Gosk Tereus's page

The man nodded, closing his eyes the moment he entered the room. Listen. Smell. Feel.
1. "What do you offer the expedition? What are you best at?"

An invisible smile flashed in the darkness. "Well, sir. I got six years of frontline and uneven warfare. Not unlike adventuring, in fact. I operate best in a team, sir." The man stood still for a moment, then continued. "The foremost advantage would be, I'm pretty damn good at tactical advice. Mostly on small scale."

2. "What areas do you struggle in?"

There we go. Waiting for a moment, the figure crossed his arms. "I wasn't given exactly the best of educations. I lack... academical knowledge. I defer to others' judgement on such matters. Not the best archer, either, but I make do."

3. "Have you any experience with Vudra or the Vudrani? "

"No, I only know the basics, sir. Somewhat unorganised on a grander scale, ferociously independent." He smiles again. "Heard that they like exaggeration, as well. And they revere like a thousand gods."

4. "What training, formal or otherwise, might you have that would be helpful to this expedition?"

Putting a hand to his face, the man raised his fingers in the darkness. Who knows, maybe he sees in the dark? "As I mentioned, sir, asymmetrical combat. Nexian legionnaires aren't pushovers." Taking another small pause, he continues, taking down another finger. "I can also handle situations by talking. Not the best at that, sir, to be honest. Got the desire to do it, but not the natural talent."

5. "Do you have any duties or obligations that could conflict with our expedition? Would you explain them to me?"

Heh. Sensed that one coming. "As I'm sure you're aware of, sir, I still work for Nex. As of the moment, I'm sent here to investigate whether or not the ruins of Old Jalmeray are worth Nex's time and effort, be it in coin, trade, or, hopefully not, military matters. I'll be filing a report every forthnight, and I'll be detailing... most of the findings in there. If it poses a problem, I'll be presenting the report to any Jalmeray representative you see fit, in order to make sure I'm not revealing anything outside these matters." Finishing with this information, the man takes a small pause. "Although, for the task at hand, sir. I'm sure you can see, if I fail to complete the mission, I am risking the name of Nex being connected to my theoretical inaptitude. On the other hand, if it is completed favourably, it will improve the opinion of us." The man smiles once more. "Plus, I'm not a complete ass. We're there to save a girl, politics be damned. Sir."

Interested in my background, sir? Happy to provide. I'll give you the longer version, if you want me to speed up, just let me know.

I was born roughly thirty years ago in Oenopion. It's a messed up place in North Nex I call home. It's, in layman's terms, the best place for alchemy in probably the entire continent. People up there even invented a potion that doesn't taste like garbage. Though, problem is, it didn't work half the time. Anyway...

Essentially, most Nex people are quite vested with the arcane arts. My family's in there too, mostly low ranked rank-and-file adepts or wizards. Me and my cousin Nebus, we were, put simply, quite horrendous at this sort of stuff. He couldn't learn the simplest formula, and I was banned for life from the alchemical lab. Little accident, I didn't have eyebrows for months.

See, the options when you're not that well versed in the arcane arts are quite limited. We don't really need labourers, cleaners or anything of the sort. Simple cantrip takes care of most of it. Farm work's pretty much impossible, since if you try to eat what grows on the fields, chances are it's looking back at you judgementally while you do so. So, we joined the legions. When you don't need to slave around a spellbook for hours a day, you got a lot of time to practice swordwork.

So, Nebus, he stood there for a couple of years as a quartermaster, turning out he's quite good with paperwork and the like. Especially when something needs not to be on the books. He left afterwards, became a clerk, then opened a business. He's running a caravan between Geb and Nex, actually. Me, I wasn't that great with all that stuff.

What I turned out to be great with, is keeping a calm mind under pressure, marching and leading. We were mostly fighting threats on the northern border. Gnolls are quite the threat when you first face them. But, funnily enough, if you manage to break their jaw while they're doing that demoralizing laugh thing, they make the funniest noise. After you've heard it once, you picture it every time in your head as you see one, and you can't help but laugh. Another thing we fought there was... well... I guess you'd call them unstable experiments. We call them Flesh. I don't really want to elaborate on that, but I've seen more than my fair share of those, sir. Not pretty, but we need them.

So, me and my company, we were serving under this lady, Laroie. Truth be told, I'd say that she was a vicious old shrew, but was a hell of a witch. Flying and cackling and tossing curses left and right like they're biscuits. Speaking of biscuits, she actually made some in the field from time to time. A really nice lady. And probably the mind for tactics and logistics we have in the country. We had a battle where we got balistas 15 minutes before the charge, and we couldn't find them anywhere when the dust had settled. The reason I'm here now, is about two years ago, we started getting less and less gnolls and more and more... experiments.

Eventually the old witch got fed and handed in her resignation. Two weeks later, there was a big investigation, and turns out that someone's been releasing Flesh into the wastes with no permission whatsoever, just because it's easier than dispelling the magic and burning the bodies, as you should, according to instructions. Bastards. Some... nice words later and she managed to land his spot. I got contacted a week later, asking for me and the people to join work for her personally. Right now, she's planning to divert the attention of the Arclords away from Geb. You see, you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you. We can't sustain the population without the skellies shipping food to us, and as much as I'm loyal to Nex himself as any other Nexian, I don't believe that he'd want his people to starve needlessly for starting an unnecessary war.

The same man sits on a rocking chair in a well-furnished office, filled with a strange mix of fetishes, decorative plates and military paintings. The green metal staff is hanging on a hook on the wall, next to a straw hat. The man is wearing a short-sleeved, colourful shirt, and lax trousers that end up under the knee. His bare feet are perched on another chair, and he's turning towards the door, raising a hand holding a half-smoked cigar in the air, with joy on his face. Next to him, on a table covered with various pastries, and a massive cast iron teapot with a stamped number on it, sits a fifty-ish woman with a tattooed scalp and no hair, fighting a smile as she sees the door open. From the barely opened door perches the head of the same mage as before, his facial expression a feigned defense, holding a dark green glass bottle as an offering.

Gosk is somewhat of a social animal, bordering on gregarious with people he knows. Despite that, he does respect professionalism, and attempts to show such at any and all opportunity. While often a fan of making plans, he knows not to make them too rigid or complicated, since he has seen things go wrong often, and respects the value of wingin' it.
Having went from a frontline combatant to more of an agent, he understands the need for discussion, politicking, and flexible morals. He does, however, attempt to find a morally reasonable outcome to any situation at all costs.

A faithful believer in Nex (both the person and the state), he attempts to explain to outsiders what the state is all about: Nex himself was a wizard beyond compare, proof to it being the many wondrous creations he'd made. It would be clear that such a person would be worthy of following. However, after his disappearance (Gosk prefers the term Missing in Action, but only to himself), it is only reasonable to assume that a great leader, such as Nex was, would care about his people, and hope they better themselves and their standing while he's gone, and not dwell on the past.

Similarly to his believes, Gosk thinks that it's only reasonable to help people help themselves and move on from old rivalries, which piss him off a bit. He's a reasonable optimist and a joker, trying to always lighten up the mood, rather than letting people depress each other in a wicked circle.