Next character: Daerius (Maxim)

Looks:
Daerius has a barbarian background but Talastar has been subdued by the Lunars for a long time and it shows in Daerius, who looks more like a Lunar than a Sartarite.

Career and status:

Daerius is a freeman settler from Talastar, a former Sartar kingdom subdued by the Lunarese Empire.  There he made a living as a member of a group of mercenaries, working for the highest bidder.  This all ended when he was set up by his chief Vakthan, he got blamed for killing a clan ring member who tried to oppose the Lunar oppression.  His life now in danger, he emigrated to Pavis, still trying to make ends meet working as a mercenary, but business is slow.

On his travels and adventures he met a few good men (and a donkey) he trusts. One of them is a Kralorelan monk named Haru. They went on lots of adventures together. They looked death in the eye a few times, but they are still good friends. They have gotten separated but will meet again one day.

Daerius is a lay member of Orlanth, who has had trouble keeping in touch with his temple, because of the ban on Orlanth by the Lunars.  Daerius is a firm proponent of the Orlanth motto: Violence is always an option.  He must try and keep a low profile, lest someone recognises him and reports him to Lunar authorities.

Family and connections:

Because of what has happened to him he has lost contact with his family, who remained in Talastar. As far as he knows, he still has loving parents, an aunt and 2 nephews.  He would love to send them a message, but the Lunar government might very well be on the lookout for him.

Since his arrival in Pavis, Daerius has become good friends with Raiko Ingilli, a nephew of Tolkazzi of the powerful Ingilli family who has gotten in trouble and was cast out of the family by the Ingilli family head, Scharman.  Raiko has been a real friend to Daerius, and has helped him on several occasions, getting him jobs working as a guard for the riverfolk.  Because of this, Daerius has excellent contacts in the riverfolk society, and this is to their mutual advantage, since Daerius must be careful when among his own people: some believe the rumours about his past are true and want to see him punished.  Often, Daerius runs errands for Raiko.

Because of his increased notoriety among the riverfolk, Daerius has become quite popular with the local women: his barbarian looks and muscular build are quite different from the thin, sinewy riverfolk men.  Most of the time, all he gets are looks of appreciation, but one female, crazy Meg, has quite the crush on Daerius, and tends to follow him around, showing up at all the wrong moments, and making very clumsy passes in order to seduce the Talastarian fighter. 

Sadly enough crazy Meg did not get her name for nothing.  Ever since Daerius mildly rebuked her, she considers them to be destined for love everlasting, and she now follows our hero around whenever she can find him, harassing women he speaks with, and telling everybody they are blindly in love.

Passions:

Loyalty to Haru, the monk from Kralorela.
30+5 (Daerius POW)+12 (Haru CHA) = 47%

Love for his mother, Eryndor.
30+ 9 (Eryndor POW)+13 (Eryndor CHA) = 52%

Hate Vakthan, Talastaring mercenary leader.

30+5 (Daerius POW)+14 (Vakthan CHA) = 49%

Combat Styles:

Desert Reaver

Scimitar & Shield, Dagger

Talastaring Hoplite - Benefit: Shield Wall

Spear & Shield, Javelin

Characters for the Pavis campaign

First up is David's character Vaddi:

Look: A bearded barbarian, aged 28, carrying a great axe, a one handed spear and a big scutum shield. He is wearing commoner clothing, and a laminated leather hauberk and cap.

Career and status:
Vaddi is a young barbarian berserker from New Pavis. He is a freeman from the Garhound Clan, the most important Sartarite Settler cult in the area. He became a Lay member in the local Urox cult and has been earning his livelihood as a bodyguard in New Pavis. However, because of his work as a bodyguard, he has contacts on every level in the Pavis, from his clan elders (with some reservation), the Pavis Trade Council (a very good customer), to even the Pavis government, to some degree. People consider him not very bright, but useful, so most of the time, if he asks for an audience, he gets it.

Family and connections:
He has lost contact with his parents, who do not really approve of his work as a bodyguard, since it involves occasionally working for Lunar Settlers, which most Sartarites frown upon. However, he has a very good relationship with his Aunt, Belfia of the Garhound, who lives in the clan Tula, and her 2 young sons, Blathi and Birix. He is very loyal to Darvenos, the clan chieftain, but not so to Bargenus from Garhound, one of Darvenos' nephews, who is spoilt and arrogant, and regularly 'visits' Aunt Belfia. There is financial compensation involved. For Belfia it's a way of surviving. For Vaddi, it's a stab in the heart every time, and his secret wish is to provide for Belfia and make her financially independent.


