Susuru Sasuraigus

Susuru Sasuraigus, better known to friends as simply "Susuru" or "Susu", is a wizard in the employ of the Harlowe Traveling Adventure Brokerage. Born into the Sagantzi, one of two significant nomadic peoples of the West Reaches, Susuru suffered devastating tragedy early in life at the hands of Duke Satan and his minions, and has been devoted to vengeance ever since. Although he originally joined the Brokerage simply to advance his spellcraft, his companionship with fellow party members (particularly the passionate Phillipe Marienburg), introduction to various members of the Elder Consortium, and experiences along the road have awakened an element of political and social awareness within him that was previously buried under a self-absorbed view of the world. While vengeance against Duke Satan is still his primary goal, Susuru now seeks to achieve that goal not simply through killing him, but through the careful amassing of social currency in order to affect a true lasting change in the region's political structure by instituting locally representative government throughout the West Reaches.

Early Life and Capture by Duke Satan
Susuru was born to a family of the Sagantzi, a nomadic troupe of entertainers comprised of acrobats, musicians, raconteurs, and other practitioners of the arts. While his older sister Sasamu took quickly to the study of the more daring and extravagant disciplines such as tumbling, rope-walking, pyrotechnics and so on, Susuru preferred the company of the elders, whose studious nature evinced a deep wisdom, and who with their words painted an image of an outside world filled with mystery and magic. During the early years of Susuru's life, the troupe traveled around the lands of the West Reaches, and he lived a contented life, loving nothing greater than listening to ancient stories and watching locals wowed by the spectacle of acrobatics and fireworks in which his sister had a hand.

One day, when Susuru was five years old and Sasamu seven, the troupe was waylaid by a gang of brigands while travelling several leagues to the south of Claykeep. Most of the elders in the company were slain outright, as were any of the able-bodied adults who put up a fight, such as Susuru's mother and father. Susuru himself, Sasamu, and dozens of other children and adults were taken captive by the brigands and made to march south, into the Ostberg Chain mountains, to the palatial estate of Duke Satan.

Here, he and Sasamu would spend the next seven years of their life. Kept as prisoners of the Duke for the troupe's unwitting trespass upon his estate, the two children were confined to a fortress-like academy where they were continuously groomed and prepped to take part in Duke Satan's torture-brothel, one of the key sources of his vast income. In the course of this training, Susuru was subjected to a horrendous regimen at the hands of Duke Satan's warlocks, who not only subjected him to carnal degradations to prepare him for a lifetime of fulfilling the perverse whims of the Duke's entourage, but also forced him to imbibe a daily hellbroth of mysterious mixture and origin. Within just a few years, the purpose of the brew became abundantly clear: even as he reached age ten and beyond, Susuru's physical appearance never matured beyond that of his five year old form; he had been permanently cursed with the form of a child in order to better appease the wicked appetites of the Duke's men.

Despite these and other unspeakable travesties, Susuru and Sasamu never became willing captors of the Duke, and their escape attempts were frequent and varied. All, however, met with failure, and they were forced to endure the madness of the fortress for seven years, when Susuru overheard his tormentors talking about Sasamu reaching age 14 and being transferred out of training and into active duty in Duke Satan's harem. Realizing that possibilities of escape were quickly diminishing, the two of them began concocting their final escape plan, which involved capitalizing upon their old talents to overcome the guards and warlocks running the fortress. They began foregoing sleep as Sasamu snuck out of the barracks in order to learn the lay of the fortress, practice scaling its sheer walls with a heavy sack of rotted grain tied to her back, and generally regain her former acrobatic prowess, drained by long years of torture and deprivation, while Susuru began stealing glances at scrolls and books when charged with cleaning the quarters of his captors, using what he remembered of the elder's lessons to prepare a magical solution for slipping beyond the iron perimeter.

