LG Female Human Paladin 7 / Guardian Tier 2
Init +3; Senses Perception +9
Mythic Path: Guardian
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DEFENSE
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AC 22, Touch 11, Flat-Footed 21 (+9 armor, +1 Dex, +2 magic)
HP 79
Fort +10, Ref +6, Will +8
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee +11/+6
Ranged +8/+3
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STATISTICS
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Str 18, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 16
Base Atk +7; CMB +11; CMD +22
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TRAITS:
Exposed to Awfulness:
Ever since then, you’ve been unusually hale and hearty, as if your body had endured its brush with awfulness by becoming supernaturally fit. But still, the scars (whether physical or purely mental) of your brush with death remain, and nightmares of what could have happened often plague your sleep. Something, be it your own personal force of will, some strange “infection” from the assault, or perhaps a combination of both, has made you stronger than before.
Once per day when you fail a saving throw against an effect created by a demon that would kill or physically incapacitate you, you can immediately reroll that saving throw as a free action. You must take the second result, even if it is worse.
Helpful (Combat):
You always know the best way to assist your companions, be it assisting them with a task, defending them in battle, or helping them place a well aimed strike. When using the aid another action, you grant your ally a +3 bonus instead of a +2 bonus.
FEATS:
Gray Maiden Initiate:
You were selected for indoctrination into the Gray Maidens and underwent some of the preliminary scarring and conditioning, but the queen was defeated before you could fully serve her. You bear the mental and physical scars of your sisters in the Gray Maidens, and while you never had to carry out any of the queen’s commands, you feel a strong kinship with those of your sisters who have.
Prerequisite(s): Female, must be taken at 1st level.
Benefit(s): You are affiliated with the Gray Maidens. In addition, choose two of the following benefits to represent the focus of your initial training and indoctrination.
- Gray Maiden Endurance: Surviving the brutal process of becoming a Gray Maiden taught you to endure more pain than others. You gain 2 hit points and can sleep while wearing Gray Maiden armor without becoming fatigued.
- Korvosan Acceptance: With the aid of the Scarlet Rose, you’ve successfully reintegrated into Korvosan society. You gain a +1 bonus on Diplomacy and Knowledge (local) checks, and one of these skills (your choice) is a class skill for you.
Power Attack:
You can make exceptionally deadly melee attacks by sacrificing accuracy for strength.
Prerequisites: Str 13, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: You can choose to take a –1 penalty on all melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +2 bonus on all melee damage rolls. This bonus to damage is increased by half (+50%) if you are making an attack with a two-handed weapon, a one handed weapon using two hands, or a primary natural weapon that adds 1-1/2 times your Strength modifier on damage rolls. This bonus to damage is halved (–50%) if you are making an attack with an off-hand weapon or secondary natural weapon.
When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every 4 points thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the bonus to damage increases by +2.
You must choose to use this feat before making an attack roll, and its effects last until your next turn. The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage.
Unsanctioned Knowledge:
You have searched though forbidden texts and are privy to powerful but proscribed magic.
Prerequisites: Int 13, ability to cast 1st-level paladin spells.
Benefit: Pick one 1st-level spell, one 2nd-level spell, one 3rd-level spell, and one 4th-level spell from the bard, cleric, inquisitor, or oracle spell lists. Add these spells to your paladin spell list as paladin spells of the appropriate level. Once chosen, these spells cannot be changed.
Combat Reflexes:
You can make additional attacks of opportunity.
Benefit: You may make a number of additional attacks of opportunity per round equal to your Dexterity bonus. With this feat, you may also make attacks of opportunity while flat-footed.
Normal: A character without this feat can make only one attack of opportunity per round and can’t make attacks of opportunity while flat-footed.
Combat Reflexes (Mythic):
You strike viciously whenever your foe gives you an opening.
Prerequisite(s): Combat Reflexes.
