THE WORD Runequest Campaign
Greebley

Written by: Jay (Jonathan)

Greebley's earliest memories are of living on the streets of Pavis. His master and teacher was a thief called Quirn, who was a member of the Hole Gang. Quirn was also a Eurmal "Lay Member", and so Greebley developed a love of the absurd and a strange sense of humour. Greebley would help Quirn on his missions by being his lookout.

Quirn would not tell Greebley who his parents were; however, through investigation on his own, he discovered that the thieves had been hired to bring him up discreetly. As far as Greebley was able to find out, his parents had been killed either in a feud or war that led to the massacre of all his kin and which would have killed him if he hadn't been hidden. Eventually, Quirn would have probably told Greebley his family's story, but when Greebley was almost 18, a mission to Badside led to Quirn's death; his body was not found for 11 days.

Greebley then went to work training with the Hole Gang. Poor health plagued Greebley; none of the dread diseases of Glorantha, but smaller illnesses that jept him from mastering the arts of thievery. Yet Greebley was stubborn, and finally after two years his health held long enough for him to pass the training. During this time Greebley formally became a Lay Member of the Lanbril Cult. He then spent a final year honing his thief skills.

One night in Gimpy's Tavern, Greebley met a man called Sunray, who fascinated him with tales of adventures outside of Pavis. When Sunray was accused of forging papers and was exiled from Pavis, Greebley joined Sunray's friends to try to clear his name. After initial failure, Greebley succeeded in leading the party to the capture of the dread Wolfhead. Though he spent the entire battle befuddled my magic and only ended up fighting when someone accidentally slammed a door into his face, enraging him out of his stupor, Greebley considers this one of his major successes, for his thief skills led to the location of Wolfhead and the vindication of his friend Sunray.

The party's success at capturing Wolfhead gained them momentary fame and led to their being hired by Duke Raus. The next year was spent in his service. Here Greebley met Danar, the nephew of the Duke, and became friends. Greebley was willing to relinquish leadership of the party to Danar, for Greebley felt he was better at being second in command, providing advice but not stepping into the limelight.

After the tems of service to the Duke was over, Greebley was asked by his former gang to attempt to recover some items in the Duke's possession. Greebley was ambivalent. Though he had loyalty to his old gang, he also felt loyalty to the Duke, whom he had learned to respect. However, since he felt he was destined to be a thief, he decided to attempt the mission. This turned out to be a mistake, as he was caught and almost killed by a trap of the Duke's. Facing Danar as the Duke's representative in court was almost as ironic as the fact that Danar and the Duke had had a falling out. Clearly Eurmal was having his fun, and the humour was not lost on Greebley. Greebley was forced to promise to abandon his former ways as a thief and to abandon Orlanth, for Danar was a Lunar and he would only remand custody of Greebley under these conditions.

Grebley was lured into the ways of the Lunars over the nest few years. His last mission as a thief, while initially successful, eventually led to his temprary banishment from Pavis after one member betrayed him. Meanwhile, the Lunars' acceptance of many peoples of Glorantha appealed to Greebley, who found even Chaos interesting rather than frightening. His curiousity eventually led to his befriending the Irripi Onto priest of Pavis after his banishment ended. This priest even lent Greebley 1800 Lunars to train in the skills necessary to become an Initiate of the cult. However, the dislike of Lunars by many people bothered Greebley as well as evidence of their desire for conquest. Because of this, Greebley still kept the appearance and mannerisms of the non-Lunars. As far as Greebley was concerned, it did no good to like other people if they are going to hate you in return.

Over the next several years, Greebley followed the ways of Irrip Ontor, searching out information, exploring interesting things, seeing the world, and most importantly, talking to various races and peoples. However, because Greebley had joined the Lunars as an adult, he had never served in the Lunar armies. If he ever wanted to progress in his cult, he needed to get this experience. However, he did not wish to become a foot soldier in some far off Lunar company commanded by some leader with the brains of a boiled potato. So, when asked to undertake a mission to Duck Tower in Sartar, he accepted.

Here, once again, Eurmal played a hand, for to complete the mission, Greebley would have to betray his best friend and loyal companion, Danar, who had now abandoned the Lunar way. Danar, who had tempted Greebley into the Lunar way in the first place, had reversed his course. However, to have refused the mission would have meant the loss of a great opportunity, as Greebley was close to being named a Sword Sage of the cult. On the other hand, to betray the trust of a close friendship was a horrible wrong. Greebley had not trusted his feelings when he attempted to rob Duke Raus, and it has ended in disaster. And Greebley knew the ways of Eurmal well enough to know that he would end up fighting Danar and either killing him or being killed by him. No cult was worth losing one's humanity, and so Greebley fled, cast adrift once more. His failure to complete the mission resulted in his being cast out of the Irippi Ontor Cult.

Greebley's Personality:

Greebley's personality is rather complex and sometimes slightly contradictory (or maybe just confused). he is highly curious, especially about things that are unusual. He loves to meet new people and talk, to find out how they feel about things and to find out their opinions, and perhaps to debate with them. He has a strange sense of honour; an absolute adoration of the absurd, nonsensical, or bizarre. His natural habit to include these in conversations makes him sometimes a tad difficult to talk to. he is very friendly and will rarely attack anyone who isn't obviously hostile. he will often add an element of disorder to any situation, a tendancy which he tries to keep under control so that his companions will tolerate him. he has strong loyalties to his party, provided the party is being fair (in his view). he will usually only lie in order to add more ocnfusion to an already mixed-up situation. he is fairly easy going except about those few issues he feels very strongly about, in which case he is extremely stubborn.

Greebley's Views:

Lunars - Greebley has just had a major change of viewpoint about the Lunar way. He used to be puzzled by the fact that while the Lunar people seem open to many peoples, even Chaos, yet they are the most warlike and least friendly of all people. For a long time, Greebley thought that his was due to ohter people's total hatred of the Lunars due to their acceptance of Chaos (in other words, the shallowness of the non-Lunars). Yet, shortly after being thrown out of the Lunar cult, a great revelation came to Greebley. The Lunars did not accept other peoples and Chaos; they used them to further their own ends, just as they had attempted to use Greebley. With this interpretation, their warfare made perfect sense, for they could force the conquered peoples to join and work for them. The Seven Mothers priests and others that Greebley had come in contact with did not necessarily use people; however, those in control of the Empire did.

Orlanth - This is the cult Greebley has felt the most comfortable with. Its relatively loose structure is ideal. Its hatred of all things Chaotic may be a bit extreme, but not totally unreasonable, for Chaos as a destructive force is certainly evil (as is anything that destroys interesting things).

Chalanna Arroy - Greebley will help out this cult at any opportunity. His gratitude for anyone who keeps him healthy is very large.

Eurmal - Although Greebley may never actually become an Initiate of this cult, he has a great appreciation for this god's subtlety and his tricks. Clearly this god has had a profound influence on Greebley's life, filling it with disorder, absurdity, and the ridiculous. It would not be difficult for him to worship this god.

Lhankoy Mhy - Greebley's curiousity will always make this another favourite cult and a god to be respected.

Illumination - Greebley does not know what Illumination is, but sees it as a way to become truly able to accept all views, and is thus a thing to be desired. He is scornful of the tales of people using this as a way to break cult vows, for without respect for the gods one worships, one is nothing. However, he understands the temptation one faces to abuse Illumination.

 

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