Betto Gritti

Betto Gritti is a son of the Gritti house, originating from Forcetelia.

## Appearance

Betto Gritti is a younger looking Forcetelian man, dressed in rather rich attire, indicating he comes from money. He has dark brown hair, which he wears rather short, his bangs parted down the middle. His face is framed by a healthy layer of facial hair.

## Personality

In the beginning, Betto came off as a rather blunt individual, often speaking his mind rather dryly and egregiously. Despite this potentially off-putting demeanor, Betto is actually a very genuine and agreeable individual, although he is known to act rash and make compulsive decisions from time to time.

Betto tends to wear his emotions on his sleeves. It is often very easy to tell how he is feeling or what he is thinking in the moment, as he tends to make little to no effort to hide his feelings. Leaning on his blunt demeanor, Betto usually tends to be the first to offer his input in matters which pertain to him and his interests. He is very unafraid to lay his cards on the table, and once he has made a decision, it can be quite difficult to persuade him towards any other opinion.

Despite how open he tends to be with his feelings and opinions, Betto does often attempt to conceal information and intentions from those around him, most often when this information is particularly compromising, or these intentions are particularly reckless. He is not necessarily the best at fooling others into believing he does not know more than he claims, it may still take a bit of effort to get him to spill the particularly tantalizing details.

## Kingdom of Irdroz

The party first met Betto within the capital of the Kingdom of Irdroz, the cliffside city of Uzd-Uc. Betto was acting, by orders of his father Ugolino Gritti, as an assistant to the current monarch, King Xunog Fairweather, who was notably diminished upon the party's arrival. Upon further inspection of the King's weakened state, Yrimir determined that not only was the King afflicted by a curse, he was being slowly poisoned; from there, he took steps alongside members of the Royal Clergy to heal the King and reverse the effects of the multiple poisons running through his system. The party's primary suspect immediately became Betto, given his constant proximity to the King as his health deteriorated, and so they soon began a covert investigation as Betto showed them the hospitality of Uzd-Uc.

Betto took the party out to dinner at a high end establishment close to the royal palace, known as the Red Ruby. A private room was reserved, and throughout the dinner, the party attempted to get to the bottom of the poisoning of the King, and question Betto without tipping him off of their suspicions. Near the end of the meal, both Xander and Yrimir noticed a ring on Betto's finger which radiated a putrid magical aura, one of a curse. It wasn't long after this revelation that Betto suddenly felt the need to excuse himself back to his chambers in the palace momentarily, as he was not feeling well. The party offered to escort him to his quarters to ensure he got there safely, excluding Bastle, who stayed behind to have a private conversation with her godfather, Egon.

Upon reaching his chambers, Betto immediately began acting strange, distant. He ripped the cursed ring from his finger and threw it towards the window, an effort by the person controlling Betto through the ring to get rid of any evidence, and Betto then made his way over towards his dresser, where a vial of deadly poison was waiting for him to ingest as a fail-safe. Thankfully, Xander caught the ring in the air before it was lost, and Zyanya and Yrimir were able to prevent Betto from reaching the dresser. Soon he reemerged from his stupor, without any memory of the events between leaving the Red Ruby and now. The party explained that the ring he was wearing was cursed, and that someone had been controlling his actions through it. Betto, panicking at the loss of his ring, explained that he had won that ring from a gamble against a "strange man in a bar," a Yuan-Ti, quickly confirmed to be Xaman, the less than mentally stable ex-fiance of Zyanya.

It was also revealed in this confrontation that Betto's original mission in Uzd-Uc was to assasinate the previous monarch, King Krilge Fairweather, by request of Capitan Menet Sadoul, who had approached the Gritti family a few months prior. This directive was swiftly completed, however, because of the meddling of Xaman, Betto ended up remaining in Irdroz longer than anticipated, working to salve the rising health issues of the new King, which were unknowingly his own doing. Even after all this came to light, Betto still insisted that he wished to recover his lost ring, a prize he earned fair and square. Xander was able to convince him that the ring had been lost, and secretly held onto it, an item he still has today, though he has not interacted with it since taking it from Betto.

