Ignatius

At a glance

Ignatius Tenebrae, usually called simply Ignatius, is a dragonborn monk and a member of the adventuring party.

Build overview

• Rules framework: 2024 revised rules
• Species: Black dragonborn
• Class: Monk 4 — Warrior of Mercy
• Background: Guide
• Ability scores: Strength 10, Dexterity 17, Constitution 14, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 15, Charisma 8
• Current permanent increase: Dexterity 18 after Fairy Trickster at level 4
• Skill proficiencies: History, Investigation, Stealth, Survival
• Languages: Common, Common Sign Language, Draconic
• Origin feat: Magic Initiate (Druid)
  • Spellcasting ability: Wisdom
  • Cantrips: thorn whip, create bonfire
  • Level 1 spell: entangle

Advancement planning

• Level 3 subclass: Warrior of Mercy
• Subclass expression: Ignatius developed his Hands of Healing and Harm by studying Van Richten’s medical and monster-hunting notes. He carries small pouches of prepared salves and other concoctions, dipping his hands into the appropriate mixture before delivering either technique.
• Level 4 feat: Fairy Trickster
  • Ability increase: +1 Dexterity, raising it from 17 to 18
  • Campaign expression: Meditation and study within Castle Avernus taught Ignatius to manipulate time and the Mists slightly. When the feat imposes disadvantage on a target’s saving throws, wisps of mist envelop that target.
• Session 14: Pledged himself to Irik Zal’honan’s path of discovery and truth within Castle Avernus.

Appearance and personality

• A dragonborn devoted to monastic discipline.
• Begins the morning with meditation and maintains a regular ritual practice.
• Observant and methodical; carries a journal in which he records events and discoveries.
• Urged Rage to master his emotions after the confrontation in the market.

Portrait

• Primary reference: Ignatius Portrait
• Canonical status: Visual baseline for Ignatius’s face, scales, horns, luminous eyes, order tattoos, wraps, medallion, and monastic bearing.

Abilities and equipment

• Trained as a monk.
• As a black dragonborn, breathes acid and resists acid damage.
• Fights with precise unarmed blows using his tail, elbows, and kicks.
• Practices the Warrior of Mercy tradition. His Hands of Healing and Harm are flavored as specialized salves and compounds derived from Van Richten’s research rather than unexplained divine power.
• His Guide background granted Magic Initiate (Druid), providing thorn whip, create bonfire, and entangle.
• Expended Carver’s first cure wounds spellwrought tattoo during the Richten House mimic attack and used the replacement after falling during the escape from Ablander’s quarters.
• Carries a single-use brown root from Brambledu that casts create homunculus.
• Carries Vidic’s silver Mist talisman for navigating to Richten House.
• Claimed two silvered shortswords from Van Richten’s armory.
• Wears Carver’s infused +1 handwraps, which harden when he delivers an unarmed strike.
• Wears Bracers of Defense recovered from Castle Avernus’s lower laboratory as shin guards.
• Took several books from Richten House’s library for continued study.
• Carries several small, practical pouches of medicinal and harmful concoctions at his waist for his Mercy techniques.
• Uses the Fairy Trickster feat to interfere subtly with time and the Mists, surrounding a target with wisps that impose disadvantage on saving throws.

