Seemingly unperturbed by the awful smell, a completely unscathed Ignatzia nods her head at the catfolk's suggestion. "On this sleeve works fine." She stretches out her right arm and allows Simon to use the liquid.
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"Our wrath shall fall upon you like... Ignatzia, what are you doing?" Seeing the way of things, Ignatzia begins running inside of the mausoleum, trying to avoid proximity to as many enemies as she can in the process.
To say the least, Ignatzia was caught off guard. She hadn't expected to encounter any sort of resistance or ambush on the outside, and it took her a moment to prepare for combat. Araqueil seems to be prepared for things, however. "You will rue the day you were brought into the world when we were done with you foul creatures!
Seeing the relatively vulnerable half orc with two enemies next to her along with an opportunity to cause some havoc on the enemies, the Hellknight shouts out a warning to her ally "Vuzi, withdraw!" before she focuses her mind bending powers on one of the gargoyles, uttering some incantations in a dark tongue. Infernal:
"Reap the treachery you sow, spawn of chaos!" She focuses her will on enticing the gargoyle into lashing out at it's ally with all of it's strength and might.
Ignatzia's face pales at the sight of a gravestone with Simon's name on it- albeit not for the same reason the others might be worried. It would be incredibly unfortionate for her last name to be revealed to anyone in the shackles, including present company. "This is nothing more than the trickery of demons at work. It is best ignored or avenged at the nearest opportunity. I choose the later." Ignatzia says with a seemingly uncharateristic level of determination as he she continues moving towards the building she hopes houses the entree center to Rappan Athuk.
Ignatzia takes a brief moment to admire her handiwork with the rats before she goes back to join the others. Good to know that the thing works She thinks to herself as she begins to return to the large mausoleum. "Well, I'm ready to get moving. Just so everyone knows, with a little time I have a way to break down doors that Simon here can't pick, along with a one time use device that can unlock a door instantaneously." She informs everyone as she levels her crossbow at the front entrance of the mausoleum, ready to engage with anything that might come out of it.
Such a common reason for adventuring, the destruction of evil. I wonder how their own lives measure up to that... As much as Ignatzia would have liked to begun looking for potential hypocrisy, it wasn't her job. "I'd say there is more than one evil thing down in these depths- I'm fairly certain the entire dungeon is dedicated to the demon lord Orcus, in fact. He's a rather nasty one of the abyss's masters, so much as anyone can be a master of that chaos. I agree- stoping what's down there would be good for everyone." She agrees with the two companions nearby.
As the commotion breaks out nearby, Ignatzia begins running towards the fray. She stops at around 80 feet away from the rats, takes a moment to swap out the silver bolt in her crossbow with a standard one, then fires at the rats.
Next turn: Standard action: fire crossbow Move action: reload
It was a beautiful thing to watch really- a growing friendship between an elf and a dwarf out of a mutual respect for pyromania and a perfectly understandable assumption that everything underneath them from here on out ought to be considered an enemy. But as happy as she was from that fact, she had little talent where fire was concerned. Her grease was better saved for smaller things. With the others working on their project she joins the group around the large mausoleum, setting up her detect psionics power and observing it for any thing that might be of interest. "You know, Simon, I don't believe you ever mentioned what your reason was for exploring this place. Ignatzia speaks to the catfolk as they pass eachother while scanning the building.
Ignatzia is at the well, scanning over the thing with detect psionics and transcribing the abyssal into a journal. When she finishes, she provides a translation to the text, and if she knows any of it's context, she shares it.
Ignatzia climbs up the hill with the rest of the group, and Araquiel, having made his introduction to the other rock, scurries back over to Ignatzia's shoulder. The psion follows Simon as he heads over towards the door on the right and nods her head at his request for someone to cover him. Putting her mace back in it's sheath, she unhooks her crosboow and keeps her eyes open- in particular looking at the strange objects and the door both with her eyes and her ability to detect magic of all forms.
"All clear!" Ignatzia says cheerfully as she opens her eyes and stands up again. "Nothing living-or undead, for that matter- lies in wait for us at the top of that hill." As the woman finally gets up, however, she noticed that her psi crystal has wandered off on its own right over to Cain, seemingly forgetting that the man tried to kill it just last night. "Hello, fellow sentient piece of crystallized mineral! How do you do? I'm Araquiel!" The piece of flint begins to introduce itself to the other psicrystal. Ignatzia patiently listens to the dwarf talking to the elf but only shrugs. "If that's the strangest thing we encounter here, I will consider us to be rather lucky indeed. In any case, my vote is that we just stay away from the thing. We've all heard the warnings to not go in the well." "Anyways- I say we clear out a side building first and give ourselves a place to fall back to before trying anything else else. Anyone have a preference as to which small maluseem we go to? I vote for that one over there." Ignatzia says, pointing to the one on the right. "And honestly- I would say we should clear out both before doing anything else. I don't want to find anything unexpected waiting for us when we come back out of this place."
