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Standing in the doorway, Dareon sees the myriad of foes threatening Edmond and suddenly enters a state of instinctual violence. His mien grows darker and more savage, and a grin grows across his face. He doesn't see the people around him as "people" anymore. Now, they are targets. Heads to step on. Subjects. He focuses on the flying witch with the most powerful lance of mind magic that he can muster.
Dareon steps through the door on the left, looking for Soliel and other foes. If he sees someone threatening Soliel with a weapon, he focuses his mental powers upon the foe, sending a sliver of wriggling thought into the foe's mind. When it gets deep enough, Dareon causes the thread of thought to explode in a hail of painful splinters, filling the foe's mind with pain, regret, confusion, and inflicting a nasty, bleeding headache along the way.
With comrades busting in the doors to get into battle, Dareon decides that Ian and Edmond could probably handle the bard on the bottom floor, and any other hostiles are likely to be random criminals simply hostile to Tower interests. He decides that Soliel, upstairs with several defined enemies, is likely in more danger than Ian and Edmond, so he dashes up the stairs to reach her.
Dareon tenses up his body, ready to bound towards the bard and try to disable her with a touch of excruciating deformation.
"This may come as a surprise to you," says Dareon, "But she's using magic to compel them to go upstairs. Do you think we should wait until she exhausts it, or should we play along and get sent upstairs?" He looks up at Soliel for guidance. He knew that they wanted to get everyone, which meant getting into a position to attack and ambush people - hopefully everyone they meant to kill - all at once. That meant they had to find out where the rest of Anthony's gang was, and then signal Ian and Edmond. At the same time, they had to keep an eye on this ifrit. "On second thought - Soliel. Maybe it's better you just take a look upstairs?"
Dareon's mind is strong, and he retains his focus despite the enthralling power of the bard in the center of the room. "So," he asks Soliel, "How violent are we supposed to be?"
Dareon hesitates before answering Sosiel. "...Maybe," he says. "I do have a spell that could work, but it typically works better on warriors than on mages. It forms a mental block between a person's conscious and their learned skills, making it impossible to access their own specialized abilities."
Dareon shrugs. "I am good to go. I have used nothing," he says. "Have any of you been to this bar?" he asks. "I've never been. I must say... in my former life, I never strayed to the wrong side of the tracks. Is there anything we need to worry about?"
Suddenly, Dareon is slightly confused. "I'm sorry, did I forget something?" he asks. "Sometimes that happens, but are we going after Diguri? Maybe I'm not entirely clear on the explicit nature of our mission." "I was under the impression that we're only after Anthony and his gang at the moment, is that not true?" "Furthermore... it seems we're accomplished the first leg of that particular aim. We know at least where to look for Anthony and his people - we ask this information broker "Ky". We should go as soon as possible."
"The Iron Gullet and the Minotaur's Head..." muses Dareon. "Bars? Warehouses? Hm?"
Dareon sighs. He could already tell that this man was going to piss him off. He leads him outside where the others could speak with him. When he reaches the mansion's yard, he gestures at the drow. "This him, or do I need to go back in there and melt that noble's brain?"
Without acknowledging the frustrating and entitled nobleman, Dareon stands and looks the drow who approaches in the eyes. He focuses his psychic abilities and asks the drow - "Are you keeping your identity as Firyin a secret?"
Dareon coolly raises an eyebrow. "I'm not sure what you think you have to gain with this rigmarole, sir. The man I'm referring to is named Firyin. Do you have him here, or do you not have him here?"
"Then I'm sure you have an explanation for why Tower scryers saw this particular criminal inside the house when we asked for a divination on him." says Dareon, also quite smoothly. He knew that the man would try to lie about it, of course. And if it came down to it, Dareon was confident in his ability to psychically convince Anton to part with the truth anyway.
