| Skud Derringer | |||
| (Mike Bachmann) | |||
 |
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| About: | |||
| Alias(es): | The Greatest Necromancer in All the Lands! | ||
| Race: | Water Genasi | ||
| Class: | Monk(Min2)/Cleric(Min3)/Wizard(Min15) (This is based on spells cast to date and the use of a Ki point once) | ||
| Status: | unknown | ||
| Cause of Death: | Imprisoned in an unknown plane | ||
| Affiliations: | The Tower of Grey The Monastery of Uthgar | ||
| Appearances: | |||
| First Episode: | Last Episode: | ||
| Episode 255 - To the South, We Go | Episode 427 - A Farewell to Our Family and Friends | ||
| MISC Info: | |||
| May or may not have played the GameCube
Didn't seem to be aware of the stigma against necromancers Had the ability to breath both air and water1 |
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Skud Derringer was a member of The Tower of Grey, and the last surviving inhabitant of the Monastery of Uthgar in Ssathra. He joined the Tower after they helped him defeat his Old Master, and then the Monastery was destroyed. He was committed to becoming the greatest necromancer in the world. He had a dog named Squelch.
Appearance and Personality[]
Skud was of average height. He had mauve skin, a bleached blonde Flock of Seagulls haircut, and a chest that was waxed, but only in the shape of a V formation. This was due to the fact that he wore a robe that was open a little too low, and you could still kind of see some hair peeking out from behind it. Also, his robe that that 90's paper cup pattern. You know, that swirly blue wave thing.
Skud was a pretty chill dude, at least to start. He was relaxed and unassuming, didn't really let things get to him, you know. As time went on, and he grew more comfortable with the Tower of Grey, he revealed himself to be more like an anime boy. His mission was to become "The Greatest Necromancer in all the Lands" and would stop at nothing to become so. He seemed to have a pretty rudimentary sense of life and death. He didn't, strictly speaking, understand what it meant when people died. This is most likely due, in part, to his being raised by monks of Uthgar, as well as his ability to raise skeletons from their grave, and command them to do whatever he wanted, including acting as they did before death.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
As a child, Skud always loved skeletons, but his father demanded he become a Cleric. To this end, he sent the boy off to the Monastery of Uthgar, where we would study Clerical duties with the monks there. In secret, would practice his necromancy, and bone manipulation. Then one day, the monastery was invaded by bandits, who killed all the monks. Skud tried to stop them, but was unable, and would have been killed himself were it not for a mysterious robed necromancer, commanding a skeleton made of iron. The figure chased the bandits away. Skud asked him how he could become as skilled in the ways of bone manipulation as him, and the man just smiled and tossed him a small coin, with a skull on it. From that day forward, Skud vowed to travel the world and learn everything that there was to know about bones and be the most powerful bone master the world has ever seen2. Unfortunately, we don't know much about the period following Skud's life, and there is evidence that, until the Tower arrived, Skud never even left the monastery.
The Tower of Grey[]
Not much is known about Skud's life following this event. He lived by himself in the monastery, and used his necromancy powers to try to resurrect his fallen friends. Unfortunately, he only had the ability to re-animate their corpses, which eventually decayed unto bones. This resulted in a warped sense of life and death for the young Genasi. He viewed his skeleton puppets as a kind of real, living version of his former allies. His first attempt at bringing the dead back to life was his Old Master. This particular experiment went horribly wrong, and the creature became quite hostile, forcing Skud to lock the Old Master-corpse-zombie up in the treasure room of the Monastery. At some point after this, Skud read all of the magic scrolls in the Monastery, and decided that he knew everything the scrolls had to offer, so he began to destroy these scrolls, to prevent the information from falling into the wrong hands. He was in the process of burning the last of these scrolls, when he was visited by a team of adventurers known as The Tower of Grey, in search of one of their member's, Lahnik "Lahni" Caplain, missing brother, Lannie.
The Tower assisted Skud in taking down the Old Master, and in thanks, Skud gifted them with the most valuable item the treasury had to offer: The Orb. This Orb functioned as a kind of map; it had nodes on it, that, when pressed, revealed a translucent image of some mysterious place. The Tower of Grey thought about this for a minute before the Monastery was suddenly ripped apart by Pyre, the ancient red dragon who ruled Mastwick. Pyre demanded they hand over the orb, or else it would be their lives. They didn't want to do that, so Skud told them all of a secret trap-door they could escape out of. Lahni took the orb and ran away super fast, while Skud and the others escaped through the trap-door. Everyone met up on the Tower of Grey's airship, The Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. There, Tower of Grey leader Rowan Grey consulted with her number two, Toby Treacletart, on whether they should allow Skud to join their party, and ultimately, decided to do so. At that moment, Queen Ashayara Dayne arrived to give them all a new quest! The missing Prince Thom Harper has been kidnapped! Skud accompanied the party on their new mission to find him, which started when Skud himself discovered that a tuning fork found in the prince's room was attuned to The Feywild. Around this time, Skud revealed that he was carrying with him a bag of holding, containing enough bones to make three skeleton companions (occasionally referred to as "Skele-bros"). These Skele-bros were commanded by Skud, and would often fight alongside them against their enemies.
