Koschey the Deathless

Koschey Arturovich, also known as Koschey the Deathless, is an archmage operating alongside the Vulpesh of Arkhosia. A powerful necromancer and transmuter, he is currently in the employ of the Vulpesh to provide enhanced soldiers for the Arkhosian military. As an NPC, he is played by Joseph.

Appearance
Koschey appears as an elderly human with long white hair that falls down to his shoulders. He is a thin man who shows little care for the perception of others. His skin is wrinkled with age, fingernails ending in sharpened claws. Koschey often dresses in long, flowing robes. He keeps a thick spellbook on his person at all times, full of arcane secrets the result of years of research. His eyes are a piercing light blue, which glow when he performs feats of magic.

Personality
Koschey is an arrogant, ambitious, and intelligent man. A powerful wizard, he takes great interest in the study of the arcane, especially those of the necromantic and transmutation schools. Uncaring and confident, Koschey cares for little outside of his own arcane research. Though reserved in conversation, he is not above delivering cruel retribution to those who cross him; when The Chaos Crew partially destroyed his research located in the Vulpesh training facility, he responded by capturing Aisling for use as a soul receptacle and hunting down and killing various members of the Desdemonan Pathfinder Society.

Background
Of Esipian descent, Koschey was formerly an instructor at the Arcanaeum in Arkhosia. He told the Chaos Crew that he has been practicing the arcane arts for over two centuries, though it is unknown if he was referring to his own age or the age of his deal with the devil Faustus.

At some point prior to 6E 338, Koschey was responsible for the creation of the dracolich known as Skeld. It is unknown to what extent that responsibility entails, as Skeld was destroyed soon after revealing his connection to the archmage, calling him "brother" and claiming that he was the reason for his "current form".

Working with the Vulpesh
At some point in the past few years, Koschey began working with the Vulpesh of Arkhosia to further his research into genetic manipulation and chimaerization. It is unknown which party first approached the other, but Koschey's research at the Vulpesh training facility dealt primarily with the creation of hybridized monstrosities that followed orders without question.

During their mission to capture the Vulpesh centurion Nero Setellus for Lady Sariel of the House of Argent, the Chaos Crew was approached by Faustus, with whom Yakov had struck a deal for information regarding his patron some weeks prior. Faustus sought to fill Yakov's end of the bargain, instructing Viscily to find and destroy the research Koschey had been conducting within the training facility.

Upon entering the facility, Viscily and Gorrem, disguised as Vulpesh soldiers, soon found themselves face-to-face with Koschey. Spinning a deception where the two had been sent to check on the progress of Koschey's research, Viscily and Gorrem were given a tour of the laboratory Koschey had been utilizing, as well as a description of the research the wizard was conducting. Introducing the two to Delphi, a pale-blue desert panther that had been hybridized with a nothic, Koschey led Viscily and Gorrem to the proving grounds of his laboratory, where his experiments were trained and tested to meet the expectation of the Vulpesh.

Sensing deception, Koschey and Delphi trapped Viscily and Gorrem within the proving grounds with the two chimaeras he had been demonstrating: Ariadne, a humanoid hybridized with both a hook horror and a giant spider; and Echo: a doppelganger whose eyes had been replaced with that of a nothic's. Leaving the two to their fates at the hands of his experiments, Koschey teleported away.

After a harrowing battle, Gorrem and Viscily managed to defeat the two chimaeras and escape the proving grounds, destroying much of Koschey's research and executing eight of his successful hybrids before continuing further into the facility with the intent of killing Koschey. Meanwhile, Aisling and Ayda had invisibly infiltrated the facility with the intent of magically coercing Nero to leave the facility, where he could be more easily engaged. Unfortunately, Aisling was captured in the commotion of Gorrem and Viscily's attempted murder and subsequent escape. Koschey was blinded in one eye during the assassination attempt by a crossbow bolt fired by the imp Lexi, but was otherwise relatively unharmed by the attempt.

After being captured by Vulpesh forces, Aisling was turned over to Koschey for interrogation.

Revenge against the Pathfinder Society
Sometime after Aisling's interrogation, Koschey elected to make her an integral part of his research; interposing his soul into her body and overwriting her consciousness with his own. This method of possession, dubbed soul transposition, allowed Koschey to access the now-dormant Aisling's memories and abilities while maintaining both his own abilities and sense of self.

Armed with newfound intimate knowledge of the Chaos Crew and the Desdemonan Pathfinder Society, Koschey began plotting his revenge. In Aisling's body, he traveled to Desdemona, planting the seeds of his revenge as he did so. After receiving knowledge of an expedition founded by the dragonborn museum curator Antonius Lemarc, Koschey somehow came into the possession of a dwarrow control amulet, directing the Second Era shield guardian it controlled to escape Lemarc's custody, knowing the curator would reach out to the Pathfinder Society for aid and killing the adventurers the Society sent to investigate and retrieve the guardian.

