a.k.a. Purple Specs Man, Hazzy, Mouth Man, the “King of Neruzavin”
Human, male, in his fifties, long charcoal beard, dark circular glasses tinted purple, wearing a dark flat square hat. The party had a vision of him during the Prologue, staring down at them in fury as if through some sort of rift or portal that resembled warped glass.
After Dora performed psychometry on Grip’s badge in Chapter 6, the characters realized they shared an image of this man, among other things, from the visions they experienced before waking up in Briarstone.
This name appeared with increasing frequency in the journal of Dr. Eliege Losandro, which the party recovered from her office in Chapter 15. He was discovered to be the Count of Versex County, which mean that he was the figure under investigation by the Royal Accusers for either disappearing or abandoning his duties. Also, according to Winter, he was known to have visited Briarstone Asylum many times over the years, and more frequently in the time leading to his recent disappearance.
A “lordly amateur psychologist.” Known to possess a copy of The Chain of Nights, which he offered to Dr. Losandro in exchange for her taking on five new patients, former associates of his that suffered some unprecedented form of amnesia.
In Chapter 34, Lowls was seen in the psychometry vision of Thema and Vatticus’ wedding as a skulking figure in the corner that liked to… watch.
In Chapter 39, the party learned from Cesadia Wrentz that he had been seen heading down to the harbor the day before the earthquake with a large group of people (presumably including Dora, Ray, Grip, and Gull/Rony). His ship left to the north (toward Briarstone Isle), and hadn’t been seen since. He left Melisenn Kororo in charge of the Iris Hill estate in his absence.
In a psychometry vision in Chapter 51, Dora learned that the Count had been involved in some endeavor with “the idol and the lake,” according to Ray, who believed the Count was in over his head.
In the Act II Interlude, Lowls was observed to have died in 4715 (three years before the start of the adventure) at the hands of a wish spell cast by the Mad Poet.
In Chapter 66, while exploring the manor house of Iris Hill, the party discovered a painting of a young Lowls, maybe three years old, dressed up, sitting with an adorable kitten, and he looked to be terrified of the cat.
In Chapter 69, the party found Lowls’ private study, which contained a massive set of journals from his life, a log of his conversations with Ulver Zandalus back at Briarstone Asylum, a special footlocker with 22 specific books, and plans for a river journey through Cassomir and on to a desert location beyond.
In Chapter 74, while reading through Thrushmoor town records, the party learned some more details of Lowls’ past:
- Probably had aristocrat levels.
- He once paid 50 gold to get Brayden Vatticus out of jail, and an additional 200 to make the record of his previous indiscretions disappear (which did not happen).
- Several grievances were filed against him by Charle Dormer for failing to pay for extremely rare books. Lowls eventually ran Dormer out of town with intimidation tactics.
- Lowls had been diverting county funds to purchase rare books from multiple places across the region.
- 20 years before the start of the campaign, he was officially interrogated regarding the death of his mother, Nemira Lowls, at her brother’s request. Lowls claimed that she had died suddenly from the same strange disease that had recently killed his father and had been buried in the family crypt beneath Iris Hill and her remains were not to be disturbed.
In Chapter 79, the party discovered (in the Iris Hill library) piles of many unsold copies of two of Lowls’ “scholarly works:” A History of the History of Versex, and The Stars Are Not Among Us: An Undeniable Refutation of the Works of the Doomsaying Pseudo-scholar Dr. Henri Meirtmane.
In Chapter 83, Dora began researching the count’s journals left behind in Iris Hill. She got the impression that he has a highly troubled mind. Deeply entitled, profoundly petty and vindictive. Obsessed with his own intellectual superiority and consumed with bitter seething rage that no one else acknowledges it. Desperately needs everyone’s approval, while feeling himself superior to everyone else. Extremely repressed. Obsessed with violence but terrified of committing it himself. Obsessed with the effects of pain on people, but terrified of feeling it himself. Obsessed with narcotics but has never taken any himself. Obsessed with sex but likely a virgin. Someone who, because of his money and his upbringing, had the possibility of being exposed to the entire range of human experience, but is so uncomfortable in his own skin that he goes to extreme ends to avoiding touching things or feeling things himself. Likely an Aristocrat, and an Archivist. Obsessed with something called Neruzavin.
In Chapter 86, Dora read more of his journals and uncovered further details of his past.
- Born in 4655, son of Count Lowls III, whom he both hated and barely knew. He also both worshipped and hated his mother. Had a younger brother who killed himself at age twenty.
- His interest in occult lore and forbidden knowledge came from Nemira, who raised him in the light of the star stela beneath Iris Hill.