"It is limited, but not extremely so. I feel like the situation warrants it." Ignatzia replies as she begins to focus on what can be learned from the scrying sensor.
"In that case- it would probably be best for me to use the first option- it should work best considering how much of an area there is to cover. If everyone would wait before hesding up the hill or wandering off- this shouldn't take long." The psion takes off her pack and places it on the ground before sitting down, using the rather stuffed satchel as a back rest as she crosses her legs and closes her eyes. A soft hum can be heard from her, although her lips make no movement. More noticeable perhaps is the fact that her closed eyes seem to have something glowing underneath them. "If you all could keep watch while I do this, it would be appreciated."
IMPORTANT MECHANICS PLEASE READ:
Alright, I have some things that will pretty much always be active on my character, so I'm including them here right now, as opposed to having to constantly bring them up. That way, if I mention them in combat, you'll know what I'm talking about. * Unless I specify otherwise- I will always have the shadow splinter mesmerist trick implanted on myself. If I use it in combat, always assume I re-implant it on myself once combat is over. I've used up a daily use of my mesmerist tricks to implant one on myself for this day already. * Unless specified otherwise, my psicrystal will be on my shoulder, and knows to warn me- and everyone else- if someone unknown is sneaking up on us. It will not be subtle about this, but will use telepathy if I have my mind link power up. The ability that lets the psicrystal see is worded as follows: Sighted: (Ex) Although it has no physical sensory organs, a psicrystal can telepathically sense its environment as well as a creature with normal vision and hearing. Darkness (even supernatural darkness) is irrelevant, as are areas of supernatural silence, though a psicrystal still can’t discern invisible or ethereal beings. A psicrystal’s sighted range is 40 feet. This also means I get the effects of the alertness feat active by default, increasing my perception modifier to +11. * I will always take the time to restore my psionic focus after combat is over unless for whatever reason I specify that Ignatzia chooses not to. In don't see this ever coming up but there you go. * If I'm using a hypnotic stare on a creature and it takes damage at any time, I will always choose to activate my painful stare ability for the round and the creature will take an extra 2 damage. This happens once per round. Later, this gets better for damage specifically I deal, but right now it just makes sense to use it at the earliest possible opportunity. *Out of combat while in the dungeon, I have the Detect Psionics power active as long as I am capable of concentrating. If I pick up a magical/psionic aura, I will stop to investigate unless there is a more pressing matter to attend to (not dying, running away, saving a team mate, combat, etc) unless I specify otherwise. *My crossbow is by default loaded with a silver bolt. I will indicate what I use to reload when/ if the time comes.
Ignatzia's smile faded slowly as she watched the events of the group unfolding as she was eating her breakfast. The fact that the group had already begun to break into infighting was troublesome- the fact that she could only speculate as to the cause of the infighting made it even worse. I suppose orcish does have a use after all- a language to speak when you don't want your superiors to know what you are saying. I'll have to learn it some time. Otherwise, she felt no need to bring the group to heel- yet. The clumsiness of this was outputting, but she knew that was how thing worked in the shackles. If it continued, she would intervene then. While Dakk nearly falls over, Ignatzia remains motionless. Facing down a literal devil tends to steel ones nerves to more trivial things, and the half orc's outburst has no visible effect on her. However, afterwards, Ignatzia takes a moment to address the group, still smiling. "She is right after all- if we don't have some level of trust among each other, it will go rather poorly for us in this expedition. "On that note- I figure you all ought to know why I'm here. My interest in Rappan Athuk is mostly scholarly. Some time ago an army entered the dungeon, and never left. I've heard several rumors about that army, and they are not particularly pleasant ones. I'm here to investigate them." She goes back to eating her breakfast without further comment- she hopes its enough to get the others to divulge there own reasons for coming to this place.
When she had heard of the dwarf's plan to heard goats into the dungeon ahead of them, she had to excuse herself for several minutes due to uncontrollable laughter. There is cleverness in chaos indeed! The best part is that it could actually help us! The laughter at the absurdity of it was genuine and refreshing. Her rock spent some time monologing to the goats as they traveled up road to the dungeon of graves itself. She doesn't even bother to stop it- the entire situation clearly amuses her to no end. "Vuzi, if we are unable to handle a pack of wolves, than we're already as good as dead considering where we are heading." She says with a smile. Throughout the trip, she's more than willing to make small talk with the other members of the company. As the dungeon of graves comes in sight, however, her expression hardens as she unclips the heavy mace she wears at her side and adresses the others. "Before we go any further- I have power to scry behind sealed doors, around corners, and the like. I can even give us a complete overhead view of the area, to see if anything is waiting to ambush on top of that hill." She points to the dungeon in the distance. "I can't do this often- but avoiding an ambush seems to be a wise idea. Alternatively, Araquiel here-" "Thats me! The psicrystal enthusiastically interrupts. "-can climb up and investigate the area. It probably won't be seen, especially if one of you can make it invisible. Whatever choice we prefer, I strongly recommend some sort of scouting before we climb up there."
