Ragna Lockhart

A human cursed to become a kobold, Ragna Lockhart is an adventurer who seeks his brother, Cynba, who left home in search of the man who cursed them. Wishing nothing more than the safety of his brother, he has an unfortunately altruistic heart that gets him in far more trouble than it should, which is often what stops him from catching up with the gambling kobold. The trail has lead him to Peregrine, and Peregrine will lead him wherever it damn well pleases.

Statistics
Skills: Athletics, Insight, Perception, Survival, Tinker's Tools

Appearance
Ragna is an average yet recognizable kobold. His horns remain an ivory white no matter how much he dirties them or himself, and his red hue tends to stand out rather unfortunately in a crowd. His size is supposedly rather small even compared to other kobolds, but he's very well-built and a closer look at him reveals a few battle scars here and there, hidden relatively well by his armor. He carries himself naturally, when he's not thinking about it, but when the topic of his kobold physiology comes up he starts to move rather consciously, in the same manner that one would begin to breathe manually after the topic of breathing comes up--kind of like how you're breathing now.

Attire
Ragna wears a set of light leather armor that doesn't really help him, with a green undershirt that hides his scars and tougher scales. He wears his weaponry on a belt, which holds up his inventory and his brown pants, worn tight around his digitigrade legs. He also wears brown leather open-toed "shoes" on his feet--he claims that he feels more natural with them on than without them.

Personality
A man of duty and a man who values compassion and bravery, Ragna believes that actions speak louder than words. He is brave, but not reckless, knows his limits and capabilities very well, and tries his best not to make a promise he can't keep. These would make him a perfect knight, however he somewhat loathes the idea of being so beholden to the fight between good and evil, and openly believes that even the most wicked people can be redeemed or brought to the side of good, if it truly is so black-and-white as people seem to believe. That being said, he matches anything that's put towards him--if people approach him with aggression, he will respond in kind, subduing the threat first and asking any questions that need to be asked when the fighting is done.

Ragna won't say no to a chat or a bit of camaraderie. But he prefers people who are as serious as he is, or at least somewhere close to it, when adventuring, though he can make a remark or two of his own without issue. He's not a "buzzkill"--just very unwilling to step outside his comfort zone in cases where he can avoid it and incredibly intolerant towards people who are incapable of taking anything seriously.

Drives and Obstacles
Goal(s): Motivations: Cynba left Wayshire Town to pursue a cure on his own. Considering the relative frailty of your typical sorcerer/gambler, Ragna is very much worried about him. That aside, he values the good of all things, but values his brother above all else.
 * Find his brother, Cynba, and bring him home.
 * Find a cure for his curse.
 * Find Calvin's "old friend".
 * Be a good person to everyone.

Obstacles: His tendency to get involved in other people's issues gets him in more trouble than is generally healthy for his immediate goals.

Affiliations

 * None

Romance

 * Single

Family

 * Cynba Lockhart: Ragna's brother

Friends and Foes
Friends:
 * Xan: ...arguably more of an employer, but Ragna still has some level of concern for him. He's apparently wrapped up in some special kind of fuckery Ragna simultaneously wants none of but also has every desire to protect him from.


 * Nelea: Apparently she has a polymorphic curse as well. He feels a kinship with her for it, but his obligations to Xan have stopped him from following up...

Allies: Frenemies: Enemies:
 * Xeno the Mew: Their interactions were offscreened, but he's also okay.
 * None, yet!:
 * Michael: The fuck is up with your doors
 * None, personally.

