Arkadios
Description
Arkadios is a 18 year old, Medium sized, Male Human. He stands 5' 7" tall and weighs 156 pounds. His world view is Chaotic Good in nature, and is currently a worshipper of Olidammara.
Background
Arkadi (the name he was originally known as) has spent his entire life in the City of Sasserine. From an early age, he has lived on the streets, making his home in the Shadowshore District of the city. He has been living in a 5' by 7' room in the attic of a building on Rubble Street, an establishment called Gentle Nelli's Apothecary. The room can only be entered through a secret portal in the eaves of the roof and has thus provided him with a fairly high degree of protection from detection and autonomy of coming and going as he pleases.
The room is nothing much to look at, just a place to keep his meager belongs, roll out his bedroll to get some rest and be able to be alone for some peace and quiet from time to time. He has been grateful that no one has so far found where he stays, although he thinks that the proprietor of the Apothecary might suspect that someone is living in the attic of the building. Even if that is the case, there is no entrance to the space from inside the building and Arkadi leaves some coin under the front door late at night from time to time in order to discourage any searching of the building. So far, it seems to be working.
Shadowshore is not the nicest place in the world to grow up in, but it is the only one that Arkadi knows of. Even so, he has managed, although he does not know how, not to fall in with the really desperate criminal element that inhabits the area. He never has had more than a few gold coins at any one time and prefers to gain more when needed by helping others, or at least pretending to help others. One of his favorite ploys is not to cut the purse from some unsuspecting soul, but to slice the purse so that the contents fall on the ground and then gain the attention of his intended victim in order to point out the persons lost wealth, help them recover it and then hopefully get a reward. This process has served him fairly well in at least being to be to eat halfway decently and sometimes to get a few things he needs.
Arkadi has wandered around all the parts of the city, but never stays in any one area too long. He constantly is amazed by the sights and sounds that changed from time to time as people visit or do business in the city. He has fairly good general knowledge of things happening in Sasserine and will sometimes act on that in order to increase his take from time to time. All in all, he has been fortunate not to show up on anyones list of people to watch out for, but things change in unexpected ways.
Although schooled in the fine arts of getting at other people's wealth, Arkadi was never one to do it just for fun, only to survive. He actually has a good soul and has managed to stay out of trouble that would eventually lead him down the wrong path. This, in and of itself, has almost gotten him into situations where he barely escaped, except for the incident that happened almost two weeks ago, at the beginning of Goodmonth in the year CY 596.
Arkadi was basically minding his own business when he caught some movement out of the corner of his eye behind a group of buildings he was passing while traveling up Worgul Street on his way home. Normally, Arkadi would have kept on walking, but for some unknown reason an intense curiosity welled up inside him. He cautiously looped around the buildings and snuck down another alleyway between them to have a look at what was going on.
What he saw took his breath away momentarily. Three men were just finishing trussing up someone in a shadowed end of the courtyard the clump of buildings formed. As they stepped away to admire their handiwork, Arkadi got a glance at the fall of some hair from their victim. It was a woman and one that appeared to be not from the Shadowshore district for the clothes she wore were too fine. The curiosity that had filled him was now turning into a rage, slowly but surely.
He didn't think, just reacted. He knew, somewhere deep down inside himself, that he was totally outclassed. But it didn't matter, it wasn't even a thought. He grabbed his bow, notched an arrow, took careful aim that seemed to take an eternity almost as if time slowed down and he was the only one who could react with that speed, and let loose the catgut string. The arrow flew true, too true, for it hit the biggest of the three and drove striaght, clean through his heart.
Before he realized it, Arkadi was fleetly running back the way he came, except he stopped about 10 feet from the end of the alley where it opened up back into the street. He squeezed himself into a mostly hidden nook and drew his dagger, waiting for the other two to come and get him. Which they did but with blinding fury as they thought Arkadi had continued all the way out into the street. As the second man, the smaller, passed him, Arkadi stuck his foot out, tripped the man, grabbing him to break his fall, right onto his dagger. Again, Arkadi seemed possessed with unforeseen fortunate as the dagger was driven directly across and through the man's throat, killing him instantly.
He laid the body down and quickly ran back to the courtyard where he saw the woman struggling to get free. He quickly went to her side and slit the bonds on her wrists. While he then went to do the same on her legs, she quickly pulled the gag from her mouth and told Arkadi to turn her around now! For whatever reason he does not know, he obeyed and as he did so he saw the third man come out of the alley with murder on his face. Arkadi tumbled to the side, springing up into a throwing stance with his dagger about to fly when the man came into his sight.
