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[Max of Vesper]

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Collapsing into the throne on his roof after an afternoon of keeping the Solens out of Vesper, Max vanPelt breathed a weary sigh. “Well,” he thought to himself, “killing Solens may not be glamorous, but it sure helps to pay for this house and keeps the beasts out of Vesper at the same time!”

After the long day it was nice to simply relax in the throne and be cooled by the breezes whistling through the trees. “Arcana was kind to help me find this house,” Max said as he looked out over River Run, “and it has a great view of her rooftop gardens as well.”

He chuckled a bit as he wiggled into a more comfortable position in his seat. “How presumptuous it must be of me to have a throne on my roof! Well, I may not be king of all I survey, but I am certainly king of my house,” he said with a smile as his mind wandered into the circumstances that brought him to where his now was.

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Max was born as Maximillian vanPelt to loving parents, and grew up in an area between Vesper and Minoc. His mother and father worked hard at the small shop they owned sometimes risking their lives to collect some of the items they sold such as reagents and the odd weapons and armour found on the corpses of the fallen monsters the local warriors had no use for. The family survived well enough as the store brought in enough gold for the necessities and turned a small profit….even after taxes were levied.

As Maximillian grew towards adulthood, and his parents aged, he became restless for something more, and also wanted to find a way for his folks to enjoy their elder years and not rely on the store to survive. His younger brother, Nicodemus, was around to help out, and Maximillian wanted to be able to bring more and better goods home to sell as he fully realized they his parents would never completely give up the store.

With these thoughts in his head Maximillian headed towards Haven to learn what he needed to become a warrior.

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Haven was abuzz with activity! New and veteran adventurers alike were everywhere training, sharing stories of glory, and doing their best to impress each other. Maximillian figured all he would need to begin his new life as a swordsman could be found here among the bustle of the city. Surely people with the skills he sought to learn would be available for lessons. In his burning desire to learn the arts of war and combat, Maximillian dropped his guard and made the biggest mistake of his life.

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A man approached as Maximillian was negotiating a price for some training in the skill of Magic Reflection. He surely overheard the discussion, for as soon as Maximillian was done the man approached and explained he could help with training. Eager and naïve, Maximillian agreed to follow the man with the thought of an accelerated training program running through his mind.

What followed remains a blur in Max’s memory to this day, but suffice it to say it was not a pleasant experience.

The promised “training” involved Maximillian being murdered and resurrected several times over under the watchful eye of one who called himself the Lich King. Maximillian was locked in a cell and forced to fight a much stronger opponent. It was not long before Maximillian realized that death was not necessarily always permanent, and that while in limbo he was able to walk through doorways. This is how he made his escape. He was chased, and they did all they could to keep him from leaving, but after a short run he was able to elude them and flee into the woods…with no idea where he was.

Maximillian came upon a very kind healer who resurrected him, and he was able to begin his search for home. One would think this lesson in life would have given Maximillian some valuable insight into trust, but it was unfortunately not so……..

Desperate to return home and give up his dream of becoming a warrior, Maximillian once again trusted the wrong person and asked for help with returning to Vesper. The man seemed kind enough with his offer to open a gate to travel through, but Maximillian was soon searching out the services of the healers again as he was taken to, what he later learned, was a town called Buccaneer’s Den. The vile place was teeming with criminals and murderers and Maximillian survived the best he could, after being resurrected, for several weeks hiding and living off of what scraps he could find outside of the island’s eating establishments.

Hope was all but gone for Maximillian when he was discovered by a genuinely kindhearted mage named Richard who returned him to Vesper and set him on a course of proper training in a safe environment close to his home and family.

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It was this period of his life that Maximillian decided it was best to no longer refer to himself by his full formal name and shorten it to simply ”Max.” Although his training was going well and he was learning much, he lived in fear of the people he had encountered in the past, and wanted to be less obvious about who he was. Unable to bring himself to give up the old family name completely, Max hoped the shorter version would be enough to give him some form of anonymity from his past captors.

The time had come for Max to fulfill his dream of glory and adventure, and to help his parents live a relaxed retirement. Together with his brother, Nicodemus; the mage who rescued him from Buccaneer’s Den, Richard; and an old childhood friend named Smiticles, they formed the Adventurer’s League of Vesper, and set out together on their path to glory.

…….but Max has never lost the urge the face those who wronged him again, and show them how much he has learned.
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-Max of Vesper, Super Pally Perma NoOb.