Aurelius Blackfoot
Aurelius is a hermit slightly different from the others. If you think you can provoke the gods without a punishment, you should meet him.
Special Equipment:
A set of quality daggers hidden on his body. Very good at using them.
Appearance:
Somewhere between 40 and 50, wearing old clothes, looks uninteresting (because he knows how, and wants to look that way). May be encountered while gathering berries etc.
Background:
This was Aurelius' night. After long and tiring spying, he finally determined the location of Mr. Money's stash. The fat and absurdly rich merchant hid some of his nicest gems -for the future- into the last place thinkable: into the citys orphanage! The derelict building Mr. Money sometimes visited, to spend a little money and get a good feeling of himself, was holding riches many times surpassing HIS expectations, and that was quite a lot.
Overcoming one of the best locks available, and luckily dodging a little needle flying out of it(phew!), found some boring papers and a secret compartment with a few dirty silvers and some more coppers? But wait! There was another secret compartment in the first one... overcoming two other traps he opened the velvet pouch and closed it quickly again. The beautiful reflections cast by the stones told him: You will never work again.
On the way back he grabbed the other pouch, for some cash is always good. Leaving the city and all his 'comrades' behind he laughed loudly and praised the gods for his skill and ability. No one will ever find a trace!
His mood soon changed.
Roleplaying Notes:
A simple hermit he seems, has but a small problem that forced from among all people. Aurelies is cursed:
For his vain and for stealing from the poor children, Aurelius is cursed to leave large black footprints behind, no matter what he does and how he walks. He even leaves them behind while riding a horse! The footprints are not erasable by any means.
Aurelius lives his lonely life in the Black Wood, a section of a forest left alone by most creatures, after some horrible monster began roaming there, scorching the very earth, leaving large black footprints! The Black Wood is considered cursed and dangerous and no one ever goes there.
Aurelius may be harder to track now, for he stays pretty much on the same paths, which are now all deepest black.
Roleplaying: Forced to the life of a loner, craves desperately some company. Will be friendly, but tries to hide his curse. Supports rumours about the monster, explaining friendly creatures are not attacked. He himself has sometimes heard some strange noises, but covered his eyes and prayed and so was spared. Some people were but never seen again, that is sure.
Aurelius is an accomplished thief, if a bit out of training, and may even train others. As he has left his former ways and accepted his punishment somehow, it may be diffilcut to persuade him.
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? Responses (3)
As for company:
Hermits rarely atract company, this one could. Not everyone would seek a horrible monster to kill it. But some upstarting villain could seek guidance or help, and finding the monster looks like a hermit, would surely think it must be a disguised powerful demon. So he carefully approaches IT, and asks for advice, how to solve the problems with his parents...
Aurelius playing his part givs some goody-goody advice, the villain twists it for his needs and is happy...
It was because of the other pouch, the one belonging to those orphans. He took that too. Provoking gods is never a good idea either.
Godly Curses (tm) happen, however rarely, and most people are afraid to do exceptionally evil things. This one may not be the best example, but hey. What if some minor spirit protected the said orphanage, the curse was not that allmighty.
I too think curses should not just be given blindly... I hope this has at last some reason in it.
Besides, this is not a curse placed on a PC, but one that hopes to create an interesting NPC.
Perhaps his curse was bestowed by one of the orphans themselves, cursing whoever brought financial ruin to the orphanage.
The ever-prints is a good curse, and they would be shunned anywhere - who wants permanent footprints everywhere?
I assume that removing the surface he walked upon would remove the prints, as otherwise they would eventually become a thing of legend. Or perhaps people simply build over them.