The scientist and wizard Aeris, barbarian Beowolf, streetwise enforcer Kasskar, and foreign runepriest Ord Redding were our core party, and others rotated through as the campaign unfolded. This page describes each party member briefly. The campaign journal tells their stories in more detail, including their ultimate fates.
Many thanks to the players!
Born on Hilde, Beowolf was orphaned when Highpyre was burned, and was raised by adoptive parents in Hollin. He joined the party to investigate Lofton Castle with Gregor the naturalist.
Beowolf believed that he was nobility of the Inkeri, Hilde's barbarians, and he visited Hilde three times. He first visited with Captains Burns's mission to find the lost explorer Ammiral, and saw his birth city, Highpyre. He returned a second time to claim leadership of the Inkeri. He partially succeeded, winning leadership of the Knarr Clan by besting their chief Faering, but an Inkeri rival betrayed him and drove him off. Beowolf's story played out in the campaign's last game, when he returned to Hilde to quest for the Inkeri throne a final time.
As a raging barbarian himself, Beowolf dealt much of the party's damage, and his barbarian Rage Drake's Frenzy was a fixture of their fights. During his second journey to Hilde, he led the party on a barbarian spirit trial and Celendril, the White Drake of the Waste, joined him as a guardian spirit.
Back in Hollin, Beowolf's family weapon store, The Winter Wolf, refused to pay protection to the Hobnail street gang and was burned. Afterwards, the party found Beowolf's kidnapped parents in the divine prison Narsasha, and rescued them by defeating the prison guardian Katamayan and Lahar, a personification of death.
Among other enemies, Beowolf killed Alaric Volker in single combat. Beowolf carried the sword Aria, taken from Hereward portal guardians, and the harpoon Hosingen, taken from the side of the legendary bull whale Huhner. But his most trusted items were the Wolf Helmet he made from the pelt of Muninn, patriarch of Hilde's wolves; and a halberd of Threatening Reach, taken from the Dowager survivors' camp.
The Witches' Chorus observed that unique among Hollinders, Beowolf was left-handed. They argued that left-handedness was inhuman, and gave him the mock title "Beowolf Sinister."
Steve played Beowolf through the entire campaign, from Game 1 to 38. Here are Steve's original description of Beowolf and Beowolf's stepmother, Pale Moon. Here are Beowolf's final character sheet and miniature.
Jennish came to Hollin with his brother and sister after their father died, hoping to open an artifact shop.
Jennish joined the party to investigate Lofton Castle with Gregor the naturalist, helped steal a body from Meade Hospital for Herndon the anatomist, and sailed for Hilde with Captains Burns and Krill. He carried a rod with the power Cunning of the Insane, taken from the Dowager survivors' camp and skillfully carved with a depiction of life there.
Jeff played Jennish in Games 1-5. Here is Jennish's character sheet.
Kasskar was son to a merchant family in Hollin, who died in a Shambles fire when Kasskar was 14. After the fire, Kasskar survived doing odd jobs until he grew large enough to work as a bodyguard, bouncer, and enforcer. He joined the party to investigate Lofton Castle with Gregor the naturalist.
As a self-described enforcer, Kasskar might have been a natural ally to the Hobnail street gang. However, Hobnails assassinated Kasskar's boxer Godwin while protecting their turf, and soon afterwards Kasskar discovered that the Hobnail Auld started the Shambles fire that killed his family. Despite his clear distaste for revenge killing, Kasskar and the party tracked Auld to Narsasha, the Divine Prison lost under Hollin's Heath Prison, and executed him there. Auld's death created a war with the Hobnails that Kasskar didn't want, drawing in the other party members and, as victims, Beowolf's adoptive parents. Kasskar's struggle with the Hobnails reached a shocking climax in Game 26.
Kasskar was the party's lockpick, getting them into the lich Ishild's apartment and many other areas. He struggled with Hollin's paradoxical niche door locks, and was nearly killed by the fairy Inkling's niche door safe, even after learning the correct strategy for opening them. He entered the Caliphate's Void Prison to rescue the Caliphate's Malik with Ord Redding, and worked with Ord to open the Divine Lock there, a mechanism requiring both lockpicking and religious expertise.
Kasskar was also the party's flanker, and devastated many enemies with his Sneak Attack, including Muninn, the patriarch of Hilde's wolves. As the party's sneak attacker, he was also entrusted with the fairy assassination spell Word Without Warning, which he used to destroy Lahar, a personification of death.
