Ok, after this palate-cleanser, time to return to putting more mercenaries into games. Let us go back to Swords of the Serpentine!
Henrique is the youngest member of the team, a smallish but muscular man with short brown hair who might be in the middle of his twenties. Born and orphaned at a young age in The Tangle in Eversink he is the one who suggested moving here after a disastrous employment two years ago. As a boy, Henrique was a member of a street gang and learned parts of his trade then and there. In the end, he realized that there is no future in the gangs, and went to a mercenary crew to learn the ropes. A big reason for this was that Henrique started hearing the voices of long-dead gang members. Gangs rarely have the means or even the willingness to pay for funerary statues. One, the ghost of a girl called Paoletta, was far more insistent than the others, for reasons unknown to Henrique. A part of his first pay went into a statue for her. The haunting had left an impression on Henrique, and he learned to keep listening carefully to the whispers of the deceased.
By now he is a veteran of the mercenary companies, in part due to a long engagement of one troupe he was with as guards for merchant's vessels. That one ended when a pirate vessel hunted them down and sank the ship after robbing it blind. Leaving all merchants and the few wounded mercenaries on board. Henrique survived by the skin of his teeth, mostly due to the help of one of the dead sailors who pointed him to a bubble of air in the wreck. Two days later a ship passed by, and the wreck, only a few meters under the ocean surface, was spotted. The first person Henrique saw when rescued was an old acquaintance, Coba.
Since then, he has been a loyal friend and companion to the other mercenaries in their merry band. And large parts of his pay still go towards funerary status.
His favorite things in life are:
…putting a soul to rest
…a warm bed in a safe room
…the company of people he can trust with his life
He is boyish and friendly, patient when necessary, but decisive at times. He often trusts his intuition.
Ability-wise I went with Intimidation, Felonious Intent, Servility, Trustworthy, and Skulduggery at 1, for fairly obvious reasons. His natural gift is Spirit Sight 2, and the ghosts whispering to him at all times mean that he also has City Secrets and Prophecy 1. And yes, his Spot Frailty and Tactics of Death at 1 are also more due to advice and warnings from beyond.
He is very athletic (8), a passable burglar (4), and due to rare hints from the other side often brings along stuff that he would not have thought of himself (Preparedness 2). Youth on the streets taught him the value of being quiet (Stealth 8), and the last few years honed his willingness to hurt others (Warfare 8). Never mistake his friendly, boyish attitude for naivete or an unwillingness to cause harm if called upon.
Gear that reflects who he is:
- A small collection of writs for funerary statues underway
- A sampling of daggers, knuckledusters, small swords
- The constant susurrus of ghostly whispers in his ears
- Eyes that have seen far too much, and ears that have heard even more
- Dozens of funerary statues all over the place that he sometimes visits
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