Utterly Mad

Name: High Lord Aldwin Willahelm of Asuga
Age: 31
Race: Human
Job: Acting High Lord of Asuga
Skills: [Melee Combat] [Crossbows] [Orating] [Intimidation] [Music]
History
Acting High Lord of Asuga, a small, wealthy kingdom bordering the Highland Dwarves. It is a long, narrow land dominated by enormous mountains and rivers, known for its furtive, melancholy people and their ruthless lords and ladies. Asuga is composed of countless noble houses of very little power on their own, united for the purpose of coin and sovereignty over others.

Lord Aldwin's dynasty came into power a few generations ago, after the acting High Lord (and his immediate family) was slain in a war with the elves of the Chosen Kingdom. Lord Aldwin himself has had an uneventful reign, biding his wealth and his time for the opportunity to do something truly great. Asuga's huge monopoly on precious metals, porcelain, and olive oil, along with some other luxury products to a lesser degree, assures that the Houses are almost always unbelievably wealthy. This is both a gift and a curse, thanks to the melancholic, bored disposition of most Asugans. All that wealth, and they sit there in their mountain halls and stagnate, throwing half-hearted balls and feasts in an attempt to show off their wealth.

Asuga is on good terms with the other human kingdoms and the Dwarves, though they're often overlooked as anything but traders in the eyes of the larger kingdoms. They're a bit grating with elves, thanks to racial tension a few generations past, but they've been getting along fine in recent years.

Clothes: A well-made green robe of fine silks under a black bearskin cloak is the usual attire of High Lord Aldwin, with boots of goatskin, simple geometric jewelry of black stone, and the simple platinum crown of Asuga rounding the outfit out.
Armor: In battle, Lord Aldwin dons a coat of plates; a thick black leather garment with overlapping steel plates riveted together and sewn within, in conjunction with a protective steel close helmet.
Weapons: Lord Aldwin has familiarized himself with most weapons currently existing, as most Asugan lords do, owing to their copious amounts of free time. However, he favors the broadsword and kite shield, often using a top-trigger latchet crossbow in conjunction with this. He's proficient with polearms, two-handed swords, knives and daggers, and more elegant thrusting swords, should he ever use these.
Other Items: Any available to the young ruler of an entire kingdom, though he does have a personal kit violin and portative organ, commonly making use of these instruments, along with others, in the celebrations he holds in his mountain halls. Lord Aldwin is an avid musician and dabbling singer and poet.

---

A rather shitty sheet. I'll write more on Asuga tomorrow. Basically, they're insanely rich, nearly emotionless, and normally half-insane noblemen and women with a penchant for being eerily calm one minute and erupting into mad joy, psychotic rage, or deep depression the next. They live in mountain halls and fortresses, like the Dwarves of DF, but are far less industrious. Their forts and castles are enormous, with a penchant for massive, dim, eerie rooms where you can scarcely see the ceiling, or the walls from one end to the other. They hold grand feasts and masquerade parties in these castles in both an attempt to feel positive emotions and to show off their limitless wealth to visitors.

And they may or may not worship dark gods that live below the crust of the earth. Working on it.

Pace
((well since your thinking about where you want this to go, and nothing really needs my attention to update for you at the moment since you're taking care of running the child character I'll update when needed))

Aldwin
((sheet is good, so if you don't have any alterations you'd like to make feel free to make an opening post))

Haralus
The running dwarves caught the fact that you weren't going to run and made it over to your group before taking positions beside your men. Haralus recognized Sam, Durrin's third oldest child, as well as Frost, Edward, and the twins Duergan and Cael however the eldest was missing, though the Eldest's second stood among the living with his weapon at the ready.

The arrows stuck into it's armored hide and it shook it's head briefly before Haralus fired. The shot flew through the air at incredible speeds before plowing through it's open mouth and somewhere inside it's head. As the flames cleared Haralus saw blood under the skin of it's head as it screamed and began running at your formation, though Haralus could see it's step faltering as more bloody patchs formed on it's skull.

It took swipes at your men as it neared but the men seeing it stumbling and dying in front of them either dodged or just outright blocked it's attacks and waited. Soon enough it fell to the ground and the Dwarves moved in to finish the beast off, finding a small gap in it's armor that they forced open enough that they opened a large wound in it's neck and then moved to await Haralus' command.

The sons of Durrin all looked to each other before they all turned and waited for Haralus to berate them for entering the catacombs without permission. In the mean time Slade started barking orders to the men and they began preparing in case another beast came.

Burrin's second stared at Haralus as if he had struck him. After a second he spoke "My duty was to my liege, yes. I did my duty, I tried to talk him out of this foolishness, and when he refused to listen I followed him. I fought beside him and would have died with him if he had not given me one final order."

The Dwarf pulled out a sealed letter with Burrin's signet marking on the seal as he continued "He charged me with delivering this to his father. I will accompany you, but how dare you accuse me of failing my duty to Burrin."

He turned and started down the tunnels saying "Now, we came from this direction."

Slade sent one of the men to do as Haralus requested and then your men began moving. For a long time all was quiet as you moved through the tunnels and turned many corners. The men were refilling their lanterns as you continued, and faintly you heard something ahead.

Picking up the pace your men followed Burrin's second as he rushed forward. Soon Haralus could make out shouting and saw the Second draw his axe. Soon Haralus saw what had made the Second hurry forward as he spotted Burrin bury the head of his axe into a small beast before ripping it out and swatting another out of the air like a fly. Your men charged forward to aid Burrin as he yelled "I SHALL NOT DIE! NOT HERE AND NOT BY YOUR CLAWS!"

