[IceDragonDuvessa]

Rufus Coldfinger
Level 19
Xp until next level - 640 000

The first part of the story is the one that i had submitted when i asked for the CDQ, so i will leave it the same. The second part is new, with an update to Rufus' life. To better understand his bio and life please read both, those who are interested that is.

Part I

Rufus was born in Haven, just outside the walls, in a simple house. The family was not rich nor famous, these were simple people living a simple life with absolutely no ambitions or hope for the better. They knew their place was in the fields and as their life passed away they learned to live with it. They convinced themselves that it is actually the best way to live, work gave their life a meaning and hardworking was considered the best compliment and the greatest virtue to anybody.

As one could expect Rufus was not like that. He was a young man with ambitions and pride. He considered it unworthy of himself to dig in the mud, plant seeds or deal with dirty animals. He knew he could do more, become better, richer and gain influence and power.

He often had arguments with his parents and other kids, when he pointed out that they were unimportant, small humans who slave away their life in the dirt for the well-being of others. He refused to work in the fields and often got punished hard for this by his parents.

He did not care, his pride only grew and hungered for power. He began to run away from the fields and sneak in to the Haven's walls. There was a place that was supposed to change his life forever, it was Arcanum Libris.

He sneaked inside every day and watched what the mages were doing. Almost every time he was spotted and driven away, but he continued, he asked the mages to teach him and peeked at the lessons from the window.

One day an old mage agreed to teach him a few basics about the knowledge of the arcane, since his only student just left Haven to find a way of his own, and on this day it all began. The old mage was surprised how quickly such a young boy learned to cast light, the spell that was supposed to occupy him for atleast a couple of months, or so the old mage thought.

In a couple of months Rufus already knew every cantrip there is and asked the mage to continue the lessons. The mage saw potential in Rufus and gladly agreed to teach him spells that should protect him. But Rufus insisted on learning more offensive ones, he said the best defense is offense. The old mage had nothing to say against such a statement, the boy spoke the truth, and so he proposed a spell called magic missile. Rufus quoted a book and said that he read about a spell named Negative energy ray. This surprised the teacher, but he nevertheless continued the way Rufus proposed.

Over the course of his studies Rufus developed a passion for the negative energy, death magic and necromancy. These were to become his specialization. He was inspired by the thought of being able to kill tens of people without a single explosion, only with a touch. This added perfectly with his personality and the name that he will later become known by.

But until he learned to master the dark art he learned evocation to a certain degree. He wished to kill his enemies, cause fear in them, and that is why he did not respect the schools of enchantment, divination, transmutation or abjuration.

So it continued for months until time came to move on to the third circle of spells. By this time Rufus almost never came home and his parents were beginning to accept that their boy has turned away from them. But on the first day of the new lesson the old mage said he could not continue anymore. The reason behind this was the fact that the other spellcasters of Haven prohibited this. They said that magic in the hands of this boy will do only harm. They have been following the lessons and saw the pride, egoism and the effect the power of the arcane had on the boy.

Insulted by this Rufus left Haven, just like that, never saying anything to anybody, only two words came out of his mouth as he stood before his teacher for the last time, Thank You. Having said that he turned around and left, feeling the look that the teacher had in his eyes seeing his student leave under such circumstances.

In the next couple of weeks he found his way in to Hlint, where he met a couple of people just like him and alongside them he earned his first gold pieces and the experience about Mistone.

If one could see Rufus' right hand without his robe, he could spot a huge scar on it, almost the size of the entire arm. It happened on his first big adventure, in the Broken swamps. Rufus, Brac'ar and Gotak were looking for a lost girl in the swamps. But they were ambushed by Rakshashas and a bebilith. Rufus never saw such creatures and was stunned when he saw the huge demon spider infront of him. Apparently the bebilith was willing to go for a kill and the scar was left by him as he stepped on Rufus. One of the beblith's legs cut through Rufus' arm knocking him out due to the high blood loss and the terrible pain. It was pure luck that Gotak and Brac saved his life. Though during the first hours after he had waken he had serious doubts about ever being able to cast again.

From that day on Rufus is quite fond of the brave and proud dwarves, who apparently have something in common with him.

Rufus' hate for the like of drow comes from two events in his life.

He and a party of adventurers were supposed to rescue a drow from the Underdark. As funny as it sounds the drow was in danger there, since he wanted to cooperate with the surface nations against his old home. Having put his life in danger to get him out Rufus had to do it for many more times to find and kill this drow. Since the stories he told were a lie, he was a spy and tricked the alliance into believing him. The drow was able to escape the from the hands of the alliance and gather much important information about the defenses on the continent of Mistone. Though he never managed to inform the Underdark or so it was thought after the death of this agent.

