Arno Jercle

Arno Jercle

Jeric Hansel did not have an idyllic upbringing, far from it. Born into relative poverty in the small town of Pinecrest, Cragmere, times were always tough for the Halfling family. Cragmere, despite its once strong links with the northern Dwarf Kingdoms and that of the Southern Kyrilian Empire, was now nothing but a land that they used to do war and a defacto buffer zone between them. Sure some areas and nobles were able to scratch a living, and even find favour, from their northern and southern puppet masters but the average peasant's life was hard in a land that was still haunted by its past and ravaged by Oss raiding parties.
Sadly, as is the lot for some in such areas, times became tougher for Jeric when his dearly loved mother died, leaving him and his younger brother at the mercy of an abusive father, who seemed to want to blame them, and more so Jeric for her death. Once a happy child with many fond memories of his mother, now found himself in a nightmare of drunken abuse.
It was in music though that he found some light, a sense of mental quiet and escape from his home life and found he had a natural ear for music in general, learning a number of instruments that he played in secret when his father wasn’t around. Provided the instruments by a local schoolmaster who saw the sadness within him and just wanted to give the boy some joy... a kindness that Jeric has never forgotten.
Their father once had a relatively well-respected remedy business but with the death of his wife and the bitterness he held to the world because of that this soon went under. Actual remedies soon just became cheap rose water and snake oil. Why actually take time to make proper potions and balms to help people when he could cheap out, make more money and be able to drink more.
With his reputation shattered, for selling substandard products and nearly killing a local nobles daughter with a poorly concocted potion, Jeric's father decided to pack up what he had left of his business and move around. This way he could stay ahead of the town watches and make more money.
As time went on Jeric and his brother, Cyril, were roped into the trade. Jeric often worked front of house assisting his father make the wares and selling them to crowds in backwater towns and villages while his brother would work the crowd and pickpocket them. Indeed, sometimes the roles were reversed and Jeric was sent to "harvest the bounty" as his father would say.
He hated his life but loved his brother. Both had been through a lot, been to many places and had a lot in common. It was therefore another great knock to Jeric's already shaky life that one midsummer’s eve while performing for the crowd in the city of Dawnrest, while his father sold his new elixir of everlasting life and his brother worked for the crowd, that both his brother and father were arrested. Narrowly escaping the same fate, Jeric hid under a cart and watched as he saw his brother and father be led off. Cyril in tears and frantically looking around for him.
That was the last he saw of them. The area was swarming with Town watch and he knew that him being locked up as well would do nothing to help his brother. with a broken heart and even more hate for his father who had been the catalyst for this entire thing, he ran and told himself that he'd come back for his brother and he'd end his father.
Years passed and he got by busking and selling poor quality goods, that he'd generally stolen, at inflated prices but he, unlike his father was a lot more savvy so despite some close calls, never ended up being collared by the law.
One evening, whilst playing a melody on a street corner that his mother used to hum for him as a child, a gentleman stopped and watched the entire performance. Asking where he had heard the tune, the man explained he had a similar story and had not heard it played this way since his mother used to sing it to him when he too was a boy.
Serendipitously, or so he at least thought at the time, it turned out the man was the wealthy Dean of the Bardic College of Eloquence, and seeing some innate talent in Jeric offered he come study there to refine his skills and get educated. Jeric, partially because he liked the man but also partially because he saw potential profit from the offer accepted and enrolled.
Jeric initially excelled at his classes, in some part it helped him block out the resentment he held towards his father and the guilt for leaving his brother. Sadly though, it was not meant to be and after a short while the old injuries opened and he just lost interest in all the studying, falling behind and started falling back on old habits.
One evening, buying a few well-used instruments from a traveling flea market with the intent to shine them up and resell to other students for profit. He was cleaning up an old and somewhat rattly lute. The source of the rattle was perplexing and while holding it up to the light and shaking it on of the strings broke and caused him to drop the instrument, shattering it into a hundred pieces. He cursed at his incompetence but soon found the source of the defect a ring. Simple and old but quite ornate. Maybe, he could polish this up and sell it instead. He'd seen similar rings fetch a good price to the right fence or gullible noble so maybe he'd got lucky.
Returning to his room he started polishing it up. gently at first but with some stubborn dirt affixed to an unknown insignia he rubbed harder to dislodge it. The room went dark and a moment later the flickering candles blazed to life again. Strange but at least the dirt was gone, staring at the insignia Jeric was unaware of the presence in the room with him.
"Well met Jeric" a warm, but yet powerful voice emitted from behind where he was seated.
