The last Friday of our Advent Calendar Event is upon us and the Gift Bearer has once again decided to spread her good tidings to all of our followers. Which means...

Free public creature!

This NPC ties directly to our last free public gift, the Firstdawn festival, and is one of my favorite NPCs from our core fantasy setting of Quaseloth. Even though I wrote her, each time I encounter her in one of our games I can't help but think "I can fix her."

I have been consistently wrong, but Firstdawn miracles do exist.

Enjoy and happy gaming!

~ Jess
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Day Twenty-One - Creature (NPC)

Setting: Quaseloth

Genre(s): Fantasy

Ralhl Gwyr 6 (18)

“In another world, she may have been a hero. But fate gives and takes in equal measure, and so our tale is instead of one who was shaped to walk a darker path.”

- Sage Malden Hull, Epics of Firstdawn, Volume 1.

Ralhl Gwyr is a woman defined by revenge. Born into a love that was snatched from her all too soon and destined to live under the watchful eye of her mother’s bloody shadow, Ralhl Gwyr stalks the Pragenmoorian mountains like a terror from wintery myth. At any given time, crossing Ralhl Gwyr’s path is almost certain to end in tragedy, but on Firstdawn, her implacable fury is truly focused in earnest.

Ralhl Gwyr was born to two parents who loved her as fiercely as they did one another. Her mother, a barbarian from Mazenhark who had been cast out after the defeat of her clan, and her father, a rarvashe troll whose own knot had been killed during a skirmish with patrolling dwarves, had managed to carve out a place for themselves in the depths of the mountains. The trio lived happily on their own for several joyous years, her father teaching Ralhl Gwyr how to survive the dangers of the Pragenmoorians and her mother doing her best to teach her how to become one.  It was on Firstdawn, during one of these training sessions that Ralhl Gwyr’s father left the pair to their playful sparring while he went out to check their snares and forage for the other necessities of the evening’s humble feast. Hours later, when he still had not returned, Ralhl Gwyr and her mother set off into the dark to find him.

Ralhl Gwyr’s father had died fighting, which despite the absence of the dwarven patrol that had fallen upon him was evident by the swathes of scarlet that smeared across his own violet blood in the snow. There was no storm to mark the grim occasion, no upending of nature to match Ralhl Gwyr’s own world crashing to an end. Just she and her mother standing side by side under the clear skies and crushing silence of Firstdawn. Until that silence was shattered by the dwarven victory song coming from the ridge below.

Their encounter with that first patrol was in many ways a baptism for Ralhl Gwyr. It marked her first kill, her first wounds, and the first time she had seen her mother give herself completely over to the darkness that lived within her. Ralhl Gwyr’s father had tempered her mother’s blind fury, had eased the bitterness and heartache that the loss of her people had caused, but without him to soothe those wounds her rage quickly became a septic and all-consuming thing.

Ralhl Gwyr’s mother moved them from the warm home their small family had built together and they began to roam the mountains like lost spirits, staying in one place for a few weeks before moving along. The training sessions that had once been filled with laughter and gentle guidance became punishing and grueling exercises in destroying their enemies, which her mother saw in every living thing walking Pragenmoore. They hunted dwarven patrols like a pair of wolves, striking in storms or taking down scouts whenever advantage was possible. Except on Firstdawn, when her mother would lash out with a reckless ferocity that threatened to consume them as much as the unfortunate souls they fell upon. It was during one of these Firstdawn raids, a decade after the death of her father, that Ralhl Gwyr’s mother was finally lost, more a victim to her own seething wrath than the weapons that pierced her flesh. Ralhl Gwyr managed to escape back into the mountains with her life, where thanks to her trollkin heritage she was able to recuperate. But although her father’s blood was able to heal her body, her mother’s sickness had long ago taken root in her spirit.

Now, Ralhl Gwyr still roams the mountains and its foothills, although she doesn’t seek out enemies to destroy in the way she did when she was with her mother, instead preferring to dispatch those who go out of their way to find her. That is, of course, with the exception of one day of the year, when the sounds of Firstdawn festivities in her ears are drowned out by her mother’s cries for vengeance.

Motive: Ralhl Gwyr is often torn between two motives; her mother’s endless quest for vengeance against the world and her father’s hope that she live peacefully within it.

Environment: The Pragenmoorian mountains or its surrounding area

Health: 30

Damage inflicted: 7

Armor: 1

Movement: Short

Modifications: Might, attack, athletic, deception, local lore, stealth, and survival tasks as level 7; immune to damage from ice or cold

Combat: Ralhl Gwyr was trained from a young age to be a brutal and opportunistic combatant and will use her environment and any perceived weaknesses of her enemy to her fullest advantage. Honor is of no concern to her and her dirty fighting style makes that evident. She prefers to ambush her opponents and force them into close-quarters melee combat and if the tide turns against her and it looks like she may be defeated, she’ll perform a particularly brutal strike to cover herself enough to escape.

Ralhl Gwyr is a skilled warrior and can attack up to three foes on her turn as one action.

As an action, she can swing her weapon in a wide arc, damaging all foes around her and knocking them back 10 feet (3m) and rendering them prone on a failed Might defense roll.

Once per round, when Ralhl Gwyr is damaged by a melee attack, she may immediately use Mother’s Fury (her sword) to deal 8 cold damage to the attacker.

Ralhl Gwyr regains 3 points of health each round she isn’t subjected to fire damage.

Interaction: Ralhl Gwyr is much more cunning and deceptive than unwary foes give her credit for, and she uses that—like she uses everything—to her own advantage. Although she is filled with inherited rage and pain, a kernel of her father still remains within her and could be accessed by the right individual.

Use: A young dwarf is looking for heroes to aid him in his quest for revenge. His father was a patrolman who he believes was killed by Ralhl Gwyr deep within the mountains and he wants to track her down before Firstdawn.

Loot: Ralhl Gwyr wields her deceased mother’s weapon, Garulka’s Fury (which she refers to as “Mother’s Fury”). If she is defeated in battle, it’s possible to gain her deadly artifact.

GM Intrusion: Ralhl Gwyr brutally stomps the chest of the nearest prone character, rendering them breathless and stunned for one round.

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