GM Teleute's Curse of the Crimson Throne PFRPG

Game Master Kris Vanhoyland

I. Who is Xilfæ-îr?
Xilfæ-îr is a hardened and lucky survivor. She survived a childhood as
maltreated and tortured slave in a drow household. She survived trying to
emasculate the Korvosan crime boss she had been sold to. Then, in a kinder twist
of fate, she was brought up from the depths of trying to survive from one day to
the next.

II. Pain in the Darkness, Pain in the Light
Being born a half-drow bastard in a drow household means a slave's life filled
with suffering and torment. Such was Xilfæ-îr's start in life. She was was one
of the few half-drow slaves to survive to adolescence. Her heinous upbringing
gives her a flinty mind, and a body that is agile and resilient.

Being a survivor, and showing martial promise, Xilfæ-îr was put into a caravan
bound for the surface world to sell ilicit luxury goods. However, the caravan
was ambushed by mercenaries intent on stamping out trading with the Underdark.

The caravan was quickly overcome. By some strange twist of fate, Xilfæ-îr was
knocked out early in the fighting and was taken prisoner. The mercenaries
immediately struck camp for Korvosa with their booty and prisoners.

This is when Xilfæ-îr experienced her first sunrise. She rarely encountered
anything as bright as a candle. Despite hearing of sunlight, Xilfæ-îr was
ill-prepared. She howled and shuddered in pain, surprise and, fear. He captors
had not paid her much mind to then, as she was loaded on a wagon with other
prisoners. Her reaction made clear her half-drow nature.

Too proud to kill any helpless prisoners, the mercenaries' leaders finally
decided to sell Xilfæ-îr off to the shady orphanage owned by Gaedren Lamm. They
were pleased with themselves, because they successfully hoodwinked a criminal.
Gaedren had not bought a delicate flower of a half-elf but a caustic thorn.

Gaedren soon realized he been swindled for a change. No amount of threats,
brow-beating, abuse, or starvation could faze Xilfæ-îr. She survived worse than
him as a matter of course. He only tolerated her, barely, because he was fearful
of the drow blood in her.

Matters came to a head between Xilfæ-îr within days. Gaedren berated her in
front of all his "Little Lamms" for shoddy work delivering Shiver, so he could
avoid paying her for a job she did to perfection. Xilfæ-îr would have none of
that. She unleashed a vicious tirade of her own, including colourful and
breathtakingly rude anecdotes about his fondness for children and animals.

Xilfæ-îr drove her point home by using her knee to drive Gaedren's manhood
towards his lungs. Clutching himself, writhing in agony, and incandescent with
rage, Gaedren ordered the Little Lamms to beat Xilfæ-îr to death for an extra
silver piece. EACH!

Gaedren himself was incapacitated and in no condition to check if Xilfæ-îr was
truly dead. He did not know his orphans had only put on a good show. They left
her near death's door. But none wanted to land the fatal blow after what she did
to their hated boss. They left her for dead on a trash heap as Gaedren demanded.
All secretly prayed she would survive to come back to haunt him anew.

As it turned out, their prayers were answered. Although who answered them
exactly, none can say.

III. A New Beginning
With the sun rising on her battered form, Xilfæ-îr started groaning in pain with
what little strength was left her. A passerby, Baalla, heard Xilfæ-îr's pitiful
sounds, went to to investigate, and brought Xilfæ-îr from the brink of death
with her healing skill. She ran home, returning with her husband, Jaagryn, to
bring the battered and unconscious waif home.

They took Xilfæ-îr to their apothecary in the Midland district, and nursed
Xilfæ-îr back to health. Baalla and Jaagryn are not simple folk. They are
retired adventurers of some skill. She is a sorceress, and he a bard. But they
are too kindly to refuse healing a half-drow when most in Korvosa would not.
Xilfæ-îr also reminds them of their daughter, who was murdered at about
Xilfæ-îr's age.

Baalla and Jaagryn were a puzzle to Xilfæ-îr at first. The first people she met
who were kind to her for the sake of being kind. Soon enough, Baalla and Jaagryn
became her parents, in truth, if not in law.

