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Elminster Speaks - Part 2
By Ed Greenwood
The Bron of Voonlar
The Bron keeps law in Voonlar, acting as both judge and enforcer, with the aid of six deputies and a militia in cases of emergency. A worshiper of Bane who smoothly embraced the faith of Cyric after the Time of Troubles, Buorstag Hlammythyl was born on a now-vanished farm not far north of Voonlar. He took to the life of the sword at an early age, after many pitched battles against his surly father.
He spent almost two decades fighting in the Vast, the Vilhon, the northern Moonsea, and briefly in the service of certain families of Westgate and of Sembia. He acquired many scars but little gold before retiring to the town he often ran away to in his youth, Voonlar.
Buorstag is a burly, fat, pimpled man of many scars, sporting an untidy moustache and an aggressive nature that has led to his being called ‘the Boar’ behind his back. He has a loud, hoarse voice, a swaggering nature, a certain low cunning, and absolute obedience to ‘suggestions’ made by visiting Zhentarim. It’s often suspected that visiting Zhents take turns idly voicing contrary opinions just to watch the Bron of Voonlar change his ways of doing things completely, only to change them right back again at the whispered command of the next passing agent.
Thanks to his swindling and brutality, Buorstag has made many enemies during his mercenary days. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t manage to kill all of them. He’d like to be free of the fear that they’ll one day hunt him down and slay him for his past transgressions, and the Bron will jump at any chance to magically change his looks, preferably to something more handsome. He’d like to again enjoy feminine companionship that doesn’t come to him through fear, payment, or outright coercion. Like many brutes, he looks forward to the day when he’ll have money enough to retire to some secure backwater town elsewhere in the Realms (Secomber, he thinks, or perhaps an upland Sembian villa) to live out his days in luxury.
Buorstag secretly loves music, dancing, and hearing good tales told well. He never misses a minstrel or bardic performance in Voonlar, though he often sneaks in behind curtains, in shadows, or in nearby rooms, not wanting to be seen enthralled by the townsfolk. He loves the pepper cheese of Tethyr, roast boar, and warm, sugared milk, but he cultivates the image of the prodigious drinker because he thinks it makes Voonlarrans look up to him as ‘manly.’
Despite having to make frequent ‘say nothing about this misdeed, please’ payments to various Zhent agents, the Bron is slowly building his personal wealth, keeping an old cauldron full of gold coins hidden up an unused fireplace chimney in his bedroom in the Locktower. He also has a smaller sack of mixed coins buried in the woods at the foot of a certain dead tree in the woods just south of the town dump. Strapped to the underside of his bed is a belt into which he’s laboriously sewn emeralds, sapphires, and rubies acquired by theft or purchase.
* * * * *
The Bron, Buorstag Hlammythyl:
4th-level human fighter, AL NE; AC 4 (chain mail +1 & shield); hp 35; THAC0
15 (+1 Strength, magical weapon, specialization); #AT 3/2; Dmg 1d8+4 (long sword
+1, Strength, specialization); S 17, D 13, C 16, I 11, W 12, Ch 13.
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