Ares Payne

Character Profile
Name	Ares Payne
Gender	Male
Race	Half-Troll / Half-Dwarf
Class	Cleric / Bard
Age	32 (approximate guess)
Religion	The Trickster
Played By	Arron Johnson

Ares had an unusual start in life. Born, along with his brother Elmo, to a Dwarven prostitute. His father was a full-troll (as far as mum recalls).
He was teased by the Dwarves of his generation because of his half-troll heritage and clumsy nature, he found the only way to be accepted by them was to be exceptional in some way, and the way he found was to make them laugh (or at least attempt too), because of this he turned to The Trickster.
After aquiring his faith, Ares started a life of pranks and practical jokes upon his peers and sometimes even his elders.
It was this pranking that caused him to be sent from the Dwarven realms to Aberddu, one particular prank involved candles, coal dust and the village cheif's desk, the end result was Ares being sent away to "grow-up" and learn "responsibility" and a very annoyed, bald chinned, Chief and his brother.

Upon arriving in Aberddu late in the year of 1106. Ares discovered the adventurers guild and thinking it to sound a fun place, decided to join, but just as he reached the door to the guildhouse he felt a strange sensation of pulling and found himself stood inside the guild house, a few seconds later he felt the same sensation and found himself in front of the main door again. Knowing he'd made the right decision and elated to have found somewhere as interesting and fun as this he entered the guild ready to do whatever it took to prove himself.

After the first week or so of being a member of the Adventurers guild Ares was amazed to discover the god that he followed was once a mortal man, not only that, but a mortal man who was once a member of this very guild! Upon hearing this, Ares made a pledge to himself and his god to help the guild in all ways he possibly could.

Not long after this revelation Ares' brother Elmo appeared at the guild, he'd followed Ares' to Aberddu "to be of help" but Ares' suspected Mum has sent Elmo to keep an eye on him. After collecting some crystals from dead ratkin on a nightime guild meeting, Ares became obsessed with the effects they had upon him while he wore them. His attempts to collect even more of these crystals have been stalled by Guildmaster Jup1.6 who ordered him to return any he collected from recent ratkin attacks.

After hearing of the fighting in the Dwarven Realms and the whispers of other guildmembers, Ares became convinced his mother was dead or captured and as of yet nobody has told him otherwise. After a meeting with the Ghost of Midwinter-Past and the subsequent flashbacks that followed Ares' hatred of the Frisian ideal has been renewed. It also jolted him into the resolve of being more active in guild issues. This backfired when he attempted, with the help of Ed DeBree, to assasinate Maltheus Alloisious Amerretti in a case of mistaken identity.
Ed and Ares beleived Maltheus to be a Frisian spy, the truth being he was from Frisia and even worked within their ranks but did so no longer, they failed in their assasination attempt. Because of this misunderstanding, what Ares beleived to be his first great act of meaning within the guild, turned into a travesty and has lumbered himself and Ed with a debt of 300guilder.

Ed's close friends Giselle Snapdragon and Lees Duddrack have promised to help with the debt somehow by travelling to Paravel, Ares is going with them. Abatha and Eldoth also have a plan to help that has been set in motion, Helga Oakenshield also offered her help.

The trip to Paravel never happened, we spent most of our time wandering around, nowhere near the place. With the help of friends and with his own machinations he managed to raise approximatley 25 gilder, nowhere near the amount needed. One night while ruseing on ways to raise the money there was a call for new members at the Bards-Guild, thinking it a quick source of cash and finally a chance to improve his singing ability, Ares signed up. It wasn't long before he discovered things that interested him.
At the following AAG guild-meeting. Stryke, the newly appointed guild-master, pulled Ares into his office for a word. "Where is the money you owe the guild?" he said.
"I'm not paying it." Ares replied.
"Why not?" asked Stryke.
"I have more important things to do at the moment, that's why!"
"Such as?"
"Well, do you see that whole north side of the city, where people have a penchant for wearing red-tabards and summoning demons?" replied Ares in a sarcastic manner.
"Yes I have noticed, but there's still the matter of the money, we're a guild, we're friends and we look out for each other."
It was this statement that struck Ares off-guard, he had hoped to be able to talk Stryke down by explaining the work he'd done during the war. Yet Stryke had pointed out something Ares had forgotten, in the guild we we're friends and we had to look after each other, this bravado of trying to shout Stryke down had been a stupid idea, he should've tried harder to raise the money, but it was that "looking out for each other..." that made Ares remember something more important, and told Stryke about what he'd learnt in the past week or so.....

