Roland Varnel
Count Roland Varnel rules Teryk and the county around it. He is a professional soldier in his mid-forties, out of a junior branch of the great Varnel house — a little over six feet, muddy green eyes, an aquiline nose, salt-and-pepper hair combed forward over a proud forehead.
Since the borderlands legions were called south two years ago, Varnel has not had the men to properly secure his lands.
He told the Black Puddings that the troop withdrawal is preparation for the Empress’s next war against Valeria, and that the one man who might help against the Lhazaaran problem is the Prefect of Vedycaer — “somehow I don’t think he’ll be all that helpful” (Session 16).
Dealing with him
- His day starts at dawn giving orders to his assembled soldiers at the headquarters cross-hall. He hears petitioners at his villa office through most of the day, visits the bathhouse in the late afternoon, and dines formally with the Contessa.
- He does not suffer time-wasters, and will dismiss petitioners who waste his.
- Those he thinks well of get his ear, a rumor or two, and — for the right sort — a written authorization to call for volunteers at the parade ground.
- He paid the bounty on the deserter Peleos, and opened the fort’s historical archives to the Black Puddings.