Claire Bowen, Female French Merchant (Shopkeeper) (Non-Player character) A recurring character from a Hawkmoon campaign, a variant of the RPG Stormbringer, set in the “Tragic Millennium Earth” of Michael Moorcock’s novels. H3-13 – Hounds On The Hunt: She crashed through the woods, knowing her flight was futile, her bare feet and legs cut and bruised by the stones and scrub. Then suddenly she was stopped; caught in the arms of an armored warrior, but it was not a hound masked man as those who pursued her and it took her a moment to recognize the flame haired beauty before she exclaimed in shock; “Nykira!” “Claire!” Nykira replied in surprised joy as she looked into the face of the naked young woman who had burst from the underbrush and straight into her. But there was hardly an instant for the recognition to set in before two other figures came charging out of the bush. “That’s our vixen,” one of the hound-masked Granbretans challenged as they pulled up short. “Who dares interrupt our hunt?” Though they wore their canine shaped helms, they were dressed in hunting leathers rather them their typical plate armor and bore only cudgels with whips coiled at their hips. “What is this?” the other Hound declared in a snarl. Then the more relevant details registered, and he scowled; “You’re not permitted to bear arms!” “This is your first day in hell!” Nykira answered his question as she moved to shield the nude girl, while Syn and Tarl flanked the Granbretans. Unprepared for battle and caught off guard, the exchange was quick and its outcome never in question, but the Hounds’ cries for aid and dying screams that echoed through the woods were answered by the sound of others thrashing their way. “What have you done?” Claire exclaimed in alarm, as she pushed away from Nykira with a look of horror. “You’ve just murdered twenty of us! All they would have done is rapped me… like they have a dozen times before. But for every one of them who dies they execute ten locals! It’s part of the treaty.” Nykira stared at her childhood friend dumbfounded by her reaction, but had not time to respond as Claire turned and ran toward the sounds of the approaching men calling out; “Here… They’re over here! They did it! Please don’t hurt me… They did it!” The daughter of a man-at-arms who served Nykira Ammath’s father, the lord-protector of a small Normandian village, Claire and Nykira were childhood friends, but their relationship became strained as they grew into young women. Jealous of Nykira’s position and popularity, Claire chaffed in the role of handmaiden, but lacked the will to change her lot in life. Left to fend for herself when her father was executed for fighting the Granbretan invasion as part of the resistance, Claire worked as a serving maid at the local tavern and often found herself the “vixen” in the occupying Granbretan Hound Order warriors’ hunts. Betraying Nykira and her companions, the renegade Dragon Lord, Daeron Syn, and the Scandian Viking, Tarl Bloodhawk, in an effort to protect local villagers from the Hounds wraith, she found the cost of actions much higher then she anticipated.