Azel has only recently journeyed to this land. Little is known about him, but it is suspected he may be a creature of the night. He has been seen regularly in the coupany of a
wood elf.
Personality
Azel has had many hard lessons in life and sacrificed much, if unintentionally, in the name of love. As a result he is dedicated to that love as to nothing else in life, or unlife. He wishes to make amends for the terrible errors he has made, though, which is a secondary motivator. He realizes that to do so he must grow stronger, and so he has embraced a life of adventure. To the average person he comes across as having a placid, calm exterior, even fun and seductive as the occasion calls for. But that exterior hides a great deal of turmoil beneath.
Background
Section
Azel Julious Magnus was born the son of a very successful merchant who was granted lands and title on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Pralia, a land in a world distant from the realm of Arcadia. The castle, however, had a dark past, unknown to the family, as a place of worship for Xirgrinath of the Tainted Blood.
In his early years, Azel accompanied his father on his many long trips to trade in distant lands. Azel was a studious young man and studied much on such trips, reading books of lore assigned to him by his tutors before such long trips. His father wished for him to become a merchant as he was, but Azel dreamed of bigger things.
His father's skills as a trader and negotiator were exceptional. He had even managed to gain the trust of a particularly secretive group of wood elves. He traveled to what seemed the middle of nowhere to trade with them several times a year. They always met him on the outskirts of the Obsidian Forest on the banks of the river Teshyr, which marked the edge of the kingdom.
On one such trip when Azel was 12, he was practicing swordsmanship, which he had taken up just recently. He noticed he was being observed by a young wood elf from a tree limb. The elf, Ferral, pointed out several flaws in his technique. The friendly rivalry that developed gave way to simply being friends before they departed a week later.
For the next two years it was so, Azel would look forward to the brief periods he would get to spend with his friend, Ferral. Friendship gave way to something more akin to a puppy love, but his father, on noticing that they were growing closer warned his son against it. Ferral was ageless, and very young by his kind's reckoning of such things. There was no future with him to be found, as he would never age and Azel would.
At 14, with the crushing realization that he could never in truth be with the one he had grown to love, Azel stopped traveling with his father, throwing himself into his studies. Great wizards often seemed to live for many lifetimes. His tutors had always suggested he had an aptitude for magecraft, while his trainers in the blade felt he had a great aptitude for that as well. But, as proficient as he had become with a blade to better release his frustrations, it would not help him to become ageless. That would require a wizardly hand.
Section
Around his sixteenth birthday, Azel started to hear whispers in the castle halls. At first he felt his longing and grief had driven him mad. But, as days turned to weeks he realized there was a voice, promising him all he desired. It taught him magics he was never ready to cast. As time passed Azel changed, and he hardly even saw it, himself, lost to the promises the whispers offered, blind to all that was happening around him due to the seductive power that had ensnared him.
His family had noticed the changes in their son and thought him sick. They saw that Azel was pale in complexion now, cooler to the touch, and overall nearly vacant on the few occasions he would come up from the bowels of the castle. Yet, conversely, he seemed healthier than ever. The same could not be said for the remainder of the family. Servants and retainers fled, fearing a plague. As the family grew sicklier, his father could no longer travel. His mother and older sister took to an unused wing of the castle and isolated themselves. New retainers and trainers started to arrive, taking up residence in a castle they knew so very well. It was almost as if they were coming home.
In Azel's 19th year it all came to tears. Azel woke as if from a haze, with cultists around him in the crypts of the castle. He was fully changed, his "wish" granted, but worse, his mother and father were laid out in coffins, with no sign of his sister, soon to become vampires as well. Azel had learned much in the years he was under the thrall of Xirgrinath of the Tainted Blood, but ultimately once fully changing him, with his wish granted, Azel's will was too strong to fully control. Thus, Xirgrinath switched his attention to Azel's father.
Azel tore though the cultists with consummate ease. In his time as a thrall, his education in magic and swordplay had continued. He was far stronger still as a dread vampire, now, as well. He fled into the night, horrified as the memories washed over him, eventually finding his way to a well-hidden temple in the south of the Obsidian Forest. He had followed what he was sure were the distant sounds of wolf puppies barking. There Azel fell into a deep torpor, and he slept.
