Slippers the Smuggler

If you study him long enough, it’s hard to imagine Slippers as anything but a crook—and not a particularly impressive one. He’s slight and barely five foot six, with arms and feet that seem somehow too long. He is hook-nosed, has skin like birch, and has eyes like a very dumb shark. His hair is tightly tied back, favouring practicality over fashion. He dresses in loose clothes with too many pockets, obscuring his shape and giving a disheveled appearance. However, his superpower is his ability to not be noticed in the first place – he’s hard to pick out unless he’s trying to be seen.

He dresses in loose clothes with too many pockets, obscuring his shape and giving a disheveled appearance. His recent acquisition of the Cloak of Displacement only adds to his obscured appearance.

The original Slippers was born of peasant stock in a town that doesn’t exist anymore, with a name that he had deliberately left in the past. His father was once the champion bar-fighter, turned skilled cobbler, turned failed businessman. His two older brothers left to become sailors and, although he doesn’t really remember them, he knows they've beat the shit out of just about everyone in town – no one ever let him forget. His mother died in childbirth, which he also took the blame for.   He grew up bookish and with a good head for numbers. His father’s business was always on the brink of disaster, prompting his father to find him a tutor early on so that he could learn how to read, write, do arithmetic and be an able bookkeeper. He wound up bookkeeping for many of the local businesses, and the local barkeeper let him work in a supply closet turned office, giving him all the food he wanted.   Slippers should have stayed to take over the family business and settle down, but wanderlust took over early. By chance, a travelling warrior-monk of the Open Palm school arrived in town to solve a dispute with a local druid who had been terrorizing the locals. Slippers interrogated her endlessly while enjoying the bottomless soup at the town tavern. Slippers was fascinated by the prospects of years of study, martial discipline, and traveling the countryside to right wrongs, and so left town with her to study at her monastery. His father never forgave him, dying of an illness of the heart a few years later.   He studied for three of the required ten years before leaving, too eager to see the world and use what he had learned. He was a bouncer first, but became a bodyguard to Nestor Castleborne—the leader of a gang of fun-loving, small time crooks who styled themselves as revolutionaries who stole from the rich to give to the poor. Hard times turned into stealing from merchants to sell (at a reasonable rate) to the needy. Harder times turned into smuggling contraband to gouge the wealthy. Just weeks after turning his back on his corrupted friends to become an adventurer, Slippers died of the same heart failure that took his father.   (Original writing: Evan)

As a child, Slippers was tutored with a basic education in reading, writing and arithmetic. His father had meant for him to be the family bookkeeper and, for a time, he ran books for other town businesses. In this early life, Slippers learned that many upstanding citizens have skeletons in their closets and things that they didn't wish to be remembered.   During the Plague Summer, Slippers had a chance meeting with the future hero [TBD],  a wandering warrior monk. Stricken by her kindness, strength, and sense of justice, he became a disciple and followed her to the Open Palm school. At the monastery he learned much of the ways of his master. He was a little old to be a new student, but his master saw the potential in this intelligent and eager young man. For the first time in his life, Slippers felt like he was in a place where he belonged, guided by a loving hand and a tempered smile—but such tales rarely end so peacefully.   Three years had past since his training had begun, but Slippers' inner fears caused him much pain. He struggled with an ineptitude complex and could never completely believe that he was worthy of the effort that his master and her teachers put into teaching him. One night, after a particularly bad outburst at his old master and friend, he fled. He knew he could have easily been caught by her, but she didn't chase him. She knew he would come back in the morning.   She never saw him again.

As Slippers wandered, he took odd jobs, flipping between bookkeeping and bouncing at taverns. One night, against his better judgement, he allowed Nestor Castleborne into his tavern. Castleborne was a leader of a small-time gang, who fashioned themselves as a revolutionary group—though they never grew beyond more than a dozen members. Nestor saw the usefulness in having an underappreciated guard, someone who could move unnoticed. Slippers signed up, believing this group could fill the noble hole left by his old master. He worked as a bodyguard for Nestor for a time before his talents as a smuggler became more apparent. His ability to seemingly ferret away anything was useful to the gang. However, Slippers soon saw that these "noble revolutionaries" were little more than bandits and soon left to become an adventurer. Slippers never knew how fondly his employer thought of him.

Slippers spends a lot of time wishing he was a hero instead of a coward. Despite his aptitude for violence, Slippers just wants everyone to get along. He desperately wants someone to tell him that things will be OK, but he knows he’d never believe them.   He’s genuinely trying to be good, and even a little lawful. He met success as a smuggler by being patient, hyper observant, and safety-conscious.

Slippers is a man who desperately wants to be the hero of his own story. He clings to the memories of his old master, believing her to be the pinnacle of righteousness. He hopes to one day see her again, just to hear her comforting words. Even if he knows it is a false hope, he still strives forward.

Sometimes he is not aware of what his face is doing and can’t help but mouth the words of arguments playing in his head.

He would consider himself cheerfully apathetic. If a benign god judges him based on his merit, his lack of devotion will be forgiven. If the gods are capricious or evil, he’s screwed anyway – so why worry? Pelor sounds good, but he's not a part of his fanclub.

Socially, he has a hard time gauging how much he should put himself out there – swinging wildly from withdrawing to gather more information and pushing himself to be more abrasive and domineering – the kind of man’s man he believes his heroic brothers might have been.