The Group

Here I give a description of the PC's as of the start of 1622 ST. I might update it from time to time, I haven't decided whether it is worth the trouble or not yet.

I list the characters and their backgrounds, and a reasonable description in most cases. I haven't given statistics, mainly as they change so often, as well as the fact that my house rules might make them difficult to understand in some places. If people ask for statistics then I may well put them up. Any pertinent game information I have added to the end of the description.

Major characters, those whose players turn up on a regular basis and play games almost all the times that I have run, are listed first, with the more minor characters listed afterwards where the players either cannot or won't turn up on a regular basis. As we play in a roleplaying club this a regular occurrence, as often people are playing games on other tables or are doing something more productive on their Saturday afternoons (more productive than RuneQuest? Surely not...).

Lady Deola Rawson (Player: Adrian Leech)

That was when the problems started for Deola. Lord Sikkanos, whose lands neighboured the girls estate, tried many times to get hold of the land, thwarted by the scholar Vostrages. One drunken evening, shortly before Deola's initiation into adulthood, Sikkanos promised a grand reward to anybody who managed to ensure he got hold of the estate - he was well known for such behaviour but two of his soldiers took it into their own hands to sort things out. At first thet tried to persuade Deola to give them the deeds, at a handsome price, but she refused. An argument ensued that resulted in her double rape. She swore vengeance that day on all who had hurt her.

Nine months later she gave birth to an abnormally large child, who she secreted away in the temple to St. Humakt to be raised without knowledge of his parentage and the shame of the act of rape.

At the age of 26 she joined the Family Guard, perhaps the last action of a desperate Lord Caste trying to keep their estate from crumbling to pieces, or perhaps the actions of a heart driven by vengeance, a thirst for blood and a need for the hard life. While lords rarely joined the Family Guard they served in a capacity as leaders for the units, and she served in that capacity very well for the best part of a year.

She has been with the group since they were sent to recover an item known as the Carpantium from Marost in Naskorion. The Duke was attempting to send the receptacle of magic to the Ultal, the Dark Princess, of Lalia - a mistress race troll who leads the campaign against the Otkorioni. When the item was recovered Lady Deola's reputation doubled over night. She is the second oldest member of the current characters in the group.

She joined Arkat the Destroyer while searching for the Crown of Arkat, which has led to some dubious dealings with the High Priest when she attempted to have the Crown stolen off of the party before they could deliver it to a Temporal Incarnation of St. Humakt so that she might gain power (and a large amount of cash). This has placed her under suspicion from both her party fellows and Manannan Rawson, the Head of the Family Rawson. Her once even offered to by her land off of her at an increased price and support her joining a different caste in an attempt to get her to leave the Lord Caste lest she dishonour the family, but she refused. She wears iron chainmail plundered from a dead foe, although she was recently given some Brithini style iron plate by Gunda the Guilty whom she met whilst on a HeroQuest, but she has not taken to wearing it yet. She carries a magical golden spear taken from some caves under the Firestorm Plains in northern Lalia where Darkness Demons are entombed. It was a Hero of Lodril's weapon, and when held it generates a Firespear instantly! However, for plundering the dead she was cursed by Lodril (Sunbright spells affect her as if she was undead). She has the friendship of Maborn Penhalagon, High Priest of St. Chalana in Fiesive, who befriended her after she returned a piece of truestone from a temple to St. Chalana in the Salantia Forest. She has also been cursed by St. Orlanth for her dishonourable actions, and must remain honourable until the curse is removed or until St. Orlanth decides she has paid her penance. Whenever she casts magic she takes general hit point damage equal to the magic points expended in the spell (in reality, the player ignored their Disadvantage of "Honour" by acting in an extremely dishonourable fashion and so I declared that the Disadvantage be changed and she be Cursed for her actions). Her most dishonourable action was while she was leading the party in searching for the Crown of Arkat, they were walking through Lanksti lands and encountered a stead. They tried to talk to the Lanksti man who lived there who, disdaining civilized Otkorioni, hurled abuse and insults, and told them to leave his land. They refused (Deola is an obstinate Lord) and so the man fetched an axe. A fight broke out where the party accidentally broke the mans neck, his wife brutally injured another party member (with nothing more than a Grapple attack, even though her axe wielding husband managed to do nothing) and she was killed by a hot headed warrior wielding a great axe. Even their son was slain when he jumped on them as they entered the house. Then, as they continued on their way, a day or two later, they encountered warriors looking for the killers. They managed to bluff their way past and continue onwards. They were looking for broo at the time, and thought they had found the encampment when I described they had come across three huts with what appeared to be humans walking about carrying spears, but they had "cloven feet". In reality, these were merely hunters from nearby Vustria who were Reindeer Hsunchen. In my game some spirit magic spells cause visible effects, in this case the spell Mobility was merely wearing off of the Hsunchen hunters. The party organised a surprise attack, with a Maran Gori destroying on hut in an instant with a Create Fissure spell and all of the rest being taken down by crossbows, except one. Once they had realised their mistake they took their, completely innocent prisoner, and gave him back to the Lanksti saying he was responsible for the death of the farmer and is family! As he couldn't speak Lanksti they executed him without a fair trial! And the party got away with it (well, until they encountered the broo shaman they were hunting, but that's another story...).