With difficulty, Baalla and Jaagryn convinced a magus they know, Seiseu, to
train Xilfæ-îr. Seiseu agreed when she saw for herself the boundless devotion
Xilfæ-îr has for Jaagryn Baalla and Jaagryn. She was also pleasantly surprised
with Xilfæ-îr's talents and dedication to training.

While training under Seiseu, Xilfæ-îr put much time and effort into learning how
to pass her self off as a human. She is proud of this. It is seldom that anyone
walking by her in the streets of Korvosa even suspects she is not fully human.
I want to revise this one paragraph a bit.

Sunlight is still a problem for Xilfæ-îr, though. She cannot bear the outdoors
during the day except when heavily overcast. On the other hand a few thieves in
the night have received painful … reprimands … from Xilfæ-îr for trying to prey
on the home of Baalla and Jaagryn.

The kindness of Baalla and Jaagryn taught Xilfæ-îr friendship and loyalty for
their own sake. She is therefore fiercely loyal to anyone who befriends her.
There are, however, still a few dark edges from her drow upbringing. She
intensely focuses on retribution against any who wrong Baalla, Jaagryn, her
friends or herself.

She still remembers Gaedren, of course. And does not like what she remembers.
She wants to settle the score with Gaedren. Sooner rather than later.

More importantly, Xilfæ-îr wants to transcend survival and make a name for
herself. The recent unrest in Korvosa makes the time right for her to do just that.

I. INTRODUCTION
It's said some people will do anything for money. Silvinia has done quite a bit more than most - selling favors for food, selling Shiver for shelter, selling herself for survival, until finally selling her soul in exchange for a sliver of salvation... of serenity... of satisfaction.

II. UNHAPPY CHILDHOOD
Silvinia’s childhood was thrice-cursed: born demon-blooded, abandoned at birth, and abused by a long series of unknown adopters. She doesn't blame her birth parents -- whoever they are -- for ‘exposing’ her as an infant to presumed death in the Varisian wilds. There’s even some twisted logic to it, given the superficial similarity the uneducated might posit between the horns on her head, which mark her demonic heritage, and the goat-like antlers of fey like the satyr and faun. Silvinia likes to imagine that her well-intentioned but misguided parents had hoped some good forest fairies would adopt and raise her as their own.

As it happened, however, she was found by figures far less noble, who for the sake of a quick and dirty profit sold her as a supernatural novelty to unsavory parties intrigued by the freakish scaly-skinned, demon-horned baby. Who knows how many times she changed hands in those earliest years of her pitiable life? But somehow, as a small child, she eventually ended up in the possession of one of the many crass street thugs and cruel slumlords who populate the extensive Korvosan criminal underground -- the infamous Gaedran Lamm.

To her craven criminal captor, Silvinia was a precious boon -- so much more than just another easy source of income. At first, she was sent out on the streets just to beg, other times to sell trinkets or baubles. But she soon proved to be something of a valuable novelty herself, drawing attention by the mere fact that she was tiefling. And she had other-worldly qualities about her, too -- most of all a kind of pit-born charisma that seemed to consistently draw larger-than-average sales. Soon enough, while still a young girl, she was entrusted with some of Lamm’s most lucrative contracts, like selling Shiver to drug-addicted aristocrats.

But Silvinia’s ‘gifts’ were yet another curse, as her ‘owner’ -- alternately contemptuous and terrified of her preternatural ancestry -- treated Silvinia even more inhumanely than her humanoid counterparts in the child racket ring. Among the ‘Little Lamms’, Silvinia was often tortured when others were merely beaten. She was starved when others were simply cut rations. And she was caged, and chained, and cruelly treated, even by her fellow unfortunate slaves.

III. UNLIKELY TRANSFORMATION
Silvinia’s redemption came in the unlikely form of one of Lamm’s Shiver clients -- a nobleman whom she discovered also occupied a position of influence in the Church of Abadar. Desperate to escape Lamm’s clutches -- and knowing that an Abadaran would never take her in for charity alone -- Silvinia made a potentially lucrative proposal, basically offering herself as slave to the nobleman in exchange for rescue from her evil crime lord. The nobleman, seeking to curry favor with his religious superiors, renegotiated the terms of the contract, and Silvinia wound up in unpaid lifelong indentured servitude -- the official term is ‘temple acolyte’ -- to the Bank of Abadar.