Knows:
 * Jacob Satomi from Moon's past reading
 * Consequently, Moon Emisrit

Acquired/Learned Abilities

 * Kobold Traps (1A, 1/SR): When you take a short or long rest, your racial instincts tell you to create a trap that could be useful for later. Once per short rest, you may lay down a trap of your own description as an action on your turn anywhere within 5ft of you. You build this trap during your rest, and must describe it during the rest so that you may discuss what you are capable of creating at that moment in time. The trap can do whatever you wish it to (within reason at the DM's discretion), but in order for it to activate a target must pass through its space and fail a saving throw pertaining to either Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution; your DM decides which of the three.
 * Trap DC: 8 + Dexterity Modifier + Proficiency Modifier
 * In order to craft traps, you must gather materials and then spend your rest crafting the item in question. You still gain all other benefits of a rest during the time you spend doing so. If you have no materials on-hand, you can retroactively buy them for use in this endeavor; discuss how much it would cost with your DM. The total cost should not exceed the value of an amount of gold pieces equal to your proficiency bonus multiplied by ten. If the trap is particularly complex, the DM may ask you to roll a check using your proficiency with tinker's tools to determine whether or not you can create the item. The DC of this check, as a general rule, should not exceed 15 under most circumstances.
 * Unless otherwise noted, you and your allies cannot activate your traps.
 * Kobold Traps, Continued (P): You have advantage on Perception and Investigation checks to locate kobold traps, provided you know they were built by a kobold.


 * Action Surge (X, 1/SR): You push yourself beyond your normal limits, bravery fueling your hastened actions. Once per short rest, you may take two actions on your turn.

Innate Abilities

 * Darkvision 60

Combat Mastery
The art of combat, learned as a human and repurposed for a kobold, augmented slightly by Ragna's magical potential. Through rigorous training done on his own time, Ragna has developed his own fighting style, known only as the "Specialist" style, which he uses to his advantage.


 * Fighting Style: Specialist: A rare combat style emulated by many but mastered by few, the Specialist style focuses on the unique uses of weaponry, capitalizing on each one's strengths and weaknesses in ways that ordinary fighters and adventurers could only dream of. Through exceptionally focused training during one's journey to become a Fighter, the Specialist is a master of all kinds of weaponry, and can use them to their fullest potential.
 * Traits based on link in footnote.
 * Adrenaline (R): Whereas most fighters have a Second Wind they can tap into to keep themselves in a fight, Ragna is far better known to perform well under that sort of pressure and stress.
 * When Ragna is below 50% HP (33), he can use his reaction to gain Damage Reduction (DR) equal to his Fighter level (6) against the attack. If the enemy is within striking distance with his current weapon, Ragna can make one attack roll using that weapon as part of the same reaction.


 * Extra Attack (P): As a 5th level Fighter, Ragna can take two attacks during his turn.

Brave Soul Sorcery
Magical abilities that manifest in those who are said to possess a soul of silver, beholden to their goals and not the errant whims of their heart or the constricting desires of society. They choose to follow their own path, without sacrificing their beliefs and without doubts. A mix of sorcery and paladin oaths that is a unique source of power; in their cases, fortune literally favors the bold. Ragna uses a spell points system to cast magic, similar to Roselle. His maximum MP is based on his total spellcasting level and his spell level maximum is based on the same.

Maximum MP: 6/LR

Spell Level Maximum: 1st (2 MP/spell)

Spell Save DC: 13
 * Starlight (0A/Ac): A light-aspected attack that is similar Sacred Flame, but can target multiple enemies and is arcane in nature rather than divine. It also has its utility as a light-bearing spell.
 * Magical (Arcane). All targets must make a DEX save.
 * Deals 2d6+CHA Radiant damage to one enemy within 60ft.
 * Deals 1d6 Radiant damage to up to three enemies within 60ft.
 * Can be used as Dancing Lights.


 * Armor of Bravery (P): With determination as your shield, you have a surprising amount of resistance and resilience.
 * Acts similar to the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer's Draconic Resilience trait.
 * Base AC is 13 + DEX. This version overrides this unarmored defense if the bearer is wearing light armor, purely for aesthetics.
 * +1 HP per Sorcerer Level.


 * Bravely Default (P/X): Ragna has a number of Brave Points (BP) equal to his Sorcerer level (2), similar to Sorcery Points, that allow him to perform special actions or reactions. He regains half of them after a short rest, and all of them after a long rest. He starts with two such abilities, Scintillation and Reflex, and can learn more through cross-learning. If Ragna runs out of HP, his BP is set to 1, regardless of how much BP he has.
 * Scintillation: Magical. When someone in your line of sight casts a spell with a cast time of an action or higher within the range of Starlight, you can spend 1 BP as a reaction to quickly sling a cast of Starlight at them to interrupt them. You don't actually deal damage regardless of whether or not it works, but the target must roll a concentration saving throw against 10 + Ragna's Proficiency + Ragna's Charisma (15) in order to avoid wasting their action.
 * Reflex: When you've used up your reaction and another event would enable you to take one, you can spend 1 BP to do so once per round.


