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Norm Riesling

Name Norm Riesling
Age 61
Race Human
Hometown Highland Heights, Kalashport
Status Alive

Overview

Norm Riesling is the reclusive majority owner of Kalashport Shipping and Handling, an international logistics company based in Highland Heights. Norm created the company to facilitate his ongoing collection of magic items, using its shipping resources to more easily search foreign markets for unique trinkets. Norm is Yancy's father, and their relationship is a major focus in parts of the Faction Campaign.

Personality and Relationships

Norm has a personality that has been described as "zero rizz". This is by design, however, as his awkwardness leads others to underestimate his ability to manipulate and scheme. Behind the facade of the clumsy, benign father lies an incredibly proud, paranoid, and cunning man, who is more than content to let others think they get the better of him if it means he gets something he wants. The select few individuals who are close to him recognize this, and in a way, can't help but take on some of his manipulative traits for themselves.

Norm has been Yancy's father figure ever since he found the child near a red maple tree. Norm took the changeling to be a full replacement for his biological son who died young. He earnestly sees Yancy as his true child and perfect heir, which drives a divide between him and his wife, who has never liked Yancy and sees the whole situation as a cruel joke. Norm truly doesn't care much about what Natalie thinks of the matter, and he does not attend marriage counseling meetings.

Norm's relationship with Yancy and Yin is complex. One one hand, Norm sees Yancy as his perfect creation and has dedicated the past two decades of his life toward modeling them in his image. On the other hand, Norm thinks Yin is a parasite trying to corrupt his good son. Yancy naturally shares some of Norm's antisocial traits, which ironically puts them at odds as they both feel more comfortable manipulating and scheming around each other than facing each other as family. Neither can truly talk to the other honestly, so their relationship remains a constant game of guesswork. Nevertheless, Norm views his son with great pride, and is even slowly starting to warm up to Yin.

Secretly, Norm dislikes the Highland Heights elites he so often interacts with. Norm thinks of business as a means to an end, so the constant talk of investments and mergers tires him. An exception was Richard Halibut, who was arguably his only friend. Richard was categorically terrible at business and had shady connections to the Machado family. Norm admired the game and became friends with the fellow schemer. He would also never admit this, but Norm takes a certain joy in seeing people with unique business ideas like Fet show up in the business world and disrupt the Heights establishment.

Norm has strong opinions on magic and who is allowed to use it. Norm himself is a sorcerer, having inherited magic affinity from his ancestors (who aren't explained, so it's probably not that important who they were). Norm believes magic is something that is only bestowed upon those deserving and capable of it and looks down upon those who gain it from unconventional means. Yancy, having gained powers through pact magic, is wary to mention their abilities around Norm for this reason. Yancy recently found out they do in fact have innate sorcery, so at least they can talk about that.

History

Pre-Campaign

Norm Riesling was born in Kalashport to a middle-class family. One of his ancestors must have been a powerful mage, as Norm started to show an unusual degree of magic affinity at a young age. He spent his childhood and adolescence mostly honing his spellcasting skills, picking up a collection of magical trinkets as a hobby. In adulthood he decided to make this hobby his career, and he secured a generous loan to start Kalashport Shipping and Handling. At first the company only did local deliveries, but in a few years Norm grew it to be an international corporation.

Kalashport Shipping and Handling made Norm one of the wealthiest men in Kalashport. He moved to Highland Heights and married Natalie, which was mutually a status move rather than a love one. The two had their first and only son, Yancy, shortly thereafter. Yancy was sickly and died young despite Norm's efforts. Yancy's death left Norm devastated, so when he found a mysterious child left alone at a maple tree in Generation Park, he took it for himself and didn't ask questions. Norm quickly found out that the new child was a shapeshifter and it took on the resemblance of Yancy. To this day, Norm considers his new son his "real" son and true heir, and he doens't think much about the original Yancy that died. Natalie is quite the opposite, however, and Norm's "acquisition" drove a wedge in their relationship that was already not particularly close.

Always one for great undertakings, Yancy was Norm's biggest "project" to date. He wanted to sculpt the child in his image and create a perfect succession to the Riesling name. As such, instead of having a normal education, Yancy mostly learned what Norm thought was important, such as social manipulation, scheming, and spellcasting. This understandably was pretty tough on Yancy, and their relationship remains complicated to say the least.

Yancy is a warlock, the details of which you can find on their wiki page. This was kept a secret form Norm as he has strong opinions on those who gain power through unconventional means. Norm was also kept in the dark about Yin, though Yancy themself didn't quite understand Yin's nature at the time either. Eventually, Norm found out about both and he and Yancy had a confrontation about it in Generation Park near the same Maple Tree at which Yancy was found two decades prior. The argument reached a climax and Yancy - or was it Yin - accidentally sent Norm through the Maple Tree Network into the Feywild.

Faction Campaign

Norm spent about a month stuck in the Feywild (this was while the portals didn't work) trying to figure out how to get home. Eventually, Mother Scalehearth tracked him down as part of The Cloud's plan to have him take the fall for stealing Abigail Halibut's dragon scale. Scalehearth told Norm her plan and then tried to memory hex Norm before letting him out. Unbeknownst to Scalehearth, however, Norm's meteorite amulet blocked the hex and Norm remembered everything she had said. He went through the portal and found Weston, instructing him to contact the Party to invite them to Highland Heights to stop the Cloud's plan.

Norm's plan went as designed for the most part, and the party tracked down the white dragon scale, leaving him free from arrest. His attention turned to revenge, he decided to hunt down Scalehearth in retaliation for trying to mess with him and Yancy. He confronted Abigail and worked out a beneficial deal for him to buy the Kalashport Security Company. With a private military under his control, he eventually tracked down The Cloud's headquarters in the Canal District.

Norm himself led a raid on the Cloud and stormed their underground chamber. In response, Scalehearth had her cultists start the resurrection ritual during battle. The resurrection backfired and created a huge explosion, taking out most of Norm's soldiers and the cultists, and destabilizing the Dream Plane. Norm and Scalehearth were both cast into the Dream Plane unconscious. The party showed up shortly thereafter and Norm woke up and immediately killed Scalehearth. He then helped defeat the corrupted Elemental Guardian summoned in the Dream Plane, though he didn't really understand what was going on.

Seeing Yancy (and Yin) protect the Dream Plane with such authority in that encounter, Norm was left impressed and started to accept them for what they are.

Appearance

Norm Riesling is an elderly man with grayish tan skin, brown eyes, and straight chin-length brown hair (which he possibly dyes or augments with magic due to his age). He wears thick round glasses and he is particularly fond of sweater vests. Norm often carries several magic items on his person, but never in open sight.

Trivia