Cosimo Delucca
Art by the very talented Lunchbox, far beyond a doodle
Appearance:Race: Human.
Age: 28
Height: 6’
Weight: Average build. Well, quite a nice one actually!
Eyes: Dark blue.
Hair: Dark yellow.
Facial Hair Style: Five o'clock shadow.
Cosimo is scruffy yet handsome, although a perceptive eye might notice the scruffiness seems almost designed to improve his appearance. The man smirks a lot and his eyes twinkle with mirth. When out and about around the city, not much gives his profession away, but he does not carry himself like much of a fighter.
Cosimo's adventuring gear is much more austere than his lounging about the city attire, and is cut to aid movement in battle. He wears black, which he says is a satirical comment on some of the more edgy, supposedly intimidating types on the coast.
Personality Profile:
General Health: Moderate. Doesn’t eat properly, might drink a little too much. His magic lends him a certain vitality, however.
Deity: He is a member of the Temple of Mystra, although he retains a clear fondness for Tymora.
Initial Alignment: Its obviously Chaotic Good.
Profession:
Base Class & Proposed Development: Sorcerer (red dragon blood) /ASOC/Archmage.
Habits/Hobbies: Drinking. Telling tall tales and hearing the same.
Languages: Illuskan, Dwarven, Draconic.
Weapon of Choice: A glib tongue, or MAGIC.
Cosimo is rarely serious and has a tendency to tease others. He has a sharp tongue even, when roused. Generally though, Cosimo is friendly and is willing to talk to anyone, especially if they will share a drink. His intellect and abilities are
It is true that in the past he has seemed to be without a cause and free spirited, shirking responsibility. Yet underneath it all there are signs that there are some things, some principles and people he cares about. Cosimo is actually quite stubborn when he believes he is doing the right thing, a stubbornness he is more willing to make public these days. He has a disliking for those who try and lord it over others or act smugly. He’s also not so keen on half-orcs, likely due to some bad experiences. In the past he has also can be a little touchy around Illuskans, and particularly northmen like those who killed his father and brother, and who held him captive. This particular prejudice is dying down due to his positive relations with members of the Darius Holding Company.
"Whoops..."
Borrowed from the artist Sam Wood, no credit claimed at all: http://artofsamwood.com/illustration/
Background: The second son of a wealthy Baldurian merchant who specialised in running whale by-products from north to south, Cosimo was never truly interested in the family business, unlike his elder brother Fio. Bright, but a poor student, he was thought to be utterly feckless – and useless, until his magic manifested. It came to full strength quite late, but spectacularly, an accident shattering half the glasses in the seedy tavern the youth was carousing in with his friends. A stern talking to about responsibilities earning rights led to a short stint assisting his father. In return his father Ecedro hired a local (soon exasperated) mage as a tutor. This did not work out, and after another magical “accident” (This time, beating up a bully with a display of magical energy which got him arrested, and barred from the Blushing Mermaid), Cosimo was sent away, voluntarily, so as to avoid stern punishment by the law.
He went to be tutored under a sorcerer in Waterdeep, the distant location chosen partially to remove him from shady friends. The sorcerer agreed, as his debts had mounted and he needed the subsidy that Cosimo’s family paid. Formal magical training agreed with Cosimo. He had a talent, a real talent, and he enjoyed using it and learning how to use it. While he was not exactly disciplined, he applied his talent and aptitude; and found a kindred spirit in his tutor, Murogar, an elderly dwarf who had, in his youth, been a reckless young sorcerer himself and had found himself living apart form his people. Cosimo did not give up his carousing and scandalous behaviour, but it certainly was restricted as he wanted to learn. And Murogar was a match for the boy in wit and sharpness.
After several years, Cosimo passed from being an apprentice to something closer to a colleague. Cosimo learned the academic theory behind magic, and learned how to manipulate and shape his magical gifts with much more precision and control. Murogar shared his scrolls and books and decrepit tower with the boy who was as close as a son by now. Coin was in short supply, but Cosimo could make just enough to pay his way providing magical services, while remaining just lazy enough to maintain his seedy carousing lifestyle by night and his increasingly self taught studies by day. He visited home from time to time, although less since his mother Elena died of a sickness in 1348.
Then in 1351 the news came. Pirates from Ruathym had betrayed his father and brother, and they now rested at the bottom of the sea; the family business was in trouble, but also in Cosimo’s hands. Taking this in his stride, he returned to Baldur’s Gate. A bit of selling off and downsizing left just enough business to be run by his father’s clerk and right hand, leaving Cosimo to withdraw money to keep him as he had become accustomed to be kept.
