Thanus Krul

Thanus Krul was developed for a campaign in the setting of Dragonlance; however, that lasted maybe two sessions before he and his companions were sucked into the dark realm of Ravenloft. This character sure got whalloped by the horror part of the setting, and when a chance came to escape, he made sure to separate from the party-which by this time had become, in his view, horribly corrupted; I replaced him after the Ravenloft escape with a new character.

Thanus Krul
Basic Information
Former home(s)	Palanthus
Gender	Male
Race	Human
Occupation	Investigator
Known language(s)	Thieves' Cant, Silvanesti Elvish, Mountain Dwarvish
Rules Information
2nd Edition Statistics Alignment Neutral Good Class 6th Level Thief (Investigator kit) Strength 6 Dexterity 14 Constitution 13 Intelligence 14 Wisdom 12 Charisma 13 HP 15

Description

A nondescript looking human, Thanus is usually wearing commoner's clothing, with a short cloak-which conceals his tools of the trade. He also has a pouch of pipe weed, to use in his chain-smoking.

Personality

Personality-Thanus Krul's most powerful personality trait is his honesty. He may omit the truth at times or allow someone else lie, but he will almost never lie himself. This trait is ultimately what makes him hate his father so much, and drove him to the investigator occupations. He is also a bit of a skeptic, as he prefers not to trust stories, relying upon his own observations. He is also very respectful of rightful authority.

While not technically a character trait, it should be noted that Thanus is a chain-smoker. The pipe-weed he smokes usually relaxes him, and he has taken to smoking whenever in a stressful situation-not including any combats. As far as combat goes, the most relaxing activity is to get rid of the problems-which is the unique talent of most others in the party. He prefers to lob arrows in their direction, saving his close weapons in reserve.

After the death of Indrial, Thanus went insane for a time. He chucked his morals out the window for a period of about a week and a half, undergoing a number of shifts between rage for revenge upon the mayor of Palanthus, to a complete depression which wouldn't allow him to perform the simplest of acts. Thanus would hit rock bottom on the day he was to be wed to Indrial, as he drowned himself with drink. He spent a bit of time beginning to try to find a new purpose in life, as he had finally avenged his fiancee and freed her spirit(he hopes). Following that dark day, Thanus attempted to return to his middle class roots, helping out the people of Il Aluke, and trying to remove himself from the often-violent politics of Darkon. Thanus decided that he really didn't have any real reason to keep on living, and was brave enough to take stands against threats of certain death-as shown in his stand against the flind lord. When he left Il Aluke, it wasn't so much from cowardice as much as a desire to live a free man...a freedom to help ordinary people, which was why he became an investigator to begin with.

Perhaps his true motives can be seen in his own words, both to Lucius of the Secret Police and to Drogdth:

"You people are nobility. I'm a commoner. The people are commoners. They've lived their lives ignorant of the power games of the nobility, even though they're often used as pawns. Somebody has to stand between the two, on the side of the people. They may never know, but then, that's the only difference between them and me. I have the burden of knowing, and the blessing of being able to do something about it...even if they never know."

Abilities

Weapon Proficiencies: Dagger, short bow, short sword

Nonweapon Proficiencies: Information gathering, observation(+1), language: Thieves Cant, language: Silvanesti Elven, language: Mountain Dwarven, trailing, read/write: common, appraising

Thief Skills: PP-15% OL-55% F/R-65% MS-10% HS-5% DN-15% CW-60% RL-45%; Backstab at X2;

Possessions

Equipment: Thieves picks, pipe, pouch of pipe weed, short bow with 40 sheaf arrows, dagger, short sword, studded leather armor

History

Thanus Krul was born in 340, to Salah-Khan and Myrina Krul. It is unfortunate, however, that he and his older sister were abandoned before his first birthday by their father, who was destined for greater things. It was even more unfortunate that the aforementioned destiny was the lofty status of Dragon Highlord of the Green Dragonarmies. Salah-Khan's rise was attributed to his intellect and cunning.

Those traits seemed to have passed down to Thanus. At a young age, he took his mother's family name as his own as well. His mother remarried, and had another son and daughter. At the age of ten, he befriended a wizard of the white robes. The wizard was being tortured by goblins, and Thanus discovered them in the forests of Silvanesti. With clever tricks, he fooled the goblins into fleeing the area, as they believed they were being surrounded by elves. The wizard thanked him for the aid, and offered to teach him magic. Thanus politely declined, realizing that he lacked the proper dedication to magic to take the Test.

In his teenaged years, Thanus became involved with two disreputable types-a gang leader and a kender. This unlikely friendship gave him access to the thieves' guild. The guildmaster, Kyrin Spinknife, saw the potential of the boy, and began to teach him thief skills for use in her guild. She also took him around East Ansalon. Myrina didn't object to her son going on these trips, for he had told her his true motivation.

Thanus was raised to do the right thing. He wanted to help people. But the city watch was a highly dubious organization, full of corruption. And as the old maxim said, it took a thief to catch a thief. Thanus planned to use these skills to become an investigator. He returned home just before the War of the Lance began.

