Gattas Void

dcGdcattas Void, Lareth the Beautiful’s second-in-command, plays a crucial role in maintaining order and executing operations at the Moathouse. A disciplined and pragmatic leader, Gattas oversees the bandits and humanoid raiders, ensuring the Temple of Elemental Evil’s schemes continue without disruption.

Lareth’s Lieutenant and Commander

Gattas Void strikes an imposing figure, combining strength and efficiency in his demeanor.

• Build and Features: Broad-shouldered and muscular, with a weathered face framed by short, dark hair.
• Clothing: Wears practical leather and chainmail armor, designed for functionality rather than flair.
• Weaponry: Often carries a longsword, which he wields with brutal efficiency, and a dagger at his belt.

Background

Gattas has a checkered past that mirrors many of the Temple's recruits.

• Origins: Born into a mercenary family, Gattas learned discipline and survival at an early age.
• Recruitment: He was drawn into the Temple’s ranks by the promise of wealth and power, excelling as a leader due to his loyalty and effectiveness.

Personality

Gattas Void is a soldier at heart, motivated by results and loyalty to his superiors.

• Pragmatic: Focused on completing objectives, often disregarding moral considerations.
• Ambitious: Aspires to greater recognition within the Temple but is content serving Lareth, whom he views as a capable leader.
• Reserved: While not cruel by nature, he is unflinching in carrying out his orders.

"Efficiency is the difference between a successful raid and a massacre. Don’t forget that."

Role at the Moathouse

Gattas commands the raiding parties and maintains order among the bandits, humanoids, and beasts under Lareth’s command.

• Raiding Operations: Organizes attacks on caravans and farmsteads, ensuring supplies and prisoners flow to the Hunting Cabin and Greater Temple.
• Training: Ensures bandits and recruits are disciplined and battle-ready.
• Enforcement: Enforces Lareth’s orders, quelling dissent and maintaining loyalty within the ranks.

"Orders are orders. If you’re not ready to follow them, you don’t belong here."

Relationship with Lareth the Beautiful

Gattas holds Lareth in high regard, respecting his charisma and vision.

• Trust: Lareth entrusts Gattas with critical operational tasks but does not share sensitive plans or his ties to Lolth.
• Dependence: Gattas serves as the operational backbone of the Moathouse, ensuring its efficiency and secrecy.

"Never trust anyone who smiles during a raid—they’re either mad or plotting to stab you."

Motivation

Gattas’s motivations are grounded in duty and the promise of advancement.

• Loyalty: Driven by loyalty to Lareth and the Temple’s cause.
• Ambition: Seeks to rise within the Temple’s hierarchy through discipline and effectiveness.
• Pragmatism: Avoids unnecessary conflict, focusing on long-term survival and success.

"The Temple may have its gods, but here in the Moathouse, discipline is divine."

Prominent Features

Gattas’s leadership is marked by his effectiveness and tactical acumen.

• Tactical thinking.
• Commanding presence.
• Ability to inspire loyalty among his troops.

DM-Only Section: Secrets and Intrigue

Role in Temple Operations

Gattas is a linchpin in the Temple’s network, ensuring the supply chain from the Moathouse to the Greater Temple remains uninterrupted.

• Nulb Wainwright: He and his men deliver loot and prisoners to the Nulb wainright at the point of the high road and low road meet at the foot of the bridge leading into the village of Nulb.
• Coordination with Gefreid Patris: Works closely with Gefreid to manage the flow of supplies, prisoners, and loot. Gattas’s raiding parties deliver resources directly to the 55. Hunting Cabin - off map, where they are inspected and redirected to the Greater Temple.
• Discretion: Gattas is aware of the need for secrecy and ensures that raids are conducted far from the Moathouse.

Political Intrigue

Though loyal to Lareth, Gattas is unaware of the latter’s covert allegiance to Lolth and partnership with Falrinth.

• Potential Manipulation: If the adventurers learn of Gattas’s ambitions, they could exploit his desire for advancement to create discord between him and Lareth.
• Rivalries: Gattas harbors resentment toward Lareth’s preferential treatment of certain lieutenants, including Falrinth and Gorvash the Cruel.

Potential Weaknesses

Gattas’s pragmatic nature can be exploited by cunning adventurers.

• Negotiation: If faced with overwhelming odds, Gattas may agree to parley, provided it secures his survival or benefits the Temple.
• Blind Loyalty: His trust in Lareth could lead him to unwittingly expose Temple operations if manipulated.

Adventure Hooks

Gattas provides numerous opportunities for adventurers to disrupt the Temple’s plans.

• Intercepting Raids: The party encounters a raiding party under Gattas’s command, discovering clues about the Moathouse’s operations.
• Infiltration: Adventurers could infiltrate the Moathouse by posing as recruits or traders, gaining access to Gattas’s plans.
• Creating Division: By sowing discord between Gattas and other lieutenants, the party can weaken the Moathouse’s defenses.

DM-Only Section: Gattas Void's Knowledge of Lucius Graeme

As Lareth the Beautiful’s trusted lieutenant, Gattas Void holds a position of authority within the Moathouse outpost and is deeply embedded in the Temple of Elemental Evil’s operations. While Gattas is not privy to the full extent of the Greater Temple’s inner workings, he is aware of Lucius Graeme's significant role within the cult’s hierarchy.

Gattas's Perspective on Lucius Graeme

Gattas knows Lucius as a cunning and resourceful operative who commands the respect of the cult’s leadership. Though their interactions are professional, Gattas maintains a guarded approach to Lucius, recognizing the courier’s loyalty to Hedrack and his ties to Lolth.

