Meet the Party: The Maladum Adventurers

It’s time to assemble your party and venture forth, but who will you brave the dungeons of Enveron with? 

The Maladum core box comes with seven adventurers to choose from and 11 character classes to assign them to. Just like the crews in Maladum’s sci-fi sister game, Core Space, it’s up to you how you combine unique strengths of characters with classes to create your personal favourites. Greet’s high skill point cap and innate Tricks of the Trade skill make her an ideal Rogue. Or maybe you want to use Callan to create a maladaar with a maximum of three magic points and the Frenzy skill. It might not be optimal, but we won’t stop you, maybe frenzy mages will be all the rage… 

The adventurers you don’t recruit won’t be sitting idly in the inn; Event Cards will bring them into your games as Denizens with their own goals. Sometimes they will be a distraction, at other times a threat – and sometimes they’ll just be nicking all your loot before you can get to it. 

It’s not all bad news, silver tongued characters have a chance of persuading NPCs to join you for the quest (and of joining you permanently at a discounted cost). Handy if one of your party members got caught in a net and was left for the Revenants…

Kriga

Human Female, Age: 40

Working part-time as a barmaid, Kriga supplements her income with mercenary work and sporadic bouts of adventuring. She’s never been comfortable with Maladum but has the aptitude to turn her hand to almost anything else, and is tough as they come.

She has a genial but forceful nature and is rarely seen without one or both of her signature clubs, whether she’s using them for sport or to clout anyone unconscious who can’t see things her way!

Hendley

Dwella Male, Age: 57

Hendley is a Dwella, a typically subterranean species with impressive facial tusks and the ability to see in almost total darkness. Once part of a thriving race, birth rates have fallen and the remnants of the Dwella are now scattered across Enveron in small clans. Hendley’s clan is no more, and he wanders the kingdoms looking for excitement in his twilight years.

Resourceful and clever, he has a knack for repairing items, particularly magical ones, although he has no great skill in their use. He is strong and resilient and will barrel through enemies like a cannonball. Keenly aware that he is getting older, he hopes his end won’t be a dull one!

Ariah

Human Female, Age: 26

Ariah is clearly an aristocrat, with an education and bearing different from the usual Adventurer. Her clothes are practical, but expensive and well made, and she speaks and acts with decorum. She never speaks of her past, but it’s assumed she is a runaway or exile from a wealthy family.

Although inexperienced in battle she is expertly trained with all ranged weaponry, from the Merutan Longbow to common throwing daggers. The Adventurer’s life is forcing her to quickly adapt from hunting to being hunted!

SYRIO FEL’RUN

Eld male, Age: 27

Surly, irritable and quick to anger, Syrio is what many would consider a typical Eld. However, most Eld encountered outside of their tribe are exiles or criminals, whereas Syrio is a loner who chose to leave his tribe and wander Enveron. 

He will willingly join a group of mercenaries or Adventurers in the short term but exposure to other people will strain his loyalty. If a group fares badly or is poorly led he will not hesitate to leave. He is an excellent marksman (or is that markseld?) and is particularly skilled with the bow.

The Eld

Tall, slim, with a nose-less face and mammalian hind legs, an Eld could only be mistaken for human in dim light. They are a fierce people, insular and untrusting of others. Extremely volatile and emotional the Eld can swing from drunken gregariousness to berserker rage. Although highly intelligent their explosive natures mean their tribes bear ancestral blood feuds against each other. Eld adventurers are often exiles or eccentrics who cannot live amongst their own people.

CALLAN HAYWOOD

Human male, Age: 24

Callan is a Kelthion Outlander, part of a renowned nomadic tribe that have wandered the kingdoms for hundreds of years. Their relationship to their home kingdom of Kel is tenuous but remains loyal; the Outlanders retaining their customs and language from generations ago. Although the Kelthions are fierce close quarter fighters they are not overtly aggressive, even considered learned and progressive for the age.

Callan is a ‘gatherer’, which is akin to a Ranger but not guild affiliated, he has been trained to survive in the wild and bring back knowledge ‘untainted’ by academic learning. Although loyal to his tribe he has found the outside influence of other Adventurers have made him doubt his calling.

Greet

Grobbler female, Age: 16

Grobblers are generally regarded as untrustworthy and to be avoided. Old rumours that wild Grobblers have been known to eat Adventurers still plague city-born Grobblers!

Small and skinny but extremely strong Greet is able to carry a large amount of loot and paraphernalia. She is a borderline rogue who won’t go out of her way to find trouble but neither will she avoid it. She is smart but also devious and will not hesitate to steal anything that comes her way.

Moranna

Human female, Age: 23

Moranna is a maladaar with a high potential for magic, but she can be lazy and mischievous and the results can be erratic.

She has a casual regard towards other people’s property and will tend towards the quickest and easiest solution in any given moment.

Her weapon of choice is a Plethrum, a staff with a blade at one end and an Athlum, a magical light emitting stone, at the other.

BEREN THEMIS

Human male, Age: 54

Beren is a maladaar who styles himself after the druids of old by following an ancient and forgotten religion. This has made him a loner who has long since given up trying to convert people to his faith and has resigned himself to being the only practitioner. 

He has an affinity with nature and is able to control it to a degree, even without magical tools.

His staff is tipped with a small jewel which helps him concentrate his own magical powers, and to store energy for more complex spells. 

Although he was born with average levels of Maladum, long years of study and practice have made him a powerful spellcaster.

NERINDA PASHA

Human female, Age: 27

Nerinda specialises in political assassinations and has discretely toppled several tyrants over the years. She likes to think that in some way she has helped promote stability in the kingdoms of Enveron, but when that rings hollow she takes comfort in the substantial pay.

She is a master of both the single handed sword and the twin curved swords. She also carries a flintlock pistol, a rare and expensive gift from a grateful client.

What sets her apart from the usual sell-sword is her inventiveness. Although well armed she is not above using alternative means, such as poisoning or pushing someone down a staircase, to achieve her goal.

Although discretion is part of her trade she has become too well known in certain high powered circles and has chosen the life of an Adventurer until the unwanted attention dies down.

GROGMAR OF THE GREY

Ormen male, Age: 53

Grogmar grew up in a small village where his strength of arm and gregarious nature were far more important than his species. When he came of age he travelled to the far-off cities of his childhood dreams to discover city-folk weren’t so welcoming of his kind. Dissatisfied with the second-rate status accorded him he travelled the whole of Enveron stopping only to work as a seasonal farmhand or as a mercenary in a local dispute. 

The life of an Adventurer was a natural step for him and he is never happier than cleaving monsters in deserted tombs or drinking his hard fought proceeds away in seedy taverns. Grogmar has no thoughts for the future, taking each day as it comes and enjoying the surprises that his life affords.

The Ormen

The Ormen were once a fearsome race of warriors who swept across Enveron in a wake of destruction. Their strength was in brute fighting, but not in organisation, and cities captured by the Ormen were soon relinquished, the Ormen bored of administration and looking for new challenges. Over time the Ormen integrated into the very civilisations they had once conquered, their fierce origins almost forgotten. Although there are still small tribes of Ormen that retain their fierce nature the majority are now relatively friendly. Many Ormen can be found living alongside the races of Men working as ordinary tradesmen or swelling the ranks of local militias.