Ashenal lifts the twin vials before his face in mock salute to Janiven. Milady's courtesy is none diminished.
Tucking the vials into his belt, he lets the others pass to follow in the rear with the bard, a throwing dagger in his right hand. Ashenal's gaze is constantly drawn behind them.
Let's get moving. Our pursuers seem to have lost no motivation.
Ashenal springs to his feet and puts his hand on the boy's shoulder.
Take a breath and tell us who has your friend, and why, he says kindly as he looks carefully out the door. While the lad wheezes, Ashenal turns to Janiven.
It would appear our first good deed is nigh upon us, milady.
Ashenal raises an eyebrow at the standing elf and grins.
I'm not sure I can top that performance. And I'm not sure that I need to. I would only add that it sickens me to take the stage before a crowd of devil-worshipping noblemen.
We have all spoken volumes about our thoughts regarding this city merely by our presence here tonight. What I would hear from our hostess is her plan of action, for I will not throw my life away on a rash, emotional crusade. Change will only happen in Westcrown through guile, wit, courage, skill, and luck.
We all have our reasons for being here, I'm sure. Otherwise, why risk the curfew and the Hell Knights? To me, anyone with the courage to come tonight deserves the benefit of the doubt. I trust our hostess' judgment. I'm not sure about her cooking, though, Ashenal says with a grin and a wink.
Ashenal excuses himself and get up to assist the groups' hostess in food preparation. In the interests of time, only, milady he says, smiling with a slight bow. Direct me as you will.
Mithrael steps a little closer to the insistent youth.
Urosol I have heard of. Infamous, indeed. And now you carry on his work?
Mithrael ponders the turn of events quietly, lifting his free hand to his chin in a typical elven gesture of deep thought.
And your mother, what of her?
Mithrael is suddenly distracted by the musical performance.
Quiet down, minstrel. Even these parts of the city may be hounded by spies and those in league with the House of Thrune. If you must play, play quietly, so that we may avoid the eyes of scrutiny.
Did you know, magician, that this artist playing for us is no mere minstrel?, Ashenal says, indicating the sitar-strumming man. Introduce yourself before they start throwing coppers at you, man!
But to answer your question. My father's work, as you say, was like play for him. As were his indiscretions. But a stiff price he paid for his failings, Ashenal says with a sigh, downing the rest of his drink. And I never knew my mother, the only one that could hold the great Urusol's heart. Suffice it to say that my family tree has been pruned most ... diligently.
He takes a deep breath. But we move ever forward, and it is not even Act I of this story, is it?
The weary elder lights up at the wine, but even more at the gentleman from Taldor, he stands and crosses the space from his chair to the bar in a grace that dares his age to slow him down. for those paying attention a Falcata swings from his belt, it seems this Chelish son has Taldorian roots. "Well met Ashenal, I have heard your name, but cannot place it, please indulge me". Looking the smaller man up and down, "Perhaps the theater?".
Aye, the theater. But you flatter me; I am but a overwrought jester, nothing more. Likely, my name has come to you as the son of Urusol. A master thespian he was, Ashenal says, looking in his drink and swirling it, distracting himself for a moment. But a dark tale that is, and I imagine we'll have enough dark subjects to discuss this eve, eh?
Now, tell me of yourself, sir. Besides, of course, of your impeccable style and excellent breeding, which is obvious, he says, bowing. I would be honored to have your name, and your station of course. Are you an officer in the army?
Conspicuous? Whatsoever about? the smirking Taldan says, grabbing a bottle of spirits from behind the counter and a half-dozen glasses.
He sets them all on the bar and pours a full measure into each, draining the bottle. Searching in vain for a place to discard the empty vessel, he tosses it absently behind the bar and shrugs at the blue-headed man. He picks up one of the glasses.
I am Ashenal ... yes, THE Ashenal, he says darkly, then brightens, raising his glass to the lady. After a quick gulp, he continues. And I'm glad to have the acquaintance of all of you. Come, drink, all -- none should face their deaths without a stiff drink.
