Hullo, this was Francine Strovar...

[tinfoilhat]

Francine was my first dedicated PC since COR's launch. I came back to see the world had changed quite a bit from what I remember, so I took Daven's advice to play a PC that would allow me to feel out the current state of things and maybe decide what to do afterwards.

She started as a very simple mercenary-type concept: An uneducated peasant with a mother who passsed away and a deadbeat alcoholic father,  Francine was hoping to earn as much groat as possible to pull her numerous siblings out of their life of poverty. I tried to play a bumbling peasant who barely knew how to fight, let alone adventure in the early days and kind of drifted through the day by day as your typical lowbie adventurer.

The Count's influence in the Ward was becoming more solidified around the time I started playing, so I tried to portray Francine as terrified of the known Peers and loyalists, and her mantra was "Keep your head down" around those in power. She was hoping to skate by earning coins and favors through odd jobs to get her sisters the education she never had.

I wanted to leave Francine's love for her siblings as a lever people could pull to influence her on the types of jobs she would do. In those early days, Augustus was her compass and bolstered her lip-service faith to the Lord and Lady to keep her from stepping too far over the line, but she was entangled in Sunpurse affairs very early on and accepted quite a few hefty purses and favors for doing some awful things to people.

[hide=Early weeks]









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Even though she was ashamed of herself, she tried to justify these things in her head as eventually her deeds would curry enough favor with the Guild of Lessors to finally see her sisters brought into expensive schooling. Bearic was kind enough to run some events involving Francine's sisters, which really made me invested in how I would portray Francine's motivations going forward.

[hide=What's important]





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Francine vowed to show all the rings to this doll. She made a point to stop at some point in new rings to pull it out of her pack and show it around. A very flavorful item, courtesy of Bearic. Probably my favorite piece of loot ever received.

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Francine was juggling a couple lucrative offers of retainership and squirehood with some houses, and I had actually considered finally making the commitment to joining Sunpurse or Velstra around this time when the event with the Lottery was called. This is probably what I would consider the most pivotal moment of her development, and the sort of thing I point to as the magic of EFU in terms of how drastically things can change through player's choices.

I was actually pretty close when it was all going down, and purely by happenstance came upon the scene. Francine watched and did nothing as Sunpurse retainers and Herald the Knave beat down and humiliated Vivian, someone she had come to call friend and felt she owed a great debt to, because she was simply too afraid of the Peers and wanted to continue keeping her head down. When Lissandra was killed and Vivian was released broken and barely alive, Francine vowed she would never become the monster she saw that day and broke her ties and aspirations of a career in the Ward. She would carry the guilt of her inaction from that day until the very end.

[hide=The burden of guilt]



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Not long after, Maksim started making the rounds as an adventurer and expressed interest in forming a Ringrunning crew. I wasn't entirely sure where I wanted to take the character next, so I took the opportunity to see how far we could go since I only got to 92 on my first COR character and pivoted Francine's goal to be to reach the city of Baz'eel to find gainful employment.

Maksim, Ayrvael, Ramin, and Francine started challenging rings as an unnamed company for a time, eventually crossing paths and mingling with members of the Blazing Hearts and other unaffiliated ringrunners. Paddock joined soon after we got started, and once we broke what we considered a monumental ring we started formally calling ourselves "The Avowed".

Francine tried to balance a life of ringrunning with occasional trips home to mingle with friends and seek adventure (thank you Avowed for putting up with me when we got very deep). Francine would eventually reach her goal, and I put serious thought into retiring the character as it was the culmination of the arc that I had envisioned for her. It was around here that Vivian was killed, and Francine rushed back to try and avenge her death. Fate would grant her the opportunity, but it left her with more regret than relief.

[hide=Ringrunner, and other adventures...]
















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The final days spent with Odette and the conversations they had made me question what exactly I wanted to do with Francine going forward. When Odette died, Francine lamented coming back to what she had come to view as a wretched ring and resolved herself to push onwards in their memory, to see the burden Francine thought Odette had carried to where it must go. She had to see the truth for herself.

Preparations were made with her fellow Avowed and Francine made those fateful steps towards Ring 1...

