Saturday, December 31, 2016

Requiem for a Villain: Frederick Bolmer

Frederick Bolmer

Frederick Bolmer was first encountered during the diplomatic mission to the Netherlands where he was a rival for the affections the beautiful Beatrijs van Tilborgh. Bolmer felt that, as the richest man in the town of Tilborgh, Beatrijs was his due. Guy de Bourges had been asked by Baron Henri de la Ferte-Senneterre to arrange for Beatrijs to leave Tilborgh for France. Guy's attempt to fetch Beatrijs' drew the attention of Frederick Bolmer to them. Bolmer  warned Guy off by telling him that "no one else will have the fair Beatrijs." When Guy ignored his warning, Bolmer attacked Guy by surprise using his hidden sword cane. Guy held his own and more against the skilled Bolmer and, with the intervention of Father Signoret, the odds tipped against Bolmer. Wounded, the Dutchman retreated around the corner of a building, then ducked back to fire a parting shot with his pistol that barely missed Guy. Bolmer was encountered again in Amsterdam where he tried to find Beatrijs and to kill Guy.

More recently, some of the other characters ran into Bolmer near Orleans where he and his men tried several times to kidnap Beatrijs and where Bolmer himself nearly killed his rival, Baron Henri. But this time there was no escape for Bolmer. The player characters set a clever trap for Bolmer and they had not intention of letting him escape again and Gaston made certain that Bolmer's next meal would be served in hell.

Note that Bolmer was designed to be better than a starting hero or villain. He possesses qualities of Daring, Savvy, and Flair that are at least the equal of any PC, which made him a significant challenge to the heroes. His picture is from a painting by Frans Hals circa 1616. Here's the full painting.

Banquet of the Officers of the Saint George Civic Guard

At some point I accidentally deleted the electronic version of Bolmer's character sheet. Here is a scan of my only paper copy. The scan includes a number of my handwritten notes showing both my marginal penmanship and how I use the NPC sheets in practice. The back of Bolmer's character sheet depicts an early version of Beatrijs' character sheet.


In a follow up post, I'll list some of Bolmer's henchmen, many of whom have been added to the list of the dead.

Also, Happy New Year Everyone!

No comments:

Post a Comment