Benefit: You can make any number of additional attacks of opportunity per round. As a swift action, you can expend one use of mythic power to, until the start of your next turn, make attacks of opportunity against foes you’ve already made attacks of opportunity against this round if they provoke attacks of opportunity from you by moving.
Bodyguard:
Your swift strikes ward off enemies attacking nearby allies.
Prerequisite: Combat Reflexes.
Benefit: When an adjacent ally is attacked, you may use an attack of opportunity to attempt the aid another action to improve your ally’s AC. You may not use the aid another action to improve your ally’s attack roll with this attack.
Normal: Aid another is a standard action.
SKILLS: (49 points; 14 class, 14 INT, 7 Skilled, 14 Background)
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Acrobatics* +5 = DEX 1+4+0
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Appraise +2= INT 2+0+0
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Climb +7 = STR 4+3+0
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Bluff +3 = CHA 3+0+0
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Craft +2 = INT 2+0+0
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Diplomacy +10 = CHA 3+4+3
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Disable Device*† +1 = DEX 1+0+0
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Disguise +3 = CHA 3+0+0
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Escape Artist* +1 = DEX 1+0+0
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Fly* +1 = DEX 1+0+0
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Handle Animal† +7 = CHA 3+1+3 (+1 Background)
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Heal +5 = WIS 0+2+3
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Intimidate +3 = CHA 3+0+0
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K (Arcana)† +2 = INT 2+0+0
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K (Dungeoneering)† +2 = INT 2+0+0
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K (Engineering)† +4 = INT 2+2+0 (+2 Background)
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K (Geography)† +4 = INT 2+2+0 (+2 Background)
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K (History)† +4 = INT 2+2+0 (+2 Background)
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K (Local)† +7 = INT 2+2+3
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K (Nature)† +2 = INT 2+0+0
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K (Nobility)† +7 = INT 2+2+3 (+2 Background)
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K (Planes)† +4 = INT 2+2+0
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K (Religion)† +8 = INT 2+3+3
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Linguistics +4 = INT 2+2+0 (+2 Background)
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Perception +9 = WIS 0+6+3
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Perform (Oratory) +5 = CHA 3+2+0 (+2 Background)
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Profession†(Carpenter) +5 = WIS 0+2+3 (+2 Background)
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Ride +5 = DEX 1+1+3
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Sense Motive +6 = WIS 0+3+3
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Sleight of Hand*† +1 = DEX 1+0+0
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Spellcraft† +5 = INT 0+2+3
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Stealth* +1 = DEX 1+0+0
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Survival +0 = WIS 0+0+0
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Swim +7 = STR 4+3+0
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Use Magic Device† +3 = CHA 3+0+0
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ACP -4
*ACP applies to these skills
Non-Standard Skill Bonuses
Languages Taldane, Varisian, Abyssal, Hallit
Special Abilities:
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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HUMAN:
+2 to One Ability Score: Human characters get a +2 bonus to one ability score of their choice at creation to represent their varied nature.
Medium: Humans are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Normal Speed: Humans have a base speed of 30 feet.
Bonus Feat: Humans select one extra feat at 1st level.
Skilled: Humans gain 1 additional skill rank at 1st level and 1 additional rank whenever they gain a level.
Languages: Humans begin play speaking Common and their ethnic language. Humans whose ethnic language is Common (or Taldane, in the case of Chelaxians or Taldans) do not receive an additional ethnic language. Humans with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic).
Aura of Good (Ex):
The power of a paladin's aura of good (see the detect good spell) is equal to her paladin level.
Detect Evil (Sp):
At will, a paladin can use detect evil, as the spell. A paladin can, as a move action, concentrate on a single item or individual within 60 feet and determine if it is evil, learning the strength of its aura as if having studied it for 3 rounds. While focusing on one individual or object, the paladin does not detect evil in any other object or individual within range.
Smite Evil (Su):
Sacred ServantThis functions as the paladin ability, but the sacred servant can smite evil one additional time per day at 7th level, and every six levels thereafter (instead of 4th level and every three levels thereafter).
