Ben

oil canvas painting of Ben circa 1491

Ben was a mercenary hired by the Commander to track down **the Compass** and defeat The New Order who died sacrificing his life to save his fellow mercenaries.

## Description

Ben was extremely tall coming in at 8 foot 11 or 271 cm and with that is quite heavy being 315 lbs or 142 kg. Because he is a barbarian, Ben doesn't wear any armor and just regular clothing, changing depending on the weather.

## Personality

"DROP THE DYNAMITE!" -Ben's final words in the Underdark, 1491

Despite his large and intimidating appearance, Ben is usually friendly as long as you stay friendly with him. Ben usually tries to not bother others to stay out of trouble and doesn't interfere unless he really thinks he should, Ben has been an anarchist almost his entire life from living as a Nomad in the woods for years and doesn't believe one kingdom should own all the land but should be free owned between the people. Because of trauma from his early life, Ben vows to help anyone that strives to take down tyranny such as **the Winter Army** .

## History

### early life

Ben was born on hammer 30 1397 in the Nelanther Islands to a family of modest farmers. they lived a comfortable life for about 15 years with a diverse population of Orcs, Half-orcs, and some humans sparsely populated around the islands. Until 1418 when a wealthy business man from Tethyr came looking to expand his market to further regions by establishing a warehouse to manufacture goods for the company while taxing the local population to fund the expansion. by 1423 nearly the entire population was reduced to poverty including Ben and his family due to taxation. This caused a riot in the streets of Nemessor, the largest town in the islands, Ben being one of the rioters showing up and causing over 200 gold worth of damages. While the riot did cause the corporation to lose money and set an impression on the Business Man, it did not teach him a lesson nor did it slow him down. All of his property had increased 24 hour security who treated local workers poorly and would start fights with anybody passing by. After realizing his new found power, the Business Man began expanding his influence to the other islands and towns in the archipelago until he set up a total oligarchy over the islands and became more ruthless sending tax collectors with his private militia to collect money or be imprisoned or even killed depending on how good you are at paying taxes.

### Beginning of career

not wanting to risk all of the civilians to die or be imprisoned the Business man implemented a rule where if you paid a high amount of taxes for a long enough time you could earn your freedom back in the mainland. Ben's family heard about this and told Ben that he was the only one healthy enough and physically able to sneak off the island and find some work in the mainland. So Ben sneaked onto the ship and hid under the cover of a life boat. after months, the ship finally made it to its destination, Baldur's Gate he tried to sneak off the ship he was spotted and was chased until he fell off the ship and into the river knocked unconscious flowing up the river until he washed up on the bank of the river. Not knowing where he was or how much time had passed and not wanting to risk getting arrested he decided he would have to live off the land and rely on stealing and crafting his own gear. he lived in the woods for a few weeks until one day he was gathering food he heard a commotion of some people arguing, he saw it was a rather small town so he likely wouldn't get recognized so he kept watching until suddenly one of the people arguing stabbed himself in the stomach as everyone went silent, watching. Moments after, Ben walked in wondering what was going on and was told that they were tasked with dealing with some goblins for money. Ben asked how much money and the people answered that each person would get 100 gold which would easily pay for his family's home. He asked if he could join in and the people agreed given one of their party members killed themselves and introduced themselves as **Truckurash** and **Brumnir.** they went on the complete this quest and get paid their share. Ben left back to his home island to finally pay for his family's freedom however he was too late, his family had been imprisoned and killed because they had not payed any taxes thinking Ben would be able to get the money sooner, after collecting important items from his family history that was still remaining in his old house, he bought is freedom and returned to **Truckurash** and **Brumnir** to continue doing adventures with them.

### Retirement

After a few years **Brumnir** suddenly left in the middle of the night leaving nothing but a note that reads "A great evil is coming" Ben and **Truckurash** were both confused on what this meant and after a few weeks realized **Brumnir** coming back and that it was time to retire as **Truckurash's** wife was pregnant and they would move to Neverwinter to start his family. Ben decided to come along as he didn't have any other home and also so he could baby sit any kids easily when **Truckurash** and his wife were gone. decades passed and shortly after the passing of **Truckurash**, his daughter and her husband, had a son who had similar traits to his grandfather and would certainly train to be a paladin throughout his life. They named him Demir. after years of training just as Demir was going to take his oath The New Order had attacked forcing Ben and Demir to escape north. The New Order invasion reminded Ben on the letter **Brumnir** had left as if he had told some sort of prophecy which had ultimately come true. this prompted Ben to try to find his old friend **Brumnir**. shortly after Ben was contacted by a messenger instructing him and Demir to meet the Commander in the ten towns.

### Final adventure

after meeting the commander Ben along side several other mercenaries were tasked with tracking down the compass to stop The New Order. Along the way they encountered an inn run by a very old man who Ben thought looked familiar but couldn't quite tell. They spent a night at the inn and Demir described having visions about **Truckurash** and the compass which peaked Ben's intrest even more. the old man tasked the mercenaries to raid a small orc fort to retrieve something of his. After the mercenaries did the work for the old man he had a secret to tell Ben and Demir. He was **Brumnir**. Ben and Demir were both shocked that **Brumnir** was still alive and as a thank you, gave Demir **Truckurash's** personal sword that he used. however this would be the last time that Ben would see **Brumnir** as not too long after while in the underdark the mercenaries had encountered a Minotaur which had a symbiotic relationship with the Black pudding which critically injured Ben. Though as a last ditch effort Ben decided to sacrifice himself by igniting every stick of Dynamite That he had collected earlier in a mine. he ignited the dynamite killing him and the beast ending his legacy as a hero to not be forgotten.

## Skill

Ben is highly trained in athletics, endurance, and stealth.

### Melee weapon combat

Ben has a variety of primarily one handed weapons ranging from battleaxes to clubs, and even maces with a shield to go with it for extra AC. Ben is very skilled in melee combat overall and does the most damage to enemies using his barbarian abilities plus to aid him in combat against tougher high ac enemies

### ranged weapon combat

Ben does not have any dedicated ranged weapons however he throws many of his weapons at enemies proving to be lethal on several occasions, only draw back is the higher possibility of missing, the chance of the enemy picking up the weapon if Ben misses or they survive (if the enemy is intelligent enough and has a good reason to) and most importantly causes Ben to lose his weapon

### magic use

Ben does not do any magic spells of his own but does have some arcane knowledge

## Notable possessions

ben owned a longsword, a shield, a climbers kit which came in very useful when helping get to places especially in the mountains, a dagger primarily used for throwing, a bag of dynamite (later used to sacrifice himself to save the party) a small knife, and a torch

## Gallery

Ben 1424Ben 1491Ben sacrificing his life to kill the black pudding Minotaur in the underdark