Dead Man Walking! A Way of the Wicked Campaign Phase III (Inactive)

Game Master bwatford

1. How does your character interact with the others within a group?
Amestri is cordial, her training among the ladies of the court not lost upon her, although her demeanor tends to belie the friendliness of her words. She is cautious to trust, but once she makes that leap her trust will stand firm. Should her trust be betrayed, her vengeance can be terrible.

2. What is your character's role in a group?
Unholy warrior. Spirit of vengeance, who is willing to guide others should they have their own dreams of vengeance. Although a warpriest of Eiseth, she is a follower of diabolatry and thus follows (although less stridently than her patron) the entire hierarchy of Hell.

3. How is your character not as they seems? I want one or two skills that would surprise others if they found out he knows them. Also include personality traits, positive or negative, that would similarly surprise others.
Although possessed of a near otherworldly beauty, Amestri’s near single-minded drive for revenge, shapes her face into a grim visage that detracts from her looks. Although her words can be short, almost clipped, in a typical conversation, her upbringing allows her to speak fluidly and diplomatically, becoming almost pleasant.
With the loss of her lover, the idea of love remains within her and she may present a much softer visage and tone when speaking to those who have found love. This tone hardens (and likely blood may flow) should someone try to break that love, or should it be found to be a lie.

4. What are your character's goals, conscious and, perhaps, subconscious?
Consciously, Amestri wants to see her father die by her hand. The spirit of vengeance drives her and she desires to be its avatar, the vehicle to which it deals its fateful retribution. Subconsciously, Amestri wants things to go back to normal (relatively speaking) once her vengeance has been sated.

5. How easily does your character love? Have they been in love?
Her ability to love has eroded, although there remains a spark of possibility within her. She has been deeply in love in the past, and it was the loss of this man that had set her upon the path she walks.

6. Is your character racist at all, either now or in their past?
Race is not something that concerns Amestri. Being raised a privileged noble, all were considered beneath her. Being raised in a misogynistic household, men were her betters. Now, she understands that, particularly in matters of vengeance, everyone is equal.

7. All people believe something that is not true, both about the world around them and about themselves. What lies/untruths does your character believe about themselves and the world around them?
Amestri believes there is nothing for her to do but slay those who wronged her. The idea that there may have been reasons behind the acts, or that such disagreements could be hashed out without violence is something she refuses to let herself think. If vengeance was not the only option, then would all the blood on her hands be meaningless?

8. How is your character about material possessions?
Although raised in luxury and oversaturated in riches, she now only craves the accoutrements of battle. Jewelry may be beautiful, but the blade that can be bought with the proceeds and the blood that flows down its channel are priceless.

9. What does your character perceive their major problems to be?
Her father still lives and she is unsure whether his surviving her arrow was because of mere faulty aim, or something deeper in her heart that nudged her aim aside.

10. What does she perceive the solutions to those problems to be?
Confront her father and kill him. Only then she will know it was mere chance, and not some remnant of daughterly attachment to him.

11. What are your character's religious beliefs?
Although raised to be a Mitran as most other Talingardians, she has fallen into diabolatry. Her true, underlying ‘religion’ is revenge, thus, of all the ranks of Hell, she aligns herself mostly with Eiseth, Queen of the Erinyes, spirits of vengeance.

12. What does your character fear?
Amestri fears that all that remains within her is the desire for vengeance. She does not know what will happen once her father is dead, but she feels that she will continue down that road. She fears that she will not want to, let alone be able to, stop because it is all that she now knows.
She also fears that she will be unable to kill her father given the opportunity.

13. How much of a temper does your character have? What sorts of things set them off?
Amestri seems cold tempered. Outwardly calm at someone who has given her offense, she inwardly seethes, yet not acting upon her rage until much later, when the offender has thought the deed forgiven or forgotten. At that point her vengeance is devastating and likely quite out of proportion to the initial offense. Things such as the breaking of her trust or her heart could easily set her upon this long path to revenge.

Concepts

• Former member of the Talingardian nobility
  
• Married in secret to her ‘true love’ rather than fall into the arranged marriage her parents had been planning.
  
• Due to the disapproval of her family and the one she was supposed to marry into, her husband was sent on dangerous missions. He died in the field and, since Amestri had not had a child of the man, she was still accepted into the other family.
  
• Going through her dead love’s things she found some of his trophies, items of diabolatry that he had kept as souvenirs. These items, the priest who had married them, and her own dreams guiding her further towards the vengeance of Eiseth as she trained herself in secret.
  
• She plotted her revenge over the years her extended life allowed her, killing them off slowly at first, then during the funeral of her late noble husband, slew them all. A night of blood only her father, who had arrived late, had survived.
  

Goals

• Attain her final vengeance by killing her father.
  
• Further enhance her role as an avatar of vengeance.
  

Secrets

• Amestri isn’t sure her thirst for vengeance will be quenched once her father dies. She has found herself making lists in her head, adding people to certain columns depending on the slight she had received. This both terrifies and exhilarates her.
  
• Her husband, thought dead, still lives (see below).
  

Ties

• Lucian Blackburn (friendly/neutral/enemy?): Amestri’s great love and husband thought killed in the line of duty (as a soldier or paladin). In truth, he was forced to leave her through a combination of high level commands, threats against himself and Amestri, and payments. His participation in this ruse caused him to fall, although he remains a good soul. Lucian still loves Amestri deep in his heart but he would be horrified to find out what she has become.
  
• Arasmes Atezadeh (enemy): Amestri’s father. He always suspected something was off about her after they were able to rid her of her lowborn husband, but had never realized the depths to which she had fallen. Witnessing the bloodshed she had performed on his family and his friends, along with the arrow that nearly pierced his heart, has turned him completely against her. He has nothing for her but the desire for a quick death.
  
• Ostarian Rayne (friendly): The ostensibly Mitran priest that married Amestri and Lucian. In truth a diabolist, priest of Asmodeus. He foresaw Amestri’s fall (and in fact Lucian’s as well), and guided her in the right (wrong?) direction. Removing two powerful families, allowed other families, more open to alternate religions, to advance. Ostarian knows that Lucian still lives, but has kept the information to himself. It may come in handy later.
  

Memories

• Her wedding to Lucian. It was a simple affair, since it was effectively an elopement, but it was where their love shined in their faces and presented through their vows. The simple kiss at the end was exquisite to her. She cherishes this memory, despite the darkness and cold rage within her.
  
• She remembers the discovery of the pendant showing a horned longbow in her husbands souvenirs. The dreams she had afterwards were vivid and guided her to ask Ostarian about it. There her indoctrination into diabolatry began.
  
• From her years of being raised as a noblewoman, particularly that received by her rather misogynistic family, she often still finds herself deferring to the men. Not for long, but there remains an occasional pause before she interjects an opposing opinion.
  

Amestri Atezadeh’s bloodline could be traced back to the agents of Mitra, for she had the blood of angels. Such a noble bloodline, however, was also associated with the darkness and there would always be a crack in the veneer of good that evil could seep into. Still, the influence of her heritage allowed her to follow a path of nobility and light. She seemed destined for greatness, beloved of the people. Raised among nobility, she used her presence and coin to help those in need. It was there, offering food to the poor, where she met Lucian Blackburn, a paladin of Mitra. Over time they grew closer, falling deeply in love. They were of one soul and their desire to help and protect those in need was indeed noteworthy. This idyllic life was not to last, however.

Amestri’s father did not approve of their union. In fact, he had already made arrangements to have her wed a nobleman in another family, to form alliance of their houses that would empower them both. Despite, or rather, because of this, Amestri and Lucian ended up eloping, marrying in a small ceremony before Mitra. Her father was furious. With his own influence and that of the other house, he was able to cause Lucian’s superiors to order him into battle against the eastern tribes, while at the same time finding and destroying any record of the marriage. Lucian reportedly died in the battles, his body not even returning to her.

With Lucian gone and their marriage effectively annulled, Amestri was wedded into the Vitruvian family. Her new husband was far older than she, but at least she did not have to suffer his attentions often. This allowed her to do what she could to collect Lucian’s remaining effects, almost putting together a shrine to the fallen paladin. During this time, she discovered the duplicity of her father and her husband’s family in his demise. Rage began to take hold of her, boiling in her blood. Her own strength of will was the only thing that kept her from killing her husband outright. No, the wise course would be to plan things through. But how would she attain her vengeance?

She thought on this question as she rubbed the face of a medallion, a souvenir from her true husband’s crusade against evil, a symbol of a horned bow upon it. Unconsciously she kept the medallion as she returned to her rooms. That night she had a dream, a fearsome dream of fires and battle, but also one of righteous retribution, the symbol appearing foremost in her mind. Was it a religious symbol? If so, perhaps Ostarian, the priest at her true wedding, would know. In fact the priest knew quite well. He was a diabolater in disguise as a Mitran and had, in some small way, helped place Amestri on the path she was on now. Knowing that she was now receptive, he taught her of the ways of Hell.

Over the next several years, and with Ostarian’s guiding hand, Amestri trained her body and spirit to become the warrior she must be if she was to gain her revenge upon those who had wronged her. When she was ready she unleashed. Her false husband was first to die, seemingly having choked on a piece of food. It was at his funeral where the blood would flow. Being the wife of the deceased, she had the say on all details of the planning, thus she was able to arrange for a viewing of the body where only family members, unarmed and unattended by their bodyguards, could enter.

Fate seemed to favor Amestri’s father though. Due to a broken wheel of his carriage, he arrived to the room late. When he opened the door, the horror he witnessed caused him to gasp, and nearly faint. Strewn about the room were the barely recognizable bodies, or pieces, of his family and those of his in-laws. Standing in the middle of the room was Amestri, covered in blood, a righteous fire in her eyes. Having heard her father’s gasp, the bloody woman looked up at him and smiled. Without a word, she raised her bow and fired off an arrow that buried itself in his chest.

Arasmes would have died if it were not for the quick thinking of the coachmen who awaited their charges outside, previously unaware of the deeds performed within. One was able to stanch his bleeding while the rest, their sheer force of numbers along with Amestri’s elation at achieving her vengeance, allowed them to overpower her.

Later, as Amestri awaited her trial, Arasmes visited her, in some vain attempt at finding out what had happened. Her surprise at his living, however, along with her pronouncement that she would finish what she had started caused him to walk out. There was no saving her or taking her off this path to Hell. She would be getting there soon enough. Arasmes used what little influence he had left to make sure that the proper charges were laid and that Amestri was sentenced for her heinous crimes.

