APPLICATION: Original - Lady Tsuri of Veluna
This application has been ACCEPTED.
PLAYER INFO
NAME: Jennifer
LOCATION/TIME ZONE: EST
CURRENT CHARACTERS, if any: Sha Gojyo/Smoke
CHARACTER INFO
CHARACTER NAME: Lady Tsuri of Veluna; prior names include Dame-Sister Fair Festival, Tsuri, Matsuri The Marked, Matsuri The White, and Lishvha (birth name).
PERSONALITY: At this point in her career, Tsuri (often pronounced "soo-ree" by her traveling companions) is not defined by her unnatural appearance; plenty of adventurers had been to the Ghost Tower of Inverness at that point, and so it was uncommon but not unheard of to be bleached white. The people who didn't understand that were everyday citizens (NPCs). How she defined herself, and introduced herself to others, was as a monk. Her combat skills included close-quarters fighting and neutralizing an enemy without killing them. She was taught resilience to magical forces and educated in perception. She was only recently knighted, into Veluna's Knights of Salvation. She was retrained to wear armor, wield a shield, and attack with all manner of basic weaponry - though she has never worn the armor outside of ceremony. She was taught how to ride a horse and how to draw on the power of her god directly to smite her enemies.
However, Tsuri has been on the road as an adventurer for nearly 6 years now. It's not uncommon or ill advised for a woman to be an adventurer -- they just happen to be spell-casters more often than not. She is at the point in her career where the people around her are highly regarded as being extremely powerful, and she is generally mocked and derided when met by a new group. She is not the most efficient fighter - they claim - because she doesn't use armor or a sword, and she has no ranged powers like a wizard or sorcerer. She cannot heal wounds and she cannot charm people. She cannot disarm traps or command the forces of nature. So what - they ask - could she possibly contribute to an adventuring group? Her struggle to answer that question time and again bore immense bitterness in her. For her, the answer was simple: the same as anyone else. You do what needs to be done to complete a mission, to the best of your abilities. She volunteers to fill in roles as the plans are being made, instead of claiming - like some - to fill one role or another just by virtue of what type of armor they wear and what spells they cast. The problem of course is that she has to prove and re-prove herself for every new group of people she meets. She has difficulty accepting help whenever she gets stuck, because of that desire to show them what she's made of. As a result, she fiercely defends her class choice, even going so far as to make brash actions without the consent of her group if she feels she knows better and they're losing precious time. She was always treated as a "second tier" fighter, never a front-liner like the main battle tanks, so she is quick to showcase her five scars -- "look what I survived!" She always lists her deeds and titles for nobles -- "look what I accomplished!"
This younger Tsuri is not yet to the point where she's doing good in the world for the sake of everyone else and because it's "the right thing to do;" it's also not "for the glory" of herself or her god, Rao. The items she accumulates are tailor-made to improve her abilities, and it took years to find them, while any greenhorn fighter can pick up a magic sword in the marketplace. It's all so that she can join in the "mine's bigger" war-story contests that her adventuring companions invariably get into whenever someone jockeys for the command lead in a new team. Being a Paladin of Rao in the Knights of Salvation is still a mantle she wears because it impresses people in Veluna, where Rao is the principle god and the Church of Rao is the power in the theocracy. Being Lawful Good isn't yet a lifestyle for Matsuri - it's a compulsion to act in a manner that others expect out of her.
Between growing up in a monastery and traveling all the time as an adventurer, Tsuri has difficulty "hanging out" with people her own age. She is extremely stubborn when it comes to getting things her way, still a remnant of her younger years as an unruly mountain child. She doesn't give in to bloodlust, but she has no qualms about pummeling someone into unconsciousness to prove a point. You'd think she'd hold grudges for a long time, but it's usually a week at most. There's no time on these missions for bickering, and that's mainly why she gets frustrated when others start it. But as quick as she is to get into an argument over how best to go about something, she also can let it go with a bit of time. Apologies make that happen quicker, but she will resort to teasing and mockery if it helps ease the pain. After all, they mock her all the time, and fair's fair.
There are some people who don't treat her like a second-rate 'assistant,' but most of those people are the innocents, the outsiders, the people who don't fight or go off adventuring all across the Flanaess. Matsuri is cordial to these people, though not exactly conversational. The kinds of questions she knows how to ask are direct-line interrogations about what happened and why you need our help and what may be good to know but you failed to mention. This is part of the basic diplomacy that she picked up during her adventuring years.
Being a world traveler and on the road for nearly 6 years straight has given Tsuri an extreme appreciation for two things in life: good food and a good bed. She has become an amateur connoisseur of meals, in particular because it impresses nobles, something she never understood because they didn't cook it, but she didn't argue with the results. She isn't an especially good cook beyond open-pit grilling, so the creations of other cultures fascinate her. She enjoys collecting exotic spices to add to her own meals. Additionally, while she disdains frilly dresses and other such finery, Tsuri loves a fluffy bed and silken sheets and a warm nightgown. She doesn't hate camping, but a respite from it is always welcome. Other than a filling meal and a good night's rest, the other two things Tsuri will spend extra money on are a solid pair of shoes and a sturdy saddle.
She could definitely use a definition of the word "vacation." Her hobbies, such as they are, include caring for her horse, rock-climbing, tree-climbing, and a kind of proto-gymnastics. This is because every time fey creatures and other beings wanted to be 'entertained,' she would resort to her skills at balance, jumping, and tumbling while others sang or played an instrument. She can still remember what it was like to work on a farm from before she went to the monastery. Aside from her more practiced combat-based skills, there are a few other essentials that she picked up along the way as an adventurer: geography and map-reading; merchant house politics and trade routes; noble house politics; guild house expectations and organization; basic survival in wild environs; basic first aid & trauma care; and core battle spells & their effects. She knows no other languages, but can speak her home locale's dialect of Common, known as Velondi.
Jennifer R. Hale represents Rauxes' voice, and her child/preteen self is represented by Lia Sargent.
BACKGROUND: Tsuri was formally dubbed "Fair Festival" by the monks who trained her as a child. Thus, it is the name she used through most of her life, despite not being the name she was born with. She was born to peasant farmers in the Lorridge Mountains of Veluna. Her parents were Berid (father, Oeridian-raised Flan mix) and Londinha (mother, Flan-raised Oeridian mix) - no last name, being peasants - and she was the third of seven children:
Beridan (oldest brother - Oeridian name)
Tarl (older brother - Oeridian name)
Lishvha (Matsuri/Seren - Flan name)
Uldesh (younger brother - Flan/Oeridian name)
Nirur (youngest brother - Oeridian/Flan name)
Pelliori (younger sister - Flan name)
Errende (youngest sister - Flan/Oeridian name)
Berid worked the family's small farm and Londinha tended to their livestock. The boys were expected to help their father, which included going to the town market, and the girls were expected to help their mother, which included tasks in the home like cooking and stitching clothing - when the children weren't playing together. As a very small child, Lishvha was the biggest tomboy in her area of the Lorridge Mountains - preferring to roughhouse with her brothers and routinely wanted to help her father more than her mother. When she wasn't allowed to do that, she became wild and unruly. She ate when she pleased, wandered as far as she wanted, and usually came back dirty and bruised from getting into fights with animals or other children. This was her life up until the age of seven, when she'd been 'helping out' her mother (or expected to be doing so) for about four years. You were basically expected to help in a farm family as soon as you could walk (around age 3 or 4) - everything from folding cloth diapers to feeding chickens, for the girls. Her parents tried to wait until their younger girls were old enough to actually help Londinha (age 4 for Pelliori and age 3 for Errende) before dealing with Lishvha's attitude. So when Lishvha was seven, Berid and Londinha asked the monks of a nearby abbey to take care of their daughter for awhile, to see if they would have any luck in utilizing the divine power of Rao to soothe her. The monks tried lecturing her, tried getting her to read their books, and even tried teaching her how to chant, but nothing worked.
