30 Bad Apples

1. The Mad Swordsman

The Mad Swordsman is just a rotten apple through and through. He likes to drink, he likes to wench, he likes to make oaths he never intends to keep, and always stay one step ahead of the consequences. If he were a hero, he could do great things, as he is proficient in using two swords, and his combat style is impressively reckless. Unfortunately, he is rogue at heart, and always looking for the next score, big pay out, or conquest. 

2. Wolfbrother

Wolfbrother is a foul man, the sort who wears a hooded cloak, hangs out in the worst parts of towns, and knows his way around dens of thieves and the company of murderers. What sets him apart from the other men who are so very much like him is that he has a decent magical longsword and a dire wolf as a companion. Wolfbrother can communicate mentally with the wolf, and give it complex commands, silently. He has won fights by the wolf simply finding the foe away from the field of battle and tearing their throat out in bed, of hamstringing them in a fight, letting Wolfbrother slice their head off.

3. The Goblin Brothers

The Goblin Brothers aren't really goblins, but they've killed a ton of them, and have fashioned themselves hats with great bat like goblin ears on them, and favor armor in the same style. The three brothers would be slightly disturbing heroes with a corpse mutilation fetish if it weren't for the fact that they're pretty much evil through and through. They just happen to enjoy killing and eating goblins, and when they aren't doing that highway banditry, murder and rape, and enjoying a lively bit of pillaging suits them just fine. The eldest is tall, but stoop shouldered and hunched. The middle is dim, and thick through the body and good with an axe. The youngest knows a smattering of sorcery, human and goblin, including the brewing of goblin healing potions. Nasty, but effective.

4. The Hungry Man

The Hungry Man is a rotund beast, with a large beard, a great round gut, and a bellowing loud voice. He cares only about food, and the more outrageous and demented, the better. Rare game, definitely. The last of it's kind, absolutely. Cannibalism, who hasn't and it's rude to let good protein go to waste. 

5. The Huge Man

The Huge Man is just that, head and shoulders taller than any around him, and his appetites match. He eats a great deal, drinks a great deal, and when its time to do anything he overdoes it. With one exception, the Huge Man is slow. He is not a good fighter because he is easy to evade, but he prefers grappling to using weapons, and throwing things, which he is quite good at. The Huge Man is not evil, but he was much more quickly accepted by the bad apples because they were more clever, and played to the Huge Man's strengths and appreciated him for what he was, a really really fucking big guy. 

6. The Sly One

The Sly One is a schemer and would be mastermind, except for the fact that they aren't very bright and most of their plans fail. This doesn't stop them from trying, as they do seem to have the Devil's own luck for getting away without being slain.What sets the Sly One apart is that their plans involve kidnapping, waylaying in a non-lethal fashion, ransoming, and general mucking about to gain money and power. The other thing is that the Sly One seems to be wearing the fantasy version of light bondage gear, and shows as much skin as the average Fantasy Cheesecake Chainmail Bikini warrior despite being a somewhat sweaty overweight man.

7. The One Handed Man

The One Handed Man lost a hand years ago, and now he has the stump equipped with a weapon. This can be as complicated as an arm mounted crossbow or as simple as having an iron fist holding an iron spike. He is a cruel man who likes to leave foes alive, but crippled for the rest of their life.

8. The Schemer

The Schemer is a decent man-at-arms and jack of all trades, and would be an excellent second in command, were it not for the fact that he is obsessed with being the best, being in charge, and being all but worshiped as a living deity. While fully capable of wearing armor and using a two handed sword, the Schemer is much more infamous for his daggers, which end up in allies backs as often as in enemy backs. He is a fast talker, and physically evasive, so he's not run out of time, yet.

9. The Master of the Weapon

A man with a grudge, the Master of the Weapon has spent a great deal of time mastering a single weapon, be it a sword a bow, a specific style of hand to hand fighting, or whatever. He is proud of this accomplishment, and will tell anyone who faces him three things, his name, what he is the master of, and how they will not stop him from getting his revenge, or heart's desire, or whatever it is that motivates him. Why is the Master of the Weapon a Bad Apple? Because his revenge is his motivating feature, he hangs out with the other Bad Apples, and there is a good chance that the target of his revenge is technically a good guy.

10. Catmother

Like Wolfbrother, Catmother is strongly associated with her constant companion, a large tawny Displacer Beast. She is an attractive woman, well aware of her effect on men and some women. She favors knives and daggers in a fight, and her Displacer Beast can use its blink and displacement powers on both of them, or just on her, as the case arises. She is fond of living a wealthy and extravagant lifestyle and collecting the balls of would be heroes.