1. How does your character interact with the others within a group?
Very well. Sarvoth fully understands that the success of an individual greatly depends on those he surrounds himself with. This is especially true when you are breaking the law. One caveat is that he is initially suspicious of any person he meets. He relies on direct contracts or unofficial contracts through cumulative blackmail material to give a person “trust.” For example, he will not be the first one to do something illegal in front of a new person. He will wait for the new person to do something he can hold against them if needed, before granting such power to anyone else. In short, he is not trying to keep the upper hand, rather he does not want to intentionally put himself in vulnerable situations if he has the choice.
2. What is your character's role in a group?
Thematically, he will be a supplier. He will provide potions, poisons, drugs, etc to keep the party well supplied. He will broker deals and bribe officials as needed to get things done. In combat he will be a melee damage dealer. He will use his sneak attack to hit the enemies where it hurts, and his magic and bluff abilities to ensure that he can sneak attack whenever possible.
3. How is your character not as they seems? I want one or two skills that would surprise others if they found out he knows them. Also include personality traits, positive or negative, that would similarly surprise others.
a. This somewhat relates to the first question. He is always building a cache of secrets on every person he meets. If he is ever in a dire situation he can use these secrets to buy his way out.
b. He enjoys making drugs but refuses to use them himself. He makes them purely for resale, and somewhat looks down on anyone that uses them. He feels that any benefit they give is greatly outweighed by the addition. (both physically and financially) The one exception is alcohol. Sarvoth loves a good drink, but he is always ready with an alchemist’s kindness to remove any unwanted side effects.
4. What are your character's goals, conscious and, perhaps, subconscious?
Goals: To be rich, powerful, and untouchable. He wants to gain in physical and mental power (leveling up in game terms) to be able to overcome anyone he meets. Additionally, he wishes to have enough power via accumulated secrets and powerful friends (PC party members and NPC allys) that no one would dare cross him, lest the secrets get out or other retribution be rained down upon them. Finally, he wants to have so much money that nothing ever stands out of his reach financially, be that pleasures, magical items, or even armies.
Conscious: He was an outcast, he was a loner, he wants to put that behind him and have others respect and or fear his name. He wants to have the finest things in life to counter his current status of poverty and low status.
Subconscious: He has trust issues, and is greedy. He is smart, however, and can learn to overcome these.
5. How easily does your character love? Have they been in love?
Not easily. With the intense trust issues described it would take a very rare individual and circumstance for Sarvoth to trust someone enough to fall in love. And no, he has never been in love; only childhood crushes and adult lusts.
6. Is your character racist at all, either now or in their past?
Put simply, no. He does have an innate distrust of other devils and tiefling due to their aptitude for scheming, but nothing overwhelming.
7. All people believe something that is not true, both about the world around them and about themselves. What lies/untruths does your character believe about themselves and the world around them?
Everyone is corrupt. They all hide it and it shows in some way or another. Churches use fancy cathedrals to convince the poor that there is divine power. Politicians have side agendas. Charity workers are just buying their way into the good graces of others with actions instead of money.
8. How is your character about material possessions?
Loves, needs, wants them. Needs more of them. Enough said.
9. What does your character perceive their major problems to be?
Not having enough of question 8. Not being able to protect his goods and person as well.
10. What does he perceive the solutions to those problems to be?
Get more power. (level up, make allys, forge alliances, build catalogue of secrets)
11. What are your character's religious beliefs?
Devout follower of Asmodeus, but not in a church-going way. Follows the ideas of Asmodeus and reveres him. Ultimately would like to become powerful enough to call Asmodeus a direct ally.
12. What does your character fear?
Death. Failure. Being deceived. Dying poor and in pain.
13. How much of a temper does your character have? What sorts of things set them off?
Very little. He tempers his anger with plans and calculations for revenge. If the offender is deemed of little value and threat, however, he will consider a direct assault.

Step 1: Write 5 background and concept elements that you feel are important to your image of the character. These can be a concept overview, a list of important life events, a physical description, a personality profile...whatever you need to get an image in your mind. 5 is just a minimum...more elements are encouraged!

1. Sarvoth grew up on the streets. He was born to a human mother and quickly abandoned.
2. He is incredibly intelligent. This makes him lean towards calculated schemes rather than direct assaults.
3. He lives by a relatively simple ideology. “Everything and everyone has a price, you just have find what it is; gold, blackmail, or something else.”
4. It takes Sarvoth a long time to give trust/friendship, but when he does there is a loyalty given that is nearly unbreakable.
5. He is always making plans. When he enters a room, he checks the exits, looks at available weapons, judges the threats, and looks for weaknesses in others. He lives his life by pushing the odds in his favor.

Step 2: List at least two goals for the character. At least one of these goals should be one that the character has, while another should be one that you, as a player, want to see developed over the course of the game.

1. Sarvoth desires ultimate power: Power of wealth, Power of fear, Power of respect.
2. He hopes to come to a level of understanding that allows him to inflict the most devastating blows to his enemies with the least risk to himself.

Step 3: List at least two secrets about your character. One is a secret the character knows, one is a secret that involves him but that he is not actually aware of yet. This will help me in creating plots that center around your character. I will also be creating a third secret which you as a player will not be aware of, so expect some surprises!

1. Sarvoth hates that he is a tiefling. He is a proud person, and hold himself so that no one would ever be able to tell, but he longs to be human.
2. He has a brother. He was abandoned and raised in an orphanage, but his brother was kept and raised by his mother.
3. He is the result of a contract made between his family and a devil many years ago. Every fifth male is born a tiefling. (he does not know this)

Step 4: Describe at least three people that are tied to the character. Two of them are friendly to the character, one is hostile. If you like, you can include an enemy of yours here as well, so I have an instant NPC nemesis to throw at you.

1. Sarvoth has made a name for himself with the local thieve’s guild. They have come to purchase his poisons on many occasions. The guild master, Liamond Nyne, thinks highly of him.
2. In his dealings with the thieve’s guild he has run into trouble. A man named Giles Hylley traced the poison used to kill his wife back to Sarvoth’s workshop. He has vowed to kill Sarvoth.
3. Sarvoth pays tribute to Asmodeus at a shrine run by a cleric known simply as “Audain.” Sarvoth has done some favors for him over the years, and Audain owes Sarvoth a favor if needed.

Step 5: Describe three memories, mannerisms, or quirks that your character has. They don't have to be elaborate, but they should provide some context and flavor.

1. Sarvoth remembers being teased and picked on as a child. He was not as strong or as the other children.
2. Sarvoth despises manual labor. He will always try to find a means of convincing someone else to do the work for him or using magical means.
3. He loves luxury. Fancy clothes, decadent food, all of it.

Crime: Fraud
Not a traditional fraud, Sarvoth was attempting to blackmail a powerful individual, but failed. The powerful individual in question covered up the blackmail and made it look like Sarvoth was simply a scammer. (Powerful individual was intentionally used to be vague as it may not be known to anyone else but Sarvoth who he was trying to blackmail, or to give the GM room to fit the fraud into the game more easily.)

Sarvoth began his life in the orphanages even though he obviously has devil blood in his veins, he was given the chances to become a good person. At least that is what they said. In reality he was the outcast. He was eventually kicked out of the orphanage for poisoning the food of another child. This was fine with Sarvoth as he hated the orphanage and everyone in it.
He lived on the streets for a few years, surviving as a pickpocket, and thief. Eventually, he learned to make poisons from discarded goods (apple seeds, potato peels) and dedicated himself to making and selling those, as he made for a terrible thief. Over time, he made more and more money, built himself a small workshop. He started making not just poisons, but drugs. He also made traditional alchemical items, but mostly he was called upon to make the things that could not be purchased legally.
One day, he came across the ingredients for a particularly potent poison. Almost as soon as he finished it, in comes a man, obviously of noble birth, looking to buy the best poison he has. The man is obviously wearing a disguise, but Sarvoth sees right through it. His clothes are too perfectly ragged. The dirt on his face seems smeared on, rather than accumulated. So, Sarvoth sells the poison to the man for 200% its value, and the man leaves. Over the next coming days rumors have it that a local noble has died. Witnesses identify the man responsible and wanted posters go up for the man that bought Sarvoth’s poison.
After some searching Sarvoth finds the man. He is another local merchant and competitor to the dead noble. Sarvoth confronts the man demanding 1000g to keep his knowledge a secret. Unfortunately, Sarvoth’s plan fails. The merchant goes to the authorities and has Sarvoth arrested for selling fake potions, and Sarvoth is arrested for fraud.

Is there a more perfect place to live than in Talingarde? This is the land into which Tkaara Fiakben was born. Her parents, Maliek and Kyela Fiakben were simple folk. Together they operated a reasonably successful fish shop in Ghastenhall which sold fresh fish caught in the gigantic Cambrian Bay. That’s right. Tkaara was lucky enough to be born in the capital of the most lawful and good nation that Golarian has ever seen.

Although not the wealthiest people of the capitol city, Tkaara’s parents did all they could for her. They attended temple weekly introducing their daughter to the Lord Mitra. Tkaara was required to participate in many civic and temple activities such as helping the elderly, caring for local parks and regularly helping to clean and polish every inch of the marble in the majestic main Mitran temple. Tkaara happily participated in these activities and was rarely without friends as she went about being a good child.

By the time she was twelve, Tkaara began to ask all sorts of inquisitive questions about life outside of Ghastenhall and Talingarde. Her parents did not know how to answer these questions. Their entire life had been spent in Talingarde and they knew nothing of life in the rest of Glolarian. Sure, they had heard of other nations, Cheliax, Varisia, Qadira, and the famous city of Absalom, but knew little of these places other than the rumors and occasional news that reached distant Talingarde.

Not being able to answer their daughter’s questions. They enrolled her in the Mitran secondary school hoping that she would learn more of the Sun God and, possibly, go into serving Talingarde’s patron. Unfortunately, Tkaara was never the best student. She managed to squeak through, mostly by convincing others to help her with projects and studying for exams. Rather than studying, Tkaara spent most of her time socializing, making friends and generally promoting herself among those who she knew would someday hold power in the city.

When she finished the formal school at the age of fifteen, she realized that she really had no professional skills. Many of her classmates had enrolled for further schooling at the temple with the expectation of eventually becoming clerics, paladins and other servants of Mitra. However, this was not for Tkaara. The study of religion simply bored her. Instead, she was drawn to law. Over the years in school, she had often heard the priests and nuns of Mitra speak of violating the deity’s laws. Thus, she decided to learn more of these laws, not from the religious laws, but rather those of a secular nature.

After taking a few months to find herself and travel around Talingarde, something that is not difficult with a pretty smile and lithe tongue, Tkaara returned to Ghastenhall where she quickly made the acquaintance of the Honorary Yenthil MacTrusen. Master MacTrusen was a highly respected member of the Talingarde bar and one of the most powerful barristers in the capitol. Tkaara believed that the former magistrate had hired her as an apprentice because of her keen mind and belief in the laws of the land. Most with more than a fleeting glance knew that the elderly statesman had retained her more because of her looks than any belief that she would somehow learn the art of being a barrister. Surprisingly, despite all indicators showing that she would never succeed in the legal world, Tkaara proved all doubters wrong.

Unlike her earlier schooling, Tkaara took to legal studies with a vengeance. For some reason, she was able to focus on law in a manner that she had never been able to do previously. She would read every file that came in and became masterful at finding the questions that needed to be asked, and more importantly, how to ask them to maximize the chance that clients she worked with would be successful. She also learned that there was much more to law than the statutes on the books. She learned that frequently it was who you knew, not what you knew, that was the most important factor in many cases.

Within three years of her arrival, Master MacTrusen’s health began to fail. When he was ill, rather than rescheduling matters as she should have done, Tkaara often represented the clients herself in smaller matters, misdemeanors, simple cases, and the like. Shortly after Tkaara turned twenty-two, Master MacTrusen died. However, the young Tkaara did not fret, rather, she closed his office, and the next day opened her own. Amazingly to all but herself, a large percentage of the old magistrate’s clients retained her to represent them.

For six years now, Tkaara has run her own firm. She has learned the type of cases that she can win, and how to win them. A pretty smile at the obviously married juror on the end of the panel, a short skirt for the lecherous magistrate who often sits in the chancery court, really whatever it takes as long as it is not a direct violation of the laws. She truly had learned how to play the legal game. She was not evil, but simply skilled in using the system for her clients, and her own, benefit.

After she left school and throughout her apprenticeship and legal practice, Tkaara has rarely attended the Mitran temple other than on the holy days with her parents. During her apprenticeship, she found that the old magistrate had many books regarding law in other parts of the world. These books discussed many other types of law, and the deities who are often viewed as overseeing law. These included Abadar, the Judge of Gods, Asmodeus, the Lord of Contracts, and many others. Although she never has paid homage to any of these deities, she is aware of them and has been known to whisper silent prayers to whichever she believed would benefit her regarding the element of law she was then working upon.

As Tkaara became more successful, she began to earn a fair wage representing all types of clients. First, she moved from the small flat she resided in while working for the old magistrate, into a much larger and more luxuriously furnished apartment. Then, she began to invest in fine clothing and jewelry, something that her parents frequently derided her for as obsessive and a waste of money. However, she waived off their criticism as she knew that to play with the social elite, she would have to look the part. And look the part she did.

On more than a few occasions, Tkaara has had suitors bidding for her hand. Something that her parents have often pushed her toward. But, Tkaara has never had the time for love. Time to play, definitely, but not the time to have more than short relationships. Over the years, she had dated a number of eligible Ghastenhall bachelors, both noble and not. However, she has always discarded these men and returned to her practice, something that frequently keeps her up late preparing work for a client.

About a year ago, just before the winter solstice, she was working late in her office after the sun had gone down. She heard a knock on her door, which now that she thinks about it is strange as clients are usually vetted and kept in the waiting area by her assistants. When she answered, a tall man stood at the door wearing a long dark cloak. For the life of her, Tkaara cannot recall the man’s name or what he retained her for, but it was well paying, or at least that is what her finances appear to indicate. She recalls doing much work for the man, staying up into the wee hours of the morning, although she does not recall what the work was for some strange reason.

