Eugene Riverworth is the first D&D campaign character I have ever had. His campaign began October 1st 2017, and is still ongoing. The story of his game, in this written form, is still a work in progress.
Gene Riverworth was born the 3rd of 5 siblings, to Abner and Clara Riverworth, in the town of Beckpost, in the Holy Cielmic Empire.
He was a decent kid growing up, a bit of a scamp and a bit of the kind who would pretend to be sick to get out of chores, but he was eager and caring. He had a pretty straightforward relationship with his family, parents loving if a bit disconnected from his interests, older siblings tolerant of his being their annoying little brother, a younger sister that kept to herself mostly. The one he was closest with was his youngest sister, Cassie, 10 years his junior. She too had an imaginative and adventurous spirit, and he’d often feed that fire with stories, daydreams, hikes in the woods, mock sword fights, and promises that someday they’d both be something.
He left home when he was 17, and made for the port city of Fairbell to try and make a start for himself. He found making a start was harder than he thought, though, and struggled to find work he felt able to do, could keep him afloat, and fulfilled his ambitions. On the day he ran out of the coin he’d brought from home, he made a choice. He took a handful of props, old bottles, trinkets, and, deciding to add a bit of descriptive flavor to them, sold them as more valuable than they were.
He had a voice that carried and was bright and pleasant in conversation, plus a face that looked innocent. It worked. Really well.
Once he’d had a taste of swindling, he found it easier to turn to when inevitably, things got tight again in the next town. The immediate positive response was addictive to him, and eventually he started planning his schemes ahead of time, posing himself as a young apprentice of various wizards, alchemists, or priests. His skill and tactics improved, and presumably would only get better as time brought him the gravity of maturity.
He got into a pretty good rhythm of things for a year or two, still writing home on a regular basis, but bending the truth of his lifestyle into a happier outlook. One day he met on the road a man called Dale Abernathy, and looking at each other they both knew they were in the same line of work. Not only that, but they were heading to the same town. The conflict-averse Eugene quickly suggested a truce, perhaps even a partnership, so they wouldn't have to face each other as competition. Dale agreed, and the dynamical duo of Riverworth & Abernathy was formed. They found that, together, they were much more successful and credible, working well off of each other, and so they stuck together even after they’d skipped town.
They stayed together for years, honing their act to a perfection as wizard and alchemist, even as their relationship began to slowly degrade. They’d started off friends, partners in crime, who they could each let their guard down around. Eugene revealed much of his past during that time, Dale less so, though after one particular night out drinking, he let it slip that he came from money. No amount of prying from Eugene would draw any further details out of him on that front.
Being the only people the other would be even slightly genuine around had one major drawback, and that was both of them were slowly becoming genuinely worse people. That, and a number of traits that one had began to grate on the other, until eventually the two of them felt nothing for the other but a specific and personal loathing.
The animosity came to a head all at once, when, both privately decided that they would discredit and be rid of the other for good, at the same time, in the same town: Old Galebreak. The details of “the incident” are muddied by time, rumor, local infamy, and outright lies. What is known is that a complicated series of framings, metaphorical and possibly literal backstabbings, arson, real estate, graffiti, and a love triangle with the mayor, all culminated in the two con men screaming at each other in the town square. Dale was arrested. Eugene barely escaped with his life.
At last, Eugene was on his own again, for the the first time in years. He had a lot to readjust to, and he had to lie low and stay far, far away from anywhere where news of Galebreak reached. For one thing, Dale had tried to keep him from spending every copper piece on impulse, and left to his own devices, Eugene’s quality of life oscillated wildly between extravagant and desolate. For another, he had to put in twice the work again. He was a little bitter with this lot, but, in the end, the freedom was worth it.
The letters to home over the years became less frequent, but much more imaginative in the scope of their lies. In them, he was a model son and brother, successful, powerful, but sadly, very very busy, with wizard things, you have to understand. He only returned home once, and was tense and evasive when he did.
On his 27th birthday, Eugene was hit by a sense of crisis. It had been ten years since he’d left home. He was nearing 30. And he had little to show for it all except a handful of scars, a couple of decent suits, and an incredible capacity to bluff and to run. He needed something new.
Rather than taking this as an opportunity to change his ways, of course, he decided he would pack up and start operating again in a new locale. He booked ships and caravans, and eventually made it to the Gulch, a wide dry and cracked desert land far from the Cielmic Empire, which had a reputation for fantastical inventions and a certain lawlessness. He stopped at the town of Serendipity, a town at the entrance to the Gulch, built into the walls of the vast and seemingly bottomless canyons that ran across the entire desert.
One day, early in his visit as he haggled with a barman about various talismans, a frantic woman burst into the tavern, asking if anyone, anyone at all, could help retrieve her son from the mines he’d disappeared down. He held back, until, realizing he’d been presenting himself as a powerful wizard, stepped forwards to try to save face. 4 others alongside him also volunteered. Sura, a massive Minotaur. Tasher, a blond halfling with an ale mug much too big for him, and friends with Sura. Elwyn, a nondescript gnomish musician. And finally, Asteria, an insanely tall, dark-skinned woman carrying a finely crafted glaive.