Dex Camulus's page

Brawler's cunning
Martial training
Martial flexibility (Swift Action)
Brawler's flurry (Improved Two-Weapon Fighting)
Maneuver Training (Trip, Grapple)
Close Weapon Mastery
Brawler's Strike (Magic)
AC Bonus +1
Knockout 1/day

Improved unarmed strike
Weapon Focus (Unarmed)(1st)
Power Attack (hum)
Combat Expertise (Brawler 2)
Improved Trip (3rd)
Weapon Specialization (Unarmed) (5th)
Iron Will (6th)
Pummeling Style (8th)

Criminal (Disable Device as class skill)
Reactionary (+2 Init)

Acrobatics +12 (8 Ranks, +2 Dex, +3 Class skill, -1 ACP)
Climb +9 (2 ranks, +5 Str, +3 Class skill, -1 ACP)
Craft Armor +9 (6 Ranks, +3 Class skill)
Disable Device +19 (8 Ranks, +2 Dex, +3 Class skill, +1 Trait, +5 Trapspringer’s Gloves)
Perception +17 (8 Ranks, +1 Wis, +3 Class skill, +5 Eyes of the Eagle)
Sense Motive +11 (7 Ranks, +1 Wis, +3 Class skill)
Swim +8 (1 Rank, +5 Str, +3 Class skill, -1 ACP)

Dex stands tall, an absolute mountain of a man, clad in functional explorer’s clothing. A soft rustling can be heard as he moves from a chain shirt worn under his clothes. Not wanting to cloud his field of view or affect his hearing Dex is rarely seen wearing a hat or a helmet, revealing an exotic mix of Taldan and Varisian features, not to mention countless scars built from a lifetime of rough living. Dex typically keeps his hair dark hair shaved close, as to not make an attractive target to grab while in close combat. Typically when not dressed in armor, Dex is dressed in well-crafted and functional attire, focusing more on function than fashion.

Dex affects a disciplined personality, preferring to get straight to the point and provide all the necessary facts of a situation. He is readily aware that he isn’t the smartest or most charismatic person around and leans on his natural wisdom to get his point across. In battle however, Dex voice is quick to turn razor sharp as he barks orders and aids his allies. When not in battle he prefers the company of people to being alone and can be found rubbing elbows with everyone: from commoners to soldiers. Paramount to Dex personality is trust, if he feels betrayed by someone, there is often little that can be done to regain it.

Dex’s first memory was hunger, it was a persistent feeling, one that stayed with him for a number of years. The memory was strong enough to blur the woman who, intellectually, Dex knew to be his mother, but could never recall her face. Even to this day his early memories comprise of feet, dirty rooms, and strange men. They all paled to the pang of hunger, it was always there, like a cold blanket.

Dex’s second memory was the cage, many years after the first. The hunger was further away now, Dex could think and felt better than ever before in his short life. A strange man brought him food regularly, better food than he had ever eaten before. The man told him that a special ‘buyer’ with ‘discerning tastes’ was coming to take a look at him and that he was to be on his best behavior or the food would stop.

The buyer was a rich looking fat man, a bad man. The way the man looked at Dex filled him with an irrational fear. So much fear that when the man reached out to touch Dex through the bars of his cage that Dex struck with the only thing available to him, his teeth. He bit down hard on the first finger he saw, biting straight through the first knuckle of the man’s finger, spitting the small digit out on the floor. The fat man howled beyond pain, cursing and crying as he ran off away from Dex’s cage.

Afterwards, the strange man’s rage was legendary. He beat Dex senseless - until the world went black and threw him out into the gutter thinking him dead. He would have been, if not for Smiling Tom, who picked Dex’s broken body off the ground and spirited him away.

As the name suggests, Smiling Tom was not an average man, he was a thief, a con-man, a burglar; a man who played the world as a bard played the stage. Smiling Tom always kept a sharp eye for the broken and the lost on the street, he found the talent young, he trained them, and in exchange they were loyal to one another. Under Smiling Tom’s care Dex found a home, and a family. The hunger was banished with regular meals, and he quickly gained four adoptive siblings: Tanner, Cayden, Zoe and Dwenn. Life was good.

Life in Riddleport’s criminal world was brutal. Gangs turned on one another faster than the tide changed, knives drawing blood in the alleyways over the smallest slights, at times escalating into major conflicts, littering the street with bodies and burnt buildings. The survival of Smiling Tom’s gang was dependant on not being noticed as a major player, quick con here, a few lightened pockets there, never drawing too much attention from the larger gangs. The smaller gangs – ones eager to make names for themselves, were already more enough to worry about for their small family.

