Sylnan

Sylnan is a Dungeons & Dragons character created by Condifiction for the campaign Just Roll With It

Character Details
Sylnan is a charlatan rogue. He is the older brother of Br'aad and has worked for most of his life as a thief, participating in heists & other crimes as part of the Wharf's criminal underbelly. Sylnan is especially skilled at survival, stealth, and acrobatics.

He is functionally illiterate, due to his low intelligence score. However, he found a gem in Arc 2 Episode 18 which increased his intelligence and made him able to read and write until it was broken in Arc 2 Episode 33. After touching a giant gem in the ruins beneath the Wharf, Sylnan was infected with some form of the Spell Plague, which causes the veins in his hand up to his elbow to glow purple.

He has the feat "The Rat King's Embrace," which once per day allows him to turn into a rat (akin to wildshape). While in this form, he has the same skills as a rat, but retains his own mind and dexterity score.

History
Sylnan was raised in an orphanage in the Great King's Wharf with his younger brother, Br'aad. Their mother died giving birth to Br'aad when Sylnan was four, and their father left shortly after. Despite never really knowing their father, they both still use his last name. Although Br'aad has no memory of their mother, Sylnan is shown to still miss her, and would often visit her grave. Because the orphanage treated them poorly, the two brothers began pulling cons together for money, where Br'aad would talk to a person and distract them enough for Sylnan to steal from them. They were treated badly by the others in the orphanage because of their race, and the other children often called them names and beat them up. Unbeknownst to them, they were in the orphanage under the orders of King Rigmund. The King despised their father, Brendan, for falling in love with one of his consorts, and he was paying the orphanage owners to house the younger Vengolors.

When Sylnan was 10, he escaped the orphanage with Br'aad to live on the streets. They eventually found a home in an abandoned factory, sharing the building with the Rat King.

After escaping the orphanage, Sylnan entered a relationship with Katherine, who had also lived in the orphanage. They were presumably happy together and planned to get married, but when Sylnan was approximately 21, Katherine was murdered by the Barber after digging too deeply into the affairs of the Fish People. Sylnan spent months trying to find out what had happened to her, ultimately having to give her up for dead.

To give him and Br'aad the best life possible, Sylnan would often do hired work with an underground thieves' guild in the Wharf, as well as jobs for the kingpin, Brendan. He worked on a pirate ship for a time alongside Ugarth. When Sylnan was 18, he and the other sailors besieged a nearby city, but were attacked and defeated by the local army. Sylnan managed to rescue Ugarth before the two of them escaped, and they became close friends.

At some point in his career, Sylnan was be hired by Brendan to befriend and kidnap a noble child to hold for ransom. Sylnan agreed to the job due to the fact that it paid incredibly well. However, until later he was unaware that child had been killed by the other criminals when the political figure being pressured refused to comply.

While Br'aad was abroad, Sylnan rescued and subsequently befriended a sickly goblin with a disgusting head tumor.

Arc 1
While exploring the sewers with the rest of the Fated, Sylnan is knocked out by an Umber Hulk before managing to kill it with an arrow. He also touches a giant purple crystal and is affected by its magic, which turns the veins of his left hand purple. The wizard Lambert later theorizes this to be due to a magical disease called Spell Plague, and warns Sylnan that he will become corrupted by the curse unless it is removed.

After being betrayed by Sylnan's thief acquaintance Jaquoit, he and Mountain are kidnapped by Brendan. The crime lord cuts off Sylnan's left pinky finger. However, the curse seems to affect Sylnan to such an extent that the finger eventually grows back fully. Sylnan also notices Brendan's resemblance to Br'aad, which leads to the group realizing that Brendan is the Vengolors' father.

While attempting to find the kenku Iron Bucket, Sylnan begins to hear a voice in his head, telling him to kill Jaquoit and eat his friends. At the cathedral, this reaches an extreme when he suddenly becomes able to smell the kenku, and ferally chases the unlucky bird across the rooftops while trying to devour him. Eventually, Sylnan manages to snap himself out of the bloodlust, although not without significant mental trauma from the event.

In Episode 18, Sylnan is stabbed by the Blue Orc, Sark, falling unconscious. While he is dying, Sylnan is visited by the demon-like creature who is possessing his arm, which offers to keep him alive if he allows it to take control. However, Sylnan refuses the offer. Br'aad attempts to carry him to a doctor, but he dies before anything can be done due to blood loss. However, he wakes up in a magical garden where he finds his girlfriend, Katherine, who reveals that she has become a god and used her powers to keep him from passing on. She also explains that it wasn't his time to pass, and using a mystical fountain, Sylnan is able to tell Br'aad how the group can bring him back to life.

During the time he is dead, which passes more quickly for Sylnan than actual time, he revisits a number of old memories in an attempt to understand how the demon in his arm is able to maintain its hold over him, concluding that it is latching on to his guilt and self-hatred from how he reacted to Br'aad's pact. He also agrees to become Katherine's first follower in order to allow her to continue existing as a god.

