Coming near the end of the challenge, and I still have a party to finish – Vera and Henri still need two companions. Time to wrap up the challenge by wrapping up the Swords of the Serpentine band of mercenaries. Today, let us look at their unofficial leader Hieronimo Magnotta.
Hieronimo is a child of the city, the son of a far too large and far too poor family who saw the writing on the wall pretty early. He took careful note when his older siblings already entered lives of working for a pittance for those who own the city, and for a while, Hieronimo had done the same. He had a knack for working as a guard. And then he discovered a knack for letting people into his boss's house, taking a cut of the results, and then leaving the city as fast as he could. He had lined up a place as a sailor on a boat leaving the city in the morning. Sadly, his luck had run out, and he nearly ended up as merchandise when that boat was captured by pirates. But then he was lucky again, and the pirates decided to recruit all able men to fill gaps in their ranks.
The next few years continued in the same vein – bad luck, then a longer streak of amazing luck, cut short by bad luck… Hieronimo slowly got a reputation, along with an illustrious series of careers. Pirate, then prisoner, then soldier, then barman, beggar, thief, smuggler, merchant, bandit, and then finally mercenary – Hieronimo has stopped expecting stability, accept that his luck was as crazy as people said, and decided to roll the dice. Every day. Any time he isn’t sure about something, he looks to something to give him a sign. Often dice, cards, or a throw of a coin.
Hieronimo carries 40 years of changing luck on his body, in the shape of deep scars. He likes to dress comfortably, and while an enemy's flaming saber made sure that his smile would never really be all that beautiful again, he has a knack for making people trust him.
Let me stat him up.
He is Adaptable, Capricious, but also Loyal and Outspoken. Most importantly, his mind is always on the money. For him, best in life are:
- Getting paid with little effort.
- Enemies failing to predict what I’ll do.
- A warm, soft bed.
His Health and Morale are 10 and 8, respectively. For Investigative Abilities, he has Charm 2, Command 1, Trustworthy 2, Ridiculous Luck 5 (!), and Tactics of Death 2. His General Abilities are Athletics 4, Burglary 2, Preparedness 4, Stealth 4, Sway 8, and Warfare 8. He has friends among the Mercenaries and Mercanti (1 each), but the City Watch is less enamored with his shenanigans (-1).
And that leaves the gear:
- A flowing red cape made from velvet, stitched dozens of times.
- A jaunty leather cap with a 'griffons' feather.
- Two blunt wooden sticks, harden but notched, stained with the blood of many.
- A wineskin, filled with the best red he could afford that day.
- Coins, cards, and dice.
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