Damien LeCroix

Damien LeCroix, circa 756.

Statistics

Damien LeCroix, 9th level neutral (good) male human transmuter, (formerly lawful good)

Str 8 Dex 15 Con 16 Int 18 Wis 10 Cha 10, Age: 36 (born in 720, Barovian calendar)

Weapon Proficiencies: dagger, club (cane)

Non-Proficiencies (14): Dementlieue (1), Barovian (1), spellcraft (1), rope use (1), sage knowledge: alchemy (2 + 1, spec. in chemical transmutation), sage knowledge: transmutation (2 + 1, spec. in humanoid modification), alchemy (2 + 1, spec. in chemical transmutation), land-based riding (horse)

Background

The Childhood of Damien LeCroix

Damien LeCroix was born the second child of Fernais LeCroix and Ellieanne LeCroix nee Catoran in 720 in the Bavarian calendar, in the village of Chateaufaux in the domain of Dementlieue, along the Sea of Sorrows. An arms merchant of some wealth, LeCroix was a retired mercenary originally from the domain of Lamordia with a special interest in gunpowder and weapons that employ the substance. After years of service to a boyar of Barovia, Fernais settled in the home village of his bride, the beautiful Ellieanne Catoran, and assumed the daily operations of her father's gunpowder import service.

Growing up amidst the gentry, as a young boy Damien was educated at a boarding school associated with the new Church of Ezra of Ste. Mere des Larmes in Port-a-Lucine, the capital of Dementlieue. These were fine times, and as Damien grew, it became expected of his father than Damien, as the second son, enter the Church of Ezra as an anchorite, while his elder brother Arant be groomed to assist his father in the family business.

Damien the Acolyte of Ezra, and the Transmutations of the Cleric-Philosopher Jeaneau Lesante

As Damien grew into a young man, his interest became less that of faith, and more that of science. To his father's chagrin, Damien delayed his vows as a formal anchorite and priest of the faith, and instead remained an acolyte of the faith, falling primarily under the tutelage of the secretive cleric-alchemist Jeaneau Lesante. A genuine wizard and transmuter, the old scientist Lesante was obsessed with making potions derived from the mysterious Icon of Ezra of the Church of Ste. Mere des Larmes. The potions could give to Lesante wondrous powers for a time, and even succeeded in permanently correcting his vision. Damien became Lesante's pupil, and supported the transmuter's obsession with creating ever more powerful potions.

When Damien was 20, his father threatened to cut him from his allowance if he did not soon make his formal vows as an anchorite to La Bastion of Ste. Mere des Larmes, and the two nearly came to blows. However, when the situation was about to become forced for Damien, the Grand Conjunction struck, a great event when the Mists of the Realm of Dread altered and reshaped almost every domain, causing great chaos and strange events, even in the comparative safety and security of Dementlieue. Indeed, shortly thereafter, tragedy struck the town of Chateaufaux, and the sudden and mad violence of the mayor Henri Melano and his Black Watch militia saw the brutal and meaningless death of many townspeople, including Damien's elder brother Arant, who was beaten with clubs until he expired in 740.

For Damien, these events were not entirely unexpected. Jeaneau Lesante had seemed to possess some foreknowledge of the Grand Conjunction, as he called it, and likewise did not seem wholly surprised by the violence and madness coming from the mayor of Chateaufaux and his minions. Indeed, instead of horror and concern, Lesante, along with two other but oft absent members of the local Ezran clergy, expressed interest in these events, taking every opportunity to question those who had been to Chateaufaux and seen the spectacles of violence and madness that were happening there. At last, Damien demanded from his master the reason for their interest. Lesante and his companion-clerics admitted the great secret that they were members of a section of Ezran priests who called themselves les Échansons (the Cupbearers), and that they calculated through their magic and esoteric lore that it was not men who were causing the murders in Chateaufaux, but rather infernal beings, who had come to Dementlieue during the Grand Conjunction.

