Ardin Da'Vrinni

[spoonclacknredneck]

Name: Ardin Da'Vrinni
Race: Human (Sembian)
Sex: Male
Age: 28

Alignment: Neutral
Diety: Akadi

Hieght: 5'10"
Wieght: 140 Lbs
Hair Color: Very dark red
Hair style: Shoulder length, tied behind his head.
Eye Color: Black
Skin Tone: Olive

Description: Ardin is a man of average human height and a slender build. His olive skin and accent (comparable to Italian) marks him as a native of the mercantile nation of Sembia. While dressed in common clothing and leather armor, dyed to the earthy tone suitable to the current seasons in the forest kingdom, and wearing no visible sign of status, his impeccable speech and hygiene mark him as someone who has had at least a more civilized upbringing than the average serf or city dweller. A small smile is quick to grace his features, and his eyes are always moving, examining, searching. At his hips rest a plain rapier, longknife, and dirk, and about his chest is a leather bandolier filled with slender throwing knives.

Attachments:

[spoonclacknredneck]

BIOGRAPHY

!!SPOILERS!!

Ardin was born to a wealthly merchant family in Sembian city of Selgaunt. The middle child borne by his mother, Ardin was not the hier to his families' business, and as such, was allowed to largely do as he wished. As a young man, Ardin buried himself in books, swordplay, and the cleavage of wealthy merchant's daughters. After a romantic tryst of his went awry, his father gave him an ultimatum: accept a commission into the powerful Sembian Navy where he would be more often than not at sea or out of Selguant, or be cut off from all riches and privileges allowed to him by birth. Ardin chose the former.

Upon graduating from the Saerloonian War College, Ardin accepted the rank of Cadet in the Sembian Marines, preferring to learn the art of seamanship by first-hand experience, rather than three more years of book-learning at the college, as was standard for all Naval officers. Over the next few years, Ardin made a name for himself upon the Dragonmere and Sea of Fallen Stars. He participated in several small skirmishes against the pirates that plagued the coast of the Mere, and was eventually awarded the rank of Lieutenant, affording him leadership of all marine forces aboard a warship, lower in position only to the executive officer and captain. He earned the respect and loyalty of his subordinates and superiors, and was deemed to be a likely pick for the rank of Lieutenant-Commander in the next few years.

Ardin's luck was changed by a simple, fateful stroke. What began as a simple boarding of a suspected smuggler ended as the unmasking of a great conspiracy. In the belongings of the captain of the captured ship, Ardin discovered documents and orders from a pirate captain in Westgate, a Selgauntan lord, and Ardin's father, Valeri Da'Vrinni. The letters suggested that a cabal had formed, with ships loaded with illicit goods from Westgate delivered to the Da'Vrinni warehouses, with pirates conducting harassing raids elsewhere to divert naval attention. Rather than destroy these notes, Ardin brought them to his own captain, feeling it was not only the right thing to do, but to save himself from accusations of smuggling and piracy. When Ardin's ship arrived in port, he presented the captured documents to the local magistrate.

What Ardin did not expect, however, was that the conspiracy ran deeper. Fearing his own discovery at being implicit in the criminal enterprise, the magistrate clapped both Ardin and his Captain in irons, and sentenced them to death at the gallows the next day, under charges of piracy and illegal privateering. While being escorted to the prison, Ardin made an attempt to escape, grabbing a careless guard's blade, and fighting the best he could with his hands bound. In the end, Ardin was able to escape by diving into an aqueduct that fed into the sewers, but not before seeing his captain, comrade, and friend of many years cut down, and he himself taking a pistol ball to the shoulder. Wounded and alone, Ardin eventually passed out in the sewers of Selgaunt, sure that he was to die of his wound.

Ardin found himself awake, two days later, in a small tavern outside the walls of the city. The man who sat beside his bed explained that it was most fortunate for both of them that he had found the disgraced officer. Fortunate for Ardin in that he had been given a second chance at life, and fortunate for the man, in that he had come across a man who was considered dead, effectively exiled from Sembia on pain of death, and as such, exceeding useful to him.

The man, who only identified himself as Kestrel, explained that he was a member of the elite Sembian intelligence service, The Silver Ravens. He had been investigating the illegal shipments into Selguant for the last months, and once word had spread of Ardin's arrest, had tailed him until he found him near-death in the grime and much of the sewers. With Ardin having linked the conspiracy with four individuals, Kestrel now had a means to solve the situation, permanently. In return, Kestrel offered Ardin a second chance at life; acceptance into the Silver Ravens as an initiate, and a mission.

Upon recovering fully, and taking his oath, Ardin was dispatched to Cormyr, free to travel and associate through the forest kingdom as he felt best. Ardin's mission was to watch, listen, learn, and report. The balance of power between Cormyr, Sembia, The Dalelands, and the Moonsea powers of the Zhentarim and Hillsfar was growing ever more precarious, and Ardin's task was to not only provide intelligence of these groups back to Osprey, but to take whatever discreet steps he could to ensure that no one side got too much of an advantage over the other. After all, nothing hurts trade more than the threat of war.

And so, given directions to Greatgaunt, where a carrier raven would accept his reports once a tenday, Ardin departed to the west, carrying only his simple clothes, weapons, and newfound purpose