Guildmaster Tulmara Zir Bharann, "Cruelty's Mask"

AC -5 (bracers of defense AC3, ring of protection +2, cloak of the bat); MV 12 (15 as bat); T 16; hp 62; #AT 1; Dmg by weapon type (+6 with gauntlets of ogre power in melee); Str 9 (18[00] with gauntlets of ogre power), Int 16, Wis 12, Dex 18, Con 15, Cha 15; THAC0 see below; AL NE; SA quintuple damage on backstab, thief abilities, cloak of the bat; SD thief skills, necklace of adaptation, cloak of the bat, rod of alertness, ring of free action. Languages spoken: Common, Thieves Cant. Thief skills: PP 25, OL 95, FRT 95, MS 95, HS 95, DN 90, CW 95, RL 65. Experience Point Total: 1,432,155.

Weapon Proficiencies: dagger, hand crossbow, longsword, quarterstaff, short bow, short sword.

Nonweapon Proficiencies: Appraising (Int), Disguise (Cha), Jumping (Str), Lip Reading (Int; double proficiency, +1 to checks), Rope Use (Dex), Tightrope Walking (Dex).

Combat Stats: Melee: Base THAC0 13. Usually uses gauntlets of ogre power together with longsword +2, +4 versus Good-aligned creatures in dominant (right) hand; gives THAC0 8, 6 versus Good enemies; Dmg 1d8+8 (+10)/ 1d12+8 (+10). Also possesses dagger of venom used in secondary hand; THAC0 11, dmg 1d4+7 (+9)/1d3+7 (+9) plus special (lethal poison).

Combat Stats: Missiles: Base THAC0 10; uses short bow +1 (THAC0 9; ROF 2; ranges 5/10/15; Dmg 1d6+1) and also has normal hand crossbow (THAC0 10, ROF 1; ranges 2/4/ 6; Dmg 1d3/ 1d2).

Additional Magic Items: Bag of holding (250 cu. ft. capacity), censer of summoning hostile air elementals, oil of etherealness, other minor magical potions (ESP, healing, etc.) as desired by the DM.

Physical Details: Age 38, height 5'5", weight 107 lbs., short-cut curly black hair, very dark brown eyes, tanned olive skin, dark complexion, ear-lobes virtually absent.

Key Idiosyncrasies: Tulmara suffers periodic blackouts, about once a month, each lasting 1d8 hours. She is wholly amnesic for what happens during this time. In her conscious personality, her most striking feature is her dead-eyed, emotionless mask of a face when listening to others.

Cover: Tulmara is well-known as a merchant, dealing in staple commodities. Cloths, foodstuffs, and livestock are her major business interests. She has many people working for her and is rarely seen herself; this is not unusual in her homeland.

Guild and Leadership: The Zazesspur thieves' guild has a traditional single-guildmaster leadership. Tulmara's rule is strong, cruel, and despotic.

History: Tulmara Zir Bharann is Guildmaster of thieves in the city of Zazesspur, one of the "Big Four" cities of Tethyr in Faerun (see FR3, Empires of the Sands, for some further details on Zazesspur). She rules tyrannically over a large guild in this trade city, with some 140 thieves who are full-time members of the guild.

Tulmara was born into opulence. The Bharann family is one of the older, more important ones in Zazesspur, and Tulmara received an extensive training in commerce and merchant life when young. Her naturally greedy and selfish temperament was exacerbated by being spoiled as an only child, and made more strident by this early coaching in personal greed. Her physical brutality, however, is something of an oddball characteristic, perhaps a throwback to her great-great-grandfather. Old Sulmair Bharann suffered fits of maniacal violence, but Tulmara's brutishness is more coldly controlled. Her gauntlets of ogre power aid her considerably in this respect; if she strikes or flails someone, they know they've been hit! Importantly, Tulmara has never picked a pocket in her life. Such vulgar street crime is beneath her.

