Name: Ambrin
Age: 33
Sex: Male
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Weyr: Western Weyr
Rider Rank: Wingrider
Previous Rank/Craft: Journeyman Courtesan (Assassin/Diplomat) turned mercenary
Physical Description: Ambrin has the look of a dashing adventurer, tall, blond, with a persistent evening shadow of beard growth and eyes blue as the sea on a sunny day. He has a robust, wide-shouldered build practically built for battle. And battled he has, his skin marked by many scars to prove it. He has a pleasant, if conveniently forgettable face. Most acquaintances only recall his vivid blue eyes and that cultured accent belying his origins at Courtesan Hall. His dress style is practical, yet classy. He is inclined toward tailed vests and exquisitely-detailed leather boots, gloves and belts, and rarely goes anywhere without his sword.
Personality: Not a hero and not a pirate is he, but perhaps a little bit of both. He can be a hero if that’s what you need, as long as there’s adequate compensation. And you’ll hand over some collateral, if you plan to make payment after the job is done. Nothing personal, he’s just not all that interested if there isn’t something guaranteed in it for him. Brin wants a favor from you? He’ll be polite as you please when he asks, but he’s not above using blackmail or other forms of persuasion to get it.
Occasional threats and strong-arming aside, he’s actually a fairly nice fellow. He is courteous to all, even if he strongly dislikes a certain few. He prefers to have as few enemies as possible, and plenty of friends and allies. The unfortunate thing is that a large amount of his social interactions are really business in his mind, and don’t afford a lot of real intimacy. A warm bed can still feel awfully chilly without a true, personal connection.
When that empty feeling starts to come over him, Ambrin prefers distraction as his response. He’ll do something unexpected, such as taking up a strange new hobby, playing a prank, or surprising a companion with a days-long adventure.
Positive Trait List Spontaneous, charming, easy-going, pragmatic
Negative Trait List Forceful, sly, materialistic, lonely
History: Ambrin was born a courtesan at Western Hold, chosen and taken from his parents at birth to train under a master assassin. He was secretly taught hand-to-hand combat, swordsmanship, and knifework. He worked as a child actor along with his younger sister Euma, and most of their income went to their masters, who, for all intents and purposes, owned them. When he was a bit older, he started his real work, often collaborating with Euma, who had apprenticed as a spy, to gather information and set up the hit before making his move. He loved the planning and tactics of the setup stage, but found that he hated the violent part wholeheartedly. It made him sick and spiritless afterward, but he had no choice but to obey his master.
When he was eighteen, he bonded with an island forest cat and trained it to assist. It made for quick and easy hits when set up properly, and Ambrin promptly got lazy and let the cat do the work he hated. It wasn’t long before he overestimated the feline’s ability and set him against the wrong opponent. Ambrin’s cat was killed and the young man barely survived against his mark, who was a much better swordsman. From then on, he focused on the sword as his weapon of choice, and became quite skilled.
At that point, his public guise as a diplomat had evolved throughout the turns until he was primarily sought as a lady’s hired escort to social events. He was attractive enough to land several repeat clients, all of which he doted upon by measure of the wages they paid. It was great cover, getting him into all sorts of places where he’d normally need to sneak in order to reach a mark. It just so happened that one evening he was escorting a young lady to a dragon hatching, and he was absently listening to her vacuous babbling while scanning the other guests to locate his mark when he suddenly heard a voice in his head. He’d Impressed brown Beylith from the stands.
Ambrin’s cover was blown, but what a stroke of opportunity! It was his chance for freedom.
As soon as he could fly with Beylith, he fled the control of his master and turned to mercenary work, taking his sister with him. He took on several hirelings and jobs from all over Pern, staying away from assassination work if it could be helped. However, one job in particular offered the rare chance to stand as a candidate in a hold-recently-turned-weyrhold dragon hatch as payment for services – the catch was that the prize would only be guaranteed if the men of the reigning family were removed from power… permanently. It was not easy to arrange: there were ten targets in the holder’s immediate family and blood relatives. Some were still just boys. Ambrin knew his sister Euma would not approve, so he and his posse did it without her knowledge. A new bloodline took over the weyrhold and Euma Impressed her green Reth at the hatch. He’d believed his actions were justified when weighed against the benefit of having another dragon, but it still left a bad taste in Ambrin’s mouth and a heaviness inside that stayed with him for many turns to come.
