[Scott]

**see Backgrounds Explained in sticky thread**

Descended from Witches
motive: attending family gathering at Kingsport
gender: either
traits: none
background traits: Equanimity -Sanity penalties from seeing horrific things reduced by 1
  Spell Resistance -native resistance to magical attacks
  Familiar -player may summon helpful animal familiar in game; this option must be sought out
  Hated By Animals
equipment: TBD

****
You have known from your earliest memories that yours is an uncommonly twisted path to tread.  You are what a withered gypsy crone once termed “touched”.  Your inferiors have often commented on how dogs and other animals cower or snarl when you are near, and on the unnatural glimmer in your eye, especially after dark.  Some even claim that whispers follow your footsteps.  The question of whether these peculiarities can be traced to some charmed ancestor or to the planets that witnessed your birth, you have long pondered with no answer.

You believe that the solution to these mysteries may soon be revealed, thanks to diligent study of certain musty family papers long and carefully hidden away, papers to which you were seemingly led in a dream.  Breaking a crumbling wax seal marked with your family’s coat of arms, you soon found these documents provided important clues about your lineage.

A dark and brooding folk whose origins are now lost to time, your ancestors adopted Kingsport as their home in the dawning light of the 17th century.  From the moment of their arrival, they were different from the honest, blue-eyed fisherfolk of that rocky coast.  They were not shunned, not at once, but their strange and furtive ways did not jibe with the traditions of the Puritan colonists, people of open hand and open heart, but sternly closed mind.  Rumours of shameful deeds done in shadow cloy about your family’s history like a miasma.  The apex of these troubles was the hanging of four of your kinsmen by the good folk of Kingsport in 1692.  The charge was witchcraft.

All this you learned in deciphering the almost illegible scrawl, like the staggering tracks of a dying insect, on the yellowed parchment of your family history.  Then you came to something even more intriguing:  It was decreed long ago that all heirs of your line must gather for a certain, vitally significant rite.  This ceremony precedes your family’s arrival in the New World, precedes the colonies themselves, and from what you have gleaned from other sources, may precede mankind itself.  This ritual takes place once a century in Kingsport, that corrupt and crumbling sea town that so reluctantly gave shelter to your kin.

The anniversary of this rite approaches.  The tradition passed down from your forefathers demands that you approach the town on foot, a decent span of time before midnight.  From a hastily jotted annotation at the very end of the account over which you pored, you know you will be welcomed at a certain house on Green Lane upon your arrival.

As the train does not run to Kingsport, you have just now arrived at Arkham, where you may take your ease a while before the final leg of the journey.  You still have ample time to secure a hired car and continue on to your destination.

****
This is the final of nine character backgrounds

[Oscar]

Nice! I really like it

[Gondolin]

Interesting. This is probably what I would first play. Embrace the mythos, baby! 

Edit: By the way, shouldn't you insert links to all nine backgrounds in the "Backgrounds explained" sticky?

[Ellorien]

Very nice! I wonder what kind of familiar can be summoned.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Brown Jenkins obviously.

[GarfunkeL]

Hopefully the familiar will be something more useful than in BG2 and NWN.

Sure, it was funny dialog the first time but that was it. And them giving a +1/+2 bonus to a skill or ability
seemed retarded. Suer, you could use it to scout ahead but that totally useless, atleast to my playstyle.

[Azael]

Nice, I really like this background, very "Shadow Over Innsmouth" in nature, except of course that you're aware of special background from the get go, but not its nature. Really, I like the diversity in the different backgrounds and they seem to lead to very different experiences at least in the beginning of the game.

One quick pondering about something else. There are two male exclusive background, but none for womyn. Explain that please, you womyn hating mysoginist!

[Gondolin]

Scott is probably following Lovecraft's lead. 

[Gareth]

Nice. However I'd suggest changing this :

This ceremony precedes your family’s arrival in the New World, precedes the colonies themselves, and from what you have gleaned from other sources, may precede mankind itself.

I'd remove the reference to "preceding mankind itself". Maybe make it "preceding the dawn of the British Empire" or "Preceding the Romans" or something. Not that it might not stretch back to before mankind in truth, just that the character isn't aware of it. As in, make it more plausible to the narrow human view point, leave space for even your witchy background char to be shocked and amazed by how grand and terrible a scope his families background has. I don't really think any of the basic chars should have an inkling of full scope of the mythos stuff. You can give them clues to that once in game.

[Felix]

I'd remove the reference to "preceding mankind itself"....

"Shadow over Innsmouth"

The character has a small, very small glimpse of what could come.
In fact, is not happy at all...at least at the beginning

[caster]

Summoning familiars?
How about few magic missiles?

How exactly is this magical summoning of presumably living animals or entities explained in this setting?

and i agree with Garret.

Needs more different suitable traits too.

Otherwise this would be the one i would pick up.

[Felix]

Needs more different suitable traits too.

What do you mean?

It has 4 traits, 3 of them unavailable to any other backgrounds, and very useful.
And "hated by animals" could be really fun

[Azael]

Well, it doesn't exactly say that you get a Summon Familiar (once per day) spell, just that you'll have the option to acquire a familiar at some point in the game. Personally, I want to see how this will be done.

Scott is probably following Lovecraft's lead. 

--EDITED by the Great Old Ones--

[Scott]

I'd remove the reference to "preceding mankind itself".

Thing is, Lovecraft's protagonists and various researchers in his stories did know of pre-human civilizations which left mysterious documents behind (the Pnakotic Manuscripts).  In his stories it's an accepted fact that there were others before man.

Summoning familiars?  How about few magic missiles?

Please.  Do you think Gary Gygax invented familiars?  Didn't I make a point right in the description that it's not a spell you have in a little book when you start?  It's a type of ritual that you are able to discover if you pursue it, and effect if you are Descended from Witches.  Last of all, witches in Lovecraft had familiars, and last time I checked he died before Gygax was born and before the first polyhedron die was molded in plastic.

@Azael:  please don't use racial slurs, even in jest.  What if CNN comes and looks at the thread?  Seriously though, people will quote out of context.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Last of all, witches in Lovecraft had familiars, and last time I checked he died before Gygax was born and before the first polyhedron die was molded in plastic.

Which coincidentally was a polyhedron, Gygax must've stolen the whole idea!