He was also entrepreneurial and always kept an eye out for extra coin. His income potential bells lit up when he saw the unorganized boxing matches at the Whipsaw, and he organized additional paid matches there. He planned to start an import and export business after the campaign.
Kasskar's alignment was Good, and he was indignant when the Witches' Chorus questioned whether he'd want to do something truly good. But Kasskar's morality was actually very gray. Keith described him as as close to neutral as possible while still being good, and said he could be corrupted to evil by a strong enough leader. While Kasskar was "generous to those he feels as deserving and faithful to his friends," he was also "a little greedy," and he mischievously kept 3600 gold pieces he'd taken from the Hobnail Horst, which the party normally would have shared.
Among other items, Kasskar carries a Ring of Glamour, given to him by the abomination Haas, and a chipped-stone dagger taken from Tolland Wood trolls, which he called "Lahar's Bane." He underwent the animal spirit trial with Beowolf on Hilde, and gained Marwolaeth the Hooded Dragon as a guardian spirit.
We learned that Kasskar had a Cockney accent in Game 7, when he was lining up boxing matches at the Whipsaw.
Keith played Kasskar throughout the campaign, from Game 1 to 38. Here are Keith's original background description for Kasskar, Kasskar's final character sheet, and Kasskar's miniature.
Mikal was a shy, disheveled fourteen-year-old who sailed for Hilde as a stowaway on the Hedgepeth. He helped capture the Blackwells ship Durst, rescue the Dowager survivors, and put down the alleged witch Captain Krill. After a long separation, the party rediscovered Mikal and learned his larger back story in Game 33, in the aftermath of the Hollin firestorm.
Ray played Mikal in Games 3 and 5, and Mikal was a non-player character when his story played out after the firestorm. Here are Ray's original background for Mikal and Mikal's character sheet.
Prosper was a twenty-one-year-old who suddenly appeared in the icy waters off Hilde, where the Hedgepeth found him disoriented and yelling for help. Joining the party, he soon helped rescue the Dowager survivors, the Admiralty explorer Ammiral, and the abomination Haas; and helped recover the meteor Noreste from the hell-town Bruegel.
Not sure how he appeared off Hilde or who he'd been before, Prosper believed that he was sent by a Guilty God to atone for the god's sins. He was determined to help as many people as he could, and he consoled the mysterious second Krill who appeared after the Hedgepeth crew killed the first Captain Krill. But at the same time, the very people Prosper wanted to help couldn't accept him. As Kelly wrote in his original description of Prosper, "It hasn't occurred to him that people might accept his help more readily if he shaved, or bathed, or stopped wearing his trusty, but filthy, cloak. The rusted chainmail from the dead soldier he wears and the somewhat menacing driftwood staff he still carries with him everywhere don't help, either." Even the Witches' Chorus was put off, disparaging him as an "unwashed scavenger."
Fate was cruel to Prosper, too. Just several games into his story, Prosper was kidnapped by the Volker brothers, necromancers he was hunting in Meade Hospital. After a Herculean effort, the party found that the Volkers had turned Prosper into an abomination and were forced to kill him. A second Prosper, a non-player character, appeared and took Prosper's body into the west.
Although Prosper left the campaign early, the Guilty God's story grew into much of the campaign's mythology, including the fairies' history and Hollin's Gradskan religion.
Kelly played Prosper in Games 4-10. Here are Kelly's original background notes for Prosper and Prosper's initial character sheet.
Ord Redding was a runepriest from the Caliphate, a theocracy far south of Hollin. The Caliphate's Directorate exiled Ord because he doubted the divinity or worthiness of the Caliphate's Ninety-Nine gods, and believed in a conspiracy in which a god had performed a secret act, unknown even to the other gods. He saw runes left by Prosper as clues to the conspiracy, and followed them to Hollin. But there, he found that Prosper had been kidnapped by the Volkers and joined the party to help rescue him.
Told that the Kirsi (fairies) could help find Prosper, Ord led the party to the fairy domain of Renhannes. There, he helped reestablish the changeling Bruhl as the head of the fairies' Raven House, by putting down the fairy usurper Inkling; and as the Kirsi high priest, by putting down the West Wind, Zephyr. Ultimately returning to Hollin with a lead from the Kirsi oracle, Ord sadly found that Prosper was already the Volkers' victim.
