Lucinda Lorwyn's page

Having spent her formative years among non-Elves, Lucinda lacks the typical patience of her people. Not content to sit and watch the centuries pass, she relates more to the human view of things, where there is so much to accomplish and so many pleasures to experience. In her youth, her father would always ask "Why hurry when you have all the time in the world?" to which she would often reply: "Why wait and watch it pass you by?"

Her Elven tongue seems rough and lacking in eloquence to other elves. She has often found herself failing at many traditional Elven arts. She fumbles horribly at swordplay and archery alike no matter the tutor; despite her grace and nimbleness, her fingers simply cannot dance across a musical instrument to save her life and she has no talent at all for craftsmanship of any kind. Some of her kin seem to look upon her with pity at her traditional ineptitude. Though she has some gift for magic, she comes across as a poor wizard with limited capacity. The one "Elven" gift she IS proud of is her aptitude for dance...but even then her kin find her favored styles to be gaudy, inelegant, improper and "too human" for their taste. She carries no small share of disdain and animosity for those who look down at her failings and has decided to simply stop trying to act like an Elf.

Lucinda enjoys music and dance and is an enthusiastic patron of the performing arts; she especially favors the lively Varisian gypsy performances. Her manner of dress is heavily influenced by their styles; she's developed a fondness for scarves, sashes, shawls and veils. She spent several of her years away from Brevoy seeking bards and dancers alike, both to enjoy their talents and to glean the nuances of their techniques. While formal training in her preferred arts has not come cheaply or easily, she's developed a keen eye for bodily movements and a keen ear for passionate musicians.

She finds great amusement in card tricks and games; she enjoys the mystique and amazement surrounding sleight of hand techniques. She also enjoys having the ability to occasionally win games of chance that perhaps she shouldn't. Her quick fingers found their way to more than an occasional unsupervised apple or stray coin, earning her father's disapproval quickly and often. At first she simply didn't see the harm, but once she set out on her own to travel more of Golarion, she took a bit of joy in the rebellion. The discovery that she could infuse her cards with arcane power opened up a path for her that she had never imagined. Learning how to throw the cards with accuracy turned out to be far more intuitive to her than archery.

Learning how to project her magic through cards, while a gift discovered on accident, was not easily perfected. Lucinda bears more than a few burns and scars from her magical mishaps. While many healers would offer to heal her completely, many times she has adamantly insisted on keeping the more important scars; though merely superficial at this point, she maintains a certain level of pride in the lessons her scars have taught her. Her travels in Varisia even inspired her to purchase tattoos over some of her scars; she relishes both the symbolic and physical transformation from suffering to art. She bears ink of varying sizes and styles, especially on her face, hands and back.

Goals:

--Lucinda hopes to once again meet the gypsy fortune teller from whom she stole her Harrow deck. She wishes to thank her; she also wishes to flaunt her successful theft after all this time. She would also like to study the Harrow more fully with her tutelage with an offer of support for her caravan in return.

--In light of events in Brevoy, she would very much like to found her own own noble house and fill it with various cultures, including her own favorite arts and pleasures, then immediately invite her father to live there. She would love to make him as uncomfortable as possible by surrounding him with non-Elves and non-traditional arts and dragging him out of his small, stuffy worldview...kicking and screaming if need be. Imagining him squirming to stay pure and traditional as all manner of worldly vices and new ideas close in around him is one of her favorite pastimes.

--Lucinda hopes to meet other Harrow-users to learn more of the fortune-teller's ways and understand more of the magic that makes the Harrow what it is. She's gleaned more than a glimpse or two of her future and is intrigued by the vagaries and possibilities of what she sees. She's heard rumor of special decks with incredible and unpredictable powers; she relishes the thought of mixing them with her particular arts to both see the future and shake it up.

--She has aspirations as a dancer; she is keen to learn new dance forms and hear new music that might inspire her passions and reveal new talent. She is in her own words, "a connoisseur of the arts and a fool for bold music."

