James Swiftarm

"'If you can't even see me draw my blade, what makes you think you can see me swing?' James taunting Wolfie"James is a self taught Ranger, an ex-thief, and a recruit to the Fate Slayers guild.

Appearance
James is a thinly built human, with long blonde hair and green eyes. He walks with his head held high, normally looking down on others.

Early Life
James' parents were killed on the side of a road while he was a child, and he was left for dead. While passing by, a forest dweller took him in to keep him safe. When he got a little older and winter came, the forest dweller attempted to kill him and eat him for food. Thankfully, he was saved by a hawk, who flew in and attacked the man. While distracted, James grabbed a sword from the table and stabbed him. That day, James learned that there were very few people in this world he could trust.

From that moment on, James had to fend for himself, which was difficult due to his age as well as the harsh winter. Every day he would go out hunting for food, he would notice the hawk nearby keeping an eye on him. He could tell it was the same hawk because the man he killed managed to give him a scar across one of his eyes. The hawk would occasionally bring him rabbits and other meat whenever he failed to find food himself. He grew to trust this hawk with all his heart.

As time went on, and he became more skilled with his blades, he bonded with the hawk a great deal, and gave him the name Ethon. Ethon would lead James to bigger game, like dear and other animals to hunt, but would warn him of more dangerous creatures, like bears and elves in the nearby forest. As time went on, he realized that hunting wasn't enough anymore, and that he needed to get money to shop in the local town.

Merchants and Nobles would frequent the roads near where he lived, and he would rob them, but ensure they left with their lives as well. Eventually, he earned enough money to buy himself some armor, which is where he learned about the Fate Slayers guild and how they were hiring new adventurers. Intrigued by the opportunity, he went to see what they were about.

Dead War
James arrived at the guild earlier than the other recruits, though a number of people would quickly flock to them. He could tell just by looking at them that the other recruits weren't as skilled in a fight as he was. James also got a bad impression from Wolfie, one of the guilds higher members, asking seemingly pointless questions to all the new recruits. Before long, he took them on a mission to test their mettle.

During the mission, Isaiah Kasher stood out the most to James. He presented some interesting abilities like avoiding detection and bolts of fire. The most impressive thing he did was he was able to knock a black dragon unconscious without touching him. Wolfie showed that he had some skill, but he did far less than expected. The one who impressed him the least was Steven Redhammer. He had a terrible sense of direction, and was quite foolish while rushing into danger.

When the group returned to the guild, he wasted no time explaining how he felt about the other recruits to the guild master, Emeth Mechapes. The master than gave a series of tests to the recruits, each separated for some reason or another. The first tester refused to reveal himself, and seemed more interested in belittling everyone and making them either worship him or making them look like fools. The task was to take the most valubal possession from one of three jewellers. At first, he scoped out the location, finding the most expensive piece of jewelry. Then, he silently called Ethon to cause a commotion in the store to distract everyone, and silently took the item.

When he returned, the tester informed them that they did well and sent them on their way. The next examiner was a young elf girl, who seemed to have a thrill of combat. She attempted to goad James on to attack her, so he obliged looking for a worthy opponent. It was the best fight he had in a very long time, and she managed to knock him unconsious.

He woke up to Jasmine healing him and the other two. They then went on to another examiner, who was interested in their leadership skills. Things went alright for the first two ventures into the cave, however Steve once again proved his incompetence. He wandered into the cave and was attacked by multiple beasts.

After finishing with that, they continued on to meet with another examiner. This one was much less talkative than the others were. He asked him what the most difficult game is and then told him to find a wolf and kill it. He returned around the same time as Nathaniel did, except he returned with a turkey. As they cleaned and cooked their food, they noticed that Steve had not returned so James went looking for him.

He found Steve's bag at the side of the river, and assumed he fell in. He grabbed his rope, tied it around his knife and stabbed it into the ground before diving in. He managed to find him, unconsious under water, and tied the rope around his waste before returning to the surface to pull him up.

As they were all being told how they performed in the tests, James noticed a new girl amonst the other recruits floating just above the ground. All but he and Steve were accepted into the guild, he wasn't accepted due to the fact that he held himself apart from the others. Though slightly hurt by this, it was a reasonable complaint.

As he left the guild into the town, he considered asking for a job at the local tavern to work on his people skills. That was when he was approached by a figure cloaked in the shadows. The man introduced himself as Dante, and promised to help James get revenge on the Fateslayers. James decided that this was a good opportunity to help the Fateslayers get rid of an enemy and possibly join the guild.

James accepted, but also noted that he wouldn't work for free. Dante then handed him an abundance of gold as a signing bonus. James proceeded to the local enchanter and purchased some magical artifacts. He then returned to Dante, who brought him to his underground castle.

Dante probed James for information about the Fateslayers, but James only fed miss information, since he didn't know too much about the guild as it stood. James studied the castle very carefully, taking note of the things in it that seemed important, including Dante's study where he spent most of his time. James then ran into a mage who was attempting to scry on the Fateslayers. He decided to kill the mage, and relay more false information to Dante. However, before he could kill the mage, the mage dropped dead due to some scrying defense.

James fed the false information to Dante as planned, and was meant to be within the backup force of the undead. James decided to stay inside with the disguised doppelganger instead. There were a number of explosions outside, followed by multiple arrow shots. Not long after, the Fateslayers entered the room. Emeth was somehow able to notice James, who gave him a nod of acknowledgement. As the group attacked the doppelganger, he also attacked killing it.

After the creature was dead, James explained the situation. He knew that there was a room that Dante stayed in frequently, but he couldn't recall the room after Emeth touched him. After that, a small group of them teleported away, while the rest of them rushed to attack the group of undead in a floor above them. The group did well, but James was eventually killed by one of the mages using death magic.

Post Deadwar
James was revived after the events of the Deadwar, and offered a place in the Fateslayers. He took group jobs for a time, but he started slowly drifting back to his old ways. He eventually took a job that was too much for him alone, and died on the job.

Equipment
James possesses two short swords enchanted with icy burst. He also sports hide armor due to its light weight and flexibility.

Powers
James is a skilled ranger who dual wields, and has access to a rangers spell sets.