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I'd like to submit a character for this as well! I'm good with any group option, but would prefer Hawkers or Smugglers. Name: Milos Bonadventuros Alias: Othello or Bonnie Archetype: Spider Look: Male/Ambiguous; Delicate, fair, slim, wiry; Long tattered coat, long tattered scarf, fitted leggings Heritage: Dagger Isles--Akoros transplanted merchant prince, sidelined from wealth and power by aggressive politics between and within families Background: Trade--disowned scion of a banking/shipping company (Think Fugger, Hansa, Medici, or similar) Vice/Purveyor: Pleasure--Kusuri's particular tobacco/poppy flower blend, and who knows where he sources those or whether he gets high on his own supply. Milos has paid him way too much money and might have let slip some family secrets in a drug induced haze. Plies his trade to many people on the Docks  (Kusuri) Insight ••• Hunt • Study • Survey • Tinker Prowess Finesse Prowl Skirmish Wreck Resolve ••• Attune Command • Consort •• Sway • Special Abilities
Friends ▲ Salia, an information "broker". A mid-level clerk in the Bonadventuros Trade League, and one of the last connections he has to that organization that hasn't been suborned by other powers and bribes. How she's kept off their black books for replacement is a mystery. ▼ Jeren, a Bluecoat archivist. A hopeless idealist who also fancies themselves a promotion to Inspector, and figures uncovering corruption and scandal in the banking trade is their way in. It's not clear how they learned of Milos' predicament, but they want him to flip to the law. Blurb in brief: In a just world, Milos believes, he would currently be enjoying the ripe and exotic fruits of a world spanning trade empire, and have enough free time to pursue any art, sample any sweet, and bed any man he wanted. Unfortunately, the fortunes of the tides, clamoring competitors, and an aggressive cousin have put paid to those ideas, and now he's been cut off from all of his luxuries and almost all of his funds. Now he's just going to have to get all of that some other way. It's his right and he'll pursue it as he pleases, with or without his family's backing. --- In the most technical sense, Milos was born in Akoros. But he moved to the Dagger Isles, following his family on the potential for profit, long before he could remember anything about it. In his eyes, he's as much of a native of the Isles as any tanned, brawny powerful jungle hunter. The Dagger Isles make a surprising amount of sense for profit--it sits very naturally at the "gateway" to points beyond the Shattered Isles, and lightning rails through them connect lands diverse in culture...and in coin. Establishing a Trade League that could handle both the goods and the gold was the Bonadventuros family choice to make their mark. Milos was raised in luxury as a merchant prince, with the expectation of ascent through the company and the pleasures afforded thereby. Then a few Bonadventuros ships got lost at sea while their rivals seemed to have no issues. And he might have said a few things about paying the locals in proper coin rather than scrip that someone took offense to. The last straw was a rival company stealing his personal pocketwatch. And so he schemed to get it back... Tricky Dick Nixon posted:With an anecdote, tell us when your character realized they needed a crew. Maybe it was a score they tried to put on that was bad. Maybe it was something more introspective, but there was a moment where it clicked that you needed to band together. It's possible this isn't the first crew or gang you've run along with, and maybe you even had partnerships (potentially with other PCs, we'll have a chance to build on those connections later) with individuals, but you've never really been a "founder" before of a real venture. This is something special, so tell us what brought your character to that decision and how they look at it. Today was a very good day indeed, Milos thought to himself between sips of wine. One harried clerk deceived, one dockside safety deposit box opened. One silver watch objet d'art secured under his jacket, one trip in and out. Nobody the wiser, and all that stood between him and the security of his little apartment was one lightning rail trip, arriving in thirty minutes. He had time to enjoy himself. He heard the door to the pub swing open and the cacophonous heavy tramp of a line of teamster boots stomp in. Probably getting eel pies and ale for lunch, Milos thought. Then someone with much more delicate shoes stepped in and stopped beside him. "Long time no see, Milos," he heard, and he turned to see the addressor. "Has it really been, Arvus Tyrconnell?" Milos answered, the curt formality of the full name masked by a practiced smile and cheery tone. The Tyrconnell and Bonadventuros families were both in the Dagger Isles trade and banking business, and while that made them rivals, it also meant they were invited to the same socialite parties and ambassadorial gatherings. They might have yelled insults at each other on the high seas, or quietly bribed dockworkers to load particularly valuable cargo on their ship instead, but fights in public were a big no-no--not if they wanted to keep their deals with the noble houses. So any conflict in public was done in happy tones and acid words. "Years, Milos, years," said Arvus, sliding into the seat beside him, but pointedly not flagging down the barkeep. "Remember when we saw the Severos ambassador bring his horse in to clean out the punch bowl? Good times." "I don't think this is a social call," Milos answered, cutting her off. "So what brings you here of all places," "Why, business, of course!" Arvus said, with her own false smile. "The shipping business. I'm tracking down a missing package, you see. One of our clerks seems to have given it to an unauthorized middleman." "I see," Milos said flatly. "Well, I'll just need a drink and then I'll be on my way." She reached over the counter for a glass--where was the barkeep?!