Pahvelorn Character Sheet Collection

PAHVELORn
Character

SHEETs

My most played character of late has been Beni Profane, an OD&D (well Greyhawk) thief, who has survived in Necropraxis’ long running Vaults of Pahvelorn.  The campaign is on hiatus, with the party having just slain some kind of lich and the floating ruins that have long loomed over the Vaults (a huge pit in the earth with several entrances) descending back to earth.  The campaign is thus poised on the brink of either victory or destruction, as what exactly will happen next is very much an open question.

Beni Level 1-3

Beni began as a “rat catcher” which was largely an excuse to include “sack with six rats” on his sheet. The rats have proved their usefulness, as did Beni’s faithful terrier.  The dog died in the last session (which was almost a TPK, the survivors of a huge fireball blasted and unconscious on the floor except for one Cleric who managed to cast hold person on the lich/awakened  arch mage and save the group.

This is Beni’s first character sheet, with the portrait based on a woodcut from the 17^th century. He has his ratting pole (with hook, dead rat and flag) and his ridiculous hat (with floral scarf and emergency/sneaking candles).

The Mountain Comes to Efulziton the Unseen - Pahvelorn Play Report

"So the extraworldy army is destroyed, and we get a reward, well I want you to promise not to attack the other ... uh ... civilized cities.  Well no I can't see why you'd do that, and I trust you'll keep that promise?  I also want to be a knight, I mean Duke of Trolmun.  Wait, there aren't any nobles in Trolmun, but I can still have a scroll that says I'm a Duke - a patent of nobility - make it written real fancy, on good paper, with ribbons, and seals, and some illuminated letters.  On a big heavy scroll, with carved knobs, yes bone is fine.  It's not worth anything though, you're sure?  Well then I also want my weight in gold - all 136 lbs." - Beni Profane, when offered his heart's desire by the Necromancer King Efulziton the Unseen

Pron - fighter, and huge, heavily made-up, hairy child

With the last notes of the magical flute echoing in their minds, and the earth around them buckling as uncounted legions of undead clawed towards the surface from their cursed graves the adventurers of the sometimes "Order of Gavin" rushed to the surface up the deep well that had led them to the heart of the doomed mountain.  Uri the Hook, a sadistic brute of a deserter from the Zorptah town guard who possessed an inexplicably sweet singing voice had fled previously and by the time the first of the party emerged from the stone well his armored form was fleeing across the writhing graveyard in exaggerated leaps that flung snow in every direction.  Lau Taxan, Beni Profane's dour shamanistic 'spiritual advisor' was the first to emerge from the ground, his ascent aided by the power of his fecund goddess to transform his hands and feet into the clinging claws of a rat.  As Lau forced his now human feet back into his armored boots, Beni also emerged from the hole, having scurried up the side of the shaft with no rope to slow his natural agility.  The two waited, and soon Eariyara the sorceress also climbed from the hole, her childish pinched face red with exhaustion from the rapid 50' climb.

Pahvelorn Session 38 - Two Citadels of Death

"I have no outward ambitions, look around my kingdom, I could destroy the lands to the East. That vulture who calls himself the Griffon Lord, the misguided priest king, or the foolish merchants of Gazemoral, all would fall before my armies, and I will not bind myself to peace with them.  You must trust I am sated with the lands I hold, find me the artifact and then we can talk of your price." - Efulziton the Unseen, The Necromancer of Trollmun

Emerging into the blue arctic light Beni Profane, Lama Karna, Pron the Giant Child, and Eariyara the Sorceress beam with relief and scuttle down the wind warped mountain towards the ancient petrified logging town where they've made their camp deep in the Cobramurk mountains.  Below them broods an ancient temple to the necromancer queen Orcus, where the petrified screams of untold sacrificial victims hang in the air. The ominous nature of the tomb and the obvious barely constrained power of the place convinced the party that further blind exploration was inadvisable, and the adventurers resolved to head to Trollmun, the citadel of the Necromancer Efulziton the Unseen and his sorcerous court.