Dareon sits down carefully on the edge of the seat and looks the older nobleman in the eye. "I believe that you are harboring a criminal in your household. The Tower does not wish to bother or prosecute you, but we have need of this criminal. In order to prevent an incident it would be better if you would remand this criminal into our custody as soon as possible." "Do you know of whom I am referring?"
Dareon nods. "You may," he says. "You can fetch the master of the household for me. I am from the Tower, and we have some questions."
Dareon nods. "I agree that it seems like a fine plan. I am not a strong fighter, so leaving me to intercept an escaping criminal might not be the best use of me or my skills."
"So, we need to take out this criminal Firyin, but first we need to interrogate Firyin about the whereabouts of a different criminal, named Anthony. But, because Firyin is sheltering with one of Coran's noble families, the operation to actually retrieve Firyin has complications itself." "There is no other way to discover the whereabouts of this Anthony man? There is no one capable of performing a scrying for us?" Dareon scratches his chin and eats a big bite of whatever it is that's in front of him. "Either way, I have the capability to take peoples' secrets from them, so perhaps I was the right one for this job. Umm, hmm." "If we really have to go into this... d'Alkenov estate, the easiest way to get into a noble estate is to be a servant. Are any of you at all adept in disguise?"
Dareon's eyebrows inch upward a smidgen. This small man must be really very unsentimental to not even name a creature which he had created to protect himself. Dareon wonders if the creature is sentient and thinking, or not. He would have to check on it later. Clasping his hands behind his back, he looks between the four people in the room with him, waiting to be given further instructions. It would be imperative to get to know these people better, but it would have to wait until they were out from in front of the boss - personal stories didn't really look good. He briefly considers if there is time for a meal with them, so he could get a better sense of the group and their current goals, and so they could get a good sense of him.
Dareon nods. "Okay, but what's your name? And should I just call him, 'snake man'?"
Dareon splits his gaze between the halfling, who still had not given his name, and Master Hast, who seemed happier to allow one of the members of the group authority than to actually give any orders. Perhaps this "Soliel" was a woman of greater standing than he would have assumed. "There is a drow?" he asks, "What can you tell me about them?"
Dareon shakes his head. "No, I've just finished a job. I was summoned this morning and only told that I was being assigned to a group. Your names - You're Soliel," he says, indicating the tiefling with his head. He gestures at the halfling and the soldier. "And your names? Your skill-sets? Does that... creature... belong to somebody? Or have a name?"
Dareon Lebeda is a pale-skinned man of moderate height, a slim build, and ordinary features. He wears plain blue trousers and a white tunic underneath what appears to be a padded and armored coat made of darkleaf cloth. His eyes are a very light, icy blue, and he carries a rather intimidating stare. He meets everyone's gaze for just a few moments too long. "Hello," he says. "I've been told you three undertake missions for the Tower. As do I. Apparently I am to partner with you." It's only then that he smiles and extends his hand in greeting. "My name is Dareon. I am a natural psychic. I can read minds, speak with the dead, influence people psychically, and, when necessary, fight by overloading people with raw psychic energy. I hope our partnership will be profitable."
Thanks for the note - I put 5 ranks in Acrobatics and 5 ranks in Sleight of Hand, keeping 7 ranks in Diplomacy.
So, I believe I'm done with my character's crunch, should someone like to take a look. I also did some work on Dareon's backstory. For Lack of Clutter:
He was born somewhere like Gumlat, to simple commoner parents. However, he had psychic powers develop while he was still a young child. That ability to read and influence minds changed his entire childhood and allowed him to basically get anything he wanted from nearly everyone without any problem. He grew into a selfish, vapid child.
