Joah Branning - If I could write...

[soulside]

Concept:

• A grandfather gets snatched from his happy life at the farm and thrown into the deep end of the pool, a.k.a. Sigil. Will he find his way home or is his arrival in Sigil the start of a cruelly interjected final chapter of his life?

This character is retired!


Basic Information

Name: Joah Branning
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Age: In his 60s
Profession: Farmer-priest revering Chauntea
Accent: One that marks him as low-class


Physical Information

Height: On the small side of average
Weight: Average
Hair: Grey and cut short, more than a little balding on top
Eyes: Light blue
Skin: Originally rather light but aged by sun and time, now quite tanned and wrinkly
Body build: Average, has a bit of a gut but is otherwise in good health
General Health: Aging, but overall good


Personality

• Hard-working - He's never shied away from work in his life. But these days, he needs to leave some of it to others.
• Happy - Calm and content, the product of a long and primarily happy life. Times of grief were overcome.
• Kind - Believes in the good in people.

[soulside]

If I could write, this’d be my journal. Or my letters home.


Dear Gladys, how are you? I’m sorry to’ve gone and gotten y’all so worried 'bout me. Jana must've had a fit when I wasn’t back for supper. From goin’ to the barn, no less. I want to let you know I’m alright, but I’ve had the craziest day in my entire life. Right now I’m sittin’ on the fanciest bed I ever sat on, must be full of bird feather and rabbit down for how soft it is. I got a room all to myself, all paid for, and I’m safe and sound. So it all worked out alright today and you don’t have to worry.

Did you hear Jana asked me to get the buckets earlier? I went to get ’em in the back corner of the barn. Idea was to get’em fixed to save us spendin’ on a new one. But I think now maybe it’s better to buy a new one anyway, ‘cause when I went to get ‘em somehow I got lost and ended up somewhere else. Never seen the barn that big before. I know you’ll think I’m crazy for sayin’ this but I ended up in a city somewhere and I’m reckonin’ it’s pretty far from home, or so people here tell me. They say somethin’ 'bout wizards and portals, and I couldn’t catch it all, but seems it’s real far away. Not sure how I ended up from goin’ into the barn, but life’s full of mysteries.

The sky here -- never mind, I’ll tell you 'bout that later. Everythin’ here’s very strange. Everyone looks very strange. It’s not like home at all. At the same time as it is, ‘cause there’s kindness here, even in the strangest of beings. I thought I knew not to judge people on how they look, but I‘ve a real hard time wrappin’ my head around the people here. I dunnae if I ever will. If they showed up home, everyone’d be mighty worried. But they‘ve kindness in ‘em, same as us. And their own problems, I’m sure, just like everyone. Makes the unknown seem just a trife less worrying, knowin’ we’re not all so different.

I’ll try to come home as soon as I can. They say there’s ways to do it, and I’ll look for ‘em. Look after Bryce while I’m gone, and don’t let him go to the creek alone sayin’ I said he could, cause I didn’t.

And don’t let Jana or Bryce go in that barn. Somethin’s wrong with it. Least something was wrong with it when I went in and I don't want anyone goin' near it.

Love Joah

[soulside]

Just short of a tenday after his unfortunate Cage-napping, the elderly man a certain few residents have gotten to know as Joah can be seen buying supplies to eventually accompany the halfling Lyra Darkwater as she departs on a trip bound for Toril. He has been in good spirits and eagerly chatted to anyone and everyone who has wanted to. By this manner he has, of course, lost quite a bit of jink to thieves.

At the day of departure the weight of his backpack forces him to lean forward to not lose his balance, and if possible he looks even more out of place, but he makes up for it with bright-eyed enthusiasm. He is wearing his breathing mask and holds the walking stick firmly in his right hand, showing no fear, only determination. Moments before they step into the portal building, he can be seen scanning his surroundings and even the sky-not-sky and distant city above without the same fear as before. He takes one last, long look, as if wanting to save the memory perfectly in his mind, before stepping in.


The Underdark is full of many perils, but eventually, with one broken toe and one bruise on his head, Lyra drops him safely off in the City of Splendors. Perhaps Joah will be robbed and killed trying to find his way back to his farmstead, or have bad luck in some other way. Perhaps he will reach his home, and live out his golden years in blissful happiness with all that he holds dear. And perhaps, if he does reach his home, maybe he on sleepless nights might take a walk out and sit on the porch and look up at the starry sky, and remember another sky. A sky that wasn't a sky. And maybe, just maybe, he would miss it a little bit.

He might vaguely remember that someone whose name he didn't catch - an elf, maybe? - had said that he would be back. That he would get hooked. He had everything he wanted, right there on the farm. And yet, now he knew that the world was so, so much bigger than he thought...

But for now, at least, there's the promise of a happy ending.