For you, my good man? Ashenal says, offering a glass to the tired warrior. Come now, have a drink with me. Surely one as accustomed to death should have no fear of ... this? he asks, indicating the gathering as a whole.
A bulbous-nosed beggar in rags staggers through the front door, his left hand clutching a bottle of poor wine and his right fishing around near the front of his trousers. He looks around as if eying a place to relieve his bladder.
"Good birdie. Nicesh birdie," he says absently.
Assessing the two others in the room, he suddenly straightens and grins, removing the costume nose from his face. Under the rags you now see leather armor and a rapier slung on his back for concealment. His slender form and youthful, well-bred Taldan looks now apparent, he grins widely and shrugs apologetically.
"You can never be too careful in this town, eh? Still, it's good to see a bit of fight left in some here," he says, walking behind the bar and chucking his poor wine into the garbage. Anything decent to drink around here, milady? he says charmingly to his hostess.
I'm Gene, player of Ashenal, human male actor (rogue). I'm 41, have played D&D on and off since I was 10 (yes, the three little books in the small box -- the pre-Basic Set days). I am self-employed.
I enjoy mai tais, jai alai, long walks along the beach, and white-hot heterosexual monogamy.
Oops, wrong forum there.
Full Name
Lisa Lombardi
Race
Human
Classes/Levels
Oracle (Dual-Cursed Oracle) 5 | HP 24/24 | AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 | CMB +1, CMD 13 | Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +4 | Initiative +2 | Perception: +6 | Speed 30 ft. | Spells: 1st 8/8 | 2nd 5/6
Gender
Female
Size
5'10
Age
25
Languages
Common, Infernal
Occupation
Courtesan
Strength
7
Dexterity
14
Constitution
10
Intelligence
12
Wisdom
10
Charisma
23
About Lisa Lombardi
Lisa Lombari Human (Taldan) Female Oracle (Dual-Cursed Oracle) 5
Fave Class - Oracle - Skill Points
Stats:
Alternate Racial Traits-
Silver Tongued- Human are often adept at subtle manipulation and putting even sworn foes at ease. Humans with this trait gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Bluff checks. In addition, when they use Diplomacy to shift a creature’s attitude, they can shift up to three steps up rather than just two. This racial trait replaces skilled.
Focused Study- All humans are skillful, but some, rather than being generalists, tend to specialize in a handful of skills. At 1st, 8th, and 16th level, such humans gain Skill Focus in a skill of their choice as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces the bonus feat trait.
Mystery (Intrigue) Curse - Major(Legalistic)- The shackles of Hell impose savage consequences should you violate a covenant, but also imbue you with remarkable guile.
Whenever you break your word (either purposefully or unintentionally), you become sickened for 24 hours or until you meet your obligation, whichever comes first. However, once per day, you can make a vow to yourself that grants a +4 morale bonus on any one roll you make while trying to fulfill a promise made to another individual.
At 5th level, you gain a +3 competence bonus on Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive checks while talking to an individual one-on-one.
Curse - Minor (Hellbound)- Infernal influence grants you profane insight and weighs on your soul.
You cannot cast spells with the good or chaotic descriptors, and you can’t summon good or chaotic creatures. Good and chaotic creatures instinctively distrust you, and you take a –4 penalty on all Diplomacy checks against such creatures. You gain a +2 bonus on all Bluff and Intimidate checks.
Stats Str 7 Dex 14 Con 10 Int 12 Wis 10 Cha 21/23
Skills:
Diplomacy= +19= +6(Ability)+3(Class)+5(Ranks)+1(Extremely Fashionable)+2(Silver Tongued)+2(Persuasive)*(-4 to Good and Chaotic Creatures)
Intimidate= +19= +6(Ability)+3(Class)+5(Ranks)+1(Extremely Fashionable)+2(Hellbound)+2(Persuasive)
Sense Motive= +17= +6(Ability)+3(Class)+5(Ranks)+1(Rising Star)+2(Street Smarts)
Know. (Nobility)= +11= +1(Ability)+3(Class)+5(Ranks)+2(Secret Knowledge)
Know. (Local)= +11= +1(Ability)+3(Class)+5(Ranks)+2(Street Smarts)
Know. (Planes)= +9= +1(Ability)+3(Class)+5(Ranks)
Extremely Fashionable (Intimidation)- You really know how to make a good impression when you’re dressed well.
