Jamal

Public: Jamal (Charlie) is an elf. He wears leather armor and openly carries a bow and a sword.  He adorns his armor with a fine cloak emblazoned with a flaming eye.  Jamal's gaze misses little, and he is constantly in motion.  Jamal walks with a grace bordering on the divine.

Private: You want the mission to succeed, because you HATE the Zin pirates.  As a child you lived in Zin where your father was a basketweaver.  He refused to pay “protection money” to the local crime lord, and the mob burned his shop to the ground.  The neighborhood did not like elves all that much anyway, and there was a racist aspect to the crime as well.  You vowed your revenge on the citizens of Zin then and there.  Your family moved to Ishmon where your father’s business prospered, but you hated the way that he had to degrade himself in front of the prejudiced human customers.  One day when you were about thirteen, a Zinnite came into the shop.  You were helping in the shop at the time.  You saw that he recognized your father.  The Zinnite left quickly.  That evening, someone set fire to your father’s shop.  Your father died trying to fight the blaze.  You saw the Zinnite laughing in the back of the crowd of on-lookers.  You ran after him, but he got away.  You joined up with the Elves Liberation Front (ELF for short) to hone your combat skills.  You are on the mission to allow the sultan to destroy Zin and all it stands for.  You will fight any pirate to the death.  If you can unleash some whoop-butt on Zinnites in the mean time, all the better, all the better.  You think you recognize Latifa, but you are not sure.  If it is the Latifa you knew … well it would have been 15 years ago when you both were kids.  That Latifa’s dad used to buy baskets from your father.  Every once in a while you get a glimpse of the tatoo on her forehead, and it is vaguely familiar.  She quickly covers it though.  There is something odd about Mister X and Cuddles.  The other morning you bumped Cuddles, and you are SURE that Cuddles cursed at you.  You don’t want to say anything, because the rest of the party would think you were crazy.

Special skills:

Track: 75%
Spot hidden: 75%
Recognize poison: 75%
Find/remove traps: 75%
Pick locks:75%

Latifa

Public: Latifa (Helga) is a fuzzy.  She wears chainmail armor and carries a short sword (two handed for her) and a sling.  Latifa is an expert shot with a crossbow.  She wears a set of crossbelts filled with an exotic array of metal implements.  Latifa has a tattoo on her forehead that she tries to cover with fur.

Private: You want to prevent the mission from ever succeeding as you have strong connections with the Zin pirates.  It is not enough for the current party to fail - you have a plan.  If you get the party to reanimate the assassin and then KILL the assassin and prevent the party members from reaching the sultan, no one will ever be able to fulfill the mission.  You are originally from Ishmon.  As a young fuzzy girl, you worked with your father, a street vendor of baskets.  Your father received his baskets from Jamal’s father, but you keep this a secret.  Jamal hates pirates, and he does not seem to remember you.  Thank heavens.  You won an apprenticeship with a blacksmith, and you have retained some skills in this area.  One of your regular customers was Potus.  Potus paid well, and often had unusual requests.  Eventually Potus asked you to join his band of pirates.  You didn’t know what they did at first, but you accepted the group.  One thing led to another, and pretty soon you were in the thick of things.  Unfortunately Potus’ ship was captured by the Ishmolin navy.  Potus was hung, and the rest of the crew was branded with the mark of piracy and made prisoners for five years.  You knew Umar’s father.  He was a veterinarian.  You think Walweed is crazy.  Mister X is a master magician.  You have seen him throw his voice through Cuddles.  He apparently doesn’t like to brag.  You have a variety of specialty arrow heads from rope cutters to grapples to rope catchers, etc.

Special skills:

Set traps: 75%
Pick locks:75%
Make metal implement: 75%

Mister X

Public: Mister X (Micah) is a fuzzy mage, or at least the other party members believe that he is.  The party knows little about him.  He speaks infrequently, and even then it is in whispered tones.  Mister X is a master of disguise, and, when he is not in disguise, Mister X wears a cloak that covers his face.  He rides a lynx that he calls Cuddles.   Mister X carries a glowing staff.

