Azel Castellanos

### Title

Azel "Athanasia" Castellanos-Russo Morningstar, former Chief Alchemist and Master of Transmutation of the Mor Raa Empire, Master of Transmutation of the Mages Guild of Phia, Head Matriarch of the Russo Family

### Aliases

Azel Dazzle (annoying nickname)Athanasia (virtue name)

The Matriarch (by the Russo Family)

### Affiliation

Mor Raa EmpireThe Russo Family

The Phia Mages Guild

## Biographical Information

### Known Relatives

Caliope Castellanos (mother) Some random devil (father)

Zodd Talbot (half-brother)

Myrmidon (adopted dragon son)

### Place of Death

Nost several timesFinal death: House Rus'soh, Ernathoro

## Character Info

She was a high level Transmutation Wizard. The Chief Alchemist and Master of Transmutation of the Mor Raa Empire, in fact. She has died twice and also has had at least three close calls. She was an immortal before she was eaten by Lucky.

Since the end of Season 4 of Glacial Island Fortress Nost, Azel had been ocupied. Sometime during the next 15 years, Azel meets Ladd Russo, and events lead to them being married. She made an appearance as an NPC in Season 3 Part 2 of Adventures in Niflheim, when Scamp is sent to her lab for torturous heart surgery.

She appeared several more times, meeting both Scamp's Crew and The Fumbling Rollers, before they finally joined forces and slayed her with Lucky's help.

## Physical Description

Azel has horns that wrap around once like a rams. Her skin is a light shade of lavender. She has solid orange eyes. Since falling into lava, her skin is one giant burn scar and her hair is gone.

While attuned to The Book of Vile Darkness (which is not often), her appearance is also changed. Her horns branch out farther (a bit like Hela) and there are these marks around her eyes (like Kaecilius in Dr. Strange). Her voice is slightly distorted.

While exploring Nost City, she wears a witch's hat decorated with embroidered with little stars. She wears a red cloak with gold trim and embroidery that smells of brimstone, and underneath wears nice clothing (perhaps a dress?). She would normally carry her spellbook by a leather strap over her shoulder.

While working in her lab at the Transmutation Tower, her hat and cloak are hung up and instead she wears a white lab coat, with the Black Lion embroidered on the breast pocket, that holds a small notebook.

In Adventures in Niflheim, Azel looks mostly the same usually donning her white lab coat and hat. She also wears a black wedding band on her ring finger.

## Tendancies

Azel is an alchemist, spending much of her free time in the Transmutation Tower. She has a questionable sense of morality, and her alignment is Neutral Evil. She is known to place area-effecting spells in strategic areas even if it will hit her allies. Before the end of the Nost game she died twice, and came close to death many other times, including the time she was pulled into a pit of lava which caused her to loose her eyes. This was fixed when Delayla used Regenerate on her.

She is also known to disapear into the Transmutation Tower and not be seen again for several days. And when the party fled Nost City, she had a cage of rats attached to the back of her broomstick.

## Magic Items

Cape of Montebank - see DMG page 157. She already had this item when she got to Nost.

Hat of Magic Missiles - see DMG page 211 (wand of magic missiles). She already had this item when she got to Nost.

Broom of Flying - see DMG page 156. She got this from one of the towers where the airship crashed.

The Book of Vile Darkness - Also called the Marquez Manifesto.

Shield Gaurdian Amulet - Given by Lucky after promising to help destroy Amarth.

### Spellbooks

- Her new spellbook after falling into lava. The cover is decorated with a golden symbol, which a trained eye would recognize as the alchemical symbol for gold.

- Her first spellbook, had half the pages torn out. Has an infernal word on the cover. Was lost when she fell into the lava.

- Her backup spellbook, which looks similar to her first one. Was also lost when she fell into the lava.

- Evoker's Spellbook

- Conjurer's Spellbook

- Abjurer's Spellbook

- Illusionist's Spellbook

- Transmuter's Spellbook

- Enchanter's Spellbook

## Deaths and Close Calls

Azel, having the health of a wizard and generally being targeted the most, has had several close calls when it came to death. There are two instances where she has actually died.

Azel's first death was in the enchantment tower against a Nagpa. The Nagpa casted Prismatic Spray, and the ray Azel was shot with was an indigo-colored one, which is where the target has to make three successful constitution saves before becoming petrified. As predicted, Azel failed all her saves. She was cured from petrification by Delayla casting Greater Restoration.

Azel's second death was in the mundane quarter against a gold shadow dragon named Gren. At this time, Azel was level 12 and had a hit point maximum of 71. During the fight, Gren had used her shadow breath, and Azel failed the dex save. The breath attack did 72 damage, which was enough to one-shot Azel at full health. Getting reduced to 0 HP by the breath weapon instantly kills. Once again, Azel was brought back by Delayla, but this time she used Raise Dead.

As well as actual deaths, Azel has had many close calls. These are three that stand out the most, partly because if she had died in two of these situations, there would be no way to bring her back.

The first close call was near the end of the Botanical Quarter. In order to get rid of the cloud of smoke in the air, the party had to cross into the Industrial Quarter to redirect the smoke from one of the factories. There was a room underground where the party could cross in order to get there. This room was round, with a large pit of lava in the center took up most of the walking space. There were chains attached to the cieling that went under the lava. Upon entering the room, Lucky stepped on a pressure plate. This caused the chains to pull a Balor out of the lava. During the encounter, the Balor attacked Azel with its whip, intending to pull her into the lava. The number Azel rolled would have normally been a good number, adding up to 20 with her (then) strength modifier, but it still wasn't enough (Robert used his Bend Luck ability to attempt to help, but alas, he rolled a 1. Just 1 short of what was needed). Azel was pulled into the lava. If not for Azel's fire resistence, she would be dead, with no way to return because her body would be lost. After taking the lava's damage, she had 2 hit points. Alajandro was able to get her out of the lava before she could take any more damage. After the lava, Azel was permenantly disfigured. Her nerves had been completely burnt away, her fingers, feet, eyelids, mouth, and nose fused shut, and her eyes being melted away, leaving her completely blind. She also lost her entire spellbook. Azel was able to cut the necessary open in order to breath and cast verbal/symatic spells, but she remained blind for most of the Industrial Quarter, until the Marchists forced a magitek eye into her eye socket. Eventually, the party found the secret hideout where Delayla was, and all was fixed by casting Regeneration.