Instead, what came into his sight was the man clawing at his throat as if he could not breath and collapsing to the group. Arkadi stood there and stared, for how long he has no recollection, till the woman came up beside him and gentle touched him. She thanked him for coming to her rescue and offered a unique, at least to Arkadi, form of reward. She told him that she senses something inside him that she can help to develop. She told him she believes he has quite the potential for magic, magic that would let him do some truly amazing things.
Arkadi decided to take her up on her offer, has gone on to being called Arkadios now and has until the present time, been quietly sneaking off to the Witchwardens to train in the arcane arts. He is a quick learner and should soon be capable of producing his own manipulations of magical energy.
Character Sheet
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Journal
10th of Goodmonth, CY 596
A day like any other day, well, at least since the direction of my life change 10 days ago. I went to training today, just as I have done for the last 9 days. It is so very different from anything that I have ever done before. Between the shift in focus from the abilities I have learned through the course of my life to recognizing the potential inside of me, or from wherever it comes from, is much more exciting.
But, then again, things continue to change. This afternoon was another example. A wizened looking, old halfling stopped me while I was taking a break today and gave me a letter, one inviting me to dinner the next evening at the Vanderboren mansion in the Merchant District, with the current head of the house, Lavinia Vanderboren. All the letter say was that there was a possible job involved that could benefit from the skills I possessed. When I asked about which skills of mine that might be helpful, she told me "Just bring yourself - you come recommended very highly from a mutual friend". It makes me wonder if it is Lux Seoni that is the mutual friend.
I finished up my studies for the day and on the way home attempted to gain a little cash so I would not run out of coin too soon. 6 silver and 6 copper was not going to last me much longer. So on my way back I managed to cut open someone's purse, causing a huge pile of coins to drop to the ground. I called out to the man telling him he is dropping coins on the ground and help him pick them up. He rewards me with a gold piece for his gratitude. I spend two silver on the way home for a decent meal and retire for the evening, pondering what this dinner invitation tomorrow might bring.
11th of Goodmonth, CY 596
I get up, dress and head over to the Witchwardens to continue my training. I feel the flow of magical energy coming to me easier now and begin to wonder how much longer it will be before I am able to cast my first spells. Since I really do not like to get up close and personal when dealing with others physically, I am concentrating on spells that I can cast at range, similar to the way I use my bow or throw a dagger. It will be interesting to see which spells I will be capable of mastering and I can not wait to find out.
At the end of the day, I wash up; it would not be good to appear unkempt to someone like the head of the Vanderboren family. After triple checking myself, I head out to the mansion, arriving around 6 PM. The gates of the mansion are wide open and after a cursory glance around to see if there is anyone there I should talk to first, I head up to the front door and pull the bell. The wizened halfling answers the door, greating me and showing me to the dining room, which is fairly lavishly appointed with wine, fruit and cheeses already put out. She tells me that others will be arriving shortly, but in the meantime to help myself to the food and drink. I thank her and she leaves the room. I pour a glass of fine wine, fill a plate with some fruit and chesse and sit down on a chair, one of the ones that are set up around the perimeter of the room for just such a purpose.
Observing the room, I can see the dozen chairs set up for partaking of the food already placed on the sideboard. The table is finely set with seating for about 10 people. I wonder how many others will be coming and I guess I should of ask the halfling. I also notice a portrait of a handsome man on the wall above the end of the table where our host would be sitting. The food and wine are quite good and I am savoring the taste as it is rare that I get to enjoy such things as this.
At this point, two more people are lead into the dining room, a very young man with silver hair and a very tall, muscular and pretty descent looking half-orc. She mentions the same things to them as she did to me as well as points out my presence as one of the group of people invited to this dinner. They partake of some of the offered food and drink and then come over, introducing themselves. The silver-haired boy (he looks so young, it is difficult to think of him as a man), introduces himself as Silver, a bard from the area, while the half-orc says his name is Gorath and he comes from the Champion's District. Gorath is wearing simple robes and I begin to try and think of what type of person he might be.
The three of us are about to start engaging in some idle chit-chat when the halfling returns once more with two additional people. The smaller of the two is a female elf in robes as well, while the bigger fellow has a peculiar look to him as his skin almost glistens with a golden hue as if his radiant tan was wet after taking a swim, but he is not wet at all. I look to his face and am surprised to see that his eyes are silver in color. We exchange introductions and I learn that the elf is called Kyrsith while the shiny one is Morgan Lightgiver. I note that it is strange that he gives a full name instead of just a personal one.
