Freedom! A Dark Sun Page

Bards, Rogues & Traders

Bard/Templar

Bard

Torana (female bard/ex-templar/psionicist)
AL: chaotic neutral

Torana is a former Tyrian templar of noble descent. While serving King Kalak she was already more interested in her literary pursuits than her job. She read and wrote plays in her freetime and sometimes at her desk when she was powerful enough to delegate work to other people. After the King's death she supported the new government simply because she did not care who her superiors were - all that mattered was that she was in some employment. During that time, Torana began moonlighting as as a theatre director after witnessing a particularly bad performance. She just took over the company. Lately, she has succumbed to the lure of acting herself playing anything from female villains in serious plays to hypochondriac widows in comedies.
Torana is a charismatic middle-aged lady with long grey-black hair. She dresses in relatively plain black clothes to underline her dramatic facial features and her dark eyes. She comes across as eccentric, but rational. She manages to hide fairly well that she is up for trying out for pretty crazy ideas such as trying to find treasure to fund her own theatre. If Torana has set her mind on something, she can be very persistent and very convincing.
Torana's favourite hang-out is the caravan market. She loves to hear from other places and always tries to find treasure maps and copies of worthy plays. She also likes handsome traders.

How to use Torana:

The PCs may be surprised to encounter Torana in two different settings. By day she could be giving a speech on a market place in the government's service and be part of an old Athasian epic at night.

If a capable/notable bard is part of the PC's party Torana may be approaching him/her for some material or to do a guest performance. Alternatively, Torana may need a temporary replacement for a sick actor - or look for a healer to get the actor on his feet for an approaching performance.

Torana may be looking for a party to obtain a rare manuscript - either as a copy or the original. Torana will pay well and honour a fair deal.

Torana has heard of some treasure within Kalak's palace ruins. She has some more concrete information and hires the PCs to find whatever is there. Torana would like to share the find. She only needs enough to pay for her own theatre!


STR	12
DEX	17
CON	15
INT	17
WIS	16
CHA	22
WEAPONS	Dagger, staff.
ARMOUR	-
NOTES

Yajari (female bard)
AL: chaotic good

Yajari is a young music and theatre performer. She is extremely talented and charismatic, and her beauty has attracted a string of scandals. The biggest scandal was a child with a married Nibenese nobleman, which now lives with her and her troupe.
Yajari is a lively, athletic half-elf with black hair and dark blue-black eyes. She is intelligent, but not calculating. In fact, she uses a lot of her income to help fellow orphans. She is very close with her little daughter and is happy that her father is not trying to take her away. Yajari is a bit wary of his wife, though.
Yajari is a technically accomplished singer, percussionist and dancer and is proficient to a lesser degree in most standard Athasian instruments. Although she is mostly cast as a female love interest in romantic dramas, her real strength is comedy. Music-wise people also try to turn Yajari into a seductive singer/instrumentalist, but, again, her real strength are complex drum rhythms. If Yajari does not get to play what she wants she will perform the part nevertheless and do her drumming in her free-time to an audience of her choice.

How to use Yajari:

The wife of Yajari's Nibenese lover might try to hire the PCs to harm or abduct the child. Will the PCs take on the mission or warn Yajari? Alternatively, the wife may want to harm Yajari.

The PCs wonder about a massive crowd and while checking out what's going on get to witness one of Yajari's stunning drumming performances.

Yajari is giving a charity performance for a local orphanage that one of the PCs is from.

Yajari is harrassed by an overly persistent admirer and is shooting the PCs glances of the 'help me' sort.

A fellow bard wants to harm Yajari's beauty or reputation. The PCs have the opportunity to prevent this from happening.