Once King Xunog was purged of the poisons in his system, regaining a considerable amount of his strength, Betto decided it was time for him to return to the Forcetelian Republic, conveniently the next destination of the party anyway. With this in mind, it was decided that Betto would accompany the party to the capital city of Antro. However, after the revelation of Xaman's interference and likely surveillance of Betto's actions, Zyanya worried that her accompanying the party on the trip would lead them into a trap and potentially at the mercy of whatever scheme Xaman had been working on. It was decided that the majority of the party would leave the city of Uzd-Uc through the front gates, with Zyanya clearly absent from the outgoing party. Meanwhile, Betto would lead her through a cavern system beneath the city which led out to the south, where away from the city they would reunite with the party, with Zyanya having donned the identity of Dura, Soldier of the King's Guard, acting as the bodyguard of Betto during this trip back to Antro.

## Forcetelian Republic

### Antro

Just outside the capital city of Antro, the party was stopped by a queue into the city which extended quite a considerable distance, as the guards at the gate seemed to be performing searches on each caravan which seeked entrance into the city. Upon seeing this, Betto had immediately decided that he had no intention of waiting in line to enter his "own city," as he called it. With this in mind, and an overall desire to remain discrete, Xander donned the disguise of a travelling merchant from Al Hayad, while Bastle and Yrimir elected to shroud themselves in invisibility while the carriage passed the search checkpoint.

Upon reaching the gates to the city, we found that one of the soldiers performing searches was none other than Betto's partner, Pierozzo, which ended up making the party's entrance to the city much easier than anticipated. Pierozzo was rightfully suspicious of Betto, fully unconvinced by any attempt to convince him that there was nothing strange or suspicious about his carriage and those arriving in the city with him. Against his better judgement, however, Pierozzo yielded and allowed Betto to pass, knowing full well that he would come to regret that decision.

After making it past the search checkpoint, Betto, who made abundantly clear he had much more important things to attend to in the moment, instructed Pierozzo to guide the party around the city wherever they needed to go, and that he would reconvene with the group later in the day. From there, the party quickly began working towards some of the goals which led them here in the first place, most notable going to meet with Giovenco of Forcetelia, whose ship, the Red Dahlia, was currently impounded at the docks. It was near the end of the party's visit to the Red Dahlia that Betto rejoined the party after having visited his father, Ugolino Gritti, in the Senate Building, where he provided an update on the state of Irdroz and the events which transpired due to Xaman's meddling. Betto was less than thrilled to be in the presence of Giovenco, and was quick to offer to take the party elsewhere once their business there had been settled.

After departing from the docks, Betto indulged the party in a tour around Antro, visiting some of the city's most famous venues, including the Marketplace, one of the largest hubs for trade in Pheris. Betto granted the party members allowances, which they could use to spend throughout the marketplace at any of the shop stalls throughout the massive complex, a moment of reprieve amidst the impending chaos of the current state of Antro, which was currently being visited by High Inquisitrix Alheit Zetters on behalf of the Theocracy of Axbria as well as Queen Cualli on behalf of the Cursed Realm of Mecatl, who was accompanied by none other than Xaman, who was in the midst of manipulating the Queen, using her to accomplish his goals. The Inquisitrix and the Queen of Mecatl were visiting Antro in hopes of convincing the Forcetelian Senate to vote in favor of joining the war against the Dominion of Neteria, a decision which was not only inconvenient for a majority of the party's goals, but as well a choice which could lead to death and destruction all across the continent. With their day of shopping and sight-seeing complete, Betto took the party to the Crystal Pool Inn, where he had reserved rooms for them to stay for the night, and left the party to finalize their plans for the day ahead.

The main goal of the party was to infiltrate the meeting at the Senate Building and convince Queen Cualli, Zyanya's mother, to reconsider this declaration of war, which was given by the Queen after receiving false intel that the Lich Queen Neteria had kidnapped Zyanya along with her sister, Chen, and was holding them hostage within the city of Godsfall. Zyanya was successfully able to disrupt the Senate Hearing, while Xander was able to distract the High Inquisitrix away from the Senate Floor, in hopes of removing a potential wild card from play briefly. Meanwhile, Bastle and Yrimir had planned to lay a trap for Xaman which would lure him away from the Senate Building with the promise of both Zyanya as well as the Stardust, a substance which the party had, at the time, assumed a person like Xaman would want to get his hands on. Unfortunately, their trap did not spring as planned, and after escaping a group of Xaman's underlings, they reunited in the streets outside the Senate Building with Betto and Pierozzo, along with Betto's brother, Federico, who were in the midst of combat against more of Xaman's men who were attacking Forcetelian soldiers as a part of this impending coup.