Soon after poisoning her parents to advance her inheritance, Tulmara began thieving. From her commercial work, she learned of the activities of other merchants, and began to plan and execute robberies of their premises. Expanding into blackmail and kidnapping, she was recruited into the thieves' guild by an early paramour, Arkail Rhassan. These two became rising stars in the guild, arranging for the old guildmaster to have an "accident" and then taking over the Guild themselves. The Guild prospered, and became wealthy; the junior thieves and apprentices, subjected to harsh discipline, could accept it if the rewards were good. And they were.

Arkail was killed, murdered by an assassin; Tulmara has not been able to find out why (it was on the orders of the Shadow Thieves of Amn, who feared the rise of the Zazesspur Guild). Since this time, Tulmara has become more withdrawn and harsh, more cruel and evil, and more paranoid; the killing destroyed what little humanity remained in her. Now she strengthens the guild, and indulges herself in a few big heists, to pass the time; her heart is empty, her zest for life almost wholly gone. Her odd nickname in certain quarters—"Cruelty's Mask"—comes from a middling-rank guild member who knew of her cult sympathies (see below), contrasting them with the lifeless persona and deadpan facial expression of his Guildmaster.

Tulmara is a devotee of Loviatar, and attends secret ceremonies and rituals of that faith. She rules her guild absolutely, and she rules it through fear. She respects only force and power in other people; intelligence, wisdom, and other gentler qualities are held for nothing. She has the force to back her cruel edicts, and while the Guild juniors suffer—and no few flee the land—the fear of her is so widespread that she stays in control of her guild, at least for the time being.

In Zazesspur, there are some notable political intrigues involving royalists of various persuasion (see Empires of the Sands). Tulmara doesn't get involved in this; and allied with her guild's predominant preying on outsiders and foreigners, this has allowed the Zazesspur guild (and Tulmara) to grow strong and powerful without the authorities getting too fearful.

Tulmara in Game Play: Tulmara makes for excellent intrigue adventures, and is a good nemesis figure if crossed (paranoids always fit the bill on this count). It may take the PCs many adventures even to realize she is at the center of activities they are fighting against. It should be very hard to find her, even harder to pin her down and overcome her. PCs might be terrorized by Tulmara's servants, hired to recover someone kidnapped by her, paid to act as bodyguards or couriers who are later attacked by thieves instructed by Tulmara, and the like. Tulmara strikes ruthlessly at those who thwart her, and since the scope of her operations is very wide, she can be thwarted in many ways!

The key element is always to make PCs work hard to get closer to the identity of their nemesis. Tulmara's identity as guildmaster is known to few, and the familiar working up the ladder from apprentices or thugs, to middle-rank people, and then closing in on the heart of the operation should be the PCs' goal. Even then, gaining any proof of Tulmara's activities should be very difficult.

Tactical Notes: Tulmara's own lair is protected by her rod of alertness (used as a magical alarm) and by her censer of summoning hostile air elementals which is used as a trap (opening a certain door causes a lever to fall, oil to pour along a narrow channel and be set alight, and then the oil runs into the censer, lighting it). Other magical alarms (magic mouths and the like) and numerous mechanical traps are present. A permanent stinking cloud in a corridor leading direct to her personal chamber can be bypassed by her with the magical necklace she wears, but could be a problem for PCs! Tulmara favors the use of many secret doors in her personal lair, below her private villa.

In combat, Tulmara always uses the sneak backstab when she can, but is not scared to slug it out toe-to-toe even with a plate-clad warrior. With her armor class and her magical gauntlets, she is a fearsome fighter. Her escape routes (notably oil of etherealness and her magical cloak) are important, likewise her protections against certain attack forms (the ring of free action makes her immune to hold spells, the necklace of adaptation protects against gases, and so on). Tulmara often spies on people in the form of a bat, and the powerful webs she can cast from her cloak of the bat don't affect her (ring of free action). Tulmara has a fortune stashed away in various business premises, and can summon up a bunch of thugs to attack her enemies at very short notice, both guildmembers and hired mercenaries.

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