One day when Lishvha was around age 8, the monastery was attacked by what she remembers as "giant monster-frogs" - they were actually Slaadi, a race of Outsiders, one of many invasion forces that had beset Veluna in the past, and would continue to do so throughout her lifetime. Of course, the little girl was afraid for her life and to this day is deathly afraid of frogs, other amphibians, and particularly slimy reptilians. The monks quickly rallied and dispatched the Slaadi with an impressive display of martial skills. Surprisingly, the monks won her respect by defeating the Slaadi. This began the second period in her life - her training as a monk - and it all started with being re-named Fair Festival - a take on her raucous nature being finally put to good use, the monks hoped.
Unfortunately, her "wild streak" hadn't been completely tamed yet, and she was anxious to try out her new skills on evildoers - never mind the fact that she hadn't yet learned how to pick such people out of a crowd. Her first traveling companions were the ones who shortened her name to "Matsuri" and used "Tsuri" or "Suri" as nicknames when they couldn't pronounce her full name. She left her hometown and the monastery at age 16 for Veluna City and Greyhawk City.* She stopped in the city of Tristor, where rumors of a haunting brought her face to face with druids, sorcerers, and other Adventurers like herself. Together, they put down the monsters haunting the town, but Matsuri quickly became a little bitter that she had not been as effective as the Monks had been against the Slaadi. In Devarnish, she fought cultists of the Death God Nerull and became deputized in Fals Ridge for helping put a couple of petty thieves behind bars. She soon learned of the rivalry between the Iron Rings Consortium and the Brendigund Merchant House in the trade capital of Mitrik. After being given a Sacred Quest from Rao, her faith in her own abilities was renewed - she could actually help protect her country from invading forces of Demons and Devils. Before long, she also came into contact with zombies, ogres, were-creatures, and a Bulette that her group managed to kill in 18 seconds (3 rounds). The first man she killed was Lord Melendril of Jarl, who had been feeding trade routes to bandits. She helped free slaves from the Pomarj, an orc-run country. She even managed to successfully "stun" a Great Wyrm and a Fire Giant for 6 seconds. She finally piqued the interest of the famed Brotherhood of the Vale, a monastic order in the Veluna region, and was allowed to join. During this time, Matsuri reveled in her battle scars - four scars from this time remain on her body - and ties to various important people throughout Veluna, since she could not brandish magical weapons or wear shiny armor. All the same, she never passed up an opportunity to prove herself as a capable member of a strike force. Her skills at diplomacy were minimal to say the least.
*I'd like to make it clear that from this point on, every single one of her adventures was conducted in a group. On average, it's 4-6 people, but very occasionally 7-10. So anything that I mention her 'doing' includes the assistance of this group; Matsuri was just the only constant throughout, as the members of the group shifted all the time.
It was in the third year of her travels that another event changed Matsuri's life forever. As part of a recovery team, Matsuri entered the Ghost Tower of Inverness. At the top, there was a crystal designed to protect the tower. When a person was bathed in the crystal's light, that person was assaulted with a mental attack as the crystal tried to imprison the person inside of itself forever. However, when Matsuri was attacked by the crystal, she drew on all of her training and repelled the crystal's power to the shock of her adventuring group. There was a side affect, though: Matsuri had been bleached white by the crystal. Her hair became silver, her eyes changed to pinkish red, and her skin was drained of color to look stark white. In short, she looked like an undead to all common-folk -- an evil being. She still carries with her (in her canon) all of the items that were on her person at the time she was bleached, and they are completely white as well. A new personal goal in life became to make a name for herself such that the common-folk would no longer fear her visage.
This was the first time that Tsuri had lasting, tangible evidence for the strength of her power. She returned to the Brotherhood with an epiphany about her personal journey and how it related to her devotion to Rao (wow, maybe he does care), her training as a monk (wow, it is useful), and doing good works in the world (maybe doing good deeds isn't so hard). She was on her way to becoming a true believer in Rao's tenants of Peace, Reason, and Serenity, but old habits die hard. She was willing to at least do things like try to reason with people first -- this courtesy did not extend to beings that can't be reasoned with, like most monsters.
Still, her "luck" changed forever. She was inducted into the Knights of Salvation by special invitation - a rare thing for a worshiper in the Church of Rao who had not been trained as a Paladin. She was soon blessed with The Will of Rao, a gift from Bishop Rinken of the Church of Rao for infiltrating an enemy camp and bringing back strategic elements. She started gaining even more important relationships that would lead to valuable boons such as resurrection, instant teleportation, monetary breaks in various cities, and even salvation from imminent destruction - all of that in addition to various items that would help her in her journey, such as her favored adamantine butterfly sword that was imbued with holy power.
After she faked defeat in combat against a Dakon (a six-limbed ape-like humanoid) whose tribe was being imprisoned by the Flan of Tenh, one of their number accompanied her for the next year. His name was Fel'Cheten-kin, and he became an accomplished Spellsword (wizard and warrior, using weapons as a conduit for magical energy) alongside "Matsuri the Saved". They parted ways in friendship, as "Cheten" felt he had completed his service to his savior and Tsuri was glad to see him embarking on a life of freedom. Later that year, she became "Dame-Sister Tsuri", as she had by that time demonstrated enough moral qualities as a Knight Errant to became a full-fledged Knight of Salvation. This began the next phase in Matsuri's life as she became a true warrior in the cause of defending her country and its people - mainly because her country was at war with Herion the Heretic by that point, and no Knight worth his or her salt would be caught dead shirking the duty. It was just a tad more than she bargained for. She could have said 'no,' but by that point she was at a level where the pressure to do good was becoming intense, and who says no to the leader of your country and religion? Not a Knight of Salvation, for sure; she'd have been stripped of her title right then and there.
People who had contacted her in the past for missions - seemingly random at the time - called upon her again for follow-up missions that ended up bringing the true purposes of dark forces to the public eye and culminating in epic battles, not all of them fought on the field. Tsuri recovered a key from a pool of acid in the name of Zagyg, a lesser god of magic and chaos. She successfully navigated a maze-like stronghold devoted to the god Tharzidun, Lord of Destruction. She helped defend Whitehale Diocese and was gifted with land there. She unintentionally earned the notice of the Earth Elemental Prince Ogremoch by refusing to deal with neither devils (Tanar'ri) nor demons (Baatezu), thereby gaining more reputation with the Brotherhood of the Vale. She became a Hero of Fals Keep during the battle to reclaim the stronghold and secure the western flank in the war to protect Veluna. After foiling the efforts of the pit fiend Faarzephon and refusing to strike a deal with him, Matsuri earned the pit fiend's enmity and oath of revenge - to kill all of her friends and family. However, for upholding her morals and committing no evil acts, the Pinnacles of Azor'Alq sent the angel Altanael to keep "everything [she] holds dear" under celestial protection. She even gained notice by the College of the Divine and College of the Arcane in Veluna City for fighting off the undead forces of the lich Herion, "The Heretic". This included activating the Shrine of Reason using the Holy Sword of Rao. For taking on the duties of an enfeebled paladin of Rao in charge of using the Holy Sword of Rao, Matsuri also earned a boon - from both The Church of Rao and the sentient Holy Sword - whereby she would receive a similarly sword. This one would be imbued with the holy avenger power, basically meaning it did lots of extra damage to evil things and her sword would not be sentient. Unfortunately, Matsuri knew that she could not effectively wield a sword in battle, because her monk training never covered swords - but that would change.
