Oliver Ocantrip

Gnome / Rogue

Submitted character story

Thief, trickster, friend, and hero who saved everyone but himself.

-Appearance-
Oliver was a small rock gnome, standing approximately 110 centimetres tall. He had greyish skin, clear blue eyes, long pointed ears, and medium-length brown hair, which he usually kept hidden beneath a worn hood. He wore layered clothing, carried a concealed dagger, and kept a small necklace inherited from his grandmother close to his heart.

-Character-
Oliver was a thirty-three-year-old rogue and charlatan. He was silver-tongued, cunning, greedy, and often thought of his own interests first. He could lie without hesitation, cheat someone out of their money in a game of dice, and disappear before they noticed their pockets were empty.

Yet beneath all the tricks, jokes, and deception was someone who had spent his entire life fearing that he would never be good enough.

-Family and Childhood-
Oliver was born in Carvahall into the wealthy merchant family of the Ocantrips. His family traded in both magical and ordinary items, and nearly every member of the family possessed some form of magical ability.

Everyone except Oliver.

Although his family loved him and tried to help him, Oliver grew up feeling like the black sheep of the family. He came to hate magic because it constantly reminded him of everything he believed he had failed to become.

Eventually, he robbed the family shop, took their money, and fled Carvahall without ever truly saying goodbye.

For the rest of his life, he avoided his hometown. It was only shortly before his death that he finally managed to forgive both his family and himself.

-Joining the Party-
Oliver did not join the party as a hero. He was  a petty thief who had lost most of the money he had stolen and was searching for his next opportunity to survive.

Within the party, however, he gradually found something he had not possessed since leaving home.

Friends.

A new family.

Together, they travelled north and south, fought countless enemies, drank in taverns, and found themselves in trouble that Oliver had often at least partially caused.

-Discovering His Abilities-
During an encounter with necromantic forces, Oliver’s psionic Soulknife abilities awakened. He learned to communicate with others through thought, and wield an ability that felt far too much like magic.

It was a cruel irony.

Oliver had spent his entire life hating magic, only to discover that something very much like it had been hidden inside him all along.

-Everything Oliver Managed to Do-
Oliver cheated gamblers at dice, a game at which he was exceptionally skilled. He attempted to rob a mayor, although on that occasion he was caught. He fought enormous spiders and managed to destroy an artefact connected to the necromancer Diriv, earning both Diriv’s attention and his hatred.

He drank with his companions in taverns, suffered food poisoning, and was nearly killed by the brother of his lover. The brother did not survive their confrontation, and Oliver claimed his powerful Dagger of Venom.

For his service to the kingdom, Oliver received a royal pardon that erased his debts and cleared his name.

He helped find Anura and took part in the attempt to free her, even though she ultimately died in the process. On that day, Oliver witnessed Death itself and learned that some people cannot be saved, no matter how desperately you try.

During one of their voyages, Oliver was poisoned aboard a ship. While investigating the attack, the party discovered that the culprit was a young boy who nearly destroyed the entire vessel. Oliver’s Misty Step helped save the situation and the lives of those aboard.

He was even meant to become the leader of the criminal underworld.

Fate simply did not give him enough time to claim his new kingdom.

The Palantír and Diriv

Oliver’s life changed forever when he touched a palantír deep within a mine.

From that moment onward, he was connected to Diriv, to his evil, and to the darkness surrounding him. Oliver began to experience visions of the end of the world, streets filled with the dead, and a red dragon standing at Diriv’s side.

Diriv could see through Oliver’s eyes, and Oliver could feel Diriv’s presence within his own mind.

They were connected.

At times, it seemed as though they were becoming one.

Oliver soon understood that this bond would eventually be the end of him. Even so, he continued travelling with the party and tried to make use of whatever time he had left.

-The Family He Found-
During his travels, Oliver found friends who became his new family. He formed a particularly unusual bond with Garuk, a young half-troll travelling with the group. Oliver tried, in his own way, to “raise” him and prepare him for the dangers of the world.

But Garuk was only one part of the strange family Oliver had found. There was Fridge, the ice-calm warrior who rarely seemed shaken by anything; Israfael, a paladin driven by his faith in the god Solaris; Vera, the bard whose music and spirit could lift the mood even in the darkest moments; and Regulus, the irritating ranger who, in Oliver’s opinion, was wrong far more often than he realised. Oliver usually let him believe otherwise, mostly because Regulus was a full metre taller than him. And then there was Garuk, whom Oliver tried to teach about the world, only to discover that the young half-troll still had plenty to teach him in return.

He showed him that the world was not made only of evil, lies, and people waiting for an opportunity to betray him.

Through his companions, Oliver came to understand that he did not need to be a powerful mage, a wealthy merchant, or the ruler of the underworld to have value.

He only needed to be there for the people who had chosen to stand beside him.

-The Final Sacrifice-

During the final battle against the lich (Diriv), the party discovered that its last remaining vessel was connected to Oliver himself.

As long as Oliver lived, the lich could never be truly destroyed.

And so, Oliver drank the poison.

He did not do it for money, glory, or to prove himself to anyone. He sacrificed his life so that the final vessel would perish with him and the lich could finally be cast into darkness.

He saved his companions.

He saved his new family.

He saved the world whose destruction he had witnessed so many times in his visions.

Oliver had spent his entire life running.

He ran from his family, from his past, from magic, and from responsibility.

But when his final moment came, he did not run.

He saved everyone but himself.