Well, it looks like my hiatus from writing game content is over! Sarvaelen and its haunted lands return in full force this week, this time with a profile of a member of the Order of the Watchers of the Sullen Vigil for use as an interesting NPC or ready-made PC. I am still statting everything out in BRP, my grand plan to read through RQ6 still hasn't come to fruition and I think consistency with the setting as a BRP-statted campaign is probably for the best at the moment, anyway. I am hoping Magic World comes out eventually, I plan to use that book specifically with Sarvaelen for a campaign sometime in 2013.
Anton Dainasere is a human male, 6’6”, 165 lbs., of Aeronostic
descent, born in the city of Catalone along Lake Vunares, abutting the border
of Esrenor. He is striking in his tallness, for most Aeronostic people are much
shorter than him, usually averaging 5’9”, and his height also contributes to
his gaunt, sallow features. With rough wind-blown dark brown hair, and a
haunted look across his gray eyes, Anton does not blend in will with colorful
crowds.
Anton’s childhood was punctuated by poverty and violence, as
he was born to a young woman of ill-repute named Etria, who found she could not
take care of him and so abandoned the boy when he was only three years old at
the steps of the Monastery of Veramaine, a famous enclave along the eastern
rural stretch outside of Catalone proper. The monastery was a place of holy
learning for those who had felt the calling to give up their old lives to live
as chaste students of the teachings of Nevereth, the ubiquitous goddess who had
become the center of the multicultural monotheistic cult which spread like
wildfire after the fall of old Camrinal. Even in the days of the old Empire it
is said that the Monastery of Veramaine had thrived and prospered, a remote but
prestigious location for those who felt the enigmatic call of the goddess to
seek out her wisdom and teachings in one location.
The boy Anton was treated much like any other orphan placed
in the custody of a band of pious and chaste monks, subjected to beatings and
strenuous daily labor, with moments of schooling and education making the day
more interesting. As Anton grew in years his appreciation for the knowledge he
was given access to as a ward of the monastery eclipsed his hatred of the
callous cruelty of so many of the monks, who seemed to believe that children
were born with the sins of the Empire in their veins, and that it was their
duty to beat it out.
Anton did befriend one monk who took a keen interest in him,
named Garados the Humble. He learned that Garados had once been a nobleman of
Aeronost, but a suspicious murder of a woman he fancied drove him into exile
and eventually into the care of the monastery, where he heard the words of
Nevereth one evening and was converted. He had been with the monastery for five
decades now, and as an old man had not once traveled more than a mile from the
monastery in all that time. Despite this isolation, Garados was well-read and
still liked to recount the adventures of his youth to Anton and the other boys
in the monastery, and Anton grew envious of these adventuresome tales. As he
reach his teen years, he plotted and schemed of ways he, too, could embark on
great adventures.
When Anton turned sixteen, Garados took the boy into the
city, with an assurance that he must truly experience life outside of the
monastery before deciding if he was destined to remain their forever or not.
Garados knew that Anton had a lust for life that would not readily be sated,
and his confinement at the monastery was only making things worse.
Anton was surprised when Garados delivered him to a brothel,
one of many in the heart of the debauched and wicked center of Catalone. There
he was introduced to a young woman named Nyrasel, a vibrant and beautiful young
emoniae from the far west with fiery hair and stark green eyes. She took an
immediate liking to the awkward young man who was only a few years younger than
her, and as much as Anton was interested in her as woman he was even more
fascinated at her origins, being a
daughter of the exotic lands of western sorcery beyond the Wastelands of
Camrinal.
Nyrasel for her part was equally fascinated with the handsome
young man presented to her, both because of his vivacious personality despite
his unusually tall and sallow features, but because she sensed within him a
spark of magic, a talent for sorcery. As she spoke with him, she offered to
show him some of her magical talent, and in turn she prodded him to try the
same.
Anton was mystified. Sorcery? Of his own? He had never even
considered the possibility! Nonetheless, at her direction and prodding he
tried, and much to his amazement he was able to generate some simple illusions,
dancing lights, with little effort once she had walked him through the process,
explained to him how to feel the arcane energies within his own spirit. You
have blood from Old Camrinal in you, she told him. He couldn’t have Emoniae in
him, not with such tall and dark features, but Emon was not the only land
blessed with a high percentage of sorcerers; Camrinal destroyed itself and many
more as a byproduct of such sorcerous talent.
