Neryn Shadowmouse

Attributes

Strength: 17 / 18    Dexterity: 17    Constitution: 12

Intelligence: 11    Wisdom: 10    Charisma: 18

Age: 17    Height: 5'6"    Weight: 130    Eyes: Blue    Hair: Sandy blonde    Alignment: Chaotic good

History

Many people cannot believe that the sandy haired, blue eyed and baby faced child they meet is in fact an experienced adventurer. Finely clad in blue silk and leather and openly carrying a gilded scimitar Neryn Shadowmouse (and many other names) carries himself like a foppish young child noble. Most people see only the facade, they don’t notice the high cheek bones, pointed ears and slim bones denoting elven blood. They fail to notice the overly tired eyes of a 35 year old warrior in the face of such a friendly and handsome young man. Not that Neryn is unhappy, he finally has luxury and power, wealth and women, and an abundantly large population of fools to fleece. In no way is Neryn greedy or evil, quite the opposite, he donates to charities and is an active member of the Merchants Council of Caratirith (MCC Charter Union 001). But this same dashing young man, owner of the finest horses, friend to lord and commoner alike started as slave and a thief. No longer a slave and now a guild master, Neryn has high ideals and loves.

Neryn’s story is a the sad one of all the half-elven, one of neglect and betrayal. Neryn is the only son of the two adventurers, the mighty warrior Siyal Bloodcleaver and Garna of Goldweb, an elven witch. His father and mother were slain early in Neryn's life and Garna's elven clan wanted nothing to do with the cross breed. The only flaw with this ideal was that it placed the five year old Neryn in the clutches of his uncle Girt Bloodcleaver, a greedy and amoral mercenary. Girt quickly realized that the Bloodrun, the lands purchased by Siyal and Garna would go to their orphan so he rapidly arranged Neryn’s sale as a slave. Neryn was a spry child and was quickly purchased by one Bruvad Vandath, a priest-duke of Deepport. In Vandath’s slave warrens Neryn learned the power of evil, starvation and fear. Neryn grew up well muscled, wiry and wicked. He lived from day to day, ready to kill for the smallest scraps of food. Most likely Neryn would have ended up in the gladiator pits but a different fate befell him: he escaped.

.∂.9%.Ñs.Once out on the streets, Neryn had few marketable skills so he continued his trend of violence from childhood. Neryn stole, mugged and beat people, until the night he attempted to mug an independent burglar named Xxeeren Oakstrike. Much to Xxeeren’s joy and Neryn’s dismay, he learned the reason for the name of Oakstrike. Xxeeren was so interested by the sound that Neryn’s head made when it connected with a nearby stone wall that he adopted the teenage Neryn on the spot as an apprentice. After this chance meeting, Neryn started to let go of his savage side and learned to hone his manual skills instead. Neryn spent seven good years with Xxeeren until he surpassed the older burglar’s skills and they parted with heated words. As Neryn became better and better, he attracted the attention of the Chubak Citadel the “legally sanctioned” thieves guild of Deepport. They came to him with an offer: join or be slain. Since Neryn, now in his late twenties, had no desire to loose a third of his meager takings he declined. The Chubak Citadel only replied by leaving the head of Xxeeren in Neryn’s “secret” stash of gold. Suddenly wise beyond his years Neryn left Deepport, never to return.

And so Neryn started his adventuring career at thirty. He travelled to the Gallows Oak Inn and Tavern to look for a group he could join up with. Neryn refers to this trip as, “the start of my mighty mishaps with the magical”. At the Tavern, Neryn met four others interested in adventuring, among them the fighter Migoth, also known as Psyche, the elven warrior/mage/thief Vlagrod and the mad dwarf Tchurcheon. They formed a loose fellowship called the Lost Band, mostly because they wandered aimlessly from the city port of Caratirith to the Domains of Donovan and back again. In this time they raided a small hobgoblin unit from the Veroil Empire as well as becoming active players in a shadow war between Deepport and Caratirith. Their final mission together, brought them in conflict with the Pentagis and Neryn met and fell in love with princess Kara of Caratirith. After they had successfully dispatched four Pentagi and saved Kara not only from death but from the clutches of the despotic king of Deepport, the Lost Band broke up. Migoth quit only to join the Order of the Nonahedron Eye while Vlagrod and Tchurcheon departed for the Old Republic, only to fall through an Eclipse Gate and be whisked off to who knows where (actually they ended up in Fearun where they became two of the charter members of the Company of the Moon).