The second close call was while exploring Castle Angrenost. After picking up one of the keys, the party (Lucky, Nikademus, Robert, and Azel) were teleported underground to what was later revealed to be the Plane of Earth. The party was stuck in sand, and couldn't see eachother. Nikademus found lucky by the sound of his voice. Using Blink, Robert figured out that the surface was only 60ft up. He could communicate this with Nikademus and Lucky through earrings, but Azel didn't have an earring so he appeared next to her to tell her directly. Azel then Dimention Doored both of them to the surface. They were under the impression that Lucky and Nikademus were going to meet them on the surface with the teleportation helm. Instead, they left the Plane using the helm, leaving Azel and Robert behind in the Plane of Earth. The two were quickly knocked unconscious (Robert dead) by a spray of boulders that were spit from an Island Turtle. They were saved when Lucky and Nikademus realised what had happened and flew back to the plane on Lucky's bird.

Azel's most recent close call was faced alone. In the castle, Azel was planeshifted somewhere unknown. Her most powerful spellslot remaining was one of 5th level, and she was carrying the Formless Sword and all the unused Ioun Stones with no way to communicate with her party. She was in a cave on this new plane. After a few seconds, Laufet showed up, and when he realised she was completely alone he attempted to charm Azel. Luckily, she saved. Because she was alone, she used her last 5th level spellslot to cast Infernal Calling, and summoned a Bearded Devil to defend her. For Azel's next turns, she had tried escaping by flying away on her broomstick, but Laufet caught up to her before she was able to leave the cave, and dragged her onto a sacrificial altar. Azel had very little hope, as Laufet is much stronger than her. This is when the Bearded Devil she summoned came to use. He was able to pull Azel out from under Laufet long enough that she could escape the cave with Expedicious Retreat. She finally reached the surface and flew the rest of the duration of the spell to a secluded area and hid. During this flight, she saw The Demogorgon, a strong giveaway that she had been planeshifted to the Abyss. After finding a secluded area, she was able to rest safely inside a Leomund's Tiny Hut. Durting her long rest on the Abyss, she learned Banishment from the Abjurer's Spellbook, and then cast it on herself to return to the Material Plane.

15 years after the events of Nost is her third and final (?) death. She, along with her husband, Ladd Russo, where slain at House Rus'shoh in Ernathoro by Lucky with the help of Alejandro, Scamp's Crew and The Fumbling Rollers.

## Secrets Spilled

For most of Azel's time spent in Nost, she kept her downtime activities secret from the party. Nothing was thought of it until Sederick stumbled into her lab and found many incripting items, such as a beating heart in a glass jar. Despite pressure from the party, her activities remained secret until Session 20.

For the past couple months Azel has been in Nost City, she has been gathering materials to make Elixir, which is a potion that grants the drinker Immortality. She found these notes in the Transmutation Tower, and knows how to make it. Recently, she has been searching for a Greater Catalyst to use other than ether, which is a required ingredient. Before learning what this greater catalyst was, Azel found that the godtree sap could be used to make a subsitute. In order to make the sap usible as a subsitute, matter of all creature types needed to be conbined with it.

Using this method, she made the first trial of Elixir, and tested it on rats. By doing so, she found that the first Trial wasn't exactly right. The rats aged and mummified, and eventually became incased in magicite crystal. The immortality worked, however. This result is because there is too much ether, as the godtree was contaminated.

This meant that Azel would have no choice but to use the real Greater Catalyst. By reading The Book of Vile Darkness, Azel learned that the Formless Sword can be used as the Greater Catalyst after creatures of every type have been slain by the blade. Using this, she will be able to create Elixir.

Luckily, Alejandro had been accidentally helping her by slaying most types of monster creatures. Azel was able to finish the last few and get her Greater Catalyst.

## Trivia

- Azel recieved her all of her standard education in the Nine Hells.

- After her early completion of high school, Azel enrolled in law school for a year, but later dropped it.

- As the Chief Alchemist, she invented gunpowder.

- Azel's full name and title is Azel "Athanasia" Castellanos-Russo Morningstar, former Chief Alchemist and Master of Transmutation of the Mor Raa Empire, Master of Transmutation of the Mages Guild of Phia, Head Matriarch of the Russo Family

- She was able to carry out a 1v1 battle with the Nalfeshne until finally it was slain by a final Phantasmal Killer spell. She had joined the fight late after her party had already been killed or knocked out. (It is important to know that she did use many of Robert's potions that she took form his corpse.)

- Azel is the first wizard to solve alchemy.

- She knows how to make Elixir, the Potion of Immortality

- While Azel was immortal, she regenerated 100 hp per round. This power now belongs to Lucky

- Post-Nost, Azel took one of the gold dragon eggs. After the dragon hatched, she took him to the Shadowfell to have him turned into a shadow dragon, and named the dragon Myrmidon.

- Sometime during the 15 years between Nost and Adventures in Niflheim, something led to Azel getting married to Ladd Russo.

- In the presence of Ladd Russo, Azel is the only one who needs not the fear of death.

- Her soul now belongs to Morpheus.