Upon the Chaos Crew's eventual return to Desdemona, they returned to the Pathfinder Society guild hall to find it practically empty. Guildmaster Cassius Octavian expressed shock upon their return, believing them dead. Cassius informed the party as to the disappearances and missing status of many of the guild members, including Aisling, who he claimed had left in the direction of the Titan's Blade. Cassius then instructed the party to take up the investigation of the missing guild members.

The party confronted Koschey at his tower near the Titan's Blade, where he proposed a truce. Koschey would forgive the party their transgressions against him and his research if they in turn killed Faustus and brought to him the contract he held with the devil. To buy themselves time to regroup and plan, the party accepted.

Declaring war on the Chaos Crew
Unbeknownst to Koschey, upon leaving the mage's tower the group immediately contacted Faustus, who transported the four, sans Mange and their horses, to his home in Stygia, where it was revealed that Koschey had attempted to give Faustus the slip and get out of his contract several times over the centuries, and that Faustus had supplied Koschey with information vital to his arcane research in exchange for the promise of his soul. During this discussion, it was made clear that Yakov and Gorrem's own deals with Faustus would be considered completed upon the safe return of Koschey's soul to the pact devil, and not a moment before.

After their conversation with Faustus, the party made their way up the River Styx to the first circle of hell, Avernus, where Gorrem purchased a hellfire longsword that would send the soul of any creature slain by it immediately to the Nine Hells as a way of insuring the capture of Koschey's soul. The party then traveled back to the Material Plane by way of the Brass Embassy before continuing back to Koschey's tower to face the archmage and, hopefully, rescue their friend.

Reuniting with Mange at the Titan's Blade, the party approached Koschey's tower. In an attempt to gain the archmage's trust, or to at least catch him off guard, Yakov disguised himself as Faustus' humanoid form, while Gorrem loosely bound and carried him. After attempting to deceive Koschey by offering the disguised Yakov in lieu of the original deal, the party attacked, and Koschey retreated to the top of his tower.

The party battled their way up to the third floor, where they saw Koschey's body floating in a vat of alchemical preservative. Before them stood the body of Aisling, dominated and possessed by Koschey, who met the party in battle, daring them to fight back and potentially risk killing their friend in the process. Without hesitation, the party attacked, engaging Koschey in a brutal battle that included melting Koschey's original body with black dragon acid and culminated in Koschey's death at the hands of Mali. Revivifying the body of Aisling saw the tiefling's soul return, in full possession of her mental and physical faculties, while Koschey's own soul was nowhere to be found.

Investigating the remains of the wizard's tower provided answers: utlizing a scrying stone located in the basement, the party discovered that upon his death, Koschey's soul had been shunted into a cloned backup of the archmage's original body, of which the archmage had multiple. Detecting that the party was scrying on him, Koschey simply intoned, "so it is to be war between us," before dispelling the magic allowing the party to view him.

Rebuilding
Koschey's death, along with the theft and destruction of much of his arcane research, set back progress on many of his arcane and thaumaturgical projects. In retaliation, he directed several of his undead minions to begin making their way to Desdemona in order to accost the party and discourage their attempts to locate him while he regrouped. Due to the knowledge the party uncovered within his tower, however, only one of these would prove to be successful: a deathlock follower of Koschey who infiltrated Desdemona and attacked Gorrem while on a date with Faustus. His attempts to keep tabs on the Chaos Crew and the Pathfinder Society have gone on mostly unnoticed, and he continues to plot their demise as well as the completion of his magnum opus, "Salt-In-Wounds".

Abilities
Koschey is a powerful archmage specializing in necromancy and transmutation. His research focuses on hybridization theory, genetic engineering and manipulation, and soul transposition. According to his research, his ultimate goal is a mysterious project he has dubbed "Salt-In-Wounds", which entails his mastery of soul transposition to the point where he is capable of possessing the Tarrasque. To this end, Koschey's deal with Faustus involved the devil granting Koschey the knowledge of where the Tarrasque could be found, deep beneath the Silios Mountians. Koschey has demonstrated the ability to reanimate multiple undead creatures at once, as well the ability to possess creatures in a manner greater than that of the magic jar spell, making him able to, at least, cast 7th level spells.

Quotes

 * "You have proven yourselves more capable than I had expected. Commendable. Futile, but commendable."
 * "I began, of course, with owlbears, in keeping with the tradition of those before me. After months of modification I succeeded in replicating the species to the extent of my creations producing viable offspring with the native population of Esip. Likewise, too, with hippogriffs. From there I further perfected the form, creating all manner of chimaeric hybrids - not just beasts, either, as you soon shall see."
 * "What is the nature of death?"

Trivia

 * Koschey's name and epithet are inspired by an archetypal male antagonist in Russian folklore called Koschei.