Derelek Caravan

Titles: Member of the Get of Oroboros, Colonel and Chief Engineer of the Dragon Brethren

Player: NPC. Originally created and played by Ryan Powell. Turned over to Drew Christensen, then to Andrew Gray, then retired to NPC status.

First Appearance: Original group member

Status: Active as an NPC, but retired from adventuring (see below).

Birthdate: 9/4/2461 IC (Age 57)

Marital Status: Single.

Known Offspring: None.

More Pictures

 At 4’9” in height, Derelek is a full foot shorter than Richelle, the next shortest of the Heroes of the Hammer. He is sturdy and very stocky, built like a fortress as the saying goes. His missing left eye is covered with a patch, around which radiates a fearsome set of scars. The remaining eye is a sharp coppery color, and his thick brows are usually knotted in thought. His most noticeable facial feature is his bushy black beard, which grows down past his belt buckle.

A life of danger and misadventure has left Derelek missing several teeth, including one of his upper incisors. Accordingly, his deep and gruff voice is punctuated with a slight whistle. Derelek is a coarse speaker, seldom willing to be bothered with flowery language or poesy; he says what he means in a concise, direct and often profane manner and doesn’t usually care for those that easily take offense anyway.

By way of attire, utility rules the day: Derelek is usually clad in stained and sturdy workman’s garb for his labors at drafting board, forge or alchemical laboratory. He favors a thick leather apron fitted with numerous pockets and pouches for tools and reagents, and usually wears thick gloves as well as heavy hobnailed boots that mysteriously never leave footprints. Most of the fabrics that he wears are in drab earth tones or in various shades of yellow, gold or orange as befits an alchemist of the Gold College. For more formal or academic occasions, he keeps a few sets of scholar’s robes and dress clothing, but can seldom be bothered with such things. One thing he does love, however, is gold: Derelek likes to wear heavy bracelets, torcs and similar items of jewelry when they are not impractical. Occasionally, he will make a point of wearing the exotic kimono and hakama that he brought home with him from his excursion to Nippon.

Derelek is a warlike and bellicose Dwarf, and lovingly maintains his suit of full plate armor. His horned and plumed helmet is highly distinctive: it only has an eye hole on the right side since he sees no sense in leaving his blind side similarly vulnerable. The head of Derelek’s double handed war axe Mountain Breaker is decorated with braided patterns and topped with a stout spike; its large counterweight is shaped like a crescent mooon.

History

Origin

The Heroes Gather

The Black Dragons

Siege at Bachendorf Keep

Imperial Intrigues

The Hammer Quest

Two Crowns

The Defeat of Gaynor

Ulthuan

The Rise of the Dragon Brethren

Current Status

Derelek is currently the Chief Engineer of the Dragon Brethren and an active member of the Get of Oroboros. He is no longer involved directly in adventuring, his efforts being primarily directed towards advancing the war efforts against Naggaroth with his considerable technical and alchemical expertise. Derelek is, however, still very much involved in the ongoing political developments and storylines of the Dragon Brethren.

Tropes

For other characters and the campaign, see the Tropes page.

The Alcoholic - Derelek is a confirmed alcoholic, and his character sheet even says so! Sometimes this has been played for laughs, but often... not.

An Axe to Grind - Derelek's primary melee weapon, Mountain Breaker, is a double-handed axe that deals massive damage. Also, Uhlrik gave it to him. In fact, this was the axe that Uhlrik wielded in the battle that earned him "The Dragon" for a nickname. Derelek once used it to snap an enchanted no-dachi during an honor duel against a samurai. Before he got this weapon, he used a pick as befits a dwarven tunnel fighter.

Cartoon Bomb - Derelek actually manufactures and uses these in combat and demolitions. In the Warhammer world, these things are current technology. He famously used one of these as the opening salvo when he ambushed a bunch of Reiklander militia that had pursued the heroes to the ruins of Karak-Kadal.

Celibate Hero - For most of his career, Derelek showed zero interest in romance and never went looking for somebody to love. It was simply never an item of focus for him as a character for the early part of the career. Given that one doesn't often encounter female dwarves, it may be that the idea naturally just never came up. Given the whole "short, hairy and drunk" thing, human ladies never showed any interest in him either... until he went to Nippon.

Elves Versus Dwarves - He's a Dwarf, so of course he had some friction and rivalry with Cassandra on general principle. That didn't stop them from being like (somewhat belligerent but utterly loyal) family,however.

Eye Patch of Power - He's a rough, tough fellow with an eye patch that you really wouldn't want to tangle with. How'd he get that eye patch, you ask? Why, just read on...

