Thurl

This page contains spoilers for the following products: The Traitor's Lodge, Vengeance at Sundered Crag, Betrayal in the Bones.
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Thurl

(Person)

Titles

Venture-Captain

Alignment

Chaotic evil

Ancestry/Species

Dwarf

Class

Summoner 11

Gender

Male

Homeland

Nerosyan, Mendev

Deity

Baphomet

Organization

Pathfinder Society

Died

4717 AR

Eidolon

Inhaz

Source: Vengeance at Sundered Crag, pg(s). 10–13

Thurl is a former venture-captain in the Pathfinder Society based in the secret Thurl's Lodge, in the city of Nerosyan, in Mendev. He was corrupted by his obsession with demonic samples, relics, and specimens, and betrayed the Society to the demons.

Appearance

Thurl was a burly, one-eyed, no-nonsense dwarf, distinguishable by being nearly covered head to toe in jagged red tattoos and silver, spiked piercings.

Background

In 4683 AR, Thurl's cousin Staunton Vhane bid him go to Mendev, claiming that he had found the ruins of the lost Sky Citadel Jormurdun. After informing his superiors, he moved to a warehouse acquired and refurbished by Staunton in the Egelsee district of Nerosyan and began the work of recovering and researching relics of lost Sarkoris. Unknown to Thurl, Staunton had already become a secret worshipper of Deskari, and the warehouse was located directly above a ruined maze, which used to be the base of operations of a cult of Baphomet that was purged by crusaders. Having discovered that the cult's leader Karsos still haunted the maze as a ghost, Staunton gave the warehouse to Thurl, expecting him to be corrupted as well.

Thurl quickly discovered the entrance to the maze but found little more than a shrine, smashed beyond recognition, before throwing himself at his new job. He became more and more frustrated at his incomplete understanding of the relics, and often collected his thoughts by walking through the maze, during which time Karsos whispered into his mind how to decipher a key clue or uncover a promising lead. As he found success by listening to Karsos' (initially) innocuous suggestions, Thurl was later goaded to follow his advice to consume the flesh of intelligent creatures and graft demon flesh onto his own body to better understand them. Thurl had already embraced his corruption when Karsos revealed himself, and he quickly converted to Baphomet's worship. Meanwhile, his efforts were rewarded by the Pathfinder Society with his promotion to the rank of venture-captain.

With Karsos' help, Thurl excavated the maze beneath his new home to continue his research away from the Society's gaze. During this time, the Decemvirate often commissioned Pathfinder agents to monitor the activities of Thurl and any Pathfinders carrying out his orders in Mendev or the Worldwound. Most such agents were 'accidentally' killed when they came to close to discovering Thurl's secrets, and their corpses were dissected to further Thurl's research into creating eidolons by combining the remains of fiends and humanoids into perfect servants.

During the siege of Nerosyan in 4713 AR, Thurl vanished from the city, having been forewarned of the attack, sealed his laboratory, and fled with his tools, notes, and servants. As the Decemvirate had long suspected his mixed priorities (if not allegiances), a team of Pathfinders were sent to his lodge, where they discovered concrete evidence of his betrayal and rescued his sole surviving test subject Valais Durant, a Pathfinder who was sent to review his work.

Later that year, after Jormurdun's exact location was discovered by the Society, Thurl allied with the Chelish criminal Tancred Desimire, raised an army of eidolons, and called upon Staunton Vhane's assistance to march on Jormurdun, determined to reach it before the Society did. During his journey, a worshipper of Nocticula activated the mindbind figurine attuned to him, causing him to turn against Tancred. Thurl was imprisoned by Tancred, and as soon as he managed to free himself, a team of Pathfinders caught up with him and killed him.

However, Thurl managed to survive; thanks to a wish made by his ally Koth'Vaul, his soul was bound into the body of an eidolon stitched together from demons' bodies. In 4717 AR, they allied with Grandmaster Torch and Muhlia Al-Jakri for an assault on Absalom. Thurl himself watched the battle from the Ivory Labyrinth and recruited minotaurs from a Baphomet-worshipping tribe on the Isle of Kortos to command his army of stitched eidolons, including his greatest creation Atalazorn. The assault was ultimately repelled, and Thurl became a wanted criminal in many countries.

The Society tracked Muhlia and Thurl from Druma to Taal Mornat, the final resting location of many priests of Magrim. With Magrim's relics in his possession, he managed to transform himself into a gallu demon, but only lived long enough to be killed for a second time by agents of the Society.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.

Additional works published by Paizo Inc. in which Thurl appears:

• Assault on Absalom
• Assault on the Wound
• Betrayal in the Bones
• The Confirmation
• In the Grandmaster's Name
• Prisoners of the Electric Castle
• The Rasping Rebirth
• The Sarkorian Prophecy
• The Shores of Heaven
• Siege of the Diamond City
• Thralls of the Shattered God
• The Traitor's Lodge
• Vengeance at Sundered Crag