Friday NPC #3 - Tyne

No statblock this week for the NPC of the week. That is because Tyne, first name only no last name, isn't much for combat. Tyne is a genasi, someone with elemental heritage usually a genie. Tyne is a Sensate, (described briefly in this blog post. For more info pick up the Planewalker's Handbook).

Sensate's are a faction of planeswalker that yearns to experience every sensation and experience that they can. They travel the world watching operas, playing games, eating meals, experiencing sexual acts, and anything else they can think of. Tyne was the leader of a sect of Sensates even more obsessed with experiencing every sensation than usual.

Tyne also abnormal for a genasi, because he found his djinni father and tried to form a relationship with him. Tyne's father wanted nothing of the sort, being a respectable djinni of high standing, he had spoken out publicly against air elementals consorting with mortals. Tyne was the embodiment of hypocrisy to him, so in order to feel what blackmailing one's own father felt like, Tyne asked for what he thought as his birthright, a wish from his father.

Tyne's wish was for the ability to truly experience every experience, taste every taste, live every possible life. His father granted it, in his own selfish way, so that Tyne could never appear and disrupt his life again. He made Tyne spiral through the planes, and through time itself, living for millenia, but only a few days in each time period.

Tyne may spend a few hours, or a few weeks in a specific time period. Later in his lifetime he may learn to control his passage through time, but for now, he is spiraling through the history of the multiverse, soaking up every experience that he can.

For the DM

Tyne may be somewhat reminiscent of the Doctor from Doctor Who, he is a lone man spiraling through time. He can be an interesting stranger to introduce to a campaign, appearing for a moment, and then disapearing, possibly with important knowledge to the players.

One fun way to introduce Tyne is to have him already know your players the first time they meet. The first time for the players may not be his first time, in fact you could go so far as to make it the last time for him, and have them meet him on his deathbed, he considers them old friends, while they don't quite know what to make of this strange old man. One lifetime in the entirety of the history and future of the multiverse is a very short amount of time, but you can explain that he tends to gravitate towards certain important people, and that he has lived an incredibly long time.

Every time your players encounter Tyne it should be at a different point in his timeline, meaning they won't be sequential. Sometimes he may not remember their last meeting, because he hasn't experienced it yet, other times he has knowledge of some future event. He should be careful giving them too much information, to preserve the timeline. Play around with time stuff, and don't have him become too major of a player in the campign. Try to keep him a mystery.