Donald Whent
Donald Whent is the founder and high commander of the Eagle Brigade, one of the best-known mercenary guilds of Vansreik. Because he takes an active part in the most dangerous contracts the guild accepts, the company has won the respect of many military leaders and nobles.1
The Reik Storms
Donald was once a member of the Reik Storms, a successful captain in charge of Vansreik's defences. He was a leading voice for sending the Reik Storms into the Deep Pit to secure a few levels of the old city of Mortenox, believing that pushing Vansreik's borders into the Pit would let the city prosper and bring to light artefacts from long-lost ages. His ambitions were met with humiliation, and the other commanders mocked him.2
Founding the Eagle Brigade
Seeing how his superiors regarded his goals, Donald left the Reik Storms and built a mercenary guild of his own. He judged that he needed adventurers and swords for hire, not soldiers who wanted quiet days and pay for doing nothing. He put all his savings into founding the Eagle Brigade and ran up an enormous debt to the Imperial Bank.2
For the first few years recruiting was hard, since success is what fills a guild's ranks and the Eagles had none. By pulling strings and asking favours of the city's noble houses, Donald obtained the guild's first ticket into the Deep Pit. The journey was perilous: seven went down the hatch and three weeks later only four came out, carrying chests of magic items, long-lost works of art and tomes of arcane secrets. After this feat the Eagle Brigade became one of the most famous mercenary guilds in the city.2
Matias Cain, who joined the Eagles when he learned of Donald's goals and claimed to have been called by an envoy of Shamyaza to aid him, was among those first seven; after the mission he became Donald's second in command and head advisor. Donald also accepted the young wizard Holden Fain into the guild, seeing his potential.3
The Deep Pit
Today Donald takes only the most dangerous contracts in the city. He constantly bids for tickets into the Deep Pit and does everything he can to persuade the noble families to establish a small settlement within it.2
Family
Nessa Sevenembers is Donald's illegitimate daughter. Her mother died giving birth, and Donald raised her, though she saw little of him except when he was recovering from his wounds in the infirmary. She learned much about the mercenary life and wanted to take on missions at his side. Donald was firmly against it, but after she left home to adventure and returned with spoils of her own, he allowed her to join the guild.4
The feud with the Warmongers
In battle
Donald is an experienced fighter and tactician. He is highly skilled with the greatsword and known for performing the hardest manoeuvres with the heavy blade as though it were a rapier. He uses speed and strength to overwhelm his enemies and crush them as quickly as he can, fighting side by side with a comrade while he deals deadly blows. He usually takes on the largest threat in sight, ordering his men to kill the enemy's archers and spellcasters while he engages the front line.2
Notes
Sources
This article draws on:
Images in this article
Mercenary Compendium (Bad Badger Games, 2024), p. 49. Art by the Bad Badger Games team.
Related articles
OrganisationEagle BrigadeA mercenary guild of Vansreik founded by Donald Whent, a former knight and captain of the Reik Storms. Disciplined, devout and loyal to the Empire, it is one of the most prominent guilds in the city and is caught in a bitter feud with the Warmongers.
PlaceVansreikA lawless city inside the Great Crater of Mortenox on the south-western edge of the Empire, grown up around the Deep Pit, whose noble houses, church and rival mercenary guilds compete for the riches buried beneath it.
PlaceDeep PitThe vast pit at the centre of the crater of Vansreik, a dungeon over the ruins of the old City of Mortenox whose entry is regulated by Tickets that the mercenary companies of the city compete for.OrganisationReik StormsThe oldest mercenary guild of Vansreik, which no longer works as one. Technically separate from the City Watch, it is in practice a better-equipped City Watch and the city's main armed force.
CharacterNessa SevenembersA young warrior of the Eagle Brigade, still inexperienced beside the other members but of great promise, who fights in the front line with a war pick.
CharacterGabriella the KindA renegade battlemage who opposed the Scarlet Spears in the Rebellion of Twinrivers and now works as a freelance mercenary, searching for the mercenary Balthasar to learn why he spared her life.
PlaceRampart RowA place where several mercenaries who also frequent the Grove of the Moon can be found.
CharacterStabzzA fast and stealthy goblin assassin of the Black Veil, cast out of his clan after killing seven of his war boss's generals, who now wants revenge on goblins of every kind.
CharacterThe WingThe head assassin and representative of the Black Veil, a half-elf whose true name is lost, who has held the post for at least two decades and deals with the mercenary guilds of Vansreik on the guild's behalf.CharacterAlana VardinAn orphan of the Vansreik streets raised by the Black Veil, now one of its most successful assassins, unwavering in her loyalty to the guild and a favoured dinner guest of the dragon Zherkses.