Nine months ago, she awoke one morning in her room wearing her clothes from the prior day, something that she never did as sleeping in one’s clothes ruins the clothes, leaving wrinkles and often stains that are nigh impossible to remove. Oddly, there was some blood on her collar. Knowing that the stain could not be removed, she immediately threw out the clothes and got dressed for work. When she got to work, she was in for a surprise. First, her assistants looked at her with horror. Unbeknownst to her, her eyes were bloodshot and her skin had taken on a bit of a pale color. Tkaara waived off the assistant’s inquiry explaining that she was feeling a little under the weather, but that it was nothing to be concerned about. Something that was unusual for Tkaara who usually had a strong constitution and body and rarely missed work due to illness.

After sitting down in her office and beginning to work, the assistant hesitantly entered the room with a look of concern. Tkaara stared and the girl: What is wrong? You look like you are staring at a ghost. The girl nodded and then asked: Where have you been? It did not take long before Tkaara discovered that she had not simply forgotten what had happened the prior night. But, had somehow lost an entire week. The assistant had fortunately covered for Tkaara, but this was still something very unsettling.

Despite her poor health and bewilderment at having lost a week of her memories, Tkaara knew that her cases would not wait. So, she began to drill into them with a vengeance. The long hours trying to catch up served to further impair health, and made her bad mood, worse. Before too long, she went to a local alchemist who she had worked with in the past, both on personal and professional matters. After discussing this with the alchemist, she purchased a small amount of a honey colored dust that the alchemist told her would help her, but might have side affects.

Well, everything that the alchemist said was true. The drug only served to increase her to influence and persuaded the judge and jury that her client was innocent, but also caused her to do this in a manner that even she might not have used in the past.

After a few days, she began to feel better, but continued to suffer frequent flulike illnesses and, as a result, she returned to the alchemist to purchase more of the powder which he referred to as Honeydust. In fact, she felt that the Honeydust worked so well that she asked if he had anything better. The alchemist said that he did not, and that most anything more powerful would be highly illegal in Talingarde. Waiving off the alchemist’s warning, she approached several former clients who she was sure would know about other drugs that would help her until she managed to kick the illness which neither mundane nor magical healing seemed to be able to cure. From these contacts, she was able to obtain a regular source of various drugs with most interesting names - Silvertongue, Honeydust, Angel’s Trumpet, Harlot Sweets and even the rare Elven Absinthe.

Despite her continued success in the practice of law, within a few months Tkaara began to find herself running into financial problems. The drugs she was purchasing were simply too expensive even for her success. Thus, she began to expand her income options. She knew that there are many in Talingarde who are not true adherents of Mitra and who often desire to see another come to misfortune. Thus, in addition wealthy parents willing to pay for their child’s innocence, she also found those who would like to see that same child end up in chains. Tkaara found that by playing both sides of the game, she was able to guarantee the success for whoever paid more, and more than double her income.

Thus, for the past three quarters of a year Tkaara has slowly fallen farther and farther into manipulating the system. She has slept with witnesses, paid off informants, failed to present exculpatory evidence, and taken more than a few bribes. And to show for this she has been able to experiment with dozens of different illegal substances, most of which she fortunately does not know the origin of.

Within the past few weeks, her reputation has begun to take a brutal beating. Her general ill health together with more and more strange outcomes of cases could only be concealed for so long. Thus, it was about three weeks ago that she seduced the chief magistrate. The case involved a young noble who had been accused of raping a peasant girl. The evidence was clear that he had done the crime. Tkaara knew that the youth was guilty and that no amount of manipulating the evidence would change the outcome. So, she worked a deal with the youth’s parents that was very lucrative. To win the case, she seduced the old magistrate, the mere though of this makes her stomach turn. She then told the judge that she would expose their dalliance if the boy was not found innocent. Well, the boy was found innocent, but that was not the end. A Mitran nun who had taken the abused girl in her care began an investigation which quickly revealed the truth.

Two days later, Tkaara had found herself in prison suffering from grievous illness and withdrawal from not having her favorite drugs. The trial had not taken long. She knew the judge and the prosecutors. There was never a question of the outcome. Thus, now she sat, head bowed and clothes ripped and torn, looking like death walked over. It would not be long now before the wagon came to take her to Branderscar and then onto the salt mines. She was strong for a woman, she always had been. But, even for her, how long would she survive in the hard labor? She had never done a hard day’s work in her life. And, she doubts that she will make it for long with her ailing health.

Fair-skinned, with shoulder length hair of midnight black and eyes of gold, this latter trait inherited from his mother, Erevan stands six feet tall, with an athletic, if a little on the slender side, build. Agile and graceful, he prefers comfortable fitted clothing of dark tones, his attire always complemented with a pair of black gloves made of soft leather and a black hooded cloak.

Polite and well-mannered towards strangers and friends both, Erevan is a soft-spoken man, friendly and charming and possessed of a sharp wit. Careful and practical, calculating even, he is in considerable control of his emotions and rarely, if ever, is given to outbursts of anger or raises his voice in frustration. Still, like all things, his patience does have its limits and a snarky remark or a dry comment is the most usual indication that he is reaching them.

1. Write five background and concept elements that you feel are important to your image of the character. These can be a concept overview, a list of important life events, a physical description, a personality profile...whatever you need to get an image in your mind. 5 is just a minimum...more elements are encouraged!
Erevan Cale was born twenty seven years ago in Restov, one of Brevoy’s largest cities. However, his family name was not Cale, as his parents were Janus and Arianna Orlovsky, the former being a distant cousin of Lord Poul Orlovsky, the House’s patriarch. Despite their living away from Eagle’s Watch, the Orlovsky’s seat of power, and being considered minor nobles, the family was wealthy enough to live in its share of luxury and leisure.

Erevan’s childhood was a good one, as his parents loved him dearly and they had the means to show it by providing him with the leisure and luxury associated with a noble family, no matter how minor. But the boy was not satisfied; he knew he should be happy between his loving father and mother and his easy life, but he was also bored and boredom was something he found almost unbearable. The one thing that he most looked forward to was going along with his father when the older Orlovsky visited his tailor. And what an interesting man that tailor was. He had stories to tell and riddles to share and puzzles for the young boy to solve, keeping his sharp mind and fast hands occupied. And as the boy grew older, the stories and riddles and puzzles turned darker and the world the tailor described, the one beyond his parents’ manor and beyond Restov and beyond Brevoy, dangerous and intriguing. And when one day he was given a choice, the choice to stay or go, he found, surprising even himself, that it was hardly a choice after all.

After leaving his family and his city behind, Erevan and Arkady traveled extensively during the next few years, never quite settling down but instead visiting several places, such as the River Kingdoms, Taldor, Andoran and even Cheliax for the briefest of times before reaching Varisia. During those travels, Arkady taught the boy, now a young man, about how to move about unseen and unheard, how to open a lock and bypass a trap, how to use words to get the information he wanted through cajoling, deceiving or, if need be, threatening, and, last but certainly not least, how to fight and how to kill. Erevan took to the lessons quickly, absorbing everything that the older man told him and showed him and soon enough they were not only mentor and student, but associates and partners in crime, pulling off this con or setting up that kill.

During one such job, however, things did not go so smoothly and although they managed to come out of the whole debacle with their lives, Arkady was hit, the bolt sticking out of his leg not too dangerous, but the poison it delivered very much so. They laid low for a few days, a week, almost two. They knew that the ones responsible for the “tailor”’s injury, a gang whose territory the pair had violated it would seem, were still looking for them. But Arkady was not getting better, he was getting worse. And Erevan, ever practical, ever calculating, could see that he could not escape the town without leaving his partner behind. But Arkady, fearful of death, half mad from the pain, would not allow it. That is, until Erevan decided that it was time to strike out on his own and, using a sharp blade to “help” Arkady with the pain, left their hideout and the town and eventually managed to reach Riddleport. It did not take long before he found himself on a ship to Talingarde shortly after.

Talingarde is isolated, which has suited him just fine for the last few years. He has done a few jobs here and there and has made a bit of a reputation as a reliable and skilled man who is not afraid to get his hands dirty. Other than that, he has made a few acquaintances, most important among them Rikkard Half-fingers. Rikk has been acting as a fence and an intermediary between himself and his employers and was doing a good job. Until the last job. Some woman of means wanted to hire his services, he was told. All he had to do was meet up with her at the Rose and Thorn, a tavern and inn, and see what she was about, he was told. And he did meet her… did he not? They talked and he… he was supposed to go somewhere? Kill someone?And then his next clear memory is being apprehended for trying to assassinate some cousin or nephew of the King’s of all things. High treason, that is what the judge said. High treason! Not attempted murder. High treason because… someone… a woman… it was a woman? Someone hired him… was he hired? He remembers her voice… her voice, but not her words. High treason… As far as he knows, it carries a really painful sentence. Deadly too.

2. List at least two goals for the character. At least one of these goals should be one that the character has, while another should be one that you, as a player, want to see developed over the course of the game.
As an immediate goal, Erevan wants to escape from prison, preferably alive and well, and then get to the bottom of the details and circumstances that resulted in his imprisonment and death sentence. Tracking down the woman who hired him and having a “chat” with her would be the next logical step. And if he manages to find an ally or two that will have his back if or when that confrontation takes place, then even better.

As a more long term goal, he wants to become better at what he does and hone his skills and talents as an individual, as well as to become a force to be reckoned with in the city and world he is a part of. Surrounding himself with allies of power and skill, establishing a network of contacts and associates preferably ranging from beggars to city officials, having his name elicit respect and fear, making his mark. But not in the light, better from the shadows. Fame is not what he seeks, infamy is.

As a player I would like to see the whole thing with Arkady develop and eventually reach its conclusion. Of course, Arkady is not the only one looking for Erevan, as there are also his parents. And while the former is searching with the desire to not only tell him the truth, but also presumably end his life and painfully so, Janus and Arianna search for him out of love. But is he still worthy of their love? And, what is more important, will he even be interested in it by the time they find him, if they even manage to do so?

3. List at least two secrets about your character. One is a secret the character knows, one is a secret that involves him but that he is not actually aware of yet. This will help me in creating plots that center around your character. I will also be creating a third secret which you as a player will not be aware of, so expect some surprises!
Erevan can see in the dark, even some forms of magical darkness. Although he does not know how he is able to do so, he has kept it a secret from everyone ever since he first found out. At first, as a child, he kept it to himself because he found the idea of having a secret that only he knew interesting, even fun. Then, as he started seeing the advantage it gave him under certain circumstances, especially after leaving his family behind to travel alongside Arkady and start down his dark path, he had even more cause to continue to not speak of it. And the first time it saved his life, much to the dismay of a tielfing who tried to kill him under cover of darkness, it brought a smile to his face; this was no mere secret, this was a weapon.

His parentage is a little more complicated than he knows. Although his mother is indeed Lady Arianna Orlovsky, his real father is not Lord Janus, but Arkady Cale, the man he knew as his father’s tailor in Restov; he is the product of a brief tryst between his mother and the “tailor”, though the latter’s real skill lies not with a needle and some thread in a store, but with a blade in the shadows. What is more, his mother is not entirely human; though hardly a true heaven-blooded aasimar, she does have angelic blood in her lineage, a little of which runs through her veins, explaining her great beauty and perhaps, just perhaps, other things.

Arkady Cale, his real father and a man of many questionable talents, is not dead. Although between the poison ravaging his body and the blade in his back he came quite close to dying, he managed to survive, if barely. It took him quite a while to recuperate and regain his full health, or as close to it as was possible, and by then Erevan was long gone. Still, Arkady can hold a grudge with the best and worst of them and he has not forgotten of his ungrateful student. Even now, he is looking for Erevan, his purpose twofold; to finally tell the younger man the truth about his being not only his teacher and associate, but also his father, and then to return that blade the younger man “forgot” between his shoulder blades those years ago.