 * Elevate Damage (1BAc): Magical (Arcane). Using his inner reserves, Ragna can bolster the power of his strikes with magic. For one minute while he's concentrating, his weapons gain a magical property for the purposes of overcoming resistances, and all damage dealt by him is bolstered by 1d6 of whatever damage type the triggering damage roll is, with the damage increasing by 1d6 for every level cast above 1st.


 * Platinum Aegis (1R): Flares the user's magical energy in response to energy-based threats, creating a reactive barrier against elemental and arcane harm.
 * Magical (Arcane). Cast in response to Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Radiant, or Thunder damage.
 * Grants Resistance to the triggering damage type and grants DR equal to the caster's spellcasting modifier (2) against all of the above damage types, until the end of your next turn. The first damage die you roll before the end of your next turn recovers HP equal to the number shown on the die.
 * Heroism (1Ac): Vanilla spell. A willing creature you touch is imbued with bravery. For 1 minute, given concentration, the creature is immune to being Frightened and gains temporary hit points equal to your spellcasting ability modifier (2) at the start of each of its turns. When the spell ends, the target loses any remaining temporary hit points from this spell.
 * +1 target per overcast.

Weaknesses

 * Combat-Focused: Ragna has many tools to help him in combat, but none whatsoever that have any sort of utility. Given his lack of proficiencies, he's pretty useless if he's not in a fight.
 * Reduction, Not Prevention: Yeah, Ragna's DR skills and high natural AC make him tough to kill. But since he can't heal independently like other Fighters using Second Wind and Adrenaline doesn't kick in until he drops below ½ HP, he's still going to end up pretty banged up.
 * Technical Reliance: Ragna's Specialist Fighting Style adds a lot of combat variety to his weapon faire and allows him to use any reasonable weapon with amazing skill, but without Elevate Damage he still relies on Critical Hits and Conditions to score larger damage numbers outside of Starlight.

Key Items

 * Rainbow Feather: A feather that shines with all colors of the rainbow. It seems to serve no purpose aside from allowing Ragna to showcase the alternate picture displayed in "White as Snow". A mysterious gift from Calvin, the painter of that same picture.
 * White as Snow: An odd sketch of Ragna that becomes a painting depicting a white, furred dragon with a rather golden mane, sporting four feathered wings, when exposed to the Rainbow Feather. It's not easy to tell at a distance, but up close it somehow reminds anyone who looks upon it of Ragna, despite the appearance looking so different. Both pictures were done by Calvin, the mysterious Smeargle.
 * Adventurer's License: An official membership card for the Adventurer's Guild. The info displayed is "Ragna Lockhart, Specialist Fighter 6 / Unique Sorcerer 2, Wood Rank." Can be presented to prove one's adventuring experience.

Weapons

 * Parrying Dagger: A dagger made for the purpose of parrying blows of all kinds.
 * 1d4+DEX Piercing. Light. Defensive (Special).
 * Steel Rapier: A weapon commonly used by nobility and gentlemen fighters, rapiers have found a new popularity for rogues and other dexterity-reliant adventurers. In the hands of a specialist, they have deadly precision that makes their critical strikes all the more potent.
 * 1d8+DEX Piercing. Lethal.
 * Relic Scimitar: A scimitar restored from ruins in the Vespuccian drylands. It is not inherently magical, but bears a very detailed filigree on the blade.
 * 1d6+DEX Slashing. Flurry 1d10.

Other Equipment

 * Leather Armor: An ordinary set of leather armor that really serves more of a purpose to hide Ragna's supernatural inherent defenses than actually protect him.
 * Light Armor. AC 11.
 * I feel obligated to mention once again that Ragna's natural AC overrides this so the armor is just aesthetic.

Inventory

 * World 21 Smartphone Ver. 5: A magitechnological smartphone marketed under Mikiah Emisrit's name. A slightly outdated model that struggles with some newer apps, but thankfully the base software for World 21 still runs just fine, and it serves Ragna's purposes well enough.
 * Soldier's Wallet: A wallet designed to hold a fair amount of money. Bears the mark of a United Victorian military unit, and can be used as a valid symbol of one's previous affiliation with the United Victorian army.
 * Cynba's Phone Number: It's saved in his phone now. ...which means he can never lose his phone again. Let's hope he doesn't.

