Tully Montaigne
Tully Isidore Montaigne (a.k.a. "Nighthawk")
"Lorem Ipsum"
Physical Description
Body Features
Pale skinned and lean.
Facial Features
High cheekbones, thin features. Handsome but sharp.
Special abilities
Shadow sorcerer. Eyes blacken to pitch when he casts magic. His shadow is sometimes unruly and will act independently of him (often mocking him.) Heart beats once a minute.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Tully Isidore Montaigne was born the eldest son into the noble house of Montaigne in Waterdeep and lived his life trying to be the ideal heir and a dutiful son. And for a while, he was, and he made his father, Theobald, and his mother, Aurora, very proud. He, unfortunately, is the inheritor of a family history that he knows only partially yet will warp his destiny profoundly.
For generations the majority of House Montaigne members were involved in Waterdeep’s City Watch. Indeed, that involvement was let them ascend to nobility in the first place. The House was a strongly religious one as well, faithful to first and foremost (though Siamoprhe’s teachings of noblesse oblige influenced them as well) and as such they were well known adversaries to all worshippers of evil deities in Waterdeep, including Shar. Theobald was in line to become the next head of the house and was gaining rank in the City Watch.
However, due to a sudden string of on-duty fatalities and injuries, House Montaigne lost most of its presence in the City Watch. Theobald was among the injured and was forced to leave the Watch due to his newly acquired limp, though he remained a very very vocal opponent of Shar cultist in the city. House Montaigne had fallen on hard times and needed financial backing though it was far too proud to admit it. Theobald married a nouveau riche woman named Aurora TItania Tremblay whose family had grown quite wealthy from the broadsheets and chapbooks of Waterdeep. She was the cosmopolitan and business savvy balance to Theobald's rigid traditionalism and there was (and remains!) real love in their marriage. The rest of the Montaigne old guard, however, viewed it as Theobald "deigning" to marry "beneath his station" (though they took generous Tremblay dowry all the same.) Both sides of the newly formed House Montaigne bristled as they learned to adapt to each other, with Aurora’s side of the family grumbling about how the Montaigne’s were ungrateful, and Theobald’s side unable to comprehend why the Tremblays weren’t more grateful that they were being elevated to nobility.
Theobald and Aurora eventually had a son in Tully, followed closely by a beautiful daughter in Larissa. The arrival of the children did somewhat alleviate the tension between the ungrateful old guard and upstart new members, but the schism in the house will most likely remain for some time.
Despite the bickering that surrounded them, the family was close and very warm with each other. It quickly became apparent that Tully was not much of a sword arm and took after his mother as a writer and social connector instead. Though Theobald was a little disappointed, Larissa almost as quickly displayed the right character to follow in her father’s footsteps as a member of the City Watch so Theobald’s sense of tradition was satisfied. All was well. Tully even got to write in the broadsheet his mother owned, The Waterdeep Zenith as a semi-regular journalist and was working on writing his own chapbook. However, when Tully was in his 19th year, was struck by a sudden illness that left him comatose for nearly a month. The normal in-house bickering finally ceased while the Montaignes collectively held their breath. When Tully made an almost as sudden recovery, the house rejoiced.
However, unbeknownst to all, Tully had returned a sorcerer. In his coma, he dreamed of a great monolithic shadow hound chasing him for days on end through a grey and desolate wilderness, whispering in his ear to, “Remember, boy, nothing is an accident. You know so little of what made you and where you are headed.” That message followed him back to the waking world, and he returned to family with dread and worry in his heart though he took great effort to hide it. After he discovered his magic, he did not share it with his family at first. With only a modest amount of time in his family’s well stocked library (the Montaignes were now a publishing family after all), he started to believe that his magic came from the plane of Shadowfell and more distressingly that this realm had connection to Shar. Falling even deeper into suspicion and paranoia, he chose to investigate his magical origins himself and not even entertain the thought of sharing it with his father. His actions and adventures were also tempered by his duty to the common folk of Waterdeep.
What is not known to Tully is there is a much more personal and visceral reason for his father’s fury for the followers of Shar, even beyond his strong religious nature. His father, and House Montaigne as whole in fact, was decimated by the schemings of Shar followers before Tully was ever born. Back then, Theobald’s duty as a City Watch brought a case involving Shar cultists to his stern attention. The case escalated over weeks and it reached a breaking point when many members of House Montaigne found themselves pursuing a cultist cell underneath the streets of Waterdeep with Theobald acting as the spear head. When cornered, the cultist fled into a howling portal into the plane of Shadowfell. Bravely, House Montaigne marched into Shadowfell in pursuit of the criminal, to begin its expedition Shadowfell without hesitation!
The expedition was a disaster. Several days later, only Theobald and a scant few survivors returned, beaten, broken and many maimed for the rest of their lives. Theobald’s right hip was permanently damaged, his left eye was gone and he was no longer fit for duty. They didn’t catch their criminals, never found out their ultimate motives and the House Montaigne lost many of its heirs. The noble family had been devastated from this one incident. Partially out of shame, partially to avoid causing a panic, the incident was covered up and House Montaigne receded from the public gaze of Waterdeep for a time to lick its wounds. What bearing this has on Tully’s arcane origins has yet to be seen, but it certainly seems to beg a connection.
Tully had taken to adventuring in disguise simply as a practical means to hide his identity and one thing he did not anticipate was his old friend Fiego seeing him help defend a noble family from bandits in the aforementioned disguise. Compounding his surprise further, Fiego relayed a highly romanticized account of the incident to Tully and unfortunately, Tully had to report it to the family broadsheet and watch it get published all over Waterdeep all the while knowing full well it was mostly hyperbole. Now the broadsheets call his disguised persona, “Nighthawk, the Dapper Shadow, the Dark Gentleman, the Midnight Rapier.” Tully absolutely abhors this positively purple sobriquet and it is a source of endless embarrassment for him.
Gender Identity
Male
Sexuality
Apparently attracted to inky blackness vaguely shaped like a humanoid.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Accomplished journalist at the Waterdeep Zenith, one of the leading broadsheet at Waterdeep
Failures & Embarrassments
Believes his magic to be a shameful secret that could ruin the name of his noble family
Mental Trauma
Paranoia about keeping his magic a secret, instilled in him by his nightmares during his coma.
Intellectual Characteristics
Inquisitive, curious and well read.
Morality & Philosophy
Neutral Good. Strongly believes that a noble title comes with responsibility to the people you lead.
Species
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Brown/Pitch Black when channeling magic
Hair
Black
Height
5'11
Weight
150 lbs
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