PIED BLACKHORN

Nickname(s): Pi
Pronouns: He/Him (Trans)
Species: Dragonborn
Orientation: Pansexual
Class: Fighter
Alignment: chaotic neutral/good
Occupation: Mercenary
Power(s): acid breath | spell casting
Height: 7'0

---

[ PERSONALITY TRAITS ]

Quiet | Vaguely Disgruntled | Dependable | Loyal | Sarcastic | Honest | Confident in his own abilities 

 Short to the point of rudeness | tactless | Hostile | unfriendly | Aggressive | Indifferent | Poor liar  

---

[ HISTORY ]

• PAST

Pied grew up in a small mixed-race town called Baator, far to the landlocked west and quite removed from the larger cities. Baator was home to a small clan of Dragonborn, but was occupied mostly by humans, who dealt primarily in produce and resources that they could grow, farm or rear.

Pied’s family unit was one of the larger exporters of produce in the town, and lived fairly comfortably for it, holding status among the townsfolk despite their chromatic colouration. After his hatching, Pied’s parents remained bonded to each other both in order to share in the raising of their child, and to maintain their slowly flourishing business. 

Growing up, Pied showed little interest in the business side of his family’s venture, instead wanting to spend many hours in the fields tending to stock. He found he had a knack for gardening and planting, and following a dragonborns innate strive for excellence, honed this skill until he oversaw most of what was grown in their fields. He later took an interest in sparring and swordplay, finding that it suited his physicality and provided an outlet other than gardening in which to vent his teenage frustrations and aggressions. His training was not misplaced, as being an outlying town, it was often subject to raids by small goblin hoards and the like, and Baator’s military presence being negligible, the townsfolk were often called upon to bear arms.

After reaching adulthold at 15, Pied’s scales began showing signs of what physicians referred to as an ‘affliction’ but were unable to properly identify - as an area of his hide seemed to ‘drain of colour’ and turn white. It was soon apparent that as years drew by, his condition was spreading to other areas, but without any seemingly harmful effects, and no real knowledge of what it was, there was little that could be done.

Sometime after Pied’s eighteenth year, Baator was attacked and raided by what appeared to be a roaming band of cutthroats and savages - underprepared and outnumbered, the town quickly fell, but not without resistance. A number were killed or badly wounded - some managed to flee during the chaos of the raid - while others were captured and transported far from their home. Pied, having being wounded in the attack and overpowered by the band of degenerates, was included among the number of captured - their ultimate destination being that of servitude. 

Two Tiefling brothers - by the names of Abraxos and Deimos - ran this operation, and they had decided early on in life that they were going to embody the worst traits of their race. They strove to wield power over all beings less than themselves, amassing fortune and infamy to their names. Between the two of them, they commanded fear and respect, taking as they pleased, and killing who they liked almost without consequence. 

It was to these two characters that Pied was bound to - having demonstrated his prowess in combat during the raid - he was thrown into the an underground chain of fighting rings, forced to fight for his life to put coin in his master’s pockets. He proved to be quite the battler; his dragonborn resilience and traits offered him an advantage over most opponents in the ring, and over a period of four years he was made to continue with this bloody endeavor, with great success. Refusing to give his clan/dragonborn name to those who'd imprisoned him, they gave him the tmoniker of ‘Pied’, on account of his coloration, which he ultimately kept. 

For quite a time, Pied remained belligerent and rebellious towards his captors, until they sought to make him more receptive to their whims through the use of magic. Charm Person and other similar spells were utilized quite frequently, leaving Pied with muddled feelings towards the brothers after repeated uses. Understandably, this has resulted in Pied having deep-rooted dislike of such schools of magic presently. As time wore on, began to show some resistance to the magics effects, and was able to shake its influence occasionally. By this time, close to four years had passed, and the tolls of his lifestyle were starting to show and really wear on him. While each night he still dreamt of escape, the longer he was trapped, the less likely it seemed that it would occur. 

