Magnus Burnsides

Magnus Terry "The Hammer" Burnsides is a player character controlled by Travis McElroy. He is a human fighter who was trained rogue skills from Carey Fangbattle during the third Lunar Interlude. He has a lawful good alignment with a history of carpentry. He once made a pretty awesome chair, impressing the entire town and becoming a folk hero. Helping with this are his roots as "common folk" and his rustic charm. Magnus is a "man of action" who believes that "thinking is for other people."

Having once stopped a mad tyrant, Magnus now lives under the threat of death, sworn by the tyrant as revenge. He also carries with him a knife once owned by a relative. He was once pretty confident it would come back into play in his life, but he probably doesn't remember he has it packed in his things.

Powers and Abilities

 * Rustic Hospitality - Magnus is beloved by the common people, who will shield him from his enemies and give him food and shelter when needed.
 * Master Carpenter - His test to become a Master Carpenter involved building a really good chair, which he named SitBoy 1 (unless his numbering system began prior to becoming a Master Carpenter).
 * Protection Fighter - While wielding a shield, can impose disadvantage on attack rolls against characters within 5 feet.
 * Vehicle Proficiency
 * Ambidexterity
 * Lever proficiency
 * Severing arms proficiency

Current Items

 * The Chance Lance (A magical +1 spear/javelin that can be recalled when thrown)
 * Railsplitter (once per day can cut down a tree with a single chop)
 * Shield of Heroic Memories
 * Boots of Striding and Springing
 * Stone of Farspeech
 * Adventurer's Kit
 * Short Bow
 * Phantom Fist
 * Fletcher's Mitt
 * Cockroach Mandible
 * Steven, a normal goldfish in a magical, spherical tank
 * Multiple nude drawings of a woman he was romantically involved with in his homeland.
 * A warm rock
 * Flagon of Super Alcohol
 * The Glutton's Fork
 * The Featherweight Cuirass (+3 to all Acrobatics checks)

Former Items

 * Hair of the Dog Potion - Consumed
 * Multiple severed robot arms

Magnus takes care of his things.

Early Life
Magnus's introduction to being a 'protector' was defending a mongrel dog from three bullies and got beaten up to protect the dog and allow it to escape. This solidified his need to defend those that are weaker than him.

Five years before his adventure with Merle and Taako began, Magnus lead a revolt against Mad Governor Callen. When the city of Raven's Roost had been founded, people stood behind Callen, but Callen saw his power as endless and become corrupt. Magnus gathered people together and defeated Callen and his soldiers in battle. Callen had escaped and was forgotten about in the months to pass.

After the rebellion, Magnus worked in Hammer and Tongs, the pride of the Craftsman Corridor in Raven's Roost. His mentor and blacksmith/general craftsman, Steven Waxmen, had taken Magnus in after a promising apprenticeship. Magnus worked on a black oak rocking chair with a lavender polish imbued into it, that he would submit to the Continental Craftsmen Showcase that took place in Neverwinter, a ten days drive from Raven's Roost. Julia, Steven's daughter and Magnus's new bride, entered the shop, talked as they usually did, and brought Magnus out to the cart that she had prepared for him. Magnus left with his rocking chair for the showcase, after shaking Steven's hand and kissing Julia and telling her he loved her.

Two days into his travel to Neverwinter, Callen returned to Raven's Roost, with a "If I can't have this city, no one can" mentality, and bombed the support column for the Craftsmen Corridor. 76 people were killed, including Julia and Steven. Hammer and Tong was destroyed and in the time is took Magnus to return to Raven's Roost, the town had evacuated, due to fear of a repeat attack.

As a result history he has no fear of death and looks forward to meeting Julia again in the afterlife.

Here There Be Gerblins
After Taako is knocked out by Magic Brian during a magical wizard duel in Wave Echo Cave, Magnus saves Taako's life with a healing potion and in the process unknowingly imparts upon Taako the knowledge of the word "cheese."

Trivia

 * The posters Magnus hangs in his room in the Bureau of Balance are "a Jess the Beheader poster and a tour poster for Fantasy Dave Matthews Band."
 * Magnus is an only child. He is glad to have found Merle and Taako, and considers Angus to be a little brother.
 * Magnus does not have anxiety.
 * Magnus is afraid of spiders, has "no" weaknesses, and is allergic to sulfa-based medications.
 * Magnus is not asexual, but "events in his backstory have left him completely uninterested in romance."
 * Magnus' favorite candy is Turkish Delights.
 * Magnus has 8 homemade "Big Dog" tee shirts.
 * Magnus is a mead guy.
 * Beauty and the Beast is the Disney movie that made Magnus cry the most. Fantasy Seinfeld is his favorite sitcom. He would love everything HGTV, including Property Brothers. He would probably be a big Green Lantern fan. His favorite podcast would be Can I Pet Your Dog.
 * He would see getting bitten by a fantasy werewolf as a net positive. Magnus thinks the Gelatenous Cube is cute and "so squishy."
 * Magnus would take a fantasy bullet for Taako or Merle "in a heartbeat."
 * Magnus is 1000% #TeamBigDog
 * Magnus can lift 3 other members of the Bureau of Balance on a good day. Despite this, he doesn't really train, he's a naturally burly boy. That said, if Magnus were in the Olympics, he'd be best at "shotput, javelin, [and] weightlifting."
 * Magnus names all the chairs he makes like so: "SitBoy 1, SitBoy 2, SitBoy 3," etc.
 * Magnus took a potion so he would never have to maintain his facial hair. It tasted like licorice.
 * Magnus gets jealous of Merle and Taako's magic "ALL THE TIME," but he's able to channel his anger into flexing, which calms him down. If he could steal a magical spell, it would probably be something that would let him fly.
 * Response to question "Magnus's fuck, marry, kill between Taako, Merle, and Upsy?": "He'd Marry Taako and Merle. He'd kill Upsy. He wouldn't 'F' anyone. Not his style."
 * Magnus would never get rid of RailSplitter.
 * Magnus doesn't have tattoos, just scars.
 * If Magnus had a theme song, it would be this.
 * Magnus has died nineteen times without crossing to the astral plane, according to Kravitz.

Quotes
- Ep. 20, after some vines allegedly ate Magnus's penis off