Biography
''Your name is Ragna Lockhart, age 25. You are a former soldier of the United Victorian army, drafted when you came of age and forced away from your family for years.''

''Upon returning to your home of Wayshire, you find your brother, Cynba, gambling and swindling people out of ill-gotten gains. Forced to live with him as you did not have enough to support yourself upon returning home, you worried over him endlessly, not just for your own sake but also for his. You were and still are his protector--even as your humanity was stripped from you by a magician he had angered with a stacked bet.''

''A year has passed since then and you've relearned everything you knew before, regaining your skill through effort where Cynba took to it like a duck in water. You've accepted your fate, and are happy to live with it, so long as you and him could live peacefully. But in his desire for revenge and reparations for the curse he indirectly brought upon you, he left with hardly a trace in search of the magician and a cure.''

''Following his trail to Vespuccia, you encounter a being of divine presence. Graced with their blessing, you continue on, unaware that fate has its own plans for you…''

For Want of Solidarity
Ragna Lockhart was a somewhat serious youth. His family was hardly able to pay him mind, so he was all too often left to his own devices, having all the time in the world available to him but living too far away from public places to be able to spend it with others besides his beloved family. He learned all too quickly that people would not always have time for him, and suffered from loneliness for a long time after he learned to walk and talk--that is, until he was five years of age, and his brother, Cynbalion, was born.

His parents had gotten a new set of jobs to help pay for the new addition to the family, and moved to the city to accommodate such a fact. But where they now had funds, they absolutely lacked time, and while the nannies and babysitters assigned to the young children were acceptable at first, they quickly became more and more incompetent as more and more of them had to leave for one reason or another. Taking what he had seen from the ones who got it right, Ragna took it upon himself to take his best shot at "raising" Cynbalion, who he affectionately nicknamed "Cynba" and later "Cyn". Figuring things out through trial and error, he managed to hold his own long enough to the point where Cynba could begin taking care of himself a bit. And soon after that, their parents finally managed to make time to properly care for them--although considering that Ragna was age 9 by this point, it was far too late to stop the boy from becoming attached to his brother and unable to go out on his own and make connections.

Thankfully able to match his younger brother's achievements as they came, Ragna did not become a closed book like Carden Malcruz. Instead, he picked up on some of Cynba's better qualities--his social enjoyment, his ability to get along with others, and his general optimism--while avoiding his pitfalls of arrogance, overconfidence, and rampant idealism. Cynba was able to enjoy his childhood where Ragna could not, and so he found himself not only learning from him, but also living somewhat vicariously through him. Content to live with that fact for the rest of his life and considering therapy for his previous hardships, Ragna was happy for the nine years he had with his brother, and the opportunity to at least somewhat experience a life he would otherwise never see.

However, when he became 18, he was selected for a random draft for the United Victorian army. Forced to pack his things and leave his family behind, Ragna fell back into his reclusiveness and drilled away at his training without resistance. He never ranked particularly high, but he was okay with that--he didn't even care about that. All that mattered to him was that at any moment, he could be forced to fight. And at any point in a fight, he could be doomed to never return home. It took a while to convert that train of thought into the determination necessary to survive, but when he did, it drove him to train to such a point that he would need to worry about no obstacle between him, his home, and his brother.

After two years, he was allowed to return--however, his parents were long since unable to support him, so instead he went to live with Cynbalion in Wayshire once more, who benefitted from a rather well-paying fishmongering job run by a famed summoner. At first, Ragna was happy that Cynba could support not just himself, but also his brother...until he realized what he was doing with a lot of that money. Whiling his hours away, sitting at the tavern with a new patron every time you blinked, gambling with the righteous and swindling the corrupt of heart, Cynba had become a somewhat well-known charlatan of sorts--one that people wanted to avoid, but ultimately couldn't because of his sheer charm.