For a short moment Haralus saw the ghosts of the ancestors of Ironhold standing beside Burrin. One of them turned his gaze to Haralus before they all disappeared again and Haralus' men slammed into the group of the small beasts and began tearing through them. It was not long before they were all dead.

Haralus saw Burrin, who was bleeding from several small wounds and his armor was heavily damaged, walk over to what looked like a raised stone table on top of which he could see a pair of old yet pristine hand axes along with some throwing axes. However long they had been here it did not appear to have affected their condition. His second rushed to his side and the two exchanged a few short whispers before Burrin looked up at Haralus, waiting.

(( no one died in combat, the rolls were high enough that I let Haralus' men take care of it.))

Burrin picked up one of the axes and turned it in his hand until he found what he had been looking for. He then showed the distinctive markings that showed it was made by the Dwarven smiths of the Ironhold family, though the markings are extraordinarily old by the looks of them. Burrin set the weapon back down and said "I know what I did was...wrong. My hubris got the better of me and..." He cast a short glance at Slade before looking back at Haralus "...some individuals encouraged this folly. For that I apologize. Now as for what I was talking to my second about, these were made by smiths in the service of family long before my time, but no family records have ever mentioned my family ever coming down into these ancestor forsaken catacombs."

Burrin straightened as he prepared himself for the trip to go face his father, and it was obvious he was also mentally preparing as well. "Now I will go unless you have further need of me your Highness, and again I apologize. I deserve whatever punishment awaits me."

((Unless you have further questions for him he'll just head back and you can go about whatever it is you want to do.))

Burrin's second looked at Haralus and said "Yes, though what it was I'm not sure. Whatever it was...I don't know but I do know that I felt the need to rush to Burrin's aid."

Your men guided them away as Slade made sure the perimeter was secure. Some time later the dwarves sent with Burrin and his second returned with a dwarven diviner and four mages, two dwarven mages and two Imperial mages. One of the Dwarven mages wore the robes of a graduated mage with the markings designating himself as a first year assistant to the head of the college, while the other, whom Haralus recognized as Garik, wore the robes granted to High Mages that ensure the students are taught properly.

The two Imperial mages both wore dark green cloth uniforms that lacked any of the 'excessivness' of typical mage robes, instead being cloth shirts and pants coming down to heavy duty boots which had some form of metal plating on them over the toes, they also wore dark cloth full head masks and goggles with dark lenses. Garik, the diviner, and one of the Imperial mages walked over to Haralus as the other mages walked over to the corpse of one of the creatures.

The diviner bows his head to Haralus before saying "You requested my presence? I presume for whatever magical aura is emanating in this area?"

((For the imperial mage's head gear think somewhat loose mouthless balacavla's (however the fuck you spell that) with goggles over the eyes))

The girl, who had introduced herself as "Llana," lead Pace through the woods to a shaded grove of old oak growth. There among the wide open spaces between the aged trees stood a small cabin with an inviting warm glow beaming through the windows in the evening darkness of the grove. Dimly, Pace could see another small building further back in the woods. A barn perhaps? "Hold on a second." Said Llana, motioning him to stay on the cabins porch while she went inside. Pace looked about nervously as he realized something. For once, the dead had let him be for quiet awhile. He half expected to see something stagger out of the woods or appear before him at any moment, but nothing did and all was silence. "How odd." He said under his breath. He was startled from his rumination by the girl "Come on in Mr. Pace. Grandfather wants to meet you. Please don't wake grandmother."

The inside of the cabin was much as Pace had expected it, warm and comfortable. It reminded him strongly of his home before that day bandits had grabbed him on his way to learn a trade. It made his heart ache at the loss a little. The cabin was well furnished, less a cabin and more a steady home. Two side rooms, Pace assumed them to be bedrooms, and the one large room. Half of the room was taken up by kitchen while the other half was a general living area with a fireplace. The cabin was a work of hard labor and love. Pace was brought out of his revery by the elderly man seated before the fire. By all appearances he was simply a particularly fit, if a bit aged, man. He looked as if he had spent many long years in these woods hunting and trading what he managed to bag for a living. His arms were thin, but Pace could see the strength that must be hidden beneath those lax limbs. It was his shadow that brought Pace to a halt though. The old man turned his head in Paces direction, and his eyes widened. "you too huh?" he asked. Pace nodded. He had seen and heard many of the dead, but never anything like what had taken the place of this mans shadow. "I'm called Erkka. Please have a seat."

Pace sat opposite Erkka, "Howed you get yours?" Erkka asked. Pace didn't answer, he didn't know what the man was talking about and Erkka could tell. "Your shadow boy, don't tell me you can't see it? How did you get your curse?" Pace looked at his shadow, but could see nothing unusual. "There's nothing wrong with my shadow." Erkka shook his head, "Aya, you can't see it. Yer cursed boy. It shows in the shadow. But I guess you can't see yer own." There came a long expectant pause where the only sound was the ticking of the cabin and the crackle of the fire. Llana had gone out to the barn after bringing him in. Presumably to fetch more wood for the fire. Erkka broke the silence, "I accidentally injured a woman during a hunt. Poor lady. Her husband, or maybe t'was her brother, demanded I pay them, but they didn't want gold or silver. They wanted my right hand. I didn't see how it was a fair exchange and refused. Who wouldn't? A hand is not a fair trade for an arrow in the arm, easily treated. So they put a curse on me."

((TBC, something is blocking my ability to write in a decent manner.))