Eddard "Lucky Ned" Sharp's page

Cheat Death (Besmara): Even Besmara's most faithful worshipers usually call upon her only in times of greatest need. Sometimes Besmara intervenes on behalf of her faithful; other times, she turns her face away as they sink beneath the waves. Once per day, when you would be reduced to 0 or fewer hit points as a result of a failed ability check, skill check, or saving throw on your part, you may invoke this ability in order to reroll the failed check. You must take the result of the second roll, even if it is worse than the original.
Pirates of the Inner Sea page 27.

Ned is of a medium height, has sunburnt and windbeaten skin along with windtossed hair and a trimmed black beard. He's almost always smiling, singing or shouting, apparently too glad at being alive. He wears a leather coat and a leather jerkin studded with iron, and is always seen carrying a mug on one hand and a rapier on his belt.

He is called "Lucky Ned" and indeed he has the scars to show. Many a time before a blade has missed his throat to slash at his cheek and he even carries a tiny scar where once an arrow pierced a whole gold coin through before only cutting his skin. He recounts the tales of those brushes with death with much gusto, and at times it really seems like he puts himself at risk too much.

The secret is that he really does. He has the delusional certainty of a true believer, and he firmly believes Besmara has saved him for a purpose. At the times where he puts himself at ridiculous risk he feels her reaching out to save him, and he longs for another kiss to blow life into his body. He not only worships the goddess, he is truly in love with her. If he becomes a fearsome pirate and dedicate enough booty and lives to her, she'll notice him and reward him for his faithful service.

And so he puts himself in ludicrous situations, knowing he'll survive and honor his goddess. He has a really cheery disposition, and is bound to lift up spirits in merry and song.

Eddard "Lucky Ned" Sharp was raised by the single Erastil priest of the small coastal community called Lavieton, in Andoran. His father was the captain of the Smiling Eagle merchant ship, lost at sea somewhere in the distant south during one of its long voyages. The only image he remembers of his mother is her sitting down by the rocks gazing at the sea, searching for a sail to break the horizon. She died of a terrible cold when he was eight, leaving him only a simple amulet that belonged to his father.
The boy grew up on the rigid discipline of Erastil's creed, and although he sometimes felt stifled and pressured to take his role in the community, he had a strong will and took the role of priest with ease. The gentle young man called "Ned" was well-liked in the community, dedicated, virtuous and honorbound. Sometimes people commented on his aloofness and distractions, when he would gaze into the sea in the middle of a sentence or even for hours. Like his mother, he always would spend some special days looking at the sea, specially in the anniversaries of his father's disappearance and his mother's death.

At nineteen he become engaged. It was expected of him, and the fiancée was actually a nice honest woman if not sharp of mind called Gwen. But all that would change on one fateful afternoon.

Exactly ten years before, the Smiling Eagle left port, never to be seen again. He spent that entire day at the salt-blasted rocks of the coast, gazing at the horizon. His fiancée brought hot soup and a blanket and left, for she knew that was his way of honoring his family. When the sun had set, he got up and walked away from the coast, but his foot slip and he lost his balance. A bruised knee and elbow later, he got up, cursing. And then he noted the small wooden amulet with the flying eagle in his hand had cracked.

Ned panicked for a couple seconds when he thought the only memento of his family was destroyed. But then he noticed that the amulet had a small hinge and a clever hatch, and could be opened. He did with fumbling fingers, his wounds (along with everything else) forgotten for the moment. Inside one could see on the left side a carved image of a skull and bones and to the right carvings indicating a couple geographic coordinates, some particular unknown coast and a marked X.
Even years later he could barely remember those next few days. They passed in a blur while he gathered his things and arranged for passage in a merchant ship going southwest. He must've said "I'll be back" to his fiancée and to the priest who raised him at some point, he figured. He only remembers feeling the sea wind on his lungs and that sweet moment when the last sliver of land disappeared on the horizon. It was as if he had broken the invisible shackles that were chaining him into a life of farming and community, of duty and devotion. He made excuses for himself ("I'm only trying to discover what happened to my father") and for his god ("It's a duty I have to perform for the honor of my family") but seeing the wide open sea made him more alive than the simple community life had ever made him.

All was well until the wreck. Sometime after they Mediogalti Island, another sail was spotted in the distance. Pirates, they said, with fear in their voice. The captain was a veteran man of the sea, so he dared the unthinkable; he approached the Eye of Abendego hoping the pirates would drop pursuit. The strategy worked; the pirates gave up their prey, but the sailing was hard and the sea unforgiving. After struggling with the tempest for two days straight, they managed to leave the influence of the Eye just to discover themselves in the middle of the Shackles archipelago and into a hidden reef.
Dozens of people died in the wreck. Most of the sailors, still tired from the ordeal, weren't able to swim away in time. Chaos and panic followed, and the lucky ones died drowning; the unlucky ones froze to death during the harsh night that followed. Ned didn't hold onto the wooden plank half as strong as he did hold on to the amulet. He lost his consciousness sometime during the night, and then his memories get fuzzy.

Today he swears for the truth of his words, and very few believe him. He swears a beautiful dark-haired woman was waiting for him under the waves, and her kiss breathed life into his lungs and love into his heart. She said something about what a waste his death would've been and how she despises waste of good talent. And then he woke up on the island of Besmara's Throne.

The faithful there only spared him because his hand had been grasping a holy symbol of Besmara, the skull and bones. They nursed him back to health, and said the goddess must have some purpose for the man if he managed to not only survive the wreck but land on the most holy of places.

Ned felt he had been given a second chance at life, that he had been reborn with new-found purpose. He truly believed that the goddess had spared him for something, and he wouldn't shame her by not living it up to it. And so he applied his strong will and industrious spirit to learning all there is to know about ropes, sails, currents and tides. During the following years he has been a part of fishing ships, whaling ships, merchant ships and many others, earning a few coppers in pay but greater riches of experience.

It's been 3 years since he left Andoran, but it feels like a lifetime. The young man now sports a shabby beard, salt-sprayed hair and a wicked smile, and is quick to preach that his goddess saved him from a life of virtue and honor. During his travels he has discovered that his father was known as Smiling Jack, and his ship was actually named Besmara's Smile. He was a violent opponent of Chelish slaving ships, and he consorted with pirates and scoundrels. Apparently Smiling Jack was betrayed by a member of his crew paid by the Chelish and was killed all those years ago. Rumor has it his first mate renamed the ship and roams the Shackles searching for the spot where Smiling Jack buried his treasure, but he can't seem to find it even after all those years. Apparently the old scoundrel used some kind of amulet to indicate the way...