Hamelin PansworthThe Pied Piper

Hamelin Pansworth – The Pied Piper

A mystical musician whose instrument is rumoured to not just sway rats to his size, but beasts great and small, even the minds of men. Whether there is truth to these rumours or not, the Pied Piper is a feared figure in Grimmvale, and he has often unleashed plagues of vermin upon those who do not bend to the will of his matron, Mallory.

The Pied Piper is a man known by his title, more than his real name of Hamelin Pansworth. An illustrious bard whose music was said to charm the creatures of the woods. When the village of Edgewold was overrun by a rat plague, Hamelin offered his services to remove the creatures from the village. Yet when he did so, luring them out to the woods, the villagers were mortified at his method, thinking he would be a rat catcher or baitsman. They accused him of foul sorcery: witchcraft and black magic. They refused to pay him. Some tried to apprehend him to burn him at the stake. It was the last thing they did.

Hamelin unleashed his vermin against his assailants, stripping flesh from bone as they were devoured in moments. Then, he set them loose against the entire village, no longer meek creatures hiding in grain piles and scuttling through granaries. They washed over the village, and few survived. The Pied Piper became a horrific story that spread across Grimmvale, drawing the attention of the Dark Queen Mallory. She hired the Piper as one of her most valuable assets, using him to enforce the utter capitulation of any villages who would resist her, threatening his vermin plagues against those who refused to cooperate. The only places to successfully resist her now are those who wield magic users in the ranks of their defenders, who can either disrupt the Piper’s tether to his creatures, or blast them away, hundreds at a time.