Role

Chapter 11

Imam was born in Hamsah, not a child of a drow and a human, but of two
halfbreeds. His home was broken by a small local crime ring working through
the seaports. His father was a small time local merchant, and was intimidated
by this circle. His shops were looted, he was beaten, and paid tarriffs
regardless out of fear. Imam was kidnapped as a child and held for ransome in
a later attempt by the group to raqueteer more pay and goods from his father
for their piracy on the shores and seas. The men kept him in a room, and he
was not overly ill treated physically, a few slappings to try to find if his
father had money hidden anywhere and the like. Having watched what happened
to his family because of these men, he used what he could, deceit, to appear
frightened each time and beg for his life stating that there was nothing.

This was sorely not the case. One day the thugs, their leader among them,
came to the holding room and told Imam that his father and mother would die
if he did not tell them where a safe was. He explained a location, but said
he must lead them to it. By a stroke of luck, and to his delight, the leader
and many of the men followed him to a dark alley a few blocks from his home.
Finally, his chance to escape after an unnamed amount of days, probably a
couple of weeks. The men followed him, and lost him in the shadows. They
split up, the leader hanging back to catch a knife in the kidney, causing a
painful screech and a quick death. He carved the face of the man with two
words, 'Fear cowardice', and a note attached to the hilt scrawled quickly in
blood 'Your fate will be the same, we've seen the work you do, and its time
to move on.' The men came upon the body, surprised, and as yet another fell
from another lucky shot, but from a crossbow at a nearby roof. Thinking that
the gods or some power greater then them, the leaderless thugs disbanded
immediately, vowing to each other on the spot to not speak of this, and leave
now that their nameless leader and an ally had died without any effort.

Imam smiled darkly from his shadowy perch on the roof, throwing the crossbow
aside. His trickery had worked. His family could not know that he was a
murderer, and so he faded into obscurity, changing his last name and moving
out of the city for about thirty years. He returned to Hamsah, and joined the
thieves guild, seeking their protection, and to be a leader among them. He
pledged from that first day to never take a threat, to never falter in the
face of violence or aggression, and to strike back at those who would make
him or his own fear them with such fury that the horrible taste of the battle
and skulldugery he brought would put the same horror into whomever as he did
that day. His skill in causing fear has been honed to a needle point, and he
deceives all but those he cares about with such little effort it is
frightening.


He still watches upon his families business, but from the underground,
unknown to them as he was before. As a part of his deceit, he enlisted the
help of a transmutist to alter his appearance. Nothing really changed as far
as the pleasantness of his appearance, but he is surely unrecognizable to
anyone in all ways, save for his indomitable spirit and of course, the eyes,