Kerbor

Kerbor is a soldier of the armed squad of Jasper, the master of the small town of Osterhn, in the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign. The sashed guard at the bridge introduced himself by that name to the newcomers, calling himself the second man in those parts after Jasper and claiming to have saved Jasper's life in the war.¹²

At the bridge

When Ephorus, Kemp Corvus and Sarah first came to the river, the guards hinted that a "donation" might grease the chains and bring the bridge down. After the bargaining one of them turned a wheel and lowered the patched bridge of chain and rope, and the company crossed. Later Kerbor walked into the Golden Ladle beside Jasper and a mage leaning on a staff.³⁴⁵

The innkeeper Exalon later gave Ephorus a written order bearing the mark of the Osterhn Squad and a red ribbon, which he said Kerbor had issued to the bridge guards: troublemakers from the harbour were not to be let across under any circumstances, even in a matter of life and death. Ephorus held it as proof that help had been kept from the mother of the harbour worker Finart.⁶⁷

Soldier of the squad

Godfrey said that while he was recovering, Kerbor was the first person he saw when his mind cleared, and that some of Kerbor's men had come to visit him.⁸

Looking for the woodcutters over a killing, Kerbor came to the Golden Ladle, lifted the innkeeper Orent off his feet by the collar and swore to hang the woodcutters from the tree beside the well. When Kemp told him that judging by an earlier brawl and an axe wound in the chest alone was rash, Kerbor answered that he believed one of them had held the man while the other struck, and left.⁹¹⁰

He had opposed arming the three companions. When they came back successful from the goblin war-band, he congratulated them before Jasper's returning soldiers and admitted he had been wrong, and he thanked Sarah when her healing kept a badly wounded soldier from dying.¹¹¹²

Captivity and rescue

Kerbor vanished in a targeted attack near Gri Mesken. Since no body was found, Jasper believed he had been taken alive, and asked the companions, as a personal favour, to free a friend he valued greatly; a patrol had followed the kidnappers some way towards a cave. At first Ephorus argued that killing six bugbear warriors would do the townsfolk more good than saving Kerbor, but the rescue came first. In a small hidden mine entrance about half a day away, after a hard fight, the companions heard Kerbor ahead, cursing his questioners and swearing he would tell them nothing, between the sounds of blows.^13141516

Beyond a narrow crawlway they found him unconscious and bound, with a hobgoblin holding a sword to his throat. The hobgoblin said he hated elves and would sooner trust a knight's oath than a drow's, so Ephorus opened the bargaining and Kemp gave his word: Kemp and the hobgoblin laid down their breastplates and great weapons and, each with only a dagger, carried Kerbor out together. At the exit the hobgoblin asked for a dirty sack of food, said he could not read and had only heard the name of Fear in the orders from above, put on a dead comrade's armour and ran off. The companions kept their word and let him go.^17181920

His head and chest were badly hurt. Sarah's healing calmed his breathing, and after about an hour's rest in a hollow screened by greenery he woke. Ephorus had found his sword, his damaged armour and his purse in a small box in the cave.²¹²²²³

Kerbor said he had been questioned about the town's defences and had not talked, that the four men taken with him were dead, and that his captors had meant to break him under torture and then trade him. Knowing some of the goblin tongue, he had hidden it and listened: the Yellow Eye and the hobgoblins of the Eastern Torment were now camped apart, and the envoy of the Merciless Fear did not want to go home empty-handed. He said he had fought goblins before while helping the dwarves. Wanting revenge, he asked to join the company against the six large guards still waiting.²⁴²⁵

Despite his wounded ribs he fought in the bugbear den. He slipped behind the enemy attacking Ephorus and ran it through, though the effort reopened the pain of his old wound; he tore the arm off another and killed it, and he killed the last bugbear after Ephorus fell. He told the companions that the cave had once belonged to bandits until Alistar cleared it with a team, and that the creatures had moved in once it stood empty. Back in Osterhn the soldiers and Jasper greeted him with joy, and over some three quiet days he recovered.^262728293031

The battle for Osterhn

Kerbor sat in the council of war held in the emptied Golden Ladle with Jasper, Alistar, the witch hunter Gordon and Varis. In the great goblin assault five of his good men charged into some thirty or forty goblins and were said to have cut down more than twenty of them, which put heart into the defenders.³²³³

At dawn seventeen of the defenders lay dead, most of them militia, and Kerbor stood over the bodies among the grieving families. Later, when he came to the place where Jasper's questioning was being held, Varis and the hunters persuaded him to wait at the door.³⁴³⁵

Spoiler: Exalon's risingRevealSpoils: Sürgün Günlükleri #14; Sürgün Günlükleri #15 · Say what you have read

When Exalon rose against Jasper, he named Kerbor beside Jasper as a commander to be killed or taken, reasoning that the soldiers would not surrender while their commanders lived.³⁶³⁷

In the fight for the castle, with Jasper gone, Kerbor's appearance in the courtyard rallied the garrison for a time. Arrows from Kemp and Ephorus, shooting from the windows, struck him in the back and shoulder, and when he could no longer stand the soldiers laid down their weapons. Then the sound of breaking bone was heard, and his body was seen with the head shattered beside Exalon's mace.³⁸³⁹⁴⁰