Alustriel's Latest Consort

II: The Soft Sword

By Ed Greenwood

So who is Alustriel's consort, really?

Morngard Delbrar Larlake is a tall, slender, lithe, and quiet-spoken man. He tries to "drift" about and does as little as possible to draw attention to himself. He is very good at always observing his surroundings without seeming to do so, and he is talented at mimicking the walk and mannerisms of those in an area (allowing him to stroll along a guarded passage, for example, in the same way a guard just did).

Larlake's hair is light brown and thinning, his features fine, his expression usually faintly smiling, and his eyes are very blue.

He customarily dresses in thigh-high soft leather boots with soft leather breeches and open-front, puff-sleeved shirts in solid colors (tan, brown, royal blue, dark green, or black), sometimes with an off-the-shoulder half-cloak. He's seldom without sheathed daggers at belt, down both boots, inside his right sleeve, and at the back of his neck (its sheath also supports an ornamented gorget). He wears silver-shod sword scabbards at his hips that contain daggers at their tops (as "sword hilts"), and sheaths for two wands each, spaced lower down along their length (the fourth wand is a dummy that Larlake sometimes uses as a spell focus). When going "to war," Larlake will add a rope belt (a large black cummerbund that conceals 100 feet of black silk climbing cord, knotted at 2-foot intervals, that wraps around his waist) and an armor-sheathed scroll case that has a tinder box built into one end, and a storage compartment built into the other. Empty carrysacks and a pair of bracers are customarily strapped to the outside of this, with a cloak wrapped around it all to make the scroll case look like a bedroll.

Mornbrar Delbrar Larlake: Male human wizard 16; CR 16; Medium humanoid; HD 16d4+32; hp 72; Init +3; Spd 30 ft.; AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14; Base Atk +8; Grp +8; Atk +8/+3 melee (1d4/19-20, dagger); Full Atk +8/+3 melee (1d4/19-20, dagger); AL CG; SV Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +11; Str 11, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 22, Wis 13, Cha 15.

Skills and Feats: Balance +5, Concentration +21, Diplomacy +7, Jump +2, Knowledge (arcana) +25, Listen +8, Move Silently +8, Search +11, Sense Motive +5, Spellcraft +27, Spot +6, Survival +5, Swim +3, Tumble +8; Combat Casting, Craft Wand, Craft Wondrous Item, Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell, Forge Ring, Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Scribe Scroll, Silent Spell, Still Spell.

Wizard Spells Prepared (4/6/6/5/5/5/4/3/2; save DC 16 + spell level): 0 -- dancing lights, ghost sound, mage hand, open/close; 1st -- expeditious retreat, feather fall, magic missile (4); 2nd -- detect thoughts (2), locate object, scorching ray, spectral hand, spider climb; 3rd -- dispel magic, hold person, lightning bolt (2), nondetection; 4th -- arcane eye, detect scrying, greater invisibility, locate creature, shout; 5th -- hold monster, major creation, prying eyes, teleport (2); 6th -- chain lightning, mislead, repulsion, true seeing; 7th -- delayed blast fireball, greater teleport, mass hold person; 8th -- greater prying eyes, polar ray.

Spellbook: 0 -- acid splash, arcane mark, dancing lights, daze, detect magic, detect poison, disrupt undead, flare, ghost sound, light, mage hand, mending, message, open/close, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read magic, resistance, touch of fatigue; 1st -- burning hands, color spray, disguise self, expeditious retreat, feather fall, hold portal, magic missile, protection from evil, shield, sleep, true strike, unseen servant; 2nd -- bull's strength, cat's grace, detect thoughts, glitterdust, hypnotic pattern, invisibility, knock, locate object, misdirection, scorching ray, see invisibility, spectral hand, spider climb; 3rd -- dispel magic, fireball, fly, haste, hold person, lightning bolt, nondetection, slow, suggestion, tongues; 4th -- arcane eye, detect scrying, dimension door, fear, greater invisibility, locate creature, polymorph, scrying, shout, stoneskin; 5th -- cloudkill, cone of cold, dominate person, hold monster, major creation, prying eyes, sending, teleport, wall of force; 6th -- antimagic field, chain lightning, disintegrate, eyebite, greater dispel magic, legend lore, mislead, permanent image, repulsion, true seeing; 7th -- delayed blast fireball, greater teleport, mass hold person, plane shift, sequester, vanish; 8th -- greater prying eyes, iron body, polar ray, prismatic wall.

Permanent Spells: Larlake has cast permanency in conjunction with the following spells on his person: arcane sight, darkvision, see invisibility, and tongues. All these spells were made permanent at level 16.

Possessions: Bracers of armor +4, dagger, ring of chameleon power, major ring of energy resistance (fire), 9 scrolls (break enchantment, discern location, Evard's black tentacles, flesh to stone, forcecage, major creation, mending, prismatic wall, undeath to death), wand of cure critical wounds (29 charges remaining), wand of hold person (heightened, 4th level; 10 charges remaining), wand of neutralize poison (11 charges remaining).

Larlake is a superb actor, and he has no personal dignity or pride; he'll doff clothing, dress in drag, or undergo humiliations without hesitation. Naturally deft and quiet, he prefers not to fight or swagger, and he conceals his class and familiarity with magic in his daily affairs.

Larlake's thirst in life is for knowledge -- about magic and through learning things about beings, power groups, and events he considers important (that is, likely to be influential in future). He's a natural spy, though seldom the sort that performs risky invasions and searches of private rooms. Larlake prefers to notice things and eavesdrop, fix faces, voices, and facts in his memory, and then piece together what he knows and devise ways of learning key answers to "fill the gaps" in his knowledge. To cap it all, he never forgets anything.

Find out more about Larlake in the next installment.