Paul Kidd

Paul Kidd is an Australian fantasy author who took up writing novels after serving as a lead designer on the 1993 SNES videogame tie-in for Shadowrun. His /tg/-relevant titles consist of a number of Dungeons & Dragons: The Council of Blades (Book 5 of the Forgotten Realms: The Nobles), three books in the Greyhawk Classics line, and Red Sails in the Fallout: A Gamma World Novel. Also, he wrote two short stories for Dragon Magazine, and the official Strategy Guide for the Discworld point-n-click adventure game "Discworld II: Missing Presumed..."

His novels do a good job of capturing the feel of a genuine adventuring party, by which we mean a bunch of squabbling misfit friends, only some of whom are bothering to roleplay a character or take the situation seriously, having conversations as much about adventures in general as the actual situation they find themselves in.

The Greyhawk Gang

When tasked with the Greyhawk Classics line, Paul Kidd needed to provide what, otherwise, the players would provide: character, and interpersonal interaction. Kidd here delivered, with a strong level of humor and charm - not hurt that he could develop his avatars over three books as components in a serial (and, yeah - the latter two were from linked modules originally).

The unconventional adventure party Kidd created was so well-received that they ended up starring three times in the pages of Dragon Magazine; the short story "By the Job" in issue #271 is a prequel to the trilogy depicting the Justicar's forming his unusual bond with Cinders the hellhound, whilst #278's "Keoland Blues" depicts the group on a minor dungeon crawl after the events of White Plume Mountain, but before Descent into the Depths of the Earth. Finally, issue #290 featured official 3.0 stats for the whole party, at least as they stood post-Descent and pre-Demonweb Pits, and a new Prestige Class, the Justicar, based on the main lead himself.

So, who are these characters? Well...

This article contains spoilers! You have been warned.

Firstly, there's The Justicar; a huge, shaven-headed, brooding human man, a grim, justice-obsessed warrior who fought as a guerilla during the Iuz Wars and since then has become a Justicar - a wandering justice-seeker, kind of a cross between a nomadic frontier sheriff and a bounty hunter. Character-wise, he's an almost Discworldian example of the idea that "Good doesn't mean Nice". A stoic, serious, stick-in-the-mud, the Justicar only cares about tracking down criminals and monsters and beating them to death - true injustice infuriates him, and he has spent his life since the Iuz Wars wandering the ravaged regions and seeking to protect the little people. He cares little for wealth, and keeps only what he needs to fuel his endless crusade. Totally contemptuous of gods and religions, which he views as powerful parasites, he's also a realist and a ruthless pragmatist. His three maxims of adventuring are: always anticipate problems in advance, always strike from an unexpected angle, and attack with unremitting fury. He's a master of stealth and the quickdraw. All in all, he's a total grim, stoic badass... if only he weren't roped into this motley band of misfits. Wields a sentient "holy" sword (whom we'll get to); implicitly this is possible because she's from Positive Material, not from an Outer Plane.

Escalla is a female "faerie" (Pixie) Evoker, a princess from an unknown extraplanar fey court who left her life behind in search of escae and adventure. Though only 18 inches tall, she's a bundle of restless energy, clad in the most shameless, barely-there clothing she can get her hands on. She and the Justicar are like fire and ice, and ironically it's bred a strong attraction to each other between the two. Despite her magical prowess, character-wise, she's more or less a stereotypical rogue mixed with a primadonna: sly, charismatic, happy, enthusiastic, absurdly vain, utterly irrepressible, she always has a sly comment or an off-color joke to share. Escalla is a fluent and constant liar, delights in tricking the dimwitted (which she views as almost everyone, having a rather overinflated opinion of her own smarts), abuses her magical and innate abilities to run scams, and revels in fast-talking her way past guards, confusing the opposition, and creating natty little diversions and traps. This roguish behavior is a constant irritation to the Justicar, who is at his wit's end trying to keep her honest. She often befriends or bemuses monsters rather than fighting them, but she shows a distinct nasty streak; in addition to being dedicated to protecting her friends, and eager to show off just how evilly inventive she is, she has temper issues, and when riled tends to just impulsively blast at things. She wields magic with a distinctive "bee" theme, and seems to get on well with giant bugs in general - so long as they aren't spiders. Her favorite treasure is "the cool stuff"; magic, jewelry and scrolls. It's noted that she always carries a few Potions of Giant Growth that she will not part with unless she must, with the obvious implication that this is how she and the 6ft-plus Justicar have a physical relationship.

Private Henry is a lanky human man in late adolesence, a former militiaman who became part of the group after their battles against the drow. Helpful but inexperienced, he's smart enough to know how ignorant he is, and so he's eagerly cottoned onto the Justicar as his mentor, a role that the Justicar is actually quite happy to fill. He gets on well with the entire company, but is described as "a clear soulmate for Enid". He favors the use of an enchanted crossbow, working in tandem with Enid to take down more minor foes.

Enid is a gynosphinx who was originally compelled to serve as a guardian in White Plume Mountain, but who abandoned her role and joined the party after Escalla played on her love of books and knowledge and how adventuring would serve her far well in gathering such things than just guarding a random corridor junction. Polite and calm, she is far more reasonable and rational than her best friend Escalla, and despite their closeness she tries to serve the hyperactive faerie as her common sense. Despite her formidable appearance, fighting skills and powerful magic (Stun Symbols are her specialty), she's polite, calm, genial, curious, well-mannered, a tad innocent, sweet natured and a little shy. She spends much of her time with Private Henry, and the two particularly pair up during fights.

Then... there's Polk. A motor-mouthed wagoneer who decided he was destined to fill the role of the Justicar's "adventurers travel consultant". A role at which he is absolutely terrible since he's an idealist whose entire worldview of adventurers can be basically summed up as "knights in shining armor out of little kids stories". Prone to long-winded rambling diatribes, often ending up oblivious to what's going on around him, he is far less informed than he thinks he is. He also has an immense appetite for alcohol and his "prose" goes far beyond the realms of "purple" and into something more like "fantasy genre paisley". He is an obsessive collector of adventuring equipment, which to its credit has occasionally been of actual use. Otherwise, he's just your average annoying comic relief character. After the events of Descent, he is also a talking bipedal badger, as a result of the vagaries of using Reincarnation over Raise Dead.

The final two characters are technically equipment.

Cinders is a redeemed (Chaotic Neutral) hellhound... who was murdered by a Lawful Stupid paladin who payed a tanner to keep it alive after flaying it as a trophy before the Justicar took issue with that shit. Its consciousness exists as a still-sapient enchanted cloak that the Justicar wears. He has he personality of a small child crossed with a talking dog... albeit one obsessed with burning things. As he can still spew fire several times per day, and the Justicar being a big believer in permanently solving the problem of evil, he gets his wish, though Jus generally has to push back to stop Cinders from trying to solve all their problems by setting things on fire. He also retains his immunity to fire, and confers it on his wearer.

Benelux is an enchanted bastard sword (+5 Intelligent Holy Bastard Sword of Disruption) with the personality of a fussy, irritating, prim, prissy girl. Fashioned from material taken from the Positive Energy Plane, which means she shreds through undead unless the plot requires her not to. Benelux's one redeeming trait (aside from her martial potency) is that she's truly dedicated to seeing justice done and injustice fought, which means she revels in serving as the Justicar's primary weapon. Unfortunately, she also despises Escalla, who she views as unfit to be the Justicar's traveling companion, and the proud faerie naturally takes offense to this, resulting in constant bickering between them.