Briar the Rose's page

(Content warnings: murder, transphobia, homophobia, trauma, sexual content)

Sweetbrier Vervain should have lived a charmed life in Magnimar. The daughter of two noble—in all senses of the word—and doting fathers, she would have had opportunities thrown at her for just existing. She would not have been notable as anything more than a name in a family tree, a portrait in a manor, a plaque on an orphanage. But she would have been loved. For the first 13 years of her life, Sweetbrier did have such a life. Nothing seemed like it could break the fantasy; her fathers were kind and understanding even of her telling them she is girl and not a boy as they had thought.

Her and her fathers had been traveling for the summer and stopped in a quaint inn somewhere off a side road in western Varisia. Everyone had seemed so friendly. They had not even tasted anything wrong with the food. As she struggled for breath, she saw three bystanders walk up, each an elf with a tattoo of a raven: one on his left hand, another on his right, and the last on his shoulder. They watched, smiling, while each of them gave their death rattle. Sweetbrier’s last sight was them walking away, her last thought nothing but pure unfiltered vengeance, so raw as to be incapable of rendering into words.

She woke up out behind the inn to the sound of a shovel, the innkeeper’s back to her as he dug deeper and deeper. The poison was still in her, she could still feel the weakness in her muscles, but it had somehow...stopped. She ran. The innkeeper tried to follow, but his shadow somehow snagged against something and held him back. She kept running as far as her legs could take her.

She found herself mercifully lucky in finding a caravan of fellow Varisians heading through Magnimar, but when she arrived, her home was already being cleaned out by her Uncle Alois and Aunt Holly that had never cared for their “queer” brothers. They recognized her, but her aunt said “My over-indulgent brother had a son, not a daughter” and had her escorted away. Forced onto the streets, she had to learn how to survive the hard way. With no skills and no name and no family, she did what she needed to do to survive. When she could, she picked up lessons about alchemy, seeking ways to understand what has happened to her blood. She eventually learned that the poison has somehow become a part of her body, inseparable from her blood, even with magic. And instead of making her resist poison, it has actually made her weaker to it, as though her body thinks poison is its natural state. She has taken steps over the years to build up as much resistance as she can, and has even learned how to make her own antitoxins to try and keep herself protected. Considering her plans, she needs all the protection she can get.

Briar, for she is no longer sweet, has spent the ten years since the attempt on her life on the trail of the Ravens, as she has come to call them. She finally found the trail five years ago at the fateful inn. She had planned to seduce and murder the innkeeper after questioning him on the matter of where to find the Ravens, but she ended up spending day after day unable to bring herself to do it, often sitting and watching the fireflies in the pond outside. She sought to calm her nerves in the arms of a rare broad-shouldered elven woman who was passing through and took her out back to talk in view of the pond. They talked for hours, and Briar ended up tearfully telling her everything. “Forget about revenge,” her confessor had said, “Good girl like you shouldn’t be walking that path.” Briar couldn’t let go, though. Giving up on revenge felt like giving up on her fathers. Briar cried into those broad shoulders, shaking as she said that no, she had to do this. Broad Shoulders pet her hair and nodded. She woke up in Broad Shoulders’ bed the next day alone, a note on the bed next to her. “For the fireflies” was all it said, and the innkeeper’s keys were underneath. She stood up and looked to the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of her savior, but she instead saw a crowd gathered at the pond as they fished out the innkeeper. She found out later he was tied up and bound to a heavy lockbox of coins and thrown in to drown. Wasting no time, she snuck into the innkeeper’s office and took the ledger he had been using to keep track of his underhanded dealings, and it led her to Riddleport and the House of the Silken Veil. She still keeps an eye out for Broad Shoulders to this day, too.

She took to the work at the House of the Silken Veil perfectly. She quickly became known as Briar the Rose for her wardrobe and her prickliness about being touched when she is not at work. The Left-Hand Raven took five years to show up, but he did. Briar was ready, and she quickly made sure to draw his attention so he would hire her for the evening. She did not have any trouble with nerves this time. She cut her finger to draw her poisoned blood and let it drip down into his snoring mouth until he could snore no longer. She searched his things but found nothing useful; he had apparently been savvy enough to hide his incriminating belongings before heading out for a good time. He died peacefully in his sleep, she told the High Priestess. She did not expect Shorafa to believe her, of course. Along with the obvious, this murder was Briar’s application for bigger and better work, work that might reward her with information on the other two Ravens. Judging by her recent assignment to ingratiate herself with Saul Vancaskerkin, her application seems to have been accepted.