Before going to the Feywild, the party went to the White Spire, to investigate the plane. There, they met with Watson Copperfield, who warned Skud that necromancy is forbidden, but they would make an exception for him. Getting the information they needed, the party prepared to travel to the Feywild. Skud gave one of his skeletons a Wand of Magic Missile with the words "Skud Missile" written on the side. They then Planar Shifted over to the Feywild, which was in quite the state of disrepair. During a fight with some spooky spiders, Skud was knocked unconscious, but awoke after Toby used his Robe of Stars to transport them to the Astral Plane. He used the spell Prayer of Healing (I think), to heal everyone after their encounter, then they all jumped back to the Feywild, where they saw the spider menace being driven off my Old Ben Dilladong, who brought them to his hut and let them rest until morning. He then sent them on their way to the Castle of the Spring Court, where The Orb was pointing them. They were blocked from the Castle by it's security force, The High Level Executive-Class Drow Supreme Fighting Force.
Each member of the party faced off against these Drow dudes, including Skud. He was paired with Red Racoome in "The Ultimate Endurance Battle", which was a series of challenges. First, they did a keg stand, which Skud won by a landslide. Next was a Dog Sausage Eating Contast, which again Skud dominated. The third task was a Hotbox Challenge, where they both sat in a tent filled with Silverweed Oil, to see who could last the longest. Skud, who could breath water, brought in a bottle of said water, allowing him to last longer, and won the challenge. The fourth task was to do that dizzy bat challenge thing, which Skud lost, his first of the challenge. They then did a puzzle together, which was fun. Skud won! They were then permitted entrance into the castle. Inside were many more bad guys and foes, but they were overcome using the power of teamwork and friendship! Hurray! At the center of the Castle, they met Melora, whom Skud recognized immediately.
The Goddess thanked them for saving her, and gave each party member a gift, based off of their inner-most desires. Looking into Skud's heart, she determined that there was nothing he truly wanted, and granted him her blessing, allowing him to reroll any roll once per day. She then told them that Thom Harper could be found in another plane, Elysium. Leaving the Castle, the Tower got apprehended by a sprite named Thirst's followers, and a spell was cast on them to switch their bodies. Skud switched bodies with Lahni, and vice versa. So that was funny. That was then fixed, after Thirst was defeated.
Soon after, the Tower conducted their first annual Performance Review, where Skud revealed his Dark Past. They then traveled to Elysium in search of the missing prince. The pastor of the Temple of Pelor, Father Tierney, took a strong liking to Skud, asking him for help in figuring out who killed two Elysian guards. The party searched around for a while, eventually meeting Prince Thom's late father, King Titus Harper. Skud offered to bring him back to life, but Harper refused, claiming that he was at peace. Also, Skud met Marendithas Bearcharger, and the two had an instant connection. The party followed the clues to the dead guards' murderers, Tyson and Gagney. They were hired by Josail Longshadow, who, the party learned, could be found in the prison-city of Grull, in the Shadowfell. Before leaving for there, however, the party traveled to Pelor's Hope, to reconnect with Ashayara Dayne and return her son. While there, Skud sought out a Monster Fight Club in a seedy tavern. He defeated his first foe by forming a skeleton cage around himself. His second foe, however, turned out to be Barry, Skud's greatest rival. Barry defeated Skud, shaming him. Skud cursed Barry as he left. The party then traveled to the Shadowfell.
