| Relatives | Ash RavenSkull, Julian McFlair, Ashley Angelbane |
|---|---|
| Languages | Common, Sylvan, Elvish |
| Affiliations | Sick of this Shit Inc. (Both the company and the founders) |
| Aliases | "Tunt" |
| Marital Status | Unattached |
| Date of Birth | 620 PR |
| Place of Birth | Galik |
| Date of Death | 826 PR (Age 106) |
| Place of Death | Umbralhound (Isonhound) |
| Species | Half-Elf, later Shadar Kai |
| Gender | Male |
| Height | 5'9" |
| Eye Color | Black |
Zugs McFlair was responsible for the release of 100 Guneia Pigs into the wilds of Pteris the year 691 PR.
History
Zugs was born in poverty in Galik, and killed his parents as a young man because he believed death was preferable to the pains of living in the slums. He ran from home and eventually after years serving in the Galik thieves guilds, arrived in Seawell to take an escape trip overseas and avoid the heat he had gained in Galik. It was on that voyage that he met Anema E. Core, another elf with a much cooler hat who was also fleeing Galik.
He stole Anema's hat. Anema will never get it back. Take that, Thomas, it's on the wiki so it's canon now.
Zugs once owned a massive golden jelly. It was 200 pounds and made of solid gold. He wishes he could go back to the dungeon where the jelly was born, but unfortunately does not remember where it is. A jeweler in Rwendia tried to steal his jelly. That was a mistake.
Werewolf Mind Switch
For a brief period of time, Zugs had to live in the body of Doraleous Walken after a magic werewolf swapped all the minds of Sick of this Shit. This was infinitely preferable to having to live in the body of Anema E Core.
Residence in Sneerwell
Zugs quickly found the city's thieves guild, a group known as the Padlock Gang, who worked under a mysterious benefactor, and hid out in a secret hideout in the sewers.
Zugs was able to rise through the ranks and become a noble in the city of Sneerwell after doing dirty jobs for Montane Capella, including the assassination of then-king of Sneerwell Kenneth Pendergras. In reward for his loyalty and service to the city, Zugs was given the keys to the city's largest mansion, previously known as "Capella Manor", now "McFlair Manor".
However trouble set in for Zugs as he was caught in the streets in the presence of Anema E. Core, who at the time had taken the form of a werewolf. The city wanted promises from Montane that Zugs was handling the werewolf problem, so Montane sent Zugs to capture the werewolf on the loose.
The werewolf had a vendetta, as Zugs came home to his manor and found a landle hanging on his doorknob with a note asking to meet him inside. It was there that Zugs met with Montane's representation and formulated a plan that should ease the worries of the city. Capture the werewolf, and begin the steps needed to perform a massive anti-magic ritual over the whole city. But to also make the city believe that these dramatic measures of full anti-magic were necessary, Zugs was also sent to place a package in the city's market, which wound up being a bomb that cast fireball on the market square, further heightening the fear of the citizens and reinforcing the need for an anti-magic field.
After placing the bomb, Zugs would go on to find one of the phylacteries of the Capella Brothers, the 3 undead wizards living under Sneerwell. Montane needed their help in casting a large enough anti-magic circle, and by having their phylacteries "hostage", they would be forced to help.
Zugs' high and mighty life under Montane came under threat when Darrius discovered that Zugs had bought the city's entire stock of "Disguse Self" potions and "Alchemist's Fire" the week before King Kenneth's death. He immediately set up an undeniably arguement and a warrent for Zugs' crimes against Sneerwell went out. He was arrested and thrown in a cell unfortunately with another trouble-maker named Anema, who had himself been running around as a werewolf all over the city. Zugs was stripped of all titles and power.
Colin Pendergra would also give Zugs his prototype of the Penderlock, a weapon known at the time as a "smooth bore pistol".
Through the Tovag
During Zugs' adventures in The Tovag Baragu, his dragon was killed by sci-fi soldiers from the future. When the universe was rebooted, Zugs was also rebooted into a new Monk/Rogue class combination in line with the new version of D&D. However since there were no rules in D&D 5 about having a pet dragon, Darastrix the pet dragon didn't return with him into the new universe.
Temporary Setbacks
During a simulated trip through a dreamscape of the Tomb of Horrors, Zugs' gender, alignment, and powers were inversed, making him a light-magic good natured woman. This was not good. Anema could never know. Anema still to this day doesn't know.