During the War, Thanus chose to leave home-and abandon the guild. After the Green Dragonarmies came in, he made sure that his mother would be all right, and he left for Palanthus. It was on his way there that he met Indrial, a trader in clothing. He fell for her instantly. The feelings were mutual, and he proposed to Indrial just after he set up shop in Palanthus.

Thanus, aware that his goal of making his father pay for abandoning his family-and at the same time, remove a blight of the face of Krynn-was currently unfeasible, he began seeking out adventurers. He figured that if he gained in skill and ability, one day he and those adventurers would be able to take down Salah-Khan. After all, the Green Highlord wasn't going anywhere....and Thanus could wait a few years.

Things did not start well for Thanus, however. He arrived at Palanthus virtually penniless. But due to actions at a tavern, Thanus became involved with the City Watch; he was the lone survivor of a minotaur attack there. He viewed it as a good thing for the most part, however, as a steady income would help him buy a place for himself and his fiancee.

The watch soon asked him to investigate the goblin tribes that the mayor of Palanthus had permitted to settle northeast of the city. Working with the ranger Reznor, who was working cover as a gladiator and nicknamed "The Razer", he uncovered the draconian presence there-or rather, a being known only as Cralicon discovered it.

But tragedy marred the return. The mayor's wife had died by an assassin's blade. At the wake, the mayor invited anyone with any resemblance to his late wife-including Indrial. Revealing himself to be a magician of some power, as well as to be a bit insane, he sealed the area for the wake, and used a cloudkill spell to murder all of the women. Thanus was able to break into the killing field in time to stick his knife into the mayor, and watch him fall into the effect of his own spell. Assuming the magic would kill him, Thanus was appalled to discover that the spell had already done its work. Indrial, and all the rest, were dead.

At this point, the mayor revealed he still lived by teleporting out of the area. Intent on murder for perhaps the first time in his life, Thanus stormed his way to the mansion, only to be stopped by a wall of fire. He didn't even notice as the greatest storm in history struck Palanthus, or the fog that rolled in that deposited everyone into the demiplane of Ravenloft. He was forcibly ejected from the premises by the minions of the new Lord of the Domain, and Reznor took the delirious investigator to safety.

Soon afterwards, Thanus learned of another horrible truth: Indrial's spirit was trapped on the plane, and doomed to remain until he found a way to free her spirit-which could only be accomplished with the fall of the Lord of the Domain. Thanus swore to do whatever it took to free her-and avenge her as well. He quickly struck up an "alliance" with an elder vampire(who would later reveal himself as Caracas), and gained an amulet of chain, which he had been told he must bathe in the blood of the mayor. Thanus kept some of his plans quiet from his companions, however-some he had just met in the demiplane, and he hesitated to trust Reznor with his dark plans.

After a number of perils, most notable being a near murder by one of his own party members, the party penetrated the sanctum of the mayor, and the group disposed of the mayor thoroughly. Thanus took down the shield around him with the amulet, and used the amulet on the dying mayor. Caracas later took back the amulet, and told the party to go to Darkon for his "coronation".

The group then progressed to Darkon. A grand celebration was beginning-ironically on the very day Thanus Krul should have been marrying Indrial. Thanus wasn't able to deal with that fact very well, and spent the day very drunk...perhaps even hoping to die of liver failure. Depending on who was asked, it was either fortunate or unfortunate that he failed to kill himself that day, as he was sobered up magically by a cleric sent to escort him to the celebratory feast.

Thanus spent the next couple of days doing what he loved-true investigation. The case was solved almost the same day it was brought to his attention, when a vampire was murdered-a vampire who was in charge of the secret police in Darkon. He discovered that the vampire planned treachery, and was able to deduce that the killer was a lycanthrope. A meeting soon afterwards established the identity of the killer-although justice was moot, since the killer had himself been killed a few moments before. Still, the case was solved, and Thanus tried to discover the reasons that Caracas wished to become the effective "god" of Ravenloft.

However, barely a day later, Thanus was again embroiled in conflict-this time with Drogdth, the appointed ruler of Darkon. For the first time, he saw the evil behind the flind's activities, and after standing up to a number of threats against him, decided to quietly leave Il Aluke during a battle in a graveyard which was occupying most of the castle. He first rescued the halfling Slap Glitterbottom from his tortures. He then left behind the silver short sword that he had been given not long ago, broken in half-perhaps in defiance of the wealthy and noble.

After a day's run, they found a safe town-protected, coincidentally, by Caracas. They stayed there until the Coronation. Thanus and Glitterbottom witnessed Azalin's little joke, before the lich was turned into a baby. The entire party was then sent beyond Ravenloft by Caracas into a dark void. When the party started to move in one direction, Thanus moved in a different direction, forever cutting himself off from the party, and moving towards his own destiny.

Rumors and Legends

There are few stories that mention the fate of Thanus Krul. After his escape from the horrors of Ravenloft, it would not be surprising if he chose to lead a quiet life in whatever world he wound up in.

Of course, since nobody saw him actually leave Ravenloft, it's also entirely possible that he is still there...an irony worthy of the Dark Lords....