When the fateful hour came, Susuru gathered his materials, eluded the gaze of the night watchman, and joined his sister, who awaited him in a storage cellar. Under the cover of darkness, Sasamu dragged Susuru along as she brought them up walls, across parapets, and eventually to the fortress' supply gates, where the burden of egress then fell to Susuru. As he climbed down from his sister's shoulders and unfurled the Scroll of Teleportation he had stolen from a warlock's office, however, the scroll began to emit a sound like the pained wailing of a woman. At once, they could see lamps across the grounds as guards bore down upon them. Susuru steadied himself, took his sister's hand, and prepared for the culmination of his months of clandestine study; he spoke the arcane words scribed upon the scroll while envisioning the woods where their troupe had last set up camp, and... nothing happened.

Susuru turned the parchment over and over in his hands, watching in disbelief as the words faded from view and their only chance at escape became just an ordinary scrap of paper. He began to raise his hands in surrender when suddenly Sasamu seized him by the collar, roughly shoved him through the door of a root cellar situated near the supply sheds, and told him to stay put. Susuru waited in the darkness for only a moment before daring to peek out at what was happening, and when he did look, he could not properly account for what he saw: his sister, pressed against the gates, a vicious look on her face as guards circled close around her, and in her hands what appeared to be one of her old fireworks.

The blast hurled Susuru back and down into the root cellar, and this was all that saved him. When the white haze left his vision and the ringing in his ears subsided, he staggered his way back towards the wooden hatch, nearly torn from its hinges, and looked outside.

Blood, rubble, and the sounds of discord overwhelmed his senses as he took in the gruesome sight: the supply gate had been torn down utterly and in its place was erected a monument to carnage, the pulp of organs splattered across smoking stone, still-twitching limbs skewered upon long rods of twisted iron, blackened bones clattering in the chaos like the tuneless drumming of some inhuman slavemaster. At first, he couldn't move, and then, to his horror, he realized that he must move, and it was awful both because of the imminent necessity of escape and because of what it said about him that after witnessing this scene, he actually could move at all. He advanced towards the gate and then realized he still held the vellum in his left hand, blank and crumpled. At the meridian of the fortress, he stooped and dipped his finger in someone's blood and wrote upon the vellum the words: SATAN - I WILL KILL YOU. - S.

This oath he skewered upon one of the still-scalding stakes of tattered iron, next to what might have been his sister's arm, and vanished into the night.

Escape to Shady Vale
Susuru made his way along the Ostberg chain, eluding his captors long enough to pass beyond the boundaries of the Duke's estate and eventually settle in the town of Shady Vale. Here, he spent time in solitude and quiet recovering from the shock of what had happened, until town officials grew suspicious of a twelve-year old (with the appearance of a five year old) travelling by himself and forced him to account for himself. Susuru spoke nothing of the true events of his life, and was given the option by the town elders of either leaving or finding work. As he prepared to depart again for some unknown destination, however, one of the elders took pity upon him, and invited him into his home. Susuru agreed primarily because of weariness, but over time, he found that the old man reminded him more and more of the elders he knew long ago in the troupe, and he began to settle in for good.

Susuru spent his time in something of a daze, studying the elder's vast library of books on local and regional history, as well as ancient tomes on the history of magic. Sensing his interest, the old man, whose name was Yupa, began to teach Susuru what little he himself knew of magic. Susuru was an apt student, and quickly mastered what Yupa had to teach, even eventually going beyond Yupa's abilities as he matured, mentally if not physically, into adulthood.

One day, Susuru realized that nearly ten years had passed in this way, and he was nearing his 22nd birthday. The elder Yupa began to sense a sort of dispondence in him and although he had never pried into Susuru's past before, began to question what was troubling his adopted son. Susuru at last revealed the truth of his past, and Yupa, in his wisdom, knew what must be done. "Susuru," he said, "take it from me that if you remain here in this village, your desires will become a sort of poison, and your days will turn toward darkness, even if you would will it otherwise. Like as not, you've been given a dark destiny, and I'm sad to say you will not be able to fulfill it under my roof. Though you are always welcome in our home, I advise you now to travel to a true city like West Midden, where you can hone your craft in true, master the arcane secrets I know you long for, and determine for yourself exactly what sort of resolution your destiny will have. I believe there are answers for you... but you will not find them here."