STR	11
DEX	19
CON	16
INT	16
WIS	12
CHA	20
WEAPONS	Dagger, ring with paralytic poison.
ARMOUR	-
NOTES

Kawuri (female bard/psionicist)
AL: neutral good

Kawuri is an actress of Gulg and Drajan descent. She is famous for making her audiences feel what her characters go through. Kawuri inherited intense empathic skills from her Gulgian mother, a healer. She uses these to amplify and project emotions during her performances. Kawuri also has healing abilities, but this is not generally known. If Kawuri feels that somebody needs her help she will approach that person and ask if s/he wants to be healed. She will not accept money. If the person insists she will ask for a simple gift.
Kawuri is a charismatic human woman in her thirties with light brown skin and fairly Drajan features. While giving quite a dramatic appearance on stage, off-stage she is astoundingly quiet and is seldom found at parties. When she needs a break she helps her mother in her native village. Kawuri loves the forest and misses it when she performs outside of Gulg. However, she feels that there is something sinister connected to this seemingly idyllic place.

How to use Kawuri:

Kawuri does not know who her Drajan father is and would like to find out via the PCs. The has a first name and some items that belong to him. All she knows from her mother is that she found him half-dead and healed him. They had an affair and one day he was gone. He never told her mother about his family or rank.

The PCs have information about the true identity of Lalali-Puy. Kawuri senses that and asks what they know. She will pay if necessary or offer healing potions.

Kawuri has witnessed that the Sorcererqueen is defiling her forest and is seeking contact to people she can trust to ask questions.

Kawuri is brainwashed by the Sorcererqueen into helping her cause. Kawuri's mother (a secret VA agent) approaches the PCs to help her get her daughter free & take her outside of Gulg to safety.


STR	12
DEX	17
CON	15
INT	17
WIS	16
CHA	19
WEAPONS	-
ARMOUR	-
NOTES	Kawuri knows some martial arts, mostly of the defensive kind

Askani (female rogue/ranger)
AL: chaotic neutral

Askani comes across as your average caravan scout. Mostly human with some form of elven heritage, she stands quite tall with wavy black hair, tanned skin and strange dark blue eyes. She is happy to ride on whatever mount through whatever terrain, accompanied by her constant companion, Jhar, a rasclinn.
What not many people know is that Askani has a younger sister she once brought to a Villichi convent in the Ringing Mountains. While Askani is not a Villichi herself, she grew to like the Villichi after her initial suspicions when she had contact with them. An older Villichi recognised Askanis affinity and curiosity and asked her if she would regularly come and visit them with the latest news from the outside world. She would get rewarded for this.
With time, Askani became a mixture of undercover messenger, news person, and occasionally spy and thief for the Villichi. The Villichi who deals with her, rewards her well and assists her in the development of her physical and mental talents. Askani suspects that the other Villichi are not fully aware of their elder's dealings with her. But Askani does not mind - she knows that what she does will keep her sister safe.

How to use Askani:

The PCs are travelling with Askani, and she sometimes does things that are outside her responsibilities as a scout...

Askani is milking the PCs for news.

Askani tries to free a Villichi or steal something the Villichi need and seeks the PCs help. She promises them a reward.

The PCs notice that Askani is carefully navigating the caravan/party around a specific area (Villichi area).


STR	14
DEX	17
CON	16
INT	15
WIS	14
CHA	14
WEAPONS	Short Bow, Short Sword, Dagger, Knife, magic folding quarterstaff (present from Villichi mentor)
ARMOUR	Torso (hide armour)
NOTES	Askani has a very high perception and intution.

Najiil (male rogue)
AL: chaotic neutral

Ever wondered what happened to the off-spring of shadow mages? Najiil is a rather untypical example of the "shadow taint".
As the result of a one-night stand of a human shadow mage and an elven bard, he was lucky to be born at all. Luckily, his mother was curious whether her child would exhibit any interesting characteristics that might prove useful to her. You never know what changes within these weird shadow mages... Najiil never actually met his mysterious shadow mage father and imagines him as some hovering black entity.
Since his mother was not very interested in the "joys of motherhood" she gave her son away to a band of elven thieves who owed her a favour, just occasionally checking on the child and providing for him financially. Unfortunaltely for his mother it soon showed that Najiil did not prove too clever at her trade and thus she lost interest in him completely.
Little did she know of an ability that Najiil discovered when he was imprisoned for stealing from a jewellery stall. While trying to get rid of the rope that tied him to a post he suddenly felt a strange numbness in his wrists. Suddenly his hands were free. When Najiil looked at his wrists there was nothing wrong with them. When he looked at the rope there was nothing wrong with it either, and exactly that was the weird thing: The knot was neither loosened nor was there any sign of force or tearing apart on them. It looked as if his wrists had just passed through the rope...
Najiil is a tall half-elf with shaggy black hair and dark skin. He has the charming grin of a lady-killer as well as the dark, twisted humour usually associated with necromancers.

