Klaus: A D&D Biography of the Elven Spy

The Kingdom of Nikovaria lies far to the north of the Graylands in JADE's Arachnophobia Dungeons and Dragons Campaign. It is the nation from which the party's woodland spy Klaus has fled south from in frantic search of aid for the family he left back home.

Nikovaria has largely gone quiet to the Graylands over the course of the last 3 years, as it has been futilely trying to hold back the migrating hordes of giant spiders that have been decimating the population in the wake of their move south. For a militaristic nation frequently sabre-rattling amidst their legacy of being the singular force that repelled the great Orc invasion a millennia ago, their silence has been deafening.

Imagining of how Nikovaria would appear.

Klaus was born of the woodland realm in the Kingdom's southeastern forests - and descends from a group of elves that had migrated far north from the Elvish Isles in a time too long ago to remember. It was in the woods of Nikovaria where, for hundreds of years, he hunted and protected the lands with his clan and his family - sometimes resulting in tense encounters with travellers, bandit gangs, and the human government's conquering military forces.

As a second class citizen in the eyes of Nikovaria's ruling warlords and nobility (all human), the wood elf was forced to develop connections far removed from such zeniths when lack of food would force a trip to their capital: a place where even his mere presence could put his own life in danger. Suffice it to say that tension between humans and elves in this country is always a little high.

The capital is not a welcoming place.

What sealed Klaus's fate happened on the day a few years back when the spiders attacked. His village was utterly overrun and devastated by the beasts - his family and friends he had known for centuries horrifyingly feasted upon in front of him as he barely managed to flee with his wife and small child.

Traumatized by what he had seen (and desperate to keep his surviving family safe), Klaus fled north to the capital with few options - and quickly learned survival would be difficult. After proving his skill-set working for the thieves' guild in the city, the elf inevitably crossed paths with the Nikovarian Legion - who were then actively recruiting for their diversifying network of spies. The Legion offered him enrolment or execution on the spot. The choice was simple at the time.

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When the arachnids that had devoured his village eventually began descending on castles and ravaging armies across the kingdom, Klaus was one of 100 spies dispatched worldwide to find some kind of aid in Nikovaria's desperate fight for survival. Knowing that to refuse the Army of a nation that would fight the spiders down to it's last person would surely mean death, the elf left his family behind in the capital and swiftly moved south to learn the truth behind reports of a messiah rising in the countryside.

Nikovaria's ruling warlords are known to have a vast network of spies that has also gone quiet to the outside world since the spider hordes attacked - but that maintains a very close watch over the country's population. Through employing the network's extensive resources, Klaus was able to learn of Toby Ryder - and track him to Darfield along with the rest of the Arachnophobia Party.

Posing as a disgraced thief wanted by the Darfield Thieves Guild, Klaus was able to join the party by aiding them in their flight from the tyrannical Count Oppelthor. Using the following map that he had scouted and drawn, the elf was able to lead the party through the sewers to help them recover the TARDIS from the stables of Darfield's castle:

Best nest.

Having been undercover with the party for weeks now, Klaus's life has been in danger more times than not. He is working on earning the complete trust of Toby Ryder in order to make the boy's extradition to Nikovaria - and the elf's return to his family - less of a challenge. It will be interesting to see how the spy can use his vast network to complete his mission without the rest of the party catching on to his motives. Though, he has yet to see even a shred of evidence that Toby is any kind of a messiah at all. 

Shaken by his experiences yet firm in his resolve,  Klaus is often quiet and brooding. As a true neutral character, it can be hard to gauge where his loyalties lie at the end of the day. He carries a small grey figurine - given to him by his young daughter - to serve as a reminder of why he needs to keep fighting.


Written by: Jeff

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