Raphael April

Raphael April was a Vampire Tiefling Wizard played by Tropingenie during the Barrows of the Kolgrimmr campaign. He appeared at the end of session 9, along with his sister Vignette April.

## Backstory

Raphael does not know his past. All he knows are the fleeting "memories" that appear as visions while he sleeps--as much as a vampire can sleep. The following is all he saw in the visions, which plagued him daily.

His mother abandoned him in hell. The first circle, to be precise. It was a horrific place, filled with fire and brimstone and impending war, but it should have been perfect for the hellspawn of Asmodeus.

But it wasn't. Raphael saw visions of him fleeing from the gouts of fire, desperately trying to protect his scalded body. The few demons who had the mercy to attempt raising him quickly abandoned the task. How he survived on his own, Raphael didn't know.

Then, there were the visions of the sword. A long, ornately made blade, sharpened only on a single edge. It looked so thin, yet he could tell it was of masterful workmanship. The visions showed him dying then, to the curse of the blade--surely that was someone else? Or perhaps not. Raphael's attunement to death was... Unsettlingly high. Vague shapes of a knight matched his later visions--a knight named Sam.

Somehow, somewhere, he learned magic. Perhaps it was in preparation for the war which was sporadically mentioned in the visions, or perhaps it was for his inevitable escape back to the mortal plane. Likely, it was the former: Raphael had many visions of himself and a comrade with pointed ears spraying demons with ice and water as they searched for... He couldn't tell what they were searching for. But it was that magician who taught him the fundamentals of the dark arts: the magic of death, Necromancy.

Perhaps related to a fervent study of magic, or the long-eared companion of his, there were occasional fleeting glimpses of a bookstore run by elves. The names and faces of the proprietors eluded him, but he was sure that it had some significance.

Someone was looking for him. He vaguely recalled that, yet he didn't know who. Or, perhaps, he was looking for someone. Or something. All he knew was that he had to do something important. His sister had found him when he awoke in the graveyard, but that wasn't it. All he knew was that it had something to do with an ancient Dwarven ruin near a town called Pjolt. He had entered the burial grounds on the outskirts, of that he was sure, but the visions hadn't revealed any other details.

And of course, though the visions hadn't revealed it to him, he had somehow, at some point, become a vampire. With his muddled and missing memories, he only had a single lead: That soldier, named Sam Norman. If he was even still alive, surely he would have some answers.

## Character

### Appearance

   Raphael dresses in quite the expensive-looking, if a tad old and worn, clothing. He received it from his sister, after having risen from the grave he doesn't remember needing. A short-tailed, double-breasted black jacket is worn over a maroon turtleneck. About his waist is a brown belt, upon which a slightly rusty dagger hands. White gloved cover his hands, the tips of which come to strangely sharp points. Knee-high laced brown boots, almost feminine yet somehow fitting his appearance, cover his grey wool trousers. His staff, topped with a magic focus, is about as tall as he is, and around his neck tucked under his sweater is a holy symbol of Athys.

Raphael's face is strikingly handsome. If it weren't for the well-proportioned curling ram's horns on the sides of his head, he could rival even the beauty of the elves. His hair is a dark blue that could easily be mistaken for black, and its straight locks stretch to mid-back. His face, the only skin uncovered, is a ghastly pale colour that barely manages to pass for fair rather than deathly ill. His eyes are solid silver. Sprouting from the base of his spine is a thin black tail tipped with a spade, that moves involuntarily--though, the writing is less related to mood than one would expect, so  it is often found curled around one of his legs. Small black feathered wings are folded on his back, though they are typically covered by his outerwear.

### Personality

Raphael has a fairly nonchalant personality. Having only fleeting memories, he is inquisitive to those who recognize him, but ruthless to people he doesn't know. He prefers to stand back, and observe situations before getting too invested in anything.

However, being a vampire he is quite the unsavoury individual. His moral compass was perverted when he was infected. To him, no matter the severity of the crime, it is deserving of the highest punishment--though, the man himself seems to be exempt from his own laws. He is greedy and selfish, holding others to unreasonable standards in order to justify what can only be written off as self-serving actions.

## Campaigns

### Barrows of the Kolgrimmr

#### Session 9

Raphael April. A name echoed in a head with memories slowly returning. Murky darkness. The taste of blood was on his tongue. Images, flashes of a past not his own. Magic and knowledge that he didn’t fully understand. But he did.

A thick pressure was over all his body. Dirt entered his mouth, filling his throat, yet he was eerily at ease.

