Cerrit Agrupnin

Cerrit Agrupnin is an eisfuura rogue, a member of the Ring of Brass, and the senior Sightwarden of the Eyes of Avalir. He is played by Travis Willingham.

In Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, he is investigating the disappearance of Vespin Chloras and grows increasingly concerned with the number of strange events coinciding in Avalir on the eve of the Replenishment. He ultimately kills Vespin, allowing Laerryn Coramar-Seelie to banish two primordials from Exandria and overturn a prophecy foretelling complete annihilation in forthcoming Calamity. The banishment destroys Avalir, but Cerrit escapes and reunites with his wife and children in Gwessar.

Appearance
Cerrit is a 6'6" eisfuura with broad shoulders, and typically wears a hooded cloak over his wings, with the hood pulled up. His feathers are white, going to brown tips at the back and the crown of his head, and his beak is dark. His eyes are blue-gray. He wears a badge, wraps around his hands and feet, and has handaxes holstered beneath each arm. He tends to fan his crest feathers and his eyes widely dilate when he is concentrating or focusing on a task.

Personality
Cerrit is highly insightful and deliberate, and he often spends his time carefully watching the people and room around him. He is also characterized as a private individual and habitually disliked having his arrival openly announced at parties, to the point that he threatened and paid a herald at Palazzo Por'co to not announce his name.

Travis Willingham described Cerrit as having strong senses of morality and of duty and responsibility to Avalir, particularly highlighting Cerrit's commitment to being a check against the allure of arcane power. He felt that Lawful Good felt like what Cerrit is intended to be, "a bastion of moral principle, upstanding code in a city that's just amuck with ambition and power". He said that Cerrit has a tendency to lose himself in his work to the point that it strains his personal relationship and home life.

Sam Riegel, who plays Loquatius Seelie, believed that Cerrit is the party's second moral center, after Zerxus Ilerez. Marisha Ray, who plays Patia Por'co, described him as "very classic, very debonair in his own gruff way" that reminded her of Old Hollywood and pulp classics. Marisha later described him as "a little bit more grounded" than the other player characters.

Background
Cerrit was raised in a family devoted to Avalir, he is married to Wrayne, a scientist. They have two children Maya and Kir; their ages have been given as both 7 and 5, respectively, though Maya is later stated to be 14. Throughout his children's lives, Cerrit has been obsessively preoccupied with his work in the Eyes of Avalir to the point that he missed significant portions of them growing up and was an absent father and husband (see "Relationships" below for further detail). He described his home life as "very busy", and Travis described it as strained by his dedication to his work. His home, located in the neighborhood of Cloudstone, included an office that he often worked from.

Cerrit is the Senior Sightwarden of the Eyes of Avalir, and in the course of his service to the city, Cerrit does "what he can to be a check against the allure of power that so frequently pulls even the most well-intended practitioners of the arcane". and Sightwarden training focuses on hunting and killing mages. He garnered a reputation by "seeing the details that others may miss when foul play is afoot". Before Cerrit became Senior Sightwarden, he and Orwyn worked as partners and remained good friends since.

He additionally holds the title of Guardian of the Seventh, apparently related to the Seventh Throne of the Magisterium. The Eyes of Avalir work for the Magisterium, and the title is similar to Speaker of the Seventh, who represents the Seventh Throne.

Shortly before the events of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, his relationship with Wrayne became so strained under his obsessive dedication to his work that she separated from him and went to Gwessar. Cerrit barely acknowledged this and continued working as he did.

Cerrit investigated an incident pertaining to the disappearance of Vespin Chloras that his colleague Orwyn brought to him, having been alerted by the authorities in Vasselheim. He and his colleagues believed it to likely be an attempt to recreate the Ritual of Seeding performed by the Raven Queen. In his investigation, Cerrit found a rusted, disenchanted bow, and took it for further review.

At the party at the Palazzo Por'co, Cerrit was suspicious of Loquatius's date, Bolo, and confronted Loquatius. He also brought the bow for the rest of the party to investigate, and which Zerxus determined was extremely suffused with divine power. Cerrit meanwhile realized, after Zerxus shared his dream, that Zerxus's dreams had been an ongoing and serious concern.

Following the strange behavior of one of Nydas's hodmedods, Cerrit went to investigate. He noticed the pinprick eyes of an invisible creature and killed it, only to then be taunted by Vespin Chloras's face in a mirror, which then cracked.

Cerrit continued to investigate the room and was interrupted by a call from his son, Kir, reporting that his sister, Maya, had been getting up to trouble at home. Cerrit told his son he'd be home soon, and that he loved him. He then went to get Patia, Zerxus, and Loquatius to help him look into the incident. Patia was able to determine the invisible creature had arrived dressed as a hodmedod brought by Lacrytia Hollow, and Zerxus was able to determine that they were the k'nauth of a Betrayer God.

