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  Simon E. Phipp(Geo Cities)
  Simon E. Phipp(Work - Birmingham)

"Campaign Personalities" Copyright (c) 1997 Simon E. Phipp
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Glorantha is Copyright Greg Stafford and all rights are reserved.

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Campaign Personalities

- Overview
- Major NPCs
- House Rules

  The following are the PCs who have taken part in this version of the campaign

- Brankist Farlow
- Solarus Skywatch
- Rilldick Fairplain
- Bolgar Brother of the Bul
- Dennis, Master Magus
- Derak the Dark Troll (DDT)

  Brankist Farlow

  A poor nobleman from Sartar, born to a Holy Country family, Brankist joined the Cavalry as a mercenary and became famous for his incredibly tedious accounts of "when I was in the cavalry". He modelled himself on a Cavalier Royalist, with a twirly moustache. Later on, when we watched the film "Rob Roy", he squirmed as we pointed out that Brankist was, in fact, Cunningham.

  He joined the cults of Orlanth, Humakt and Lhankor Mhy, being a very educated soul, and progressed to Wind Lord and associate priest status in the cults.

  He had long run-ins with the king of Dykene, a retired PC called Solarus Skywatch, with whose wife he was having a platonic affair.

  Whilst in Dorastor, he became a member of Bilini's Council, was named Kingmaker and brought three Kings to the throne of that country, eventually taking on the mantle himself. He also became a The Doomed Man - a Thanatar Hero and was named a Hero of Krarsht and given free passage in all the tunnels of Krarsht in return for the Great Feeding.

  He established a Krarsht Tunnel and Complex on the Moon as part of a HeroQuest against the Lunars.

  He was instrumental in building a Great Barrier between Dorastor and Bilini which acted as a portal to an open Mouth of Krarsht - anything Chaotic which touched the barrier was taken to the Mouth and Devoured. This barrier was destroyed when Brankist teleported an avatar of the Gloomshark, which had decided to fight him in the Oceans, into the Barrier, destroying it and causing the Mouth considerable damage.

  Brankist created a second Great Barrier using the powers of Storm combined with the magics of Brithos to make a barrier of mist and fog which surrounded the country. So far, this has prevented any chaos incursions, but has also caused the crops to fail in Bilini.

  Brankist has also freed one of Orlanth's Cloud Castles from Chaos, for which deed he was made a Hero of Orlanth, and has become High Priest of Orlanth Adventurous at Stormwalk Mountain (in my campaign, this means he is High Priest of all Orlanthi). He has since left all his other cults without having to fight the Spirits of Retribution - Illumination is a wonderful thing.

  Following a quarrel with Harrek the Berserk, Brankist summoned up a great Storm and sank the Wolf Pirates fleet, ambushed Harrek and, with the rest of the party's help, slew him several times, finally teleporting to the Red Emperor's Court and making Him a gift of Harrek. Argrath, an ally of Harrek, was then ambushed at the Hospital in the Holy Country, was slain and sacrificed to the Black Eater, being both an ally of Harrek, a potential King of Sartar and an enemy of Brankist the Paranoid.

  Other deeds include being sent mad by the sight of a Chaotic True Dragon "It had TWO heads....", killing the Red Emperor in a duel, fathering a son on Jar-Eel (not his fault, though), and throwing Ralzakark out of Fort Wrath which Brankist now controls, surrounded by a seething mass of Chaos forces.

  Solarus Skywatch

  King of Balazar. Solarus was a nobleman from Sartar who spent a short time in Prax where he caused the Crimson Bat to be sent to Pavis to free the Governor who was being held as a ransom for Solarus' release (It never happened, Solarus was never in Prax.....). He also married Esmelia, a Chalana Arroy Priestess and daughter of a Sable Khan with whom Brankist had a long-standing platonic affair following the administering of a Love Potion at Solarus' Wedding by another unscrupulous PC. Esmelia is now Brankist's wife.

  When Solarus went to Balazar, he managed to become King of Dykene by ambushing and killing Skilfil Heartpiercer (By ridding Dykene of an Evil Tyrant and restoring the Light of Yelmalio to the people). Previously, he had been convicted of Trafficking in Human Flesh (Never happened - there are no records of the event, and the Lunar Judge is no longer alive to comment).