Once per day, a paladin can call out to the powers of good to aid her in her struggle against evil. As a swift action, the paladin chooses one target within sight to smite. If this target is evil, the paladin adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack rolls and adds her paladin level to all damage rolls made against the target of her smite. If the target of smite evil is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage on the first successful attack increases to 2 points of damage per level the paladin possesses. Regardless of the target, smite evil attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.
In addition, while smite evil is in effect, the paladin gains a deflection bonus equal to her Charisma modifier (if any) to her AC against attacks made by the target of the smite. If the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect.
The smite evil effect remains until the target of the smite is dead or the next time the paladin rests and regains her uses of this ability. At 4th level, and at every three levels thereafter, the paladin may smite evil one additional time per day, as indicated on Table: Paladin, to a maximum of seven times per day at 19th level.
Divine Grace (Su):
At 2nd level, a paladin gains a bonus equal to her Charisma bonus (if any) on all saving throws.
Lay On Hands (Su):
Beginning at 2nd level, a paladin can heal wounds (her own or those of others) by touch. Each day she can use this ability a number of times equal to 1/2 her paladin level plus her Charisma modifier. With one use of this ability, a paladin can heal 1d6 hit points of damage for every two paladin levels she possesses. Using this ability is a standard action, unless the paladin targets herself, in which case it is a swift action. Despite the name of this ability, a paladin only needs one free hand to use this ability.
Alternatively, a paladin can use this healing power to deal damage to undead creatures, dealing 1d6 points of damage for every two levels the paladin possesses. Using lay on hands in this way requires a successful melee touch attack and doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity. Undead do not receive a saving throw against this damage.
Aura of Courage (Su):
At 3rd level, a paladin is immune to fear (magical or otherwise). Each ally within 10 feet of her gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. This ability functions only while the paladin is conscious, not if she is unconscious or dead.
Divine Health (Ex):
At 3rd level, a paladin is immune to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases, including mummy rot.
Mercy (Su):
At 3rd level, and every three levels thereafter, a paladin can select one mercy. Each mercy adds an effect to the paladin's lay on hands ability. Whenever the paladin uses lay on hands to heal damage to one target, the target also receives the additional effects from all of the mercies possessed by the paladin. A mercy can remove a condition caused by a curse, disease, or poison without curing the affliction. Such conditions return after 1 hour unless the mercy actually removes the affliction that causes the condition.
These abilities are cumulative. For example, a 12th-level paladin's lay on hands ability heals 6d6 points of damage and might also cure fatigued and exhausted conditions as well as removing diseases and neutralizing poisons. Once a condition or spell effect is chosen, it can't be changed.
Mercies: Sickened (3rd), Dazed (6th).
Channel Positive Energy (Su):
When a paladin reaches 4th level, she gains the supernatural ability to channel positive energy like a cleric. Using this ability consumes two uses of her lay on hands ability. A paladin uses her level as her effective cleric level when channeling positive energy. This is a Charisma-based ability.
Spells:
Sacred Servant At 4th level, when a sacred servant gains the ability to cast spells, she also chooses one domain associated with her deity. Her effective cleric level for this domain is equal to her paladin level –3. In addition, she also gains one domain spell slot for each level of paladin spells she can cast. Every day she must prepare the domain spell from her chosen domain in that spell slot.
Domain: Revelation (Sun) Subdomain
Replacement Power: The following granted power replaces the sun’s blessing ability of the Sun domain.
-Guided Eyes (Su): Perception is always a class skill for you. In addition, whenever you make a skill check to see through a disguise or find something that is hidden or concealed, you gain a +4 sacred bonus on the check.
Beginning at 4th level, a paladin gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells which are drawn from the paladin spell list presented in Spell Lists. A paladin must choose and prepare her spells in advance.
To prepare or cast a spell, a paladin must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a paladin's spell is 10 + the spell level + the paladin's Charisma modifier.
