ObsidianPortal

Bio

APPEARANCE
Tall, plain, and scrawny, Nicholas Sharpe appears to be forty (though he is closer to fifty, thanks to potions of longevity). His long brown hair comes to a widow’s peak, and white streaks his temples. His pointed beard has no mustache; a gold-rimmed monocle covers one of his pale green eyes. His nose could be charitably described as “prominent.”

Nick typically wears a gray tunic and breeches, with a long coat of blue and silver. The brooch which fastens his dark blue cloak is emblazoned with his spider sigil. He favors a sturdy leather belt and boots; simple iron bracers encircle his forearms. A backpack contains Nick’s spellbooks; he wears a belt pouch for his ivory pipe. His gold wedding ring is nondescript.

His staff of power, Zalam (Sarafi for “the darkness”), is topped with a wicked iron skull; harmless mystic smoke continually pours from its mouth. He also wears a finely-made throwing dagger at his belt.

BACKGROUND
Nicholas Sharpe’s earliest memories are of an orphanage in the Solomarian city of Solorune, where he was abandoned in 1273 AD. With no knowledge of his parentage, he chose his own name, and spent much of his youth sneaking out to wander the city at night. Nick befriended some associates of the House of Long Knives, Solorune’s thieves’ guild. His own career as a pickpocket ended at the age of twelve, when a wizard caught him with a hand in his belt pouch. But his career as the wizard’s apprentice had begun.

Irian the Outcast was a poor teacher; Nick spent much of his apprenticeship watching his master’s back in taverns. Irian’s sharp tongue forced the two to flee Solorune in 1290, but their ship was boarded by pirates, and Irian was put to the sword. Nick’s quick thinking and shaky understanding of roguish culture enabled him to join the crew.

Nick remained on the HMS Predator for many years; Red Morgan, a dashing swashbuckler, became his best friend. But when a woman named Serpentine came between them in 1298, Nick left the pirate’s life behind and returned to Solomaria. He spent two years at the bottom of an ale tankard.

When his gold dried up, Nick joined an adventuring company, the Red Swords, at the behest of his drinking buddy, the rogue Kerwin. Hired to slay an orc tribe that had seized a mine north of Red Hill, the party was ambushed and scattered. Gravely wounded and stricken with filth fever, Nick wandered the tunnels until encountering Nightshade, a drow fighter. Nick led the dark elf to the surface; he, in turn, helped Nick back to Solorune, where the wizard convalesced under the care of Ilona Lorien. This elven cleric also gave Nightshade a place to hide; in time, the three became unlikely friends.

When Ilona’s acquaintance Eric Holder vanished, the trio learned that he had been sacrificed to a forgotten god. With the help of Fredek, an elven rogue, the adventurers found the god’s hidden temple and slew the cultists—but exposed a deeper conspiracy at work. Athelstan, a prophet of the lost god Taros, was raising a secret army, and plotted to awaken the dread Tarrasque from its enchanted slumber upon the impending astrological conjunction known as the Grand Alignment. By offering the victims of the Tarrasque’s wrath to Taros as sacrifices, Athelstan intended to restore the lost god to power. Nightshade’s mother, Erlave, had also pledged House Belvarath’s support through the illithid, Xallibossk.

Nick’s party took this news to Solorune’s Bishop, Daryn. Convinced that these adventurers had been brought together by the hand of fate, Bishop Daryn charged them with recovering Randell’s four elemental stones. In doing so, they befriended the silver dragon Vaxus near Anchorway, and Nick made his peace with Red Morgan, now captain of the Predator. Using the elemental stones with the Altar of Strength and the Enchiridion, they compelled the Tarrasque to destroy Athelstan’s army, banished the prophet to another plane, and sent the Tarrasque back to sleep.

Though hailed as Athelstan’s “Destroyers,” Nick and his friends had no time to celebrate this victory. They were drawn to Castle Amber in the demiplane of Ravenloft, an asylum for the insane, immortal Amber family. There they encountered Alexandrine d’Ambreville, a necromancer who was moved by Nick’s kindness. They escaped by breaking Étienne d’Ambreville’s curse, which reduced the castle, and everyone within it, to dust.

After two more adventures in Ravenloft, the Destroyers returned to Brynthia. They journeyed to the Achean capital of Athinai, where Nightshade won the Great Games, and commissioned King Melinore to build Castle Destroyer. Nightshade married Ilona shortly thereafter, and Nick summoned a hawk familiar, which he named Steeleye.

Teleported to the Desert of Desolation, the Destroyers resurrected the sha’ir, Martek, to stop the efreet Khalitharius. They also recovered the Cup and Talisman of al-Akbar from the city of Khaibar to avert a plague in Bralizzar, defeating a wizard called the Mad Dog of the Desert.