Briar maintains a sharp divide between how she dresses on her own time and how she dresses at work. She normally wears a demure red riding habit and matching cavalier hat. She will never wear heels outside of work, preferring riding boots. On the job, she likes flowing layers of bright fabrics that she can easily love in as well as discard and re-don at will depending on her needs. At work, she keeps her waves of hair up in a high ponytail.

She is a tall woman, easily over 6 ft, and her size gives her comfort. Thanks to her curse, her skin has taken on a sickly pallor and some of her more visible veins are clearly greenish , so she tries to cover up with makeup as best she can. She wears gloves and covering clothing as much as possible to minimize the chance of an errant cut or scrape causing her to bleed poison. Thanks to her “no blood play” stipulation, she has no issues doing her job. She was able to pawn enough to afford as much mulibrous tincture as she would need years ago so she has a decidedly feminine appearance and delicate features. Her aquiline nose is her most striking feature.

She carries herself with dignity and confidence, having never forgotten her fathers’ lessons on decorum and etiquette. She has an intensity that makes her either difficult to look at or mesmerizing, depending on who is looking.

Lastly, as a side-effect of her shadow powers, she no longer has a shadow of her own.

Despite her hard life and her goals of vengeance, Briar desperately holds onto the person she was before all this tragedy, as she knows her fathers would want her to. In a way, letting go of that part of herself would mean letting go of her fathers and all the taught her, and she absolutely cannot accept such a loss. She pursues vengeance with such tenacity because she cannot bear to live in a world in which good men like her fathers are so cruelly murdered and the killers go free without punishment.

On the day-to-day, Briar is personable and worldly. She talks a lot, enough that people will assume she is an open book, but always holds back the important details about herself. She tends to take on an almost “big sister” vibe around those younger and more idealistic than her. She has a soft spot for anyone down on their luck, especially people suffering from debilitating diseases or other health issues like her own. She hates the rich and powerful, but she sees no problem with being two-faced and taking them for whatever they have, as they certainly do not deserve any of it. She will do what she needs to do, but she will first make completely sure she needs to, finding iron necessity is often neither iron nor necessary.

She has zero romantic or sexual interest in men, preferring them as work clients for precisely that reason, as it helps her keep her personal and professional lives completely separate. Older women are her type, and she hopes to settle down with a sugar mama one day.

Regarding Briar’s Mechanical Role
Briar is meant to do a mixture of skills, support, and healing. She’ll have the basics for healing, like cure spells, and probably some decent buffs, but her main focus is illusion magic. That will be a bit more on the back-burner until her shadow spells come online. She might take the Evangelist prestige class because I am hopelessly addicted to it, and it seems appropriate.

Regarding Briar’s Party Role
Despite her intense backstory and goals, Briar is a team player both by natural inclination and by practicality. She will find she is happy to nurture and support allies as long as they show her respect in kind. She will take the lead if she needs to or sit back and make snarky comments. She is viciously practical if need be, but she prefers to not need to be. One aspect of her growth I’m interested in is her learning to open up to people again and how to work through some of the pain that is motivating her quest for revenge.

Regarding the Ravens
I have no defined ideas at the moment about who they are, who hired them, or why. I made them elves because I know that elves are important to the plot of this AP, but that’s about the limit of my knowledge. I obviously want them to tie in to the main plot in some way, but I like leaving you as much freedom as possible. That said, I also know the GM has more work than anyone, and I am happy to come up with more details as you need to make your life easier.

Regarding Sexual Content
One of the reasons it’s taken me this long to make a Calistrian is that I want to keep it tasteful without doing injustice to the character or people taking it as an invitation to ignore boundaries. If selected, I’d be happy to have a conversation with the group about where everyone’s lines are on that (including mine). All that said, I was thinking that part of Briar’s character is that she is a sex worker, has been one for a while, and is happy to stay in that line of work. She has a very grounded, unromantic view of sex and has a sense of humor about it.

