Ben Sheffield

> *“Strewth! You saved my butter for certain. I’ve been stuck like this for a whole feckin day. You know how creepy it is to have some bat-looking weirdo tie you up in your future business?”*
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## Ben Sheffield

### Affiliation

Harrendor

Ben Sheffield is an npc who runs "Ben's Buns". They are a 3ft tall dwarf with a short, neatly-trimmed beard and hair, and a chefs hat and apron on. *Chunks of their hair are now missing, and their clothes are torn.*

Ben's shop is now currently in a state of disrepair after his store was flooded with cursed dough (*Quest: Alien: Ryesolation*). They still haven't finished repairing the store from the last time, where he tied himself up in order to make the quest seem more interesting than it was (and also because he was lonely and needed friends).(*Quest: You Can Have Your Cake And Eat It Too)*

### UPDATED Description of Ben's Shop:

The one-story affair leaves little to the imagination about the relative poverty of Mr Sheffield: Despite new coats of white paint and a shiny new sign “Ben’s Buns” sticking out of the side, the faded wooden exterior is visible even through the paint, timber window lining starting to sag and the sections of the house that have been repaired quite obvious against the rest: new windows, new door.

The entire building smells of pastry and dough. Normally, that wouldn’t be cause for concern, but you can see dough leaking from the windows. It’s bunched up against the door like a flood would rain down on you should you choose to try and enter. And now that you’re standing in front of the door, you feel a sense of unearthly dread surround you, like you’re about to step into an unknown dimension.

### History:

#### History 1:

Ben came into town some months ago, hoping to open a bakery in Ferrenport, Ben's Buns. Ben began work updating the store, but found himself under attack from bats that were living in his attic. Wanting to get the store open as soon as possible, Ben posting a listing for a quest (the below quest), while overexaggerating the issue to make it seem like there was a more interesting problem to solve. While waiting on the adventurers, Ben decided the best course of action was to buy some Bat Repellent in order to make it easier for the adventurers to deal with the bats. Coming into town, they encountered a tiefling by the name of Melitrix. According to Ben, they were selling other types of repellent, and Ben had bought bat repellent from them.

#### *You Can Have Your Cake And Eat It Too*

Sir Festis, Elis, Ithanor, Felix and Mordai were enlisted to help Ben after bats began attacking them from their roof. The party, after defeating some bats, found them tied up in the corner of the room, and Ben told the party they'd been attacked by a Bat-Man of some kind. The party was also told that Ben had picked up some powder from a seller in town, who claimed it was Bat repellent. The party, after realising the kit was a DIY kit, were forced to make the material themselves, and Ben made veiled death threats against the person who sold it to them ("The next time I meet them, I'm gonna stab them.") After completing the repellent, the party went up to the attic and used the powder, to little effect. After defeating the regular bats, Ben was interrogated and forced to concede that there was no Bat-Man, and that they only wanted some friends for being lonely.

#### History 2:

Between the events of the above and below quest, Ben went back to Meletrix to complain about the powders being sold to them. According to Ben:

> "...I went into their store and complained, and they were...calm the whole time. Just a calm blue ocean even though I threw sugar at them. I was off-guard when they asked me to come inside and they'd replace it. They even apologised to me. I took their offer and went inside. Then the door locked and they started laughing. They turned around and...I don't know what was behind those eyes, but they said 'You will never find success. That is my curse.' and then they vanished. I was out of there as fast as I could go. They were there the day after I bought the powder, but the day after I complained...I found their body in the store. They'd been stabbed multiple times. I panicked and told the guard as quick as I could."
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> "When I was in the store, looking into their eyes after they had offered to replace them...I don't even know what I was looking at. Not something normal, that's for sure. It was like looking into a void, something you know is beyond anything you can explain. Something you're not ever meant to see. And they vanished with a puff of smoke. Nothing left."
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A period of a few days had followed between the above event and the events of "Alien: Ryesolation", but on the day of the event, Ben described the following events:

> "The ovens kept working overtime, even after we left. We couldn't turn them off, and as we were trying the walls...they began to leak bread. I...there's no other way to describe it. It just...starting dripping from *everywhere*. The walls, the floor, the damn ceiling...and as we were trying to leave, those...*things* came from the ovens. I managed to hide, but the others...weren't so lucky."
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Ben had hidden in the downstairs basement with the monsters for an entire day before Alien: Ryesolation.

#### *Alien: Ryesolation*

Wes, Dexter, Victor, Marley and Gabriel followed a rough looking notice to Ben's Buns, which had been overrun with cursed dough. The party fought their way through cursed dough creatures and some Unleavened monsters that ripped chunks out of their armour down to the basement. There, they found Ben, cocooned in dough and crying having been beaten up. They told the party that their co-workers that they'd hired: Rep, Y'soth and Peter had been cocooned and killed to make more of the Unleavened creatures. The party, after accidentally alerting the Freshy Risen monster of their location, fought it off and evacuated the building, leaving Ben traumatised and out of a home and occupation.

#### RP Scene 1: (Something Wicked This Way Buns)

Gabriel and Wes, interested to know more about the events leading up to Alien Ryesolation, went with Ben to the bar, and discussed the events of History 1 and History 2.

#### Welcome To The Freak Show

Ben was found at the office of Dr Stilson, nursing a bruised head and minor burns on his fingers. He lamented to the party that was there that he had burnt his hand and tripped onto his back while making his newest set of muffins. The party connected the dot’s to his old store, Ben’s Buns, much to his chagrin, and offered him a job aboard one of their ships, which he tentatively accepted.