The halfling has disappeared again. She seems to be quite good at that, but instead of her coming back into the room, a group of four enters and not from the direction in which we arrived. There is a male half-elf in leather armor with some daggers, a swarf with a spear, a haughty looking woman and a man wearing breast plate while carrying a bastard sword. They walk past us heading for the door through which we arrived. Someone notices a patch of some kind that they all wear and I vaguely fell like I have seen the haughty woman before, but I can not remember where. Someone realizes that this group are The Jade ?. The man with the bastard sword says something like "So this is the poor group? Good luck, you're going to need it." to us as they exit the room. I'm not quite sure if he was happy or not.
The halfling returns followed by a pretty woman who starts off by thanking us for coming and that her name in Lavinia Vanderboren. She then addresses each of us in turn. Morgan presents her with some flowers and Silver gives her a locket. I'm not sure why they are doing things such as this unless they are trying to curry her favor, but I don't think that is working, although she does seem somewhat surprised by the offers and graciously accepts them.
She seems to know a bit of personal information about each and every one of us, from the "noble" nature that Gorath displays in the Arena to the fact that my talents are not only somewhat devious in nature but that they are also on the verge of expanding. She must have connections in high places.
She proceeds to tell us exactly why we have been invited here. She has a particular problem that she needs dealt with. It seems that, even though she has paid the man from the Harbor who has been minding her ship, the Blue Nixie, for the last fours months of overdue dock fees, the Harbor Master, as well as Soller Vark (the man she paid) claim that she did not. Although this is a big problem, the bigger issue is the fact that she needs to get into the family value and the only way to do so is to use a family signet ring, which she does not have. One is currently being made for her, but it will probably be a least a month before it is ready, too longer for her to wait to pay her debts. The only other one she knows of is the one her father kept on his ship, the Blue Nixie, and she can not gain access to it. So she asks us if we might be able to help her retrieve the signet ring from the ship, for which she will pay each of us 200 gp.
I ask her for a little clarification (even though 200 gp is a fortunate!) as to exactly what is necessary for us to accomplish, just obtaining the ring or the return of the ship as well. She is primarily interested in the ring, but if anything else happens, well, so be it. We also ask her for a bit more background on what has occurred that has put her into this situation so that we may better understand what we are getting ourselves into, but before she elaborates, we all agree to help out. She tells us about the unfortunate occurrence with her parents and mentions the fact that her brother is missing, but does not go into details. Some of the others want to get going at this point, to directly go get their things and check out the dock where the ship is moored. I believe this is being too rash and suggest that we talk plans out over dinner (which I did not want to miss given how good the food and wine already was) so that we can be sure that we have a good, solid idea of what we are going to do.
So, over a very fine meal of venison and potatos, we discuss what we will do. Kyrsith, Morgan and Silver want to go back to their homes to pick up additional gear, while I, secretly want to go home to drop some gear off, specifically my armor, because I have a feeling we will be swimming in the harbor at some point in the evening. Gorath also wants to heads to his place to get a few things. Since the group of three are heading away from where the ship is, going back to the Noble District, they will return by gondola, renting one to carry them somewhat past the ship in the dock before landing. Gorath and I will scout a bit independently around so as not to attract too much attention. I recommend that after we all finish the scouting we are doing, that we meet up at the Drunken Bear to finalize our plans.
So, once dinner is finished, we all head off in our separate directions as needed. It is 9 PM at this point and it is going to be at least 9:30 before I reach my little room. As I start on my way back, I go by the dock where the ship is berthed, only to find out that it is not there but anchored 100 ft. off shore. To top it all off, it looks like someone is loading the boat from longboats. This does not bode well because if the ship is being loaded with cargo, it will probably be leaving in the not too very distant future. But there is a new moon tonight and as I continue on my way home, I study the bay area from the ship to across the inlet where Shadowshore lies and decide that I will be going swimming much earlier than I thought this evening. By the time I have drop my things off and headed down to the docks in Shadowshore, it will be 10 PM and plenty dark enough for what I intend on doing.
I continue on to my humble abode, where I will drop off my armor and most of what else I am carrying. As I travel, I start to think back to the dinner invitation and especially of the people who show up. I really can not say much of anything about any of them, but I do get this feeling of, of, well I'm not quite sure, when it comes to this guy Morgan. There is something about his mannerisms that is abrupt and almost condescending and his methods for acting aren't that great as well, he seems to me impetuous and will to go on to do something with not so much thought as to being prepared, or at least having contingency plans. I mean I really had to convince him that we needed a planned place to met so that we could discuss our next steps after we have all scouted out things separately. I don't know what he was thinking was going to happen we each of us was done, just run into one another by happenstance? I need to keep an eye on this one to make sure he does not try to lead us somewhere we shouldn't go, at least until he improves his worth.
