Friday, July 31, 2015

Friday NPC of the Week #2 - Len Neeples

Just like last week I have presented this NPC similar to a monster for ease of use. Some stats might be tweaked to be more how I like it. Like everything on this blog, feel free to change it as you see fit.


Len Neeples was a mighty paladin. He didn't always grasp the higher meanings behind religious verses and rules, but he was a good man, who always fought for righteousness and the higher power. He worshiped Torm (or any Lawful Good deity you desire), and always did what he thought was right. Len, like many paladins, spent little time reading holy texts, most of his time was out in the world trying to do good through his actions.

Just because Len didn't spend much time reading, didn't mean he didn't ask the big questions in life. He was truly obsessed with the Upper Planes, never quite wrapping his head around how planar travel worked, and what "life" was like after someone on his world died. It was very important to him that the afterlife be a peaceful, idyllic place to contrast the pain and suffering he saw around him in the world of the living.

One day, Len Neeples was saving a prince from an evil warlock, when the warlock dropped an amulet. The amulet allowed the user to be transported to another plane, or back to the material world. Not much is known about Len's travels in the Upper Planes, but rumour has it that he traveled to the realm of his god Torm, and met with the dead men and women who worshipped Torm, Tyr, and other goodly gods. These spirits were incredibly fulfilled and at peace living in the presence of their god. Nearly all of them were much happier than they had been in life, for much of the world is filled with poverty and suffering.

Something changed in Len. He realized that no matter how much evil he banished across the world, it didn't seem to make the world much better for the average inhabitant. However, every innocent who died would be relieved of their suffering in the afterlife. Len did something that he, nor anyone who ever knew him would have ever suspected, he broke his holy oath. Len entered a small farming village, a celebration was occurring so everyone was gathered in the main hall. The paladin entered the hall, ignoring the cheers and welcoming of the strangers and slaughtered them all.

Len believes that by sacrificing his own place in the eternal joy that is the afterlife, he can reduce the amount of suffering in the world, by helping speed souls journey to the next life. Since his paladin powers were lost by breaking his oath, he traded his amulet that allowed him transport to the planes to a fiend, in exchange for unholy powers. Len is a perfect example of someone doing horrible evil, but with the best intentions. He sacrifices the happiness he wanted above all else, to be close to his god in the afterlife, so that he could do what he believes will supply that happiness to the most amount of others.

Gossip amongst the fiends says that the fiend who supplies his power, whom he traded the amulet to, isn't allowing the souls to move on to the afterlife. Some foul magic is trapping them in some foul corner of the hellish lower planes. This is likely just rumour, but gods help this fiend if this is true and Len Neeples finds out.






















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