Like other spellcasters, a paladin can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Paladin. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Charisma score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells). When Table: Paladin indicates that the paladin gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, she gains only the bonus spells she would be entitled to based on her Charisma score for that spell level.
A paladin must spend 1 hour each day in quiet prayer and meditation to regain her daily allotment of spells. A paladin may prepare and cast any spell on the paladin spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during her daily meditation.
Through 3rd level, a paladin has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, her caster level is equal to her paladin level – 3.
Divine Bond (Su):
At 5th level, instead of forming a divine bond with her weapon or a mount, a sacred servant forms a bond with her holy symbol. As a standard action, a sacred servant can bind a celestial spirit to her holy symbol for 1 minute per paladin level. When called, the spirit causes the sacred servant’s holy symbol to shed light like a torch. At 5th level, the spirit grants one bonus. For every three levels beyond 5th, the spirit grants one additional bonus. These bonuses can be spent in a number of ways to grant the paladin enhanced abilities to channel positive energy and to cast spells. Each bonus can be used to grant one of the following enhancements: +1 caster level to any paladin spell cast, +1 to the DC to halve the damage of channel positive energy when used to harm undead, +1d6 to channel positive energy, +1 use/day of lay on hands. These enhancements stack and can be selected multiple times. The enhancements granted by the spirit are determined when the spirit is called and cannot be changed until the spirit is called again. If the sacred servant increases her number of uses of lay on hands per day in this way, that choice is set for the rest of the day, and once used, these additional uses are not restored (even if the spirit is called again that day). The celestial spirit imparts no enhancements if the holy symbol is held by anyone other than the sacred servant, but resumes giving enhancements if returned to the sacred servant. A sacred servant can use this ability once per day at 5th level, and one additional time per day for every four levels beyond 5th, to a total of four times per day at 17th level.
If a holy symbol with a celestial spirit is destroyed, the sacred servant loses the use of this ability for 30 days, or until she gains a level, whichever comes first. During this 30-day period, the sacred servant takes a –1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls.
Ability Score:
Upon reaching the 2nd mythic tier, an ability score of your choice permanently increases by 2. At 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th tiers, another ability score of your choice permanently increases by 2; this can be an ability score you’ve already increased or a different ability score.
Mythic Feat:
Select one mythic feat or non-mythic feat as a bonus feat. You must qualify for this feat normally. You gain another mythic feat at 3rd tier, and again every 2 tiers thereafter.
Hard to Kill (Ex): Whenever you’re below 0 hit points, you automatically stabilize without needing to attempt a Constitution check. If you have an ability that allows you to act while below 0 hit points, you still lose hit points for taking actions, as specified by that ability. Bleed damage
still causes you to lose hit points when below 0 hit points. In addition, you don’t die until your total number of negative hit points is equal to or greater than double your Constitution score.
Mythic Power (Su):
Mythic characters can draw upon a wellspring of power to accomplish amazing deeds and cheat fate. This power is used by a number of different
abilities. Each day, you can expend an amount of mythic power equal to 3 plus double your mythic tier (5/day at 1st tier, 7/day at 2nd, etc.). This amount is your maximum amount of mythic power. If an ability allows you to regain uses of your mythic power, you can never have more than this amount.
Surge (Su):
You can call upon your mythic power to overcome difficult challenges. You can expend one use of mythic power to increase any d20 roll you just made by rolling 1d6 and adding it to the result. Using this ability is an immediate action taken after the result of the original roll is revealed. This can change the outcome of the roll. The bonus die gained by using this ability increases to 1d8 at 4th tier, 1d10 at 7th tier, and 1d12 at 10th tier.
Amazing Initiative (Ex):
At 2nd tier, you gain a bonus on initiative checks equal to your mythic tier. In addition, as a free action on your turn, you can expend one use
of mythic power to take an additional standard action during that turn. This additional standard action can’t be used to cast a spell. You can’t gain an extra action in this way more than once per round.
