Theodore Aleson
Please sign the contract. Yes it is necessary. No exceptions. No favors as payment. Because I can't buy food with favors. No food as payment. Yes I will cook for you.... After you sign the contract. Just put an X or scribble or anything. I told you because it is magic and binds you to paying me.
Appearance
A tall male human with a healthy to fit body. A youthful, handsome face covered in well trimmed and kept hair and facial hair the color of amber ale. Hazel eyes full of curiosity always seeking to understand the puzzle of what he is looking at. Fair skin from spending more time in dark places like ruins, caves, or libraries than out doors.
Skills and Abilities
I went to College: Theo is an educated man. He spent his teens being formally trained and educated at the college of Alliria. So much knowledge gained with a graduation badge as proof of this fact. All the countless little skills gained from years of diligent study are due to this fact.
Magic Hands: The reason a tavern owners son could get an education from a renowned college was because of his aptitude in magic. While he left before formally specializing himself and going to related courses of study, he has learned all the basic and foundational academic magics. Things like lighting/blowing out candles with the snap of a finger and animating a quill to write for him. Self study has expanded his skill set since. His over all abilities are best summed up by his favorite instructor's opinion: adequate.
Not my Familiar: Theo has a familiar. Their name is Sammy and they are a raccoon. Hedonistic, curious, and lacking in proper boundaries, Sammy is both the most useful thing in Theo's life and the biggest source of his problems. The creature will do anything for food so is easy to motivate yet also goes to great lengths to steal other's meals and snacks. This need to get their grubby hands all over something also extends to shiny and unusual objects. Treasures are snatched and carried back to Theo with pride, but so to are people's coin purses. It doesn't help that all snacks of Theo's belong to Sammy. A source of countless fights.
Handyman, Jack of all Trades: As an adventurer, Theo has had to diversify his skill sets and gotten competent at many things. He has a working knowledge of most crafts and skills. Need someone to pick a lock? Theo can do it although not as quick and cleanly as a skilled thief. Need someone to repair your dented breastplate? It won't look pretty but Theo can get it back to shape and ready for use. It makes him useful in a pinch if you don't have the time or resources to find an expert to solve your problems.
Aleson, Tavern Born: Theo was born into a long line of tavern owners, alehouse brewers, and chefs. He knows food and drinks. Cooking, brewing, and harshly judging the skills of others, he can do it all. It is in his blood. It was his life till he went to college and has proven to be his best skills. If anyone needs a good meal or someone to help find the best places to get a meal or drink then Theo is their man.
Magic Hands: The reason a tavern owners son could get an education from a renowned college was because of his aptitude in magic. While he left before formally specializing himself and going to related courses of study, he has learned all the basic and foundational academic magics. Things like lighting/blowing out candles with the snap of a finger and animating a quill to write for him. Self study has expanded his skill set since. His over all abilities are best summed up by his favorite instructor's opinion: adequate.
Not my Familiar: Theo has a familiar. Their name is Sammy and they are a raccoon. Hedonistic, curious, and lacking in proper boundaries, Sammy is both the most useful thing in Theo's life and the biggest source of his problems. The creature will do anything for food so is easy to motivate yet also goes to great lengths to steal other's meals and snacks. This need to get their grubby hands all over something also extends to shiny and unusual objects. Treasures are snatched and carried back to Theo with pride, but so to are people's coin purses. It doesn't help that all snacks of Theo's belong to Sammy. A source of countless fights.
Handyman, Jack of all Trades: As an adventurer, Theo has had to diversify his skill sets and gotten competent at many things. He has a working knowledge of most crafts and skills. Need someone to pick a lock? Theo can do it although not as quick and cleanly as a skilled thief. Need someone to repair your dented breastplate? It won't look pretty but Theo can get it back to shape and ready for use. It makes him useful in a pinch if you don't have the time or resources to find an expert to solve your problems.
Aleson, Tavern Born: Theo was born into a long line of tavern owners, alehouse brewers, and chefs. He knows food and drinks. Cooking, brewing, and harshly judging the skills of others, he can do it all. It is in his blood. It was his life till he went to college and has proven to be his best skills. If anyone needs a good meal or someone to help find the best places to get a meal or drink then Theo is their man.
Personality
Theo is a curious guy. He will show an interest in whatever others are doing or talking about. Makes him both a great listener but also a very talkative guy. Once he starts explaining things he has a bad habit of going on for too long and into too much detail.
Theo is a nice enough guy and tends to choose the ethical and moral options if he has them. Although he is not above theft even if he knows it goes against most laws and senses of right and wrong.