After she was finished trekking through the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, fighting grell (the paralyzing poison at the end of each barb is the least of your worries) and illithid (the psychic Underdark-dwellers that like to suck out brains to gain power), Matsuri had her personal spirituality and self-esteem rocked to the core for the better. She had the good fortune to come in contact with a paladin's bonded mount that been forcibly removed from his pact by virtue of the paladin dying. As a result, the mount, "Palanor", was searching for a new master to bond with. To Matsuri's great surprise, Palanor told her that she had the potential to become a paladin - that she already had the soul of one, but she'd need to wait and learn a bit more about herself before they could be bound. She didn't understand his meaning -- she only knew that Paladins were highly respected throughout Veluna, and that this could change people's perception of her forever. She immediately sought training from the Knights of Salvation in preparation for the upcoming battles, to destroy Herion and his hoards of followers (demons, devils, undead, aberations, etc.), thereby saving Veluna from their evil forever. (She did not complete this training by the time I'm pulling her from.)
Then another surprise came to Matsuri. During one of her many battles, they uncovered a long-lost military fortification that had been sanctified to Rao. Dubbed the "Bastion of Faith", it needed a LOT of money to repair it. Instead of offering to pay a portion of the repair costs, Matsuri offered to BUY the Bastion, the land it was on, and pay for its yearly upkeep. She also went to the Brotherhood of the Vale and offered to make the Bastion a new headquarters for training Brotherhood monks, since the outsider hordes had trashed the Yatil Mountains, where the Brotherhood headquarters had been previously. It reminded Tsuri too much of when the Slaadi had attacked the monastery in her hometown as a child. In exchange for her kindness, she was dubbed "Lady Tsuri of Veluna" henceforth, blessed by Canon Priffin Truft of the Church of Veluna, and finally rewarded with her holy avenger sword after saving up to offset the crafting costs. This was the first time Tsuri was truly touched by other people's appreciation of her deeds -- it wasn't a great feat done on the battlefield, it was an act of genuine concern for the Brotherhood that had done so much for her as a child. The fact was that most of her traveling companions spent thousands of gold and platinum pieces a year on armor and weapons and magical items. Since Tsuri did not, she had a massive amount of wealth just lying around. That was what she used to buy the Bastion of Faith. (Once again, by the time I'm pulling her from, she will not have an appreciation for how much this affected the Brotherhood of the Vale for the better.)
Not long after saving Castle Sepher, Matsuri and some of her favorite companions -- The Inquisitor, Marigold, Cedric, Dragomyr, Jace, plus an unfamiliar fighter -- began what would be Matsuri's 111th Mission. (I'm not even kidding, I laughed so hard when I calculated that. It's my 94th Adventure Record, but in the early days of the campaign they didn't issue ARs. This is COR5-14 All Roads Lead To Rauxes By Chris Chesher) It was one of those times where past missions started adding up - this time 3 prior jobs over 2 years. Tsuri and her companions all received a summons to return to the Northern Kingdom of Aerdy, specifically to the Barony of Stel. In these regions, the worshippers of Hextor and Vecna are more prevalent than ever, and both gods are enemies of Rao and Veluna as a result. They met up at the Clenching Fist inn just across the border from Nyrond, near the site of an earlier mission that ended with the destruction of a blue turreted estate in a blast of acid and fire. It had been the base of a mysterious group known as the Footmen of the Spider Throne, and they fought a man named Darrien the Knife. It took a year, but they'd pieced together some information about what the Footmen had been up to, and the clues lead to the city of Rauxes. 10 years prior, some calamity had occurred, and Rauxes fell into ruin. Now, Matsuri and her companions had to return to their investigation of the Footmen and possibly discover what had happened to Rauxes along the way.
That meant Sir Ramden, Baron of Stel, wanted to talk to them before they went running around his lands, or so they thought until they arrived. Apparently his twin children had gone missing - one boy and one girl - and he wanted the group to keep an eye out for them. The Baron was sure that they'd run off with the Night Cloak Players, a troupe who used to perform at the blue turreted estate in the name of Boccob with the permission of Prince Gancent, who'd owned the rights to the estate. The children had been gone for a month, and the only other person of interest would have been the children's' arcane teacher, but he'd been gone for three years by that point. Apparently when the Court Mage went missing, the children started spending more time with the Players. The group's clues mentioned the Night Cloak Players, and so they knew that the Players were actually Footmen and agents of Vecna the Whispered One. The group investigated the mage's lab before heading out on the southern dirawaen trade route to the thorp of Yillish, where the Players were heading as well according to the Baron. Yillish was just outside of the area Rauxes had once occupied in Naelex -- the border area between the Northern Kingdom and the country of Ahlissa.
They discovered that the Night Cloak Players had performed a ritual in the guise of a play and used a local storyteller for the final sacrifice. He lived, but became a leper, and the group started to worry that perhaps the twin teenagers had been turned into twin horses - something that the Footmen had been unable to acquire through natural breeding of normal horses. But thanks to Dragomyr and The Inquisitor healing the man - Gilrest of Redford - he was able to aid them in going after the Night Cloak Players / Footmen before the lay lines shifted again. They had to perform the same ritual and cut Gilrest again - a role he volunteered for to get back at the terrible masqueraders - while leaving him with strong potions so the Yillish villagers could heal him. No one had felt good about that option, but Gilrest assured them it was the only way to tap into the earth's lay lines and penetrate the Shimmering Veil that now surrounded Rauxes.
Navigating an extra-dimensional pocket in the planes, the party stumbled upon a camp of devas and other celestials in the middle of a war and preparing for battle. One mortal has clearly had his mind warped by staying too long in the area. They are drafted into a platoon under the command of a lantern archon wearing a green hat -- essentially, he's a glowing orb just slightly bigger than a human head -- and are armored by an azer -- a dwarf-like being with fire for hair. The group then begins a siege into Castle Triumph, defeating animated ballistas, bearded devils, and erinyes -- all baatezu, Lawful Evil devils. They find information leading them to a place called The Vomitorium (yes, really) that leads to The Imperial Theatre, where the Footmen are supposed to meet if things go wrong.
The group has now managed to reach the gates of Rauxes itself. They are shocked to witness the city burn all around them and the citizens start to riot in their death throes. The group is unaffected, but can only watch as inside the city proper the whole place starts to reset itself in "a sinister groundhog day." They have to go through underground tunnels to get inside, instead. In The Vomitorium is a half-fiend otyugh called The Server, dedicated to a being named Baalzy (Baalzephon, the Pit Fiend Supply Master of Baator). Everyone was demanded to 'partake of the feast' or kill The Server, the only two ways to get past into The Imperial Theatre. Matsuri approached the challenge with vigor, knowing she couldn't be affected by the poisonous food. Dragomyr, The Inquisitor, and Marigold all managed to use the magical spell purify food and drink to help accomplish the task for everyone else, but Matsuri was very proud of the fact that she didn't need their help.