Thus, independently but modestly wealthy, the young sorcerer had little need to work and little motivation to do so. That all changed when war against the Blight came to Baldur's Gate and he fell in with a group of adventurers. Firstly, the effects of the war made his humble business struggle more and more, and he had to supplement its income with the proceeds of adventuring. Secondly, he met with several people who cared about more than where the next drink came from. One of them, an elven traveller, captured Cosimo's heart and he made several clumsy attempts to seem more than a drunk layabout in order to see if his feelings would be returned, which in time they were.
The catch was he found that being more than a drunken layabout actually made him feel good, and for the first time Cosimo decided himself that his life needed direction. He set aside his carousing and, in fact, started acting like something approaching a well balanced adult. With a new go getting attitude, Cosimo threw himself into the family business to turn it around. And met with disaster. Attempting to negotiate a trade deal with another faction amongst the northmen, he found himself accused of philandering with a magnate's daughter on a trade trip north (falsely, as it happened). When trying to avoid a beating, his magic was displayed and he was dealt with harshly, captured and his magic shackled by a specialised collar, living for many months as a captive servant in a small and stinking fishing village by the frozen sea.
Before long he managed to blag his way to freedom and bribe a merchant to take him south. However, he was betrayed yet again, ending up stranded on a small rock in the middle of nowhere with a limited supply of food and water. As luck would have it, a trading vessel saw him and picked him up. Finally landing somewhere half civilised (Mintarn), the shackles were broken and Cosimo able to return to Baldur's Gate, his grieving Auntie, and a moribund business. The elven maiden he had wooed was long gone, and the sorcerer's heart was broken at the knowledge that he himself had likely broken hers by his absence.
Cosimo worked hard to try and save the family business with ferocity, but the vast debts incurred in his absence meant he had to secure ready income by using his magical abilities in return for coin as he did in Waterdeep. Cosimo's attempts to save the family business were doomed. Candlemaking would have made ends meet, but for the debts Cosimo was saddled with after his failed expedition north. He tried to supplement his income by working as a hired mage and intermittent adventurer helping guard merchant caravans up the Chionthar. Cosimo took the false name "Yolo Wyvernsbane" at this time and apparently was driven as much by a sudden wanderlust as anything. As Yolo, he was fierce and confident with his magic which was either growing in power, or his willingness to use it. As Cosimo, he remained a very clear coward.
While this work kept the business going, it did not pay off the debts. In the end, Cosimo admitted defeat and sat down with his creditor and the old hand who was the chief manager of his business. Together they hashed out a deal, selling the business to his creditor in return for clearing the debt. Part of the deal included Cosimo putting his old family home in the Palace District on the market, using a good chunk of the funds to pay off the debt. The mage downsized to a small flat in the East Gate and freed up some coin to live off of. He found himself without an income and with a lot of time on his hands.
And with that, he took the strange (for a coward) decision to face constant danger as an adventurer, rather than returning to his bar hopping ways (at least, not more than part time!). The truth behind this was that he was set on mastering his magic, which it was becoming more and more obvious to him was chiefly oriented towards destruction.
In the course of adventuring Cosimo met many people, and became friends with a number of other adventurers, becoming particularly close to Thevor, Rania, Thendon, Isivyle, Luke, Fingal, Ronja, Taeghan, Vera, Elora, Dimitry and Isa. He took a job in the Minstrel's Muse for the Darius Holding Company and is currently their bar manager.
Rania and he entered a whirlwind romance, the speed and strength of which frightened the mage, coming as it did with the increasing onset of his powers. Fearing that such high emotion could cause him to lose control and be corrupted by his magic, he ended the relationship despite his lingering high opinion of the stormy priestess of Selune.
Indeed, the increasing heat with which the mage's magic burned was driving him towards action where once he was stood passive. Some of his deeds have stayed well secret, but its known he was present for the destruction of the False Child, an action that stripped him of his magic for a time, and slew his familiar, Malane. Ever since then his magic has burned brighter, and his temper has risen much more easily.
Cosimo became vocally involved in a number of political hot topics on the Sword Coast. The torture of Shara by the Red Wizards; the attempts to warn Rania away from the local Selunite temple; Amenthes Serb's sanctuary in Candlekeep. This drew him into a number of high profile conflicts, including an argument with Michael Dunn in the Halls of Inner Light over Shara and rabble rousing against the handling of a fight between a group of Rashemi on one side, and Amenthes Serb and Michael Dunn on the other.
It was in these conflicts that he first came to the attention of the Guide of Candlekeep, Alexandra Keenan; a woman who had come to his own attention when Isabella Villame had said she was behind Michael Dunn's campaign against the Halls of Inner Light. Needless to say, their mutual view of each other was poor. Not having spoken to the woman himself he asked Alexandra to meet with him so that they could at least know each other on a human level. Their day together did not go as planned, and when they hugged each other at the end if the evening they both felt their magic move in away they had never experienced before. It was akin to a meeting of souls.
