Teernan

Minstrel encountered in the Empire of the Clouds campaign in the city of Inuashi.

Also a key NPC at the beginning of Shadow of the Colossus

Teernan's Prologue to Shadow of the Colossus

Teernan, after escaping the Templar's raid on the rebel camp, had reached Seacrest and sought to sell the enormous gem he smuggled out during the confusion of the night attack, but was quickly ousted from the street market by a shrieking blind soothsayer claiming he doomed them all with the eye. His stay in Seacrest was short as he caught wind that two Dark Templars sought him out. He fled via boat to the northwest seeking Inuashi or Shuto where he could surely become wealthy in exchange for the great stone. The ship he voyaged on was wrecked in a great lightening storm. He awoke on the shore south of Inuashi with nothing but his tattered clothes and the purple gem glaring at him from the nearby sand. How such a stone could have been washed ashore from its hiding place beneath his mattress in the shattered and sunken vessel was beyond him. Reaching Inuashi some days later, Teernan plied his trade carefully to learn of possible buyers and to reclad himself splendidly rather than in rags.

It was after a few weeks in Inuashi that Teernan was approached by a Gray Cloak. The atypical event of a Gray Cloak in a seedy tavern nearly cleared the establishment. The Gray Cloak spoke in riddles and threats.

Teernan at first thought it simply a chance encounter and he was glad to have survived it unmolested. Days later he had arranged a meeting with a buyer, a wealthy mage in black robes from islands far to the northwest. This mage sought out stones of power, but when seeing Teernan's stone and mumbling some incantation over it, he began to laugh. **This is an item of great power indeed, but not at all what I seek. You are a fool thief and have stolen something forbidden.** He then laughed maniacally. Teernan's rage at being called foolish by two wizards recently and his frustration at failing to sell the cursed gem drove him to insult the Black Cloaked stranger named Stayar. With only minor wounds and insults exchanged the cultist left the tavern. A day later Teernan began his journey northward to Eigyou to seek a buyer. Along the lonesome road, the riddles of the Gray Cloak echoed in his mind:

 Sight must be returned to the blind, lest the beasts wrath dwarf that of the emperors.
 Only a fool flees from a mountain in fear.  The only way to conquer it is by climbing it.

Teernan fully did not believe himself a fool. Granted there's some foolishness in his trade, but Teernan never took from those he believed could not tolerate the loss. This gem came from a hole in the ground. The only keepers giant insects. As he rode and pondered, he wondered where his Dark Templar friend, Ryuchi, was and how he fared after their ruse to secret away the gemstone. He wondered if Ryuchi rode with his companions chasing the mountainous beast that rampaged up from the south.

Then the dreams began. Teernan was haunted at night by demons. Dark-eyed, toothy beasts who held him in bound in tentacle grips like a great squid and licked his face with long forked tongues dripping acid. Teernan did not sleep much on the next days of his journey. Then it was one dark night, fearing sleep, that he sat near his dying fire, huddled in his blanket flinching at the dancing shadows when he again heard the laughter of the dark cloaked man. Teernan jumped to his feet, having his blades cleared their sheathes before he was upright. Teeran circled the fire, peering into the darkness about him, waiting for the black-clad wizard to approach. Teernan shouted out, first asking the man to stop lurking and join him by the fire like a proper traveler. As the incessant laughter continued from all around him, pounding into his head, his invitations turned to insults. Suddenly the laughter stopped. Teernan waited for his heart to stop trying to break free from inside his ribcage before sheathing one of his blades and gathering some wood for his fire. With the fire stoked, he was just again getting comfortable wrapping his blanket around him when the dark imp attacked. No larger than an adolescent boy, the winged demon with goat head and long beard flew at him. Teernan fought it off, until it fled bleating into ink black starless night sky, but the beast left him with a seeping wound in his upper left arm. The following days, Teernan did not sleep for fear of what it may bring and his arm did not heal, but rather festered and oozed and his hand swelled beyond use. Teernan, mumbling and flinching at the slightest motion, whether a grasshopper or a gazelle, wandered into Eigyou seeking help...

Through the Gray Cloaks riddles, Teernan believes he must take the eye of the mountain to some beast in the mountains where he "found" it.