Beneath the Tower of Petrified Screams - Pahvelorn Play Reports 35-36

"There are places that are wrong in the world, outside the cycle of collapse and rebuilding, cankers of magic and hubris where not even the most hearty and noble of the earth's creatures, the rat, can find a place to thrive.  This tower, and the temple beneath, are such a place, and are clouded from the vision of our Mother her myriad of children.  She warns us, as she has warned the followers of the empty sky, that this place of wrongness goes deep, so deep that its roots reach down past the runs of the elect, gnawed into the pillars of creation." - Lau Taxan, Beni Profane's spiritual adviser and horse of the Rattus Legatus

After the battle beyond Pahvelorn's skull etched door, the adventurers were bruised, cut and generally disheartened.  Eariyara the child sorceress had taken her first serious sword wound to the scalp, and both of her servants were dead.  Fitzwalter, the stoic mercenary whose loyalty far outweighed his combat ability had been poisoned with an arcane crossbow bolt, but a portion of his soul refused to abandon his duty, and through the strange magic of Pahvelorn had been siphoned into his crossbow, now a twisted and malformed weapon, it's steel bow blackened as if by fire and it's stock warped.  Ginny Bo an elderly former cooper who joined the party in Illum-Zugot out of a desire to do great deeds before his death, and actually managed a fair number, was also hacked to pieces by the axe of a brutish bandit lord.  The other party members, Tarvis the Crusader, his battle deacon Daroullian,  Pron the Beast Child, Sir Beni Profane - self proclaimed rat catcher general, Lau - Taxan the Cunning Man, Karna - Annoited Bishop of Illum Zugot Haxetha, the gladiator Haxatha, and Torgel the Bald, a bandit with sanguinary tastes, all also suffered injury and exhaustion. It was time to leave Pahvelorn and the town perched above it, Zorptah, as the war to the West closed in on it. What was needed was a way to stop the war, and the only option known to the party was a weapon beneath a place of ancient burial and evil far to the East.

Evil Temples all look the same - Right?

Shaman Spell Lists of the Mater Milia - Pahvelorn House Rules

In Brendan of Necropraxis' long running G+ game Vaults of Pahvelorn, due to the slow evolution of the game world, it recently made sense for my thief to hire a henchman/spiritual adviser name Lau Taxan. Lau is a former clerk and embezzler out of the holy city of Illum-Zugot, but he is also chosen by the rat goddess, and after a few months of adventuring he developed the abilities of a rat priest.

Der Rattenkonig

Now one of the things that's developed in Pahvelorn is an interesting religious dichotomy between followers of the orthodox sky religion, the Eternal Empire and the resurgent cults of old local spirits.  Many local spirit cults are animal in nature, and have very different powers.  In order to make this religious split interesting (it's changed party dynamics a bit - with (arguably evil) the thief and child witch trying to outdo the (arguably good) two clerics with good acts to prove their dubious rat deity is a more generous god than the Empire. One could also comment that the PCs religious beliefs have made the party less mercenary, and more focused on helping the various towns and human civilizations rather than narrowly focused on loot and advancement.

Under Brendan's rules, the distinction between the way priests and traditional religious practitioners work is interesting with an entirely different kind of casting and limited menu of spells based on summoned spirit.  Details on the Cult can be found in this post about Lau Taxan, but it has recently been described as "Rat focused Marxism" and indeed a common mantra of its worshipers is "To the glory of the Mother according to her needs, from each according to ability"

The Death of Ginny Bo - Pahvelorn Play Report

 Ginny-Bo, octogenarian swordsman lies dead, his body brutalized by the axe of a bandit just beyond the skull marked doors that are the entrance to Pahvelorn's lower halls.  Ginny-Bo, originally hired in the slums of Illum-Zugot, was not only a mascot for the adventurous band sometimes called the Order of Gavin, but also a valued member of the group, responsible for landing the fatal blows on many dangerous enemies.

The insane old man's current self-granted title (as recited to his enemies before battle) was "Ginny-Bo, warrior of the black demon helm, giant killer, wielder of the devil sword Oby-nnig (his own name backwards - the sword is not magical), sludgifier of the great wyrm, dragon slayer, dragon friend." Since his death the band's powerful priests, Karna and Tarvis both continue to fuss over Bo's body performing exhausting rituals seeking to bring Ginny-Bo's elderly frame back to life. His wounds are closed with molten gold, and prayers on the purest squares cut from the hides of the rare white deer are burned.  It is unclear if these efforts will succeed in reviving Ginny-Bo's battered corpse, but it is a testament to how valuable the party finds him that they are conducting the ritual.

