Casimir Dunbarton

Casimir Dunbarton was a male human wizard. The youngest son of the Dunbarton House of Willowroot, Casimir forsook his family's tradition of defending Willowroot to pursue his study of the arcane arts, but inadvertently became one of Willowroot's greatest heroes.

Description
Casimir was a tall, thin human with awkward proportions and wild, thick black hair that grayed as he aged. During his prime as the Arch-Mage of the College of Willowroot, and in the years that followed, he often wore purple and gold wizard robes, colors he felt spoke to both his specialty in divination and his noble heritage.

Personality
In his youth, Casimir was timid and nervous. He avoided conversations when possible and fled confrontations. His prodigious magical abilities did not bolster his confidence until later in his career. After playing a major part in slaying Karsunex the Spiteful and becoming the College of Willowroot's divination chair, and Arch-Mage soon after, Casimir's anxiety evaporated and his excitement for learning dominated his personality. Casimir was very distractible, prone to bursts of obsession with studying a particular topic. His desire to make discoveries and teach others often eclipsed other needs, such as surviving a battle in progress.

Abilities
Casimir was among the most powerful wizards in the region. The resources provided to him by the College of Willowroot and his adventures across the multiverse enabled him to fill his many spellbooks with nearly every known spell, though several obscure spells eluded him. His specialty was divination, for it was his passion for learning the secrets of the multiverse that motivated him to study magic early in life. He considered himself a master of attaining knowledge. If he did not know something, he knew where the knowledge could be found.

Casimir was powerful in combat, and fought with the mindset that battles are puzzles to be solved, with himself, his spells, and the abilities of his companions as pieces to said puzzle. He was vulnerable to being taken by surprise or swarmed by enemies.

As Casimir grew old, his capacity for spellcasting diminished, and he was only able to cast a few advanced spells per day before needing a nap.

Possessions
Casimir utilized many forms of arcane focus for spellcasting. In his prime, he utilized a redwood wand for his general purpose spellcasting, and for divination, used primarily his crystal ball, which he enchanted to be nearly unbreakable. Eager to explore all forms of his craft, he carried other forms of divination media as well, including a tarokka deck he acquired from an adventure to Barovia, several crystals, and a twenty-sided die. In his old age, Casimir replaced his wand with a staff, which doubled as a walking stick.

After defeating Karsunex for the second time in her shadow dragon form, he took and preserved a scale from her body, which he used to summon a piece of her soul as part of casting Illusory Dragon. He later improved on the scale with additional enchantment, and it became the Scale of Karsunex.

Though his vision was not impaired, he often read and cast spells while wearing his Spectacles of Arcane Recall, which he found in a desk drawer in his office when he became Arch-Mage. He carried the Spectacles on adventures and made great use of the item's abilities.

Through an adventure in the Astral Plane, Casimir came into ownership of a Spelljammer ship called the Swollen Ostrich. Originally a simple sailing ship, the vessel passed from owner to owner and, over centuries of modifications, became a plane-shifting luxury space yacht, which Casimir used as a mobile base of operations after he stole it from the Githyanki.

Early Life
Casimir was born to the most prominent noble house in Willowroot as the third child of Elan Dunbarton. In Willowroot, the Dunbartons were known as protectors and heroes, a tradition established by Casimir's ancestor Gallus. In keeping with this tradition, Casimir was pressured toward a military life, ideally in the Wing Guard, which Gallus founded. His elder brother excelled in this, while Casimir floundered. He was not athletic, and was not possessed of the same passion for his heritage. The Dunbartons noticed his talent for magic, and enrolled him in the College of Magic in the hopes that he would become an Evoker. One year into his studies, Casimir secretly transferred to the divination department to pursue his passions.

During his time as a student, Casimir frequently communicated via crystal ball with a mentor in the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors in the distant city of Waterdeep from whom he learned a great deal about magic and about being a wizard. In discussing the future of Casimir's career, his mentor became impatient at Casimir's cowardice and took it upon himself to write to his family to tell them they ought to be proud of his talent in the field of Divination. Casimir, fearful of his parents wrath upon receiving the letter, enlisted Trevor's White Knights to intercept the letter and destroy it.

The Willowroot Crime Wave and Becoming a Dragonslayer
After completing Casimir's quest to intercept the letter from his mentor, Trevor's White Knights went on a crime spree, sending Willowroot's law enforcement into disarray. The chaos was brought to a head when Karsunex the Spiteful attacked Willowroot during Dreali Leadon's Autumn Gala. Henrique, the Captain of the Guard, decided to form a team capable of stopping the criminals within Willowroot's walls and Karsunex outside them. Several adventurers offered their expertise, but as far as Henrique was concerned, the core of the team would be comprised of himself, Vistra Sunforge, and Casimir Dunbarton. Having learned of Casimir's divination talent, Henrique hoped to pressure Casimir's latent sense of duty to his family name and bring him into the fold. Casimir agreed to join Henrique in his efforts, glad to be appreciated for his talents first and his heritage second.