4. Describe at least three people that are tied to the character. Two of them are friendly to the character, one is hostile. If you like, you can include an enemy of yours here as well, so I have an instant NPC nemesis to throw at you.
Janus and Arianna Orlovsky, Erevan’s parents, have never stopped looking for him, even after so many years. Even though their hopes dwindle a little more with each passing year, they still believe he is alive somewhere. Still, their memories of him are as a boy and young man; what their reactions would be were they to reunite with him as he is now is anybody’s guess.

Rikkard Half-fingers, or Rikk to his friends, is Erevan’s main contact in Talingarde. A fidgety nervous man, he has only half of his fingers between his two hands, as an accident here and a not-quite-an-accident there have deprived him of the rest. He is a small-time crook and, despite the loss of quite a few digits, a very capable picker of locks. He acts as a fence, as well as an intermediary, bringing potential employers in touch with people that have the skills necessary for the jobs they have in mind, usually theft, murder and such.

Arkady Cale is a thief, a spy, a killer and much more. He taught Erevan everything he knows about subterfuge and stealth, thievery and murder. Still, the lessons were cut short after Erevan put a knife in Arkady’s back and, thinking him dead, ended their partnership and left. However, there are two things that make the whole situation a little more complicated; Arkady is not dead, not to mention he is Erevan’s real father. Keeping in mind though that his son almost killed him, this is a family reunion that is not going to be particularly pleasant if or when it happens. Perhaps dear old dad has even already reached out by trying to have his son killed, if Erevan’s suspicions of being set up are correct.

Isabella Oress is the woman who hired Erevan for the job that ended up with him apprehended and sent to Branderscar Prison, awaiting his imminent death. Other than her name, if that is truly it, not much else is known about her. Erevan strongly suspects that she set him up to be captured and condemned for one of the worst crimes possible in Talingarde. More than that, he also suspects that perhaps magic was involved, as his memory of their meeting is hazy at best, but he still remembers thinking how mesmerizing her voice was.

5. Describe three memories, mannerisms, or quirks that your character has. They don't have to be elaborate, but they should provide some context and flavor.
Erevan never raises his voice in anger or frustration. Generally speaking, he is a soft-spoken man, his tone almost always calm and even. He retains that tone even when angry, rare though it is, or at least annoyed, but when his patience is finally at an end there is a distinct hint of sarcasm coloring his words.

He does not drink if he can help it, although he will if necessary, such as when having a drink is needed to maintain a deception or have someone relax and drop his guard. Otherwise, he avoids it, not interested in the clouding of the mind and dulling of the senses associated with alcohol.

He tends to play with a silver coin, making it dance across his fingers, when idleness or boredom sets in, the latter never too far away when there is nothing of interest to keep him occupied. Although this little trick of his is done almost absentmindedly when his hands remain idle for too long, he does on occasion do it on purpose if some child is around; he is fond of little children and is not above using a little sleight of hand to entertain them if or when any are near him.

Background Concepts

1. Member of the Midnight Circus, a Kuthite cell masquerading as an entertainment troupe. They were founded by a man known as the Shepherd. Cunning and seductive, he was easily able to recruit a loyal following to his Midnight Circus. No one really knows why he started the Circus, though many of his troupe do not care. In all there are a dozen troupe members, with Paimon being the only clown as well as the youngest among them.

2. Is a contortionist and acrobat by profession. He was recruited at a fairly young age to join the midnight circus. His act, Paimon the Fool, represents man’s desire to express creatively given the constraints of his station, and live with meaning not tainted by willing slavery to unworthy masters. If Samuel Beckett or Albert Camus were to see it, they might find it cute.

3. Wears a mask to protect his face. Paimon’s mother was a scarred witch doctor who was driven out of town and into witchcraft by the young lord who impregnated her. A proud half-orcess she tried to indoctrinate her son into her painful faith. That was all cut short however when inquisitors of Mitra arrived and killed her. When he first joined the Circus at the age of ten, he took an old Stalker’s Mask to wear in his first performance. When he saw its magic, he likened its power to that his mother’s fetish mask had and decided to wear during performances. At the beginning of each performance, Paimon walks out in front of the crowd and, after scanning them, takes one of their faces to be his own for the duration of his show. This adds a level of realism and cements Paimon the Fool as an everyman.

4. Well spoken and very charming, though natively he speaks with a colloquial Talingardian accent. He usually greets people with a received pronunciation and holds onto it until he gets to know them. His voice is a very distinct baritone. Like late 70s David Bowie. Paimon was illiterate until the age of ten, but picked up reading fast. His education was off the cuff. He learned history through the songs Otho, Botho, Clotho, and D’Artagnan. He learned his vocabulary from many-tongued Manar. He learned to move with grace from Argalia who was once called Arcalia. Every troupe member helped raise the boy and their slaughter places the heavy burden of revenge on his heart.

5. Son of a human and a half-orc, he was blessed with a skin tone normal for a human, if not a bit tanned. Paimon is freakishly tall (standing a whopping 6’7), freakishly limber, and freakishly charming. His hair is a lush auburn and eyes a seductive hazel. He can nearly pass for a human.

Two Goals
1. He wants to avenge the deaths of his troupe not by destroying Talingarde but by razing the foundation of the so called Shining God’s church and replacing it with something even more sinister and yet closer to his vision of how the world should be governed.

2. My goal for the character is to see him rise above his station and do something not even he expected he was capable of. I want him to realize that he is a key piece in the tapestry that the characters and players will be weaving and become eager to take part in it.

Two Secrets about your character
1. He does indeed remember his true name, and the only one to ever coax it out of him was the Shepherd, the leader of his cell. Of his many secrets, Shepherd told him shorty before their arrests, he only had one fit for a king.

2. The Shepherd turned the troupe in and ultimately betrayed them all. Paimon, who will be the last to burn for his heresy, is not aware of this. He believes Shepherd was killed in the initial raid.

Three People tied to the character
1. Argalia or Arcalia: One of the last surviving members of Paimon’s troupe. He received his name due to his former name, Arcalia, being localized into the common tongue to become Argalia. An expert swordsman, he taught a younger Paimon the particulars of stage combat. In a former life, he was a paladin of Sarenrae, but he was seduced by the Shepherd into falling, and became a loyal member of the Midnight Circus Troupe. Dance and swordplay are one in the same to him and he often played the foil to Paimon’s brutish buffoon on stage. It is said he lopped the scalp off of two soldiers for every troupe member murdered the night they were found, but being the modest man he is, Argalia or Arcalia will never tell.

2. The Memory Palace: Once Lady Black Eyes’ Mirror. When her mistress died, she became empty, a mirror with no one to reflect. Losing her own power to enchant, she was captured by Talingardian soldiers and taken away with nary a whimper. She was soon saved by Argalia who was once Arcalia, and given new purpose. She was told to lock her mistress’s memories away inside of herself, in every room and corner of her mind, and hide the key until the time is right. Argalia who was once Arcalia tasked her with keeping the history of the Midnight Circus and all of its wonders until a time it would be safe to once again release it to the world. She then became the Memory Palace, and currently travels with Argalia, who protects and loves her.

3. The Shepherd. A man who found Paimon when he was just a street urchin. He took the boy in and raised him to be the monster he is today. A master of lies, it was through his efforts that the Circus was able to remain clandestine even as the whispers of their dark art spread throughout the country. Ultimately, though, his greatest asset proved to be the Circus’s downfall. He turned them into the authorities and their wholesale slaughter rests entirely at his doorstep. He is still at large somewhere. He looks a lot like Pinhead from Hellraiser.

Three Memories.
1. Paimon remembers his mother being beheaded by agents of Mitra for witchcraft. He was only seven years old when it happened but remembers the day vividly.

2. He remembers the Shepherd finding him at the orphanage they sent him to after his mother’s death.

3. He remembers the raid that killed a large number of his many-true-loves and arrested the rest. In particular he remembers Shepherd’s throat being slit right in front of his eyes.

Before he was Paimon the Fool, he was Paimon the Boy. His mother was an outcast, a half-orc servant girl ran out of town by the young lord who impregnated her. Vowing to never be a victim again, she turned to the faith of her father. He was a half-orc himself who had died smuggling she and her mother into the heartland from the savage north. His faith involved long forgotten Orc spirits, and they were more than eager to whisper into the ear of a desperate young woman. Soon, she found herself crafting a crude mask out of dark wood at their behest. When the boy was born, she begged her patrons to not let him be weak, and to make him strong — if not stronger — than her and her ancestors. She scarred herself as he was being born, and scarred him with a sacred tattoo before she ever held him hoping to ensure pain was this first thing he'd know. Over the years she turned him into her able apprentice. Knowing only legends of the Scarred Witch Doctors, as few ever made it down from the savage north, his mother’s tutelage often manifested itself in brutal and unpolished affairs. Tortures meant to strengthen the boy and awaken his mystic powers did little more than inure him to pain and make suffering natural. The strange boy, perhaps tainted by the patrons his mother called out to for power, was not one to cry out or show pain. In fact he seemed to enjoy it. Though he never manifested magical powers he learned that power was always going to be painful to aquire. Even at a young age, he was aware that if he were ever to be as strong as his crazed mother demanded him to be, he would have to know pain.

When he turned seven, the purges came for them, and Mitra’s inquisitors, scouring the nation looking for witches and heretics like his mother, found her. He remembers seeing the shining knights approaching from the distance. He remembers his mother dawning her mask and scarring herself in anticipation of their arrival. He remembers the spectacular battle that ensued as his mother met the agents of Mitra with hostility. But he remembers most the loss he felt as the agents subdued and beheaded her. He learned his mother’s final lesson that day: that pride is no substitute for power. She was a proud, humiliated, woman who — so he understood years later when he looked back upon her death – made a grave mistake of believing that she would have done better fighting than running. Because of her humiliation at the hands of his father, she had let her pride get the better of her, and forgot her common sense. Even though years later he would forget his name, he would never forget his mother’s fatal act of foolishness.

The knights took him to an orphanage in Matharyn where he soon built up a reputation as a little troublemaker. He would bully the other children in cruel ways: beating them up when left alone with them, pushing them down stairs and into streets in front of carts, and even making them lick the bottom of cisterns. He would often hear the Mithran nuns dismiss his savagery as the unfortunate result of he growing up with a savage mother. Of course the boy knew the truth, but was usually met with patronizing stares as he would try to explain his scumbag father or his mother’s Orcish faith. It was during this time he grew to hate Mitra. The so called Shining God gave purpose to the knights who killed his mother and the nuns who imprisoned him in the orphanage and as far as it concerned the boy, there had to be another way, a better way. Then, as if to answer his wishes, when he was eleven years old a mysterious man appeared near his bed one day. The man had somehow managed to find a way into the orphanage without waking the other children. He told the boy that he was a Shepherd and had come to add to his flock. The boy had stuck his head under his covers at first, hoping the strange man would go away, but he only continued speaking. His words went down like honey. He spoke of decadent vagabonds and experience beyond limits, of a life where a man could express himself away from Mitra’s prying eyes. He promised he could remake the boy into something more, something beautiful, something monstrous. The boy's imagination set on fire with visions of lights, audiences, and theater. He also loved the chance to craft his pain into something more constructive. The boy agreed and took the Shepherd’s offer, soon finding himself to be the latest member of the Midnight Circus.

The Midnight Circus was a troupe of entertainers whose mission was to explore the frontiers of experience. They were contortionists who broke bones, sword eaters who pierced flesh, fire drinkers who immolated themselves from the inside out, and actors who could take as many freakish roles as there were stars in the sky. They existed in defiance of the so-called Shining God, and lived to showcase pleasures Mitra denied them. The troupe operated in secret, performing for audiences only a few times a year and only after the stroke of midnight. When they weren’t performing they were training. They spent days learning new pleasures to inflict on themselves for the awed crowds, and nights longing to perform. The boy learned to channel his darker desires to hurt others and himself into something constructive and — at least to he and the Circus — beautiful. He took to extreme contortion, learning how to break his bones and twist himself into painful twists and shapes. With a flair for drama he learned how to tell stories through interpretive movements. He took as his own a Stalker’s Mask, and used it as a prop for his show, which was only one of many. They performed only a few shows a season, as too many would jeopardize their troupe in the face of the law. Their elaborate shows resembled services typical of faithful Kuthites. They usually blurred the lines between pleasure and pain or encouraged dangerous or humiliating sex, and the audience was always welcome to join them. Towns would whisper for days in anticipation of their arrival, and a few brave souls would even join the actors on stage. More than once someone left the circus with a fresh bruise or a brand new set of stitches to show off to their friends. Few could fathom seeing something so sinister, and fewer could fathom participating in it.

