Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Ten Arrivistes (A Random Table for Wermspittle)

Despite being such a horrid place in the Winter, there is no shortage of new-comers in Wermspittle...

Arrivistes Table One (D10)
  1. Skongra Malebolger: Short, shriveled and incredibly wrinkled little stump of a former soldier in the service to some unpronounceable foreign queen, Skongra carries dozens of badly-healed scars to go with the battered and poorly repaired half-plate armor he wears everywhere. His eyes are never the same two colors twice, nor his teeth the same number, but always his breath is foul, reeking and noxious. He has a number of forged documents granting him various titles and privileges. He may or may not realize that they are spurious. He wishes to settle down and raise onions, but for some reason he cannot locate the plot of land that was promised to him. He is getting quite upset.
  2. Yulinthe: Fair complexioned and lithe to the point of embarrassing swans, Yulinthe claims kinship to some obscure line of nobles that she read about in a children's book. It is a conceit she adopted in order to obscure her rather plain origins. she has always dreamed of being a princess trapped in a peasant's body. Unfortunately she does not realize the full extent of the crimes attributed to the scions of this particular lineage, nor that the locals felt compelled to behead and burn every last one of the wretched, poxy fiends last winter. So far no one has had the heart to tell the oh so pretty, but oh so naive girl the truth. Some wonder if she really could be connected to those rotten abdead things that only masqueraded as human. Others avoid her precisely because they believe she is bound to find out the truth of the matter and it won't be such a pretty sight at all.
  3. Litanj Umarri rode into Wermspittle from off of the Cold Roads. Her horse was killed and eaten by a mob of starving Unfortunates during her first Winter in this place. She has determined that she will not spend another Winter here. She does not like her chances on the Cold Roads without a good horse and there are few horses available,even  to be stolen, in this wretched place. She has heard of Weak Points, but most of those tend to lead to ruins and even less desirable places. It is as though this isolated city were somehow surrounded by dead worlds. Perhaps she'll take her chances. any place has to be better than this one. Right?
  4. Gradha is a brutish lout with appalling manners and worse hygiene. But she gets results. Now she's been assigned the task of whipping a cadre of the Street Patrol into shape. Unfortunately for those under her supervision, Gradha is a bit literal in her approach to this task. Her unit is very close to mutinying on account of her high-handed manner, incomprehensible orders and reliance upon flogging to establish discipline. This isn't the Aerial Navy. At least two officers under her command are conspiring to arrange an 'accident' for Gradha.
  5. Waeru tends to keep to the side-lines as much as possible. They dislike the hustle and bustle of fame, but their new-found good fortune has propelled them onto the local political stage. Every day brings them one step closer to being found-out and all those monks that died might finally be avenged. But all in good time. And who knows--perhaps they can acquire the title to the crappy old chapter house and no one need ever know what really happened there all those months ago...
  6. Zushille smiles. She may not be pretty any more, not after the long trek through the Plateaus and especially not after what the tribe that tortured and killed the rest of her party did to her. But she escaped. She made it out of the 'Drifts. Too bad she had to wind up here. But still, Zushille has been in worse places, under worse conditions. So she smiles.
  7. Undreevio is getting too old for most things. His body is failing. His money is running out. He came here looking for a solution, an alternative to the unhallowed rites he could not afford in Nagrothea. Did he come all this way, endure so very much, only to spend his final days as a test-subject in some mad man's insane experiment?
  8. Ledra was a Forager for close to a year, a really lean and difficult year, Then he found Jakub's Door and learned about Amber-Gathering in the Purple Forest. In a few weeks he collected a great deal of the stuff, having lucked into a substantial deposit. There had to be hundreds of pounds of Purple Amber there, ripe for the taking. But it was more than he could easily carry. He didn't trust the mercenaries on the Logging Roads, or any of the other amber-gatherers, so he buried it and came back with a sackful of choice specimens. He's on his way to King Clovine Court to find a buyer. Then he needs to start looking for a few decent partners to go back for his secret cache before someone else stumbles upon it.
  9. Jurig Dalm is not just any Refugee. He used to be a Baron back in the old country. But the plague ended all that. He has lost his estates, his family, his station and fortune. The plague even took his right eye and left hand. He came to Wermspittle looking for a way to rebuild his fortune. To start a new life. The Surgeons and their clinics expect some form of payment. Nothing comes for free. He has heard that there are Medical Students looking for test-subjects, but he has also heard that little good ever comes from such things. The underground Arenas might be an option. He has heard that sometimes a stable-owner will stake a competitor, allowing them to acquire some prosthetics or grafts. That might be a way to get back on his feet. Leave the Low Streets. Regain his pride and reclaim some measure of power. But it is risky. Very risky. Perhaps he should reconsider becoming a host. He has seen Kilijji regrow her feet after losing them to frostbite. But he has also listened to Sharisse and he has serious misgivings about the true intentions of the werms.
  10. Klimus was abandoned by his caravan during an attack by some group of brigands. He walked through the Low Marshes to get to Wermspittle. Alone. He was a mediocre merchant's apprentice when he started his journey. He's a Geist-Killer now. And a good one.








2 comments:

  1. Great stuff! A truly evocative crew of characters!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I like NPCs to present situations and opportunities. There's a lot that can be done in one paragraph. I like how it gets right to the point without becoming too bogged down in minutiae.

      Sometimes it is helpful for a new player to work-up a short paragraph to get them going. Or to adopt one from a set like this. Makes it easier to jump into the action and start playing.

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