Karll of Urnst was the youngest of six children of the last
Duke and Duchess of Urnst. Even in his early years, he
showed a liking for the outdoor life. Since he was not
expected to succeed to the chair of the duchy, his parents
were thrilled and pleased when a family friend offered to
have their youngest son trained in the ways of the rangers.
Karll himself was so eager to go that he was packed almost
before his parents finished giving him the news.

The Duchy boasts of the only ranger training school in
theworld, and young Karll became its best pupil. Here,
Karll shone. He learned everything about tracking and
fighting giant-class creatures very quickly, and was made
a Runner at 21, the earliest possible age.

For the next couple of decades young Lord Karll (a courtesy
title derived from his father) lived in a world of utter
bliss. He easily absorbed his mentors’ teachings about the
need to crusade endlessly against evil in all its forms, particularly
if the evil involved giants and humanoids. His
chaotic good nature made him an individualist, and he
would often plunge off into the wilderness by himself for
months at a time, emerging tired, dusty, and travelstained,
with a string of fresh trophies to show his peers
and a few words of news for his superiors.

Meanwhile, in the Duchy, things were not going well for his
family. Karll’s oldest brothers were killed in a border war
with desert nomad raiders, and his two sisters were assassinated
by unknown enemies (a neighboring lord who had been
turned down for both of their hands in marriage was suspected).
When Karll’s last surviving brother ascended the chair to
become Duke at the death of their father, he was suffering
from the effects of wounds and did not have long to live.
Accordingly, much to his surprise and displeasure, Karll was
recalled from his work with the rangers and groomed for the
Ducal chair, since he was the only heir.

When his brother died, Karll became heir to the duchy,
but he was unhappy about the whole thing. He had never
expected to become Duke, had no training for the job, and
was not thrilled about giving up the carefree life of the forests.
He almost had to be dragged home, and only a direct
command from his ranger superiors prevented him from
resigning his title and returning to the woods.

Karll decided to make the best of his new position. He introduced
many improvements in the army, including better
armament, armor, and training. He imported many rangers
to train the army, and did a great deal of training himself,
passing along his knowledge of woodcraft and tracking

He is concerned about his duchy, mainly b e c a u s e it serves him
in his neverendmg war against evil. He is impatient with the
daily necessities of government, and has become a magnet for
unscrupulous persons. He naively thinks that other people mean
as well as he does, and since he has received no training in the
arts ofrulership, he has managed to surround himselfwith the
greatest crowd of thieves outside of the Bandit Kingdoms.

As a result of all this, the Duchy is not well-ruled. The
verdicts in the courts go to those who offer the biggest
bribes to the judges, the peasants are taxed and cheated,
and their daughters are dragged off at the whim of anybody
in authority. The peasants blame the Duke’s corrupt
advisers, not the Duke himself.

Petitioners who try to advise the Duke about actual living
conditions in his land find themselves menaced by mysterious
bandits, and the duchy has seen the assassination
of persistent protesters. If the Duke were not so obsessed
with his crusade against evil and giant-class creatures, he
would probably notice this and do something drastic about
it, but he is deliberately kept in ignorance by the corrupt
advisors around him.

Duke Karll is a tall, strong, handsome man tanned from
a lifetime outdoors. His hair is brown, his eyes an icy
green. He specialized in the bow early in his ranger career,
and owns a long bow +4 and a quiver of arrows of slaying
evil beings. He is immensely proud of two family heirlooms:
a suit of fullplate armor +4 and shield +l. He also owns a
flame tongue two-handed sword, a cloak of displacement
that he took from an evil mage’s corpse, a ring of regeneration,
and gauntlets of ogre power.

Duke Karll values magic items in direct proportion to
their value in combatting evil, and would cheerfully trade
the crown, orb, or sceptre of his office if he could obtain a
magic item designed specifically to kill evil humanoids and
giants. He also owns a fairly complete set of spellbooks, but
does not have much need for them, except for relearning
the spells he knows.

Duke Karll’s ultimate goal is to launch a grand crusade
against evil, particularly that associated with the evil
giants and humanoids. He is a reasonable man on most
subjects, but if told that this is impossible or undesirable,
he will fly into a wild rage. Even though many functions of
government require his presence, he still disappears into
the forests for days at a time, hunting evil humanoids and
giants.

Duke Karll does not understand that behavior desirable
in a ranger is not necessarily good in a ruler. He sees the
Duchy as a base for his crusade against evil, and cannot be
convinced that his duties as Duke supersede his duties as a
ranger. His subjects like him, but they know he would sacrifice
them if it were necessary to protect some greater
number from evil. Not surprisingly, they resent this attitude.
Unless conditions change, Duke Karll is doomed. At
his ministers’ insistence, he is seeking a wife, but cannot
understand why neighboring potentates seem reluctant to
entrust their daughters to him.