When Anton returned to the Monastery with Garados, he was a
changed man. Not only had he met and known a fascinating woman, she had helped
him to see a hidden talent he never even imagined existed. He knew then that
the monastic, chaste lifestyle of the servants of Nevereth was not for him. He
confided as much in Garados about this, though he did not mention discovering
his talent for magic, who nodded in agreement. Garados had, after all, sensed
the wanderlust and unusual spirit of this young man, and knew he was destined
for a different life.
When Anton turned seventeen the following year he was
discharged of his duties to the monastery and granted the rights of a freeman
of Aeronost. For the last year Anton had been stealing away at night into the
city to meet with Nyrasel and others who held sorcerous talent, and learned of
a coven of sorcerers and witches within the city walls who engaged in the study
and practice of their magical arts in collaborative safety. The coven called
themselves the Concord of Roeghast, named after an old entity which was said to
have dwelled within Lake Vunares ages
before Catalone was founded. Roeghast was a center of much attention locally
within the hidden cults and covens of the city, for it was said that this
enigmatic elemental being could grant great power if studied long enough,
revealing ancient truths that led to a pure understanding of the Hidden World.
Anton, like his paramour Nyrasel, was fascinated at what this meant.
Anton lived a raucous and free-wheeling lifestyle by day,
getting a job as a servant in the employ of House Elaron, which needed able
bodied workers for a construction project. Count Aras Elaron had decided to
build a new estate for himself on the lakeside coast west of the city, one
which would rival the Duke’s own palace in the heart of Catalone, and he needed
hundreds of workers to get the job done.
Anton initially was employed as a hard laborer, but he was
quickly recruited by one of the chief masons as an assistant when it was
revealed he had been educated in math and geometry at the Monastery of
Veramaine, and within weeks he was fully apprenticed to Sir Marison Gafflows, a
noted architect in the region who was personally overseeing the construction.
Under Gafflows tutelage Anton learned much of architecture and design, and of
new ways to employ his studies from the monastery.
Anton was twenty when the construction of Castle Elaron was
near completion, and he had found less time for the studies with Nyrasel and
her coven than he might have liked, but a Harvest Moon was looming and Nyrasel
told him he must attend, for it was on that night that they would row out to
the small island of the Starry Henge to enact a ritual of summoning to draw the
attention of Roeghast himself. Anton was at first nervous, for his time spent
meditating on the spirit of the lake had left him uncertain it even existed,
but Nyrasel and her cohorts were convinced that this was the right course of
action.
The night of the harvest moon, Anton excused himself in
after nightfall from Sir Gafflows’ house where he had been living and made his
way to the docks, where a dozen members of the Concord had gathered. The group
found itself on the small island where an ancient stone henge of rocks, placed
by the ancient druids of long ago was to be found. The ceremony was exacting in
detail, as best they could construct from fragmentary texts that somehow
survived the immolation of Old Camrinal, and a sacrifice of a lamb was made on
the center stone. When the harvest moon suddenly eclipsed, it was then that
everyone knew they had somehow succeeded.
Nyrasel was the target of unholy life, as she was drawn from
the ground and held fast in the air by unseen forces, a chilling darkness entering
her body and changing it in horrible ways as the sounds of flesh rending and
bones snapping filled the air. Still alive, she gasped in agony and pleasure
all at once as the spirit of Roeghast entered her, changed her, and made her
his vessel of habitation.
Some of the coven fled at that moment, but grasping shadows
dragged them to their death. Only Anton and two others stood fast against the
manifestation, which leered at them through the form of Nyrasel, whom Anton
demanded be free of the possession. Roeghast simply bellowed an inhuman laugh,
and looked upon the three who had not fled. You are my chosen now, it said. You
must go forth, to spread the word of the Old Gods, to spread the word of
Roeghast. I am once more alive, and I shall require many more souls before my
time is at an end.