Her work in the Family Guard, and the plunder she has recovered, has increased her land ownership ten fold. She is now a famed member of the Rawson Family and well on her way to becoming a person to be reckoned with, and has now turned her eye to Sikkanos and the rapists... Recently, through her connections with Arakt the Destroyer, she joined Lodril (mainly to get the Firespear spell, I'd assume). It turns out that the rumoured secretive cult of Fiesive does exist and is a cult who worship Lodril in the bowels of the mountain! Yes, Fiesive is a lone volcano, who is only kept silent by the Lodrili cult. Instead of Summon Lodril they have Suppress Lodril to keep the volcano quiet. This storyline also needs expanding as they delve into the history of the cult, and the temple she attends.

Lugh Rawson (Player: Malcolm Price)

Lugh is the longest surviving member of the party, having been present since the very beginning. He is the luckiest, most devious git who I have ever seen played in a game. I keep trying to kill him, oh have I tried, but the bastard just won't die! The common description of Lugh is that to get himself out of a hole he just digs a bigger one to climb into, and that is the story of his life, every answer he comes up with to a major problem involve making more trouble for himself at a later date.

Lugh lived near the Salantia Forest. As a youth his life was nice and tranquil, until the elves came. They were on a pilgrimage in the Forest when they encountered Lugh's village, slaughtering his entire family. From the carnage came a few worshippers of Vivamort who, seeing the impressionable youth, took him into their arms and gave him safety. He vowed eternal hatred against the elves and very soon was a worshipper of Vivamort. However, Lugh was Illuminated, and secretly he also promised to bring down the chaos cult from within. In reality, the player came to me and said "I've hardly played RuneQuest, I want to play a vampire. How can I do that?". Everyone moaned and groaned that it was unfair allowing a character to start out Illuminated and in a chaos cult. Of course, I only gave him one power of Illumination, telling him he'd have to aquire the others later. And as for the chaos cult, he hates being a member of Vivamort as every so often they send him notes giving him a mission to complete and if he fails, they kill him. Failure is not tolerated in the cult of Vivamort. All in all, Malcolm felt that his character got the wrong end of the bargain, especially as he spent points during character generation to receive this privilege.

He plays an adept sorceror with a panther familiar. He purchased the panther secretly as not to arouse suspicion (the Red Circle of Fiesive are supposedly the only people allowed to teach the Create Familiar spell) and purchased the Create Familiar INT matrix from the cult of Vivamort. He left the Red Circle when their questions over his activities became too penetrating and close to his secret membership in the cult of Vivamort. To boot, Malcolm has joined many other cults including Thanatar (see below), Arkat the Destroyer (see below), St. Humakt, St. Arkat, St. Daly, St. Nomia and St. Malkion. He is the most manipulated man in Otkorion.

Lugh has been with the characters all of the way, getting the Carpantium, enacting the Sacred Time Pilgrimage, enacting the previous practice run version of the HeroQuest, helping recover the Crown of Arkat and more! He has, noticeably, never been present for the parties greatest blunders. He was flying to Fiesive when the players accidentally killed the miller whose mill they were supposed to be protecting. He was nowhere near them when Deola had the party massacre innocent Hsunchen. And he was never aboard the Lucritania. But Lugh has generated his own mistakes and failures to make up for this.

