Babenon Dosal

The Gentleman is a Water Genasi crime boss in Zadash, working for The Myriad out of the Evening Nip tavern. As an NPC, The Gentleman is played by Matthew Mercer.

Appearance
The Gentleman has light teal skin, a dark goatee, and shoulder length jet-black hair, that forms a widow's peak. He wore a deep-blue coat, and leather gloves. His skin seemed to be perpetually moist, having a layer of condensation on it.

Personality
The Gentleman oozes confidence and despite inciting fear in many who hear his name he comes off as cheerful and approachable. He has been shown to treat the Mighty Nein with respect and generosity and has proved on several occasions that he sticks to his word. The Gentleman runs his operations in Zadash with a certain amount of meticulousness and places a great deal of importance on luck. During most waking hours, the Gentleman is engaging in deals and revelry in equal measure. Despite his calm, flirtatious and charismatic exterior he is still the head of an extremely dangerous criminal syndicate and quite dangerous. If he believes a group is lying to him, he is more than willing to attack them and sell them into slavery. He is known to be deadly with a rapier, and his reputation alone is enough to keep most onlookers in line.

Associates

 * The Gentleman's Troupe: A group of henchmen that work for The Gentleman either freely or as indentured servants.
 * The Mighty Nein

Background
The Gentleman claimed, when his credentials were questioned, that he had lived and worked in the underbelly of Zadash since 811 P.D. and had never been caught.

Beauregard stole 3 packages to Demedan Baumbauch, finding a coded letter about a future shipment from the Gentleman.

When questioned by Beauregard and Nott, Thed revealed that the way to meet The Gentleman was to offer "many gifts" as payment to Clive Bens at the Evening Nip.

Being cautious and fearing being caught, The Gentleman requested that all those who entered his domain leave him with a vial of their blood, which Cree kept in a small leather satchel. This blood was to be a symbol of trust between parties and insurance against anyone who dared betray his friendship, as Cree could use this blood to track down such persons.

Wanting to test the group and see if destiny and luck was with his new investment, he proceeded to play a Marquesian card game called the Gambit of Ord against Fjord. The stakes of the game were that should Fjord lose he would have been bound to The Gentleman's service, if Fjord should win business would continue as usual. Starting with a 50gp buy-in, the pot rose to 600gp which Fjord won.

Once The Gentleman had insured himself against the group and tested out their luck, he revealed that his organization was a company that specialized in the task and trade that was deemed not the most legal, and that were to some extent restricted by the empire. His group's skills were focused on being deceitful, working fast, and working in the shadows.

The Gentleman also revealed that word had reached him of the party's activities at the Sutan residence and at the home of the High-Richter. Specifically, he let the party know that that Lord Sutan was in chains, and that the crownsguard were looking to pin the High-Richter's murder on someone matching Mollymauk's and Beauregard's descriptions, who they saw near the home at the time that she was murdered.

Establishing a working friendship, The Gentleman suggested that he had many gifts that he could offer the party including aid in making sure that Lord Sutan stayed locked up, and that the crownsguard investigation would look the other way and drop their investigation of the suspected murderers, as well as help to escort Horris safely and secretly out of the city.

In return The Gentleman asked that the party perform a task for him. He wished for the party travel around a mile along the underground river pass that his group uses to ship things out to the Ounterloch and Berleben. He wanted the Mighty Nein to go to the area and continue the investigation of an abandoned aged research facility that a previous group had discovered and explored before being beset by Will-o'-wisps. They ran away in fear and caved in a portion of the area, noting the location to be filled with a purple light and ancient golden-laden spoils. While there the Mighty Nein were to clear out any dangers, and return with their findings, at which point The Gentleman would graciously let the party keep a portion of the spoils.

Questioning his credentials and ability to clear the group's name of wrongdoing, Nott proposed The Gentleman take a test of her making. Preparing three vials of alcohol, she mixed in some acid into one of them and tasked The Gentleman to carefully identify and drink one of the safe vials. Identifying all of the vials correctly, he confidently took and drank the acid vial. Impressed by his display, Nott drank the alcohol and kept the vials she received from Cree.

