Accidental inventor, accidental invention.


Oboron had a boring childhood, even growing up in Vand. A potter’s son born and raised, he took over his father’s shop as soon as he passed away. Over the years, he started to become fascinated with anything that made fire and more importantly anything that could go “boom”. Alas, his was an expensive hobby and being a no-name potter makes little in the way of money. He started pilfering small amounts of sulfur from the mines nearby and other alchemical devices from shops and passing caravans to fuel his curiosity. As he grew so did his skills.

By his twenty-first birthday, he was carrying away sacks of sulfur whenever he felt like it with none the wiser. While testing out small packets of sulfur behind the store he made a bit too big of a boom by dropping a lit fuse into his sack of sulfur when a squirrel landed on his head and started scratching his face for disturbing its rest. A passing wizard overheard all of the commotion and decided to investigate. Being intrigued by Oboron’s work they quickly became friends the customary Vandic way… getting unbelievably hammered. After introducing himself as Zandreck, he gave Oboron a trained bird to send to him if he ever had an exciting discovery with his explosive devices.

After Zandreck departed, life went along normally for a time, until one night Oboron went out drinking again. This time he fell so madly in love with a barmaid that he thought to give her a bouquet of flowers. Now, being intensely inebriated, he could only remember the talk of the farmers laughing about fields of beautiful crystalline flowers that could be seen after their livestock ate. Stalking through darkened fields, he gathered bushels of the little crystals that he thought she was SURE to love. After presenting them to her and having his feculent offering thrown into his face, he stumbled back to his store in a rage. He brutally smashed the crystalline “flowers” and swept them off of his worktable, stomping off to bed and falling heavily to sleep.

It was a few days before he found time to play with his sulfur again. When he did it resulted in a much larger explosive flare than he had expected. After recovering from his shock he examined his sack of sulfur, and noticed there was some white powder mixed with it. The fecal crystals! In his rage, Oboron had swept the dust from them into his sulfur supply! With this fantastic revelation, he quickly dispatched the trained bird to inform Zandreck of his findings.

After a time, the bird returned. Zandreck wanted Oboron to come visit him at the academy where he performed his own studies and show him the caustic discovery! Oboron dropped everything, sold the pottery shop and everything else that he couldn’t carry on his back and set sail on a merchant ship to Corrent. Arriving in Rasloc after a fairly uneventful journey, he quickly went in search of his dear friend Zandreck. He eventually found him in his personal workshop at the Rasloc Academy, tinkering with a multitude of odd devices and contraptions. When Oboron inquired as to what the devices were, Zandreck told him that he was an abjuration-specialist wizard and also a tinkerer; these devices were some of his experiments and exploits, and they had earned him rank and favor in several important circles. Oboron quickly set his sack of powder on the table next to him and started setting off very small piles of his powder to demonstrate the potential of it. Zandreck was impressed and excited by the find.

While Oboron was pouring out another powder mixture, Zandreck noticed something moving; there was a spider on the table! He could not let such a vile creature exist in his clean workspace! He dispatched the arachnid in his customary way, with just a miniscule fire spell, but there was a fact he overlooked in his disgust. The spider had crawled to the same spot Oboron was pouring on from his powder sack!

The resulting explosion knocked both of them off of their feet and sent them sprawling. When Zandreck rose to his feet, he quickly found Oboron… minus one left arm. The Vander was fading from consciousness, and losing a great deal of blood. Ever quick on his feet and in mind, Zandreck worked quickly to prevent poor Oboron from bleeding out in his office. He quickly fetched something from nearby and with all haste set about mending the damage he had caused.

Oboron awoke hours later. The last thing he remembered was pouring out some of his mixture when suddenly there was an explosion. Zandreck told him he did the best he could with time working against him so. Oboron, confused, scrathed his head and felt cold metal pressing against his scalp. Shocked, Oboron pulled back his arm to look at it, and discovered what Zandreck had meant. In place of his flesh, Oboron was wearing what looked like a section of a suit of armor! Seeing this, Zandreck told him that it was a beautifully crafted meld of machinery and magic that allowed Oboron to retain full use of the arm, but he would feel nothing through it.

Oboron was enraged that Zandreck would use his misfortune as a chance at a new test subject! As his anger and the desire to harm Zandreck rose, Oboron heard the sound of sliding metal and a small “thunk”. Thinking that guards had come to take him away for the explosion, he turned quickly to face the doorway only only to discover the source of the noise. His newly-received arm had extended a blade from the wrist into the table edge he was near. Amazed, confused, and angry, Oboron grabbed what was left of his packs and fled the academy much to the dismay and pleading of Zandreck.

In his bewilderment, Oboron fled the town into the surrounding country to hide his new arm from the world. For months he wandered Corrent’s eastern shoreline, stopping briefly in whatever settlements he came across and pilfering whatever he could not afford. Over time he became used to his new arm, and he enjoyed its many uses that normal flesh could not withstand. For windows are easier to break with a metal fist, and guards don’t help much when they are all standing around trying to find out what blew up the manor’s lawn and gardens.

Like any equipment, though, his arm needs to be maintained and repaired. And there is only one person who he can “trust” to do it. Now, as a man of 27, Oboron returns to the Academy in Rasloc to reconcile with his old friend Zandreck. And that is where his story will truly begin.


Whispers in Tamris Zuroza