Lucius Graeme's Influence

Lucius Graeme trusted Courier and Spy Master: Gattas understands that Lucius acts as the direct voice of the Greater Temple’s Supreme Commander, Hedrack. When Lucius arrives, his words carry the weight of the Greater Temple’s authority.

• Supply Chain Coordination: Gattas knows that Lucius oversees the logistics of moving slaves, stolen goods, and supplies from the Moathouse and Hunting Cabin to the Greater Temple. While Gattas coordinates the raiding parties and initial shipments, it is Lucius who ensures that everything is aligned with the Temple’s overarching goals.
• Recruitment Oversight: Lucius often investigates new recruits and agents within Verbobonc, the Greenway Valley, and near Celene. Gattas respects Lucius’s ability to identify talent but resents that the courier’s reports can influence decisions that affect the Moathouse’s resources.
• Frequent Inspections: Lucius regularly visits the Moathouse and the Hunting Cabin. Gattas has observed that Lucius uses the secret supply tunnel at the Hunting Cabin to avoid detection, a reminder of the courier’s meticulous nature.

Gattas’s Interactions with Lucius

• Orders and Instructions: Lucius delivers orders from Hedrack and the Greater Temple directly to Gattas and Lareth. While Lareth receives the larger strategic directives, Gattas is tasked with the operational execution of these plans.
• Tense Relationship: Though they work together effectively, Gattas finds Lucius’s subtle superiority grating. He believes Lucius views him as expendable, a feeling that fuels Gattas’s ambition to prove his worth through results.
• Shared Responsibility: Both Gattas and Lucius are integral to the Temple’s operations, but Gattas is keenly aware that Lucius holds more sway with the Greater Temple leadership.

Gattas’s Knowledge of Lucius’s Role

Supply Chain Liaison

• Lucius coordinates the flow of slaves and goods to the Greater Temple, relying on Gattas to deliver shipments to Gefreid Patris at the Hunting Cabin.
• Gattas is aware that Lucius has the authority to alter supply priorities based on Hedrack’s shifting plans.

Information Gathering

• Lucius reports on activities in Hommlet and the surrounding areas, often collaborating with Temple spies like Rannos Davl and Gremag Gozlin at D&G Mercantile.
• Gattas knows that Lucius monitors the loyalty of all Temple operatives, including himself.

Enforcer of the Cult’s Goals

Lucius’s presence is a reminder that the Greater Temple is always watching. Gattas knows that failure to meet expectations could result in harsh consequences. Despite his frustrations, Gattas respects Lucius’s cunning and effectiveness, viewing him as an asset to the cult’s operations.

• Potential Conflict: While Lucius serves as an overseer for the Greater Temple, Gattas secretly questions his loyalty to Lareth. If Gattas were to uncover that Lucius’s true allegiance lies with Lolth, he might attempt to exploit this information to undermine the courier or elevate his own standing with the cult.
• Weakness in Supply Chain: Lucius’s reliance on the secret tunnel at the Hunting Cabin creates an exploitable vulnerability. If adventurers were to intercept Lucius or his messages, they could gain valuable intelligence about the Greater Temple’s plans.
• Tenuous Trust: Gattas suspects that Lucius reports directly to Hedrack about the Moathouse’s operations, bypassing Lareth entirely. This suspicion fuels Gattas’s paranoia, making him hyper-vigilant in his dealings with Lucius.

Quest Hooks

• Ambushed Supplies: If adventurers disrupt a Crimson Reaper raid, they might recover a shipment marked for the Temple, leading them to investigate Gattas’ involvement.
• Bandit Rivalry: Rom's growing power could spark a conflict with other bandit factions, offering adventurers a chance to exploit these divisions.
• Revealing Secrets: Gattas’ lack of knowledge about Felix’s ultimate goals could make him an unwilling ally against the Crimson Reapers if players expose the bandit leader’s betrayal.

Demien Trevils’ Role

Trevil's Fens Cottage

Demien Trevils’ deep resentment of the forces of good has made him a willing ally of the cult. However, his alcoholism and growing paranoia mean he could become a liability if pressed too hard. He fears both the forces of good and the cult’s wrath, making him a potential weak link if interrogated by adventurers.

Purpose and Logistics

• Raiding Coordination: The cottage acts as a temporary headquarters where Gattas’s raiding parties regroup after attacking merchant caravans and farmsteads.
• Sorting and Staging: Loot is divided into supplies for the Greater Temple, valuables for Lareth’s coffers, and items for local distribution to Nulb.
• Prisoner Holding: Captured merchants and farmhands are shackled and temporarily held before being transported to Gefreid Patris’s Hunting Cabin.
• Transfer Operations: Loot and prisoners are loaded onto wagons under Gattas’s supervision and sent along concealed trails to the Hunting Cabin, ensuring secrecy and efficiency.

Security Measures

• Abandonment Protocol: The camp is quickly dismantled after each use, leaving little evidence of its purpose.
• Hidden Storage: Some of the plunder is hidden in secret caches on the farm, providing adventurers with valuable clues or rewards if they uncover them.
• Trap Warnings: Snare traps and alarm spells are sometimes deployed around the camp to detect intruders.

Potential Adventure Hooks

• Intercepting a Raid: Adventurers may stumble upon one of Gattas’ raiding parties in action, leading to a confrontation or the chance to follow them back to the camp.
• Disrupting the Supply Chain: By discovering the camp’s purpose, players can disrupt the flow of resources to the Greater Temple, dealing a significant blow to the cult’s operations.
• Uncovering Cult Ties: Clues found in the camp, such as correspondence or symbols, can link the operation to Lareth and the Greater Temple, further unraveling the cult’s schemes.