- Age
- 38
- Height
- 6'3"
Gault Harrow is the Man-at-Arms and personal guard of Princess Kohinoor of the Singing Wood.
Manigault Harrow III was born into the wealthy Harrow family of Felstadt. Despite their old wealth and powerful status, the Harrows were not well known for their generosity or hospitality. The family had a reputation for closefistedness, secrecy, and less than scrupulous business dealings, and no Harrow more so than Gault’s father, Ulrich Harrow.
To his father’s fury, Manigault scorned the trappings of the merchant aristocracy almost as soon as he could speak. He whiled away his youth eluding the endless stream of Ulrich's hired tutors, preferring the company of the Harrow Candle Factory’s Tentpole workers, who taught him the secrets of the city known only to the poor. These new perspectives opened Gault’s eyes to the heartlessness and corruption of the city’s elite, and his own family first among them.
The gap between Ulrich and his son only widened as Gault matured. As he neared adulthood, Gault spent nearly all his time (and his prodigious allowance) training with backroom brawlers and Jawbone career criminals, traveling rangers and shabby adventurers. It became clear that Vichter, not Gault, would assume ownership of the company as his father’s preferred heir; at 20 years old, Gault was happy to let his handsome, charismatic younger brother take his place, and prepared to leave Felstadt and strike out on his own.
For Ulrich, however, this was nothing short of unacceptable. The city’s merchant aristocrat class already whispered far too often and far too boldly that Ulrich Harrow could not control his own son. Gault was becoming a liability for the family’s reputation, and Ulrich was determined to show his rebellious boy that he belonged in Felstadt, at his family’s side, or nowhere.
A series of furious disputes and cruel punishments followed. Gault found his favorite Tentpole bars shuttered, mysteriously forced out of business; his lower-class friends vanished, only for Gault to later learn they’d been suddenly conscripted into the Imperial Navy. Gault knew these were Ulrich’s way of sending his son a message: any life for him outside the Harrow family would be demolished piece by piece.
So Gault, angry and alone, ran away, abandoning any chance of a comfortable life. He spent two miserable years hiding in farmer’s carts and trading caravans around the empire, using his learned subtlety and guile to avoid his family’s hired spies and bounty hunters. Gault’s luck, however, was sure to run out before his father’s fortune. As the hunt intensified, he decided there was only one place he could escape the family’s grasp: the Underdark.
So it was that Gault Harrow became a ranger of the Underdark, one of the so-called Gloom Stalkers that dared tread the blackest paths below the earth. Gault became a deadly hunter of his own, repelling the likes of Kobolds, Drow, and worse things that encroached upon the surface. He made a meager living by securing the rare bounties granted by small towns and local lords, though even these were few and far between.
Eventually, when Gault dared to return to the surface for longer than a day or two, he found that his father’s fury had finally subsided enough to give up the chase. He established a small business in Ivargrad, and hired himself out to the lordly and disreputable alike, hunting strange monsters and rooting out the incursions of dangerous creatures wherever someone wanted them gone. Still, Gault’s inconsistent business hardly covered the cost of his shabby quarters and wretched lifestyle; worse, he made plenty of rivals and enemies among Ivargrad’s underworld, in no small part due to his foul temper and ungraceful demeanor.
One such foe, after a contentious game of high-stakes Three-Dragon Ante, was driven to order Gault killed. The criminal’s hired assassin followed the normally sharp-eared Gault into the evening as he drank himself into a stupor with his newfound winnings; as Gault staggered out of a pub onto the street, the killer found the right moment to catch the unlucky ranger from behind and slit his throat.
Gault was saved from this certain death by the chance passing of a life cleric, who leapt into action and magically cured Gault’s wounds. When Gault, barely able to rasp out his thanks, tried to pay the cleric, she fled, leaving him awed at such unconditional mercy. From that day forward, Gault held a deep respect and admiration for those that healed with divine magics, seeing in them the clemency and humanity he never knew in his unhappy upbringing. Even still, the event left him with an unpleasant raspy whisper for a voice, and an unwanted nickname from friends and foes alike: “Cutthroat Gault”.
Some years later, in his late thirties, Gault accepted a contract from Prince Oberwerner von Offenweizen. His mission was to locate and slay a coven of “bloodthirsty” werewolves that the prince had learned were hiding in the slums neighboring his family’s estate. Gault took his much-needed payment in advance, but once he tracked down the werewolves, he found them gentle, frightened, and as impoverished as himself. The motley “family” of lycanthropes managed their curse together, helping one another avoid spilling blood however they could.