Section
When Azel next woke it was to stare into the eyes of Ferral once again. The pair reunited and rested together in the upper floors of the abandoned temple, catching up on each other's lives since last they had met. Secrets were shared: that Azel was now a vampire, and that Ferral had always been a werewolf. Admissions of feelings, of love, were made as well. Both also described that they had been drawn here, to this place and to one another. Exploring the temple, they discovered it had once been a place of worship to Xirgrinath, but the cultists had been killed by followers of Esaldir the Paladin Lord, one of the chief deities of light and an ardent enemy of the undead.
Overcoming traps and obstacles within the temple, they made their way to the very lowest crypts. There Azel found a hidden cache of weapons and equipment once dedicated to Xirgrinath. There and then he pledged himself to Esaldir, whom he believed had guided him to the weapons, pledging to throw down the evil scourge of the undead and Xirgrinath wherever and whenever he might.
It was a task that would prove challenging, however, as Azel discovered when he left the crypt that he had slept for over a decade there. His father now reigned over the once peaceful Kingdom of Pralia, having renamed it the Empire of Xir. The once beautiful kingdom was now a land of the dead for miles around the castle and spreading each day. Azel knew that he and Ferral were no match for the enemies they would find here, but he promised he would return when he was strong enough to restore the kingdom to its former glory. Since then he walks where Ferral goes, learning and growing through the challenges they face together.
SKILLS
BARTER - Competent: Azel often traveled with his father in the days before things went so wrong. As a merchant who went on to become minor nobility Azel's father was teaching Azel the family business. Azel has a good grasp of barter and trade. He may not always come out on top of a trade, but he seldom comes out worse for one, at least managing to keep it fair.
MAGICAL ITEMS - Expert: Azel started to study magic looking for a way to prolong his life. In those early studies he first learned to utilize existing magic imbedded within objects and items. As a result he is quite skilled at deducing the uses and actually using magical items. More common items he can virtually always figure out how to activate within a few minutes of study. More arcane, unique, relics, or artifact-level items require a substantially greater investment of time to fully deduce their functions.
MANIPULATION - Competent: As a dread vampire Azel has learned to use everything at his disposal to cajole or manipulate others to his ends. He is cautious about how and when he employs such skills. Often when he feels vampiric dominance is either to risky or unlikely to work. Some people respond better to a different, less direct or forceful, form of manipulation and Azel is well skilled at it.
MELEE COMBAT - Expert: Azel has trained himself to be a deadly swordsman as part of his training to be a vampire hunter. He regularly wields two blades simultaneously to deadly effect. He is quite proficient at disarming techniques and with his impressive perception skills he is able to fight multiple enemies simultaneously with no real fear of being caught off guard or flanked.
NOBILITY - Expert: Azel was raised in a castle, with retainers, trainers, servants, and bards. He was present to greet and entertain visiting nobles, gentlemen and ladies of high station. He learned a great deal about how to carry himself in such company.
PERCEPTION - Expert: The sharp, predatory senses his dread vampire body is gifted with make it a challenge to hide from him. His training to literally hunt the very same sorts of creatures further augments his impressive skills at noticing hidden objects and individuals and just piecing together clues.
STEALTH - Expert: While not so skilled in this ability when he was completely mortal, Azel is now able to move as silently as the grave. The natural abilities he has as a dread vampire augmented by what he has learned as a vampire hunter to make him nigh undetectable when he chooses to move silently or hide.
VAMPIRE HUNTER - Competent: Despite being a vampire, Azel has dedicated himself to destroying evil vampires whenever he is able. To that end he has already learned much about hunting vampires and their ilk.
POWERS
DREAD VAMPIRE - Supreme: Azel naively bargained with a terrible power, Xirgrinath of the Tainted Blood. The ancient power had a foothold into the world in the castle that had been awarded to Azel's father for services to the court. It preyed on Azel's desires and gained a stronger foothold still. Azel wished to be youthful forever, and the otherworldly power twisted his wish and made him into a powerful dread vampire.
As a vampire, Azel is inhumanly strong and agile (at Enhanced level), but unlike a true vampire that is truly dead, a part of Azel clings to some half-life. As such, unlike a true undead Azel does not have the endless stamina of the dead. Just the same it is impressive, and the act of tiring him out is something few living beings could accomplish without assistance. He can easily travel for days at a time, and even through supernatural means extend this to a mount if he has one.