11. The Collector

The Collector is an unusual woman, as she decks herself out in trinkets, relics, trophies, and tokens from the people she's bested, places she's been, and deeds she's done. This ranges from jewelry to punched coins, severed ears and fingers to magic items. The Collector is a magic user who's particular field of study is buffing magics and healing, so she can keep a group of bandits on their feet and in a fight well past where many would have fallen, or turned and fled. She likes to take her trophies from the victims while they're still alive. 

12. The Baying Hound Gang

The Baying Hound Gang consists of 1D4+2 men who are seemingly related, with smooth faces and slight paunches, and the pack of dogs they have. Each member has 1D3 baying hounds that they can use for tracking and hunting, which they support with crossbows and knives. Other than having hounds, they have no personality, unless drinking too much and acting like jackasses counts as a personality. 

13. This Fucking Guy

This Fucking Guy is the worst, he's strong, charismatic, and a highly competent fighter (weapon and shield). The issue is TFG is all about Death. Skull mask, check. Human bone handles on his weapons, check. Zero morals or empathy, check. TFG revels in murder and pillaging. He has no compunction about killing women and children, he almost prefers it, and the way he goes about this often leaves his own allies sickened and disturbed. TFG is so messed up and in love with death that he cant wait for his own, he just has to go out on his feet, fighting. Like a mad boar, he'll take a wound to bind a weapon and then use the weapon to pull his opponent closer, and he seems to feel no pain.

14. The Boar

The Boar is a large and powerful man who favors a suit of boiled and studded leather armor, a heavy crossbow and a stone headed cudgel. What sets him apart from the rest of the brutes and bruisers in the tavern or among the bandits is that he has a helm made from the head of a massive boar, including parts of its skull, so it provides a decent amount of protection.  The Boar is a berzerker and can call on the wild boar spirit and charge into battle full of fury and power.

15. Mucklebone

Mucklebone is a nasty looking fellow, unwashed and scowling. He is by trade, a cook, and in the band of Bad Apples, this is his main role. However, he is also an excellent torturer, prison keeper, poison brewer, beer maker, and general nasty piece of work. In a group of toughs, he will never be the leader, but he is typically the smartest in the room, and applies this to reading maps, deciphering riddles, working out magic items, etc because at heart, Mucklebone is a bard, but his instrument of choice is the cooking pot.

16. Madam Packrat

Madam Packrat would make an admirable merchant, pulling her cart or with her overstuffed mountainous bag. Alternately she could have bags of holding rather than a large amount of junk. There are two issues, everything she has to sell is absolute garbage, she is a trash merchant. The other is that she routinely uses charm person so that the customer feels like they're buying wondrous and magical things, when it's all just junk. As a magic user, the old woman with the leathery face and smiling eyes accepts payment in the form of tokens that actually represent memories, luck, dreams and aspirations, and emotions. More than one person has bought a magic sword from the Madam and later found they were swinging a rusted bent piece of metal that was once a sword and could no longer laugh.

17. Mister Exotic

Mister Exotic is a fairly by the numbers wizard for hire, a spellslinger for disreputables and ne'er-do-wells. However, he makes himself stand out by being brayingly loud and wearing a brightly colored cloak covered in beads and feathers, as well as keeping an evil pet monkey that can laugh with a human voice. Mister Exotic deals in divination, illusions and phantasms, charms, and enchantments.

18. The Queen of Hearts

The Queen of Hearts is a gambler, drinker, and con-woman. She likes to draw people into gambling and games of chance, where she is pretty good about winning. When she loses, the Queen of Hearts is quick to flip the table and flick out her weapons of choice, throwing knives. When robbing people on the road, or working under the Evil Overlord, the Queen of Hearts is a cold bitch who is more than willing to take off a few hands, maim men, or just cut throats.

19. The Furious Ginger

There are three things most people remember about the Furious Ginger: red hair, horrible attitude, nice tits. The Furious Ginger is a woman in a place where women are rare, and because of this she is more than willing to demonstrate the fact that she is not a tavern wench or whore, and a good way to do that is a serrated dagger through the crotch. She is a solid leader, even if she is easy to taunt, and her willingness to fight makes her both dangerous, and easy to goad.

20. The Transmutrix

The Transmutrix is a sorceress who has honed her skill around two spells; polymorph self and polymorph other. In the tradition of Circe, she cackles and transmutes people into common animals. A particular favorite is to turn prisoners into livestock, then slaughter them and serve them to either the prisoners who knew the man, or to her own men who don't care. She is also fond of turning horses and hounds into people to watch them stagger around in abject horror. When pressed into combat, she will transmute her allies into fearsome monsters, or transmute herself into either something that can win the fight or simply fly away. She is somewhat bloody insane, and no one is really sure what she looks like because every time she turns back human, her appearance is slightly different.

