Mister Cowl will see you shortly
This is the start of a character idea for miss_rynn's Changeling: The Lost game. I've cheated a little, by adapting a character concept that only saw one session of play in a much older Changeling game.
Alistair Cowl's childhood was marked by strict expectations and solemn, disappointed reproach when those expectations were not met. His parents were brilliant doctors - one a cardiac surgeon, the other an optometrist. Long before having children, they had mapped out careers for each of their offspring. After his brother and sister had entered medical school, it was assumed that Alistair would soon follow suit to qualify as a dentist.
But Alistair lacked the drive that had spurred his siblings to greatness. His grades were never good enough, and the course offer never arrived. On a special appeal from his father, Alistair was granted an interview with the university panel: one final chance to convince them that he could meet his parents expectations. True to form, he flunked it.
Sitting on the university lawn, wondering how to explain this latest failure to his family, he saw a tiny, wizened figure pulling a cart across the lawn. The man stood scarcely taller than a blade of grass, and strained against the weight of his cart. Alistair remembered stories about the Fair Folk - little leprechauns, able to grant wishes - and smiled, thinking that he had finally discovered a solution to his problems. He trapped the little man under a bottle cap, and demanded help: he would become a talented dentist, successful in his practice, and his family would be proud of their son. From beneath the bottle cap, the man spoke: "I accept your contract." Alistair freed the tiny creature, and all went dark.
When his vision returned, Alistair found himself in Arcadia - servant to the Merchant of Ivory. At normal size, his keeper was horrifying... hunched and twisted; scowling face nestled among garlands of human teeth. At first, Alistair simply pulled the Merchant's cart as they travelled the land, buying and selling slave-children for the nobility. Later, Alistair was given a more gruesome task: drawing the valuable baby teeth from the children. When their teeth grew back, the children were sold on as "undamaged" specimens - though the merchant's ivory stood as tangible reminder of their terrified captivity.
For one season each year, they sheltered in a court where the Merchant had some influence. Here, Alistair stole away from his keeper when he could, in order to speak with others who had been kidnapped. Each year, some of the court's changelings had vanished, and he grew more hopeful of escaping Arcadia - until finally he had an opportunity to break the chain that tied him to the Merchant's wagon, and flee.
Returning to the mortal world, Alistair tried to visit his family. But several years had passed, and the fetch left in his place had grown to be the ideal son... studious and successful where Alistair was not, and the very image of his parent's dreams. They would not believe that the wild-eyed stranger was their true son, and called the police when he tried to force his way into their home.
Forced to begin a new life, he has fallen back on the thing he has come to know best: teeth. Unregistered and lacking formal qualifications, he can rarely practice in one location for long. But the parents of his young patients find a grudging respect for his unorthodox methods - as scared as the appointments make them, the children become fastidious about their health lest they earn another trip to see Mister Cowl.
And if, sometimes, he might be a little too enthusiastic at pulling those teeth... at least those children will be a little less attractive to creatures like the Merchant, and a little less likely to meet the same fate that he did...
Alistair seeks some kind of closure on his old family life - even if that is simply accepting that they are no longer a family for him. He is a reasonably skilled medic, and strong as an ox from his ordeal in Arcadia; stubborn and loyal as a bulldog, and prepared to lend brutal and violent support to aid his new friends.
Mister Cowl is as close to an old-changeling Redcap as I can make him: an Ogre from the Gristlegrinder kith, with leathery skin and blunt, grinding teeth that can devour just about anything (via the Iron Stomach merit). His magic comes from the contracts of Fleeting Autumn (inspiring fear) and Stone (battering aside obstacles and brawling with a terrible rage).
Alistair Cowl's childhood was marked by strict expectations and solemn, disappointed reproach when those expectations were not met. His parents were brilliant doctors - one a cardiac surgeon, the other an optometrist. Long before having children, they had mapped out careers for each of their offspring. After his brother and sister had entered medical school, it was assumed that Alistair would soon follow suit to qualify as a dentist.
But Alistair lacked the drive that had spurred his siblings to greatness. His grades were never good enough, and the course offer never arrived. On a special appeal from his father, Alistair was granted an interview with the university panel: one final chance to convince them that he could meet his parents expectations. True to form, he flunked it.
Sitting on the university lawn, wondering how to explain this latest failure to his family, he saw a tiny, wizened figure pulling a cart across the lawn. The man stood scarcely taller than a blade of grass, and strained against the weight of his cart. Alistair remembered stories about the Fair Folk - little leprechauns, able to grant wishes - and smiled, thinking that he had finally discovered a solution to his problems. He trapped the little man under a bottle cap, and demanded help: he would become a talented dentist, successful in his practice, and his family would be proud of their son. From beneath the bottle cap, the man spoke: "I accept your contract." Alistair freed the tiny creature, and all went dark.
When his vision returned, Alistair found himself in Arcadia - servant to the Merchant of Ivory. At normal size, his keeper was horrifying... hunched and twisted; scowling face nestled among garlands of human teeth. At first, Alistair simply pulled the Merchant's cart as they travelled the land, buying and selling slave-children for the nobility. Later, Alistair was given a more gruesome task: drawing the valuable baby teeth from the children. When their teeth grew back, the children were sold on as "undamaged" specimens - though the merchant's ivory stood as tangible reminder of their terrified captivity.
For one season each year, they sheltered in a court where the Merchant had some influence. Here, Alistair stole away from his keeper when he could, in order to speak with others who had been kidnapped. Each year, some of the court's changelings had vanished, and he grew more hopeful of escaping Arcadia - until finally he had an opportunity to break the chain that tied him to the Merchant's wagon, and flee.
Returning to the mortal world, Alistair tried to visit his family. But several years had passed, and the fetch left in his place had grown to be the ideal son... studious and successful where Alistair was not, and the very image of his parent's dreams. They would not believe that the wild-eyed stranger was their true son, and called the police when he tried to force his way into their home.
Forced to begin a new life, he has fallen back on the thing he has come to know best: teeth. Unregistered and lacking formal qualifications, he can rarely practice in one location for long. But the parents of his young patients find a grudging respect for his unorthodox methods - as scared as the appointments make them, the children become fastidious about their health lest they earn another trip to see Mister Cowl.
And if, sometimes, he might be a little too enthusiastic at pulling those teeth... at least those children will be a little less attractive to creatures like the Merchant, and a little less likely to meet the same fate that he did...
Alistair seeks some kind of closure on his old family life - even if that is simply accepting that they are no longer a family for him. He is a reasonably skilled medic, and strong as an ox from his ordeal in Arcadia; stubborn and loyal as a bulldog, and prepared to lend brutal and violent support to aid his new friends.
Mister Cowl is as close to an old-changeling Redcap as I can make him: an Ogre from the Gristlegrinder kith, with leathery skin and blunt, grinding teeth that can devour just about anything (via the Iron Stomach merit). His magic comes from the contracts of Fleeting Autumn (inspiring fear) and Stone (battering aside obstacles and brawling with a terrible rage).