Some Interesting Paharan NPCs

Dreamer,

 

            Here's the Paharan NPCs I promised you long ago.  I've given
them vaguely Mediterranean-sounding names as Pahara is a Nalta-derived
culture according to the history you wrote up for Isis.  Of course, the
Nalta came from that region so long ago that their languages were probably
completely different, but I had to use something!

 

Peter

 

Some Interesting Paharan NPCs

 

Diamonte Vandomenti, Triarch of Pahara's Surface Police

 

Str 14               Int 16               Wis 13             Ranger 5/Wizard
5/Eldrich Knight 5

Con 13             Dex 15             Chr 11             Human

 

            As Triarch of the Surface Police, Diamonte Vandomenti is in
charge of all regular police operations in the above water portions of
Pahara.  He reports directly to the Council of Seventeen, and is
additionally considered to have a Colonel's rank in the Pahara's militia.

 

            Vandomenti comes from a respectable middle class Paharan family.
He started his career in the Jungle Guard, but after poachers ambushed a
patrol he was leading and left him for dead, he decided it was time for a
career change.  He joined the police, and began to study magic.  He proved
very able at his new job, and rapidly rose through the ranks.

 

            Vandomenti has a reputation as being tough but fair, and the
surface police have a good reputation with both the citizens and visitors.
(They are considered somewhat biased in favor of business, but that is a
common Paharan bias.)  Vandomenti does not ever try to influence the courts
-- probably the only Triarch of which that could be said.  He has been a
candidate for the Council of Seventeen twice, but has never been selected as
a member.

            

            Vandomenti gets along fairly well with Sophia Tomaza, the
Triarch of the Underwater Police.  He does not get along at all well with
Michael Palogenes, the Triarch of the Special Police, whom Vandomenti
considers a corrupt politician.  As a result, the Surface Police and the
Special Police do not cooperate well.  Vandomenti maintains a good
relationship with Eldera di Verde, the commander of the Jungle Guard.

 

            Vandomenti is married with four children, and by all reports is
a devoted husband and father.  While he works long hours, his time with his
family is sacred to him.  There is no better way to annoy him than to
intrude on his family time unnecessarily. 

 

 

 

Sophia Tomaza, Triarch of the Underwater Police for Pahara

 

Str 11               Int 13               Wis 20
Cleric of Neptune 14

Con 15             Dex 12             Chr 14                         Human

 

            As Triarch of the Underwater Police, Sophia Tomaza is
responsible for Police operations in the underwater portions of Pahara.  She
reports directly to the Council of Seventeen (and has been a member twice),
and is additionally considered to have a Colonel's rank in the Pahara's
militia.

 

            Tomaza is an escaped Nalta slave from the Near Empire and hates
the Scro with the burning heat of a 1000 suns.  This probably explains why
she was forced to accept the post of Triarch of the Underwater Police
instead of Triarch of the Special Police, as she would have preferred (the
factor that she's a priestess of a water god and married into an important
Caen family may also be factors).  While in general she is fair in the
execution of her duties, woe betides a Scro who falls into the hands of the
Underwater Police!

 

            Tomaza is politically adept and gets along with both of her
fellow triarchs, the Jungle Guard, the military and the Council of
Seventeen.  This gives her influence all out of proportion with her official
position.  However, her extreme anti-Scro positions scare some of Pahara's
movers and shakers who highly prefer not to attract the Near Empire's
attention.

 

            Her personal life is quiet and very, very private.

 

 

 

Michael Palogenes, Triarch of Pahara's Special Police

 

Str 11               Int 13               Wis 13             Sorcerer
7/Rogue 4/Arcane Trickster 5

Con 14             Dex 18             Chr 17             Human

 

            As Triarch of the Special Police, Palogenes is responsible for
enforcing the will of the Council of Seventeen by any means necessary
("special police" is an euphemism for secret police).  Additionally, he is
responsible for counter-intelligence, police cases involving diplomatic
personnel, extraordinary investigations of all kinds, and the security of
Pahara's walls.  This odd portfolio gives him a great deal of power, and he
enjoys it.  Palogenes is one of the most feared men in the city.