GUARDIAN'S CALL:
Absorb Blow (Su): As an immediate action, whenever you take hit point damage from a single source (such as a dragon’s breath, a spell, or a weapon), you can expend one use of mythic power to reduce the damage you take from that source by 5 per tier (to a minimum of 0 points of
damage taken). If you have another ability or effect that reduces damage (such as protection from energy), reduce the damage with the absorb blow ability before applying any other damage-reducing effects. For every 10 points of damage that this ability prevents, for 1 minute you gain DR 1/epic and 5 points of resistance against acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic damage. The DR and resistances stack with any other DR and resistances that you have.
PATH ABILITIES:
Quick Recovery (Ex):
Whenever you are dazed, dazzled, deafened, sickened, or stunned, reduce the duration of that condition by half (minimum 1 round). Any other effects relating to the source of that condition are unaffected; for example, if you are panicked and sickened from an eyebite spell, the panicked effect has the normal duration even though you are sickened for only half as long. You can select this ability twice. The second time you select it, you also reduce the duration of the blinded, nauseated, and paralyzed conditions by half.
Retributive Reach (Ex):
Treat your reach as 5 feet greater than normal for the purpose of determining whether or not you can make an attack of opportunity. If a creature provokes an attack of opportunity within this area of increased reach, you can expend one use of mythic power to gain a bonus equal to your tier on the attack roll and damage roll of the attack of opportunity.
Wand: CLW (50)
Wand: Ghostbane Dirge (20)
Wand: Protection from Evil (30)
Potion: Heroism
Potion: Lesser Restoration
Potion: Resist Energy
Scroll: Keep Watch
Vial: Alchemists Fire x2
Vial: Acid x2
Vial: Holy Water x4
Torches (10)
Rations (5 Days)
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Carrying Capacity Light 0-33 lb. Medium 34-67 lb. Heavy 68-100 lb.
Current Load Carried 0 lb.
Money 384 GP 7 SP 4 CP
Appearance and Personality:
Height: 5'10 | Weight: 165 | Hair: Dark Brown | Eyes: Brown
Appearance
Joska is tall and sturdy with thick, well-muscled limbs. Unlike many others with her type of frame, there is nothing slow or awkward about her movements. She is quick on her feet, and able to move with unusual deftness. With her dark brown hair, brown eyes, and light complexion, those familiar with Varisia would tend to assume Joska’s heritage is Chelaxian. Aside from her size, Joska’s most notable feature is the scarring on her face. While there are a couple of small scars, two large ones dominate. The first runs from the outside of her right eye across her upper cheek and the bridge of her nose. Those who know what to look for would notice her nose has been broken and did not heal precisely right. The second major scar runs vertically down the left side of her face. It begins midway on her forehead and goes down across her eyebrow, bisecting it. It picks again below her eye and runs down her left check almost to her jaw line.
Joska’s hair is straight and shoulder length. She wears it down and free unless she expects to be wearing her helmet. If she will be wearing it, Joska braids her hair and wears it up. She doesn’t bother with any cosmetics; they don’t help her appearance. Her clothing tends to follow suit; she prefers functional, durable clothing for daily wear. Trousers and shirts with boots are the usual. If some occasion comes along that requires a little more, she keeps a nicer set of the same type of clothing with the addition of an embroidered jacket around.
Personality
Over the years since she was a Gray Maiden, Joska has come to terms with much of the mental and physical trauma she experienced. She's done less well with the harm she inflicted on others. While she has never been particularly religious, her parents worshipped Abadar but she never warmed to him at all, she has developed a set of religious notions involving Gorum that would not pass muster theologically (though Gorum’s priesthood doesn’t really care about theology anyway), but do allow her to externalize certain internal conflicts she experiences.
At times Joska will claim that her considerable ability is a warrior is a gift Gorum gave her, but a poisoned gift. At other times she views her ability as simply natural. It depends on how much she has been ruminating on her “relationship” with Gorum recently. Either way, she sees Gorum as instigating a cruel prank of sorts. The Gray Maidens both introduced her to her true talent, her calling, just to then shove her nose deep into its foulness.
