Cadderly Bonaduce

Cadderly Bonaduce is a priest from the Forgotten Realms fictional world of Dungeons & Dragons, the title protagonist of The Cleric Quintet series by R.A. Salvatore. He is a Chosen of Deneir, God of Literature and All Images.

Creation
The character was created specially for Cleric Quintet, after six Drizzt books were completed - as Salvatore wrote in his introduction, "We were done with Drizzt. Or at least, we thought we were". The new protagonist was originally planned to be a monk, but it rejected due to changes in Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, where the class of monks was absent. Mary Kirchoff proposed that the protagonist should be a cleric. Salvatore invited a concept of spiritual journey for his character, who initially treats his religion as just a living style, but gradually becomes more tied to his god, Deneir.

Appearance
Standing 6 feet tall and weighing a bit less than 200 pounds, Cadderly is a man in his mid-20s with striking gray eyes and curly brown hair. He is handsome and has a sincere, warm smile. If he is angered, his glare can be unrelenting. During the construction of Spirit Soaring, due to the extensive use of magic, Cadderly aged rapidly. By the time the church was completed, his body was as that of a 100 year old man. But as a reward from Deneir, over the course of several years, Cadderly had gradually returned to his normal age.

Personality
As he was growing up at the Edificant Library in the Snowflake Mountains, Cadderly was a likable young man who was intensely curious about life, living, and things unusual. He was not particularly interested in learning spells or combat techniques; however he is quite good at wrestling. Now Cadderly is a changed person. He is so serious about being the Chosen of Deneir that he has made it his foremost commitment, greater even than that to his beloved Danica. He is still warm and gentle, and horrified by death and destruction, although his experiences have tempered this trait. For example, while he had nightmares about killing the priest who unleashed the chaos curse, he does not give the death of his father or the destruction of the vampire Kierkan Rufo a second thought. Cadderly believes in justice tempered with mercy, as evidenced by when the wizardess Dorigen was helpless before him. She had caused great destruction and his friends urged him to kill her, but the young priest could not. He broke her fingers with his walking stick instead, so that she could not cast spells. His act of compassion would prove to be for the better, as Dorigen later became a powerful ally and friend. Only the threat of the most potent evil can distract Cadderly from his task of completing the Spirit Soaring. He works hard at it and does not say much. Those who are evil or who have evil intentions, however, will be noticed. One of Cadderly's abilities is to see images on the shoulders of people; these images replicate the thoughts and desires of their owner. Hence an assassin will be seen as having devilish, snapping beings with dripping, wicked black claws. A man who is thinking about his beloved wife will be seen as having an image of a happy lady cuddling their child.

Combat/Tactics
Cadderly never intended to become embroiled in combat as a priest of Deneir. His spindle-disks, (in reality a primitive Yo-Yo used as weapons) which he crafted after reading about them in an old book, were originally intended for amusement, and his crossbow with the Oil of Impact darts was meant to be used more for blasting obstacles than for combat. The course of his adventures, however, made fighting a necessity.

When he fought, he preferred to let allies who had a better grasp of strategy and tactics do their thing. This is not to say that he was a coward. He could use his spindle-disks to disarm or incapacitate opponents, and against undead he did not hesitate to use his explosive darts. When he killed the evil priest Barjin with a dart, it was an accident, and one that preyed on Cadderly's mind for a long time. As he got more experienced, Cadderly was forced more often to resort to melee weapons, such as his magical ram-headed walking stick.

Eventually his connection with Deneir became so powerful that spells became his most potent weapon. As the Chosen of the Father of All Literature and Image, Cadderly does not need to acquire magic in conventional ways such as praying in advance. Through the Song of Universal Harmony, he can access any spell he so chooses at the casting time. He has faced foes such as drow, vampires, greater demons, ancient dragons (on two occasions), even evil artifacts such as Crenshinibon and Ghearufu, yet each time emerged victorious.

Magical Items
Cadderly's ram-headed walking stick is a multipurpose magical weapon. The head is made of silver and it serves well in melee combat as a bo stick, or he can remove the ram-head end and use the hollow stick as a blowgun. It has been magically enchanted by a wizard friend of his; a blow with it can have bone-shattering results. The walking stick was destroyed, but could easily have been replaced. His bandolier holds a maximum of 50 unusual crossbow bolts: darts with a small vial of explosive Oil of Impact inside each one, constructed so that the vial is crushed and the oil explodes when the dart hits a target. Cadderly also has a tube with a continual light spell cast on the inside of it. An adjustable closure on one end of the tube allows him to focus the light into a narrow beam or expand it to brighten a large area (an invention of Cadderly's, a magic-based flashlight).

