Lord Draven, the Black Duke

Str	18 (52%)	Armor Class	-2 (Full plate armor +3)
Dex	11	THAC0	9
Con	13	Hit Dice	9d10
Int	15
Wis	14
Cha	17	Alignment	Lawful Evil

Duke Phinneas Draven is a man in his mid thirties, he is tall and imposing, having inherited his family's renowned strenght and fortitude. His hair was once long and black, but over the past years he has become bald, and the only hair that remains is his beard and moustache, which are cared for by many servants and it shows. The Black Duke's features are rough, nearly always twisted in a stern look, made more so by his dark brown eyes.

Draven is a very analytical man, and can easily know it by observing his body language, he always seems to be considering something carefully. His particular mannerism when listening to somebody is placing his chin on his fist and narrowing his eyes, staring intently at the speaker, if the speaker gets nervous, Draven will consider him a fool or a liar.

He usually dresses in clothes according to his status, that is the finest of clothes one can ever have, but these are usually in dark colors (black seems to be his favorite), since he doesn't like bright colors because of a disease he has (see below). In official events or battles, he wears a beautiful black full plate mail made by dwarven blacksmiths especially for him and a black cloak, also he wears a piece of black silk over the breastplate with his coat of arms sewn over it (a black raven with its wings outstretched over a red background).

The Draven family has ruled the region of Gleenwater for centuries, and they have always been known for ruling with a fist of iron; no insult goes unaswered and no crime unpunished, even the slightest offence can result in execution. And yet, for the most part, the inhabitants of Gleenwater support and gladly obey the rulers of Blackrock Keep, especially the current lord, Duke Phinneas Draven.

Phinneas was born in Blackrock Keep as the only son of Duke Thaddeus Draven, his mother died during his birth. The death of his wife torn Duke Thaddeus apart, and it is a whispered rumor that the old Duke blamed Phinneas for this. The Duke became a bitter man, he had never been outgoing, but after Phinneas' birth, he confined himself to his chambers for days at a time, during this time, it was the Duke's advisors who ruled Gleenwater.

Needless to say, Phinneas didn't have a very happy childhood, he rarely ever saw his father, and the little time they spent together was very cold, his father was very hard on him, he could never please his father no matter what he did. It was probably the need to please his father that eventually drove him to learn the art of war. Like his father, Phinneas became a fine warrior, and even participated in several battles with other kingdoms.

And yet, his father always appeared oblivious to anything he did, no matter how the young Phinneas would strive, his father never had any approving or encouraging words to him. In yet another attempt to please him, Phinneas began studying anything he needed to fulfill his future duties as Duke of Gleenwater, he began to show interest in the land's running.

After a while, he stopped trying to impress his father altogether, he buried himself in other activities, like falconeering, sword play, hunting, archery, and taking an active role in the running of Gleenwater. He was 20 years at the time, and he began suffering from a strange illness, a disease that plagues him to this day.

The origin of this disease has never been very clear, and no cleric in the land has ever found the way to cure or help him in any way. What happens is the following; from time to time (it has no evident pattern, it can occur many times a day, once a week, disappear for weeks, and then return again once a day), he experiences a crave for sweets (Draven already knows this sensation precedes the pain, and so he takes all measures described in "Roleplaying the Black Duke" below), a few minutes later, an intense headache begins, Phinneas has described as a terrible oppressive pain, as if someone had tied a bandanna in his head and tightened it as much as he could. The pain lasts for half an hour or so, it becomes worse in the presence of bright lights and/or noise, and diminishes if he lies down to rest in a silent and dark room.

His ailment did not stop him from continuing his work, but it did make him a little more reclusive, this didn't bother him much, he didn't have many friends and he was never very sociable.

Some years later, he realised that his homeland was in a very bad situation, ravaged by too many corrupt advisors and the lack of authority that allowed the officials and tax collectors of Gleenwater to do whatever they pleased. His father had not paying attention to the land, and it was now filled with incompetence and corruption at every turn. A few months later, an insurrection began in the eastern border of Gleenwater, it seemed that the Draven house was about to fall...

Five weeks after the insurrection began, Duke Thaddeus died under mysterious circumstances, rumors said that he had been poisoned, but this was never investigated after Phinneas assumed control of the region.

The new Duke surrounded himself with the very few loyal advisors and officials that remained and began cleaning Gleenwater, in the first two weeks that followed his rise to power, nearly eighty officials, administrators, tax collectors, advisors and other important figures were murdered brutally.

After this cleansing, Draven began his rule by strengthening Gleenwater's military and weeding out dissidents and getting rid of them. He then turned his attention towards the east, the insurrection was gaining followers everywhere, and soon it would grow into something unstoppable, he had to act immediately.

He didn't bother with warnings or negotiating with the rebels, the new ruler of the land needed an example that would dissuade anyone from opposing him, and that he got. The military of Gleenwater, reinforced with mercenaries from neighbouring lands fought the insurrection under Draven's sole command: "No wounded and no prisoners". The fight was, in short, a massacre.

The bodies of the leaders were taken to Blackrock Keep, their heads were removed and placed in spears and now adorn the hill leading to the Duke's keep, along with dozens of others taken from criminals, former officials and anyone who dares defy Duke Draven.

It has been ten years since that, and Gleenwater has regained all of its former glory and then some more, commerce has grown impressively and the army of Gleenwater is well trained and numerous, second only to the royal army. Furthermore, Draven has become a key political figure in the kingdom, he is a master of court politics and his influence extends all over the kingdom, he has even become one of the king's most trusted advisors.

His quick rise to power has earned him powerful enemies, specially among the other nobles, but Draven cares little about them, for he considers them pompous fools more interested in throwing ridiculously expensive parties to please themselves. And besides, anyone who crosses him ends up very bad, either dead or in jail, like I said, he has influences everywhere.

