A knight of the Order of Contentment, the “smiling knight”. He wore a dark surcoat with a grinning gold sun across the chest, a green gorget at the collar, and a bascinet whose visor bore a wide, painted smile. He fought like a brawler: heavy, close, all shoulders and pommel, swinging his longsword as though trying to knock a door off its hinges.
The party found him on the road to Vallaki, duelling Ernest Festibule, and he called on them for help: “Citizens! Help me apprehend this man! He is a fugitive and a vagabond!” By his own account he was the law, the Baron’s man. By Festibule’s account, the two had had many bouts.
Retnuh chose the other side, charging Dmitry and knocking him to the ground, and Festibule beheaded him. The smiling bascinet rolled to a stop on the gravel, its painted grin still turned to the sky. The party burned his body. Virro took his sword, but Retnuh made him swear to return it to that spot when he was done with it.