Elraniel Tesmarien, Nyrondese Sage

AC 8 (Dex 6, cloak ofprotection +3 MV 6 (due to age W13; hp 32; THACO 16; #AT 1; Dmg ld4 + 2 (dagger +2 Str 6, Dex 6, Con 9, Int 19, Wis 17, Cha 16; AL CG.

Spells: 5 lst, 5 Znd, 5 3rd, 4 4th, 4 Sth, 2 6th (DMs choice, emphasis on divination spells).

Magical items: cloak of protection + 3, dagger +2, amulet versus undead (8th level), helm of comprehending languages and reading magic, wand ofparalyzation (51 charges).

Elraniel is unique: he is a grey elf who is extremely aged in appearance (80 years old in human terms). He is 404 years old, 5' 2" , weighs but 92 Ibs., and has pure white hair and sightless clouded blue eves. He walks with a cane, emphasizing his infirmity and apparent blindness, but has permanent true seeing to a range of 20 yards and thus sees objects and creatures as hologramlike and semi-substantial. To see through Elraniel’s eyes is to walk in a world of ghosts.

The elf walks with a stoop and has a fine tremor in his hands. He wears simple grey, blue, or brown robes. He took up residence in Greyhawk in Goodmonth CY 584, having left his home in Midmeadow due to “the troubles,” as he puts it. He is a part-time tutor in History at the Grey College of the Free City, and has sage proficiencies in theology (elven), history (Aerdi, Elven, Flan) and metaphysics (Olympus, especially Arvandor). His students admire and love the old elf; they compete for the honor of walking him home and running errands for him, and are solicitous of his welfare.

Elraniel is one of the People of the Testing (see Places of Mystery in the Atlas of the Flanaess). He underwent his testing in CY 347, and his blindness and age (and true seeing) both derive from that experience. Like all who have undergone it, he will never speak of what he learned, saw, and felt during that time.

Elraniel is a leading light of the People of the Testing, although it is truly a grouping of elves bound together by the depth of a shared unique experience, not a hierarchical group.

Within his home in Clerksberg, Elraniel has a number of variant crystal balls that permit communication with other members of the People. He speaks with elves in Celene, Nyrond, the Grandwood, and the Lone Heath, the Vesve Forest, and the Rieuwood, among other places. The majority of these elves are powerful indi- viduals, many being wizards of 1 lth and higher levels, ranger lords, and the like. Many are sages, and some have special knowledge and unique skills from their own Testings. Some know secret ways into the Fading Lands, others know the paths by which elves seek The Leaving from Oerik. Elraniel is, in part, a “clearing house” for information certain of these elves wish to share with others.

The People of the Testing are other-worldly in their concerns for the most part, but not exclusively. They share a desire to protect deep, old forest lands, faerie folk, and hidden areas secret and precious to elves. They strive to keep secret any hidden evil banes, magics, and secrets they are aware of.

Though these goals might seem to be those of good, conflict may arise between the People and other good folk. For example, the People desire to protect the Welkwood against all incursions. If the incursions are made by desperate men fleeing the eastern Suss pursued by Pomarj orcs, the fleeing men would be considered as bad a nuisance and as dangerous a threat as the orcs. There is a streak of elvish xenophobia about the People, and an aloofness and superiority in their attitudes.

The People also eschew temporal authorities and are no friends of Queen Yolande nor elven rulers elsewhere. Some may be among the advisers of certain countries (as the DM decides) and, of course, they don’t proclaim their membership of the People in public.

In game play, Elraniel is a character who might be consulted by PCs or other noteworthy folk on matters of elvish lore or history (if one has queries about Nyrond, for example, one might well ask Elraniel; he remembers the coronation of the first King of Nyrond, since he was present in the crowd at the time). He might be used as a conduit to feed slightly misleading information to PCs (he will put the interests of the People first, and may “forget” information to make sure the PCs don’t disturb or get to know about things he’d rather they remained ignorant of). His network of the People is deliberately unspecified; especially for elven PCs, this group could become a major factor in their campaigning lives, and should be designed by the DM to suit the circumstances of his individual campaign.