Bigby
Bigby is the leader of the Cirque deLirium. He has made several claims of spell inventions, such as Arcane Hand, though none of his claims have ever been verified.
Early Life
Shortly before the events of Sleeping Giants, Bigby was the leader of the Cirque deLirium and father-figure to the famous Stratton Traushaft Pipsquanchy. However, he had gone missing and was presumed dead. Before his disappearance, he fancied himself a powerful wizard and researcher of several famous spells. Why such a "powerful wizard" would end up leading a circus was a long-standing mystery.
Recent Events
Sleeping Giants
During Horatio's conversation with Maximilian Steingard, it was revealed that Bigby was not dead but was actually imprisoned somewhere in Vesper. Max referred to him as a legitimate wizard numerous times.[1]
Later, Stratton had a dream in which Bigby was being tortured by a woman dressed in red. She burned him badly until he finally gave in, and she demanded to know how Misha was "siphoning abjuration".
A day or two later, the entire team broke in to Fort Eaveton covertly and freed Bigby from his prison. Though he was once a jolly, portly man, he appeared much older and more haggard in prison. He had also gone completely blind. He was ecstatic to learn that his adopted son, Stratton, was part of the group that had freed him. He immediately feared for their safety, though.[2]
After the party discovered the massive blue dragon skeleton underneath Sulta Ixen, Jordan Steingard decided to heal Bigby of his blindness. The effect was massively enhanced by the magical energy given off by the dragon bones, resulting in Bigby's blindness not only being cured, but also granting him the ability to see magical auras by default.
It was then that Bigby realized that the group had stumbled upon The Controller, the primary source of all magic in the world. In order to convince the party (namely Jordan) to not destroy the Controller, Bigby spilled the beans on exactly what was going on in the world:[3]
- Bigby was an honorary member of a group called The Mages, which was a small team of people dedicated to stopping The Call. The Call was an extraplanar signal with a single intention: to awaken the Tarrasque, located directly underneath Stir Peak. The Tarrasque was a massive creature that spelled the doom of all of mankind. The process of stopping The Call was quite involved, but it essentially amounted to catching it in an antimagic field, and then making that field permanent by funneling abjuration magic into it. This was the reason abjuration magic had been disappearing over the past several hundred years, because at this point numberous Calls had been stopped.
- Destroying the Controller would have a definite effect on the Arcane Bridges, and could potentially destroy the Bridges altogether. If that happened, then the currently-frozen Calls would likely continue where they left off and immediately awaken the Tarrasque. It wasn't guaranteed; nobody was 100% sure what would happen if the Controller was destroyed. But it was a big enough risk that the Controller probably shouldn't be destroyed.
After Stratton was revived and teleported to Oakhurst, he met up with Misha and a much healthier-looking Bigby. Together, the three of them traveled via space boat to the nearby Cirque deLirium show, which they crashed spectacularly. They then proceeded to capture and imprison Benedicht the Half Elf, for all of the crimes he had committed against the Cirque.[4]
