Bova Tel-Bera

VLADIMIR DZUNDZA

Ifyou traveled the caravan routes from Gahanis,you may have encountered her.At first glance,she might not strike you as remarkable from any other caravan guard.Nevertheless, you would remember the distinctive crimson leather armor, the long raven hair woven in complicated plaits,the wiry frame,and the finely crafted greataxe slung over her shoulder. Ifyou sought a further glimpse,her beauty would come upon you swift and sudden,like a hawk on a field mouse.Her features,so soft and tender,would make you ponder why such a woman of20 summers would choose the life ofa caravaneer. But when your eyes met her cold,haunted gaze,you would have felt as ifa thousand daggers ofice had pierced your heart.Unavoidably,you would turn away.

Ifyou asked about her,you would be directed to a tavern in Gahanis called “The Scarlet Arrow.” Here,you may chance upon Tiber,the innkeeper and the uncle ofthe woman you saw.The fat,oily man would draw deep from his pipe,his eyes gleaming like his golden earrings,and then recount to you,in a private booth,the tale ofBova Tel-Bera,the wolf warrior,the caravaneer’s daughter.

In happier times,Bova grew up with her two brothers Pac and Najo,her mother Iroa,and father Kerris.Her parents were both proud caravan riders,their families descended from the original escaped slaves who founded Gahanis and blazed the first trade routes after the giants’ victory over the dramojh—or so Tiber would tell you.When they were ofage,the boys eagerly took up the way ofthe caravan guard in the family’s merchant house and caravan escort service,while Iroa insisted that the fleet-footed and mischievous Bova be sent to school.

When she was 14,weeks after her naming ceremony, tragedy struck.Iroa was killed in a rhodin ambush two days outside Gahanis.The death left her father a shattered man who turned to drink for solace.Her brothers dealt with the blow in other ways:Pac continued caravanning,while Najo took over the merchant house,only to lose it to gambling debts and grave misfortune.Bova quit school to look after her father and help in the tavern,becoming a quiet,bitter, creature who hardly resembled her former vivacious self.

Four years later,Kerris embarked on a venture with a verrik named Xeridam to recover the family’s lost wealth.They sought to found a new trade route though the Bitter Peaks to Verdune using a trail that Xeridam knew.To look after her father,Bova joined her brothers on the first caravan escort.

Tiber would repack his pipe as he described the party’s threeweek journey through twisted,jagged ravines,mist-shrouded passes,and dead-end gorges ofthe Bitter Peaks.One evening three weeks into the trip,the party decided to camp at a temple with white marble columns and golden gates.The place had appeared just as they skirted the lip ofa caldera.

About two hours after sundown that night,the camp was attacked by ghoulish and reptilian creatures in tar-smelling robes.The attackers fell upon the escorts,cutting them down with black blades dripping with yellow poison.Bova fled, only to be tackled by a pale,rubbery body in robes.In the ensuing struggle,she and her assailant sailed over the cliff into the caldera lake below.

Bova doesn’t remember the impact,or what became ofher attacker.She only remembers the cold light ofa grey dawn as she awoke on the shore ofthe opposite side ofthe lake, bruised and bleeding from a multitude ofcuts.The rising plumes ofsmoke on the eastern ridge told her the fate ofthe caravan.Desolate,Bova wandered the forest,seeking a way out.After three days and nights,subsisting on wild mushrooms and berries,she heard footsteps behind her,and the sound ofher father’s voice.Renewed,she ran toward it,calling out with joy.She had sighted her father’s silhouette between the trees when an arrow flew over her head and struck him straight in his eye—without producing a reaction! Then she noticed his purple,lacerated flesh,gore-soaked clothing,and the sewn-up mouth and eyes ofthe ...thing from which her father’s voice issued.It continued urging her to come to him.Bova stood motionless as the figure hefted her father’s familiar greataxe and stumbled toward her.

Bova claimed she must have fainted,for she awoke,startled, in the crude,smoky hut belonging to a wolftotem warrior named Emer.After cleaning and dressing her wounds,he told Bova that a malevolent spirit dwelled in the deep,dark places ofthese mountains—places such as the temple,a site left over from the dramojh’s blasphemous works.He promised to take her over the mountains back home as soon as she was stronger.

To pass the time as she regained her strength,Emer told her stories ofpast glories.Perhaps he inspired her,for in the two weeks she spent recuperating,Bova started on her path to becoming a child ofthe wolf.Though she denies it with an angry silence when questioned,Tiber would tell you that Bova also came to love Emer and would have stayed with him in the mountains ifhe hadn’t insisted she return to tell her people what had happened.