As a dread vampire, he is subject to attempts by those with holy powers to cause him to flee. However, Azel is particularly resilient to such attempts, being partially alive and having come into his vampiric nature through such unusual means. Only the most powerful and unassailable of faiths could hope to make him flee or cause him any measure of harm. Such an individual would need to have been specially singled out by their deity in some way.
Azel is utterly immune to cold and has effective resistance to acidic, electric, and sonic attacks as well. He has no special resistance to flames in any form. Physical damage is otherwise largely ignored, unless it is inflicted by a magical weapon, silver, or a weapon specifically enchanted to harm the undead. In the latter case he will be hurt, but not as badly as a true undead would be. If he is injured, his body heals with supernatural speed, injuries literally knitting closed before an onlooker's eyes. He is notably immune to the weaknesses of lesser dread vampires, such as garlic and mirrors.
Azel may drain the living vitality from a target either through biting them or being in close proximity to them and focusing on doing so. Azel heals more efficiently when draining blood but can only do so after grappling someone. By leeching away their life essence at a range of up to twenty feet, he heals more slowly but leaves no telltale signs of vampirism. This can be done slightly more effectively based on the distance he is from them, up to maximum effectiveness through touch. Unless the drain happens slowly over a long period of time there is virtually no chance of the victim rising from the grave as a vampire unless if he kills someone using either ability with the intention to turn them. In such a case, they will rise as a undead 24 hours later. Azel has vowed to never do this for personal reasons, however.
MENTALISM - Enhanced: A dread vampire can crush an opponent's will with its own, and Azel has this ability as well. Anyone he targets must be able to overcome the effect or fall instantly under its influence. There is no visual effect to this, and he does not need to make eye contact. The ability has a range of 30 feet and is a purely mental effect. Weaker wills tend to remain under his control even after he releases them, where as stronger willed individuals will typically be quite angry at having been used.
MOVEMENT - Basic: Azel is able to move along horizontal and vertical surfaces just as easily as a person walks across level ground. His speed does not diminish when he is clinging to a surface and climbing. He is also able to throw off gravity by force of will and fly, though not quite so fast as he is able to run and climb. Though he can swim, immersion in running water without time to cast spells to prepare for it is excruciating. He is otherwise able to swim when he has time to properly prepare, but with no particular bonuses to speed.
SUMMONING - Basic: As a dread vampire, Azel may command various "creatures of the night," the lesser creatures and undead of the world. He may summon up to ten creatures of the animal or vermin type, or up to five of the undead type. Creatures summoned must be of an animal-like intellect or lower. He may summon any combination of creatures. Summoned creatures arrive in mere seconds to minutes depending on the locale and serve him for up to one hour.
TRANSFORMATION - Enhanced: Should Azel be injured gravely, he will automatically assume a mist form to allow for his escape. Unlike other vampires, Azel is not bound to the need to rest in a coffin, and as such his mist form is safe to go anywhere where he can effectively heal and regenerate. He may of course assume this same state at any point he wishes, along with others as well, as detailed below. He may remain in mist form indefinitely.
In addition to being able to turn into a mist Azel may alter his form into that of anything he is able to summon, any of the "creatures of the night": animal, vermin, or undead types. He gains the abilities of the animal without sacrificing his own vampiric abilities, save where form function dictates. This is a supernatural effect, so anything he is carrying at the time goes along with him. He may even assume a swarm shape of anything he is able to turn into, so long as any of them survive, he will be able to reform and heal.
WHITE NECROMANCY - Enhanced: Azel has twisted the death magic of the dark necromancer on itself and uses it for more positive ends. He is able to utilize magic for a number of goals, such as dealing damage, healing damage, various undead manipulations, and a variety of simpler wizardly effects, unlike those necromancers whose magic revolves fully around death.
At this point in his career Azel is limited in just how much true magic he can cast in a day, though he is aware of a number of minor magics, or cantrips, that he may use as much as he wishes, as well as several other magical effects from his vampiric nature that he may use a limited number of times each rest period. Those spell-like abilities allow him to summon darkness or fog several times per day, as well as a nigh-impenetrable darkness that can potentially cancel out even supernatural light sources in its proximity, once per rest period.
