Before we get too much into Rabbit (the Ranger) and Tamara (the Tenacious), let’s talk about three characters I intended to introduce alongside them in this chapter.

Loyar The Loreful. An older warrior who knows the entire history of adventuring-for-hire, and will lose NO opportunity to remind everyone around him of this fact. At the moment, his historical perspective is useful enough to this largely unprecedented venture to outweigh the fact that he is really annoying to talk to. Loyar essentially got revised into Lectrus, who’s technically intro’d here but doesn’t really get a lot to do.

Hiro the Hairless. Hiro is one degree away from being a nudist, and so in love with his body that he’d have sex with himself if it were physically possible. If you can get him to shut up about his gleaming pecs, you’ll still have to get him to shut up about his exotic sword from the farthest regions of Unobtania. (May not actually be from the farthest regions of anywhere. May be from the thrift smithy.) Phil was like, “yeahno,” and I obeyed, but about 15% of his exhibitionism and ebullience went into Colonnus to keep Colonnus from being a pure tribute.

Argbarg the Avaracious. A human with a shaggy, Conan-like mane and a mouthful of teeth that look more troll-like than human. Pretty much everything Argbarg sees seems to fall into two categories for him: “I own that” and “I will own that.” His companions, far from being threatened by this, find it cute and charming. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that his vocabulary and intelligence are extremely limited and he often has to resort to simply howling “MIIIIINE” to express his frustration. Phil was like, “So, Monosyllable Larfleeze? HARD PASS.” I was like “Why do you hate fun?” then, but in retrospect, I agree. In addition to being a bit derivative, Argbarg may’ve muddied the theme of the working class fighting for its rights a little too much.