The Destroyers were again drawn to Ravenloft in 1302. Once back in Achea, Nick founded the Lycaeum, a school of magic built around an old lighthouse.

Their next test proved harder than any that had come before—three lairs of giants, each deadlier than the last. In the second, Nick fell in love with the witch Kira Selnic, who joined their party. Xallibossk’s defeat in the third lair thwarted another of Erlave’s plots.

Back in Achea once more, Nick married Kira. When their daughter, Madeleine, was born, Kira tried to murder her husband, in order to fulfill a mysterious prophecy. She fled when the other Destroyers intervened, leaving the Spider to raise their child himself.

Upon returning from a quest to Earth, Nick was greeted by Alexandrine d’Ambreville, who’d been resurrected (with the rest of her family) by Étienne. Nick and Alex fell in love.

Steeleye perished in Yasad’s desert lair in 1303, but Nick claimed the lich’s staff of power for his own. After the Destroyers vanquished the beholder Geshplerx, Nick summoned a new familiar, the pseudodragon Skarla.

A Sarafi army invaded Athinai that fall, seizing King Melinore, his daughter Emily, and Madeleine. Their leader demanded the return of the Cup and Talisman of al-Akbar to the people of Khaibar—the people of Bralizzar never returned them as promised. Once the Destroyers recovered the artifacts with Martek’s aid, they returned aboard Nightshade’s new spelljammer, the HMS Midnight.

By the time Fredek exposed the Mad Dog of the Desert as the force behind the jihad, it had become clear that the invaders had no intention of dismissing their army, or of freeing their hostages. Fortunately, the Destroyers’ allies had rallied Achea’s other city-states into an army of their own, and a terrible battle ensued. Melinore and Emily were slain, while Nick and Alex pursued Madeleine’s keeper though a gate to the Gloom itself. Only there did they learn that her abductor was Kira Selnic.

Nick and Alex slew the witch and rescued the child from the afterworld, narrowly escaping a confrontation with Absaloth, the Daemon Lord of Undeath. Once Achea was secured, Nightshade became its king, and Nick became Nightshade’s court wizard. Nick married Alex soon after; their daughter, Amanda, was born in 1304.

In 1305, the Destroyers were recruited to rescue a dragon from a cloud fortress occupied by Ezoran the Deceiver and Draxella. In the wizards’ library, Nick learned that his parents were a tiefling and a long-dead conjurer, and that his fiendish bloodline runs back to Absaloth himself. Nick recognized this as the key to Kira’s prophecy; to this day, he does not know what it spells for Madeleine’s fate.

The Element of Fire reappeared in Saint Amira in 1311. Daryn, old ally of the Destroyers and now Archbishop of Solomaria, was murdered for the stone, setting Nick’s company on its trail. They recovered it from a sinking ship, also rescuing Nick’s old friend, Kerwin. He promised to help the Destroyers find the party who had hired the drowned assassins. Instead, he led them into a trap.

With Xallibossk’s help, Athelstan had returned with a new plan to use Randell’s artifacts to revive Taros—and now, he possessed them all. Escaping an undead horde, the Destroyers followed Athelstan back to Solorune—back to the forbidden temple where it all began. There they defeated Xallibossk and Athelstan once and for all.

Now retired, Nick has spent the last decade running his school, and raising his daughters. However, he does spend an occasional summer in Sigil, and has taken the HMS Midnight to at least two other worlds. He is content to leave adventuring to a new generation, but won’t hesitate to take up the quest again, if the hand of fate so decrees.

PERSONALITY
Nick adores his wife and children above all else. His daughters stand ready to take up the adventuring life, but Nick is secure in the knowledge that they’ll honor the family name. He controls his worry for Madeleine with the resolve that her destiny will reveal itself, for good or ill.

A good friend to Nightshade, Nick still feels less comfortable with Fredek (a loud-mouthed braggart) and Ilona (whom he once thought he loved; now, Ilona doesn’t always get along with Alex).

A decade of battling evil brought Nick’s devotion to the greater good, though he’s not as pious as Ilona would like. His commitment to the Lycaeum stems from his desire to make the apprenticeship of other wizards less miserable than his own. Once pessimistic, selfish, and suspicious, Nick has become a kind and generous man. He has always kept his passions under control, and may seem emotionless at first sight. He takes pains to keep his vast intellect from alienating normal folk.

Ever hungry for knowledge, Nick has traveled to other worlds in the pursuit of lore. He is fascinated by spiders, and has collected rare specimens from all over creation. He enjoys pipeweed in moderation, but doesn’t drink anymore.