]

Equipment
Emerald Gate Crystal (for the druid shrine)

Fire Shard

Giacomo's Wooden Whistle (summons snakes)

Ice Crystal

Iuon Stone of Fortitude

Lightning Crystal

Revival Tree Sprig

Scrying Eye

Stasis Needle

Surveyor's Crystal

Talisman of Protection from Evil and Good

Water Shard

Wind Crystal

Potions & Poisons [Single-use]
4x Beautification Potions

1x Potion of Diminution

1x Potion of Fire Breath

1x Potion of Fire Giant Strength

3x Potion of Healing

14x Poisons of various types

3x Poisonous Herbal Tea (3 poisons included)

2x Wizard Wine (Green)

Rings
Ring of Acid Resistance [attuned]

Ring of Tongues [not attuned]

Ring of Warmth [attuned]

Spell Scrolls [Single-use]
2x Scroll of Mending

Wands
Goblin Wand of Entanglement [not attuned]

Hermit's Wand [attuned]

Red Dragon Wand [attuned]

Wand of Web [not attuned]

Weapons
+1 Arrows

+1 Darts

+2 Arrows

Schtick the Staff [not attuned]

"Sisil" [not attuned]

Spear of the Grand Hunt

Early Childhood
Erdan was raised in the forests by his family - his father, a wild magic sorcerer, and his mother, a cleric of Rillifane Rallathil. He spent lots of time in his youth running around the forest, exploring and learning new things about nature and the animals that resided there.

When he was 16, an Orcish raid from the north came to the village in which he lived, and killed everyone except Erdan, who was told to hide by his mother at the base of the old oak tree, around which the village was built.

The Forest
After the raid, he wandered through the forests, surviving for a year with the knowledge he had gained in the forest as a child.

The Druids
Eventually he came across a druid circle in the forests closer to the coast of the continent, made up of Elvish men that had previously worked with his mother as they too followed Rillifane Rallathil, and he recognised one of them who had visited his village in the past. The druids agreed to take him in, and he remained as one of them for the next 70 years. While Erdan never really believed in the god they spoke of, he followed their customs nonetheless.

While with the druids, they kept him busy working as a forester while they taught him how to use simple magic in the form of Druidcraft, which he seemed to have a natural talent with, and how to and how to care for the forest and read Druidic messages they inscribed there. They also taught him how to speak and read Sylvan, the natural language of the fey, their ancestors, and how to use herbs to make a salve to treat burns. However, in his free time, he continued to roam through the forests, and visit the coast, exploring as much as possible, and learning to speak with the animals using his magic.

The druids also interacted frequently with nearby dwarves, trading their woodcarvings and herbs to them in exchange for other basic supplies. Over time, Erdan picked up Dwarvish from these transactions, learning quickly, but not perfectly. During these trade meetings, the dwarves told many tales and strange experiences, some no more than rumours, but had referenced an annual festival in the town of Yoikoko, which fascinated Erdan.

At some point, he both tried drugs for the first time, and tried alcohol, although he had a bad experience with alcohol (the druid group caused a minor earthquake which collapsed a few nearby houses and scared all the local birds, so they had to talk to each one individually to apologise), which is why he now does not drink much. He also once gave a speech to a tree to cheer it up because it was depressed.

The Dreams
One day when he was 87, still a teenager by Elvish standards, he began to have visions of an impending disaster elsewhere in the world – it wasn’t entirely clear where. The other druids told him that this was a sign from Rillifane Rallathil, who never normally became involved in affairs himself, and that he had to find where this event was supposed to happen and help to prevent it.

These visions showed him horrible images, including some involving quakes, some with fire, some with storms; a creeping darkness swallowing the forests; plants and animals being burned away in brilliant light...

When he left to travel to fix the problems from the visions, the druids gave him some of the money they had made from trading to sustain him and some basic supplies. In the first village he came to, he bought himself a quiver and some arrows to use with the bow the druids had given him, along with a herbalism kit of his own, and a set of woodcarving tools with which to practise the art that the druids had used as a way of making money, but that he had never been particularly good at.

Even though he is not technically an adult, his experiences of his parents dying and living with the druids have aged him mentally, and so he gave himself an adult name 10 years earlier than normal (age 90), which the other druids agreed with because he excelled in many areas that he was being trained in – with the exception of woodcarving.

