Eustachia Ha'Zouk was always a bit naïve, a bit more than even those of sub-average wisdom of the Kasatha...though what she lacked in common sense, she made up very much in book smarts. Always sharp in anything scholastic, it was said her wit could challenge the most enigmatic of riddles handed out by a Sphinx-though she would probably be somehow taken for a fool by some carefully hidden fine print and find herself devoured anyways-which, from a strictly utilitarian point of view, wouldn't have been seen as much of a tragedy-given the fact she was of no use with a bow (or anything else the clan found of constructive use.)
"Heck, she can't even get something as useless as the sorcery that runs through her family right!"
Finally coming of age, she was old enough to travel into the city for the annual stockpiling of those supplies not accessible in the wilderness. "Maybe she will finally find a way to be useful (and out 0f our hair for awhile)...right!"As luck would have it, a travelling gypsy circus/sideshow was doing an extended stint in town, and , as time permitted for such dalliances, the clan attended. With all its promises of oddities and wonders she was all attention. It was amusing, yes, but what really caught her attention was the magician. A very charismatic Alchemist Homonculist, originally hailing from Talingrad, with an amazing knack for performance magic and an adorably gnarly homonculus named JoJo, dazzled and amazed her. She had to know how he did it and where she could get one of those cute little buggers, as not even the sorcerers in her family clan (as few as they were) ever took a familiar. Using her ability for talking her way into things, she was able to wriggle her way inside the living quarters of Darcon Blantz aka "The Great Jhambini."
Taken by her sharp wit, exotic demographic, and all too trusting nature, Jhambini, offered to mentor her. Being mere days until her "tempering" started, a special, albeit rushed and improvised ceremony was held, and she was released into the tutelage of the alchemist. A diligent and benevolent scamp was Jhambini-quick to satisfy her vibrant thirst for the alchemical arts in such a manner that, possibly to her disservice, exemplified the kinder-natured side of the outside world. Of course, she took to it like an Undine to water and soon had her own little "pet" Toto hopping around her.
Happiness was not to last, though. A thuggish adventuring party, hired to collect the sizeable debt owed by the travelling (or running as it may be) "magician," soon caught up. Establishing a base in an abandoned building on the seedier side of town, the party went to work. Casing the circus, they found out where Jhambini bought his alchemical reagents. The party then took the shopkeepers family hostage, forcing him to tell the magician that an exclusive trader was in town that dealt in exotic and expensive, and possibly not so legal reagents-"Which is why he had to set up shop in such an undesirable location."
Maybe it was the solid reputation the shopkeeper held, or the rapport he held with the magician, and yet, maybe it was being around such an innocent being that made Darcon Blantz fall hook, line and sinker. Excitedly gathering the lions share of the wealth he had been accumulating over the years, the alchemist told his assistant to come with him on a special outing. With this, he thought, he could introduce Eustacia to a taste of the softer...the softest side even, of a not-so-legal way of things. Maybe he could show her that life is not always a kind and idealistic place "it's supposed to be." Maybe this is the way he could start hardening her around the edges just enough so she wouldn't be taken so easily in times he couldn't be there for her.
And so they reached their destination, an abandoned spices warehouse in the low-traffic area of the port, the perfect place to set up a low-profile exchange...or in this case an ambush. greeted by "the trader and his dashing, yet bumbling assistant, " the overly anxious Jhambini was led to the back office "so the adults could talk" where he was easily caught flat-footed and quietly assassinated.
Left behind with the assistant, the all-too-naïve apprentice was soon lulled into a false sense of security. Addressed with the query, "And by what name would such a fetching young creature go by?"she would say her birth-given first name for the last time..."Eustacia."
"Some sweets for the sweet?"Was what came next, as she unknowingly accepted an experimental Hazemind Concentrate-laced Harlot Sweet from the disguised Alchemist. Eustacia then uttered the words that would become her trademark..."Do you find me pretty?"
What happened next as the rest of the party joined the two? Well, let's put it this way...even a mundane sage could write a masterpiece of a tome on the ways to defile a young woman by simply dictating what they observed in that warehouse that day. Complete with the sardonic chanting of her first name over and over, compounded with being told how disgustingly ugly of a beast she really was...Eustacia Ha'Zouk found out, all in one shot, just how horrible of a place the world can be. And yes...they killed her little dog Toto too!
