Charles Valday, Keeper of the Fears

*Age:* 21

*Race:* Human

*Residence:* None, Vagrant

*NPC Levels:* Lvl 13 Human Warlock

*Alignment:* Neutral Good

Born of the dying Valday family, Charles is the only son of Gerald Valday and the only human who may revive the bloodline now that Gerald has passed. Charles is a sensitive man, still very young in his life, who fled his family home in 593 A.F. Gerald Valday believed it to be weakness or adolescent absurdity that drove his son away. In reality, Charles had become the vessel through which a series of deities, not dead but dying in the Far Realm, want to re-emerge.

Charles is the last in the Valday line and the only individual who can make a claim against Alura's influence in the Fellbog. For this reason, many are looking for him, hoping to place him back at the head of the family. Charles has made a point to never linger in one place and to hold few contacts.

Unwilling to embrace his fate, it had been the only thing to keep him alive. He possesses an electric magnetism that draws allies and followers towards him. Gifts from strangers are no oddity to him. He hates them though. They are the manifest effect of the fate he should hold as Herald of the Beyond.

**Childhood**

Charles Valday was born in 581 A.F. to Cynthia Promor, a servant of Gerald Valday's. She died in child birth and Gerald took on the child as his own. He raised the boy, but found that after a few years he hardly needed his father's tutelage. A very talented young man, he was inherently intelligent. By the age of 10, he had mastered Common and was picking up Elven from the few Wood Elf refugees who inhabited the grounds of the mansion.

Charles was a sensitive boy and would often be overwhelmed by nightmares and diseases. In his nightmares, he saw horrible monsters, miles tall and inhuman in every way. He saw far away places and ruins long forgotten. His father loved his son's imagination, but hated that he was doing this to himself. Not far from being considered an invalid, his father spent a great amount of wealth to purchase medicines. These elixirs restored the boys health, but his frail frame was always pale and he was still troubled by sleep terrors.

Gerald was very proud of his son, but allowed him to wander frequently. Gerald was both busy and a lout. The two conditions made him unreachable as a father. Charles walked about the misty grounds, read the books his father had stocked the library with, and made occasional trips into the Fellbog, though his father had forbid it.

It was on a trip into the forest that Charles would find the relic that propelled his life into darkness. Charles found a ruin, an ancient monolith sticking out of the muck. Upon it were runes that wrapped around the entire surface. The stone appeared to be a green, gem-like substance. He quickly discovered that the runes were an off-shoot of Elven and he was able to decipher some of it.

It spoke of elder gods, planes beyond our own knowledge, horrible creatures banished to the far corners of a place called the Far Realm. It also contained a partial map to a place called "Landfall". The runes made it clear that this place once held a portal to the Far Realm, built by Elves. Upon opening it, the world was almost plunged into darkness as the gods from beyond attempted to force their way in. Closing it destroyed an entire city, but saved the world from an ill fate.

After reading it for what felt like hours, Charles fell into a seizure. While he was in a fit on the ground, he saw these deities he had read of. The spoke to him. They told him that he was a chosen vessel. Not in six centuries had a mortal been born who was so in tune with the planar ebb and flow of the energies of the Far Realm. Charles Valday was to be their Herald. To them, he would be a prophet who would gather worship and might before rebuilding the damaged portal at Landfall. This was their will. With that the dread ended and Charles broke from his seizure.

**The God's Will Manifests and Runaway**

Charles returned home, shaken. He told his father nothing of the ruin in the swamp or of the dream. His father knew something was wrong, but imagined a hearty dinner would solve it. A week passed and Charles had not had a single night terror. Charles began to think that perhaps the vision in the forest was just a trick or a dream terror during the day.

Two weeks later, Charles was mortified to discover a protuberance on the right side of his back. Initially a small bump, it had grown into a fleshy point. He soon discovered it would move at his command, twisting this way and that. Over the course of two months, this small protuberance grew into what he could only describe as a tentacle. Only a few inches long, a few small finger-like limb had begun to grow upon it. Taking a dagger his father had given him, he cut off the growth. Pain shot into his arm and blue blood spurted from the wound he inflicted. The small tentacle squirmed on the ground before fizzling into a nasty goo.

