Greyjay Gallowsbait

Here's the thing, whatever Greyjay is accused of doing, he sure as sugar did not do it. That's what's so galling, really. If he'd been caught by some collection of half-wits over his own mistake, that would be embarrassing, but well deserved.

Instead? He's been trussed up and tossed down a set of storm doors and into a root cellar. Chuckles and the rest of his boys have promised to deal with him tomorrow when his boss(???????) gets there. Of course, he doesn't have a boss, they have the wrong man, and this is going to get very messy, very fast unless he can find a way out of this miserable, too dark, unfinished basement.

OOC Info
Player: Takhys
Contact: takhys at gmail, bootknife on plurk
Age Confirmation: I am old as balls and well above the legal majority everywhere. (SO OLD.)
Other Characters: n/a

IC Info
Character: Greyjay Gallowsbait (born Kathel Jan Redhill)
Canon: Tabletop OC
Canon Point:
Age: 27
History:

• Kathel Jan Redhill was born and (mostly) raised in Virvi, a mid-sized city in a D&D-ish style world with a technology roughly fifty years ahead of our own. His parents both worked as apothecaries and on the whole, he had a good, stable(ish) childhood.
• Due to the nature of their business, which included some general healing and the occasional discrete poison sale, the Redhills were known to various soldiers and mercenary groups. In particular, they regularly sold the best to one company called Gallowsbait. Before settling down, Kathel's mother spent some time working with them and retained a fondness for their leader - Darja.
• The various city-states around Virvi often jostled for prominence and occasionally went to war or to raid on each other. It was during one of those overruns that Virvi fell and Kathel lost his parents. For good or ill, at twelve he was old enough to be of use to the Gallowsbait.
• From there, Darja, took him in, trained him, got him working on apothecary/medical care and fighting. Always a bit smaller, slighter, and faster than some of the burly soldiers, he took well to being a rogue. He had others in the company that apprenticed from until he was a competent cut-purse and thief.
• At about sixteen, his first real job with the Gallowsbait was to get the rest of the company into the walled city of Thunder's Egg. He was sent inside to learn their routines, drug the guards, and then drop the gate. (This is what I've used as his TDM sample. He's not ashamed of what he's done, but he does look back on his nerves and fear with something close to embarrassment.) The whole thing didn't go off without a hitch, but it went off well enough that he was given Greyjay Gallowsbait as a new name.
• Time passed, members of the company came and went, new apprentices joined and many survived. After several years and Greyjay was judged to be experienced enough, he was allowed to try and leave his apprenticeship and try for full membership. This involved a ritual where all the applicants were suspended from trees (either by a noose, hooks, etc.) and left for a few days. If the patron deity (being? demon? angel?) of the company approved, they survived and would eventually develop some manner of unusual ability. If not, the apprentice died and was mourned.
• Also worth noting: all full members of the Gallowsbait have a vague connection to each other. They can sense each other's location, work together a bit better, and so on - it's not a true hive mind, but they're deeply connected. Losing that presence on the Peregrine is going to be difficult for Greyjay.
• At the time of his arrival in game, Greyjay has been a full member of the Gallowsbait for about five years. He had yet to develop any particular, strange skill. (Some people are late bloomers.) In terms of a tabletop game mechanics, he plays like a dual-classing Rogue with a smidge of Warlock lurking around.

About:

• In D&D terms, Greyjay is lawful neutral. Unless paid to do so, he doesn't go out of his way to hurt anyone. Helping others is less a matter of morality and more practicality - he'll go along to get along.
• The principle he uses to guide himself is that the Job (whatever that might be) is sacrosanct. This is standard for the Gallowsbait and ties into their connection to their patron deity. If they agree to a job, they will complete it no matter the cost, even if it's down to the last man.
• That said, part of finishing the job is getting paid and paid fairly. There have been stories of parties who've hired the Gallowsbait to perform some sort of nasty, disreputable action and then tried to wash their hands after the deed was done. This does not go well for those parties - the company will take back what they are owed, plus a 'fair' level of interest for wasting their time and skills.
• And, of course, when the Job is quite literally Sacred, it behooves him to be very careful when signing on for a contract. Once he's agreed, he'll follow whatever rules are set and do whatever is needed. That 'whatever' is flexible. Being a mercenary is not a good job for the weak of heart or stomach - he is a fighter, a killer, and it's rarely the sort of battles that involve nobility and glory. Through and through, he is a soldier.
• He prefers to follow orders from someone he respects, but with Darja to lead him, he's bright enough to make fairly reasonable choices.
• When not on the job, which is the majority of the time, Greyjay is brash, a bit rude, has a swagger and a sharp-grin. When working, he's as patient as he needs to be, but can be impulsive without a job to rein him in.

Skills and Abilities:

• In-world, Greyjay is a skilled assassin-type rogue. Most of his abilities are more to do with practice and hard work than magic.
• Weaponry: comfortable with daggers, short swords, (basic) crossbows, guns, etc.
• Assassination: poisoning, stealthy kills, garroting, etc.
• Medicine: familiar with basic field medicine, apothecary/herbalism, etc. He's not going to be crafting great and glorious healing draughts, but he knows how to triage and treat common battlefield injuries.
• Musical: can sing, fairly well, and has a solid memory for lyrics. Passable on a stringed instrument - prefers mandolin, citole or oud, but with a bit of effort he can manage a bow instead of plucking.
• Games: tolerable with games of chance, skill, strategy - nothing exceptional, but likes to play for low stakes or no stakes.

Why does your character need to be redeemed?
OKAY, so, my list of how to explain why he could use a little redemption can basically be summed up by this video. Gallowsbait are not just a mercenary company, they are the mercenary company that gets hired when people with money/power want to do Very Bad Things and have them done thoroughly.

SURE, he could still be a mercenary when he gets back (...if he gets back), but there are other, less godawful options.

Charges:
HOOBOY, honestly, just about anything you can think to throw at an early-modern mercenary associated with some really shitty people.
Murder, lying, cheating, stealing, betraying people who aren't Gallowsbait, aiding and abetting just about any nasty thing you can think. Just, uh, assume a blanket Content Warning on pretty much everything. If asked, he'd say that he wasn't torturing people for money, they had professionals in their company for that sort of thing. (...and he would not see a real problem with it.)

Pick and Choose:
– Does your character think they were right to do what they did?
Completely and totally. He doesn't see any reason why he ought to have done anything else - a job's a job, and company work is better than whatever the rest of his options would be. He could've stayed on to work with his family' apothecary shop, or returned to them after a few years of fighting, but....eh, better money in this.

In Jay's view, the morality of his actions is irrelevant because they were the clever/right thing to do.

Graduation: Honestly, not a lot. He's pretty practical about that sort of thing - one lone Gallowsbait vs the world and all its rampant injustice is not going to amount to much. That might change through game play, but right now? I don't think he would go back if he graduated.

Sample: TDM Link