Luckily Zugs was able to hide his changes with some sleight of hand, and eventually had the curse reversed.
Capture in Minetown
"Look Corvair has been paying more money than I've seen my whole life to get you guys chained up here. It takes a lot of money to hire 300 slaves, 4 Death Knights, a handful of low level assassins, some thieves, a giant snake, and whatever else the committee in charge of this death trap of a mine bought. I think I saw a Troll head in your bag? Not to mention feeding, clothing, and repairing what was left of this dump and maintaining it for the months we've waited for your return. I charge 8000 platinum for a single hit. Corvair's so loaded he's had me wasting my time out here masquerading as a mayor and entertaining a bunch of drunk slaves for so long I almost forgot what my real name is. He's powerfully rich. He's prepared something out there in the mine, looked like a big turtle shell. And if what Corvair says is true, these parting gifts he's bought hold more magical power than you or I have ever seen. Anyway, don't worry about your stuff. I'm a hired assassin, but my job's worth a lot more pay for as long as I keep you alive and your items intact, its just following orders. I'd be monologuing off to your friends too, but with Magic like the shrub's, silence truly is golden. He said you all had to make a choice though. He's gone out of his way to buy you guys some extra special presents based on all the research me and my...companions at the Council have done on you. Corvair said something about fighting to the death only being a spectacle if the participants are in top shape. So here's what he's done. You've got a choice. You gotta pick the box, or the flask." -Killus Goodman to Sick of this Shit after kidnapping them as part of a bounty.
The asshole who used to run Minetown hired assassins to trick Zugs into a false sense of security, assassins known as The Council of Wrath, who operated out of Lunas. Corvair Similan paid the council a ton of money to bring in SotS for a battle royale. Zugs was locked in a room with super bright magic sunlight shining in from all angles to keep him from teleporting.
During the Oppidan War
"The shadow man looks like [Holding up a picture of Zugs from the shoulders down] he's very dangerous it takes a certain training to be able subdue him he can do this thing where he can be in one place and then instantly be in another. Shadow teleportation. He's very good at using crossbows but he also likes to decapitate heads and keep them. Never known him to have an accomplish so he may not be working with the tree. The tree was an opportunist. He hails from Deeplake in Isonhound, killed his parents when he was young. A very disturbed child. He was a great killer of the Dryads in his teen years, possible cause of their extinction. " ---Anema E. Core when interrogated about Zugs' activities in the region.
Zugs' first mortal exposure to the Shadowfell came during the Oppidan War in which someone called "The Shade Maiden" took Zugs (who now looked like a Shadar Kai) in to her secret facility in the shadowfell. Zugs recognized it as the place where his soul had resided for many lifetimes, but now standing there as a mortal felt like it was his true calling, his true home.
In order to prove to Killus that he was worth joining the Council of Wrath, Zugs attacked a tavern in high Lunas with a wave of darkness, and while it was plunged into a pitch black night, snuck inside and killed every noble, patron, employee, witness, and anyone in the area. This was his message that he was a more ruthless and highly trained killer than Killus could ever imagine.
In Service of the Raven Queen
Unfortunately Zugs' stunt backfired, instead of hiring Zugs, he was killed by Killis Goodman via Magic Jar in 695 PR, Zugs' soul did not go to his god Bane, but was intercepted on the way there by the Raven Queen, who was intensely interested with who Zugs was, his obsession with death, the way it was an artform to him. Instead of passing Zugs over to the afterlife, the Raven Queen kept his soul as a pet, or a courtier, or a slave, depending on your perspective. Zugs would serve the Raven Queen in her Shadowfell palace for an undetermined amount of time (though to his soul it felt like centuries, he was only dead on Quelmar for less than a week).
Zugs would get resurrected via clerical services, but would return to Quelmar changed. His soul and body were deeply affected by the torment and service, and he racially was considered a Shadar-Kai, touched by the shadows permanently and in strange ways.
The Hug
At one point after the events of the Oppidan War, Zugs was hugged by Krampus, who sucked all of the evil out of him.
The Death of Darastrix
When Tiamat returned to Quelmar, Zugs' pet black dragon Darastrix, who he rescued from Jewelspar as a young wyrmling, felt an intense maternal bond to join Tiamat on her new attack on Quelmar. Zugs debated what was the right thing to do over several sessions. Ultimately though, he felt like the best thing he could do for Darastrix would be to let him fly away and join his "family" of other evil chromatic dragons.
