Professor Lucius Mermont's page

HP 27/27
AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14
Conditions: n/a
Melee (rapier): +4 = +2(base) +2(DEX)
Melee Damage (rapier): 1d6+1, 18-20, x2
-1 to hit, +2 damage with piranha strike
Ranged (pistol): +4= +2(base) +2(DEX)
Ranged Damage (pistol): 1d8, x4, 20’
+1 to damage with arcane strike as swift action
7/7 inspiration
4/4 1st level spells
1/1 runestone (1st lvl)

Step 1: Write at least 5 concept elements that you feel are important to your image of the character. These can be a concept overview, a list of important life events, a physical description, a personality profile...whatever you need to get an image in your mind.
- older, refined, and well educated gentleman, well past his prime
- appreciates fine art and fine wine
- was a well-known professor in several subjects in the prestigious University of Lepidstadt
- takes his time before committing to action and does not like to take uninformed risks, researches
- no children and his wife Mariana died in a mysterious fire
- guilt-ridden because he blames himself for his wife’s death (‘people’ were out to get him and he wasted time saving ‘books’ instead of his wife)
- old fencing student, practiced with the university team and was quite the fencer in his day
- when it was clear that he and his wife would not have any children, he immersed himself in academia and slowly distanced himself from his wife
- bardic spells are released through appropriate use of his voice

Step 2: List at least 2 goals for the character. At least one of these goals should be one that the character has, while another should be one that you, as a player, want to see developed over the course of the game.
- find out who caused the fire that killed his wife
- discover something grandiose and become the head of the University of Lepidstadt
- find out what happened to him (memory loss)

Step 3: List at least 2 secrets about your character. One is a secret the character knows, one is a secret that involves him but that he is not actually aware of yet. This will help me in creating plots that center around your character. I will also be creating a third secret which you as a player will not be aware of, so expect some surprises!
- known: he could have saved his wife if he wasn’t so concerned about his precious books. He didn’t mean to let his wife burn; he thought he had enough time to save both his wife and his books. Only some of his books were spared.
- unknown: the ‘ancient’ books that were loaned to him were meant to stir his curiosity about the ‘dark between the starts’

Step 4: Describe at least 3 people that are tied to the character. Two of them are friendly to the character, one is hostile.
- Professor Theodore Moore: friendly rival and always trying to outdo each other and gain the most fame in the university
- Lady Mireya Kurtsova: loaned him ‘forbidden books’ and then disappeared
- Lornus Halova: never forgave him for ‘stealing’ his late wife Mariana from him (they were engaged) and making her unhappy, obviously thinks that Lucius is guilty of her death

Step 5: Describe at least 3 mannerisms, or quirks that your character has. They don't have to be elaborate, but they should provide some context and flavor.
- arranges his glasses constantly
- impeccably dressed, obsessive about cleanliness and orderliness
- clears his throat before speaking
- speaks in a low voice and speaks slowly to make sure others understand him

Step 6: List one fear your character have and one fear that you have (if you are not comfortable with this, skip it).
- Lucius: fear of fire
- Lucius: fear of disease (contagious diseases)
- Fabian: fear of being helpless when something is ‘going bad’. I always need to believe that I can ‘fix’ whatever is ‘wrong’.

Flashback
It is dark and raining but you follow the men holding the lantern in front of you, eager to enter the building. Atop the door a plate reads 'Jail'. The man in front of you is clearly anxious while guiding you towards the dungeon. "... I can't believe we finally caught him... 'it' I mean... thirteen deaths and even the last girl that escaped might not survive at all..."
After two more flight of stairs you arrive at your destination, a jail with a man inside laughing madly. Four guards with unsheathed swords stand nearby just in case. Inside the door, you see a young man that slowly turns himself into a grayish and thin humanoid creature, just to change its shape again to take the form of a woman. You turn towards the man holding the lantern. "It must be him... he is taking the forms of his victims. He is almost bragging about it. Doppelganger. It is a bloody doppelganger, sheriff..."
The memory fades away before the sheriff is able to answer you.