- At 18, he enrolled in the Sincomakti School. He was one of the worst students there. He was hated for being rich, an asshole, and pretentious. He barely passed his classes. He had one close friend and one hanger-on: Miacknian Mun and Gulliver Vatticus. Provided books for Mun’s research using diverted county funds and his mother’s connections. Became obsessed with Xhamen-dor, and got into dark antics with Mun—kidnapping, experimentation, mind control. Their lair was discovered, and they used Vatticus as their patsy.
- Obsessed with the history of Versex County and believed the standing stones had been placed there by aliens during the Age of Serpents as a staging area to act as ground zero for an incoming infestation. He believed these efforts were partially thwarted by the serpentfolk who lived there at the time, and several other sketchy theories revolving around Earthfall and the Inmost Blot. A laughingstock in all academic circles.
- Fears that someone else will find where Xhamen-dor is sleeping before he does.
- On Nemira’s bidding, Lowls began buying people from Weiralai: Thema, a research assistant, whom he kept drugged in Rozenport and when he moved her back to Thrushmoor. After becoming the count, he needed protection in the form of two teenagers: Riptusk and Viktor, who were also drugged until all three of them were introduced to Hastur and Xhamen-dor. Lowls admired Thema’s embrace of the Inmost Blot but feared her transformation, and resented Mun for seeding her instead of him. Dora believes Lowls seeks revenge on Mun.
In Chapter 89, Dora finished reading his journals and uncovered further details of his activities.
- He’s searching for the city of Neruzavin, and had been focused on using dreams to do so. Spent all of his family’s money, the town’s money, and the county’s money on books about dreams and dreaming.
- He killed the many mercenaries he took into the Dreamlands so they could not share what he learned there.
- He sacrificed the collected memories and experiences of the party, plus Gulliver Vatticus, to the Mad Poet for information on the location of Neruzavin.
In the Act II Epilogue, he was seen sulking and traveling south aboard the Aurora, a sleek, fast ship.
In Chapter 98, Vik — while peering through a keyhole into what seemed to be the only intact room left in the Forsaken Caravanserai — saw a man in his early 40s, dressed magnificently in yellow, brimming with a sense of effervescence, and Vik recognized him as Haserton Pragmus Lowls IV.
In Chapter 99, the party learned that the figure they saw was actually a dreamlands “shard” of Lowls known as the Yellow King, an entity apparently created when the Mad Poet made Lowls look at a particular book.
In Chapter 101, Dabwick successfully targeted Lowls with a scrying spell and observed him, looking the worse for wear, huddled in furs on the deck of a sleek, fast-moving ship on the Glass River (about two weeks ahead of the party), looking sourly at what he’d left behind.
In Chapter 104, the party learned that in their first visit to Celephaïs, Lowls did indeed treat directly with Viscount Pietro Brellin to obtain one of his signet rings.
In Chapter 108, the party learned that in their first visit to the Enchanted Wood, Lowls and Thema aggressively bullied Burukur and the Zoogs into a fight with the Pards, resulting in Mortimer‘s (RIP) death and terrible changes in their ecosystem.
In Chapter 129, Dabwick successfully viewed Lowls with another scrying spell, looking much the same as before.
In Chapter 150 (Part 2), the Mad Poet allowed the party to witness the events of Lowls’ previous visit to the Oasis. They hear the echo of Lowls’ stated desire, and learn of his plan:
The Inmost Blot calls to me. I will awaken it, and I will become its Vessel. I will take It into my body—physically—and with the power of the Star Seed inside of me I will do what Ariadne failed to do all those centuries ago: I will drag ALL of Golarion into Carcosa. And the resulting power will free the King in the Yellow from his prison! I have seen it in my dreams. Xhamen-Dor has shown it to me! Everything that has ever happened, for the past 200 billion years, has happened on the road to MY great achievement! The entire universe will bow to Hastur, and He will owe EVERYTHING to ME! I just have to find NERUZAVIN!
Then Lowls offered his Sacrifice: the collected memories and life experiences of Ray, Riptusk, Rony, Thema, and Vatticus. The Mad Poet paralyzed the five while Lowls dragged them out into the pool at the Oasis and drowned them. As their dream bodies perished, mist poured out of them and sank into the waters.
The Mad Poet then opened the pages of his book before Lowls and the sight of what it contained tore the man into two shards. One was weeping and sobbing uncontrollably on the ground, and the Mad Poet whisked him away (presumably to the Forsaken Caravanserai, where he became the entity the party knew as the Yellow King). The other was left hollow and empty, with profusely bleeding eyes.
The Mad Poet’s book was revealed to be a copy of the dread Necronomicon, and Alhazred told Lowls that the copy of the tome that could be found on Golarion contained the location of Neruzavin, along with other “useful” rituals. Lowls revealed that Mun knew where the book could be found.
