Ruisxys's page

Combat Gear scale mail armour, heavy wooden shield, shortbow and 20 arrows, longsword, dagger, flail; Alchemical tricks ; Other Gear Backpack, cold weather outfit, pirate’s clothes, belt pouch, cheap holy text, bedroll, mess kit, iron pot, 5 days' trail rations, flint and steel, whetstone, sewing needle, soap, scroll case, potion vial, 1 oz. ink and pen, 3 candles, 5 sheets parchment, waterskin, 10 torches, rope (50 ft.), 15 gp, 2 sp, 5 cp
Treasure Holy symbol of Yuelral: gold and chips of semi-precious stones (25 gp)

Once per day, in favoured terrain (forest), casts these spells as spell-like ability, Cha-based, character level as caster level. Counts as fey source for these vs. druid’s resist nature’s lure vel sim.

Fey bloodline (counts as fey for enchantments, not humanoid, and can use fey items), +1 Bluff, Diplomacy, Perception, Sense Motive, Stealth, and Swim, Dual-minded (+2 to Will saves), Perfect (another +1 to Bluff and Diplomacy vs. humanoids, +2 saves vs. transmutation spells + effects, replaces usual elf immunities)

At will, as the spell. As move action, concentrate on a single item or individual within 60 feet and determine if it is evil, learning aura strength as if having studied it for 3 rounds. While so focusing does not detect evil in any other object or individual within range.

Once per day, as a swift action, the paladin chooses one target within sight to smite. If this target is evil, adds her Cha bonus to atk rolls and pal lvl to all dmg rolls made against the target of her smite. If the target is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage on the first successful attack increases to 2 / pal lvl. Regardless of the target, smite evil attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.

In addition, while smite is in effect, the paladin gains a deflection bonus equal to her Cha mod to her AC against attacks made by the target. If the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect.

The smite evil effect remains until the target of the smite is dead or the next time the paladin rests and regains her uses of this ability. At 7th level, and at every six levels thereafter, the sacred servant may smite evil one additional time per day.

Ruisxys knows down to her bones, her innermost soul, how much depends on grace, or providence: she survived a raid on her childhood home only because she was somehow able to stumble into the domain of an unusually kind-hearted and mortal-curious river spirit. Her adoptive mother did her best, but Ruisxys ultimately had to glean for herself what her ancestry meant to her, and by then her perspective had already been skewed out of true even from the flexibility of elven mores. Having had to rely on herself, fanciful fey “mortal stories,” and a precious few old books, she holds to a personal rule that most elves find weirdly strict, though mercifully nowhere near as obstreperous as some human crusaders’. As a result, although Ruisxys would possibly be happiest simply making herself comfortable somewhere to study the mysteries of magic, the gift of Yuelral, she has not yet found the place that would work for her, and sadly there is enough wickedness in the world that her explorations are frequently interrupted by the call to help those in need much as she was once helped. Fortunately, knowledge, properly mastered, is portable, so while it will take her longer to get to grips with even the rudiments on her own, she’s confident that, with her goddess’ help, she’ll get there in the end, even as her sense of duty, and idea of sense generally, compel her along the waterways of the River Kingdoms wherever she thinks she can best answer what the Wise calls her to do.

