For Posterity:
Character: Maren Blackwater
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Classes: Rogue/Cleric
Race: Halfling
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Deity: Branderback
Domains: Trickery Evil
Biography:
Maren had been living in the alleys of Hurm for as long as he could remember, living off of what he could steal or con out of people. He had a very loose group of "friends" that did the same, though the bond was more out of necessity than friendship in reality. He quickly learned that the way to survive was to have no morals and do whatever was necessary to survive, whether lieing, cheating, or roughing up the neighborhood children for the few coins in their purses. His small stature helped him when it came to the jobs they did to survive. He had no idea who his parents were or how he came to be a street urchin in Hurm.
One day Maren awoke in a small concealed room in the bottom of an Inn's cellar behind a cask of wine. His head was throbbing, his tongue swollen, tasting of blood. A man stood over him chanting slightly with a half grin on his face. How he got here he did not know. The last thing he remembered was loosening the belt of a drunken man in an alley for his coin purse.
The man chanted some more and Maren looked up, unable to speak due to his swollen tongue. He heard a few words though... "Let my acts be hidden in the shadows of the night". The man seemed to glow for a moment before he layed his hands on Maren. The man was a Doc of Branderback. Maren felt a small tingle of energy and his aching head began to subside. The man looked down on him and gave a crooked semi smile. Maren blinked a couple more times and fell into a gentle, healing sleep.
It seems that Maren had been caught by the drunken man while trying to lift his purse and was beaten mercilessly for it. Some other alley dwellers had witnessed the beating and drug him out of the trashcan that the man had thrown him in after the beating. The two men who fished him out recognized Maren for his part in several petty crimes they had committed together and took him to the Inn and the small special concealed room below it, where a traveling priest of Branderback was due to come that day.
After several days Maren began to feel better. The man though was gone. Maren looked around the room, all of his personal belongings were gone, his belt, knife and coin purse, all gone. He cursed and sat up. I'll find him he thought to himself. He had been robbed, and nothing was worse to a robber than to be robbed. He struggled to his feet and opened the door to the basement of the disheveled inn.
The first thing he did was search the place for anything he could take. He found some small bits of half eaten bread and quickly ate them. In one corner was a cutting table with an old rusty knife on it, he slipped it down one of his rotting boots. A few apples lay on the cutting table and he took those too. He looked about, how to get out? He didn't even know what Inn he was in. Then he spotted the small window with bars on it, with a latch on the inside. He opened it, crammed his body through and emerged in a semi familiar alley way in Hurm.
He then went in search of the man who had robbed him. It took a fortnight of searching through the worst of the worst alleys in Hurm before one day he encountered the man in an Inn drinking ale. Maren did what he always did, blended into the crowd and waited his opportunity. The man left a bit tipsy after multiple ales and Maren followed intending to get his blade back that he could see sticking from the man's belt.
He waited for the man to turn down an alley way before he snuck up behind him and crammed his rusty blade in the back of his knee. He man let out a little yelp and turned and smiled his crooked grin. The man struck Maren in the nose knocking him across the alley way. Marens head bounced off the wall and he went unconscious.
Upon waking he was again in some deserted backroom or storeroom, he did not know which, but he was bound and tied.
The man looked up at him from some pamphlets he was reading. The man began to explain very slowly that Maren was now his to command, his to own. Thw man started to explain what Marens new role was, that of the man's "assistant". Nothing the man said that was expected of him was anything different than what Maren had been doing his whole life. The man expected him to help him make coins, whether through beating, maiming, stealing, lieing, extortion, what have you. What the man did say though was that he could teach Maren the ways of the Hound if he felt him worthy.
They began to travel together, with Maren doing most of the small time thefts while the man healed and prayed. The man gained entry to the hovels and earned the trust of the alley dwellers through his prayers to Branderback, and his healing abilities. Maren began to trust the man with no name more and more, well as much as you could trust one who practically enslaved you.
Maren began to say the prayers with the No Named Man as he prayed over the ruffians of Hurm. Maren became more and more devote to the Wary Shadow god. In the back of his mind though he still wanted revenge on the man for forcing him into this perpetual servitude. The No Named Man eventually let Maren take over in the wrapping of wounds and broken bones while the Man watched. A small miracle occured one day however, as Maren touched a man to wrap his wounds he felt the same small tingle leave his hands and the man went to sleep in peace.
//the first small bit of Clerical Magic bestowed by the Hound//
They were in a backroom one day healing and praying over a man whose gut had been spilt open by the town guard when suddenly the door was kicked in by the town militia. Maren instantly hid behind a wine cask as the guards shouted at the No Named Man and the poor bleeding man on the floor. They accused the No Name Man of aiding a criminal and threw him in handcuffs. Maren stayed silent in the shadows grinning never once even thinking of helping the No Named Man, revenge was his at long last. They hauled off the No Named Man for execution in the public square after running a blade through the bleeding man on the spot. Maren did not flinch.
After they left Maren searched the body and the room and took what little he could and set back out into the night knowing the the Hound would protect him and muttered a prayer...
"Let my acts be hidden in the shadows of the night, so that I may gain that which is rightfully mine."
1. I have read and understand the Branderbacks philosophies
2. Maren interprets these philosophies for exactly what they are, which is for personal gain in all aspects of life. His life as a cleric/rogue of Branderback is to make as many contcts as possible, and indebt as many people as possible to further Marens own aims, which is personal wealth and power
3. Maren will wear black leather armor, carry a bow, create poisons for his arrows to weaken his enemies, and carry small blades for personal self defense and the occasional ally way robbery
No noble ties, nothing comming to him in any form