Like most teenagers, he had naive, half-baked philosophy based on very little actual experience. Unlike most teenagers, he could act on this philosophy and had little reason to change himself. It doesn't matter specifically what this philosophy was, but he had some idea of how society should be, and over a period of a few years he built up a massive network of informants, servants, toughs, and more using abilities like modify memory, dominate person, charm person, and more. When he was in his early 20s he fell in love with a young woman. Without even thinking about it he used his powers in order to force her to fall in love with him as well, and within a year they got married and moved in together. He thought he was happy. After a few years of this life - crime lord during the day, psychically lobotomized wife at night - he had a crisis of conscience. He dispelled all of his charms and memory alterations because he felt it might restore her artistic spirit that he had fallen in love with her for. Worst-case scenario, he figured, she would remember everything and hate him. But to him, it was far worse than that. Without his psychic reminders, she just stopped. Everything about her personality had been accidentally erased as, for too many years, she simply hadn't had to think. She just stood there with a vague smile on her face. He fell into a grief and his first period of self-reflection. He came to many conclusions about himself and he began to prepare a plan: He dismissed most of his network and made a hole one person wide in the world. Then he used his magic, not only to change his appearance, but to layer false memories over his real ones. He layered a false memory of adventurers discovering his criminal empire and defeating him, and placed people he knew would be so dangerous and evil that he might die fighting them in his memory. Then over that he placed a layer of normal memories: The memories of the person he had removed to make room for himself. At that point, he was gone. He woke up the next morning as a 22-year-old baker's apprentice named Dareon with no memory of his previous life. Instead, he only had memories of Dareon's life: Dareon was an orphan who had been taken in by his current boss, a burly but good-hearted baker named Lewis. He lived in the attic of a bakery in Coran and worked most of the day. He had a girlfriend named Samantha, who he met at the library while trying to educate himself, since he never had the opportunity to attend school. He had friends, with whom he would visit cafes and restaurants when he had a few extra silver pieces to spend on someone else cooking for him. The plan to make Dareon into a regular person was a good one, but it wasn't long before he began to rediscover his psychic abilities, and his predecessor's spellcraft had been imperfect and left the vague impressions of some lost memories behind. Soon, Dareon approached the wizards at the Tower in Coran. He was curious about both of these strange phenomena. Despite the protests of his baker benefactor, he change residences and jobs to Tower-supported options as they offered to research his memory difficulties for him. In exchange, he would explore his own psychic powers by taking on jobs for him. They had indeed detected some memory blockers in his mind, and indeed had noted that his psychic potential was very great. They instructed him to keep notes on the effect and feeling of using his powers, as well as a dream journal and a journal of any deja vu he experienced. That was a year and a half ago. Dareon had undergone several missions on behalf of the Tower now. His replacement life's friends have distanced themselves from him somewhat, as it's strange to watch someone that you thought was so wholesome and simple become a magical enforcer of the law so suddenly. He's uncovered some things so far, but nothing very significant of his memories: Mostly new and old psychic powers. I've filled out his profile and believe that I am ready for play. The only thing I'm missing is equipment, which I will work on now (and is my least favorite part of building a character).
I'm sorry if it's presumptuous of me to post in this thread, but I've started working on this character. I actually have a lot going on at the moment, so it may be a little bit more time before I'm able to write him up to the standard that I'm expecting of myself, but I wanted to ask the peanut gallery about some of the things I am planning and/or thinking. My character is a psychic/investigator. As such, he is capable of a wide range of skills as well as a variety of psychic magic. As an amnesiac he is capable of changing out his entire spell list if you just give him a few days. My character is also an infamous villain from a past generation, although few remember him as his identity was kept a secret in order to keep good-aligned heroes from scrying him and showing up at his lair. His current state is the result of his defeat at the hands of adventurers, who were merciful types unable to kill a defeated foe in cold blood. Instead of killing him they locked his memories behind a powerful blocker of magic, and hoped that they could rehabilitate him into society. While their plan worked to an extent, he always felt a certain draw and some shadows of memories - their spellcraft was imperfect. Now, he has some vague memories of his past that serve to drive him to discover what happened to him. That's where the Tower stepped in. They promised him help with recovering his lost memories in exchange for his labor and power lent to the Tower's missions. My plan for him is to have whatever it was that sapped his memory to be connected with whatever metaplot you have going on, but I'm honestly not sure what it is that you have going on, or what the best opportunity for Dareon to be introduced is? Does anyone have any helpful thoughts? This week I will finish filling out this profile.