5 key concept elements:
Devout: Even more so than the typical paladin, Ruisxys is defined by her dedication to her goddess, whom she reveres almost as the personification of magic and all that is good in the natural world, and certainly as the source of the former. Despite her strong connection to magic from both her elven roots and her adoptive mother, she still meets all displays of magic with wide-eyed wonder.
Diffident upstart: Apart from her particular devotion to Yuelral, Ruisxys differs from what one might expect from most paladins in normally being rather shy and retiring, due to her extremely isolated upbringing after the disaster that parted her from her birth family. While she cleans up very nicely, her baseline for normal is fey nonsense, not mortal, and when she’s tired or especially distracted, she even catches herself hunching over a bit, a symptom of spending so much time curled up over the secrets of books - whether for the delight of arcane lore, or in the desperate attempt to learn to elf normally, let alone fitting in among shorter-lived folk.
Changeling: Born dangerously close to the border of Tanglebriar in the southwest of Kyonin, Ruisxys escaped the demonic breakthrough that claimed the rest of her immediate family by a hairsbreadth as a very young child. Stumbling into the dark woods of the night, she barely scraped enough sustenance to emerge starving and sleepless in the domain of Ianeira, a naiad whose stream flows into the Sellen south of Kallas Lake. The mortal girl’s plight moved the tender-hearted fey, and so Ianeira ended up adopting her, more or less. Although the naiad loves her like a daughter, Ianeira’s distant, otherworldly perspective meant that Ruisxys was often left to her own devices growing up, and that, especially with several serious childhood scrapes, laid the foundation both for her meticulous attention to best practices that suited her for the discipline required of a paladin, and the curiosity about the elven and wider mortal world she lost that eventually, ineluctably, led her to set off to discover it for herself.
Chaos-curious: Drifting upriver, Ruisxys eventually settled in Hymbria for a while, where she lived among her own people for the first time that she could clearly remember, and was fascinated by their free-spirited way of life. While her own habits were too tightly engrained in her by that point for her to really loosen up that much, she developed a tolerance for wildness and chaos that would scandalize many other paladins, not least under the influence of the woman who would become one of her best friends, an otherwise cautious mage who nonetheless suggested ways that even the most chaotic magic could be tempered and (at least partially, at least enough) controlled. Since then, she has wandered up and down the River Kingdoms, trying to find a place for herself in this most unruly part of the world that is by turns both so delightfully and so frustratingly unpredictable. So far, she is torn most between Outsea, where she lost her heart, and wandering throughout the River Kingdoms until she can find the realm that best lives up to what she understands as the finest impulses of elvenkind.
Starstruck: Having grown up with mostly only her adoptive mother for company, along a remote stream on the edge of Kyonin, Ruisxys is easily dazzled by even comparatively small communities and modest luxuries, to say nothing of those who seem to have succeeded quite nicely for themselves in and with them. She is fascinated by the diversity of larger settlements, and those who are able to navigate, thrive in, or even influence such chaotic societies, particularly if they have also mastered a no less wondrous but more familiar art: magic.
Important people:
Dalasin Amnandi: For example, Ruisxys’ best friend is an Ekujae mage exploring a bit further afield in Avistan after repaying another Kyoni friend’s visit to Mualijae lands in the Mwangi Expanse. They met in Mimere, the capital of Hymbria, where Dalasin hoped to get a more honest less artificial er, more candid view of what the Aiudeen cousins are getting up to. She thinks Ruisxys has good potential for arcane magic, and more responsibility than most, and so set her up with some introductory materials, pointers, and quiet encouragement. (She has no idea what’s going to happen. ;) )
Yulimene: A nereid from Outsea, who beguiled Ruisxys with a glance when their paths crossed on one of the paladin’s visits to the city, and whose fascination continued when their paths kept crossing afterwards. While to date Ruisxys is unsure about the seriousness of Yulimene’s intentions, at least, they have exchanged decorous flirtations more openly than she normally would. She thinks, if they get to know each other better – something she is certainly eager to do – she might have to put some thought into the right question to see if they could make it work, but before that, she needs to find a way to do so, since Yulimene’s life is overwhelmingly aquatic. (Also, Daggermark casts a long shadow in the River Kingdoms, but why does Ruisxys keep being drawn to poisonous women? Very curious. XD )
Ianeira: Her adopted mom, and the only parent Ruisxys really lived with long enough to know or remember well. She hardly begrudges her that, and likes to think that if her birth parents had lived, they would have happily co-parented, so as far as she’s concerned, she has three parents, only one of whom is still (hopefully, always) living. She visits when she can, and Ianeira worries, but her mother knows that her daughter, not sharing the depth of her connection to her stream and with a need to find her own people, is bound to be more restless.
Goals:
(IC): Get a grip on the basics of proper spellcraft, ASAP. Dea vult! She has the beginnings of a grimoire lined up, and has been doing some reading in the hopes of getting started soon, but she also doesn’t want to abandon the path she’s already started on: she’s bound by oath, honour, and the certainty that the bandit-ridden River Kingdoms could use more people who know when and how to use swords perhaps almost as much as they could those magic.
(IC): Figure out what’s going on with Yulimene. Ruisxys was sure they had, if not something going on, exactly (beyond her respectful, courtly devotion), at least the potential for. And then Yulimene suddenly drew back, and not in the playful, teasing sort of way that Ruisxys has come to expect of the capricious fey, and not in a way that suggests that she’s done something wrong that she can tell either. As if she wasn’t pining enough! Still, if she wants any hope of wooing the lady, she’ll also need to prove her seriousness to both her and her people in Outsea.
(OOC): Strike a balance between focusing on paladin advancement and arcanist to get access to the primal magic exploit in a timely fashion, with a view to eventually entering the mystic theurge prestige class.

