Qorn

Qorn is a 10-year-old human wizard that has some unique grasp on magic having to do with natural forces. Shipton was hired to guard him on a mission of his own to the Thimblewoods in Bol, where Qorn was expected to enchant an axe with the magic of the Tree of the Thimblewoods.

Precocious, curious, and excitable, Qorn is still very mature for his age and capable of looking after himself to a degree. He knows 2 spells, and casts them by snapping his fingers or chanting in celestial. He was reluctant to share what these spells were because his father Alistair had warned him not to, as they were family trade secrets. However one is likely an invisibility or transportation spell that Qorn used to keep safe during a battle with a Carrion Crawler and several swarms of irritated insects, and the other was the spell he used to enchant the axe.

While obviously admiring his father a great deal, Qorn revealed to the party that he isn't around much because he's busy. He mentioned that the maids and the butler with a funny outfit keep him company, as well as a house teacher that taught him magic.

As a reward for enchanting the axe, he asked Vasqar Fellows for a jar-sized piece of the Tree of the Thimblewood, which cannot be cut or penetrated by anything but its own magic. He carved it through magical means into a wooden squirrel, then enchanted it to animated it with the help of Janxo. Janxo chased it around and caught it, but due to its sturdy nature she could not leave any chewmarks, and was very pleased.

Qorn returned, eager for more adventure, to enchant a dagger in the mines of Everhearth with help from Juice, James, Jeff, and Dave. He acted more childlike on this adventure, engaging in a fun game of trampoline (called 'Wizard jumps' by Juice), expressing puzzlement at the R guy, and throwing a tantrum when he accidentally silenced himself with a bag of powder. Luckily Jeff was able to calm him down with a piggyback ride.

## Alistair's Scheme

After a successful mission to Jaynestown, wherein the crew not only enabled Qorn to imbue a dagger with mushroom magic but also did a side delivery gig for Alistair, delivering him something he was "wanting for a long time" from a woman named Regan Tam. When Alistair received the item, he disappeared with Janxo, saying it was finally time, leaving a Deck of Many Things as a reward for the group.

After the card deck shenanigans were over, Qorn asked to hire the party, in tears, to stop his dad from using the item, Janxo, and the scepter, saying that he was going to "destroy" Bol. When asked as to why Qorn didn't let the party know about his plan earlier, Qorn said he "didn't think he'd find it so fast" and that he thought he'd "have more time." This is still very faulty logic for not telling someone your dad is planing the eventual genocide of an entire continent, but given Qorn is only 10 we can agree that he's probably not gotten to the age where he thinks very logically yet.

A few days later, Qorn would set sail with a new look (slicked back hair and adult-sized leather duster) to stop his dad by stealing the item, rescuing Janxo, and getting the scepter back. When Juice realistically brought up the possibility that Alistair might leave them no choice but to kill him to stop him from destroying Bol, Qorn still clung to the possibility of talking him out of it. However he did admit that his dad didn't have to kill the people of Bol to do what he wanted to accomplish, he was just going to do it because it was easier. When Juice pointed that out as evil behavior, Qorn argued that because his dad wasn't going to enjoy it that counted for something.

When they arrived to Qorn's island, the plan was to find a door glowing purple light, as those are special doors that allow Alistair and Qorn passage into the their Tower from anywhere on the island. (And by anywhere, that includes closet doors within people's homes. Qorn mentioned that the people on the island were there to serve them, and coupled with this we can conclude that Alistair has been an evil asshole for a while, and the fact that these people are probably afraid of Alistair has gone over Qorn's head.)

Once the party entered, however, Gerald scooped up Qorn and took him away via secret passageway in a bookcase, completely ignoring the party and every tenant of butler etiquette ever, and causing the party very predictably to be separated from Qorn and into a set of tedious and strange trapped chambers that seemingly served no purpose except to annoy intruders -- complete with rhyming pixies and odd puzzles. It's unclear why Alistair devoted floorspace to them, unless he's just eccentric, which is reason enough to do anything in Bol.

## Death

Once the party had cleared the rooms, they were reunited with Qorn and Gerald, who acknowledged them this time and said that Alistair was on his way out of his chamber. The party just kinda stood around and waited, and then eventually Alistair did come out, greeting them and thanking them for bringing Qorn home, while also going out of the way to say he hadn't noticed Qorn had even been gone the past few days. Behind him, the group could see Janxo laid out on a table, being slowly exsanguinated by magical tubes.

The group confronted him about his plans, and he did not deny them. When they made a move to do anything, he cast some spell with an unusually high save, forcing all of them to be fully paralyzed, save Juice, who managed to evade the spell's grip. It seemed for a second that Juice wasn't going to have the opportunity to do anything, but he fired off a magic missile in hopes of causing Alistair to loose his concentration of the spell, not knowing that Alistair had the ability to cast a neigh-impervious armor spell on himself. The spell reversed itself and knocked Juice out.

Alistair started monologing some tired nonsense about this being for the good of the world somehow, and Qorn did something, or Alistair did something to Qorn, and suddenly there was a knife in Qorn's chest and he was dead. Alistair sort of winced and started mixing some really bad poetry into his monologing for an uncomfortably long time, before taking off with much fanfare with the objects and a big jar of Janxo's blood. Before leaving, he undid the paralyzing spell and asked "are you coming?" To the party's surprise, Jeff and Spot followed him into the magic portal. When Rory attempted to follow, a loud voice inside him he hadn't been invited, so he didn't. Alistair with a final parting word warned the party that his plans would take place in a month's time, so they shouldn't be anywhere in Bol if they knew what was good for them.

A mirror orb fell out of Qorn's sleeve, and it turned out to be the mirror plane portal that Qorn had sealed away some time ago. The mirror creature saw Qorn's corpse and became Qorn, with all of his memories (except his last memory of being killed, for some reason), and Juice tested this by having the new Qorn sign the contract, which worked.

The group explored Alistair's chambers for a bit, finding a detailed map and a spell scroll, and returned back to Shipton with Qorn's body and without Jeff.