Gault, desperate as he was, wrestled with the idea of killing or even capturing such sympathetic creatures. He spent many days dwelling among them, keeping their secret and even helping secure their voluntary imprisonment when the moon was full. One of the werewolves, a young woman named Markaya, grew close to Gault as the weeks passed. They soon struck up a friendship, and then a romance, the first significant one of Gault’s life. For the first time, living in filth, danger, and desperation, he was happy.
It was not to last. Eventually, von Offeweizen caught wind of Gault’s betrayal, and, furious, spent a small fortune on an army of monster hunters to root out the werewolves once and for all. Gault’s connections among the rangers of Ivargrad managed to warn him, and in the ensuing panicked attempt to flee, Gault was captured by the prince’s forces—but not, however, before he secured the werewolf coven’s escape from the city. Markaya, for her part, learned at the last moment of Gault's original, murderous intent; as her family fled, she made Gault swear that he would never try to find her again.
Devastated and even more miserable than ever before, Gault prepared to meet his presumed end at von Offeweizen’s hands. Instead, however, he found that the prince had other plans for him in mind. The Hounds of Stal were calling for Ivargrad’s nobles to send forth their champions and heroes for a grave and deadly mission—and the prince, ever one to take advantage of newfound opportunities, had a better idea for Gault’s purpose than the hangman’s noose...
Prince von Offenweizen had Gault enlist, on his behalf, in the Empire's conscription for heroes to take up arms against the giants. Since Gault had already taken the man's money, this was to be repaid as a life debt. On this mission, Gault met Lady Kohinoor of the Singing Wood. Though he initially assumed her to be just as self-obsessed and cruel as the other nobles he had known and met in his lifetime, he soon came to learn that she was a healer, and came to admire her. He was deeply troubled whenever she would take damage to protect him, however.
When Kohinoor was in danger of being eaten by a Behir, Gault jumped into action to rescue her, sacrificing his life in the process. Dev Lightpaw wrote a song about it, entitled The Bachelor. Gault's sacrifice deeply impacted Kohinoor, who went back to the Hill Giant 's Fortress where Gault had died with Regen Wakerock, a cleric of Egar, to resurrect him.
After he was resurrected, Gault swore his life to Lady Kohinoor's service. He now accompanies her at all times.
Personal History
Youth
Manigault Harrow III was born into the wealthy Harrow family of Felstadt. Despite their old wealth and powerful status, the Harrows were not well known for their generosity or hospitality. The family had a reputation for closefistedness, secrecy, and less than scrupulous business dealings, and no Harrow more so than Gault’s father, Ulrich Harrow.
To his father’s fury, Manigault scorned the trappings of the merchant aristocracy almost as soon as he could speak. He whiled away his youth eluding the endless stream of Ulrich's hired tutors, preferring the company of the Harrow Candle Factory’s Tentpole workers, who taught him the secrets of the city known only to the poor. These new perspectives opened Gault’s eyes to the heartlessness and corruption of the city’s elite, and his own family first among them.
The gap between Ulrich and his son only widened as Gault matured. As he neared adulthood, Gault spent nearly all his time (and his prodigious allowance) training with backroom brawlers and Jawbone career criminals, traveling rangers and shabby adventurers. It became clear that Vichter, not Gault, would assume ownership of the company as his father’s preferred heir; at 20 years old, Gault was happy to let his handsome, charismatic younger brother take his place, and prepared to leave Felstadt and strike out on his own.
For Ulrich, however, this was nothing short of unacceptable. The city’s merchant aristocrat class already whispered far too often and far too boldly that Ulrich Harrow could not control his own son. Gault was becoming a liability for the family’s reputation, and Ulrich was determined to show his rebellious boy that he belonged in Felstadt, at his family’s side, or nowhere.
A series of furious disputes and cruel punishments followed. Gault found his favorite Tentpole bars shuttered, mysteriously forced out of business; his lower-class friends vanished, only for Gault to later learn they’d been suddenly conscripted into the Imperial Navy. Gault knew these were Ulrich’s way of sending his son a message: any life for him outside the Harrow family would be demolished piece by piece.
So Gault, angry and alone, ran away, abandoning any chance of a comfortable life. He spent two miserable years hiding in farmer’s carts and trading caravans around the empire, using his learned subtlety and guile to avoid his family’s hired spies and bounty hunters. Gault’s luck, however, was sure to run out before his father’s fortune. As the hunt intensified, he decided there was only one place he could escape the family’s grasp: the Underdark.
