Day 01: Diane Carlsson for Whitehack

Once again it's time for 31 Days Character Creation Challenge!

We start with a modern day Whitehack character


In Scarlet Town you fight your father’s foes
Up on the hill a chilly wind blows
You fight ‘em on high and you fight ‘em down in
You fight ‘em with whisky, morphine and gin

Diane Carlsson lives in Preston, Minnesota, the ‘trout capital of America’. If you’re not an outdoorsy type, there’s not much to do in Preston, but Diane is a girl with a calling of sorts. Diane’s a caver. She’s kinda had to become one, because of her father.

When Diane was little, her father would tell her stories of Scarlet Town. It’d be mentioned in bedtime stories, sometimes just in passing. Sleeping Beauty’s castle was in Scarlet Town, and the Hundred Acre Wood was just outside of it. Diane was almost twelve before she realized that Scarlet Town did not figure in any of those stories.
As she grew older, the stories changed too. Where they’d been fairy tales in her childhood, her father now talked about his childhood in Scarlet Town. “Did I ever tell you about when we found a Spanish doubloon on the street in Scarlet Town?" One time he tried to include the rest of the family as well. He’d start “when we lived in Scarlet Town…” but then Diane’s mother cut in with exasperated anger.

“It’s gotta stop, Eric! No more Scarlet Town”.

They separated five months after. It would be insane to think that it was over a most-likely made-up town, but Diane sure thinks so.

Her dad moved out, but he stayed close. His job and his child were in town after all.
When Diane was with him, he was still the kind man she knew, but something obsessive had taken hold over him. He’d pore over maps, new hiking maps as well as old crusty ones from before there was a town called Preston. Dad would annotate them in his own hand, and when Diane peeked she saw that he was trying to pinpoint Scarlet Town’s exact location. Apparently it wasn’t far. Most of the locations were near, in, or even under the nearby Forestville Mystery Cave State Park.
When Diane was a college freshman, her dad took her along for a ‘hike’ down one of the karst caves so common to the Minnesota Blufflands. It was a rough journey, and Diane soon realized that her father had no idea what precautions to take when descending into a limestone cave. It could have gone very wrong, and it was probably sheer luck that it didn’t.
Despite her protestations, her dad only agreed to leave after he found an old worn object that he claimed was a Spanish coin, a real de a ocho. “Just like the change you get in Scarlet Town”.

When Diane’s mother heard about the trip, she was absolutely livid. For the first time in her life, Diane had a screaming argument over Scarlet Town. It took a while before her mother would even discuss her dad again.

Then her father disappeared. His home showed signs of him having planned a hike. Another trip into the caves. A search was conducted, even if Diane thought it was weird and half-hearted. It was her friend Michaela who suggested that her father might’ve committed suicide. Diane eventually forgave her, but they’re not the besties they were. He was never found.

Diane has centered her high school career around track and field. She might not be naturally gifted, but her dedication borders on the obsessive. She is training for her real goal, finding her dad. She even got a letter from him. Yellow envelope with no return address. Just a piece of notepaper inside, with the sentence “Scarlet Town is under the hill” in her father’s hand. That, and a worn-out coin.


1st-level Deft

Vocation; Caver

STR 12
AGI 12
TGH 9
INT 11
WIL 9
CHA 15

HP 4
AV 10
SV 7

Attunements
Old climbing gear
(A plethora of maps)

Groups
Harmony High School Jock Girls
XIBALBA (online spelunking community)