Emeth Urbaal
"Emeth the Blue"
Count of Wylon
Air Elementalist of the Third Circle
AC 1006
"The ascendancy of aerial magic and of the Alphatian race has long been decided by history. I am but a humble bearer of a proud legacy."
Appearance
Emeth Urbaal is a tall, powerful man of pure Alphatian descent, with pale skin and blue-black hair. He sports a full beard, Emeth is more heavily built than most Alphatians, from his youth of being a boxer.
He usually wears a blue working suit at work in his laboratory, or the traditional Alphatian garments, the kihara, in shades of blue and light gray, slightly more opulent than elegance would advise. He sometimes wears a short conical headgear.
His appearance and particular color preference has earned him his nickname "the Blue."
Personality & Quirks
Emeth Urbaal is quite vain, relishing in his fame as an inventor and an air wizard. He is extremely proud of his beard, and will not suffer any disparaging comments on it. He likes to play the aloof, haughty nobleman wizard, even though he always overacts the role, appearing quite ridiculous to his peers. But since he does not meddle with the more powerful nobles too often, his pride is spared from their most sarcastic comments, and the lesser nobles and commoners of Wylon are always flattering him.
He comes off as paternal to his people, but his genuine interest in the prosperity of Wylon makes up for his tiresome behavior. His devotion to the improvement of his land's condition goes so far that he thinks nothing of letting a large thieves' guild thrive in his territory, as long as he himself and the local population are unaffected by the thieves' activities.
When not involved in his role as Count of Wylon, Lord Urbaal relaxes into a cheerful fellow, quite alike to the young Emeth of the Great School days. Emeth has a penchant for practical jokes and gnomish humor. He even has a gnomish buffoon, Belier de Panzoust (gnome T2/Illusionist2, CG), in his service, and has allowed a small gnomish community to settle at Urbaal Tower. The petite village was created when Emeth decided to build his tower outside the old village of Wylon, and its inhabitants came mostly from Nouvelle Averoigne, working either in Emeth's service as jesters and entertainers, or as alchemists and locksmiths.
Background
Emeth Urbaal was born to Musa Urbaal, a mediocre air wizard descended from an important Alphatian family of battlemages. His father Musa spent his years gathering support for his political ambitions of nobility, and could not spare the time to teach him, thus Emeth was sent to the Great School of Magic when he was not nearly five years old. Nevertheless, Emeth immediately showed good potential, and was the object of contention among the teachers, all of whom desired to have the child become their apprentice.
In the end, the powerful Master of Abjuration, Walter McKinnon took him under his charge, tutoring him in his craft. As much as he had been a surprising child-wizard, Emeth was a surprising failure as an abjurer. It was not so much that he was ill-suited for that specialty, but more because he could not stand Master McKinnon's idea of discipline. In turn, Emeth became one of the most unruly pupils of the school, using both his considerable mastery of air magic, which he had developed on his own during his spare time, and his incredible physical strength to play pranks on his teachers and fellow students.
He did get along perfectly with other headstrong personalities at the Great School, such as the incorrigible Rhogene Zelipieti, the future Mistress of Abjuration. Emeth and Rhogene had found a common object of disgust in Master Walter McKinnon, but in AC 961, both risked expulsion as Master McKinnon. finally decided that he had had enough of both, and was asking the Grand Master to chase them both out. However, Rhogene prevented him by dropping out on her own, and Emeth was only moved to the newly-organized faculty of Planar Magic, which at that time needed more students to survive.
Under his new instructor, an aged wizard who was burdened with the mundane task of administrative paperwork for the new curriculum, and thus had little time for actual teaching, Emeth was free to develop his magic without restraints, making up for the years he had lost under the restrictive Master McKinnon.
Emeth graduated at the age of 25, one year after his father Musa had finally achieved his lifelong goal of nobility, gaining the title of Baron of Egorn. This coincidence of events gave easy opportunity to the enemies of the Urbaal family to claim that Musa had used his newfound power to influence Emeth's teachers. Otherwise, they claimed, Emeth would have never graduated. A couple of the slanderers got swept away by Emeth's powerful air blasts in duels, while a few others were found badly beaten in the darker alleys of Glantri City, among whom were two lesser teachers of abjuration...