Unfortunately, Casimir would prove useless in finding Trevor's White Knights, due to becoming romantically involved with Ellessar. Though Casimir and Ellessar failed to ever formally define their relationship, Casimir's guilt-ridden excitement for his first romance ensured that the White Knights could heist on unhindered.

After Karsunex attacked Willowroot a second time, Casimir persuaded Henrique and Vistra that they must challenge Karsunex to battle, lest Willowroot slowly crumble under the pressure of the dragon's continued attacks. When Henrique put out a call for adventurers to join them, and Jia volunteered, Casimir recognized her, but was forced to keep her invovlement with Trevor's White Knights a secret. Along with Henrique, Vistra, Lilith, and Jia, Casimir rode into battle against Karsunex the Spiteful and slew her, his largest contribution being an Immolation spell, which burned away the dragon's outer hide.

While investigating Karsunex's lair, Casimir discovered the Wand of Orcus and brought it to the College of Magic for study. Despite learning that the artifact was extremely dangerous, Casimir's curiosity got the better of him and he kept the Wand in the college to learn more about it. When Trevor's White Knights stole the Wand, not knowing its evil, Casimir confronted the thieves. He threatened to report them to Henrique, but Ellessar threatened to report Casimir to the College for his unethical decisions surrounding the Wand, and for his relationship with her. At an impasse, Casimir made a deal with Trevor's White Knights, with all agreeing to cooperate to destroy the Wand of Orcus, then go their separate ways.

As part of the quest to destroy the Wand of Orcus, Casimir joined Trevor's White Knights on a journey down the River Styx through the Nine Hells to infiltrate one of Mephistopholes' libraries. There, he discovered an ancient spellbook penned by the lich Acererak. Upon returning to the Material Plane, Casimir began studying the spellbook, and made decades of progress in magic in a matter of weeks. In recognition of his progress, Casimir was promoted to the vacant chair of the divination department at the College of Willowroot.

Shortly after, Casimir joined Trevor's White Knights in a ploy to recover the Wand of Orcus from Vistra Sunforge, who came into possession of it after the Wand disappeared mysteriously. The ploy to steal the wand from Vistra involved Trevor asking Vistra out on a date to Nox's Borscht Shop, and inviting Casimir and Ellessar along to make it a double date. Casimir played the part of awkward boyfriend well, but failed to be of use when the situation escalated into a battle resulting in Vistra Sunforge's death.

When Casimir needed Arch-Mage Odore's help with research related to the Wand of Orcus, he realized Odore had been missing for weeks. He asked Trevor's White Knights to investigate the Arch-Mage's home, where they discovered his body. To fill the vacancy, the College of Willowroot decided to promote Casimir to Arch-Mage, in order to take advantage of his fame as a Dunbarton and Dragonslayer to bring prestige to the institution.

In an effort to discover a means to travel to the Abyss, Casimir accompanied Trevor's White Knights to the Astral Plane to steal a Spelljammer ship from the Githyanki. The heist succeeded, and Casimir came into possession of the Swollen Ostrich, a Spelljammer ship capable of shifting between the Astral Plane and the Material Plane.

Casimir was ultimately unable to destroy the Wand of Orcus. The wand disappeared, Ellessar ghosted him, and he was forced to repel a demonic invasion in the sewers under Willowroot by himself.

Arch-Mage
Casimir considered his tenure as the Arch-Mage of the College of Willowroot to be his prime years. As head of a prestigous college of magic, Casimir became a powerful wizard, traveled the multiverse on research expeditions, and brought the college to new heights.

Casimir followed in Gallus Dunbarton's footsteps and created a specialized military program of his own: The Robert Dunbarton Institute of War Magic, named for his brother who died in service to the Wing Guard. An interdisciplinary program taught by professors of Evocation and Abjuration, and by military instructors from the House Lumsden-led army, the War Magic Institute proved popular and brought prestige to the Dunbarton name. To Casimir, however, the program was more of a quick project meant to satisfy the demand for him to carry on the Dunbarton legacy. With the War Magic Institute in place and his family pleased at long last, Casimir retreated from the public eye to work in solitude.

It was during his years as Arch-Mage when Casimir published the World Fountain Cosmology, his theory on the nature of the multiverse.

As the War of the Three Kingdoms broke out, Casimir was slow to become involved. Though the War Magic Institute's graduates were valuable on the battlefield, Casimir's apathy allowed House Lumsden to eclipse House Dunbarton as Willowroot's heroic warriors. As General Harold Lumsden's corruption dragged Willowroot into an unjust war, Casimir worked with Henrique to find a way to covertly stop Harold's campaign. Casimir recruited a group of adventurers to assist him and Henrique in recovering Blackrazor from an ancient tomb, which Henrique wielded until the war's end.

Wyldgrowth
Decades following the White Plume Mountain Incident, Casimir became aware of a plot by mysterious forces to bring about a cataclysm, starting at an ancient site known as Echo Temple. Casimir recruited adventurers Pagliacci, Ren, Aelar, and Rowan to aid him as he infiltrated Echo Temple. At the temple's center, he discovered eladrin and shadar-kai performing the ritual to activate the temple. Fearing the worst, Casimir and company stopped the elves and permanently damaged Echo Temple's control crystals. The cataclysm that Casimir set out to halt occurred anyhow, and Wyldgrowth began. With his team of adventurers missing the Feywild, Casimir was left to deal with the aftermath by himself.