He was sent to a cave system by the cult of Vivamort to kill some Thanatari and to ensure that the vampires hidden in the system were still being successfully guarded. In reality, this was merely the Dyskund Caverns from Shadows over Borderlands transplanted into my game. In my campaign the Vivamorti had a ciil war and rather than killing each other (a taboo thing for Vivamorti to do) they imprisoned them in crystal coffings around Ralios. The chaotic crystals he found in the caves he then tried to sell onto sorcerors in Fiesive, putting him under suspicion of being chaotic and so he was arrested by the Inquisition pending the arrival of a Bull Knight of St. Urox to use Sense Chaos on him. At this point in time he was illuminated, but did not have the power to protect him from sense chaos! Using his immense charm and reputation he convinced the Family Rawson to use their leverage to release him so that he could prove his innocence, on the condition he wore a slave collar and took a huge Oath to return the next day. Here the GM was thinking that Lughs time was up, for he would be sensed as chaotic and executed promptly, but he flew to Tislif where the Vivamorti cult was centred, and contacted a Thanatari Rune Lord. He cast Blessing of Chaos and stacked it with a Divine Intervention so that Lugh received the chaos feaure "Do not detect as chaotic". In return he gave him all of his matrices and about ten thousand orbs, and promised him a favour in the future. He then returned to Fiesive and was found innocent of being chaotic. Later, the Rune Lord called in the favour and told Lugh to capture, alive, the Priest of Orlanth Lightbringer of Tempest Halls so he could use Head Magics on him to get his power. Lugh decided it was easier to do away with the Rune Lord, and so arranged to meet him on the Rawson Estate in Fiesive. As soon as he arrived, Lugh cast Sever Spirit and used St. Daly's Blessing to succeed immediately in overcoming magic points. However the Rune Lord has the chaos feature "explode on death" which he promptly did and ended up burning down a large portion of the estate. What fun.

Then there was the Vivamorti HeroQuest where he tried to gain more magical power. He was very lucky and the difficult bits he passed with ease, however, when looking for a place on the HeroPlane, which he had to find else Wakboth arrive to devour his soul (read the Quest, it's all in there!) he had great difficulty (he only had to ask the person next to him). His familiar, who was on the Mundane Plane, was sent via telepathy to the Temple of St. Orlanth to cast Divination to help. However, at this point his familiar was unknown to everybody, to help Lugh avoid the attention of the Red Circle. Through immense use of Mindspeech he managed to convince the temple to let him cast Divination via his panther. However, he could not say he was stranded on a HeroQuest to Vivamort and so suggested a cult that was legitimate but secretive enough so he didn't have to tell them where he was. He said St. Arkat. Of course, while he managed to persuade everybody he was telling the truth (Lugh has immense reputation within Fiesive and has the full backing of the Family Head) he was then forced to join St. Arkat (8 POW down the drain), reveal he was Illuminated (only Illuminates can join St. Arkat) and revealed his familiar. And, oh, the Divination he cast didn't help him either. Upon his return to the mundane plane he was promptly investigated by the Inquisition again, after all the reason he didn't detect as chaotic could have been his Illumination! Of course, Malcolm was dying to tell the Uroxi that it wasn't that, but the chaos feature that stopped it! He decided that it wouldn't help matters to mention that, though.

Malcolm was forced to join Arkat the Destroyer because he needed access to Sever Spirit and decided they would be his best bet. When they he told them he was already in chaos cults they threw him in the prison cells and considered handing him over to the Church, but the Barrowranger turned up and "saved" him. Malcolm never wanted to join Arkat the Destroyer because he already hated being in Vivamort and Thanatar, both secretive cults that kept ordering him to do missions on pain of death. He was worried Arkat the Destroyer would be the same, and he was right. The Barrowranger was one scary, scary man and keeps abreast of Lugh's actions all the time. When the Jalmari killed Lugh the Barrowranger ensured his companions recovered his head so he could be ressurected.