Silvinia proved just as adept at her new position as her old, and her supernatural charisma, unusual appearance, and intriguing backstory quickly caught the attention of several leading priests and arbiters. In fact, she swiftly became something of an Abadaran poster child, and a useful propaganda tool in the church’s competition with the Temple of Asmodeus. For not only did Silvinia represent a life transformed from lawless criminality to lawful obedience and submission to the righteous authority of church, but as a pit-born tiefling with the blood of chaotic demons running through her veins, the very fact that it was the church of Abadar -- and not that of her fellow evil outsider Asmodeus -- which ultimately taught her order and self-discipline was a feather of enormous pride in the caps of the Abadaran priesthood.

As Silvinia matured into adolescence, every opportunity was taken to give her greater exposure to the Korvosan public as a noteworthy triumph of law and order over chaos and crime. Ultimately, the church’s desire to promote her as their pious protege culminated in sponsorship to paladin orders.

Personally, Silvinia relishes each new pedestal from which to shine. As far as she is concerned, her debt of gratitude to the church of Abadar knows no bounds, and so she eagerly pursues her role as paladin of the order. Her grudge against Gaedran Lamm helps to fuel her holy passion, and she has sworn an oath of vengeance upon him, and upon all who like him perpetrate heinous transgressions against the innocent and defenseless.

Shattered Psyche
http://www.archivesofnethys.com/OracleCurses.aspx
Your mind is crowded with dozens of voices, fragmented snippets of your past lives.
I would like to re-flavor this as instead of HER past lives, she gets snippets of every one who has died in the city. This flavor change just ties into her mystery as well as some of her spell choices, like Ears of the City. It doesn't change any mechanic.

I.  Out of the Darkness

Xilfæ-îr is a hardened survivor.  Surviving childhood as maltreated and tortured slave in a drow household, she was pressed into guard duty to the surface. Captured on her first assignment, then sold to a Korvosan crime boss, whom she later tried to emasculate.  In a peculiar twist of fate, she was brought up from the depths of trying to survive from one day to the next.

II.  Pain in the Light

Being born a half-drow bastard in a drow household means a slave's life filled with suffering and torment.  Such was Xilfæ-îr's start in life.  She was was one of the few half-drow slaves to survive to adolescence.

Xilfæ-îr was trained in the ways of drow fighting, including how to make and use poisons.  She was put into a caravan of illicit luxury goods bound for the surface.  However, the caravan was ambushed  and quickly overcome by raiders. Xilfæ-îr was one of those captures.  The raiders went to Korvosa to sell their loot and prisoners.

Xilfæ-îr experienced a sunrise for the first time soon after.  Despite hearing of sunlight, Xilfæ-îr was ill-prepared, and howled with pain, surprise and, fear.

The raiders sold Xilfæ-îr to Gaedren Lamm, a shady orphanage owner as a joke. Xilfæ-îr, fresh from life as a drow slave, she saw Gaedren as a spineless milksop.  She only tolerated his antics to survive before moving on.  Gaedren was wary of her being a half-drow, but her darkvision made her useful for delivering Shiver at night.

Matters came to a head between Xilfæ-îr within weeks.  Gaedren berated her at his ‘orphanage’ for a shoddy Shiver delivery, to avoid paying her.  Xilfæ-îr would have none of that, and spat out a breathtakingly rude and vicious tirade of her own.  She drove her point home trying drive Gaedren's manhood into his lungs with her knee.  Clutching himself and writhing in agony, Gaedren ordered the Little Lamms to kill her.  She used her innate magic to cast the room in darkness and fled.

Xilfæ-îr’s dexterity and toughness saved her.  She stopped long enough to incapacitate any Little Lamm who caught up to her and then started running again.  They finally gave up the chase, but not before Xilfæ-îr had been badly hurt and exhausted. She finally hid and collapsed in a trash heap before sunrise.

III.  A Merciful Recovery

As the sun rose on her battered form, Xilfæ-îr groaned with pain.  A passerby, Baalla, heard Xilfæ-îr's pitiful sounds.  She ran home, returning with her husband, Jaagryn, to bring the battered and unconscious waif to their home.