How to use Najiil:
Najiil is the typical ex-street-urchin who has not progressed much from where he has started. Najiil does not know yet on which side he wants to be and if he wants to be something other than he is. Just because you have weird parents does not mean you can't mean a "normal" life..

The PCs are imprisoned for some reason and Najiil is in the same cell. At night he would like to make a move, but the guards are too scary for him. His only chance is a trade with the PCs: I help you get out and you protect me...

The PCs take Najiil as a prisoner because they caught him stealing their equipment. At night he escapes - with part of their equipment or a magical artefact...

Najiil knows about the Veiled Alliance and occasionally protects members who are in need (usually if it is a young good-looking woman). He also knows about their latest meeting-place and their signs. In this case he would make a good contact or rescuer.

The local Veiled Alliance section wants to find out if Najiil can be trusted and asks the PCs for help.


STR	12
DEX	12
CON	12
INT	14
WIS	12
CHA	13
WEAPONS	obsidian knife
ARMOUR	-
NOTES	Najiil can make parts of his body loose substance.

Yaneesha(female bard)

AL: lawful neutral

Yaneesha is a travelling bard working for the Veiled Alliance as a spy and messenger. The elf is indeed the perfect choice for this job because her mind cannot be read. She is immune against any form of psionic attacks, yet able to use them herself.

Yaneesha has dark green eyes and long brown hair that she almost never wears loose. She dislikes armour, but wears magic bracelets (+4) instead. Like her fellow bards in the group Yaneesha is an excellent actor, singer, musician (elven harp, flute and percussion) and dancer. Thus their performances never pass unnoticed. They are often asked to entertain nobles and merchants privately which gives Yaneesha a perfect opportunity do get interesting information for the VA.

How the PCs could meet Yaneesha:

The PCs might need information that only Yaneesha can give them.

She could be a contact or seek information herself.

The PCs meet her while she has to escape from a noble's house where she has stolen important documents.

She uses the PCs as a chamouflage and lets them take the blame for something she has committed.

The Veiled Alliance wants to free her from captivity.


STR	13
DEX	19
CON	18
INT	17
WIS	16
CHA	18
WEAPONS	magic dagger (gold/+3/poison E or O)
ARMOUR	magic bracelets +4
NOTES	immune against psionic attacks/mindreading

Kashani
(female psiducer)

AL: lawful evil

Kashani is a psionicist specialised in shapechanging and all kinds of illusions.
She seduces victims to backstab them with a poisonous dagger as soon as she is alone with them. She robs them and hides their bodies so that she can get away quickly enough. When she wants to stay longer in a place she is more careful and tries to make a murder look like an accident or suicide.

Kashani is a rather small dark skinned elf with cold green-grey eyes and black hair. Her favourite disguise is that of a young "angelic" elf (blond hair, blue eyes, light skin) to appear exotic and make men careless at the same time. If there are no men she also seduces women disguised as either a man or a (different looking) woman.
Khashani is dependent on her life-style to finance her taste for luxury without being dependent on somebody else or actually having to do hard work. Occasionally she seduces men for pleasure (before killing them...).

How the PCs could meet Kashani:

The psiducer tries to rob one of the PCs.

The PCs witness how she seduces somebody. Next morning the person is found dead.

The brother of somebody she killed is chasing her. 1- he cannot find her and the PCs have to help him by letting one of themselves be seduced. 2- he can find her, but cannot prove anything.

