NPC - Nergui Paynim Mercenary
The rulers of Ket have supplemented their cavalry forces with Paynim for centuries and the light horse-archers have proven well worth their cost. Lightly armored they depend on their mobility and their skill with their short but powerful bows to keep them at a distance for heavily armored foes or large or numerous creatures. They are also adept with their curved sabers and many are skilled with the lasso and weighted rope.
Nergui is the leader of a small band of horsemen recently arrived from the Dry Steppes. His band of fifty horsemen has been sent to the borderland with Bissel due to a series of raids from tribes of mountain Hobgoblins. This is his first experience of lands more civilized than Ull and he is a bit awe-struck by what he has seen of Lopolla.
NPC - Metin the Ox Champion of Ket
Metin is a heroic warrior of the Kettish people. He is not a military leader though he has a cadre of followers; Warriors, magicians, clerics, all flock to him. He is often outside the borders of Ket and has explored deep in to the wasteland of the Paynims, out into Old Zeif, north among the Tiger Nomads.
His horse Melek is the third of that name, is trained warhorse and armored in enchanted barding which helps to protect her and gives her great stamina and strength. Her plate armor gives her nightvision and the ability to be unfazed by illusion.
Metin's armor and helm are enchanted as are his weapons and shield. He has a magical bag which can hold large quantities of items but always appears empty and weighs no more than the weight of cloth. He has a rope which can entangle anything upon command, a hand axe that returns when he throws it, potions of various sorts, and stewpot that once heated is everfull.
NPC - Bey Durrakan of Ket and his Retainers
The Bey Durrakan can be seen with the walls of Lopolla on the hill in the distance. On foot before him are his two most trusted retainers Berkan and Serdar.
Recent incursions of Hobgoblins in the boarder area between Ket and Bissel have seen the Bey lead a strong force of over 500 Kettish soldiers to reinforce the garrisons manning the fortresses which guard the boarder. The Bisselites have recently moved reinforcements of their own and while tensions run higher than usual the Hobgoblins are a common foe. Neither side will aid the other but both now escort the large trading caravans passing from west to east, east to west, and the goods and gold being carried.
Durrakan is a bit of a hot head but a powerful warrior and renowned archer. Serdar acts as his lieutenant while Berkan is a commoner and in charge of the discipline among the foot-soldiers assigned to the Pbey.
NPC - The White Horseman
Near the hills of the Fals River as it winds its way into eastern Ket is a recent battlefield between an army of marauding Hobgoblins and Kettish warriors. The bodies of the dead still rot in the fields. Spirits roam the land and none more prominent than The White Horseman. Still in his armor and carrying lance and shield he rides the edges of the field, terrifying local farmers and hunters, as the Kettish are reknowned for their dread of ghosts and spirits.
A delegation of clerics is due from Lopolla to cleanse the battlfield and put to rest the spirits but as with all things except business in Ket the delegation is slow to arrive. The battlefield, after all, will still be there so the clerics take their time.
The White Horseman is actually part of a group stripping the dead of their valuables. He is normally either Burc, Rifki, or Ferda (two brothers and a sister) dressed in white on a white horse with clay on their face and paint or white cloth on their weapons and shield.
There are seven of them in their family lead by their mother Savina. She has been going over the bodies with a fine tooth comb with an eye out for the commander of the Kettish force who wore a ruby ring of particular note. So far she hasn't found him (as he survived and has been taken prisoner by a handful of escaping hobgoblins).
Twenty-seven hobgoblins escaped the battle, all from the Primrose Scimitar clan. They have three human captives, the commander Arad, his sergeant, a grizzled veteran, Mirac, and a young trooper named Ruzgar. The commander has a head-wound which is how he was captured and why sergeant Mirac ordered the trooper to surrender to the hobgoblins. While the monsters are completely without mercy they do ransom captives and are not without honor. Mirac has always thought of them more like a colony of ants or hive of bees rather than others of goblin-kind.
The hobgoblin leading this group is incongruously named Flower Mountain and was not even a clan leader but a Five-hand (leading twenty-five or so other hobgoblins). The minor Chief who died in the battle lead some five hundred warriors of the clan to their death and he took the prisoners to salvage something from the debacle. Currently they are holed-up in a hidden cave system in a nearby hill while the Kettish patrols scour the area.
The battlefield scavengers have an idea where they are but see no profit in informing anyone of the hobgoblins camp or their own presence while they loot the dead.