A dream came to Charles. As intense as any nightmare before, but he could hear the gods speak to him. They were very angry that he was attempting to fight his transformation into a Herald. He could not resist it, he could not fight it. They ensured there was no way to avoid this fate. His only solace was to serve them by spreading word of their coming.

When Charles woke up, his would had healed and the small bump had returned. He sobbed for hours in his bed. Thinking his father would not understand, he planned to runaway. He had seen his father execute servants for dealing with the Gnolls of the Fellbog. Thinking his father distant as well, he assumed it to be his only recourse.

He ran away in 593 A.F. He took a small bag of his belongings with him and made down the road at night. His father sent many to search for him, but he was able to hide among the forests and swamps of the path. After two months of travel, he made his way to Trickletown. Merely a child in the big world, he doubted his ability to survive.

**Adolescence and the Boons of the Old Gods**

As Charles grew, he realized that many strangers, even those who should have taken advantage of him, always offered protection, gifts, food, money, anything he needed. It was strange. He had never left Valday Mansion before and assumed this was how people were treated in the world. Things began to look good to the now 13 year old.

Over the years, he began to notice the way other people were treated. He noticed that none of the other beggars received gifts of food and money. They were beaten, spit on, and mistreated. He began to worry that perhaps the thing that he had run from in Valday Mansion had followed him here.

The tentacle never fully reemerged. Instead the lump grew very large. So much so, that Charles Valday at age 16 appeared as a hunchback. He would occasionally have dreams form the elder gods, but they were always calm and accepting. Not pleased, but not furious with him. Every time, they insisted that Charles was helpless to further their aims.

Late in the year 597 A.F., Charles began to despair. The gifts he had received fell off. Strangers no longer gave him food or acted courteous. He felt like all of the other beggars. He learned what misery was for the first time. He had begun living in the poorest neighborhood. Working a job at a butcher house, he was to take the unusable parts to a poor house to be made into cheap food. He was waylaid by a group of thugs. He recognized these people, some had given him gifts while others had shared meals with him. None seemed to recognize him.

They attacked him and robbed him of what they had. However, they were convinced his hunchback was not real. When they pushed him to remove his cloak, Charles could hear a voice saying *"Embrace us"*. Charles knew who was speaking and was afraid of what was under his fleshy growth.

One of the thugs drew a knife and stabbed Charles. The attack resulted in a shocking pain in his gut and then the sound of tearing flesh in his shoulder. Erupting from the growth, a great tentacle, able to reach up to 10 ft. away, broke free in a shower of blue blood. It single-handedly killed two of the thugs and sent the others running. Dazed from the pain in his shoulder and in his chest, when the voices said *"Run"* he listened.

He found a space beneath a dry dock and fell asleep. When he awoke, the tentacle was wrapped around him like a blanket. Checking his wound, he found that it healed well. What disturbed him though was the blue blood that had come from the knife wound.

Charles had never considered his own body, to afraid to see what may have happened in the course of four years. He was still human on the surface. However, he also felt a pair of bumps on his back.

After this encounter, he found a large cloak to hide the tentacle. The other bumps grew larger and he feared he may soon have more to hide. The gifts returned and all now showered him with small acknowledgments. Charles began to wonder if the gods had pulled his favor to force their influence to manifest.

**Present Day**

Charles is now 21 years old. The other two bumps grew into tentacles. He continues to wander the land, having left Trickletown for the moment. He has gathered books on the time before the Fall as well as dark lore from the past. He now looks for information about what deities have chosen him, what this means, and how he may cast off this curse. Now able to use magical powers granted by the gods, he carries a powerful armament of spells. The aura of gifts seems to not work against outwardly hostile creatures like Orcs, wild animals, trolls, and other things that do not know what kindness is.

Lurking beneath all this fear, is the observation that he is indeed advancing the old gods agenda. He has traveled the world, looked for knowledge, and been seen in his true form before. Despite his intentions to remove the curse or destroy Landfall, is he creating the foundations for their return? Rumors spread of a Priest of Madness who wanders city streets, strangling the innocent with tentacles that emerge from under a cloak. These are all tall tales, but Charles had heard them. He wonders if the only way to avert his fate as a Herald of the Beyond is to take his own life.