The Gentleman, interrupted from some morning revelry, emerged to greet the Mighty Nein wearing a dark purple silk robe tied around the waist. He was delighted to see that the party was reliable though a little sad that they had returned the next morning, instead of immediately after they cleared out the Abandoned Research Facility. After describing the location, traps, and the monsters they had encountered, the subject moved on to the arrangement of the loot that they were to hand over. Though skeptical of Nott's initial lie about what they had found, he eventually accepted Beau's lie that Siff Duthar's research journal, the ancient pots, and the various bits of jewelry were the items of value from the expedition. Following the agreement to split some of the spoils, The Gentleman let the group keep the rings that they had found, and dispatched two members of his troupe to clear Molly, Beau, and Dolan's name in the matter of Dayana Prucine's death. Concluding their business, he returned to his chambers to continue his breakfast and his "breakfast."

When the Mighty Nein arrived in The Evening Nip to discuss the Gentleman's offer of a job, he presented them with two tasks. If they could handle both and with timely mind, there might be a bonus.
 * Travel northward, to Shadycreek Run to parlay with Ophelia Mardun. Help her in absolving her from her current mire of complications and to return with her to Zadash. For this task completed, He offered an advance of 500 gold pieces and a purse of 4,500 gold pieces upon returning with Miss Mardun within the month.
 * Locate a fellow named Febron Keyes. Meet with him, secure the safe house in the Labenda Swamp and its contents, and return to me. He offerd a 250 gold piece advance and a purse of 1,750 gold pieces upon completion.

After some deliberation, they accepted both tasks. The Gentleman provided the group two healing potions, a potion to cure diseases, and advances for the two jobs, sending them on the road north to Berleben.

The Mighty Nein brought Ophelia Mardun back to Zadash, finishing both jobs they had accepted from The Gentleman. When The Gentleman saw Ophelia, he kissed her. She kissed him back, but also bit his lip, drawing a little bit of blood. When he realized Molly was missing, The Gentleman told the group he was sorry for their loss. He gave them an additional fifty platinum on top of their payment. The Gentleman offered Caduceus the same deal as the rest of the Mighty Nein: they will kill him or take some of his blood. Caduceus agreed on the condition The Gentleman promised not to cast anything strange on the blood.

Before leaving the Evening Nip, Jester and Nott tried a little detective work. Nott wandered over to The Gentleman and tried to subtly drop the names Avantika and "the captain". Nott's name drop was very obvious, but The Gentleman did not pay much attention to Nott. Jester tried to read The Gentleman's reaction, but he was more interested in talking to Ophelia Mardun.

When the Mighty Nein met Marion Lavorre, they realized her description of Jester's father sounded like The Gentleman. Jester cast Sending to ask him if he knew the Ruby of the Sea. After no answer from her first spell, Jester cast Sending again. In response to the second message The Gentleman replied "No, that's preposterous."

Sorah
Sorah is the main bodyguard of the Gentleman and one of his many lovers.

Ophelia Mardun
The Gentleman and Ophelia appear to be former lovers, as the Gentleman drew Ophelia in for a passionate kiss when the Mighty Nein brought her to the Evening Nip.

Jester (Unconfirmed)
The Gentleman is suspected to be Jester's father.

Marion Lavorre (Unconfirmed)
The Gentleman may have been engaged to Marion Lavorre.

Abilities
Unless otherwise noted, the following abilities are assumed from the standard Dungeons & Dragons materials:

Water Genasi Abilities

 * Acid Resistance
 * Amphibious
 * Swim (30 foot swim speed)
 * Call to the Wave
 * Shape Water cantrip
 * Create or Destroy Water spell (as a 2nd-level spell)

Notable Items

 * Rapier

Quotations

 * "I think I get the gist. ... Good job. ... Keep on truckin'?" (His response to Jester's Message)
 * "Now, off! I have to finish my breakfast... and my breakfast."

Trivia

 * The Mighty Nein believes that The Gentleman is the likeliest candidate to be Jester's father, Babenon Dosal.
 * According to Matt's notes, there was the possibility that if the Mighty Nein had lied to the Gentleman at any point, he would have attacked them in a furious rage. If the party was defeated, then the Gentleman would have attempted to sell them as slaves to a "Draconian survivor with an anger problem" in Felderwin. Cree would have then freed them as their cart left the outer walls of Zadash.