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 eneath the ancient abandoned
city, in its
substructures and tunnels which connect
some of the buildings in a maze of sewer
ways and storage rooms, Bascom Pensa
makes his home. A thieves’ thief, a highwayman’s
trickster and a lawman’s nightmare.
He lives here in a maze of twists and turns. This is
where he keeps his riches. He’s explored and rigged
these tunnels so he feels safe to stash away his
collections of swords and gems, rings and knives. A
room full of expensive clothes in one room of his
underground kingdom.
A dead end and trapped storage area houses his
chests full of gold coin and precious stones. Goblets of
diamonds lay about a table in a room where he
frequents on his way out of his lair, to stock up on
tradeables such as jewel encrusted knives, huge
broaches of semiprecious gems. He reaches into a
table top chest and grabs a handful of coins for a
night’s outing.
He has everything an adventurer could want except
a moments’ peace. He lives a life of looking over his
shoulder and double backing around streets to lose
the track of anybody who might be following him, real
or imagined. When he’s in a town, he’ll sleep in a flop
house instead of a travelers’ inn so as not to attract
the attention of anyone who might be looking for a
rich man to rob.
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He is learned
in the art of stealth and deception, of
how to avoid notice while he is plying his trade, but
wouldn’t stand a chance against some strong arm clod
in a bar who bumps into him and is itching for a fight.
Though his reputation has grown over the years, he
has few friends. Mainly, the ones he’s come up through
the ranks of adventuring with, from his early days.
These few who knew him when he could barely untie a
knot, let alone untrap and unlock a chest with a single
tool. These he calls friends.
The others are associates of the guild and contact him
when a job needs to get done right. He picks and
chooses his adventures now, growing more paranoid
with each outing.
More and more of his clientele assign him capers
which are near suicide to any other but him, and more
and more they want to attach him to a band of
characters in which one of them has been assigned the
task to try and kill him (after the job is completed, of
course) so he won’t collect his outrageous fee. Many
have tried this ploy, much to their chagrin, when he
shows up in their bedroom in the middle of the night
with the head of the would be assassin in a bag and
giving the client a choice to now pay him quadruple his
fee or to add their head to the sack!
Bascom Pensa has many, many enemies, all of whom
are just waiting around the next corner.
© 2002 L.
Brenza |