Kashani has made a mistake and is now on the run herself. She uses the PCs to help her by telling them a false story.

She kills an important member of the Veiled Alliance. 1-They want revenge. 2- She killed a psionicist on a mission and the Veiled Alliance now wants to force her to perform the task.


STR	13 (+psi)
DEX	15
CON	14
INT	14
WIS	15
CHA	17
WEAPONS	silver dagger, poison
ARMOUR	(psi)
NOTES	Kashani owns an extensive amount of jewellery which she hides when travelling. Kashani appears a bit like a noble from her home city state Balic.

Arianna (female eleganta)
AL: neutral evil

Arianna is an eleganta spying for the Sorcererqueen/Sorcererking of ... Arianna is a highly charismatic half-elf with long dark hair and dark brown eyes. She literally stands out amongst her peers as she is very tall and almost always wears black.

Early in her career Arianna won the affection of a Dragonking/-queen and was chosen to be trained as a spy, simply because she had all the right features: Arianna was highly intelligent and dextrous and had an ideal constitution. There is hardly a topic she is not able to converse on, hardly a lock she cannot pick and hardly a lover she cannot kill.

Arianna is a clever trickster. She sometimes changes, for example, into a rather naive-looking 16-year-old girl to make people more careless in her company. She is very good at changing body-language and intonation.

How the PCs could meet Arianna:

Somebody has become suspicious and wants the PCs to watch her.

Somebody is looking for a spy among the templars. The PCs find out that not a templar is the culprit but the eleganta. Alternatively you could change her alignment to lawful neutral or even neutral good or lawful good. She could be a spy out of affection and just render infromation to the Sorcerer she is working for. Because she is "so nice and attractive" the PCs might not want to kill or betray her.


STR	14
DEX	18
CON	17
INT	18
WIS	17
CHA	20
WEAPONS	poison ring, dagger +2
ARMOUR	magic ring +4
NOTES	You can also play Arianna as a shape-shifter (e.g. she can shapeshift into a cat in order to get to places she wouldn't normally be able to reach. Also, being able to shapeshift into a kirre, for example, can get you out of a lot of trouble.

Khal (male half-elf rogue/ranger)
AL: neutral evil (or you can play him as lawful evil)

Khal works as a 'trophy hunter'. He hunts for body parts from the dead, the undead and the living. He is in the service of important people who need these things for whatever purposes. Khal does not care. He does his job, he does it well and he gets paid for it, and one day he might die doing it. That's life...
Khal is a quiet man. People doubt he has any emotions. He gives monosyllabic answers, hardly anyone knows him or knows anything about him and nobody has any idea of what he does with all the money he earns...
Khal is a half-elf who looks almost human. It is rather his dexterity and indurance that gives him away than pointy ears. His skin is scarred and sun-tanned and his hair and beard that cover his expressionless face are a greying black. Khal has very basic equipment and clothes (usually just a grey loin cloth) and usually moves about on foot.

How to use Khal:

Khal could be after the same creature that the PCs are hunting. He would never try to kill the PCs or put obvious obstacles in their way. He would just try to be faster or try to obtain the body parts after they have killed the thing.

Khal might be after a good-aligned magical beast. He would try to kill it while the PCs might protect it. If it's a very powerful/intelligent being it might be able to throw Khal into conflict about killing it by confronting him with his past (make that one up).

The PCs have been hired to kill undead in a certain region. When they get there they find all the undead 'dead' with missing bodyparts. Their employer wants to know what the hell happened there!

The PCs employer/the VA wants the PCs to stop Khal from getting a certain body part to Galeth or a Sorcererking/-queen.


