Arthur Obecius was born to hunt. He wasn’t a wild child but whenever people needed meat in his small village near Korvosa, he was always first to volunteer to go scurrying into the forests to find a boar or deer or even a bear once. After his mother remarried he left home, not wanting to intrude on her new life with her husband and step-children. He didn’t like the idea of living as a hermit so he stepped into an office one day in the city itself and asked to be able to join the Order of the Nail. He was denied based on his “inappropriate temperment” his “lack of devotion” and his “lack of adequate records of birth or status”.
His military hopes dashed, Arthur went to a nearby bar and began drinking. He ran into a magistrate who asked if he had seen a man with a white eyepatch and a large dog traveling on the road. Arthur had run into him on the road and decided to go and fetch the man for the magistrate, as it was explained that he was a wanted criminal. After feeding the dog some spider poison to put it to sleep, Arthur dropped on the man from a tree branch and quickly subdued him. He brought the man back to the magistrate’s office and was immediately awarded some gold for his trouble. Ultimately, there were not enough bounties to be had in Korvosa so he made his way down south to Cheliax proper.
He ended up partnering with a relatively aged wizard and alchemist named Arstimus Pavelus, who was himself strapped for funds. Arstimus and Arthur were very successful together, with Arthur’s people and tracking skills combined with the old wizard’s magic and mind for trickery. They once had a small unofficial thieve’s guild hire them to destroy some warehouses where the merchants would stockpile numerous reagents for the Asmodean’s experiments and rituals. Arstimus came up with the idea to steal some of the more valuable pieces for themselves, hide some of the middling valuables in the guild building itself, and then burn the warehouse down as they were hired to do. The Asmodeans killed the thieves for destroying their property, the Hellknights considered the matter closed, and Arstimus retired to a life of teaching alchemy and wizardry to youngsters who hoped one day to rise to the nobility by summoning devils. Arstimus had taught Arthur some rudimentary alchemy during their year or so together, and offered his field kit to Arthur for his budding new career, and Arthur struck out on his own.
Arthur has never been one to allow good materials to go to waste or to be reclaimed by the Order of the Nail (he calls them simply the Nails). He has taken things from various marks over the years. One wizard wanted for attempting to bypass the wards on a cousin of House Thrune’s estate was carrying a Ring of Sustenance. A city guardsman enthralled by a vampire had a standard-issue ioun torch he never bothered using (because of his new ability to see in the dark, granted by his master). Arthur’s philosophy is that he needs the gear to be better at his job of catching and subduing these criminals, and sometimes taking lesser items from them before he turns them in is the best way for him to do that.
Arthur was relatively successful on his first few solo hunts in Cheliax, but only one brought any real fame: bringing down a small cult of Deskari by blowing up the supports for the building they were in so they fell off a cliff. After that success brought him some minor celebrity, he was contacted by Venture-Captain Drake to investigate goblin activity in the area. Drake told him very little except that there were already people investigating it in the field, and that he should meet up with them at the Dragon’s Draught. Arthur was, of course, already familiar with the place as he knew some of the “travelers” that would meet there to discuss “shipments”. His main contact was a charming young halfling by the name of Hob who, if the Nails ever asked, was a traveling musician. He however loved to connect people, if someone needed an honest-to-Iomedae professional demon summoner, Hob could find you one (if you could afford it).
