A New Awsheglien

[The Swordgaunt]

The Swordgaunt is a tall, gaunt figure clad in black full plate mail with a long cape made out of darkness and shadows. His face is pale, with a wax-like shine. His lifeless hair flows like strings of coagulated tar, and his eyes glows like the cold winter sun. On his head he wears a crown wrought of a dozen sharp blades. He wields the sword Kawnshuagh and a Nightmare serves as his steed.

It is believed that in the tenth Century of Haelyn’s Count, the Swordgaunt rode together with the Illustrious Emperor Michael Roele during His Highness’ most just campaign against the Foul and Blasphemous Prince Raesene. In those days, he was a knight of the Holy Order of the Knights of Haelyn and bore the name of Sir Lucien of Erwendale.

Nothing is known of this creature after the year 1387 HC when it was driven from the lands of Alamie by the most Noble and Esteemed Lord Cyrion. We all pray to the Gods that They have seen fit to deliver us from this blasphemous creature.

-From the Liber Awnsheglien

This was the main villain of my last BR campaign, and if anyone is interested in the stats I can post them as well. I placed him in Five Peaks, and he proved to be a formidable oponent to the Thane of Talinie (may he rest in peace).

[geeman2000]

This was the main villain of my last BR campaign, and if anyone is interested in the stats I can post them as well. I placed him in Five Peaks, and he proved to be a formidable oponent to the Thane of Talinie (may he rest in peace).

The birthright-l posts don't seem to be getting through to the message boards at the moment, so I'm recreating the post below:

---ooOoo---

I'd like to see stats if it's not too much trouble.

A comment: Off the cuff if I were going to suggest a location for this particular character it would be somewhere east and/or north of the Five Peaks. The placement of new BR characters is somewhat problematic, and in this case putting him in the FP makes him rather close to the realm of Rhoubhe--another tall, pale and rather gaunt (in an elvish way) long-lived awnshegh with glowing eyes who wields a nasty sword. This character is described as human, and his physical appearance certainly differs in a few ways from that of the Manslayer (the hair of "coagulated tar" is a nice touch--kudos) but, unless there is going to be some sort of connection between them, two awnshegh of relatively similar appearance near one another should probably be avoided.

In a homebrew, of course, his location doesn't particularly matter; one could put the Gorgon in the middle of the Imperial City (I've always wondered why he doesn't show up there on his own from time to time....) For general use, though, another location would work better. Since you already have him at the Gorgon's Crown with MR he could go any direction from there, especially since at that time the empire was pretty extensive.

TIA,
Gary

[The Swordgaunt]

The Swordgaunt is a relatively young Awnseglien, and as it is a tough occupation to succeed in, the Peaks were the logical place for him to set up shop.

1- No one *really* knows much about the area, and there are no "superpowers" acting in these provinces. The Boer is close, and there are the rumors about the HTC, but I figured that the Archduke had enough to occupy him with elsewhere.

2 - Apart from the Eyeless One, there are no resident big'uns in the peaks. But, since the 'gaunt had no interest in the Sources, I descided that they had a live-and-let-live attitude towards eachother, at least at precent.

3 - Related to "2". The various minor warlords had little chance of denying a bonafide Awnsheglien the right of way.

4 - I wanted to give my players (who were playing the ruling cadre of Talinie) an enemy that foreshadowed the real war (the Gorgons march West across the Downs). This forced them to seek alliances, and it made the NTH more fundamentalist, as it evolved into a crusade. This in turn made it harder for other rulers to cooperate with Talinie.

As for the Manslayer, there are some cosmetic similarities, but whreas Rhuobe is millennia old and has plans almost as complex as the Gorgon (IMO), the 'gaunt is "merely" an Evil Overlord-trainee.

But I'm sure there are several locations better suited for this character, if there is a need at all for yet another twisted and evil spawn of Azrai.

I have attached the stats.