Marz Shun's page

Marz Shun’s story begins in the quiet half‑light between childhood and adulthood, long before she ever held a holy symbol or whispered a prayer to Tsukiyo, the moonlit god of spirits and redemption. Born a changeling, she grew up with the constant, gnawing awareness that something dark and hungry waited in her blood—her hag‑mother’s legacy. Her adoptive family in the River Kingdoms tried to give her stability, but Marz always felt the world through a thin membrane, as if reality were a fragile lantern she could see flickering from both sides. Even as a child, she spoke of dreams where the moon cracked like porcelain and voices leaked through the fractures. Most dismissed it as imagination. A few whispered fearfully. Marz simply lived with it.

Her first encounter with Tsukiyo came during one of those moon‑fracture nights. She wandered from home, drawn by a soft, silver glow in the woods. There, she found a shrine—old, forgotten, half‑buried in moss. The air shimmered with quiet sorrow. When she touched the cracked stone, a wave of calm washed over her mind, smoothing the jagged edges of her thoughts. She felt seen. Not cured, not “fixed,” but understood. Tsukiyo’s teachings of redemption, moonlit clarity, and gentle guidance through madness resonated with her in a way nothing else had. She devoted herself to him, believing that if anyone could help her navigate her fractured mind, it was the god who embraced broken spirits.

As a young acolyte, Marz showed promise. She learned healing rites, moonlit meditations, and the delicate art of soothing restless souls. But her connection to the Madness domain—the one she embraced fully—grew stronger than her instructors expected. She could see patterns in chaos, hear whispers in silence, and sometimes predict danger moments before it struck. Her mentors worried, but Tsukiyo’s faith teaches compassion for the unstable, not fear. They allowed her to continue, hoping she would find balance. She never did. Instead, she learned to surf the edge of her own unraveling, treating her mind like a cracked mirror that still reflected truth, just from unusual angles.

Her induction into the Pathfinder Society came almost by accident. During a pilgrimage, she stumbled upon a Society expedition beset by spirits they couldn’t appease. Marz walked straight into the haunting, speaking softly to the ghosts as if greeting old friends. The spirits calmed. The Pathfinders, stunned, invited her to join them. She accepted, believing that traveling the world might help her understand the strange visions that plagued her. She became known as the “moon‑touched novice,” brilliant in moments, unsettling in others, but always kind.

The event that shattered her remaining stability—and bound her fate to Professor Petros Lorrimor—occurred during a joint investigation into a cursed ruin. Marz had one of her episodes: a sudden, overwhelming flood of visions that left her trembling and incoherent. Lorrimor, already deep into his own occult research, recognized the signs of a mind stretched between worlds. He protected her, guiding her out of danger. Later, when a spectral entity attacked him, Marz—still half‑lost in her visions—intervened with a burst of divine clarity. She saved his life, though she never remembered the moment clearly. Lorrimor did. He called it a “chance encounter,” but privately he believed Tsukiyo had guided her.

After that, Marz’s sanity began to fray more rapidly. She withdrew from formal clerical duties, unable to maintain the discipline required. Her spells became unpredictable, her meditations spiraled into ecstatic trances, and her dreams grew louder. She remained devoted to Tsukiyo, but her connection to the Madness domain eclipsed everything else. Eventually, she left the clergy entirely, becoming a wandering ex‑cleric who still carried her holy symbol like a talisman against the storm inside her mind.

By seventeen, Marz was a paradox: a gentle soul wrapped in fractured thoughts, a former cleric who still whispered prayers, a Pathfinder who saw patterns in chaos, and a changeling who feared the call of her hag‑mother’s blood. When news reached her of Lorrimor’s death, she felt a sharp, crystalline moment of clarity—one of her rare flashes where the world aligned. She knew she had to go to Ravengro, not just to honor the man she once saved, but because something in her visions had been pointing toward Ustalav for months. The moon in her dreams had begun to crack again.

And so Marz Shun travels to Ravengro, clutching her holy symbol of Tsukiyo, her mind fluttering like a feather in a storm, ready—or as ready as she can be—to face the horrors waiting in the shadows of Carrion Crown.

Marz Shun’s appearance carries an uncanny, moon‑kissed beauty that feels both fragile and unsettling. Her features are sharp in the way changelings often are—cheekbones like carved ivory, lips that rarely settle into a single expression, and eyes that shimmer with mismatched colors, one green and one violet, as if each belonged to a different dream. Her hair falls in dark, wavy strands that frame her face like a curtain of midnight. When she stands still, she looks ethereal, almost serene; when she moves, there’s a faint disjointedness, as though her body and mind aren’t always in perfect agreement. The lamellar steel armor she wears gleams with silver‑blue reflections, catching moonlight even indoors, giving her the appearance of a wandering lunar knight.

