ER:Avner Indianel
From The Heretic Knowledge Vault
An NPC in the Errant Road on-line free-form role-playing game, now lamentably deceased. He doesn't (or didn't) appear in the Poe-verse, of course.
This distinguished if unfortunate fellow was a professor at Emerylon University, apparently in some thaumatic equivalent of archaeology. The Veracian Church caused him to journey to the boonies of south-central Veracia, along with his student (and possibly lover) Rebekah Codoin, to supervise an excavation near the small town of Gervasiel. One of the objects discovered at this dig was the "Artifact of Absonial," which interested the Church (for unknown reasons) enough to send Sister Rose and friends to Gervasiel so they could retrieve it from him and escort it back to Emerylon.
When the good professor and the similarly good sister got together, all manner of merriment ensued, including wandering poet (or was he?) Porpington Bree getting done in by an exploding crystal ball; a war almost breaking out between Peregin Drusia Valis and an obnoxious priest of the local church; and the sort-of-resurrection of the improbably young Jedidiah Bindiel from a buried field of not-quite-dead bodies (the "Peaceful Dead") who'd been waiting near the dig for something, or someone, still unclear. Despite all these hijinks, Professor Indianel was able to hand the Artifact off to Rose, Argus, etc., and he was last seen in the rear-view mirror as the doughty crew headed north to Lorenzel to pass the Artifact to the Veracian military for safekeeping. The story should have left the professor alone at that point, to carry on happily with his student-lover, but alas, it didn't. Rose later received word via parrot that he and Ms. Codoin had been mysteriously murdered, in a way that implicated soldier Bryce, who had meanwhile become the lover of PC Maduin and joined the party -- under conditions that provided him the perfect alibi, making it clear that he was being framed. The last shoe on this unfortunate death clearly hasn't dropped yet.
He seemed like a pretty reasonable guy, all things considered, and we'll miss him.