.As a consequence of the last adventure of the Lost Band, Neryn went on a potion consuming binge only to wake up the next morning with a strange magical headache and a loss of a decade of life. Having no means of income, Neryn returned to his stealing ways, often purposely wounding his burgled victims as sort of a bloody calling card. At about this time Neryn changed his name from Blueshadow to Shadowmouse. Shortly thereafter, he was caught and returned to slavery. Fortunately for the young thief, the Order of the Nonahedron Eye needed the services of a thief (at least one more stable than Shak Blackblade) and so they bought him and set him free.

Neryn has only worked briefly with the Nonahedron Eye. He was with them when they fought the mighty dragon Pyrouz and they discovered a deck of many things This is what caused Neryn’s change in alignment. He drew a card and then suddenly his whole outlook on life changed. He realized he was a great success and that he had risen above all those that had tried to subjugate him, he did not want to kill and maim any more. Neryn also gained great charisma during his draw. The final draw gave him the basis for the Fantastiko’s Casino. But, again as fate would have it Neryn found another potion of longevity and drank it. Now he looked seventeen. In another escapade with the Nonahedron Eye, Neryn fought with them at Fireblood Gap and slew several giants personally. It was here that Neryn truly realized he was a hero.

Neryn has certain beliefs, loves and loyalties. Primarily, Neryn loves the first princess of Caratirith’s lands: Kara of Caratrath. He is loyal to her and her alone. He insures, like some criminal body guard, that she is safe. He will supply her with information about events that he sees could threaten her. That means that most of the time he is helping the Republic of Caratirth but unless Kara is threatened he could really care less if the Republic is washed away tomorrow. Additionally, Neryn is intent on ruling the streets of Caratirith. He would like to be "the" shadow power in the city. He wants his style of crime (generally steal from those who deserve it, like the rich, and a minimum of bloodshed) he doesn’t want guilds around anything like the ones he could have formed, had he not changed. Finally, Neryn’s only real political agenda is an end to slavery. After his decade of slavery, Neryn hates the idea of forced labor and would rather die than again be sent back to slavery. Even though Neryn is a member of the Order of the Nonahedron Eye he doesn’t really have any friends there or in his guild. His only real friend is a small female panther named Merill.

Neryn is an intense man, under a lot of pressure. He has to be four people at once: a stern and powerful guild master, an invisible casino owner, the son of the invisible casino owner and a secret member of Nonahedron Eye. Neryn pretends to be the second Fantastiko, son of a the first Fantastiko. Both are supposedly nobles from the Old Republic who fell into disgrace, so Neryn usually plays the warrior. Fantastiko senior, (also Neryn) is in semi-retirement. His son is the one who runs the stuff down in the casino, while it is the old man who runs it all upstairs. It’s even Fantastiko junior, who goes to the MCC meetings. The guild (in and under the casino) generally believes that Neryn is the son of Fantastiko but they know Neryn as Neryn Shadowmouse, the guild master. Some of them also know that they work for the Nonahedron Eye through Neryn as the espionage Checkmate (the Shadowmate).

With the recent loss of Chilles Purplelief and the insanity that claimed Christa Owlfeather, Neryn is not sure if he will quit the Nonahedron Eye or not. Furthermore, since Gladth Stalker and Balard Goodwell have quit (or at least taken an extended leave of absence) and Shaya Dragonrider disappeared, Neryn is quite uncomfortable with the existing group (actually he fears both Yashe Weaseleye and Raistwell). For now, Neryn sees himself as the only thing that will prevent the Nonahedron Eye from being completely evil. However, even that is not enough, he still needs to run both his guild and Fantastiko’s Casino which has shown a surprising downturn in profits. Neryn is giving serious though to retiring form the adventuring gig all together.