STR	17
DEX	22
CON	24
INT	17
WIS	18
CHA	14
WEAPONS	magical dagger
ARMOUR	-
NOTES

Akaash (male mul gladiator/psiducer)
AL: neutral evil

Raised in the slave pits of Ur Draxa, Akaash was subjected to a particularly vicious training. He was extremely talented, clever and cruel against anybody he could afford to be - not only physically but verbally. Due to his good looks and provocative flirting he soon drew the attention of male noble Ur Draxans. After a while he found himself a pampered toy and only went into the arena for pure pleasure. He also found that he could manipulate his lovers. Akaash did not have to learn about intrigues and how to be successful with them - he was already a master... and which templar believes that it is a mul to be capable of constructing such an elaborate network of lies and betrayal...
Eventually he got bored. The downfall of Ur Draxa came at the right time. He had the perfect opportunity to kill people without getting punished and to get away with their possessions.
The first thing Akaash did was to invest in his talents as a psionicist. He had already enjoyed his telepathic wild talents so much... He is currently seducing handsome nobles on the road - also as a way to collate information - until he has decided how far he can go...
Akaash is an exceptionally good-looking mul. He always wears black eyeliner to accentuate his grey eyes and has a couple of snake-like black tattoos, one of them across his chest. He had the slave markings psionically removed, afterwards killing the person who removed them. Akaash prefers to wear as little clothing as possible, but what he wears is of the finest quality and either black, grey or dark silver. Akaash likes to wear jewellery, especially ear jewellery. At least once a day he takes drugs which is one of the few times during the day he is vulnerable...
Akaash can be charming, but his manner always feels cold. He is very attentive and makes frequent use of his telepathic abilities.

How to use Akaash:

If the PCs have a bard among them he might ask the bard for drugs. Akaash does not like paying for them and will try to use psionics or offer to give sexual favours in return.

If the PCs look as if they've got something important to hide he will observe them and try to engage them in a conversation. He might go as far as trying to rummage through their possessions in their room if they have gone out.

Akaash might openly flirt with a male PC in public, even if he is in the presence of his current lover. He will seek to embarrass the PC just for fun...

Akaash might be bored and ask an interesting male PC for a "friendly fight". He would give the PC a hard time and play with him, but not harm him.

Akaash has a keen interest in bard weapons and especially life-shaped grafts. He is very curious about them and will approach the PCs if they have any - or information about them.


STR	17
DEX	19
CON	18
INT	19
WIS	14
CHA	21
WEAPONS	long daggers, wrist razors,
ARMOUR	magic bracelets +4 each (+8 total)
NOTES	Akaash likes to use poison. He also carries a poison ring. He also has a keen interest in life-shaped grafts.

Jiunuu (male elven bard (outcast))
AL: neutral good

Jiunuu is a young elven outcast. All people know is that he is blind, has six fingers and is an exceptionally talented musician. He travels through Athas, miraculously surviving by himself. Jiunuu wears a leather strip over his eyes concealing this burned out eyes.
Jiunuu is a charming and likable person, his generally happy mood is occasionally intercepted by periods of melancholy.
Jiunuu will not disclose any information about his past unless forced to.

How to use Jiunuu:

Jiunuu could have been a free-wanderer who got into trouble on one of his journeys with either undead or cruel raiders. Jiunuu could have become blind in a fight or after torture by people who hated elves. He could offer the PCs entertainment on a journey in return for food & drink.

Jiunuu could be the illegitimate offspring of two people from different tribes either growing up with one tribe until he could care for himself or growing up with non-elven foster parents. When he tried to find out something about his origins he got into trouble with either the Shadows or the Night Runners who left him blind because he had seen too much. The PCs might look for information regarding things he has witnessed before he went blind.

Jiunuu fell in love with the woman the chieftain favoured. One night he neglected his watch duties to watch her instead and the tribe got into serious trouble with raiders. As a punishment, Jiunuu was blinded and outcast. Left with a feeling of guilt, Jiunuu is watching over other people hoping he can make up for his mistake. The PCs could receive a warning from Jiunuu.

Jiunuu might need the PCs' help. A group of thugs want to capture him so he has to work for them. They want to make him play in front of audiences collecting money from the audiences for themselves.


STR	14
DEX	24
CON	16
INT	13
WIS	14
CHA	19
WEAPONS
ARMOUR
NOTES	Jiunuu was born with six fingers.