As the years wore on, patient tutelage from Smiling Tom and endless practice earned Dex a reputation for breaking locks in a heartbeat, with the brutal fights and bloody ambushes between rival gangs teaching him how to break bones just as quickly. As Smiling Tom’s advancing age began to catch up with him, he began to defer responsibility to Dex, attempting to teach Dex to use more than just his fists to solve a problem. As Smiling Tom’s health waned, so did the group’s taking, unable to reliably enjoy the same success they had in the past. Hoping to compensate for the change in the gang’s fortune Dex devoted his energies in a different direction, channeling his skills as a professional pugilist.

Fights in Riddleport’s underground attracted a great deal of money, as befitting the wealth centred in the city. Be it from nobles slumming among the commoners or trade lords letting loose steam, fortunes were won and lost at the end of broken and bloody knuckles every day. As the entered the fighting circuit Dex quickly established a reputation as a competent, if raw fighter, climbing quickly in the rankings, disrupting a careful equilibrium maintained by the larger gangs.

One day, before a match, Dex was dragged aside by a number of the more powerful gang leaders, and unceremoniously informed this would be his last fight. “Kid, you’ve got a massive bronze pair the way you’ve waltzed in here and started beating in heads, personally I love it. But the problem is, you’re costing us money now, our young fighters have turned timid, people aren’t betting as much. Bad business. We know you’re here because Smiling Tom is knocking on death’s door and your kin isn’t taking as much as before, so we’ve decided to help you out. We’ve sent a few Cutters to help Smiling Tom take that final step. So you won’t be having to worry about him anymore and scaring our fighters. As for you, you’re to go out there into the pit, and let that boy beat on you until we say stop. We’ll then drop whatever is left of your sorry self on the edge of town, it’d be best for you to piss off by morning.”

Dex had no chance to get a word in otherwise. The gang leaders had half a dozen bladed toughs frogmarch him into the arena, unceremoniously kicking him in with a boot to the back, shortly followed by the ringing of the arena bell. As the shock cleared, Dex emotions erupted with anger and defiance, not wasting a heartbeat he assaulted his opponent with the fury of a thunderstorm, landing half a dozen blows before he realized that he was attacking a dead man. To this day he only vaguely remembers climbing out of the ring, and fighting a path out from the arena as he ran back to his gang’s hideout.

His worse fears were confirmed when he arrived. Smiling Tom and his adoptive brothers and sisters, had all gone down fighting, their blood and bodies showing that none backed down in the slightest. With the wounds taken during his flight from the Arena burning and knowing it would only be a matter of time before the cutters returned for him, Dex fled the city. His family was gone, there was no reason to stay, he wasn’t strong enough to enact revenge on the stronger gangs, especially once they mustered their strength and he didn’t want to die.

Raiding what little there was left in his gang’s coffers, Dex’s flight took him to the docks of Riddleport where he purchased a trip to Absalom, attempting to get as far away as possible from his old home. Despite the long trip, Dex was broken and aimless, having little to live for. He survived by living mechanically, helping the outlying farmers on the island with their toil, helping bring in the harvest in exchange for food and lodging. Once again, Dex found his old friend, Hunger, return to him as he refused to resort to the petty theft that he once lived off of.

Had circumstances been different, Dex may have continued a simple life in Absalom. However on a day when he was looking for work in the city proper, he came across a mercenary recruiter looking for men and bodies to fill out a company headed to the River Kingdoms. Hunger driving Dex’s decision, he signed up. The last few years had been lean and a day to day existence was starting to take its toll on Dex, anything was an improvement over his current lot in life.

As it often is in the River Kingdoms, over the next eight years Dex went to war. Conflict after conflict consumed Dex’s life, turning a malnourished boy into a fearsome beast of a man. Where others died in bloody combat, Dex fought on, at times surviving the mercenary company he was enlisted with. From storming castles to raiding wizard’s sanctums, Dex gained a reputation as a competent soldier and fierce combatant. As the years wore on however (and after outliving his last mercenary company), Dex became tired of the endless warfare and left back to Absalom. Trading in on the reputation he created for himself over the last few years Dex enjoyed a restful stay in Absalom, at least until word of Korvosa’s troubles reached the Island.

Hearing of the King’s death and the surrounding riots, Dex looked at the chaos as a fantastic opportunity to earn a great deal of money. When rich people were scared, they tended to need people to protect them or needed people to solve their problem. In either case, Dex was ready to command a hefty price for his service.