What Do You Look Like
Backstory Lost Notes:
RICK
My character's parents were exiled from their tribe and fled to Pheze when she was a child. (reason for this, I'll leave up to the GM). She grew up filled with resentment at her former tribe, but also shame at her predicament mixed with a deep unconscious desire to be accepted by that same tribe. This mix of emotions continually spilled out in a rage directed at those around her. A short stint as a legbreaker/goon for various Pheze gangs led to more lucrative mercenary work around town and the surrounding land. But the Gods of the Berberan had not turned their backs on her after all. Recently, Blank Face visited her in a dream, telling her that she must live up to the promise of her ancestors and granting her new powers. Initial resent at this new unwanted destiny has turned into grim determination to prove herself worthy. And show them all.
@Rick Haufe's character is the closest to being a native since she came here as a child But she was raised by her mother in the ways of the Berbaran rather than the urban trash in Pheze
So, I figure that Speaks with Dead avoids her family hovel as she stated. No one bothers squatting on it, since there is nothing of value in it...(possibly moms corpse?)...
She's been a regular patron at The Last Mistake for a few years and it's where she gets her work.
RYAN
I figured my former cult was moderately successful in encountering a power, which meant it was almost entirely destroyed. Perhaps I took what money and treasures I could and hired your services to escort me here? Pheze sounds like a good place to get lost and lay low.
Ok, so Sitra Mor was born into a cult, in fact the result of his mother breeding with the cults God.
Later in life, something went horribly wrong, actual event still to be developed, and Sitra was forced to flee for reasons to still be developed.
In doing so, he hired Batri Shom to safely bring him to Pheze in order to escape the repercussions of whatever happened to his former cult.
How he heard of Pheze, why he was fleeing, what actually happened, how he encountered Batri, and why they are still together, are to be determined as well.
Sitra was raised in seclusion by his parents' cult. He had nothing else to do but study the scholarly teachings his various tutors instructed him in and it quickly became apparent he was a gifted child. His more literal mental abilities soon manifested and he began to hone those as well. The cult made contact with various other creatures not native to this plane and through the assistance of an aboleth developed a ritual to try to bring Dagon into the world. Considering his environment and the promises the cult made this sounded good to Sitra. His reluctance appeared when he realized they would need to sacrifice him as part of the ritual. He fought them off and the backlash of the failed ritual created enough chaos and death he managed to escape.
Like many gifted children faced with their first big failure he went into a depression. Now he wants to explore the world and his own potential.
Ritual Name: The Communication of the Blasphemous Blessing
Cult Name: THe Tertiary Harbour
Leaders Title: Honorable Overseer
Batri Shom and Sitra Mor are very recent arrivals, perhaps 6 to 8 months ago. Getting odd jobs here and there, finding a place to squat and share, and meeting/befriending the other two.
JOHN
The harbingers are an independent guild of couriers employed by the nobility of the land to deliver secret an anonymous messages to one another. The guild lives by a strict rule of secrecy as its continued usefulness relies on that fact. No message will be given to anyone other han it’s recipient and the sender and recipient of the messages will be kept secret from anyone other than the organizers in the guild and it’s messengers.
Training as a messenger begins at a extremely young age with novices being bought from orphanages or sold by their families before the age of eight. The children are supervised in ‘claives’ by successful though usually disabled or at least ‘retired’ messengers and “instructed” in loyalty, combat, stealth, woodland skills, and languages. Much of this training is brutal as well as competitive and failure is rewarded with beatings or death. As the training progresses, there are tests of skills most of which result in the death of anyone who fails. For example, the test of languages involves a number of speakers of different languages who tell the student exactly what is in the vial that they are holding. One holds water or some other pleasant beverage. The rest hold vile concoctions at best or poison at the worst. Students must respond with a translation of the contents of the vessel and choose to drink one. Technically they can drink any and should they correctly translate the others and survive they pass. Most choose the pleasant beverage. Tests survived but failed can be re-taken in the future and, so long as the student survives there is no way to ‘fail’ the program.
As students pass tests they are sent to a new claive where new skills are taught. Each time they enter a new claive they are given a tattoo to indicate the level of their training. Tattoos all contain similar imagery but the students are allowed to specify the details and usually location of the tattoo. That said, they are considered badges of honor and office and are rarely hidden. Upon graduating from training the newly honed messengers are expected to provide their services for two years at least. After that period they can choose to retire, though few have the means at that point and there are few other occupations that would be open to one of the harbringers. Even after retiring, the guild still keeps track of its members and sometimes they are still approached with jobs. Technically there is requirement to take the job, but there is always rumor of those who refuse meeeting untimely ends.
Harbringers are free from direct harassment from the nobles, but they are often the targets of assasination attempts. Most will provide their services directly to non nobles to make some more money in between sanctioned jobs which is technically against the guild code, but that is a rarely enforced portion of the code. The guild will transport anything though it can become exceedingly expensive Certain items. Fees for guild jobs are determined by distance, priority, and the size and nature of anything transported. All jobs are considered dangerous so there is no such thing as hazard pay.
Batri left the organization on good terms. He did his time and a little (months) more and realized that he wasn’t going to ever get anywhere. It was almost like someone was just feeding out the work to keep him beholden to the guild while others got all the easy and lucrative jobs. Still he’s proud and he could (and will) point out the tattoos and how he earned them. He would probably feel obligated doing any job they had to offer him since the guild isn’t really established in Pheze and he could even be the only guild member jn the city.
Also I would like to point out he was sold by his family. He understands why(the money is good and one less mouth to feed) and he has honestly done better than he probably would have. Still, there is something about being SOLD BY YOUR FAMILY that makes you avoid family gatherings.
IRA
Buren Evos arrived about two years ago and met up with his "mentor". He escaped only three months ago and Speaks with Dead had a hand in rescuing him, likely by accident.