Secrets:
1) Ruisxys keeps quiet about what happened to her birth family. She still has nightmares of that night, and while she’s not exactly ashamed that she hasn’t thrown herself into the fight against Treerazer, for vengeance (goodness knows that there’s evil enough afoot elsewhere to call for good hearts to oppose it, and she’s not so arrogant to assume that she’ll be the one who can solve such a thorny problem as Tanglebriar), she does sometimes feel pangs of guilt. Of all the foes she might meet, demons would provoke her most zealous assault, even if she is likely to talk around exactly why that is.
2) As befits the follower of a deity that is a guardian of all magic and less troubled by questions of law, Ruisxys trusts more in magic and the good than she frets about chaos or tradition. So long as it is not profane, if it’s magic she can learn, she is interested in it, even if it is beyond what is sanctioned by most paladin orders. As yet, she is too inexperienced to have to worry about defending herself on that front, but if she learns how to channel her goddess’ grace into spells by way of her training as a paladin as such, that is likely to change. (Unsanctioned Knowledge is definitely on her wish-list. :) )
3) Despite her occasional nightmares from her earliest childhood, the worries that stem from them are misleading. While it is true that the incursion that claimed her family was led by a hezrou, and babaus were prominent among the slaughter, her parents fell to a humble abrikandilu who, if it has survived the vicious politics of demonkind, almost certainly doesn’t remember missing an elf girl-child that night. Of much more immediate concern to Ruisxys, if only she knew, is the increasing hold that a rusalka maintains over the subject of her infatuation in Outsea. She is both stronger than Yulimene herself and has allies strong enough that Yulimene fears to move against her, but the rusalka uses every opportunity to slowly tighten her grip and play upon the worst impulses of the nereid who stands to steal Ruisxys’ heart quite away.
Quirks:
Jeweler: As is incumbent on all followers of Yuelral, Ruisxys does her best to study herbalism and the wonders of the plant world, but her heart, as far as crafts go, really belongs with making jewelry, and she thinks everyone deserves a bit of sparkle in their lives. In her free time, and when she can do so in her meditations by just keeping her eyes open without being distracted, she will often visit streams where she thinks she might stumble upon some tumbled gems, freshwater pearls, or a bit of gold.
Knife-fighter: Ruisxys doesn’t relish combat, but if it proves inevitable, she takes to melee with surprising aplomb, given that she’s not really built for it. To a large extent, this is due to the fact that her goddess’ favoured weapon is the dagger, and that the jeweled dagger she carries herself is a precious gift from her adoptive mother, loosely modelled on Ianeira’s own.
Water baby: While Ruisxys tends to wear the heaviest armour that she can find that won’t slow her down too much, the better to stay in the fight against evil wherever it rears its ugly head, as one might expect, her naiad mother made sure she was comfortable in the water at an early age, and swimming is her favourite form of physical exercise. When she’s by the water and not expecting a risk of imminent attack, she prefers to dress accordingly, rather than to present the stereotypical image of a knight in armour, however shining.

Despite – or perhaps as a result of – being a childhood survivor of a demonic attack, and with, however belatedly, a few decades of experience of how fickle or even treacherous the ordinary sort of mortal can be (fey are at least consistently unpredictable), Ruisxys is still easily and deeply upset by any sort of perfidy, especially if it attempts to exploit her own open heart or other qualities. She is particularly incensed by those who might dismiss her (or anyone else) as naïve, or just another pretty face, even when it’s obviously meant as an insult and not what the villain truly believes; when it is in earnest, and folk are callously manipulated for such villains’ own, frequently sordid purposes… It’s not that she has no idea how she looks, or is above having her head turned by beauty or being tempted to unworthy assumptions based on outward appearances, but she tries to treat everyone justly all the same. When she is reminded that some people don’t, but even glory in their wickedness, how she responds can range from bursting into angry tears, storming off to brood in private, or executing justice at swordpoint, depending on how embarrassing, proportionate, and successful any given response is likely to be. Calistria may not be the goddess dearest to her heart, and Yuelral and her own standards keep her own worst impulses in check, but Ruisxys is elf enough to be touchy – and, in her deepest moments of self-doubt, she fears, vain – enough to think any slight (or worse!) calls for retribution and a settling of scores.

Ruisxys is an unearthly sight, which would be more of a surprise to her and her mother if her blossoming hadn’t taken place over decades suffused with fey magic and if, well, Ianeira weren’t a naiad, and if Ruisxys hadn't spent as much time with Yulimene as she has. As it is, the young woman is puzzled when people sometimes draw up short and stare when they meet her, and her placid innocence of her own beauty makes it all the more unnerving, as she is almost a living statue of an archetypal elf maiden, her slender form elegant from her feet to high cheekbones, deep ice-blue eyes, and the heavy gold mane of her hair that falls, in almost any conditions, in long locks straight enough to be carved, to the jealousy of not a few. To add insult to injury, the gentle curves of her lean musculature only hint at her frame’s surprising strength.
Given how much time she spends on the water, unless she expects the need for armour, she prefers light clothing that dries easily, with a hood and cloak for warmth as needed. In any case, she is almost never without her slender dagger at her side, or her dainty holy symbol at the base of her throat, made of a slender ring of gold and tiny prisms of semi-precious crystal. Those two accessories and her own person rather clash with her humble clothes (and, where necessary, armour), and that conflict, together with her restless glance in urban settings, suggests the isolation of her girlhood.