Cerrit then went with Loquatius to the Herald's Tome to look into records of Vespin Chloras. While there, he discovered that Vespin was aware of the Tree of Names and its possible connection to the Raven Queen's ascension, and himself made the connection between the tree and the Arboreal Calix Laerryn had mentioned earlier. He also noticed that Evandrin's files at the Herald's Tome were missing. He asked Loquatius for more information; Loquatius told him the reporter had been let go but evaded further questions.

Cerrit noticed, when the party was stopped by Lacrytia in Dawnsledge, that Milus Phren did not seem to be who he said he was. He flew up into the air, initiating combat. During the combat, two mages used Detect Thoughts on Cerrit to learn what he knew about the Vespin case, and escaped. Cerrit took out another mage during the fight.

After it ended, he told Patia, Zerxus, and Nydas about his findings on the Tree of Names, asked Zerxus why he'd been speaking Infernal, and realized Zerxus was not lying. He also learned that Nydas was concerned about the prophecy he'd heard.

He then joined the entire Ring of Brass in the Meridian Labyrinth as they discussed next steps and reviewed the memories Nydas had taken from one of the mages in the fight. Cerrit realized that despite the altered memory of the mage, Vespin and Lacrytia's plans relied on the city making landfall. When he realized that Laerryn was not telling the truth because acting on this would damage her chances of activating the Astral Leywright successfully, he told the group they were being "incredibly selfish" and left after pointing out the druidic scroll among Laerryn's belongings.

At the Hall of Eyes, Cerrit saw the papers on his desk had been stolen. He called Kir and told him to get Maya and come home, and then stopped by Orwyn's office. He found Orwyn dead, but within his hands were two Runes of Recall for the children.

Cerrit arrived home and found Maya and Kir there, both of them unaware of the current attacks on the city and worried that he was angry with them. He reassured them that he wasn't upset, and told them that they would be going to stay with their mother. His ring glowed when he told them everything was fine, which they noticed, and he explained it indicated they were in danger. As he told them that he loved them and to stay with their mother until he found them, he closed their hands on the Runes of Recall and squeezed them to activate the spell.

After his children had left, Cerrit considered his life and how much time he had spent on his work, and set his house on fire, walking through it and looking at his children's rooms one last time. He then received Laerryn's telepathic message about the Tree of Names, and left for the Meridian Labyrinth, arriving there as the rest of the party was being revived. Following the new prophecy provided to them by Karwen at the Hall of Prophecy, in which she foretold the Betrayer Gods winning the forthcoming Calamity should the primordials under Mount Ygora be released, Cerrit went with Zerxus to Cathmoíra, partially out of suspicion. Unseen by Zerxus, he remained outside with Tempus as Zerxus spoke to Elias.

He then returned with Zerxus and reconvened with the rest of the party at the Astral Leywright to protect Laerryn as she modified it to transport the primordials to another plane and avert complete annihilation. He successfully attacked Vespin Chloras several times in the fight, killing him before he could cast Power Word Kill on Laerryn as she worked.

After the Leywright was activated, Cerrit's family called him on his sending stone. Kir and Maya confirmed they were safe, and Wrayne told him they were in Gwessar. When he apologized for not being around enough, Wrayne told him not to worry and to just make it to them. Laerryn then pointed out a route Cerrit could use to get out, and he successfully escaped Avalir's destruction. After weeks of flying across the world, he reunited with his family.

Wrayne, Maya, and Kir
Cerrit's relationship with his family is strained by his obsessive dedication to his work as a Sightwarden. He missed a significant amount of his children's lives growing up, and his children often stood outside of his home office trying to hear what he was working on while they were small. At the beginning of Calamity, Cerrit is separated from his wife Wrayne because his dedication to his work took too much of his attention away from her and their children, driving her to leave Avalir for Gwessar. Travis imagined Wrayne felt: "I need more [from you]. I need more purpose. I'm going to go find that elsewhere, and until there's something for me here, I won't be here." Cerrit barely acknowledged this and continued working as he did. He eventually realized himself to be an absent father and husband; he regrets this and is apologetic to his wife and furious at himself.

Despite his absence in their lives, Cerrit is loved by his children, and he tells their mother Wrayne that "those children are the best thing we ever did". Kir admires his father and tries to imitate his as a detective: he insists on code names while communicating over sending stone, "investigates" his sister's activities, and has a pair of toy handaxes. He goes along with Kir's insistence on code names, even in sending stone conversations he initiates, and is patient with his rambling excitability, even in dire and urgent circumstances.

Despite their relationship "not doing great" by the beginning of Calamity, in a conversation over sending stone in, Wrayne fondly calls him "darling" and still cares for him. When he expresses sincere regret and apology for his absence in their home, she urged him not to feel regret for not having been more present because "moments seem like they're going to last forever all the time". Pointing out his nature to search for problems means he will focus on his absences, she told him that she and their children loved him and that he was a great father and a great man. She began to express apparent confusion over his inability to understand ("...and I don't know why—") before she was cut off. Before their conversation ended, Cerrit promised to make up for his absence at home and insisted to Wrayne that he could not be stopped from returning to her and their children.