Realizing the truth of these words, Susuru began traveling out from Shady Vale, taking frequent trips to West Midden and the surrounding area, looking for a way to develop his craft, and seeking news about Duke Satan. Though he was optimistic at first, Susuru's development was slow to start, because he found that he did not fit in with the orderly structure of the magical institutes of Westmidden at all. The authoritarian and regimented structure of these places reminded him too much of his time in Duke Satan's fortress, and he never flourished as he had when with his troupe or growing up at Yupa's house. He dropped enrollment and returned to Yupa's house to mull over what he would do next.

Recruitment by Marla Harlowe
Just when he was beginning to give up hope of advancing his magical studies, however, he received a strange message, a note summoning him to a meeting with a figure he had met once before and entirely forgotten - Marla Harlowe - who had taken his name and commissioned his interest in a so-called "Adventurer Brokerage" during one of his sullen days as a student in West Midden. The note promised opportunities for advancement and riches, but these promises were of little persuasion to Susuru; instead, he simply found himself suddenly taken by the promise of strange and unknown freedom that the message offered.

Once again, he packed his few belongings, including Yupa's spellbook - a parting gift from the old man - and set out towards the city, where his dark destiny awaited.

Adventures
In the first adventure with the Brokerage, Susuru aided the party in escorting and then recovering an envelope containing information important to the plans of the Elder Consortium. Along the way, however, he witnessed many instances of the harsh lives led by those citizens of the Reaches who fell outside the direct interests of the Consortium and thus did not merit their full representation and protection. In particular, he was moved by an encounter with a caravan of thieves, driven to their trade by simple hunger and basic material desires, who nevertheless had to be slaughtered due to avoidable circumstance. These experiences caused Susuru's view of the Consortium to darken considerably, and he began to view their treatment of the West Reaches as the root of the problem and the reason why figures such as Duke Satan were able to take power at all. Consequently, he supported the party in their decision to read and make a copy of the Research Division D letter, translating the cipher and transmitting its contents to Brecca and the rest of the party.

In the second adventure with the Brokerage, Susuru joined the party as they traveled to the town of Northwood to fulfill a contract and also find Phillipe, who had gone missing in an effort to root out the evil which had taken up residence in a nearby citadel. At the culmination of this adventure, Susuru was able to crack through a powerful mind control which had been laid upon Phillipe and appeal to his good nature via a fierce dialectical exchange at the foot of the Guiphas tree. Ultimately, Phillipe was rescued and the adventure was a success.

Susuru did not take part in Marla's summons to the third adventure because of his desire to investigate further the curious events he had witnessed so far, particularly those related to the Consortium's cipher and the mysterious reappearance of dwarves in the world. He is currently traveling about the West Reaches in search of whatever information he can find to aid the party in their upcoming exploits.

Quotes
"I grow weary of these conditions where we must accept Lesser Evil, and dismiss Good as an illusion that will never be."

Susuru: "This seems a gross rationalization!" / Fouceud: "Well I've had three hundred years to think about it."

"I worry that Philippe would be an uncorrupt, but loyal man, with loyalty to a person who tolerates corruption."

"I'm no stranger to attempts on my life."

"I bet if he's on FIRE we'll fucking see him."

Susuru: "I have 1 HP—" / All: (gasp) / Susuru: "...1 is enough."

"PHILIPPE! THIS IS DISGUSTING! [...] YOU KNOW THAT EVIL SITUATES ITSELF WITHIN THE FORTRESS OF A MAN'S HEART [...] THIS FOOL SEEKS THE GLORY THAT COMES WITH DOMINION OVER A FUCKING APPLE."

"You're familiar with my affinity for cloaks with large sleeves?"

"There is no adventure without the risk of death!"

Vampire: "Who sent you? Zacharias?!" / Susuru: "To the nine HELLS with Zacharias! ARE THERE ANY TORCHES ON THE WALL?"

"Sleep!"