Jeric unaccustomed to being snuck up on, found himself, unheroically yelping and jumping up out of his seat.
"Fear not, I am not here to hurt you, indeed, I am here to help you Jeric. I am called Kivi and we were meant to meet."
Jeric was terrified but yet something in this, creature's, word gave him pause, gave him strength even. His father's voice which plagued his inner mind and would have been telling him to run was quietened and the musical voice of Kivi filled the void. He did not run.
She offered Jeric the power to accomplish his wildest dreams, if only he bound himself to her in a contract of patronage. She told him she could grant him the power of Freiya itself, of respite in her vessel, of endless waking, and of more power than he could imagine including the ability to call on her wrath in aid. She told him that she could help him find and rescue her brother...
Jeric with little to lose and the drive to find his brother agreed. All went black again and Jeric awoke some time later in a strange echoey place. This was not his room, this was like no room he'd ever seen. Rounded, endless and Circular?
Wandering the seemingly endless corridor with some small antichambers he found a book of ancient secrets, containing a small number of ritual spells.
"A gift" Kivi's voice caressed his ear.
He spent what he felt like days wandering the new place, learning the spells Kivi had provided and soon he was able to come and go as he pleased. One moment he would be in his room, another he was back in the confines of the chamber. He smiled, he smiled a lot and he placed the ring on his finger.
As the months and years passed he periodically returned and with every power he used he could feel the gentle kiss of Kivi's voice at the back of his mind, making him stronger. He wanted to take on the world, he wanted to find his brother he wanted to kill his father but Kivi, would lie with him and tell him that this was not the time and he still had much to learn. Indeed, this was a dangerous time for him and that it would be best the hid his power from others, lest they not understand and undo the work she... they had accomplished together.
Jeric, unable to resist the honeyed words and fearful, in part, of losing the peace Kivi brought to his mind spent time working on his forgery skills and created himself a new alias, that of Arno Jercle. A lowly Bard despite all that had passed he still enjoyed the attention of performance and he was sure it pleased Kivi.
He continued traveling the lands under guise while looking for his brother, but eventually this became less a focus as he lost hope. Through boredom, time to time he would run the old schemes, never seeking to take advantage of the needy, but when he found a pompous and arrogant mark, he sought to bring them down a peg or two and relieve them of their fortune. One such day, however, Arno got a bit too cocky and for the first and only time was caught after extorting a vile noble called Lord Theophilus Andril. In his capture and ensuing tussle, Arno had no choice but to use his powers to flee, outed for the first time. As he was chased, Andril vowed to hunt him down and have him quartered once he found him again.
Arno was a good musician after all and this ability, although not finely tuned gave him, with Kivi's help some doors that most would not have opened for them and soon found himself playing for Balonese Royalty, or at least, as close to royalty as they get. He was to play for Triarch Tont and his men at a festival before their departure for the war against the Corruption in the South East, a war Jeric cared little for as the corruption, as far as he was concerned was all around them, in every man in this godless land. BUT always the good salesman he played and sang and gave the Triarch a send-off as epic as the tales of the first peoples. "You're music nearly rivals your power.." a warm feeling prickled through his body as Kivi whispered in his ear.
Smiling Jeric proceed to bow, be applauded and then start to pack up.
"Come with us Bard."
Triarch Tont walked up to Arno, "Your voice, your song, your candor would surely give my men great strength in the war to come."
Arno, weary of putting himself in danger needlessly and not willing to stray too far from where his brother might be found was going to politely decline but Kivi insisted he go..
"Great power can be found in the lands to the south and the East, with favour of the Triarch, fear not of the danger, nor of losing your brother, for I will protect you"
This was the first time he remembered feeling like he wanted to say no to her, he felt strong enough to do so but it soon sapped away and the warmth of her presence and being one with her made him agree.
The next day he found himself on a boat bound for a distant war... Unfortunately the war found him.
The Battle was short, many boats sunk, many men killed and the last thing Jeric remembered was a giant tentacled maw destroying his transport.
"You are safe, for now, but forces greater than my own are at work here, at this very moment the remaining men of Triarch Tont's army are being taken to a place called Kiberath and we with one of their jailors. I had not planned for this but maybe..." Kivi spoke to him as he sought refuge in his ring's realm.
Once feeling safe from threat, he emerged to find himself surrounded by a group of strange adventurers. Little did he know, his fate was tied to theirs...

A secretive halfling bard in search of his long lost brother.

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Alignment

Neutral

Age

34

Gender

Male

Eyes

Green

Hair

Auburn

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Pale

Height

3ft

Weight

38 lbs