However, after witnessing the destruction and poisoning that Darastrix did to the city of Dolmvay, Zugs' good tendencies couldn't take it anymore. He changed his mind, and the "best thing" to do for Darastrix was, in fact, a battle to the death.
Tracking Darastrix to Steelhand Hall, where he and other dragons were hiding out after Tiamat's attack on Dolmvay, Zugs found a fighting pit where he and his dragon would fight to the death, 1 on 1. Doraleous and Anema lagged behind, but were able to eventually catch up and watch the ending of the fight play out.
After landing the final blow on his own companion of many years, Zugs stripped out of his assassin's gear. The death of Darastrix, and the betrayal of everything he used to stand for, meant that "Zugs McFlair" as the realm knew him was no more. He would opt for a more subtle and less intense outfit that both paid remembrance to his dark past like a scar, but no longer struck fear in the hearts of everyone he knew.
The "Death" of Zugs
On the 17th of December, the Founders had taken another march to Breme, home of some of their least favorite memories...But one light in this dark frost was Atnas. A year after they last met, the Founders were invited to dinner with the jolly man to see how much progress had been made. This opportunity allowed Anema to check on the status of his most prized posession. Recent fatal events have left much mystery regarding the Horn, and dinner with friends was a great excuse to travel back north. Complications arose as Anema had to abandon his hunt. Out of the chilly storm arose a group of foreign travelers. Keeping the holiday spirit in mind, Anema....invited them all in for dinner. - The Legend of Sick of this Shit, Chapter 11
While visiting Colin and Atnas for a christmas dinner one year, Zugs was shocked to find that his arch enemy, Killis Goodman, had done the impossible and tracked him down. Over a very awkward dinner, Killis and his hired hands (a group of criminals pulled from SotS Inc) informed Zugs they came to finish the job.
Unfortunately, what Killis didn't realize is that Zugs had already been hugged by Krampus and lived a painful life of goodness at this point in time. On one hand, Zugs was adamant to just let himself be killed or taken, but on the other hand, the presence of all of his friends, and the weaponization of his company's members, meant that this simply wasn't the solution.
Before deciding the just let Killis and his team do the job, Zugs was saved. One of the SotS Inc members revealed that he was playing "the long con" and had went on the mission with the hope of saving zugs and killing Killis.
After watching how his mere existance walking the realm still invited people to "Hunt" him down, violence which threatened everyone he knew around him, Zugs made the ultimate decision to fade into nonexistence. Disappearing into the Shadowfell and abandoning Quelmar, Zugs would never be seen again, becoming a Legend, a whisper, a myth: "The Shadow Man"
Unknown to everyone else, Zugs' loyalty to the Shadowfell, and his "permanent" return to live there very quickly appeased the Raven Queen. In reward for this return, he was gifted one of the Raven Queen's very own shadow dragons, the last version of Darastrix that Zugs would partner with.
After the End
30 years later, when the Shadowfell devoured Isonhound in 826 PR, Zugs was shocked to find McFlair Manor sitting in the umbral field where he had taken up hermitage. Investigating it, he didn't realize that he had in fact stepped back into Quelmar, and that the veils between the worlds were destroyed, causing the two to be interlocked at this moment.
Unintentionally having returned to Quelmar in one form or another, Zugs was almost immediately set upon by visitors, including Cornelia, Ash, and Giustino. The three of them would join Zugs in one last mission to stop the archlich Vecna. However, when Vecna was stopped after a wild multiversal mission, and the visitors to Sigil were returned to Quelmar, Zugs was nowhere to be seen, nor Anema nor Doraleous. The trio having decided their time in Quelmar was over, their legacies established, their legends told, and all they wanted to do now was explore new frontiers, following the yellow-brick road of Sigil to whatever Planescapes the 3 of them would encounter next.
Allies
Powers
Shadow stepping (teleport from one shadow to another)
Shadow Dancing (dancing but darker)
Fun Facts
- Zugs could never fly his whole life until his final game at which point James gave him a fly speed because "why not"
- The evil that got sucked out of Zugs by Krampus continued to exist in the realm, even long after Zugs' departure, and would eventually seek out a perpetual vengence on the arch-enemy of all things Evil Zugs: Anema E. Core. Fighting the evil part of Zugs was the last thing Anema would do in the realm of mortals.
- Zugs followed Olidammara for most of his life, then switched to Bane as he got eviler, then eventually The Raven Queen.