A familiar motion, a spell at the forefront of his memory. It was… He couldn’t remember why he cast it. But he remembered what it did.

His silver eyes flashed in the moonlight as dirt sprayed outward from the shallow grave. The supple light gleamed against his deathly pale skin, and his long, once well-kept hair was stained so dark as to appear black.

A similar glint caught his eye in the distance. Raphael stretched his cramped wings, and flicked his tail experimentally. A beautiful woman was standing above the grave, her black wings stretched out to cover him. He had barely a moment to note her eyes were the same as his.

Foul darkness covered the entire graveyard. It was as if she had been waiting for the grave to open. A hand took his, as clouds blocked the moonlight, and under the cover of darkness they escaped to the forest near the city.

The journey was in silence, but he was sure. This woman was of his blood. Perhaps even sired directly from the same parents.

She led him into a stone fortress, and hung heavy curtains from the royal-looking bed in the center of the homely looking room. Then, the pair entered the “bed room” and kneeled in awkward silence.

“Mm… So…”

“Um… Brother..?”

“I…”

Fiddlemore winced. It seemed that the visions of memories had yet to dissipate.

Their attempts at conversation dwindled into silence, as his sister twiddled her fingers. She hesitantly spoke, seeming to have collected her thoughts slightly.
“You… should rest?”

Fiddlemore nodded slowly, then turned and lay his head on the bed. As she exited through the curtain, he heard one, cautious, parting remark.

“Raph… I’m Vignette. Hajimemashite…”

While it couldn’t be called sleep, Fiddlemore entered a trance-like state. Visions, of someone he thought was himself, wracked his rest.

A cursed sword. A spider-demon. Evil witches. And an ancient Dwarven Kingdom. A shrine. There was a shrine there. That would hold the answers? Raphael didn’t know. The visions were fragmented. The only thing he could glean from them was that something had led him to a group of adventurers. And someone was waiting for him. Somewhere. His… sister? No, someone else. The visions didn’t give him answers, only more questions… Ever the more convoluted grew his thoughts, as the day passed back into the night.

#### Session 10

When he awoke, his sister was nowhere to be seen, and energetic voices were thrumming through the wall. Faint, but still distinct enough to be… familiar.

Fiddlemore arose from the coffin within which he had been placed. He was going to move to investigate.

At the end of the hall which the sounds were coming from, there was a sealed steel door that took some time to break through—he covered the small hole with illusions.

There was a Tiefling, a Human, and Elf, and some form of golem who seemed to be working together to make weapons. Seeing their faces, Raphael made the connection: these people had appeared in his visions. Pitifully few, but enough that he recognized them—though, the golem, and the other clockwork creatures piqued his interest but didn’t jog any memories.

Invisibility and illusion would be his friends in the coming days, as he observed the group.

Shortly after the motely crew left the fort, Raphael went to examine the forge. He noted the complex looking clockwork lock, of which the key was the arm of the golem—in other words, the golem was the master of the forge.

Raphael began examining the lock, to see if there was a way to pick it. He cast light to see its inner workings better. At the very least, he would get a better understanding of the hidden art of clockwork technology.

After poking around for some time, he concluded that the lock was complex enough that the golem’s arm was just about the only thing he could use to enter subtly. However, Fiddlemore was certain that the breakpoints of the door would be mendable with magic, so he prepared to cast Knock.

#### Session 11

He cast knock. The door creaked and cranked, then reverberated like a gong. Dust flew from its sides as the door shuddered. But, despite the creaking, it didn’t move.

Raphael reached his hand out, pushing on the exposed pins. It slid open, barely three feet. He wiggled past the door, into an antechamber covered in bronze plating. At the far end was what appeared to be a thick porthole, with many brass rings around it.

Through the portal, he could make out a vast stockpile of reddish-gold ore, lacing the floor and ceiling. A bronze or gold spire rose a few meters at the back of the room, and grayish blobs were throughout the room.

Grasping the handles on the brass rings, Raphael rotated the rings into position—he had deduced from the carvings that it was a latch of sorts. The portal slid aside with a hiss.

Inside, he could see ancient dwarven masonry, infected with the same red ore coating the walls and floor. A contraption of bellows, brass, and gears was in the center of the room with moulded bronze steps leading up to it.

Otherwise, the room appeared mostly unfurnished.

Skeletons and pumice petrified remnants of bodies were dotted around the edges of the room.

He moved to leave. Hearing a strange barking sound, Raphael cast invisibility, and rushed away. The chamber had a different aura to it, as if there was a frenzied energy inside the forge. Not having any reason to stay around, and potentially having an early warning system set off, he retreated to his quarters.

