Flanagan Grutte

**Flanagan Grutte** is a playable character in *Triangle Strategy*. He is a recruitable character available if the player has 1050 Morality and 750 Utility.

## Profile/Story

### Background

Flanagan Grutte was a revered Aesfrosti soldier. While he was in service, his military exploits helped Aesfrost win countless battles, and earned him the moniker of the "Bloody Shield". One day, Flanagan began to receive letters from his wife informing him she was ill. Rather than returning home to Aesfrost, Flanagan continued to serve in the Aesfrost army. Flanagan later receives word she has fallen deathly sick, and returns home to Aesfrost only for her to die a few days later. Flanagan blames himself for not coming back sooner to care for his wife, and counts her blood among the countless others that stain his shield.

### Former Aesfrosti Soldier

*Unable to stomach the sight of Gustadolph trampling upon the weak, this former Aesfrosti warrior left his home to serve House Wolffort. He is also known as the Bloody Shield.*- In-game description

## Max Stats

### Movement

4

Flanagan's base class is a Hawkshield, a mobile class balancing flight and defense. He wields a Rook Shield at Weapon Rank 1, a Greathawk at Weapon Rank 2, and a Giant's Shield at Weapon Rank 3. He possesses the following classes and abilities:

## Character Stories

### The Bloody Shield

*A single man puts an end to the chaos caused by some Aesfrosti soldiers in Glenbrook.*

* **Glenbrook Subject (M)**: Aaah! My shop! Someone, stop this madness!
* **Aesfrosti Soldier A**: Carry on screaming and sniveling! This land is ours now, and we'll do as we please!
* **Glenbrook Subject (M)**: You... You monsters!
* **Aesfrosti Soldier A**: Hah! Try me! I'll cut you down where you stand!
* **Aesfrosti Soldier A**: And just what do you think you're doing!?
* **Stout Hawkshield**: You disgust me. Begone from this place.
* **Aesfrosti Soldier A**: So you've chosen death, then!?
* **Aesfrosti Soldier B**: Hold! Lest my eyes deceive me, is that not Ser Flanagan?
* **Flanagan**: And what if I am?
* **Aesfrosti Soldier B**: Tis him! The Bloody Shield, in the flesh!
* **Aesfrosti Soldier A**: The former Blackiron captain!? Damn it all! Run for your life, you fool!
* **Flanagan**: How far they have fallen... They confuse might for morality, and sully the duchy's good name.
* **Glenbrook Subject (M)**: Hail, soldier! I cannot thank you enough for coming to my aid.
* **Flanagan**: Tis instinct. I cannot abide such cruelty.
* **Flanagan**: Though I no longer call myself a soldier, it is the only station my skills afford me.
* **Wolffort Soldier**: Milord, a man calling himself Flanagan requests an audience. Will you grant it?
* **Serenoa**: Flanagan? The name sounds familiar, somehow.
* **Erador**: Ah, he fought in the tourney, didn't he? The one they call the Bloody Shield...
* **Serenoa**: The Aesfrosti soldier? What brings him to me? Anyhow, send him in.
* **Wolffort Soldier**: Milord!
* **Erador**: Been a few moons, Bloody Shield.
* **Flanagan**: And many more since I answered to that name.
* **Erador**: Then what brings an Aesfrosti to us this day?
* **Flanagan**: Words cannot bring back your countrymen, but I give them to you anyway. I condemn the duchy's actions with every fiber of my being.
* **Flanagan**: Deeply ashamed am I of our archduke's willingness to shed the blood of innocents.
* **Flanagan**: Meager though they may be, you have my sympathies.
* **Erador**: So ye came all this way just to apologize? Yer a strange one, all right.
* **Flanagan**: I am well aware that words alone mean little.
* **Flanagan**: ...And that is why I offer my service, that my words might ring true.
* **Serenoa**: Why House Wolffort? There are far greater armies that would give anything to have a warrior like you in their ranks.
* **Flanagan**: I have no interest in further bolstering the might of Aesfrost or Hyzante.
* **Flanagan**: They trample the weak with no remorse. I will stand for it no longer.
* **Erador**: An' ye think ye can stand here and call us weak? Ye little—!
* **Serenoa**: You intrigue me, Ser Flanagan. But what of your title? Is your shield truly stained with blood?
* **Flanagan**: Tis a name given to me by men. Nothing more.
* **Erador**: You can trust he'll hold his own in battle if ye take 'im in. One look is enough to tell ye that.
* **Serenoa**: A boon to our cause, then—provided we ourselves do not become the very thing you despise.
* **Serenoa**: House Wolffort welcomes you, Ser Flanagan.
* **Flanagan**: The feeling of intrigue is mutual. I am at your service.
* **Erador**: Yer two peas in a pod, aren't ya?

