How did you RP Horgus Gwerm (minor spoilers)?

[Yqatuba]

He seems like a male version of Willie from The Temple Of Doom i.e a rich, spoiled guy who complains about everything. I also imagine he would make some crude comments towards Anevia, at least until Irabeth "encourages" him to stop by picking him up by the neck.

[Jason Horton]

I just made him really whiny. He complained about his feet, didn't help set up camp or cook, complained about being left behind, complained about being dragged into danger, complained about Aravashnial and Anevia slowing them down, complained about going too fast, complained about being in the company of thieves, rough types, and perverts (which did not go down well with anyone), etc, etc. He just moaned about everything.

I've played WotR three or four times and DMed it once (I'm just starting a second game of it next month) and every single time someone has slapped Horgus and threatened to leave him behind.

Also each time he has survived.

[Kasoh]

Horgus Gwerm is selfish, self centered, and rich. He is used to getting what he wants. But, he is also shrewd and heavily invested in fighting against the demons of the worldwound. His entire backstory is traumatic and it left his mark on him. He has also been the victim of slander and spying by the people that he is now forced into the company of. (Aravashnial sicked inquisitors who have a reputation for burning tieflings at the stake on him. I'd be sour too.)

Horgus doesn't have to like the PCs, but he realized that they are his best chance at getting out, which is why he offered them so much money to secure his safety.

I have always used Horgus as the blunt, pragmatic voice of reason. He is not sentimental, he doesn't like taking prisoners, and he'll do whatever it takes to survive, even if that means abandoning people he already doesn't like.

He also respects the privacy of others. When a PC is being interrogated on their religion, Horgus will jump in to tell people its none of their business. (I have a worshiper of the Redeemer Queen in my game.)

He can say the things the GM wants to say to the players, usually 'That's a stupid idea. Don't you have a scale that casts levitate?'

The only thing I recall softening Horgus for is the argument he has with Anevia in the Torag Chapel. But all the book's 'tagalongs have argument, make diplomacy check to get xp' are kind of weak.

Out of the three, easily my favorite.

[Yqatuba]

Jason Horton wrote:

I just made him really whiny. He complained about his feet, didn't help set up camp or cook, complained about being left behind, complained about being dragged into danger, complained about Aravashnial and Anevia slowing them down, complained about going too fast, complained about being in the company of thieves, rough types, and perverts (which did not go down well with anyone), etc, etc. He just moaned about everything.

I've played WotR three or four times and DMed it once (I'm just starting a second game of it next month) and every single time someone has slapped Horgus and threatened to leave him behind.

Also each time he has survived.

I found the scene where he suggests just abandoning Anevia kind of disturbing. How did the players react? I would hope any good aligned PCs would chew him out badly over this.

[DerNils]

In my games he was an Opportunist and sometimes VERY unhinged. He picked up on unintentional cues by my Players. He was severely creeped out by the mongrelmen, whom he perceived as half-demons themselves, and being forced to consort with them and seeing the heroes being actually getting cosy with some of them (our Team witch got along brillantly with their shaman, and the Transmutation wizard felt it was a good eperiment to refresh their gene pool) send him right over the edge.
When they took the mad dwarf prisoner, he listened to the Hardliner Rangers Arguments and arranged a Little "accident" for the captive so he would not slow them down further.

He actually asked to leave them on his own when he saw them bargain with the Ivory Labyrinth Templars and even idly reading through prayer books to Baphomet.

He is absolutely convinced that the heroes are thoroughly corrupted, aided by an imp in the form of a rat he picked up in the Underground. He personally called for the Hellknights to help free Kenabres once he was able to and is now a constant pain in the neck for my Players with his law over all Arguments and bankrolling of Hellknights in the area.

He is an important mirror for my Players and a constant reminder how the average Person perceives their Acts.

[Wiggz]

This looks like a thread necro, but then it seems like pretty much everything is thread necro in these forums nowadays... since I'm about to run a new WotR campaign, I thought they were worth revisiting and I can't help but respond here as the character proved to be an excellent NPC for me, with a little re-write.

So in my game Horgus is Anevia's father and the two have become estranged over Anevia's relationship with Irabeth. She believes that her normally conservative father is a bigot, which is why he opposes their union but, as with all good NPC's, things aren't quite that simple. The truth is that he has always wanted a child to pass on the family business to, to teach everything he has learned and to pass on his legacy and his accumulated wealth. Anevia has shown zero interest in any of that.

But let's back up a bit. There was something I wanted to do with the Mongrelman tribes. Believed to be demon-spawn, when children are born with these hideous deformations, the midwives know by tradition that the 'corrupted' babes are taken away and abandoned at a very specific out-of-the-way well in the city, known by a very few outside the midwives circle as an urban legend referred to in whispers as the 'Well of Sorrows'.

When Anevia was about three, her mother, Horgus' wife, died in childbirth with such a babe. The midwife asked if she should take the babe and Horgus, overcome with grief and loss, demanded that she do so. He never gave the child another thought, but he never got over the death of his wife and he never spoke of the night that she died. He did, however, put pressure on Anevia to become both the woman of the house that his wife had been (with no ability or interest in teaching her how) while simultaneously filling the role of dutiful heir to his business interests. Anevia grew up smart, resilient, multi-talented and absolutely hating her father. When she grew old enough, she left home and the two became estranged, Horgus stoically - and at times bitterly - accepting his daughter's rejection, knowing deep down inside he deserved it while she resented the fact that she had never managed to be good enough for him no matter how hard she tried. Still, Horgus held out hope that when Anevia married that there would be children and one of them would be willing and able to serve as his heir... and possibly bridge the gap between he and his daughter. When she announced her betrothal to another woman (in my campaign the two are simply an interracial lesbian couple), he sees that hope for the future vanish.

So anyway, that conflict plays out in the early part of the adventure, he trying to force his help on her and she wanting nothing to do with him. She frequently accuses him of being a bigot, which he is in an old-fashioned Archie Bunker sort of way, even if his opposition to her wedding has nothing to do with it. A lot of character development takes place when they encounter the Mongrel tribes, he discovers exactly who they are and where they come from and admits the story of the night his wife died. Anevia becomes even more disgusted with him, again failing to see the hurt and ignorance behind his actions, only seeing hate and intolerance, and their relationship worsens further.

As the subplot evolved, Horgus eventually redeems himself and became a champions of the mongrel people, knowing that somewhere among them was possibly his trueborn son. In one dramatic moment he addresses Queen Galfrey in a very public forum, speaking for them in the face of her dismissiveness towards the mongrel tribes, informing her that if she doesn't meet with them, if she doesn't 'see' them for who they are, then her army doesn't eat. In book three, after working some of the PC's into the embattled relationship as friends and confidants on either side, Anevia and Horgus reconcile.

That's the short version, anyway.