About Nasaqti Seshet-taaRISEN GUARD RIVAL: Nasaqti Seshet-taa
Nasaqti grew up in Sothis, running among the stalls and lurking in the souk, looking for work as a messenger, only very rarely succumbing to the urge to cut a purse, like many of his less-scrupulous peers. His relative diligence drew the eye of the guardsmen who provided security in the souk, such as it was, and the only time he was caught, it was resolved as a misunderstanding. He recognized a promise in the guardsman’s eyes that this would be the only leniency he would ever see, and cleaned up his act, taking only honest work, soon earning his wage as a caravan handler, only to prove utterly unable to work with animals, and to be clueless beyond the confines of the city that was his jungle and the tall buildings that were his mountains. While not a disastrous first outing, he was quickly relegated to working for a merchant factor in Sothis, where he developed his already uncanny familiarity with the city and could locate any merchant connector (or debtor…) that his employer sought out. The guardsman who had always cast a protective eye over him as a youth (a man who was truly unsure if this beggar-boy was his son, as he had known the boy’s mother, for a time…) attained a promotion to the legendary Risen Guard, and in this new position, he found that Nasaqti’s growing skills where increasingly useful in ferreting out intrigues in Sothis that might run contrary to the will of the Ruby Prince. The fledgeling Risen Guard exploited his relationship with Nasaqti, and the merchant at first questioned the young man’s loyalties, but his wife almost immediately set him straight as to the value of establishing ties and exchanges of favor with the mighty Risen Guard. Seasons passed like the wind, and both men benefitted from their relationship, which Nasaqti had long since realized the nature of, as his mother had told him of his father, and he knew that it was not this guardsman, no matter what he thought. Indeed, he was pleased that his true father had died years ago, so that the truth of the matter would never be revealed, and put to risk this advantageous relationship. His fortunes buoyed by his Risen Guard contact, Nasaqti rose in the favors of his employer, and soon was openly courting his second daughter, to the approval of all concerned, while being called to assist on Risen Guard missions as an associate, facing not merely the brigands and low-lives that had long been his specialty, but darker threats beneath the city streets, that walked in the bodies of men, but blasphemously past their time. By the time they were married, the Risen Guard were contracting for services from Nasaqti’s new father-in-law, who couldn’t be happier with the situation, until a jealous rival merchant arranged for a terrible accident involving stampeding horses, meant to kill Nasaqti and his new bride. Nasaqti was made of tougher stuff than the assassin suspected, and survived the trampling of a dozen horses, attempting to shield his wife’s body with his own, but to no avail. He awoke, hours later, to receive the news that Asharibet was dead. He pleaded with his friend, even attempting to exploit the man’s suspicions of their true relationship, but was rebuffed. The resurrection magic available to the Risen Guard was not a favor that could simply be handed out, not even to the family of a Guardsman, and without a ‘suitable donation,’ none of the great temples of the city would call his wife back to the world of the living. In the time it took for her father and himself to aquire the needed funds to have her raised from the dead, time had already grown too long, as the assassin had planned his deed most carefully, timing the ‘accident’ to occur while her father had all of his coin tied up in merchandise. He sold his goods at a great loss, his rivals happily carting away for copper what should have cost them gold, but it was too late, and Asharibet could not be restored to life. Blaming Nasaqti for the death of his daughter, he cast him out into the streets, and feeling lost and betrayed by life, by the gods, by his presumptive father, Nasaqti fell in with a dark crowd, turning his skills towards dark deeds. Almost single-handedly, with only a few unscrupulous men hired from the streets, Nasaqti arranged the gruesome death of the merchant-rival that he knew was responsible for the attempt on his life, and the death of his wife, crafting a trap along a ‘safe’ route that boxed the man and his guards in a narrow alley, where Nasaqti and his street rabble showered them with envenomed projectiles from the rooftops, herding the panicked merchant down a series of allies, every way blocked to channel him to a final meeting with Nasaqti himself, who cut him down while he begged for mercy. A clapping behind him revealed one of the street-rabble he had hired earlier, who had seemed to accept his instructions with uncommon clarity of understanding, and he discovered that a different sort of ‘guard’ entirely had been watching him, and judged him worthy of their special tutelage… Another year has passed, and Nasaqti has learned much, finally developing skills in truth that he had dabbled in as a young would-be thief in the marketplace. An Assassin, he has devoted his life to the pursuit not of mere coin, but to the sanctity of death. He recognizes now that the Risen Guard are no less blasphemous and disrespectful to the will of the gods than those shambling things that are unearthed in forgotten tombs and sepulchers. Asharibet did not return because of some failure on the part of the Temple of Pharasma, but because she was too good a soul to defy the order of things, to overturn the will of the gods for a few more stolen breaths. Nasaqti sees the river of the underworld as a place to pass only once, and regards the Risen Guard, who returned like his wife would not, as defilers of the sacred, who have spit in the faces of the gods and returned like arrogant conquerors of those holy places where they should have been honored to remain. He will take whatever mission is assigned him, but takes a special purpose and pleasure in arranging for the final ends of those who have already cheated death once before, most especially those in some way connected to the Risen Guard. Boons Those who assist Nasaqti in the performance of his missions, or in some way hinder the work of the Risen Guard (or sully their reputations, or, most gloriously of all, arrange for one to perish in a way in which he cannot be returned to life) will earn his favor. He can arrange for a bewildering array of toxins to be made available, or craft some quite deadly traps, or supply street thugs for an ambush, or many other sinister favors, having a seemingly bottomless knowledge of the Sothis’ underworld. He knows a dozen places within the city that are perfect for various sorts of ambush or subtler machination, where the locals know to look the other way, or would even be actively complicit in some shady activities, and will, in special circumstances, share one of these to an ally who has need of such a place. With study of a particular human target over the course of a week, he can grant an ally (or up to five allies total) the equivalent of a favored enemy bonus (+2) for all relevant rolls for a single encounter against that single person, by preparing a thorough plan of attack tailored for that individuals abilities and behavior. Finally, thanks to his studies with the Assassins, he has learned techniques that allow someone with levels in two or more of Monk, Rogue and Assassin to gain a +1 circumstance bonus to armed attack rolls, as they learn to combine the often disparate fighting styles of these professions into a more effective whole. (A weak version of Fractional BAB for these three medium-BAB class options, but only counting for the 1st level of any two of Monk, Rogue and / or Assassin.) |
