Cybele Hellscape's page

Cybele's mother was Coriana Heavenscape, an aasimar member of the Delvehaven lodge in Westcrown. Cybele was born over 100 years ago, shortly before the death of Aroden. Her mother was evasive about the father and soon resumed her responsibilities as a Pathfinder, only to see the Chelish civil war erupt in the aftermath of Aroden's death.

Coriana was a key figure in the decision to seal Delvehaven in the early years of the civil war and soon joined the fight against the infernal forces of House Thrune. In spite of pleas for her to leave Westcrown, Coriana stayed in the city she loved, fighting on behalf of a future for her young daughter. Tragically, it wasn't long before Coriana was captured by the Sisterhood of Eiseth, an Asmodean nunnery of female monks who hoped to become erinyes after their deaths.

Before she was destroyed, the sisters learned of Cybele and tormented Coriana with their plans to raise her daughter in their beliefs. Young Cybele was brought to the nunnery, oblivious to her mother's death and told she was a tiefling and only a life served in strict adherence to law could save her from her fiendish heritage.

Fortunately, war caught up with the Sisterhood as well and while the Sisterhood survived until only a short time ago, Cybele was turned over to an Asmodean orphanage while the sisters took their part in the battles for Cheliax, planning to renew their plans later.

While the civil war raged over the next 30 years, Cybele grew up and left the orphanage, never knowing her true heritage. The priests were strict with the strange girl with blackened arms and hands who seemed to suffer from strange urges to burn things or commit small acts of evil. She was taught that she needed to master these urges and created a system where she would make promises each day to herself or friends to help control her behavior. She made progress, but unfortunately still sometimes failed, unleashing a guilt that caused her to become horribly sick anytime she broke her promises.

Eventually, the priests tired of the young woman and when the Sisterhood of Eisbeth failed to return for her, they turned her out on the streets of Westcrown. Remarkably, she managed to fend for herself, but suffered terribly in the city both before and after the end of the civil war. In the early years, she begged on the streets, but eventually managed to pick up a variety of odd jobs to survive. Through it all, a resolute determination to live and improve her station developed.

But Westcrown was a tough city for a tiefling. Many doors were closed to her and the best she could eventually manage was becoming a barmaid in a tavern catering to some of Westcrown's cruel nobility who found sport in ridiculing the tiefling help the tavern specialized in. She survived.

A few months ago everything changed. A group of heroes seeking the source of the shadow beasts plaguing Westcrown found a cache of materials that Coriana and other Pathinders had left to assist their eventual plan to re-open the lodge. Part of the cache included Coriana's legacy to her daughter - a wand of cure light wounds and a journal telling of Coriana's role in those dark days and her hopes to create a city her daughter would love as much as Coriana had loved Westcrown before the death of Aroden.

The heroes turned the items over to the Pathfinder who had tasked them with unsealing the lodge. And for a time, the legacy was left alone while Westcrown teetered on the edge of disaster for the second time in a century. But this time things ended well. When the Pathfinders arrived to re-open the Delvehaven Lodge they opened the journal and learned of the daughter of one of the greatest of Westcrown's Pathfinders that no one knew existed. They sought her out. And in a city where the records are kept as well as the priests of Asmodeus keep them, they eventually found her.

It turned Cybele's life upside down. Not only did she learn she was an aasimar, not a tiefling (though there are still those odd horns to puzzle out), but she learned secrets of her mother's identity she had no idea still existed. At last Cybele had found the means of advancing that she had always dreamed of. She pleaded with the new Pathfinders for an opportunity to work with them. To give her a chance. And who could deny the daughter of one of the greatest Pathfinders in the history of the Delvehaven Lodge. They also recognized that it might be best for Cybele to have an opportunity to work someplace other than Cheliax. After all, as bad as it had been for her as a tiefling, it was sure to be worse as an aasimar. And so it was that when an opportunity emerged for a mission to a promising opportunity in Katapesh, the new Pathfinder was selected.

From a distance, Cybele is an attractive, platinum blonde with long hair that falls to the bottom of her shoulder blades. Her skin is light, but tans quickly if she spends much time outdoors. She is of medium height for a woman and slim in build. She usually wears clothing with long, loose sleeves. The observer might first think she is wearing black gloves.

Up close, her heritage is revealed...or at least the mystery of her heritage deepens. When her hair moves, a pair of short, light red horns are revealed. She has a nervous habit of twisting her hair to hide them again when she notices someone looking at them. Her eyes are a deep gold with an occasional spark of flame when she is frustrated, angry, or using her abilities. But, the most frightening aspect of her appearance is her hands. It is all too clear that she wears no gloves, her hands are blackened and appear to only have the thinnest covering of burnt skin.

Cybele is a complex character, still trying out a newfound ability to exert herself and get noticed. For 100 years, she has been trying to keep a low profile and not be noticed because whenever she did, bad things were sure to follow, first in the orphanage and then later as an assumed tiefling trying to make her way in Westcrown.

Her upbringing also had a huge influence on her actions and outlook. She was brought up with a need to totally obey the law and her superiors and was taught that she needed to overcome her weaknesses and those of her parents or she would be punished. In spite of this, she suffers urges to break laws or other social norms and feels incredible guilt even for thinking of doing so, let alone those times she does something bad.

But she has always dreamed of a better life for herself. A chance to do what she wants to do instead of what her superiors or society wanted her to do. And now, she finally has that chance. For years she's been watching the Westcrown nobles and their life of privilege and looks forward to acquiring power and fame of her own (if only it didn't feel so guilty).