Connections

• Rage — fellow party member
• Carver — fellow party member

History

• Session 1: Shared a vision of a catastrophic ritual, awoke in Rivalis after being sent into the Mists, paid respects at an elderly great-aunt’s or great-uncle’s grave, and survived a brutal blow while helping destroy blight creatures spawned by a gray root.
• Session 2: Recognized the pale apparition as some form of wandering ghost, mediated with Brambledu, and used the entangle spell granted by his Guide background to restrain the large blight so Rage could finish it. Reached level 2.
• Session 3: Read the shadow-dragon writing on the Castle Avernus invitation, destroyed an animated scarecrow with a flying elbow, learned the alien soil came from Lamordia, and received a homunculus root from Brambledu.
• Session 4: Led the party through the Shroud, used his healing tattoo to save Rage from a mimic, and discovered Van Richten’s journal and monster-hunting research.
• Session 5: Deciphered Van Richten’s plans against Strahd, fought two undead horrors, received a new healing tattoo, and used the Darkon Talisman to lead the party out of Richten House.
• Session 6: Helped conceal the roadside dead, attended Neblus’s midnight mass, investigated the Eternal Order as a traveling scholar, and approached the alleged Dark Delver defector with Carver.
• Session 7: Questioned Duskren over dinner, led the ambush with entangle, killed Ablander’s acolytes, staged the High Sentinel’s remains, and suffered two falls during the escape. Reached level 3.
• Session 8: Put his new Warrior of Mercy studies into practice through salves developed from Van Richten’s notes, received Carver’s infused handwraps, questioned Black Lily about his organization, researched wereravens and the King’s Ravens, and helped uncover more of Van Richten’s past.
• Session 9: Summoned Erasmus merely by speaking his name, proposed meeting Vidic again at Richten House, pleased Darian by calling Ablander a coward, and was nearly killed by three coordinated ratlike attackers before Carver restored him.
• Session 10: Led the party safely through darkness and the Mists, joined the Keepers of the Feather, declared his intention to investigate Castle Avernus, and secretly read Darian’s orders inside Black Lily’s manor.
• Session 11: Overheard talk of Kargat tunnels beneath Martira Bay, distrusted the expedition’s driver, and killed Vermoth after the elf’s roadside betrayal.
• Session 12: Drove the coach through an undead blockade, destroyed a skeletal rider and horse in the Shroud, and returned to a half-swallowed Rivalis where he urged Garen to seek hope at Castle Avernus.
• Session 13: Identified a hawk that terrified Rivalis, welcomed Ooru with a spear, examined the diseased elf, and led the party through the Forest of Shadows into Castle Avernus.
• Session 14: Explored the Book of Names, helped destroy the crowned giant and flesh-built abomination, pledged himself to Irik’s path of truth, and reached level 4.
• Session 15: Noticed the castle’s inconsistent time, freed Carver from unconsciousness during the air-elemental battle, repeatedly turned construct attacks aside, helped complete Azalin’s five-plinth experiment, and developed the Fairy Trickster feat through meditation and study.
• Session 16: Dissolved a crypt guardian with acid breath, helped destroy the bone dogs and rising skeletons below Castle Avernus, and was injured when Carver’s Boom Stick blast caught both him and the retreating beast.
• Session 17: Pressed the bone golem in the resumed battle, found the animal-dug tunnel that offered an escape from the endless skeleton horde, and discovered the laboratory’s watchful preserved specimens.
• Session 18: Entered the Beast Prison, located the captive mind flayer responsible for its psychic plea, and accompanied the newly freed Hyskosa and Lafing into the torture chamber.
• Session 19: Fought the released fire elemental, traced the healing blood trail to a wounded unicorn, and returned with the company to Martira Bay.
• Session 20: Sent Siv to renew old contacts, restrained Black Lily during the confrontation, acquired an Insignia of Claws, and arrived aboard the River Dancer to meet Captain Snowmane.
• Session 21: Met River Dancer crew members, used entangle to escape a curfew patrol, and fought Boneless and the rat-swarm creature outside the Rat House before retreating to the rooftops.
• Session 22: Overheard a Khargat vampire at the Rat House, escaped Martira Bay aboard the River Dancer, and spotted the Vistani vessel that Hyskosa hailed in the Mists.

Current status

Active; level 4 Warrior of Mercy with the Fairy Trickster feat and a member of the Keepers of the Feather. Aboard the River Dancer in the Mists with the company, wearing new shin guards recovered in Castle Avernus and carrying an Insignia of Claws.

Goals and unresolved questions

• Determine why he was sent into the Mists and what awaits him in Rivalis.
• Understand the gravelight that appeared over the grave he visited.
• Learn what became of Rivalis’s druids.
• Determine who sent the shadow-dragon invitation and why it granted entry to Castle Avernus.

