Zook Burgle

> "*Sooner or later in my life, we all lose someone. For me, it was my kids. They stopped accepting me, they shunned me. What makes you an adult is the ability to keep fighting for them, for what’s right. And even if you don’t want to be one, you already an adult.*"
> ― Zook, addressing Chinou[source]
>
>

Zook Burgle is a Gnome wizard and a main protagonist of the Redemption campaign. He is played by K.

## Zook 'Zookatron' Burgle

Zook (artist's interpretation). Found in the following article by Eric Watson: https://roguewatson.com/2016/06/01/dd-5e-princes-of-the-apocalypse-session-16-recap/.

## Relationships

### Romantic Status

Divorced, formerly romantically interested in Aeschylius (and potentially still attracted to the Scourge)

## Background

(Feel free to add more to this, K)

HE IS EXTREMELY ATTRACTIVE

Zook is from the city of Anders, on the Southwest Continent. At some point there, he was married and had two to three children, and worked as a guild artisan, making small simple machines and automata. He was also a member of the Slam Paws, a wrestling faction of old men.

At some point, Zook traveled with the Adventurer's Guild to the Northeast Continent to acquire a rare part for a wealthy client's automaton, and decided he liked adventuring so much he became a permanent member. However, he quickly racked up intense debt, and ended up stealing from his children, who then estranged him from the family. He also claims to have killed his wife, though this seems unlikely. He visited his grandchildren only once before being estranged.

The Slam Paws became more like a family to him, until for unknown reasons they kicked him until he had scoliosis and amnesia. He then left his home and entered the Adventurer's Guild circuit with all his conviction.

Zook claims to have been in the war with his friend Wretch, but there is no record of this, and it seems unlikely.

## Call to Action

Zook was one of the nine adventurers summoned anonymously to the Adventurer's Guild in Lathannan.

While in Lathannan, Zook stayed at the Fish & Father Inn, along with with Anthony, Azlan, and Keahi. While there, he put bacon on his tongue and flicked it in and out to bother the vegetarian Azlan. He also scared the young bellboy by threatening him with a quarterstaff after believing he was a Slam Paw spy. During this time, he became fixated on making Chamber Pot Stew.

At the Adventurer's Guild, Pleasance Cromwell revealed they had meant to summon Zook Dirgle, a cleric. Zook paid no attention and generally made all of his new partners uncomfortable.

Once his belongings had been retrieved from the inn, Zook traveled by coach to Haver, sharing a room with Azlan, Anthony, and Keahi. He attempted to flirt with Steelback, slept in a drawer, constructed a knife, and repeatedly told Anthony and Keahi to make sure there was 'no funny business'.

## Ambush on Naomhgorm Island

After departing from Haver by boat, the party's boat crashed on shore due to an incomplete quickening spell by Blazing-Mind.

The party, Aeschylius weakened and Ekwefi and Chinou injured, camped in a monastic hillside house for the night. Zook remained behind with Anthony when Steelback took Ekwefi, Blazing-Mind, and Aeschylius to the cathedral. The pair then went to alert Azlan, but accidentally stumbled upon a patrolling cultist instead. Anthony and Azlan fended off the cultist and reunited with Ingrid and Keahi, but the Church set the swath of forest they were camped in ablaze, forcing them to flee towards the cathedral.

Anthony, Azlan, and Zook agreed to act as a rescue party for their captured friends, waiting for their teammates to enter the cathedral before following in secret. Zook made a Tenser's Floating Disk to carry Azlan through the cathedral undetected.

The party was ambushed by Loreli in a stairwell, but Zook managed to remain hidden in the shadows due to his diminutive stature. He then barged into the ritual room, where all of his captive teammates were being held, and cast Grease and Ray of Frost on the sacrificial blood in an attempt to ruin, taint, or halt the process. After coming under attack, he cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter on Loreli, fled the room, and caught up with Keahi in the hallway. His eyebrows were burnt off when Azlan threw Aeschylius's corpse into the ritual fireball. He then boarded a boat belonging to the cultists and was sent away by a propelling spell from Blazing-Mind.