Eye Scream - During the climax of the Restless Dead campaign, Derelek tangled with The Haunting Horror, a bizarre and minimally explained spectral entity with tentacles terminating in gnashy claws (claws coated in ice, no less!), that existed to utterly devour souls and which dwelt in a haunted house outside of normal space. This strange creature plucked Derelek's eye out using said ice-clawed tentacles. This left him with a nasty, ragged set of scars that radiate out from his ravaged eye socket, and with a serious need for a drink (the Insanity Points gained from this encounter and the ongoing pain were what finally pushed him over the brink into full on alcoholism).

Hyperspace Arsenal - This guy carries more weapons than some armies. He keeps them... somewhere.

Item Crafting - Derelek's spellcasting abilities aren't as strong as an elf or human wizard of his level since he's a Dwarf, but he's a master of making potions, scrolls and the occasional magic item.

Jack of All Trades - Derelek is strong, tough and a skilled fighter but less so than Uhlrik, and is magically adept but less so than Cedric, Richelle or Erich. For a Dwarf, he is extremely quick and deft... but he can't keep up with his party's speedsters (in just about any other group, and by any objective standard he'd totally be a lightning bruiser - come on, 6S and T, but a 70 Initiative!?!?). He's actually a highly adaptable and clever fighter with a really wide array of weapons and skills at his disposal. Plus he's an engineer, a smith and skillful alchemist. These last areas are the only ones where he really outshines anybody else in the group. His versatility, however, makes him a threat in pretty much every possible situation, and a difficult adversary to predict due to his gigantic bag of tricks and wide tactical options.

Magic Knight - Derelek is a 4th-level Alchemist in addition to being a powerful warrior, and so he's got his share of cool magical abilities. His previous profession as a warrior/engineer means that he's got a case of Naked Dwarf Syndrome, so he doesn't suffer as much from lack of armor as most Warhammer wizards do. He's been unsuccessfully working on a way around the no armor for wizards thing anyway, but the spell point penalties for wearing full plate like he prefers are just too crippling so if a battle's going to be really serious he suits up and leaves the spellslinging to others... though he does make sure to take a collection of Spell Jewels and Scrolls with him, which provide a partial way around the restriction so he can have his cake and even take a few bites.

Multi Melee Master - Derelek used to carry both a double-handed axe and a one-handed pick plus a shield. Nowadays his secondary melee weapon is either a magical armor-piercing straight sword or a katana instead.

Multi Ranged Master - While his lack of depth perception does hinder his accuracy a bit (he certainly lacks the Improbable Aiming Skills of somebody like Randle), he's a better marksman than many soldiers and usually has one or more pistols plus either a crossbow or arquebus. Oh, and explosives.

The Other Derelek- While there were a considerable number of party members that came and went, there's also historically been a core group of characters that stuck around for a very long time. For several of these long running characters, however, the players were the ones that changed. Derelek is the king of this trope in the campaign, and is a particularly strange case, explained in detail under Suspiciously Similar Substitute below.

Our Dwarves Are All The Same - An odd instance of this came about in the early period of the campaign. See Suspiciously Similar Substitute further down this page.

Renaissance Man - Derelek is a remarkable polymath, and although several other characters in the party qualify to one degree or another, Derelek is definitely the clearest example. His fields of knowledge and expertise include but are not limited to: personal combat, military command, engineering, mathematics, alchemy, architecture, metallurgy, various forms of smithing, engraving, carpentry, artillery, gunnery, sorcery and fluency in numerous languages. The two most notable holes in his otherwise omnidisciplinary skillset are medicine and cultural arts like music or poetry.

Shield Bash - Derelek did this as part of a highly memorable Foe-Tossing Charge in Cathay.

Suspiciously Similar Substitute - Strangely enough, Derelek is a highly successful example of this. In the very first session of play, the one that included the period before the PCs even got to Nuln, there was a dwarf tunnel fighter in the party that was played by Drew Christensen. Drew wasn't part of the second session but Ryan Powell was. He had also made a dwarf tunnel fighter: Derelek. He replaced the other dwarf without any explanation whatsoever and the continuity (what little there really was at that point in the campaign) went on without noticing that he had replaced his predecessor. Derelek was a permanent fixture of the campaign from that point on. Before long, this plot hole was sort-of cleared up by declaring that the first dwarf had actually been Derelek anyway. To muddy the waters a bit further yet thoroughly cement this change in continuity, when Ryan moved out of town Drew took over playing Derelek without skipping a beat. On one notable occasion when Ryan returned to the area for a few weeks, Drew stepped back and let him temporarily return to his former role. The actual players don't even remember the original dwarf's name. That's right, the first dwarf never existed, he was in fact Derelek, and that is how it has always been. Once Drew moved away, Andrew took over playing him (and eventually he departed as well, leaving the character an NPC). Talk about messy, drawn-out provenance for a player character!