Teledesic Keredes [TELL a DEE sick ka RAY dace] is the 5th son of Teledis [tell LAY dis] Keredes, a rather successful lesser Taldoran noble and, more importantly (at least to the elder Keredes) the founder of a highly successful merchanting and shipping concern, including a dozen ships owned outright, a few warehouses, two granaries, a variety of property within [CITY], as well as over 100 slaves and bondsmen. Teldesic, as might be expected, lived a life of privilege, and that luxury afforded him several advantages [TRAIT = RICH PARENTS]. For one, it allowed his to indulge in his love for archery, and enabled him to acquire the finest of equipment and train extensively in its use. Each afternoon – be it rain, wind or (in one notable case) a caustic cloud of bitter ammoniac (a sorcerer-sister’s work), Teledesic would be at the range. For five-score turns of the Range-Captain’s glass, Teledesic would shoot pin after pin, feathering the butt with as many arrows as could be found on the range [FEAT: PB SHOT]. When the arrows ran out, he learned from old Tighe the manner of making and repairing them [CRAFT = FLETCHER] ; when his bow snapped one evening after the rain had softened the yew, he spent several weeks with Yaro the Weaponer, slowly making another [CRAFT = BOWYER] and, his interest piqued, repairing the damaged bows of the villa guards.
For another, as the 5th son of Teledes, Teledesic was not required to devote his efforts to accommodating the House business, and so he was able to further his scholarly pursuits. [QUIRK #1 = BOOK-SEEKING] Teledesic would lose himself for days upon days in the library at his family villa, poring over the wagons of books ordered by his father and delivered by house bondsmen in a seemingly endless river of parchment, fragrant ink, and cryptic writing [SKILL = LINGUISTICS]. The elder Keredes was not a lettered man; his lifelong slave and confidante Klartonius was exquisitely schooled and handled all Teledis’ correspondence and maths, and so the books in the villa archive were, for years, a vanity to imply erudition. Teledesic, however, remade the illusion of Keredesian scholarship into a reality, and over the years became both lettered and numbered, and atop that an avid amateur scholar. For Teledesic, acquiring books became something of an obsession, and ever afterward in his travels any books he might acquire (by fair means or, occasionally, foul), he would send back to House Keredes with instructions to enter them into the library and await his further disposition upon return.
It was in the family library, curiously enough, that young Teledesic found what he firmly believed to be his ultimate calling: membership, and eventual prominence, in the Pathfinder Society. Early one evening, as the slaves were lighting the library candles and Teledesic was digging through a recent delivery, in one of the many fat chests filled with dusty vellum and raw-bound cloth he found, treasure among treasures, a series of Pathfinder Society periodicals. Teledesic was immediately mesmerized by the tales and dispatches of the far-flung travelers of “the Society,” as he referred to it henceforth. And below the stack, wrapped in a layer of mink within a carapace of boiled leather, was a small compass, delightful to the eye and clever in its works [TRAIT = SEEKING ADVENTURE]. This was, of course, a wayfinder, a magical creation of the Society and Teledesic’s single most prized possession. [EQUIP = EBON WAYFINDER: AURA FAINT EVOCATION AND TRANSMUTATION; CL 5TH; WEIGHT 1 LB. THE EXTERIOR OF THIS WAYFINDER IS CONSTRUCTED OF PANELS OF DARKWOOD WITH EBONY INLAYS. THE PANELS SLIDE APART TO REVEAL PLATINUM MESHWORK CAPABLE OF HOLDING ONE OR TWO IOUN STONES. THE EBON WAYFINDER GRANTS DARKVISION WITH A RANGE OF 60′, AND WITH A COMMAND WORD IT CAN CREATE DARKNESS (AS THE SPELL) ONCE PER DAY, CENTERED ON ITSELF. WHEN AN IOUN STONE IS SLOTTED INTO THE DEVICE, ITS DARKNESS ABILITY NO LONGER FUNCTIONS. WHEN A SECOND STONE IS PLACED IN IT, THE DARKVISION ABILITY NO LONGER FUNCTIONS.] It was then that Teledesic decided that membership in the Society was his aim and goal, and to do that meant travelling abroad, courting danger, exploring fell ruins and investigating rumor and hearsay. Needless to say, this did not please the elder Keredes, but he was a tolerant man – a tolerant man with (at the time) six other sons, four of whom labored for the House Concern and at least two of which were (shall we say) less than perspicacious in their dealings – and so he agreed to let Teledesic chart his own course.