### Powerless

*The Bloody Shield recounts how he came to be known by such an accursed name.*

* **Hughette**: Thank you for joining me in my training, Ser Flanagan. I've learned much from you.
* **Hughette**: In truth I'm grateful for any training at all. There are few of us hawkriders in Glenbrook.
* **Flanagan**: Then let me thank you in turn for a chance to shake the rust from my bones.
* **Flanagan**: Seems my mount was keen to face such a worthy opponent, as well.
* **Hughette**: Twould seem they are hawks of a feather.
* **Hughette**: Speaking of which, Ser Flanagan...
* **Hughette**: I understand your regiment of riders was the duchy's finest.
* **Hughette**: Yet you chose to leave your homeland behind. Why?
* **Flanagan**: I grew to see how powerless I was.
* **Flanagan**: I once believed the freedom Gustadolph espoused would bring prosperity to Aesfrost.
* **Flanagan**: So I fought, and fought, and fought for the cause until my shield was stained blood red.
* **Hughette**: Hence your title, yes! To think how many lives you must have saved—
* **Flanagan**: Do not mock me! I saved no one!
* **Flanagan**: Pride swelled my breast with every mention of that cursed title... But in a year's time what did I return home to find?
* **Flanagan**: My poor wife, wasting away in solitude, in the throes of an accursed plague.
* **Hughette**: Your wife—! Had word not reached you?
* **Flanagan**: She mentioned in letters that she felt unwell, but never did I expect it to be so grave...
* **Flanagan**: In a matter of days, she was gone.
* **Flanagan**: Every moment I spent protecting the people, she drew one step closer to death.
* **Flanagan**: And I left her to die. Her blood, too, stains my shield.
* **Hughette**: Ser Flanagan, I—
* **Flanagan**: Forgive me. I did not mean to burden you with my woes. But you see now—my title is a curse.
* **Hughette**: It is a tragedy, yes, but I cannot bring myself to believe you cursed.
* **Hughette**: And you mustn't believe so, either.

### A Shield for the People

*Though he has thrown away his loathed epithet, it will not stop others from addressing him as such...*

* **Hughette**: The hour has grown quite late.
* **Flanagan**: That was my first scouting excursion in many moons. I'd forgotten how long they can take.
* **Hughette**: Tis not often I get the chance to soar over distant lands such as these.
* **Wife**: (SHARP) Aaaaaah!
* **Hughette**: Ser Flanagan! Over there!
* **Husband**: If it's coin you want, it's yours—all of it! Please, just spare our lives!
* **Brigand**: Aye, we'll be takin' the coin. But I'm afraid nobody what's seen my face can go on livin'...
* **Wife**: P-please— P-p-please have mercy!
* **Husband**: I shall be your shield, my love! Run while you can!
* **Flanagan**: They need us. Quickly!
* **Hughette**: I'm with you!
* **Flanagan**: Let them go.
* **Brigand**: What's this, now? Did someone call in the army?
* **Brigand**: Wait—I'd recognize that grubby shield anywhere. You're Ser Flanagan...
* **Brigand**: Yer but a lowly coward what turned tail from the duchy, but I bet yer shield would fetch good coin at auction...
* **Flanagan**: Then you shall have it—on the condition you do not lay a finger on these two.
* **Brigand**: Or better yet, I'll take your shield, your money, and your lives!
* **Brigand**: (SHARP) Kill the lot of 'em!
* **Brigand**: H-how'd that coward best us!?
* **Husband**: Oh, thank you, good ser, thank you! We are forever in your debt...
* **Flanagan**: I was only doing my duty. Are you hurt?
* **Wife**: No. The three of us couldn't be better, ser—all thanks to you.
* **Flanagan**: Three?
* **Husband**: She's with child, milord.
* **Flanagan**: Then I am relieved thrice over.
* **Wife**: Pray, tell us your name.
* **Wife**: I would name the child after you, should it be a boy.
* **Flanagan**: This is hardly a deed worthy of—
* **Hughette**: The man before you is Flanagan, an honorable soldier—perhaps too much so for his own good.
* **Wife**: Flanagan! A fine name indeed.
* **Husband**: We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Ser Flanagan. You truly are the people's shield!
* **Flanagan**: The people's shield?
* **Hughette**: ...I daresay it's a fitting epithet.
* **Flanagan**: I am hardly worthy of such a lofty title.
* **Hughette**: Ah, if only that were your choice to make! You didn't start calling yourself the Bloody Shield, after all.
* **Hughette**: Am I wrong, Ser Flanagan? Or should I say, the People's Shield?
* **Flanagan**: ...Hmph. Then I suppose I must endeavor to live up to it.
* **Flanagan**: For my sake, and for that of the one who may bear my name...

## Mid-Battle Conversations

### Chapter XIX: A Dream in Winter

#### vs. Flanagan

* **Gustadolph**: So the traitor shows his face. Have you no shame setting foot here again?
* **Flanagan**: Your ideals of freedom have brought chaos upon the realm. It is my duty to defend Norzelia from your reckless ambitions.

### Chapter XVIII, Part II: Bound by Sorrow

* **Flanagan**: Your rule is poison to the realm Gustadolph. 'Tis time to cut off the festering limb.
* **Gustadolph**: The meek know naught of the sacrifices of the great. Your braying is but noise to my ears.

### Final Chapter: For Norzelia

* **Flanagan**: Your warped schemes come to an end here, Idore.
* **Idore**: I but answer the needs of the flock. They guide me, and I guide them in turn.