They took Xilfæ-îr to their apothecary in the Midland district, and nursed her back to health.  Baalla and Jaagryn are native Varisians and former adventurers. She a sorceress, and he a bard.  Despite being a half-drow, Xilfæ-îr reminds them of their daughter, who had been murdered at about Xilfæ-îr's age.

Baalla and Jaagryn were the first people who showed Xilfæ-îr kindness. Initially wary of them, Baalla and Jaagryn soon became her parents.  In fact, if not in law. Xilfæ-îr also became fluent in the Varisian language thanks to Baalla and Jaagryn.

Baalla and Jaagryn later convinced a magus, Seiseu, to train Xilfæ-îr.  Hesitant to train a half drow, Seiseu relented when she saw Xilfæ-îr’s devotion to Baalla and Jaagryn.  Under Seiseu’s tutelage, Xilfæ-îr favours weapons made for agility over brute strength, such as the rapier, dagger, scimitar, and kukri.  Mindful of her urban environment, she routinely carries a sling and a sap.

Sunlight is still a problem for Xilfæ-îr.  She cannot bear the outdoors during the day except when heavily overcast.

The kindness of Baalla and Jaagryn taught Xilfæ-îr friendship, kindness, and loyalty for their own sake.  She is therefore fiercely loyal to anyone who befriends her. She also lacks the inherent casual cruelty of the drow.

Baalla and Jaagryn smoothed most of Xilfæ-îr’s rough edges. But she still has some from her drow upbringing.  Retribution comes naturally to her.  She is not squeamish about using poisons in combat.  She is prone to vanity, and is easily flustered if she does not get the better of a clash of personalities.

She still remembers Gaedren, and does not like what she remembers.  She wants to settle the score with Gaedren.  More importantly, though, Xilfæ-îr wants to transcend survival and make a name for herself.  The recent unrest in Korvosa makes the time right for her to do just that.

Rage, all consuming, all powerful, an inferno ready to consume me and everything around me. As a child, I constantly stuffed it down into some dark place in my mind where it compressed and churned away. It was always there lurking under the surface waiting for a chance to erupt like a volcano, out of control, sweeping away everything and everyone around me.

One day, which I confess was probably my darkest day, as I lay broken and dying in a trash heap, my rage broke loose. I screamed, railing against not only the wrongs that had been done to me, but the wrongs that had been done to others. I cried out against the darkness, against the wicked. I wept in frustration not just about my fate but the fate of the lost and innocent in this dark place. As I shouted out against the injustice that was so prevalent in this life I heard a voice.

“That I can use, and show you to use.”

That is how I came to follow my lord, the Lord of Rage and Justice Ragathiel.

Bridgette Thiendotter is a 21 year old human female of Ulfen descent. Five Feet and zero inches tall she is only one hundred pounds in weight. She has platinum blond hair and ice cold blue eys. She wears her hair shoulder length down when relaxing or in braids when expecting battle or adventure. She has a thin, old, white scar running down her right check. She doesn't talk about where it is from.

She has a very evident fondness for sweets (in particular chocolate). She can always be found carrying a book of some kind or another (mostly religious writings or lurid romance fiction – the first she will admit to, the second not so much). She never sits with her back to a door or a window unless she is planning a quick escape from a room. She almost always sleeps naked unless pressing need dictates otherwise. She calls her bastard sword ‘Rosie’ and talks to it about her day when she thinks no one is looking.

Vianca Espariza
Female human (Taldan) fighter (two-handed fighter) 1 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide 108)
CG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +1
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+6 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 13 (1d10+3)
Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +3
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee dagger +5 (1d4+4/19-20) or
flambard +5 (1d10+6/19-20)
Ranged longbow +3 (1d8/×3)
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Statistics
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Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 12
Base Atk +1; CMB +5; CMD 17
Feats Combat Stamina, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (flambard), Iron Will, Power Attack
Traits family honor, undaunted
Skills Acrobatics -3 (-7 to jump), Bluff +2, Intimidate +5, Knowledge (nobility) +1, Profession (soldier) +5 Languages Common Other Gear chainmail, arrows (20), dagger, flambard, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, hemp rope (50 ft.), mess kit {UE}, tankard, pot, soap, torch (10), trail rations (5), waterskin, 12 gp, 9 sp, 8 cp
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Special Abilities
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Family Honor You gain a +1 trait bonus on Bluff checks, and Bluff is a class skill for you.
Power Attack -1/+2 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Power Attack [Combat Trick] 2 stamina points to use Power Attack only until end of turn, instead of the start of the next turn.
Undaunted +2 to DC of Intimidate checks to demoralize you.