---

On Ringrunning

I'm sure many have said so already, but I would encourage everyone to give ringrunning a serious attempt at some point in their time on the server. It can be a grueling, overwhelming and hopeless affair at times, but I think the bonds that were made both IC and OOCly made the triumphs and emotional highs all the greater. The sheer scope of the endeavor and the love and care the staff have put into this one of a kind experience cannot really be expressed in words, it is simply something I feel you must try as blindly as possible.


My thanks

Firstly, to the players of the Avowed. Samo, Loveless, Daven, and Sem. It is an understatement to say they helped pick both me and Francine back up and along, especially when I suffered death after death from my poor handle on NWN gameplay. Their encouragement and support through Francine's journey is something I'll ever be grateful for, and that despite them mostly looking after me... that they would entrust me with such a pivotal moment in their story together is something I can only hope to repay one day. Thank you.

I cannot thank the staff enough for the effort they put into making this world one full of memorable stories and experiences. The evolving 99th is a massive, persistent world story in itself, and that they would also take the time to grant us some of the most memorable moments I've ever had in NWN on the sometimes lonely road Kingward helped push me along and kept me encouraged. Bearic, Abala, Halfbrood, Secutor, Tala, Ironside, Pigadig, Skaghunter – thank you for making an already unforgettable journey all the better by helping me shape Francine's concept into something more, and thank you to everyone who was there at an incredibly emotional end.

Vivian and Odette were such monumental influences on Francine and where she ended up going that I would be remiss in not thanking SeerofLight and Caster again for playing them. If not for these characters, Francine might still be putzing around in 99, sneezing into that filthy scarf...

There are countless other people that I interacted with over the six or so months that I played this character and I wish I could list them all here. I wanted to play incognito for most of the journey, so I apologize to those I might have tried to bamboozle while getting my footing again on the server. Thanks to jollymole, wt, cat, nelly, paintman, warsor, blue41, loops, kiaring, xxrippenheadzxx, dan, wundy, poolson, les abysses, rwg, vp, vlaid, scitus, flagon, treeish,  zytum, writerx, empress, lannister, amon-si, theshadow, cisco, stranger, diabl0, dtw, and so many others. Our interactions, even the small ones, culminated into the journey above.

[hide=Francine's sheet and Treasure!]




Her axe – this was earned through surviving a Skaghunter Trap Hell. A very nostalgic event, as Kobold Trap Hell was the very first DM event I ever participated on when I started EFU back in R.




Secutor spoiled me with this combo. Probably the nicest looking armor any of my PCs to date have worn, acquired by transporting a far out caravaneer back home...


Boots won through a Tala-run heroic struggle through the MUD REALM, after Ayrvael decided to perform a divination next to the tent his companions were sleeping in.

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[Cat]

Francine was such a wholesome character I always genuinely enjoyed every interaction we had together. <3

[crestfallen]

hole orc believer

[Astra]

I loved reading Francine's letters - you really did a great job getting across her character, I wish I had a chance to get to know her better. Really cool!

[Scitus]

I absolutely loved Francine, from meeting her on Tristram, Fighting in the tournament, talking with branwen, and eventually doing some dummy hitting with Aman. ^^ she was an incredibly compelling and realistic character. From my perspective anyway.

[SeerofLight]

I adored Francine too, I'm glad she was one of Vivians friends. She was one of the ones that had just as much of an impact on her, it was always delightful seeing Francine around

[Caster13]

It was great playing with you again tinfoilhat. I was so happy when I learned that you played Francine. It was an absolutely wonderful to see the relationship between Odette and Francine develop. I'm desperately hoping that Francine and the rest of the Avowed made it to ring 1 because Francine deserves everything she wishes and hopes for.

[The Samophlange]

The growth of Francine from a dull steadings girl to a terrifying sellsword that had turned down multiple offers to squire under knights to run the Rings was incredible. And yet, she never really lost her humility in the process. Rather than change really dramatically, the person she was just got reinforced by her experience and bonds. It was the kind of character arc that keeps drawing me back to PWs, and means I'm always excited to see the next TFH PC.

[Vlaid]

Yesterday

Francine: Hey Sverri wanna ringrun and be cool?
Sverri: Yeah alright
Francine: Sweet sweet we'll work it out


Sadly I never got a chance to know her as well as I'd like but she always seemed like a very genuine "human" character, a rarity in COR.

[SN]

TFH <3