Vaddi is also acquainted with Travos, a noted tracking master from the Nomad tribes, now residing in Badside and making a living from working as a guide. He can get tracking training from this expert at half the normal rate.

Passions:
Loyalty to Darvenos (often shortened to just “Davis”) Garhound, clan chieftain:
30+12 (Vaddi POW)+16 (Darvenos CHA) = 58%

Family Love for his Aunt Belfia from Garhound:
30+ 7 (Belfia POW)+9 (Belfia CHA) = 46%

Hate Bargenus, visitor of prostitutes and procastrinator:
30+12 (Vaddi POW)+12 (Darvenos CHA) = 54%

Combat Styles:
Berserker
Two Handed Axe - Benefit: Berserker

Berserker
Gain Passion (Berserker) at 30% + 2x POW.
Passion (Berserker) can be used to Augment skills (see p. 76) when used in a furious rage, including Combat Styles (attacking only), certain uses of Athletics, certain uses of Brawn, Endurance to resist injury, Willpower to resist magical attacks, and other skills at the GM's discretion.
A Berserker must roll his Willpower against his Passion (Berserker) when trying to control his temper, ie ignoring an insult, stop fighting while enemies live, etc. Failure to resist his Passion (Berserker) results in an aggressive, violent action.

Fyrd
One Handed Spear - Shield - Benefit: Formation Fighting

Formation Fighting
Permits a group of three or more warriors to draw into close formation, placing more open or disordered opponents at a disadvantage (provided the ‘unit’ cannot be outflanked) and thus reducing each foe’s Action Points by one if they engage. Requires everyone else in the group to also have this benefit, otherwise the coordinated effort fails to lack of one or more participants being trained in the correct technique.


 

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012

To the rescue in Wilmskirk

1618. Fire Season. Harmony. Clayday

Characters partaking:
Drayin from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dani 
Kemal from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Indra Karanendottir, a Hiording noble from the Karanen Bloodline, played by Florence

The baboons attack our adventurers

ndra Karanendottir of the Hiording and her aides, Kemal and Drayin, have been traveling for some time now.  Their travels took them to Quackford, where they got in conflict with the local thieves gang, so rather than risk any harm they decide to leave town and head for Boldhome.  They travel via the Stone Road and pass Wilmskirk the day after.  About one hour down the road from Wilmskirk, the party enters a small hamlet, three of four Steads, with lots of grazing land.  However, no cattle is visible, apart from an old shepherd and some sheep, and one mangy cow.  No farmers, no warriors, it sure is a most distressing sight.  As our adventurers approach the shepherd is wary at first, but seeing the clan attire of the hiording and the torq of a clan noble, he loosens up and tells the party about the incessant raids this small hamlet has been enduring since several weeks now.  A gang of raiders has been stealing cows almost daily, and although the few warriors that guard the steads have been constantly pursuing the robbers, they have been unable to stop the looting.  As a final measure, a F?yrd Women blessing ritual has been performed at the small Vinga shrine, and all the woman have left as well, a second party trying to trap the looters or discover their hideout.

his morning the raiding party attacked once more, and the warriors took to their horses straight away, in an attempt to stop the thieves and return the stolen cattle.  However, since the raiders and the warriors have left, another problem has arisen.  A gang of baboon has discovered just how vulnerable this stead has become with all the warriors gone, and they have been trying to steal the last few pieces of cattle.  Already, they ran off with a plow, and Melche the shepherd expects them to return to try and steal more valuable items.  The shepherd has locked himself into the horse pen with the cow and his sheep, and is guarding the stead as well as possible, but if the baboons return, he will not be able to hold them off and prevent them from entering the buildings and looting them.  Indra and her companions decide they must help the Shepherd in his mission, and they keep the man company.  Surely, before one hour has passed, they hear noises, and a gang of baboon appears on the hill near the cattle pen.  The three adventurers charge forward, and quickly dispatch a small baboon, but have a hard time killing of the leader, when suddenly a baboon shaman appears.  The shaman starts summoning disease spirits, and although the warriors resist the spirit's attack, the fight starts to turn ugly.  It is not until they manage to subdue thye leader that the tables change.  The shaman makes one final effort to heal the leader using a healing spirit, but Indra reaches the leader just in time and finishes him off.
The shaman has no intention to follow his commander, and runs.  Kemal and Indra fire several arrows, but are unable to prevent the shaman's escape.  For hours, the shaman keeps following them, staying just out of reach, until the party succeeds in throwing the baboon off their scent.