Believing in their power and convinced of Lesante's wisdom, Damien joined the Cupbearers in an attempt not to destroy, but to harness, the devils of Chateaufaux. In a series of adventures, they encountered the infernal beings in Chateaufaux and the terrors they had wrought. Lesante however woefully misjudged the power of the devils, and while he and his fellow sect-members attempted to imprison the lead fiend and demand from it secrets, the horrific being broke loose from their magical prison, slaying one of their number outright and delivering Lesante a mortal wound.

Damien managed to delay Lesante's death for a time, but the old man was too far gone, and having not taken his vows, Damien could not mend his wounds with prayer. In has last words, Lesante mentioned that his death should not dissuade Damien from his pursuit of magical knowledge, and told him that he ought to seek out his own mentor, Lucien Maront of Richemulot, who had been convinced to leave his laboratory in that country and his search for the prima materia in order to assume to the Chair of Transmutation at the College of Science and Metaphysics in Zeidenburg, Barovia. Giving Damien his key to his secret treasury, Jeaneau Lesante expired.

Damien Studies Transmutation at the College of Science and Metaphysics at Zeidenburg

Inheriting a considerable sum from Master Lesante as well as a certain confidence from his adventures against the devils of Chteaufaux, Damien convinced his elderly father to move their family home and business to Zeidenburg, where instead of serving the Church of Ezra, he would seek study in magic so that he himself might learn the process to make gunpowder, and perhaps many other valuable substances besides. Nearing ruin, his father relented, and Damien used his newfound wealth and moved his family to Barovia.

The city of Zeidenburg was foreign and unfamiliar, but Damien, an older and more experienced student, was quick to his studies. Damien excelled under Assistant Professor Erkon Rasovovich, and by his third year, became the accepted famulus or assistant to the rarely seen Professor Lucien Maront. A very old yet active and driven man, the white-bearded Professor Maront took a liking to Damien due to his shining intelligence, as well as due to his familiar language of Dementlieue. The professor however had little time for students, and experimented endlessly with strange substances and arcane books from distant lands.

The Teachings of Professor Lucien Maront

For a time, Damien prospered. Upon being selected as famulus, Damien was sent on numerous assignments and quests by Assistant Professor Erkon Rasovovich. Damien traveled far and wide, throughout Barovia, Darkon, and to Lamordia, and even upon the Sea of Sorrows procuring special substances or texts for Professor Maront. Damien had many such adventures between his terms of study. By his fourth year, Damien was already powerful and skilled enough to make gunpowder by his own craft, and thereby at last pleasing his aging father with a regular and significant source of income, and establishing the continued success of the family merchant business, now operating out of Zeidenburg. This secure, Damien increasingly left his younger brother Richileau to manage the day-to-day operations of the business, while he focused ever further upon his studies.

Nearing his being awarded his title of Master of Transmutation, Damien was suddenly treated more humanely by Professor Maront, who invited him into his private home, revealing to the young man that he too was human, and not utterly obsessed with research into magical secrets. Maront also revealed to Damien his beautiful daughter Postuma, whose mother had died giving birth to her. Postuma, herself not entirely a stranger to the study of magic, was kindly yet demure, and completely devoted to the care of her great father.

It was at these meetings at his home in Zeidenburg that Damien realized that Maront's studies no longer sought for the secrets of substances or the production of the prima materia, but rather that the powerful wizard had a new pursuit almost entirely, leaving his interest in transmutation behind. Maront's exact purposes however were left vague, and Damien's questions largely unanswered. "In time," the old man said, "I may share with you my secrets, but you have a far longer road to travel before I bestow you with such knowledge."

Professor Maront Retires, Damien's Professorship, and Travel to Invidia

In 745, Damien LeCroix graduated from the College of Science and Metaphysics with the respected title of Master of Transmutation, and with the offer to replace Assistant Professor Erkon Rasovovich, who had mysteriously died in a recent alchemical explosion. Damien did not accept the position however, and continued to work for his doctoral degree under Professor Maront, remaining the appointed famulus, a position usually reserved for more junior students. Maront, increasingly removed from these lesser students, fell into every-increasing intensity into his studies and experiments, which brought the alarm of Postuma, who worried for his health. Additionally, Damien was sent by Maront on increasingly dark missions, gaining grizzly components at much risk to himself, and with little explanation given.

