Harmun Righthand
An NPC villain for the D&D game
by Roger E. Moore

Skills: Appraise +2, Bluff +4, Disable Device +4, Gather Information +4, Intuit Direction +4, Jump +4, Knowledge (Kara-Tur society) +1, Listen +4, Move Silently +4, Open Locks +4, Pick Pockets +1, Profession (guard) +3, Read Lips +4, Search +4, Sense Motive +4, Speak Language (Shou), Spot +6

Note: Because he has only one arm now, Harmun has lost the following skills: Climb, Handle Animal, Ride, Swim, Use Rope. He also cannot use a bow, crossbow, or any other two-handed weapon. He does not bother to use a shield, preferring to keep his right hand free or holding a weapon or tool. His once-high skill at picking pockets is much reduced, as people tend to stare at his remaining hand, blowing his chances to filch items.

Feats: Alertness, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Kara-Tur blowgun, see below), Improved Initiative

Special: As a former rogue, Harmun can use Sneak Attack (+1d6 damage). He does have one highly unusual special power: His blood is poisonous.

Poisonous Blood: Harmun's blood acts exactly as wyvern poison (DMG, page 80: Injury DC 17, 2d6 Con/2d6 Con). He is immune to his own poisonous blood, but reacts normally to actual wyvern poison. Harmun pricks himself with a blowgun needle before he fires it.

Languages: Common, Shou

Possessions: Breastplate armor, +1 invisible blowgun (use rules in DMG, page 161, as Kara-Tur blowgun), +1 short sword, 20 glass darts, armor, clothing, about 100 gp in various coins

Appearance: For a warrior, Harmun is not particularly imposing, standing 5 feet 8 inches and weighing about 160 lbs. Except for his missing arm and tattoos, he could pass as a low-paid guard or watchman. He himself adds "Righthand" after his given name, as his left arm ends just above the elbow. He keeps what's left of his left arm wrapped up, armored, and strapped to his side, as the stump is sensitive and even mild bumps are painful.

Harmun's long, dirty blond hair (held in a ponytail), gray eyes, and tanned, leathery skin are unexceptional, but he does have extensive tattoos across his forehead and the back of his right hand. The tattoos are red and appear to be blocklike letters in a foreign language. (They are written in Shou, the language of some parts of Kara-Tur, and identify Harmun as a servant of a powerful wizard.) Harmun is proud of his tattoos and doesn't mind if they attract attention. It's a great way for him to talk about himself and his past adventures.

Harmun speaks with a slight accent, as if Common was his second language, but he picks up local jargon and phrases very quickly. He is not especially imaginative, and his tales, even the fantastic ones, have a curious matter-of-fact quality about them that makes them seem almost believable. Oddly, he is unfamiliar with many monsters that appear common in the sight of Faerûnian adventurers. He is not a leader, tending to follow whoever has the most Charisma in a particular group. He is even more a loner than a follower, though, and one gets the impression he follows only because he wants the freedom to cut and run if he so chooses, which he might do at any minute.

People who get to know Harmun discover that he is relaxed, generally cheerful, tells great stories, and has no regard for the law. Deeper inspection reveals he has no value on the lives of others. A careful check of his stories makes it apparent that he has killed many people in his life and enjoys the sense of power slaying gives him. In the right company, he talks about killing in a frank, easy way that even hardened warriors find disquieting. Some of his stories include mention that he has murdered foreign peasants for their food or clothing, though he knows enough to talk around the topic to avoid trouble. He leaves the clear impression that he would not hesitate one heartbeat to kill again, and anyone at all could be his victim.

Background: Harmun was a troubled, underage, orphaned pickpocket in Waterdeep some twenty years ago. Caught with his hand on a merchant's money belt, he escaped capture only by slipping aboard an outbound freighter as a stowaway. No one missed him when he vanished, except the merchant, who forgot about him within a week. Harmun worked as a deck hand on the freighter when he was finally caught, staying on as an unreliable, troublesome worker. He visited many exotic ports across Faerûn, Zakhara, and Kara-Tur over the next decade. Early on, he gave up working as a thief as his shipmates would not tolerate it. He became a proficient guard who tended to kill his captives. ("They're less trouble that way," he would say later, and few argued with him.)

In Kara-Tur, Harmun left the ship in a nation called Tu Lung, but he became involved in some legal trouble after killing a minor servant. He found himself the slave of an aged wizard-alchemist as a result, soon gaining his tattoos and ability to speak Shou. His adventures from this point on became truly fantastic, as the wizard often took him along on dangerous journeys to gather peculiar herbs, minerals, and magic substances. Harmun again proved himself fairly reliable, though the wizard always kept him under the careful and constant control of several Enchantment spells, correctly understanding his nature.

On one adventure, in a fight with a poisonous beast, Harmun was bitten on the left arm and left mortally ill. As Harmun was considered valuable property, the wizard amputated his arm to save him. The wizard then attempted to counteract whatever poison remained in his system using a mixture of untested antidotes and potions, but this had an unexpected result. Harmun lived, but his blood itself became permanently poisonous (see "Special" above). This proved an advantage of sorts, and the wizard (after making herself immune to the toxin) taught Harmun to use a blowgun, the darts smeared with his own blood. He preferred an invisible magic blowgun that could be easily hidden on his person, and sometimes even used in clear view of others who thought Harmun was merely coughing into his fist when he was actually using the blowgun.

The wizard eventually died after accidentally drinking one of her own experimental mixes, and a local Tu Lung court declared Harmun free. The court further allowed Harmun to gather a few items before he departed, so he left well equipped. He continued adventuring across Kara-Tur for some years before deciding to return to Waterdeep out of a sense of nostalgia.

Now thirty-three years old, Harmun is just back from his long overseas voyage. He is basically healthy and happy, his one major fault being that he is a hardened serial killer. He began his career of murder while a deck hand, slipping into ports just for the thrill of killing a citizen or two before slipping back aboard ship. He always picks on unarmed people of the lowest social class who live alone or travel alone at night. He remembers killing at least seventy people across the world, including his prisoners, but the tally may go as high as a hundred or more from various battles in which he took part. Killing is exciting for him, and he is certain to pursue this bad habit once he accommodates himself to life in Waterdeep again.

Meeting Harmun: While Harmun is unlikely to trouble a very powerful party, he could prove extremely dangerous to a lower-level group. He might kill someone the PCs know just for the thrill of it. The random nature of the attack makes tracking him down all the harder, as there is never any real reason to his killing except the pleasure of it. He might also be encountered in the employ of a powerful criminal in Waterdeep, controlled by magic so his unusual talents can be best put to use. The PCs might even know him for his strange stories of Kara-Tur, and they might consult him about that foreign land, unaware of his true monstrous nature. No warrant is out for his past murders, as no one in Kara-Tur or elsewhere connected the assorted killings into a single pattern.

Harmun knows all about his poisonous blood and its effects, but he will never tell anyone about it if he can help it. If badly injured, he might surrender, then try to touch a captor who is also injured. A successful hit at +2 over the amount needed would do no physical damage -- but it would spatter some of his blood into the wounds of his victim, who would immediately suffer all ill effects from the contact.

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