Born in Silverymoon to a large, minor noble family but hasn’t really kept up with them. She’s always seemed to blend into the background compared to her more “successful” siblings and cousins. Her family’s size and wealth allows her the luxury of following her interests without the pressure of expectations.

She’s a lifelong researcher, no interest in the outside world, and wants to stay cozy and safe in her little corner office in Candlekeep that she’s worked so hard for. It’s quiet, it’s a known quantity, it’s everything she thinks she wants. She likes magic because it’s a puzzle that can be solved. Unlike people, who she sees as puzzles with pieces missing, thus impossible to solve.

Has the wizarding equivalent of 3 PhDs in magical studies.

• “Liminal Auras: A Comparative Study of Residual Enchantments in Transitional Spaces”
  Zosia’s first great work, completed during her youth at the Lady’s College in Silverymoon. It investigates how magical energy lingers in thresholds: doorways, portals, cave mouths, even the spaces between planes. Deeply respected. Read by absolutely no one outside her department.
• “The Semiotics of Sigils: A Linguistic Approach to Pre-Netherese Glyph Structures”
  A thesis so dense with etymological cross-references that her advisor at one point went on sabbatical mid-review. It proposes that magical runes evolve like languages, carrying meaning even after their magical power has faded. Controversial in academic circles because it implies magic has grammar.
• “Transpositional Thaumaturgy: On the Predictable Errors of Planar Reorientation Spells”
  This one made her briefly famous among planar theorists. It’s a detailed catalog of the subtle ways teleportation magic misplaces travelers by fractions of inches or degrees. Absolutely useless to adventurers, but vital to scholars arguing about the limits of dimensional stability.

Other achievements:

• Recipient of the Sapphire Quill Prize for contributions to magical epistemology.
• Guest lecturer at the Conclave of Sub-Structural Mysteries (Year 1427 DR)
  Did the whole lecture remotely with an intricate series of illusion rituals and sending stone arrays from a side room because she had a panic attack at the thought of presenting in person.
• Contributor to the Journal of Arcane Irreproducibility (a niche Candlekeep publication dedicated to magic experiments that failed beautifully).

The one person Zosia enjoys the company of is her mentor Professor Madeline Humblepot who doesn’t seem to care that she’s not good with people. Her mentor sees beyond the skittish bookworm and has cultivated a researcher of notable skill.

Then her mentor suddenly leaves for an urgent meeting. They say it’ll only be for a few days, but it’s been weeks. And then Zosia gets a note from them saying “Meet me in Elturel, will explain in person.” No further information.

Fuck. Okay. Shit. She can do this. If she catches a ship to Baldur’s Gate and then a small boat down the river to Elturel, it’ll be about a week. She packs up and leaves immediately. But now she’s in Elturel, without any idea of where to look and what to do.

And from there, we can work out how she folds into the party. But thinking about why someone would jump into hell, I think for the sake of saving someone else is the strongest motivation of all. Maybe her Mentor found out the truth about what’s going on and was trying to stop it? Maybe they’re in on it? But they disappear with the city and our little wizard needs to get the person they respect the most back.

And along the way, she’s clearly going to learn about herself.

Bonds

	Owlminster Familiar and best buddy. Named after Zosia’s academic hero. A sassy lil’ so-and-so that likes to be consulted about things. Wears a little wizard hat and glasses. Is credited in Zosia’s papers as a “Consultant.” Is very put out by this whole “adventure” nonsense. Reflects the part of her that secretly wishes she could be haughty and confident around others as a wizard is usually entitled to be.
https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D55313682/	Professor Madeline Humblepot Mentor and closest thing Zosia has as a friend that isn’t a book or an owl. A perpetually pipe-smoking Gnomish Wizard of great renown and respect. One of the brightest scholars of her generation, she was forced out of her life as an adventurer when she lost her leg to a mysterious Netherese spell trap that can’t be reversed. She’s charismatic, mischievous and eternally curious which serves her well when ferreting out magic secrets. Is obsessed with the colour pink. Has an Ioun Stone that perpetually circles her head. Always accompanied by her flying snake familiar, Josie.
	The Argentgalad Family Minor Silverymoon nobility. Their motto Nidhin Mened is old Elvish for “I intend to go”  which sums up the attitude an Argentgalad is expected to hold. Their history is littered with tales of ancestors taking great leaps of faith into battle, business or in some scandalous tales, beds. As the middle child, Zosia was often overlooked by her parents because of her timid nature and habit of disappearing into their estate’s fairly impressive library. They have infrequent contact and it’s usually lukewarm pleasantries exchanged via mail. She stopped going to family gatherings after missing a cousin’s wedding due to illness and realising afterwards that nobody noticed. In truth her parents are very proud of their little bookworm, but have little understanding of the academic world. They keep hoping some nice person (preferably another noble) sweeps her off her feet so that she can give them more grandchildren.
	Candlekeep Her position is officially “Research Fellow” which implies that she will one day take on a more Head Scholarly role in the future, but she is perfectly happy for other people to be the “face” of any research she does. Currently, someone will pay to ask a Scholar a question and it will fall to Zosia and the other researchers to find the answers in Candlekeep’s overwhelming library of information and collate them for the Scholar to present to the client, a task she delights in above all else. Will do any other administrative task rather than interacting with the public. Has taken annual leave to find Professor Humblepot. She almost never takes time off so she has many, many months saved up.