Anton was disgusted, horrified to realize that Roeghast was
no ancient druidic spirit of old, but a demon of the worst sort. He was about
to rebuke the demon’s offer when a silvered arrow struck Nyrasel’s suffering
body in the chest, ending her life and the grip of the demon. The shadows
writhed in agony, striking out at all around them, slaying the rest of the
coven to a man save for Anton, who rushed to the battered, broken body of
Nyrasel. It was too late for her, for the bolt had only insured she suffered no
more from the terrible ruination on her form.
Anton at last confronted the one who had fired the crossbow
bolt, as the darkness dissipated, the demon banished without a host. He saw
before him a rough, older man of many years’ toughened nature. He wore
piecemeal armor of multiple nationalities, and bore a crude gray tabard with
the mark of the Sullen Vigil upon it. His name was Sir Carver Drelos, and he
was a knight of the order of the Watchers, a group which had long ago been
appointed the protectors of Aeronost and beyond, to keep close watch on the thaumaturgical
taint which had sprung from the old Empire and done so much harm to the land.
Carver Drelos took pity upon Anton, realizing that he
appeared to be as much a victim of the demon’s wiles as anyone else, and
instead offered to help bury and consecrate the remains of those who had been
slain by Roeghast’s shadow fiends. He explained that he had actually been
searching for evidence of cults worshipping Roeghast for years now, and had
already dealt with a barbarian cult to the demon god in the North Mountainsof
Esrenor not long ago, one which was far less naive about the demon’s desires
and intentions.
Anton was at first hostile to Carver but quickly realized
that the man had perhaps saved his life, and certainly put Nyrasel out of her
misery. When they left the island, just after dawn, it was with the realization
that his old life was over and he was now adrift, though Carver quickly
realized this and explained that he could use a good hand in the coming
battles. Roeghast, he explained, was always looking to seduce the unwitting or
the power hungry into providing him with a vessel for his indulgence in charnel
havoc, and he was far from the only one. When the Empire of Camrinal fell,
Carver explained, thousands of such demons were unleashed upon the land. Many
of his order saw fit to man the ancient garrisons which stood grim watch
against the wastelands of the old Empire, but he was one of his order who chose
to strike out and actively hunt down the demons. There were not enough of his
kind, he explained; they needed more willing and hearty souls who would take up
sword and crossbow against the evil that lurked in the land.
It was here at last amidst tragedy and horror that Anton
found his calling, as he pledged his service to Sir Carver Drelos and the
Watchers of the Sullen Vigil.
Anton Dainasere, Knight-Squire of the
Sullen Watch
Human male,
Age 21
STR 15, CON 14, SIZ 17, DEX 13, INT 17, APP 12, POW 15 EDU 13; DB +1D4 HP 15 MW 7
Sanity 67 (Max 75) Madness Threshold 13 MPs
15
Notable Skills: Etiquette 25%, Teach
25%, Craft (stonemasonry) 40%, Knowledge (architecture) 35%, Knowledge
(mathematics) 60%, Speak Aeronostic 85%, Speak Camrinalic 20%, Literacy
(Aeronostic) 50%, Literacy (Camrinalic) 30%, Insight 30%, Research 50%, Ride
25%, Dodge 31%, Shield (full) 40%, Crossbow 50%, Sword 50%
Magic Known: Illusion 47%, Light 37%, Perception 50%, Ward 29%
Weapons: Long Sword (1D8+DB (1D4)), light crossbow (1D6+2,
range 40)
Armor: Lamellar (6 AP), helmet (+1 AP),
plus Full Shield (22 AP/HP)
Wealth: 120 silvers
Notes: Anton did not start his career
as a spellcaster and had no idea he had talent until age 16. As such, he is
considered a non-magician by caster standards (so can only have 1/4th
of his INT in spell knowledge in mind at any given time). Anton’s grimoire was
abandoned on the Isle of the Starry Henge, so he has not regained new spells since
he joined with Carver Drelos.
In Sarvaelen
there is little distinction between common “hedge” magic and sorcery amongst
most people. Sorcerers tend to practice both. It was Nyrasel’s belief that time
would help expand Anton’s scope of power (i.e. a stat boost to POW) but that
did not come to pass before tragedy struck.
Anton’s sanity is lower than base, due to the
traumatic experience on the island. Likely with time in the service of the
Watchers it will degrade even further…
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