Gorum is the only warrior’s god who holds armed conflict to be capriciously devoid of any goals or aspirations other than the deeds of violence themselves. For him the means is also the end. Gorum has set up a paradox for her. Does she cut herself off from her calling; or does she surrender her conscience and any principles to indulge it? To any outsider this would not be a logical paradox. They would likely find some solution. To Joska though, the paradox is an emotional one based in the guilt and shame she feels about the deaths she’s responsible for.
While most former Gray Maidens she knows of, those associated with the Scarlet Rose, have reached some accommodation with themselves, rightly acknowledging they did not act entirely from free will. Joska does not see her relative degree of responsibility as the point. Whether she is 40% or 25% of 12% responsible due to coercion, indoctrination, and magical tampering doesn’t matter. Dead is dead and nothing can fix what she did. To her, all she can do is add to her ledger by saving lives, directly or indirectly. Nothing is ever erased.
This is why Joska would go to Mendev to spite Gorum. She doesn’t worship him in any normal sense, but instead feels stuck with him. She certainly doesn’t pray to him. She talks to him though, generally to complain or express her unhappiness with the situation. So Mendev spites him because there his paradox is defeated. The enemy is unambiguous. She doesn’t have to worry about doubting the purpose behind her fight. Gorum does not get to see the means be the end.
In the same way her feuding relationship with Gorum is actually a projection of an internal conflict outward to an imagined external source, Joska’s armor is also an externalization. She wears the shame of her past for everyone to see. She refuses to hide it away or try to be rid of it. Instead she lives with it and accepts what comes as a result.
Sometimes Joska can be morose when she dwells on these things too much. But mostly she doesn’t. In her day-to-day life Joska is concerned about day-to-day things. She is friendly enough to those around her and concerned for their feelings and welfare. She may not be a chipper extrovert, the last few years have worn most of those tendencies away, but she keeps her cynicism in check. Her sense of humor tends toward the black and ironic, but she’s not overbearing with it. Her appearance can be off-putting to some, but compared to some former Gray Maidens she was lucky. Her scarring isn’t as extensive as it could have been. It also helps that she has learned to not dwell on her face and the confidence it she gains by this helps to lessen the prominence of her scarring in others impressions of her. Still, she has few illusions about the potential for romance in her future.
Joska is extremely protective of friends and comrades and thinks little of taking great risks for them. On the other hand she can tend to come off as strict or a disciplinarian when others needlessly endanger themselves due to poor decisions or lack of preparation.
It can be easy to assume Joska’s talent as a warrior is entirely due to her physical capabilities. Actually her real talent is in her calmness and ability to notice details in combat. She has an acute eye for finding weaknesses in enemies, individually and in groups. She is also sensitive to changes in circumstances and flexible enough to quickly adapt to them.
Background:
Joska is in Mendev because Gorum is a right bastard and she means to spite him in any small way she can. Just a few years ago it would have been unimaginable to her that she would be thinking about such things, but fate hasn’t been kind to her.
Until she was 16, Joska’s life was completely unremarkable. Born in Korvosa, her father was a carpenter who worked at the shipyards. Her mother supplemented the family by doing piecework, mostly gloves, as a seamstress while also running the household. The family was neither prosperous nor eaten with poverty. Joska was from birth large and solid for her age. She took to her father’s skills and habits more than her mother’s, and might eventually have become a carpenter herself.
But the murder of King Eodred II threw Korvosa into political chaos. The Blood Veil Plague followed closely behind. Both of Joska’s parents died in the plague. Joska, who was hardly ever sick, even with a cold, remained unscathed. She was left with no means of support though. The city’s economy was by then in late collapse, leaving her with no options. The only saving grace of her situation was that the owner of the building where her flat was located had also died. Whoever inherited the building neglected to try collecting rent so Joska could at least squat in her flat safely.