Vianca Espariza is the fifth child of a Taldan merchant family. Fairly well off but lacking a noble title, the Espariza family left Oppara where such things overly mattered and made their way to Varisia, where they eventually put down roots in Korvosa. Vianca grew up with good tutors and the benefits material wealth, but struggled to find what she wanted to do with her life. Largely uninterested in the family business and likewise not currently looking to marry, she instead through herself into physical activities: sports, fencing, horseback riding, archery, and other pursuits of the idle rich. Swordplay turned out to be her defining passion, and she eventually became enamored with the flambard, an archaic blade but one that pit her most at ease.

When she reached the age of independence she signed up for the Korvosan guard, seeing in it the opportunity to hone her skills further, but she chafed under the ordered environment and parted ways soon afterwards. Instead she contacted a company of adventurers she had previously arrested for a tavern brawl and asked if they had any openings. It turned out that they were willing to add another sword to their charter, and she spent the next three years traveling the badlands of Varisia in search of fortune and glory.

This life suited her much better, but recently she was called back to Korvosa for a family emergency. It seems that one of her brothers, Domigo, had been brought up on a charge of murder. He'd maintained his innocence, and Vianca knew him well believe him, so she took a leave of absence from her company and set out to do what she could to exonerate him. She tracked down the supposed witness to the crime, a fisherman, and managed to catch him in a lie and made him to admit the truth. Unfortunately the man was murdered by a group of thugs before he could recant his testimony, but he did manage to slip the identity of the real murderer: Gaedren Lamm, a local crime lord. She tried to get her old contacts in the police to pursue the lead, but they rebuffed her by claiming the case was a low priority. Undaunted, she's set out to apprehend Lamm herself and force him to admit to the crime and clear her brother's good name, and nothing in the Heavens or Hells is going to stand in her way.

Vianca stands a little over 5' 9", with a slim frame which she's trained hard to add muscle to in order to be an effective swordswoman. Her hair is cut medium length and falls in brown ringlets over her forehead. Her eyes are dark, and although Taldan, her skin has a deeper brown cast than would be expected of that ethnicity, a trait inherited from her Garundi maternal grandmother. She dresses stylish but practically, and if she's not wearing her mail she prefers blouses, corsets, boots, and a wide leather belt from which hangs her flambard in its scabbard. She keeps the blade in impeccable condition. She also carries a tankard attached to the belt, both to show her devotion to Cayden Cailean and to have a mug ready when drinks are poured.

Vianca is irreverent but honorable, and is hard to intimidate. When she sets her mind to something, whether that's defeating an opponent, finding some company for the night, or obtaining her next drink, she can be doggedly persistent until she achieves her goal. Family and friends are high priorities for her, but so is having fun and enjoying life to the fullest. Although she is a capable fighter and enjoys the rush of combat, her strong moral compass compels her to pick and choose when a fight is worth it and when a problem should be solved by more peaceful means.