Five days into the trek toward Gahanis,Tiber would recount,the two were crossing a raging river on a fallen tree trunk when Bova heard Emer cry out.Spinning around,she was horrified to see Emer cleft in twain by the charred but animated remains ofa skeleton wielding her father’s unmistakable axe.As the warrior’s lifeless corpse tumbled into the whitewater,the skeleton burst into a sickly green fire and hurtled across the trunk toward Bova.Armed only with a knife,she had no choice but to flee the abomination that was once her father.She managed to lose it in a maze ofbasalt pillars,but spent the next three harrowing days pursued through the wood by her father’s voice pleading her to join him.Finally,she found a narrow lava tube that Emer had described to her.But once in its lightless depths,she again heard the sounds of pursuit—this time it was Emer’s voice! Having no other choice,she waited in ambush for the creature and,after a desperate fight in which he sought to spill her blood with her

father’s axe,she managed to grab the weapon and use it to send her former lover to his doom in a pool ofmagma.

Some miners found her two months later,wandering aimlessly,clutching the axe tight to her chest.A family friend recognized her and sent her immediately to Tiber. When she’d recovered from her ordeal,she told the story Tiber had just related.She remembers nothing after the magma pit,so the hidden way to the Bitter Peaks is lost to her.Since then,she has prepared to return to the Bitter Peaks,raising money via caravanning and learning what she can ofthe ways ofthe wolf.Someday she hopes to put her family and lover’s spirits to rest,but Tiber thinks it is her soul she is really trying to save.

With that,Tiber would thank you for your generous time and resume his duties,leaving you to ponder the tale.

Part Two: Characters of the Diamond Throne 131 Combat

Bova prefers to use her great speed in combat to feint and confuse her opponents,though her insistence on wielding her father’s heavy axe occasionally negates this hit-and-run tactic’s usefulness.Though not greatly agile or strong,since her ordeal in the Bitter Peaks her endurance and determination puts others toshame.With her natural brightness and perception,she’s rarely caught with her guard down.

Using Bova

Bova stands at 5 feet,10 inches and weighs just 120 lbs.She is incredibly beautiful,with statuesque looks and clear blue eyes.However,the fear that more people might die because ofher tends to make her act abrasive to others in an effort to keep them at a distance,and gives her something ofa haunted air.For this reason,she has not yet received a vision leading her to an animal companion.But she is slowly beginning to realize that she can’t continue to live as a lone wolfany longer. An offer ofher genuine respect and friendship may find her willing to join forces,but woe to anyone who offers flattery,pity, or charity—such individuals she despises.She also nurtures a deep hatred for rhodin,mojh,and verrik,and does not hesitate to expound upon the worst qualities ofany ofthem.She is well known for her stubbornness.She avoids gambling and alcohol.

Her goals are to return to the Bitter Peaks to avenge her family’s and lover’s slaughter,and put their souls to rest. Nothing else matters.

Bova Tel-Berafemale human Twr4 (wolf):CR 4;Medium humanoid;HD 4d10+8 (31 hp);Dying/Dead –2/–15;Init +5;Speed 50 feet;AC 14 (+1 Dex,+3 armor),touch 11,flat-footed 13;

Armor Check 0;BAB +4;Grapple +5;Attack +6 melee (2d6+2, critical 20/×3, great axe),or +5 ranged (1d6+1 critical 20/×3, shortbow);Full Attack +6 melee (2d6+2,critical 20/×3, greataxe),or +5 ranged (1d6+1 critical 20/×3, shortbow);SA

Speed ofthe wolf,cunning ofthe wolf;Hero Points 0;SV Fort +2, Ref+6,Will +4;Str 12,Dex 13,Con 15,Int 12,Wis 16,Cha 9

Languages: Common,Giant

Skills and Feats: Climb +4,Craft (armorsmith) +1,Craft (painting) +1,Craft (weaponsmith) +1,Handle Animal +3,

Heal +3,Intuit Direction +8,Jump +4,Knowledge (geography) +3,Knowledge (nature) +3,Listen +6,Ride +4,Sneak +2, Spot +6,Swim +3,Wilderness Survival +8;First Strike,

Fleet ofFoot,Improved Initiative,Light Sleeper,Track

Speed ofthe Wolf(Ex): Bova gains +10 feet to her ground speed (already figured in).

Cunning ofthe Wolf(Ex): Bova enjoys a +2 enhancement bonus to Wisdom (already figured in).

Possessions: +1 greataxe, masterwork mighty composite short bow (+1),20 arrows,masterwork studded leather jack, adventurer’s outfit,water skin,bedroll,whetstone,backpack,19 gp,53 sp