Alak Stagram

The party found Alak Stagram in the Hellknight test chamber of Citadel Altaerein, finishing off two imps with his greatsword and complaining about them under his breath. He was not there on official order business. He was there because his parents had been Hellknights of the Nail, and somewhere in the citadel they had left a family signet ring, and he had taken leave to find it. The first thing he said to the party, once the fighting was done, was that he was glad to meet them in such a beautiful and well-kept estate.

The Armiger

An armiger is not yet a Hellknight. It is the rank below: the proving period, the years of service before an armiger stands in the test arena and kills a devil by hand and earns the right to call themselves a knight. Alak had been in this position for some time. He was trained to the Order's standards and carried himself to them, but he had not taken the test and did not wear the full armor. What he wore instead was matte black plate without the full Hellknight regalia, and on the left shoulder there was a small symbol of Asmodeus↗.

The party noticed it. When asked, he answered directly: the Dark Prince represents absolute law, and the Hellknights understand this. He did not worship Asmodeus himself. He had, he said, little interest in matters of religion. He had put those imps down without hesitation, and he would do so again. What mattered to him was the law, the order, and the discipline that kept both functional.

His parents had both been Hellknights. His father, Talmot Stagram, had been a barrister of the Nail, trained in law as well as combat, and had written a treatise on Order protocols and Chelish legal interpretation. His mother had, in her later years, administered the Hellknight test in the very chamber where Alak and the party first met. They were dead. They had not told him where the signet ring was kept. He had found out, through other means, that it was somewhere in the citadel, and he had come to look for it.

Citadel Altaerein

His attitude at first meeting was indifferent: cool courtesy, a formal bow, the kind of measured politeness that doesn't invite much back. The warmth beneath it surfaced gradually. He appreciated sarcasm. He appreciated that the party had not stolen the insignias they found in area A6 and gave them to him instead. He appreciated, considerably more, when Nadira recognized the inscription in his father's book and handed it over. He took the book with a grip that said something about how carefully he had been holding himself, and then he laughed, quietly, in a way that had nothing sharp in it, and said he never thought he would see it again.

After that he came with them.

Companion

Alak fought through the entirety of Citadel Altaerein and the Goblinblood Caves below: the skeletal Hellknight in the crypts, the gelatinous cube, the Cinderclaw-held chambers, Voz Lirayne's final confrontation in the lower levels. He carried himself at the front of most engagements. His greatsword was the wrong tool for tight corridors and he knew it, frowned about it, and worked around it anyway. He was not a subtle fighter. He was a deliberate one.

He had opinions on how the combat should go and expressed them in the kind of clipped, assessment-first speech of someone who has been trained to think about tactical situations before he has to be in them. After the Guardian's Way operation against the Bloody Blades mercenaries, he stood over the fallen with blood in the gaps of his armor and none of it his own, and the look on his face was the satisfaction of a man who does not believe in excess but also did not for a moment doubt the outcome was correct.

The skeletal Hellknight in the crypts gave him pause. Not fear, exactly. Something older and more complicated. He addressed it by rank and name and waited to see what it would do, and when it recognized him as an armiger of the Nail, the weight of that was visible before he put it back behind his eyes.

He was not at ease with everything the party did or decided. He did not say so often. When he did say so, it was once, directly, and then he moved on.

Recovery

They found the signet ring in Alseta's Vault. He was already wearing it when he spoke to the party there, his thumb moving across the band in a way that probably wasn't conscious. He thanked them for the ring and the book and for not leaving the citadel in worse hands than they found it. He told them the Order had little interest in Isger↗ anymore but would be satisfied knowing responsible owners held the keep. He said the restoration work would be substantial, and that he thought they were equal to it.

He had the formal speech of someone who knows the appropriate thing to say and also means it, which is not the same as the appropriate speech itself.

Departure

When Renali described the Dahak cult in the Mwangi Expanse↗ and what was at stake if Huntergate was fully activated, Alak listened, and his hand moved to his sword hilt, and he said that a cult dedicated to the god of dragon destruction was no small matter and he would bring the report to his superiors immediately. He gave a formal salute. He said he wished them well in their endeavors. He said may the order guide your path, and he left.

It was a correct farewell. He had known the party for the length of one citadel and its caves beneath, which is not long, but long enough that the correctness of the farewell was notable. He was walking back toward the order, toward Varisia and Citadel Vraid and the structures he understood. The threat was real and he was taking it seriously in the only way he knew how to.

Theo gave him a half-bow. Frazzle, after he was gone, noted the absence practically and moved on.

Voice

Alak speaks in the register of a tactician: clipped, assessment-first, conclusions offered as facts because he has thought them through before he speaks them. His humor is dry and requires attention to notice. He is not warm in the way that makes people feel immediately comfortable. He is warm in the way that becomes apparent over time, after he has stopped treating you as an unknown quantity.

He does not perform certainty. He has it. That distinction matters in how he sounds.

When something costs him, the expression does not change much. The grip changes. The silence at the beginning of a sentence is a little longer. He told the party about his father's book in a voice that was quieter than usual, and then he rolled his shoulders and asked what was next.

Statistics

At first appearance: AC 20  |  HP 34  |  Speed 20 ft.

Fort +9, Ref +7, Will +5  |  Perception +7

Str +4, Dex +1, Con +3, Int +0, Wis +1, Cha +0

Skills Athletics +8, Intimidation +4, Religion +5, Society +4

Languages Common, Infernal, Varisian

Attacks Greatsword +10 (1d12+4 slashing, versatile P); Javelin +7 (1d6+4 piercing)

Abilities Reactive Strike ↺; Intimidating Strike ◆◆; Power Attack ◆◆

Equipment Full plate, heirloom greatsword, javelins (2); later: family signet ring, father's treatise Quelling Savagery: Legal Precepts of the Order of the Nail