Love blossomed between the Sorcerer and the Guide, but this was the cause of much consternation, due to bad relations arising out of their former enmity. Alexandra came under pressure over her relationship with Cosimo, the blossoming of former resentments within Candlekeep. In a desire to support her, Cosimo's usual reticence was been washed away, and the pair grew remarkably committed, remarkably quickly. Its fair to say that the mage came to lean on her as much as she did on him, although about very different problems.
All was going well in the wake of the initial troubles the pair faced, after the tensions in Candlekeep were mostly resolved. Cosimo somewhat grew up during this time, and was promoted to Head of Operations at the Darius Holding Company. He also fully embraced his magic, and his choice in it, after learning from Great Reader Laitae Lafreth that its source was likely a red dragon. Choosing not to let this define him, he converted to Mystran faith, joining the local temple as an arcanist and scribe. He and Alexandra Keenan became engaged and all seemed on course for a happy ending.
That was when the unexpected happened, and surprising news from Cosimo's past forced him and Alexandra to part, as well as Cosimo to leave the coast in secrecy. He was away for some months, with little contact. Recently he has returned, to resume his role within the Darius Holding Company and supporting the faith of Mystra. If anything the sorcerer seems more carefree than he has for a long time, but to those who know him, they may wonder how much of this is an act.
Goals and Hooks:
Surface goals include:
- Enjoying himself by the mediums of wine, women and song.
- Helping others enjoy themselves.
- Help make Darius Holding Company a success.
- Support his faith in the city.
Cosimo has a number of hidden goals, which shall not be stated here!
Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts:
Cosimo had a run in with a half orc thug during his youth which has left him disliking half orcs. This might be inopportune.
Cosimo is a Baldurian patriot. Now he is more active in his life, this comes to the forefront much more.
Cosimo's dangerous activities while he was away this winter might catch up with him.
Cosimo used to dislike Illuskans, in particular northmen, due to past problems with them as well as generally disliking what he sees as their machismo posturing and the mistreatment of women. This has mostly faded after some positive experiences.
Cosimo appears feckless and disinterested in all but having a good time. However, a number of things reveal this to be a veneer:
- He can be quite charitable to those in need, on a personal level.
- He dislikes abuse of power, whether by those in authority or bullies on an individual level.
- He sees his magic as something gifted to him to make a difference, seemingly by stopping people who hurt others.
Cosimo has grown to appear quite recklessly brave, compared to his cowardly nature in the past. This change is due to the growing influence of his magic upon him and his closeness to it.
Despite appearances Cosimo actually has a good understanding and knowledge of magic for a sorcerer and has a wide book learning of magic, He is in fact can be a little defensive about this when pressed.
Cosimo feels bad about the pain he has caused several of his past lovers: Chiara Telthaian, Rania Arowaven and Alexandra Keenan. He is unsure how to atone for his slights to them, one out of his control, the next a result of a foolish choice, and the last caused by a very difficult situation indeed. Cosimo has resigned himself to a certain emotional distance in the future so as to avoid repeating his mistakes. Whether he can maintain this is uncertain.
He is notably polite to the Druidess Amaranthe.
Appendix 1: Cosimo's Familiar
Malene was a weasel which Cosimo picked up while in Waterdeep. The beast is largely housebound, although he can travel with Cosimo if need be. Malene was much more intelligent compared to a regular weasel but was a fairly dissolute creature, much like his master, more interested in receiving treats, lounging about, or randomly playing under furniture than doing anything serious.
Malene had a deep bond and affection with Cosimo and he was quite protective of him. He read Cosimo's emotions (and this runs both ways) and reacted badly if Cosimo was upset, or frightened. This was a give away when Cosimo was masking his reactions or lying. Despite this, on the surface, Cosimo and the weasel engage in love-hate banter, and can almost seem at odds at times.
Like Cosimo, Malene was fairly gregarious, although he did expect attention and sulked if he did not get it. Unlike Cosimo, Malene was overtly fearless, in a very un-weasellike way.
Malane died when Cosimo's connection to the weave was disrupted by the destruction of the False Child, severing their link and returning Malane to a non-magical weasel and ending his life. Cosimo fell into a deep depression as a result of this and since then has been wary of the idea of securing another familiar.
Cosimo adopted a mage rune upon his adoption of Mystran Faith. It is formed from a fusion of his initials in the Lokharic alphabet. It is scribed in red, the red of a dragon.
