Sir Ranald Immanen, Ambassador of Nyrond

Sir Ranald is 51 years old, 6’ 4”, and 2 11 lbs., with greying black hair and steely grey eyes. He carries himself as proudly as he can, with the bearing of a warrior (he is a 9th-level LG fighter, with Str 17, Con 17, Int 15, Cha 15). His position, though, is precarious and he knows it.

Sir Ranald’s problem is simple: Nyrond is virtually bankrupt and everybody knows it. Thus, a visit from Ranald means that he is coming to beg for handouts, and it is a painful process for many to go through the pleasantries and social graces when they know these are just pointless preliminaries. Sir Ranald also knows that the Directors can’t give much more aid than they do already, and that he has no leverage with other diplomats and no weapons with which to extract more aid.

In the face of this, Ranald stays remarkably self-possessed and dignified. He will not bring himself to beg, no matter how desperate. Nor, by virtue of alignment, can he stoop to truly underhanded means to better Nyrond’s position.

Ranald is the most diplomatically active of all the ambassadors in the Free City (i.e., the one most often pleading for funding from Veluna, Ulek, and Urnst-even Keoland, in desperation). He also tries hard to keep an eye on commercially ly exploitable possibilities. Nyrond can afford to trade little, but Ranald himself has a 13-year old son who is an absolute prodigy regarding economics and trade, and Ranald has made some 4,000 gp profit on trade speculation using his own money since he came to Greyhawk. Three quarters of this has been sent to Rel Mord, and the rest kept for future trade gambles.

Ranald will not gamble money he doesn’t have. He might go further with such speculation, hiring PCs for speculative ventures (or to escort merchants) or adventures.

Socially, Ranald is something of a stay-at-home simply because he doesn’t feel he should indulge himself when many in Nyrond starve. He maintains a very small staff and household, just enough to meet protocol requirements. He is a decent, honest, dignified man in an increasingly difficult situation, with Nyrond’s rulers putting pressure on him to talk more money out of almost every other nation.