After Lugh's first death he was wasted away. Being an archetypal player, he gave APP his lowest score, lost some on the Vivamorti HeroQuest and after being dead for a few days only had 1 APP left! He is also so weak he can't lift his sword without Boost STR magic. He walks around in a black cloak, a full face mask and gloves. He wields a magic golden sword that also hits the head location of any chaos, storm or darkness worshipper - he recovered it from the same place that Deola recovered her spear and also received the same curse. He also has a Powered Javelin and a bundle of other magical items. He has access to spells and the odd gift and power that he manages to combine for devastating effect (obviously Malcolm played Magic: The Gathering for too long). His major concern at the moment is to get General Stefan out of the way by killing him, Stefan is the general of Fiesive and also a Jalmari who hunts down Dark Illuminates. He has already made one attempt to get rid of Lugh, and Lugh intends to kill the general before he decides to have another try. He recently changed masters in Tislif, he used to be the property of a vampire necromancer called Arinstat, but because he is such a prominent, and therefire useful, figure in Otkorion, the Mistress of Tislif, a vampire Uzuz called Mistress Bastari, has now taken him under her wing. Malcolm hates this as he believes that Bastari will send him on more and more dangerous missions. And do you know what? He's right : )

Fellidra Rawson (Player: James Furlong)

This is the latest of James' sorcerors. He constantly played sorcerors throughout the campaign, with them dying about once every adventure, sometimes more! So eventually I asked another player to help him design a character with slighlty more chance of surviving. The fact that he chose Abjure Armour didn't give me much hope for his character seeing the end of the session, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Fellidra is a specialist metamorph sorceror of the Wizard Caste. She is, at the very best, eccentric, and, at worst, insane. Her mother is a sorceror called Lynda, who lives outside of the normal confines of society, secluded somewhere in Naskorion. She marries often but her husbands vanish after varying periods of time. In reality she shapechanges them into slugs (a true feminist, to be sure). She taught her daughters (mysteriously, she has no sons) her magic, and also passed on her odd habits and traditions - noticeably the fact that she is a confirmed naturalist with a love of animals, a love of nature and a love of nudity. While the naked Fellidra has caused some problems at points, her disdaining of clothes has not hindered the party greatly (except when they were required to go to a formal ceremony at Tempest Halls). She is number twenty three of twenty seven children. The true secrets of her mother, why she marries so many men, and her true purpose behind her turning them into slugs is unknown. (Note: I had little to do with this character background, I was quite surprised when James came up with it by himself and it'll probably expand into new storylines as the campaign progresses).

Fellidra joined the party when they began the search for the Crown of Arkat, and even though she participates greatly in combat yet wears no armour she has managed to remain alive through a combination of luck and Resist Damage spells. While she has kept a low profile during most of the adventures she has become quite powerful, building reputation with the rest of the party and becoming exceedingly powerful in combat (she shapechanges into a giant wasp, and attacks with her Boosted CON of 26 for POT 26 poison). Hopefully she will live long enough for the player to fully take advantage of her interesting background, and make her more than a shapechanging machine.

Ramsay Rawson (Player: Chris Brown)

Ramsay is a scholar of St. Lhankor Mhy and a sorceror, an elderly gentleman (in Gloranthan terms) at the age of 41). He has mastered a variety of Lores and Arts, and is well on his way to becoming a Rune priest of the Knowledge God. He joined the group while they were searching for the Crown of Arkat. During the search the party rescued a nature spirit for a shaman called Cirog Cliamh Solias, who promised them a reward in return - surprisingly the reward was his daughter's hand in marriage! As most of the party had their own reasons for not marrying her (cult vows, celibacy, an APP less than that of a chimp, having the wrong gender) Ramsay took it upon himself to take her hand, paying for two large houses and a lavish wedding for his wife, Boanna.

He received a vision from Arkat (or so he believes) while smoking certain drugs alongside a Telmori Shaman. When they found the Crown of Arkat he was the adventurous individual to put the Crown on, giving him all of the power and magic of the great artifact. He instantly turned white, a true albino, and is now a noted individual, having received many invitations from various cults and sects of Arkat to join them. After all, he is obviously one of Arkat's chosen people and if he joined a sect their power and reputation would be increased. He is currently on a sabbatical, researching, while the player runs his wife, Boanna instead.