21. The Little Mastermind

The Little Mastermind is a modestly bright fellow, typically of smaller stature or some other aspect so that their approach to life is not brawn, but their guile. There is nothing innately wrong with this, but the Little Mastermind has two critical flaws. The first is that they use their modest intelligence to take advantage of others, exploit situations, and otherwise be a dick about most things. The second is that they are in love with their guile and cleverness, and obsessed with demonstrating this seeming superiority. Witty word play, games of chance, poison, traps, and riddles that end with death are their favorites.

22. Townie

Townie is a guy in over his head, just a regular guy from a nearby township who thought a few toughs at the inn were fun to drink with and hang out with, and now he's seen the other side, both the violent side, and the easy money and goods side. Otherwise a normal person, he will run quick, surrender quick, but if the baddies win, he will come in swinging, because he's almost figured out how to level up from a background NPC into a villain NPC.

23. Former Guardsman

The Former Guardsman was once incredibly comfortable man with status and position. This went to his head and he was eventually caught in the games of graft and corruption in the city. He managed to figure out he was busted before the noose closed and bolted. Now he's a lieutenant to another corrupt man. He's still stern and upright, but now he preys on the people he used to protect. Life, it happens. People who name him are sure to end up dead, those who keep their mouths shut might just get knocked out.

24. The Villain Bard

The Villain Bard travels with different bands of bandits and villains and composes ballads of their actions and exploits. For the most part the villainous groups are willing to let him tag along because he sings their exploits to commoners, making them anti-heroes and heroes in their own right. When hanging with the baddies, the Villain Bard does have a taste for violence and pillaging, but he leave's those parts out of the story.

25. The Old Man

The Old Man is a skinny, dry, gray headed old man. He's got noting left in the world to care about, the last member of his family, his home is gone, and now the band he is with is it. He fully expects to die in the line of villainy, but it doesn't bother him, he's seen death and loss, magic and horror, and now he's numb to it. The Old Man is scary because he's unmoved when he does things, no monologues, no schemes, no passion, no hatred. He dispatches wounded people with the same enthusiasm as peeling a potato. The only thing that does make him lift a hand or voice is pointless cruelty, which he has no use for. While not the leader, his life experience gives his opinion weight.

26. The Beardless Dwarf

Dwarven beards grow slowly, and this is why shaving a dwarf is a serious matter. The Beardless Dwarf is a conniver, a backstabber, a sneak, a pickpocket, and a coward. His clan held him down, shaved him completely bare, so that only the hair left on his head was his eyebrows, and cast him out. He is a faithless friend, and an even worse fighter, and the only way he wont run from a fight is if there is a friendly spear or dagger pointed into his back. He is adept at dealing with locks, finding hidden doors and passages, and dealing with traps.

27. Runaway Wench

The Runaway Wench used to live in a town where she was a tavern wench. Things took an ugly turn one night and rather than end up a victim, she became a murderer. At least that's the town story. She managed to run away before being put in the stockades or the gaol. After siding with some less than reputable fellows, she is half the time the bait for raider traps, and half the time she's a cutpurse and throat slicer. 

28. Chugalug

Chugalug is a by the numbers brawler, preferring hand to hand, and short range melee weapons like loaded gauntlets. What sets him apart is a constant addiction to Potions of Heroism, increasing his strength and damage resistance. He has a habit to feed, and is always looking for things that increase his strength, doesn't matter what. There is no strategic use of said items, he just wants to be blisteringly strong and invulnerable all of the time. 

29. The Butcher Beauty

The Butcher Beauty is a woman of stunning beauty, half good luck and charisma, the other half a charm of vanity attached to her jewelry. She is the daughter of a hunter and a butcher and is familiar with knives and taking carcasses apart, and now that she's abandoned the peasant life, she lives large by hacking people to bits with a smile on her face. Having grown up in an abattoir and seeing the way the world is, she's not moved by blood and violence, its actually normal.

30. The Iron Priest

The Iron Priest is not chaotic or evil, however he is incredibly demanding in his faith, and those who transgress the faith are subject to his hellfire interpretation of religious script. Blasphemers, heretics, and apostates can expect a painful and bloody inquisition, interspersed with healing magic. Prisoners don't get to die to escape his attention, death is a gift he grants. He isn't able to give evil orders, but obedience to authority is part of his faith, so he can parse working for an evil man, so long as the man doesn't blaspheme the Iron Priest's god.