Calix

## Description

### Appearance

Calix is a tall Aasimar man. Like most Aasimar, he is considered to be quite handsome by most people. His skin is a golden brown color, and his hair is a deep black. He has only a small amount of facial hair, which suits him quite well.

Calix's clothing is relatively simple, consisting of a loose fitting white shirt, black pants, and a vest. Oftentimes he will wear a strip of red fabric tied about his head.

### Personality

Calix Trei îs a man who leads first with his strength, second with his mind, and finally with his heart. It is not that he is an unfeeling man. He is simply more of a fighter than a lover. That or he's an asshole.

## Biography

### Background

Calix hails from Hofuna. That's all we know. Calix never talks about where he came from.

### Sweetwater

Calix and the others began their adventures in the farming village of Sweetwater. He and five others had been summoned by Mayor Abigail Bolton to investigate the cause of a recent plague. He and the others managed to track the strange illness back to a something called the Greyrot shard. With the help of Dordlo, Calix pulled the stone free from the mouth of the spring, allowing the waters to flow clear once more. In doing so, he contracted Grayrot Weakness, which left him drained of energy.

When they returned to the mayor, they found she was being visited by some members of UMAA. Norlond explained to the party what precisely the Grayrot Shards were, and announced his intention to take the shard back to Spire City. The party is invited to go along with him. But first, the cleric Robierre cleansed Calix of his illness.

### Continued Adventures

In Spire City, the adventurerst familiarized themselves with UMAA, learned more about the shards, and did some exploring at the Midnight Bazaar. Realizing that they can make a career of this, the party signs on as members of the Adventurer's guild. From there, they were able to begin taking jobs. Their first job was in the city of Clemency, where a water genasi shopkeep called Cordelia had hired them to investigate strange goings-on in a nearby bog. In addition to the normal spookiness caused by snakes and will’o’whisps, there seemed to be a strange sort of stasis over the area. Once again, the strange happenings were tied back to a Greyrot shard. With some difficulty, they get the shard sealed in a canopic jar, and return it to the city. When they get back, however, they find that the city is being visited by Inquisitor Obadiah Sebastian Caspiel.

### ‘Trials of Yurtus

The party traveled back to the village of Serendipity, the homeland of Dordlo. There, they met Dordlo’s family, as well as a confusingly chipper tiefling girl. Following a tip from Vhyrrha Duskshell, he and the rest of the party went out in search of an Orc war band. After killing one orc and capturing another using his "man catcher", Calix forces the prisoner to tell him what is happening, and the party is escorted to the enclave of Shaghrakh. Somehow the party is given permission to undergo the trials required to become an initiate of the temple. The next morning their trials began. The first trial demanded they show mastery of their strength. For this, Calix and Dordlo faced off against another set of orcs in hand to hand combat. They succeeded, and went on to the next trial, in which they had to show mastery of their surroundings my making their way across a series of sky poles. Finally, they had to face off against Tanarukk the Irradiated, guardian of the shard of Yurtus.

The party faced off against the beastly orc, trying desperately to outmatch him. It seemed that nothing they did could harm him. What was worse, his very presence seemed to have an exhausting effect, both on the party members and on the orc himself. Eventually, the orc's stamina failed him, and he crumpled over, seemingly dead. Unfortunately, the fight had taken a heavy toll on many of the party members. Calix had it the worst, finding himself so exhausted that he too fainted. Thankfully, Berry's team of rats were quite handy, and managed to fashion a stretcher for him out of scraps of cloth. The cloth came from Tanarukk's loincloth. Calix got carried on orc undies!

A feast was thrown in the group's honor, and they were invited to stay for as long as they needed to rest and recuperate. Although Calix was exhausted for a few days, he soon recovered his strength. During this time of rest and meditation, Calix found he had a new understanding of some of the orcs teachings, learning the spell *Step of the Wind*.

While some of the other party members took a trip back to Duskshell village to spend some time with Dordlo's family, Calix stayed at the monastery to speak with Shaghrakh. He told the orc that there could be a peaceful and mutually beneficial agreement to be made with Garbinimas. With how many warriors and hunters had been called to fight off bandits and sandworms at the watchtower of Vigil, it was obvious that reinforcements were needed. Unfortunately, the orcs saw things in a different light, interpreting Calix's suggestions as an invitation to plunder a weakened foe.