As soon as she ascended to the throne, the new Queen Ileosa formed the Gray Maidens as a personal bodyguard. The Queen swiftly expanded the corps in numbers and duties. The Gray Maidens guarded Castle Korvosa and other locations of particular interest to the Queen, then took on special assignments within the city as the her elite force. When Queen Ileosa disbanded the Korvosan Guard and the Sable Company Marines, the Gray Maidens became Korvosa’s military and police force as well.
In the early days Gray Maiden recruitment was selective. The women had some certain quality; military experience in the guards or marines, family prominence, considerable beauty. But expansion of the corps and replacement of the slain meant standards were relaxed continually. Early on there were volunteers, but later there were none. Recruitment devolved from selection, whether voluntary or involuntary, to drafts, to press gangs. Joska was a late recruit, effectively sold to the Gray Maidens by the tenant who lived above her for a finder’s fee. Her “finder” salved his conscience by telling himself that at least the poor girl wouldn’t starve to death, which was a very real possibility.
She was a very good find compared to most recruits at that point. Joska was larger and sturdier than most any of the other Maidens. At 16 she wasn’t abnormally young for an incoming Gray Maiden anymore, and she quickly learned how to handle pain well. Joska’s training and indoctrination was conducted in the same way such things had been done from the beginning, but on a faster timeline. Replacements were desperately needed for the ever-increasing casualties. She was tortured, including the ruining of her face. She was subjected to psychological and magical manipulation. She was deprived of sleep to keep her near exhaustion in order to make her more malleable and compliant.
At the same time though, Joska found her true talent and calling. She was a truly exceptional warrior when given training in weapons and combat tactics. Among her own cohort nobody could match her for sheer physicality, endurance, and toughness. Although she was not well educated, Joska was intelligent and learned with less repetition and error than most others. She excelled at combat.
Ironically and sadly, Joska saw little of what anyone could honestly call combat. By the time she took her place in the Gray Maidens, the end of Queen Ileosa’s reign was nearing. Korvosa was in anarchy. The city’s citizenry had almost wholly turned against the Queen and were in active rebellion. The remnants of the Korvosan Guard and Sable Company Marines had joined them. Joska’s company mostly cleared streets by means that usually went beyond crowd control to massacres. It was civilians that Joska practiced her new craft against. Most of the time there was no strategic goal to any of it. The point was the exercise of lethal force for mass retribution.
When Queen Ileosa fell, the Gray Maidens’ command hierarchy came apart as well. Even Sabina Merrin, Commander of the Gray Maidens and Ileisa’s personal bodyguard went over to the rebellion by the end. Company and unit commanders went their own ways from each other. Some simply stood and fought where they were to the last. Others disbanded and dispersed. Some fled the city looking to find safety or carry on elsewhere. Joska’s company fell apart. Her closest friend among the Maidens was already dead, but Joska and a couple of other Maidens hid out for several days until they could escape the city.
Over the next few months the three of them parted ways amongst their wanderings, sometimes living rough in the wild for a while or venturing into small settlements. Mob justice was playing out in Korvosa. Former Gray Maidens were hunted and murdered. Eventually Joska made her way to Skelt, where she worked in the mines for several months. When word had it Korvosa was calm and on the mend, she returned. She had been away more than a year.
With the help of the newly forming Scarlet Rose, Joska was able to reenter Korvosan society and gain some perspective on the things that had been inflicted on her and she had done. She slipped back into a mostly anonymous life and took jobs as a bouncer and porter. But she was never able to really settle. As she would put it, she had “come to Gorum’s attention”, and he would not loose his grasp on her. There was only one thing she was truly exceptional at; but she also hated that thing.
Finally Joska made a decision. She could not deny her urge to use her talents, but she would not risk harming people who didn’t deserve it. The best way for her to observe both of these rules would be to go where there was no doubt a mistake could be made about who the enemy was. So she left for Mendev where there were demons.