Orkish. A language spoken by lawless savages and the unrefined. Nothing of any real lasting value had ever been written in it, so Ignatzia had never bothered to learn it. At the moment, this put her at a complete disadvantage compaired to some of the others in the group. Waiting for an break in the conversation, she looks over to the catfolk and the elf who arrive at the table and asks, "I don't believe I caught either of your names yet either. Would you be so kind as to enlighten me?" She says this with a welcoming and kindly smile.
"AAAAAH!" The "heroic" rock cries out in apparent terror as it scurries away from the man with a raised boot and leaps onto the friendlier dwarf as he drags his chair over to ignatzia's table. The rock sighs contently as the dwarf pets him, but jumps onto the Chelish woman's shoulder once he's close to the table. By the time Dalkk reaches the table, Ignatzia has recovered from her facepalm and gestures for the dwarf to pull up his chair. "I deal with a different sort of life energy- I've got no healing talent I'm afraid. At any rate though- can I have your names? We haven't really been properly introduced." The question is addressed to both the half orc and the dwarf.
Ignatzia nods her head but says nothing- at least, nothing with her mouth. She does however, give hold a brief mental conversation with her psicrystal. <<Go get the fools. You know what to do.>> <<YAAAAAAAY!>> The psicrystal enthusiastically cheers in her mind. Anyone watching the woman's backpack would watch as a piece of flint with legs made of light scurries across the floor and climbs up onto the table where an elf, a dwarf, a catfolk, and have all gathered around. "Ahem." The mobile piece of flint makes a sound as if it's clearing it's throat- not that it actually has a throat to clear. Probably Whatever the answer to that little enigma might be, the rock begins to address all of you in a surprisingly loud voice for such a small object. "Greetings mighty travelers, adventures, and heros! I am Araquiel, the humble servant to the mighty Ignatzia, a psion of great might and prestige. At this, one of the rock's legs points towards where a Chelish human woman sits with her back turned to all of you. She's at the same table as a half orc. "My Lady is looking for those with courageous hearts and keen minds to join her on her quest to plumb the depths of the terrible Dungeon of Graves, Rappan Athuk." "What say you? Shall we be comrades in arms and fight against the darkness? Shall we carve our names in the great annuls of history our stories being told generation after generation?!? I ask you again, friends- what say you?!?" Still refusing to look at the wretched talking mineral with delusions of grandeur, Ignatzia lets out a sigh and rests her face in one of her hands. The worst part about all of this is that the damn thing is actually going to convince them to come along. It's actually going to work.
Where many would begin to grow nervous at the prospect of working along side a professed necromancer, Ignatzia simply smiles and nods her head. Convenient. I'll have to compare notes with her at some point. While not her particular forte, necromancy did always have some interest to her. "You have nothing to fear from me- that particular talent is hard to come by and quite useful. My own specialty is controlling the minds of weak willed creatures- with a little bit of prompting on my end, they can be convinced to turn upon eachother. I dabble in some mystic talents that let me see objects through walls, from far away, and even behind doors." "As for the proposal- it's fairly simple. We travel through the dungeon and more or less take anything of interest that isn't nailed down to the floor. You'll find that I'll be quite reasonable in dividing whatever we uncover." One way or another. If simpler persuasion wouldn't work to get her what she wanted, a simple bit of psionics would make that problem go away. She couldn't help but overhear the comments coming from the more... uncouth table. She takes a moment to turn around and look over at them, thinks for a moment, then turns back to the half orc. "Should we invite them along to? There is strength in numbers..." Not to mention more targets. The last time she had gotten into a fight against a monster who attacked her in melee had been rather unpleasant, an experience she did not particularly want to repeat.
Ignatzia nods at the orc's hypothesis about what the ultimate fate of the elf is going to be, then shrugs at her suggestion that everyone here knows what Rappan Athuk is. "It can never hurt to clarify such things. But in any case- I am planning on entering that place and need allies, preferably ones that can handle themselves in danger. You seem to be one of the more competent people in this establishment." The human woman takes a sip of her drink before she continues. "So- what can you do? If you're interested in coming with, we'll have to learn eachother's strengths and weaknesses." Her ears perk up as she overhears some of the men in the bar speak of the dungeon of graves themselves. More fuel for the fire, perhaps? She decides to raise the issue later- after an initial alliance is secured.
Whatever the elf's hopes might be, he gets little more than a blank stare from Ignatzia. It's not entirely blank- there is a bit of condescending pity mixed into the gaze as well. If you're looking for anything 'storybook', you've come to the wrong tavern, island, and archipelago. she silently thinks to herself. "Hey, Mister-" A voice begins to call out from the inside of the woman's backpack. The backpack.... might... be able to fit a small halfling, but there doesn't seem to be any more noise. <<Quiet. You don't get to help recruit.>> Ignatzia uses her mental bond with her psicrystal to command it to be silent as she begins to pack a few objects into her pack. <<But he's looking for you Ignatzia! You're friendly, an adventurer, it's just like the stories he's talking about. Do you remember...>> The psicrystal continues to ramble inside her mind as she heads over towards the table with the half orc. To think that she's the best option I have right now. The Hellknight thought to herself silently as walked over to the half orc's table uninvited. The good news was that she seemed at least decently strong. But Ignatzia wasn't betting on the woman being a fighter- whatever her weapons, she knew what functional armor was, and the woman wasn't wearing it. This meant that she was either a fool, or drew her power from some other source. The psion places her pack down next to her as she sits down across from the half orc. With a smile that most would mistake for kindness, the woman begins to speak,"I have a proposition for you. Have you heard of Rappan Athuk?"