Dareon's horse is a light riding horse name Unity, a light brown mare who's a little unruly for him, especially given his lack of talent at riding. "I'm not really one for battle," murmurs Dareon, "But I'll stand by you if you still believe you want me around."
I wish you the greatest luck in your Christmastime expansions, military campaigns and diplomacy missions against your family and friends.
Dareon shows up just a minute or two late, his glasses smoky and his robe smelling of herbs and trees and his dog. He straightens his tie and enters Wilhelm's manor, greeting the other leaders with a smile and a wave, sitting down next to Rowan. "The kobolds could be a valuable ally in any engagement with trolls," Dareon articulates. "Their propensity for pyrotechnics and trapmaking is a considerable military asset."
Can I advocate for not recruiting another? At a certain point, it gets a little bit awkward to continue introducing new people into the thread, especially with a party size and age like this one. Not only that, but allowing more unconventional adventuring methods can be fun! Even though Fharn and Sanita got a lot more gaming in than the others because there were only two of them, it was an awesome experience, right? I read it, it was really cool! Also, having a smaller party doesn't necessarily mean that they get more done...maybe it means that they get to elaborate more on it. Also, about my racial feature? I'd just re-train to Magical Aptitude.
Wow, that's a nice find :D Thanks. I might actually be able to make use of those, especially with adding druid spells to my spell list.
We could do the profane 6-and-1. I was suggesting that Dareon go alone. I could bring someone's cohort or two, I suppose, as well. If that's okay. I could also take Leadership and bring along my own cohort XD Not that's really a plan. I want Craft Construct so that I can just start building little servitors. Can anyone think of a way to get it without meeting prerequisites? Can I re-train my "eye for talent" racial feature into the bonus feat that's the regular feature? I don't have a companion creature anymore to apply it to.
Indeed. Given the request the day prior, Dareon can potentially prepare share memory nine times per day. I would also be down for a meeting again at Wilhelm's manor. Dareon has a few ideas but few solutions to the troll problem - his opposition to Evocation makes Dareon a terrible battle-mage and little-suited to killing trolls. I mean, he can acid splash every round to deactivate their regeneration... Dareon CAN, however, help a LOT with the hag problem. His divination focus is very helpful. Next level I might have to order a scroll of wall of fire. Conjuration fills a lot of my holes... Also, is it a terrible idea to split the party? We need most of the party around to deal with the trolls. Numbers is power. However, Dareon can help a lot as an envoy, and is pretty capable of taking care of himself and traveling at speed. So...we could send Dareon to the centaurs? He speaks Sylvan and Giant and has a high Diplomacy score.
"I believe that she's after us, specifically. The leaders of Domierov. So far, she's only targeted Wyssal, Roan, Rowan and Bej, as well as unfortunate passersby that were in the way. A young woman whose house she lured Wyssal, Roan and Rowan to. Bej's staff." Dareon strokes his beardless chin. "I could be the bait. No doubt she's angry with me for stalling her murder of our friends."
Dareon's first priority during the night is to ensure that Wyssal, Roan and Rowan get someplace safe, so he personally escorts each of them home before informing on-duty guard captain of the situation, and requesting that the man begin implementing passwords amongst his own men and pumping up patrol numbers. When Wilhelm finally arrives in town, and Dareon receives the notice to meet, he leaves immediately. He arrives at least half an hour early, but politely waits outside the villa, hands clasped behind his back and rump sitting on a branch of a nearby tree, for the other councilors to arrive. He hops out of the tree and knocks on the door along with everybody else when it's time. Dareon is very troubled by the news of interloping trolls, and his curled-up brow shows this. However, his voice is measured and even. "We'll need to get alchemists to start working on arming our men and women with alchemical acid or fire. Tindertwigs and pitch-coated arrows might be the cheapest solution." He taps his quarterstaff on the table, one tap every few moments. "We definitely want to root out this killer, though. She seems to be going for the leaders of the nation - obviously not anything wild. I believe what I saw was a hag, a horrific monstrous elderly woman with impressive strength and claws like kukris. We can't have her hunting us down while we try to administrate a war with trolls."
