Laz
From DeadGoblins
[edit] Laz - Changeling Chaos Sorceror
Laz was born a poor halfling boy. Well, not exactly a halfling boy, but definitely poor. He only thought he was a halfling. Of course, you would too if your parents looked like halflings and you looked like a halfling and you lived in a halfling village. Then one day, when he was playing some rough game with the other boys, he was slammed into a wall. No damage was done, but when Laz hit the wall, something changed. He instantly grew taller, his skin went gray, and his hair turned a white-green color. All of the children immediately ran away and Laz couldn't figure out why. As he was walking home, he noticed the other villagers didn't seem to acknowledge his presence except as a stranger.
As soon as he got home, his mom started yelling at him. Laz didn't know what he was doing wrong, but he soon found out when his mother shoved a mirror in front of his face. It was the first time he ever saw his real face. Of course, being a young boy, he started to cry hysterically, having no idea what was going on. Then, his mother, trying to calm Laz down, shifted her own shape, to something like what Laz saw in the mirror. After he calmed down a little, his mother shifted back and told him a little bit about his ability.
She specifically told Laz that he was a changeling, and he could take the form of anyone that was roughly his size. His mother and father were living with the halflings at the moment because something bad wanted to get them and so they had decided to just remain as halflings all of the time. They had already had Laz when they went into hiding and he had full control of his shifting abilities, sometime around the age of 2. They had impressed upon him at that time that he needed to always be the same halfling. And until that day he had...so well, in fact, that he didn't even realize he could change shape into something else.
Fortunately, Laz and his family were able to avoid any fallout from the incident, except that all of the other boys were a bit frightened of Laz for awhile. After a couple more years, everyone had basically forgotten about the incident and no one believed the village boys when they told them Laz had changed once, anyway. However, one day, Laz was by another boy while playing a game. Instead of being stunned by the hit, though, a burst of lightning came out of the young changeling. At the same time, he morphed into a goblin. Obviously, all of the other children completely freaked out (and the ones that were hit by the lightning were knocked unconscious (although not seriously injured). Laz was able to change back into his halfling form with all of his concentration and immediately ran home. Once at home, Laz noticed that his hair was sticking up and his fingers seemed charged.
He stayed home for the next few days with his mother until he was sure he was ok, and went out again. On that day, he stayed away from the roughhousing boys (and they stayed away from him) and went to the nearby river for a swim away from the other river goers. After a little bit of the swimming, Laz accidently drank in some water and panicked. As that happened, all of the water within 5 feet of him froze solid. He was able to extract himself from the ice and began running home, he saw his reflection in the river had become that of a drow! As he was walking quickly home, he heard a commotion behind him, looked back and saw that someone had slipped on a puddle of ice...in the middle of summer! Laz was obviously freaking out and concentrated really hard at turning himself back into a halfling and then ran the rest of the way home.
After a few more incidents of this ilk (a goblin shocking his mother, a dragonborn making his father sick for a day, a half-elf burning a hole into knife blade, a goliath withering a plant with a touch), Laz became increasingly stressed out about what was happening to him. He was having a harder and harder time controlling his shape...especially whenever these weird effects occured at the same time.
His parents, too, were at loss to explain this, and they were worried that they might be found out. After enough stories were told to travelers, Wisenstone School caught wind of the amazing arcane events that were occurring in this small halfling village. A recruiter came and asked around the village, not entirely sure if he should believe these halflings with their stories. Finally, he came to Laz' house to talk to their family. When Laz bowed to the recruiter, he knocked the recruiter back and shifted accidentally into his normal, changeling form. The recruiter saw the form, and instantly knew that, at the least, Laz was a shapeshifter...but that he also had something special in him. He told Laz about Wisenstone, a place where many gifted children went to learn about and how to control their powers.
The next day Laz left with the recruiters and has lived and learned at Wisenstone School since. His control over his powers and shapeshifting is imperfect at best, but he can when he can concentrate on them he can control them quite well, becoming one of the better sorcerors in the school. However, Laz is constantly strained by the effort and the slightest stress can undue his control quite quickly...