When they reached The Imperial Theatre, they found a woman, two horses hobbled, and a clockwork man sitting in the stands watching. His name was Pro'grom, an Inevitable Quarut from the plane of Mechanus, a Lawful Neutral Outer Plane. Inevitables like Pro'grom only get involved when fundamental, universal laws are being violated -- for a Quarut, that's the flow of space and time. Pro'grom only watched as the PCs confronted the woman - Floria, last of the Footmen - and subdued her, then interrogated her. That's what The Inquisitor does best, anyway - get information. They decided to talk to Pro'grom first, since it wasn't like Floria was going anywhere. The clockwork man approached, his body giving off clicks and jerks. "I am Pro'grom, a guardian. I serve the universe-- as do you." His voice sounded like it was created with music-box strings. "I have seen what has gone past and I see what could become. Doing as I ask will ensure your destiny. This is just the crossroads."
Before Pro'grom can explain more, Lady Tsuri is whisked away to Edensphere. She will be 21 years old, nearing 22, and thus there should be very little appreciable difference in her physical appearance to people who knew Seren. Her personality, on the other hand, should augment the feeling that she is much younger.
--- Below is a summary of Tsuri's Background from beyond her Edensphere Pull Point ---
Pro'grom's request of Tsuri's adventuring party would be to ask if she would help save Veluna from the last thing plaguing the country in the wake of the war with Herion. A large portion of Herion's forces had been demons and devils -- outsiders, beings not native to the plane Veluna exists on -- and Veluna's spellcasters banished all of them back to their home planes. Banishing the outsiders en masse resulted in wave after wave of wildmagic. Wildmagic warped how spells worked, how long they lasted, who they targeted, and generally made spell-casting difficult.
Unfortunately, there was little that Tsuri could do, since she wasn't a spell-caster, except lend her support in defending Veluna's borders from the Bastion of Faith. She did so for the next two years. The attacks on the border came much less often than her adventuring missions -- attacks being once every 1-3 months, compared to adventuring missions that usually took one week and only sometimes two. Similarly, the border strikes were always handled by Tsuri and her fellow Brotherhood monks at the Bastion with occasional assistance from local military units, meaning Lady Tsuri didn't have to try very hard to make sure the border was well defended. Because she no longer exerted herself, never struggled to improve, she gained relatively little power over the next two years compared to her first 5 and a half years of adventuring. Her self-esteem plummeted quickly, buoyed only by the progress of her students as pupils of the Brotherhood of the Vale.
On the other hand, Veluna's wizards and clerics in the magical Colleges conducted research on how to counteract the wildmagic waves, gaining power from the experiences. When they succeeded after those two years, they were praised as heroes. Meanwhile, the "Lady Tsuri" stagnated and gained no more power either as a monk or as a paladin, since Tsuri had retreated to her Bastion. She focused instead on training a new generation of Brotherhood monks. That was her entire existence for years before she was pulled to Edensphere as "Serenity" at the age of 53.
ABILITIES:
STATIC POWERS
Unarmed Strike: This is Matsuri's standard means of attack; she has been trained so that any part of her body can be used to attack in typical martial arts fashion - fists, feet, elbows, head, etc. - like you see in the movies. She is fast enough to attack once every 2 seconds without exerting much energy. Matsuri's unarmed attacks come in a series of three strikes -- or five, if using the Flurry of Blows power described below -- and the last two strikes in the set are always less accurate than the initial attack(s). She can combine punches and kicks and head-butts in this series of strikes; it is not limited to one form per 3-strike or 5-strike series. Her unarmed strikes are as effective as adamantine (an ultra-hard metal), meaning she can -- as an [UNLOCKABLE OPTION] -- sunder weapons, armor, and other objects (wood, bone, metal, etc.) with any unarmed attack. Sundering does not happen automatically. For example: with a simple wooden chair it may only take one hit to break it, but with armor it would take considerably longer to punch a hole in a breastplate. The point is she'd definitely make a dent even after one hit, which gives an idea for what it feels like to get hit by one of her unarmed strikes. The extraordinary strength behind her unarmed strikes also means that she doesn't injure herself when she strikes stone or metal, unless she does it for an extended period of time.
--- Matsuri's unarmed strikes are always treated as "subdual" damage, or bludgeoning blows that cannot kill an opponent, only knock them out. She must actively choose to make her attacks lethal as an [UNLOCKABLE OPTION], but she does not suffer a reduction in accuracy or damage either way when striking.
--- Matsuri's unarmed strikes are treated as magical weapons, meaning they can get through most low-powered defenses that prevent normal/mundane/non-magical physical attacks from doing any damage, such as the Hierro ("toughened skin") of weaker Arrancar in Bleach.
--- Matsuri's unarmed strikes are also imbued with the trait of "lawfulness", which only matter if her opponent specifically does not abide by any sort of law or code. (Even evil creatures can be "lawful," basically.) As a force of law, her righteous strikes do a bit more damage on each hit to creatures of chaos, and can get through tougher magical defenses of the same creatures. These law-imbued penetrative powers also do not affect neutral-aligned (neither lawful nor chaotic) beings.
Still Mind (plus Diamond Soul): Matsuri has the ability to completely negate magical attacks, but these defensive powers do not always work and do nothing against mundane attacks like a sword in the back. In order to affect Matsuri with a spell, Edensphere spell-casters must actively attempt to penetrate her extraordinary defenses. To be very clear, this does not mean that Matsuri can never be affected by magic, only that it is very difficult to do so and requires extra concentration on the part of the spell-caster. That means a spell-caster should feel something working against them and that will be the case whether the magic succeeds or fails. Matsuri is best at defending herself against "Will-based" magic -- compulsions that test one's ability to act like themselves and other mental influences, like charm spells. Secondly, she is good at defending against "Fortitude-based" magic -- tests endurance, vitality, health, and your ability to stand up to physical punishment from magical abilities, including death effects. Lastly, she is only decent at consciously defending against "Reflex-based" magic -- tests dexterity and reaction time, specifically against magical abilities that target whole areas and not just one person. Her unconscious reaction to Reflex-based magic is described under Improved Evasion.
-- Matsuri's magical defenses also work to her detriment, because if someone needs to cast a helpful spell on her (namely healing magic) then her own magical defenses could stop the healing magic; friendly spells are treated the same way as enemy spells. Matsuri can choose to lower her spell resistance as an [UNLOCKABLE OPTION], but that means she'll have to remember she can do it before she can knowingly lower her defenses for the sake of friendly spells.
-- Improved Evasion: Matsuri is extremely adept at dodging magical and mundane projectiles thrown at her, avoiding traps beneath her feet, and keeping her balance. Often, she is able to completely avoid taking damage from such things, but her instincts move her body so fast that she will only take half damage even if she didn't fully dodge the attack. If Matsuri is helpless -- unconscious, frozen in place, etc -- she does not gain the benefit of improved evasion. Once again: These abilities do nothing against standard combat attacks, like a good old sword to the gut.
Purity of Body (plus Diamond Body): Matsuri is immune to all poisons and mundane diseases. Magical diseases (which she is not protected against) include such things as lycanthropy.
Aura of Good: Matsuri has a very weak aura that only gauges her paladin powers -- it is palpable enough for similar aura-detection powers to notice her and to feel that she is not a 'threatening' / 'evil' presence, but it also does not account of her monk powers. Thus, she could be mistaken as a weak-powered person.