The group outside was able to keep Xaman's men at bay long enough for those within the Senate Building to evacuate, and the party quickly fled towards the docks, where Giovenco was waiting as their getaway driver for this eventuality. Despite his distaste of Giovenco, Betto agreed to let him help the party escape their attackers, even going as far as to "officially" release the Red Dahlia from its impoundment as an act of peace and cooperation. After just barely escaping their attackers, the party hastily departed from Antro, sailing along the coast towards an abandoned prison in order to regroup and plan their next move.

### The Prison

Upon reaching the abandoned prison, the party set about licking their wounds and figuring out where to go from here. On one hand, the state of Antro seemed to be in disarray, with Betto and Federico eager to return to save the rest of their family who would likely be in need of their help. On the other hand, Xaman had made clear his intentions to usurp Queen Cualli, returning to Mecatl as soon as possible to claim she met her demise, and that he would be taking over as ruler. This put Zyanya and the Queen, who had accompanied the party during their evacuation of Antro, very ill at ease, and eager to return to the capital city of Eness to mitigate the potential damage caused by Xaman in their absence.

With this split in the agreement of the group, the party, accompanied by Betto and Giovenco, decided to do a bit of exploring of the old prison, while they waited for the Red Dahlia to be repaired of the damage sustained from the onslaught in Antro. In a chamber deep below the prison, the group came upon a surprising sight, an active magical prison cell, which housed The Artificer, who pleaded with the party to release him or, at the very least, aid him in his own escape. Another decision which split the party, Yrimir and Giovenco felt as though it would be dangerous and reckless to release The Artificer, unsure of his capabilities and his mental stability. Meanwhile Bastle, Xander, and Betto felt as though they needed all the help they could get at the moment, and if The Artificer was willing to provide his assistance to the party, it is a risk they were willing to take. Zyanya remained mostly neutral in the decision, ultimately giving Bastle the final decision in the matter after a lengthy argument over the decision, which resulted in the release of The Artificer from his prison. This action struck a considerable splinter through the party, and they dispersed for the night to think some more about their next move.

The next day, after much deliberation, it was eventually decided (through the intervention and "guidance" of Ealirel unto Yrimir) that a majority of the party would return to Antro to save the refugees of the coup through means of The Artificer's teleportation capabilities, while Giovenco's crew, accompanied by Queen Cualli, would sail the Red Dahlia to Eness, where they would attempt to evacuate the remaining members of the Royal Family, while attempting to mitigate any damages set in motion by Xaman. It had been determined that a large group of refugees had cloistered themselves within a Temple of Eteus just outside the walls of Antro, among these refugees was Betto's father, Ugolino, along with his sister, Ciosa. With the help of The Artificer, the party teleported to the temple and were able to convene with Ugolino to go over strategies and escape plans from the army of Forcetelians and Axbrians who were slowly encroaching upon the temple.

The original plan was to have Betto lead the refugees through a network of secret passages which stretched beneath the city and just outside of it. Betto claimed to have advanced knowledge and understanding of these tunnels and it was thought that he would easily be able to lead the refugees to safety and take them back to the prison. Betto, however, had no interest in this plan, he instead was more interested in tracking down his other brother, Lapaccio, who held the title as standing Imperator, which was awarded to him for his cooperation with Xaman to usurp the Forcetelian Senate. He entrusted the task of leading the refugees through the tunnels to Ciosa, and quickly got to work on his new game plan. Betto was certain that Lapaccio would either be at the Senate Building or at the Gritti Estate, and specially selected Bastle, Xander, and Federico to accompany him on this mission. Because of the proximity of these two locations, it was agreed that The Artificer would teleport this group to the grounds of the Gritti Estate, as opposed to the Senate Building, whose Asithil base would have likely disrupted his magical capabilities. Once there, they would quickly scout the area for Lapaccio, and if they were unable to locate him, they would make their way over to the Senate building to continue their search.