Ord helped the party put down the lich Ishild at the Mooncalf hostel. Ishild later revealed himself as the Caliphate god al-Badin and progenitor of the al-Badin house - of which Ord was a commoner, or "slave." As Ord's lord, Ishild recruited Ord to return home in the midst of the Caliphate civil war, resurrect the rightful noble houses, and put down the usurper Krohn. Ord's crusade played out in Games 34-37.
With his scale armor, shield, and bastard sword, Ord looked and fought like a warrior. On the bridge over the portal to the hell Murnen, Ord killed the necaratu Damadara in single combat, and let the body slip into the featureless vacuum of space.
Ord carried the Asmund House Shield, taken from Mound Clan trolls; the Phoenix Feather Sword, taken from Inkling; and the sword Isra, taken from Hereward portal guardians. Isra gained new bonuses and abilities as Ord used it, ending as a +3 sword with the powers Challenge to Single Combat and Immortal Slaying.
Ord accompanied Beowolf on the Inkeri spirit trial, and gained the djinn Waifa as a guardian spirit. Waifa gave Ord the power of flight. But unlike the loyal, animal-like dragons gained by the other party members, Waifa was a seductress who tempted Ord with promises of power if he'd sell out the party - temptations Ord rejected as a matter of course.
Kelly played Ord in Games 10-38. Here are Kelly's original description of Ord and the Caliphate. Here are Ord's final character sheet and miniature.
Brothers Aeris and Jaris were born to poor parents in Hollin, who abandoned them in the woods when times became difficult. Jaris starved there, but Aeris was saved by woodsmen and raised at the Hollin orphanage. After leaving the orphanage as a young man, he apprenticed as a scientist and mortician at Meade Hospital, but was ejected when his mentor suspected he was practicing magic. Later, Aeris was pressed into service for the Hedgepeth's journey to Hilde, and joined the party to attack the Greencake facility on Lake Annika.
While the party knew Aeris as a scientist, there were also hints of another Aeris - his macabre vision of human progress and his darkly quotable observations - which reflected a thinly veiled interest in necromancy. Aeris first saw the undead himself when the party rescued the abomination Haas at Werner's sanctuary, and fleetingly met Haas's tormentors, the necromancer Volker Brothers. Soon after, Aeris helped the party put down the lich Ishild, but later helped Ishild hide in exchange for knowledge that he used to create necromantic rituals and powers.
Aeris also thirsted for revenge on his parents and Hollin. Returning from Hilde after Beowolf's second journey and finding Hollin embroiled in civil war, he seized on the chaos to start his plan. He recruited an evil party who'd be on board with his plan, and abandoned Beowolf, Kasskar, and Ord. Aeris's revenge played out in Games 25-31.
Aeris drove off the spirits protecting the meteor Noreste in the hell-town Bruegel, and put down the fairy usurper Inkling with Ord Redding. He carried a shirt of Heroic Effort, taken from the hell-town Bruegel; and the Raven House Origami Armor and Laurel Crown, taken from Inkling. Through much of the campaign, Aeris carried an orb magic implement hidden in a conspicuous burlap bag, which he ultimately revealed to be his brother Jaris's skull. He joined Beowolf in the animal spirit trial on Hilde, and gained Isaf the Black Worm as a guardian spirit.
Aeris had a complicated relationship with the fairy Ivy. Aeris rescued Ivy from centuries of imprisonment under a beer glass in Ishild's apartment. Freeing Ivy earned Aeris her unseen protection and the love of Ivy's benefactors, the Kirsi court. But, Ivy ultimately turned against Aeris when his evil plan became clear.
We learned in Game 16 that Aeris had a peculiar weakness for shrewish women.
Derek played Aeris in Games 4-31. Here is Derek's original description of Aeris. Here are Aeris's final character sheet and miniature.
Since the party would have fought Aeris's revenge on Hollin, Aeris abandoned them and recruited his own evil party: the mercenary Kane, the corrupt boxer Treasach Miller, and the criminal Bane. The evil party was active from Games 26-31.
Steve played Bane. Here is Steve's original description of Bane and Bane's character sheet, which has Steve's original name for the character, Pendragon.
Kelly played Treasach. Here is Kelly's original description of Treasach and Treasach's character sheet.
Keith played Kane. Here is Keith's original description of Kane and Kane's character sheet.
Derek played Jaris in Games 31-38. Here is Jaris's character sheet.