At last pressed by his chief student and daughter, the seemingly kind old man relented, and announcing his retirement, told them both he had purchased lands and a tower in the nearby forested domain of Invidia, and live out his remaining days there. Soon after, realizing the romance between the two, Maront also gave permission for his daughter to marry Damien. The wedding was held at a secret Church of the Morning Lord in Barovia in late 746.

Her father moving away, Postuma moved in with Damien into his new home in Zeidenburg, and Damien accepted the new position of Reader of Alchemical Studies in 746. Working hard to earn his doctoral degree, perform his teaching duties and lead his family, Damien found it difficult to make time for his wife, and she miscarried their first child in 748. Feeling ill in the city and missing her father, Postuma moved to her father's tower in Invidia in 749, leaving Damien alone to his work.

In 750, Damien became Adjunct Professor of Transmutation, and was nearing completion of his doctoral studies. However, after only a year as professor, Damien received a letter from his wife that her father had had a stroke, and that he must come urgently. Taking a leave of absence, Damien traveled to Invidia by river, and soon arrived to see his wife and father-in-law.

The Tower of Maront in Invidia

The Highest Philosophy of Lucien Maront

Arriving at Maront's tower in a rural and picturesque area of southeastern Invidia, Damien found Maront almost prematurely aged, no doubt from the stroke and overwork. Obsessed with his studies, Postuma was at her wits end to take care of him and to run his estate. Angered, Damien cornered the old wizard, and demanded what studies were so important as to cause such havoc to his health and his daughter's peace of mind. Maront, saddened, admitted he had nearly found the secrets to life, and that, if only given a few more years and the assistance of his old famulus, he might be able to extend his life indefinitely, and prevent his daughter from miscarrying again.

Convinced by Maront's passion, Damien agreed to assist. Helping the old man improve his health and studies, Damien also poured himself into improving the management of the tower's lands, and making investments with the great wizard's wealth, or what remained of it after such a frenzy of spending for his laboratory, as he saw fit.

For several years Damien supported the great wizard as he once had, and acquired magical items and substances for him that few others could.

Some things Damien refused to do, as they were too dark and disturbed. However, in 753, Postuma became pregnant again, and when she sickened, fearing she would again miscarry, Damien hurriedly obeyed Maront's demands. Traveling to a cemetary, Damien dug up the body of a newly dead virgin girl, slain by a vampire, and desecrated her body. And indeed, there were several more such tasks, too terrible to repeat in story.

Returning to his father-in-law's tower, Damien gave to the great wizard those components he needed to conduct his ritual. Receiving them, the old wizard locked the door to his study and laboratory, forbidding Damien from interrupting him or open the door in any way until he commanded, and proceeded to call upon the greatest greatest magic he possessed.

Growing highly alarmed and second-guessing his actions, both Damien and the pregnant Postuma used all their magical skill and forced upon Lucien Maront's study door. Upon doing so, they found Maront fallen dead upon the floor, and a mysterious and incredible gem of immense size glinting with a strange light upon his work desk. Postuma became overwhelmed with grief, and nearly lost her child. She became bedridden, and almost beyond comfort.

Lucien Maront at last completes the potion that will transform him into a lich.

The Funeral and Return of Lucien Maront

Maront was buried in a pleasant garden maintained by his daughter a few hundred feet from the tower. Faced with the devastation, Damien soon went into his old master's study to learn just what Maront had been up to, and to find out just what had killed him. Damien was quick to deduce the old wizard had killed himself with a horrific potion, for the wondrous potion crystal vial, made of the same stuff as the glinting gem, was easily visible on the floor.

Damien quickly realized the also the depths of necromancy which Maront had studied and kept from him, for there were forbidden codices and works of necromancy everywhere, few of which Damien had ever before seen. Having no skill with necromancy, Damien could not at first determine just what the old man had been attempting, and so began a long phase of research, trying to unlock necromantic secrets to which he had hitherto been blind.