Benefit: Whenever you are wearing clothing and/or jewelry worth at least 150 gp (and not otherwise covered in gore, sewage, or other things that mar your overall look), you gain a +1 trait bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks. One of these skills (Intimidation) is a class skill for you.
Secret Knowledge (Know. Nobility)- At any point after taking this trait, you may choose one Knowledge skill.
Benefit(s) You gain a permanent +2 trait bonus on checks with that skill, and it is a class skill for you. Once this skill is chosen, it cannot be changed.
Power-Hungry- You’re addicted to power.
Effect: You take a –2 penalty on Will saving throws against charm and compulsion effects if the creature creating the effect promises wealth or power.
Rising Star (Perform - Sing)- All too often, great minds must suffer for their art, but you’re one of the lucky ones. Your skills attracted the attention of a noble patron who pays for your food, housing, and tools. As your patron introduces you to other cultural elites, you’re slowly learning to navigate the treacherous waters of high society, but you still remember the lean times when each meal was a hard-won treasure. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Sense Motive and Survival checks, as well as checks using a single Craft or Perform skill of your choice; one of these skills is always a class skill for you. Once each day, you can invoke your patron’s reputation or name one of your own prominent works to gain a +2 circumstance bonus on a single Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate check. You begin the game with a masterwork musical instrument or tool appropriate to the Craft or Perform skill you selected, a gift from your patron.
Broken Tab:
Whispering Glimpses (SP)- The whispers of intrigue sing to you with glimpses of insight into others’ presence and motives, granting you greater awareness than your own senses could manage. You can add your Charisma modifier instead of your Wisdom bonus on Perception and Sense Motive checks.
Divining Dance (Su): Once per day, you can perform a sacred meditative dance that gives you great clarity of mind and prepares you for what lies ahead. This dance must last for at least 1 minute, uninterrupted, and you can take no other actions during the dance.
When you dance, attempt a Perform (dance) check; the results of the check determine the benefits you gain for the next 24 hours, as listed below. You can always choose the benefit from a lower result, if you wish (for example, if your Perform [dance] result is 15, you can choose to gain a +1 bonus on your divinations’ saving throws instead of choosing to use augury once as a spell-like ability).
Feats:
Skill Focus (Profession-Courtesan)- You get a +3 bonus on all checks involving the chosen skill. If you have 10 or more ranks in that skill, this bonus increases to +6.
Street Smarts- You are able to navigate the streets and personalities of whatever locale you run across.
Benefit(s): You get a +2 bonus on Knowledge (local) and Sense Motive checks, and Knowledge (local) is always a class skill for you. If you have 10 or more ranks in one of these skills, the bonus increases to +4 for that skill. The bonus on Sense Motive checks doesn’t stack with Alertness.
Persuasive- You are skilled at swaying attitudes and intimidating others into your way of thinking.
Benefit: You get a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Intimidate skill checks. If you have 10 or more ranks in one of these skills, the bonus increases to +4 for that skill.
Spell Penetration- You get a +2 bonus on caster level checks (1d20 + caster level) made to overcome a creature’s spell resistance.
Revelations:
Whispering Glimpses (SP)- The whispers of intrigue sing to you with glimpses of insight into others’ presence and motives, granting you greater awareness than your own senses could manage. You can add your Charisma modifier instead of your Wisdom bonus on Perception and Sense Motive checks.
Misfortune (Ex)- At 1st level, as an immediate action, you can force a creature within 30 feet to reroll any one d20 roll that it has just made before the results of the roll are revealed. The creature must take the result of the reroll, even if it’s worse than the original roll. Once a creature has suffered from your misfortune, it cannot be the target of this revelation again for 1 day.
Fortune (Ex)- At 5th level, as an immediate action, you can reroll any one d20 roll that you have just made before the results of the roll are revealed. You must take the result of the reroll, even if it’s worse than the original roll. You can use this ability once per day at 5th level, and one additional time per day for every six oracle levels beyond 5th.