It is worth noting that unlike some wizards and mages of his world, Azel has no need to prepare his spells ahead of time. He is able to cast any spell of which he is aware without the need for memorization the rest period before. He likewise does not require the material components that so many wizards of his world require to conjure forth their magics either.
Though the spells he may cast are very useful for him in a number of situations. Azel is granted additional abilities through his studies as a white necromancer as well. His knowledge involving death, burial practices, undead, or the afterlife boarders on supernatural. Often he is just aware of such things as if the information was simply whispered directly into his mind.
Without the need to call on his spell magic, he is still able to heal those that have fallen in battle. However, his ability is specifically limited to those that have fallen. He is able to rebuke death itself and call the fallen back to the fight before their spirit flees their body. This ability must be used on those that are dying, but not yet dead, for it to function.
Azel is able to channel positive energy to force undead creatures to flee or even potentially be destroyed. Referred to as "turning the undead," it is an ability usually reserved to only holy men and women, but Azel is able to use his training as a white necromancer to strike at the very essence, the binding spirit of other undead.
Azel can detect undead anywhere in his immediate vicinity if he concentrates on doing so. This is not a passive ability, but one which he must invoke. He may deter
ADVANTAGES
ANENTHE HORSE TRINKET This small carved statue of a horse easily fits in the pocket. Once per day for up to eight hours it may be activated to call upon a fully tacked horse capable of running at top speed without fear of exhaustion. The summons need not be concurrent, and it refreshes at the first rays of dawn.
CRUCIFER Crucifer, Defiler of the Word and the Faith, is a longsword with a thin black blade that flickers with purple licks of flame when unsheathed. The intensity of the flames increases in the presence of divine magic or champions of the divine. The blade was created by a powerful lich and given to one of its minions, a ghostly spectre of no small measure of power. It may be wielded by disembodied hands, incorporeal, ethereal, or even the mist like form of a vampire and still remain a part of the physical world, but the sword's true gift is to be a shield against divine champions and their abilities to rebuke or turn away the undead. Whenever such an attempt is made against the sword's wielder, it flares with purple flames. Those flames will leap from the blade in the direction of the one that attempted to use the ability, taking on a wraith-like visage and attacking them with arcane fire for several moments. The blade is enchanted and can strike creatures only harmed by magic.
LIFEBINDER Lifebinder, Last Hope of the Lasting Night, is a broadsword with a dark ebony like blade. A rivulet of blood red ruby runs through the center of the blade, and always seems to pulse slightly. As if the blade had only just recently been used to inflict a wound. The sword drinks the blood of it's enemies, holding a reservoir within it's enchanted blade. It may bleed on command, providing a vampire with sustenance. However, it can also be used to feed the sword itself, causing the darkness of the blade to expand into a globe of twilight around the wielder for twenty feet. This effectively creates an area of lasting night, preventing the sun from reaching the wielder. The effect is only temporary, lasting only one hour per pint of blood within the blade. The blade may absorb up to five pints within its blade. The blade is enchanted and can strike creatures only harmed by magic.
LIFE SUPPORT Azel has no need to engage in any life sustaining measures in the traditional sense. He has no need to eat or drink, sleep, nor does he require respiration. Instead he has the vampiric needs of either blood or the chance to absorb the life force from living targets periodically. He is immune to sleep spells, and effects as well as spells that would simulate thirst or hunger in the traditional sense.
LOVE CONQUERS ALL Call it what you will: destiny, written in the stars, divine intervention. Perhaps it's something of all of those things, but Azel Julious Magnus and Ferral of the Wer tribe were somehow fated to be together. They bring out a strength and purpose in each other that makes them greater in many ways than the sum of their parts. This is most notably true when one or the other is in imminent danger of loss of life. Under such circumstances they seem to exceed their normal limits to achieve results that under other circumstances might be impossible: that perfectly ricocheted shot, the ideally timed spell, the two hundred percent necessary to save their one true love.
PERSONAL GEAR Azel weilds two enchanted blades of great antiquity and power. Lifebinder, Last Hope of the Lasting Night, and Crucifer, Defiler of the Word and the Faith. Each blade has special properties that compliment his vampiric gifts well, as they would having been taken from a temple dedicated to Xirgrinath of the Tainted Blood. These are detailed in separate Advantage entries.
