Alkil

## Bio

Abandoned at birth while residing in *Calnlian*. Alkil exhibited strange powers that altered his form as a baby which lead his parents to believe they created some sort of abomination. He was eventually dumped at an orphanage and once his powers became uncontrollabe, he was turned over to the *Dragonscales.* They inspected Alkil's powers and quickly discerned that he was simply a shapeshifter with no ties to the *Fade*. The Dragonscales were just about to release him back into the world before *Elder Dragon Rider Kaiden Armov* himself came upon Alkil. Kaiden took Alkil under the Dragonscales and fostered his gifted abilities. Alkil grew up to become a covert agent for the Dragonscales. Many of his missions included subterfuge and espionage while occasionally assassinating enemies.

## Adventures

Alkil was sent to *The Frosted Steppes* on a mission by Kaiden Armov to try and track leads on some sort of power relating to *Bahamut*. He guised himself as wildlife with his shapeshifting abilities, but was ousted after a week. Alkil barely managed to survive the winterland while being hunted down by dragonborn, but eventually made his way back to the main dragonscale fortress in *Silvestris*. Alkil rested for some time before Kaiden beseeched him personally and informed him of his next mission. Alkil was to become an aid and an emissary of sorts for the *Phoenixborn*. Kaiden instructed he would fetch Alkil whenever they were ready.

Alkil was introduced to *Lanu Tengo* and *Thalnik Ulmrus* as the new members of the Phoenixborn. Thalnik lead the new group to the *Great Shadow* and communed briefly with the *Arok-Sardukin*. The group then took to the *Paragon's March* and found themselves in a great library of scrolls. They quickly found *Oghma* who shed guidance upon Lanu and Thalnik on what it means to become divine.

Alkil bumped into one of his fellow agents of the Dragonscales, *Farruk*. Farruk and Alkil bantered for a short while about Alkil's assignments after Farruk gave Alkil payment for his work in the Frosted Steppes. Alkil also secured a hidden hideout for the Phoenixborn while they toil in Calnlian.

While toiling in *Calnlian*, Thalnik sought the aid of Kaiden through Alkil in order to trap *Xezmon* to free himself of the pact that bound him to eternal service. Kaiden provided Thalnik with a prototype device that prevents magic based teleportation which Thalnik employed successfully against Xezmon. The group also had the sudden help of *Lady Alvina* and *Arthus* who agreed to be used as bait to lure Xezmon out. The trap was set and Xezmon took the bait which Alkil tried to grapple him but failed due to his shadow form. In desperation, Thalnik summoned *Dathroc* who restrained Xezmon threatening his life. Xezmon offered to relinquish Thalnik's pact in exchange for his survival through another pact where a companion of his would die if Thalnik betrayed his word. A dilemma occurred for Lady Alvina's deal for trapping Xezmon was that Thalnik would kill him and with a timer of Dathroc's summon, the situation became very intense. Thalnik ultimately decided to kill Xezmon outright by Dathroc crushing him. This caused his pact to immediately transfer to *Illmorath* who acted on the pact immediately. Illmorath came forth behind Thalnik, impaled him with his fiery blade and dragged him into the abyss with him.

Upon returning to Kaiden, everyone was introduced to Thalnik's next incarnation which was an Aasimar named *Zirilante*. The group conferred with one another and agreed to explore their Phoenixborn origins by traveling to *Valibor* as suggested by Oghma. The group learned much of Valibor's origins through the warriors that were there and found themselves in the middle of a battlefield upon arriving. Their visit was short, but informative especially for Zirilante. On their way back to the *Material Plane*, the group was snatched into Shadowheim by Lolth during their travels in the *Paragon's March* after leaving Valibor. The three were lured into their own individual lairs of despair which once they overcame, they found themselves in the nightmarish place that is Shadowheim. The group stumbled upon some famished Drow lead by *Nadal Do'ndar* who lead them across the plane in search of his kin and a way to leave the plane. After a time, Nadal shared that there was only one path: defeat Lolth's champion through a ritual. The group managed to secure the reagents for the champion's ritual, summoned it and managed to defeat it. Upon doing so brought out Lolth who jostled the party for a brief period before *Elemiah*came forth to rescue them. Her appearance blinded the entire party before they were teleported to *Celestia*. The party suffered hallucinations for their prolonged time in Shadowheim, but were safeguarded by the *Seraphim*. Shortly after, Elemiah returned them to the Material Plane which they found themselves outside of *Canthrall*. Alkil became enthralled by the friendly gnomes and vowed to protect them in return for their hospitality before the group returned to Calnlian. The group bid farewell to Nadal and quickly discovered a brewers festival commencing in the city which they partook in its games.