In Chapter 151, Chester shared with Dabwick an overview of all that had happened since the party had last enacted the Dreamlands Excursion ritual. This is what they knew of Lowls’ activities in recent months:
Lowls’ ship, the Aurora, had docked in Cassomir several days before a big storm covered the region on 29 Abadius, 4719. Lowls was observed going ashore alone, with no servants or luggage. By the time the storm hit, Lowls had already set sail again, apparently with Mun, and bound for Absalom (according to Stazi‘s investigations).
Meanwhile, no one else was observed leaving the Aurora for over a day. But finally some of the crew were spotted slipping down the docks late at night, as whoever had been left aboard the Aurora took the ship out. The ship then sat anchored out among the Dog's Teeth, for a few days. But after the storm, the ship was not to be seen.
Stazi, Stanhope, and a mysterious elf went out to investigate, and found the ship scuttled. All Stazi would say about it was, “They’re all dead. And no one must ever go down there.”
In Chapter 153, the party learned from Glenborn Havermast that Lowls never paid for his docking fees, and they were taken care of by Mun the day after the Aurora arrived.
Havermast also said that there had been some irregularities involved in the logging of the final destination of the Jeroboam (the ship aboard which Lowls and Mun had departed), and that the Harbormaster, Julius Caine, would know more about that.
In Chapter 155, the party learned that Lowls deliberately Seeded Etham Baler in the Sceptered House on the night he arrived in Cassomir in Abadius 4719.
In Chapter 158, the party learned that Lowls deliberately Seeded Archimedes at his shop before leaving town with Mun. Lowls was hunting for something to help him with “a problem that requires an unconventional solution.” Archimedes saw that Lowls’ eye sockets in the Real World were now empty sockets oozing blood, just as they had been left by the Mad Poet in the Dreaming.
In the confusion that followed, Lowls stole an arcane or technological relic of some sort.
In Chapter 159, the party learned (via a psychometry vision) that Lowls deliberately Seeded the Aurora‘s entire crew upon their arrival in Cassomir.
In Chapter 166, the party learned that Mun believed the Necronomicon was being held in a location known as the Mysterium and that that was where Lowls and Mun traveled to after leaving Cassomir.
In Chapter 173, Sister Thyrr informed the party that Lowls and Mun entered the Mysterium on 23 Pharast, 4719, pursued by Elder Lythiin and a dozen Stewards, along with Stazi, Stanhope, Tharivol, and Nheb, and as of the 28th, had not re-emerged.
In Chapter 174, Pandora was able to learn more from Sister Thyrr about the timeline of events leading up to the triggering of the wards in the Mysterium:
- On 19 Pharast, Miacknian Mun met privately with Elder Lythiin and paid him a large sum of money for “unfettered access” to the Soul. Elder Lythiin kept the details of this transaction from the rest of the Stewards, but Sister Thyrr later learned that the Stewards were almost entirely out of money and Lythiin accepted the funds in order to continue their operations.
- On 20 Pharast, Mun entered the Mysterium with Count Lowls and their group of mercenaries. They remained inside the Soul all day and overnight.
- On 21 Pharast, Mun and the mercenaries emerged from the Soul near the end of the day and left the Mysterium. Lowls again remained inside the Soul overnight.
- On 22 Pharast, Lythiin had a change of heart or conscience and confronted Mun in a private conversation only partially overheard by Brother Ebrahim. The Elder put his foot down and told Mun that he and his companions must depart the Mysterium for good at the end of the day. Mun returned to the Soul, emerged with Lowls, and they both left.
- On 23 Pharast, Lowls appeared alone and met with Elder Lythiin. Something unknown passed between them and afterwards Lowls returned to the Soul. Soon, Mun came racing up looking for Lowls, learned that the count had gone back inside the Mysterium, and went in after him. Very shortly thereafter, Stazi, Tharivol, Stanhope, and Nheb arrived and found a Seeded Elder Lythiin gathering his forces to go after the scholar and the chemist.
Count Lowls’ Seeding of Archimedes and his theft of the Necronomicon from the Mysterium was witnessed in Pandora's psychometry reading of the Ring Gate during Chapter 183.
First Reference: Act I Prologue
Other Notable References: Chapter 6, Chapter 10, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 34, Chapter 39, Chapter 51, Act II Interlude, Chapter 66, Chapter 69, Chapter 74, Chapter 79, Chapter 83, Chapter 86, Chapter 89, Act II Epilogue, Chapter 98, Chapter 99, Chapter 100, Chapter 101, Chapter 104, Chapter 108, Chapter 129, Act III Interlude 2, Chapter 150 (Part 2), Chapter 150 (Part 3), Chapter 151, Chapter 153, Chapter 155, Chapter 158, Chapter 159, Chapter 166, Chapter 173, Chapter 174, Chapter 183