The boy’s show in particular involved surreal examinations of a buffoon. He was not a buffoon because he was dumb — that was rarely the case, tragically, but because in the face of the absurd he strived. Each night he would look out to the audience and select one, it did not matter who, and take their face as his own. He would then activate his stalker’s mask and become a buffon in their image. He was at times a seducer who believed in no noble love but that which recognized itself as both short lived and exceptional. He was at other times a conquerer who forwent all promises of eternity to affect and engage fully in human history. Even still he could be a man doomed to carry a rock up a hill just to see it roll down on the other side again. Over the course of three hours he could travel the whole course of a life, or stretch a small moment out to examine its little parts. There was little focus on logical acts, realistic occurrences, or traditional character development; instead, focus stayed on human beings trapped in an incomprehensible world subject to any occurrence, no matter how illogical. Shining gods could not save them in the buffoon's world and it sent a powerful message. He laughed when in pain, cried when in pleasure, and treated both acts as two sides of the same glorious coin. He could assault his audiences senses by blending the mundane and the absurd with vaudevillian precision. After perfecting this absurd theater, the boy gave his show a name, Paimon the Fool, and took it as his own as well.

His was not the only act in the Midnight Circus. There was Otho, Botho, Clotho, and D’Artagnan; giants blessed with angel’s voices who would sing ancient hymns etched into each other’s backs. There was Alaïs and Anaïs, the mattress and skeleton; called that because the former was so fat that one could sleep in the folds of her skin and the latter because she was so skinny one could cut glass on her elbows. There was Argalia who was once Arcalia; the beautiful Keleshite whose scimitar could remove a scalp in one swing without damaging the brain. There was Manar al-Fajr, who could say I love you in twelve languages but instead chose instead to use her teeth. There was the Enchantress of Isam, Lady Black Eyes, and her mirror who had no name; she was a woman so beautiful that men would gouge their eyes out for fear of tainting her image with the ugly world, and her mirror who was just as beautiful reflected her in all but name. And last there was the Shepherd; their ringmaster and leader, who united these misfits into a troupe like no other, a grand showcase of sadomasochism and the absurd. For many years Paimon and the Midnight Circus operated in secret, their name whispered among seekers of the perverse. Their audience was always filled with explorers and pleasure seekers, people who relished in observing the bizarre. They loved having a place to laugh not just at the absurdity of their own religion, but also a place to cast it off for one depraved night of queer ecstasy.

Then, they found the circus. While performing their most spectacular show yet to an audience of almost one hundred, the Knights of the Alerion descended on them. It was sudden, and largely unexpected. Within the hour most of the troupe died along with many of the audience members. Blood had stained Mitra’s hands that night. They took Paimon out rather early in the skirmish. He awoke to find himself in a stinking cell with about half a dozen of the audience members. For three days and nights they left him in a cell to starve while Talingarde's finest judges prepared to try them. But on the third night, he heard a whisper from outside of the cell. It was Argalia using the message cantrip. He had survived the raid. Relieved, Paimon believed Argalia was there to rescue him. Unfortunately that was not the case. With Mitra’s supremacy in Talingarde, there was no place for the Circus in Talingarde. A rescue would be nigh impossible, as they were planning to burn Paimon for his blasphemy. Zon-Kuthon was a forbidden deity even before Talingarde outlawed the panthon, and they planned to make Paimon an example. Paimon thanked Argalia and the two said their goodbyes. Then Paimon made a promise that day. If he could somehow escape his execution, he would bring about the fall of Mitra. Until this point, every tragedy in his life was done in the name of the so-called Shining God. If he escaped, vengeance would be his and the Shining God's faithful, no matter their numbers, would have Talingarde no more.

1. How does your character interact with the others within a group?
For all of his love of torture and depravity, his time in the Midnight Circus has made him a team player. People rarely talk about the positives of being in a cult, but one of them is learning how to work with a small group of people to achieve a common goal.

2. What is your character's role in a group?
Party face and secondary melee. A smooth talker and actor by profession, he can be very effective at persuading people without relying on magic or tricks. He’ll also act as a melee debuffer.

3. How is your character not as they seems? I want one or two skills that would surprise others if they found out he knows them. Also include personality traits, positive or negative, that would similarly surprise others.
Paimon stands 6’7 and weighs 227 pounds. Needless to say, he looks like a brute. However he is quite limber and is also quite the contortionist and actor (which is talked about heavily in his background). When one expects him to act with force, he chooses precision. When one expects him to be clumsy, he instead surprises them with grace. He also once had quite the tea cup collection before his troupe was raided.

4. What are your character's goals, conscious and, perhaps, subconscious?
His goal is to free Talingarde to explore without limitations. He finds Mitra’s faith stifling, and would love nothing more than to see it replaced with something equally as ordered but with room for him to carry out his dark desires. Perhaps subconsciously he wants to replace his troupe, and be a part of something that is not quite what it seems again.

5. How easily does your character love? Have they been in love?
The Midnight Circus was a polyamorous troupe that expressed its love through shared pain, ritualistic scarification, religious mortification, and theater. He was in love with all of them even though their numbers were a dozen at their peak. To be in the troupe was to be in love. Most of them are dead now and he longs for the lash of some and to see the humiliation of others once more. Since the raid, he chants their names before going to sleep: Otho, Botho, Clotho, and D’Artagnan; Anaïs and Alaïs; Argalia or Arcalia; Manar al-Fajr; Lady Blackeyes and her mirror; and the Shepherd, their leader, who brought them together with promises of experience without limits. All of them have a place in Paimon’s heart, and the pain of losing them is sometimes overwhelming, but always lovely.

6. Is your character racist at all, either now or in their past?
He thinks halflings should probably be enslaved. Nothing personal, they’d just make cute butlers.

7. All people believe something that is not true, both about the world around them and about themselves. What lies/untruths does your character believe about themselves and the world around them?
Despite being a devout follower of an evil deity and believing wholeheartedly in his doctrine of pain, Paimon does not see himself as evil. He is an explorer, a pioneer who is free to bring pain to others and rule over the weak. He truly believes that Mitra’s faith, and the nation that has built up around it are the truly evil ones. This isn’t to say that he sees himself as set apart from Asmodeans. In fact he believes that he shares a lot in common with the Archfiend’s faithful and sees them as allies in most if not all situations.

8. How is your character about material possessions?
Paimon prefers to wear masks on stage and if he could wear one all the time, he would. Not only is it a symbol that harkens back to his mother, it also protects his face from getting blemished. Only he and his many-true-loves may scar his face, otherwise he gets highly HIGHLY irritated.

9. What does your character perceive their major problems to be?
He, like most actors, is actually fairly self conscious. Because he towers over most people and has a very distinct baritone of a voice, he is always hyper aware of people looking at him and maybe even judging him. Years of theater training have helped to mitigate that some, but he still feels it.

10. What does he perceive the solutions to those problems to be?
Luckily, he is an actor, and he can “fake it” until he makes it. Despite his insecurities, he is actually fairly confident in his acting abilities and feels like he can conceal them through careful behavior and precise misdirection.

11. What are your character's religious beliefs?
He is a devout follower of Zon-Kuthon. Though devout is a strange thing in the religion. I’ve always seen Kuthites and Asmodeans as modern day Jews and Christians respectively. Jews and Christians share Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whereas Kuthites and Asmodeans share a common belief that the strong should rule over the weak. While Asmodeans are more interested in the enslavement, Kuthites are more interested in the lash. Its this dichotomy that makes Nidal and Cheliax work so well together. Nidal, Cheliax’s vassal, agrees more than it disagrees with the Infernal kingdom and Cheliax is tolerant of Nidal’s penchant for pain, as it is useful for their longterm goals. So in the case of a campaign like this one, despite Paimon being a Kuthite, he’ll ultimately be useful to Asmodeus’s faithful. He does not want to rule, he only wants to experience.

12. What does your character fear?
Tetraplegia, not being able to feel anymore and dying before he has a chance to avenge his fallen troupe.

13. How much of a temper does your character have? What sorts of things set them off?
Boredom. He cannot sit in a room with his own thoughts for too long and he actually has trouble getting to sleep without tiring himself on some stimulation or the other. He also hates when a “session”, the torturing of either himself or others, is interrupted. He also does not like Mitra or any open worship of the deity. He is aware he is in a minority and hides it well, but sometimes his impatience bleeds through.

Nearly a century ago, Felrin Vennax was born in Ghastenhall, into a family of craftsmen renowned for the quality and reliability of the clocks they made. While the Vennax family certainly valued the beauty of what they created, they placed far greater significance on what the clocks stood for: order, precision, predictability and, of course, punctuality. They expected things to happen on a schedule, and at their proper time, and by the age of 15 or so, it was clear that Felrin was not following a normal schedule. He had always been a bit…different, as a boy, unlike his younger brother, Symon. The two brothers were as unlike as could be, Symon small and charming where Felrin was awkward both physically and socially. In spite of their differences, the two were very close, and Symon did what he could to help Felrin overcome his challenges. Felrin struggled to fit in to the ordered structure of his household and society at large, leaving his loving parents to hope he would outgrow his social awkwardness, even surliness at times. But a greater trouble arose - as his classmates and sibling grew and came to be young men and women, Felrin seemed to be lagging behind, as if under some spell, or as if he were one of the longer-lived races, an elf or some such.

His parents, being devout worshippers of Mitra as well as believers in the proper, natural order of things, were quite distressed by this. They took the boy to priests and wizards, hoping to understand their son’s ‘condition’, and ‘cure’ him. It soon became clear that the boy was not under a curse or a spell, but no one could provide an answer to why he did not appear to be growing and aging like a normal child. One day, however, when Felrin was in his 18th year, a senior priest of Mitra came to visit the Vennax household and speak to Felrin’s parents. Felrin had always been a curious, even sneaky, child, and knew where he could hide undetected and hear everything said in his father’s sitting room. He felt the priest had almost certainly come to discuss Felrin’s ‘condition’ and made sure to eavesdrop, and what he heard changed his life.

The Mitran priest said that he and other learned priests had discussed Felrin at great length, and had come to the unfortunate conclusion that he was some sort of devil-spawn. The priest had come to collect the boy, and bring him to the temple for study and perhaps exorcism, or worse, if that failed. Felrin heard only the very first words of his father’s protests, for he knew the Mitrans would have their way in the end. The boy fled his home that moment, leaving the world he knew behind and knowing he’d likely never see his parents or beloved brother again, and fled the city by nightfall.

Since then, Felrin has wandered from city to city in Talingarde. He stays for ten years or so in each place, finding work as a valued assistant in the best clockworks in each city, for he learned a great deal in his own family’s workshops before leaving home, and he has a natural mechanical talent and understanding of the inner workings of things. After a decade in one place, though, it begins to become clear to those around him that he is not aging, and questions begin to arise. Felrin learned painfully that he needs to leave where he is before that time – after 12 years in Daveryn, where he felt relatively comfortable and settled, he had to kill a man to protect his secret. Soon after that, he began to develop strange powers, including the ability to see in the dark and transform himself into other creatures, which have helped him keep his true nature a secret and move on. He knew from this that the Mitran priest was right, and that he was likely the spawn of some hell.

Felrin has continued to live in this way for decades, roaming from place to place in a very slow rotation, his resentment towards the upright Mitrans growing with the years. At first, he wished only to be left alone, to do his work and not be forced to move on every time he has established a life for himself somewhere. But when he finally summoned up the courage to return to Ghastenhall, more than 20 years after fleeing the place, he learned that his parents had been arrested, tried and executed for consorting with devils – simply because they were his parents. All he could learn of his brother was that he had vanished. This enraged and saddened him, and he now dreams of fighting back against the rigid righteousness of Talingarde and its people. He yearns for some way to strike a blow against Mitra and her followers, who cost him his family and have caused him to live as a lonely vagabond for all these years, for no reason other than who he is. At present, this yearning consists of little more than fervent prayers for the fall of Mitra and Talingarde. Felrin does not know if his prayers are heard, or by whom, but he has begun to feel a presence of some kind when he utters them, and this has kindled his devotion. He has heard whispers of a dark god, but a just one, called Asmodeus, the Prince of Hell, and offers him an exchange in his prayers: keep him safe from discovery for as long as possible, and in return Felrin will offer whatever services the Dark Prince might ask of him. His worship is a lonely one, but one he feels all the more strongly as a result, and that strength sustains him in his wanderings.