A couple of turns later, Ambrin got a permanent gig with a Lord Holder who had ties to Bitra. This holder was obsessed with runnerbeast racing – betting, buying, selling, cheating, bullying – every aspect of the sport. It became Ambrin’s responsibility to protect the holder’s equine assets and occasionally do some dirty work. At one point, he even protected his employer’s favorite jockey, some jittery idiot who managed to Impress a brown. The fool and his dragon were completely unaware of the danger they were in, almost getting poisoned or ambushed countless times.
How Jakoli and brown Auroth ended up in his posse, Ambrin was never quite sure. He knew Euma and her green had something to do with it, so there really was no getting out of it. He took some comfort in the fact that at least he now had some leverage over his employer. He quite happily negotiated higher wages by virtue of the threat of taking Jakoli elsewhere.
Aside from that small bonus, the jockey was nothing but a burden and a liability until Threadfall hit Pern with devastating effect. Technically, it was his athletic and conscientious dragon Auroth who proved himself to be worth his weight in marks, defending and evacuating other members of the posse from the deadly rain with natural skill that Ambrin and Beylith had to work hard to match even with their disciplined practice. But the two came as a unit, and that was that.
It was the dragons who suggested going somewhere to get real training in how to fly against Thread. Ambrin could almost hear the clink of marks falling into his purse at the thought of exploiting those lords holder by selling his posse’s Threadfighting skills by the hour. They dallied about with different weyrholds for quite a few sevendays before finally deciding that the major weyrs were the only places to get decent training. They settled on Western, because it was close to home and though the training there might not be as good as that which could be had at High Reaches, Ambrin was certain it would be easier to leave when he felt it was time.
For the last couple of months, Ambrin has been biding his time, training with Beylith at Western as an upstanding wingrider until he can locate a reliable source of firestone. It will take a while to convince him that his plan could fail, but he’s beginning to realize just how scarce such a source actually is.
Other:
DRAGON
Name: Beylith
Age: 11
Color: Brown
Size: 34’
Physical Description: Browns aren’t generally thought of as flashy dragons, but this fellow certainly makes a statement. The vast majority of his body is a pale beige, accented by a few nut-brown patches atop his head, splashed across his chest, and washed over his entire tail as if it had been dipped in dye. He doesn’t like to be out in midday sun if it is too strong, as the large swaths of lighter hide are sensitive.
Like his rider, he is otherwise pretty forgettable all around for his color, average size and build with unremarkable physical abilities as well. His most unique features aside from color are a long tail, toes and talons and a slightly convex nose.
Personality: Beylith doesn’t want to stay in one place for a long time. He’d rather be on the move, and doing something interesting (and hopefully profitable) every day. Being stuck in the same place, doing the same thing day after day makes him feel trapped. It’s led to some pretty weird habits, such as a tendency to fidget in an uncannily human way. He’ll build little walls out of stones, pick petals off of flowers, roll rocks or other small items around in his claws, hum tunelessly, eat out of boredom.
Part of his boredom stems from an inability to be outgoing, even with other dragons. He tends to peek around corners at those pretty greens and those strong bronzes he’d love to be like, admiring them from a distance. Most of his draconic friends are the ones who introduced themselves by gregariously forcing themselves upon him, or those he worked with in close quarters for a time – Reth, ridden by Ambrin’s sister Euma, was one of the latter.
When it comes to rank, he’s pretty much okay with whatever was decided by the powers that be. A gold is the boss here? No problem. A green wingleader’s in charge there? Gotcha. Bey will cheerfully go where he fits in comfortably and can do his job competently. He does take pride in doing a job well, and will go to great lengths to make it happen.
This brown suffered no great losses in the first Threadfall, but the instinct to fight it runs strong in Beylith’s blood. He is aware of his rider’s plan to find a private source of firestone, but is not completely convinced that it is a good idea. He feels that the full fighting wings in the weyrs are the best defense, and anything less is probably not worth the cost of maintenance.
Dragon Art or Proof of Obtainment:
