Arbrunai - Man of the Red Sword by NecroTechno on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Good evening gentlemen.

As there apparently isn't anybody besides you lot and me in sight, and you all appear to be heavily armed and dressed like rogueish burglars, I can only conclude that this is some sort of assassination attempt. Probably related to that botched attack on High Priestess Azri that I helped foil earlier today.

Which I honestly can't say I understand, seeing as I was outnumbered at least 3-to-1, so it was not like I had an unfair advantage in numbers. Okay, there were a few temple guards still alive by the time I arrived, but there were still a lot of you bastards.

Now now gentlemen, I really do not recommend that course of...

Now see what you did. You didn't let me finish.

Oh stop screaming you weakling, you have a spare of those. Put some pressure on it before you bleed to death.

Or not. I can't honestly say I care.

Now, as for the rest of you, just out of curiosity, do any of you happen to know who I am?

Charming, but while that was surely a colorful answer, it wasn't the right one. My name is Arbrunai.

Yes, that one.

"The Red Swordsman"? Ugh. I swear, all you Terrinians think you're so damn smart. Really, I should have cleared up that little misunderstanding a long time ago.

Well, for starters, it's a translation error. I think it started when I was working as a caravan guard out of El-Sharaj. Old Man Chunam always liked to brag that he had "Hraj Tem Seshum" for a bodyguard. That's Old Barith for the words "red", "sword" and "man". Somewhere down the line the name trickled down to some ambassador or merchant from your country, and all of a sudden I'm known on the other side of the White Veil Mountains.

Problem is you people use a different sentence structure here in Terrin, and the first time one of you lot translated that nickname, they did it so that it made sense according to your own syntax, hence "Red Swordsman".

Only, "hraj tem seshum" doesn't mean "red swordsman".

It means "Man of the Red Sword".

Indeed, very observant of you sir. This sword is in fact not red. While it is a very fine blade, made by a good friend of mine, it's not the sword that gave me my name. No, this is just what I use for lesser challenges.

Oh calm down. I wasn't trying to be insulting. You simply aren't that much of a threat. The fact that there's more than a dozen of you doesn't make that much of a difference.

You really want to do this dance then? Very well. Since we're going to do this the messy way, I think I will show you just how I earned my nickname.

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Meet Arbrunai, one of my personal NPCs in the Pathfinder RPG setting.

He's a pretty dangerous individual, the child of a Soulknife (a swordsman who can manifest a weapon made out of psychic energy) father and a Medium ( a spellcaster that channels the spirits of legendary heroes and villains) mother.

While he was primarily a Soulknife like his father, the loss of his arm eventually led him to explore his mothers side of the family, and the art of channeling the dead.

The resulting combination led to something... very potent. And very, *very* dangerous.