Puffin Tan

"Dragon's Tooth! You seen one of these before?" - An elderly Puffin Tan aboard the HMS Sleeps With One Eye Open.

At A Glance
Adventurers first met the human Puffin Tan aboard the HMS Sleeps With One Eye Open''. ''There was little to be thought of the feeble old man, and despite his hooked nose which seemed to find its way into everyone's business, Puffin seemed like a gentle old man with an interest in Dragons and myth. After the shipwreck of the Sleeps With One Eye Open, Puffin busied himself with helping the crew and adventurers while doting on the unconscious adventurer Drow Ryokalik and Tiefling mage Tamara. They soon came to learn he was more than he let on...

A Simple Life
Twenty-Five years prior to the Age of Adventure, Puffin Tan was an unremarkable man living between the lands of Neverwinter and Hammertack. At twenty-eight he had already sired three children with his wife and led a comfortable existence on the family farmstead. As the war between Pallanaise and Kirkdom ravaged the nearby Neverwinter, Puffin's life was affected by armies (on both sides) marching through his fields and stealing crops, severely devastating the family's ability to provide for themselves during the winter. It was during this time that Puffin lost his two sons (Famo and Rodrick) to illness brought about by malnutrition. Thrown into a rage, Puffin nevertheless submerged his anger at the two armies and tried to provide for his last son and wife. When Neverwinter fell to the siege between the warring armies, Puffin intended to move what was left of his family south to the town of Salt-Gohlin. Lacking the funds to do so, however, he was forced to use his meagre earnings to pay for repairs and supplies for his farm. When the war finally overtook his fields, it wasn't without warning. The skies had been filled with smoke the entire day and once a platoon of Kirkdom soldiers came retreating over the fields, Puffin was horrified to find his wife and last remaining son across the farmstead. Rushing to their aid, Puffin was almost slain by an arrow shot by an Elf of Pallanaise. Crippled, Puffin was forced to watch the carnage spill over his fields and engulf his wife and son. Reaching inside himself with every negative emotion he could muster, Puffin called out for help. Wearily regaining consciousness hours later, Puffin awoke to find himself being carried into the mountains, held by the corpses of his deceased family...

Rescue by the Necromantic Cabal
Sensing the energy of death surrounding the farmstead, Archnecromancer Gabrielle Revvan, leader of the Cult of Vecna , had emerged from the hills. Following the twisted words of her Deity, Sabrina followed the guidance of Vecna to the unconscious Puffin laying in a pool of his own blood. Standing over him Sabrina noticed something shocking about the man. In his fury to stop the two armies, Puffin had seemingly drained the life from the surrounding vegetation. The first rule of necromancy, necrotic magic can only manipulate dead material, was well-engrained in Gabrielle's memory but there laid a man who had mystifyingly broken this rule. Recognizing that the turmoil around him had led to his outpouring of power, Gabrielle saw to the reanimation of the corpses on the field to bolster her growing army and saw to it that Puffin was quickly healed by her followers. 

Rise to Necromancy
It wasn't long after his rescue that Puffin found himself deep in the mountains of the Topple-Down-Mountains''. ''Uncertain about his fate, Puffin was greeted as a hero by the group of cast-outs and arcane-rebels that made up the Cult of Vecna. Warmly welcomed by Gabrielle Revvan, Puffin was offered a deal -- one he would regret for the rest of his life. In exchange for his services, Sabrina pledged to keep the bodies of his family reanimated and in a perfect state of suspension. Having a mastery of death and its faculties, Sabrina had held back the forces of

decay against Puffin's family. Caught between shock and heartache Puffin agreed and pledged himself to Gabrielle's hand. Weeks later, the Necrotic War Began.

Necrotic War
 Details of Puffin's time during the Necrotic War are unknown. His family crest (three bush-stalks) was seen when the ressurected army met Pallanaise and Kirkdom on the lands outside Fort Laggin. As the war continued the family crest disappeared, replaced by a Dragon's Tooth (rumour being that Puffin had killed one with his bare hands). By the time of the Necromancer's defeat in the Necrotic Canyon, Puffin had disappeared. The bones of his family members were eventually found littered outside the Necromancer's last stand in the Necrotic Canyon.



 On The Run

 The strain of necrotic magic during the Necrotic war had ravaged Puffin's body. While he was barely out of his twenties, Puffin's deterioration had accelerated his appearance and mind to that of a man in his eighties. As the last of the Necromancers were stamped out (save for the two notoriously slippery villains, Feryl Rimple and Talmon Bott ) Puffin found himself without friends or family. Selling his last possessions he wandered aimlessly through the streets of Peer's Point, sleeping under bridges and in alleyways.

Age of Adventure


Puffin built himself back into a scholarly role after years of collecting and panhandling. Seeking to make amends for the lives he ruined he was able to afford enough money to provide anonymous donations to families ravaged by the Necrotic War. His body, now deteriorated into its 80's was failing faster and with the last of his money he was able to buy ship's passage to the place he'd vowed to visit with his family -- Salt Gohlin. On his heels and seeking to reunite the cabal, however, was the fugitive Feryl Rimple. Through the actions of an intrepid group of adventurers, Feryl Rimple was defeated and Puffin's secret history as a Necromancer made public. Vowing to stay on the island to safeguard the Dragon's fossils that Rimple had begun to use as an army, Puffin watched the adventurers sail to the mainland and the volatile land he once called home.

The group of adventurers who helped Puffin on the Teal Dragonborn Island would later write the old man for advice on historical subjects.