<div class="floatleft">(http://www.britsattheirbest.com/cr_actor_keith_ledger.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;"><span class="bbc_u">The Lion of the Press:</span></span></span><br/><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;">The Ballad of Campbell Garrett</span></span></div><em>Adventurer, Explorer and Famed Reporter for the Korremberg Press</em><br/><br/><em>"Lissen my man, I'm jest heer to get de' stone culd facts;  but if we're keeping this off'er de record, then by oll meens, imbellish a littel."</em><br/><div style="text-align: right;">--  By Campbell Garrett, 998 YK</div><br/><strong>Foreword by the Editor:</strong>Dear Reader, as your esteemed editor-in-chief, I must regretfully apologize for the bizarre antics of one of my reporters, Mr. Campbell Garrett.  As you already know, Mr. Garrett has acquired a reputation in the civilized world as an excellent correspondent, an intrepid adventurer and, to my innermost regret, an overzealous, ego-maniacal, anal retentive madman.  But what can I say?  The boy is like my son.  I have known him for years, and taught him our craft.  And though I can say that I am proud of him, for he is only eighteen and stands heads and shoulders above almost all of his peers in the journalism world, the Korrenberg Chronicle does not in any way condone or advocate his rampant drug and alcohol abuse, or his misuse of elemental transportation.  On the behalf of our staff, we apologize to the people of Korth, and will take steps to assure that events like the ones that happened during the night of the<em>incident</em>never happen again.<br/><br/><strong>A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man:</strong>Born in 980 YK in a small village in Breland to commoners, C. Garrett didn't demonstrate an aptitude for learning until the distinguished scholar and renaissance man, Mr. Silar Fiddlewinks, renowned all across Khorvaire for his work on elemental binding, found himself in the Breland countryside with a broken lightning carriage.  While the gnome tinkered away in the underbelly of the machine god, Garrett, then a boy of eight, approached the gnome and made an insightful (and very insulting) remark that at once created a solution in the gnome's mind.  The gnome took a special interest in the child afterward, and Mr. Fiddlewinks quickly discovered that Garrett was intellectually very gifted and soaked up knowledge like a sponge.<br/><br/>Mr. Fiddlewinks talked Garrett's parents into allowing him to attend Korrenberg Academy, where Garrett excelled at his coursework in philosophy and religion.  He graduated at the age of 15, and sought employment as a copy editor at the Korrenberg Chronicle, and was eventually elevated to the level of correspondent for the internationally acclaimed publication at 16.  As a reporter, Garrett worked feverishly to deliver eye-grabbing stories, and has even gone as far as venturing to cold Frostfell and dark Xen'Drik to track the movements of established adventuring parties.<br/><br/>He has published seven volumes:<em>The Layman's Guide to Esoteric Religion in Khorvaire, Diverse Tactics in Warlord, Magic Around Us, The Strange History of Breland Cheese, Essays on Dwarven Dialects, The Dialects of Kaius the III,</em>and the ever popular,<em>Dungeoneering.</em>Furthermore, his band, Shegroth's Teeth, released a popular hit a year ago entitled,<em>Swim Towards the Siren.</em><br/><br/><strong>Adventuring:</strong>Garrett has earned much of his experience and reputation from previous adventures with well-known parties, and has benefited from the advice and friendship of famous explorers, dilettantes, pirates, nobles, etc.  However, Garrett has the tendency of taking notes during combat, because he wants to accurately describe occurrences for his readers, thus making him insufferable on the battlefield.  Furthermore, though highly intelligent and extremely well-versed in any environment, groups often make the mistake of employing Garrett as a scout (in fact, the phrase "Garrett, scout ahead" are now considered famous last words).<br/><br/><strong>Personality:</strong>Garrett loves himself, but typically excludes himself from his stories.  However, he buys into the hype of him being a swashbuckling everyman, and his youth has given him a sense of immortality that makes him overly brash.  He is conceited, arrogant and smug, and he is never up to any good (aside from his stories, all of which are always good).<br/><br/><strong>Behavior:</strong>Loud-mouthed, insolent, intolerable;  these words describe Mr. Garrett well.<br/><br/><strong>Language:</strong>Though Garrett has been educated in the college of Religion and Philosophy at Korrenberg, Garrett speaks in a jocular, self-aggrandizing vernacular of lower-class Brelians, spattered with nautical references and adventuring idioms.<br/><br/><strong>Rules of the Trade:</strong>As a journalist, Garrett must abide by a certain code of ethics.  The code is listed as follows:<br/>1)  Never tell your readers a lie,<em>unless it protects them.</em><br/>2)  Never tell your editor a lie,<em>unless it will protect him/her.</em><br/>3)  Always protect your sources,<em>no matter what.</em><br/><br/>http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=168844 (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=168844)<br/><br/>The character can acquire feats/special abilities from the following classes:<br/><br/>LVL 4  Factotum<br/>LVL 1  Swashbuckler<br/>LVL 1  Marshall<br/>LVL 3  Invisible Hand (Prestige Class)