Persephone Buckthorn

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**Persephone "Percy" Buckthorn** is a halfling cleric of Hermes and "freelance entrepreneur" (read: semi-professional con-artist).

## Biography

### Early life

Persephone
 knows very little about her earliest childhood. She doesn’t remember having
parents or a family. Her earliest childhood memories are sleeping by the
hearths of inns around the town of Flowerfen and living on scraps and the kindness of
strangers. She was in and out of poorhouses and orphanages, but always
ultimately depended on herself.

When she was very young she was recruited as a
pickpocket for a roguish group of troubadours. They taught her how to dazzle
and distract, and she was eventually able to earn a living for herself. She
started working as a fence, trading, moving and selling “suspect” goods,
becoming an expert charlatan.
In Persephone’s eyes, money means safety. Having a roof over your head and
knowing when your next meal is coming, and being able to think about people
other than yourself. Even though she started earning a decent living, she never
forgot how it felt to have nothing, and she was always afraid to go back to
that.

When she was a young(er) woman, she became involved with moving some
merchandise for a big operation for the local thieves guild. The operation was months
underway, and even though Percy was an external contractor, she was involved
from the start and spent a lot of time with the key players. That’s where she
met a thief with the codename Crocus (Krokus). Crocus was a talented young
half-elf woman, the rising star in the ranks of the thieves guild. The two grew
close and eventually had a romantic relationship.
At a critical point during the operation, something went wrong. Unbeknownst to
Percy (she was only informed on a need-to-know basis), the intended target was
a corrupt and wealthy baron, who had a choke-hold on the black market. The
thieves guild had been trying to outmanoeuvre him for years, to diminish his
influence and make room for more profitable trade.
The baron’s people started to catch on to Crocus’ activities, and she noticed
them noticing. Knowing that the jig was almost up, she reached out to Percy for
help. They decided to quit town together. Percy forged all the necessary
documentation and went to the place that they had agreed to meet up before
running. Crocus never showed up. Who did show up however, was a group of the
baron’s guard, who made it very clear that their boss would not tolerate this
kind of behaviour. Percy narrowly escaped with her life and fled Flowerfen,
never to return.

She never learned what had happened to Crocus, but assumes her dead.
Knowing that the baron and his people knew who she was now, and knowing that
the thieves guild probably wouldn’t be very happy that she screwed them over
and ran and probably got one of their people killed, Persephone started
running. She forged new identities on top of new identities, kept moving,
constantly looking over her shoulder.

### Finding Faith

When she had been running from everything for a year, on the
anniversary of her escape, Persephone broke down. She grieved for Crocus, she
grieved for her old life, she grieved the fact that she was never going to feel
safe again. Then Hermes came to her. He laid a comforting hand on her shoulder,
and then gave her a hard wake-up-slap. Telling her to get it together, become
her new self, to start her new life. Hermes decided that she would be a perfect
agent for his particular brand of goodness and chaos, and gave her purpose. He
guided her to her new life, as he is known to guide lost souls.
Persephone took up her new mantle of Cleric of Hermes, doing good, playing
tricks and spreading benevolent acts of chaos, trying to make a pretty buck in
the process.
She has been on the move for years now, but she is no longer running. She is
travelling.

### Slime Time

Persephone was a slime for a time, and she shared her slime body with Triss Marigold. It was great.

## Worship of Hermes

Despite not seeming like the most pious of people, Percy
actually follows the religious teachings of Hermes pretty, well, religiously,
and strives to exercise the domains of her deity and act as a hand in his multiple
divine roles.

Hermes is the God of Roads and Travel as well as the
Protector of Travellers. As well as being practical for a traveller like Percy,
she also travels to meet other travellers and, if possible, heal and aid them
when needed. She likes the role of kind and mysterious stranger. Hermes is also
a Psychopomp, the guide of the dead to the afterlife. Because of this, in
conjunction with his protection for travellers, Percy tries to help people who
are running, who need a second chance, just as Hermes guided her in her flight,
helped her towards her new life.
This is why she volunteers her forgery skills to The Golden Hope, to their
witness protection program specifically. Everyone deserves a chance at a new
life in one form or another.

Hermes is also the God of Gain or Profit – and is therefore
a god of both merchants and thieves. This is perfect for Percy’s
“entrepreneurial lifestyle”. She looks for ”business opportunities” wherever
she can, and is not too shy to bend societal conventions of “legality” a little
bit in pursuit of fortune. After all, how illegal can it *really* be if a God is cheering you on from a cloud somewhere?

### Personality and Beliefs

Percy sees nothing wrong with lying or cheating her way
forward, especially if it helps her do other good things. She is well aware
that her conduct isn’t always squeaky clean, but she has never claimed to be a
moral paragon of virtue.
She seeks wealth, that urchin mentality never quite leaving her. But it isn’t
strictly about survival anymore. Financial security means just that: security.
People with money don’t have to be afraid, don’t have to run. If you have
enough money, eventually anyone chasing you can be paid off.
Percy is a compulsive liar - it's not always rational, it just feels safer to
not be honest. She feels best when people know absolutely nothing about her.