Miskar under pressure

1618. Fire Season. Harmony. Godday

With so many of his henchmen out of the fight, Miskar hovers towards the enemy.

Hund, a Humakti Acolyte, played by Ben
Odd the Dark One, played by Kristof
Gust, played by Bram
Ulic the sorcerer, played by Alexander 
Gunnar the Demoralized, played by Gunther
Aelwyn and his brother, played by Philip

fter the last confrontation with Miskar the Gagarthi, and the subsequent capture of Aelwyn, our adventurers hunger for revenge, and they manage to field a nice group of stout warriors.  They get help from Hund, a Humakti acolyte, and Gust, a wild barbarian with a foul temper.  The party has several paths open to them.  They could spy on the Gagarthi, attempt to find out what their activities entail.  Or intercept messengers and convoys, in a bid to uncover their activities.  They could find out about their weaknesses and strengths, allies, and other important information.  Based on that information, they could formulate a plan, determine when the enemy is the weakest, and hit when he least expects it.  However, they decide to ride into the woods towards the captured stead, and run into a guard in a matter of minutes.  Miskar expects the adventurers to try something, and has posted guard on both sides of the woods.  His wolf companion is scouting as well, and the gang are ready for the adventurers' attack.  Or so they think.  

hen the guards spot the party, one of the guardsmen blows the alarm, and Miskar's wolf quickly finds our party and informs Miskar.  The gang leader is ready, quickly he leads his troupe into the woods, towards the invaders.  They stand 12 man strong, and are lead by Miskar's right hand, with Miskar in reserve.  They face the party, and the odds look insurmountable, 12 robbers, a runelord and sidekick against a party of 6 adventurers, it looks like the party's only chance is an attempt to escape, and it is certainly what Miskar expects will happen.  However, things turn out differently.  While Odd starts flanking on his warhorse, Ulic steps forward, and using his forbidden craft he palsies several of the robbers in one go.  Then Hund the Humakti advances, and lets loose his powerful divine magic, disarming several more.  This startles the gang members to no end: this was supposed to be a walkover, but here they stand, their number halved before the fight has even begun.  Miskar lets out his Magic as well, demoralizing only Gunnar.  Then, enraged, he drives his men forward, rather than take the time to cancel the sorcery.  Several of his men are lying on the ground, or standing with one of their limbs shaking uncontrollably.  Panic spreads amongst the Gagarthi, and only the bravest make a real effort to reach the enemy.  

his, of course, plays into the hand of our brave bunch.  Odd, forgotten in the hectic battle, succeeds in getting past the Gagarthi unseen and trots towards the captured Stead in search of Aelwyn.  The enemy, rather than charging at our adventurers in one pack, arrive in waves, and with some deadly blows, the party quickly dispatch Miskar's general.  Miskar loses his selfcontrol and hovers forward, intending to take revenge and set things to right, but by the time he reaches the melee he is left alone on the battle field, all others either dead or grievously wounded, or at least pretending to be.  His enemies see their chance and surround him, and suddenly Miskar is under severe pressure.  The constant flurry of blows prohibits him taking efficient action, and after several high damage blows, he needs a divine intervention to save his life.  His hope to startle the enemy by renewing the attack turns out fruitless, and now all his enemies are on him, killing him a second time.  He has to use his divine intervention again, this time at a high cost, and is healed and turns invisible.  This time, he does not insist, he runs off to safety, ready for revenge at a later date.  Meanwhile Odd made it to the Stead, and dispatches two old guards.  He finds the main Stead, but no trace of Aelwyn.  In a second building, he finds the sleeping quarters of the men, and he notices a trapdoor leading down to a narrow tunnel.  He follows the tunnel and runs into a guard, a young guy, not even bearded, but it takes him a lot of time to take the fellow out.  In one cell the young man was guarding, he finds a weakened Aelwyn, who had been under interrogation for two days, but without telling anything to his captors.  The other cell holds two young women, daughters of Orlmarth Carls, that have been captured by the Gagarthi.  They had not been maltreated and were to be sent to some other location, possibly to be sold as slaves or some other grim fate.