Soon after this incident Rufus' hometown, Haven, was under direct assault by the Underdark forces. After a long defensive battle where militia and adventurers from all over Hlint fought against the invaders the drow were defeated. On that day Rufus and the other survivors recieved the title "Savours of Haven" That battle saw drow, humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, demons, beings from other planes and even a mithril golem fight for the future of Haven.

Over the time Rufus made many friends with adventurers of Mistone, having fought alongside with them he learned to respect these people. Naming them would be wrong, since some would be still forgotten and this could cause disapointment. The people who are talked about know it for themselves what they mean to Rufus.

But one person had a huge impact on the way Rufus is thinking these days. It was perhaps the most famous human on the continent of Mistone, it was Nathan Birche. Having only briefly met him Rufus noticed the power that man had over every creature he met. This convinced Rufus that the art of the necromancy is his choice for the rest of his life.

The name Rufus became known wider after the rescue of Ta'karsh Blacklung, the high priest of Dorand, from the prison that was made for him in the ancient dungeon. Before Plenarius, Rognar Rufus and the druid by the name The-One-Who-Guards found the dieing priest in the ancient dungeon they had to look through all of the Underdark. Facing drow, duergar and every other creature you can find in the there, but they still came out victorious and found the correct way.

In the ancient dungeon they were met by a mithril golem guardian and an ancient bone dragon. Not capable of defeating such enemies, they had to trick them to take the body of a dieing cleric out of the dungeon. While the three distracted the golem Rognar sneaked behind him and took the body out.

When Mistone became overrun by shadows nobody was safe and that of course applied to Rufus as well.

His wish to adventure with Nathan became true when the Prince of Darkness took Rufus and many other adventurers into the lost elven city. The vampire Sapriopias was considered the oldest of his kind on Mistone and even he was corrupted by the power from the ancient. Nathan was a friend of the vampire and wanted to save him from such slavery. As the party fought through the the streets of the old town they met demons, balors and countless undead. Having finally reached their destination they saw the vampire transform into a demon the size of two giants. With much trickery, sunlight and arguing they managed to relieve the vampire from the corruption that had caught him.

After adventures like this, where the brave fought against the shadows, nobody thought that the ancient could become an ally against Sinthar Blood. Apparently a party of the best adventurers decided to release the Ancient from his prison, and one of these brave was Rufus. This party was the cream of the adventurers of Mistone, Ta'karsh Blacklung, Llunieninque Artuile'rosse, Maddison Trenton, Wolv, Triba Gues, Rognar, Kasha and Quintayne Rosewyne, Eldoran and Miraya were there.

But besides all of these adventures and killing of enemies Rufus devoted much time to the art of jewelry, enchanting, infusing, scribing, alchemy and became a master in these and a successful crafter in many others.

Part II

Many months have passed since those days and Rufus has grown much more powerful and of course his ego and pride have done the same. Today rumors surround him, some think he has joined The Black Wizards. An organisation so secret and evil that even the slightest whisper about it can be punished by the law, they are believed to be behind most of the things that have struck Layonara and caused its people pain, some even say that Corath himself has an eye on Rufus. Other rumors speak of a massacre in Dalanthar and that Rufus is the one to blame. Though these rumors have reached the ears of the law and a trial is soon to be held, it will decide the faith of the famous necromancer. Though some say that if he is what the rumors say, then he will never be proven guilty.

Rufus now grows tired of the people of Mistone, he is angered by the so called brave and merciful adventurers of Hlint. As he saw how every one of them believed that Rufus was a criminal only after a bard spoke a rumor and only because he studies necromancy. How they, who have forgiven drow, murderers and criminals accused him only after hearing a shady story, how could they?! After all the things he went through near them, fighting with them and even dieing in the name of a common cause. He is discusted by them, their honour, honesty and purity. It does not show much, but it is brewing inside of him and will soon get out. He wants to leave, somewhere where he will not hear of them anymore, somewhere where he is in control and can create his own world, the way he wants to....be it good, bad or even worse.

///I have read about Barbarian islands and believe that it is governed by none, almost no law there. So as a part of the development i would like the Black wizards to give him an order to increase the influence of the guild there. This would be symbolised by a tower, Rufus would have to convince the tribes that live there to work for him, to build his tower. He should make them do it, either by promises of gold, threats or death. Something among the lines of divide and conquer with all the different tribes. It shouldn't end with total control of the islands, but what should happen is that the tribes would be afraid of him. It should end with the people there telling their kids "Never go near that tower, fear resides there. Have you heard the screaming? It because of the dark man!"

In time perhaps Rufus will become secluded because of everything bad that he has done and then he will decide to silence those voices....but that is another story already and goes beyond one development series.

I would like the event to be run by IDii or EdtheKet. I would also like this to be more of a RP with a couple of encounters to spice it up. I really do not enjoy the story when most of things you do is buff, fight, rest, buff, fight, rest etc...in that case it resembles a dungeon crawl rather than a CDQ.



Edited by Ar7 11/6/2004 4:59 PM