Kaiden hailed for Alkil and the Phoenixborn which lead them to finally assist the Dragonscale efforts in *Therinox* against Tiamat. Their first assignment was to prod Pilfanx military to intervene with a traveling army of Tiamat's clergy coming down from the north. The group was small enough to avoid Pilfanx patrols, but an assumed threat to the Dragonscale operations there. With Alkil leading the mission, he lead the group who were also accompanied by *Daelinglorf* and *Augustin* into Pilfanx to find *Yuvari*. It was highly noted during their time in Pilfanx that Alkil became hunted by a group named the *Gallowmen* at the betrayal of *Norwood*. During some downtime, he received an encrypted letter from his division leader, Victor Petrov, who asked to meet soon with Alkil. *Damlech* managed to tail Alkil once more when he foolishly entered the city again from the countryside. Alkil took literally no countermeasures to be hunted again which made him an easy target for the Gallowmen. This time, the Gallowmen stalked Alkil for a time and learned some information regarding his reasons for being in the city and used it against him. With the use of magical scrolls, Damlech altered his appearance to look like *Zirilante* and tricked Alkil once he was alone to follow him into the slums. The Gallowmen were waiting in ambush which Damlech revealed himself after striking Alkil with a magical one-use dagger that suppresses magic upon the victim, preventing Alkil from shapeshifting. *Daelinglorf* was close behind, unnoticed by Alkil or Damlech, which he sprung into the scene to try and stall for time for he had alerted the real Zirilante of the incident. He failed to do much however. Damlech ordered Daelinglorf's execution and knocked out Alkil. Zirilante eventually rallied his party and came to rescue Alkil and recover the corpse of Daelinglorf. Due to his ignorance, Augustin scrutinized Alkil for his ignorance of his own safety and mentioned that even Daelinglorf thought it odd that Alkil made no countermeasures after being captured the first time.The group finally managed to find Yuvari and made an arrangement for her to dupe a Pilfanx lord into sending his forces to the north to run into the clergyman of Tiamat. They were succeessful and later ensured the forces arrived.

Upon returning to Kaiden Armov to report their success on prodding the Pilfanx military, Kaiden requested that the group prod Pilfanx once more to deal with a *Skull Lord* threatening the Dragonscale operations to the south. The group made their way to a nearby village where they suspected the Skull Lord to be and managed to confirm the Skull Lord's forces with the help of some villagers. The party managed to convince the villagers to flee to Pilfanx and tell them the Skull Lord intends to despoil their village which yielded a military response. On the army's heels and with the squired assistance of *Hexphael* and *Yulzhook*, the group managed to find the Skull Lord's lair and infiltrate it. The group had to slay many undead and most notable a zombie *Umber Hulk* summoned by the Skull Lord, Strahdul, himself. After dispatching the Skull Lord, the party quickly looted a portion of Strahdul's horde. Hexphael and Yulzhook came into a moral disagreement about a certain magical item which became confrontational. The conflict lead to Zirilante actively protecting Yulzhook while he destroyed the item and ended with the death of Hexphael and abandonment of Alkil. Yulzhook teleported the remaining party back to the dragonscale encampment and left quickly before Kaiden rallied everyone else regarding the situation. Alkil notified Kaiden of these events through telepathy which he teleported Alkil to the camp before approaching the Phoenixborn about the matter.

Kaiden offered well earned respite for the group by instructing them to deliver a payment of gold to Yuvari as thanks for her continued support towards the Dragonscales. The group quickly left for Pilfanx, but were interrupted in their mission upon arrival based on an eerie omen from *Bhelumzar*. The transmutation anomaly came forth and caused massive devastation to Pilfanx which the party was in the middle of. The barely managed to survive the cataclysm before rushing to a vantage point to observe the events. They witnessed the destruction of Pilfanx in tow, but were surprised by the appearance of *Fade Knights*. The group engaged them in combat for a brief period before a small lull occurred where for the first time, the Fade Knights seemed diplomatic but they spoke in Sylvan. They spoke specifically to Bhelumzar which eventually restored him to his true material form: a *Chaordic* Tyrant; leader of the Fade Knights. *Azuri* and *Kiosudha* came forth from a call of the *Aegis* to combat Bhelumzar. Additionally, Kaiden suddenly teleported to the scene as well. A climactic battle ensued which resulted in Alexander Anderson and Alkil to become swayed by Bhelumzar through his Chaordic influence. The two immediately turned hostile to their allies. Anderson became knocked out by Zirilante and eventually the building began to collapse due to the cataclysm. Kaiden then teleported the group back to a dragonscale outpost for safety.

## Player Written Backstory

A child born in Calnlian, Alkil has lived a tragic life. Abandoned at a young age and dumped at an orphanage, he has known what it is like to scrounge for scraps. He remembers being picked on for being one of the only Tiefling children in the orphanage and made fun of for his horns. He never belonged, with his parents, with his fellow orphans, he was completely alone. It also didn’t help that by the age of 6 a power emerged from inside of him. When Alkil was frightened he would imagine himself to be a rat and scurry away and hide, or if he was angry that he would turn into a vicious wolf. One day, this actually happened and he mauled one of his fellow orphans after taking the form of a wolf. Immediately following this, the Clerics running the orphanage saw him as an abomination of the fade and took him to the Dragonscales. It didn’t take much for him to shift into a form, terrified of the situation.

He was kept by the Dragonscales and studied, provoking him to change. The experiments lead them to expose him to other creatures, such as sheep, or goats, and even certain fish. When Alkil put his mind to it, he could turn into these forms if he focused on them. They came to the conclusion he was not a fade abomination, he was just born with a gift.

The Dragonscales were going to release him, when Kaiden Armov offered the boy a place in the Dragonscales, giving him an opportunity to hone his abilities and to have a place in the world. Not ever having a place of belonging and nowhere to go, Alkil accepted.

Alkil was placed  under the command of a Dragonscale Lieutenant Victor Petrov. Victor is a father figure to Alkil raising him from the moment he was assigned. Victor took him out on dangerous missions to explore the world and see rare creatures to help him hone his abilities and practice his forms. From the driest deserts, the most arid forests, humid jungles, cold mountain tops, and even into the underworld once or twice. Fascinated by the Underworld and the demons to live in it Alkil studied it in his freetime as one would study a family tree, eager to adopt newer forms.

When Alkil came of age, he was sent off on his own to do missions for the Dragonscales, some of which were not moral. However, Alkil’s dedication to his Dragonscale family kept him going strong, and did what was commanded of him without question. He did not question Kaiden’s or Victor’s judgement, that he knew in his heart of hearts what he was doing was for the greater good.