Captain Adborough

Captain Adborough was the Captain of the Guard of the coastal town of Woodley.

## Biography

### Early Life

Before arriving on the Vagrant Isle, Adborough joined the Scions of the Grey Lady and, taking part in some battles on the mainland. At some point he met and befriended a war mage by the name of Mary Shelby, before the two of them are sent to the the Vagrant Isle.

### Taking charge of Woodley

He is stationed in Langenfeld when the crops on the farms around Woodley start to fail, and the Weeping Rot begins plaguing Woodley itself. With no apparent cause for any of these disasters, panic breaks out in the coastal town, and in response, the Scions of the Grey Lady sends a small group of soldiers commanded by Adborough to restore order. Meanwhile, the Scions keep a majority of the their forces back to enforce a quarantine around the Croftwood to prevent the plague from spreading further. However, Adborough and his small a force are only barely able to keep the peace in Woodley, and to supplement his force, he begins hiring adventurers to help him with tasks that his soldiers have not time for.

Among the people he hires are Nos'on Silwét, Adavi Lyrazial, Mormund Stoneweaver and Dax Fizzlespark, a group of adventurers who had just arrived from the mainland. He first tasks them with investigating the Black Hound, a phenomenon which he personally dismisses as a local superstition, while recognizing it as being one of the causes for the current unrest in Woodley.

The group confirms the existence of the hound and with the help of Mary Shelby draw up a plan to get rid of it. Trusting the judgement of his friend, Adborough agrees to finance this mission.

### Battle With the Khizrathi

Shortly after sending the group of adventurers on their way, Adborough is informed about an incident at crypt of Palamine Greywald. Arriving at the crypt, he finds the bodies of Ana Goodwife, the widow of the late Greywald, and Aubry Gray, a local drunkard, along with the remains of several skeletons. He is informed that the group he hired the day before was involved and moved further underground. He is unable to follow them, though, as the path the group took recently collapsed.

Finding another way underground, he personally leads a group of Guardsmen in search of the group and with the help of Ibn Turab, they end up fighting a group of creatures which are later identified as Khizrathi. Nos'on Silwét, Mormund Stoneweaver and a Hellenian named Asher arrive in the midst of the fight and help the Town Guard defeat the creatures.

Following the battle underground, Adborough decides to send the group to Croftwood Circle. . a group of druids which, until recently, provided Woodley with food in exchange for fertilizer.

### Imprisonment

At some point, Father Grigor finds a book dealing with necromancy in the possession of Mary Shelby and tells Redfern about this. Redfern immediately reveals this to the people of Woodley, convincing them that it is her, with the help of Adborough and the Town Guard, who is responsible for their current misfortune. Enraged by this apparent betrayal, a mob, aided by some thugs hired by Redfern, storms the guards' headquarters and the temple, capturing Adborough the soldiers of the Town Guard. During the riot, Redfern personally kills Mary Shelby and the mob hangs her body from the main gate.

A temporary prison is made out of the Guards' Headquarters, and Adborough and the captured soldiers are locked in here, under the guard of a new Town Guard, which consists mostly of the thugs Redfern hired. Redfern informs Adborough he will be executed next, and during his imprisonment he is repeatedly, and severely, beaten by his captors.

Fortunately for Adborough, just before he is to be executed, the group of adventurers he had sent out to contact the Croftwood Circle returns to Woodley. Trying to figure out what is going on, Dax Fizzlespark manages to infiltrate the prison, and upon learning Adborough is about to be executed, the group decides to break him and the other the prisoners out of prison.

### Escape

The group succeeds in this endeavour, and Adborough, together with the remainder of the old Town Guard, the group of adventurers, and the captured prison guard, escapes the town of Woodley, only briefly stopping to take down Mary Shelby's body from the main gate.

Shortly after the escape, the group of adventurers inform him what happened to the Crowtwood circle. Realizing that there isn't much he can do about the situation in Woodley right now, he orders the remainder of the old Town Guards to head for the Croftwood Circle to find shelter there, while he and the group of adventurers make their way to Ibn Turab's farm. Unfortunately, Ibn Turab isn't at home, but they are welcomed by Ibn Turab's wife, Asha. They rest here for the night and during this brief respite Adborough buries Mary Shelby, at a grove near the farm, with the help of Mormund Stoneweaver and Grey, a scout from an army that is assembling at Ballard's Cross. During the burial he mentions that he had hoped he and Mary could have become more than friends and comrades in arms.

In the morning, they discuss their next move over breakfast, and Adborough remarks that he thinks Redfern won't go down without a fight. They eventually decide that Adborough will travel to the Croftwood Circle to ask for their help, while the group of adventurers goes to the Deepbrow Mine to take down the necromancers and the Khizrathi.

### Battle of Woodley

Adborough eventually meets up with and returns to Woodley as part of the army from Ballard's Cross. During the battle with the Khizrathi he helps guard the town's gates together with the adventurers, while the people of Woodley prepares to evacuate.

## Personality

Adborough is described as being quite cynical down to earth, and at first does not believe in the existence of the Black Hound. He rarely expresses great surprise over anything and seems calm under pressure.

Mary Shelby refers to him as someone with a military mind and someone who when "handed a hammer tends to sees every problem as a nail".