I’ve been on the PbP forums for the better part of a decade at this point. I started DnD with 3.0 when it came out when I was 11 and have been playing some version of 3.X ever since. I actually remember having issues of Dungeon and Dragon magazine with parts of the Age of Worms AP, and I suspect I still have them in a box at my parents’ place.

I have an English bachelors degree and a Masters in Creative Writing and am currently working on finishing the novel I started during my program. My writing background is part of what draws me to play-by-post, especially as it gives me an opportunity to experiment and practice my writing.

As a player, I have a stable life and am thoroughly reliable. I’m on PST and tend to post throughout the day, as I work from home. My longest game has been going on over 5 years. I feel like the quality and consistency of my posting speaks for itself.

On a personal note, I’m trans and a lesbian so you can trust that I will approach those aspects of Briar’s character with the care and knowledge of someone in that community. You can look at my overwhelmingly trans and lesbian selection of characters to see for yourself.

Sweetbrier “Briar the Rose” Sinead Vervain
Human Oracle/1
CG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +1 Senses: Darkvision 60 ft, Perception +0
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Defense
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AC 13, touch 11, flat-footed 12 (+1 dex, +2 shield)
HP 11
Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +1
Conditional Modifiers Must roll twice and take the lower vs poison
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft
Melee Carnwennan (Cold Iron Dagger) -1 (1d4-1/19-20), Brass Knuckles -1 (1d3-1/x2)
Ranged Carnwennan (Cold Iron Dagger) +1 (1d4-1/19-20), Light Crossbow +1 (1d8/19-20), Acid Flask +1 (1d6/x2)
Special Attacks
Oracle Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +5):
1st (4/day)—Cure Light Wounds, Murderous Command (DC 15, 16 vs attracted to her), Shadow Trap
0 (at will)--Guidance, Create Water, Mending, Purify Food and Drink
Mystery Shadow
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Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 18
Base Atk +0; CMB -2; CMD 10
Feats
Great Fortitude
Extra Revelation (Cloak of Darkness)
Traits
Tattooed Focus (perform [dance])
Alchemical Intuition
Pamodae’s Catspaw (murderous command)
Drawback
Umbral Unmasking (no shadow)
Alternate Racial Traits
Silver-Tongued
Skills (armor check penalty 0)
Acrobatics +1
Appraise +2
Bluff +10 (+12 vs people who could be attracted to her)
Climb -1
Craft (alchemy) +6
Diplomacy +10
Disguise +8
Escape Artist +1
Heal +0
Intimidate +4
Perception +0
Perform (dance) +10
Profession (courtesan) +4
Ride +2
Sense Motive +4
Stealth +6
Survival +0
Swim -1
Languages Taldane(common), Varisian, Varisian Sign Language, Elven
SQ: Oracle’s Curse (toxic blood), Revelation (Cloak of Darkness 1hr/day, Pierce the Darkness)
Gear
Antitoxin, Earplugs, Grooming Kit, Holy Text (Calistria), Perfume (common) x10, Signet Ring, 50 ft of silk rope, Waterskin, Carnwennan (Cold Iron Dagger), Light Crossbow, 20 Cold Iron Bolts, Brass knuckles, Dagger x2, Heavy Wooden Shield, Courtesan’s Outfit, Explorer’s Outfit, 3 month supply of Calistria's Kindness, Acid Flask (2)

180 gp
-50 antitoxin
-0.03 gp earplugs
-1 grooming kit
-1 holy text (Calistria)
-10 Perfume (common)
-5 Signet Ring
-10 50 ft of silk rope
-1 Waterskin
-4 Cold Iron Dagger
-35 light crossbow
-4 20 cold iron bolts
-1 Brass knuckles
-4 dagger x2
-7 heavy wooden shield
Courtesan’s Outfit (free starting outfit)
-10 explorer’s outfit
-9 Calistria's Kindess bottle x3
27.97
-20 acid flask x2
7.97