Matthew Hopkins was an eccentric but well-respected necromancer, member of the Ministry of Art in the late 14th century DR.[1][2]
Description[]
In the 1370s DR, Matthew was an older man whose mental capacities were diminished with age and made him prone to fits of frustrated rage. He was a white-haired man in his 70s.[2]
Abilities[]
Matthew kept two active protective spells cast on himself most of the time: armor and stoneskin. Because of his lunacy, any attempts to use the ESP magic on him rendered the casters prone to be paralyzed and curled up in the fetal position, overwhelmed by his mind.[2]
History[]
He was born sometime in the early 1300s or late 1290s DR. In spring of the Year of the Unstrung Harp, 1371 DR[note 1], Matthew Hopkins posted a wanted ad in the Ravens Bluff Trumpeter broadsheet. He requested a single vial of a female tanar'ri's dying breath, bottled for under six hours. Matthew claimed that the vial for required for his research and offered to pay 5,000 gold pieces for it.[1][3]
A band of heroes of the Living City answered Matthew's classified and were escorted to his elegantly decorated study in the Ministry of Art. Along with the aged mage, Camille Hopkins greeted the adventurers. However, the woman they met was not human, but a glassteel construct of a beautiful young woman. Camille once was Matthew's late wife. The mage acted and conversed with the mindless construct as if it were his dear wife, yet the real Camille was trapped on the Prime Material plane as a ghost. In his utter madness, Matthew concocted a ritual to imbue the construct with his wife's spring, "bringing her back to life," and he needs a dying breath of a succubus or an alu-fiend. Matthew claimed that she was tortured to death by Loviatans, but in his madness, he suppressed memory of himself being a Pain of Loviatar and was the person who performed the ritual on behest of the goddess that killed Camille.[2]
The accords of the adventurers' actions varied. By one statement, they fulfilled the delivery for the mad wizard and let him perform the non-existent ritual with the bottled dying breath that turned the construct hostile, sending it into a destructive rage. Another version of the events talked about them confronting the wizard and calling out his madness, which infuriated Camille's ghost and resulted in a scuffle. Whatever the outcome might had been, the Ministry of Art was not happy with the adventurers and the battle that spilled out of the wizard's study. The adventurers were blamed, as Matthew Hopkins committed no crime, legally-speaking.[2]
Appendix[]
Notes[]
- ↑ The events of the Living City Ravens Bluff campaign took place on a timeline that advanced together with the real world's time. Even though all Living City adventures and issues of Ravens Bluff Trumpeter were dated with real-world dates, there were events that received a DR year. The Living City timeline can be derived from Myrkyssa Jelan's historic events of the late 14th century DR. Myrkyssa Jelan attacked Ravens Bluff in 1370 DR, according to The City of Ravens Bluff and Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3rd edition; these events are chronicled in an in-and-out of universe issues of Ravens Bluff Trumpeter. This places the real world year 1997 as 1370 DR, and in 1998 (1371 DR), Myrkyssa was at last arrested and tried and said to have been executed, only to reappear in 1372 DR in The City of Ravens novel. As the real world's months and the Calendar of Harptos are virtually identical, we can also date all events of the Living City Ravens Bluff as close as an in-universe month.
Appearances[]
Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ed Gibson (June 1998). A Boy and His Mammoth. Living City (RPGA), p. 20.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Ed Gibson (June 1998). A Boy and His Mammoth. Living City (RPGA), pp. 9–10.
- ↑ Ed Gibson (June 1998). A Boy and His Mammoth. Living City (RPGA), p. 5.