  Solarus became head of the cult of Firshala when he obtained a helmet which was an old artefact of the Goddess, travelled to her prison and freed her - pausing only to try to tear the wings off the helmet, in abject terror, when the spirit appeared to thank him (Once again, this never happened).

  Solarus became a Hero of Yelmalio and an immortal when he visited the Baths of Immortality at the conclusion of a difficult HeroQuest - he was retired because Heroes cannot be played in RuneQuest, according to the GMs of the time.

  Solarus was allowed to return once the PCs had caught up with him in terms of skills and spells, whereupon he reunited Balazar, drove all the Orlanthi out, invited the Lunars to build a Temple of the Reaching Moon, divorced Esmelia for adultery and Harlotry, married The Mistress of Light, Guardian of the Fires of Heaven, a Pentian Heiress, the daughter of a Darra Happan Nobleman and his own daughter - because the Old Darra Happan Kings did it, so could he.

  He has paid court to the Eel Clan in order to marry Jar-Eel, has been ordered to marry Yara Aranis, the Horse Eater and Reaching Moon and has been adopted by the Emperor as his own son.

  Solarus will stop at nothing to make Balazar strong, and is now planning how to defeat the Pentian attacks which he knows will come. He has used a Chaos Army from Festering Island in order to defeat an Orlanthi temple, he has hired the Vampire Legion to destabilise the Redlands so that he will be asked to acts as their Commander in Chief when the Nomads attack, has married certain people as breeding stock for when he must sacrifice children to various deities as part of HeroQuests and has re-established the Grand Council of the Elder Wilds, or Greater Balazar as he likes to call it. He has also destroyed one of the Elven Woods and revealed the location of their secret rites to Uzarl, enabling her to destroy the replanting ceremonies.

  Solarus thinks that he is on the Light Side of Illumination, as he has never broken a cult vow - After all, a Scimitar is NOT a sword, the horses did not suffer NEEDLESSLY and a game of chess counts FULLY as a challenge to any Darkness Creature. In my opinion, he is walking the path of the Shadow Emperors of Dara Happa. I once had to ask him when he was about to attack a Pentian Hero "what are you attacking with - your spear, scimitar or Flag of Truce?".

  Rilldick Fairplain

  A Morokanth, Death Lord, Storm Khan and Priest of Lhankor Mhy, this sad, unfortunate being must be the unluckiest creature alive. Everything he touched became dust. If he could succeed unless something extraordinary happened, it would happen.

  He went to Dorastor to take control of a group of Yelmic mercenaries he had inherited having freed their Leader, the Golden Eagle. He succeeded in alienating them completely and passed control to Solarus Skywatch with great relief.

  He acted as a pin cushion on several occasions, his remarkably thick skin only serving to attract critical hits with alarming regularity. He once danced in front of Ralzakark to impress him.

  He once found an artefact of the Goddess of Luck, but even this did not alter his run of bad luck, so Rilldick eventually retired.

  Bolgar Brother of the Bull

  He was a Storm Khan, a berserker fury who was created to annoy another player whose Storm Khan rarely went Berserk. At first he was a stereotype. Amongst his early deeds, he skinned a minotaur follower and bound its spirit into its skin, which he proudly wears, he tracked down and killed another PC for destroying an artefact, and has tried to go into the Eternal Battle to Bind his Spirit, he also fathered a child on Ralzakark, albeit unknowingly.

  After he found a belt which made him immune to mind affecting spells, he tried to become an assassin, contacting a group of Storm Dragon worshippers and joining their brotherhood. He now likes to move around invisibly, jumping out behind chaos creatures, especially Vampires, and shooting them with a crossbow bolt tipped with Hydra Venom and Strike cast on it. He once killed Cacodemon himself with a garrotte.

  On a fairly recent HeroQuest, he was hit by an extended Forget spell and was forcibly Illuminated by Derak the Dark Troll. This has sent him quite mad, and he now believes that the Lunar Empire is a force for good, that most Lunars are not Chaotic and that anyone who opposes him must be a servant of Krjalk, the Hidden Chaos.

