Horgus Gwerm is one of the three trapped beneath the ground with the PCs at the start of this adventure, and is one of eight potential recurring NPC allies in the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path. Although he’s an arrogant, self-important nobleman with a grating personality, abandoning him to his fate would be an evil act. The PCs must find a way to put up with Horgus’s constant “observations,” his instructions on how to do everything from scaling a wall to filling a waterskin better, and his regular lamentations over his fate. Under his armor of bluster, though, Horgus’s honesty is true, and if the PCs can get him back to the surface alive, he promises them a great deal of money and support in the future. This is a promise he keeps.

Current Attitude: Indifferent

Starting attitude unfriendly (DC 19). Horgus is insulting and crass, but if made friendly he mostly keeps his acerbic comments to himself. If made helpful, he increases his promised reward if the PCs get him to the surface from 1,000 gp to 2,000 gp, and aids as best he can in combat. Horgus never risks his life to save a PC during this part of the adventure, even if made helpful.
[SL: Die Belohnung wird durch die doppelte Spieleranzahl auch einfach verdoppelt.]

Although he is the least injured of the group, Horgus certainly makes the most fuss. Every scrape, every inconvenience is a personal affront to him, and his poor attitude makes him grating to be around—as do his frequent insults to the other NPCs—but in reality, Horgus is a well-read scholar and his knowledge of numerous subjects may well come in handy quite soon.

Horgus Gwerm was not born a nobleman—or as a Gwerm, for that matter. He was born Darian Wytt to a comfortable but common family in service to a noble estate: the Gwerms of Egede in eastern Mendev. Horgus’s father was the head huntsman and his mother managed the gardens. His family was respected and well treated and paid a handsome wage, but Horgus never considered himself a “servant.”
The Gwerms were an openhanded, generous family who never kept what they could comfortably give away. Darian often played with the real Horgus Gwerm, the scion of the house and a boy his own age. The Gwerms disdained holding themselves above others and never displayed their money ostentatiously. Their house was large, but modestly furnished, and they didn’t maintain their own estate guard beyond a few loyal soldiers.
It was a happy childhood, but everything changed when a band of five babau demons somehow made their way deep into Mendev to attack several of the outlying noble villas in the Egede hinterlands. Word reached the Gwerm estate; in a panic, the family sent the children away with two soldiers as the rest of the inhabitants began packing up the house’s valuables in preparation for temporary relocation to within the city walls. Ten-year-old Darian and Horgus left with the soldiers, frightened but trying to be brave.
But the demons struck more quickly than anyone expected, teleporting into the estate and murdering with abandon. Darian saw the soldiers escorting him torn to shreds by one of the babaus, and he survived only because he ran in a different direction than the real Horgus—the babaus murdered Horgus, then were distracted by closer prey, allowing Darian to escape.
Darian ran as fast and as far as he could, collapsing eventually from exhaustion in a shallow gorge. When he awoke, the frightened child made his way back to the estate, the only home he knew. He found it in smoking ruins, everyone within dead. A few days later, after the babaus had been defeated, crusaders riding from Egede noticed the smoke and rode to the estate. They found Darian in the kitchen and asked his name.
In a moment that changed his life, Darian said, “Horgus Gwerm.” He didn’t mean to lie, exactly. Rather, in his child’s mind he had a vague idea that he might be punished for what had happened—for being alive when Horgus was not. The riders took him with them on their return trip to the front lines in Kenabres, where relatives of the Gwerms lived. None of the Gwerms had met young Horgus in years and were willing to believe this was the young inheritor of their bloodline. The family took in the orphaned Darian, now Horgus, and raised him as their own.

Now well into middle age, Horgus has almost forgotten his true origins and convinced himself that money is the only way to ensure one’s safety. If the Egede Gwerms had invested their wealth in high walls and elite guards, they (and by extension, his parents) would be alive today. Horgus adheres strictly to the law, perhaps as compensation for a life built on a lie, and is fanatical about money and power. He haggles over every copper and never pays more than he has to—but when he does purchase something, he goes for quality, never skimping on the important things in life.
The Gwerm family’s money came from a variety of pursuits, including agriculture and mining. Horgus is one of the largest investors in the Truestone Quarry and owns a percentage of all the profits the quarry generates. Horgus has long nurtured a vicious hatred of demons and wants very much to see the crusades succeed. His faith in Abadar is deeply personal and private, but has only increased over the years, as again and again the defenses of the city of Kenabres seem to hold out against the demons through but the grace of his god. He makes considerable donations to various crusading groups—not merely the temple of Abadar—but prefers to keep these donations quiet because of his belief that charity only invites beggars.
Horgus has grown into an arrogant, acerbic nobleman with inflated sense of his own importance. He’s genuinely shocked and offended if others don’t recognize his status. His one redeeming quality may be his ruthless honesty.
Though his speech is infrequently buffered by tact, Horgus is known for speaking the truth. He keeps his promises and never reneges on a deal. Businessmen in Kenabres go to Horgus only when they have a desperate need as well as a rock-solid business plan that can stand up to the closest scrutiny. Horgus doesn’t mind lending money for a good cause, but he is keenly intelligent and requires a great deal of factual evidence before he closes a deal.
Being trapped in the tunnels beneath Kenabres does not sit well with Horgus Gwerm. Unarmed, forced to travel with strangers through the darkness, he can only imagine the demonic violence on the surface. He hides his fear and helplessness under an extra layer of arrogant bluster.
Horgus is an intelligent man with many years of learning behind him, and he fully expects others to recognize his smarts and experience and follow his every command. It is often difficult for others to get along with Horgus for more than minutes at a time, but he is not an evil human being and deserves as much assistance as any other creature.
Though middle-aged, Horgus does what he can to keep fit by practicing with his rapier, but over the past few years, his sparring sessions have grown few and far between. He is a relatively homely man but is never at a loss for female companionship. Beneath his acerbity he possesses an intelligent mind and keen observational powers which some find fascinating.