Fast Movement: Matsuri can move without breaking a sweat at a speed of 140 feet within a 6 second period, or 23.2 feet per second, all the while dodging obstacles in her path and still doing something when she's done moving, such as attacking or using an item. If she is rushing in a single direction without anything in her way, she can double this speed to 280 feet (or 46.67 feet per second). If she's doing a flat-out run, she can move at 420 feet per 6 seconds, or 70 feet per second, but can only do this for short periods of time - approximately 4 rounds, or 24 seconds. A monk in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.
UNLOCKABLE POWERS
Flurry of Blows: This is more of an attack mode than a single power. It makes Matsuri's attacks come more rapidly, increasing her number of attacks in a series from 3 to 5, meaning she can attack a little faster than once per second. Her final 2 attacks in a series are still less accurate, as described under Unarmed Strike. She can use this power any number of times per day, but can only use it when she is attacking with an unarmed strike or a few specific weapons from her monk training: butterfly sword, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, and siangham. The butterfly sword is the only kind of sword that Matsuri can use for this attack, but it need not be her butterfly sword. She cannot use this attack mode if she is heavily encumbered (such as carrying someone) or wearing armor.
Stunning Fist: Matsuri can choose to stun opponents, but must mentally declare this intent before attempting to strike an opponent. She can only use this power combined with an unarmed strike - meaning it is not limited to a punch - and a few specific weapons that monks are trained with (see below). Each successful stun hit only lasts 6 seconds at a time. It is difficult to resist this stunning fist power, but it is possible. Matsuri can attempt to do this 16 times per day with no delay or recharge time needed between hits. She cannot re-stun a character that is already stunned. However, a stunned character can still defend themselves - they just can't attack her back, and they are slightly easier to hit because they lose some ability to dodge attacks.
-- Instead of stunning a character, Matsuri can choose to expend a "stun attempt" (one of her 16 per day) and place a weakening touch on her opponent as another [UNLOCKABLE OPTION]. A weakening touch drastically reduces a character's strength, but does not cripple them completely (unless they weren't that strong to begin with). In a span of 6 seconds, Matsuri may either "stun" or "weaken" a single opponent, not both and not more than once in a 6 second span of time.
-- Specialized monk weapons that can be used for the stunning fist attack include: butterfly sword, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, and siangham. The butterfly sword is the only kind of sword that Matsuri can use for this attack, but it need not be her butterfly sword.
Abundant Step: Matsuri can slip magically between spaces within 800 feet of her starting location. She can only do this once per day. She can bring up to two people (willingly) with her as long as she is touching them, or one large creature. Unconscious beings count as willing. This is very dangerous to do when Matsuri doesn't know where she's going, because she can be randomly transported to nearby areas if the space that she tries to "step" into is already occupied by a building, a person, etc. If there is no place free within 100 feet, all travelers suffer a small amount of magical damage and all travelers are shunted to a random nearby space within 1,000 feet of the intended area. If there is no place free within 1,000 feet of the target location, all travelers suffer an additional amount of more severe magical damage and are then shunted back to their starting place. Matsuri must always take 3-6 seconds to re-orient herself after using this ability - basically that she can't use it and then move again, or attack, or use an item, etc.
Wholeness of Body: Matsuri can heal her own wounds, but only herself. She can heal a fatal injury to the point of only being a critical injury, re-set a broken limb, and heal most injuries incurred by light sparring. She only has so much power she can expend per day, but she can spread this healing out among several uses. For example if she sets a broken limb, that's it for the day, or she could heal about 30 shallow knife cuts, but not both.
Smite Evil: Once per day, Matsuri may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack -- basically when she's attacking with her body or something she's holding onto, but not a weapon she can fire (such as a bow or gun) or anything she can throw (such as darts or a spear). She gets only a tiny bit of extra power when she tries to attack an enemy, but she deals a bit more damage if the blow connects (about the force of two normal hits from her unarmed strike). If Matsuri accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect -- meaning no extra damage, but the hit could still connect and hurt that way. Whether she's right or wrong about her opponent being evil, that's the only chance she gets per day.
Detect Evil: At will, a paladin can use detect evil so long as they concentrate on activating the power. This spell has a set range of 60 feet in front of her in a conical shape. The spell can penetrate some thin barriers, but thicker barriers can block it, such as: 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt. Animals, traps, poisons, and other potential perils are not evil, and as such this spell does not detect them. Most often, this ability is used to scan areas for potential threats; it does not read minds or provide any insight into motive. Any morally grey character gets the exact same result to Matsuri's mind as a good character, which is "not evil." It is also easily misdirected due to being such a low-level power. For example, any attempt to Detect Evil on meta-plot characters and objects (be they good or evil or anything in-between) will knock her out before she gets a reading. Additionally, to use an example from Bleach canon, it is entirely conceivable that Matsuri could get a reading off of Ichimaru Gin (evil or not is debatable, but not the point of this example), but get a blank reading from Aizen Sousuke -- which is the same as a "not evil" reading. A second example would be Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars series. He was a leading Senator and walked among hundreds of powerful Jedi Knights for years, and was never detected as a Sith Lord, because he obviously had mental powers of deception that were able to deflect the Jedis' ability to notice he was evil.
I'd like for this to be used as character development, actually, because almost every character in Edensphere is some shade of grey or good, and as such this power doesn't tell her anything about the person. After she re-discovers this power, she'd become extremely frustrated by how useless it actually is in this setting, and have to resort to other things like *GASP* getting to know people better. However, if it's still deemed as too powerful, I'm willing to lock it entirely.
LOCKED POWERS
Quivering Palm: Essentially a one-hit kill on a time-delay, if the attack succeeds, that a monk can perform once per week.
GAME INFO
EDENSPHERE NAME: Rauxes
BIRTHDAY LOG: Yes please!
DREAM:
There was a column of light in the darkness. Or, it looked like light anyway… before it started shifting in the wake of a wind she couldn't feel. It was this pale lavender-grey color speckled with stars and it wasn't until she walked closer that she realized it was a semi-sheer veil. The column of veil-light only looked to be about 5 feet in diameter, as best she could guess, but inside it there appeared to be a white marble column roughly four feet high and only two feet in diameter. On top of the pedestal... she couldn't see anything, but surely something was there?
She pressed her hands gently against the veil and jumped back when something flashed in her mind -- a city on fire, and people screaming.
She moved around the wind-blown curtain while looking for a way in, but every time it looked like there might be a break in the cloth, she couldn't get her hand in fast enough. She cursed herself - she should be fast enough to breech it. How could she miss each time?
"I have seen what has gone past..." She knew that voice... It almost sounded like a child's singsong voice to the tune of a music box. She wondered if perhaps the voice was coming from beyond the veil. She kept looking around as it continued. "… and I see what could become." She touched the veil again, and the screaming fire returned.
Which are you showing me, then? Show yourself, or at least make a reply! She tried to speak, but couldn't, and she stamped her foot in anger. I don't understand! She gritted her teeth and stormed through the veil anyway, trying not to run into the pedestal-
But when she emerged and opened her eyes, everything had changed. It wasn't a city... it was a keep of some sort, or a castle. It was dusty with age, cobwebs strewn everywhere. She walked around but saw no one. She entered a library only to find books written in characters she couldn't read. However, as she entered a courtyard, she saw a statue and approached it. It was a man in flowing robes, with a beautiful smile on his face and a crook in his hand.