After two months of fruitless study, Damien despaired of his research into his father-in-law's necromantic obsession, for his wife was soon to give birth, and he had to be prepare for that. Disgusted by many of Maront's foul potions, books and experiments, Damien burned much of it, determining it forbidden lore. Amidst the dark fumes and magical emanations coming from such destruction, Damien even tried to destroy the strange and large gem, but found no substance or spell that could even scratch it. Unable to learn what vile spell was upon it, Damien angrily buried the gleaming gem, along with the ruins of the lab and books, at the bottom of a pit not far from Maront' grave.

Three days later, Postuma's birth pangs began, and Damien summoned midwives. That night, his wife's birth-screams began, and Damien listened from his distant private chamber, hoping for a healthy child. The labor proved difficult however, as feared, and bellows of terrible pain came from his still grieving wife. Hours passed, and Damien listened, but then suddenly, amidst the worst of the cries, there was silence.

Sensing something was wrong, Damien feared for the worst, and his mind fell into a spiral of depression, as Damien found it impossible to move for so great his sorrow was, and fear, that his wife was dead.

Damien is "comforted" by Maront.

About to rise to see the fate of his silent wife, suddenly Damien felt an unearthly, almost imaginable cold fall upon his left shoulder, draining the heat out of almost his entire body, and leaving the left side of his body nearly numb and unmovable. It was the touch of fingers upon his shoulder.

"You need not fear," said a familiar, yet somehow different voice, "for a I have saved her." Fearing a rival spellcaster from his days journeying abroad, Damien turned to greet the intruder with cold steel, but was horrified to see, in the dim candlelight, the rotting body of his dead father-in-law, his cold dead eyes staring at him. At the very back of the pupils, a burning light, like the gleam in the gem, sizzled into Damien's vision, filling him with fear.

"You are dead Lucien!" Damien cried. "We buried you."

"Nonsense," replied the corpse. "For I have defeated death. Come, I shall show you."

Awesome, mystical fear poured forth from the creature, so that Damien could barely speak.

"I would have appeared sooner, and more in my old form, but you and Postuma disobeyed me and broke open my private study. You buried me before my soul had a chance to migrate back from the phylactery and to my body. Luckily, you saw fit to bury the gem beside me, else it may have been years until I found a suitable host."

"Phylactery?" Damien asked.

"Yes, young man," said the horror. My greatest work. It is now the shelter of my soul, and the guarantor of my new life. While it lasts no power can truly destroy me, and no power any mortal can possesses could destroy it."

"Such is monstrous necromancy father. Look what you have done to yourself!"

"This body had little time left to live, and so I took affairs into my own hands. Come, let me show you the further fruits of my labors!"

Thus commanding, the corpse led Damien towards the room where Postuma had been giving birth. As they walked, Damien noticed the corpse carried Marant's old master spellbook in a great satchel across its back, with something else bulging inside.

They soon arrived at the room. The two midwives could be seen, seemingly having been slain by some invisible force, their faces frozen in terror. Then Damien saw Postuma, who was as still as death, her face frozen in pain and terror, with the child having been ripped out of her open womb.

"You see," the corpse said positively, impressed with its own skill. "The child would have killed her, and the child itself, but I have taken both their souls and placed them within the safety of my phylactery, until I learn the craft to mend their broken bodies. You see Damien. You need no longer fear to lose your wife!" Upon saying those words, the corpse of Marant opened the satchel, and brought forth the mighty gem, which glowed once again, yet this time with two flashing lights which fluttered like tadpoles in its prismatic confines.

Realizing the horror of the situation, Damien somehow collected himself. "Vile necromancer. You killed them!"

The corpse's rotting face sneered, its eyes flashing malevolently. "I saved them," it hissed darkly.

"By all the Gods of Light, I will destroy you now," Damien said. And with that, Damien began to cast his spells to wreck vengeance on the unliving body in front of him.

Although his spells had some effect, the corpse seemed little concerned. A slap of its claws tore open Damien's flesh, but the gelid chill it brought over him was far worse, nearly stopping his heart and almost sending him to his knees.

Damien realizes his wife is dead.

