Rocco Brightmane/Uno

**Rocco Brightmane,** also known as **Rocco Uno** (Born Oskar Uno), and the fighting moniker **Liber’s Fist**, was a Half-Simian adventurer from the Scientarian Empire capital of Belleza. In his travels, he has accomplished many great deeds in the fight against the demon lord Vile Cruelty.

## Early Life

Oskar Uno was born the son of one of the wealthiest old nobility families in Belleza, but not under the most auspicious of circumstances. His mother, Linwe Uno, was the eldest daughter of the Uno family, who had been a major power in the city in the times before the Scientarian Revolution. While the old nobility had to begin sharing power with up and coming industrialists and Scientarian appointees, the Uno family managed to hold onto their estates and prestige by supporting the Tellumnars' efforts. Linwe was born soon before the revolution, and grew up in this environment, knowing she would become the head of her family after her father’s death, and was swiftly appointed as the Empress’ new ambassador to the Oyashiman Empire in 19 a.s.r. At first Linwe enjoyed her time in the capital Akihito, but requirements that she visit the regional governments on behalf of the empire took her out of her comfort zone, and into an active battle site. On the island of Masako, there had been a long standing distrust between the majority Simian population and the increasing involvement of foreign businesses and centralizing power. A group of simian extremists attacked Linwe’s group during her visit to the island, and at some point Linwe was raped. She managed to escape with her life and return to Belleza, enraged that the Oyashiman government had allowed such an awful thing to happen to the Scientarian ambassador. It was only months later that Linwe discovered she had become pregnant with her rapist’s child. She initially wanted to abort the child immediately, but doctors convinced her the child was too far along to abort safely without endangering her own health. Linwe then considered giving birth in secret and having a servant dispose of the child, but this plan was stopped by Rocco Uno, her younger brother. Eventually, Linwe allowed for the child to be named and for him to be raised as her son, but always with a rage at being forced into a situation she hated with every fiber of her being.

Oskar’s early life was a consistent series of disappointments. As a half-simian in a human and elven city, he was an oddity to the established elite. He consistently struggled to fit into polite society, as his large feet made him uncomfortable wearing shoes so he often ran around barefoot, and he struggled to maintain posture or quiet when it was demanded of him by the family. He was forced to bind his tail within stuffy clothes of the nobility, and shamed for his heritage relentlessly. For his misbehavior he was regularly beaten by servants and tutors, all at his mother’s instruction. His mother refused all physical contact with him, only trotting him out for official functions to appease those who wanted to see the child. One particularly painful memory for a three year old Oskar was a time he went to hug his mother’s leg, and she kicked him away with all of her strength. One of the only sources of comfort in these early years was his uncle Rocco, who made an effort to show love and affection for the poor child when he could. To Oskar’s never ending confusion though, when uncle Rocco would leave to be with his own family and children, he left Oskar in his mother’s house alone. In later years, Oskar could never understand why his uncle did not choose to save him from that hell, instead choosing to listen to his elder sister’s rule.

## The Emerald Vipers

When Oskar was 11 years old, he had a fateful run-in with a Fiend Spawn revolutionary activist named Rights. Oskar was wont to cut school to walk around the city’s underbelly. Rights found the young man and saw how unique a specimen he was, as he had never seen a half-simian before, and rarely any simians at all. Rights was the leader of a group of revolutionaries that sought to bring down the Scientarian Empire in the name of personal rights and freedoms. Rights took the struggling boy under his wing, and within a year, Oskar had been given his first task to cut the throat of a Scientarian guardsman.

It was at this unsavory meeting that Oskar met Marden Terenz, a human street urchin Rights was also grooming to join his cause. The two spent the next 6 years together, spending as much time as possible together as Oskar spent more and more time away from his family’s estate and more and more time working with the Vipers. Eventually, Marden and Oskar became lovers, but this period was cut short with a mission from the boss.

Rights, growing more radical as the years went by, began looking for more ostentatious ways to bring about the revolution he thought was imminent. By creating a martyr in the young noble-born Oskar Uno, he thought he could whip the people into a frenzy and begin the campaign to liberate the lower classes from human and elven domination. Rocco was given an alchemical bomb and ordered to take it to a Scientarian government building to rig up for an explosion, but this mission was never meant to succeed. Once Rocco was inside, Rights magically sealed Rocco's planned getaway route, forcing the youth to frantically try to find another escape route. Inevitably, he was captured by soldiers, and imprisoned. While in holding, Rocco was subjected to a Truth Serum and forced to expose his allegiance to the Emerald Vipers gang and his identity and noble status. Rocco felt that it was likely that he was doomed to a swift execution, but without warning he was told that he was being exiled from the empire, with a standing order that if he returned he would be executed. His mother had interceded on his behalf, but only she knows why she bothered to save her son from the gallows. Rocco has no idea why his mother bothered to save his life, thinking she would be more than happy to let him die. Rights told the Emerald Vipers that young Oskar Uno had been sadly captured and killed by the Scientarians, launching the beginning of a full throated terrorism campaign in the following years.

## In Kurosekai

Rocco was given a one way train ticket to Kurosekai, capital of the Union of the West, and the largest city on Gernon. For several months, Rocco lived without a clear purpose. Without any money or friends, he quickly began sleeping on the streets, though he was occasionally able to find lodging at the various halfway houses run by the devotees of Liber. When winter hit, Rocco was in incredibly dire straights, but while almost getting into a fight with the Kurosekai guards, he was rescued by a dwarf bard named Broland Skazmuppet. Broland told Rocco he was a retired adventurer who ran an underground fighting ring called the Pits of Bloodlust and thought he looked like the type who might like the chance to prove himself and to get a nice warm bed and meal in the meantime. When he asked him his name, he told the dwarf "Rocco", the name of his uncle, abandoning his birth name of Oskar Uno forever.

Over the next year, Rocco began living at the Dandelion Lodge, a boarding house where Broland paid to put up his fighters. It was there that Rocco met some of the most important people in his life, including the Fiend Spawn magus Zaiyen Liloki and Slime Person brawler/bard Dru Petals. He became close friends with them and some of the other fighters, and eventually became a beloved member of the cast of characters that fought for the entertainment of the crowd. Despite his awkward feelings towards his own race, he was persuaded to show off his Simian traitsHe began to use the name "Liber's Fist" as a fighting name, and while his fighting skills were second to none, he popularity was mixed as he often gave boring single round knockout fights rather than the long spectacles the crowd demanded. He became a devotee of Liber, and began to fall in love with the kinds of raucous drinking events that church recommends.

The next important meeting in Rocco's life in Kurosekai was when he and Forrest Brightmane found each other. A Kurosekai guardsman was challenging people to fights in the street for cash, and Rocco took him up on the offer. In the fight, Rocco's clothing was torn and his tail popped out, and the racists in the crowd heckled the young man mercilessly. Forrest, a young half-elf apothecary who ran a shop nearby, noticed the fight, and while initially interested in the physicality and attractiveness of the half-simian fighter, his heart went out to him following the insults he received. He noticed Rocco's cloak that he had left behind after fleeing from the insults, and went to pick it up and to try and return it to him. He spent a decently long amount of time trying to find Rocco, until eventually finding him getting intensely drunk in a tavern to wash away the sorrows. Forrest returned the cloak, the two got to talking, and despite their differing personalities ended up really liking each other, and started a romantic relationship. They grew incredibly close over that next year, even falling in love.

## Meeting Vile Cruelty

### 19th of Flowering, 40 asr - Pits of Bloodlust

A seemingly regular evening began at the pits, with Rocco and his compatriots fighting it out for the crowd. Forrest had been convinced to come and watch the show, even though he was incredibly uncomfortable surrounded by the lowlifes and tough types that frequented the arena. For the first time, Rocco met Lollipoperell, a gnome who was an old adventuring buddy of Broland. The group of Rocco, Zaiyen, Dru, and Forrest sat together as a new fighter came forward to fight the death match that week, a Fiend Spawn man who refused to give his name. The man took several punches to the face without seemingly flinching, and yawned in boredom at the inability of the champion to harm him. Rocco, annoyed with the Fiend Spawn's distracted behavior, heckled him and called him a gutless cur for just standing around instead of fighting. Immediately the entire room was cursed into absolute silence, the man grabbed the Pantheri Champion's throat, and burned through his neck in a blast of magical fire. After the fight, Rocco stormed up to him and accosted him for his trickery and disrespect. It seemed like a fight might break out right then and there, but Broland intervened at the last moment. The "new champion" seemed disinclined to step away for an instant, but he noticed something about the dwarven bard that convinced him to leave without further incident.

Later that night, upon his walk home, Rocco's group saw a fire burning in the distance. They realized it was in the neighborhood where Broland lives, and went to investigate. Upon arrival, they found that Broland's home was in a raging inferno. They arrived just in time to see the Fiend Spawn from the pits walk out of the burning building with an unconscious Broland under his arm. With a perfunctory goodbye, he teleported away the instant before Rocco was able to slug him. The group had little time to wonder where he had gone though, as from within the burning building they heard and saw a sight that would soon become very common to them: a demon. It had been left behind to ensure the building burned nice and hot and even spread if they could help it. Rocco and his companions fought the demon and tried to get information out of it about where his master had taken theirs, but the peon knew little, and so Rocco disposed of the demonic filth. With little to go off of, they needed to retire for the night before the guards got involved and started asking too many questions.

