About Thuàng Nê Luu SânhStatblock:
NG Undine Magus 9 | AC 20, HP 75/75 | F+9 R+9 W+8 | Init +9, Per +9
Thuàng Nê Luu Sânh - ‘Little wave of the Enlightened Ocean lineage’
The magus’ class skills are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Fly (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Swim (Str), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Detailed skills
Feats
Traits
Appearance:
Thuàng Nê Luu Sânh is a trimly built woman, lightly muscled but sinuous and graceful both in and out of the water she breathes as easily as air. Even amongst the undine her effortless movement is remarkable, smooth and continuous rather than swift and reactive. As she swims, dances or engages in swordplay, her cascade of sea green hair swirls around her. Despite falling halfway down her back she usually wears it loose, even when swimming and it takes on a blackish sheen. Intelligent violet eyes shine out of a face more prone to seriousness than laughter. Her dark turquoise skin is smooth and feels cold and clammy to the touch.
She dresses in a form fitting robe of pure white that has been streamlined for swimming and does not hinder the movement of her limbs. Wave pattern detail along the hems are the only embellishment and a belt of navy silk encircles Luu Sânh’s slim waist. Closer inspection reveals this to be exquisitely made and far stronger than it appears. An enchanted scimitar, Wavedance nestles against one hip, a pouch of woven kelp containing her magical reagents on the other. Personality:
For most of her century of years Thuàng Nê Luu Sânh has found things easy. Agile and athletic, she moves with a speed and poise most can only dream of. Paired with hard work and dedication, her raw talents have been honed to make her a swift and deadly swordswoman. Her mental prowess is equally impressive as she is a capable scholar who rarely struggles to pick up difficult concepts and overcomes challenges through persistence. However, in common with many of those with natural gifts, she can struggle to teach others because things come easily to her and she lacks some of the patience or ways around a problem that are valuable tools when trying to impart information.
Luu Sânh has a keen sense of right and wrong and at heart is driven by a desire to protect and improve the lives of her community and people. While she isn’t normally backwards in coming forwards with her opinions, she is at least aware that her struggle to see shades of grey means that she isn’t the most diplomatic person. As such, she prefers to leave honeyed words and politicking to others, letting her actions speak for her. Indeed, her actions have granted her renown and heroic status among her people and she embodies many of the best qualities of the undine. Ironically - and one which is not lost on her - at least part of the reason for her high regard is that she is considerably bolder than most of her cautious kin. While some conservative elders would condemn such behaviour as reckless, such accusations are not really fair. Luu Sânh does give due consideration to her actions and abides by the motto of ‘Don’t go in unless you can get out’. As such, she wouldn’t describe herself as brave; to her mind, making the best use of her abilities for the good of her people is simply the right thing to do. As a powerful warrior skilled with blade and spell, that often means putting herself in dangerous situations in order to remove threats or otherwise further the cause of the undine. Background:
Luu Sânh was born in the Pearl Beaches, the only child of Thuàng Nê Huy Yun and Dhang. As the daughter of a renowned watersinger and a guard captain-turned-politician, she was born into relative wealth and wanted for nothing. Marked out for potential in learning and magic, she proved to be a diligent scholar and possessed of natural grace and athleticism. Taking advantage of the opportunity to study at the Sylphan Northern Magerium, she travelled many hundreds of miles from River to spend a few years broadening her knowledge and honing her interests.
Her studies were cut short, however, with the untimely death of her parents in a tragic accident. Returning home to find whispers of foul play swirling – at least as far as such happens among the community-minded undines – though with no evidence and a lack of motive she dismissed them as mere rumours. Suddenly finding herself alone, the reserved yet headstrong adolescent retreated into herself and embraced the wider family of her people just as firmly as she rejected those who tried to adopt her for politicking or posturing. This was a definitive period in Luu Sânh’s life as she developed a strong moral compass and a deep-seated love for her people and the wisdom of Mother River. Keen to repay what she perceived as her debts to the undines who looked after her, she once more returned to her studies, working at the various colleges with the ultimate aim of improving her burgeoning abilities in order to put them to use in defence of her folk. Proving to be quite single-minded, she excelled as a student and learned both of and from the other elen, though always remaining somewhat aloof in her personal relationships with them through a combination of directness and shyness that wasn’t always received as intended. It was around this time, driven equally by her struggles to form deep relationships with her fellow students and the underlying grief from her parents’ deaths, that Luu Sânh began to take solace in a bottle. She had always enjoyed the taste and while not often drinking to excess, she found that she rarely suffered the after effects that plagued others who imbibed too heavily. As such it has never had any strong negative effects on her as she is determined to stay alert and in control of her abilities, but a little serves as a social crutch and an escape from the hardships of life. Graduating from the Academy of the Bladed Savant with exemplary swordswomanship, supplemented by magic and combined into a fearsome fighting style, she returned home once more to River. Following the flow – or forging her own path, as the ifrit would have it – she inevitably ended up in Icefall. Signing up as a soldier to fight the seemingly endless battle against Dark. Driven by purpose and with the work ethic to back it up, she excelled as she had done in most things in her life. Rising through the ranks, she was ultimately chosen to form part of a small elite squad to undertake specialist missions. These ranged from deadly battles to achieving strategic goals to pursuit of knowledge that might tip the unending war in favour of the elens. With Mai and Aong, she finally formed the close-knit bonds that had eluded her for most of her life. Complementing each other in skills and personality, the three became fast friends as well as a crack team. Leading from the front, her bravery unquestioned, supported by carefully planned tactics and clever use of magics, Luu Sânh had never felt more alive and that she had found her true calling in life. The trio began to develop a reputation and heroic status among the undines through such actions as slaying the Glacial Demonbeast and clearing the Pillar of Dusk. Most famous of all was the discovery in an ancient ruin of a valuable cache of magics, including various items that suggested both oread and undine design in conjunction. The most prized item among it was a holy text, Flow, and Ebb: the Fourteenth Blessing of Ocean’s Wisdom. A new addition to the incomplete set of collected volumes, this was highly celebrated by the undines. Donating the original to the Grand Library at Icefall, she retained a copy for her own personal use, as well as some of the other items. Unfortunately the trio was broken, seemingly irrevocably in a tense incident when the three were trapped inside a vast cylindrical tower. Luu Sânh and Mai were unable to escape, having tried means manual and magical to no avail. Aong, in a different place in the tower, had a potential route out but in doing so would cut her friends loose, almost certainly sending them to their deaths. After impossibly tense deliberations, Aong decided to take the escape route and disappeared in her guilt and shame. By mysterious means Luu Sânh and Mai survived a fall of hundreds of feet, bodies broken but still in one piece and amazed to be alive. More traumatic was that Aong’s decision – in Luu Sânh’s eyes an incredible betrayal – cut right to the bone. To her it was simply unconscionable that anyone could make that decision. This was further compounded by Mai’s shock decision – at least to Luu Sânh – to retire from her service, marry her sweetheart and join her Trader family. Chastened by her recent experiences and without the stability and comradeship of her closest friend, she hit the bottle harder than usual and signed up for increasingly reckless, at least by undine reckoning, missions. Although no serious faults could be found in her behaviour and performance, her superiors strongly encouraged her to take a break from the frontline and to journey to Light and investigate the rumours of disturbances in the city that had begun to cause disquiet. Stubbornly unable to either refuse an order or take some time off to look after herself properly, Luu Sânh accepted and set off as observer and representative of her people. |
