This is the second in a series of articles detailing NPC knights that can be used in your tournaments. Will they become fast friends or bitter rivals?

Sir Gareth Ironwill also appears in the “Duke’s Tourney: Day #” -series of posts, as the playtest knight of Jani Pelkonen.

Appearance

At 25, Gareth has a sturdy, dependable look about him; broad-shouldered and thick-set. His face is still youthful, though a short-trimmed brown beard gives him a more mature air. His armor is meticulously maintained but clearly “field-used.” He carries himself with the quiet authority of a veteran who prefers a map and a plan to a reckless charge, his brown eyes observing his surroundings carefully.

Backstory

The second son of a landed knight, Gareth was the Spare to his elder brother’s Heir — trained to potentially take over should his brother die childless. The birth of his twin nephews made it clear that his fate would lie elsewhere.

Gareth was a squire under Sir Galehaut, the castellan of the Castle of the Black Spire Pass. Gareth learned from his mentor that battles are won in the mind before they are won on the field. He was knighted at eighteen, after successfully managing the logistics and defense of the castle, proving that his steady nerves were as valuable as any blade.

Taken into a baron’s household, Gareth opted not to stay with the unworthy son when his liege died two years later. Instead, he took to the road as a knight errant, spending his years as a professional “sword-for-hire” of the highest caliber — taking contracts that required a cool head.

He met Sir Roslyn during a messy skirmish involving a disputed border-claim. Afterweads, they formed a partnership of opposites: Gareth’s prudence complementing — and being complemented by — Roslyn’s impetuosity. Gareth has come to Dolmenwood viewing the Duke’s Tourney as a grand job interview: a chance to secure a permanent position in a noble house where his mind can turn to solving the mysteries of Dolmenwood.

The Great Deed: Defense of the Black Spire Pass

The castellan, Sir Galehaut, fell in the first assault from an unlucky orc arrow to the eye. Gareth — still a squire — took command, steadied the men and turned the chaos into resolve. He helped beat the orc horde back from the foothold they had gained on the walls.

For eight grueling weeks, the Castle of the Black Spire Pass held under Gareth’s command. Gareth rationed the food with precision; every man kept in fighting condition, even if shedding some pounds. The garrison lost half its number, and none escaped without scars, yet the castle endured until the relieving force arrived.

The exhausted defenders watched as the demoralized orc horde withdrew rather than face fresh troops. The Baron leading the reinforcements expressed amazement that a mere squire of eighteen had led such a valiant defense. He knighted Gareth on the spot, granting the newly minted knight a position in his household.

Encountering Gareth

Players may encounter Gareth at the Duke’s Tourney or on the road to Castle Brackenwold, where he travels with Sir Roslyn Trueheart. His squire is Brian (Level 1 Knight); the young man is anxious to measure up to his exacting knight and, unfortunately, often falls short of perfection. One of Gareth’s main faults is that he is quicker with criticism of the perceived faults than with praise. After all, how is one to correct their faults if they are not aware of them?

His train includes his warhorse, two riding horses, and two pack horses, as well as all of a knight’s essential equipment (see p. 47 of Knights of the Wood: The Duke’s Tourney for the complete list). The total value of this gear is perhaps 340-350 gp on the resell market. The value of Gareth’s horses may be negotiated separately, assuming a buyer can be found.

His first liege lord, the Baron, gifted him a sword, “Black Spire”, as a memento of the defense of the Castle of the Black Spire Pass. The memory is bittersweet, both because of the lives lost in the siege and the death of the Baron two years afterward, the man who had seen the young squire’s value. Thus, it holds significant emotional value, and Gareth would no doubt seek to recover it should he ever lose it.

(Currently, we do not list any enchanted items for Gareth, as it depends on how common they are in each campaign. The Dolmenwood Monster Book implies that each 5th-level knight would already have an arcane armor and an arcane sword. If that is true for your campaign, then Gareth ought to have them as well, even though he cannot use them during the Duke’s Tourney due to the tourney rules.)

Running Gareth

Gareth is an excellent partner to Roslyn, his prudence and forethought acting as a balance wheel to her free-wheeling energy and recklessness. On the other hand, Roslyn’s restless energy drags Gareth along to new adventures. Whatever else one can say about it, it is certainly not boring!

While Gareth prefers to formulate a plan first, one should not make the mistake of thinking that he is indecisive. Once he has devised the best course of action, he is capable of executing it with almost ruthless efficiency. At the same time, underneath all that logical exterior beats a heart of a poet; something that might come as a surprise to someone who has just met the soft-spoken, rather cerebral knight.

He and Roslyn are most useful as a pressure valve: when players are cautious, Roslyn pushes; when they are reckless, Gareth pulls back. While not as competitive as Roslyn, Gareth may still get on a PC’s nerves, offering pointers on their jousting technique. Gareth offers the advice honestly, which might endear him to a PC who takes it well. Finally, if the PCs get stuck with a problem, Gareth could offer them a fresh insight, helping them onward.

Sir Gareth is a new NPC knight expanding on the 40 tournament opponents found in Knights of the Wood: The Duke’s Tourney, our medieval tournament supplement written specifically for Dolmenwood but easily adapted to any OSR game. Pick up the full book for complete jousting, mêlée, hunting, and feast mechanics — plus a stable of fully realized knights ready to challenge your players across every event of the Duke’s Tourney.

Want to create your own tournament opponents? Our free Dolmenwood Knight Opponent Generator lets you build a full roster of NPC knights in seconds.