Cliffton Willgoat

Originally the sole Darklord of Conquista, as his sins caused it to take form in the Demiplane of Dread. To his immense chagrin, he is now only one of four Darklord candidates, and he must win the Dread Election to be able to wield his full power.

Background

The Failure

Born in Prime Material Conquista, Cliffton chafed at his mundane life as a gas station attendant, yet refused to make the effort to better his life. As the only thing he took pride in was his young and beautiful wife, Cliffton erupted in rage when a Hombre Valiente tried to seduce her and assaulted the man, landing himself in a jail cell and facing stiff punishment. When his wife secured his release by sleeping with the Hombre Valiente in question and suggested she might now finally conceive, Cliffton took this as an insult of his manhood. He beat his wife unconscious and left town to find a new, better life elsewhere.

Cliffton found only humiliation and pain; a string of menial jobs he was unable to hold onto; a Witch offered him an opportunity to sire her children as a substitute for her husband, only to magically restrain and rape him when he tried to attack her; a group of Hombres Valientes abducted and tortured him for fun, then abandoned him in the desert to die, a goatmask stapled to his face to mark him as an outcast.

Determined to survive, Cliffton crawled through the desert until he chanced upon the Evil intelligent dagger Ixion, which promised to save him if he would bond with it. Cliffton hesitated only until the blade offered him revenge, at which point he seized it by the hilt, despite being able to guess at the weapon's full malice.

The Monster

Cliffton retraced his steps, murdering both those who had harmed him and uninvolved bystanders to salve his wounded ego, then feasting on their corpses. His victims included the Hombres Valientes who had used him for a night's entertainment and every citizen in the town they protected; the Witch who had assaulted him and her husband - and her unborn child; and finally his wife, who was now living with the Hombre Valiente who had originally tried to seduce her. To Cliffton's stunned surprise, his wife called for him to save her as he stabbed her to death. With his old house going up in flames around him, Cliffton realised for the first time that Ixion had warped him into a monstrous hybrid of man and goat. Through the crackling of the flames, he heard the screaming of an infant that might or might not be his ... and then the Mists came for him.

The Darklord

Cliffton found himself the first, only, Darklord of Conquista as it exists in the Demiplane of Dread. In spite of finding himself an exile from humanity, he learned to revel in his status as ruler of all the monsters in the domain when Conquista was still an Island of Terror. Every night, he would stir up the horrors of the Mists and lead them against the settlements of humanity... And then the Red Haunt and la Infestación decided to use his land to test their theories as to which was stronger: tyranny or anarchy. Even as the two Fiends warped the political scene of Conquista, the Dark Powers twisted the Darklordship, taking away the certainty Cliffton had come to have in his power over the forces of Evil and his self-perception as a living incarnation of il Demonio.

Current Sketch

More than anything, Cliffton wants to be respected and admired. On the Prime Material Plane, he failed at this because he never applied himself to become the race car driver or the technician he wanted to be. In the Demiplane of Dread, he fails to achieve respect in additional ways.

As a man, he is unable to achieve this because he is of mixed Casian/Canana blood, because his face still bears the scars of the goatmask that is now seen as the hallmark of atrocious criminals, and because the touch of his flesh decays artificial fabrics and even consumes metal, leaving him naked and exposed to scorn.

Once, Cliffton at least knew the terror of humanity by acting as a monster and general of monsters, but his armies are gone, having died or left Conquista in 740 BC, when Conquista joined the Wartorn Cluster; his throne is contested by rivals, and though Cliffton deeply resents having to participate in the Dread Election, just to regain a partial version of the power he once wielded, he must or risk having only a shadow of a shadow of his might.

Isolated and bitter, Cliffton spends most of his time lurking in the wilderness, drawing close to humanity only to commit murder or abduct unfortunate souls to his lair in the southern cantón of Conquista, where he tortures them to death over a period of days. When not engaged in tearing people apart to salve his own ego, Cliffton tinkers with crude tools, attempting to repair an old mobíla (car) well beyond saving, and performing surprisingly elaborate alchemical research. Unknown to Cliffton, he is a genuine savant of alchemy, and has developed formulae and processes that would make him not only rich but a celebrity, if only he could look past his misanthropy long enough to reveal his discoveries to the world.

Powers and Abilities

'Mediocre' is a word that suits Cliffton well. He is a mediocre Ranger, a mediocre Technician and a mediocre Goatsman. When he was the sole Darklord of Conquista, he could at least take pleasure in the fact that he was the only one in the domain who could cast genuine spells, but that time is long gone. What pleasure he took in being a Goatsman and being able to spread terror and loathing is swiftly eroding, because Euphonia Root is inducting people in that vile society as quickly as she can.

Father of the Dead

One significant power Cliffton possesses due to his Darklordship is the ability to commandeer any mindless undead he comes across, so long as it is night and as long as he is the Darklord. At all other times, he simply passes among the mindless undead as though he had the Cold One-feat.

King of the Mists

Cliffton can always conjure fog to cover his retreat. When he is Darklord, the fog becomes that much denser, and as a full-round action Cliffton can summon the actual Mists to teleport himself and any one creature he is grappling to any place in Conquista he knows that is not holy nor unholy ground.

Closing the Borders

Cliffton can only close the borders of Conquista when he is the reigning Darklord. During this time, he can laugh like a madman and cause every woman in the domain with any magical power to laugh as well. The laughter coalsces as a sphere of sonic energy that surrounds Conquista and repels anyone or anything (save incorporeal entities and creatures immune to sonic damage) back in the direction they came from, while dealing damage to them.

Combat

Without his armies, Cliffton is a coward. He avoids direct combat with multiple opponents unless he can cobble together some support. He far prefers to whittle his opponents down with traps and, once opponents are unable to fight back or alone, leaps out and launches first into frenzied stabbing, then moves on to grapples and tries to bite his target to death.

Signature equipment

Cliffton lost the intelligent dagger Ixion, the only thing immune to his metal-corroding touch, when he foolishly tried to fight a party of adventurers without his troops. He has since become the recipient of a different dagger made of flint and horn named Leonteus.

Due to the way his body destroys fabrics and corrodes metals, Cliffton frequently cuts himself new harnesses of leather, to hold a selection of crude tools he has made; Stone Age versions of the delicate technological equipment he once wielded.

Relationships

Very few, owing to his isolation and the loss of his armies.

• Cliffton has a connection to Euphonia Root he does not even remember, as he was once attracted by her magical calls and molested her while in his Goatsman form, unwittingly leading her to her conviction that there are more gods than just Taiia, and they must be fought. It is possible that Cliffton and Euphonia have a child, if a certain Dread Possibility is true, but it is anyone's guess where that child is today or what kind of person they will become.
• In recent years, Cliffton has been trying to establish alliances with neighbouring Darklords. Camille Churnstone loathes him for being a man and has tried more than once to have him assassinated; Unrak Worm-Trail and Cliffton share an interest in alchemy and complaining about the unfairness of their fate, but neither appears to be in a position to offer the other the kind of support they want - or willing to try.
• Cliffton has an agreement with Queen Katherine Lavonie to report to her on any refugees from West-Lund who try to take up residence in Conquista. As a reward, Queen Katherine arranged for the dagger Leonteus to be crafted and gave it to him to replace Ixion. Unknown to Cliffton, Katherine has started invading his dreams and already has full access to his sleeping mind...

Statistics

Chaotic Evil male human Expert 2 / Ranger (Sword-Devil) 4 / Technician 2 / Goatsman 5