Azel wears a an enchanted chain mail shirt over top of his otherwise black and red leather armor. His boots are similarly black, though unenchanted. He frequently wears a black hooded travelers cloak with a red interior.
THE KEY OF ENAAS The enchanted key is held extended, as if inserted into a lock, and the command word spoken aloud. With a twist of the hand one may open a doorway to a pocket dimensional room. Within the warehouse-sized space the owner of the key may safely and securely store a vast amount of items, treasure, or other material goods. Depending on just how far the key is turned, it may open up gateways to other pocket dimensions or even other planes as well, but without knowing the exact command words and combinations, such experimentation can be very dangerous. The Key is also not originally a possession of Azel's father. Somewhere out there, someone no doubt misses it and may well be searching for it.
WEALTH AND GEAR Even just with the wealth he escaped his father's castle with, Azel commands a king's ransom worth of coin. Kept secure within the confines of the magical key he carries. He seldom flashes around great wealth, but he has access to it just the same.
Hidden in the same pocket dimension is a virtual cornucopia of mundane and useful gear. Azel stole all that he could and hid it away inside the key. While precious little of it is enchanted in any way, it is almost all useful in some fashion. This hoard includes everything from writing supplies, to rope and grappling hooks, to arrows, to throwing knives.
WIND'S TALISMAN The Wind's Talisman is a small amulet with a image of Ara, Goddess of the Wind, on it. It may be invoked three times a day to calm or call a favorable wind. The amulet may also be called on three times a day to create a bubble of air around the wearer if they are submerged in water. As a persistent effect, the wielder always seems to have a slight vreeze around them, stirring clothing and hair dramatically.
WEAKNESSES
FAITH Powerful men of convictions backed by their deities' grace have a chance to compel him to flee an area if they present their holy symbol and command him thus. Note that given how he became a vampire it takes someone with a very powerful connection to their god to accomplish this, typically only their god's direct favor.
HAUNTED Azel is still haunted by the errors he feels he made. In truth he did nothing wrong, as virtually nobody with such a strong desire in the castle could have resisted Xirgrinath's corrupting influence for long. His father likely would have succumbed many years previously if not for the long absences from merchant trips. On an intellectual level, Azel knows this now. On an emotional level, it still takes a toll.
INVITATION Azel cannot enter a private home or dwelling unless invited in by someone with the authority to offer an invitation. If he is in the home when an invitation is revoked, he is immediately expelled and appears 30 feet from the abode's entrance.
RUNNING WATER Though he is not as susceptible to death by immersion in running water as some other vampires, it still is debilitatingly painful and does cause him harm. His natural regenerative abilities allow him to heal it, but it becomes a push. They are unavailable to heal anything else that may harm him, and spellcasting or anything that is not instinctual is all but impossible from the pain. The water must be running for this to occur. Immersion in a still lake would not harm him, but a powerful running river would.
SLAYING Driving a blessed wooden stake through Azel's heart would instantly slay him. Any other wooden stake has no effect on him except for the weapon's normal damage. If the blessed stake is removed from his body, he comes back to life, unless his head is severed, his body and head anointed with holy water, his body sanctified with the proper holy spells and rituals invoking his true name, and his corpse buried in hallowed land.
VAMPIRE Azel is cool to the touch and pale as death. Though he lacks many of the classic vampiric weaknesses, he still suffers from others. Exposure to direct sunlight is utterly excruciating to him, and after a few minutes will begin to burn him. Continual exposure could even lead to his final death. Likewise, while he has no particular weakness to flame, his vampiric body has no particular defense, either. Unless augmented through magic, he will burn and can die from such just as readily as any mortal. Despite his pledge to fight the undead, he is undead, himself. As such, those that hunt such creatures see little difference between him and other nightmares that hunt the night. As a result he is frequently hunted by both the undead that see him as a hunter and the undead hunters that view him as something to hunt.
XIRGRINATH Azel has vowed to hunt the forces of Xirgrinath of the Tainted Blood anywhere he finds them. This includes undead and various other abominations and nightmare spawn. Each such monster he kills he feels a small measure of absolution for having been under the thrall of Xirgrinath, as if he is perhaps saving someone from a fate similar to his own by doing so.