Come morning, Calix sped down the mountain to alert his allies, as well as the rest of Duskshell Village, that the orcs were on the move. Tanarukk could sense the presence of the Greyrot Shard of Yurtus which Dordlo had stolen. With the help of Berry's rats, five of whom she polymorphed into horses, the party sped towards Vigil. They arrived in time to join the battle, which was already underway. After some shenanigans, which included launching the shard via trebuchet and Calix and Manawyd being briefly swallowed by a sandworm, the battle was won.

Before Calix had an oppurtunity to fully explain what the party was doing, he was interrupted by the arrival of Inquisitor Obadiah Sebastian Caspiel. Although the Inquisitor was not exactly friendly, he was begrudgingly grateful for the party's help, partly thanks to the pronunciations of Calix and Dordlo's spiritual fervor. The pair of them manage to speak with the inquisitor long enough to convince him that he should not burn the orcish monks at the stake, but instead take them prisoner in the hopes of conversion. Then we all went into the Amber Steppe and met some centaurs. Calix was just kinda...there I guess.

### Clemency

Now that the party had the Ashstone in their possession, and the blessings of Clan Hektaa, they elected to return to Spire City. In an attempt to ease their travels, the party tries to construct a raft to float down the river. Sadly, boat making is not something that they are very skilled in, and within a kilometer from where they set off, the raft hits currents and eddies, spinning uncontrollably and being swept up on rocks. It isn't long before the ropes break, and the party is thrown in the water. Thankfully between Calix and Manawyd, the shard is kept above water. As usual, shenanigans arise, and they manage to continue downstream until they reach what used to be the village of Clemency.

The once thriving city was left as a charred out husk. Bodies littered the ground, and buildings were burnt to their foundations. After a moment of investigation, Calix found a banner bearing the seal of the Citadel of Garbinimas, as well as a piece of parchment bearing the seal of the inquisition.
> "Under suspicion of consorting with devils the town of Clemency has been struck from the world."
>
>

After looking through the rest of the village, and finding an ominous blood-written message in the catacombs of the town's chapel, Manawyd and Calix made their way to the same swamp where they had picked up the Stillness Greyrot shard. There, they found monstrous, bipedal tracks which looked fresher than the destruction of the village. The tracts reached the location of the shard, meandered for a moment, then ended abruptly.
Before long, Calix heard the sounds of screams, and ran towards where Rineth and Berry were trying to calm a panicked and possessed Cordelia. Berry managed to use her magic to bring momentary clarity to the girl, the arm continued to lash out. At the begging of Cordelia, Calix cut off her arm at the elbow, quickly dispatching it as it flew towards the party, still dripping its viscous ichor. Whilst fighting the animated and possessed arm, the party noticed that whenever it was near the person holding onto the shard, it seemed to recoil. The party then decided to try exposing Cordelia herself to the shard, and after a moment of searing hot pain, she tells them that she can no longer feel Crozier within her.

The party question Cordelia, but it is revealed that she knows next to nothing about Crozier. Truth be told, she is not even sure that is the true name of whatever it was that was possessing her. The only reason she knew that name to begin with was because that was the name used by the Inquisitors who destroyed Clemency.

Although some of the other party members insisted that Cordelia should be brought along to Spire City, Calix was far more cautious. She had been possessed by demons. Who was to say she would not attack them again? And besides, he did not believe they needed yet another mouth to feed. This began a fierce debate between himself and Berry, who had quickly become attached to her newly rescued "best friend". I'm still kinda mad he tried to leave her behind. After much debate, Calix relented, and they continued on to Spire City.

### Spire City

In the City, Calix and the others check in with UMAA, then go on a bit of a shopping spree, meeting the Lady Vironia and revisiting Johnald Humanman. The group of them are invited to the concert of Perasona Jiwa, a visiting Eladrin Singer.

#### Into the Lair

At Perasona's concert, thing quickly went sideways. During the opening number, the crowd was so captivated by the singing that they failed to notice a group of Mind Flayers emerging from the back of the crowd. The Mind Flayers used their psionic blasts to pacify much of the crowd, including party member Berry. Calix and the rest of the party manage to defeat them, but not without some collateral damage, and not without some portion of the crowd already being shuffled off into the mind flayer's lair.

