Duskashae's page

Duskashae was born in an awful dark ritual led by the high priests of Zon-Kuthon in the darkened land of Nidal. She lived in Ridwan as an indentured servant for most of her youth, and based on what she can remember, it was almost twenty years of misery. She trained as a soldier and guard under the lash of devils and shadow beasts, always giving thanks and praise to the Midnight Lord. Once she had outlasted most of the other recruits, she was assigned to guard duty on the Molthune border. Eventually, her captors' watchful eyes looked away, and she quickly seized the opportunity to kill her partner and flee the country.

She found her way through the mountains to Braganza, where she was able to hide in one of the many abandoned buildings and make a desperate living stealing food and money from Abadar's temple coffers and wealthy Molthuni citizens. She became quite practiced at breaking into houses and picking locks, and she thought the criminal life agreed with her. She always felt like an outsider, however, and when she was finally caught, the Molthuni justice system was cruel.

Instead of serving in prison, she was forced into the army, and she was sent to Fort Ramgate as part of the "irregular" (monstrous) infantry units commonly stationed there, to serve them as a labor force and to act as shock troops when needed. (The Ironfang Legion was one of these units that occasionally gave Duskashae work orders.) When a Nirmathi force attacked, Duskashae and the others in her unit were ordered to give chase, and she again took the opportunity to escape, this time by "getting lost" and stealthily following the routed enemy to one of their support camps.

When the hobgoblins of the Ironfang Legion attacked the camp soon after, Duskashae only barely escaped the slaughter, taking everything she could carry. She did get a firsthand look at the brutal actions that the unit took, however, and it sickened her. She would rather live in darkness than ever fight for such horrible brutes again, she decided. Their reappearance was surprising as they had been missing for two years, ever since she had first arrived at Ramsgate.

She headed east under cover of night, and when she made it to the southern edge of Fangwood forest she found hiding much easier. However, the meager supplies she stole did not last very long, even with careful rationing, and she decided that she must seek out civilization or starve to death. Good fortune brought her to an injured Nirmathi man camped out in the wild, and instead of challenging her he offered to share a meal with her. In gratitude, she told him her name and cared for his wounds as best she could. She is pretty sure she saved his life. He gave her half of his remaining food when they parted ways.

A day or two later she noticed a pillar of smoke coming from the north, very close by, and some instinctive feeling made her want to get clear of the road and out of sight. Over the next few days she saw all manner of creatures patrolling and looting, all wearing the crest of the Ironfang Legion. She managed to take a pair of hobgoblins by surprise and stole their provisions before crossing the river and heading into the Charnasardo Forest.

Duskashae is a small woman with angular elven features and ashen gray skin. She typically wears a mask as she is self-conscious about her appearance. Her body appears to be slightly transparent, and she casts no shadow. She carries a backpack and a belt pouch, and often wields a long spear that seems to be made of the same stuff that she is.

She is generally taciturn and gloomy, but is almost obsessively interested in studying human anatomy and gruesome injuries. Her general outlook is that "might makes right" is the way of the world. The strong overcome the weak, the powerful enslave the humble, and she wants to be on the winning side for once. She hates the Molthuni almost as much as she hates the Nidalese, and she especially hates the hobgoblins of the Ironfang Legion. The Nirmathi have been kind to her, as no one else has been, so she will fervently and fiercely fight for their cause.

Duskashae stared at the wagon through the darkness of night and listened. She couldn't hear any sounds of activity anywhere nearby, and she was sure that all the tracks she had found were many days old, if not a week. Horsesss were here, yesss, and hobgoblinsss, she thought to herself. But it was clear that someone attacked them-- her quarry, she hoped.

After waiting an agonizingly long time, she crept out of the trees and cover and sifted through the wreckage. She found corpses that had been dragged from the scene, and inside the wagon were manacles and chains. Ssslaversss, she thought, as a familiar chill ran down her spine. Unbidden, the rote words appeared in her head: Hail Lord of Midnight, let my unworthy body serve You. She shuddered. Even so many years later, she still had these evil rituals embedded in her head. Would they ever go away? I am not a ssslave any longer, she rebuked herself, but the words rang hollow in her head.

She pulled herself back to the present, and considered what she had found. If I had to guessss, she thought, the party came upon thisss band of hobgoblinsss and attacked them, then they freed their... prisssonersss. There were other wagonsss-- maybe food and other sssuppliesss?-- that they took with them, but thisss one they left behind, for they had no need to transssport people who could ssstill transssport themssselvesss.

She considered what to do. Well, obviously, she had to keep following them, but the trail was already very cold. She badly needed to forage for food, and there was little to be had where the refugees had already passed. Perhaps she could circle around and pick up the trail again from a different direction? She might have more luck striking out on her own, as long as the wagon trail was more or less straight.

Before leaving, she made herself examine the rotting bodies of the enemy. Sure enough, she recognized the insignia that one of the hobgoblins wore: The Ironfang Legion. She didn't recognize the woman, but she had only rarely met any of the elite unit in person, so it was certainly possible that this hobgoblin had been stationed at Ramgate also. Duskashae wet her lips and spit on her corpse. "I curssse you," she whispered coldly. Ssshe dessservesss that much, at leassst, she thought.

Duskashae is primarily a reach fighter, creating a +1 elven branch spear as a move action in her hand, or a +1 pilum that she can throw at targets further away. When creatures get inside her reach, she switches to a +1 elven curve blade. She has incredible versatility, since she can create any kind of simple or martial weapon on the fly. She also has lots of useful skills, hoping to act as the party's rogue and backup healer. She is focused on Perception, Acrobatics, Stealth, and Heal, and she also has good scores in Disable Device, Survival, and Use Magic Device. With her extensive medical knowledge she can treat deadly wounds 2/day on a person, restoring their HD+2 in vigor points and 1 wound point after an hour of rest. (At 5th level she will quadruple those numbers.) She also has basic alchemist and herbalist knowledge that she can use to supplement her physician abilities.