Characters tied to her:

Valadrin: Lucinda's father has faced many challenges in adjusting to life outside of the forests of Kyonin. His permanent limp makes travel difficult for him, so he spends more time trying to adapt to wherever home is than trying to find a better one. The predominantly human city of Brevoy has been cordial enough to the two of them, all things considered, though even after raising a child there for the better part of a century he is obviously still uncomfortable with many non-Elven customs. Lucinda considers him a stodgy, wooden old man at the best of times and outright suffocating at others. He has some skill with magic and has used his knowledge of alchemy to earn a living for himself, despite how often he bemoans the petty and frivolous requests of most of his customers. No amount of prying or scrying on Lucinda's part has managed to reveal his original reason for leaving Kyonin and the Elven communities, however.

Broghun: A half-elf born and raised in new Stetven, he was serving as a guardsman when he and Lucinda met years ago. She had cut a purse from a minor noble...and he had spotted her. Rather than alert the guard and give chase, however, he shadowed her back to her hiding place. At once afraid and impressed, she offered him a deal: a harrow reading in exchange for her freedom. Amused but wary, he kept his sword out to be safe. The cards were favorable; Lucinda managed to weave in vague promises of adventure, wealth and pleasures a city guard could never imagine. That night, however, Broghun demonstrated he had plenty of imagination. His talent with a deerskin drum was particularly inspiring to Lucinda; not inspiring enough to keep her from taking his coin purse too, but enough to make his night memorable. She hasn't visited in awhile and isn't sure quite sure how he sees her now.

Astrid: A former adventuring companion, Astrid holds Lucinda responsible for the death of two other party members and carries a not-very-subtle grudge. The group had just completed an arduous trek into a bugbear-infested cave system to rescue the son of a wealthy patron. The mission was a success and no one was the worse for wear, so they all stopped at a tavern in the city. Lucinda saw the full house and decided to pay the bard in attendance for some music to dance to. Her dancing was so spirited that more than a few patrons decided to make unwelcome advances. Arguing ensued, the party got involved in her defense, mugs were thrown, tables were broken and during the bar brawl several lamps were knocked from their hooks into the growing pools of spilled ale, catching fire. Sadly, Lucinda was too caught up in making her escape with the patron's son to notice. By the time the fire started to catch on more than just the floor, panic started to ensue, but Lucinda and their employer's son were long gone. Astrid escaped, but her other two comrades weren't as lucky and were trampled underfoot by the frantic tavern patrons as the blaze began to take the building down. Lucinda delivered the lad safe and sound, took her share and asked the patron to use two of the four shares to pay for the damage and rebuild, leaving Astrid's share. Lucinda hasn't seen Astrid since, but she doesn't need a harrow reading to know that she needs to watch her back.

Mannerisms, memories or quirks

--Lucinda remembers the day she discovered the idea of the Harrow deck. She had heard news of a traveling troupe of performers passing through and found her way to the strangers' wagons. She was delighted by the acrobats, the jugglers, the dancers and the music, but an elderly woman in a shawl, placing cards on a table, drew her attention with a knowing smile and a beckoning finger. She lost track of time conversing with the cryptic gypsy about the cards, the power within them and the fates that could be foretold. The readings, as Harrows tend to be, were vague and prophetic, but the Harrower was a talented storyteller, filling Lucinda's mind with ideas and predictions for good and ill alike and even correctly deducing much of Lucinda's own past. As she instructed the girl to draw a card, she saw sparks of lightning crackle across it. At the turning of the card, the reader's face turned pale. "You may be the fulcrum on which the future sways; no scale is balanced for long. Do not be shackled by the familiar; you must be free to choose the wrong path," she said. Many of the vagaries and riddles have been forgotten, but that quote has stuck with her to this day. As the old woman rose to retreat into her tent and bid Lucinda farewell, the girl's mind was still awash with questions and ideas...but she noticed the teller had left her deck of cards on the table. The caravan was packing up for the night and no one was looking. In her mind a clearer invitation could not be given.

--Lucinda can often be caught practicing her legerdemain, flipping cards between her fingers, shuffling her deck idly and palming her coins and small objects to sharpen her sleight of hand.

--She has picked up a hobby of sometimes asking cryptic questions and replying in vagaries; it amuses her to see others roll their eyes in frustration or rack their brains deciphering her.