Quick facts
Role: Economic advisor to Cedric Lightharbor · Home: Saline Coast · Status: Dead twice (killed by Escher, C2 Session 32; destroyed as an undead, C2 Session 46)
Tobias Blackwood was Cedric Lightharbor’s economic advisor and the mastermind of the conspiracy The FAM spent their first month untangling. He murdered Wilbur, was killed in his cell by Escher, and came back as an undead monster.
Overview
Blackwood was an expert in economics and trade with a background in business, credited with policies that boosted the city’s economy and drew investors.
History
The conspiracy (Sessions 8–27)
In Session 8, the group began to suspect that the man who bought Wilbur’s smoke bomb had been disguised as council member Tobias Bigsby (whose name, “Tobias B.,” was in Wilbur’s ledger), and that the real culprit might be Blackwood. In Session 25, The Whisper confirmed it: Blackwood had been manipulating events to destabilize the city and seize power, using Lightharbor as a puppet.
Wilbur printed flyers exposing him, and the party gave Mayor Eliza Windrider letters and contracts implicating him (Session 26). At the festival’s closing ceremonies, she ordered his arrest.
Killing Wilbur (Session 29)
While Captain Eric Stormshield was confronting Wilbur, an invisible attacker stabbed Wilbur with a poisoned blade. Wilbur recognized the voice as Blackwood’s, the man who had commissioned the smoke bomb. Blackwood dropped Wilbur’s smoke bomb to cover his escape, but the group stopped him. Wilbur died of his wounds, and Stormshield arrested Blackwood.
Death (Session 32)
After the party brought Wilbur back, Escher visited Blackwood’s cell. Blackwood boasted about his connections and called Escher a coward. Escher calmly killed him with an inflict wounds spell, leaving a desiccated corpse.
Afterward
The Velvet Truffle Company kept asking after him. A VTC official at the blockade in Session 40 and Gravy Bones in Session 42 both asked the party whether they had seen him. In Session 45, the party learned that Violetta of the Potion Haven had tried to charge two poisons to the VTC’s tab under Blackwood’s name. The buyer had been Escher in disguise, and since Blackwood was already dead, the VTC caught the fraud and seized her shop.
Return (Sessions 45–47)
In the crypt below the morgue, the party found Victor Blackwood unconscious. A grotesquely bloated figure lumbered out in the remains of a fine suit, dragging a huge corroded scimitar, with gas hissing softly from tears in its body. It had Tobias Blackwood’s misshapen face.
A VTC necromancer raised zombies from the coffins and locked part of the party inside. Blackwood went after Escher and knocked him out. Wilbur put two shots into Blackwood’s back, and he crashed to the floor in a “gooey mess.” Afterward, Escher found a key hidden in a false tooth in Blackwood’s mouth.
Relationships
- Cedric Lightharbor: His employer and puppet.
- Wilbur: His victim.
- Escher: His killer.
Appears in
Session 8, Session 25, Session 26, Session 27, Session 29, Session 32, Session 40, Session 42, Session 45, Session 46, Session 47