Characteristic

Cost

END

Cost

Cost

3

3

0

5

3

3

2

3

1

3

3

2

5

20

15

10

15

15

20

10

15

5

5

10

10

15

10

Sometimes even the kooks get it a little bit right.

Darryl Smullen was largely despised by other members of the Society of Creative Anachronism, who found him tiresome and overly violent. He was scoffed at by others in the Highlander fan club member. And people at the Renaissance Fair and the Scottish Festival. It was obvious that there was something "off" about Darryl. He was too intense, too self-involved, and not nearly concerned enough with personal hygiene.

What's more, there was Darryl's obsession, the one that he always seemed to turn to within less than five minutes of conversation. He was convinced not only that he was the descendent of Scottish hero Malcolm Meicklejohn, who had died fighting beside William Wallace, but he was certain that he was destined to find the man's missing weapon, a supposedly magical claymore that had fallen into the hands of the English lords who had arranged for Meicklejohn's death.

Darryl, as it happened, was right. In a magazine spread depicting the London flat of movie producer Sir St. John Gowan, Darryl spotted a "replica" of Meicklejohn's blade, a "movie prop" hung on Sir Gowan's wall. But Darryl realized that it was no replica at all; instead, it was the real blade.

He spent his last remaining dollars on a one-way ticket to London. There, he broke into Sir Gowan's flat, surprised the old man, and, in a fit of hysteria, murdered him. The blade, sensing the faint family connection to its former owner, surged into power, turning the imbalanced Darryl Smullen into a force to be reckoned with--the deadly Claymore.

Created by Rob Rogers

The Meicklejohn blade has bonded with Darryl, turning him into an incredible swordsman (he was merely competent without it) and strongly enhancing his physical attributes. Although he can be disarmed, the blade is now firmly connected to him in a magical sense, so it always returns to his hand. It's difficult to separate it from him for long (in game terms, it's an inaccessible focus as opposed to an accessible one). He always tries to close in to engage opponents in hand to hand combat.

The sword allows Darryl to switch back and forth from his normal appearance to that of "Claymore" instantaneously.

The claymore's magic powers protected Malcolm Meicklejohn from most harm, and those powers protect Darryl, too. Like his ancestor, he is particularly susceptible to poisons, a weakness crafted into the blade by the wizard who enspelled it.

Out of costume, Darryl is nondescript, vaguely muscular, and generally dresses out of style, with little attention to hygiene or grooming. In costume, he looks straight out of Braveheart. He wears his hair long and wild, running out from a leather helmet. He wears a brown tunic, a kilt, and leather sandals, and here and there a piece of metal or reinforced leather is attached to him in a wild hodgepodge. His face is streaked with blue paint.

Character portrait by Jeff Hebert.