Elixir of Thundering Voice
Extremely Fashionable Dress (150gp worth)
Headband of Alluring Charisma +2
Masterwork Dagger
Masterwork Tool (Performance Sing from Rising Star) - (Silver Tuning Fork)
Potion of Mage Armor x7
Spell Component Pouch
343 Gold
Description:
Lisa Lombardi is a tall (5’10), pale, Taldan woman with a messy bun of naturally wavy red hair that always has a single strand caressing her heavily freckled cheek. She wears a soft, silk, purple dress which is carefully cut to reveal a tasteful (debatable) amount of her sumptuous body. The dress is cut so that her left leg and the center of her chest all the way down to past the navel is revealed. The center cut and the cuffs of the sleeves are lined with a fuzzy, lighter shade of purple material.
She had deep amber eyes exemplified by her eye shadow and tactful layer of blush. Her lipstick is bright-red as are her nails and she wears black stiletto high heels and a matching garter is visible on her revealed leg.
She is almost never found without her elegant smoking pipe from which she samples the exotic tastes of far-away smoking herbs gifted by her many admirers. This ensures that everyday she has a new enticing (and often overpowering) scent about her person.
History:
Lisa Lombardi comes from the streets of the grand city of Oppara itself. The daughter of a whore and a mysterious John ,who tipped ‘quite generously’ according to her mother, Lisa spent most of her youth on the street begging until she got too hungry and began to steal. Stealing until she got too greedy and began snatching purses. Snatching purses until she got roughed up one to many times and was old enough to join her mother’s trade. And there she whored herself for a gold (the house took eighty percent) until she realized that the dopes she slept with had a habit of running their mouths to her and confessing every dirty little secret. She began keeping a ledger, a little black book, with every juicy bit of information she learned about her patrons and then she began to make far more gold off of extortion and information brokering with a little bit of whoring on the side (just for a little fun and to ensure she had a consistent flow of new dirt to exploit).
One evening she pushed a man too far and he went into a murderous rage. He nearly killed the woman, choking her violently until a friend (another working girl at the brothel) stepped in to save her, smashing a chair on the back of the man’s head. This got the man’s attention and saved Lisa’s life but at a terrible price, for the man spun around and slammed the girl into the back wall snapping her neck.
Lisa let out a furious shout and grabbed the dagger she had always kept by her bed for self-defense and used it to plunge into the man’s back. Over and over again she cried out and stabbed him even after he fell to the floor. She kept stabbing until one of the gigolos gently placed a hand on her shoulder and snapped her out of her frenzy.
Overwhelmed by the emotion of taking a life and seeing a friend horribly murdered before her Lisa flung her blood-soaked form into the arms of the gigolo who held and soothed her along with the many other men and women of the brothel who had come to her aid. There, in his arms, her body quaked and trembled as she sobbed. It had hardly been the first time someone she cared for had been hurt or even killed at the wretched house of sin, nor the first time she herself had been mishandled by a John but this was more visceral and in her face than anything had ever been before it. And she vowed then and there to do something about it.
The poor and the desperate of this city would never be abused again.
Even if it cost her her very soul.
Only a few nights later she conducted a dark ritual using the blood of a goose, nightshade, juniper berries, and the heart of the man she had herself killed (having been dug up out of his fresh grave and carved from his chest). With these she summoned up a mighty devil and made a contract, sealed in her own blood. She would establish the finest brothel this country had ever seen where the men and women within would be treated with respect and courtesy in exchange for her soul at the end of her life and under the condition that she never tell a lie.
Lying would not void the contract but would make her become violently ill for a full day as punishment for her indiscretion.
The very next day, as it would happen, she caught the ear of Marquess Charlotte Deschamps with her enchanting voice as her carriage passed.
Long story short, he introduced her to the noble circle of Taldor where she became the very highest class of courtesan. She used her seduction, diabolic magic, and blackmail to secure herself a permanent position within the high court and, while she is less than a noble, very few would dare say as such to her face. For who knows what dirty little secret of theirs she has in her little black book?
