Desmond Crowsinger

Desmond Crowsinger is a Caylixian Human Player character in Oustomia.

## History

Desmond was born to the Crowsinger family, once an aristocratic family of old Caylixia. Nearly a century and a half before the nation-state collapsed and reformed into the Imperial Caylixian Empire, his great-great-grandfather was responsible for a number of economic and political blunders that lost them their noble title and forced them into a state of extreme decline, from which they have yet to recover. Even after three generations of effort, the family remains impoverished, forced into lives of merchants and clerks. Though they managed to retain the family estate, the Crowsingers were forced to abandon it with the fall of old Caylixia. In Nevermore, they own a modest house barely large enough to fit the entire family.

Desmond is the oldest of three children, with one brother and one sister. Barely a toddler when his family moved to Nevermore, he doesn't have any concrete memories of Caylixia. Frustrated by the state of affairs, he joined the Imperial Military, hoping to win accolades and glory to restore the Crowsinger name to the heights he believes it deserves.

After the completion of his basic training, he was intending to join a frontier ranger corps, only to discover that he had an unexpected talent for magic that had not been seen in the Crowsinger family for nearly six generations. Tempted by the possibilities of magic, he changed his mind and redirected his efforts to the Research and Necromancy Division to acquire official sanction as a Necromancer.

Now serving under Dread Captain Ty-Yang, Dread Sergeant Desmond is a field agent of the Research and Necromancy Division, scouting out and collecting corpses to add to the ever growing army of the Imperial Caylixian Military.

### The First Step on the Path to Glory

On Gozren 24th, Year 1019, Desmond accepted an offer from a stranger to fight in an arena. He had never heard of this particular fighting arena before, but he was in need of funds to resupply. Once there, he was grouped up with other such individuals and pitted against waves of enemies, made up of phantasmal creatures that disappeared when killed. Despite their insubstantial nature, the creatures still hurt when they hit.

Though he took numerous grievous injuries, Desmond managed to stay on his feet and in the fight, making good use of his mobility and his glaive. While he did not inflict as many casualties as some of his comrades, he still had his fair share of kills. However, he would be felled by an Earth Elemental in the final round while attempting to assist another party member.

Due to the strange rules of the arena, he was not actually killed, but teleported to a waiting room until the end of the round while the others managed to finish the remaining elementals. Despite falling, he walked away with a share of the prize and the sense that the experience had made him stronger.

### Foray into Demon-slaying

Once again looking for work, Desmond came across a bounty board posting for mercenaries to aid with clearing out an ancient ruin, supposedly overrun with Northern Orcs. Descending into the tunnels with the motly band of mercenaries he found himself in, he found that this was not the case. The orcs had been slain long ago and their bodies animated by dark magic. The moving corpses shambled in the darkness, accompanied by their new masters as minor demons prowled the halls.

Using his extensive knowledge of necromancy, Desmond seized control of several undead orc, turning them against their demonic masters. With undead and cold iron in hand, he and his companions tore a bloody swath through the Abyssal forces until they came to a narrow hallway. Outnumbered and in a bad position, the group was forced to withdraw, though they had managed to recover a journal that detailed what had occurred in the ruins.

### Meeting a Cheapskate

Following the harrowing day now known as the Blackout of 1019, Desmond took a job from an eccentric known only as the Collector, who was worried that his mansion's defense were compromised in the wake of the day without magic. Arriving with his companions, they found the mansion overrun with kobold invaders. After failed negotiations, the group was forced to defend themselves from the little reptiles.

Rather than kick in the front door, the mercenaries rounded the building to find an open window. Finding one, Desmond quietly entered the room. Despite the presence of two kobolds in the room, neither of them noticed him. One by one, he silently killed them by putting them into a chokehold to keep them from screaming for help before forcing them into the lit fireplace. Though this cruel manner of killing disturbed several of the party members, Desmond shrugged it off.

Entering the main room, the party was forced into another battle with more kobolds and a golem. Despite the chaos, only the golem was "killed," with the kobolds only being knocked unconscious. Capturing one alive and conscious, the scared kobold led them to her "boss," the creator of the golem, though not before the party discovered that most of the "artifacts" in the museum were fakes.

Descending into the basement, the party found the Collector, who turned out to be a white-scaled Kobold in fancy white clothing, being threatened by a massive golem. Deciding that attacking the golem would be foolish and suspecting that the Collector might try to cheat them out of pay, the party did not stop the golem from getting what it wanted before leaving.

### Demon-Slaying Part Two

Hired once more by the Halmar, Desmond joined up with a new group of mercenaries to attempt to clear out more of the ruins and retrieve the key to the next level. Fighting on the front line with Kataral, a companion from the previous attempt, and her wolf, Desmond helped carve through numerous lesser demons as they retraced their steps to the hall where they had been driven back before.

This time, they pushed forward, crushing all resistance before them. Though they took many blows, demons and undead alike were cut down with brutal efficiency as they moved towards their objective.