"Doing as I ask will ensure your destiny."
She blinked up at the man and reached out her right hand. As she did so, a kind of swirling mark appeared near wrist and started to crawl up to her elbow. She wasn't afraid of it -- she was actually very pleased. It's high time they knew I'm not some dainty lady! This means I can... Why couldn't she remember what it meant?
She looked back at the man, throwing her braid back over her shoulder and shouting at him wordlessly. What destiny? Tell me what I have to do, and I'll do it! I can do it, then! This I swear!
"This is just the crossroads."
Then appeared two roads, one veering to the left and one veering to the right. Above each of them hung a flag, seeming to cling to thin air. They both included four crescent moons and a star, but were stylized differently. She pondered that for a moment. So what was the difference? Was there a difference? She looked around the statue and - lo and behold - there was a third road. She grinned. I'll waste no time making my decision! She walked around the statue with her head held high. That was rather easy, in fact.
No sooner had she stepped off the portcullis than she found herself falling and grabbing for the dirt wall near her.
WHAT? NO! HEY!
She focused on the wall, gripping as tightly as her hands would allow. She was surprised to feel the resistance, but no pain as she slid further and further down the sheer cliff. Looking up, she caught a glimpse up above of the portcullis closing on her.
HOLD YOUR HORSES! SPEAK WITH ME!
"This is just the crossroads," the voice repeated.
What foolishness! She grumbled, Now I have to return and try again. She was about to utter another mild curse but every time she tried, the name of a god to profane kept escaping her. She knew inherently who she meant... a god of luck and fortune, a god of merchants and coin, a god of travel... any of them would have worked, but none of their names came to her.
Finally her grip loosened and she started to free-fall. NO! I MUST RETURN! She kept trying to remember where... it was someplace important, someplace that could fix what was broken, or needed fixing, or both. It was a place, it was a decision, it was a moment in time and space, where the music-box voice and the smiling man in robes were waiting on an answer.
I swear I'll return. She gritted her teeth again, trying once again to speak. To the... I'll be- My name? Why can't I recall my name?
Just as a name came to her, something broke her fall and she bounced a little with the give of it all. It looked like the same fabric as the star-dotted veil. She was looked up into a black sky and the slowly disappearing image of the keep.
"Raux-"
But what she gulped in wasn't air. It was thick and filmy and tasted horrible and had her gasping for breath as she punched and kicked and frantically struggled to break free. In the instant she gulped, her eyes shut and now they wouldn't open, seemingly stuck together by the glue-like substance. Instinct kicked in at that moment and she braced her right fist with her left. With all of her concentration, she struck the side of her confines and went tumbling out into the cold air.
JOURNAL SAMPLE:
[[After watching words appear on the page for a little while]]
So it seems that man was right when he said this tome was magic. That's fair - we each receive a magic item when we're still green, and the rest is up to us as individuals.
Greetings, then. We've all been hit with the same spell, so nobody can recall anything, correct? That's the meaning behind choosing new names? Out of my whole dream, I heard only one name, and I believe it's mine… It'll do for now, in any event, since I'm not about to live nameless. That name would be Rauxes.
Next task, then: seeking wages. I didn't note a length of time on any of the required services, and I don't want to just choose one out of thin air... I suppose that means a bit more research to do before I make my decision.
[[The handwriting is the same as Seren's, but the style is a little different - more like chicken-scratch quick notes and not quite as formal; you make the call on whether your character 'recognizes' it or not]]
ASPIRATIONS: This is the version of Matsuri I was trying to get Seren to become - or rather, to bridge the gap between her younger and older identities from her canon. So here's my attempt to show what was lingering underneath the 'broken old woman' that Seren was, and try to make the character concept still work in an LJ RP setting. While 'Seren' was an additional layer of characterization that I applied to an old muse, 'Rauxes' will be the character straight. This is the character as I played her for years, not an extrapolation to an end-game point. This time, I'd like to try the reverse, which is to see if 'Rauxes' can get to that halfway point where I'd been trying to push 'Seren,' but of course it's the opposite direction this time.
This version of Tsuri isn't the type to sit still and just think out her problems. She'll be much more active in figuring out the world around her and helping those who look like they're doing the same, if at first only because they're the ones in the know. She's much quicker to act and react and puzzle out and comprehend, coming straight out of the height of her adventuring career where such trials were commonplace.
I'll hope that some of her old companions make an attempt to re-connect with her, but since I was mostly clean-slating Seren anyway... it should come out to about the same response with Rauxes. Anyone approaching her with clues to her past should be met with the same reaction though: they are valuable sources of information, and people to keep close to like members of her 'core party' (the 15-20 characters she often traveled with in rotation).
This younger Tsuri's handwriting will be the same as her older self, but the younger will use a more "casual" speech style. My goal is to include older words and phrases to get her antiquated time period across, but the casual speech style because she is so much younger and used to being around people who don't use overly formal speech patterns, namely her adventuring companions. Young Tsuri/Rauxes will still be overtly polite / formal in situations that seem to merit it, like speaking with people she recognizes as authority figures.
PLAYER INFO
NAME: Jennifer
LOCATION/TIME ZONE: EST
CURRENT CHARACTERS, if any: Sha Gojyo/Smoke
CHARACTER INFO
CHARACTER NAME: Lady Tsuri of Veluna; prior names include Dame-Sister Fair Festival, Tsuri, Matsuri The Marked, Matsuri The White, and Lishvha (birth name).
PERSONALITY: At this point in her career, Tsuri (often pronounced "soo-ree" by her traveling companions) is not defined by her unnatural appearance; plenty of adventurers had been to the Ghost Tower of Inverness at that point, and so it was uncommon but not unheard of to be bleached white. The people who didn't understand that were everyday citizens (NPCs). How she defined herself, and introduced herself to others, was as a monk. Her combat skills included close-quarters fighting and neutralizing an enemy without killing them. She was taught resilience to magical forces and educated in perception. She was only recently knighted, into Veluna's Knights of Salvation. She was retrained to wear armor, wield a shield, and attack with all manner of basic weaponry - though she has never worn the armor outside of ceremony. She was taught how to ride a horse and how to draw on the power of her god directly to smite her enemies.
However, Tsuri has been on the road as an adventurer for nearly 6 years now. It's not uncommon or ill advised for a woman to be an adventurer -- they just happen to be spell-casters more often than not. She is at the point in her career where the people around her are highly regarded as being extremely powerful, and she is generally mocked and derided when met by a new group. She is not the most efficient fighter - they claim - because she doesn't use armor or a sword, and she has no ranged powers like a wizard or sorcerer. She cannot heal wounds and she cannot charm people. She cannot disarm traps or command the forces of nature. So what - they ask - could she possibly contribute to an adventuring group? Her struggle to answer that question time and again bore immense bitterness in her. For her, the answer was simple: the same as anyone else. You do what needs to be done to complete a mission, to the best of your abilities. She volunteers to fill in roles as the plans are being made, instead of claiming - like some - to fill one role or another just by virtue of what type of armor they wear and what spells they cast. The problem of course is that she has to prove and re-prove herself for every new group of people she meets. She has difficulty accepting help whenever she gets stuck, because of that desire to show them what she's made of. As a result, she fiercely defends her class choice, even going so far as to make brash actions without the consent of her group if she feels she knows better and they're losing precious time. She was always treated as a "second tier" fighter, never a front-liner like the main battle tanks, so she is quick to showcase her five scars -- "look what I survived!" She always lists her deeds and titles for nobles -- "look what I accomplished!"
