| The Willow Sourcebook |
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In the folklore of Nockmaar the bringer of death is named Ghilasson. Once a human warrior, Ghilasson attained such prowess that he challenged the World Hag to single combat for control of Grulborig, the realm beneath the ground. The Hag beat him easily, yet, impressed by his ruthless courage, she appointed him to be her herald. Ghilasson gained the strength of ten men, and became the harbinger of doom in battle. This myth became the foundation for the bloody career of General Kael. FIRST APPEARANCE In the folk tale, Ghilasson was born, fully grown, from a cliffside lit by the last rays of the dying sun. No one can ever know the reason until the end of the world. None in his time knew his origin. Kael enters history's view at age 13, as a lackey of the soldiers in Nockmaar's army. A stolid, quiet, shuffling boy, he viewed battles from the edge of the field. He practiced with sword and bow, but the soldiers laughed at his attempts: "Put down that weapon, boy, and fetch us drink!" Kael fetched drinks, cleaned out wineskins and bottles, helped the cook, scrubbed pots, and polished weapons. It was filthy work, but he never complained. Soldiers, on the rare occasions when they noticed him, wondered where he had come from. No one knew his parents (nor did Kael ever tell). The Nockmaar army was still new then, and the boy had helped its minions as long as anyone remembered. In the myth, Ghilasson stood taller than those about him. His features are not described, except that everyone who looked upon him somehow recognized his otherworldly stature. Kael was so large for his age, hairy, heavy-browed, and thick across the shoulders and arms and thighs, that the troops half doubted he was quite human. "Some ape in that boy's past!" they said, laughing. When Ghilasson entered a village shortly after his birth, he knew no words or ways of humanity. Curious villagers tried to speak to him, but concluded he was an idiot. A strong man laid his hands on Ghilasson's arm to lead him to a healer. But Ghilasson pulled away, and struck the man down, and killed him; and afterward none would approach him but an old witch, who taught him the lessons of humankind as she would a son. Then he made his way in the world as a great warrior. Kael undoubtedly learned this myth, probably from a prisoner or soldier. He found it, as he once said later, "a thin commonplace book that held in it all the lessons I might want in life." And at age 16, he acted on one of those lessons. He challenged a combat instructor to a wrestling match. Kael was young and inexperienced; the instructor, a veteran who knew all the tricks. The outcome was never in doubt - at least in retrospect. Stunned by Kael's victory, the instructor took him into the regular classes. The soldiers no longer made fun of Kael. KAEL'S RISE TO COMMAND Kael may never have officially joined the Nockmaar army. All we know is that by age 20 he was wearing a uniform and carrying weapons. He certainly never underwent the brainwashing that the army knew as "basic training." Yet no other soldier in the army so clearly lived and breathed for Nockmaar. Kael often mentioned one section of the Ghilasson myth as a model of military devotion. The warrior joined a series of armies, at each point vowing to remain with it for life. But in adventures of the kind that plague mythic heroes, each army lost in battle and was destroyed, with Ghilasson the only survivor each time. Yet the myth stresses his sincere and singleminded devotion to each army's cause. After a time Bavmorda noticed Kael. Perhaps his strength and bearing impressed her, or his fanaticism. Or, as a popular legend has it, she made him a junior officer to scold an ambitious commander... the idea being that Bavmorda could make do with an ape like Kael, and anyone else was expendable. Whatever the reason, Kael achieved lieutenant's rank. From there, in a stunning display of ability, courage, and treachery toward his superiors, he rose to command. This too parallels the myth. Ghilasson, serving in an army commanded by an incompetent, challenged his superiors to single combat one by one, rising through the ranks so he could save the troops from further disaster. Those who study Kael's career remark constantly on his ambition. This is inaccurate. Kael was ambitious to rise in the ranks only so he could devote his talents to larger strategies - marshal greater strength to conquer for Nockmaar - throw himself more fully into its cause. Finally, nothing short of full command of the army proved adequate to his dedication. But the path to generalship included one last, crucial obstacle. HARKENWELL He was second to the high commander, a nobleman named Harkenwell. Here Kael's rise stopped, for the commander was as wily as he, and could foresee Kael's every plot. Harkenwell told him straight out, "I know how you want to play it, but forget it. You're a good officer, but I - I have eyes in the back of my head." Those who watched Kael's rise thought that in Harkenwell he had finally met his match. No doubt Kael thought of the Ghilasson myth. In one adventure, the warrior is sent to defeat the Sleepless Stoneworker, an addled but alert man who guarded a great castle full of statues. He created the statues with his petrifying gaze, using passersby as working material. In the tale Ghilasson disguised himself, blindfolded his eyes, and pretended blindness. Posing as a minstrel, he serenaded the Stoneworker with songs of the man's reputed beauty. Overcome with curiosity to see his own visage, the Stoneworker looked in the nearest river, and turned himself to stone. Kael gleaned from this tale the lesson of flattery. He had cause to use it early in Nockmaar's wars of conquest. The army was subjugating some small village. A band of peasant farmers had holed