Felrin’s travels have provided him with ample opportunity to study the people around him, and he has used the years well in this regard. Just like the clocks that fascinate him so, people have things that drive them. Felrin studies people, their motivations and habits, their desires and fears, and uses this knowledge to safeguard himself, and to imagine ways that Talingarde might be brought down. Among other things, he has found that humans have short memories, and that he can return to a city after he has not been there for 20 or 30 years without stirring up questions. But he has no idea how long he might live, and wonders how long his 80-year-old game of hide-and-seek will go on. Unfortunately, the question of how long he will live has been taken out of his hands.

After a few years in Matharyn, where Felrin was working in the venerable Glossen family’s clockworks, where he had once been employed nearly forty years earlier, a terrible disaster struck – he fell in love. Tisa, sweet Tisa, was a ward of the Glossen’s, and just a few years younger than Felrin appeared to be. She was free-spirited where Felrin is cautious, irreverent where Felrin is watchful, yet somehow she cared for him. They spent nearly all their free time together, they had spoken of their love, even of a family, and he had almost come to believe it possible. He should have known that it could never come to pass, and that he was lingering in one place longer than was safe, that he would be discovered if he didn’t move on – but he could not bring himself to leave this first, heady taste of love.

The elderly patriarch of the family, who had been Felrin’s employer long ago and who scarcely ever came to the shop, saw Felrin one day and recognized him. The old man’s puzzlement about Felrin’s age could have been explained away as senility, but he called in two younger relatives, who had known Felrin when they were children and had not recognized him. All agreed this was the man they once knew, untouched by age. They peppered him with questions, and Felrin grew evasive and gruff with them. They refused to let him leave the workshop and, though Felrin is a big man, they managed to tackle him while the old man called for the guard.

Felrin was desperate not to be caught, not to lose his chance to battle against Mitra and Talingarde, not to be taken from his love, and not to lose the damned, lifelong game of cat-and-mouse because an old man thought things were not as they should be. Felrin seized a dagger from the belt of one of his assailants and killed him, and then his younger cousin. He then fled out the front door, but in the wealthier districts of Matharyn, the watch is never far away. Felrin ran into the street, battered from the fight, a bloody dagger in his hand and two bodies in the workshop behind him, with no explanation for his actions. In spite of his dire straits, the visceral thrill of killing his assailants, of striking a blow of some kind against the holy Mitran order, filled him with a joyous satisfaction unlike anything he had known. Sadly, before he could savor this feeling, a squad of guardsmen arrived and promptly clubbed him into unconsciousness, and he woke up in a cell in Branderscar Prison.

Felrin looks human enough to a casual observer. His pale skin, shoulder-length black hair, and blue-green eyes are an unusual combination, but not unearthly. He is tall and broad-shouldered, yet slender – but not so slender as to appear alien. Looking closely, though, one begins to note differences about him. He has very large hands, marred in places by odd, bony protrusions. He often wears gloves to cover them, but this is impractical when he’s working on clocks or other delicate work. Felrin has similar bony bumps on his feet and lower legs, usually hidden by a pair of stout boots. Surprisingly, his large hands are very skilled at fine work, and often appear to move of their own accord, the fingertips rolling across each other as if adjusting a minute screw or coiling a tiny spring.

A close look at Felrin, or a glimpse of him without a shirt on, tells an odder tale. He has a series of faint bony ridges down his back, four bumpy, uneven lines running roughly parallel. These odd growths, the ridges, knobs and spurs that mark the taint in his blood, first appeared when he was a young man. In the beginning, the bone trails on his back were only two thin marks, two little cicatrices of bone between his shoulder blades. But these ridges have slowly grown over the years, getting longer and wider, and becoming gradually more knobby and bony. What little Felrin has been able to learn of the hells suggest to him that these markings mean he is Oni-blooded, but this tells him little, for the Oni are essentially shapeless, taking on whatever form whim drives them to. Thus, though Felrin wonders what form he will ultimately grow to have, he can only wait and see. But he has lately felt a tingling, as of new bone growth, in his arms and shoulders.

1. Write five things essential to your character’s background including previous adventures and events.

He is a clockmaker, who loves his work, and what it teaches him about the workings of human kind.

He has been hiding his true nature among the humans of Talingarde for over 80 years, living among them and moving on before it becomes apparent that he does not age as they do.

He despises the judgmental holiness of the Mitrans and mourns for the losses it has caused him.

He does not truly understand who he is, or what he might become, as his tiefling blood asserts itself more strongly.

He has a fierce desire to serve Asmodeus in any way he can, and this desire has sustained him through the lonely decades of his life to date.

2. List your character’s goals and things you want to see happen to your character.

For decades, all Felrin has wanted is to avoid detection, to live and be left alone. Now he has finally been found out, and has realized how deep his anger is. He wants revenge against the Mitrans and their holiness. And, somehow, he wants Tisa returned to him, and for her to not hate him for what he is.

3. List two secrets about your character. Keep in mind secrets your character may not know yet.

Unbeknownst to Felrin, his brother is still alive and, even more shocking, is also a tiefling. Symon began showing his demonic blood soon after Felrin left, and suspicions about Symon led to him fleeing, but also causing their parents to be imprisoned and executed. Just as they were different when they were thought to be humans, Symon and Felrin are different in their tiefling manifestations. Felrin is tall, sinewy and covered in strange growths and scars, ever changing on his skin, and Symon is graceful and charming, with a vaguely feline air about him.

Felrin has invented his own worship of Asmodeus – he has convinced himself that Asmodeus was keeping him safe and hidden, in exchange for services Felrin would one day render. Now that he’s been captured, Felrin is convinced that it is time to repay the Dark Prince for many years of freedom. At the same time, he is distraught that his captivity and death sentence will keep him from fulfilling his obligation to the Lord of Hell.

4. List three people that are tied to the character through blood, romance or honor. Remember to include positive and negative reflections.

Tisa, Felrin’s first and only love - Though they have not enjoyed more of each other than a few stolen kisses, their love for each other is strong and undeniable. Felrin knows he has kept a great secret from her in not exposing his true nature, but he fears that the secret would drive her away, and he could not abide her rejection.

Symon, Felrin’s brother - Felrin assumes him long dead, but Symon is also a fugitive from Mitran law, using his guile and charm, rather than stealth and disguise, to survive.

Martyn Glossen – the eldest son of the family Felrin worked for when he was captured. Martin had dreams of marrying Tisa and becoming the rightful and righteous patriarch of his family, but the girl fell in love with Felrin, and Felrin’s crime and capture left a stain on the family’s reputation. Martyn now hates Felrin and will do anything he can to ensure his execution – and keep him away from Tisa.

5. Describe your character in detail as you see fit. Relate any additional information you believe is important or required. Include personality and mannerisms.

See 'Appearance' spoiler.

1. How does your character interact with the others within a group?

He’s generally quiet and watchful, but suddenly being free to be who he is, at least to some degree, has changed him, and he now expresses himself more than he ever has. That said, he’s got a century of habits to overcome, so he’s still a bit tentative in asserting himself – but when he does, he tends to really let go, which is what caused him to kill two men and be captured in the street, exulting in the crime.

2. What is your character's role in a group?

Melee, skill, and a touch of the divine.

3. How is your character not as they seems? I want one or two skills that would surprise others if they found out he knows them. Also include personality traits, positive or negative, that would similarly surprise others.

In spite of his great strength, and the occasional savage ferocity that can surface in him, Felrin is most at home when doing the fine work of building and repairing clocks and other delicate mechanisms.

Though Felrin’s appearance has grown rather strange and fierce-looking and as his tiefling blood manifests, he still has a hunger for companions, even friends. He has spent many years dreaming of upsetting the rigid, righteous order of Talingarde, and craves a group of like-minded souls to join him in doing so.

Felrin has abilities that he has not yet revealed to his captors. When he was caught, he considered transforming into some monster and fighting his way free, but feared that he would be killed instantly – and in any case, he was knocked out before he could do so. Thus, he has powers available to him – his ability to change his form, and some gifts granted him by Asmodeus – that he hopes could aid an escape attempt.

4. What are your character's goals, conscious and, perhaps, subconscious?

Felrin’s goals have recently undergone a huge change. He has spent eighty years merely trying to not be noticed, and now he has failed at that. In part, this is a crushing disappointment to him, as he has failed at a task he’s worked at for nearly a century. On the other hand, he can finally be who he truly is, even if he’s doing so in prison and awaiting execution. He knows it’s impossible, but his goal now is to exact revenge on the society that forced him into hiding, that killed his parents, that cost him his life in so many ways, simply because of what is in his blood.

The other change that has occurred in his life is his love for Tisa, and it has given him another seemingly impossible goal: to be reunited with her and spend his life with her.

5. How easily does your character love? Have they been in love?

Until the last few years, Felrin had been loveless for decades, the love of his family a distant memory, tainted by the pain of their loss and the knowledge that his parents had been executed because of him. But with Tisa, he had tasted a different sort of love, sweeter and more intoxicating than any emotion he has known.

6. Is your character racist at all, either now or in their past?

He has a well-developed hatred for worshippers of Mitra. Though it is less profound, he also has a serious distrust and dislike of humans in general, as all the humans he has known in his life have judged him for the taint in his blood.

7. All people believe something that is not true, both about the world around them and about themselves. What lies/untruths does your character believe about themselves and the world around them?

Felrin believes that if he could return to Tisa, tell her the truth about himself and his blood, that she would still love him and somehow come to be with him. In truth, she would almost certainly reject him out of hand as a devil-spawn monster.

Felrin despises the righteous, holy order imposed on Talingarde by the worship of Mitra, and feels that that its overthrow and replacement with a reign under Asmodeus will make it a better place. While such a place will be more suitable for someone like him, it will still be a rigid order, just imposed by a different force. Felrin’s thirst for revenge for his suffering blinds him to this reality.

8. How is your character about material possessions?

He really cares nothing for material things. In his life of hiding, he has had to abandon everything several times before and learned that material things just don’t matter.

9. What does your character perceive their major problems to be?

Well, he’s committed himself to serving Asmodeus’ will, yet he’s locked up and likely to be executed. Felrin has little formal knowledge of the ways of Asmodeus, but he is concerned that the Dark Prince will be dissatisfied if he fails to fulfill his side of their bargain. He also loves a human woman who may have already rejected him for his crime, and if she hasn’t, she’ll almost certainly reject him if she finds out that he has the blood of hell running through his veins.

10. What does he perceive the solutions to those problems to be?

In order to do Asmodeus’ will on earth, he must somehow escape from Branderscar. He has pondered how to reclaim Tisa’s love, gone around and around in his head and prayed for guidance, but he has no idea what the solution might be.

11. What are your character's religious beliefs? He

As described above, he has developed his own secret worship of Asmodeus. He feels that he has a unique connection to Asmodeus and serves his will in Talingarde. If offered access to a church of Asmodeus, however, he would joyfully take part in its worship, praising the Dark Prince in company with other worshippers – but he’d still believe he was more strongly connected to his god than most others.

12. What does your character fear?

He fears dying with his obligation to Asmodeus unfulfilled, as the eternal tortures he’s likely to suffer will pale in comparison to his suffering so far in life.

13. How much of a temper does your character have? What sorts of things set them off?

Felrin is accustomed to restraining himself, as he’s practiced it his whole, long life. With his capture and imprisonment, however, he has thrown off much of this restraint and he can feel an explosive anger simmering just below the surface. Because he has stifled his anger for so long, it is hard to know exactly what will set him off – but snap judgments and decisions based on appearances and assumptions would certainly do it.

1. Your experience with the rules

I’ve been playing D&D since 1981, and Pathfinder for about three years. I don’t have instant recall of all the rules, but I know the system well and know where to find what I need.

