Icilius T. Connor

Icilius T. Conner (played by Randy) is a gunslinging fighter from Brown-Cedar Hold and a main party member of the Keepers of Eight. He joined the party after being discovered in the Shadowfell, where he had been trapped for ten years.

## Appearance

Icilius is a middle-aged variant human with fair skin and dark hair. He has a prosthetic hand given to him by Ansen after his left hand had been amputated by cultists in The White Pines. He wears a wedding band attached to a chain around his neck.

## Personality

### Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Icilius suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from his ordeals in the Shadowfell. The PTSD Table is often used to determine if he has nightmares during a long rest and what disadvantages he may have the next day because of them.

### Soulless

Interestingly enough, it has been discovered that Icilius doesn't have a soul. Although his alignment is Chaotic Good, his lack of soul prevents him from being affected by opposing alignments.

In the Astral Plane, his captors realized quickly that his lack of soul would hinder their plans. However, they used him to lure the Keepers that were rescuing him in hopes they'd assist the Illithids. While there, Icilius had made a promise to Julia in a vision to stay alive, for having no soul meant that he wouldn't be able to reunite with her in the afterlife.

## History

### Brown-Cedar Hold

Before meeting the party, Icilius was better known as a legend among the people of Brown-Cedar Hold. One of his major achievements that the people cite was when he'd slain a Cyclops. He was more recluse, however, and he lived out of town in a cabin along a lake.

### Julia

#### Julia Conner

Icilius was married to a woman named Julia who knew magic. They lived together in the cabin, and Julia was known to do chores by hand instead of prestidigitating. When asked by Ordis later why she would do this, Icilius simply told him that she preferred to do it the old fashion way.

The pair were originally trapped in the Shadowfell together, where Julia was mortally wounded. Icilius blames himself for her death and frequently mentions that he wished she made it out and not himself. However, he keeps her memory alive through wielding a weapon of the same name and is strongly attached to his wedding band.

#### Julia (Weapon)

Julia is a bayonet styled weapon of Icilius' own creation. He created it in the Shadowfell, and it has always been his go-to weapon. It's theorized that a piece of Julia's soul is stored within the rod given to her by a person simply known as "The Wanderer."

After being banished to the Astral Plane, Julia was among his belongings that was destroyed. The Keepers and Jurdan were able to salvage some pieces and the rod, the only piece that was still intact. Icilius used these pieces to fashion a new weapon with Julia's namesake.

### The Shadowfell and Pre-Stream

Before the stream began, Icilius had been trapped in the Shadowfell with Julia. After her death, he was left alone to fend for himself and fight off Dream Eaters for a decade. In those ten years, he survived off nothing but wine and mayonnaise via alchemy jug.

The other Keepers find him along the way during their adventures, and he joins the party. Upon leaving the Shadowfell, he forms a bond with the Keepers and is with them in the fight to save the universe.

### The White Pines

The Keepers join Ansen, Ivellios' Bloodhunter mentor, on a mission in the White Pines. Their mission took a strange turn when they encountered a cult that willingly gives their limbs to an abomination created by a dissimortuum known as The Surgeon. During an altercation with the Pine-Barrow cultists, Icilius' left hand was amputated in a ritualistic act. For the rest of the time in the White Pines, his firearm skills were limited with the use of one hand.

One notable event in the White Pines involves an incident where Icilius shot a pregnant cultist when she charged at them defensively for entering a shelter for women and children. She and the fetus were killed instantly from the gunshot wound to the leg, and the main party refuse to let it go. They use every chance they get to remind Icilius of what he'd done, which his argument for why he did it repeatedly goes back to "self-defense."

After leaving the White Pines, Ansen takes it upon himself to visit the Elves that made his own prosthesis and come back to the Party to give Icilius a new hand. They have the prosthesis bound to Icilius, and it functions similarly to his human hand. Partially because of the paranoia of nearly losing his wedding band, he now wears it around his neck.

### The Nest

The Keepers go to Ivellios' old home, the Nest, to fulfill a request given to Ivellios in a vision by his late father. Icilius was with them to storm the prison to find and rescue Sarris. While there, however, the Keepers reunite with Cico and meet Ziwi, and they decide to rescue them and do their best to leave the prison while magic was hindered by Arcane Glass.

However, before they can leave, the party nearly suffered a major casualty when Icilius dies at the hands of Aarakocran prison guards. While lifeless, he briefly reunites with Julia and reunites with her spirit for a few moments just to spend time with her and be with her again like they once were. Before he can fully succumb to his mortal wounds, Elenya casts revivify and brings him back to life in the middle of battle. He had been dead for less than a minute.

After escaping the prison, the Keepers along with the prisoners follow Kasdin to a safe house that The Oath takes shelter in. Before they can enter, they were ambushed by Kobolds. Among those Kobolds was one that knew magic. During the attack, Icilius was under the effects of the Banishment spell. The effects of it normally only last for a minute. However, Icilius never returned.

### The Astral Plane

After being banished, Icilius was quickly apprehended by the Ilithid and Mind Flayers. He was brutally tortured and interrogated for days as his captors demanded to know where "the box" was, which was another name for The Professor's vehicle, the Hartnell.

The only thing that was keeping him alive was fluid filtered straight into his medulla oblongata through a tube. It was briefly replied and mentioned that his captors had the power to torture, kill, revivify, dissect, and vivisect their victims without mercy. So, the amount of trauma and pain Icilius experienced in the Astral Plane is unimaginable.

Nearly all of his possessions, including Julia, were confiscated and destroyed. When found by the Keepers, he was emaciated and naked while in chambers that were intended to be his final resting place. The Mind Flayers attempt to execute him using a worm from the vats that was intended to eat at his brain. The only antidote is to drink the liquid from the vat, which he does so reluctantly after the fight was settled by a parlay.

The Keepers and Jurdan were only given enough time for a head start to the Hartnell. They just barely make it inside to continue their journey to the Abyss. On the way there, Icilius is given just enough time for one long rest and time to tinker with the remains of Julia to fashion a new weapon. His wedding band was hidden within a compartment in one of Julia's pieces.

He's given Jurdan's clothes to wear and eats food for the first time in weeks. He also uses this brief recovery time to prepare for whatever awaited him in the Abyss.

### God of Death

When unconscious in the Astral Plane, Icilius sees Julia once more like he'd seen her when he died in the Nest. This time, however, it felt like the appearance of his old home was artificial with Julia's face being mostly blurred and a figure watching them in the distance. Icilius fears that it's a Dream Eater and asks Elenya and the Professor to go into his mind with him to figure out what's going on.

After the Professor develops an apparatus that allows more than two people to enter someone's mind, they all go into Icilius' subconscious. The first thing they encounter is a memory from the Shadowfell just before Julia died. It was here that Elenya suggests to Icilius that he should interact with Julia differently here to find more information instead of going through the actual memory.

It was here that he finds out where Julia had gotten the rod on his gun. She'd received it before they met from "The Wanderer," who claimed that she would need it one day.

Icilius then wills his mind to go back to the dream that he had the other night. He's able to control the vision well enough to pause the dream and see the figure that's watching Julia from afar. Icilius and Elenya find that the creature watching them is not a Dream Eater. Instead, it's Ordis, the God of Death. Once finding out the true identity of the figure, Ordis mentions to them that Julia's soul is in fact split into pieces. Part of her soul is in a limbo type plane, and the other is determined missing by Ordis.

## Quotes

"This is Icilius. He shoots guns; He gets his elite shooting abilities through the power of mayonnaise; that's his backstory. Definitely for sure." -The Professor describes Icilius to Basteer Chevot in Episode 1.