Damian

## Other Information

### Class

Psionic Martial Rogue, Belligerent spellcaster & Domain Access Sorcerer, Mindbender, Malconvocker, Sandshaper, Nar Demonbinder

### Affiliation

Cloppenburg Post-Truth PatrolParanostic Apostles

8 Towers

Damian is a magic caster associated with the Cloppenburg Post-Truth Patrol. Abrasive, dedicated, and with belt full of tricks, he tries to assist his fellows with a menagerie of esoteric powers.

## **Character Overview**

### **Physical Description**

Damian is not a particularly large man, standing at roughly 5'11" (180cm). He has a lithe build, focusing on speed and manoeuvrability over raw strength.

His body is mostly blemish free, but even a cursory glance would tell its due more to the abundance of healing magic rather than any lack of battle experience.

Though he tries to keep himself mildly well kept - if nothing else than to make a reasonably good first impression to people he meets - he tends to wear/use practical things over flashy aesthetic objects. His hair is well kept, shaved at the sides, as he cuts it himself and has done since age 6.

*"Who gives a shit if my coat matches my boots, what matters is that it keeps me warm. Ya cunt."*

### **Personality**

Damian's focus on his goals comes at the cost of almost everything else. Due to that he is straightforward, focused, practical, and can often come across as abrasive. And although he does care for the people around him, he finds people's tendencies to focus on tangential or unrelated matters tiresome. He has little time for unnecessary pleasantries, though has enough social graces to recognise when they are useful.

Unusually for a man of his stature, Damian can be incredibly charismatic - less diplomatic or charming so much as he has a very strong and wilful presence when he enters a room. Though this is hardly a surprise. His experiences in dealing with demons, fay, and other planar creatures has shown him the usefulness of a forceful personality, and he intends to use that knowledge to further his goals.

Speaking of his singular goal, its very simple. He wants to kill Timothy Timsworth, and destroy all that person has influence over. His associates, his research, everything he's ever had/wanted/loved.

### **Magic**

Damian is somewhat of an eclectic caster. His list of abilities is unusual as it is broad. He is able to:

* manipulate Incarnate magics to prevent possession;
* apply the basics of pact magics to make deals with vestiges;
* use his working knowledge of psionics to create ectoplasm;
* cast some seemingly exclusive divine spells as arcane spells;
* direct the flow of the Shadowfell inside his body into physical effects;
* cast arcane magics, focusing on summoning and binding planar creatures.

Basically, Damian is a bit of an odd duck.

### Other skills

Outside of spell casting, Damian has a variety of skills at his disposal.

#### Negotiation

Damian has spent a huge portion of his life bargaining with powers bigger than him, sometimes even successfully. Demons, Devils, summoned creatures, other adventurers, spirits, organisations, even Timothy Timsworth. He wheels and deals to get what he wants - often omitting details or using loopholes in the wording to get what he needs without paying the cost.

#### Observant

From his days as a child exploring the farm or foraging in the woods - he has some ability to survive in the wild using his powers of observation. He has since evolved this skill to apply also to traps, tracks, and even people.

#### Occult Scholar

Damian is a dabbler of many kinds of magic, which requires he have a broad knowledge of many concepts linked to such - which grant him access to skills most would consider niche. Exorcism, telepathy, magic trinkets, along with a wide knowledge of creatures related to the arcane disciplines.

## **Philosophy**

Damian's recent history is traumatic, and that trauma manifests itself in his life philosophy. Its brutal, almost evil in a way, and he seems to struggle with the concept, the one rule he finds despicable but universally true:

> *"Those with power make the rules, and those without are slaves to those that do."*
>
>

In Damian's mind, the only thing that matters is the acquisition of power. Morals, methods, all those kinds of things are superfluous to some extent. What matters is the ability to impose what you want over those that can't stop you. Don't want to die? Have more power than those who would kill you. Want to put a political policy through parliament? Have more political power/clout then your opposition. Want to take out a business competitor? Have more financial capital, or connections, than your opponent does. Power is what matters, because it's the means by which you can achieve what you want - a currency that can be spent to impose/defend your will on/from others.

With that in mind, there are three pillars that rule how he implements this idea of power:

1. **Peace Through Power** - only through the application of power can you achieve anything, even something as simple as peace and quiet. For having more power than your opponents means they can't touch you, and even if they are willing to try it means you can survive what they throw at you.
2. **One Vision, One Purpose** - all beings, gods and mortals alike, seem only to be able to become experts in so many areas. Gods are stuck to their domains, and mortals only have so much amount of time to become proficient in certain skills. Which means all beings immortal or not are bound by limitations. Therefore, only by working as a collective can any creature cover each others backs and actually achieve any semblance of power. Gods need pantheons or followers, immortals need servants, mortals need one another. Only through shared vision can a person achieve power - although this does mean that they have to trust in the others around them.
3. **Technology of Peace** - Power is not a static thing. People are always accumulating it, and so it is always a race. To be more powerful than your opponents you must always look for more power, and advance your skills, magic, and technology to keep up. There is no room for apathy and stagnation when talking about power.

Aside from these three pillars of understanding, there are several concepts that form the theoretical backbone of this ruthless and pragmatic ideology.

