Erlach

Erlach is part of the muscle behind the Red Gate gang. A short, but powerfully built Atrian highlander, from one of the petty noble familes that infect the hills, he came to Karmorvus to escape a bloodfeud after a skirmish that all but wiped out the warriors of his clan. He wears his hair in the traditional clubbed ponytail and has long, stringy mustachios. Erlach is a quiet - but not peaceful - man, Although he has been with the Red Gate gang for some years, a smoldering rivalry still exists between him and his supposed comrade in crime Retarus, the ex-temple warrior. While not a superb warrior, Erlach is soft-footed and keen-eared. He is almost impossible to surprise, and can fight well even in total darkness - both useful abilites in his line of work.

NB: Like almost all the members of the Red Gate gang, Erlach was produced using the random character generator. His generation story is provided below his character sheet

CHA	VAL	Cost
STR	16	+12
DEX	12	+6
CON	16	+12
BOD	14	+8
INT	12	+2
EGO	8	-4
PRE	12	+2
COM	10
PD	5	+2
ED	5	+2
SPD	3	+8
REC	6
END	32
STUN	30
Total		+50
OCV	4	±2 with swords, ±1 with all combat
DCV	4	±2 with swords, ±1 with all combat
ECV	3

	Powers and Skills
5	Stealth (12-)
2	FAM: Swords, FAM: thrown dagger
6	+2 CSL with swords
8	+1 with all combat
3	Fast draw (11-)
3	Concealment
3	Survival
3	Defence maneuver
15	Danger sense 11- (out of combat)
5	Combat sense 11-
2	Perk: member of the lower nobility
5	Riding 12-
2	Transport Fam: Riding animals
2	Language Dymerian, native, Olmai, basic conversation.
64	Total powers and skills
114	Total character cost
50+	Disadvantages
5	Age (40+)
5	Unluck (1d6)
54	Dark-browed noble from the highlands bonus.

Erlach - like almost all the Red Gate gang, was generated randomly. It's instructive to see how he was written up compared to Kalan - another random character.

Erlach's career went like this:

• Having decided he would be a warrior, Erlach did pretty well off his random rolls. I rolled barbarian warrior for his career, and chose sword and knife as his two weapon choices. He also got stealth as part of his starting package
• His first two rolls were perform competently - he gained riding and fast draw
• Things don't go as planned! Erlach ends up with concealment and unluck.
• Erlach then gets a run of perform competentlys, picking up most of his skills from the on the road table, before getting:
• Perform brilliantly and picking up Perk: minor nobility and +1 CSL with swords.
• Pride comes before a fall, though. Next Erlach gets things don't go as planned, and gets landed with Age 40+
• There follows another string of perform well and perform competently rolls before ending with another things don't go as planned (which nets him a professional rival), followed by:
• Perform well and perform brilliantly, gaining him an increase on his earlier danger sense (I chose to jump it to out of combat rather than simply adding +1) and combat sense.

Looking at all of this, I was envisaging the chracter as either a Vanaquisl from beyond the mountains that form Atrios's northern border, or an Olmai warrior from the coastal regions beyond that. However, to gain some idea of appearance, I rolled for height, weight and race. He scored low on height and high on weight - but local for race.

A local barbarian in civilised Dymeria? Well, the citizens from other provinces have always regarded Atrians as a bit barbaric, and the highlanders in particular as almost beyond the pale. So suddenly he became an Atrian highlander, one of the clannish warriors famous for pursuing bloodfeuds down the generations. This demonstrates how random rolls can shake preconceptions free and stimulate a bit of creativity.

Also - in a change from the way Kalan was generated, I didn't treat the rolls entirely sequentially. Erlech didn't become a noble during his career - although he rolled it partway through. I simply decided he came from one of the petty noble families - as much bandits as landholders - who are common among the hill-clans, since that made better sense. The blood feud in his history came from his rolls though - the early sequence of "things don't go as planned" giving him concealment, unluck and followed by a series of "on the road" rolls. I mentally translated this as "something really bad, leading to hiding out then travelling away". In this case, a clan battle followed by flight seemed logical.

To fill out his personality I looked at his career. Lots of "competent" rolls but few brilliant ones. Erlech is a steady warrior. Like many nobles, he is passionate about destriers (Not just riding skill above the average but Transport Fam as well. He cares for his own mounts). Further, he has danger sense, combat sense and fast draw, but relatively low combat scores. Obviously a knife-in-the-back sort of guy, not a flashy swordsman. That ties in with both the rivalry and the reputation of highlanders that they never forget a debt. He's the kind of guy who nurses his grudges.

So there you have it - enough detail to start playing Erlach as a memorable NPC from about 12 minutes with dice, pen and paper.