Duke Phinneas Draven is very ambitious, and does little to hide it, he always seeks to expand his holdings and power, and he is not a fair player. For example, if a province with a weak army is sieged by humanoids, Draven's army promptly intervenes to maintain the order, but they will establish several barracks and guard posts as "prevention". Of course, the lord of the province has to pay Draven for the help, in gold, access to trade routes, or anything the Duke desires. Also, the Black Duke knows the laws of the kingdom by heart, and never (publicly at least) goes against them, but uses every single loophole to discredit and attack his opponents.

Duke Draven is an obsessive and inflexible man (if you know what I'm talking about, he could be classified as a compulsive-obsessive); he is one of those people who keep their surroundings neat and extremely organized, and if anything is not where it should be or his orders are not carried out strictly as he asked there will surely be hell to pay.

The reason why he is called the Black Duke is the measures he has been forced to take due to the illness he has suffered since his youth (detailed above). When he feels the pain is about to begin, he signals Gildrian (his bodyguard, see below) or the nearest servant, who silently nods and he signals all near servants, who in turn signal others and so forth, then they begin pulling black curtains over any and all windows in Blackrock keep, as well as extinguishing any candles and chandeliers in the castle. Meanwhile, Gildrian will take the lord to his chambers and put him to bed. As it was said before, this helps alleviate the pain.

Now, there are many ways you can have your players get in the middle of Draven's plans, perhaps they foil an assesination attempt, and unknown to the PCs, the assassin was one of Draven's agents. Or maybe a local noble (of a province with a weak military) hires the PCs to slay a dragon/band of humanoids/brigands/whatever, and in the way there they find several of Draven's knights prepared to accomplish the feat themselves, if the party act faster than the knights and slay the dragon/humanoids/brigands/whatever, someone in Blackrock Keep will be very upset. As another option, the PCs may be after a guild of smugglers or assassins who could be controlled behind the curtain by Draven, or they could be friends with a local lord and asks them to help him foil the ambitious Duke.

You should remember that while Draven is involved in extensive illegal activities all over the kingdom, it's nearly impossible to expose him, there are always an appalling number of middle-men before anyone connected to the Duke, and his illegal agents more often than not have no idea they are working for him. Draven is a master when it comes to intrigue, and while the PCs may suspect or know he sits in the middle of the complicated web, they have no way to prove it.

Draven may not be the kindest of rulers, but all his subjects respect and admire him. Sure, he is tough and unforgiving, but his soldiers keep the cities and roads relatively safe. The few guilds there are in Gleenwater are either persecuted and mandated for extermination, or working for the duke in shady deals that never go public (smuggling, assassination, serving as spies, etc.), so you could say that people of his land like to have him around, after all, nothing will happen to them as long as they don't cross the duke, and hardly anybody is foolish enough to do that. Needless to say, the populace of Gleenwater wouldn't even consider rising arms against Draven.

As stated before, Draven has access to an enormous variety of agents through his contacts, these include numerous guilds of smugglers, assassins, spies (it is rumored he has even infiltrated spies in the royal palace), brigands, bands of humanoids and just about anyone he currently needs, his network is enormous.

There are other prominent figures in Draven's organization, the ones that are commonly known to be loyal to him, these are:

This is Draven's mysterious bodyguard, no one really knows why this man works for the Black Duke, but he is blindly loyal, if Draven asked him to cut off his own hand, Gildrian would probably draw his sword and ask the Duke if he preferred his left or right hand. Rumors abound of the reason for Gildrian's undying loyalty, some people say Draven saved his life during a battle, others say the Duke forgave the life of Gildrian's son in exchange for his loyalty, and still some others speak of charms, curses and black magic.

He is a man of stoic tastes, he eats and drinks the strictly necessary, and talks even less. He is devoted body and soul to the protection of his master and never leaves his side unless commanded by the Duke.

Gildrian is always dressed in a black tunic over a silver field plate mail, wearing a helm that he never takes off in the presence of others. The only decoration in his tunic is Draven's coat of arms (a black raven over a red background), sewn over the chest. Other than that, the only things he visibly carries are his swords, which are a pair of beautiful long swords engraved with all sorts of runes and symbols

Str 18 (95%), Dex 12, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8, Thac0 6 (without magical sword bonus), AC -3, # Attacks 7/2 (two weapon fighting style, specialization), Dmg/attack 1d8+10.

Field plate mail +3, two long swords of wounding +3, gem of true seeing (to detect invisible attackers), ring of protection +2.

In my campaign, Phantonus was Draven's field agent and most trusted advisor, usually the one to head Gleenwater's knights for monster and brigand hunting, to see Phantonus' story and stats, go here

Frendal is an old cleric who was brought to Blackrock Keep five years ago to try and find a cure for Draven's illness once and for all. Frendal does not approve of the Duke's reputation and methods, but is diligently working to cure Draven, after all, the Duke is ill, and his duty is to help him.

Frendal has heard all kinds of rumors about the Duke's illegal activities, but the Duke and his men are careful to keep the cleric ignorant about any wrong doings, and so Frendal cannot provide any incriminating evidence or information.

Very much like Gildrian, William idolizes the Duke and obeys his every command without any question. He was one of the officers who helped crush the eastern rebellion.

William is stern and uptight, discipline and respect for authority are his only religion.

These are Draven's elite military units, the knights are warriors of at least level 5 specialised in bastard sword and proficient in riding, heavy lance and medium bow. The knights of Gleenwater are fanatically loyal to Draven and organised in a strict hierarchy according to their battle prowess.

Usual equipment: Medium war horse, Bastard sword, plate mail, heavy lance, medium bow, 20 arrows.