Seeing as the party had been doing fairly well in their previous missions, Norland offers them first go at clearing out the mind flayer hive and rescuing those who were taken. Before they depart, Miss Perasona Jiwa comes to their lodgings and announces that she intends to accompany them, as she feels responsible for what happened. Oh yeah apparently she went all see through and there is a shard inside of her. Although the party, especially Calix, is wary of bringing her along at first, they soon decide that arguing with her is not worth the trouble, and allow her to tag along. The group makes their way down into the Mind Flayer's den where they manage to find, and quickly release, the prisoners before continuing to explore. The group finds some truly grisly discoveries, such as a meat processing plant where cadavers are deboned and fed to Mind Flayer Thralls. After a bit of trial and error, the party manages to shepherd the mind-addled prisoners and slaves back up the lift, where they should (hopefully) be received by the UMAA.

The party makes a few more discoveries, and accidentally fry a group of rats who had the brains of gnomes. I promise, you don't want to know. Finally, they find the implanting room, where two creatures are chained to slabs where they are to receive Mind Flayer tadpoles. One was the foul mouthed Gleebo the Goblin, and the other...Norland? The party questioned the pair, and learned that they had been down here for at least a week, possibly longer. Whomever the party had spoken to before coming down here only three days prior then was not the real Norland, but a doppleganger. Gleebo, meanwhile, revealed that he had already taken the "brain worms". Calix and Dordlo grimly nodded to one another, then smash Gleebo's head in, ending his life before he too became a Mind Flayer.

Rineth escorted Norland to the surface while the rest of the party continued on. In the Mind Flayer feeding room, they find yet another Shard. This one gives off an aura of euphoria. Perhaps the Mind Flayers enjoy a sweetened meal. They manage to secure this shard and continue on, finding the hive of the Servitors. Inside is a strange pillar like device that a few of the party members realize is being used to control the Servitors. The party destroys the device, freeing the Servitors. They also discover strange pods with pupating mind flayers inside, which Calix and Dordlo destroy.

They continue on and find a strange crystalline chamber containing a huge, humanoid sized shard. When the party moves some of the stones around the shard, the room is filled with a deafening silence, and Perasona seemingly blinks out of existence. After the stones are returned, all of the sounds come crashing back into their ears, causing thunder damage.

The party, plus the Servitors who now see Perasona Jiwa as their queen, go into yet another chamber, this one with a large pool which shows the image of Tanarukk's cave. After a moment, the image changes, showing another location of a shard. Then another. Quickly, the party realizes that the pool is a portal to all of the places where the shards were initially found. That would mean that the Illithid were the ones who placed the shards to begin with!

The party does a bit more exploring, finding a large library in which a pair of Drow were conducting research. After a scuffle, the party kills one of the pair, but the other begins levitating and convulsing, and emitting a strange, eldritch light from her eyes. A voice which was not hers came from her mouth, threatening the party with the wrath of Sheb-Nakteth before the Drow's head explodes in a shower of blood and brain. The party hurriedly continues onwards, and finally finds the Elder brain. Undefended and helpless, the brain can do nothing to stop Calix and Dordlo from building a fire beneath it and boiling it alive.

#### Loose Ends

The party travelled back to UMAA headquarters, where they and Norlond plan to confront his doppelgänger. Armed with spite, determination, and the code word of Sammiches, the group stormed into Norland's office, where they came face to face with the false Norlond. Though the imposter tried to run, he was swiftly caught, and the true Norland began beating him until he revealed his true identity as a changeling from Vyrland. The party filled Norland in on all the things he had missed, and everyone is faced with the crushing reality that whatever is happening is much bigger than they ever could have thought. In addition to the shards, they are now combatting political rivalries that could lead to national warfare.

## Relationships

### Party Members

##### Rineth

Rineth and Calix have a mutual respect for one another, though they still often butt heads. hehe...butt

##### Berry

Calix finds himself somewhat put off by the young tiefling, considering her foolish. you're not wrong. you're just an arse

##### Manawyd

Despite being close friends, Manawyd and Calix butt heads frequently. They especially fight over Manawyd's reckless kleptomania.

##### Dordlo

Dordlo and Calix have mutual respect for one another. They both consider themselves the self-control of the party, Bullshit though they seem to go about it in their own way.

1. ↑ Snowy, Sooty, Sniffer, Silver, Sage
2. ↑ Only her arm was fully possessed.
3. ↑ Mind Flayer tadpoles