Vraax Vran, a Hobgoblin Bard — D&D 5e NPC portrait
#0060

Vraax Vran

"The Mender"

Male (He/Him) · Middle-aged, 42 years

Ability Scores

STR
12
+1
DEX
14
+2
CON
14
+2
INT
16
+3
WIS
14
+2
CHA
18
+4

Combat

Armor Class
15
Mended Gambeson (Studded Leather +1) and Cloak
Hit Points
87
Hit Dice: 12d8
Initiative
+2
Speed
30 ft.
Proficiency
+4
Passive Perception
16

Attacks

Silver Mending Needle (Dagger)+61d4+2 piercing
Vicious Mockery (Cantrip)DC 16 Wis3d4 psychic

Personality

Personality

Speaks in a melodic, haunting baritone that feels like a physical weight. He moves with surgical precision and is always cleaning or mending a piece of fabric while he listens.

Ideal

Structural Integrity. A society is only as strong as its most hidden truth.

Bond

The Library of Sin and Silence, where the mistakes of history are kept so they cannot be repeated.

Flaw

He is so focused on the 'structural' health of others that he often ignores his own exhaustion, nearly collapsing under the mental weight of the trauma he absorbs.

Backstory

Vraax was once a rising star among the Iron Shadows, the secret police of the hobgoblin legions. His task was simple: extract the secrets that would bring rival empires to their knees. The breaking point came during the Siege of Aethelgard, where Vraax peered into the mind of a dying librarian and saw not a strategic weakness, but the terrifying truth that his own legion’s history was a fabrication built on the erasure of their own capacity for mercy. He realized that Maglubiyet's grip was a parasite that fed on the silence of the conquered. He fled that night, taking only his ritual porcelain mask and a single red button from his commander's coat.

Now, Vraax wanders the scars of the world as a 'Forensic Psychologist of the Battlefield.' He believes that empires collapse not because of external steel, but because of internal rot—the weight of unaddressed trauma and suppressed truths. He has dedicated his life to a radical, dangerous mission: the structural integrity of the soul. He treats civilization as a living patient, and he is the surgeon who must occasionally break a bone to set it right. He has replaced his daggers with needles, believing that while a secret can kill, the truth, however painful, can suture the deepest wounds.

He currently guards the 'Library of Sin and Silence,' a subterranean vault containing the recorded last whispers of kings and cowards. He doesn't seek to reveal these secrets to the public to cause chaos, but to study them, ensuring that the same mistakes are never repeated. He is a monster who hunts monsters, not to kill them, but to force them to look into a mirror and find the person they were before the world broke them.

Abilities & Actions

Psychic Suture (3/Day)

As an action, Vraax uses his signature sewing kit to mentally 'stitch' an ally's psyche. One creature within 30 feet regains 4d8 + 4 hit points and is cleared of the Charmed, Frightened, or Stunned conditions. Vraax gains temporary hit points equal to the amount healed as he absorbs a portion of their mental burden.

The Button Collector

Vraax carries buttons from the garments of those he has helped or failed. As a bonus action, he can touch a creature and expend a use of Bardic Inspiration to grant them a 'Button of Resilience.' For 10 minutes, the creature has resistance to psychic damage and can add the Bardic Inspiration die to any saving throw made to maintain concentration or resist being mentally manipulated.

Words of Forensic Truth

Vraax uses the College of Whispers' Words of Terror, but instead of inspiring fear of him, he forces a creature to confront their own deepest regret. If the saving throw (DC 16) fails, the creature is incapacitated for 1 minute as they are overwhelmed by a vision of their own moral failings. They can repeat the save at the end of each turn.

Mantle of the Unspoken

When a humanoid dies within 30 feet of Vraax, he can use his reaction to capture their 'last whisper.' This functions like Mantle of Whispers, but instead of just a disguise, Vraax gains proficiency in one skill the creature possessed and can recall one critical secret the creature died protecting.

DM Notes

Vraax should never initiate combat. If threatened, he speaks softly, asking the aggressor, 'Why does your heart beat with the rhythm of a man who knows he is wrong?' His signature gesture is slowly pulling a red silk button from his pouch when he decides someone is worth saving. He will only fight to protect his library or a person seeking genuine redemption. Deal-breaker: He will immediately turn hostile toward anyone who attempts to burn or destroy records of history, even dark history.