Ragna had heard many times before of the dangers of Cynba's little "side profession". He warned him many times about that very same side profession. And yet he would never listen, and apparently hardly ever learn. Cynba remained a charlatan, a gambler, and a cheat to the wicked. Ragna took up therapy soon after that, realizing there was absolutely no room for any more delays. It worked, and Ragna found that a protector/mentor attitude like his was a major boon for his martial skills--such a passion to protect and skill with weaponry lent themselves perfectly to a guardian of sorts, a hired bodyguard for anyone who needed him. He was able to get a steady income of his own, and life was beginning to turn around once more.

And then a magician followed Cynba home after being swindled out of his hard-earned but ill-deserved gold. And Ragna, being the protector he is, got involved. And so the two were stripped of their humanity, turned into kobolds and cursed to remain that way until the day they died. Things went downhill for Ragna, and fast. His armor was made worthless in an instant--his weapons suddenly heavy and clumsy in his dexterous but weakened grasp. No longer capable as a bodyguard, he was forced to "retire" while he retrained himself to accommodate his new body. Thankful that Cynba's fishmongering and gambling were only facilitated, somehow, by the added dexterity and (admittedly impressive) renewed charm of his smaller, diminutive form, Ragna dedicated a whole year to returning to how he was before.

He had already overcome so much. He thought they deserved to live quietly from then on. He thought that he and Cynba could do without any more strife in their lives. And then, one day, Cynba left, entrusting the care and financing of his home (and Ragna) to his boss. Fueled by the desire to undo the injustice inflicted upon his brother, and to ensure that no one else would suffer their fate. A justified, but sudden and ill-advised journey, and one that once again left Ragna alone.

He wasn't about to take that lying down. Determined to convince his brother to return home, Ragna set out on a journey of his own. Registering himself with the Adventurer's Guild to fund his travels, the red kobold followed the trail of his brother, no matter how faint it seemed. He even followed it all the way out to Vespuccia, and along the way, made connections whether he liked it or not. Eventually, he began to open up very easily, and learned to find friends and allies in even the smallest interactions...within reason. He became altruistic, to something of a fault, and compassionate towards anyone he met, not just those he spent time with. His good deeds caught a lot of attention as he continued his search--attention that could very well have changed his life once again.

On his path to find his brother, Ragna found himself deep in the woods of a place several miles off from Peregrine's territory, following rumours of a crystalline blur being sighted a few days ago from people hiking in the woods. There, in an opening surrounded by a lake, he found an elderly Smeargle painting the lake clearing on an easel he had brought along with him. He introduced himself to Ragna as Calvin, a wandering painter who’s been traveling from continent to continent, looking for artistic muses. And not just landscape paintings, either. He takes a look at Ragna, a smile plastered on his face as he offers to do a rough sketch of the kobold. After he accepts, he quickly gets to work, the two talking more as he draws the kobold’s image. Once the Smeargle was satisfied with his work, he dashed the painting with a quick stroke of his tail, paint flying everywhere to Ragna’s confusion. The Smeargle offered the painting back to him, and upon taking it, he discovered that it was a near-identical copy of him sketched on paper. Which would be good on it’s own...except there were various lines here and there that were almost completely erased away, ones that almost perfectly matched the man’s face in very un-kobold-like ways, like a nose line under his snout, and lines that almost looked like hair...

While he looked at the painting, Calvin apologized, with a saddened frown on his face. "I’m sorry, but I could only draw what I can see on the outside. Someone else has vandalized you into their own work of art, and while I am a master of restorations...there’s only so much I can do. Take this painting, and search for my old friend in Peregrine. May our paths cross again…"

When Ragna looked up, Calvin was completely gone, easel and all. In his place was a single rainbow-colored feather. Ragna started to make his way to Peregrine, but on the way happened on a curious discovery: Any time he’d lift the feather up to the sketch, it would illuminate it in a way not so different from a blacklight, and show that above it was layered the painting of a glorious, fluffy white dragon--the same one that other people saw whenever they glimpsed the painting for themselves…

Following Cynba's trail to Peregrine anyway, Ragna's goals have become twofold: find his brother, and find Calvin's "old friend", but to what end he does not know. Hoping that the city of travelers will hold answers for him, he stays for the time being, hoping to find some kind of lead...

Points of Interest
Former Homes: None Former Jobs: United Victorian Infantry