"Aaron Strachan" Ambassador from Furyondy

AC 6 (ring of protection + 3 and Dex 15): MV 3 (but see below M16 ; hp 43; THAC0 15; #AT 1; Dmg 1d4 +4 (dagger +4 Str 10, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 18, Wis 16, Cha 7 (but see below AL LG.

Spells: 5 1st, 5 2nd, 5 3rd, 5 4th, 5 5th, 3 6th. 2 7th, and 1 8th.

Magical items: ring of protection + 3, dagger +4, hat of disguise, amulet of proof against detection and location, medallion of ESP. ring of X-ray vision, miscellaneous potions and scrolls (DM's discretion).

"Aaron Strachan" is a doddering old codger pushing 80 who would be about 5'9" if he didn't walk bent double. He is gray-haired and has gray eyes, and dresses in a dilapidated set of motheaten brown and gray robes. He knows about trade and the prices of goods. and he does sometimes intone dire warrungs about the pirates-"shameful bounders and cads"-on the Nyr Dyv. He is a harmless old relic treated by most Oligarchs with patient condescension.

"Aaron Strachan" is predicated on a simple thesis: It would be very surpnsing if Furyondy did not have a representative in Greyhawk City, since the Nyr Dyv is a place of tension and incipient piracy. If no such publicly known figure could be seen, agents of the Homed Society and others would go looking for the secret figure which must surely exist. But Strachan is such an old coot that these evil spies have been deceived into believing that Furyondy has despaired of allying with Greyhawk (a deception carefully fostered in Furyondy, where very few in Chendl know the truth of the business) and leaves only this harmless, helpless old man in the city.

Indeed, the real Aaron Strachan was a dim-witted old coot, but since he died in an obscure backwater town in Bissel some years ago he could hardly represent Furyondy now. "Aaron" is the cover identity for Elskan Saramade, a 40 year-old wizard whose true appearance is that of a 6'0", slim (165 lbs.) man with black hair and brown eyes. Elskan wears a hat of disguise to appear as Aaron, and an amulet of proof against detection and location to escape detection. The latter would not be surprising to anyone scrying upon him; all ambassadors wear such items, for obvious reasons. When not maintaining his guise as Aaron, Elskan has MV 12 and Cha 15.

Elskan meets secretly with Nerof Gasgal and Org Nenshen, the only two Oligarchs who know of his real identity. It is through Elskan and the use of teleport without error spells that gems are sent to Furyondy to help pay for the fleets on the Nyr Dyv. In return, Elskan has relayed pledges of the acknowledgment of Greyhawk's independence-not that Furyondy or allied Veluna ever considered violating it by conquest, but the nervous Lord Mayor needed the reassurance.

Elskan is very careful about keeping his cover as Aaron Strachan intact, and when he visits Gasgal it is only by night and with great secrecy and the use of a dimension door spell for entry and exit. Likewise, any spying and snooping he does usually involves magical scrying and, if he feels it necessary to go about the city on some personal spying mission, he uses many magical protections to avoid being observed.