Nekeesk

When he was about 18 months old, Nekeesk’s warren was attacked by slavers. Nekeesk was captured and changed hands a couple times but eventually ended up being sold off to a bandit chieftain. Rather than having Nekeesk help them out by doing stuff like mining, building traps, or anything kobolds are typically good at, the fairly stupid and unsuccessful bandits put him doing menial and degrading tasks such as cleaning latrines, spying on the other bandits for the chieftain, and generally just being a punching bag for the clan. When he wasn’t working he was caged like an animal, and was never allowed to leave the camp.

As the months dragged on, Nekeesk slowly befriended the chieftain’s diviner. Well, it started off as sort of a friend - object of pity relationship, but eventually the diviner began to see Nekeesk as more than simply a pathetic whelp of a creature, but not for some time. Years later, long after Nekeesk had accepted his fate as a slave, the diviner began to clandestinely teach him the basics of magic. A snippet of theory here, the basics of an incantation there…

These lessons continued for sometime and enkindled the spark of arcane curiosity within Nekeesk’s mind. It was through these lessons that Nekeesk learned the common tongue. Unfortunately, the lessons came to an abrupt end, however: the bandit chieftain learned about the lessons being taught to the slave and, in a blood-rage, beat Nekeesk within inches of his life and killed the diviner. Nekeesk never learned why the chieftain spared him, and never found out.

Murdering the diviner was the worst mistake the chieftain had made, as he no longer had a clairvoyant able to predict his outcome in bandit affairs and provide advice accordingly. Without his advice, the chieftain took a large portion of the bandits out on a raid in the middle of the night. Not having to worry about the battered and crippled Nekeesk freeing himself and running away, only a token force was left to guard the camp. That didn’t prevent Nekeesk from attempting to escape, however, but his injuries and trepidation on what the outside world was like prevented his flight.

That night, Daemedes the half-orc bounty hunter conducted a raid of his own and single-handedly slew the remaining bandits as part of a bounty held by one of the nearby villages. Daemedes found the caged, crippled Nekeesk and, out of pity, rescued the kobold. Almost unable to walk on his own, Nekeesk nevertheless did his best to keep up as the two began their journey together.

It didn’t take long for the kobold to look up to Daemedes as a protector in every sense of the word. Nekeesk quickly grew to realize that he owed his life to Daemedes and thus has kind of an obsession with his health and safety. Nekeesk is quick to trust Daemedes and people he trusts, but is otherwise leery of other people. Because of his kobold nature, and the fact he was raised as a slave, Nekeesk is fiercely possessive of his belongings, including, he feels, Daemedes. However, he is still excruciatingly timid and will avoid confrontation whenever possible… but has a tendency to hold grudges and want to seek revenge.

Nekeesk, traumatized by the death of his mentor and worrisome regarding the fate of Daemedes, given his inclination toward bravado, delved into the school of necromancy to do what he could to protect his friend. However, as his studies deepened Nekeesk began to become enraptured by the forces that control life and death. Fundamentally selfish, Nekeesk began exploring his own macabre interests to determine how to prolong his own life. Shedding the bonds of his mortal coil would allow him to pursue his wildest aspirations. No longer would he be looked down upon!

The tension between Nekeesk and Daemedes grew as Nekeesk’s studies deepened, but the two managed to stay close friends. One day, as Nekeesk performed an experiment, a strange arcane charge leaped across the planes and interacted with the diminutive wizard’s magic - hurtling him across dimensions into the realm of Ravnica. The result of this cataclysm left Nekeesk stranded in Ravnica without Daemedes and without a clue as to how he arrived - but remnants of the strange arcane energy that caused him to teleport across universes remains… Now alone in the sprawling metropolis of Ravnica, Nekeesk desperately seeks a way to return to his friend and plane, but it appears this realm may have other plans for him…

Nekeesk’s ability to blend in and resourcefulness in gathering information discreetly led him to seek information from the Golgari swarm, whose knowledge of arcane secrets related to necromancy and wild magic phenomena seemed promising. He ran afoul among some of the guild members for trespassing and was almost clobbered by a group of trolls when a medusa named Zoleidon recognized his extraplanar origins. She traded his loyalty for information regarding a way home…. Provided he could prove his worth to the swarm.

Contacts:

There’s a troll in a remote area of the undercity who seems to find me interesting — and who knows more than you’d think.

A medusa decided it would be more fun to recruit me into the guild than to kill me.