The Adventure Begins
In the 6 years after leaving, he wandered the forest once more, slowly making his way in the general direction of Yoikoko (where he would see the festival he had been told of), stopping in small wood elf villages to tend to nature, and occasionally running into the odd forest gnome here and there, but generally hiding in the forest away from people regularly, training to become better at his skills, as he knew that the coming battles would not be easy.

Yoikoko
- First party contract was to rescue Dustin and Destin from possession

- Party made deal with Eryn

- Rat-man army under the house of Arvena, initially discovered with only Jissa and Adnilag

- Fought possessed hobgoblin

- Sahuagin incursion

- Got some land

Mastolf
- Explored and found a room with parchments covered in strange markings

- Became paranoid about the birds in Mastolf

- Met Neraht

- Shared a room with Fen - almost got him killed

- Shared room with Julian on the ship back to Yoikoko - bonded when they realised they'd both had similar visions

- Dream of a lake flash-freezing, creatures die instantly (feels less prophetic, more foreboding, kinda hazy)

Yoikoko, Part 2
- Vampire cave

Rivers
- Druid Shrine; received a heavy blue egg

- Met Hellan

- Pirate cave with parasite-ridden pirates and sharks

- Hag and succubus running an orphanage that we helped deal with.

- Made deal for a ship with Mari with the Silver Circle

- While on the road, Erdan was teaching the orphans about nature and animal handling, specifically animals (chicken, horse, bear, wolf and love bird in particular), while Mari taught them languages.

Koja
- Possessed by ghost

- Tracked down undead-construct thing

- Made deal to get diamonds cut

- Trolls conversation with Mari

- "Never have I ever" played with a twist with the party

- Met Shalahai

- Took the champions to the troll cave to have their duel with Scalibor. Sat on the floor to watch. Searched the cave after to look for the magical hat that he had seen on his previous trip, but could not find it.

- Party in Alyef's room to remove Jissa's possession.

Set off on the road again. The party stopped at the cave so they could see how the troll hunt was going. He saw the rogue troll in the canopy and chased after with Jissa, sending giant bats to track. The party followed and eventually found the three trolls. A battle ensued after Hellan tried to heal one of them, releasing it from control of its object, and the other trolls wished to keep it. Erdan now has the knives, and has impressed them so far, but requires more work to make them his. A brief conversation with them has presented a deal: he uses them to fight and he can call them his.

The Journey Straight North
Continuing on the journey, the path was blocked by a magical wall of fire that stopped at a certain limit. By following another path, the group managed to find a way around it for the night, but then doubled back. They came across a burnt out homested, where Erdan buried the burnt horse and dog that had lived there. He then engraved his name above the door in Druidic runes while Julian's back was turned, claiming this place as his own.

Later, the party arrived at a vineyard that had also been burnt by the fire. There, Erdan first went to the stables to bury the horses and cows that had perished there, finding the corpses of people in there too, along with evidence that they had been killed before the fire (decapitation). Mari came and asked for help getting into the wine cellar, and Erdan obliged by becoming an ape to help move the rubble on top of the door, and then going into the cellar first. There he found a halfling druid by the name of Ogbin, who had been trapped there during the raid. He gifted the party some wine, which Erdan is carrying, and is now travelling with the group north. Erdan gave him one of the seeds from Arvina's tomb as a gift because of the loss of his seed collection. In exchange, Ogbin gave Erdan a fine tobacco seed.

Once all had been seen to that could be, the party continued north, with Erdan talking to the new druid on the way, learning what the seeds he has found are. Eventually, they arrived at a village also stricken by the fire. Erdan ignored the people of the village coming to beg or shout complaints, and instead ran off to help put out fires. Once that was taken care of, he went to start looking for surviving herbs and/or wood in the forest near to the village. The party spent the night in this village, and after dealing with a passing cyclone by striking it with lightning (resulting in being blasted off the roof by some kind of wind), got some rest.

Setting off on the journey once more (Spring 27), the party were stopped by bandits threatening to destroy the road and halt our journey. They demanded payment. The party gave 2000 gold pieces to the bandits and were allowed to pass. They then went back to get their money back, fully intending to kill the bandits. However, instead, they made a deal with the bandit leader. Unfortunately, the knives had been promised blood, and so Erdan flew off after the deal had been made, and tracked down another of the bandit. This bandit was given a fighting chance, offered the opportunity to live if he could knock the knives away. An easy battle ensued and the bandit fell, pleasing the knives enough that they offered Erdan the chance to name them.