This younger Tsuri is not yet to the point where she's doing good in the world for the sake of everyone else and because it's "the right thing to do;" it's also not "for the glory" of herself or her god, Rao. The items she accumulates are tailor-made to improve her abilities, and it took years to find them, while any greenhorn fighter can pick up a magic sword in the marketplace. It's all so that she can join in the "mine's bigger" war-story contests that her adventuring companions invariably get into whenever someone jockeys for the command lead in a new team. Being a Paladin of Rao in the Knights of Salvation is still a mantle she wears because it impresses people in Veluna, where Rao is the principle god and the Church of Rao is the power in the theocracy. Being Lawful Good isn't yet a lifestyle for Matsuri - it's a compulsion to act in a manner that others expect out of her.
Between growing up in a monastery and traveling all the time as an adventurer, Tsuri has difficulty "hanging out" with people her own age. She is extremely stubborn when it comes to getting things her way, still a remnant of her younger years as an unruly mountain child. She doesn't give in to bloodlust, but she has no qualms about pummeling someone into unconsciousness to prove a point. You'd think she'd hold grudges for a long time, but it's usually a week at most. There's no time on these missions for bickering, and that's mainly why she gets frustrated when others start it. But as quick as she is to get into an argument over how best to go about something, she also can let it go with a bit of time. Apologies make that happen quicker, but she will resort to teasing and mockery if it helps ease the pain. After all, they mock her all the time, and fair's fair.
There are some people who don't treat her like a second-rate 'assistant,' but most of those people are the innocents, the outsiders, the people who don't fight or go off adventuring all across the Flanaess. Matsuri is cordial to these people, though not exactly conversational. The kinds of questions she knows how to ask are direct-line interrogations about what happened and why you need our help and what may be good to know but you failed to mention. This is part of the basic diplomacy that she picked up during her adventuring years.
Being a world traveler and on the road for nearly 6 years straight has given Tsuri an extreme appreciation for two things in life: good food and a good bed. She has become an amateur connoisseur of meals, in particular because it impresses nobles, something she never understood because they didn't cook it, but she didn't argue with the results. She isn't an especially good cook beyond open-pit grilling, so the creations of other cultures fascinate her. She enjoys collecting exotic spices to add to her own meals. Additionally, while she disdains frilly dresses and other such finery, Tsuri loves a fluffy bed and silken sheets and a warm nightgown. She doesn't hate camping, but a respite from it is always welcome. Other than a filling meal and a good night's rest, the other two things Tsuri will spend extra money on are a solid pair of shoes and a sturdy saddle.
She could definitely use a definition of the word "vacation." Her hobbies, such as they are, include caring for her horse, rock-climbing, tree-climbing, and a kind of proto-gymnastics. This is because every time fey creatures and other beings wanted to be 'entertained,' she would resort to her skills at balance, jumping, and tumbling while others sang or played an instrument. She can still remember what it was like to work on a farm from before she went to the monastery. Aside from her more practiced combat-based skills, there are a few other essentials that she picked up along the way as an adventurer: geography and map-reading; merchant house politics and trade routes; noble house politics; guild house expectations and organization; basic survival in wild environs; basic first aid & trauma care; and core battle spells & their effects. She knows no other languages, but can speak her home locale's dialect of Common, known as Velondi.
Jennifer R. Hale represents Rauxes' voice, and her child/preteen self is represented by Lia Sargent.
BACKGROUND: Tsuri was formally dubbed "Fair Festival" by the monks who trained her as a child. Thus, it is the name she used through most of her life, despite not being the name she was born with. She was born to peasant farmers in the Lorridge Mountains of Veluna. Her parents were Berid (father, Oeridian-raised Flan mix) and Londinha (mother, Flan-raised Oeridian mix) - no last name, being peasants - and she was the third of seven children:
Beridan (oldest brother - Oeridian name)
Tarl (older brother - Oeridian name)
Lishvha (Matsuri/Seren - Flan name)
Uldesh (younger brother - Flan/Oeridian name)
Nirur (youngest brother - Oeridian/Flan name)
Pelliori (younger sister - Flan name)
Errende (youngest sister - Flan/Oeridian name)
Berid worked the family's small farm and Londinha tended to their livestock. The boys were expected to help their father, which included going to the town market, and the girls were expected to help their mother, which included tasks in the home like cooking and stitching clothing - when the children weren't playing together. As a very small child, Lishvha was the biggest tomboy in her area of the Lorridge Mountains - preferring to roughhouse with her brothers and routinely wanted to help her father more than her mother. When she wasn't allowed to do that, she became wild and unruly. She ate when she pleased, wandered as far as she wanted, and usually came back dirty and bruised from getting into fights with animals or other children. This was her life up until the age of seven, when she'd been 'helping out' her mother (or expected to be doing so) for about four years. You were basically expected to help in a farm family as soon as you could walk (around age 3 or 4) - everything from folding cloth diapers to feeding chickens, for the girls. Her parents tried to wait until their younger girls were old enough to actually help Londinha (age 4 for Pelliori and age 3 for Errende) before dealing with Lishvha's attitude. So when Lishvha was seven, Berid and Londinha asked the monks of a nearby abbey to take care of their daughter for awhile, to see if they would have any luck in utilizing the divine power of Rao to soothe her. The monks tried lecturing her, tried getting her to read their books, and even tried teaching her how to chant, but nothing worked.
One day when Lishvha was around age 8, the monastery was attacked by what she remembers as "giant monster-frogs" - they were actually Slaadi, a race of Outsiders, one of many invasion forces that had beset Veluna in the past, and would continue to do so throughout her lifetime. Of course, the little girl was afraid for her life and to this day is deathly afraid of frogs, other amphibians, and particularly slimy reptilians. The monks quickly rallied and dispatched the Slaadi with an impressive display of martial skills. Surprisingly, the monks won her respect by defeating the Slaadi. This began the second period in her life - her training as a monk - and it all started with being re-named Fair Festival - a take on her raucous nature being finally put to good use, the monks hoped.
Unfortunately, her "wild streak" hadn't been completely tamed yet, and she was anxious to try out her new skills on evildoers - never mind the fact that she hadn't yet learned how to pick such people out of a crowd. Her first traveling companions were the ones who shortened her name to "Matsuri" and used "Tsuri" or "Suri" as nicknames when they couldn't pronounce her full name. She left her hometown and the monastery at age 16 for Veluna City and Greyhawk City.* She stopped in the city of Tristor, where rumors of a haunting brought her face to face with druids, sorcerers, and other Adventurers like herself. Together, they put down the monsters haunting the town, but Matsuri quickly became a little bitter that she had not been as effective as the Monks had been against the Slaadi. In Devarnish, she fought cultists of the Death God Nerull and became deputized in Fals Ridge for helping put a couple of petty thieves behind bars. She soon learned of the rivalry between the Iron Rings Consortium and the Brendigund Merchant House in the trade capital of Mitrik. After being given a Sacred Quest from Rao, her faith in her own abilities was renewed - she could actually help protect her country from invading forces of Demons and Devils. Before long, she also came into contact with zombies, ogres, were-creatures, and a Bulette that her group managed to kill in 18 seconds (3 rounds). The first man she killed was Lord Melendril of Jarl, who had been feeding trade routes to bandits. She helped free slaves from the Pomarj, an orc-run country. She even managed to successfully "stun" a Great Wyrm and a Fire Giant for 6 seconds. She finally piqued the interest of the famed Brotherhood of the Vale, a monastic order in the Veluna region, and was allowed to join. During this time, Matsuri reveled in her battle scars - four scars from this time remain on her body - and ties to various important people throughout Veluna, since she could not brandish magical weapons or wear shiny armor. All the same, she never passed up an opportunity to prove herself as a capable member of a strike force. Her skills at diplomacy were minimal to say the least.