The final battle against the Beholding One, a massive cyclopean demon that had been taunting the group since they entered, was brutal, with several members of the party nearly falling only to be saved at the last moment. Though Desmond managed to get several good hits in and nearly killed the beast, the Beholding One panicked and fled after its forces were defeated.

Finding the key, the group returned to the surface battered and bruised, but alive.

### Golems and Vampires

After accepting another freelance job, Desmond traveled to O'Hana to clear out a laboratory that had gone dark. When the group arrived, they found a number of prototype suits that boosted the attributes of their wearers to superhuman levels. They would find that they needed it as they were almost immediately attacked by Iron Golems in the next room.

After doing a little exploring and accessing the main lab, they found a pair of vampires had infiltrated the lab with the intention of stealing the pilot-able golems to allow them to go out into daylight. The group quickly destroyed the golems before they could make off with their prizes, but the vampires themselves proved to be too powerful for the group and could not be prevented from fleeing.

### Monster Hunting

Desmond took up a bounty hunting job on a monster that had been terrorizing the cattle of farmers near Haven. With three others, he tracked the beasts to an open plain. Once there, they found signs indicating some kind of burrowing creature.

That creature turned out to be a monstrously large Bulette. Despite its great size and power, the group had prepared sufficiently that there was little danger to themselves. The only issue they had was the agonizingly slow process of cutting through its tough hide and bringing it down.

Nevertheless, they were victorious and the local farmers gave a sigh of relief.

## Physical Appearance

Desmond's features would be considered above-average, but not extraordinarily so. His face is well-shaped, but hardened by military life, with his brown hair kept short and his face clean-shaven. Weathered bronzed skin pokes out from beneath his many layers of clothing, leathered by extensive hours under the sun.

While he wears the dark gray traveling leathers and furs of a frontier ranger, Desmond looks far closer to a frontline trooper. Tall and heavily muscled, he prefers the use of the monster of a sword strapped to his back or his glaive over the bow and arrow favored by rangers.

## Personality

Desmond is an oxymoron: a hard-working glory hound. He seeks any opportunity to increase his fame or advance himself in the ranks of the Imperial Military. No job is too dirty or unworthy of him, whether it be collecting corpses for the Research and Necromancy division or assassinating a bureaucrat on behalf of his superiors.

While he considers treachery as being beneath him, his only real loyalties are to his family and the Imperial Caylixian Military, in that order. He prefers to speak his mind bluntly as he is fairly terrible at lying, though he is not averse to using half-truths and truths from a certain point of view when absolutely needed.

Despite his brutish appearance, he is far more intelligent than he comes across as. A shrewd tactician, he prefers to move about the battlefield over staying in place, making extensive use of his magic to augment his fighting prowess.

## Allies and Enemies

Dread Captain Ty-Yang: Desmond's direct superior and handler in the Research and Necromancy Division. The half-orc is the one that usually dispatches him on missions. Their relationship is strictly one of commander and subordinate, with neither being interested in changing that.

Garen Crowsinger: Desmond's grandfather. A textile merchant, age has forced him to take on an administrative role in the family business as his fingers have begun to develop arthritis. He now leaves the weaving to his daughter and younger grandchildren.

Nera Crowsinger: Desmond's mother and Garen's daughter. After her father was forced to retire from working due to age, Nera took over weaving the clothing sold in her father's store. Desmond's refusal to go into the family business has strained their relationship, though she does accept his reasoning.

Ior Crowsinger: Desmond's father. Ior married into the Crowsinger family, taking on their surname to keep it alive. Though he once aspired to be a bard, he quickly found that it would not support his family. Now a low-ranking clerk for a local magistrate, he supplements the family coffers with his meager income. An old friend of Ty-Yang, he helped smoothe out the process for Desmond's transfer to the Necromancy and Research Division. Meek and quiet, Nera is very much the one that wears the pants in their relationship.

Hela Crowsinger: Desmond's sister. At eleven years old, she is the second child of Nera and Ior. Due to the upheaval following the move from old Caylixia, the family waited nearly eight years before deciding to have more children as they tried to settle back in. She helps her mother in the textile shop, weaving clothing.

Dalen Crowsinger: Desmond's brother. The youngest child at five years old, his birth was both premature and difficult, requiring expensive clerical magic to save both him and his mother. While he is too young to help with weaving clothes, he works as an assistant for his grandfather and as a courier. Like his brother, he has started to show a talent for magic, though it is a wild talent. However, it has not yet matured into something that can be trained.

Edgar: Desmond's Raven familiar. Though a loyal bird, he takes great delight in annoying his Master, doing things like snatching coins out of his coin purse and nipping at his ear. He is capable of speaking, though he chooses to speak only in Sheng.

Sajjan: Desmond's Elephant animal companion. Loyal and well-trained, Sajjan accompanies Desmond into battle, using his tusks and armor to assist his master. He is intelligent enough to understand commands in Sheng.

## Goals

Desmond's primary goal is to restore his family's noble title through whatever means necessary.