Theo is motivated by gold and can be a little too greedy at times. If he can make a profit or gain something then he has a habit of going for it even if doing so is rather reckless and stupid.
Theo is a nice enough guy and tends to choose the ethical and moral options if he has them. Although he is not above theft even if he knows it goes against most laws and senses of right and wrong.
Theo is motivated by gold and can be a little too greedy at times. If he can make a profit or gain something then he has a habit of going for it even if doing so is rather reckless and stupid.
Biography & Lore
Innocence & Youth:
Born into long lines of tavern owners, alehouse brewers, and chefs, Theodore had a normal childhood. He was expected to help around his parent's tavern doing everything from sweeping the floors to carrying grain sacks to helping cook during busy hours. Thanks to this he developed a strong back and a friendly smile. His curious nature sharpened by countless stories and tales told to him by travelers through their walled town in the Allir Reach.
When he was a young teen, an instructor from the college in Alliria happened to be passing through and noticed Theo's gift of magic and smart mind. They would return not long after with an offer for him to study at the college and become a scholar and mage in the future. Overjoyed for him, his parents were quick to ship him off to school.
Theodore found true joy throughout his teen years. He didn't have the coin to spend like the wealthier students did and had to do part time jobs as well as care for himself without a hired servant, but he loved every moment of it. All the experience did was make him feel he was earning everything all the more. And he fit perfectly into the ways of scholars and mages.
But it all came to a horrible end after his graduation from the scholarly classes. He discovered that he was there under a scholarship that his parents were never informed of. Someone at the college had been sending them bills for his tuition and pocketing the coin they sent to pay for it. Bills that they had to borrow ever increasingly larger amounts of money to pay. They became overwhelmed with debt and had their family tavern taken from them as payment and forced to work to keep paying off their debt.
The overwork and stress ultimately sent the both of them to an early grave. It was when the debtors came for Theodore to pay his parents' debt that the truth of his youth came to light. He left the college out of disgust having only graduated as a scholar but only finishing the basic courses on magic. When the college tried to come for him to repay his scholarship, he revealed the corruption of his tuition to them. The one responsible was never discovered, likely having already fled.
Theodore had to work for his debtors for a few years while he sorted out a solution to his situation. He came to them with a magical contract that bound him to paying them a percentage of what he made until the debt was repaid. The debt could not be changed and he would be free to act as he pleased. They agreed on the condition he produce magical contracts for them in the future if requested. Both sides walked away satisfied.
Debtor Bound:
A new sense of freedom and an end goal in sight, Theodore ventures out into the world with those costly life lessons still fresh on his mind.
Born into long lines of tavern owners, alehouse brewers, and chefs, Theodore had a normal childhood. He was expected to help around his parent's tavern doing everything from sweeping the floors to carrying grain sacks to helping cook during busy hours. Thanks to this he developed a strong back and a friendly smile. His curious nature sharpened by countless stories and tales told to him by travelers through their walled town in the Allir Reach.
When he was a young teen, an instructor from the college in Alliria happened to be passing through and noticed Theo's gift of magic and smart mind. They would return not long after with an offer for him to study at the college and become a scholar and mage in the future. Overjoyed for him, his parents were quick to ship him off to school.
Theodore found true joy throughout his teen years. He didn't have the coin to spend like the wealthier students did and had to do part time jobs as well as care for himself without a hired servant, but he loved every moment of it. All the experience did was make him feel he was earning everything all the more. And he fit perfectly into the ways of scholars and mages.
But it all came to a horrible end after his graduation from the scholarly classes. He discovered that he was there under a scholarship that his parents were never informed of. Someone at the college had been sending them bills for his tuition and pocketing the coin they sent to pay for it. Bills that they had to borrow ever increasingly larger amounts of money to pay. They became overwhelmed with debt and had their family tavern taken from them as payment and forced to work to keep paying off their debt.
The overwork and stress ultimately sent the both of them to an early grave. It was when the debtors came for Theodore to pay his parents' debt that the truth of his youth came to light. He left the college out of disgust having only graduated as a scholar but only finishing the basic courses on magic. When the college tried to come for him to repay his scholarship, he revealed the corruption of his tuition to them. The one responsible was never discovered, likely having already fled.
Theodore had to work for his debtors for a few years while he sorted out a solution to his situation. He came to them with a magical contract that bound him to paying them a percentage of what he made until the debt was repaid. The debt could not be changed and he would be free to act as he pleased. They agreed on the condition he produce magical contracts for them in the future if requested. Both sides walked away satisfied.
Debtor Bound:
A new sense of freedom and an end goal in sight, Theodore ventures out into the world with those costly life lessons still fresh on his mind.