## Adrift at Sea

Onboard the boat, Zook comforted Chinou, who was worried about his stranded sister, by giving him a talk about what being an adult meant. He also warned Azlan against taking the Ichor of Hale Health, warning about his friend Wretch, who 'lost himself to potions in the war', while simultaneously drinking the Ichor of Fertility. Everything tastes like dirt to Zook now, as a side effect of the potion.

## Halburton and Chalcedony

Anthony and the others were detained by Mandragora Hearst due to speeding when their boat entered the Halburtonian harbor. Mandragora brought them back to the Magistrates' Headquarters through a Two-Way Mirror, and handed them over to Darwen Abbas, who took the group to White Lotus.

At White Lotus, Zook got bored while Anthony and Dawnbringer talked and repeatedly touched the Geoculus after being shocked, eventually passing out. Dawnbringer stated she would bring him to the medicine ward in White Lotus.

## Personality

Zook is quirky and cantankerous. He acts rashly and foolhardily, with little consideration, but does exhibit a real desire to be helpful in combat scenarios. He has a strange fixation on a dish called 'Chamber Pot Stew', which he gathers ingredients for continuously but has never made, so far as anyone knows. He has been known to give rousing or heartfelt speeches, although they look much more suspect once the details are examined, as the experiences he refers to in his own life are usually either twisted or false.

Zook is a partial amnesiac, forgetting sections of his old life, and as such appears to fabricate much to fill these gaps in, claiming to have fought in a war. It greatly annoys him that he doesn't know his own past.

Zook appears to be a romantic, suggesting Anthony and Azlan, Anthony and Keahi, Chinou and Azlan, Mandragora and Salem, and Azlan and Tarbrax are in a relationship at various separate times.

He claims to follow his own religion, that of the 'Zookazonians'.

### Relationships

#### **Azlan**

Zook and Azlan have a fairly poor relationship, with Zook's first action meeting Azlan at the Fish and Father being to harass them over their vegetarianism. Zook often accidentally refers to Azlan as a 'she', and frequently mocks or scolds them. Despite this, they show trust of each other under duress. Azlan and Zook had a prior connection which Zook does not know the nature of, saddening Azlan and infuriating Zook.

#### **Anthony**

Anthony and Zook are in a fairly neutral relationship, and rarely work together outside of a group. Zook genuinely seems to enjoy Anthony's company, but frequently teases him and is often scolded or chided by Anthony for his poor or hasty behavior. Anthony is frustrated by Zook's claim of being in the war.

#### **Aeschylius**

Zook claims Aeschylius to be his 'one true love', although the two never had a private interaction in the two days they spent in each other's company. Zook became depressed after Aeschylius was killed in the ritual.

## Quotes

* "*Aren't we all* *[senile] sometimes? Woohoo!"*
* *"Do you dare me to eat all this skin?"*
* *"It's like when I take my medication!"*
* *"I'm having marital issues...with myself."*
* *"I've been to White Lotus. You can get a knuckle tattoo at White Lotus."*
* *"I don't understand that word, I'm Zook."*
* "*I say, let's eat some kid juice. And then there's a bubbling cauldron with kids in it!"*
* *"Women love a sob story from their wonderful husbands*."
* *"Zook is wet and slick and mossy under your hands."*
* *"Potions can do a lot to you. Back when I was in the war, we took healing potions, but my friend Wretch, he was my best friend, and he took too many and now he's addicted. So don't do potions, kid."*
* *"Actors are just human furries*."
* *"No funny business!"*
* [flicking bacon in and out of mouth] *"Look, bacon tongue!"*
* *"Zook is in all of our minds*."

## Appearance

Zook is the shortest member of the party, as well as the shortest humanoid encountered in the campaign so far. He has grey, 'Albert-Einstein-like' hair, yellow eyes, and singed-off eyebrows. He is stated to look somewhat like Garrick Ollivander of the Harry Potter franchise, and his LEGO miniature uses Ollivander's head. Zook wears a waistcoat over a tunic and breeches, and carries a pack of tinkering materials with him everywhere. Zook is also wildly handsome.

Zook is old, though his exact age is unclear. The current year is 342, and it seems likely Zook may have been born in or before the year 0, though with calendar restructuring accounted for this becomes murkier.