Ben's Background

Ben only had vague echoes of his mother. He had been told that she had given him up to the troupe and that a geas had compelled her to leave this world for her inamorato and so it was that Ben was raised in a travelling company. Good time come and good times go when you travel so much and everyone is expected to contribute. Even as a young babe he was notable for having a queer quality about him, but such things do draw the curious.

At a tender age he noted as speaking of his dreams as if in a trance. There he would be set up in an intoxicating atmosphere said to memorise those assembled in the tents. Later when being told of these times Ben would suspect narcotics and alcohol, but now there seems more room for doubt.

Being with the troupe meant a lot of travelling and being around lots of different people. Some of them were members of similar troupes, some of them town and city folks from places visited. So much travel hardened Ben up, but the oddness never left him. Often he would be distant, sometimes physically, sometimes metaphorically.

As he got older he was expected to take a greater role within the troupe. He developed his position as the fortune teller and his skill was widely acknowledged. Still, during his spare time he would listen to the history tellers, the play wrights and those of uncommon wisdom, but within the troupe and he the towns and cities they visited. AS such sessions he would often ramble to those who would listen, often it being unclear what was of his dreams and that which was of ancient tales. It was also along this that Ben developed his sorcery skills, while still remaining intrigued and yet cautious about them.

Time passed and the management of the troupe came to take his advise and interpretation of where they should be heading. Things worked out well, making decisions which may have seemed not optimal at times, and later finding out that trouble had been avoided or conditions had been more favourable. So when Ben's advise lead to the troupe to an undocumented town closer to the Wyld then expected, his people remained happy. The show was prepared for and the acts were ready. Ben had a feeling he was here for something despite a slight level of unease while working that night.

It was after the show was over and the troupe had laid down to sleep that the curse struck. Compelled by wyld magics never to choose to leave the town. Ben's strength of will and knowledge of sorcery let him resist, but was not enough to save his friends. Ben set to action and found Aodhan Argillite, a fae who controlled this town. With riddles and reasoning Ben found out that the town faded back and forth in to the wyld and that the town folk, his people included now, were compelled to stay, never being able to choose to leave. A bet was made with the fae. Ben bet that the town folk would walk out of the town. If he won, he would get the Staff of Anguilline, but if lost he would become a slave to the town.

Ben had felt that the Mists of Eventide was needed, and he the spell was invoked his mind was exalted and the town folk, as one, rose up in thier sleep and walked out of the town. The bet having been won, the prize was reluctantly handed over and Ben flew away on a cloud he summoned.

After these events Ben felt he could no longer stay with the troupe, true he had resuced then, but he had also placed them in danger in the first place, and besides everything would change now. they looked at him differently, and he felt different. Now he felt drawn to where The Shadow and The Serpent meet. In time he found himself in Soba in need of both money and knowledge. There he set himself up as a reader of dreams, and quite successful to.