Career as a Gloomstalker
So it was that Gault Harrow became a ranger of the Underdark, one of the so-called Gloom Stalkers that dared tread the blackest paths below the earth. Gault became a deadly hunter of his own, repelling the likes of Kobolds, Drow, and worse things that encroached upon the surface. He made a meager living by securing the rare bounties granted by small towns and local lords, though even these were few and far between.
Eventually, when Gault dared to return to the surface for longer than a day or two, he found that his father’s fury had finally subsided enough to give up the chase. He established a small business in Ivargrad, and hired himself out to the lordly and disreputable alike, hunting strange monsters and rooting out the incursions of dangerous creatures wherever someone wanted them gone. Still, Gault’s inconsistent business hardly covered the cost of his shabby quarters and wretched lifestyle; worse, he made plenty of rivals and enemies among Ivargrad’s underworld, in no small part due to his foul temper and ungraceful demeanor.
One such foe, after a contentious game of high-stakes Three-Dragon Ante, was driven to order Gault killed. The criminal’s hired assassin followed the normally sharp-eared Gault into the evening as he drank himself into a stupor with his newfound winnings; as Gault staggered out of a pub onto the street, the killer found the right moment to catch the unlucky ranger from behind and slit his throat.
Gault was saved from this certain death by the chance passing of a life cleric, who leapt into action and magically cured Gault’s wounds. When Gault, barely able to rasp out his thanks, tried to pay the cleric, she fled, leaving him awed at such unconditional mercy. From that day forward, Gault held a deep respect and admiration for those that healed with divine magics, seeing in them the clemency and humanity he never knew in his unhappy upbringing. Even still, the event left him with an unpleasant raspy whisper for a voice, and an unwanted nickname from friends and foes alike: “Cutthroat Gault”.
The von Offenweizen Contract
Some years later, in his late thirties, Gault accepted a contract from Prince Oberwerner von Offenweizen. His mission was to locate and slay a coven of “bloodthirsty” werewolves that the prince had learned were hiding in the slums neighboring his family’s estate. Gault took his much-needed payment in advance, but once he tracked down the werewolves, he found them gentle, frightened, and as impoverished as himself. The motley “family” of lycanthropes managed their curse together, helping one another avoid spilling blood however they could.
Gault, desperate as he was, wrestled with the idea of killing or even capturing such sympathetic creatures. He spent many days dwelling among them, keeping their secret and even helping secure their voluntary imprisonment when the moon was full. One of the werewolves, a young woman named Markaya, grew close to Gault as the weeks passed. They soon struck up a friendship, and then a romance, the first significant one of Gault’s life. For the first time, living in filth, danger, and desperation, he was happy.
It was not to last. Eventually, von Offeweizen caught wind of Gault’s betrayal, and, furious, spent a small fortune on an army of monster hunters to root out the werewolves once and for all. Gault’s connections among the rangers of Ivargrad managed to warn him, and in the ensuing panicked attempt to flee, Gault was captured by the prince’s forces—but not, however, before he secured the werewolf coven’s escape from the city. Markaya, for her part, learned at the last moment of Gault's original, murderous intent; as her family fled, she made Gault swear that he would never try to find her again.
Devastated and even more miserable than ever before, Gault prepared to meet his presumed end at von Offeweizen’s hands. Instead, however, he found that the prince had other plans for him in mind. The Hounds of Stal were calling for Ivargrad’s nobles to send forth their champions and heroes for a grave and deadly mission—and the prince, ever one to take advantage of newfound opportunities, had a better idea for Gault’s purpose than the hangman’s noose...
Recent Events
Prince von Offenweizen had Gault enlist, on his behalf, in the Empire's conscription for heroes to take up arms against the giants. Since Gault had already taken the man's money, this was to be repaid as a life debt. On this mission, Gault met Lady Kohinoor of the Singing Wood. Though he initially assumed her to be just as self-obsessed and cruel as the other nobles he had known and met in his lifetime, he soon came to learn that she was a healer, and came to admire her. He was deeply troubled whenever she would take damage to protect him, however.
When Kohinoor was in danger of being eaten by a Behir, Gault jumped into action to rescue her, sacrificing his life in the process. Dev Lightpaw wrote a song about it, entitled The Bachelor. Gault's sacrifice deeply impacted Kohinoor, who went back to the Hill Giant 's Fortress where Gault had died with Regen Wakerock, a cleric of Egar, to resurrect him.
After he was resurrected, Gault swore his life to Lady Kohinoor's service. He now accompanies her at all times.
Appearance
Personality
The major events and journals in Gault's history, from the beginning to today.
The list of amazing people following the adventures of Gault.
Social
Family Ties