DunKane Renard, Male 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. H3-15 – You Can Never Go Home Again: Dunkane mumbled to himself as he toiled over the ledgers in the fading light. It would be another long night of tabulating the harvests and stock to satisfy Granbretan that they had squeezed the every drop out of Mistelvale. “You complain too much old man.” The voice stopped him dead and struck abject terror into his heart, even though it was full of jest and warmth. “Nykira”, he nearly whispered as he turned to see her lovely face, framed by that wild mane of flame read hair. “By the gods you cannot be here!” he chastised her as he scanned the storehouse for signs of Granbretan’s Hounds. He had heard what had happened earlier that day in the eastern woods and the whole village had been turned upside down in the search for her and her companions. “They are hunting for you everywhere… You killed two of them! And if they don’t find you it will cost twenty innocent people there lives!” “I don’t understand,” Nykira knelt down beside her father’s closest friend and advisor. “What happened? Where is the resistance? You can’t tell me that no one opposes these dogs!” “No one dares,” Dunkane told her in a defeated voice. “The prince signed a treaty with them. In exchange for the throne and a life of luxury, he’s given them free reign to take just about anything they want and if any one opposes them they inflict ten times the harm against the local population. If one of them loses an arm, then ten locals lose an arm… if one of them is killed, then ten locals are executed! Most of those who fought in the resistance turned themselves in to protect their families… and those that didn’t were hunted down.” Nykira looked at the old man in stunned silence. She was so sure that she would find the resistance still fighting their oppressors and that news of her escape from Granbretan would rally them on. Then she looked to Tarl and Syn with tears welling in her eyes; their actions would cost twenty innocent people, her friends and neighbors, their lives if they did not turn themselves in, but that meant certain death. “I will not ask you to surrender yourself,” Dunkane tried to console her, panning his gaze from the towering Viking to the strange dark man who stared down at him with eyes that seemed to bore straight to his sole. “And I have the feeling that not all of you would if I did… So get yourself away from here… This is not your home anymore!” A close friend and advisor to Nykira Ammath’s father, the lord-protector of a small Normandian village, Dunkane was a successful merchant and benefactor to many before Normandia fell under Granbretan occupation. Stripped of his lands and business, Dunkane was forced to serve the Dark Empire as a bookkeeper; keeping track of the goods “donated” to Granbretan. Unwilling to betray Nykira and her companions, the renegade Dragon Lord, Daeron Syn, and the Scandian Viking, Tarl Bloodhawk, Dunkane warned them to flee Normandia after their actions cost twenty innocent villagers their lives, knowing that the Hounds of Granbretan have a twisted view of rewarding those who aid them.