The ill fated expedition back to Pahvelorn occurred almost as an after thought, with the adventures spending much of the week trying to determine how to get rid of a dragon, soul-bound to Eariyara as a result of last week's battle with Purgle the Brown.  Purgle's electrocuted body was left to rot between his magical bonfires, and he and his boat looted.  On Purgle's body Eariyara discovered a magical ring, inscribed with the name of an ancient dragon "Melisophotis the Terrible".  Using the ring a wizard can command the dragon, though it has a chance of breaking free, but once worn the dragon and wizard are irrevocably bonded.  The party collected a number of treasures from Purgle's boat and and settled down to wait for the dragon's return, hidden amongst the trees.

Bonfires in the Forest - a Pahvelorn Play Report (Session 34)

Beni Profane, knight of Gazemoral, Rat catcher, Devotee of the cult of Mother of Thousands, Yegg and Road Warden along with his spiritual advisor Lau Taxan and his regular group of companions set off in pursuit of the dragon that had smashed the gates of Gazemoral and ravaged it's populace.

These Guys - A Classic

Beni's companions consist of several adventurers and henchmen. Tarvis the crusader, who despite his adherence to the new religion of the Eternal Empire has piratical mores, similar to Beni's, that have been honed by many months of grave robbing and a penchant for training animals.  Tarvis is accompanied by his taciturn companion Darullian, a former farm boy and now skilled man at arms. Eariyara a pre-teen sorceress whose power has grown frightfully as she plumbs the ancient secrets recovered from the ruins, or snatched bloodily from other wizards. Eariyara's age and sinister aspect have given her some difficulty in hiring competent assistants, but he is always accompanied by Ginny-Bo, an elderly dare devil, who seeks to die violently in battle but has so far only shown a knack for survival, overweening ego, and faculty for slaughtering dangerous monsters.  Eariyara's other companion is a clumsy mercenary named Fitzwalter, who seems oddly content to guard the young wizardess. The band's final long time member is Bishop Karna, newly elevated, a prodigy of faith and clearly touched by the divine.  Karna's loyalty to the Priest King of Illum-Zugot makes Beni distrust him, as does his love of summoning snakes to poison and devour his enemies.  Karna has finally hired an assistant, an untested former gladiator woman named Haxeth.

On the Familal Impulses of Dragons - Pahvelorn Play Report

Comprising sessions 32 and 33 of play, in which the world appears to move too fast for the party, dragons are revealed for the awesome majestic beasts they are, and promptly slaughtered for their valuable byproducts.  Rumors about the transcendent nature of elves also prove to be untrue.

The return to the town of Gazeamoral was a success, loaded down with objects of value from the ziggurat of the now defunct purple worm cult, Beni Profane and his companions were feeling wealthy again.  The Fifteen year old Hegemon of Gazeamoral was willing to make Beni into a knight, and the party had recently stolen a map to a great treasure from some kind of necromancer/diplomat. From any angle the sometimes 'Order of Gavin' was moving up in the world.

My favorite dragon form the Monster Manual

Lau Taxan - Pahvelorn Henchman

Lau Taxan - Rat Cultist

In Brendan of Necropraxis' excellent Pahvelorn campaign (Whitebox D&D with some wonderful rule hacks - the man is a genius for rule hacks) about 19 sessions ago I went carousing with my newly minted thief, trying to gain a few more (perhaps 100) experience points so I could catch up to the rest of the party.  I had recently immolated my alcoholic bastard of a fighter, Lune Cha Met (it's phonetic), in a pretty obvious flame trap. I picked Beni Profane the rat catcher as my new PC, both because I wanted someone who'd level quickly (1250 XP to 2nd level!) and because I had just looked at some great block prints of 17th  century rat catchers.  It was also a metagamey attempt to figure out an excuse to carry around a wardog and a sack of rats.  Beni's equipment list still says "Small but vicious dog" and "sack of six sewer rats" - though at 6th level and newly knighted the man should perhaps not be toting around rodents.

Even a Worm will Turn - Vaults of Pahvelorn Sessions 28 - 30.

Beni Profane, now Knight of the Western Marches, vassal of the Hegemon of Gasmoral, Favored of the Mother, makes the following report - drunk on Gazmoralian floating fruit brandy, from beneath a tarp in the back of a battered wagon heading West along the old road.

