Barlieu Clarreth, Bandit Lord

AC - 1 (bracers of defense AC3, Dex 18 MV 12; F10; hp 80; THACO 11; #AT 3/2 + 1; Dmg ld8+4 (long sword +3) and ld4 + 2 +special (dagger of venom Str 16, Dex 18, Con 15, Int 15, Wis 8, Cha 15; ALN (NE).

Magical items: bracers of defense AC3, long sword +3, dagger of venom, ring of free action, wings of flying.

Barlieu is 27 years old and stands 5’ 11”. He has thinning brown hair and green-hazel eyes. He weighs 189 lbs., and is vain and conceited about his appearance. He is the leader of a roving Cairn Hills bandit group some 8-1 1 strong (the number varies), opportunistically attacking merchants, miners, or militia as he deems appropriate. Barlieu is a native of the Duchy of Urnst, and he often takes his ill-gotten gains to frontier villages there, where his identity as a bandit is not known.

Barlieu’s men are fighters and thieves of levels 3-6, with two exceptions: his 8th-level NE thief sidekick Morten Kauric, and his paramour, an Oeridian 7th-level CN wizard (Int 17, Cha 14), Jenifaer Maldzanth, a native of the hills whose local knowledge is prized by Barlieu.

Jenifaer specializes in the use of spells such as fly and wizard eye to track and spy on possible targets, and always uses invisibility 10’ radius to disguise the bandits when they are preparing to spring an ambush. Jenifaer owns a ring of spell turning and a scroll with a teleport spell that will enable her to escape to safety (to Leukish, which she has studied carefully) if things get really sticky during a raid.

Jenifaer uses the polymorph other spell if the group is attempting a kidnaping, turning the victim into a small rodent (system shock is a risk she’s prepared to accept). If the bandits are faced with -a group of merchants with bodyguards, she’ll employ an ice storm area attack instead.

Barlieu’s men are all proficient in the use of long bows and flight arrows coated with a paralyzing venom to disable targets. They prefer merchant targets, otherwise anyone they can possibly get a fair ransom for. The latter is strictly a second-best option.

Barlieu has two weaknesses that could be ex- ploited by PCs if they are unfortunate enough to be captured by him. First, he is impressionable (low Wisdom) and vain, and could be challenged to a trial by combat (refusal would mean backing down in front of his men, which he could not ac- cept). Second, Barlieu has a rash taste for adven- ture, so if PCs were able to spin him a yarn of adventure (“we seek a dungeon rich with treasure and redolent of magic!!”) he just might fall for it.