Cameron never knew his father, as far as he knew his mother wasn't entirely sure who the father was. If she did then she never mentioned it, perhaps she meant to but never got around to it. Cam and his mother lived in the temporary rooftop communities known as The Shingles. His mother worked hard to provide for him but when Cam was twelve she fell extremely ill and was unable to work as much. Cam decided he needed to find a way to help bring in a little bit of money. That was how he first fell in with Gaedren. At first he seemed generous enough, willing to help out a young boy in need of a job for food and medicine. Later on Cameron realized that the "medicine" he had been giving Cam for his mother were actually just cheaply made drugs. He was also using Cameron himself to help conduct various illegal business, mainly moving small amounts of drugs and other paraphernalia around the city. Cam's mother died when he was sixteen and although he had by that point realized what he was giving her he was just hoping that the drugs would dull some of the pain she was experiencing from the sickness. The next few years Cam started to descend into self-destructive behavior. At twenty he hit a low point and ended up trying to kill himself with the Shiver he was suppose to be helping Gaedren move at the time. He was found by a kindly older man laying in a gutter half dead. It was a week before he could handle solid food again. But as he did he began to notice that he saw things differently. The massive amount of chemicals he had ingested had altered his mind somehow. The man who saved him Sebastian, was an alchemist and he helped Cam get cleaned up in exchange for Cam helping him out around the shop. He even accepted Cam's insistence that the drugs had opened some door in his mind that he wouldn't normally have been able to access. Under the alchemists careful observation and guidance they began to experiment with various drugs and what Cameron was able to do. It was honestly a fairly peaceful time in Cam's life. He learned a decent bit about alchemy, chemistry and pharmacology. A part of him wanted to just stay in that peaceful, happy state. But deep down he knew that his mind wouldn't ever be truly at peace until he made Gaedren pay for what had happened to him and his mother.

Cameron Green
Male human psychic 1 (Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures 60)
CG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +5; Senses Perception +7
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Defense
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AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10 (+1 Dex)
hp 9 (1d6+3)
Fort +3, Ref +1, Will +5; +2 trait bonus vs. fear
Defensive Abilities drug resistance
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +0 (1d4/19-20)
Ranged light crossbow +1 (1d8/19-20)
Special Attacks phrenic amplification (overpowering mind[OA]), phrenic pool (3 points)
Psychic Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +6)
. . 1st (5/day)—charm person (DC 17), ill omen[APG], polypurpose panacea[UM]
. . 0 (at will)—daze (DC 16), detect magic, prestidigitation, stabilize
. . Psychic Discipline Psychedelia
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 20, Wis 16, Cha 10
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 11
Feats Improved Initiative, Spell Focus (enchantment)
Traits drug addict [self], good natured
Skills Bluff +4, Craft (alchemy) +9, Diplomacy +4, Knowledge (arcana) +9, Knowledge (local) +9, Knowledge (nature) +9, Linguistics +9, Perception +7, Sense Motive +7, Spellcraft +9
Languages Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Halfling, Shoanti, Varisian
SQ cognatogen (+4 mental, -2 physical, 1 minute)
Other Gear dagger, light crossbow, alchemy crafting kit[APG], backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, prismatic crystal[OA], torch (10), trail rations (5), waterskin, 23 gp
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Special Abilities
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Cognatogen (DC 15) (Su) Cognatogen adds +4 to a Mental attribute, -2 to a physical attribute, and +2 natural armor for 1 minute/level.
Drug Resistance (Ex) Half ability damage from drugs, +4 to avoid or overcome addiction.
Overpowering Mind (Ex) 2 pool: increase Will save DC of linked mind-affecting spell by +1.
Phrenic Pool (3/day) (Su) Pool of points you can use to modify psychic spells as they're cast.
Spell Focus (Enchantment) Spells from one school of magic have +1 to their save DC.

Personality: Personality: Nina is shy, timid, quiet, and always seems to be afraid when meeting new people. She will hide behind others and look out from under their arm if she feels comfortable around them. She sometimes shakes uncontrollably in a feverish shiver, and sometimes she can be heard talking to thin air. She is not evil, but she does have a dark secret. Nina has lived a rough life. Her parents were murdered by Gaedren and his men, and now they haunt her as guiding spirits. Unfortunately this bond has also made her a medium in which other spirits lash out. Most of the time she follows what her parents spirits say, but every so often she will heed advice of others. Because of this it is said that certain goddesses (Desna, Pharasma, and Calistria) took pity on the poor girl’s soul and blessed her with gifts. These gifts came at a price though.