2. Your experience with PbP

I started in my first PbP a little over 18 months ago. Almost 7,000 posts later, I find it to be a very rewarding, fun way to play the game. I’ve had a few experiences where DM’s were not terribly thorough or exacting in their selection processes and have suffered through some pretty poor writing – and just plain crappy spelling (I was raised by an editor and literally got ‘grammar tickets’ as a kid). As a result, I’m a lot more selective in what I take the time to apply for.

3. Expectations for playing and what you want out of the experience

I want to have fun. I want to laugh and make others laugh. I want to have those moments where I’m reading a post and my heart starts to pound as I imagine what’s coming next. I want to try to create those moments for others. I want to feel the relationships build between characters in the story, so the injury or death of one really means something, and the triumph or failure of us all means even more.
I post frequently, and write carefully, and greatly appreciate it when others do the same.

4. Philosophy as a PbP player

As I said above, the building of relationships among the characters in a PbP means a lot to me, and I try to work that in from the very beginning of the story. I speak to other characters, I ask them things and tell them things and include my thoughts in what I write so they get to know me a bit better as well. That said, I also really enjoy a brutal, challenging fight where we just barely survive by working together.

5. Why you are applying to this game?

I’m particular about what I apply to, and I’ve been trolling the recruitment board for a Way of the Wicked game that looked like it would deliver a good experience. This looks like it could do that, and then some.

6. Define what you think good role-playing is in PbP.

My answer to this is similar to #4 above: push and pull with other players to build relationships, having an idea where your character is going so there’s inner development as well as connection to others, and not taking myself too seriously. I have a number of characters who are the class clown of the party, and others where I’m the grim, antisocial type, or somewhere between these two poles – I like to mix up the kinds of characters I play, and I like to express the moods of an individual character depending on the circumstances. Having a single-note sort of character works well to make the persona clear in a short game like a PFS scenario, but gets old over the course of a longer adventure.

7. What is your experience with this adventure path?

I have started this AP twice, both times as a PbP. The first time we didn’t even get out of Branderscar, but it was still fun. The second time we escaped, made it to the big house (being vague to avoid spoilers) and underwent some of the tests there, though I know the DM customized those a lot, so I don’t know how much of the story-as-written I’ve actually played. I found the setting and tone to be really excellent, and I loved the feeling of just scraping by with what you had and being on the run, and the air of menace throughout was fantastic. I also played MinionQuest II, so I have a feel for what things are like later in the campaign, but have not had direct experience with the main adventure path at that stage.

Stat rolls: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
Stat rolls: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10
Stat rolls: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
Stat rolls: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

BACKGROUND AND CONCEPT ELEMENTS
1) Aylene is a selfish, self-advancing schemer with nearly zero moral qualms about achieving her goals. She has caused several citizens to be punished, exiled, or condemned to death as a result of her plans. This causes her no guilt.
2) She has the ability to change forms at will, using the kitsune feat "Realistic Likeness." She can change her shape to that of any individual that she has met. She has no compunction about shapeshifting into a male form, though she prefers to stay in one of three forms: her true kitsune form, her true human form, and her adopted form of Aylene Sokorra.
3) Aylene is a frequent and gifted liar. She spins a constant web of lies, and is quite good at keeping track of the details of her lies and fitting new lies in without disrupting the whole. She is also capable of remembering information about many of her aliases, and uses them frequently in her schemes.
4) Aylene venerates Norberger and appreciates the twisted teachings of Zon-Kuthon. The forbidden knowledge of Asmodeus also impressed her greatly. She covets the forbidden, bristling at the self-righteous insistence that the religions are banned. Her guise of Aylene was that of a loyal Mitran, and she knows enough to pass as a true believer.
5) She is quite prideful and believes that she is the greatest mind to arrive in Talingarde in some time. She believes that her capture was luck and laziness on her part, but she has no doubt that she can turn her situation around quickly through her unique talents.

GOALS
1) Aylene wants to discover as much forbidden knowledge as she can, and wants to create a chaotic environment in which she can gain true power. Her long-standing hatred of the Mitrans who raised her drives her as well to hope to weaken and damage the church as much as possible.
2) I would like to add 4 Oracle levels and use her kitsune magic racial trait to qualify for Mystic Theurge starting at level 6, focusing almost entirely on enchantment magic.

SECRETS
1) Aylene has dozens of secrets spread amid her various identities. The only one that she would want to remain secret from all of her enemies is her half-elf lover. The young man, Clarke Almann, was just a mark that she needed to seduce in a plan involving blackmail of his employer. She found him charming and witty, and developed some sort of feelings for him. He knows only one of her guises, that of the impressionable barmaid Estella, and she would prefer to keep it that way.
2) Aylene's father is a rakshasa named Takajiin who took the guise of a seafaring trader. He actually remained on the island with schemes of his own. He kept an eye on Aylene's development and nudged it when necessary, spreading rumors amid the children and encouraging Thumas to be cruel in the guise of his fellow clerics. When she reached out to look for Asmodeans, it was he that turned her into the inquisitors. He hopes to see her pass through the experience stronger; if not, she was unworthy of his bloodline. Should she become useful to his own plans, he may make contact with her to develop her further.

IMPORTANT PEOPLE
1) Clarke Almann, Half-elf Male: A young barrister who worked his way through school, Clarke is a good and strongly moral man. The woman that he has been courting appears to him to be a barmaid, but he is completely unaware that the barmaid is simply one of many aliases of Aylene's. She enjoys his company greatly, and hates that she does.
2) Bishop Thumas Carvell, Human Male: His career survived the scandal that Aylene brought upon him because of his own incriminating information about the preferences of some of his superiors. He schemed his own way into elevation to a higher rank, and seeks to impose his harsh discipline upon all of Talingarde.
3) Jayanna Tellis, Human Female: She was one of the few children at the orphanage who was kind to Aylene, who hired her as a servant. Aylene cares for Jayanna and seeks to give her a decent life, though Jayanna does not know their childhood relationship.

MEMORIES, MANNERISMS, AND QUIRKS
1) She is kind to children as the result of the cruelty shown to her as a child. She will generally not harm children or cause them to directly come to harm through her plans and schemes.
2) Aylene constantly flexes her hands because of the unnatural state of her joints. She must focus to keep it to a minimum when she is in another form from her natural kitsune form.
3) She has never personally murdered anyone despite her veneration of Norberger. She has used others to do so, but never actually committed the deed herself. She wants to do so at some point, but has convinced herself that it is easier and cleaner to get others to do it.

1. How does your character interact with the others within a group?
If Aylene reveals her true nature, she will treat the other members fairly well. It may be a difficult transition to a place of relative trust. If she doesn't, she will lie to them and try to jockey for social position using whatever means necessary.
2. What is your character's role in a group?
Her role is that of infiltration, espionage, and control. She uses her mind control abilities to develop friends and allies when her other skills of lying and disguise fail.
3. How is your character not as they seems? I want one or two skills that would surprise others if they found out he knows them. Also include personality traits, positive or negative, that would similarly surprise others.
Aylene is, almost by definition, not what she seems. The only time that she is what she seems is when she shifts into her natural state. She doesn't like being in that condition in front of others, however. She finds herself self-conscious in either her natural kitsune or natural human forms. She thinks of herself as a monster, even as she thinks of herself as evolved past humans.
4. What are your character's goals, conscious and, perhaps, subconscious?
Her goals are to amass power and influence people to her own agendas. She wants to spread as much chaos as the system will take without breaking down into anarchy, and use the chaos to grow her own power and status.
5. How easily does your character love? Have they been in love?
Aylene does not love easily. Whether she would admit it or not, she is in love - to an extent - with Clarke.
6. Is your character racist at all, either now or in their past?
She is not a racist, though she sees almost everyone as unimportant and dehumanized.
7. All people believe something that is not true, both about the world around them and about themselves. What lies/untruths does your character believe about themselves and the world around them?
Aylene believes that she needs no one and out only for herself, but she keeps a soft spot for several people. She can be surprisingly loyal at certain times in certain conditions.
8. How is your character about material possessions?
She absolutely covets material possessions. The destruction of her estate collected as Aylene will fill her with rage.
9. What does your character perceive their major problems to be?
At this point, Aylene mourns the loss of status and power in this identity becoming compromised. Her possibily impending doom doesn't bother her, as she believes that she can find a solution to that problem easily.
10. What does he perceive the solutions to those problems to be?
She wants to re-establish an identity of power, either through creating a new one, restoring Aylene, or adopting that of someone already in the power structure.
11. What are your character's religious beliefs?
Aylene hate Mitra, and is devoted to Norberger - though she dabbles in the teachings of Asmodeus and Zon-Kuthon.
12. What does your character fear?
She fears powerlessness. She doesn't want to be beholden to anyone ever again, or subject to the whims or fancies of another.
13. How much of a temper does your character have? What sorts of things set them off?
Aylene has almost no temper. She is content to let plans run for long periods of time and for revenge to be cold and long-coming. Anyone who stands in her way, knowingly or not, angers her. She also detests being disrespected, and once had a man kill his wife for the promise of a nubile young woman in retaliation for a nasty cutting comment made by the wife.

Aylene has three main forms, though she can shift into the likeness of anyone that she has met. The first of these forms - the most natural to her - is her kitsune form. She has the face of a fox with red fur. The second is that of her natural human form, the face she wore as a child. She had blood red hair and very pale skin, looking almost inhuman in appearance. Her third form is that of Aylene, a beautiful young woman with soft red hair, a generous figure, and a dazzling smile. Aylene is the dream of many of the young noblemen in the social circles that she disrupts. In any of the forms that she takes, she dislikes taking that of an ugly or even plain person; she prefers red-haired, beautiful women and dark-haired, distinguished men to mimic. She has been known to sit in the park at times watching people, simply to find new faces to wear as necessary.

Victor should be dead by now, so everyone keeps telling him, from his cousin Thomas as they were playing knights as children, to his father, Faerin Auroran Karash, who never seemed to get over the fact that Victor had risen from his sickbed as a child, and never seemed to have forgiven Victor for not being what he expected, pure, good and healthy either, and now to Sir Balin who said he was a disgrace to everything the church of Mitra stood for. Baah! Everyone kept saying that he should be dead by now, yet he kept living, just to spite them, he kept on living, a regular dead man walking. Maybe this cell would finally be what killed him, or the executioners axe, or was he to burn? That might prove an interesting experiment seeing as he was inherently resistant to fire. To hell with Mitra and everything she stood for, false prophets all of them! With a first hand view of the inner workings of the church and it's inquisition Victor could tell you that not one in ten showed the conviction in faith to manifest any sort of divine blessings, not one in ten was anything more than a liar in golden robes. Clerics? Baah! False prophets and preachers of a weak faith convenient to their own weak selves, selfish bastards who craved nothing more than a soft bed and a supple body to warm it for them, gold was the only thing they understood or revered. And paladins? Huh? Heraldry and gilded armor does not make a paladin, the texts talk about paladins, men and women whose virtue is so pure that they manifest the powers of good in every action they make. Curing diseases with a mere touch of their hands, their mere presence a ward against fear and evil, their weapons a bane against evil. There were no paladins on this day, only trumped up knights filled with their own egos, at least that was the only sort of paladin Victor had met. Victor could manifest power, oh yes, he could. Not just the power of controlling a mans fate, bound in leather and iron to a sturdy oaken chair in the inquisition dungeons, that was power of a different sort, no, his mere touch could drain a man of his stamina and could cause a man pain for every lie he told, he had shown and manifested the power granted by Asmodeus, and now they would condemn him for it.

Victor had joined the church when all hopes had finally been crushed that he might join the ranks of the Knights of the Alerion, his family traced their lineage to the Battle of Tamberlyn, where Victor's great-grandfather, Aurus Karash, a 'paladin' of Mitra, had been among the ranks to hold the bridge, so Victor's denial into the knights ranks had seemed like the final blow to House Karashs ambitions to gleam some prestige out of the celestial blooded child born to them. Well, the final blow 'till now anyway. When Victor had been born the vultures of the ailing House Karash had all squealed with joy, his burnished-copper skin and the golden sheen to his blond hair could mean only one thing; the blood of celestials ran through the veins of House Karesh. The implications were staggering and Victors father, a third son of the fourth son born to a maid who was said have died at childbirth, soon became the most popular man to have at any party or minor gathering of every person of any import who could claim any iota of relation to the celestial child, and so Victor grew up in castles, mansions and manors, surrounded by doting aunts and uncles all claiming the title of favorite and all wanting the golden boy to live with them for one reason or another.

