Rival Party: The Knights of St Septarine
A mid-level rival adventuring party for old school games of every stripe.
Lydmilla of the Open Hand
Human cleric
HD 6, Df chain, Mv normal, Mr 8, Atk cudgel 1d6.
Spells: cure serious wounds, remove curse, obliviate
Obliviate: Touched living creature falls asleep for L turns or until forcefully roused (Save negates). When they wake, they have no memory of up to L turns (caster's choice) before they fell asleep.
- 40s. Tall and husky. Slight limp. Shaved head. Her vestments are intentionally threadbare and grubby.
- Soft-spoken. Treats her allies like children and outsiders like relatively smart dogs.
- Heretical priest of St Septarine, patron saint of the wrongly blamed. Promotes a primitive form of populist socialism (a bit like the Levellers).
- Deeply manipulative. Controls her flock through shame, doubt, and occasional blackmail and extortion. She genuinely thinks this is a normal, necessary way to lead; she abandoned the church but not its methods.
- Wants to spread the faith and make money to fund the cause.
Merial
Human thief
HD 4, Df leather, Mv normal, climb normal, Mr 6, Atk dagger 1d6 / 30'.
Sneak Attack: Double damage when flanking or attacking from hiding.
Rods of Recall: Matched pair of fragile glass batons. Holding one and speaking the command word teleports you to the location of the other, to a maximum range of 240'. 50% chance you can't use them again today.
- Barely 18. Painfully thin. Weird blue blotches down one side of her face (magical accident). Dozens of strips of scripture woven into her clothes.
- Brimming with clearly feigned confidence. Confronts people over the slightest technicality, but backs down the moment they push back.
- Genuine zealot of St Septarine. Was condemned to death for murdering her husband on their wedding night (which she did do, albeit in self-defence), but Lydmilla rescued her and she pledged herself to the cause on the spot.
- Quietly sympathises with Tristan's fear and confusion, and is the closest thing he has to a friend. Trying in vain to make friends with Harwich.
- Wants to impress Lydmilla and ignore the deep, gnawing feeling that she might be trapped.
Harwich
Human fighter
HD 5, Df plate, Mv normal, Mr 7, Atk +1 glaive 2 x 1d8+1, or bow 1d6/60'.
- Early 30s. Gangly and pot-bellied. Crooked face tattoos and bright red mutton chops. Piecemeal armour, half a dozen suits badly sewn together.
- Curt and surly. Acerbic wit. Takes other people's optimism as a personal insult.
- Pays token respect to St Septarine, but pretty impious by nature. He works for Lydmilla because it's a safe, fairly easy gig that doesn't weigh too heavily on his soul, and because he thinks she might expose his many, many past misdeeds as a mercenary if he tries to leave.
- Irritated by Merial, but also attracted to her and hates himself for it. Finds Tristan unsettling and tries not to think too hard about him.
- Wants to stay alive and get paid until he can afford passage a long, long way from his past, then disappear into the night.
Tristan
Ogre fighter
HD 8, AC leather, Mv normal, Mr 9, Atk club or rock 2d8 / 60'.
Zealous: Takes -1 damage from all sources. Saves with advantage against mental effects from anyone except Lydmilla.
- A runt by ogre standards, but still over 8' tall with limbs like tree trunks. Half his teeth are missing. Wears a makeshift jerkin made from an old tent, with a shaky sigil of a wheel and two crossed hammers painted on the front.
- Halting. Fairly well-spoken with time and concentration, but repeated exposure to obliviate has made him foggy. His morality is completely reactive: he's learned that right and wrong exist, but doesn't trust himself to know one from the other.
- A true believer and Lydmilla's proudest accomplishment - a monstrous convert. She took him in after he was exiled from his band, gave him his new name, and taught him all the ideals St Septarine upheld, and all the ways he failed to reach them.
- Likes Merial, but is slightly jealous of her when she gets Lydmilla's attention and praise. Dislikes Harwich for reasons he can't articulate.
- Wants to be good.