Gods of inviolate order help me, everything they said about this place was true. Ignatiza Thrune, Signifer of the Hellknight Order of the Gate, watches in silent horror as the dwarf and catfolk throw food at each other.It was appalling, and it took a great deal of effort to prevent her from applying a large dosage of psionic charming on each of them so that they would stop. She currently sits at a table by herself, nursing some sort of beverage while looking over a notebook of some sort, occasionally jotting something down in it. Who to get into coming with me... So far, the crowd around her seemed... underwhelming. There is a certain appeal to just throwing a horde of people at the dungeon- quantity has a certain quality all of it's own, but I'd like to have a town to return to. Besides, it's not necessary. There was no rush- the dungeon wasn't going anywhere. She took a sip of her drink and decided to wait for the sight of people displaying a higher degree of competence.
Just as a heads up I did a pretty big overhaul of my statblock today. Mechanically, I only changed one skill rank and purchased some new gear (which I track on mythweavers), but the layout is more in accord with the standard statblocks I've seen here. Just wanted to let you know in case you were still checking mechanics Choon. I'm planning to revise parts of the fluff later today.
Alright, here comes the time to describe my roll in the party. party role: TL;DR: Scouting ahead, mind controlling enemies into helping us, debuffing enemies, and limited (but potent) ally buffing. Can deal damage directly when needed (she killed a bearded devil on her own with limited pre fight buffing, which is no easy task), but that's not her primary role. - Operating principle 1: The best challenges are ones we know about and consciously choose to avoid. There will be a time when we can kill pit fiends. That time is not while at level four. I have access to the clairvoyant sense power, which lets me scout out behind doors and around corners. Knowing what's on the other side of a wall will be really useful at pretty much every level. There will be some doors that we really do not want to open. Also, my Psicrystal has a +18 modifier to stealth checks and is a diminutive size, so that can also be used to scout ahead for us. If it can be made invisible, than it will be basically undetectable. The Psicrystal will likely be used more often than my clairvoyant sense power, because the latter requires power points, and I don't have enough to use the power whenever I want. - Operating principle 2: The best enemies are ones that help destroy themselves. A high diplomacy score and an at will use of disguise self thanks to my fearsome guise Mesmerist trick can be helpful in its own right- but where Ignatzia really shines is in mind control. I have the psionic equivalent of charm person- but by spending more power on it, I can also use it on animals, monsterous humanoids, fey, and magical beats. Sure, these things require will saves- but I can reduce the will save of any creature by -2 with a swift action thanks to hypnotic gaze. Furthermore, for use out of combat, I have a wand of ill omen that can be used on unconscious or restrained enemies to force them to roll twice on their save. I can also read minds. That will be useful for learning dungeon layouts from uncooperative creatures, and possibly other uses down the line. In combat, I have a spell called murderous command, which compells an enemy to attack his nearest ally, running away from his current battle with a party member (provoking an AOO) and attacking an ally) among dumber enemies, this might even cause infighting long term. - Operating principle 3: The best type of damage is damage not taken I have a power called share pain- it decides pain taken in half, distributing it evenly to two targets. My Psicrystal has a hardness of 8. It can withstand a lot of pain, and can be healed by the mending cantrip (being repaired as an object). If I link up the party tank to my Psicrystal with that spell, i effectively double their hit points for the next 4 hours. I also have some other damage avoiding tactics, but those are mainly for personal use. Vigor can give both me and my Psicrystal extra HP, untouchable aura can really hinder targets with low will saves, and I have the psionic equivalent of shield. As far as debuffs go, I have one that can stun enemies, which is pretty useful even if it has a short duration. Also have Grease as a Mesmerist spell, which is pretty universally useful. - Operating principle 4: Damage is other people's job. I can deal 4d10 damage with a mind thrust, and that will be helpful, but it uses up a lot of my resources best focused elsewhere- but I'm not focused on damage dealing. I'm focused on ensuring we don't die by fighting something we can't win (scouting), making enemies fight themselves (charming), and making us survive more fights (debuffing and buffing). Let the people in Fullplate run to face down the terrible threat face to face. I'll help from a nice, safer distance.