"See here all this around, this forest, this wilds, it's mine now! By patent of nobility! Profanes are coming up in the world. A Genty Cove, Beni Profane is now.  It wasn't easy, but with a bit of Rum Dab, a willingness to sing when it's needful, the audacity to be a cutting gloak when it's not, the ear of the gods, and a good crew - it's possible to rise the gutter up to the spires.  Now see here this is how these good fellows [arms waving wildly seemingly including a dingy furred grey ratling, a sinister twelve year old girl and several heavily armored crusaders] and I knotted the worms in their lair and got ourselves a road to warden!" [Beni begins to snore loudly, and his hollow eyesd companion Lao Tauxian takes up the tale].

This  - sans gnomes/goblins

Ruminations of Beni Profane - A Pahvelorn Play Report Digest

My thief in the Pahvelorn Campaign has reached 6th level and is quite the dastard at this point, he began as simply a doodle of a 16th century rat catcher, abut through play and in game jokes, carousing rolls and strange coincidences he's not a bit of a vain cynical fellow who worships a strange rat spirit and has started really resenting the party's clerics.  He's also become ambitious lately and wants to set himself up as a robber baron to feed his appetites for garish clothing and his aspirations of respectability. I never intended to play a character that was a secretly kindly, horse faced blonde version of  Nicky Santoro from Casino - but that's what's fun about developing characters through play.

Beni Profane, self proclaimed "Rat Catcher General" is a 6th level Whitebox D&D Thief who has made a fair bit of coin in exploration and recovery.  He affects shirt with a ridiculous silk floral motif, and a well worn scarf of a similar make when not on the trail.  He prefers his wine rough and mixed with a bit of pine resin, and has been seen in the company of priests despite his obvious impious nature.  The stories Beni tells of his experiences beneath the ground and of the wilds are undoubtedly the product of cheap spirits and other narcotics.
  
It's been a long time since I've seen the dank halls of Pahvelorn, been on a vacation from the pit.  The margins there were never any good once we put down that wizard with the stag demon master and the obsession with making animals out of men.  Demon worship doesn't pay, worship doesn't pay in general, but with those things from outside the world it costs more than a few coins to pay a priest's brothel bill and time spent on the autem.  Pahvelorn had killed Satyavati, the only sorcerer I ever met that a fellow could respect, and left me the lone sane fellow amongst a band of priests and a spooky spell flinging child.  Well compared to the priests the child's tolerable, can't hold her liqour, but she's coming around to the Mother of Thousands perhaps, and with a better understanding about the nature of the world than the vestment wearing fellows. Pahvelorn's margins are scant, but it's still a place for fangs in the dark, so my band and I alighted for better chances.

Thoughts Regarding Character Mortality and Old School Dungeons and Dragons

You're playing this group

One of the more frequent complaints about older versions of D&D is that it's high lethality -- that characters die too often.  More irksome for these detractors is that characters die randomly.  They die from a single hit, a giant rat bite, falling down a pit with no saving throw, failing a saving throw that had a 4 in 20 chance of success.  Sometimes there's nothing the player, or worse the whole party, can do to survive: ambushed by a rain of arrows from 30 bandits in the wilderness for example.  It's understandable that this seems like arbitrary cruelty written into the system -- pointless, meaningless death without reason.  I've come around to accepting this though, and even relishing it -- because I think that there's a fundamental misunderstanding built into these critiques.

It's not to say that they aren't valid reasons to dislike classic play, but they're a critique of the kind of game that OD&D is not of broken rules.  Classic D&D isn't heroic fantasy, it's low fantasy, and it's not a game that indulges the power fantasies for each player, but a game of collective world-building between players and GM.  By "power fantasy" I'm not trying to be dismissive to other games or genres that are about the individual advancement or story of an avatar, I'm attempting to draw a distinction between a fantasy narrative of individual success (empowerment) and the broader narrative of a fantasy world (historical).

Old style D&D is not a story about any one PC, it's a story about the adventuring party as a whole, or ultimately about a fictional world as a whole.  That's why replacing characters is so easy.  That's why power levels are relatively compressed and monsters randomly encountered rather then balanced by encounter. At an even more abstract level classic play is about the game world and players slowly revealing it in cooperation with the GM.