Private: You would like the mission to succeed, because you ARE the high assassin.  Well, actually Cuddles is the high assassin.  The body that rides on top of Cuddles is just an eidolon.  You found yourself in the body of a mouse after the spell was completed.  You fled the scene and made his way over a period of weeks to the city of Ishmon.  There, you were found and befriended by the necromancer Nigilranthrib.  Nigilranthrib explained that you could take over more powerful bodies, and he taught you the secret of animating the dead.  Over time, you found and killed a rat, a cat, a dog, and now a lynx.  Each time, you were able to take over the body of the creature.  As time has gone on, you have recovered more and more of your spell casting abilities.  You don’t know where the reanimation book is, but you would recognize it if you saw it based on Nigilranthrib’s divinations.  You also believe that you could perform the reanimation task.  The glowing staff is just for looks.  You have the ability to reanimate and control the body of one creature.  If you animated another creature, you would lose control of your eidolon.  (It would simply de-animate, not run amok.)  Cuddles must physically touch the body to reanimate it.  Part of your great disguise ability is based on this capacity to animate the remains.  The reanimated remains do not appear all that lifelike.  So, you have to find some way to distract, to hide, or to preclude close examination of the body.  You are sure that once the assassin’s body is reanimated that you will be able to re-inhabit it.  The rest of the party doesn’t suspect you, but you had a close call with Jamal the other day.  The SOB kicked you.  You let out an involuntary curse.  He probably thinks it is his imagination, but Jamal looks oddly at you now.  You contacted Gruff, who can see the dead, and asked Gruff to aid you.  Gruff does not connect this contact with Mr. X.

Ability: Detect magic

Spells: 1st level: lock tight, will-o-wisp, knock knock, revelation, take that you fiend, vorpal blade, panic, hocus pocus

2nd level: concealing crack, restoration, enhance, curse you, delay

3rd level: curses foiled, hard stuff, dis-spell, dreamweaver

4th level: smog, witless, animate dead monster

Gruff

Public: Gruff (Erin) is a human. He wears platemail and carries a halberd. Gruff's breastplate depicts his crest, a hand crushing a globe with the blazon, "Gruff uberalles." Gruff has two bandoleers filled with oil flasks. He laughs a little more than the average person and sometimes seems to stare right through you. 

Private:  Gruff sees dead people everywhere.  Some of them don't even know they are dead.  Gruff was drafted into the military, and she liked it.  When she got out, Gruff convinced her twin sister, Ruff, to join her in adventuring.  Gruff wants the mission to succeed, because she was contacted by the high assassin's ghost and asked to help it out.

Aziza

Public: Aziza (Kathy) is a fuzzy. She is quite active. Aziza wears leather armor and carries a sling and a dagger. Her crest shows a hand reaching into a treasure chest. Aziza is constantly disassembling and reassembling things. They often even work when she is done with them. 

Private: Aziza hates all non-fuzzies.  In fact, her goal is to kill all non-fuzzies.  If the mission succeeds, many non-fuzzies will die.  so, Aziiza wants the mission to succeed.  She first heard the story of the sultan from an old army friend of her fathers.  Aziza knows from these tales that there is a huge dragon at the lowest level of the complex that the high assassin's body is contained.in.  There is also a book containing the ritual in the same complex.  Aziza is not exactly sure where that is.  She lived with the Beijabar for a time.  They are all were-bears.  She had to flee to protect her life once she found out their secret.

Umar

Public: Umar (Mark) is a bobbit. He rides a large flying lizard. Umar wears only a loose fitting robe. He has one green eye and one purple eye. Umar loves animals and has a pack of critters (various types) that follow him around. He can't pass a wounded, domestic animal without offering assistance. Umar speaks in small, thought provoking bursts. When not helping animals, Umar is usually reading his spell book. 

Prvate: strange visitors brought your riding animal from the Land of Og, whatever the heck that means.  You were given this funny eye like thing to help you control the beast.  It looked kind of like an eye, but smaller.  You were looking at it, and it sort of attached itself to your eye and made it purple.  You are not so happy about this, but you decided to live with it. Now, you have these strange dreams.  You are going to go crazy unless you resolve this.  You sought out the necromancer Nigilranthrib.  He told you that the great assassin could dispel the condition on you.  The mission must succeed.  Actually, you HATE animals, but you do these random acts of kindness to throw off the rest of the group.

Waleed

Public: Waleed (Joe) is an elf and a mage. His friends call him "Dr. Death." Waleed wears black robes and bears an interesting shield design ... He loves to demonstrate his mastery of death and dying by describing various ways to die and demonstrating on small insects, etc. Waleed never passes up the opportunity to examine a corpse and describe the way it met its demise. He carries a glowing scythe that Waleed calls Soulreaver. 

Private:  You come from a long line of assassins.  Your father was one of the more recent high assassins.  The guy who cast that spell was a traitor to the cause.  You want to complete the ritual and then kill him.  You don't age.  you're not sure why, but you just don't.  Well, it could be that demon's blood you drank back in the caves of insanity.  Or, well, maybe it was that magic mushroom you ate back in Samalaland.  Or, maybe ... well, somewhere along the line you picked up that capability.  You worshp Kernal, lord of the undead.

Thorn

Public: Thorn (Ben) is a Beijabar warrior. He wears chainmail and carries a polearm. Thorn is very, very hairy. He loves to eat large quantities of rare, red meat. Thorn is very strong. 

Private: you are a were-bear.

Ruff

Public: Ruff (Liz) is a human. She wears platemail and carries a halberd. 

Private: you are the twin sister with Gruff.  You love Gruff.  you would gladly give your life for her.