halplm's page

I realized as I was finishing up the backstory that why she was a witch was missing, so I will work on incorporating that before we start, if you pick her for the campaign :).

The short version is that she was injured badly, and felt she needed to hide the scars and sometimes the fact she's an elf. She also felt that magic might help her ensnare customers. The scars have mostly faded, and she's grown talented enough the magic is unnecessary, but she has grown to relish the power her witchcraft provides.

I know I want the Enchantment theme Patron. I think Jynerva believes her patron to be Calistria herself. I think the Enchantment theme is similar to the Charm domain, which is kind of how I worked everything together. If you wanted to work with the patron behind the scenes as someone different, potentially with its own agenda, I think that would be really cool.

Jynerva's familiar was going to be a scorpion, but the more I've worked with her and the witch class, the more I want to pick things that are very old school witch things, like poison apples and cooking people, which has made me reconsider the familiar and I might go with a cat... probably not black, though :).

The only requirements for assassin that are a problem are the evil alignment and the kill for assassination's sake. I think we could work the second into the game without much trouble. She could find out one of the guys that killed her mother has a price on his head for instance and track him down... Personally, I think you can be an assassin without being evil, particularly as its defined in Pathfinder. But, this character is close enough to evil I think it can work.

I don't intend to be graphic at all or seduce any PCs :D. It's an aspect of the character. The idea was more for infiltration and interaction with NPCs, particularly targets. I'm not sure if this works in this campaign or not, but I thought it sounded like it might.

I'll try to come up with some more questions later. I'd really like to see the characters go through development as the game goes on, so I fully support the dip into evil. However, if you're just planning on doing it because of the requirements for assassin, then you might want to think about whether or not it would make sense for her. Like I said, I -might- change the requirements for assassin to help with this, but I wouldn't bet on it.

The dip into evil is not just for assassin. I see her as hovering at the corner between Neutral, chaotic neutral, neutral evil, and even a little chaotic evil if she's driven there through frustration.

I'm definitely very interested in the mental transformations of this character, and look forward to seeing where she ends up :).

"In my early youth, my father was killed in an unknown battle to reclaim an unknown city from an unknown enemy. That, at least, was how my mother described it. She was a devout follower of Desna and was consumed with a wanderlust that she attributed to the goddess. After the death of my father she took me out of Kyonin and we started to travel the world."

"For fifty years we traveled far and wide. I could not tell you all of the places we visited. We met many different peoples and saw many wondrous things. When I can stomach looking back on those times I remember being happy. However, I do not remember what it feels like to be that kind of happy any more."

"Eventually we ended up in Westcrown. I could not tell you why my mother wanted to come here, but we did. It is possible we were only passing through. I have heard from other elves that pass through this city that there are settlements not very far. I have never felt like finding them. We had only been in the city a short while when life changed dramatically for me."

"I'm not sure if my mother was incompetent, or merely foolish. We had never required much protection in our travels. Perhaps it had been divine providence or simply luck or perhaps divine luck, but we had not had to deal with more than a few dangerous situations over our long period of travel. That changed on one night roughly ten years ago. They came upon the two of us at night when we were out for some needless reason. I believe there were seven of them, but my memory is not clear. We did not present much of a challenge, but apparently we had become a target of someone. By morning my mother was dead, beaten into submission and then discarded with a slit throat to finish the night. I believe I only survived because they thought I was already dead. I was close to it. It took me months to recover. Months in which my mind was forced to relive the pain and humiliation over and over again."

"I was not unaware of Calistria throughout my life. She is, after all, a popular goddess among my people. I had never given her much thought, though, as my mother was so devoted to Desna. Now my thoughts were almost always filled with ideas for vengeance. I devoted myself to the Lady in the Room with a fervor that surprised even me. I began, before I could even walk correctly again, to search out those who had destroyed my life. I would not be denied my vengeance."

"I decided that I would remain in Westcrown until I had seen them die by my own hands. I needed a means to survive, so I turned once again to my goddess. I became a prostitute so that I could survive. I had no particular skills, but I was an elf and in this profession that was a rarity in Westcrown, so I was able to make a decent living."

"Aha, I see in your eyes that you do not believe such a living to be... decent. I assure you, my faith has allowed me to find pleasure where others scoff at the idea. It has provided me with a position where I can gather a great deal of information and I have started to peace together a picture I did not even realize was there. I do not now believe it was an accident that my mother was killed and that I was left for dead. I do not yet know the reasons behind the attack, but I know there was someone that put a price on our heads. I have been able to act in secret so far as I believe they think I am dead. They will perhaps be shocked when my knife slides across their throat. Yes, they may be surprised, but they will deserve it!"

"So, did you enjoy the story? I admit it is a bit depressing, but it is only the beginning of my story. I will be happy to tell you the rest when it is done. I'm sure there will be more pain in it in the future, but then again, there will be pleasure too..."

I don't believe that this would cause any problems with the group, as she will endeavor to hide any evil actions (and she should be good at it), and will generally work towards the goals of the group as long as she sees value in it for her own goals. I don't believe she will ever fit the full Pathfinder definition of evil, as she will not kill for pleasure. She does believe killing those responsible for her mother's death will give her pleasure, but I expect in reality it will not.