Grull[]
Skud in his Bone Mech Suit
Entering the Shadowfell, each member of the Tower began to experience an existential depression. Their life-force was drained away, and Skud was among the first to succumb, passing into unconsciousness. He awoke being interrogated by a hooded figure, who asked him three questions. "What is your name?", which Skud answered honestly. "How do you plead?" which Skud didn't know how to answer, so the man writes Not Guilty. And "Do you have any special skills?" Skud detailed many of his special skills, including cooking, making fire from his hands, sucking the life from his enemies, controlling bones, and some of his spells. The man cut his hand, draining some of his blood and catching it in a vial, which was taken away. This prevented him from using any magic. Skud was then sent, now a prisoner, to his cell, where he met his new cellmate, Jimmy Skaags. Skaags took him to meet The Baus, a criminal underlord, who offered Skud a job working for him, in exchange for some protection, and a slice of his lifestyle, living like a king. Skud accepted. His first job was to deliver a letter for him, and drop it off in Cart #7. The Baus would ensure that Skud got a job in the laundry, but also made him promise to not open the letter and read it. Skud, again, agreed. Later that night, Skud met up with his friends, also prisoners, and everyone debriefed. He told them all how he saw Jimmy bribe one of the guards using Smokes, which were smoke bombs, so if they could get more of those, they'd be golden. True to The Baus's word, Skud was assigned to the laundry.
Later at work, Skud found the cart he needed, and put the letter into it, without having read it. There, he met Stymer Dunkan, an evil guard nobody liked. Skud tried to distract Dunkan, telling him that one of the other prisoners had some contraband. Dunkan, who hated rats worse than thieves, hit Skud, giving him a black eye, but not the way you think. He adds a bruised eye to Skud's face. It's weird. After Dunkan left, The Baus entered, taking the note, and revealing that it was empty and meaningless. Jimmy Skaags told Skud that if he had read the note, he would have had to kill him. The next day (or later that night, it's confusing), Skud met with the Baus again, who paid him with a pack of Smokes, and told him he had a new job for him; kill Stymer Dunkan. To do this, The Baus gave Skud a poisoned dagger. Examining it later, revealed that the dagger was rigged to kill whoever did the stabbing, as well as the stabbed. What followed was a long discussion about what to do next. Eventually, they decide to use the needle that would spring out, and hide in a bowl of Toby's beans, that Skud would present to The Baus. Rowan would also be there, in case things take a turn for the combat. Suddenly, there was a surprise inspection, where Skud hid some sausage in an inmate's pocket, the same inmate that he tried to tell Dunkan had contraband from the beginning of this paragraph, who's name was apparently Roger. Dunkan found the sausage, but it was the inmate's birthday, so he let him go. Later that night, he and Rowan entered the lair of The Baus, with Rowan hiding in the shadows.
The assault didn't go as planned. While the Baus did eat the beans, it turned out that the Baus was immune to the poison. The two were sent down into something called, "The Pit". Their friends, Lahni and Toby, went to investigate. While invisible, they snuck into the Baus's lair. Lahni found and pressed the button to open the trapdoor, and pushed the Baus into the pit, killing him once and for all. They then looted the body, finding a magical dagger, and a map that showed them how to get out of here, which they followed. At the end of the tunnel was a wounded Eckhart Dayhammer, whom they saved from certain doom! He was able to lead them to their effects, locked up in impound, but as they were breaking through the door, many guards surrounded them. There was a massive, confusing skirmish, involving summoning demons (that was Skud), and blink dogs, and smoke bombs. They used this distraction to sneak into the impound room, where they met and saved Frank Ubell! They also found all of their stuff, and some new goodies. Skud found an Evolution Bone, the purpose of which is unknown. They also found and destroyed the blood room, allowing everyone to be able to use their powers once again.
After that, they turned to the task of freeing the god Pelor. Toby figured out where he was, and everyone went to there. Pelor, as well as the God of the Shadowfell, Torog, were both being held by Josail Longshadow, whom they fought and killed. They freed to two gods, and Pelor told them that Tiamat, the dragon goddess, has been unleashed into Drunkeros. Also, in order to learn more about the Orb, they should go speak with Ioun.
Freeing the Gods[]
After their escape from Grull, the party next traveled to the White Spire in Peleor's Hope, taking their captured friends with them. They warned the Pelor's Hopeians about Tiamat, and then headed back to the Tower of Grey. There was a great celebration! They played Never Have I Ever, where we learned a lot about Skud, including that his father was not proud of him, and that he'd never gone on a date. Skud and Lahni were made official members of the Tower of Grey!
The next morning, the members of the Tower traveled to The Great Library of Ioun, where the goddess taught them all about the Orb. It was a device made to kill gods, but was only useful to them when fully assembled. She also told them where two of the three remaining location were, and that the pieces of the orb could most likely be found there. One of those places was the first layer of the Nine Hells, specifically, the headquarters of the bank, Ferrim Pecunia. Frank worked for that bank, so they decided to go to Pelor's Hope once again, to go to the branch there and gather intel.
Episodes[]
- Most Episodes