Character in the Spotlight: Baalek Songheart
by Jay Young
Posted 2/2/2007
If there was a character whose sole purpose for existence can be attributed to one round’s worth of actions, that character is Baalek Songheart. Like Gollum carrying the One Ring to its fiery grave in Orodruin, Baalek’s one round of action very well saved Middle Earth. For those who haven’t heard, and for those who wish to reminisce, this is Baalek’s tale…
Baalek Songheart carries the sole distinction of being the only character who was grandfathered in from the old MERP system (aside from my brother Mike’s character, Garren, who only played when Mike was around, perhaps two or three times in almost ten years). MERP, or Middle Earth Roleplaying which came out in the early 80’s, and which I have played since the second grade). Baalek’s first adventure under the MERP rules found him adventuring to find and save his uncle Argile. After successfully rescuing him, Argile gave Baalek his personal sword which was a +30 broadsword that cast a level 6 firebolt once per day. When I started my first Rolemaster system back in the summer of 1996, Anthony decided that he wanted to bring Baalek over into the new game. Thus, we remade the character. This time, however, we gave Baalek a white tiger familiar, named Yonaga, that would grow and progress as a regular player character would and with whom Baalek would split half of his experience. Unfortunately, after two campaigns of Yonaga sharing in half of Baalek’s experience, I realized that Baalek was progressing too slowly and that Yonaga did not play enough of a role in the game to warrant Baalek’s skill deficiencies. Thus, I decided to give back all of the experience Baalek had split with Yonaga and some of the talent points Anthony had spent to buy a familiar. Yonaga at that point became sort of a pared-down familiar.
Notwithstanding his slow start in the game, Baalek was not without his share of memorable moments. No one can forget his role in the first foe of the old Rolemaster campaign—a wild boar. Drawn by Eradain’s strange scent, the boar attacked viciously. Eradain and Charystra fought back. Shurakai fumbled and fell on his sword in an attempt to maim himself. What did Baalek do? What any good bard would have done—pull out his harp and try to soothe the boar with soft music. Naturally, it didn’t work.
Indeed Baalek came a long way by the end of the system. Like Anthony’s other characters, Baalek had a knack for staying alive. Either he missed the deadliest of adventures or he was just lucky. Probably both. One way or another, it is a good thing he survived. Baalek accompanied the group on their quest to destroy the evil Gorgoroth, a half-Maiar, half-elven mage. Gorgoroth was powerful enough that even Sauron didn’t try to eliminate him. What Sauron didn’t know was that Gorgoroth had the Orb of Souls, a tool created by Mandos to allow him to manipulate the souls of the dead. Gorgoroth planned to use the Orb of Souls to raise an army of undead to march across the world. Gorgoroth waited in the Sixth Pale ready to emerge as the next serious threat to Middle Earth.
After taking a couple of years in real time to set it up, the characters found themselves facing this 75th level adversary and there was only one sword that could destroy him. Forged by the elves of Valinor to destroy Gorgoroth, the sword was Mormegil. While Hellgrin wielded Crissaegrim, the most potent magical artifact yet seen in roleplaying, even the sword of the Great Eagles could not bring down Gorgoroth. The final blow had to be delivered by Mormegil. This proved to be most difficult. Each round, Gorgoroth cast a spell on the players that caused them to bleed d10 hits per round. One by one the characters fell, each of them bleeding up to 40 hits per round. Blood poured from their eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and even through their skin. In the end, only Baalek, Hellgrin, and Aranor were left standing. Each of them had but one round left to live. While Hellgrin had already scored two killing blows on Gorgoroth, he would not be defeated until Aranor managed to do it with Mormegil, and he was having trouble since Gorgoroth’s defensive bonus was over 100. In his last action, Baalek pulled out a healing potion and threw it to Aranor so that he could have one more round to deliver final defeat to Gorgoroth. Then, Baalek fell.
It is very possible that the landscape in which the new Rolemaster system took place would be different if Baalek had not survived to that point in the game. Naturally, Baalek did what he had to do, but it is funny how roleplaying has these moments which makes one think about what could have happened. This was such a moment, and it is why Baalek Songheart is this issue’s Character in the Spotlight.