Indrodar and the acolyte

1618. Fire Season. Harmony. Windsday

Hund, a Humakti Acolyte, played by Ben
Hjotra from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Gust, a Grey Dog noble youth, played by Bram
Hildigrim from the Grey Dog, played by Patrick

he murder on the Yelmalio Runelord has alarmed the Lunars. From Boldhome comes word that the culprit must be captured. Divination has revealed the deadly blow has been struck by a young Humakti and some of his acquaintances. The Lunar guard have serious suspicions the party is hiding at the Humakt Stead, as several of their informers have reported a party of adventurers arriving in the Grey Dog Tula late on the 9th, coming from the east. The Indrodar claim they are in the middle of a ceremony preparation and refuse the Lunars entry, and the prospect of facing three Swords does not entice the guard captain. So he decides to wait.
Meanwhile, inside the Stead, the high priest talks to Hund and his party. The Stead is completely surrounded, and there is no easy way out. One option is to break through the guard blockade, or fight to the death trying. Although this prospect seems a good one, the high priest sees another option, albeit somewhat unhumakti. But the unusual twist might just fool the Lunars. As Hund becomes more and more convinced that sacrificing his life to the Indrodar is his rightful path, the high priest proposes to pretend that Hund has admitted to have committed the murder against cult orders, and therefore has chosen dishonourable death.

o fool the Lunars, a secret potion is brewn, and Hund's body is presented to the Lunars. It takes some convincing, but finally they swallow the story, and the Guard Captain lifts the siege and departs, ready to report the demise of the culprit.Hund agrees to take the acolyte rites immediately, and his fellows decide to join him in the HeroQuest he faces. He must face his immortal enemy. The party are assisted by the Indrodar and enter the Hero Plane. They arrive on a barren plain, with not a living soul in sight. They head east, until they run into what looks like a copy of the Humakt Stead. Spectral flames make it look like the Stead is one fire. The party arrive from the east and arrive at a bridge, a dragon is standing on the other side. The dragon is floating, and looks more like a dragon statue that an actual dragon. As the mythical animal does not seem alarmed in the least by the approaching party, Hund carefully crosses the bridge, and touches the dragon. Immediately he is under attack from the dragon statue's powerful spirit.He quickly loses the spirit combat, only to find out he is not possessed by the spirit. When he opens his mouth, spectral flames spew forth, and Hildigrim, standing just in front, gets seriously hurt by the unexpected eruption.A sense enemies reveals that the Stead is full of them, and as soon as they approch, skeletons pour out to attack them. The lesser skeletons are easily dispatched of, and even the larger skeletons and a mummie quickly find eternal rest at the hands of our gang.

fter the fight, the party enters the duplicate Stead, and they find some weird characters in the basement. One of them turns out to be Elmal, one is Chalana Arroy, and one looks just like Delecti, assuming someone knows what Delecti looks like. It is clear the appartitions are mere spectral projections, but when Hund charges Delecti, he quickly learns even a shadow of the Lord of the undead is a formidable foe, and it takes an intervention from Chalana Arroy to save Hund from almost certain death. After taking care of Delecti, instead of returning, the party decides to venture further into the plane, they run into a bear, that probably got sucked up in the Heroquest because of their venture, and it takes a bit of luck to find an exit and return to the mundane plane in one piece. Hund returns an acolyte, and decides to have a long hard think about the rest of his life.

Captive!

 1618. Sea Season. Truth. Godday


Aylwin from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Philip
 Ranath, a Lhankor Mhy student, played by Ben 
Odd, who moves in the shadows, played by Kristof
Ulic, a sorcerer apprentice from Tarsh, played by Alexander

The chaos contingent attacks near the Grey Dog Inn bridge

fter their clash with the Scorpion Man and the Broos, the party retreated back to Grey Dog.  After a reinforcing meal, while they inform the Tula Council of what has perspired, the guards call the alarm: a threat has been seen approaching near the Grey Dog bridge: the Chaos gang has returned.  The party tries to set up an ambush near the bridge, but is quickly outmaneuvered by the Scorpion Man who crosses the river rather than the bridge.  As Aylwin tries to charge into one of the Broo from horseback, the Scorpion Man attacks Ulic and Ranath near the bridge.  Although unarmoured, the sorcerer and sage make a stand, and with a bit of luck, Ulic manages to hit the Scorpion Man with Palsy, on the thorax.

