A Very Large Inn

With my desire to push forward with the Entourage Approach for my upcoming campaign, I realized I needed to provide plenty of potential hirelings for the players prior to their actually departing for adventure. So I rolled up 34 such NPC's, who are waiting patiently at the Crook and Cabbage in the North Tower of Bend. Yep...34 1st Level adventurers hanging out in a pub waiting for some would be heroes to cough up some coin and drag them along on missions into the mythical underworld of Ulin Uthor, the Dim Expanse.

Not very realisitic, but these are the levels to which we must stoop in order to provide fodder for seven Entourages.

In fact, not all 34 are in the Crook and Cabbage at the same time, but they are in and about the North Tower, and potentially available for hire. Rather than have the players actually spend time searching for and role-playing with each and every single possible hireling, I am going to simply tell them that in the weeks prior to thier first excursion, each of them took the time to do just that, and here's a list of the NPC's to choose from.

I will of course roll Reaction and Loyalty, and record information in my referee notes when they do hire such individuals, but I don't think my players nor I want to spend three hours hearing me make funny voices before they can actually get down to rolling dice and exploring Krawl's Pace, the upper most region of the Dim Expanse.

So I am going to provide them with the following list, and let them hire directly from it prior to play. Granted, at 100 gold a pop, some of them won't be able to afford a hireling for the first few excursions. Nevertheless, here is the list of the 34 rabble-rousers hanging out and swilling cheap ale at the Crook and Cabbage:

Weerwon Ilk, Dwarf FM
Kel Rinvel, Dwarf FM
Ghiragh, Dwarf FM
Max Mogh, Dwarf FM
Momindy, Dwarf-f FM
Melody of Iron, Dwarf-f FM
Ashwake, Elf FM/MU
Bogbreeze, Elf FM/MU
Duskdirge, Elf FM/MU
Fellwind, Elf FM/MU
Ravenwing, Elf-f FM/MU
Wee Wimley, Hobbit FM
Hamp Tiggle, Hobbit FM
Grimster, Hobbit FM
Scrimshaw, Hobbit-f FM
Bax Bramble, Hobbit Scout
Squeegles, Hobbit-f Scout
Tacto, Kobold FM
Scrunt, Kobold FM
Ratch, Kobold MU
Prodder, Kobold Shaman
Mighty Bucket, Human FM
Shahdrah, Human-f FM
Jack of the Axe, Human Barbarian
Gaylgorr, Human-f Barbarian
Zim of Windy Dale, Human Cleric
Wexwell, Human Cleric
Telltor, Human Cleric
Lesthelda, Human-f Cleric
Som-som, Human Shaman
Dam'Zylah, Human-f Shaman
Banjo Jim, Human MU
Iru'Gah, Human MU
Moximage, Human-f MU

I love character names. They're one of those little intangibles that end up adding so much flair to D&D. I think Gary Gygax had a knack for inventing names when he wasn't using jumbled or altered real life names of himself, his friends and associates.

You'll notice female hirelings in there as well. Maybe I've matured a bit as a referee, but I never used to include female henchmen, and my players never played anything besides men. Is that odd? I'm not sure, I honestly never thought that it possibly might be until now. I do believe that MMO's contributed to me overcoming any such possible prejudices I might have had in the past, consciously or subconsciously.

You might notice that there is a theme to the Elf names in Solstice, an idea I have unceremoniously yoinked from the always inspirational poster at the original D&D Forum, Driver, to quote a blurb he made a while back:

Most NPC Elves will have stereotypical "Treebow" type names, e.g., Darkblossom, Mossmarsh, and so forth. The default NPC Elves in my campaign are closer to creepy folklore Elves than Tolkien Elves.

Anyway, many might find these names silly, ridiculous, awesome, or mundane. I find D&D vastly more interesting when the inventor invests even just a wee bit of time creating such names. Based on the dangers present in the Dim Expanse, I do believe that many of these hirelings might end up as Player Characters before the first session is over; so the names of these hirelings had better be ones I'll enjoy seeing in the months to come.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee