Yusuf son of Yitzhak

From a very young age Yusuf son of Yitzhak was sheltered from physical labor and instead was taught how to read and write. He also starting having surreal dreams and visions which he would use as knowledge and stories to tell people. From there he ended up at The King's University and began working in the library there while building a close friendship with a goblin, Hob, who also worked there. Together the two of them started to discover a conspiracy and things connecting many evil organisations to the government of Syntheria. After having to leave the university he now investigates this dark conspiracy more, hoping to stop it at all costs.

## Physical Description

Using his disguise kit, Yusuf has taken on a variety of appearances. However, he currently spends most of his time appearing as a human man with a black goatee, large orange turban, and white tunic covering his extending beer belly. He carries a small pack and breaks a sweat carrying it up even a small hill. His eyes, on close inspection, are a feline gold not a human brown. He is not so short as to be short and not so fat to be overweight and these non descriptive traits help him with his disguises.

## Backstory

Yusuf was the youngest son of a wealthy shepherd’s second wife. Great portents shone in the sky at the time of his birth, so from a young age he was sheltered from the intense physical labour his brothers and sisters endured. Instead, he was taught to read and write, and studied mathematics and the sciences. His father Yitzhak hired many tutors for him, who travelled a great distance to see the one born under such significant signs of the heavens. He was not an easy student to teach, however.  He learned the lessons quickly and became bored and mischievous. His father let him get away with almost anything and was blind to his flaws, telling Yusuf that his life would be great and he was so honoured to be his father. All of this-- the learning, the excessive praise and lack of discipline-- made Yusuf into somewhat of a brat in his adolescent years. At this time, he also began having dreams and visions, showing knowledge of things and events nobody had taught him. Most of the family had a bit of infernal blood and various quirky abilities from that heritage, and Yusuf’s manifested in a silvered and cutting tongue. While Yusuf’s brothers and sister’s led sheep to fresh pasture, he travelled along sheltered in the shade playing games with his mother and father. They would tell jokes and make up stories and get him to practice his powers.

When he was 17 winters old the family and their flocks stopped at an oasis with a small trading village Arbunzar, Venzor. Yusuf’s brothers and sisters wanted to party in the town, drinking and carousing. Yusuf asked his parents if he could go with them. They were usually too protective to allow him off without them, but consented this time. What started as a merry night of drinking, laughing, and in Yusuf’s case, earning extraordinary amounts of coin gambling, turned sour. Yusuf’s eldest brothers had developed a deep jealous hatred of Yusuf and saw the night as their chance to get rid of their brother. The universities would pay handsome sums for magical creatures or those with significant learning and intelligence. So while Yusuf was winning cards and dice, his brothers contacted slave traders in the oasis and made a plan. They got Yusuf so drunk he was barely conscious and then simply tied him to a camel and set off with him across the desert. By the time Yusuf came to, he was hot, thirsty, headachy and recognised nobody and nothing around him. He mocked and insulted his captors without mercy but they simply gagged him when they grew too weary of his shouting. Eventually they did arrive at the King’s University in Gonde, Gondyl. Yusuf was traded for 200gp to the slavers for being of infernal heritage and knowing his letters. He was then made to translate and transcribe books in their library. Yusuf actually enjoyed this work and slowly adjusted to his new life. He was forbidden from leaving but given every comfort he could want as long as he stayed and worked. He became close friends with an old and cunning goblin named Hob. When Yusuf told Hob how his captors had gagged him to stop him spewing mind-rending insults at them, Hob offered this suggestion, “if you had the ability to rend a target’s mind with your words, then why didn’t you try to simply do it without words,” “How would that work? How can they be insulted if they can’t hear me?” “It’s not the insult that can knock them to their knees, it’s your mind doing that, so why not just skip the words and go directly into their mind.” And so Hob showed Yusuf by sending him flying across the room without saying a word or raising a hand. Yusuf knocked over tables and ink pots as he slid and tumbled. Embarrassed and humiliated at being flung across the room, he began thinking curses at Hob, who then promptly let out a moan clutching his head. “It hurts! Stop!” Yusuf stopped. He wasn’t sure what he had done, but Hob panted for breath and then smiled a wicked grin. “That was awesome,” he said. And so they began practicing together more and more, hunting down scrolls on mystic lore in the library and attempting to master the disciplines and mental exercises they found there. They practiced their powers to make jokes and play pranks on the other faculty, who frowned on their research, considering it a dead end what with so much arcane magic knowledge flowing in. Yusuf and Hob had been called to the dean’s office countless times to explain why the kitchen was pitch black, the cat was glowing, or in high summer there was a skating rink in the courtyard that did not yield to a dispel magic spell. The dean did approve of the mystic research even if the other faculty did not. He got into the habit of merely sitting and waiting for a telepathic explanation of what went on, and to “experience” it through that universal language that no words could describe.

One day, Yusuf walked past the dean after sleeping through an astronomy lecture given by a travelling tutor and sent him a quick telepathic “Hello”, the response was something like, “greetings fellow university staff member, it is very good to see you, I am very busy with important business so I must continue, thank you very much, bye” Suspicious as all nine layers of hell. “Are you alright?” Yusuf quested back to the dean. “Yes of course now good bye” came the angry retort. Well that was weird he thought, and told Hob about it later that night. Hob though made some connections he didn’t. When Yusuf told him he looked instantly alarmed and concerned. He told Yusuf his suspicion was that the mind he touched wasn’t the Dean’s. Yusuf was skeptical at first but then decided that the best thing to do was to test the theory. It took three exhausting attempts, but eventually at breakfast the next day Yusuf managed to break past the “dean’s” will and ask it this question, “are you the dean of the university who served here when I first came here?” and the response was “no.” Yosuf instantly sent Hob a message, letting him know what he learned and arranged a meeting to plan their next move. They thought the best thing to do would be find the actual dean (if he was still alive). So they began searching for clues. They searched his room but the psychic impressions were too stale to be followed. They only found the trail of the fake dean. The next day Yusuf felt violently ill after breakfast and spent the rest of the day in bed. If Hob hadn’t found him, he probably would have died as the poison took it’s course. Hob prepared an antidote and forced several healing potions down Yusuf’s throat and by the evening he had mostly recovered.

Now it was obvious that Yusuf could no longer stay at the university. So Hob helped create a diversion (setting the courtyard on fire) that allowed Yusuf to steal some travelling supplies and a camel and flee into the desert. Yosuf was pursued by riders the next day but having grown up in the desert used a few tricks to evade them. Forced to travel more carefully and slowly, he headed for the first major town of Sirencester, Gondyl. There he stole some gold and conned some more supplies including paints and creams to disguise his skin and appear as a mere man rather than a horned monster. For 10 years Yosuf was in hiding moving more and more east into Saldun. He has been changing disguises in every country constantly appearing as a different foreigner to avoid suspicion. It has been several months since he has seen signs of his pursuers and he is hoping he has finally lost them.

Yosuf had begun several new quests during his exiles, occasionally he would bate his pursuers in an attempt to read their minds and learn their motives or who are their masters. While a few attempts have been successful the only thing he’s learned is that the conspiracy is much larger than the university and most of Syntheria is infected with duplicate spies who possess at least a little psychic sensitivity. The cities of Saldun seem to be next on their target list and their chief weapons are poisons, disguises, and secrecy. He wants to end their shadow ruling of the government’s and restore the proper monarchs and advisors to the thrones of Syntheria as well as prevent Saldun suffering a similar fate.

## Individuals Of Importance

* **Yitzhak:** I’d like to see him again before he dies. But I do not want him to learn of what my brothers did to me.

* **Hob:** The goblin who helped me learn my powers and saved my life

## Current Goals

* Discover and foil the plot of the imposters at the King’s University and beyond.
* See my father one last time before he dies of old age.
* Discover the meaning of the signs at my birth
* Find and train other mystics

## Previous connections to other party members

### **Theodin Fitz-Chivalry**

This witch hunter has a growing reputation in Saldun, some of his feats suggest he may have psychic potential, I’d love to meet him and see if this is the case. If so, we might be able to help each other out.