Mervyn Tumblelock's page

Born into a life of bondage in the home of a minor Chelaxian Noble family, much of Mervyn’s early childhood is martyred with the death of his parents to an obscure diabolistic ritual and years of abuse at the hands of sadistic masters. Granted, Mervyn made the best of his situation. Defiant by nature, the young Halfling frequently shirk his responsibilities and kept his eyes on food and trinkets that were clearly not meant for him.

His behavior clearly would have had him slain by his masters, were it not for an elderly halfing by the name of Turik. Turik’s willingness to take the blame for Mervyn’s wrongdoings lead to many scars and bruises on his body that would have otherwise been meant for Mervyn, eventually rendering the elderly Halfling mostly lame. However, one night when a particularly noteworthy bauble was found missing, the masters quickly had the slave’s quarters torn apart to find it. It was around this time that Turik managed to sneak the young Mervyn out of the house via waste gratings, but the event did not leave Mervyn unscarred as the young Halfling heard the beatings and cries of his former friend right up until the point that they stopped echoing through the dense pipes.

Having little in the way of food or shelter, Mervyn had to quickly adapt to life on the streets of Cheliax, stealing what he could to survive, keeping underfoot to avoid re-capture. His tendency to take too much almost landed him in a cell, and possibly back to his former masters, were it not for the timely intervention of a plain-looking middle aged Halfling woman, whom to this day Mervyn does not remember the name of. Following a lengthy detention, he was drug kicking and screaming across the border by Bellflower agents into the Democratic Nation of Andoran. It was there that Mervyn began his new life. Having little to no skills, Mervyn “apprenticed” under a local fence, Roderik. Thehuman conducted various illegal activities, but in his mind “the end justified the means, within reason” and the thief began to help refine both Mervyn’s skills as a thief and his sense of morality. To do so, Roderik instilled within Mervyn his basic code of thievery, to which Mervyn still follows to this day:

1. Do not kill or hurt anyone if you can help it. You’re the thief in their home.

2. Unless they had it coming.

3. Do not let your eyes get bigger than your satchels.

4. Do not take that which will be sorely missed.

5. Especially if the owner is a very powerful person and will come looking for it.

6. Stealing from those that have nothing is both the mark of a terrible thief and a terrible person.

Mervyn had a fairly profitable life within Andoran for some time. You would not know this by looking at him, as Mervyn had a marked propensity to aid urchins like himself monetarily and by training them in “the art.” Mervyn was also more than happy to tithe to churches that were in the habit of taking in orphans and escaped slaves like himself. But his reputation for ill-gotten gains left him tithing in the night many times where the priests would not question from where the money came.

Over time, Mervyn became aware of the ignorance of his knowledge of his own race’s history and culture, finding that many of the halfings he also knew were former or descended from former slaves, Mervyn left Andoran in an attempt to find answers (and avoid jail time for an incident involving the botched theft of several bottles of toady). Imbued with the Andoran sense of freedom and equality, and armed with skills no lawful land could easily tolerate, Mervyn left for the city with the second largest halfing population in the area, Kaer Maga. Mervyn took to the anarchistic government of Kaer Maga all too well, finding many ripe targets and few authorities to enforce what sparse laws exit. Mervyn has fallen in with many of the abolitionist halflings of The Bottoms, helping out where he can and gathering what information he can on “the job” when opportunity presents itself. Having had his fill of seeing no real progress, Mervyn left Kar Maga and began to travel the world. He currently finds himself in Taldor, doing the best he can to keep a low profile as usual.

Other Stuff:

Chronic Smoker (Imagine him frequently lighting up during rest or when he is nervous, especially before disarming a trap)

Hates Chelaxians (I mean he really does, you can give him a penalty to dealing with them and I would not complain one bit)

Dick with a heart of gold (hard to pull off)

Over-eater (Oh he will)

Suspicious (but not necessarily hostile about it)

Mervyn speaks with a brough (or Cockney, whichever makes the most geographical sense) due to his street-upbringing. He addresses many with a relaxed demeanor and posture, and acerbic nature and tone. This is because losing people that he cares about has been very common in his life, and as such it takes time for him to get comfortable dealing with new people, much less tall folk. This transitory feature in his life has also left him mildly hedonistic, and he loves good drink, good food, and despite not really knowing how to dance, good music. If Mervyn sees an opportunity to help an orphaned child or free an escaped slave, he will take it, but not without proper planning and not haphazardly if he can help it. Also, he will follow his rules of thievery to the letter, and violations of those will cause him some levels of grief.

Role: His build has him high for stealth and trap detection, so he’ll be doing a lot of those.