I absolutely LOVE Beün design. I'd love to heard more about him, he just seems so interesting!
THANK YOU!! That’s so lovely of you to say!!
Ok so Beün. Bear with me I’m going to ramble and explain the whole context because I dont get too many asks and I’m just,,,really excited to answer this question.
Beün is a goliath monk NPC in the latest arc of Iona, the campaign I run with a party of 4 PCs.
Ayden (an Aasimar cleric). Willow (a shifter ranger/druid). Yarou (a human monk). And Tybalt (a half orc bard/fighter).
The party had been travelling through the mountains investigating some people trying to fuck things up. They had heard of kidnappings and increased bandit activity there and the trail led to a hideout. They did combat there with the bandits and found among the remaining kidnap victims, was Beün’s younger brother, Oyos, who was really exhausted and wounded.
They found out that Oyos was from one of the more peaceful of the 3 tribes in the mountainrange, the Helsjic Tribe. He was a monk in training from Hjor, the main Helsjic settlement, and did not have the tribe’s signature green tattoos, meaning he had not undergone their coming of age trials yet.
They also found out that he was captured with a patrol of Helsjic monks, among whom was his brother, The Sentinel. A legendary warrior of Hjor, well known for his 8 spectral Astral arms.
Oyos, distraught and in grief explained that the bandits targeted him, being the weakest looking, and Beün and the other monks surrendered, not wanting further harm to come to their youngest. They were taken to the very hideout they found him in and were thrown in pits alongside other kidnap victims from the surrounding mountain villages. One by one they were feeding them to Marrow Stalkers, creatures that fed on people’s bones while keeping them alive as much as possible. They were going to take Oyos but all the monks offered themselves up before him, including Beün. The last thing he heard was his brothers screams.
The party set off for Hjor to return Oyos and news of the Sentinel’s fate, Oyos suffering from extreme survivor’s guilt. They spoke to the chief of the Helsjic who in turn relayed the news to the people, all of whom were distraught at the tribe’s heavy losses. Especially Beün, who was always all smiles and got along with everyone he met.
The party convinced Oyos to join them as they tried to get to the bottom of these kidnappings, as clues they found led them to the West side of the mountain range.
After journeying and investigating, they found the big bad, a resurrected evil chief of one of the tribes who vyed for supremacy over all. His plan to get everyone to bow down was to use the magic found at a sacred site in Hjor and lots of blood (in this campaign blood is embued with The Essence of Life itself, which is very powerful and magical), to resurrect an ancient evil, the incarnate of fear.
The big bad escaped, and they had found the missing bodies of the Hjor monks, very much dead and skulls crushed, but Beün’s body not among them. They raced back to Hjor in pursuit, and after investigating the situation they found one of the evil accomplices, an older monk of Hjor and their teacher turned spy, standing over non other than Beün, his long hair chopped, laying there weak and bloody, missing all four of his limbs.
They saved him, and Beün, weeping, said that he had betrayed the secrets of the sacred site of Hjor to those with intent to destroy the village, secrets that were entrusted only to him. It was a choice between that and seeing them torture his brother, and he, ridden with guilt apologised profusely to Oyos, and begged him to kill him. The party intervened, and convinced both of them to hold off and hang in there till at least after the fight. They brought Beün to a safe place and pursued the bad guys. The old evil was unfortunately resurrected, destroying the sacred site, and battle ensued. With difficulty they defeated it and the evil chief, and over the next few days helped the tribe rebuild.
They eventually helped convince Beün to look past his shame and stand up and move forward. To train the new generation of warrior monks. With the help of the Helsjic chief, a druid named Inavu, they regenerated his limbs and helped him get back on his feet, both figuratively and literally. They got to know Beün a little bit more, and saw his charismatic personality shine through, which included a series of morbid limb puns, an extremely petty competitive streak, loud, laughing, and absolutely vibrating with energy. It wasnt hard to see why he was extremely likeable.
This arc had just finished, but in the more recent sessions they had invited Beün, Oyos and a couple of human NPCs to a dumpling festival, and to a party at their friends house...
...a noble, halfling house.
But yeah thats pretty much it for Beün so far, sorry for the long read but hope you guys enjoyed it!