--and poured herself a drink from her own hip flask. "Toast with me, will you?" She raised her glass, and Milos, keeping the charade, motioned in kind. "To good business!" she cheered. "To good business," Milos replied, and clinked his glass with hers. Except the clink sounded very loud. And very painful. His head smashed against the counter and he felt glass shards tangled in the hair in the back of his head. "Search him!" he heard Arvus shout, all pretense gone, and felt himself get dragged bodily out of his chair to the ground, and rough hands slide around his jacket and shirt collar. They soon clasped themselves around the watch in his jacket. "That's mi--" Milos tried to protest as he pulled himself up, but one of the teamster boots stomped hard into his stomach and drove out his breath. Arvus snatched up the watch from the teamster, and Milos watched as she tossed him a shining gold coin for his trouble. "No, this is mine," Arvus laughed, snapping the lid shut on the "for M" on the inside, and rubbing her thumb over the clear Bonadventuros coat of arms engraved there. "You took this from our clerk and thought we wouldn't see." "You'll never get away with this," choked Milos. "The family will--AAAGH!" Another heavy kick to the stomach interrupted him. "Oh, you didn't know? Your share of the company got sold. To me." Arvus looked so smug as she announced the news. "That's not--who--" "Bonnie Vey Bonadventuros sold me his share of the Bonadventuros trade empire," Arvus explained, smiling widely, "and then he bought your share. They didn't bother to consult you? Ah, he must be family, to have signed it off alone." "Why--" "So you have nothing to save you. You've been disowned. You have no patron to shield you. And no gentleman's code to protect you. Why, I can order my men to kill you right now, but that'll make the Bluecoats mad and I'll have to pay extra to get them out." She grabbed the drinks off the counter and poured them over Milos' eyes. "So I'll just have them beat you to within an inch of your life. Bye now!" "Wait--!" Milos' anger was cut off by a boot to the neck. ---- An hour later, Milos staggered onto the street smelling of blood and alcohol. Of course the Bluecoats shoved him along, assuming that his injuries had been brought on himself as part of a drunken brawl. He stumbled into an alley and looked at his reflection in a pane of window glass. At his battered face and thin, slender body. He pushed a fist against the wall and swore. Of course Arvus was right. This could not be only about knowledge advantages and quiet, deniable plays anymore. It would have been gauche to even touch him when he was in the family's good graces. Now Arvus or Vey or anybody else could openly call on thugs to beat the crap out of him, and he would be treated like any other poor ex-noble with no inheritance prospects--badly. He needed something to protect against that new threat. He needed muscle, spies, arcane power. He needed to get a crew of his own. Tricky Dick Nixon posted:[*]Describe a score the crew might undertake, and the role your character would play. It can be from your character's perspective, or more detached. It can be relatively simple and straightforward, or have many twists and turns along the way. The important thing to communicate is where you (and the character) would see themselves fitting in with a team dynamic. When the spotlight is on them, how do they perform? What is the one unique thing they bring to the crew that no one else quite has?[/list] Back in the days when Milos was still in the Bonadventuros' good graces, one of the more popular ways to "steal" a good involved messing about with its paper trail. It often involves a fair bit of forgery and cross-loading, both at the location where the good was stored and in the port authority. It relies a fair bit on bureaucratic inertia and browbeating lower level clerks, but done right, it makes the original owners seem like they're trying to defraud the new owner of a rightful claim. Even done only moderately well, the necessary solicitors and suits to get back the goods cost so much coin that the original owners may be willing to let sleeping dogs lie. Now, back in the good old days the trade leagues would leave it at that, out of fear of retaliation by the law. Obviously, the current parties involved would be more likely to hire mercenaries and cutters to force back the necessary goods. Milos isn't any good at fighting, with a gun or with a knife. And his ability to actually make a forged bill of sale is...questionable. Selling the bill of sale to a tired clerk who just wants to clock out? Talking the ear off of Bluecoats who might take an interest? Charming the noble personages who have the goods to target? That he can do. Davin Valkri fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Aug 21, 2019 |
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Aug 9, 2019 03:51
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 03:31 |
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