His opportunity presented itself in the unexpected development of his acidic breath weapon - had he continued growing up with his family, they would have instructed him on how nurture and develop this ability - but on account of his capture, he was forced to hone it in secret. He figured that if he timed it right, it could offer him an edge against the Tieflings, them being much stronger than himself. Having been in service for a number of years, his captors had grown somewhat complacent, his weariness and general cooperation had added to the image that they had finally ‘broken’ him. Being escorted back to his holding cell after another victory by a pair of guards and Deimos, he seized his opportunity and managed to catch them all in the radius of his attack - the guards were fairly easily dispatched after having their torso’s partially dissolved, but Deimos took a little more work. The Tiefling, despite being badly wounded in the initial attack, managed to get a few blows in before being dispatched in a brutally messy fashion.

Escaping was not easy - but it was aided by the fact that Abraxos, the stronger of the two brothers, had left the previous evening to attend to business elsewhere - had Pied had to face both Tieflings, he would not have made it far. Pied was able to clear the area with minimal resistance, he focused on speed and stealth, stifling the urge to take revenge on those that had contributed to his suffering and attempting to avoid conflict where he was able. Exiting, he put as much distance between himself and the construct where he was held as possible, eventually stumbling, dazed and exhausted, upon a merchant's convoy and hiding in an unguarded wagon. He got off at the first town they passed through, forced to steal basic supplies for himself before continuing onwards, knowing that there would be men sent after him at the earliest given opportunity. 

Not knowing where he was, or the state of his town or family, and with the threat of recapture looming, Pied continued fleeing, never staying in any given place for more than a day before moving on. Given his distinctive appearance, it wasn't long before the agents of Abraxos tracked him down and attempted to recapture him - with little success. Pied continued his routine of hopping from town to town and evading those wishing him ill will for a few years before he began to feel that he could maybe begin to make something of himself. 

He began to take odd jobs/errands here and there for food and coin, eventually making a name for himself as a kind of sword for hire. Having amassed some coin for himself he used it to travel frequently, always wary to pursuit but started to consider settling down somewhere. His hope is that Frontier Town is far enough out of Abraxos’ reach to allow him to consider a permanent residence, and perhaps find someone in which he trusts enough to form a meaningful relationship with. 

• PRESENT

Pied is currently part of a band of adventurers which consists of the Elven Sorcerer Chiyo, Half-Elf and Werewolf Ranger Seipora, Half-Orc Cleric Gorth and Gnome Rogue Alvyn. While occupied in Frontier town, undertook a number of quests for the Merchants Guild and Captain Vaschenko of the Imperial Officer's Corp. During one such quest, Pied encountered Abraxos, responsible for the recent onslaught of marauders pursuing him and who, during that encounter attempted to recapture him. Pied dealt Abraxos a crippling blow and the Tiefling fled, leaving the party relatively unscathed. The party soon left Frontier Town under request from the IOC and dealt with a string of problems, Abraxos in pursuit not far behind. After a string of encounters with a cult calling themselves the 'Rag n Bone Pickers', it was revealed that they were working for the fiendish Tiefling and he contacted the party directly, forcing the parties hand in a face-to-face meeting in Greenwall. While in Greenwall, Alvyn joined the party and ventured with them deep beneath the bowels of the Bathhouse, where Abraxos was gathering his forces and preparing for their meeting. The party encountered a number of challenges and puzzles, and with some godly intervention, ended up being separated, most of the party left to fight Deimos, newly arisen, and Pied engaged in a one-on-one fight with Abraxos, underwater. Pied narrowly and single-handed defeated Abraxos after he transformed into a T-Rex, killing the Tiefling who had been dogging him for so long. 

With Abraxos dead, and his long-time quest fulfilled, Pied finds himself at a loss - with absolute, unfettered freedom he is unsure of where his journey will take him next, and is feeling unexpectedly vulnerable at his sudden change of circumstances.

---

[ LIKES/DISLIKES ]

[✓] plants/farming | small animals | cats | adventuring | cooking | weapons

[X] deep water | people generally | imprisonment | tieflings | slavery | lack of personal space | physical contact | mind-altering magics 

---

[ MISC ]

• Speaks Common and Draconic. 
• Despite his chromatic heritage, Pied loathes water and cannot swim. Salt water irritates his skin and causes terrible rashes upon submersion/contact.
• Because of his chromatic colouration, he is often looked upon with wariness/fear (more so than usual) due to reputation that black chromatic dragons often hold. While he loathes everything that Black Dragons are, he can be overtly aggressive and tends to enjoy violence a little too much on the occasion. 
• Owns a residence in Frontier town - given to him as payment by the Merchants Guild.