Teledesic was not, however, the sort to rush off to the nearest goblin hole and end his days on a spit. He was by nature a methodical and patient young man, a diligent planner, a calculator and (to some) a bit of a cold fish [QUIRK #2 = UNEXCITABLE]. Yet his prominent place in society and impeccable family reputation lent him a schizophrenic mien: on one hand, his gusto for enjoyments and the glittery rewards of distillation, affirmation and fornication (QUIRK #3 = BIG SPENDER] made him a notable and desirous accompanist upon many an evening’s debauch; on the other, his intellectual vanity (tempered always by his sense of noblesse oblige and his rather courtly manners) precluded him from both blindly following orders yet appearing too challenging to authority. A sardonic “I prefer not to,” [QUIRK #4 = BARTLEBY] punctuated many a conversation with various “saloon supervisors” who presumed too much authority over Teledesic. This is not to say that Teledesic was entirely mild of disposition. As much as he was calm in the face of most, there were certain transgressions that would provoke in Teledesic a sort of chill murderousness that would often as not result in the death of the transgressor. [QUIRK #5 = HONOR CODE] Once, a man mocked Teledesic’s (admittedly somewhat flamboyant) clothing: he was found outside an inn two days later with defensive wounds, a dagger-sized hole in his chest and both hands missing. On another occasion, a ribald youth of low station spoke impetuously of House Keredes, speculating on their imagined propensity to have at the slaves. He was discovered the next morning, face-down and drowned in a dung-flooded wagon rut not twenty paces from the site. People spoke with respect to Teledesic after such incidents; although, carefully, none directly accused him of involvement.
It wasn’t long after the death of that particular loud-mouthed fool that Teledesic entertained a visitor from [MAGE GUILD]. Ostensibly, the servants had it that Teledesic had acquired, among the various tomes now forming a delivery schedule that rivaled the one that filled the kitchen each day, some works of a thaumaturgical bent, and was examining them with the assistance of an expert in dweometrical writings. For weeks, Teledesic and the visitor were ensconced in the library, until one day the magus departed with a flourish and a smile [LEVEL #2 = WIZARD, ILLUSIONIST SPEC]. The staff reported some oddments about the villa after that – noises, ghosts, disruptions and disturbances – which eventually died down but for a couple months put the slaves quite on edge. All eventually ascribed the disturbances to peculiarly vigorous rodents, and purges were initiated in the kitchens and storerooms.
And so, eventually, Teledesic took to the road, his guiding effort to demonstrate to the Society that he was suitable for membership, and it is to this end that he winds the paths of Golarion to this day. Of his travels, he posts dispatches to the Society from the inns at which he stops. What curiosities he acquires, he sends home to the House Karedes or attaches them, where salient, to his dispatches. What silver he finds to fill his pouch, he liberally distributes to taverners, alesmen, and courtesans with a grin and a “… ’round for the house plus a joint off that fire for myself.”
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QUIRK #1 = BOOK-SEEKING: Teledesic enjoys all manner of books, prizes them, and acquires them as he can in his travels, occasionally by deception and outright theft (“…but only if utterly necessary to do so,” Teledesic would say). Some he would carry with him on his travels (rare is the night he spends afield without at least of quarto of Chelaxian poetry or a discourse in Abyssal on the care and feeding of nightmares), but most he would send back, at earliest convenience, to the House Keredes library, which for nearly a decade has served as his personal wing of the villa. On the job, no book discovered escapes his eye, and rare indeed is the work that escapes his grasp.
QUIRK #2 = UNEXCITABLE: Teledesic has a rather detached air about him at all times, and is rarely seen to get visibly excited or dismayed – a legacy of the courtly training he received as a lesser noble and his naturally placid demeanor. This detachment is even more pronounced, oddly, in times of increased stress or danger. Where others might emit a battle cry before entering combat, Teledesic has been known to, occasionally, murmur some bon mot to a nearby compatriot. Upon, say, edging his way across a thin ledge and having his torch extinguish, he might smile ruefully and essay a small joke: “Well, a change of boots is right out.”
QUIRK #3 = BIG SPENDER: For all his courtly mien, if not in his library Teledesic is most at home in the common of a cheerful inn or raucous public house – spending liberally, telling tales, accumulating whores and generally making merry. He is free with his silver and, after a bottle of wine or a few flagons of fresh ale, free with his tongue as well, and will trade salacious tales with all the bards and half the barkeeps, all with a flouncy wench on each knee and both hands making preliminary sorties upon their petticoats.