Not this group

Servants of the Elder Gods - Spell List

Below is an alternative spell list for clerics of animal and other primal deities.  I figure it'd work for cultists and shaman as well.  It's sort of an alternative for the Druid class, and dispenses with the Druid's focus on nature as a whole in favor of a focus on the power of some sort of totemic spirit - usually of an animal nature. I suppose a tribal priest that drew their power from ancestors would work well, only the creatures summoned and evoked through the spells would be totems, spirits and homunculi empowered by revered shaman.

Originally this was intended as an alternative for animal spirit clerics in Pahvelorn, but it sounds like there's another much cooler plan in the works for that.  The spell list is based on the presumption that these casters are less armored crusaders and more likely to be light combatants like the tribal or cult warriors they support.

Oh Rats!

Spell List for the Servant’s of the Elder Gods (lvls 1-3)

LEVEL 1

1. Detect Magic – Blessing of the Auras
Servant may detect magic for 1 turn per level.  This magic detection is not as effective as that of an arcane practitioner, based instead an ability to see that things, people and creatures are tainted with something unnatural.  The ability to see magical auras lasts 1 Turn per level of the caster.

2. Calm Beast – Peace of the Ancients 
Allows the caster to calm up to 8HD of enraged natural creatures with a single word spoken in the elder tongue.  These creatures will remain calm and uninterested in the caster or those accompanying her for 1d6+4 turns unless considerably disturbed or attacked.

3. Detect Hidden – Sight into the Hidden Worlds
By calling on the Spirits of place and time the caster may have a flash of vision that will reveal everything hidden or concealed within a 30’ radius circle indoors.  This includes hidden objects, traps and secret doors and areas blocked by walls or doors. The spell does not provide meaning to the items it shows, such as where the trigger to a secret door is located, or how to disarm a trap, but it can reveal their presence. Outdoors this spell, in addition to detecting nearby hidden items can be used to find trails and paths if the Servant is lost.  An unfortunate the after effect of this spell is that the caster will suffer from blindness to all but ethereal things for 2D10 turns after the spell is cast.

Pahvelorn - Tragedy and Plunder

“If it lives underground in an undead infested catacomb and can see in the dark – doesn’t matter how human it looks, it’s evil, and it’s going to try to eat you.”  - The Wisdom of Beni Profane

Ginny Bo - maniac torchbearer

Beni Profane, the rat catcher, archer, killer and would be smuggler from Zorphath has grown in skill and power since his first tentative steps down the path of delving into ancient a haunted ruins.  He's grown in wealth to but it just doesn't stick to his fingers.

After having departed Zorphath and the Pits of Pahvelorn due to a string of companion deaths, close calls and returning bruised and shaken without plunder, he and his band, the self-styled "Order of Gavin" headed North to the white fortress city of Illum Zugot, home of the purportedly wise and undoubtedly arrogant "Priest King".  It's unclear how effective the Priest King is as a ruler, his hatred of the Necromancer lord to the South and his piety apparently overwhelming his common sense at either clearing the undead filled barrows which pock his domain or the addressing the battalion of demonic infantry now infesting the tombs of the patriarchs he holds dear.

Pahvelorn - New PC's and Henchmen

Pahvelorn, the Pits of waste and despair...

The session before last (A lovely romp through hill, dale, and cliffhanging barrow) another PC was lost. Ogam the reluctant magic-user plummeted to his death trying to leap over the corner of a spiked pit.  Ogam is the 3rd of a line of magic users replaced by their hench-people to meet his fate within the maze of Phavelorn.  Margo died to the fists of a disgruntled skeleton in the Necromancer's villa.  His henchman Higgans (a man of a truly evil aspect, but solidly competent) died from a swarm of skeletal rats in the the Cursed Shrine outside the pit, and now Ogam, who was originally hired to carry a lantern and was just coming into his own as a caster, plummeted to his death fleeing giant ceramic ant automatons in the forgotten crypt of an imprisoned sorcerer.

Ogam was replaced by the most dubious mage yet, a twelve year old sorceress who was "rescued" from an evil and insane wizard who's main hobby was transforming men into shaggy beast monsters. Eraria is a former street urchin, with some magical facility who quickly and without hesitation switched sides when her master was killed.   It is not in doubt that she is a black-hearted occultist, but she knows a good amount of magic and currently has the libraries of the four other dead wizards that have been part of the party as well as a wealth of scrolls and codex's recovered from the ruins.