By the time I am done musing with myself, I am approaching my little room. I take my usual precautions, plus a few extra ones, and get into my place. I leave everything behind except for some caltrops, a small mirror, my belt pouch containing my thieves tools and 2 daggers. Once I am ready, I head done to the docks of Shadowshore, gauge the calmness of the inlet, slip into the water and leisurely swim towards the Blue Nixie under a canopy of a new moon. Maybe fortunes will be with us this evening in our endeavor to found out how we might be able to retrieve Ms. Vanderboren's rightful property. I slow down and stop about 50 ft. from her port side, the side that is unattended to because of the loading happening on the starboard side. I can not tell too much of what is really happening from where I am at, so I cautiously swim up to the side of the boat, thereby giving me cover to work from. I edge my way to the bow of the boat and peek around its prow when I get there.
They are loading cages on board the ship from longboats, cages with monkeys and cages with lots of other animals I have never seen before. This is not looking too good here because if they are loading live creatures on board, they must be planning to set sail soon and if they are loading exotic animals and not from the docks, then they are most likely smuggling the cargo out of the city. I have no idea when they might be taking off, but it will probably be under the cover of the same new moon that has helped me out so far, meaning in the wee hours of the morning, the ship will most likely slip out to sea. We will have to figure out a way to get on board tonight and quickly or prevent the ship from leaving in the first place.
I feel the tide pushing me away from the ship towards the port side and the docks of the Merchant's District and suddenly I have an idea. I pray to Olidammara for sure guidance and for luck in what I am about to try and pull off. I pull out one of my daggers and using the port side of the point of the bow as my starting point, I dive underwater, swimming to the anchor rope and for almost as long as I can hold my breath, start cutting the line. When I am about to run out of air, I swim back to my starting point and catch my breath. I try not to strain myself, preferring to do this as silently as possible. I repeat the procedure again and again until I figure I'm about three quarters of the way through the line.
When I was done, I headed aft to the stern of the ship and started the whole process over again with the rear anchor. I hope it will be enough to at least prevent the ship from leaving by having the lines snap when they go to pull up anchor. I finish with the second anchor line, slip my dagger back in place and head to the nearest dock, which turns out to be a long one. I slip underneath the dock and head down aways till I am under a section where I hear a lot of movement going on. Needing some type of diversion, I make a huge splash in the water and start yelling for help. I am pulled from the water by none other than Gorath, thank him for his help and start heading down the dock to shore when someone calls out to me wanting to know what happened.
Trying to Bluff my way out of things, I tell them that I got pushed in to the water, but did not see who did it or even if it was on purpose. The guy is not too sure of my answer and is about to press me for more information when others working on the dock yell out to stop wasting time and help them out. He lets me go and I quickly head off to the Drunken Bear to meet up with the others. I think Gorath follows somewhat behind me. I try to get as much water out of my clothing as I can on the way there, but I am totally saturated. At least I am no longer dripping wet when I arrive.
Upon entering, I scan the room for the others, spot them and head in their direction. They, especially Morgan, want to know what I found out, right there in the common room, with me a sopping rag trailing a small stream of water!!! I tell them that it would be nice to go somewhere private where I can dry off but some are slow to take the hint. Kyrsith says they have a room upstairs and we finally all head to it.
When we get to the room, I get a little something to eat and wash it down with while trying to dry out by a fireplace. I explain what I saw to them and what I did. Immediately, Morgan wants to take off to the gondola they have rented to do who knows what. No plan whatsoever, just go now. I tell the others to wait just a little bit so that I can at least warm up. Nope, they just go on ahead without me. So be it and I tell them I'll follow in a few minutes. At least, when I ask where the gondola is, they let me know.
So, alone in the room, I try to dry off a bit, have another drink and then head off for the gondola. On my way there, Kyrsith comes running towards me saying we have to leave now because of the ship moving. I starting running along with her and just barely managed to jump into the gondola, a feat made more difficult by the fact that Morgan had already started pulling away from the dock. Once on board, I find out that both anchor lines have snapped and the Blue Nixie is drifting in towards the shore and if it doesn't stop, it will probably ram into one of the docks before grounding itself. I guess my work was better than I expected.