QUIRK #4 = BARTLEBY: Teledesic is highly anti-authoritarian and, while he himself does not typically take a leadership role when amongst comrades, he conversely does not allow others to move him about like a chesspawn. At such times when this tendency comes into conflict with a leader, Teledesic will smile and reply “I prefer not too,” to any particular order that comes toward him. The tenets of the order need not be onerous; the mere delivery of an order itself is usually enough to prompt Teledesic to dig in his passive-aggressive heels and reject it – politely, enigmatically, but reject it he will all the same. At the same time, requests asked as favors are just as likely to find the opposite reply – a cheerful “but of course!” and Teledesic thus bending to the request. It is the manner in which someone asks that makes all the difference.
QUIRK #5 = HONOR CODE: It is said that “the bluest water of the deep holds the tempest most in its heart,” and Teledesic can be said to nod true to this aphorism. Teledesic is slow to anger, but when someone crosses his unspoken honor line – insults his family, for example, or otherwise commits some grave infraction of Teledesic’s unwritten Code – Teledesic can become gripped in a lethal, cold rage, and the transgressor usually finds himself soon dead, sometimes in quite ugly, painful ways. To the constables, it could be construed as murder-most-foul; to Teledesic, it is the righting of a wrong that, unchecked, would put an unbleachable blot on his personal, and his familial, honor. Instances like this are rare, but they have occurred in the past. Never has Teledesic had issue with the constables, however, and generally he seems to feel himself immune to their administration, or at the least in extremis able to make them understand the depth of the wrong and his overwhelming need to right it.
“Ah! Excellent. You’re here at last!” said Teledesic as his brushed crumbs from his hands. In front of him, a spartan lunch lay, mostly devoured – a portion of bread, some dried meat, a partial wedge of cheese, a silver flagon of what [TO THE MOST SENSORY CHARACTER] could only be wine, and not at all poor vintage at that. Next to the meal, lain neatly across a small square of white cloth, lay two books – one with blank pages, the foremost half-inscribed and a quill blocking the bind; the other an illuminated work in bright silvered paint and ink dark as orc-blood.
“Teldesic Keredes, at your service,” said the man, who then bowed in traditional fashion and rose quickly, even a tad impertinently. “My most heartfelt apologies at not having met you at the gate – I was briefly delayed, but I have now arrived and am ready to assist!
[PARTY: ASSIST WITH WHAT?]
“Why, your little quest here, of course,” said Teledesic as he deftly wrapped up the remains of his meal in the cloth and stuffed it into a pocket on his pack. “I’ve been sent by the Society to assist with and chronicle your exploits. I’m not entirely without appropriate skills…” he continued, hefting an exquisitely-made longbow from out of sight, on the opposite side of the small slab of stone he’d been dining upon. A quiver packed with well-crafted arrows, tipped with at least three different sorts of metals, as well as a large arrow-bag attached to his pack, gave mute evidence to the man’s proficiency as an archer. “… and I’ve brought wine as well, which I suspected might be in short supply. It always is,” Teledesic said with a small grin.
[PARTY: WAIT, WHO SENT YOU? THE “SOCIETY”?]
“Hmm. Were you not notified? The Pathfinder Society is the society I refer to, obviously. They dispatched me to join you, provide what assistance I might, and supply periodic memoranda to them as the opportunity arises, describing the more exciting elements.” A grin. “Our readers do love the hew and clang of battle, not to mention the details of philosophic discoveries and the enterprises of the gods.”
[PARTY: HOW DID YOU FIND US?]
“Well…” (an almost patronizing smile) “… I’m no ranger, but even I could manage to follow your series of destroyed doors, triggered traps and, I must compliment you, more or less competently-killed orc-folk.” Teledesic hopped lightly down from the slab and walked up to the party. “I apologize for not arriving sooner but, as I mentioned, the various delays…”
[PARTY: WHO ARE YOU??]
“My apologies! I have not properly introduced myself. I am The Scholarly Master Teledesic of the House Keredes, fifth son of the Venerable Sire Teledes of Taldor. Member of the Pathfinder Society, Bookmaster and Librari a Directori of the House; explorer , researcher and archer. At. Your. Service.”
[PARTY: AND WHY ARE YOU HERE AGAIN?]
Teledesic’s smile faded just a degree. “I am here to assist in your endeavor and write… about… it.” He said, enunciating abruptly and with exaggerated clarity. “Quills, ink, etcetera, yes?” Teledesic picked up the quill from inside his book and waved it in the general direction of the party, mimicking scribery in the air above his head. “The printed word. ¿Literatura, ayi? “
Teledesic policed his gear, whiffed out his candle, and slung his longbow across his shoulder. “Now then, shall we carry on? It seems wise to postpone your briefing me on the more interesting aspects of how each of you has arrived in this place until we break for the evening, don’t you agree?”