Perceval LaPall - Characters

Perceval LaPall was a Human born in the logging village of Umli, in the remote western reaches of the Common League. Unlike most of his neighbors, he did not content himself with the rhythms of timber and trade; rather, from a young age, he displayed a sharp and restless mind. He traveled often to Oldoan, purchasing books and materials for Alchemy that far exceeded the needs of his station. In Umli, he was regarded as brilliant, but in truth, he was simply the most ambitious man in a small place; Perceval mistook that distinction for greatness.

He established himself as a capable Alchemist in the west, brewing and selling potions in Oldoan for substantial profit. He moved between city and village regularly as he aged, building wealth, reputation, and a good deal of vanity. Ambition defined him, but vanity ruled him. When his home village fell in the Raids Of Umli and its people scattered, LaPall chose not to follow Yethan Wrenthicket and the majority of his neighbours eastward. Instead, he went to Wistimere, a town facing tensions similar to those he had left behind.

In Wistimere, LaPall worked with the town's magistrate, finding that its population feared war with the Elf tribes of the Woods of Elenmyr above all else. He leveraged this into a negotiating position, and successfully established a lasting peace with the elves, but in doing so relinquished the town’s claim to logging the forest. The decision dismantled the foundation of the local economy and angered many, but it halted the violence that had defined Umli’s final days.

LaPall’s wealth, obtained from alchemical work and trade with the Starlit Hand Oldoan Chapter, was bolstered by his newfound influence in the town. He purchased the Marvelous Menagerie and the town’s largest home, later naming it the Manor LaPall, and was eventually made mayor of the town council. With jobs at a premium, LaPall had former loggers dig a tunnel under his manor from his cellar, and swore them to secrecy, which he used as a base for his alchemical experiments. He positioned himself not only as a civic leader, but as the architect of Wistimere’s future; after all, with the logging trade ended, he sought a replacement for the town’s lost prosperity.

Years after purchasing the Menagerie, Perceval found a young woman in his business after-hours, failing to rescue a newly-purchased Tiger from his cage. He threw a Tanglefoot Bag, which trapped the girl, but to his surprise, did not hold her. She shifted into a Weretiger form to escape and fled into the Woods of Elenmyr. LaPall was amazed at her natural ability to shape form, believing it to be a necessary piece of his Transmutation research. He became obsessed with the Lycanthrope, sending hunters into the woods and later leaving promises of reward and a comfortable life for her if she returned.

Feeling the weight of an entire town's fate on his shoulders, Mayor Perceval would slow his pursuit of the weretiger after repeated failures, and instead find other avenues to explore the transmutative secrets of the world. Rejecting conventional alchemical doctrine, he convinced himself that Dragons of the Pre-Unified Age had once transmuted base stone into gold, and that he could rediscover their methods. As recorded in Perceval LaPall's Research Conclusions, his early efforts failed, and his mood swung between grandiosity and despair. When he could not permanently turn lead into gold, he turned instead to living subjects, attempting to induce draconic qualities through alchemical synthesis.

His experiments grew darker, and could no longer be supplied by his regular contacts in the Fayan Trading Company. He acquired the remains of dead dragons through the Starlit Hand and began infusing small Beasts with corrupted formulas. Some reanimated as undead, and others carried a spreading disease that transmitted through bites and scratches. When elven envoys warned that diseased animals were spreading a form of Zombie Rot through the woods, LaPall doubled his efforts. Secretly harboring a grudge against the elves since their attacks on Umli, he began seeing them as outright evil in his now-frenzied state, deliberately placing infected creatures where they would be found. The resulting affliction spread beyond his control, and Undead beings began to wander near Wistimere itself.

As concern grew among the town council, LaPall was forced by his magistrates to send out contracts to Adventurers; as he did so, he concealed the scope of his work. He misdirected outside assistance, failed to send letters of contract, and manipulated investigations to protect his research. Convinced that his discoveries would ultimately justify any cost, he set a more lethal trap in the forest. He found a woodland pond near Wistimere frequented by forest protectors, and released of a draconic Water Weird into its waters. To ensure that elven Rangers would be baited into it, he attached the Zombie Qudoris Vexalim to a crudely-made shrine dedicated to the nature god Elteos, intent on pinning the blame on another faith should his plans falter.

By then, his stated goal of saving Wistimere had narrowed into obsession. He no longer sought gold alone, but vindication; in pursuit of it, he abandoned the peace and stability that had first secured his power.

In Mystery Of Wistimere, the Vermin arrived in town to find Mayor Perceval LaPall delivering a heated speech that stoked anti-elf sentiment while publicly promising action against the undead attacks. He claimed to have contracted a Paladin to solve the crisis and privately received Auberon and Vesper at the Marvelous Menagerie. There, he spoke at length about his failed attempts to unlock draconic hoard magic and save the town’s collapsed economy. He suggested that elves or a forest witch were responsible for the undead, offering a reward to whoever resolved the matter.

Suspicion deepened as the Vermin investigated the woods. At a secluded pond, they discovered a chained elven zombie, falsified shrine, and were attacked its the water weird. After destroying the creature and recovering elven bodies LaPall had roped beneath the surface, they learned from Quira Vexalim that diseased animals from Wistimere had spread Zombie Rot through the forest. Luana Yinshera, the alchemist's fated weretiger, later confirmed their suspicions. Returning to town, the Vermin publicly delivered an undead Troll to LaPall; during the exchange, Lola Windwisper brought up Luana, and he fixated again on capturing the weretiger alive. While distracting him, Vesper uncovered ledgers tying animal transfers and hidden research to his private manor.

That night, the Vermin infiltrated the Manor. They found unsent adventuring contracts meant to avoid competent scrutiny and a hidden archive of Perceval LaPall's Research Conclusions detailing experiments with draconic transmutation, infected animals, and deliberate plague spread. Beneath the house, they uncovered an elven butcher chamber disguised with livestock blood, and a cavern filled with caged undead. Valant Vainglory, the very paladin LaPall had hired, had been left to succumb to Zombie Rot and imprisoned below as another subject.

In the underground laboratory, they confronted the mayor as he worked over an elven corpse. Magically compelled to confess, LaPall admitted his role but immediately released zombies and attacked with alchemical devices, grease, lightning, and flash powder to cover his escape. He triggered his Waxing Moonstone to force Luana into her weretiger form, nearly turning the battle in his favor as she bit Valori. As LaPall fled through the tunnels, Vesper shot him through the chest, slowing him down enough for Auberon to fly above him and torch the mayor with draconic flame; the alchemist poetically died in very flames of his obsession.

His body and magically compelled confession were presented to Wistimere’s council and to Quira’s people, exposing him as the architect of the plague and ending his rule in the depths of the experiments that had consumed him.