When his friend Rhogene Zelipieti finally challenged Master McKinnon for his position, Emeth was among the spectators, and distinguished himself for his lack of fair play, loudly inciting the younger wizard and booing every move of McKinnon. After McKinnon's defeat, Emeth hosted a party of students and former victims of McKinnon in a night of debauchery, which ended with a Emeth and ten others jailed for disturbing the public quiet, brawling and destruction of private property, and two or three more broken abjurers' heads. (In this case, Baron Musa obviously, settled the matter through his political allies in the Parliament, and Emeth ascension to the baronial status the following year closed the matter forever.)
Emeth almost disappeared from the public life altogether after becoming Baron, working on some secret project which obviously had the blessings of the Prince of Blackhill, for Emeth managed to steadily climb the ranks of nobility, reaching the status of Count of Wylon by AC 997. Two years later, he revealed his last invention, a flying vessel propelled by air elementals. Unfortunately, he was never able to use this craft or the other he built when he learned of the coming war, because the Great Meteor destroyed the entire county of Wylon, killing Emeth, destroying his flying crafts and burying his plans and notes under the ruins of Urbaal Tower.
Web of Intrigue
Count Emeth is a staunch political ally of the Prince of Blackhill, though he rarely leaves his fief. However, he tries to stay informed about the political life in the City, sending directives and receiving reports regularly from his Spokesman in Glantri City. Nemal Sargossur (Bard 3, Herald Kit, LN), is Emeth's representative at the Parliament and is an Alphatian member of the Spokesmen's Guild, a specialist in the political and electoral field. Emeth has two other Alphatian Spokesmen working as administrators in Wylon.
Within the County of Wylon, Emeth has no enemy, and is generally respected. He knows that the Locksmiths' Guild acts as a cover for the Wylonian Thieves' Guild and his questionable harboring of gnomes , but he does not care, and considers the guild's second-in-command, Anne de Vries (gnome T4/Alchemist3, N), an Averoignian gnome, a personal friend. He is also acquainted to Guildmaster Ardan Kerhilar (human T9/Troubleshooter, CN), but he has little interest in the man, besides considering him a sort of living attraction of the County.
Urbaal has two sons, the pale-skinned Quanil (Air Elementalist 8/Air Master 2, NG) and the earthier Yarov (M9, CN). Yarov, the older, he had from a Boldavian noblewoman—or at least, this is the most common version you will hear in Wylon or Glantri City. Later, Emeth had a relation with a Wylonian girl, who gave him a second son, Quanil. Both sons studied at the Great School of Magic, and are devoted to their father, although they are little more than civil to each other.
Style of Magic & Combat
Statistics: 12th-level air elementalist, Air Master of the 3rd Circle; Str 18, Int 16, Wis 12, Dex 12, Con 14, Cha 10; AL C (D&D), CN (AD&D).
Languages: Alphatian (Blackhill dialect), Thyatian (Glantrian dialect).
Weapon Proficiencies: staff, dagger, punching.
Skills: spellcraft, reading/writing, sage knowledge (Plane of Air), weather lore, helmsman/captain, engineering.
Emeth Urbaal is a fanatical researcher in air magic, devoting his working hours to perfecting his flying device, and any spell that could be useful in an aerial travel or combat.
In combat, Emeth prefers to confuse and stun his enemies with powerful winds and storms, making heavy use of airbolts and wind blades. Then, he likes to finish them off with hand-to-hand attacks, combining his already great strength and spells designed to enhance his melee skills, such as armor, strength, brawl*, giant strength*, deadly strike*, staff of smiting*, and transformation*.
"The evil winds of Alphatia blow even here! May the Fires of Rad protect us!"
(Lady Wilhelmine Vlaardoen, upon meeting the "long-winded airbag")
Notes:
*These spells (Tenser's) are not known as name spells in Mystara.
References:
The Secret Craft of Air Elementalism
Spells of the Secret Craft of Air Elementalism
Author: Giampaolo Agosta