Posts
Standard Introduction
I have been
writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course
of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge. As I have done those a couple times before it
seemed remiss not to jump on this one.
If you want
here is a link to my 30-day
challenge on Disney Movies, here is a link to my 30-day
challenge on Video Games, and here is a comically out of date 30-day
challenge on Movies (it is old and the writing is rubbish).
Day 11- Favorite NPC
Well, right
off the bat I am kind of in a corner. I
don’t use published campaigns so the Raistlin, Elminster, or Mordenkainen
debate is right out. Same with Strahd,
and I already talked about Vecna.
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| I am not 100% sure who each of these guys are. But this image is so cool I hope the random number generator makes it the thumbnail. |
So, I guess
this is another opportunity for me to talk about one of my favorite NPC’s Count
Malachite of Hasenburg.
When my
players met Count Malachite, he was a 70-year-old man. He was infected with some horrible mummy rot
and dying in a cave surrounded by the knights in his service. The players were able to cure him of his
affliction and took him back to his palace in Hasenburg, home of the Hasenburg
Steak sauce. He knew he was too old to
be out adventuring but he had to show some of his younger knights some tricks
of his trade and introduce them to some old friends. He thanked the players for his life and
offered them a reward and future work.
Malachite
again met the players when they came to visit his city and helped free it from
siege by gnolls. No joke, the party’s
druid, Talon Greyfeather (whom I mentioned in “My Favorite Group of Players”
entry) came up with two really smart uses of spells to fire bomb the gnoll
siege weapons and then illuminate the night attacks to totally change the
challenge. They won soundly.
The Count
honored the party as treasured friends and he gave them a Rod of Wonder, an
item from his adventuring days that he had named his company for. So, the PC’s became, “The Wonderful” to help
carry on his legacy of heroism.
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| Something like this. I guess. |
Malachite
kept showing up in other NPC’s stories of important events. He had helped Father and Baba stop the Chaos Sorcerer. He taught Mayor Wilhelm everything that guy
knows about politicking. Malachite is
the reason the 6 Fingers criminal organization never got a foothold outside
Freeport. Malachite had run away from
home to be an adventurer when he was a teenager, thru pluck and wit he had managed
to become somebody who did a lot of good in the world.
The Count was
a legend. The hero of the land in some
other era and was now just living as an administrator to his home town and
raising his two granddaughters (his’ son’s children, the girls’ parents had
died in a plague). He was one of 3 “Past
their Prime” heroes that appeared in the campaign because I felt it important
to illustrate that the players were part of a legacy.
The last
adventure at Malachite’s request was for the PC’s to retrieve the Count’s
estranged half-elf daughter. She had
gone into exile to avoid being forced into an arranged marriage and he hadn’t
seen her in more than a decade. He was
calling her home to take over as Countess of Hasenburg, home of the Hasenburg steak
sauce, because he had cancer and was fading fast. The players managed to get her back for the
tearful goodbye and Count Malachite died.
He left a letter to the PC’s in his will and a warning about dark
visions he had been dreaming, and lost memories from his youth that were
returning at the closing of his life, it helped them down the line.
His death
was sad.
Malachite’s
presence was still felt, the Rod of Wonder was a plot fulcrum later in the
campaign, allowing the players to gain more allies, push the plot forward, and
defeat their first major adversary. At
the conclusion of the whole campaign, Malachite’s ghost, appearing as a young
man dressed in his Landsknecht garb, appeared to the PC’s to tell them he had
been pulling for them and was proud they had managed to save the day. Another of the 3 “Past their Prime Heroes” was
there in ghost form too, a Master martial artist who mentored the party’s
monk. If I had been smart I would have
had the third elderly NPC mentor figure pass on to form a good triumvirate of
ghosts telling the PCs, “Atta ‘boy”.
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| Derivative? Yes. Do I care? Yes, because that is exactly what I was trying to invoke. |
Hasenburg, Home of the Hasenburg Steak Sauce
I based the
city on a mashed-up bunch of ideas, a wild west town with a river instead of a
train, a reductionist idea of what a German Free city state would have looked
like after the Holy Roman Empire started splintering, and other counties and
regional powers found during the renaissance.
The idea of
mixing up cowboys and city states was found with the idea of the
Landsknechts. They were soldiers for
hire that were known for their flashy dress and being one of the first military
groups in Europe known for using firearms.
Why that gelled with the image of them leading cows to market in my mind
is perhaps more evidence of my deeper untreated insanity, but there you go.
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| This would also work as a thumbnail. (Link to cool gallery). |
“My Favorite Player Character” and “My Favorite NPC”
Malachite
is the ultimate evolution of the idea that I talked about with “My Favorite Player Character”. What started as a
dastardly pirate, turned into a conman bard in deep with forces he didn’t
really grasp, and ultimately, we arrive at what the idea of the fast-talking
charismatic hero turns back on.
Malachite is
a retired hero, returned to his homeland a changed man, taking on the mantle of
responsibility that he wasn’t ready for or was scared of in his youth. He became tempered by valor, tension, and
witnessing the suffering of the common people.
He grew. He went on the hero’s
journey and came back to be the person he never managed to be under the guiding
hand of his parents.
Not to plug
my mediocre fiction writing chops, but I actually started writing a series of
stories about Malachite’s younger self on this blog. I figured I would throw out a chapter
whenever I got the hankering to. Then I
started plotting out a longer story, and then I just stopped. 12 entries in and with 1 more that only needs
editing and I stopped cold. Maybe I was
comfortable enough just playing the character sometimes in DnD. Maybe I am just too lazy to write fiction.
Feel free
to read them and tell me what you think.
Or not.
Here are
links to “Roads of Bone”.
Coming Tomorrow
Tomorrow I
am going to start a mini-series in the blog challenge, talking about of
“Favorite Monsters” starting with Aberrations.
Another instance from history that evokes a similar feel to what I was going for.
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