Sure thing! First of all: Praise the sun! Sarenites are always great to have in a party, and you've made a character who is a really good example of a follower of her. I can see our characters having a lot of really interesting debates later in the game. Now, for mechanical feedback. As far as spell selection goes, I would recommend swapping out purify food and water for guidance. I know I plan on starting off with a weeks worth of good rations on me, and that should stay fairly well preserved. Guidance only gives a small bonus, but that small bonus can be really useful for crucial rolls. I'd love to get an extra +1 on UMD checks, and I if I don't get in whoever uses magic items the most will likely feel the same way. On that note, buy some food. I imagine this is the type of game where rations will be counted, and it would be a shame to die of starvation. Continuing on to spell selection- I would recommend dropping Abstemiousness. It might be useful later in the dungeon if food is running low, but there should at least be someone in the party who didn't make strength their dump stat and can carry enough food for us. I'd also reccomend dropping remove fear and replacing it with Bless . The spell becomes more useful the more members of the party there are. It gives less of a bonus against fear, but gives it to everyone, alongside a bonus to attack as well. +1 might not seem like much, but when applied to the entire party over the course of a battle, it can be the difference between landing a hit and missing one. Divine favor is a good spell for you if you want to have fun in melee combat- at this level, a +2 luck bonus to attack and damage rolls should stack with just about everything. At second level, there's an interesting spell called "Fear the sun" which can give creatures light blindness. At this level, it would affect four creatures. That could then let you be able to use their channel energy against them due to your Luminous fount ability. Being a cleric of course, you can change spells from day to day, so you've got that going for you. You've got a lot of room to experiment. At any rate- it took me a while, but I finally realized what the monk part of your gestalt contributes to your build. It gives you some interesting options, but I kind of feel like going for paladin would have made more sense. Having smite evil is almost like having a "once per day something evil gets a one way ticket to pain land". Your call of course, but your character is really a goodie two shoes enough to be a paladin. Besides, the paladin oath Sarenites take is really cool as well. Moving on from mechanical stuff, I really like your character's backstory. I do have some questions though. Did Pharom have any siblings? More curiosity than anything else- are his parents both half elves, or an elf and a human? Pharom has obviously been on his own for a while now- and it's clear that he's satisfied with his life. A man without grand ambitions who is happy to dedicate his life to helping others. While we get the basics from your backstory and a get a good sense of the Pharom and what basically motivates him, it would be nice to learn a bit more about his personality per say. What's it like to talk to him? Does he have any quirks? Does he miss his family? Does he ever want to settle down some day? And arguably most importantly- what are his weaknesses and vices that he struggles against. Your character is a good egg. That's great- I like good egg characters. Not every character has to be constantly repressing horrifically dark urges from their half demonic ancestry. But nobody is without their temptations. Without wrong actions that they at least have some desire to commit, even if they actively choose to not perform them. In short- I'd like to know what your characters wants and desires are beyond just helping people and worshiping Sarenrae. Your character, virtuous as he is, shouldn't be solely defined by those things- but they are a part of him whether he likes it or not. It would be interesting to know what he struggles with. Also, is "Melisander" a meant as a conscious reference to a certain fire obsessed priestess from a popular tv show, or is that coincidence? Anyways, hoped some of this helped. I look forward to you looking over my character. Hope we manage to get in together- I've really enjoyed your DMing in hells rebels, and it would be nice to be on the same team as you.
@GM just wanted to let you know I added a statblock to my character profile, along with a list of powers and spells known. It's not everything I can do, but it is a large chunk of it. Everything else is on my character sheet. If you want me to include more in my profile, just let me know and I'll be happy to oblige!
Are you tired of contracting ghoul fever? Of being disintegrated by liches? Of being torn apart by hordes of Demons? Suffer the wrath of such evil foes no more!
Best of all, each use of your wand lasts for an entire 10 minutes. No need to worry about casting defensive wards on yourself in the middle of combat- with just a little bit of preparation, you can be ready to fight against undying foes long before your battle begins. And this power can be yours, all for the low low price of 750 gold. That's right, you can wield the forces of pure virtue for only 750 gold! When fighting fiends or demons, accept no substitute for protection, call the order of the gate and place your order. Call within the next 15 minutes and get our limited lifetime warranty**. The Order of the Gate: a more ordered future for all! * if you have a decent Use magic device score ** warranty is rendered invalid by attempting to use wands. Legal disclaimer: customers may be monitored by Order of the Gate research teams to ensure product performance and to preform various social experiments. The order of the gate is not responsible for loss of limbs, sanity, hair, sense of humor, the sense of touch in your left pinky toe, or life suffered while using wands sold by the order of the gate. In the event of wide scale demon invasion, pray to the axiomatic deity of your choice and call a paladin right away. ------- In all seriousness picking up wands of these spells seems like a good idea. I can't think of anything beyond a paladin's smite that gives sacred bonuses to AC, and the player's guide specifically mentioned undead and evil outsiders. They're bound to have some use.
Alright, Michael7123 presenting Signifer Ignatzia Thrune of the Order of the Gate, currently under orders to investigate Rappan Athuk. Araquiel's character sheet, her psicyrsal and pet rock Background:
Thrice Damned House Thrune, lords of all Cheliax ever since the end of the Civil War. Their well deserved infamy has spread all across Golarion, their infernal power both feared and envied. It is even rumored that the current queen even has a Pit Fiend as an adviser- and that he's the one who helps mitigate the cruelty of the nation's monarch, if such tales can be believed.
