#vrykoth

Back on my bullshit with this skrunkly douchebag, so I figured I might as well share him here

Meet Vrykoth, my Reborn warlock from an ongoing Underdark adventure. He started out by bumblefucking his way through life as a mediocre Githyanki, until he got his insides liquefied by a strigoi about a year into our campaign... After which his dead husk got reanimated by his warlock patron, Ghaunadaur. He lost his psionic powers in the process, became a weird zombified meat puppet, and now has to forever contend with the threat of getting taken off Spooky Life Support if he doesn't uphold his end of his warlock pact. So, needless to say, he's having a real chill time of it 👌

Oh, and he's got 20 CHA..... But don't be fooled. This man is a liar, a mansplainer, and a self-aggrandizing loser. Very much in his flop era. Easily the most insecure cringelord I've ever played. He is self-sabotage incarnate.

THREE questions?? Bless. Hope you're ready for this wall of text lmao

16. What are your character’s vices and bad habits?

Oh boy. Vrykoth is self-indulgent to a fault. He's drawn to novelty, has a low tolerance for boredom, and anything that feels good poses a temptation for him. Spending money, drinking, food, sex (in a universe where any woman would put up with him)... It's all fair game.

Overeating was the main culprit for a while. Vrykoth grew up in a Githyanki training compound where meals were rationed and the food was just... Not very pleasant. When he finally set foot in the outside world, he went overboard. Between being hype about food he'd never seen before and his sudden ability to just *buy* as much of whatever he wanted, he would eat enough to make himself sick.

Dying and coming back as a weird pseudo-zombie put a stop to that, for better or for worse. As a Reborn, Vrykoth no longer experiences hunger. Even if he tried to eat something just for the hell of it, his body would reject it. This realization screwed him up a little - despite not having an appetite, he's still upset about losing a simple joy he'd only just discovered.

For now, his other major vice is Buying Shit. True to form as a sheltered Githyanki homeschool kid, Vrykoth doesn't have the strongest understanding of money. He sure likes trading it for things, though. He also craves attention and loves feeling important - And wouldn't you know! Being a flamboyant spendthrift tends to deliver on those fronts.

The fact that he's an unrepentant bully and quickly discovered the joys of haggling has been his only saving grace in this department. Does he care about saving money? Fuck no! But the power trip from getting his way sure is nice.

18. Would society call your character a good guy or a bad guy? What would they say they are?

If we're going with how strangers view him, Vrykoth fits the Good Guy bill. Like a lot of adventurers, he's done a-million-and-one favors for people, including saving quite a few lives, so anyone aware of this would see him as a pretty standup dude.

That said..... Vrykoth isn't a Good Guy for the sake of being Good. He does it for admiration, back pats, and rewards. He likes getting what he wants, and it's far easier to do that when people see you as a hero. Anyone close to him would know this, since he's as blatantly selfish as they come - and while he's still got a conscience shoved deep down inside somewhere, it's not something he listens to by choice. It's more of an uncomfortable, knee-jerk icky feeling that he runs from when it gets too strong to ignore. It just so happens to (usually) send him careening head first into being a decent person.

As for how he sees himself... Most Githyanki are raised to be ruthless and cruel. By that metric, Vrykoth is a saint - but rather than feel proud of that, he quietly loathes himself for it. He's not evil enough to be the Githyanki he's supposed to be. On the flip side, he's not altruistic enough to measure up to his comparatively kind-hearted friends, either. That didn't bother him at first, but he's become increasingly desperate for their approval, so nothing he does feels quite right anymore.

19. What is your character insecure about?

Good lord. A better question might be the inverse, since insecurity is like 95% of Vrykoth's existence.

One of the only things he's NOT insecure about is his appearance. There's no point in fretting about how being undead changed him on the outside, since most people are unfamiliar enough with Githyanki to not know the difference. He does care about being put together - a lot, actually - but he's the type of guy to primp, give himself finger guns in the mirror, and call it a day.

As for virtually every other thing you could think of, Vrykoth is a fucking disaster. He failed a trial by combat and lost his chance to join his people in the astral plane, so he views himself as a purposeless good-for-nothing. He lost his ancestral knowledge and psionic powers after coming back to life, so by his own logic, he's not even a real Githyanki anymore.

And we can just keep going... He's not strong enough, not at all. He might boast to anyone who will listen about being a powerful spellcaster, but he doesn't feel proud of himself. Everything he's capable of is only possible because he gave up his freedom - something a Githyanki should never do - in exchange for powers that "don't even belong to him."

He doesn't even feel secure about his close relationships. Despite having the world's most bloated charisma stat, this man is petrified of being alone. He was already cast aside by his own people for not being good enough, so why wouldn't his current companions do the same? The way he sees it, only the strong and the useful deserve a place to belong, so Vrykoth is desperate to prove that he is both. All the time. To everyone. He'll brag, lie, and make every excuse for his failures, but it's not to avoid embarrasment. It's to avoid being abandoned all over again.