 

            Palogenes is a native born Paharan of obscure birth.  There are
rumors he got his start in life as the house sorcerer for the Kaledis crime
syndicate.  It is certain that once he joined the Special Police, he oversaw
Kaledis' destruction, which some people see as awfully convenient.
Certainly, he has not been so zealous about destroying Pahara's other crime
syndicates -- usually he prefers to squeeze them for money, and even uses
them occasionally as Special Police auxiliaries.  Ordinary citizens and
foreigners, on the other hand, are best warned to stay out of the hands of
the Special Police at all costs.

 

            Palogenes and Vandomenti hate each other with a great passion,
and their respective organizations feel the same way.  Palogenes and Tomaza
get along reasonably well, but do not trust each other; still, the
Underwater Police and the Special Police and cooperate when necessary.

 

            No one knows anything about Palogenes private life, if he has
one.  He is rumored to sleep in a room in his offices.

 

 

Eldera di Verde, Commander of the Jungle Guard

 

Str 11               Int 13               Wis 18             Ranger 1/Druid
14

Con 12             Dex 12             Chr 10             Human

 

            As Commander of Pahara's Jungle Guard, Eldera di Verde is
responsible for the safety and security of Pahara's landward side, the
safety of the coastal roads, the security of Pahara's trading posts in the
interior of Alph and the enforcement of Pahara's treaties with the jungle
dwellers.  The last is particularly important, as Pahara cannot afford to
offend the Jungle Gods.  Commander di Verde ranks the same as the Triarchs
of Police, and like them reports directly to the Council of Seventeen.  She
also ranks as a Colonel in Pahara's regular army (not the militia like the
triarchs). 

 

            Commander di Verde was found as a baby in an abandoned jungle
trading post, guarded by a large, mysterious jungle cat.  She was adopted by
a Jungle Guardsman, and half raised in the jungle.  As soon as she was old
enough, she joined the Jungle Guard as a junior patroller.  On her first
deep jungle patrol, she spent several hours "talking" to the jungle, and
emerged with a new mystical worldview and an even stronger determination to
protect the jungle and the treaties.  She rose rapidly through the ranks,
becoming the youngest field captain in the guard's history.  When the
previous commander retired, she was the obvious candidate to replace him.
She has been guard commander for 25 years now.

 

            Depending on how you look at it, di Verde either is above
politics or plays them so well that no one dares challenge her.  It is a
constant in Paharan politics that you don't mess with the Jungle Guard.  It
is the same in the jungle -- the rules will be enforced, and smugglers and
poachers get short shrift if caught, and they are mostly caught quickly, as
the rangers, druids and mages of the Jungle Guard are highly effective.  

 

            Commander di Verde's private life is the same as her public
life: the Jungle Guard.  There is no room for anything else for her.

 

 

 

Mandalar Mahoon, Shop Keeper and Wizard

 

Str 8                 Int 23               Wis 14             Wizard 18

Con 9               Dex 10             Chr 14             Half-Elf

 

            Master Mahoon is the proprietor of  "Mahoon's Magical Oddities,
Curiosities, Books of all Kinds and Confectionary Shoppe", and Pahara's most
powerful politically unaligned wizard.  If his citizenship status weren't
somewhat ambiguous (apparently by his own choice), he would be a regular
candidate for membership in the Council of Seventeen.

 

            Master Mahoon is known as the man to go if you want an unusual
magical item made or identified, a rare or magical book found, or simply the
best seaweed candy or imported chocolates in town.  He deals with all comers
and all factions, and it has been found over the years ill advised to
attempt to prevent anyone from consulting him who wants to.

 

            Master Mahoon's origins are unclear.  He's been around for
several human generations, and must be fairly old, even for a half-elf, and
looks it.  It is rumored that his father was an Oreth elf who shadow walked
or teleported past the flamebelt to visit Pahara, and his mother was a
disgraced daughter of a major Paharan merchant house.  Mahoon doesn't answer
questions on the subject.

 

            At this point in his life, Master Mahoon is rich enough not to
need to work.  He keeps the shop because it is a source of interesting
intellectual challenges; that, and because he enjoys the candy making for
some reason.

 

             Master Mahoon is a widower, with no surviving children, one
surviving granddaughter, and a handful of great-grandchildren and great
great grandchildren, some of who occasionally help out at the shop.