Harold Boar
by Giulio Caroletti27th Kaldmont 977, Kantridae, Duchy of Kantrium, Thyatis.
True name: Damian Valerius Metellus.
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Living in the city of Specularum is a man who seems nothing more than a common Thyatian. If someone ever sees him casually in the streets of the city, he is not one of those people who is immediately noticed. Middle height, brown hair, and brown eyes, always reddened from a sort of allergic form of irritation, the man, known as Johnny Fragolino in Specularum, has no profession, and spends most of his days walking around the city, when he is not abroad for one travel or another. Those who know him are always surprised by this, considering that he doesn't seem to be rich. And he doesn't seem to be an adventurer, either.
But in fact, Johnny Fragolino is none other than Damian Valerius Metellus, a Thyatian noble whose occupation is the headsman.
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History: Damian Valerius Metellus was born in Kantridae on the 7th Klarmont 976. When he was very young he already showed a weird interest in death. He tortured and killed all sorts of small animals, because he was fascinated with it. His parents were very worried, and after some time they decided to leave the young man to the wizard Publicola, his mother's brother, hoping that he could somehow find what was wrong with the boy's mind, while they concentrated themselves on the education of his brothers Quintus (who would later inherit the senatorial title of the family) and Lucius. The wizard understood soon that the boy had absolutely no magical potential, but he could not send him to a clerical monastery or to the army to be trained, because of his strangeness.
Thus, the wizard raised the boy, since he was 7 years old, as a real father, and gave him an education suited to his nobiliary rank.
The wizard worked hard to remove the interest in death of his nephew.
The result was mixed: the boy had understood that kill and torture living creatures was a bad thing, but he felt an unpredictable desire to do so. While the boy grew to become a young man, he learned how to control this feeling, and by the age of 16, he felt it just as a distant call in his ear, that he knew would remain unheard. He returned for long periods of time with his family, and soon established a deep friendship with his brother Lucius, who was only one year older than him.
In 993, Publicola left for Karameikos. The two Metellus brothers decided to follow him to the Duchy, hoping to find new opportunities for their lives. No-one of them thought to follow the political career, that their father Severin had envisioned for them, so he turned to the youngest brother Quintus; arriving in the city of Specularum, the two begun an adventuring career that resulted very soon in wealth and fortune. After years of continuous quests, the two brothers had risen to fame in northern Karameikos and in the Selenica area with the names of Jacob and Harold Boar. In AC 1001, Harold Boar retired from adventuring, because he had found how to dedicate himself again to his old hobby. He entered the Guild of Headsmen, and begun to work as a headsman in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. This was a great satisfaction for his torturing and killing desire, and at the same time left him with the feeling that he was acting justly, for the benefit of society. He took the name of Johnny Fragolino for his day-to-day activities, and at the same time he begun to act as a contact among several adventurers and employers that he had worked with and met in his adventuring days. His discretion and common sense regarding delicate matters and his judging ability on who to call for which job, made him soon one of the most searched for "contacts" to find adventurers. In the years of the Wrath of the Immortals War, the name of Harold Boar spread itself among the nobles and wealthy, and soon to the rulers, of the Known World. It was Harold Boar who contacted the adventurers that would solve some problems like the apparent madness of Duke Stephen of Rhoona, the Martense episode in Wendar, the disappearance of General Demetrius of Corunglain during the war against the Master.
Now, Metellus is a very rich man who lives a triple life, as a headsman, as a Karameikan commoner, and as a very influent adviser and adventurer "dealer". Among people who has used his advice are the king of Vestland, John Beaumarys-Moorkroft and Prince Jherek Virayana IV, Ettore Ottaviano, Corwyn Mauntea, and several Ierendian nobles.
Harold Boar generally employs always the same persons. He knows some groups of adventurers which he use depending on the situation, but he resorts to them only in a second moment. He usually sends first a group of low level and low experienced adventurers on a mission to act as scouts. He never says them more than the necessary, and often hides the real task of the mission: he uses them to see how difficult the quest is, and to judge what party of adventurers he needs, and he doesn't feel sorry for the group if some or all die- after all, he payed them to perform a task, and they knew the dangers. Then, if they don't succeed, he sends one of "his senior groups" of adventurers.
Harold Boar is still in very good relations with Thyatis and his brothers, and has more than once served his motherland in secret missions, mostly for the Army. If the mission is extremely relevant, Boar is ready to engage himself directly, and he has fought more than one battle in the Wrath of the Immortals War. He is a top-level adventurer and a strategic genius, and he has been rewarded with the Cross of Silver, an important Thyatian war decoration...but with the name of Damian Metellus, so that no-one will ever find out that the all-knowing Boar, the Thyatian noble Metellus, and the idle Fragolino are the same person!
Damian, as Johnny Fragolino, lives in a small house of his property in Specularum's [...]. He is currently engaged with Alessandra Leucides, a half-Traladaran/half-Kerendan woman in her mid-twenties. He has not revealed his identity to her, and is scared by the thought of seeing her leave if she ever learns of his headsman-profession and his strange pulsion, but he is at the same time consumed by the desire of telling her everything about himself.
Damian owns also a house in Kantridae, and has a flat in Corunglain and one in Ierendi City, both of which were bought with the name of Harold Boar.
Personality:
Damian is certainly not a normal man. He is very intelligent, sharp and humorous, but he has a weird fondness for death, killing, and torture, that he has been able to cultivate remaining inside the sense of morality and responsibility that his uncle instilled in him. Damian likes to surround himself with a feeling of mystery, and enjoys solving problems through "his adventurers". He feels no pity for those who fail, believing that the world is hard, and only those who are hard can survive, and rationalises this by thinking that sooner or later, the adventurers that he sent would have died anyway. However, if possible, he tries to help them (often providing funds for resurrections etc.). He also likes to think of himself as an "uncle" for the adventurers that he knows and respects, and he thinks of them as of "his adventurers".
Appearance:
Damian is a very normal looking person- he dresses like any Thyatian who lives in Karameikos, doesn't wear particularly expensive clothes, nor jewels. A casual beholder would see nothing but a normal man, of middle height, with light brown hair and dark eyes, although a quite handsome one. However, Damian hides through his professional headsman abilities an amazing personality, and an incredibly well built body: he is strong, slender but impressively muscled, has a sharp look and a charismatic and healthy appearance.
Stats (OD&D, AC 1010):
Fighter 20, Headsman 12 DV
Str 16, Int 16, Wis 17, Dx 10, Con 13, Cha 16 Alignment: Lawful neutral