About Fayre LucilleBackground:
Growing up in the Nidalese city of Nisroch wasn’t easy. Constant strife between lesser nobles of the Umbral Court led to often bloody conflicts, the fallouts of which were in turn suppressed by the mute monks of the Silent Shroud with an iron fist. It got worse, however, when your parents were leading figures in the Desnan resistance movement. As the daughter of Lonzo and Aleira Lucille, there wasn’t much choice for an alternate path through life. Though, if Fayre were honest, she’d probably have followed the same path despite how it left her stranded in a Varisian city up north with what felt like rapidly failing health. After all, a normal person could only be forced to witness and partake in the Zon-Kuthon worship so often before she broke either way, either into apathy or a steely determination to break the Umbral court’s hold. Only the truly sick bastards joined in, and she wasn’t weak enough to just stand by. While most forms of art and music were banned, there was a strange loophole for poetry among the Nidalese, as well as a like for humiliation of adversaries. Not only through regular and sexual torture, but also the verbal kind. Usually to make things worse for the losing side before their bodies were used in bloody ritualistic manner. And therein lay opportunity. Throughout the years, she had gradually cultivated her skills as an undercover agent for the Desnans, posing as a Bard and carefully maneuvering about the shifting balance of power in Nisroch under the tutelage of her mother and other more experienced agents, up until where she could do some assignments on her own. This usually led to information to keep their cult hidden or opportunities to steal supplies and similar acts of Sabotage. Yet, progress was slow and the setbacks against the established power significant. Thus, a plan was hatched to assassinate Theryn Mesrak, the most prolific Umbral noble of the time, during the only predictable holiday – the celebration of the Eternal Kiss. That’s where everything went wrong. The plan had been daring, for her father to disguise himself as a Joy Body and stab him in the middle of ceremony. Yet the Silent Shroud descended too fast and too precise, and seemingly invincible by the presence of an unknown robed figure. And just as she looked at him (?), she could swear she was hit by a spell. It was only through her mother’s sacrifice that she herself got out. ”Find Shorafa Pamodae. She will help you lay low.” Fayre wouldn’t just have left, but she did. It was only after the ship had taken off that she realized her injured mother had Charmed her to leave on the first available ship, a supposed traded but rather smuggling vessel set for Riddleport she’d bribed and charmed her way onto. She might have returned to Nistoch on her own if it hadn’t been for the Ilnesses. She’d never been sickly. But since that day, it was growing more frequent. It had started with headache and pain, maybe just shock from the botched mission. Then it turned into coughs and fever.
Fortunately, and true to her mother’s advice, Shorafa had taken her in despite the illness, and allowed the use of low level magic to supresss the effects of whatever what wrong with her, even if the priestess wasn’t sure. However, nothing came for free, and as a return service she found herself working for Pamodae – as one of the few non-courtesans on her retinue, with the next mission seemingly to investigate the return of a former crimelord. However, it still felt like the disease was growing stronger by the day, even if visible aspects of it were being magically hidden… so would this arrangement be enough? And how long would she be stuck here? What had happened to the others back home and who was that strange figure aiding the silent monks? Secrets:
-Known secret: A relatively high ranking member of the Desnan resistance to the Umbral court down South. Other ‘known’ secret: she suspects that Shorafa might be her aunt, and that this might have played a part in why the woman had decided to help a sickly stranger. All she truly knows on the matter is that her mother had a sister whom she had a falling out with in the distant past, and Shorafa herself has not enlightened her either way. The official reason was that she could use the subterfuge skills of someone like her well (out of options, she shared her global background with the woman, trusting her mother’s advice). -To her unknown secret: The disease she has is the result of a powerful curse, which is why it only partly reacts to disease-altering magic. (Optionally ) In fact, it is so powerful that it is set to kill her in months unless a solution to this can be found. If Fayre were to learn of this or if the disease progresses too far despite help, she would seek out the Cyphermages for aid. -Unknown to me secret: ? (Up to the game mastering cat!) Appearance and personality:
As par for most bards, Fayre is very appealing to look at. Though in her case, it’s more in a girl-next-door kind of way rather than an over-sexualised one. That isn’t to say she’s never dressed or played the latter part, as such was more or less necessary to act as a spy among the Umbral Court nobles. However, that part of her is a disguise, and her real self prefers to dress relatively modestly and relies on her personal charms rather than the promise of swift carnal pleasure. It might put her at odds with the other Calistrians from time to time, but then again she isn’t a Calistrian but a Desnan working for a Calistrian. She isn’t above using sex to get what she wants, but views this as a last resort and prefers to work around this option unless there’s a genuine attraction of sorts. Some of her notheworthy physical features are her long ginger hair, green eyes, slender frame and lively and/or mischievous demeanor. Her most prominent (and perhaps only visible) weapon is her starknife. Some have said there is a literal twinkle in her eyes and that is is a sign of blessing from Desna, though she’s never seen it herself. Her refusal to sulk and try to make the best of things is a personal way of continued defiance to Zon-Kuthon. As a former (and current?) spy, Fayre prefers to work through guile and subterfuge rather than violence. She has a diverse array of skills and prefers to rely on those and her talent for enchantment magic over frontal assaults.
Goals:
Her main immediate goal is to survive and find a way not to die to the mysterious ‘disease’ ailing her. She needs help from Shorafa Pamodae for both this and to keep her somewhat hidden and protected from possible Nidalese pursuers. However, should this fail her next idea would be to seek aid from the Cyphermages. The disease is represented game-mechanically starting at level 2 as part of her dual-cursed oracle level, as the plagued oracle curse. For the second curse, I had in mind that that her main curse is instead actually so powerful that it's a death curse set to kill her before too long unless a remedy of sorts is found. (that is slightly homebrew, but it seemed cooler than picking a flat second curse off the bat) Having this turned to a lesser ‘normal’ curse, yet a survivable one, would be something she’d work towards and could be part of her story arc as a possible solution. Returning to Nidal and rejoining or rebuilding the Desnan resistance in Nisroch is a long-term goal, of which she is well-aware that is is beyond her now, not having the experience or resources to do so. At least, not yet. Though if there was a way to check on the status of her parents in the meantime, she might just take it. As well as grow a bit closer to Shorafa Pamodae she that is indeed her aunt. Statblock:
Fayre Lucille
Languages Common + 3 more decided later.
Mechanical build, party role and future development:
While I was originally going for mesmerist, along the way I realized I just love the bard class too much, with it’s amazing support, skills and spells, and how it could probably do the same things while also helping teammates. Somehow, despite it being one of my favorite classes, none of my current active PBP characters are a bard and I wanted to rectify that unfortunate event here. My original design goal for Fayre was to be a generalist with acceptable melee capacity, good knowledge and social skills and to have enchantment spells as a specialization. I hadn’t used the latter much in my previous bard and wanted to give those spells a fair shot, too. This eventually led to a combination of Court Bard with a dip in dual cursed oracle to give the enchantment spells a good chance to land even in combat. And the Desnan feat Desna’s Shooting Star allowed for charisma as an attack stat with a starknife. Sure, the melee damage doesn’t increase in power much, but it’s something! I then got stuck for a while wondering how all these elements could lorewise go together in a cohesive story, and it almost turned me off from it until, lo and behold!, I looked up Nidal to the near south where pretty much all elements already fall in place from canon lore. There’s an underground group of Desnans explicitely fighting an evil Court. Pretty much perfect! To round her out a bit, her future oracle dip in the thematic Lore mystery allows charisma on ac and reflex which would also make her ac decent, and optionally she could spend a feat to replace int with cha on all knowledge checks depending on group needs. |
