Lady Docur School for Girls


Hell's Rebels


I have a PC who's a 15-year-old daughter of the Jhaltero family who's attending the Lady Docur School for Girls. There's not much on this institution. What have you done with it?
What would you recommend doing with it? Did anyone do anything with the Lacunafex?

If it helps, the PC is playing a Magical Child archetype of the Vigilante class. So, feel free to talk about ridiculously powerful student councils...

Dark Archive

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I had a few ideas for a La Femme Nakita / Black Widow situation (at least at it's surface) with a group of girls noble or not who entered the school under the pretense of learning manners and etiquette and then just got reconditioned to be information gatherers, assassins, and spies. Unfortunately the player was not interested enough in the backstory of her character to make it happen.

Silver Crusade

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I have a player who has a character who is a professor at the school, so I've at least named some of the teachers. Percilel Kraine is a (gay male) elf who teaches linguistics and etiquette (and spy techniques!). Agathion Hughes is a dour older human woman who teaches alchemy and sciences (and poison making!). Ellison Farthing is an energetic halfling who teaches physical grace (and combat skills!). There's also a gnome I never named who teaches history. Lady Docur generally handles advanced seminar topics.

Shadow Lodge

roguerouge wrote:
Did anyone do anything with the Lacunafex?

What do you make of the name? It's bad Latin, but it's obviously intended to mean "gap-maker."


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I made it an actual finishing school for girls.

More seriously, the Lacunafex bugged me, both in concept and in usage (or lack thereof) in the plot, and I wound up removing the organisation from my game. Instead the school doubles as a finishing school for noble girls, and an orphanage & school for elven and half-elven girls, who are trained as servants and staff for the nobility.

What Lady Mialari Docur is, is an old elven woman with a lot of connections, as her "alumni" are found among every major and minor power in Ravounel.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Situation is a little different than yours, but here's what I've done with the school and the Lacunafex in the game I'm running (just started, currently about halfway through book 1).

One of the PCs is a member of the Sarini family who was cast out after she was seen attending the protest. She's not that bright and has no practical life skills due to her upbringing. She decided to hire a maid (by pawning some of her jewelry) and the player went to go ask some of the NPCs how to hire one.

Whereupon I rubbed my GM hands together in glee and promptly directed her to Lady Docur's school. Now she has a maid, who's actually a member of the Lacunafex and is keeping an eye on the Silver Ravens (the party just brought her in on the secret recently, though she had an inkling something was up before then). Lady Mialari is interested in keeping an eye on the Silver Ravens, a) to make sure they aren't competition, and b) being no real fan of Barzillai Thrune herself. So the maid's been passing information to her on their activities, which will tie into Lady Mialari's appearance in book 3 when she decides to start helping directly.

I'm planning a reveal during the masquerade ball where the PC's maid jumps out to protect her and drops her cover briefly. I'm sure it will result in some interesting conversations after that...


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We only get five named Silver Ravens: Jackdaw, Brakisi, Ba, Kyda, and Amyreid Juliac. I made them demagogue, partisan, recruiter, sentinel, and strategist, respectively. Hence, I'm using the zimmerwald rewriting of the 5 steps, which makes Amyreid the perfect theorist for the revolution. Brakisi's kidnapping and murder undermined the revolution fatally when it was on its last legs: an unwise fighter. Ba was an enchanter, which means the CHA for recruiting is there. Jackdaw was the leader or at least the figurehead. Kyda I have recast as a commoner who was the heart of the revolution.

As far as the current day denizens of Kintargo, I've left the spymaster as a mystery: no one knows who filled that role.

Maybe that's Lady Docur, the elf whose long lifespan makes her continuing in Kintargo possible. Hence, the elf who's got a Secret Order of the Archivists' spy ring. The inaction during this revolution could be explained simply as war fatigue: Docur can't go through that amount of trauma and disappointment again.