Casimir lost the location of the traveling Echo Temple. In the years hence, Casimir was torn between rediscovering Echo Temple and defending Willowroot from invading Fey and Shadow creatures. When Willowroot made its final stand against Wyldgrowth, Casimir returned to the capital to defend it, but was unsuccessful. After Willowroot's fall, Casimir wandered the land for decades, struggling to survive as he searched for any way to reverse the apocalypse. When Casimir realized that he may die of old age before he succeeded, he returned to the Swollen Ostrich and plane-shifted the vessel to the Astral Plane. Because creatures do not age in the Astral Plane, Casimir made permenent residence there, and attempted to continue his work remotely. His solitude had negative effects on his mind, however, and his tendency to distraction pulled him away from his quest.

When Ren, Pagliacci, Rowan, and Aelar reappeared and made contact with him, along with a new adventurer named Kheris, he renewed his quest to reverse Wyldgrowth, and guided the adventurers toward Echo Temple, returning to the Material Plane on occasion to assist. After an expedition to the ruins of Willowroot to recover items from his office at the College of Magic, he accompanied the adventurers to Molgrum, where he was turned to stone by a Gorgon. The adventurers managed to un-petrify Casimir during a battle with Karsunex the Undying in the bowels of Thelfadihr. Casimir joined Marhanna Copperheart in battle and the two longtime rivals of Karsunex defeated the dragon for a second time. Traumatized by being turned to stone, Casimir became frail, and his spellcasting abilities were diminished. Casimir was forced to return to the Astral Plane once again, guiding the adventurers on the search for Echo Temple from the Swollen Ostrich.

Trevor's White Knights
Casimir's relationship with Trevor's White Knights was held together at first by mutual blackmail, which then transitioned into a love-hate relationship. The wizard could not help but like the criminals, since he, too, occasionally had ambitions that stepped outside what one might consider lawful. He found their dysfunction and lack of focus endearing. When the troupe abandoned him during his quest to destroy the Wand of Orcus, he did not fault them, blaming himself instead for relying on them in the first place. After the dust had settled, he continued to check in on each member of the group on an individual basis, enjoying their friendship.

Ellessar
Ellessar was a high elf assassin and part of Trevor's White Knights with whom Casimir became romantically involved. Ellessar claimed that she entered the relationship in order to manipulate him, but her companions saw through this deception, and found the two of them cute together. Casimir and Ellessar never properly defined their relationship, but Casimir was optimistic that he could consider her his girlfriend. He worked hard to earn her approval, but they ultimately drifted apart. Casimir was heartbroken, but accepted that a romance with a remorseless killer-for-hire who had a weird thing for horses would probably have been unsustainable in the long run.

The Rangers of the Wylds
After utilizing the skills of adventurers on many occasions, Casimir got in the habit of maintaining a list of adventurers to call upon in times of need. From this list, he contacted the Rangers of the Wylds to assist him with his expedition to Echo Temple. He recruited Aelar for his ties to a god of knowledge, Ren for her understanding of extraplanar contact, Pagliacci for his attunement with the Feywild, and Rowan for their attunement with the Shadowfell. When Kheris joined the group, Casimir noted that her oath and skillset was a perfect fit for their goals as well.

Casimir met the four original adventurers when he was in his prime years. When they reappeared from the Feywild, he had become an old man, and the memory of his younger self disappeard from the adventurers' minds. They saw him as a whimsical, silly old sage, and Casimir, having admired famous elderly wizards since his youth, was more than willing to play the part.

Trivia
Casimir was originally created by Max to be a questgiver for a single adventure: the quest to intercept the letter from his mentor. As Casimir became embroiled in the all-rogue party's ongoing activities, he became Max's in-universe alter-ego, in following with other such wizards as Gary Gygax's Mordenkainen or Rob Kuntz' Bigby.

Though Casimir was an non-player character, he was played, for one session only, by Val Taylor. While Casimir and the other dragonslayers were set to battle Karsunex the Spiteful, the actual player characters of Trevor's White Knights snuck into the dragon's lair to steal her hoard. Max wanted the players to enjoy participating in the climactic battle itself, and gave the players control of Henrique, Vistra, Lilith, and Casimir. Val played as Casimir as he battled Karsunex and slew her.

The name Dunbarton was chosen when Max was thinking about her next game session while driving to LMU and passed Dunbarton Avenue.

Casimir, in his later years, had a crippling Bridge addiction, and was known to have played in high stakes tournaments with hags, archfey, and other such otherworldly entities.

The Rangers of the Wylds encountered a version of Casimir from an alternate timeline, in which Casimir married Deliza Durel during his prime, and immediately retreated to the Swollen Ostrich with her during Wyldgrowth, resulting in the preservation of his youth for far longer. The adventurers saved this alternate Casimir's life, enabling him to save theirs in turn.