In a panic, Damien took his knife and slashed the monster across the eye, and in that moment fled down the narrow stairs of the tower, overcome with fear. When he made it to the wintery night outside, Damien hid, waiting to ambush his former master with his remaining spells. It was some time later when the corpse emerged, and Damien watched it hesitantly as he shivered in the snow, seeing the corpse and its burning pin-prick eyes gaze about, scanning for him. Despite hiding in the near total darkness, the corpse saw him, locking eyes with him. The corpse had gathered other items, mostly select books, in a great sack it had over its shoulder, and it held yet another such sack in one its hands, something the weak body of the living Maront could never have done.

Transfixed and terrified by the gaze, Damien did not dare cast a spell, and the two stared at each other in hatred. After a time, the corpse walked off into the snows of winter.

Spells

1st Level Spells

Detect Magic

Read Magic

Enlarge

Equipment

The Stone Destrier

Background: During his travels abroad for Professor Maront, LeCroix once feuded with a powerful transmuter named Pharelesso over valuable books LeCroix bought from Pharelesso's son-in-law. The young man had assumed Pharelesso had died on a quest, and peremptorily sold the wizard's library at auction. LeCroix was the principle buyer at the auction, an agent for the College of Science and Metaphysics at Zeidenburg. While LeCroix was making his return journey to Barovia, Pharelesso's agents found Damien at an inn, and demanded the return of the wrongfully sold books. As the agents were only prepared to buy back the books for half the price LeCrois sold them at, the young wizard refused their demands. While on the road the next day, Damien was ambushed, but he managed to survive their attack, slaying one and defeating the other two. A week later, while nearing Barovia, Damien was met by Pharelesso himself, who sat upon a magical horse of stone, at an old bridge over a river. Demanding the return of his library at the threat of force but meeting LeCroix's refusal, Pharelesso transformed Damien's wagon driver to stone, and with a wave deflected Damien's own spell, transmuting his magic missiles into birds. Pharelesso then transformed Damien's horses into ravenous wolves, which instantly attacked Damien. Bitten and clawed, LeCroix managed to buffet them back with a spell, and fled across the river to an island. The wolves pursued, but Damien transformed one back into a horse and slew the other with his spell and dagger. Outraged by this defiance, Pharelesso with a word reduced his stone steed into a small figurine and transformed himself into a great hagfish, crossing the river and reappearing as a man on the tiny island. With the word "étalon en pierre" Pharelesso's figurine of stone became a great stone horse, which Pharelesso mounted and used to ride down LeCroix. LeCroix mounted his own horse of flesh and blood, and rode into the water, attempting to flee. Enraged, Pharelesso pursued, but his stone horse sank quickly into an unexpectedly quick deepening into the river, and so Damien turned round and beat the half submerged wizard with a great stick he had taken from the island. Unable to turn around or cast a spell, Pharelesso was beaten off his magical stone horse and stabbed until he finally released and was carried away by the current of the river. Damien recovered the stone horse by deducing the command word "pieree", which transformed it back into a figurine which he took into his hands. Damien delivered the library to Maront and the college and kept the magical stone horse for himself, but has forever after feared that Pharelesso was not drowned but lives still, carefully plotting his revenge.

Powers: Each item of this nature appears to be full-sized, roughly hewn statue of a horse, carved from some type of hard stone. A command word brings the steed to life,enabling it to carry a burden, and even to attack as if it were a warhorse. This stone horse travels at the same movement rate as a medium horse(movement rate 18) and attacks as if it were a heavy warhorse (three attacks for 1d8/1d8/1d3). It is Armor Class 1 and has 26 hit points. It saves versus all applicable attack forms as if it were "Metal, hard." A stone horse can carry 1,000 pounds tirelessly and never needs to rest or feed. Damage inflicted upon it can be repaired by first using a stone to flesh spell, thus causing the stone horse to become a normal horse. If then allowed to graze and rest, the animal will heal its wounds at the rate of one point per day. When it is fully healed, it will automatically revert to its magical form.

Command Words:

Stone Horse: "étalon en pierre"

Statuette: "pierre"

Living Horse: "étalon"

Zagygy's Spell Component Pounch

Background: Taken from the hands of the were-rat mageling Antiress, who attempted to steal treasured spell components destined for the college at Zeidenburg. Despite her charms, Damien eventually had a final confrontation with Antiress, and slew her with a specially made silver knife. From her body Damien recovered this pouch.

Powers: (4 x daily)