Gap-maker, with a connotation of books, is a pretty chilling allusion given their association with the Sacred Order of Archivists. She's also sitting on the sidelines of the current spat and never really acts to aid the present day Silver Ravens (due to lack of word count for it, but hey, we can still use that...) So, maybe, she either was a turncoat for House Thrune, or became one when it looked like Thrune would eventually win the civil war. Maybe she's the head of the ridiculously powerful student council of magical girl tropes?

Shadow Lodge

roguerouge wrote:

As far as the current day denizens of Kintargo, I've left the spymaster as a mystery: no one knows who filled that role.

Maybe that's Lady Docur, the elf whose long lifespan makes her continuing in Kintargo possible. Hence, the elf who's got a Secret Order of the Archivists' spy ring. The inaction during this revolution could be explained simply as war fatigue: Docur can't go through that amount of trauma and disappointment again.

Gap-maker, with a connotation of books, is a pretty chilling allusion given their association with the Sacred Order of Archivists. She's also sitting on the sidelines of the current spat and never really acts to aid the present day Silver Ravens (due to lack of word count for it, but hey, we can still use that...) So, maybe, she either was a turncoat for House Thrune, or became one when it looked like Thrune would eventually win the civil war.

I think I might steal that, since it seems to actually line up with the character as presented. Consider (see generally Crystal Frasier et al., Pathfinder Adventure Path #98: In Hell's Bright Shadow, 69 (2015)):

Lady Docur's School for Girls was founded "three centuries ago," and so would have been around long before the Chelish Civil War began in 4610;
The Lacunafex developed into its current form "over the decades," strongly suggesting it is a much more recent creation than the school itself;
Mialari's behavior is described as "watch[ing] and wait[ing] to see how Barzillai Thrune’s occupation of Kintargo plays out . . . hop[ing] to align herself with the winning side once such a side becomes clear."


Raynulf wrote:

I made it an actual finishing school for girls.

More seriously, the Lacunafex bugged me, both in concept and in usage (or lack thereof) in the plot, and I wound up removing the organisation from my game. Instead the school doubles as a finishing school for noble girls, and an orphanage & school for elven and half-elven girls, who are trained as servants and staff for the nobility.

What Lady Mialari Docur is, is an old elven woman with a lot of connections, as her "alumni" are found among every major and minor power in Ravounel.

Pretty much the same here, I felt that she doesn't add anything to the storyline, and just kind of magically appears when the council is put together.

I sort of got the feeling that there might have been more to her arc originally, but it may have been put to one side due to space constraints.

Shadow Lodge

PJH wrote:
I sort of got the feeling that there might have been more to her arc originally, but it may have been put to one side due to space constraints.

No need to resort to feelings. James Jacobs said as much in the A Song of Silver GM thread.


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Update on using the Lacunafex. We'll see how it goes...

Spoiler:
One of the clues to the Hocum's Fantasmagorium was a letter to the PC that's a student at the Docur School for Girls in calligraphy, signed Lacunafex. The mission? Return with a curiosity from the freak show museum, implied as a test for becoming a member.

Knowledge Local and Knowledge Nobility came up with different answers for the Lacunafex. Nobility came up with a secret society like the Skull and Bones, for the rich to become powerful, while Local came up with something more like the Illuminati, a society of secret influencers of all ranks who then become rich through the exercise of power. I thought the different skews based on class made for a neat twist.


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I will use Mailari quite much - both as a source of future conflict, for exposition, and as a unifying force.

Spoiler central:

I had her present the existence of the Kintargo Contract, as per Raynulf's excellent suggestion that it could be wise to expose this tidbit before book five. While the PCs don't know where to find the contract, they now know it exists, and that it could possibly be a way out of being crushed by the Thrune armies after the “Glorious Reclamation nuisance” has been dealt with. The rebels have started to try to garner support from the bourgeoisie and nobility, but had problems explaining what they’re going to do after Barzillai's defeat. This will help.

I also used her for some upcoming conflict. Here's my version of her background and motivation:

I kept her more or less as in the book, with the Lacunafex as an information network used for "mild pressure" (i.e. blackmail) and gathering and selling secrets. She's got something on everyone and no one wants to confront her - lest their dirty laundry becomes public, or ends up in the hands of an enemy.

