Let's go beyod the nameless barkeep that you know not to mess with, the umpteenth inept town guardsman that you likewsie know that your prty could defeat using a collection of plush animals, or the one-track villain that your six year old could outwit.

Has your DM/GM ever included a really memorable NPC in one of your adventures? It can be a recurring character, or simply a one-shot deal that was so funny/bizzare/remarkable that you still talk about them to this day.

Tell us about them, and what made them memorable - over-the-top accents, vivid descriptions, crazy actions, or something else entirely?

*Sits back and waits for his players to begin*

Be careful what you say! He may just return.

In one of my earlier Aetalanta campaigns, I had a lesser/carillion armorer living in the port city of Harne on the Dalvasian Coast.

His name was Thithmir and he was outrageously GAY. He looked at armor as fashion - not protection - and would flaunt about with the player characters consulting them on what would give them "flaire" and not mentioning how little AC the armor afforded.

Another good NPC character in Aetalanta (in Harne also) is Scarlet Jack. A fun-loving thematic spirit who takes on the guise of a red-haired boy of about 13, he is the "Prince of Thieves". Scarlet Jack is a Urigonil, a powerful spirit of nature, but he would rollick around the streets of Harne gettig the poor Player Characters in no end of trouble.

My first DM scarred me for life with this guy - some of you have heard the tale.

His name was Greedyguts (cheesy, I know). Greedyguts was some sort of sadistic demigod who for an unknown reason took an interest in our party. Mainly, I think its because my teenaged DM felt like giving us a hard time... and liked playing his stupid goth music as an intro for the thing.

Greedyguts, as I recall, manifested in the form of a huge black panther with tentacles. He possessed incredible power, and could (and often did) freeze us to the ground at will, where he would taunt us, torture us, and generally make our lives miserable for no apparent reason.

Not surprisingly, we tired of Greedyguts and the "you can't do that!" messages. Not long thereafter, I was voted the new DM of the group (not by my choosing), and well... the rest is history.

It scarred me, man... and having been through it, I'm probably not as open to complains of DM cruelty as I might otherwise would have been...

Was that a "Displacer Beast" from the old school, Olan?

Yeah, I understand. I had (and still have) a malicious sense of humor to take out on my poor player characters. Scarlet Jack was just one of them, but he was sooooo funny. This little red-haired teen with a wild bright disposition - but he would land the player characters in jail and sometimes worse just for "fun".

Scarlet Jack still exists in Harne, so any new players: watch out!
As a footnote, he was much like a young Johnny Whittaker (for you young'ns, you'll have to google him).

Nah, though the physical description was very similar.

Hehe... displacer beasts... good fun!

Obsidia friggin Dern! (It was Dern, wasn't it, Grey?) Yes, it's another nod to LotDJ and, no, my character didn't have much interaction with her (other than that one time when I thought for sure she was gonna make an Iktochi-burger out of my character), but everytime she showed up or was even referred to, for that matter, I got a major case of the heebies!

Woe to the loneliness!!

Obsidia Dern!!

My charactor had such love for her...He would have had her too...damnit...I would have been the greatest "Apprentace EVER!!

Obsidia Dern.

One of the ONLY reasons to have played out LotDJ. I wonder if there is some way I can re-introduce her in a SW campaign later on ...

One of my most recent memorable NPCs is definately Herman the Shed. He appeared in my God of the Gnomes game, being a big animated object, complete with facial expressions and dark history. He was awesome to play, and one of the strangest characters ever. I just hope my players from that game agree. hehe.

Herman was great, even moreso when I managed to convince said shed into my barbarian's exotic mount!... What good fun, although terribly short lived.

GreyGrey, previously known as Greysorcerer, had introduced Aetlantea some years ago, and that's where I first introduced Kaelyn, my namesake to RDI.

In it, he was an orphaned vagrant who dabbled in a little magic and a little thievery, whatever would give him a one-up on the other street urchins of the area.

Anyways, as the game progressed, he was slowly manipulated by the unseen hands of a evil priest named Dharvor, who was just.. plain.. EVIL!...

He was so cool and collected, and kidnapped my SISTER!!! and through her forced kaelyn down the path of well, the dark side..

hmm Aetlantea to LOTDJ?... not so far a jump of the imagination lol..

Anyways, he was a very memorable NPC for me.

I tried. I tried to think of an NPC created by someone else that really stuck in my memory - but every time I turned the phrase "memorable NPC" through my brain, all I could think of was the cry of "You guys suck!" It makes sense. Trust me.

Well, in a way, even though I was the DM, Kreilig was an NPC created by the players. I get ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning...

The last AD&D game I ran (this being last spring or thereabouts) did not include a wizard among the PCs, so I ran an NPC wizard with them, an elf by the name of Llarian. He was a young and naive acadamy wizardling with grand and romantic ideals about the mystique and heroics of the adventuring life. He very quickly learned that adventuring is a very different lifestyle from what one reads in books - it is dirty, violent, rough, bloody, dangerous.. and he loved every minute of it. Soon the poor party had a young, overenthusiastic first-level wizard charging into melee with a stout club whenver fighting started (which kept the clerics busy to say the least). Llarian's early experiences with this caused him to be severly injured more than once, but he also saved the day through some lucky die rolls in the process of going down, buying the team a few precious rounds or finishing off a particularly nasty monster. Hailed as a hero, he would continue to fight this way at every turn. The party, understandably worried at this (Llarian being the only mage in the vicinity, and a good friend they all owed their lives to to boot), decided a tactical change was in order.

By this time, they had befriended a local tribe of kobolds (in part through liberal use of clerical healing), and were in the habit of travelling with a few who served as messengers and spear-carriers. One of the plucky little fellows, name of Kreilig, developed a reputation of being incredibly brave and would run very risky missions for them time and again.

In the name of protecting Llarian's skin, our intrepid adventurers hit upon the idea of staging ambushes in the caves as they explored... but how to get the enemy to come to them? Send Kreilig as bait. Not terribly bright, but daring and enthusiastic, Kreilig would run into a room full of goblins, orcs, even bugbears, hurl a rock into the crowd with a shout of "You guys suck! Kobolds rule!" and a rude gesture, then flee back to the ambush site. Time and again, the little hero would fearlessly charge into enemy territory screaming his battlecry at the top of his little lungs.

The adventurers grew so attached to the little guy, they equipped him with dwarven-made armor and quality weapons, eventually decided to sacrifice part of the party xp to him, making him a full-fledged henchman, gaining levels of fighter so he could keep up with them as the dungeons became more and more lethal.

Technically, I created Kreilig, but the players made him, and not one of them wouldn't have sacrificed their character to keep him alive and kicking, and a high-pitched shout of "You guys suck!" still draws laughter from each and every one of them.

"So the party need something...up for it Yana?" I want to say that's how it started one day in chat. And the evil elven wench was born. The name was Elvaleryn I think? Everyone thought she was a damsel in distress, saved and now part of the party.

In truth she was a corrupt elven spy, sent by the towers to seek some information on Raven's character. WHen the truth was revealed, a pc was killed and the wench escaped cackling into the night. There's a little place in my heart that still loves the evil Elva.

I still have nightmares about Elvaleryn....

I still have shivers of glee about Elvaleryn.

Of course, it ruined my rep as a DM, at least where Yana was involved - from that point on, eveyone involved suspected us of conspiracies.