Gak
Gak
At the table
Voice
A dry, chest-driven voice with a little rasp from years of shouting through dust and weather. The sound catches briefly on words beginning with K, as if his throat remembers the seam beneath it. His laugh is a short, surprised click, more audible in his jaw than in his chest.
His speech has the clipped rhythm of a man used to calling orders over rain, armor, and panic. He puts hard emphasis on verbs and leaves names untouched by rank when speaking to the living. Military phrases surface when he is tired. He does not raise his volume to intimidate; he makes each word sound like an instruction already entered into the record.
Speech patterns
How to play them
Gak responds best to direct questions, useful offers, and proof that the party can keep a confidence. He tests newcomers with small requests before entrusting them with anything involving the returned. If pressed about Ketu, he becomes formal and asks what the questioner intends to do with the answer.
Goal
Find a way to give the returned soldiers their memories and free will without exposing them to Ketu's retaliation.
Motivation
Gak wants to protect the returned soldiers, but also needs to believe his bargain was not a selfish act that condemned them.
Appearance
Gak is a broad, square-built former infantry captain with a gait that lands heel-first and stops abruptly, as if he is still bracing for a shield wall. His skin has the dry, cool cast of old ash; a faint black seam runs beneath it at his throat and shows when he swallows. He smells unmistakably of wet earth, lamp oil, and the mineral tang of a storm cellar, and seems not to notice. When he eats, he tears food into small pieces with flat, blunt teeth and chews with his jaw set hard; when he laughs, which is rare, the jaw unclenches with a dry click. An unexpected detail for a hard-bitten commander: he carries a tiny nest of woven rushes in his breast pocket and repairs it carefully whenever it frays.
Clothing
A patched officer's coat under a battered mail shirt, leather bracers stained dark by rain, and a gray scarf wrapped twice around his neck to hide the unnatural seam there. His boots are kept meticulously clean despite his duties.
Body language
He stands with his feet planted as if the ground might shift beneath him, and turns his whole torso toward whoever speaks. His hands are economical and decisive in public. When uncertain, he presses his tongue against his upper teeth and holds still long enough to seem carved from the same gray stone as a road marker.
- Height
- 6 feet 2 inches
- Build
- Broad-shouldered, thick through the chest, with the compact strength of a career foot soldier
- Eyes
- Dark brown, with a faint charcoal ring around the iris
- Hair
- Iron-gray, cut short and flattened beneath his cap
- Skin
- Weathered brown with a dry, ash-gray cast
- Age
- About 46, though the bargain has left his exact age uncertain
- Gender
- Male
- Size
- Medium
Distinguishing features
Personality
13 traits and drivesGak is stern about discipline but tender toward anyone frightened enough to hide it. He can be patient with a recruit's mistakes and merciless with an officer's excuses. In a crisis he becomes calm and exact; after it, he grows restless and repairs small objects with near-ritual care. He wants his soldiers to think of him as dependable, yet privately fears that dependence is all he has left to offer.
- Alignment
- Lawful neutral, with obedience to Ketu increasingly at odds with his own judgment
Quirks
Habits
Traits · 4
Flaws · 3
Fears · 3
Wants and needs · 3
Combat
AC 14 · HP 22 · 30 ft.Gak fights defensively, using his saber to control space and keep threats away from vulnerable allies. He uses Hold the Line to coordinate returned soldiers, and will withdraw if doing so preserves his unit. He avoids needless killing of the living, but treats attacks on Ketu's orders as a threat to the entire returned company.
Gak
Actions
Reactions
Services they sell
Rewards they can give
Equipment
- Notched saber (weapon)A plain, well-maintained saber with a nicked guard and a grip wrapped in dark cord.
- Patchwork mail (armor)A serviceable mail shirt hidden beneath his coat.
- Rush nest (keepsake)A small rush nest, repeatedly mended; its maker is unknown.
- Sealed order (document)A folded strip of paper bearing Ketu's latest instruction, written in a hand Gak does not recognize.
Possessions
Background
Gak once commanded a border company stationed at the miserable ford called Bryn-and-Bell, a name left behind by two rival toll houses that were forced into one settlement. When his unit was cut off during a retreat, he accepted Ketu's bargain: his soldiers would rise again, and Gak would survive to lead them. They returned, but not unchanged. Their bodies kept moving after death, and their names began slipping from their memories. Gak now carries Ketu's orders between scattered companies of returned soldiers, enforcing discipline while quietly searching for a way to restore their names and choices. He still sends a portion of his pay to his sister, Talla, who believes he deserted and is raising his daughter without him. Odrik, once Gak's sergeant and now a returned soldier, suspects Gak has withheld a crucial clause of the bargain. Gak's formative change came when one of his returned soldiers recognized his own child, lowered his weapon, and asked Gak to let him go. Gak ordered him back into formation. He has regretted that order every day since.
Role in the story
A grim ally, antagonist, or moral hinge between Ketu's command and the returned soldiers' dwindling humanity
“When his unit was cut off during a retreat, he accepted Ketu's bargain: his soldiers would rise again, and Gak would survive to lead them.”
- Faction
- Former captain of the border company at Bryn-and-Bell; currently an enforcer and liaison for Ketu among the returned soldiers
Known connections
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