Flashback
You are moving around the streets, a couple shady alleys are nearby, ignored by you. There is no one guiding you... you know exactly where you are going and the decadent state of the streets gives no doubt: this isn't a place for everyone to walk; it is dangerous, and a simple wrong turn could mean a silent death for no reason greater than a couple coins of copper.
You reach your destiny, a single wooden door with no sign at all distinguishing it from the countless others nearby. You knock three times, wait a couple seconds and then knock once more. A small humanoid, a gnome, opens the door and lets you in. The room is filled with shelves, all of them containing an assortment of liquids in different colors as well as many pickled parts of both humans and other creatures.
The gnome guides you to the counter where you give him a folded paper. The gnome smiles and retreats to a backroom and soon comes back with a cage holding a vermin inside, pretty big. "Impressive, un? Wait until it gets bigger... it has a pretty nasty pois..." the gnome smiles once more, "... well, I imagine you already know about that. The other two you ordered will arrive in a couple days, professor..."

Flashback
You stand on some sort of laboratory with a corpse in front of you atop a chirurgic table. You soon recognize the corpse as belonging to a doppelganger. Besides you stands an older man with a bald head and a pair of goggles and big blue eyes. With her back against another table stands a young woman, probably under her twenties, frenetically making annotations on her journal.
The old man collects some blood in a small ceramic plate and stands a small vial to you. You grab the vial and then combine its content with the another one, already in your hand, a silvery substance. The old man then drops a small drop of the substance on the blood and it soon acquires a blueish color. "Oh, it is working! Impressive..." the woman comes closer to inspect the experiment. The old man continues, "Intriguing, right? Now we can identify them!"
In his enthusiasm, the old man bumps his arm on another plate of blood and in your effort to prevent it from crashing on the floor, you cover your hand in the creature's blood. Reaching for a rag to clean your hand, you notice that the blood acquired a faint blueish tone atop your ring... your silver ring...

Flashback
You walk along the dark corridors of a known building, poorly illuminated by sparse torches. Along the corridors there are many doors, undoubtedly leading to classrooms or laboratories. When you pass along an open door, you hear something that manages to chill you completely and it takes you most of your nerves to avoid stopping in front of the open door: Royal Accusers.
"...they are poking around I've heard, looking for the Count," say one of the voices, while the other continues, "Hum... I hope they catch him... We have no need for the count in Lepidstadt... I've heard some gossip that Judge Daramid was planning to persecute him for the creation of the Beast... perhaps she got lucky."
Hearing that the Accusers are looking for the count somehow eases you a bit. Nevertheless you turn around and return for your office, your hands trembling as you reach for a locked drawer...
You know a bit about Ustalav's Royal Accusers. They are secretive agents of the Ustalavic crown warranted to enforce laws and exact justice without regard for the nation's baroque hierarchy of titles and rank. They have a reputation for harsh justice, acting on matters of national importance, and quietly ending noble dynasties.

Flashback
You are once more tired of yet another day at the university, eager to return home. On your hand, you carry a letter, addressed to another man. You move along the corridor and knock on the door. After a couple seconds, you hear a tired voice. "Come in..."
You open the door and find yourself in a lab. You then walk towards a man that has his back turned against you... you don't recall its name, but remember he wasn't one of your favorite colleagues. You leave the letter on the desk before turning around and facing directly inside a jar with a malformed fetus.
As you are about to move your eyes, the creature opens its eyes...
You recognize the creatures as pickled punks, a tiny undead that is the result of necromantic experiments on dead and deformed humanoid fetuses. They are generally nothing more than a curiosity for those with this kind of taste. You know it is resistant to all damage different than bludgeoning, that once it bites someone, it instantly attaches itself, and that, once it dies, it dissolves into a dark sludge, nauseating those nearby.

Flashback
You knock once more on the wooden door... annoyance being slowly substituted by worry. You try for the door handle but find the door locked... you look around the street to see if anyone is paying attention to you before reaching for a couple tools and just after a couple seconds you have opened the door. A mix of pride, shame, and amusement battling inside you.
The old apartment seems to be abandoned, which makes no sense for you... you walk around the place, calling a name from time to time, "Professor Brooks?... Marty?... Are you there Marty?" You find no one neither on the ground floor nor on the second floor where the bedroom is located, leaving you only the basement.
You open the door and almost instantly throw up in the stairs... in the middle of the still illuminated basement you notice an old man, partially eaten by some hideous rat-like beasts, but still alive... one of them eyes you with malevolence while the other holds a couple scrolls from the old professor's table. You quickly turn around and run, yelling when you reach the door, "HEEELLLPPP!... Ratlings! Ratlings!..."
You recognize the creatures as ratlings and also knows they are intelligent enough to cast spells from scrolls.