Her behavior is a study in contrasts. At times she is quiet, contemplative, and gentle—speaking softly, touching objects with reverence, and pausing mid‑sentence as if listening to something only she can hear. Other times, her madness surfaces in sudden bursts of intensity: a sharp laugh at an inappropriate moment, a whispered warning about dangers no one else can see, or a moment of stillness where her gaze drifts into the distance, following invisible patterns. She is not violent or cruel; her instability expresses itself in unpredictability, not malice. Those who spend time with her learn to recognize the signs—her fingers tapping her Split‑Blade Sword, her breathing slowing, her eyes widening slightly—just before she slips into one of her moon‑touched trances.

Her armor and shield are not merely tools of survival; they are anchors. The lamellar plates, meticulously polished, help her feel “solid,” as she puts it, grounding her when her mind threatens to drift. The heavy wooden shield is etched with faint lunar motifs she carved herself during sleepless nights. But the most important object she carries is her Split‑Blade Sword, an exotic weapon she treats not as steel but as scripture. To Marz, the sword is Tsukiyo’s voice made manifest—its twin edges representing clarity and madness, its unusual shape a reminder that beauty can be found in broken forms. She often rests her forehead against the blade before battle, murmuring prayers or fragmented thoughts, seeking guidance from the god who walks with the insane.

In social situations, Marz is strangely magnetic. People are drawn to her softness, her sincerity, and the way she seems to see straight through façades. She listens with full attention, head tilted slightly, eyes bright with curiosity. Yet her madness is never far beneath the surface. She might interrupt a conversation to comment on a pattern in the shadows, or ask someone if they can hear “the quiet music behind your heartbeat.” Despite this, she is never threatening—only otherworldly. Her companions learn that her odd remarks often hide truths, insights, or warnings. In the haunted roads of Ustalav, her fractured mind becomes a lantern: flickering, unreliable, but capable of illuminating things no sane person could ever perceive.

Marz Shun
Female changeling cleric (channeler of the unknown) 1 (Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Coven 5, Pathfinder Player Companion: Antihero's Handbook 12, Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 4 29)
NG Medium humanoid (changeling)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +2
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Defense
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AC 23, touch 14, flat-footed 20 (+6 armor, +3 Dex, +1 natural, +2 shield, +1 trait)
hp 9 (1d8+1)
Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +4
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee dagger +2 (1d4+3/19-20) or
. . gauntlet (from armor) +2 (1d3+3) or
. . heavy shield bash -2 (1d4+3) or
. . split-blade sword +2 (2d6+3) or
. . unarmed strike +2 (1d3+3 nonlethal) or
. . 2 claws +2 (1d4+3)
Special Attacks channel entropy 6/day (DC 13, 1d6)
Domain Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +3)
. . 5/day—vision of madness (+1/-1)
Cleric (Channeler of the Unknown) Spells Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +3)
. . 1st—bless, lesser confusion[D] (2, DC 13)
. . 0 (at will)—detect magic, guidance
. . D Domain spell; Domain Madness
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Statistics
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Str 14, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 7, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +0; CMB +2; CMD 15
Feats Selective Channeling
Traits ancestral armor, chance savior, defender of the society
Skills Acrobatics -3 (-7 to jump), Knowledge (history) +2, Knowledge (religion) +2, Profession (farmer) +6
Languages Aklo, Common
SQ paranoid, power of the unknown, spontaneous casting, unknown aura
Other Gear mwk lamellar (steel) armor[UC], heavy wooden shield, dagger, split-blade sword, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, hemp rope (50 ft.), holy text (Tsukiyo)[UE], mess kit[UE], spell component pouch, trail rations (5), waterskin, weapon cord[APG], wooden holy symbol of Tsukiyo, wrist sheath, spring loaded, 10 gp, 9 sp, 1 cp
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Tracked Resources
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Channel Entropy 1d6 (6/day, DC 13) - 0/6
Dagger - 0/1
Trail rations - 0/5
Vision of Madness (+1/-1, 5/day) (Sp) - 0/5
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Special Abilities
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Channel Entropy 1d6 (6/day, DC 13) You channel entropy instead of positive or negative energy.
Cleric (Channeler of the Unknown) Domain (Madness) Granted Powers: You embrace the madness that lurks deep in your heart, and can unleash it to drive your foes insane or to sacrifice certain abilities to hone others.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
Paranoid Aid Another DC 15 for attempts to help you.
Power of the Unknown A channeler of the unknown has lost the benefit of the domains granted by her deity, but the unknown entity that answers her supplications instead grants her the benefits of one domain from the following list: Darkness, Destruction, Luck, Madness, or
Selective Channeling Exclude targets from the area of your Channel Energy.
Spontaneous Casting Lose prepared spell to cast a domain spell of same level or lower.
Unknown Aura (Su) You are under the effects of a permanents undetectable alignment spell.
Vision of Madness (+1/-1, 5/day) (Sp) Touch grants bonus to choice of attacks, saves, or skills for 3 rds, but others take equal pen.