Eraria, evil tween sorceress

Eraria is perhaps judged too harshly above, as it's not as if she's ever had a chance to be good, or seen anything positive come out of it.  One can only hope that the exposure to the party will change her for the better.  Even the rat worshiping mercenary attitude of Beni Profane would be an improvement on the insane demon pacting philosophies of Louvritar the Bleak Eyed, Eraria's former master.  Such change seems unlikely though, as Eraria is perhaps the most intelligent of the party and seems set in her ways already, having taken on an orphan named Genk as an apprentice to lead down the path of dark sorcery.

Another recent addition to the Phavelorn party is "Donkeyteeth" an orphan recruited by Beni to act as his "apprentice" in the honorable trade of rat catching, the dubious trade of tomb vandalism and the unwholesome trade of putting poison arrows through the eyes of anything questionable, human, beast or entity.

Pahvelorn - These Ziggurats Contain no Gold, Only Death!

The band hadn’t had a good score since Illum Zugot where the priest king had been willing to pay to have the ancient barrows around his city cleansed, and the barrows themselves had been full  of wealth. Still it was again into the pit of Pahvelorn, an giant chasm, ripped from the earth.

The adventurers had already come down though the buried city, dispatched an incompetent necromancer, who’d been more irksome than dangerous, and entered one of the stone barrows beneath the city.  Three stone sentries containing buried magicians and unspeakable guardians.  They’d imagined this one would be better than the first which had cost the party it’s most puissant wizard, Beni Profane's a kindred spirit amongst the pious clerics and sinister warlocks that made up the group.  Satyvati, an easygoing hedonist was an easygoing hedonist, like Beni, but had been pulped by a stone guardian statute standing watch over the desiccated remains of some kind of trapped sorcerer form bygone ages.

Statuary had tried that previously on this delve as well, but luckily the party's strong arms were up to the challenge and two stone warriors had been pounded to fragments before they could do much harm.  In a room beyond the statute, beautiful murals on a rather punitive religious theme dominated.  The paintings were well done, but Beni didn’t appreciate them, both because they were antithetical to his own animism, and because the frescos were firmly attached to the wall.  Ten minutes of careful work only removed the figure of one saint, which despite it’s beauty really did not make up for the risk of animated statuary. 

Big Ants

Pahvelorn - Session XVII - Tower of the Stargazer

TOWER OF THE STARGAZER - As converted to Pahvelorn...

This is a play report, but it's also a review of playing tower of the stargazer using OD&D rules as made sensible and brutal by Brendan of Untimely.  I note that the party of 5 PC's (C 4, C 3, MU 2, F 1, T 3) and several henchmen (F2, F1, F1, MU 1, Dog 1, Dog 0) managed to make it through, get the loot and not suffer any damage.  I think this is a testament to the sheer deviousness of the GM's own puzzles and traps and the healthy fear the PC's now have for anything and everything.  I should add that the dangers in the tower were apparently made more so based on the higher level of the party.

After the last disastrous foray into the Pits of Pahvelorn, the adventuring party sometimes known as 'The Order of Gavin" is depressed.  They are broke, have just lost one of their mages (The non-creepy one), had a a favored henchman descend into hysterics and dash unarmored off to his death, exhausted most of their magic items and honestly at wits end about where additional valuables might be located within the Pits.

A knock on the door of the party's ramshackle compound stirs the adventurers from their despondent sloth, and they find a short man, dressed in motley and bearing a invitation to the tower of a powerful wizard recently arrived in town presumably offering employment.  The tower is normal except for a pack of large apes placidly eating ferns in an enclosure to one side, and some strange geometry that appears to facilitate the sorcerer's interest in the heavens

Indeed the powerful wizard does want the adventurers to undertake a mission for him, specifically he claims that an ancient sorcerer of the name Calcidius 'the Great' shared an interest in observing the stars.  Clacidius is presumed dead, but he left an intact tower, likely full of high quality observation equipment that Zorpath's wizard is willing to pay 1,000GP for scouting a path to.  Beni negotiates a byzantine deal where the party will receive a 1,000GP each if they fail to find treasure, and the wizard has a contract drawn up by a strange white haired servant and the party prepares to depart.

Character Portraits

As a follow up to the post of Beni Profane - here's the rest of the Pahvelorn party (with the exception of Sarin the Cleric - who was not around this last session).  All were drawn during the tragic session.  A short blurb is below each of them.