Gallery

• Darkon Party Portrait — Ignatius stands with Carver and Rage in the original group reference.
• Gravelights at the Graves — Ignatius observes the gravelights responding among Rivalis’s graves.
• Roots Beneath Rivalis — Ignatius fights the blights spawned beneath a Rivalis garden.
• Haunted Visage at the Coachman’s Rest — Ignatius faces the pale wandering ghost outside the inn.
• The Gardens Swallow Their Dead — Ignatius stands amid the aftermath as the Gardens reclaim the blight.
• The Scarecrow’s Last Moment — Ignatius destroys the animated scarecrow with a decisive elbow strike.
• The House Beyond the Mists — Ignatius guides the party toward Richten House through the Shroud.
• The Chair Bites Back — Ignatius heals Rage while the mimic holds him fast.
• Erasmus Paints the Past — Ignatius watches the ghost paint Van Richten’s memories into the air.
• Carver’s Last Radiant Bolt — Ignatius lies fallen as Carver ends the cellar battle.
• The Domain Takes What You Were — Ignatius hears Duskren’s account of Darkon’s stolen memories.
• Ablander’s Last Midnight — Ignatius fights through Ablander’s ambush in the Shrine.
• Into the Mists, Willingly or Not — Ignatius escapes Neblus through the Mists with the party.
• Not a Climbing Lizard — Ignatius tumbles from the tower during the party’s escape.
• Chip, It Answered — Ignatius watches Carver call a spectral companion from the Shroud and asks its name.
• The First Fruits of Advancement — Ignatius displays the separate powers of his Hands of Healing and Harm.
• A Life Between the Shelves — Ignatius watches Erasmus unfold Van Richten’s history in Faith’s Library.
• The Ghost at the Sound of His Name — Erasmus answers when Ignatius speaks his name before Vidic.
• A Drop for Black Lily — Ignatius watches Darian’s blood rite from the edge of the revel.
• The Pale Lantern Will Not Burn — Ignatius waits outside during Rage’s attempted arson.
• One Dead, One Taken — Carver restores Ignatius after the ratlike creatures overwhelm him.
• Hundreds of Talons — Ignatius swears the Keepers’ oath beside Rage and Carver.
• The Road Out of Martira Bay — Ignatius watches Vermoth from the driver’s bench as the expedition leaves the city.
• Vermoth’s Last Move — Ignatius ends the driver’s roadside betrayal with a decisive punch.
• Ride Through the Dead — Ignatius drives the coach directly through the undead roadblock.
• Mercy Born of Fear — Ignatius watches the consequences of Rage’s fear within Carver’s sanctuary.
• Battle Within the Shroud — Ignatius destroys a skeletal mount with Hand of Harm.
• The Shroud Takes Rivalis — Ignatius rides toward a Rivalis being swallowed by the Shroud.
• A Merchant Takes Up the Spear — Ignatius welcomes Ooru into the company by placing a spear in his hands.
• What Spilled upon Hook Road — Ignatius examines the feverish elf while Rage discovers the bag’s contents.
• Beneath the Broken Spire — Ignatius stands with the expanded party at the threshold of Castle Avernus.
• The Room Dies with Its King — Ignatius strikes the crowned giant as its throne room collapses around it.
• Three Futures for Darkon — Ignatius pledges himself to Irik’s path of discovery.
• What Rose in the Slaughterhouse — Ignatius fights through supernatural revulsion and keeps Rage standing.
• Slippery Siv Steps Free — Ignatius watches Carver release the dog-like mongrelman from Castle Avernus’s menagerie.
• Rage Loots the Treasury — Ignatius regards Rage’s enthusiastic treasury haul with folded patience.
• Birth of Pearl — Ignatius watches four elemental forces create Pearl’s crystal above the bones.
• The Portrait Cape — Ignatius regards Rage’s new canvas cape from across the treasury.
• Slippery Siv Is Back — Ignatius witnesses Siv’s dog-like curse dissolve into restoration magic.
• To the Bone Room! — Ignatius braces to strike beside Pearl in the bone-covered chamber.
• Chip Brings Down the Bone Golem — Ignatius fights beside Carver, Rage, Pearl, and Chip during the golem’s destruction.
• Flight from the Endless Dead — Ignatius escapes the skeleton horde with Rage and Carver.
• The Red Sun Blade — Ignatius watches the lower laboratory’s preserved specimens as Rage examines the Sun Blade.
• Hyskosa’s Scrying Pool — Ignatius watches Hyskosa’s basin reveal Ankhtepot’s golden vision.
• Carver Heals the Unicorn — Ignatius keeps watch as Carver heals the wounded unicorn.
• Pearl Strikes the Fire Elemental — Ignatius leaps into the fight as Pearl ends the fire elemental.
• Black Lily’s Reckoning — Ignatius restrains Black Lily as the party confronts him with Darian’s letter.
• The Attic Coffins Open — Ignatius takes a martial stance as the attic’s aberrations emerge.
• Snowmane Approaches the River Dancer — Ignatius stands with the party as Snowmane makes her entrance aboard the River Dancer.
• The River Dancer Awakens — Ignatius watches as Snowmane’s distress awakens the River Dancer’s wood.
• The Rat House Erupts — Ignatius strikes a Boneless as the Rat House alley erupts into battle.
• Above the Guard Search — Ignatius keeps low on the rooftops while guards search the alley below.
• Alley Patrol Ambush — Ignatius adopts an unarmed defensive stance as a guard patrol ambushes the party.