Frederick Sweetmead
Frederick Sweetmead is a famous bard from the town of Bellwater and the chief recruiter of the Shortstack Stranglers. He is best known for his song "Ogre's In The Barn".1
Life
Behind the bard's facade lies a well-trained and formidable swordsman who combines bardic magic with the strokes of his blade. He has made a small fortune over his adventuring career, and he is harder to find than most of his fellow Stranglers, usually spending his time in Bellwater drinking or gambling. He still takes missions in his spare time, as long as they do not take him more than a tenday's journey from Vansreik. When a mission involves slaying a rare monster or bringing down a significant figure, he politely asks the party's leave to immortalise their deeds in his next song.2
Gorthak Tuskcarver
One night Frederick met Gorthak Tuskcarver, and the two talked about their past battles and adventures in the wild. A well-travelled bard, Frederick knew Gorthak's customs and the meaning of his tattoos; he treated the lone warrior with respect and offered him a place to stay. The next morning, hearing of Gorthak's hopes for the future, Frederick offered him a place in the Stranglers.3
In battle
Frederick fights with a rapier while holding his lyre in his other hand. He favours spells that sharpen his own and his friends' aim and weaken his enemies. He has no particular preference for whom he engages, but if he sees an enemy spellcaster concentrating on a spell, he does his best to break that concentration.2
Notes
Sources
This article draws on:
- MCMercenary Compendium(Bad Badger Games, 2024), pp. 12, 57, 66
Related articles
OrganisationShortstack StranglersThe largest and least organised mercenary guild of Vansreik, run by the halfling thief Turnip Bellwater from the tavern Halfling is Your Mother. Its members come from Bellwater and beyond, and its main trade is information.PlaceBellwater VillageA village of halflings near Vansreik, renowned for its potion-making and remedies and for the knife skills of its people, and the home of Turnip Bellwater and his Shortstack Stranglers.PlaceHalfling is Your MotherThe famous inn and tavern in Vansreik built by Turnip Bellwater and his men, base of the Shortstack Stranglers and meeting place of the Grand Table.
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.CharacterShaila BellwaterTurnip Bellwater's younger sister, a halfling herbalist and archer who left the quiet life of Bellwater for adventure with the Shortstack Stranglers and has become hooked on the Deep Pit.CharacterFazonHuman leader of the Followers of Zolan in White City in the Raphael Efsanesi campaign, who hires out his fighters and mages to Raphael, shields him from Zolan's searching power and refuses to cross the Empire.CharacterHermann ÇelikyüzThe heavily armed leader of the Bloody Coin, a band of mercenaries hired by the Porvis house, who clashes with Kemp Corvus's company of thirty at the Porvis forest house in the Sürgün Günlükleri campaign.CharacterKerosA triton sellsword of the Mürekkep ve Çelik campaign, shipwrecked far to the north of Neptune, whom Castor and the merfolk warrior Ademaris rescue beneath the sea and who later escorts Castor's pupils to their exams.CharacterManfredA mercenary mage of the Yeni Dünya campaign, a runaway from Archon who first attacks a band of adventurers in Aquila, is later found gravely wounded in a fishing village and trades what he knows for healing and safe passage.