Reference Sheet
Helen’s reference sheet for her final design, complete with mismatched bronze tassets, scale mail vest, and steel greaves and vambraces. Not included is the massive trunk she wears on her back that carries an assortment of gear such as sixty feet of hempen rope, a cooking pot, and twelve wooden stakes -- y’know, the essentials.
Intial Sketches.
Several sketchy iterations of Helen’s design, where I was trying to figure out what kinds of armor I wanted to mix together. I mixed chain, splint, plate, scale, leather, etc.
Prop Sketch: Weapon + Gear
Here, I wanted to figure out how to layer Helen’s multiple belts and how to arrange all the gear she hangs from them.
Prop Sketch: Ring
The signet ring of the Blackdeer house that belonged to her mother. It is the only item she kept from them, and is careful to hide it. It is enchanted to detect the presence of certain monsters if they are near, a warning that could mean life or death. Its band is meant to resemble intertwined antlers that, if one looks closely enough, resemble interlocked hearts, a hint to her family’s practice of hemocraft.
Helen of Frey
Aliases/ Titles: Lady Helen Amafrey Blackdeer of the North
Helen is my player character from a discontinued Dungeons & Dragons homebrew campaign. She was born to a noble house of secret monster slayers and hemocrafters that fell to the curse of lycanthropy when she was seven years old. Although her family went into hiding, they were tracked by a fellow monster hunter who granted her parents the mercy of death, for their curse was permanent; however, Helen’s was able to be lifted. She decided to continue her training as a monster slayer with her new mentor, and has picked up the life of a traveling monster slayer under a pseudonym, cautiously on the lookout for the creature that cursed her parents.
Design Path
Helen had a few guiding design elements I follow throughout the process:
- Piecemeal armor and equipment
- Long tasset-vest combination for the torso (I like the strong silhouette)
- Padded gambeson worn underneath to visually to connect it all
- Bronze to match her eyes and because of affordability (less than steel but better than leather)
- Equipment belt (quick access to potions and tonics)
- Looks ready to throw down, always ready to move
- Easily read, honest face = hair out of the way.
Although born to nobility, Helen is incredibly bad with words, which not only interferes with her negotiating the terms of contracts (if her generous nature doesn’t get in the way first) but also to get into fights she’d rather avoid. This, coupled with hiding her origins and nomadic lifestyle has encouraged her to keep to herself.