Weeks had gone by, many things has happened, Frysia had retreated to only holding the far North-western part of the city, the guild had gotten even more new members, training in the Bard's Guild was very nearly finished. He'd found new friends around the city and within the guild. Word was slowly coming in from the outside yet there was no word from Dwarven Realms, nor mum or Danielle and still he was no closer to getting through that door! Everything he tried seemed to stop him at every corner. There were demons there, he knew and quite possibly some very pissed off mages but nothing seemed to be working. It was time to call in help from the guild. There was also the situation with Elmo that needed sorting, he still didn't fully beleive it. His own brother, a ferverent follower of life and a pious cleric, willingly getting himself tainted? It must be something else, there had to be a good reason for it,maybe it had been forced upon him? Maybe it's affected his mind and made him mad? Whatever the cause, Ares would find out and destroy it.

After weeks of searching Elmo was cured forcibly by the Amroth temple along with Ares himself and Giselle who had also become tainted. Around the same time the Bard's guild was stormed by the Amroth temple after a tip-off from Ares himself, but the Bards guild's guildmaster Cerysiah Demonfort managed to escape, Ares still lives in fear of her returning to get him back for tipping off the Amroth temple. As the summer of 1108 began Ares set off with a group of 9 friends from the guild to try and rescue his Mum and his fiance Danielle and to ask for aid from the Dwarven Realms in the fight against Frisia.

Got back after summer and revelled in the fact that the mission into Frisia was a success and celebrated the lives of both Arkhan and Isin with sweets, alcohol and very, very bad poetry. Not long after their return Ares' organised a mission into the Dwarven Realms to find Mum again and find out what the hell they were doing. Upon reaching the Dwarven Realms and his home town, Ares, Elyas, Lasia and Karowyn discovered the anchient dwarven hero Bloodaxe had returned and was leading them to drive Frisia out. After a few days they retured home bringing Mum with them, who visited the guild for a night the following week remarking upon how respectable and heroic Ares' friends were.

Shortly after Mum went back to the Dwarven Realms, Ares was struck by tragedy when the death of his friend Dries was discovered in the guild house, hardening Ares' resolve and making him more determined than ever to protect his friends.

After a few talks with some close friends and a few more nights of contemplation Ares started healing and fighting more prolifically. He became interested in politics and tries to help wherever he can.

Towards the beginning of summer 1109 Ares was given a few "gifts" by the Trickster Temple, a ring with a single use of Vanishment which he loaned to Ed for his own amusement. A necklace of constant laughter and most impressively The Wishbone a relic of which nobody knew the power of. Ares promptly broke said relic and immediatley embarked upon a mission to try and repair it.
The quest lead him from Pringle's own study, to the depths of the Trickster Temple and finally to K'chon...

After helping defeat Maganamus in Tartaria and helping resurrect the Phoenix Totem ares found himself with the title and position of Guildmaster, however after recent events Ares wanted to get away from it all so handed the title and responsibilities to the best person he could think of, Eldoth. Then he left Aberddu to go visit Mum and the Wife, then he went travelling to the far east to try and learn and "better himself".


Although officially retired from the Guild now Ares still occasionally showed up inbetween travels to help out on guild missions.
He was present when the guild travelled to Arabi to destroy the forces of the God King Al-Rakim.
He was also present at the mission to Albion where the guild was caught within a time loop and discovered and destroyed a Frisian pit gate that was intended to open in the centre of Albion.
It was during this mission that Ares realised how far he had actually come, his favour with the Trickster was such that he was temporarily bestowed with the powers of an Avatar to help defeat the demonic forces in the area and keep his friends alive. Since that event Ares has felt a new closeness to his god and his love and gratitude to the Trickster has deepened even further than he thought possible.

Bardic Stories

- Where baby Tartars come from
- The bane of Anoveld
- An Oath to Armoth
- The Lady and the Lake
- The Tale of the Origin of Gargoyles

Skills

Trickster cleric of the 8th circle
Bardic magician of the 1st circle
Experienced Adventurer
Ambassador for the Dwarven Realms

The Trickster

Hello Clerics. Look at your god, now back to mine, now back at your god, now back to mine.
Sadly, it isn't yours, but if you stopped being so serious and start worshipping Trickster. It could be.
Look down, back up, where are you? You’re in the Last Laugh shrine getting drunk and partying!
What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s a Custard Pie laced with Hallucinogens.
Look again, the pie is now Magic Rings!
Anything is possible when you worship the Trickster and not an old fart.
I’m in a pub.