Azer 🩵

Claude tends to be one of the heavy-hitting members of the party (especially when it’s something vulnerable to his magic!). I’ve never played a cleric before. At first, I wished it would be a bit more like a wizard, but it’s been really awesome to do radiant damage and heal the others when they need it.

Claude was raised in Neverwinter and he only ever truly knew his mother. His father was a sailor and he doesn’t remember him very well. He disappeared when Claude was young. He joined the Selûnite church at a young age. The scars on his chest are the consequence of an accident involving a werewolf during the full moon.

Claude’s about 130 years old. He was traveling by himself for about a year before meeting the rest of the party. He started his journey to help people in need and spread the good word of Selûne.

He has a somewhat personal relationship with Selûne, although it hasn’t really been discussed. He believes that she is the reason he survived. He does ‘magical girl transformations’ to change in and out of his armor.

Claude needs to be more careful with how he shares information. He has a charisma score of 7 (-2) which really drags him down. He’s very bookish, but he’s better when it comes to rescuing people and speaking to them. He accidentally let information about Madame Eva slip, which ended with the Village of Barovia being burned down.

(I hope this isn’t awful and blurry)

He spoke with Escher for the first time the session before the last one. that was SO exciting. And then after the session, the moon was full. So Claude went out to pray, and Escher appeared. They talked about Claude’s motivations and Escher mocked him a little bit for always doing the right thing (Claude always follows the golden rule). Escher also revealed his jealousy toward the favored wives (esp Volenta, because she attacked Ireena when we went into the coffin shop). Our Escher and Doru were turned a week before our campaign started. Which is definitely not what I expected. Claude passed on a message from Doru and Escher seemed really surprised. Almost hurt.

I’m kicking my feet just thinking about that interaction!!!

As a child, Claude was very lonely. He lived at home with his elven parents. His mother, Elenor Moonglade, was a priestess at the church and his father was a sailor. Because his father was mostly absent, his mother taught him how to sew, bake, and read. She told him stories about Selûne and other folktales. They would grow their own food in their small garden. She would walk him to school and take him to the Selûnite church in the night. To get stronger, he would carry the basket of her baked goods for the church ladies. His hair was short and so was he. He always hoped that if he ate well, he would grow taller. He helped his mother take care of their cow. They would bring silver cups of milk to offer to Selûne on full moons.

One day, when Claude was roughly 70-74 (~12 in human years), his father departed to sail to the Moonshae islands. He never returned home. His mother murmured to herself a lot that he looked ike his father. Claude felt guilty for not caring for his dad. His father’s disappearance was hardly a surprise to him after he was gone so frequently. To earn more gold and keep them afloat, Claude was initiated into the Selûnite church. He was lonely there too. Nobody there was quite his age and the older children would mock him for his inability to socialize. At night, he would pray to Selûne to give him more friends. In the daytime, he devoted himself relentlessly to his intellectual and religious studies. He wished people would praise him for what he did right. He wanted to have friends and be recognized more than anything.

Claude’s rigorous academic attitude paid off. At 90 (~15), he became a proper cleric of Selûne early. He dutifully practiced his spells and carried out the requests that the other church members had for him. His mother grew very ill. He was able to heal her with a soup made of flowers that Selûne had suggested to him in a dream. He took her assistance as a sign that he needed to get more involved in the church. At 110, the second he became an adult, he started standing guard over the werewolves who would transform inside of chambers inside the temples during full moons. He helped his mother handle the garden and her cow as she grew older. She wore beautiful robes that Claude always admired. He would help her sew them for new initiates. His mother’s hair began to turn silver, but she would still make her offerings during the full moon, as were her duties. He started to grow his hair out to preserve her legacy and decided he would take her last name rather than his father’s.

On his 95th birthday, he confessed to his mother that he was lonely. She introduced him to Alexander, a human boy about 16 who had just arrived at the church. From their first meeting, it was impossible to pry Claude away from him. He was enraptured by his appearance and his golden hair. Claude’s eye was never led astray by a woman, but Alexander was special to him. Alexander and his family were also sailors. The scent of seawater soothes Claude to this day. His first kiss was under the moonlight with Alexander in his backyard while they said goodbye. Their relationship was innocent and sweet. When they got 3 years older, Alexander wanted to have sex. Claude refused. Alexander left Claude, but remained his friend while he chased girls their age.

It never came up again. Claude felt guilty for taking Alexander’s first kiss from him and for doing so under the gaze of the Moon Maiden. When nothing came of his crush, he harbored it in his chest and devoted himself to his studies to ignore the ache. He stopped clinging to Alexander, but never stopped thinking of him. Some lonely nights, when Claude was off duty, he cradled himself in a hug and imagined it was him. When he was 130, he grew closer to the clerics higher in the hierarchy and took on a mentorship role for young clerics. It was a good distraction, but he failed to grow close to his apprentices.

Followers of the Lady of Silver in Neverwinter provide safe places for werewolves to turn and unleash their anger. The containment domes have a lock on the front of the door and on the door leading to the basement. During the full moon, chambers underground were locked, a cleric or guard stood in the top room, and the outdoor door was to be locked in case of an emergency.

At 132, Claude setup a werewolf in a chamber with a faulty locking mechanism that was supposed to be fixed the next week. It was his second time performing the full moon duties, and nobody had warned him that it was unstable and unsuitable for this full moon. Alexander was supposed to. However, the night before, he was getting busy with his girlfriend. Claude never heard from him. Around 3 in the morning, the werewolf crawled out of the basement. Claude tried to escape out the front door, but as he got into the garden, he tripped. The werewolf left crooked and deep claw marks across his chest. He cast a spell with the blessing of Selûne for his mother and assumed it would be his last breath. He was afraid for his mom, who he knew was leading a prayer in the main church hall, more than he was of his own life.

Claude woke up in the nursing room. He made it, but his chest was scarred. His mother was beside him the whole time. There were fresh fruit and flowers on his bedside table. He heard from her that the werewolf had been encased in moonlight, and held in place until the sun rose and freed the werewolf from its form. She hugged him tight to her chest. He hugged her back- at least, as well as he could with the sensitive injury covered in bandages that spanned from his shoulder to his hip. Alexander had been punished by the church for endangering the clergy. He was sent to the Durst home to look for some missing children to repent and learn on his journey. If he failed, he would die from incompetency and the lack of holy protection from the Moon Maiden.