"Alfonse Guggenheim"

Argyll's father.

Gender: Male
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 150

Appearance

Physical Description

Of slightly below-average height with a slim but muscular build.

Facial Features

Handsome, with a well-trimmed beard and bright, otherworldly blue eyes.

Identifying Characteristics

He has a long scar on his left cheek.

"His handsome features are marred by a scar that curves from the top of his left cheekbone down to his jaw, though he doesn’t consider the scar disfiguring. If asked about the scar, he explains that he got it years ago when the man who burned down his home village slashed his face with a dagger. It serves as a grim reminder of his past." - Candlekeep Mysteries

Mentality

Personal history

"Alfonse Guggenheim" was born Arrant Quill and grew up on a farm in a small town in the Western Heartlands called Wisteria Vale. As a teen, he began to show a talent for acting and wordplay, and spent his evenings performing at the local tavern.

When he was fifteen, a nobleman named Thanvas Ilzimmer, scion of a horse-breeding and clothing designing family from Waterdeep visited his town. Displeased with the hospitality of what he considered a backwater town, Thanvas had his men set fire to the fields. The winds carried the fire to the town proper and escalated quickly, turning the town into a massacre. Quill, stumbling out of town, overheard Ilzimmer's entourage as they escaped the blaze and confronted them. Ilzimmer's thugs beat him within an inch of his life and as the final insult, Ilzimmer himself cut Quill deep down his face with a crystal dagger, saying there was "nothing an ignorant little shit like you could do to stop me."

It took a couple years, but Quill tracked Ilzimmer down to his estate in Waterdeep, intending to exact revenge for the destruction of Wisteria Vale. While staking the place out, he was approached by Gloranel of the Light, a member of the Harpers. She invited him to join the group, telling him that the Harpers stand for justice, and that they exist to weed out evil tyrants such as Ilzimmer. Quill agreed, joined up, and in the end, he snuck into Ilzimmer's estate with a performance troupe the nobleman hired for a party, hid in the house, and dispatched the man as he was going to bed. He had hoped to find closure after avenging Wisteria Vale, but instead, he remained obsessed with finding and rooting out corruption and tyranny amongst the upper classes, taking job after job with his party.

Disguising himself as a performer had worked out well for him, so he adopted the stage name Alfonse Guggenheim, wanting to avoid any possible connection to the murder of Lord Ilzimmer.

Eventually, Glory, Spiral, and Stonechains became worried for his mental health and opted to send him on a "break" mission to the Many Arrows tribe, and for a time, it was truly a break. He felt at home in the makeshift village, as it reminded him of the home he'd lost. But when skirmishes began to happen, with increasing frequency, the High Harpers, worried they would lose all of the ocrish oral history materials he had been compiling as well as a valuable asset, ordered that he be retrieved for his own safety.

Employment

According to other Harper agents, "Alfonse" was a member of the Harpers assigned to record some of the oral histories of the Many Arrows Tribes to be submitted to Candlekeep. At some point while Argyll was away, he was extracted from the location because the Harpers thought he was in danger, likely due to the skirmishes unfolding in the area at the time.

At some later point, "Alfonse" was sent on another mission in Cormyr that involved a Cyricist cult and a cursed artifact. During this mission something went bad, and as a result, "Alfonse" has been locked away somewhere for safekeeping (his, and perhaps others.)

Quill was brought on by Gloranel to assist with securing a Cyricist artifact from a cult sect located in Cormyr. Zhentarim had used this magical ring to corrupt a leader in the Cormyran War Wizards, a previously well-intentioned man named Erskyn. After a couple months of recon, Quill was able to infiltrate the cult and gain access to Erskyn's location. Along with his team, they raided the keep. Quill fought Erskyn one on one and slayed him in self defense, but in the process, he was struck by a spell focused through the ring. The power of Cyric began to corrupt him, preying on feelings of resentment that had been stewing since he was separated from the tribe. He began to become paranoid, and grew convinced that the extraction had been a botched attempt to eliminate the original Alphonse Guggenheim and replace him permanently.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Alfonse Guggenheim was known to have been a great actor, appearing in plays such as King Helcantur the Doomed, Blood Wedding, and The Orc King, Part I, and receiving many accolades and awards for his performances.

Mental Trauma

"Alfonse" was deeply upset when his team extracted him from the Many Arrows tribe, feeling that they didn't give him enough time to take Guggatha along or to find a way to notify his son. It was this that was on his mind when he fought Cyric cultist Erskin, and when he was blasted with a spell focused through the Cyric-infused gem, these seeds of resentment began to take hold in him.

Known Languages

Common, Draconic, Elvish, Undercommon

Personality

Motivation

Although outwardly friendly, Quill is driven by three selfish desires: to preserve his well-being, to alleviate his boredom, and to escape Wisteria Vale. He holds a grudge against the Harpers and Gloranel for imprisoning him in a place that reminds him of the people he lost in his childhood, though he also takes some comfort in being able to live out the life he could’ve had. His time spent alone with his thoughts in Wisteria Vale has led him to suspect that the Harpers were never going to find a cure, and that they were simply biding their time until he became complacent enough that they could kill him without his being a threat. Quill’s corruption has convinced him that the Harpers have become a powerful force that must be taken down; he trusts only himself to identify and eliminate agents of tyranny.