Ries Cuprianas

Defense

Offense

Statistics

Description

Male human ranger 6

Before Combat: When escorting refugees, Ries avoids combat whenever possible. If a fight is inevitable, he casts pass without trace on the people he’s helping to allow them to escape.

During Combat: Ries ambushes from cover whenever possible, engaging in hit-and-run tactics to delay the enemy, preferring to stay at range near cover.

Morale: Ries retreats as soon as those under his protection or command are safe.

Ries is a captain in the Steel Falcons, one of the three branches of Andoran’s Eagle Knights. Colloquially known as the “Steel Fox” because of his daring and imaginative raids into Cheliax. Ries focuses his efforts and ingenuity on smuggling individuals out of the infernal empire. His small company of rangers is well known across Andoran. In Cheliax, his heroics go unmarked except by the officials tasked with bringing him to justice, and occasional hopeful whispers among less patriotic Chelaxians.

Ries and his company of rangers have haunted eastern Cheliax for years. Dissenters and troublemakers have a tendency to disappear in Cheliax, and while most of those who disappear do so in the clutches of House Thrune, a small number reach a better destination—Andoran. The Eagle Knights, through a network of informants, target and contact Chelish folk who appear to be on the verge of arrest and offer them a deal: safety in Andoran in exchange for any information or aid that could damage Cheliax. Hundreds have taken the deal, and Ries is their ticket to their new home. Extraction operations are perilous, since the defectors are often already under watch by the authorities. Running fights, dangerous diversionary tactics, and acts of civic destruction are all common occurrences when Ries is on the scene.

While most Andorens agree that Ries is a great hero and a great patriot, several theories float about as to why he has devoted his life to bringing down Cheliax in his singular manner. The most popular theory is that he is originally from Cheliax, and was rescued from there as a child by a smuggler like himself. Records on Ries’s youth aren’t public knowledge, so the theory is plausible. More radical theories include a divine mandate from Talmandor (Andoran’s avoral patron) or his parents were killed by devils. Whatever his motivation, Ries is regarded as being single-minded in his goal to serve Andoran by freeing the Chelaxians, one by one.

Ries is in good physical shape for his forties, but his face is creased and leathered, and his hair retains little of its original brown, settling instead on a silver that helps make his sobriquet all the more fitting. A long scar mars the left side of his face from scalp to chin, a reminder and memorial. Ries is taciturn by nature and rarely smiles, though his eyes often convey a warmth at odds with his dour visage.

Boon: Ries is well versed in all of the smuggling routes along the border between Cheliax and Andoran and has used almost all of them himself at one time or another. He makes frequent forays across the border, and if the PCs

need to sneak into Cheliax unnoticed, he can take them along easily. If the PCs are in Cheliax and need help getting out, Ries can add them to his docket, but the chance of a successful extraction decreases with each person added, and Ries is loath to jeopardize his larger mission without good cause.

Source: NPC Guide, p. 6