CAST: Lord Adam of the Psychos

DESCRIPTION:

Adam, self-proclaimed 'Lord of the Psychos', is tall, gaunt and pale, with pink eyes. The only feature blessed with colour is his hair, which is a venomous green. One half of Adam's face has been daubed with red and black dye, possibly to invoke whatever strange powers he prays to. He is dressed in what must once have been an expensive black velvet tunic, but now it is torn and tattered. Shambolic gait and fractured personality complete the thumbnail sketch of this wreck of a man.
Yet once Adam of Chironeia was the shining star of the court of Hare. Coming from a long-established noble house of eastern Hyeron, at the age of fifteen he joined the Order of the Silver Shield in the wilderness of Lessizag, and his natural prowess and courage were such that at the age of twenty-two he took his Questing Oath, to slay the Grim Bear of the Western Woods that had terrorised the western fiefs of Hyeron for the past fifteen years. He tracked the cursed beast down to its hidden lair, surrounded by the bones of failed knights errant, and after a titanic struggle slew the monster and cut off its head. When he presented the head to the young Queen Rabbyt before the assembled nobility of Hyeron, he was made a Lord of the Realm and discharged from the Silver Shields with great honour.
In the years that followed, he and another young Lord of the Realm, Paganini, vied with each other in friendly rivalry for the greater honour of Hyeron, competing in tournaments and quests and leading armies against the bands of godless raiders that were crossing the border in ever-increasing numbers. It was at a tournament in Carab Sileon that Adam's greatest triumph came, when he defeated Antonio di Raletas, generally acknowledged as the greatest knight to bear arms in three generations. In recognition of this achievement, he was appointed Queen's Champion after the death of Margrave Sherman of Lactose, the previous Champion, in the same tournament.
In this office he was to lead the royal army twice to victory, but by now his ambitions went beyond martial glory: he had cherished an affection for Rabbyt ever since his entry into her court, and believed that he was now a worthy consort. He asked for her hand, and was rebuffed.

His friends, knowing nothing of his hopes or his rejection, nonetheless saw a change work in him. This former paragon of gentleness grew increasingly savage in tournaments, and his honour was besmirched when he was found to be using a tipped lance at a tournament in Tilderan. Worse was to come when he killed his arch-rival Raletas in a mêlée, when Raletas was weaponless and unhelmed. Shamed, he returned to Hare, where he heard rumour of a great danger threatening the realm. In his despair, he volunteered to venture into the enchanted Library to break the curse and enable the scholars to seek for information that might help them defeat this mysterious threat. When a week had passed since his departure, he was presumed lost like so many others who had passed the deadly doors. It would have been better so.
He burst into his own memorial service, sword in hand, and killed five of the assembled nobles before he was overpowered. His hair, formerly a rich chestnut colour, had turned green from the unknown horrors that broke his mind, and he gibbered in his cell of strange powers and new gods. Sometimes he referred to himself in the third person, as though he were a spectator looking at the web of story that wove itself around him. Eventually, Rabbyt decided that he was not to be slain, but banished to the Library, and the doors were locked upon him. The strange energies of that place would, she hoped, preserve him until they could find a cure for his malady...

HISTORY:

Lord Adam made a nuisance of himself right from his first appearance: he locked the Library doors and sealed the explorers in with him. They rapidly succumbed to the lure of the books, while Adam, somehow perceiving Jared's true nature, immediately drew his sword and attacked. However, he was at something of a disadvantage fighting an angry vampire, and was firmly tied to a pillar. He attempted to bluff his way out by threatening to nuke everyone, but only succeeded in getting himself killed. Or so it seemed.
While the party were trying valiantly to fight the spell, Adam re-appeared from nowhere and stabbed Jared through the heart, something that came as a shock to them all (particularly Jared). Paganini, having spent most of the time up to that point meditating, re-appeared just in time to reveal what we must assume is the real Lord Adam. This version was armed with a 'lightsabre' but proved to be no more competent than his predecessor, and was disabled by a liberal sprinkling of Jared's impotence powder. Although he has since recovered (more or less), he is now somewhat more under control, and followed Padgin and the others out of the library and into the kitchens, where the party encountered Morgil Pimeestara the Dark Elf. Bursting in on the failed revolutionary assault on the monarchy, Adam seemed to recover his senses until he was driven into a frenzy by the insults hurled by Leila at his Queen. He was shot in the back in the confusion, and after the Wizard With No Name worked his own brand of magic on the castle floor, ended up in some tunnels with Leila and the aforementioned wizard. Since then he has been flattened by a falling Warren and then incinerated by the irate Count Tildanor (who removed some of the ashes and is now smoking them in his pipe), but although he is consequently missing part of one of his feet, he remains very much alive - somehow. He was last seen following Morwen, the Count, Karlingalas, Warren and Rakeis through a mysterious doorway.

ATTRIBUTES:

SKILLS:

DESCRIPTORS:

• Deranged
• Obsessive
• Refers to himself in the third person
• In love with Rabbyt
• Mental confusion means he rarely performs at his best
• Possibly in contact with some other power
• Potentially very dangerous indeed
• A bit off-balance, owing to part of one foot being missing
• Apparently indestructible!

WEAPONS:

• Sword
• Stick with glowing red ends

EQUIPMENT:

• Cardboard box tied to his back, with the words 'Atom Bomb' written badly on it in crayon