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Character

Zarama

CanonOfficial lore from the booksBoDp. 35▶ Actual play

Zarama, called Zar by his friends, is a wanderer in the campaign Zincirsiz ("Unchained") who appeared in the village of Elm. He looks to be in his mid-forties, dressed like an ordinary field worker, and carries a pack, a knife at his belt and a rope; no crest or badge marks him.123

At Lena's door

While Jonathan River and Max were in Lena's house, Bold sensed something moving in the bushes outside. Then Jonathan heard the familiar words of a spell, and Lena, Liam and the two children fell asleep; only Jonathan and Max stayed awake. A man appeared at the back door, saying that he wished they had not meddled, and that he did not know how to set right what came after this point.415

He arranged the sleepers so that they would seem to have dozed off naturally. When Jonathan asked him to explain himself and keep his hands in sight, he gave his name as Zarama, or Zar for short, and admitted to the spell of sleep, which he had cast from a scroll; he does not count himself a mage. Max meanwhile checked outside for an ambush. Then the three went out of the village, and after half an hour's walk Zar made tea from herbs in the forest.26

His errand

Zar said that he had once come upon a break in time by chance, and seen there the intervention of someone who later became his friend. At that friend's request he follows history books and the news of the regions, trying to help where such things happen, and he had been searching the village and its surroundings for three or four days, entering empty houses. He did not claim that he and his friend were an order of any kind.78

He gave the name of the friend who had asked this of him as Demor or Demoran. Jonathan knew of a great figure of history by that name, but could not tell whether this was the same man or what he had to do with time.9

He took Lena for an old witch who worked magic without papers, because of the old magical things he had found in her house, though he had never seen her cast a spell and did not think her the cause. Jonathan later mended the box he had taken from her and gave it to Zar, who undertook to put it back in secret.310

Time as a traveller

By Zar's account time is a being that journeys, in the shape of a man, an orc, a giant or another creature. It has many names; some call it Orfeus, and some call it a dragon. If its road is blocked or meddled with, it may lay waste to the place where it is, and its passage may falter. Ordinary people do not see the breaks it leaves because they are part of the flow; those bound to some timeless, everlasting piece can. When Jonathan said that he carried a very old and precious object without naming it, Zar answered that an object merely old or powerful was not enough, and that others might be drawn into such a bond by a single touch.111213

Many scholars, above all of the Order of Nus’ar, hold that the time god Arcaneus is the manifestation of Orphus, the essence of time.14

Zar held that the villagers were not living the same day over again, but that the companions were seeing the break. He urged them not to add new deeds out of knowledge of the future, to do as they would have done before they saw, and to meddle as little as possible; helping after the girl went missing, he said, was a different matter. He was not sure that the girl was the key, nor that her death would save the village. Jonathan and Max found this hard to accept, and Zar repeatedly said that he was no expert, only one who was fulfilling a request, and that he had no power to stop anyone by force.1516171819

Max found his errand, his strength, the new things he told them and his moral counsel hard to fit together. Jonathan judged him sincere, but possibly mistaken or deceived.20

At the lake

When the girl was pulled from the lake, Bold saw Zar watching from bushes some way off. Afterwards he sat apart, deep in thought, and made no move against anyone. When Jonathan asked, he gave rope to lengthen the line down into the water. As the companions went down, the girl was left in his care; he said that her death was not what was meant to happen, and that he would not harm her.212223

Spoiler: After the lakeSpoils: Zincirsiz #26 · Say what you have read

Notes

  1. ↑At the tableKırılma | DnD 5E Oynanış #22 (Zincirsiz #22), 2:01:47
  2. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 28:17
  3. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 35:11
  4. ↑At the tableKırılma | DnD 5E Oynanış #22 (Zincirsiz #22), 1:58:45
  5. ↑At the tableKırılma | DnD 5E Oynanış #22 (Zincirsiz #22), 2:03:08
  6. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 38:17
  7. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 32:11
  8. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 54:15
  9. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 1:10:26
  10. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 1:34:45
  11. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 40:59
  12. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 42:55
  13. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 45:28
  14. ↑BookBook of Dead, p. 35
  15. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 46:54
  16. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 49:35
  17. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 1:06:18
  18. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 1:12:06
  19. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 1:19:54
  20. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 1:22:23
  21. ↑At the tableKarmaşık Olaylar | DnD 5E Oynanış #23 (Zincirsiz #23), 2:27:25
  22. ↑At the tableMistik Göl | DnD 5E Oynanış #24 (Zincirsiz #24), 30:01
  23. ↑At the tableMistik Göl | DnD 5E Oynanış #24 (Zincirsiz #24), 1:02:02
  24. ↑At the tableUyanış | DnD 5e Oynanış #26 (Zincirsiz #26), 2:04:35
  25. ↑At the tableUyanış | DnD 5e Oynanış #26 (Zincirsiz #26), 2:06:35
  26. ↑At the tableUyanış | DnD 5e Oynanış #26 (Zincirsiz #26), 2:07:38

Sources

This article draws on:

Books

  • BoDBook of Dead(Bad Badger Games, 2024), p. 35

▶ Actual play

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