Background: Nina’s mother was a half-orc and her father was a Sklar-Quah Shoanti. Nina’s mother had been a victim of an orc raiding party and made a slave. Out of a savage union Nina’s mother was born. Her mother had kept her alive and taught her to survive, and when she could she would tell her of her Shoanti ancestry. When Nina’s grandmother died (not of natural causes) her mother tried to escape from the Hold of Belkzen. After week of running and evading from hunting parties, Nina’s parents made it to the Cinderlands. There she was quickly set upon by the xenophobic warriors of the Sklar-Quah. Nina’s father, who was about to strike a killing blow, noticed that Nina’s mother wore a Shoanti necklace. Demanding for answers, he quickly gathered as much information before the woman feinted. Taking Nina’s mother prisoner her father then sought advice from the elders. The necklace belong to the Skoan-Quah, and so they firstly advised to kill the woman. But Nina’s father refused on some sense of honor, and instead sought to escort he to the Skoan-Quah clan. As fate would have it though the Skoan-Quah clan elders were already waiting for her at the border of their territory. “She is not welcome here. She is cursed and tainted. No happiness will follow her. If she comes into our lands, we will kill her.” They warned.
Nina’s father grew angry, but non-the-less relented and decided to take the woman to a Varisian city. En-route, as fate would have it, the warrior began to grow feelings for the strong woman. It had not been her choice to be dealt the cards life had dealt her, yet here she strove. The first few towns were not the friendliest and the man refused to leave the woman there. Travelling on a Sczarni caravan, they heard of Korvosa, a large city by the sea, where many cultures lived together in somewhat harmony. Getting there the man still refused to leave the woman’s side. Together they decided to make a Korvosa their home.
It was hard living at first, but slowly as their love for each other bloomed, they lifted themselves out of the gutter. With a food and beer business becoming a newly established restaurant, things were going well for the family. In between all this Ned and Tina (the name they started going by) had a daughter. Eight years of extreme happiness blessed the family, before misfortune befell them. As if a curse had come to claim their borrowed joy, calamity befell on them. Ned had gotten very ill. For weeks he could not get up from the bed. Tina was still able to manage the restaurant alone. But over the few nights she had been travelling the streets alone, Gaedren and his lackeys caught the sight of Tina. They watched her and followed her at first, and one night they broke into the family's flat. The woman who had barely even closed the door screamed in alarm. Ned struggling to stand came to their defense, but was taken out by a burly half-orc. Nina saw it all, and her mother yelled for her to run as she grabbed her and dragged her into the bedroom. No time to barricade the door, Tina managed to wrap a blanket over Nina's waist and began lowering her down the second story window. Suddenly, and for a split second Nina felt the constriction of the blanket ease, as her mother lost her grip and Nina fell to the pavement. Nina’s head slammed to the ground and the last image Nina saw of her mother was that of her being dragged back inside the window. When Nina finally came to, it was morning and it had been too late. At eight years old, Nina found the lifeless mutilated corpses of her father and mother. Alone in the world she screamed, cried and prayed to her father’s and mother’s gods who had been so good to them. She screamed and cried until she collapsed asleep on her parents’ bodies. When she woke, she woke to her mother’s voice. But when she woke the world had grown hazy as if her sight had grown a permanent fog. At first she was frightened, she tried approaching a guard, but he turned out to be scum and Nina barely escaped with advice from her father. Soon Nina was one of Korvosa’s street urchins. Surviving on feral instincts and warnings from her parents, Nina has managed to live for two years. Korvosa has become Nina’s only known home, and the little memories she has of happiness were here. So the city streets and abandoned warehouses have become her home. With her father and mother assisting her Nina managed to learn some brewing, which she would sell single barrels to bars as her “fathers” business. Yet as the streets hardened the little girl’s heart, so did the image of an old man and the half-orc become more solid in her mind. Against her parent’s commands, Nina has been asking the other street urchins if they had seen such men. Unfortunately all that she has gotten was a name, and her parents will not condone Nina’s growing hatred.

About Myself: I have been playing play by post on RPGCrossing for the past 5 years, and very much enjoy it. I find the RP aspect is more prominent than regular tabletop games and allows for better character development. I have always wanted to be a player in this adventure path, but I have to be honest, I own the first book. Still I would love the opportunity to play in it and I believe I choose a character that I can roleplay without spoiling the fun for the other players. I have a character sheet made on RPGCrossing as I like the format better as it is easier to read, but if selected and if needed I can easily transcribe everything onto the paizo format. I intend to play Nina as a main healer, with a few nasty surprises for those who would strike her. Still, you can expect no shenanigans from me. And if anything is in doubt just ask me to change something and I won’t mind. I just want to play in this AP.