Druid Azariah

**Druid Azariah** was a senior druid in the Creed of the Five Gods, having been devoted in the High Temple of Tagrimus in Stoneshade in his late twenties. Azariah's original first name was **Jesse**. Azariah met his end in the Battle for Stoneshade, at the hands of Kairos Kallistratos.

Azariah is a member of the Order of Acolytes, and one of their most powerful members, serving as the *de facto* leader of the Blackwall branch of the secret Order. He was a trainer and mentor to many other Acolytes, including Druid Joakim, Druid Hepzibah, and Druid Obediah.

Azariah is a non-player character in *The Crimson Mountains* campaign.

## Backstory

Jesse grew up in the Solon region, before moving to Stoneshade with his family at a young age. There, he was introduced to the High Temple while working as a blacksmith's apprentice. However, as the young man got older, he grew bored of the domestic life and became an adventurer, living solo in the Blackwall mountains as a fur trapper & hunter, simultaneously looking for spiritual truths on a sort of vision quest. After honing his roguish abilities with the stalking of animals. He found a new pastime by applying this to people, as he invaded and raided barbarian camps by himself to sustain, honing murderous abilities. After meeting a group of mercenaries from The Verge, he joined up with them, and quickly realized his stealthy murder abilities were marketable. He continued on this path, becoming wealthy as a mercenary secret agent. However, after a few years of boozing out and having loads of sex in Targe, Jesse again grew bored and re-focused his abilities on the spiritual path, returning to his family in Stoneshade. Here, he found that his father had died and his mother was in ill health. He stayed by his mother's bedsides in her final days, and after her death decided to repent and join the High Temple as a Druid-initiate.

Calling off violence, Jesse was reborn as Druid Azariah, whereupon he was immediately recruited to the Order of Acolytes and his violent skills were rekindled in the name of the gods.

## Activities in *The Crimson Mountains*

Druid Azariah was introduced in Episode 1 as Obediah's partner for the investigation of Hilde's hospital in the foreign quarter of Stoneshade. Azariah advised Obediah during the investigation, in which Obediah publicly displayed his arms and caused a scene. Later, Azariah stood by when Obediah denounced the gods, and the Archon's authority.

After, Azariah was secretly given a mission by Archon Plexipus to orchestrate the murder of Obediah. He enlisted Druid Joakim and Druid Hepzibah to help. Plexipus sent Obediah on a faux mission to assassinate the rogue Acolyte Valbrandr, during which he met up with Hepzibah and was brought to an ancient barbarian graveyard. There, Obediah rendezvoused with Azariah and Joakim, but was attacked. Azariah poisoned Obediah after Joakim and Hepzibah shot him with many arrows. However, Obediah shockingly survived the encounter, an vowed revenge on Azariah, Plexipus, and the other Druids.

Azariah appeared again in Episode 10, during the Battle for Stoneshade, where he finally confronted Kairos Kallistratos in the Archon's chamber. The two engaged in combat one-on-one, with blades and hand-to-hand. Azariah gained the upper hand over the Chasm's leader, but cockily mocked him while winding up for execution. Kairos took advantage of the situation and attacked, eventually stabbing Azariah in the throat and killing him for good.