After a while, he heard a clang from the top of the mine shaft. His sister had returned. They had a brief, awkward conversation, in which Raphael inquired about the dwarven corpses. She didn’t know why they were there, nor did she appear concerned, postulating that it might be a burial practice of the race.

They then conversed about the few “memories” Raphael had gleaned. He asked about the people who were around him when he died, mentioning that a warrior names “Sam Norman” was someone who might know. Vignette mentioned the elf, which Raphael had a number of questions about, as well as the Tiefling. Raphael wondered if either of them knew him in the past.

After deciding to venture out if the other group didn’t return, Raphael slid backward into his coffin. Then, he commanded his Unseen Servant to cover the lid, which it did.
Some time later, his sister called for him, mentioning that she heard voices. Upon investigation, the one he was looking for—Sam Norman.

After eavesdropping for some time, Raphael messaged Sam and asked a few questions pertaining to his death. After confirming that the “visions” were, indeed, memories, he revealed himself—or, at least, and image of himself.

Using Minor Illusion, Raphael suddenly introduced himself to the party, butting into the conversation.

“Fiddlemore?!”

“Fiddlemore… Yes, that is what they once called me.”

He reintroduced himself as Raphael, and they conversed. He was reluctant to reveal himself, but after performing a search they discovered the now-unsealed path to Vignette’s bedroom. Eventually, after insinuating that “Fiddlemore” had a girlfriend, both he and Vignette were revealed.

#### Session 12

They dramatically walked towards the door. As like Raphael had done before, Flint spun the brass knobs to open the glass portal acting as an airlock into the forge. Nothing had changed; skeletons still coated the room. And the red-gold ore still laced the walls.

However, some deadly device has been activated: Unlike before, as he neared the room, Raphael felt a pounding in his skull.

Raphael muttered to himself about studying necromancy further. Upon hearing the reddish ore contained “transcended dwarven spirits,” he wondered if the ore had something to do with voidstaking—a foul method of imbuing a stake with negative energy to create undead minions.

While the party argued, Raphael turned invisible. He was getting… thirsty. He snuck behind England Fitzgerald, guided by instinct. Then sunk his fangs into the unwitting man’s throat. Pure bliss.

*Ahh. I feel alive again.*

He drained the poor fool dry. Sam watched in horror as rivulets of red fluid dripped from Raphael’s fangs. Then, the vampire took a white handkerchief from his pocket, eying up Wren as he wiped the blood from his face.

Raphael couldn’t help but quip as he and Wren observed the procedure that Flint was doing to the now-dead wizard.

“Why are you doing this?” Wren asked.

“It’s an act of kindness,” came Flint’s reply.

“Indeed. It’s not like I *wanted* to kill him or anything.”

Wren looked on incredulously at both of them.

“You’re making an immortal wizard! When has that ever gone well?”

“I’m an immortal wizard.”

“You’re a cleric!” [1]

After Wren left in a huff, Raphael continued to study the procedure. Eventually, Flint noticed, and asked him to stop taking notes; Raphael complied—and simply started committing the procedure to memory.

After the discussion of souls came up, Raphael inquired with William whether or not he had a soul. William confirmed that, because he was an intelligent undead, Raphael’s soul was still in his flesh.

Checking the time, Raphael realized the sun was finished setting, and moved to leave. Upon reaching Toriana, he gorged on his newfound ambrosia, leaving 8 pale corpses in his wake. Though, truth be told, while he had drunk until satisfied, he had made sure to take some into vials for later use.

To cover his tracks, or rather the fact that a vampire had done the crime, he mutilated the bodies using his dagger and quarterstaff, and took any coins they had.

As the months went on, Raphael continued to make a name for himself as the “Clock Killer,” paying homage to the “Sundial City” moniker of Toriana. Every week, at the hour on the sundial, he made a corpse, leaving a spray of blood and a chalk scrawling of a clock counting down to midnight.

The only sightings of him, when the guards came closest to catching him, was with a dark cape and a clockwork mask.

All 12 corpses he had brought back to the dwarven forge for study began to show evidence of conversion to vampirism. He was delighted, taking the opportunity to study the effects on the human body, as well as confirming various properties of vampires with some help from Wren.

