Howie Radagon

Wizard

Male

Unknown

5'4"

121 pounds

Unknown

Born to otherwise unremarkable circumstances on the island of Lost Bell, Howie showed an interest in magic from a young age as well as no small amount of talent.

As such, he was sent to study at The Crystal River Academy through his childhood. At graduation the school offered him a position as one of their teachers but he declined; there were things back on his home island he wished to investigate further.

Namely a wizard's tower that sat on one end of the island, uninhabited since well before Howie's birth. Something about that tower had always called to him, but as a child he was forbidden to go near it due to the potential dangers. The call was not irresistible, however, so Howie heeded the warnings and used the ache in his heart to fuel his studies. He reasoned that when he became an adult he could do as he pleased, and with the abilities gained by studying magic he could most likely even do so safely.

Returning to the island, Howie spent a few days catching up with his parents and making it clear that his intentions were to enter the old tower and go from there. Both tried to warn their son away from doing so, but when it became clear that nothing short of the tower's destruction would dissuade him from his mission they decided to tell him the truth.

Howie of course had information about the island at the Academy, but it was knowledge of major historical events and notable persons and not of things like minor individuals, or even the tower itself aside from some drawings that existed as part of articles about the island as a whole. All this proved was what Howie already knew, the tower was old enough to have been a fixture of the island for centuries.

The truth of it, as far as his parents knew, was that the last wizard to inhabit the tower was a woman named Avna. She was generally well liked by the town, but a bit of a hermit who rarely left the tower and usually needed to be sought out if one wished to speak with her beyond general pleasantries. Whatever experiments she was carrying out were not harming the local area in any way so the townsfolk had no problems with her existence.

Then when they were teenagers the tower disappeared overnight. Howie's mother specifically could trace most of their family history to the island and had stories passed through the generations of such an event. No one knew why exactly, but eventually the tower seemed to 'tire' of its current resident and would vanish for a few days only to return empty. Eventually, sometimes days and sometimes decades later, someone would feel a draw to the tower and go to inhabit it. She had hoped that sending Howie off the island to study would break whatever connection was there, because she feared for her son when he started speaking of the tower as a child.

Howie wasn't angry. He could understand a mother's desire to protect her child from potential danger, especially an unknown danger. But he made it clear that the call was more of a gentle beckoning, a whisper like a loved one calling you home, and it had never been this overwhelming thing he couldn't fight. He could ignore it when he needed to, and if he wished he could even leave the island and never look back. But he was too curious about the tower itself, and he felt that with his powers he could at least safely investigate. The truth as his parents knew it had only served to make him more curious, determined to unravel the secrets of the tower and its previous occupants.

The following morning Howie headed for the tower and pushed open its doors. The inside was dusty, dark, and obviously unused for decades. Parts of its exterior were crumbling away, and the floors were practically rotting. But the place felt like home, and Howie set about making repairs; first to make it inhabitable so he wasn't returning to his parents house every night to sleep, and then on making it look like a proper, presentable tower.

Years passed. Howie established himself as a wizard in the city, making money by casting spells for others without the requisite ability. He lived in the tower but made efforts to visit town often and not shut himself away, and he fixed up the path to make it easier to travel for those coming to seek him.

Then his parents passed within a short time of one another; his father first from health complications due to his age, and his mother not long after as the grief of losing her lifelong spouse was too much to overcome. In the depths of Howie's mourning, Rook made itself known. The creature that was the tower, every wall and floor part of its body. It was pleased with the way Howie had treated it over the years, and revealed itself as the cause of the call he had experienced for so long.

Rook chose Howie, just as it had chosen every inhabitant before him. The entire island was suffused with parts of its body, and it could sense the energies of everything that happened. From time to time a child would stand out amongst the others, and Rook would subtly infuse that child with parts of itself. Just enough to draw them in, so that they would inhabit the tower portion and help keep the creature's secrets.

Once again where Howie could have been angry he instead understood. A creature of immense power like that needed a guardian, and its methods were also understandable. How much of that calm was Rook's influence is anyone's guess, but to those who knew Howie it wouldn't seem out of place at least.

Howie had but one question for Rook; what happened to the others?

Rook answered; they slumbered.

Inside of Rook was a pocket dimension, created as it grew larger and only accessible by essentially being 'eaten' by the creature. Eventually the residents of the tower would die - age, disease, injury, the fault of their own experiments - but Rook could trap their souls. However it lacked the ability to give them new bodies, and so it was simply waiting for a magic wielder with the ability to help.

This is how Rook gained its flesh warping abilities, the result of years of Howie's studies as he shut himself off from the world after this revelation. Without his parents to keep him grounded, having amassed enough coin to sustain him for a long while, and having changed parts of the tower so he could be self-sufficient for most of any plant and small creature based supplies and food stuffs, there was little reason for Howie to leave the tower. He did once or twice a month to gather or buy what supplies he could not produce within the tower itself, but that was it.

When the flesh warping powers had been perfected, Howie and Rook constructed a new body for the souls of all the previous inhabitants. During the course of the research they both reasoned that instead of creating hundreds of bodies to give each soul their own Rook could combine them into a single soul, infused with the knowledge of all of them.

When the ritual was complete, the resulting singular soul resonated most with Avna, the inhabitant before Howie. The body was warped to suit how she wanted to be, and she and Howie cohabitated as Howie taught her about the world as it was now.

The relationship grew over time, and eventually Avna Radagon came to be as Avna took Howie's last name and the two began to call one another husband and wife. They opened back up to the world as a pair, confident between them they could continue to guard Rook while not being isolated. The island residents were cautious at first, but as time passed the pair were accepted again.

Both continued their experiments in secret, perfecting flesh warping and giving Rook new abilities. This continued until Avna died - Howie said it was an accident, but in reality the various fae lords and ladies viewed her as a threat. A singular, stable being with the knowledge of centuries? They feared her, and feared what she could help Rook achieve over time as they were all sure the creature was manipulating both Avna and Howie.

So in the depths of night they stole Avna away to the fae realms, imprisoning her there. Howie told others she died in an accident but that he would find a way to bring her back, and for a second time he shut himself off from the world. He put all of his time and effort into locating Avna, knowing she would not just leave him, and when he found out what the fey had done he was furious. He sought about seeking revenge, with Rook to aid him, and the fey did something even more unforgivable; they killed Avna and sold her soul to the most powerful fiend lord of the lower planes to keep her out of Howie and Rook's hands.

One of Howie and Avna's creations, a boy who named himself Radagon, eventually went on to become an adventurer with The Adventurer's Guild. Through him and the fellow adventurers in his party Avna was rescued and brought back, taking her own revenge by murdering a fey lady with the help of another who sought to dispose of a rival.

Believing her corrupted by time spent in the lower planes Radagon and the adventurers sought to cleanse her. They believe they successfully did so, unaware of the reality that Avna is simply done. She murdered a powerful fey as a message to the others; leave her be, for no matter what they do she will come back and she has the power to kill them all if she so pleases.

Howie knows this, but he also trusts that his wife will continue to be her old self so long as no one tries to harm her or anyone she cares for. The experiments continue, both dedicated to helping Rook develop new powers and master existing ones.

(This character was created by one of my players, Dwagon!)