  Bolgar now preaches his message in the North of Sartar, accompanied by a retinue of Minotaurs, in case things get messy, and making liberal use of the Convince Other spell, which he gets through spell trading with a distant cousin from the Holy Country who belongs to the Eurmal Cult. Have you ever tried using the Lie Spell in order to pass on rumours or to preach subtle doctrine - it is very effective.

  Bolgar's deeds include teleporting through a small hole to shoot a Basilisk in the back, then forgetting it was there, only to be gazed to Death after its Vampire master had healed it. He also carefully checked a room in the Tower of Lead for Vampires, using a mirror on the end of a pole looking through a crack in the door - he gave the all clear when all he saw was a dais with three empty thrones at the far end of the room, unfortunately, he became suspicious when I lost control and hat a fit of the giggles as he was about to walk into the Throneroom containing the Queen of the Tower and her two lieutenants, shame really.

  Dennis, Master Magus

  Dennis started off as servant to Bolgar, a sorcerer from the West with little personality. However, when he went to Dorastor, he met with the Shadowmages and his life abruptly changed. He became a Shadowmage, mastered sorcery, created several enchanting machines (familiars), joined the Cult of Arkat and relocated to Balazar where he was made king of a petty kingdom on the Plains.

  He obtained a set of instruments used by the remakers off the Empire of the Wyrms Friends and now spends his time happily conducting experiments on Trollkin, giving them four arms, making them immune to Sunlight (by cutting away the affected areas of the brain) and behaving as a mad scientist.

  He is now a pseudo-NPC, as his player has grown tired of him, unfortunately.

  Derak the Dark Troll (DDT)

  Founder of DDT Enterprises, this unusual troll has the aim of curing the Curse of Kin, by whatever means necessary.

  His first thought was to master all the Runes, and attack Nysalor with all the elements in turn. So he joined many cults, even those forbidden to him - Illumination is truly useful here - and tried to be all things. Of course he could not and was forced into either fighting the Lord General of Death and plunging Dagori Inkarth into civil war or leaving his beloved Zorak Zoran. He chose the latter course, much to everyone's astonishment, to save Trollkind from a costly war.

  His second thought was to become Nysalor/Gbaji and in a HeroQuest not curse the trolls, or to find a way around the curse from the other side. He is thus trying to become the most illuminated person in Glorantha and wishes to incarnate both Arkat and Nysalor.

  Derak was born a Dark Troll, became a Death Lord, then a Living Lead Skeleton, then a Dark Troll again,. then a Mistress Race Troll, then Not a Troll, although nobody knows that he is Not a Troll at the moment.

  Amongst his exploits are deafening Xiola Umbar and all her Mistress Race Troll Priests on a HeroQuest, then curing them at a later date, fathering children on Cragspider, Subere and Jar Eel, killing a Chaotic True Dragon, leading a Chaos Army from Festering Island as Gbaji and later defeating it as Arkat, being made King of Dagori Inkarth (king of a matriarchy - great) and Lunar Count of Alda Chur, The Hollow and Dagori Inkarth. He is an Elf Friend, having cured a Great Tree of Chaos in Dorastor, a Dragon Friend, having done service to Dragonewts in the past, and a Dwarf Friend for helping the dwarves of Pavis. His best friend is Solarus Skywatch and he has become fairly good at chess, having to play a game at every meeting.

  Derak set up the Council of the Elder Wilds for Solarus, he also gave him the Crown of Balazar. He has also helped Brankist become King of Bilini and wants him to become King of Sartar. Derak is an arch meddler who does things because he can.

  DDT Enterprises is a trading company with spies throughout the Dragon Pass area, with arms stretching to Prax and the Empire and Derak is not slow to exploit this to the hilt. He believes that everyone is a potential ally, even those of Chaos - for even they can be cured.

  Enemies he makes are quickly destroyed or turned into friends and allies - he is, after all, very flexible.

  Of all the PCs in the campaign, Derak is the most dangerous, because he believes that he will succeed and will stop at nothing to win. One of his sayings is "any tool in the fight against chaos" and he means it - if he has to become the most feared and despised Krajlki in order to incarnate Gbaji and save the troll race, he is quite prepared to do it.