Connects to: 5.24.
The goat herders who traverse the rugged lands between Gore and the Cornfields revere a strange patrician known as Unwerth the Immense. He is a wizard bachelor who keeps a cozy home inside a cliffside cave. His rotundness, fine dress and booming, jolly voice would put visitors at ease in almost any situation. But those who go straight from the scrub lands into Unwerth’s richly-furnished abode and treated as though they were expected for tea-time feel disoriented and unnerved.
Unwerth takes it upon himself to diffuse conflicts between the feuding bands of goat herders before they can turn to murder or worse. The goat herders always come to him and never see him outside his comfortable quarters. Unwerth is a first-class mediator: his warm humor, hospitality and unimpeachable taste soothe even the hottest-headed petitioners. By the end of negotiations, which may consist of a weekend of halfling brandy, eclectic pipeweed blends, nut cakes and boar sausage, all parties tend to be more or less satisfied.
Unwerth the Immense is in fact an elaborate prank perpetrated by the Indigo Academy (05.24). The gregarious wizard patrician is really a huge, docile desert toad beneath countless layers of illusion. The trick serves to pacify local human tribes, who envy Ninbolm’s prosperity.
Hooks
- Tell me more about these goat herding tribes.
- Who, among the tribes, suspects something is seriously awry with this lovable bachelor?
- What do the tribes fight over?
- Has Ninbolm ever gone to war with local humans or anyone else?
- What other defensive measures does Ninbolm use against outsiders?
