Aldrean

**Aldrean** is an otherwise unremarkable adventurer who unintentionally became host to Pandora, granting form to the flames of chaos.

## History

Aldrean was a simple man living a simple life. He longed to become a great adventurer, seeking riches and fame. However, his desire to get out into the world and discover hoards treasure left him untrained and unrefined in his combat and survival skills. Knowing the bare minimum, he did manage to get by, stow away with a few parties, kill a few goblins, have some laughs, downed some drinks, got some of his friends killed accidentally through sheer incompetence. Aldrean's abundant amount of overconfidence mixed with sheer lack of expertise lead him getting kicked out of or chased off from most groups he'd join. On one such occasion, he was fleeing a group of really angry mobsters when he'd slipped into a series of caves. Slipping in this case being used in the literal sense, as he fell into some ancient and sinister ruins.

Aldrean plunged the depths, not only looking for a way out, but perhaps some loot to snatch along the way. There was little luck for the most part, with Aldrean arriving at a dead end. He'd decided to set up camp for the evening, though his attempts at starting a fire went horribly haywire, and to put it simply, the ground beneath him gave way into a room emanating an incredibly wicked energy. The room seemingly sealed off for ages, a lone mask sat at the altar. Aldrean approaching the mask begun to hear voices, silently snickering, challenging him to put it on. There was power in that mask. Unspeakable power beyond what Aldrean had known possible. He'd delayed for a moment, but he ultimately gave in to the urges, and placed it upon his face.

This was an immediate mistake.

The mask burned at his skin, yet was already latched on to him. The pain was intense, yet his screams died out quickly under the powerful combustion the mask was undergoing. Green flames burst from his eyes and mouth, his body overwhelmed with energy, and his screams turning into mechanical cackling. The intense energy flooded the room, shaking the entire cave to its core. And then... silence. Aldrean was left with an odd glowing symbol in his chest.

This was the Mask of Pandora, an ancient artifact with immense psionic power within it. Pandora seemed to be a chaotic spirit who inhabited the mask, having the properties of both a cackling madman and a curious child. While the causes of Pandora being sealed in this room are unknown, it's clear that some disaster involving it from year ago is a very likely cause. With Pandora making itself at home in its new body, Aldrean had begun to come to.

Before he could gather what had happened, a team of men and women busted into the room. They were a mix of horrified, disgusted, and quite furious at the young adventurer, realizing he had somehow gotten in before them, and absorbed the mask into him. These were members of STATIC, a psionic based secret organization, who as of recent, were attempting to break the barrier sealing the door to the room Pandora was kept in. With Aldrean's bonding with Pandora breaking the seal, they could only enter to find him without any way of extracting it from him. They'd decided to forcibly bring him to their headquarters and inquire more about him. With STATIC researchers determining examining Pandora's abilities in action could be worth while regardless of who he's bonded with, they'd come to a deal with Aldrean that he'd be a temporary member of STATIC and cooperate with their cause for the time being.

## Personality

Aldrean is very overconfident and boisterous in their ability as an adventurer, though this often does not really convince anyone of any real skill. While he tends to talk smack and sound tough, this tends to come off as forced more times than not. His brave face tends to falter and fade as soon as opponents begin to become actual threats, and would not hesitate to take the coward's way out. His weak force of will seems to have made it quite easy for Pandora to use his body as a vessel without any resistence.

## Powers & Abilities

Aldrean, simply put, is not very good at fighting people. He knows that the sharp end of his sword goes in the bad guys, but this is where his extensive knowledge of dueling ends. Thanks to hosting Pandora however, he by proxy does have access to all the same chaos abilities that Pandora utilizes.