#### Session 13

[2]
Eventually, they finally left the fucking ruins near Torianna. Then, they traveled all the way to Pjolt.
[3]
Then, they planned to leave Pjolt, and enter the barrows.
[4]
Then, they carried a *fucking coffin* toward the barrows. After nightfall, Raphael exited the coffin. There was a glowing flame in front of him, which neither he nor the rest of the party knew the reason for. Using illusion magic, he made it disappear as it was rather distracting.

After they walked a while further, they reached a door in a hollow, by a burnt chestnut tree—clearly, it had been hit by lightning.

Sam muttered a word in dwarven, and the door slid aside. They walked down the sloping tunnel. Then, Wren went into a long monologue about how stealthy he was, while Raphael cast invisibility and slipped away. Vignette did the same, with Wren’s rat following shortly after. Ssmalkis also joined the scouting squad.

They came across a number of bare rooms, likely one trading posts or other travellers’ amenities. Then, the familiars they sent ahead reported back that there was a large cavern inlaid with gems, and lit as if the sun was there—complete with an underground microcosm of plants and the like.

After William mentioned the rather intelligent plan of luring the vampires into his mind palace, Raphael lit some candles and filled his ears with the hot wax.

William asked, if he were to perish, that Raphael take over the colony and open a devil portal.

“I don’t know how I’ll do that, and I haven’t known you for long, but… I will do my best. In honourable memory of you.”

Raphael knew it was a gamble, but it was worth the risk. They watched as he strode slowly down the hall. Bullrushes sprouted from the walls alongside dripping water, as his automaton body grew a luscious beard of real hair.

“Athys with you, ya glorious bastard.”

The last they saw, as William was swallowed by the darkness at the end of the hall, was the shadows turning into people, and walking after him.

Traveling down the hall after him, they came across an awful lot of mud and slime, as if a swamp had been poured down the tunnel. Not a single carving had dwarves in them, as if they had been... *removed*.

Water was sluicing down the hall, a good incentive for Raphael to remain on the ceiling.

#### Session 14

They continued to follow William. As the water rose, Raphael began freezing the approaching stream to form a wall. Wren and Sam reminded him of a spell he had forgotten about: Aegis of Absolution. Supposedly he had cast it in the past.

Between casting Ray of Frost and Mending, he began flipping through his spellbook to search for the spell. Wren went surfing on ahead.

As he and Sam walked down the hall, they scavenged a bit for loot. Raphael continued making bulkheads that could be sealed quickly should the waters return suddenly, and began adding corpses so that he needed to freeze less water. He managed to scrounge up a few things that might be of some value.

Eventually, Wren returned. Then, Sam turned and spotted William’s patron. They had a brief conversation. He was basking in his own achievement of escaping William’s head. Wren and Raphael offered him congratulations.

After that, they regrouped with William. Then, the rest of the party entered William’s head. Once Wren and Sam returned, the party left both of the automata behind.

As they walked down the tunnel, William’s patron sidled up to Raphael, and began saying… something. Since he still has wax in his ears, Raphael couldn’t hear a word. After he finished a rather long schpiel, Raphael responded:

“I’m sure you’ve said a lot of interesting things, but frankly I can’t hear you.”

Raphael declined to remove his earplugs until Willliam was “dealt with.” Perhaps even “sealed away, as such powerful weapons should be.”

Eventually, the tunnel emerged into a huge cavern. Far above them, the ceiling was covered in blue stone, with clouds drifting above and light crystals as bright as the sun. The ground was rather boggy, and the once beautiful entrance gates now resembled a torn-up strainer.

Ahead of them, they could see a stout dwarven city, filled with curves, pillars, and towers. As dwarves came and led Wren and Sam towards the city, Raphael did his best to follow from above.

When an arrow came flying out of one of the towers, Raphael took note of which window it flew from. He cast Message, letting Wren know where to return fire.

After firing arrows back and forth, the party began to move again. Evidently, there had been some sort of communication. Raphael followed from the ceiling.

Watching the rest of the party enter, Raphael had a brief conversation through Message with Wren, so he could get an understanding of the situation. While watching, he noticed some steam or mist escaping from one of the archive windows.

Casting invisibility, he began pursuing it. He followed it until it entered one of the towers built into the side of the cavern. Following the mist back, he began squatting on the ceiling, listening into Wren’s conversation with Curumar. The conversation led to him and Wren revealing the fact that both Turtillous and Raphael were of the same bloodline.

Curumar also mentioned that their “particular brand of vampirism” had its ultimate sire of a drow priestess, though Raphael cared not. He was slowly making his way across the ceiling and down the walls, with the intention of drinking his master’s blood.