### Search and Rescue

Upon reaching the Gritti Estate, however, Betto instated a slight change of plans, wherein Bastle, Xander, and Federico would search the Estate for Lapaccio and, whether they found him or not, burn the building to the ground, while Betto, himself, would continue on through the tunnel system and infiltrate the Senate Building alone, remaining vague on his intentions once he were to arrive there. Betto explained that there were quite a few compromising articles throughout the Gritti Estate which belonged to different members of the family, that it would simply be easier to destroy it all before authorities had a chance to investigate. The group reluctantly agreed and Betto departed through the tunnels and navigated his way to a secret entrance beneath the Senate Building.

It would seem that his arrival may have been anticipated, as when Betto arrived at the Senate Building, he was met with Mecatlian and Axbrian soldiers, who had clearly been expecting him. These soldiers appeared a bit distant and not fully cognizant, not unlike how Betto acted while under the influence of the cursed ring he received from Xaman. He was swifly apprehended and brandished with a serpent tattoo, idential to the tattoo from which Griselda emerges from Xander's back, as well as the tattoos shown off by Xaman during his uprising during the Senate Hearing, both of which also housed Aberrants taking on the form of large serpents. The application of these tattoos robbed Betto again of his wits and he was chained to the wall of his father's former office within the Senate Building.

### Return to Antro

After reconvening at the prison, the party concluded that Betto (among others) had gone missing during their missions, and that there was nowhere else he could be other than the Senate Building. So a plan to infiltrate and rescue Betto was set into motion, with the surprising aid of the High Inquisitrix, who not only provided a map to Betto's location within the Senate Building, but would also use her departure as a means of cover for the party to sneak in while the defenses were lowered at the Senate Building. Her departure was also means to lure away Metke, her less than cooperative fellow Inquisitor with a penchant for meddling particularly in the affairs of Xander. Although the infiltration of the Senate Building went off without a hitch, upon reaching Betto, the party was confronted by Metke, who had managed to return much sooner than anticipated. After talking her down, they were successfully able to extract the Aberrant serpent from within Betto through the help of Xander's newly acquired patron, Kotris, the Lady of Prisms.

With Betto free of Xaman's mind control, the party freed him from his shackles, which set off a magical alarm, calling dozens of brainwashed Mecatlian soldiers to start to convene on the party's location. With the help of Bastle and Zyanya's acrobatic prowess and Yrimir's flight capabilities, the group swifly fled out the window of the Senate Building, repelling down five stories to the ground below and retreating the Senate Building across the street to the Cult of Remembrance, wherein Xander discovered a secret door only accessible by followers of Kotris, which the party intended to use as their means of escape.

The party was met at the secret door by Elizabeth, an attendant from the Crystal Pool Inn and a follower of the Lady of Prisms, who led the party through a labyrinthine hallway system into the Sanctum of Kotris, where Betto was sent to the Infirmary Ward to have his wounds treated.

## Trivia

Each member of the Gritti family specializes in a different craft which they use to contribute to their profession as assassins; Betto, in particular, is quite a proficient poisoner.

Despite his prowess as a poisoner, Betto also has a great appreciation for explosives. This is evident when he alludes more than once to the idea of blowing up the Senate Building, as well as with the barrel of blackpowder Bastle discovered in the Gritti Estate, which is assumed to belong to Betto.

While infiltrating the Gritti Estate, Bastle came across a secret stash of 19 different poisons, which she has since carried and put to some use. Upon reuniting with Betto, she returned the unused poisons, to which he rejoiced at the return of his "9 poisons," which indicates that not all the poisons from this stash belong to Betto.

Betto is able to identify the effects of a poison simply by smelling the scent it gives off. In particularly challenging cases, Betto is able to withstand ingesting a drop of the poison to determine its effects, having trained his body to be able to handle small dosages of poison.

Betto's favourite food is mushroom stew.

The Gritti family is the second richest family in the Forcetelian Republic, a fact which never ceases to annoy Betto, especially given his complicated past with Giovenco of Forcetelia, who holds the title of richest man in the Forcetelian Republic (by a lot).

It was revealed that much of the bad blood between Betto and Giovenco stems from the relationship as former lovers.