And so Victor grew up with plenty. Plenty of food, plenty of clothes, plenty of the loving attentions of his elders and plenty of the jealous attentions of his peers. Victor was far from the only child of his generation, there was Thomas and Bertrin, brothers separated by two years who loved nothing better than wrestling, playing tag, Knights and Knaves with the rest of the herd of boys, Antoin, Mikail and Sustian, and other physically demanding games, friendly games on the surface in which the strong and healthy Victor always excelled in despite not being the eldest, but games ripe with competition and jealousy, Victor had lost count of how many times Thomas said, untruly, that Victor should be dead in Knights and Knaves or that Victor had not tagged him. As boys are, they soon split into two rivaling groups, one led by Victor with Mikail and Sustian, and the other led by Thomas, ever competitive and ever jealous. And then there were the girls, Hana, Mara, Kiathrin and Admara, led by Hana they themselves wanted the attentions of Victor as well, bickering among themselves about his manner of dress and behavior, all believing they knew best, just like their mothers and aunts, all but Admara, blessed Admara, loving Admara.

She had been the only one who never demanded anything from Victor, she demanded no flowers, no special behaviors and no tokens of any kind, she had been the only one where Victor could relax and be himself with. He had enjoyed he company since he could first remember her, collecting seashells by the Cambryan Bay, picking apples from the orchards in a Heartlands manor, catching fireflies in warm summer by the southern shore and sitting together in silence in large gatherings and, as they grew to teens, kissing in the hay loft of Lerkvale Ranch. Their love had been perfect, pure and innocent, it had the blessing of all around and it was the cause of many a jealous pang and bickering as well. As perfect as the love was it was not meant to last. On a perfect summer night, warm, calm and quiet, the two of them fell asleep in the hayloft, waking up to the smell of a fire burning Victor, the golden boy, the picture of health and the pillar on which all of House Karash's ambitions rested upon, jumped to action. Looking around to see the hayloft aflame he gathered his beloved in his arms and made to carry her to safety, but he never made it. The floor gave out and the two were buried in burning beams and hay, Victor lived, though he was told he should be dead, but Admara did not.

Surviving solely because of his angelic heritage, his innate resistance to fire, Victor suffered few burns though some broken bones but what he suffered the most was the loss of his love. Finding little solace in the comforts of his family and friends he grew recluse and distant, finding excuses to be alone and places to hide when could not.

A year of melancholy ended on his 18th birthday with Victor bound to bed, feaver burning hot with cold sweats running for days, physicians where clueless and clerics useless as nothing seemed to help alleviate Victors pains as spasm wracked his body and liquids seemed to run from his every orifice. Days on days and weeks on weeks the golden boy grew thinner and paler, everyone believed he would die. Victor heard them talk through the haze of pain, the physicians, the clerics and his father, they all agreed; there was nothing to be done, his body was rejecting his angelic blood, the boy would die, the amazing fact was that he had not done so already. But Victor heard them, and he hated them for their words and he grew to hate his family and their guile as he thought on the smiling faces of aunts, uncles and cousins, how they must leer at him now, how they must rejoice in the secret places of their hearts as he lay there, helpless, wracked with pain, a prisoner in his own body unable to control his feces. Roiling his hate into anger he fought, he fought for breath and he fought for control of his muscles, eventual his body calmed and the fever passed but his anger boiled. Rising shakingly from his bead Victor was forever changed, what should have killed him certainly had not made him stronger. His coppery skin had drained of luster on his golden hair had turned auburn, no longer catching and reflecting the light as it had, he was thinner and every movement stole his breath away and caused him to sweat from effort, causing him dizzy spells as if his lives blood now refused to flow through his body. But the change was not just physical, but mental as well.

Now Victor didn't need to make excuses to not attend every gathering ever held, everyone knew his condition, his aching joints and his lack of stamina apparent as he ran out of breath in the smallest of tasks as walking down the stairs. Despite this Victors father held onto the hope that the boy might recover, after all the boy was still alive, but as a year passed that hope turned to dust. Victor displayed no increase in stamina, his appearance did not improve and neither did his attitude, but under his fathers goading Victor tried, he swung a sword and shot a bow with a trainer, he dressed in armor and nearly killed himself trying to ride a horse and Victor grew stronger, but his pains did not subside and his stamina did not improve, at the end of the year Victor even graced his father with applying to join the Knights of Alerion, an application that was promptly rejected as Victor added to the fires of his anger by humiliating himself in the tryouts, courtesy of his cousin Thomas.

The humiliation drove Victor to seek out ways to separate himself from his family and it's estates and his escape route ended up being the holy church of Mitra in Matharyn. Fleeing the silent stares and the quiet accusations.

Accepted with open arms into the fold of the church Victor lost himself in studies in the great library of Matharyn, spending hours, days, weeks and months and years gleaning texts and participating in holy rituals, memorizing prayers and sermons and playng the role of a dutiful acolyte, what Victor truly wanted was answers. Why was his body so week? What had caused his illness and was there no cure? Spending 3 years in the church Victor learnt a lot of things, first, humans are not to be trusted, and second, the love of Mitra is a lie.

In his quest for answers Victor inadvertedly studied religious texts, anotomy and his own origin, his quest for knowledge led him down many paths and eventually his thirst for answers drew the attentions on the inquisition. They believed him to hold exactly the right qualities that they wanted, a hunger for the truth and a restlessness in seeking it, knowledge of the churches teachings and above all, a dispasionate mannerism when it came to the guilt of others. That, and his studies in anotomy, landed him in training with the inquisition where he distinguished himself in their dungeons.

But Victors thirst for answers led him on the path of the forsaken, disillusioned by watching the men on the church at work he grew to resent them for their lack of displays of divine power, how could his answers lie here if there was no manifestation of divinity? Frustrated by his own lack of progress in the matter he started offering up prayers to the churches arch enamy, Asmodeus himself, as noone else seemed to be answering Victor decided that he might as well try that farce too, swearing himself to the Prince of Hell if he would show him the the path to power, if he would show him they way to his divinty, as noone else would, Victor offered up to serve the Dark Prince and to see that his place was restored in the pantheon of Talingard. With little or no hope of success Victor was taken by surprise when he manifested power during a session in the cells, nearly killing his subject.

Coming to comfort with his newly manifest powers with time Victor started excelling at information retrival, so much so that he unknowingly drew the eyes of the inquisition himself. Coming in for work one morning, groggy and dishelved and feeling weaker than ever, not rightly knowing what had transpired the night before, how he got home or who he had been with, Victor was met by armed knights and clapped in irons and charged, confused at what was happening he was led away and charged with heresy.

I had to cut the last paragraph short to keep with the deadline but my intent is that Victor was being observed by a vampire, his own great grandfather, and was bitten the night before he was arrested.

1. Write five things essential to your character’s background including previous adventures and events.

*Falling ill as a child; A robust and healthy child, a blessing on his house, Victor fell ill when he was 11, a result of his heritage coming forth and thought to be a clear sign that his human heritage was tainted and unworthy of the glory of a child of celestial descent, leaving him stiff with constant joint pains and with poor stamina, prone to illness and unable to participate in the children games.

*Joining the Church of Mirta and subsequently being accepted into the ranks of the inquisition.

*His first torture session. Having a helpless individual in front of him that he was actually allowed to hurt made something click in Victor. The power he held over the man, a butcher who was thought to have information about an Asmodean cult but admitted, under Victors ministrations, to help make a local crime syndicates dead bodies disappear.

*The loss of his childhood love, Admara, in a fire which he survived.

*The night before he got arrested for heresy, Victor was taken completely by surprise on the streets of Matharyn and knocked unconscious before being bitten by a vampire. Victor is groggy on the memory and unsure of what happened, but he's still alive (Victor grows up with the knowledge that he should be dead from his disease but he's hell bent on staying alive just to thwart his family and the rest of the cosmos, cousins and the would be friends of his youth, he redirects his constant pains into hate for everyone that is physically healthy, dexterous and strong and everyone else on general principle. As a result he sees everything as a challenge and he is determined to overcome).

2. List your character’s goals and things you want to see happen to your character.

*Victor wants to be healthy again, to be free from the aches in his body and to regain his stamina. He wants to see his family collapse socialy and financialy and he wants to climb to the top of their power ladder, to look down on them in their squalor as they have done to him.

*Become a Vampire. I want to see him grow into a full-fledged vampire inquisitor. And along those lines I want him to find out who his vampire master is and eventually surpass and kill him.

3. List two secrets about your character. Keep in mind secrets your character may not know yet.

*The vampire that bit Victor is actually his great-grandfather, Aurus Karash, who knew that Victor would be arrested the day after.

4. List three people that are tied to the character through blood, romance or honor. Remember to include positive and negative reflections.

*His father, Faerin Auroran Karash, who doesn't really want to know what his son is up. Having had ambitions to use Victors heritage to increase his own prestige he is deeply disappointed with how things stand and still harbors hopes that Victor will recover and marry, putting his plans back on track.

*His cousin, Thomas Karash, one year Victors senior and a constant rival, Victor believes that he revels is his downfall but in truth he is wracked with a guilty conscience about his cousins current status.

5. Describe your character in detail as you see fit. Relate any additional information you believe is important or required. Include personality and mannerisms.

*Victor is tall and lean, gaunt, skinny and sickly. His skin is the shade of bronze with no luster and his hair is a mat of frayed, auburn locks. His eyes are a dull green and look like they are loosing their color. Victor rarely smiles and on the ocataion it is a thin liped one, he tends to stare at peoples faces rather than meet their eyes, inspecting their body language and facial expressions in an dispassionate manner. The only time Victor locks gazes with anyone is when he is trying to glean answers from them, usually with said person tied to a chair with plenty of Victors trade instruments around.

1. How does your character interact with the others within a group?

Victor is content to let others take the lead if they will and fill up any gaps as he sees them, if the gap is that of leadership, then Victor will fill that too.

2. What is your character's role in a group?

Skills, melee and a touch of divine magic. He can socialize and infiltrate by disguise and act as the party face.

3. How is your character not as they seems? I want one or two skills that would surprise others if they found out he knows them. Also include personality traits, positive or negative, that would similarly surprise others.

He is much stronger than his frame would suggest, a result of his celestial decent. He enjoys watching waterlilies floating around and loves a quiet spot under the shade of a tree in the sun, muching on apples as he used to do in the company of Admara. Victor has a soft side for those who show that they want nothing from him but his company.

4. What are your character's goals, conscious and, perhaps, subconscious?

Victor wants to healthy again, he wants his stamina and the reflexes of his youth back, he wants to make his family hurt and he wants to expose Mitrans as the liars he believes they are. Seacretly he wants Admara to come back.

5. How easily does your character love? Have they been in love?

Not easily, he is still in love with his childhood love Admara.

6. Is your character racist at all, either now or in their past?

No, though he believes that there is a special place in hell for humans.

7. All people believe something that is not true, both about the world around them and about themselves. What lies/untruths does your character believe about themselves and the world around them?

Hmm... Haven't though so much about this. Victor believes that his family is full of hypocrites when their actually pretty decent people, he believes that the church of Mitra is spewing lies.

8. How is your character about material possessions?

Frivalous. He grew up with plenty and has never had to worry about money or it's worth.

9. What does your character perceive their major problems to be?

The pain in his joints and his lack of stamina, he also believes himself to be too kind a person as his anger at his family causes him guilt.

10. What does he perceive the solutions to those problems to be?

In short; Divine Power.

11. What are your character's religious beliefs?

Victor believes that his way to divine power, Asmodeus, has just as much right as others and that the Mitran way is a lie.

12. What does your character fear?

Dying. His brushes with death have made him take a cynical view on life and he always wonders if this thing or that thing will finally kill him so he can act like he has a deathwish but seacretly he fears death.

13. How much of a temper does your character have? What sorts of things set them off?

Actually quite a hot one. The smallest things can set him off though he is implosive rather than explosive, he bottles up his anger and is aiming at going postal on Talingard in quiet, subtle ways in a dark cellar with a heavy oaken chair with leather straps and chains.