The reputation of house Thrune is entirely warranted, and it's political power in the world, let alone Cheliax, is undeniable. But that's not to say that every single member of that damned bloodline commands as much might and power as the queen, or that every one of them holds such prominence in the affairs of the empire of devils. Like many other noble families, house Thrune has it's major and minor branches- the significant members of the family and the less important ones. Ignatzia Thrune was born to one such minor branch of house Thrune, in the Chelish controlled city of Khari in northern Garund, and her family is an influential group of merchants and slavers whose ties to house Thrune allowed them to prosper. While this didn't compare to the truly staggering power wielded by the more politically relevant branches of house Thrune in Egorian, the family did rather well for itself. In spite of their distance from Egorian, this branch of the Thrune family was no less cruel or manipulative than any other. Both diabolists and worshipers of Asmodeus, their conduct was no less than one would expect from that would expect from those following such dark philosophies. Ignatzia is the youngest child of this branch of the family, and by her approximation, this makes her the very last Thrune in the line of succession for both the throne of Cheliax and her family's business. Growing up, she initially resented this fact and wondered why the mere timing of her birth ought to have any influence in what she would do when she grew older- and in the process, overlooking how incredibly luck she was to have been born into such a wealthy life to begin with. But as time went on, she began to quietly be grateful for this fact. She wasn't required or even really expected to carry on the family buisness when she grew, which left her with time on her hands to forge her own path. Her parents were wealthy. She used that wealth and her time to learn about esoteric things, about the planes beyond the prime material and the mysteries and wonder of the sentient mind. The mystical art of psionics developed by the godless Rahadami to the south fascinated her for a long time, as did some of the stranger magic practiced in the distant Keleshite empire. Even the science of alchemy had some appeal to her, but truth be told she really only has ever really dabbled in the subject. Her family's connections made obtaining materials on these subjects trivial, and she absorbed knowledge like a sponge. Her magical learning was encouraged- after all, it never hurt to be on good terms with a mage, even a moderately powerful one- and Ignatzia is grateful to her family for the part they played in her education. In fact, her parents and siblings didn't even realize the most important thing they did for her- they served as an example of all that the dreadful power of hell was capable of- and the costs of wielding it. Her scholarly disposition already inclined her to skepticism rather than a blind sort of zealotry, and she grew up watching the Devils her family consorted with closely. It didn't take long for her to conclude that those creatures, in spite of whatever promises they gave on their honeyed lips, did not have the best interests of her family at heart. By extension, that means that they did not have her best interests at heart either. It wasn't as if she stopped being a diabolist though- no, a sort of merciless order was needed for the good of all society. The young Thrune wasn't going to run off, abandon her heritage, and become some so called "freedom fighter" like some story from a 2 copper adventure novel. Besides- the forces of Hell can make for powerful associates, and their cruelty can be a boon for order. The powers of hell are tools- but incredibly dangerous ones that are more often than not best left unused. The price of misusing them is far too great in her eyes, and she refused to let herself be their dupe anymore. For a time, she considered immigrating to Rahadoum to the south, having an admiration for their independence from the influence of the gods, both infernal and virtuous alike. She eventually came to the realization that they had taken it too far- the gods were the rightful superiors of mortals and worthy of respect and some measure of worship. But she would not go around like a fool acting as if Asmodeus and the Hells had the best interests of Cheliax in mind. Devils were untrustworthy, but they were a daily fact of life for her. In her research, she finally found someone worthy of her worship- a little known goddess of hell, the wife of Dispater, Erecura. The revelation that their were in fact powers aligned with the firm order of hell that did not seem to desire the corruption mortals came as a pleasant surprise to her. And Ignatzia greatly respected that she had gone as far as to rise from a mortal to the rank of a deity. Whatever her misgivings about devils, she was still a Thrune, and still had ambitions. They just revolved around expanding her own power, rather than being reliant on (and by extension, chained to) the flames of Hell. She was, however growing tired of manipulating her own family into procuring books for her- only so much knowledge could be obtained by secondhand knowledge. Some things had to be personally encountered to truly understood, and she needed an opportunity to flex her (purely metaphorical) muscles. She knew she would be unable to rise high in politics due to the timing of her birth, so she would have to sate her lust for power some other way. She was still a Thrune, even if she was slightly more scrupulous than most. With this in mind, she convinced her family to give her leave to join the Hellknight Order of the Gate- an order of powerful magic users dedicated to using their gifts to supporting the cause of law across the globe, with access to magical libraries and scholarly tomes from all corners and ages of Golarion. While she did generally agree with the causes they supported, she mostly joined for her own benefit. The knowledge they had access to was far more vast than her family could ever provide her with. Her time spent at Citadel Enferac changed her more than she had expected it would. Her relation, however distant, to the monarch of Cheliax was of no help to her, and it was something