"I have the strength to fight, but I think our friends look too injured to continue to fight." He pats Rowan on the shoulder and says, "I'm glad to see you, too." while slotting the wand back into its slot on his belt. "We need the other regents back. We're dealing with a dangerous murderer and Wilhelm's divine strength might be necessary to stop her."
Yeah, I'm still around too. What was your suggested distance again?
"Stop, Wyssal." Dareon says. The smile has dropped from his face, and his hand has fallen to his side. He looks to Wyssal with serious, impassive eyes. "You treat us like we are the tyrannical leaders of Cheliax, seizing hundreds of halflings to work onboard their trade ships." "Do not assume any such thing." He gestures to those around him - the ruling class of Domierov. "You have to understand that we are on the same side as you, and that you, standing there, yelling exaggerations at us about our policies, is going to get you only farther away from ingratiating yourself with us. We do not criminalize poverty, only theft. We do not enslave, we ask for repayment. And last I checked, I asked for a better solution, and all that you offered were more insults." "We cannot defend our people with idealism, as much as we would wish it. We cannot enforce laws by wishing them so and assuming that people will follow them. And these are not the River Kingdoms. This is Domierov, and as much as we want to keep the culture of the area vibrant, we will enforce our vision of what we want from Domierov. If you have a specific plan that you believe is superior to ours, go ahead, out it." "Amaze us."
Dareon stands, raising a hand and throwing it up at the little halfling, his eyebrows creasing inwards. "Now, hold on Wyssal. We aren't intending to simply throw people in irons when they run out of money. If that happens, they face the misfortunes that life itself presents - selling their own house, a child dying, their business failing. The indentured servitude is intended more for criminals. It's supposed to make them re-pay their debt to society. If you have a better option, I'd like to hear it, of course, but it's what we've come up with as the most productive and fairest solution."
And Dareon will have an argument to answer it. One that I think she will actually listen to.
Sarenith 4th, Fharn's meeting: "Well," starts Dareon, "I can't speak to her movement. I think you're very right, Sanita, about the danger of radical elements taking over a movement. As for her, though, she seems a very sweet woman with the best interests of the people at heart, and with the customs of this land's people ingrained into her."
"The Six River Freedoms essentially revolve around living a life devoid of entanglements. Freedom of speech, oathbreakers die, freedom of travel, the lack of courts, the absence of slavery and freedom of possession, as long as you can personally keep it." "These rules work great with smaller establishments - a fixed set of behavior that all are expected to abide by keeps a group of a hundred from turning into a hundred bandits. However, it's very important that they not be implemented, at least as a whole, here." "I'll fetch her, if I can find her." With that, Dareon exits the council room with a tiny bow, heading quickly back to his house, looking for Wyssal. Because of his fast-walk, and the fact that he is quite out of shape, he is lacking quite a bit of breath by the time he gets home. He checks through the gate, and he goes to the bunkhouse to see if Wyssal is there. "Wyssal? Are you home?" he calls.
Sarenith, Fharn's Common Room: "Scourge and defiler are a tad overstating things, as it were. She's just a little cheerful halfling woman named Wyssal. I met her a few weeks ago and invited her to live with me in my travelers' hostel instead of paying for an inn."
Dareon chuckles at the mental image of Fharn's suggestion. "Perhaps that would be the correct course, though I don't think having more of us would help much. Perhaps bring Wilhelm, yourself, and Lanya? You, the most interested party, as well as our diplomat and our leader."
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