Odd crosses the bridge and tries to finish off the floored Broo, and Aylwin attack another broo crossing the river.  Odd has a hard time dealing serious damage, and things take too long: Aylwin has unmounted the warhorse and turns out to be no match for the Broo, he is hit and bled, and in dire need of healing.  It takes a bold dash from Odd to save the hunter from imminent death.  Meanwhile the two students are still fighting the Scorpion Man.  Ranath is hitting the beast furiously, and after minutes of hammering, the beast's armor starts to degrade, creating an opening near the thorax.  Meanwhile Ulic is dividing his attention between the Broo and the scorpion man, trying to control the fight and palsy the enemies.  This takes a lot of time, but in the end it succeeds.  The Scorpion Man is finished off, and after a long fight our heroes win the day.
The party is then informed that during the fight, a young girl has been kidnapped on the other side of the Tula, and that one of the captors has been caught.  They brutally interrogate the culprit before killing him, and learn that once again the Gagarthi in the Stead in the woods are behind the attacks and the kidnapping.  They learn about links between the Lunars and the Gagarthi, and conclude that their best chance for success is to go lie in ambush near the Stead of the robbers and try and intercept the young girl and/or a messenger.  It takes a lot of patience before anything happens, but it seems their hunch was right.  A small boat with the girl on board and two robbers is launched at night, and the party is witness to the proceedings.  They also notice Miskar and his accomplice seeing the captured girl and her escort off.

Aylwin is surrounded by the Gagarthi and taken prisoner

Because of the strong current and their centralized position, they find they are in a bad position, and in a bad call to react more quickly, Odd alarms the bandits when trying to call his horse.  The Rune Lord invokes some powerful divine magic quickly, and a gang of robbers pours out of the Stead within seconds.  In the chaos, Aylwin fire a multimissile at Miskar, and does some damage, and Miskar sends his wolf, who spots Odd and heads for him at lightning speed.  Odd has to jump for his life, and the Wolf now attacks Ulic.  Miskar casts more spells, demoralizing 2 party members, and Ulic is seriously wounded by the wolf and falls unconscious.  This is bad timing, with a dozen bandits approaching, and a furious Rune Lord hovering through the trees.
Aylwin and Odd do a final attempt to rescue their partner, and while Aylwin holds off the Wolf Odd manages to heave Ulic onto the horse.  Ranath drives off, Odd sneaks away as stealthily as he can, and all of a sudden Aylwin is the only one that remains visible.  The wolf is on him, Miskar behind, and the robbers quickly surround him and take him prisoner.  The rest of the party escape with their life, but it was a close call, and Miskar turns out to be a more fearsome opponent than expected.

Clash with the Baboons

1618. Fire Season. Harmony. Waterday


Hund, a Humakti Acolyte, played by Ben
Ragnar from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Maximus
Hjotra from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Gust, a Grey Dog noble youth, played by Bram

The Baboons in better days...

After they killed the Yelmalio Rune Lord near Jonstown, our party decides to split up for a while and remain below the radar.  Hjotra and Ragnar decide to lay low in the Apple Lane area, and they meet up with two young Grey Dog nobles and decide to travel back to the Lismelder tribal grounds together.  They stay off-road, avoiding all contact with Lunar guards or Yelmalio patrols.

Around noon, they settle down for lunch, and just when they intend to start enjoying some nice roasted rat, Ragnar's backpack is stolen by a Baboon, who flees back into the trees at once.  The party gets up, and tries to shoot the Baboon out of the tree, but without much success.  This pulls a protective baboon shaman out of his cover, and all of a sudden the party is under attack from a Shaman and several wild Baboons charging at them.  The Shaman turns out to be a lot to deal with, and the spirits it summons hold Hund at bay for a long time.  When the spiritmaster is grievously wounded, hiss Fetch invokes a healing spirit. But his buddies are in trouble from very early on, and once they are dispatched, the Shaman cannot resist much longer and succumbs.  The party mercilessly slaughters all the Baboons and loots their pockets.

They take the Shaman staff along, and everything else that can make them any money, and advance towards the Grey Dog Tula.  Several miles down the road they meet up with a centaur patrol, but they are very careful not to upset the powerful creatures or do anything that might trigger a fight.  They are able to continue their trip unopposed, and find out Grey Dog is under direct Lunar control.  There are patrols everywhere.  Under the -hardly believable - guise of having to quench a Chaos threat, they patrol all the roads, enter the steads, and seem to be looking in the most impossible places for a Chaos threat that is rumoured to have been solved more than a week before.  They decide to avoid detection, and head north towards the Humakt stead, the only place the Lunars are not checking, officially because Humakti would never allow chaos on their terrain.