The group isn't able to successfully revive Sylnan using the ritual, but Taxi manages to bring the half-elf back to life by channeling his tree powers. As Sylnan is resurrected, Sark attempts to kill him again, but Ugarth sacrifices himself to save Sylnan.

When the Fated have their vision at the end of Arc 1, Sylnan sees Katherine, who shows him a mirror. He sees that his reflection is split into a chaotic purple side and a glowing golden side, but the appearance fades after the vision ends.

Arc 2
During Arc 2, Sylnan finds that the demon possessing him has grown stronger as a result of his resurrection. He and Br'aad attempt to look for someone who can lift this possession, and eventually Br'aad, Taxi, and Velrisa find a man named Akar who can.

In Episode 18, he takes a small gem from a wizard's tower, which causes his intelligence to increase by 4, rising from -2 to +0. This allows him to become literate, after not being able to read or write for all his life. However, Sylnan also suffers a massive ego boost from this spike in intellect, and believes himself to be the smartest out of the group.

During the harpy attack in the 24th episode, Sylnan loses control of the demon possessing him and he experiences a massive boost in power from the darkness within. In the moment, the power allows him to rescue the ship, enjoying the ease with which he kills the enemies. Afterwards, he falls unconscious due to the enormous amount of power he expended, and Br'aad sees a demonic, shadowy figure who implies itself to be Sylnan standing over his body.

Sylnan seems to become more aggressive and hostile as he continues to lose control over the darkness within him, and he insults and brushes off his friends in favor of isolating himself. When Br'aad and the other party members throw an elaborate party to cheer him up in Episode 28, he becomes offended, and antagonizes Mountain into throwing a kiwi cake at his face before leaving. He also insults and provokes a dragon in the same episode, who only laughs and asks whose "pet" Sylnan is. Afterwards, the captain of the air ship warns Br'aad that if Sylnan does not show some respect, he will be thrown overboard. However, as of episode 29, "Bros Before Woes", he has apologized and shown remorse for his actions and plans to seek help.

Br'aad
Br'aad is Sylnan's brother, who he is deeply devoted to keeping happy. He would do despicable jobs for money so that they could make the best of their situation with coin. Since their reunion at the start of the campaign, Sylnan and Br'aad remained inseparable. Sylnan indulges Br'aad in whatever stunt he pulls and they continue to pull their old cons.

Like Br'aad, Sylnan has been shown to be very distraught when something bad happens to his brother. When Br'aad was taken to Limbo, Sylnan was very shaken to see him disappear, even though it was only for a second.

He also naively believes whatever Br'aad tells him, even if he had meant it as a joke. Br'aad once accidentally convinced Sylnan that their mother was alive by jokingly calling the Rat King their mom. As well, when Br'aad returned from Limbo, Sylnan genuinely believed his tale that he was there for years, became their champion, and was part Gith. When Sylnan worriedly asked if that meant that they weren't actually brothers, Br'aad dropped the joke.

Sylnan holds an enormous amount of love for his brother, defending him to anyone who insults or doubts him. Sylnan has a lot of faith in Br'aad; when Ob'nockshai transported Br'aad to the bar during Jaquot's attack, Sylnan was insistent that Br'aad hadn't ditched him and Mountain, but was only hiding. When Mountain and Sylnan were clearly outmatched, he hid behind the large flipped table with the unconscious Mountain, and waited for Br'aad to come save them, although he ultimately didn't arrive from the bar in time.

During his time of animosity towards the group, his relationship with Br'aad is temporarily damaged as he ruins the party and cake Br'aad had prepared for him, but he apologizes and tries to explain that he is possessed by demons afterwards. They are currently on good terms.

Mountain
Despite robbing him with Br'aad in the first episode, Sylnan and Mountain actually become quite close, as they are both "men of action".

When the party splits, these two often go together, usually along with Br'aad. When Sylnan was going to get information about the blue orc while everybody else planned to read, Mountain eagerly came along (along with a distracted reading-and-running Br'aad). When everybody else wanted to stay in the library, Sylnan asked Mountain if he wanted to throw rocks at walls, to which Mountain eagerly agreed.

Mountain seems to develop a dislike for Sylnan as he is rude and hostile towards them in the late 20's of the episodes, even throwing a cake at his face in response to a punch thrown by the half-elf. It's unknown what their relationship is as of the most recent episode, though Sylnan has apologized and is trying to be less aggressive.

Taxi
Has a mysterious grudge against Taxi that he will never forget, although Taxi has no idea what he's talking about.

Like Mountain, he becomes frustrated with Sylnan's change in behavior, and doesn't seem to care for cheering him up, but goes along with Br'aad's plan to throw a party in order to please Br'aad. Whether he forgives Sylnan and their relationship is back to normal is unknown.