### 20th of Flowering, 40 asr

The day afterwards, Rocco learned to his dismay that he and his friends had been kicked out of the Dandelion Lodge. The landladies of the building had heard about Broland's disappearance and his house burning down, and knowing that no further payments for the tenants were likely to come, they were all booted to the street. Zaiyen and Dru arrived at the Green Thumb Apothecary where Rocco had been spending the night with Forrest. Soon after, while exploring the ruins of Broland's home for clues, Broland's friend Lollipoperell appeared and gave the group important information regarding the man who had kidnapped Broland. It turned out that Broland and Lollipoperell used to be fiend hunters along with several other adventurers, and that they think the Fiend Spawn that took him must have recognized Broland. He told the group to meet him in Marenwald, and to seek out his cousin Trigwocket. He had to go seek out their old compatriots and to try and get them to come to Broland's aid. Rocco and company spent the next week preparing for the journey, and on the 26th of Flowering, the boarded the train to Kumota City on their way to Marenwald.

### A Flooded World

Upon arrival in Kumota City, the group was dismayed to see that the entire area was beginning to flood, and that the rainstorms were seemingly nonstop. They quickly learned that all boat traffic on Lake Kumota had been halted because of the combination factors of the bad weather, and increased attacks by the merfolk that live in the lake. The next day, calls went out from the city's castle for mercenaries to help with various issues in the area caused by the flooding. Rocco and company, bored to tears waiting and needing some action, decided to sign up for work. They were sent to a small village a few miles to the west, from which their last messages had not returned. Once they made it, it turned out that the entire town was empty, and they were attacked by a storm demon. The demon seemed to be reveling in the ongoing thunderstorm, and was trashing the empty city with powerful blasts of wind. They struggled to defeat the flying foe, but eventually they were successful. Returning to the local castle and reporting the presence of a demon, the information shook the castellan. The next day they were sent to the local graveyard, where apparently there had been repeated instances of grave robbing, and came across yet another demon. This was a sickening wormlike beast that had crawled into the corpse of the graveyard groundskeeper, and had been stealing corpses for further hosts.

### Kumota Council and the Old Druid's Tower

By this point, it was becoming clear to the leadership of Kumota City that there was something incredibly sinister afoot, and they called for a council of the most successful adventurers and greatest knights the city had available. Many of the mercenaries that had taken on the other tasks assigned to them had died, and because Rocco's group hadn't lost anyone in their fights against the demons, they were invited to the council. At the meeting, Rocco was highly uncomfortable and annoyed with all of the noble types that were present, especially the lady of the castle Beth Quell and her sister, a paladin named Cayse Quell. The court wizard from Kurosekai Aloysius Pumbler had been summoned to assess the situation, and surmised that some terrible magic was bringing on the storm, and that it was centered on the Northern Marshes. They only knew of one tool powerful enough to stop such a storm, that being a Staff of Weather. One was known to be in the old Druid's Tower in the forests southeast of the city, but it had been sealed and impenetrable since the Druids had fought off a Scientarian attack almost 40 years ago. Rocco's group was commissioned to retrieve this magical item, and assigned assistance from lady Cayse for the mission. They set off quickly, as the flooding was getting uncontrollable and time was of the essence. While travelling to the tower, Rocco and Cayse bickered furiously over the role of nobility and knights in protecting the weak, Rocco saying the nobility were cruel and indifferent, and Cayse attempting to show herself as living proof of a noble who would sacrifice anything to help stop evil.

When the tower was found, it was obvious as it was in a beautiful sunny glade. The power of the magical storm was somehow being kept at bay, making it the only dry and pleasant place for miles around. And right in front of the tower on a bed of grass and flowers, was the Fiend Spawn that had kidnapped Broland, seemingly taking a nap. Seeing an opportunity, the group snuck up on the sleeping figure, and attempted to kill him. But while they managed to get the jump on him, Zaiyen's sword couldn't cut through his skin, and Rocco's punches were less than useless. The man laughed to see the group from the city there, considering it providential and wondering why they were there. As usual, Rocco continued to fight while desperately yelling for his foe to explain where he had taken his benefactor. He danced around their attacks without much of a care in the world, even yawning and talking about how he's going to have to find a new place to sleep now. In the midst of the fight, the foe noticed the attractiveness of the fellow Fiend Spawn Zaiyen, and dipped her into a deep and creepy kiss. In an attempt to cut him down during this display, Cayse charged forward, but her enemy was angered at being interrupted. He shot a blast of black flames that incinerated the young woman to ashes. Bidding them all adieu, he said that he really did need to check back in on a few things before teleporting away in a blast of flame.

Still in shock at the situation, Rocco pounded the ground in anger, but they could do nothing except to continue forward and find the Staff of Weather.