ER:Rhett Courier

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A player character in the Errant Road on-line free-form role-playing game, portrayed by Kincaide. Needless to say, he doesn't exist in the Poe-verse. His basic concept is given here, although some of what appears there has been superseded by the material (supplied by Kincaide) below.

  • Name: Rhett Courier
  • Age: 25
  • Race: Human
  • Hometown: Aegis, Northern Confederacy
  • Occupation: vagabond/courier/unwashed barbarian
  • Usual Equipment: He carries a lever action repeating rifle but keeps it in a carrying case until he needs it, which is rare since "Bullets cost a damn fortune," and also because the quality is great enough to warrant unwanted attention. He mostly favors a worn looking blade that has the dwarven characters for Wrath inscribed on one side of the blade and in an ancient elven dialect on the other (Gram and Balmung respectively). He also carries several daggers at any point in time.

Contents

Appearance

Rhett is a tall man, well into the range of six feet and five inches, with plenty of lean and wiry muscle. He wears a mop of dark blond hair in a very short ponytail and shaves infrequently, usually resulting in more than a little scruff. His eyes are a startling shade of dark green which can be both intimidating and remarkably innocent. He has a strong jawline and longish neck.

He usually dresses in a long, olive overcoat of heavy and durable canvas with a removable wool lining. Anyone familiar with the Northern Confederacy's military will recognize the coat as out of date infantry gear, about fifty years old, without any unit or rank markings. Under that is a simple and cheap tunic, a pair of cargo pants, a braided leather belt, and a reliable pair of traveling boots. He almost always wears a pair of leather gloves that reach up to mid-forearm due to the fact that his hands and forearms are flecked with bits of what looks like gray stone. The strange condition is thickest at his hands and thins out farther up his arms. The condition gets worse along his spine and back.

History

Rhett Courier is... well, a courier. He makes sure certain valuable goods get from point A to point B. Don't let his relaxed demeanor fool you, his past is a checkered one though. In his youth he joined the Northern Confederacy's Joint Military Forces, composed of recruits from every city-state in the North. After Boot Camp he was selected to be part of a Magical Threat Task Force, or Mage Hunters, as they were rather unflatteringly called.

Since mages are so few and far between in the North, they are required to register with the government so that they can be best applied. Also, since there are so few mages, if one goes rogue then there could be a serious threat on everyone's hands. So the MTTF was put together and trained in anti-magic techniques and sent to investigate reports of magical threats. With luck the mage or mages in question could be apprehended without injury and potentially rehabilitated for the good of the Confederacy

Rhett eventually rose to the rank of Colonel and put in charge of his own five man team though career abruptly ended after the investigation of what appeared to be a cult. They had dug into some of the relatively safer Dwarven ruins out in the wastes. Rhett's team contracted the Farrelian aerial guild, Sylvan, with their own funds to transport them out to the site since the big wigs would not fork over money for it.

Captain Ritter set Rhett's team down a little way from the ruins. After an embarrassing entrance they were greeted with open arms by the occupants of the ruins. It appeared as though the entire thing had been blown out of proportion and that the cult was merely an enclave of harmless nuts that were happy to live out in the wastes.

Until Rhett stumbled into an area he was definitely not supposed to go.

The cult was a front. The leaders, a pair of twins, were actually manufacturing a narcotic inside the bodies of their congregation using magic. They then used Sylvan to export the product to Farrel and Tsuiraku. Rhett is still not sure what really happened next since the mages had been poking around in his head but by the end of the fighting, only Rhett and two others of his team were found alive. Rhett hauled his companions out while clutching Gram in hands that were gradually turning to stone. Captain Ritter got them back to civilization for medical care, which Rhett badly needed to save the use of his hands. Afterward, to avoid an international incident, Rhett and Ritter were discharged and their claims dismissed.

Disillusioned and directionless, Rhett eventually took up the family trade and left the Confederacy. Of course, the warp gates make his services next to obsolete but there will always be sensitive packages that need the professional care of someone like Rhett. He is also not opposed to taking a bit of mercenary work or the occasional odd job to scrape by.

Personality

You would expect a man like Rhett to be all glares and quiet brooding but that is far from the case. While he rarely gives away much, Rhett is relatively easy-going, good with kids and decent company. He is far from naive though, there are startling times when he reveals just how pragmatic he can be. One thing that is very important to Rhett is the concepts of repayment and responsibility. If he fails to uphold a contract then he will happily provide a service of equal worth.

One way to get on his nerves is to insult him based on his heritage. On good days this only warrants a snarky retort but in one memorable instance he broke a man's arm with a stool (To be fair it was in the midst of a barfight).

He does have a religious side and regularly pays homage to a deity from back home known as the Lady-Who-Walks.

Abilities

Rhett is an accomplished fighter, excellent with a sword and alright with a rifle. He has no innate magical abilities but the condition affecting his hand and arms can stop blades at times. The condition is in fact a highly complex and self-sustaining curse that was intended to turn him to a living statue over the course of several days. At the time it was beyond the ability of the Confederacy's ability to dispel but they managed to halt the progress and return the use of his hands to him.

Gram

At first Rhett's sword appears to be a decent knock-off of a famous blade but Rhett's sword is, in fact, the original Gram. A sword thought to be thrust into the trunk of an ancient tree grown underground by strange dwarven technology since the war between Tsuiraku and Veracia. Though its power is greatly diminished, this dwarf-forged blade actively disrupts the flow of magic around it by some unknown means. This is likely an effect of the strange metal it was forged out of, which defies magical analysis. Currently, it only rarely causes magical weapons to malfunction and only after direct contact. It does have a curious tendency to make dwarven artifacts react but it is not something that can be counted on. The metal looks like simple steel but holds an edge for a very long time and does not rust.

The sword is of typical bastard sword length with a double edge. The two names run along forte of the blade on each side in slightly raised characters. The hilt is a half basket with very little embellishment and just enough room for two hands when the situation calls for it.


Connections

  • Gewehr: Favorable, he has worked with them in the past.
    • Faye: Professional respect (Knows she is a Merc but not that she is Gewehr)
    • Layla: Currently working for after becoming involved with a few dead bodies (Knows she is a Merc but not that she is Gewehr)
    • Adventurers: Vaguely acquainted with the gang at the Layla's vineyard
  • Seeadler: Favorable, he has worked with them in the past.
    • Gryffyd: Never met but seems to be keeping tabs on Rhett
    • Quince: Did some work for the man in the past, reasonably friendly but neither feel a pressing need to discuss it.
  • Other:
    • Captain Ritter & Crew: Good friends and at times brothers-in-arms
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