Rejoining the group, Erdan hid from the others inside the carriage, being his usual unsociable self, although he did go to Ogbin to see if he knew anything about the egg. Ogbin agreed to travel back south to Rivers with the party, after Ominira.

Ilu'Oju & the Sapphire Eye
Arriving at Ilu'Oju, there was another problem - it had been attacked by Sahuagin and Orcs in unison, putting them on high alert. Erdan hid as a lizard as Ishmere approached, but turned back when the others were led in for questioning. While the others were being interrogated, Erdan tried to help Shalahai with reading. After the interrogation, the group went to the bath house. Erdan had a short bath going to the men's area, listening to the conversation of the others and talking to his egg (no doubt getting strange looks from the two mercenaries in there), and went to bed, where he said a 'prayer' to his parents.

While sleeping, he had another vision of the lake freezing over, but this time went into the lake. He saw sahuagin (different to those seen in Yoikoko) performing a ritual with a crystal and an alter, which resulted in the lake freezing over from the centre out, killing all those in the lake.

The next day, the party met with Ishmere who told the group that they had to meet up again after 24 hours. They went to a potion shop where the keeper had a very weird voice, although Erdan bought a variety of things anyway.

Heading into the lake, Erdan informed the group that they can already breathe underwater, having cast the ritual before leaving the inn - Belka and Xerxes too. The party hired fishermen to take them out onto the lake, with Scalibor guiding the group. Diving below the surface, they sank to the bottom, and then made their way towards where Scalibor said the missing piece was. They came across a building with a sahuagin and two orcs inside, which appears to be where the sword piece is. After a brief fight, in which Erdan froze at the idea of killing another unarmed person (even an orc), the party entered the building.

- Searched underwater for the sword piece.

- Ended up agreeing to help the sahuagin by retrieving their eggs from the hatching site which has been taken over the orcs (hence the sahuagin working with the orcs).

- Erdan infiltrated in the form of a crab while Shal was undercover. Saw Shalahai having sex with a big orc. Almost caught by bats summoned by shameness. Became a crab god of lightning, burning watch towers at the lake side and killing at least 7 orcs. Stepped on by orc, turning him back to normal. Distracted with eagles to allow him to fly away. This caused a good distraction around Shal's distraction to help Mari and Julian rescue people and eggs.

- Back to town where Erdan cleared out the docks a little to help nature there. Found a statuette of an angel, sold by Jissa.

- Party continues journey northwards across the Sapphire Eye on a ship. Erdan asks his "god" if there is part of the lake that should be avoided and receives a vision of the centre of the lake.

- Boat journey is fine. Erdan asks the Great Serpent if Shalahai is on the right path. Both feel the response of a pull to the north east.

- Boat attacked by sea sahuagin (not lake sahuagin), trying to head north. Maybe to steal Alyef? Fight goes on with Erdan summoning two fey - a dryad who was relatively ineffectual, and a quickling who was amazing - to help out.

- Erdan knocked out by a sahuagin after he used his new lightning crystal (way cool, so sad he only got one use of the lightning). Revived by Julian.

- Having flown to the crow's nest to recover, then dived into the water as a Giant Octopus to help identify the issue with the rudder, Erdan gave some sailors waterbreathing to help them with their repairs.

- Mostly just recovering, including asking via Divination what the sahuagin would do next, and receiving the response that their plans were not finished.

- Night time chat with an owl, who was sent by Father Owl to watch over the party and to pass on a message that dwarves in the crags had been killed. Erdan used this opportunity to arrange a meeting with Father Owl on the northern shore via owl messenger.

- Midnight spying adventure with Mari. Mari lied about what was found by Belka, although he couldn't 100% tell, so Erdan spied on a private conversation with summoned spider minions (6 randomly into ship - 3 died, one found a secret shiny room with no door at the bottom of the ship - and 2 after Mari, that heard her whole conversation with Argos about their past relationship, the dark stones [and him giving her one], the silencing mechanism, Jirra's twin and the existence of the coded letter, but sadly had to leave at that point).