OGUM

Ogum - The party's current magic-user.  His master himself a former apprentice was torn apart by skeletal rats.  He also knows that the first warlock in the party, a now almost forgotten fellow named "Margo" was strangled by a skeleton.  He should clearly be afraid of skeletons.

It's not clear Ogum wanted to be a magic-user, rather he had magic use thrust upon him.  He's not really suited for it, but he finds himself with a pile of scrolls, spellbooks and magical bric-a-brac.

His apprentice is Eahrianna - an orphan moppet of 12 years old who was the former apprentice of the mad wizard Lovitar the Bleak eyed, who Ogum, Higgans and the rest of the party slew.

SATYVATI (Deceased)

Satyvati was a cheerful sort for a wizard taking up adventuring to pay his creditors after fleeing his home town.  He liked the finer things and spent a large amount of treasure on clothes and a house (which the party have now taken).  He was a skilled magic-user all the same - and quite effective with less combat oriented spells.

Sadly he was talked into seeing is "Protection from Evil" work on stone guardians.  Apparently they weren't evil, and before he could turn tail and run his was punched through the head by an 10' tall statute.

Satyvati leaves his servant Druna (who came with him in exile) to join the party as a full fledged member

DRUNA

Druna is not an adventurer, or at least he never wanted to be one.  He was a rich man's body servant, and seemed rather content at that job.  Yet when his master fell on hard times Druna followed him into a new career as a delver in slime filled caverns and plunderer of ancient barrows.  Faint hearted and useless at first, apparently Druna had been holding out on his master as he has had some obvious combat experience in his 59 years.

No one is sure where he learned to fight: banditry, military service or gladiator pits.  All are possibilities, but Druna isn't telling.


TARVIS

 Tarvis is the party's less contemplative Cleric.  A crusader for the Ancient Empire (The established religion in Pahvelorn) he's a bit the bruiser and door kicker.

Tarvis is also on the town counsel of Zorptah. His clerical rectitude and zeal making up for any lack of education and intellect.

Tarvis is accompanied by Darullian, a local Pahvelorn farm boy recruited by Lune (deceased) in a crossbow contest.  Darullian is both smarter and possibly more rational than Tarvis but the two work well together.

It should be noted that Pahvelorn is one of the deadlier games played on Google+ that I've seen - 4 PC's and 3 Henchman have died so far in the Pits, which is pretty high given that there is a death save. This is all the more surprising because the party is generally very cautious and frequently goes through a large number of 10' poles, ropes, iron spikes and similar items..

Updated Character Sheets - Pahvelorn

PAHVELORN CHARACTER 
What 10 plus sessions of ODD will make of a character.

Below is the updated character sheet for Beni Profane - rat catcher, thief, poison arrow user.

Beni Profane - "Rat Catcher"

Beni is now 3rd level and he and his loyal dog continue to plunder the vaults of Pahvelorn.  He's fulfilled a geas to his not quite diety the six armed rodent The Mother of Thousands and managed to have a suit of shockingly tasteless and gaudy white leather armor made from the skin of a giant snake slain beneath a demon infested manor house buried in the vaults.

Currently Beni sees himself as the tactician and pragmatist among the adventurers known as the Order of Gavin and is finding a kindred soul in the fancy living wizard Satyavati.  He's a bit uncomfortable with the zealousness and love of battle that seems to have infected the clerical members of the party now that they've become seasoned veterans, but perhaps that's the problem with actually worshiping gods rather than simply placating the dangerous ones...

Beni recently learned that he should stay out of melee, even though he has a slightly magical saber made of elf metal he purchased from a Sarin.  Beni is starting to form a smuggling route from the city of the Priest King, Illum Zugot to Zorptah, his adopted home town.

Beni's dog Treacle has not only survived but been instrumental in the party's survival on several occasions.

Treacle, War Terrier

Cenotes & Rodents

A map I drew tonight while play a nice game of Stars Without Numbers GM'd by ApisFurioso from Pilgrims Guide to to Zeitgeist.(Who is perhaps even more of a fan of ASE than I and has managed to use it in his home space D&D game already...).  Stars Without Numbers also seems an excellent version of B/X D&D in space - totally able to cross genres.

Here is the "Undershrine of The Rat Mother"

It's pretty linear - but I like the map.