Morgan starts tillering the gondola out towards the Blue Nixie along with about 4 to 5 other boats as cries of help are shouted out from the anchorless ship. We need a plan here, desperately, as we are sailing by the seat of our pants. I suggest that with all the confusion, we try to slip to the port side of the boat, since the starboard side is where the longboats that we offloading cargo to the ship are tied up and are being dragged along with the drifting ship. The other boats are heading that way and with all the confusion going on, we may have a golden opportunity to at least try to sneak aboard the ship. Morgan gets to work on heading us in that direction.
We managed to slip behind the drifting ship, which is not really drifting much anymore and they must have gotten a spare anchor in place. As we approach the ship, I dive out of the gondola, swim to the ship and starting climbing up the ropes hanging over the side. I get to the railing, swing over the side and crouch down behind some barrels for cover. Well, now I am on board and from what I briefly saw, there are at least a half dozen men on board engaged in trying to clean up the mess I started. I decide that I need to blend in better, so I strip off my shirt and put a couple of slashes into my pants. I then try to sneak my way, non-chalantly, to a stairwell at the aft of the ship. I get about two steps before what looks like the captain of the ship (since he is the one giving orders) yells at me to stop and identify myself.
I try to bluff the captain into believing that I am a member of his crew and fail miserably. He approaches me with his rapier drawn and orders me to disarm. I draw a dagger and he promptly disarms me. I try to get away from him by tumbling by only to take a vicious slash from his rapier. Another crew member comes over, responding to the warn call of the captain, piercing me with his rapier and I really start to feel woosy. I draw my other dagger and catch out of the corner of my eye some of the others finally boarding the ship. I try to hit the crew member and succeed, which sends him off like a scared sewer rat. In the meantime, I hear some singing behind me and watch in amazement as the captain just sits down on the deck in rapture.
The next thing I know, Gorath appears and locks the captain up in a grapple making the captain look like a useless puppet. I bull rush a sailor trying to tie off the longboats sending him clear over the railing and down into the boat. I also see Kyrsith going over to the same railing to where the other set of lines tying off the longboats are and cut them. Another song now waffes from behind me and I see Silver playing an extremely odd instrument while even odder, I feel inspired so I follow up Kyrsith's action by doing the same to the ropes where I am. The longboat crashes back down into the water.
The captain yells out to "Burn The Cages!!!!". At this point, Morgan has finally arrived and I see him shooting a crossbow at some of the crew after they dropped Kyrsith like a deer staring into some dancing lights. That's not good as she is our one source of healing and I can not take another wound. Then there are screams from below and the smell of smoke. I head to the ladder in the center of the ship that leads to the hold while Gorath, Morgan and Silver finish off the remaining crew members who are actively attacking us.
Carefully down the ladder I go and I see a bunch of smashed up cages, a dead man almost cut in half on the floor towards the stern of the ship and another man at the stern being attacked by some large creature that looks like an overgrown spider with claws. I move off to the side to get a better look and cover behind some things as Morgan starts coming down the ladder. I quietly go over near him and tell him that I am going to attempt to get into a flanking position so that we can attack together and gain some advantage over the creature. However, as I am sneaking up towards the creature, brash Morgan dives in head first, totally announcing his presence to the creature and swings a mighty blow that does not quite stop it. Fool, he should have waited for me and instead of having some support, has the creature almost cut himself in half, crumbling into an unconscious pile of "I told you so".
The creature turns its attention back to the other man and I use the opportunity to sneak up into position behind and deliver the crippling sneak attack causing the creature to succumb. The crew member darts up the stairs at the stern of the boat and I give chase. Once on deck, he runs right to the railing and dives over it, right into the gondola we used to get to the ship. I guess the agreement to return it in the same shape we got it in is going to be a problem, but I'm not going to worry about it now. But my attention is pulled away from the fine spectacle by someone calling up from the longboats that came out to help the ship. It seems that there are two members of the Merchant District's city watch who are demanding to know what is going on. I explain, very briefly to them that everything is now under control on deck and someone will talk to them shortly. I've got to find that signet ring before the Watch comes on board just in case they end up preventing us from doing so, which could be highly likely.
So I head off to the fore of the ship to start searching after telling Morgan and the others to stall to Watch. After searching around, I finally find a secret compartment in what appears to be the captains quarters and in it is the signet ring, with a small piece of paper rolled up in it. I am also fortunate to find a bag with about 100 platinum pieces in it, the same amount that Lavinia gave for the duties owed for the docking fees. I take both of the items and head back out on deck. It seems that the others have convinced the Watch of what was truly going on here and I ask them if they could send word to the Vanderboren mansion to have them send some people down to take care of their ship.
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