of a shock to have to rely completely on her own merits. Countless of hours of study went a long way in convincing her that she still had much to learn. Even still, she possessed a certain sort of arrogance- she had learned more on her own than most of the other new recruits the order received. And she was smarter than most of them too- even beyond the fact that she knew better than even the more senior members of the order who worked with devils on a regular basis, surely exposing themselves to the outsider's corruption. Her arrogance, however, received a nearly fatal blow when she finally petitioned to take the Hellknight initiation test before her instructor considered her ready. It was a mistake born out of a desire for promotion to signifer and the power and prestige that would provide, a desire to get out from under the thumb of her direct superior- a cleric of Asmodeus who she could barely stand (which was a mutual feeling). Her Hellknight invitation test was a humiliating and harrowing ordeal- one that she only survived by resorting to bludgeoning the bearded devil challenger over the head with a silvered mace when her psionic power had been completely depleted in defending herself and trying to break through the devil's natural defense to magic. The battle- by far the most painful, terrifying, and life threatening thing she has ever done, taught her that her own powers might not be the best solution to every problem, and those who devoted themselves to mastering the art of combat are still worthy of some respect from her. Their expertise and skill sets in some cases should be relied upon. Sure, her own expertise is more generally useful, and is much more nuanced and flexible... but if one is trying to work with nails, a hammer is the best tool for the task. Not using one would be foolish. The exact nature of her performance in the Hellknight test isn't of any consequence to her standing in the order- slaying the devil was enough to gain the respect of the rest of the order, and the fact that she did prove that she was able to do so before her instructor deemed her ready did provide a much welcome blow to his prestige. And if anything, her resolve to personally slay the devil at close range proved that she had conquered whatever fear she might have had. She's enjoyed full access to the libraries of citadel Enferac for the past few months, and has been enjoying the relative relaxation afforded to her- she was tasked to assist in the works of Ariotol the Listener, a psychic who leads a group of seers in scrying on various communities at a time, seeking to prevent murders from being committed. While unable to manifest the necessary powers to perform such scrying yet, she has learned a great deal under his guidance. Then Aritol came to her private quarters one day with a letter, signed by Vicarius Giordano Torchia, the leader of the order of the gate, informing him that she had been re-assigned. Her new orders were to head to The Shackles undercover and investigate a "Rappan Athuk", a dungeon supposedly containing magical artifacts of great power. She was to have almost complete discretion in her activities. Yes... this would be quite useful for her reputation. Who cared about the whispers that was considered to be something of a suicide mission. She'd be careful. She'd never faced a challenge that she couldn't handle before. This would not be what broke her. She would return from this victorious and more powerful than ever before. Order of the Gate Info:
I've got the path of the Hellknight book by paizo, it has information about the Order of the gate. I've given you some of it here for your convenience: ------------------------ Order of the Gate Hellknights seek to curb and prevent lawlessness through magic and manipulation. They have reputations as mysterious, emotionless, and sometimes cruel magic-users. Many are convinced that the Order of the Gate’s Hellknights are spying on them or already know their secrets. Sometimes this fear is true, as the order’s members prefer preventing crime to punishing it and often use manipulation, information-gathering, and spying to further their agenda. Individual Order of the Gate Hellknights work to uphold the following tenets. • Lawlessness is a failing of the leaderless and unwatched. I will mind those who would go unnoticed.
The Order of the Gate foments an intellectualist vision of law. Through surveillance, manipulating information, and coercion—magical or otherwise—the Hellknights seek to be just dictators. They see no ethical quandary in using enchantments to force individuals confess their crimes, the iniquities of their neighbors, or vices yet to be acted upon. For the order, the end of preventing chaos and strife more than justifies these intrusive means. What’s more, the order’s members believe that privacy is a concern only for those with something to hide. They are immediately suspicious of those who question their probing ways. Those who live by the law, these Hellknights believe, should have no concern about being the target of the occasional scrying or mind reading. The morality of such matters falls by the wayside, or is entirely irrelevant to the order, when countless crimes could be not just punished, but prevented. As a result, Order of the Gate Hellknights often view themselves as chosen, magic-using interrogators, solely blessed with the intellect and power to mete out the justice they believe that order demands. Order of the Gate members are rarely encountered in urban settings unless they’re in the company of other orders. Hellknights of the Gate might be found seeking all manner of obscure relics and knowledge in ruins, centers of learning, and mysterious locations across Golarion and even on other planes. --------------- If you need more information I can provide it. I would also like to say that while Ignatzia is a member of the Order of the Gate, there is a lot more to her personality than that membership. Appearance:
Ignatzia is appears as about purely Chelaxian as they come- raven black hair, pale skin, and piercing blue eyes. Ignatzia is somewhat short, standing at around 5 feet and 5 inches tall. As she's not about to go telling everyone she's a Hellknight while she's in the Shackles (that would be a good way to get herself killed), she doesn't have a traditional Hellknight signifer uniform. She prefers to wear gray clothing suitable for traveling while keeping an enchanted chain shirt underneath them. Personality:
For a Thrune, Ignatzia is rather amicable and friendly. Ignatzia tends to great people, even strangers, with a smile that's genuine in both appearance and reality. She's more likely to strike up conversation about a new sort of tea she discovered, begin a friendly debate about theology or philosophy, or even just ask how someone is doing rather than try to rope people into some sinister scheme. It would be foolish to mistake this kindness and civility for any indication of some greater virtue. She'll happily explain why a whole number of distasteful things are necessary for the the good of society- slavery (of a certain sort at least), the order of the rack's book burning, and diabolist philosophy. Ignatzia is willing to be nearly as ruthless as any other Thrune when she needs to be. What separates her from the other members of her family is that she has a much more stringent definition of what she considers a "need" than most Thrunes, and generally doesn't relish cruelty or suffering in others. Generally, anyways. She doesn't mind watching those who wrong her suffer at all though. While she's not a humble woman, Ignatzia has a less inflated sense of self importance than many other Thrunes. She still considers herself to be more valuable than other people- mind you. She just doesn't see that as any reason why she can't be pleasant and civil with them. Moreover, she doesn't hold quite as much of a sense of superiority that most magic users of the Order of the gate have, due to the events that transpired during her initiation test to become a full member of the Order of the Gate. Again- that's not to say the sense of superiority isn't there. Its just less pronounced than anything else. Ignatzia does fear her own death- but she refuses to let that fear guide her action. Experience shows her that giving into that desire would have gotten her killed. It was only by overcoming it that she managed to survive her Hellknight test. It's only by being as fearless now that she'll survive Rappan Athuk. That's not to say she's reckless- if anything she's a planner. She always wants to know what to expect before facing a challenge. Her ability to view far off places is her most valuable tool, one she expects to use frequently in this dungeon of Graves. Above all else, Ignatzia does not tolerate being made a fool of. She's got no qualms deceiving other people as she sees fit, but she considers herself the smartest person in the room at any given time until proven otherwise. She's willing to accept other people are smarter than she is, and to follow and except their guidance and leadership. But Ignatzia does not take kindly to being lied to by others, and will go out of her way to sabotage those who deceive her about anything substantial. Ignatzia values power of all sorts (see the power hungry drawback). While she does have some limits for what she'll do to obtain power, she doesn't have many and most of those limits are come from her own self preservation more than they come from any moral code. Power over others, the dead, the beings from the Great Beyond, raw explosive might, she cares not what it is. Power is power. She's mostly ambivalent about the source it springs from unless it somehow harms her. Psicrystal:
What initially appears to be a roughly fist sized piece of flint turns out to be a psicrystal upon closer inspection. By "closer inspection", I mean normal rocks don't normally talk and that tends to be a give away that their is something unusual going on here. Ignatzia's not entirely sure why her psicrystal is flint. The things are generally more colorful than that. She's researched the subject, and has found that flint is technically a sort of crystal. Regardless, it's unusual choice of mineral doesn't seem to have any sort of effect on it's functionality. At any rate, the thing calls itself Araquiel, and is rather boisterous and exuberant. It fancies itself as a noble hero, the companion of the brave and beautiful Ignatzia, heroically defying her family's infernal taint and supporting the cause of true order. It will travel wherever she does, and keep her safe from all harm. In combat, the thing usually rides on her shoulder and intimidate it's enemies with mixed levels of success. Can't fault the thing for it's enthusiasm though. The thing is only quiet when directly ordered to be, and then only for the next fifteen minutes or in situations where stealth is required. She's got no idea why her psicrystal is like this. The things are supposed to be reflections of their creator's personality. She's not anything like this. Nope. Not one bit. She totally doesn't view herself as some noble hero who's so full of herself. Not at all. (Yes, Ignatzia is in denial about her actually seeing herself as somewhat heroic. Yes, the psycrystal is meant as comedic relief. Yes, it can speak, only common though, for now. And yes- this basically means that Ignatzia has a sentient pet rock.) Motivations for going to Rappan Athuk:
First of all- orders are orders. Breaking a direct order from superior is a quick way to be executed if you're a Hellknight. More than that though, she expects to benefit greatly from this. While she's expected to secure anything her order might find value in, she's got a lot of leeway in her activities down here. If she stumbles across, say, a +6 circlet of intelligence while she's down there, then that thing is hers. She expects to gain a great deal of experience from this place (not just the mechanical type). This is a treasure trove of ancient wisdom and power just waiting for her to control it. Whats not to love. She's also aiming to become the next Vicarious of the Order of the Gate, and clearing out such a major dungeon like Rappan Athuk will greatly increase her reputation in the order. Also, Choon, if I get in I'd be happy to work with you if you want to come up with specific reasons why the Order of the Gate has taken interest in Rappan Athuk, like trying to obtain some artifact for the Order, for example. Feedback and criticism is welcome! Sorry if I went a little overboard with the length of this thing. |