I had Marquel take a much more active role. I also changed Hetamon from a tailor to a foreman in a Redroof abattoir, called Red House (basing him on Benjamin Flex from China Miéville's Perdido Street Station). His Milani congregation has its HQ and church in a secret room beneath the Red House. There's a magical book pressing machine down there, which Hetamon has been using for printing seditious pamphlets (with Marquel providing the actual sedition). Marquel introduces Hetamon to the PCs, and Hetamon introduces Mailari to them.

Mailari Mindorin is actually the elder sister of Jackdaw, and came with her to Kintargo a little more than a century ago. Jackdaw, the wild and adventurous one of the sibling pair, had left Kyonin with her infant half-elven daughter Amyreid after refusing to accept that she had to stay in the city of Erages. Mailari, ever the responsible one (both their parents being dead), followed. Mailari bought the old Doceur finishing school, mainly as a way to integrate Amyreid into human society and to give her a good and safe life.

While Jackdaw was out adventuring and “frolicking about”, the elder sister raised Amyreid along with other half-elven and human bourgeoisie girls. In time she came to love Amyreid as her own. Amyreid was happily married into the now extinct noble family Juliac, and all was well - until Jackdaw recruited her daughter (who thought herself to be an orphan) into her adventuring company; the Silver Ravens. Under Mailari's loud, but ignored, protests.

Mailari began to resent her younger sister, saw her as ungrateful for all Mailari had sacrificed for her, and putting Amyreid in mortal danger was the last straw. At the end of the Chelish civil war, when only Kintrago was left, the sisters had a vicious falling out. Mailari begged Jackdaw to expel Amyreid from the Ravens, and when the rebel leader refused, Mailari bitterly accused her sister of being a selfish fool, using and sacrificing the ones who loved her for her own egoistical ends. Jackdaw, ever the idealist, accused Mailari of being complacent in the face of great injustice and tyranny. Mailari sneered and said that Jackdaw and her motley crew had no chance against the power of Hell. Triumphantly Jackdaw produced a long, black scroll - the Kintargo Contract. “This, my ever-doubting sister, will free this wonderful city! It’s a contract between Abrogail and Hell that I will use to rid us all of the filthy claws of Thrune forever. Me and Amyreid will present it to the Thrune envoy this week, and victory will be ours!”

Mailari was in truth doubtful. The Silver Ravens were at this time divided and weak, and if she knew that, Thrune surely did as well. In her desperation Mailari did something she have spent her nights bitterly regretting ever since - she led her sister into a trap and handed her over to Ougorthan - the pit fiend leader of the rebellion eradication task force - in exchange for the assurance that Amyreid would be pardoned for her activities up to this point. A week later Amyreid and Kyda tried to free their leader, Amyreid still not knowing her true parentage. But Ougorthan had used Jackdaw as bait to catch the remaining Ravens. They were all executed, Kyda for her old crimes against the crown, Amyreid for her new one; leaving Mailari devastated with nothing left but guilt to keep her company.

Now she has been watching these new Ravens, and a hope for revenge, and a chance to at least slightly redeem herself has presented itself. This time she will do the right thing. She demands the forming of the Silver Council to prevent the division and chaos that the "old" Ravens suffered from, and she will explain the existence of the Kintargo Contract to the players, and help them any way she can.

Mailari doesn’t know her sister still lives. If and when the players locate Jackdaw, they will find her surrounded by her former friends and her daughter - a daughter she never told the truth - turned by Thrune into zombies, chained to the walls surrounding her cell, ever trying to reach their former leader in mindless hunger. If the PCs cure her insanity, she will first kill the zombies - if the PCs haven’t already - and then she will ask one question, in a quiet voice, eyes brimming with hate: “Is there still a woman here... that goes by the name Mailari Doceur?”

(Da da da daaaaaaAAAM! :-) She will of course go to kill her sister. Mailari won't stop her, hating herself for her actions, and glad to see her sister still alive. Cue GM: "So, what do you do?" Gonna need some serious Dr Phil moves from the players to sort that family squabble out.)

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