Scarred old hunter

The scarred old hunter is a man of the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign whose name is not given. He is old, with white hair and beard and a great scar that runs from his face down to his neck, likened by the Horned trader to a devil's claw, and he carries the weight of a weapon at his belt. He says that in his old calling there is no retirement; the company took him for a former witch hunter who might carry a pistol.^{1 2 3 4}

Lotus's guest

He came by night to the house of the gambler Lotus and asked for help in hiding and leaving White City quickly, should he be pursued unofficially. Lotus owed him his life: some forty years before, the hunter had caught him but, reloading in the rain, had listened to him rather than shoot him. The companions came to suspect that this guest was the same man the horned trader feared, and this proved true.^{5 6 7 8}

The Veren case

In a library the companions looked into his past with the help of robed apprentices and a counsellor with a ledger. The court records told that he had once gone to White City, denounced himself and stood trial. Certain families gave money and lawyers to support the prosecution; during the trial he told the court that his own students were in those families' houses. In the course of the trial, the long-hidden devil cult of the Veren family came to light, with deeds such as the sacrifice of children in exchange for power and knowledge.^{9 10 11 12}

The lost grandchild

The trader said the hunter had wanted a rare material for his grandchild, but a richer customer had bought every bottle. The hunter himself told the companions that he had lost almost all his family in a matter involving demons, that he had believed his four-year-old grandchild could be saved, and that without the material this had not happened. Despite his influence and his ties to the temples he had not saved the child, which made the companions think of something beyond ordinary illness.^{13 14 15 16}

The hunt for the buyer

While the companions guarded the trader, the hunter took the place of their carriage driver and stopped them on the road back. He threw the trader a purse for the bottles and demanded the buyer's name, saying that he alone would judge the buyer and refusing to leave the trader alone in exchange for money and help. He said he sought vengeance and asked the young people to stay out of it, but when they offered the help of their family names and connections, they insisted on following him though he warned that they had families to lose.^{17 18 19 20 21}

He explained that dealings with demons leave a mark on the soul, and that if he accused a noble openly, the noble could bring a case against him in his fallen position. He would not kill a man merely for greed or caution, but would question him face to face and decide. From his own neglected house he gathered bottles and gear in the dark as if he knew where everything lay, saying he had waited for this chance for twenty years and did not mean to spoil it in anger.^{22 23 24 25}

In the mansion of the Wealthy buyer of the bottles he threatened to cut off the man's finger with a dagger, until one of the companions stopped him. When the companions showed him the hidden stone and spoke of the buyer's lost memories, suggesting that The Puppeteer used minds and then made them forget, he raised his pistol at the buyer, then put it away with a single tear; the companions made him invisible and led him out.^{26 27 28}