a friend of mine asked me to doodle up a quick story about one of his characters in a D&D campaign. the only thing he requested was that it be kept very short. this is what i came up with.

feedback would be much appreciated.



after discovering him in the woods while adventuring, Galevan was adopted by a human couple as a baby, and traveled with them for a few years before they settled down in a primarily human city. his foster father opened up a shop, relying on his trade as a blacksmith to finance his family. his mother, an alchemist, created potions and sold assorted magical powders.

unfortunately, as a kitsune, Galevan never quite fit in with his human peers, and was often ridiculed and even bullied. his father, seeing the way the other humans looked upon his adopted son, took him under his wing and began teaching him the ways of the blacksmith, while his mother taught him about the properties of various extracts and powders in the world... including the rare but wondrous black powder.

soon enough, he put two and two together, and made a primitive gun. it was just a hallow pipe, sealed at one end. simple, but effective. unfortunately it was basically a small cannon you held under your arm, so it was never very practical. however, seeing the potential in his son's idea, father began experimenting.

the years went by, and both the kitsune and his father worked on perfecting their design. the bullying got worse and worse, and people began resenting the prosperous family and their son. the shape shifting kitsune was not only seen as much lower than the humans (some even whent as far as to think of him as nothing more than a wild creature) but when he grew older and started to take over his father's business, people openly objected to his ascension into what they saw as a human world. a world that a damned furry fox should not be allowed to take part in.

Galevan's 21st birthday was celebrated by the family, and his father gave him a great gift, the culmination of their experiments and ingenuity. a 6 barreled pepper box firearm. nothing fancy, it was simply a working model that had been ornately and lovingly designed by father and son. the actual firepower was a gift from his mother, the alchemical cartridge that she had designed with her son. he could not have been happier, the gifts from his parents had brought his creation to life. the celebration was not to last.

the next day while working in the forge, Galevan heard a cry of pain from his father in the shop, followed by several curses and a similar cry from his mother. he ran into the shop, finding three men with bloody swords, and the crumpled bodies of his parents lying at his feet. his anger bubbled inside of him as he was taken captive and dragged to the town center. a local sorcerer forced him into his true anthropomorphic fox form, where he was then whipped by the men who had taken him captive.

he was beaten, degraded, and ultimately exiled from the city by the Lord Hannor himself. as his binds were undone at the border of the city, he turned to the lord and the mob of villagers behind him. the lord had a smirk on his face, and the boiling anger inside Galevan erupted in a single, but deliberate act. he raised his arm, clutching the firearm his father had helped him design, and fired the alchemical cartridge his mother had helped him create, ejecting a single ball of lead from the uppermost barrel. time seemed to stand still as the metal ball slipped gracefully through the air, directly into the forehead of Lord Hannor.

with that, he fled, exiled into the wilderness of Avistan to forge a path for himself.