Galbro the Seneschal

Galbro the Seneschal
(circa "The Black Stranger")

Medium Human Cohort
6th level Warrior

Hit Points: 5d8 + 10 (33 hitpoints)
Speed: 30 ft.
AC: 15 (+5 Masterwork Breastplate)
Attacks: Longsword +9/+4 melee; Crossbow +6/+1 ranged
Damage: longsword 1d8+3; Crossbow 1d8
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +2, Will +1
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 11, Con 15, Int 11, Wis 9, Cha 13
Skills: Profession (Seneschal) +6, Wilderness Lore +5, Intimidate +9
Feats: Dodge, Endurance, Skill Focus (Profession), Skill Focus (Wilderness Lore)

Climate/Terrain: Zingara, Pictish Wilderness
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Advancement: by Character class

Galbro is Valenso's seneschal, and is described by Howard as a leather-faced man in steel and satin. He is a sneaky man, who has explored more of the wilderness around the Count's new domicile than any man with the Count. He is weak-willed man of dark lusts, but he is knowledgeable about war and strategy.

Combat

Galbro fights with brute strength or with his crossbow.

Robert E. Howard completed twenty-one Conan stories during the four years that he wrote them. Of these, seventeen were published in Weird Tales. The other four, rejected by Farnsworth Wright, the editor of Weird Tales, remained unpublished until many years after Howard's suicide. "The Black Stranger" is one of these four completed stories.

After it was rejected, Howard made an unsuccessful attempt to salvage the story as a pirate yarn, substituting his pirate hero, Black Vulmea, for Conan, and calling it "Swords of the Red Brotherhood."

L. Sprague de Camp later found the original draft of the Conan version of the story and severly edited it so that the story would fit better into his personal idea of Conan's chronology. This rewrite was titled "The Treasure of Tranicos." De Camp changed the ending of the story: In the original, Conan decides to take up piracy again. In De Camp's alteration, some Aquilonian nobles divine Conan's location and go there to pick him up so he can lead a revolt against the King of Aquilonia. De Camp also changed the identity of the Black Stranger, changing it unnecessarily from a demon from the outer dark to Thoth Amon. He further changed the names of some characters. Strom became Strombanni in De Camp's recension.

Howard's original tale, unedited, was first published in paperback in 1987 in Karl Edward Wagner's "Echoes of Valor". It has since been published in Millenium Press' "Conan Chronicles Volume 2", which was recently released and is still in print.

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