Though Sam felt that Cerrit was "so sweet" with his children during Calamity and he and Aabria Iyengar protested Lou Wilson's observation that Cerrit was a bad father, Travis felt that Cerrit was good with Maya and Kir only "in the end" and that it was simply a good day he was having as a father with "the years prior being severely less". Ultimately, Travis said about Cerrit's relationship with his family, "I think in that last day, it wasn't about who he'd been. It was like: who can you be if you get one last chance?"

Orwyn
He was also close friends with Orwyn, who had once been his partner within the Eyes of Avalir and provided him with the means to save his children should Avalir fall. Cerrit expresses regret at not having been present when Orwyn was attacked and killed.

Notable items

 * Two magical tomahawks (handaxes), at least one of which is +2, usually carried hidden under his arms
 * Badge, slightly hidden
 * Ring of Honor, grants advantage on Insight checks to detect lies and glows and pulses when someone makes a false statement. It has an unknown DC below 30 and does not pulse at Deception checks greater than that. This ring also bears the symbol of the Eyes of Avalir. Left in his home.
 * Sending stone, other stone with his son, Kir
 * Cloak of Psychic Resistance, reskin of Armor of Psychic Resistance
 * Hand crossbow
 * Two Runes of Recall, left for his children by Orwyn and set to target his wife Wrayne in Gwessar. Both expended.

Eisfuura abilities
As an eisfuura, Cerrit uses the aarakocra racial stats in the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount.
 * Flight
 * Talons

Feats

 * Observant
 * Mage Slayer
 * Alert

Rogue abilities

 * Expertise
 * Sneak Attack (7d6)
 * Thieves' Cant
 * Cunning Action
 * Roguish Archetype: Inquisitive
 * Ear for Deceit
 * Eye for Detail
 * Insightful Fighting
 * Steady Eye
 * Unerring Eye
 * Uncanny Dodge
 * Evasion
 * Reliable Talent
 * Blindsense

Behind the scenes
During development for Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, Travis felt that the detailed foundation that Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan created needed an investigator to pull the pieces together and connect the dots others missed. When Vespin Chloras was mentioned as recently attempting his ritual, Travis asked, "Does anybody care?" to which Brennan replied, "You could find out." From that, Travis created Cerrit off the idea of John Cusack's character in Con Air being someone that the others did not take seriously, even though he figured out what was happening before the rest.

His class as a rogue was chosen because Travis felt he needed to represent a melee-based character in a party of spellcasters, and his race as an eisfuura came out of Travis thinking they were cool and their bonus to Dexterity complemented rogue well. His "gumshoe" manner of speaking was initially a joke Travis made, but the other players (particularly Aabria Iyengar, who played Laerryn) "bullied" him into committing to it.

Cerrit's appearance is based on the Philippine eagle.

Appearances and mentions

 * Exandria Unlimited: Calamity

Quotations

 * "There have been some incredibly selfish actions amongst this group. I don't know if we'll survive the night, but I'm going to go take care of mine."
 * (to Laerryn) "The Brass Ring endures. I want you to know you gave us a chance."

Trivia

 * Just as Cerrit is very tall at 6'6", the Philippine eagle has the greatest length of any living eagle and is in contention for largest living eagle.
 * Though the initial idea for Cerrit is from Con Air (1997), Marisha Ray said Cerrit reminded her of Old Hollywood and pulp fiction.
 * Among the most notable Old Hollywood film noir detectives is Sam Spade of The Maltese Falcon (1941), played by Humphrey Bogart. It can be said that Cerrit is a very literal version of The Maltese Falcon.
 * Cerrit referring to the Palazzo Por'co as a "gin joint" is reminiscent of a famous quote from Rick Blaine (also played by Bogart) in Casablanca (1941): "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."
 * Brennan Lee Mulligan said that if Cerrit was a cheese he would be sharp cheddar.
 * During her Instagram takeover before the premiere of Calamity, Marisha created a makeup look inspired by Cerrit. It was chosen by fan vote between Cerrit, Loquatius, Laerryn, and Nydas.
 * Cerrit's first and last rolls are both Investigation checks of 31, the first to investigate Vespin's ritual and the last to escape the Meridian Labyrinth to return to his family. His final roll is also the final roll of the campaign. Brennan cited this as one of multiple things in the campaign that
 * Cerrit speaks the final line of character dialogue in the campaign, in which he tells Laerryn over Telepathic Bond that he successfully escaped and that she secured the world a chance at survival. Laerryn does not verbally respond, insteading simply feeling relief into the bond.
 * It is unknown where in Gwessar Cerrit and his family lived during the Calamity, but Aabria Iyengar said that she hoped they were in the Qoniira Tetrarchy, a civilization in southern Gwessar that she created for the first Exandria Unlimited series and was added to Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn. The Qoniira are neutral and non-judgmental about sources of magic and respectful of all magics, and the civilization's capital Niirdal-Poc survived the Calamity. Furthermore, Niirdal-Poc also has a population of birdfolk, possibly eisfuura, living in it as late as 842 PD, some of whom may be descendants of the Agrupnin family.