Childhood
Cadderly was the son of Aballister Bonaduce and an unknown mother. Aballister was a highly talented wizard, but also obsessed, and held an unhealthy interest in dark magic. He drove his power to its limits, and his limits of control. One day, he finally went too far; he conjured a Mordinaken's sword that killed his wife and was driven from the then Edificant Library. Cadderly remembers his mother's face, but almost nothing else, including her name. The Headmaster, Avery, took Cadderly under his wing, being like a foster father to him. The Headmistress of the Deneir order, Pertelope, being like a foster mother to him. Thus Cadderly lived a carefree life at Edificant Library for his childhood.

The Chaos Curse
Now almost twenty years later came the Time of Troubles (1358 DR), and Cadderly's father Aballister encountered the avatar of the Goddess Talona, who gave to him the name of an imp of the abyss, Druzil, and told Aballister that he had information that would grant him great power. She was referring to the potion called the chaos curse (the Ultimate Poison), a recipe Druzil had found in an ancient tome while in the abyss. It became his obsession to create the potion to please Talona and grant him the ability to conquer the region. Aballister spent two years gathering ingredients for the potion, sacrificing many lives in his quest. When completed, after testing it on a member of the fighters sect of castle trinity (who then became enraged and challenged the leader of the sect in an unbelievable rage, and continued fighting even after his brain had been skewered with a dirk through the top of his skull; he ultimately lost the fight) he named it Tuanta Quiro Miancay, translated meaning the Most Fatal Horror, the title of the highest priest of Talona, mostly as an insult to Barjin, his primary rival in the priest sect of castle trinity, ranking the potion above the priest himself in Talona's eyes.

When the potion was concocted, the chief priest of the evil Castle Trinity, Barjin, demanded the right to strike with the potion. After placing a clerical spell upon the bottle that made it impossible for someone who is not innocent to open it, he brought it The Edificant Library and tricked Cadderly into opening it. He placed it in the cellars of the Edificant Library, where its vapors spread throughout the library, causing those inside to act without inhibition coupled with a Suggestion (magical charm) for each person to act on his or her most secret desire.

Barjin made his way to the catacombs of the Edificant Library and loosed the potion. This caused an invisible mist to seep upward, affecting all of the library's residents and visitors, causing them to indulge in their most audacious fantasies. It took the combined efforts of Cadderly, Danica, the Bouldershoulder brothers, and a heroic druid named Newander to destroy Barjin and a host of undead that he had summoned to guard the cursed bottle. The bottle was neutralized by immersing it in holy water and warding it against further intrusion. In the final battle against Barjin, Cadderly accidentally killed the evil priest with a crossbow bolt anointed with Oil of Impact from his hand crossbow (which was a re-invention of his from the design of a drow hand crossbow). The accidental murder brought Cadderly much guilt and inner turmoil which took him a great deal of time to resolve with his conscience.

Later on after Cadderly, Danica, Ivan and Pikel saved the elf kingdom Shilmista, they go their own ways, Danica, Ivan and Pikel to the Edificant Library, and Cadderly to Carradoon where the Night Masks( Book : Night Masks ) attempt to assassinate him. Several events take place where Rufo betrays his companions on three separate occasions, the third that costs the life of Avery Schell (Cadderly's mentor, and essentially his surrogate father). After Cadderly learns of the betrayal costing the life of Avery, he curses Rufo with a mark of Deneir: a symbol of an unlit candle above a closed eye, a variation of the holy symbol of Deneir. This brand caused a terrible smell. Rufo is informed that any attempt to cover the mark will cause it to burn through his skull until he is dead. Cadderly then follows the events and kills Aballister. Druzil, after feeling the pain of Aballister's death, stumbles upon Rufo and convinces him to return to the Edificant Library, telling him the chaos curse will give him power. Druzil unthinkingly called the mix a 'potion' and Rufo imbibed the potion and began vomiting up his blood until he was dead. He rises as a Master Vampire several days later, empowered by the potion as its personification: Tuanta Quiro Miancay, The Most Fatal Horror. He kills nearly everyone in the Edificant Library until Cadderly returns. After several encounters in which there is no clear winner, Cadderly finally rids the Edificant Library of the Chaos Curse, Rufo, and his minions. The Edificant Library is permanently desecrated. Cadderly calls upon Deneir and destroys the library, after retrieving all of the irreplaceable books and artifacts, and over the course of 5 years, creates The Spirit Soaring.

Become a Chosen
Following the defeat of Barjin, Aballister's position in Castle Trinity was unchallenged. Aballister at first had mixed feelings about Barjin attacking the library, presumably at least in part because of his son's residence there, but as Cadderly grew in power and as a direct opponent to his own plans, Aballister became increasingly enraged with him as he became more and more of a threat.

Cadderly was filled with remorse and revulsion after killing Barjin and for a time showed an aversion to any killing whatsoever, even of enemies. As he and his companions routed a major offensive by the armies of Castle Trinity in the elven wood of Shilmista he grappled with the moral questions that plagued him, choosing not to kill the powerful sorceress Dorigen, who had accompanied the evil host's assault, when he had the chance. Instead he merely stripped her of her magical items and broke her fingers to prevent her from performing the gestures that accompany most spellcasting.

