Meet Phineas Draem, Proprietor of Phin's Finds
Rogue 3 / Bard 7
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Phineas Draem was never a warrior, never an adventurer, never a thief. He was a salesman. His shop, Phin's Finds, was a cramped, cluttered den of cuiosities tucked into a crooked alley, the kind of place where adventures found oddities, nobles found forbidden treasures, and scholars found things they weren't supposed to touch. Phineas didn't steal or pillage; he bought. Everything he owned passed through someone else's hands first.
Over the years, he built his stock by charming desperate sellers, out-negotiating rival merchants, and keeping a careful network of whispers. His crowning jewel was a nearly-complete Deck of Many Things, which he had pieced together card-by-card over a lifetime. Then, one night, it was all gone. A break-in, an inside betrayal, or maybe a curse -- he doesn't know. But the deck, and every other piece of stock, had vanished.
With no money, no goods, and no business left to run, Phineas set out not as a merchant but as a desperate man on the road, seeking either to reclaim his lost deck or to start again from nothing.
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Rogue (Mastermind) and Bard (Eloquence) together give Phineas a silver tongue, a read of people, a knack for the right lie at the right time, running networks, hiring middlemen, keeping up appearances, negotiations, debates, and talking his way out of trouble. He's never actually seen battle, but knows how to stay alive. He ducks behind cover, throws out distractions, cuts through minds with words. Fast talk, misdirection, and a hidden dagger just in case.
Phineas isn't after fame, glory, and wealth. He wants stock. Artifacts, relics, cursed objects, forgotten magic. Anything to restore his status as the black market's greatest dealer.
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