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In the first installment of the Rosebaon, we learned the history of this dreaded organization, as well as meeting the first two Lords, Placebo and Scimitar. Now, we meet the remaining three and learn how all the Lords work (or rather, don't) together.

THE LORDS (cont.)

Catyrpelius:

Catyrpelius is Lord of the Mystical Arts. Although potentially the most dangerous, he is the most subdued of the Five and has only been known for speaking when casting his spells.

Being the master of both psionics and magic is indeed difficult, but Catyrpelius has no complaints. He can constantly be seen with a book of some sort propped up between his folded legs as he floats in the air. Typically, he merely hovers around, seeming to give no attention to his actual surroundings. It is said that one day Catyrpelius was seen passing through walls, buildings and people, ignoring heeds, shouts and warnings. He just continued to read his book, whose pages turned by themselves.

Catyrpelius is seen as a rickety old bookworm, caring for no one else. He is always seen in a black robe with a pulled over hood, his white goatee flowing from beneath. Although many believe him to be harmless, there are many sides of Catyrpelius. One story goes on to say that a child had started to talk to him while he floated over a well. An instant later, and the young girl lived the rest of her life with no tongue, communicating only though crude gestures. The stories only get worse. There are tales of towns being destroyed in fiery splendor as Catyrpelius gazed on, eating the bread the town leader had refused him. And of people changed into drooling idiots, doomed to live a life of eating dirt to survive.

The powers of Catyrpelius are great. Depending on the game world you play in, assume Catyrpelius has 90% of all spells of magic and psionics presented within (or their equivalents). When in battle, Catyrpelius often likes to toy with his victims, merely giving them a life of wretched existence instead of killing them outright.

Steinein:

Steinein is perhaps the most intelligent of the Five Lords, yet not rivaling the supposed powers of the benefactor. The Lord of Science, Steinein is often associated with "all that is to be known".

Steinein carries an immense knowledge of scientific processes and how things are made. He knows how things grow and how they die and what makes a person hurt or react. He's an expert in animal studies, and can rattle off mindless facts of almost any creature alive or dead.

Steinein appears as a thirty-ish graying man with glasses. He is the object of mediocrity and can often blend in with townspeople. Many have passed Steinein, unknowing of his intent or associations - appearing in all ways as a regular person. When he visits a town (almost always for a thirst for knowledge), he rents a normal room (closest to the library) and eats food as do other townspeople (this is only to keep with the impression of being a regular person; Steinein long ago learned the secrets of starvation and need never eat again).

Steinein does possess a limited number of powers that give him an advantage over humans. As mentioned above, he can survive with no intake of food or water, along with the following abilities:

• Can locate a sensitive point on any animals/race's body that, when pressed, will lead to unconsciousness, strangulation or even death.

• Can name any animal, what they eat, where they live, disposition, etc.

• Can command the elements to do his bidding (raising storms, moving earth, flames from his hand, so on).

Steinein rarely uses these abilities, thinking himself to be the envy of scholars everywhere. Being such, he must always be patient and calm. Because he thinks himself so intelligent, he holds great malice to Catyrpelius. Steinein sees Catyrpelius as a challenge to his power and has many dreams of killing him. However, he knows that Catyrpelius has the upper hand - occasionally making Steinein lose the patience that he so often appreciates. Any challenge to Steinein's intelligence will cause him to prove you wrong in painfully macabre ways.

Ator:

Ator is perhaps the strangest of the Lords and can only be described as a five year old girl with fiery red hair and horned rimmed glasses. She is always seen in her red dress with the pink bow that surrounds her waist.

What Ator is now, and what Ator once was are totally different things. Ator was once a female of 37, well built, and appreciative in all places. But it was her incredible lust for invention and Steinein's intelligence of life that changed her irreparably. It seems that Ator wanted to create a potion that would allow her to go back in time for five minutes and then return her to the present - a one shot "time machine" was the intent. It was with Steinein's help that she accomplished the potion, but when quaffed, she never returned to the right time. She also realized that the body of whomever imbibed the potion also went back into time, making her what she is today.

It has left her only a little angry.

Ator now designs inventions for each of the Lords in exchange for information, goods, or money. She is perhaps the most versatile and understanding Lord, as she has put aside her desire to rule the world. It seems she has a great invention in mind, and is waiting only for the right time and resources to make it.

Some of Ator's inventions:

• Sword of Reflection: The Sword of Reflection was originally made for Scimitar but he since discarded it long ago for his more powerful scimitars. The Sword of Reflection was originally designed for the constant battles Scimitar would have with Catyrpelius, allowing Scimitar to reflect any spell cast back at Catyrpelius.

• Potion of Invisible Destruction: This potion was originally just a small idea floating in Ator's head until she grew bored one day and set about to create it. This potion works only on materials that can kill, inflict pain, or wound and makes then invisible, undetectable by normal means. This potion has most famously been used upon traps, which have sprung unexpectedly on helpless adventurers.

• Patch of Foreboding: Once placed on someone's body, this piece of cloth is almost impossible to remove - nothing short of destroying the clothes themselves will ever remove the patch (unscarred by whatever befell the clothes). The patch grants the wearer the ability to see the death of whomever they look upon, in full gruesome detail.

  Should someone die of old age, the wearer will see the person decay and become infected with worms of death, slowly fading into sun bleached bones. If the patch is worn for any extended period of time, the wearer can possibly go insane.

Note that this is only a very small listing of all the inventions Ator has dreamt up. GM's should assume that she has the power to make almost anything should she find the material and the time.

HOW THE LORDS WORK TOGETHER

In all honesty, they don't. There are very few instances where they might join together for a common interest, but more often than not, they feud and bicker rather violently with each other.

Placebo is perfectly content to deal his drugs to make the world a more controlled place. He is rarely around to fight with the other Lords, but when he is, he often tries to get them hooked to his drugs. His idea is that if he can get even just one addicted, then he could have twice the power to corrupt the world and the other Lords.

Scimitar wants challenges - challenges against each town's best champion. If a certain town does not make him break a sweat (which they rarely do) then he will destroy them, brutally slaughtering all within. It is Scimitar's desire to make a world where anarchy is the rule and hierarchy is determined by arena-like fights. For this reason, Scimitar is often getting in feuds with Catyrpelius, believing that magic is for those whose bodies are weak.

Catyrpelius is on an endless quest for the one spell which will make all the world's inhabitants, and even the other Lord's, bow down and obey him. His constant thirst for knowledge floats him from town to town. Immensely intelligence, Catyrpelius still has no real idea of how to pull off the spell. He also believes that Scimitar is slightly annoyed when their fights end in a draw.

Steinein's goal is to make the world not necessarily worship him, but to recognize him as the most intelligent man alive. His rare battles with Catyrpelius are caused by fits of rage that one would try to rival his own intelligence. Yet he knows that should Catyrpelius get perturbed enough, the magic-user would easily be able to destroy him.

Ator is the most lenient of the Lords, content as of now to make weapons, potions, and equipment for the others. Only she knows what her ultimate plan is, and that will all be unveiled when she releases her biggest and most devastating invention. If only someone knew what it was...

THE HE, SHE, OR IT BEHIND IT ALL

Who the benefactor is, or perhaps what he is, can only be left up to speculation. The Lords themselves have never seen him, only knowing that a "voice" just popped in their heads one day. The Lords will not tell what it was that they received as a gift, but it was such that their loyalty was granted him.

The motive of the benefactor is unknown, and so can be said about the strange darkening of the sky over the land. We can only hope that it is a long time coming before the Rosebaon decided to implement any massive plan - 'twould be a bleak world that day.