What to do with her after that, was no big task. The resourceful assassin soon found a contact in a Drow Alchemist Chirurgeon/Reanimator *archetype stacked (wow there sure are a lot of alchemists in this story) who had been conducting his low-profile surgical projects in the area. Being an avid collector with a special fascination with Marilith, Tinscarlio Wixt'Oz was all too happy to pay a handsome price for the girl. He wasted no time strapping the dazed Kasatha girl into his chair. She looked up into hie eyes as he prepared his instruments..."Do you find me pretty?"
Slightly shaken, for the first time in his career, Tinscarlio nonetheless started his administrations. Maybe it was because she was in shock, maybe it was lingering effects of the drugs...probably both, but Eustacia sat there stoically as the surgeon cut away. Finally, the girl impatiaently snapped at the doctor, Our anatomy is slightly different from anything else here...what you're looking for is a bit down and to the left!" Stunned, the surgoen backed up a bit..."What exactly did they do to you?" The girl's lips curled into a wry smile as she recounted the events that took place in the warehouse...as merrily almost as one would recount the events of an outing to, shall we say, a traveling circus...
The surgeon buckled for a second. Everything he had been suppressing, over his hardened years of adventuring and anatomical exploration, of the events that spurred him as a youth into this sadistic life he led, came rushing back at him...cutting his brain for every slice he had purveyed on another living being. "No...I must be strong...Asmodeus demands it! You...YOU must be strong...YOU ARE STRONG!" Once fated to an undead oddity in a psycho's collection, Eustacia Ha'Zouk would now become his greatest masterpiece!
To segue the transition from victim to loved one, Tinscarlio moved to unstrap the girl, "So, they said your name was Eustacia..." If there ever was an antithesis to stoicism, the surgeon immediately found it before him. In a short instant of uttering her name...Eustacia seemed transformed into a writhing beast, straining against her bonds with all her strength, snapping wildly at the surgeon, drooling profusely and screaming every profanity she pretended not to hear in her years with the circus. With every ounce of hate a misfit girl pushed down over years from being considered and treated as a hopeless burden to her clan, roared at the surgeon, "Not...My...Name...never say that name again! For the better part of an hour she strained against the straps, trying get at the one who dared call her by that title of abuse she had lived with all her life, until she finally wore herself out completely. Thus her mutagenic alter ego "Big Staci" was born.
Over the coming weeks, she was retrained into the arts of a archetype stacked chirurgeon/reanimator by Tinscarlio, once coming upon a picture of a Marilith, she asked what it was..."Oh, almost like Lilith...lilies are pretty aren't they?...Yes that is my name!" Through a series of operations and trepanation, the master of surgery, and the "healing" arts was able to reconstruct her skull to look more terrestrial, adding a light-blueish dye through alchemical reagents to her skin for an exotic suli-jann flavor, and a functional braided top-knot style hairdo Reference-AINE from the tower heroes of Heroes of might and Magic...I can provide a link! =)
Now would be the start of her second "tempering," as she was able to gather from the surgeon where those who sold her were from. She must now leave and go out to prove her Strength and earn the favor of Asmodeus and kill those who murdered Dacon Blantz, and susequently, Eustacia Ha'Zouk. She thus left for Talingrad. Always keeping a veil over her face in public...the last remnant of her "former" races modesty, Lilith Ha'Zouk found her way in Talingrad...most often surviving by selling herself as the exotic oddity she had been transformed into.
Her plans include finding the adventurers that came after Darcon, as well as who employed them and dealing with them as she sees fit. Her ultimate goal, either through surgery or magical permanance is to gain the lower regions of a serpent to be as much like a Marilith-and Tnscarlio's vision of her perfection and even possibly ascend to demonhood. She plans to use the healing background of chirurgeon to explore the torture of those who prove weak in this world so as not to deserve the life that has been given them. She plans to use the reanimator side to create a team of prostitute undead to cater to the needs of those with alternate tastes and dispatch the evidence in a pinch. She plans to get Promethean Disciple Dicsovery to remake her little dog Toto. All which came to a screeching halt when she became so impatient to get there, she was found boring into the skull of a fellow escort with plans to administer alchemical reagents in hopes of getting one of her zombies up and running.
"Lilith "Little Shiva" Ha'Zouk, do you have anything to say for yourself before we pass judgement?"
"Do you find me pretty?"