Possessions

In public Neryn generally wears his chain mail +5 under a vibrantly dark blue tabard with the design of a red cat. If one looks carefully, the eyes of the cat hold tiny blue mice. Additionally, Neryn wears either Dicer (scimitar +2) or Slicer (long sword of sharpness) on his left hip, but never both at the same time. On his right hip, Neryn carries a medium sized weather stained bag (1000 lbs. capacity bag of holding) and a ornate scabbard of poison with a sleeping draught holds Needler (short sword +5 with ring of readiness). Neryn is never without his throwing knives, six of which are at the small of his back, and three hidden in each boot (5 knives +1 are at the small of his back the other 7 are +1 due to craftsmanship). Neryn wears a broad silver and blue leather belt. Hidden in this belt are a dozen ordinary darts. Additionally, he wears a large, black Pentacloak (Concealment as a 10th level thief or +2 whichever is better). Neryn also wears scuffed, blue boots of speed and bluish grey gauntlets of ogre power. On his left hand he wears a silver ring with a ruby (ring of regeneration) and on his right a thin gold band (ring of readiness). In a scabbard on his left arm, Neryn carries Prickler (throwing knife +2). About his neck and hidden beneath his mail, he wears a gold chain with a skull amulet and bronze ring sculpted with feathers (amulet of dramatic death and ring of feather fall, respectively).

In his bag of holding Neryn carries: bracers of defense, hand cross bow of accuracy, gem of true seeing, philter of glibness, philter of persuasion, potion of clairaudience, potion of climbing, potion of diminution, potion of gaseous form, scroll of protection from lycanthropes, and 5 oz. of sovereign glue. In addition he has this equipment: a dark suit, folding short bow HQ, 2 each of the biter arrows, hand cross bow HQ, 20 hand crossbow quarrels, thieves picks and tools, listening cone, climbing dagger, 50’ silk rope, razor ring, 3 chisels, grappling iron, crow bar, glass cutter, house breakers harness, 4 sq. ft. of sharkskin, 3 vials cat stink, bag of marbles, water shoes, 2 quivers, a chest and a spy glass.

In addition to all the Nonahedron Eye’s money in his vaults, Neryn has 20,000 gold pieces.

Neryn has a private collection of magical items in his chandelier hideaway inside Fantasiko's. Since, Neryn cannot play any instruments he has his harp of charming and pipes of sounding here as well as his leather armor +5 which he rarely wears except for sentimental reasons. When he sleeps the golden lions are here, when he is in his office they are made to look like they are part of the ornamentation and otherwise he carries them around. In his office chair, hidden below the curve of the armrest, Neryn has had his ring of human influence.. inlaid. This way, by clutching the arm rest he can wear it without anyone being the wiser. By turning a secret catch he can quickly remove it.  He has a secret chest at the Rusty Keel (where the Nonahedron Eye has a suite) with duplicates of all his nonmagical equipment.

Transportation

Neryn has horseshoes of speed shod on his Pentahorse Greybeard. His other Pentahorse is Morninglight. Both are grey, have a base move of 30”, +4 to bit and +6 to kick. They can eat anything. In addition, Neryn owns 8 white light war horse of charger quality. They pull his war chariot, the Devil's Carpet. All the horses are stabled at Fantastiko's. Neryn is also the secret owner of the cog Sungold. The Sungold does smuggle but does not engage in piracy. Neryn has it docked near the nobles’ yachts and a sewage outlet. This outlet connects to a tunnel which leads to the Rat's Run, an illegal and private bar owned by Neryn underneath his guild. The Sungold is always stocked for a journey of one weeks length and has a secret chest filled with duplicates of all his non-magical equipment. His final mode of transportation his folding boat which is hidden down in the equipment section under the watchful eye of the quarter master.