up with their wives and children in the local blacksmith's forge. Destroying the building would inconvenience Nockmaar's own troops, who needed it to make war materiel. But a routine front assault against the impregnable forge would surely fail. Commander Harkenwell knew Bavmorda's magic could easily take the forge. He weighed its desirability against the stature he would lose by calling in Bavmorda. Nervously, he sent a message asking the Queen's aid. Kael heard of this. Knowing the sorceress-queen would arrive in hours, and that she would flush out the rebelling peasants, he acted. He took two barrels of tar pitch, used to roof barracks. In each of them he buried a flask of the oil used in making fire arrows. Then, as Bavmorda's entourage approached, he gave his commands to a squad of minion soldiers. They crept to the forge from its blind side by the chimney. Once there, out of the line of fire from the peasants inside, they set up a ladder, climbed the chimney, and dumped the tar barrels down into the forge. Queen Bavmorda arrived just in time to see the peasants fleeing the forge building, as the burning pitch filled it with stinging, noxious smoke. The peasants had fired the forge to keep soldiers from entering via the chimney. Kael, meanwhile, had already told Commander Harkenwell of the deed. "It would be an honor if you will take credit for this success, sir," he said. The astonished Harkenwell had no time to reply before Bavmorda swept in. "Congratulations, Commander. I assume the smoke is your doing?" Harkenwell had not reached his current position by passing up chances. "I must confess, your highness - I did so order it. The thought struck me too late to recall my previous message to you." "Well, no harm done," said Bavmorda, watching the minions execute the rebelling peasants. "Clever work, that." "Your majesty honors me-" Harkenwell began. At just that moment the oil in the tar barrels caught fire. Inside the forge the heat built quickly to intolerable levels. With a titanic explosion, the chimney wall collapsed, crushing the equipment inside. The destruction was total. Bavmorda turned slowly and delivered upon Harkenwell a withering glare. She left without another word. Not long after, Harkenwell was transferred to a lonely outpost in the northern wastes, leaving Kael as supreme commander of the army. Under Bavmorda Kael consolidated his authority, but he knew well enough that his rise stopped there. Remembering the folly of Ghilasson's challenge to the World Hag, he mad no attempt to usurp the Queen's authority. This helps explain his long success as Bavmorda's commander. KAEL'S DEATH MASK Not long after taking control of the army, Kael assumed the death mask that so terrorized his enemies. The mask originated, of course, in the myth of Ghilasson. Early in his putative career, the warrior slew a frost giant by reflecting the bright sun's rays on it with his shield, melting the creature down to a mere skeleton. Ghilasson fashioned an unbreakable helmet from the giant's skull. The monster's spirit possessed the skull and shrieked at Ghilasson's enemies in battle. Thereafter Ghilasson knew no defeat. That legend worked its magic upon Kael, for he too never failed in battle - until the coming of Elora Danan. To that point Kael's forces were unbeatable. His armies were hunting down Airk Thaughbaer's knights; and Kael himself captured Elora and carried her singlehandedly to Bavmorda at Nockmaar Castle. In the titanic battle inside the castle walls, Kael slew his rival commander, Airk. Kael could not have been thinking of the final chapter of the Ghilasson myth. In this tale, the World Hag ordered Ghilasson to kidnap the Singer of Daylight, thereby plunging the living world into darkness. The hero Terambal, greatest swordsman in the mortal world, pursued Ghilasson and fought him for three days, during which time the sun never rose. The world grew so cold that the frost giant's flesh froze back onto the skull. The giant returned to life, and together with Terambal defeated Ghilasson, trapping him beneath the ground forever. The parallels with the folk tale are not exact, but in the battle at Nockmaar Castle, Madmartigan was the only swordsman who could hope to rival Kael's skill. In revenge for his friend Airk's death, he slew the general after a pitched swordfight. KAEL'S ABILITIES Kael stood large, a throwback to a savage predecessor of humanity. His strength was enormous. Once, to discourage his lieutenants from mutiny or assassination, he lifted a small horse and carried it up a flight of stairs. He wielded sword, axe, and mace with ferocious skill. More than strength or weaponry, Kael relied on enormous presence. The force of his personality could cow any subordinate, whether staff officers in a conference or line soldiers being roused for battle. His commands went unquestioned. And he knew how to inspire fear in the enemy as well as in his followers. Also important was his unshakable courage. But he was never foolhardy, and he knew when to retreat. Kael showed a shrewd grasp of military tactics and insight into the darker reaches of the human character. Most importantly, he was too canny to hope to overthrow Bavmorda. He had no conventional vices; his only weak point was his urge for personal confrontation with his foes. GAMING NOTES 14th skill-level fighter (or 2 levels higher than your campaign's best fighter) SKILLS Leadership, strategy, tactics, politics, and intrigue, all in the highest degree. Kael is also a master swordsman (treat any sword as +2 to hit when he wields it), and a fine horseman. He is only an average archer and crossbowman, preferring hand-to-hand combat. EQUIPMENT The heaviest sword and armor available, the fastest warhorse, and the best of everything else that a general of an army can command. |
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