Despite all the spawn watching, he carefully snuck up into biting distance. He curled his fangs around Curumar’s neck, and chomped down, sucking heartily [5].

#### Session 15

The battle began.

Turtillous and Oda Legoda, who had appeared earlier, moved to assist Raphael.

Curumar was held by Raphael as Sam lay into him.

A bell tolled as Raphael cast Toll of the Dead.

Turtillous joined Raphael in restraining Curumar, and sunk his fangs into Curumar’s neck.

Curumar tried to turn into a bat to escape the grapple, but Raphael interfered using Counterspell. He still escaped the grapple, raising his arms and proclaiming “minions!”

The vampire spawn joined the fray, clawing at Raphael. His magic armour deflected the first attack, and he deflected a second by casting Shield.

After attacks from the others, Rapahel cast Toll of the Dead again.

Then, Oda joined the fray with an opening Witch Bolt.

Curumar retreated, running up the wall, while one of the spawn attacked Raphael. He reacted by casting Hellish Rebuke, scorching the vampire with fire.

Then, a rain of arrows came down on them. Raphael dodged them.

Turtillous introduced himself to Raphael.

“So, Fiddlemore, was it?”

“That is what they once called me…”

“What do you go by now?”

“I think we have more pressing matters than names.”

The two vampires turned back to the battle at hand as Sam shot Curumar off the wall with an exploding electric crossbow bolt.

Then, William burst onto the scene, singing his songs and tossing a fireball at his feet [6]. Raphael, who he had run right next to, was unable to dodge the unexpected turn indiscriminate attack.

Seeing the large group of spawn approaching, Raphael decided it was time to retreat. He cast invisibility and began to retreat.

But he saw: Sam, his body pushed past its limit, attacking with the power of Ketamine and Quienos. There was little chance he would survive, save for one thing.

“Turtillous. Sam will not survive this. I know what I have to do, but I do not know if I have the power to do it. We must turn him. I will move to bite him. You must move in after the battle has ended.”

“I will. I will do that.”

Raphael, still invisible, moved quickly to get behind Sam after he leapt through the air. Blasts of rainbow lightning engulfed Curumar to the sounds of many battle cries. Sam’s blade flashed as a red mist rose from the ball of chaos. Then, his attack came to a close, with Curumar in a paste, and Sam staggered back, exhausted.

As Sam collapsed to the floor, Raphael caught him in a princess carry. He gently bent down and bit Sam in the neck.

Sam’s head sagged as the invisibility spell dissipated. Wren walked over. Then, Raphael and Sam vanished.

“That’s all, folks.” quipped Wren.

Raphael retreated, as Sam breathed his last… For now.

He knew his sister was going to try to find him very hard [7], so he didn’t bother staying in Kolgrimmr. He made for the exit.

*She’s found me once. She’ll be able to do it again.*

##### *Epilogue*

Raphael made for Toriana, taking shelter where he could on the way back. After three days, Sam rose as a new vampire. Upon reaching the city, Raphael took up residence in Flint’s old fort, while Sam went his own way to find the cure for vampirism.

Raphael became an uncle when Sam and Vignette had their first child, conceived before Sam turned. He raised the child as a warrior.

After the child came along, Flint accepted Raphael as family, and his last few objections to Raphael’s residence was dissolved.

Though he wished to see his niece more, the fell aura surrounding Raphael’s lair and his aversion to sunlight caused him to lapse into a life of seclusion.

## OOC

Character Sheet as of level 5

"Chad" character art of many of the characters was drawn prior to session 13, and used to create character tokens (kudos to TacoCat for those). During session 13, Tropingenie applied his character to a template in a similar fashion.

### References

[1] This stemmed from a joke by Tropingenie that "Raphael" was a cleric--it was both because the only mechanical difference between Raphael and Fiddlemore (apart from the race, of course) was a single level in cleric. It is also well noted that Fiddlemore was quite a "cleric-like wizard" in his life, so technically the remark wasn't entirely out of character

[2] So, at the table, the discussion was about common law (cohabitation laws) of our country. TacoCat was banging his head on the table, while Tropingenie played Yakety Sax at 2x speed

[3] So there’s an hour of the session left. Literally nothing happened this session. But we did get a recommendation for a good poutine place while Flint was having drinks—the poutine place was OOC, Flint’s drinking was IC.

[4] Then, we discussed drinks for a while. Like, alcohols and the like.

[5] Nat 20 stealth, 20 (not natural) attack roll on the bite

[6] Raphael was saved from a nat 1, barely, by a slightly cocked die

[7] The odd wording was based on what the GM said