Mages Who Broke the Mold - a series of articles profiling sorcerors who took unusual routes to gain their powers.

The Conti di Flamingo is noted throughout the known world as a truly remarkable figure. He has achieved considerable infamy by virtue of being the only Drow necromancer since the Freedom Wars over three thousand years ago. In this article we shall seek out the reasons why this once unassuming young nobleman chose the left hand path to become one of the most feared and despised creatures the world has ever known.

Born Bradil Baurschaftt, it was obvious from a very young age that this man would unceasingly strive to improve his lot. His mother remembers those early days:

"Oh aye, our Bradil was a real independent little tyke. Didn't know when to take 'no' for an answer. He never understood why he shouldn't inherit the farm. Always stirring up trouble with his younger sisters. Must have been some sort of throwback to my mother's father - too much devil in his blood, and no mistake."

Faced with the prospect of being married off in arranged matrimony, Bradil ran away from home to seek his fortune. Just in time it seems:

"When he ran off like that Drundon, that's my eldest daughter and running the farms raight well too she is, was spitting fire - and I don't just mean that as a figure of speech! She were that mad on account of her having found a bride for Bradil that very morning. She'd built him up as a wonderful lad, worked really hard on one of her college pals to persuade her that Bradil was a bit calmer than he'd been, how his masculist days had been a passing phase. She'd squeezed a really good wedding price out of the woman too and then the ungrateful sod ran off.

"The house damn near burnt down."

Bradil sought out a place where a lone boy would not attract attention - a more cosmopolitan place where rare delights could be sampled and the elder folk had swayed the Druas in their ways. He went to Orlithal, bastion of Bridland and stepping stone to Bridland proper.

Upon his arrival, he quickly found his feet and joined an organisation which suited his mindset perfectly: one where neither class nor sex were important. He joined the Guild of Assassins. One of the other survivors from that year's intake reminisces about Bradil:

"I remember Bradil alright. Vicious b*****d. Knew his stuff though - out of that year's survivors he always struck me as much as possible. Very talented and really put his heart into his work. Went up through the ranks like a [very colourful metaphor], and might have made it to the top if he hadn't made those enemies. Well, enemies is one thing and fairly normal in our trade. But there are some toes you don't tread on."

Unfortunately, Bradil made an enemy of Vex Godglove. Vex was the cabal leader's right hand man and he made life very difficult for Bradil.

"Aye, Vex really had it in for Bradil. At first it was just rivalry like, coz Vex could see that the kid might be challenging him a lot sooner than the others of us. Bit of antagonism like that keeps you on your guard, all part of the training. But Vex took it a bit further - he started fiddling the job rosters so Bradil got all the hard trips. Then he put the kid on trips that were way beyond what he should have been capable of. At the last Bradil were doing jobs that Vex himself wouldn't have touched. It was then the cabal leader noticed."

The cabal leader called Vex before him whilst Bradil was on what was to be his final mission. That was the last time Vex was seen alive (which is why we can safely reveal his name).

But for Bradil it was already too late. His last trip was to the home of a necromancer, hunted from Bridland's shores to those of the western land. We know this from evidence found in the house afterwards: to Drow society he appeared to be an eccentric merchant with a good line in infernal artifacts. We must assume that the contract was taken out quite innocently by a rival: there was no contact made with the witch hunting coven for that district.

His comparative inexperience notwithstanding, Bradil killed his target. But the target's last words must have been terrible indeed for his familiar became attached to Bradil and the young Druas' fate was sealed.

Apparently stunned by the shock of the transition, Bradil wandered into the desert and there communed with his new god. When he reemerged, Bradil Baurschaftt was no more and the Conti di Flamingo had been born.

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