THE WORD Runequest Campaign
The History of Yggies Applevale

Written by: Unknown (which is too bad because the background is kind of neat)

Although Yggies would never know it, he was actually a child of a prince of a small Sartarite kingdom. The Applevale famile had controlled a piece of land on the northern outskirts of Sartar, north and west of Jonstown. Yggies' father was not in a position to ever take control of the kingdom (he had seven older brothers and 18 nephews) and in any case it turned out that all questions of succession were moot. Before Yggies reached his second birthday, the Lunar Empire had begun to ravage the kingdom. Yggies' father fled with his wife and infant son, hoping to find sanctuary to the east.

Their flight inevitably brought them to the vast Plains of Prax. Attempting to reach the walls of Pavis, the small family was captured by a pack of Morokanth. As an act of desperation, the young prince cast his single spell of Concealment on his son, hoping to spare him from a life of slavery. The Morokanth moved off before the divine magic wore off, and the child was abandoned to the hands of the gods and fate...

But fate took a cruel twist for the young child, as a wasting disease spirit found and attempted to take the babe. Fortunately, a group of Bison Riders, led by a shaman, happened upon the contorted form and was able to save the child.

The only form of identification for the babe was printed on the child's hood; it said simply "Applevale". The barbarians took him as a friend and named him Yggies. The shaman took the child, who was generally treated as an outside by the tribe, as an errand boy. Although he was very weak from his disease, he was reasonably intelligent and a hard worker.

Eventually, through the aid of many people, his shaman, and a few dozen good barbarian deeds, Yggies became an accepted member of the tribe and took a bison as his reward. Although his shaman was willing to continue to train Yggies in the secrets of the Spirit Plane, the youth was restless and followed the fighting bands of the tribe. He gained modest skill with broadsword, lance, and learned a few tribal magicks. The highlight of this portion of his career was killing a trollkin and taking the small beast's chainmail hauberk, which, remarkably enough, actually fit him. Yggies still wears the hauberk with pride.

On one adventure, Yggies was knocked unconscious. Nevertheless, he managed to stay on his mount, which fled from the melee. Yggies awoke from his stupor by way of healing magicks cast upon him by a group of men wielding scimitars and preaching the glories of the Lunar Empire. Not being firmly attached to any cult, and being thoroughly lost and confused, Yggies was completely convinced by the Lunars and soon found himself in a Seven Mothers Temple at his own initiation ceremony.

After a hasty conversion to the use of the scimitar, Yggies mounted his bison and continued his search for adventure, a bit dazed by the rapid course of events in the past few weeks.

 

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