Carrying Capacity: Currently 56 lbs
Light Load: <100 lbs
Medium Load: 101-200 lbs
Heavy Load: 201-300 lbs
Background:
Aaron Crispin has never been a stranger to poverty. Born into a small poor family in Old Korvosa, his early life was filled with toil, trying to help his parents make ends meet so they wouldn’t starve. His father, a Varisian, finally decided to try and break free from their life, signing on with a passing trade caravan in hopes of making enough gold to move his family out of Korvosa. He refused to allow them to travel with him, fearing that the dangers of life on the road would be the end of his family. Unfortunately, his fears proved far to correct. Several months later, his mother received a letter from the caravan master informing her of her husband’s death in an attack by marauding goblins. Though the payment attached to the letter would feed them for a time, his mother, at the time a seamstress, knew that the coin wouldn’t last long. Aaron found himself burying his grief in finding work to support his family and stay alive.
As he grew into his teens, he fairly quickly discovered that it was far easier to make money illegally than trying to find a job that paid well and was still legal. He took to pickpocketing and theft, discovering that he had quite a talent for dirty work. Unfortunately, dirty work was a slippery slope. Pickpocketing and theft became burglary and back-alley mugging and by the time his mother passed away from an illness, Aaron was delving deep into the criminal underworld. His slowly progressing skills opened up doors as he made contact with fences and fellow criminals to expand his criminal talents. He became something of a freelancer, not only stealing for his own gain, but taking commissions and retrieving specific goods for interested buyers. Eventually, he expanded his services, accepting more and more varied contracts. Extortion, assault, bounty hunting, murder, very few things would turn his stomach. He did restrain himself from certain requests, mostly kidnapping and similar goals, and he has a soft spot for children that generally keeps them safe around him. Most people believe that his nickname comes from his choice of weapon, a particularly noticeable axe that rarely leaves his side, but in truth his name comes from the fact that it’s simply what he is: the hatchet man, the one willing to do all the dirty jobs and get them done right.
In recent years, Aaron has taken a ‘legitimate’ job as a bouncer at the Lamia’s Den tavern, a seedy bar in Old Korvosa that has a clientele composed mostly of criminals and particularly poor locals. This is primarily a cover and serves to give him an easy meeting point for his clients. It was there that he met Catarina Alinza, one of the serving girls. Aaron was smitten with the beautiful woman, and feel hopelessly in love when he realized that she had a sharp wit to match her dusky features. Old memories of his father’s dreams to move his family somewhere peaceful and free of Korvosa’s slums came back to him as he and Catarina became closer and he shared his desires to leave Korvosa with her. He began to take more difficult and more profitable jobs, hoping to scrape together enough coin to take both of them somewhere far away. Three months ago, he finally worked up the nerve to propose, promising his life to her, whether their plans worked out or not. Then one day he was visited by the Korvosan Guard. Momentarily worried that his activities had finally caught up with him, he was rushed to a crime scene in time to identify his fiancé’s corpse. Heartbroken and weeping for the first time in years, he realized that her engagement ring, a gold band he’d saved for over a year to purchase, was missing from her finger. Enraged at her death over a mugging, he began to search for answers. He finally rediscovered the ring in a local merchant’s stall, but couldn’t afford to purchase the ring back with his current funds. However he did get a name of the man that sold it to him: Gaedren Lamm. Now Aaron had a name. And he was going to find answers. He was going to get vengeance.
Appearance:
Aaron is a tall, gruff looking man. His skin is much darker than the average Chelaxian, holding his father’s natural color more than his mother’s and his hair is dark brown, almost black, and falling down almost to his shoulders. His beard is short and trimmed a bit to keep it under control. His skin has more than a few scars from his various jobs, including a rather prominent one on his right cheek and several nasty looking slashes on his arms that appear to be sword or dagger wounds. His clothing is worn and rough, but extremely sturdy and fairly well made. He favored a reinforced leather vest with matching bracers and boots, along with dark red or black pants. He wears a bandolier with several pouches full over various tools and pieces of equipment that are valuable in his line of work and a sturdy leather belt that holds his favorite axe.