Boanna Rawson (Player: Chris Brown)

As noted above, Boanna is Ramsay Rawson's wife and the son of the shaman Cirog Cliamh Solias. She is an assistant shaman and studies in Tempest Halls with the shamans who live there, a sign of courtesy and friendship from Archbishop Surantyr to his Lanksti brethren (misguided though they are). As yet she has only played one adventure, where she was cursed with the Underdeep curse, but hopefully Chris will keep playing her. Mainly because she is the party's only excuse for having a shaman character in the group, and secondly because Chris does an admirable job of roleplaying her - even going so far as to invent Lanskti words to emulate how Boanna is slowly learning Otkori (Krashband she cries loudly when trouble comes, and the other characters are only sure that it's a swear word of some kind when she uses it against them...).

Lucas Bemurok (Player: John Matthewman)

Lucas is a worshipper of St. Urox, a fanatical chaos killer, who joined the party while they were, yes you've guessed it, searching for the Crown of Arkat. He helped free a St. Chalana temple in the Salantia Forest. He was also the person responsible for getting the group sent to the Lucritania when he asked his temples High priest for "some chaos to slay". The fact that he bugged out as soon as he saw the chaos concerns him little (a tactical retreat, I'm sure).

Daran Rawson (Player: Kevin Somebody-or-other)

Daran hasn't been played for long, but has already had some remarkable experiences. He answered a Nysalor Riddle, and rolled very low on his 1d100. As I award bonuses if I think a particular character is suited to illumination or the player has roleplayed them in such a fashion, I gave him an extra 5% chance of Illumination (I don't award penalties, if I don't think a character or player is suited for Illumination they just don't get to become Illuminated). He became Illuminated, something that Kevin dislikes more than anything else because of the odd thoughts that keep appearing in his head and the way that other Illuminates treat him (constantly barraging him with questions, taking too much interest in what he does). It certainly served to annoy Lugh Rawson's character who had begun Illuminated, but been forced to get each power one by one, when Daran became Illuminated and received all of them (well, all of the major ones, at any rate). Secondly, I stole he idea of the Golden Eagle cult from Simon Phipps campaign. They recovered a coin that gave them ownership of a cult that I had put in Karia, in north eastern Ralios nearby the Sun Dome temple there. Dismissing Lugh's warnings to not go there (Lugh wasn't sure what the Golden Eagle Cult was, but certainly didn't like the sound of it, being convinced they would turn out to be a mercenary group of Illuminated broo or something), Daran marched into the temple, produced the coin and took ownership of the cult (with some help from Deola). Suddenly finding the high priest quite happy to give up the financial burden and retire, Daran feels that it may have been a rash mistake. Currently he is residing in the Golden Eagle temple, trying to sort out business there.

Hugh Rawson (Player: Joseph Carlin)

Hugh is one of the characters that turns up from time to time. Hugh is a Wizard Caste member and a specialist Forest Mage sorceror. He joined when the party tried to defeat a demon known as the Raaishan. He has only one hand is accompanied by two dominated wolves and a dominated raven that acts as a spy for him. He gained access to a tome known as the Thalmagth which has many ancient, arcane Forest Magics within it. With long rituals he can summon spirits and make sacrifices to gain access to special Rune Magic via forest spirits, begin a HeroQuest (which he knows nothing about and therefore has not even considered doing) and summon a puzzle box (a.k.a. Hellraiser) among other things.

Darelin Rawson (Player: Rob Brown)

Darelin was Rob's character after his Humakti drowned. Having only played a short adventure his character hasn't been fully developed yet. She is a Wizard Caste member, a worshipper of St. Chalana and a specialist Healer sorceror. This is the first Healer I've had in the party with Sleep and I understand just how awful that spell can be (she nearly slept a Sea Serpent).

Erawac Orlanthsson (Player: Colin Salmon, amongst others)

Erawac was designed using my character generation system with the idea of being the son of a god in mind. Hew has Status, Fame, Favoured Cultist etc... to allow him to legitimately claim descent from St. Orlanth. While he is currently weaker than the rest of the party, spending most of his points on advantages than skills, he has the potential to become very powerful and influential being loaded with Skill Aptitude advantages and the Daredevil advantage. Unfortunately, as Colin doesn't come down often the character hasn't really had a chance to be played, and so the character is often given to other people when they join my game for only one session. As of the moment Erawac is in PC limbo, and will appear hen I find a player willing to take him.

Well, that's it, all of the current characters in my game. Understandably, some characters are defined by their background and personality, while others are little more than bundle of abilities on paper, depending upon how active the player has been in roleplaying them in my campaign.