Marcabru -- Troubadour and Swordsman

Character Name: Marcabru
Gender: Male
Age: Early middle age
Race: Human

Background: Troubadour, adventurer, sometime traveler through the worlds of the multiverse. Accomplished on most stringed instruments, including the longbow. Usually dresses in a fawn doublet with emerald green hose and black leather boots, worn but of good quality. On a broad leather belt he carries a bejewelled scimitar, called Lady Akhbar, engraved in an exotic script. From a strap over his shoulder hangs a leather musette bag, about the size of a saddlebag or the average woman's purse... on the outside. Inside, it may very well have held a universe. He had acquired it years ago from a space/time traveler - he never knew which - who had the misfortune to approach from the rear just when Marcabru was expecting attack. After all this time, there were still pockets he had not yet explored, and others that he would never open again. Still, it was a handy place to store weapons and armor, musical instruments, frozen food, and the occasional dead body that needed to disappear forever.

From the same man he took a horn - a silver trumpet. Placing it to his lips, he blew a tone... another... and another... four, five, six.... On the seventh note, a portal opened before him. Instinctively he stepped through -- into another world. Other combinations of tones took him to other worlds, but never could he find the right melody to find his way home. For years he wandered the multiverse, meeting strange peoples, learning their ways and their songs and their stories, until at last he came to the Twelve Worlds. A series of adventures brought him into the company and confidence of the Empress, and finally into her family. "A member of the Imperial family? Indeed, in a roundabout way I was, since Stella - the Empress Estrellita - is my niece, in a manner of speaking. I was at one time briefly married to her aunt, a lively lass who loved to ride, but who had an ill-advised and ultimately fatal propensity for taking blind jumps. Ah, but that was long ago. "

When not serving as royal adviser. Marcabru continued his jaunts through the multiverse, eventually winding up at Mylanders, where he encountered a band of bold adventurers who became - some of them - as close as family. Through a series of adventures and misadventures, he has led some of his friends from danger into... what?

Personality: Affable, with an ironic sense of humor. Loyal to his friends, he can be politely cutting toward those he perceives as phony.

Strengths: Swordsman, archer, horseman. Magic limited to two spells: Clear Sight (dispell illusion), and Fire (just barely strong enough to light a cigar... or a campfire).

Weaknesses: Totally deaf to Mindspeak. Perhaps a little too trusting of new acquaintences. Weakness for Sheerwater brandy, good cigars, and redheads.