- Over breakfast informed the party and Alyef about Father Owl, and his message and possible meeting. Alyef was racist about it being a "wood elf thing", so he gave her a look of pure hatred.

Gebudo & Ominira
- Arrived in port. Captain of guard there was surprised that they had come by sea, especially in Argos' ship. Guard informed Ishmere (and spied by Belka) that Farren had gone MIA in No Man's Land.

- Travel alongside carriage. No issues until we got to a battlefield with lots of freshly dead bodies (orc and elf). Guard Captain there too Ishmere aside and was an asshole.

- Finally delivered Alyef to the palace. The party went in with them and heard what would happen to the orphans (who will be rehoused around the city, primarily by nobility, and educated by Feyla), and received their payment of 10,000gp.

- Went to the library to talk with Alyef as a group, and for Mari to do her a final favour. Erdan noticed a thread of cobweb, and turned into a hawk to snatch it from the air, causing the others to think he is OCD, which maybe he is - not like he comes to cities often. He also caught the spider by using animal friendship and put it into an empty potion vial. He believes that the spiders are spies, considering the palace has managed to get rid of all other pests. This particular spider is now friendly for the next 24 hours.

- Mari sent a potion to Farren to confirm he was alive, plus a message to Father Owl to inform him that we are now in Ominira and to meet us there, and a message to her brother.

Family
Alanon Ilphelkiir (father, deceased)

Amberlee Ilphelkiir (mother, deceased)

The Current Party
Julian

Although Erdan and Julian have a somewhat rocky relationship, they have found common ground over time. Erdan still finds him to be too stuck in his ways, but since he bought the bird to free together, he has developed a little more respect for him. He does, however, wish that Julian would stop being overbearingly protective of everybody so much.

Mari

Erdan has developed a lot of respect for Mari because of her flexibility in various situations, but more importantly, her familiar in animal form. Like Julian, he feels a little protective of her, but also knows very well that she is capable of looking after herself.

Shalahai

Shalahai is an interesting creature. He's not sure what she is, but he's wary and fascinated. He is, however, disgusted by how she eats. Erdan has also made a note to keep her away from Sasha the chicken. Over the course of a couple of weeks though, he developed a fondness for the naga, having saved each other multiple times and shared some dark experiences.

Tielran

...

Ex-Party Members
Adnilag

Erdan initially just found Adnilag to be a strange woman who talked to herself, but came to develop a strong dislike for her, first because she prevented him from tending to the tree outside of Potin's tower after it was set on fire, but that was forgivable. However, she later successfully charmed him into stopping an attack, and this frustrated him to the point where he would no longer speak to her. However, he has to begrudgingly admit that they did have some good adventures together in between those events.

Drake

...

Fen

Fen was an adorable kid that Erdan became fond of, although he didn't like to show it. He was very concerned for Fen's wellbeing.

Freedom

Erdan struggled to develop trust for Free after he was charmed by the oni and stabbed him with poisoned blades. However, in the short time they travelled together, he developed some respect for his ideals of ending slavery.

Hellan

Erdan and Hellan didn't have much communication time. Despite the fact that Hellan is many years his elder, he believes that Hellan needs to learn to become more resilient - bringing people back from the dead should not be done willy-nilly, and so Erdan will keep diamonds away from him as much as he can to prevent wasteful use. He was also a little frustrated by Hellan's stubborn nature when it comes to saving people, but especially when it came to burning corpses. Perhaps he could learn to wait until after saying something, rather than just fire bolting in someone's face. That being said, Hellan was a sweety and Erdan cannot, for whatever reason, stay mad at him.

Jissa

As a Canid, Erdan is fascinated by Jissa. He has developed a soft spot for the ranger and his... unusual methods. However, Erdan is also very concerned for Jissa's safety, and will attempt to aid him whenever he can.

Kiro

Erdan holds a grudging respect for Kiro in the way he acted more than spoke. He felt that Kiro made some foolish decisions, but they exchanged treasures from time to time, and this earned Kiro Erdan's respect.

Kothar

Kothar did not get the best start with Erdan. While he has an advantage over humans because of his lizard form, Erdan quicky lost his trust for him when he dispelled magic intended to cause harm to Avi. However, for now, Erdan is being civil and biding his time for the right moment to take his revenge.

Neraht

Reina

Other
The Druids

The Guild