Never one who was overly concerned with the rituals or magical spellcasting of his order, Cadderly became ever more confused as new powers began to assert themselves to him in the battle for the elven home. After the battle was over, Cadderly left the forest to explore some of the questions assaulting him, and began to find his answers in the Tome of Universal Harmony, the holy book of his order, that of the god Deneir. While Cadderly's lax attitude toward the rituals of his order earned him much disapproval within the library's structured hierarchy, Deneir apparently approved of Cadderly's ever-questioning, ever-learning, ever-inventing nature, and had made him one of his Chosen. By continually reading from the tome, Cadderly began to tap into the raw power of Deneir, which came in the form of a constantly flowing melody in his mind, which he was able to access, first by singing along with it, and eventually by running it through his mind.

Becoming increasingly concerned with the threat Cadderly posed to his plans, Aballister hired a savage and efficient band of assassins to kill him, to Dorigen's horror. As he and his friends dealt with the assassins, known as the Night Masks, after his life, Cadderly grew more and more in tune with the song of his god, and similarly grew in power, eventually killing nearly all of the assassin band, including an assassin named Ghost who would possess his victims using a powerful and evil magical device known as the Ghearufu. In so doing they freed from Ghost's possession a Firbolg named Vander who joined with them to exact vengeance and lead them to Castle Trinity.

Making a stop back at the Edificant Library before proceeding in his quest to take on Aballister and Castle Trinity, Cadderly met with his mentor, who encouraged him that his path was the correct one. This, combined with his increasing faith in Deneir, as well as his own powers, led him to the drastic action of magically dominating the mind of the library's dean to prevent him from interfering with Cadderly's course. He decides also to take with him the Ghearufu, knowing that it must be destroyed rather than to risk the library's scholars from studying the evil artifact and being unable to resist its temptations.

Doomsday of Crenshinibon
Crenshinibon is the true name of the crystal shard, first mentioned in R.A. Salavatore's "The Crystal Shard". Cadderly first learned of the artifact when Drizzt Do'Urden came to the Spirit Soaring in search of a priest, hoping to learn the whereabouts of his father Zaknafein. Cadderly assisted Drizzt by dragging the name of Errtu from his old enemy Druzil. After learning about Crenshinibon, the priest agreed that he would locate a way to destroy it in the event that Drizzt could bring it to him. However, it was later taken from Drizzt by the drow mercenary band, Bregan D'aerthe.

Ironically, two of the major villains, Jarlaxle and Artemis Entreri, took the Crystal Shard to Cadderly, and asked it to be destroyed. At first, Cadderly and Danica just wanted Entreri to hand the Crystal Shard over, but he claimed he is the only one that he knows can ignore the call of Crenshinibon. Together with Pikel, Ivan, Danica, Jarlaxle, and Entreri, the six formed a most unlikely temporary alliance, and bore Crenshinibon to the dragon Hephaestus to be destroyed by its breath. They also needed Jarlaxle because the sentient artifact had to be engulfed completely in a magical darkness, and then burned by the fire of an ancient and powerful Red Dragon. The dragon, of course, was not so easily manipulated, and at the same time, Jarlaxle's former mercenary underlings, Rai-Guy Teyachumet, from Ched Nasad, and Berg'inyon Baenre and Kimmuriel Oblodra, both from Menzoberranzan, also wanted the shard. In the end, Artemis Entreri killed Berg'inyon, and, while Rai-Guy held the shard, he and an Ilithid, Yharaskrik, who had secretly been in league with Kimmuriel to destroy the evil artifact, were engulfed by a globe of darkness, created by Jarlaxle, and so, Rai-Guy and Yharaskrik were brutally burned, and Crenshinibon was destroyed, when Hephaestus blew his mighty fire. Subsequently, Hephaestus was blinded by the release of magical power that occurred when Crenshinibon was destroyed.

Related Characters

 * Danica Maupoissant - Travelling partner, lover, friend, confidant, Wife.
 * Ivan and Pikel Bouldershoulder - Two dwarves who accompany Cadderly on his adventures.
 * Aballister Bonaduce - Cadderly's Father.
 * Headmaster Avery - Cadderly's surrogate father. Killed by Kierkan Rufo.
 * Headmistress Pertelope - Cadderly's surrogate mother. The Chosen prior to Cadderly.  Gave Cadderly the Tome of Universal Harmony.
 * Vander - A Firbolg Cadderly freed from Ghost's possession. Helped Cadderly with his quest to Castle Trinity to stop Aballister.
 * Dorigen Kel Lamond - A female wizard who led the forces against Shilmista Forest later she had a change of heart and helped Cadderly by telling him the password to Aballister's Golems and to Abalisters magical mansion.
 * Kierkan Rufo - A tall angular man, Rufo was once Cadderly's friend, but turns on him repeatedly. Rufo becomes a vampire after imbibing Aballister's concoction and is ultimately destroyed.