* **Power as a necessity** - the idea that power is what you use to get what you want. Everything is an application of power. Power over your surroundings to feed yourself, power over the air to inhale oxygen, power over others to convince them to do what you want, power over someone else to keep them from killing you, etc etc. Fuels the idea of **Peace Through Power.**
* **Power as a currency -** the idea that power can be spent, like currency, to achieve what you want. Spending goodwill to convince someone, spending energy to outrun a predator, spending influence through your connections to have something happen, etc. This also means that Power can be seen through the eyes of economics & economic theory, including: supply and demand, coincidence of wants, scarcity of resources, etc.
* **Power as a never ending race -** The race here is referencing the fact that you can never stop amassing or spending power, because there's always someone with more power than you that you must protect yourself from, and with less power than you that will overtake you if you stay static. This principle informs **Technology of Peace.**
* **Power as a paradox of individuality -** The paradox here is simple. To achieve power, you must work with others to cover your own back. But to do so means placing trust in others, and thus giving them power over you in certain aspects. You cannot trust someone but also try and oversee everything they do to ensure your survival - the logistics and emotional labour of it is not possible. Thus, to achieve power you must join others. Joining others means giving up power to them. This informs **One Vision, One Purpose.**

## **Git**

Git is Damian's fiend familiar, a Quasit of the Abyss. Originally he was overworked and underappreciated - forced to do menial tasks whilst being abused by the other demons, until he was summoned by Damian.

Although Git is bound to Damian as his familiar, and so forced to work in his service, the two share a pretty friendly relationship. Because for all of Git's demonic heritage, he is fairly reasonable. So long as he's fed well, kept out of danger, and gets to laugh at the stupid fucking mortals, he's fairly content to ride out the natural lifespan of Damian.

Git is often found in Damian's backpack, just chilling & napping - or poking his head out to witness the sheer stupidity that Damian gets himself into.

Git's abilities mostly work on a non-combat front. Scouting with self invisibility, seeing magic or the nature of creatures, even the ability to commune with whatever hellspawn Git considers his god.

## Involvement with the Party

### **Meeting the Party**

Damian met the Cloppenburg Post-Truth Patrol in Valia, as the group were hiding from the consequences of their own actions in Awbor. He delivered news about the goings on of Awbor, including news about a Thatch based mad prophet in Zingera. He specifically joins the party due to hearing how they killed one of Timothy Timsworth's clones.

### **Valian Shenanigans**

*for more information see Post Caldor Chapter 3: Adventures in Valia*

Damian's contributions to begin with were short, assisting in taking down two of the Warlocks that the party were hunting: the Lizard and the Archmage. For his deeds, he was given a compass that would show him the direction of the closest version of Timmothy Timsworth to his location.

## Backstory

### **Early life**

* Born in an unknown backwater village bordering a forest to two ex-travellers. Had an older brother and a younger sister. Lived a regular pastoral life.
* Dad taught him book learning stuff, using stories and the few books he owned. Mother taught Damian more down to earth skills: foraging, scrappy fighting, tracking, etc.
* Age of 14, went into forest to forage - but the forest bordered the feywild. Discovered a group of nymphs, apologised for stumbling on them and asked how best to honour the forest. Amused, they got talking to them.
* Damian went to them over the next 3 years, talking and falling in love with one of the nymphs: Arethusa. They were engaged on his 17th birthday, his parents agreed - happy that their middle child was happy.
* On his 18th birthday, nymph and him were married - his younger sister being the flower girl and a dryad officiating the wedding.
* They went into the forest for the honeymoon, thinking they would take turns living in the forest and then going back to the village.
* They returned instead, to an inferno.
* Standing amongst the flames, with Damian's family at his feet, was Timothy Timsworth. TT then tore out Damian's wife's still beating heart. Damian was then presented with a choice: the family or the wife.
* Damian chooses neither, unlocking his sorceric powers and attacking TT.
* He fails.
* Damian's family and wife are slaughtered in front of his eyes, and he is sent to the shadowfell as punishment for his "insolence."

### Shadowfell

Damian spent the next 4 years in the shadowfell, barley alive, and was only able to escape the shadowfell by tricking another into bringing him through a portal to the material plane.

## **Diary Entries**

### Something Stirs

"March 14th 744 AP. Day 40 of my stay in Awbor.

Something is wrong.

Even as I slide between the planes of existence, I sense a tension has begun to form - like a knot in muscle. I have spent my years hunting my quarry, travelling the lands of Hakkon, of Valia, of Awbor, and so many more. My magic has brought me both in and out of all hurdles, and I have sent demons, undead, and beasts back to their foul masters – even making a pretty penny doing it too. I have been the dagger at my mark’s back.

Yet something is wrong.

In my soul, I can feel it. It is like walking a tightrope whilst a hurricane blurs around you. It is the ocean of possibility receding - a tsunami rising just out of sight. The planes seemingly tense, as the skies grow darker – the twinkling starlight vanishing like ancient knowledge fading in between the folds of time. And as our knowledge fades, ignorance and danger rises like foam in a pint - hiding salvation and wisdom in the black.

Something is wrong.

The gods have seen it fit to test me, surrounding me on all sides by misfortune as I stay in this country of Awbor. Broken churches and shattered homes lay at my feet, whilst immeasurable horrors stalk the lands around me. The creatures of catastrophe assault the people, and there are not enough clerics – or even warriors in general – to hold back the oncoming tide. The faithful ply their miracles whilst idiocy runs everything else.

Something is so, so wrong.

I am staying at what is left of the old church of Pelor here in this city of Zingera, the trail i had been following has gone slightly cold. Lady Iyasu has seen it fit to allow me to stay, so long’s I earn my keep. Even with this generosity however, I’m holding by breath - awaiting the plunge. The eye of the storm is here, swirling around us, and the air is thick with anticipation. Old stories here tell of heroes of old, great warriors and mages who took down the worm that walks, could they not help us?. Are they still here? Where are the clerics? Why do the undead rise in such numbers? Where the fuck are my lucky poker chips?

Something is wrong. But I will not falter.

After all, gods help me, I’ve not got much left to lose.”