*I'd like to make it clear that from this point on, every single one of her adventures was conducted in a group. On average, it's 4-6 people, but very occasionally 7-10. So anything that I mention her 'doing' includes the assistance of this group; Matsuri was just the only constant throughout, as the members of the group shifted all the time.
It was in the third year of her travels that another event changed Matsuri's life forever. As part of a recovery team, Matsuri entered the Ghost Tower of Inverness. At the top, there was a crystal designed to protect the tower. When a person was bathed in the crystal's light, that person was assaulted with a mental attack as the crystal tried to imprison the person inside of itself forever. However, when Matsuri was attacked by the crystal, she drew on all of her training and repelled the crystal's power to the shock of her adventuring group. There was a side affect, though: Matsuri had been bleached white by the crystal. Her hair became silver, her eyes changed to pinkish red, and her skin was drained of color to look stark white. In short, she looked like an undead to all common-folk -- an evil being. She still carries with her (in her canon) all of the items that were on her person at the time she was bleached, and they are completely white as well. A new personal goal in life became to make a name for herself such that the common-folk would no longer fear her visage.
This was the first time that Tsuri had lasting, tangible evidence for the strength of her power. She returned to the Brotherhood with an epiphany about her personal journey and how it related to her devotion to Rao (wow, maybe he does care), her training as a monk (wow, it is useful), and doing good works in the world (maybe doing good deeds isn't so hard). She was on her way to becoming a true believer in Rao's tenants of Peace, Reason, and Serenity, but old habits die hard. She was willing to at least do things like try to reason with people first -- this courtesy did not extend to beings that can't be reasoned with, like most monsters.
Still, her "luck" changed forever. She was inducted into the Knights of Salvation by special invitation - a rare thing for a worshiper in the Church of Rao who had not been trained as a Paladin. She was soon blessed with The Will of Rao, a gift from Bishop Rinken of the Church of Rao for infiltrating an enemy camp and bringing back strategic elements. She started gaining even more important relationships that would lead to valuable boons such as resurrection, instant teleportation, monetary breaks in various cities, and even salvation from imminent destruction - all of that in addition to various items that would help her in her journey, such as her favored adamantine butterfly sword that was imbued with holy power.
After she faked defeat in combat against a Dakon (a six-limbed ape-like humanoid) whose tribe was being imprisoned by the Flan of Tenh, one of their number accompanied her for the next year. His name was Fel'Cheten-kin, and he became an accomplished Spellsword (wizard and warrior, using weapons as a conduit for magical energy) alongside "Matsuri the Saved". They parted ways in friendship, as "Cheten" felt he had completed his service to his savior and Tsuri was glad to see him embarking on a life of freedom. Later that year, she became "Dame-Sister Tsuri", as she had by that time demonstrated enough moral qualities as a Knight Errant to became a full-fledged Knight of Salvation. This began the next phase in Matsuri's life as she became a true warrior in the cause of defending her country and its people - mainly because her country was at war with Herion the Heretic by that point, and no Knight worth his or her salt would be caught dead shirking the duty. It was just a tad more than she bargained for. She could have said 'no,' but by that point she was at a level where the pressure to do good was becoming intense, and who says no to the leader of your country and religion? Not a Knight of Salvation, for sure; she'd have been stripped of her title right then and there.
People who had contacted her in the past for missions - seemingly random at the time - called upon her again for follow-up missions that ended up bringing the true purposes of dark forces to the public eye and culminating in epic battles, not all of them fought on the field. Tsuri recovered a key from a pool of acid in the name of Zagyg, a lesser god of magic and chaos. She successfully navigated a maze-like stronghold devoted to the god Tharzidun, Lord of Destruction. She helped defend Whitehale Diocese and was gifted with land there. She unintentionally earned the notice of the Earth Elemental Prince Ogremoch by refusing to deal with neither devils (Tanar'ri) nor demons (Baatezu), thereby gaining more reputation with the Brotherhood of the Vale. She became a Hero of Fals Keep during the battle to reclaim the stronghold and secure the western flank in the war to protect Veluna. After foiling the efforts of the pit fiend Faarzephon and refusing to strike a deal with him, Matsuri earned the pit fiend's enmity and oath of revenge - to kill all of her friends and family. However, for upholding her morals and committing no evil acts, the Pinnacles of Azor'Alq sent the angel Altanael to keep "everything [she] holds dear" under celestial protection. She even gained notice by the College of the Divine and College of the Arcane in Veluna City for fighting off the undead forces of the lich Herion, "The Heretic". This included activating the Shrine of Reason using the Holy Sword of Rao. For taking on the duties of an enfeebled paladin of Rao in charge of using the Holy Sword of Rao, Matsuri also earned a boon - from both The Church of Rao and the sentient Holy Sword - whereby she would receive a similarly sword. This one would be imbued with the holy avenger power, basically meaning it did lots of extra damage to evil things and her sword would not be sentient. Unfortunately, Matsuri knew that she could not effectively wield a sword in battle, because her monk training never covered swords - but that would change.
After she was finished trekking through the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, fighting grell (the paralyzing poison at the end of each barb is the least of your worries) and illithid (the psychic Underdark-dwellers that like to suck out brains to gain power), Matsuri had her personal spirituality and self-esteem rocked to the core for the better. She had the good fortune to come in contact with a paladin's bonded mount that been forcibly removed from his pact by virtue of the paladin dying. As a result, the mount, "Palanor", was searching for a new master to bond with. To Matsuri's great surprise, Palanor told her that she had the potential to become a paladin - that she already had the soul of one, but she'd need to wait and learn a bit more about herself before they could be bound. She didn't understand his meaning -- she only knew that Paladins were highly respected throughout Veluna, and that this could change people's perception of her forever. She immediately sought training from the Knights of Salvation in preparation for the upcoming battles, to destroy Herion and his hoards of followers (demons, devils, undead, aberations, etc.), thereby saving Veluna from their evil forever. (She did not complete this training by the time I'm pulling her from.)
Then another surprise came to Matsuri. During one of her many battles, they uncovered a long-lost military fortification that had been sanctified to Rao. Dubbed the "Bastion of Faith", it needed a LOT of money to repair it. Instead of offering to pay a portion of the repair costs, Matsuri offered to BUY the Bastion, the land it was on, and pay for its yearly upkeep. She also went to the Brotherhood of the Vale and offered to make the Bastion a new headquarters for training Brotherhood monks, since the outsider hordes had trashed the Yatil Mountains, where the Brotherhood headquarters had been previously. It reminded Tsuri too much of when the Slaadi had attacked the monastery in her hometown as a child. In exchange for her kindness, she was dubbed "Lady Tsuri of Veluna" henceforth, blessed by Canon Priffin Truft of the Church of Veluna, and finally rewarded with her holy avenger sword after saving up to offset the crafting costs. This was the first time Tsuri was truly touched by other people's appreciation of her deeds -- it wasn't a great feat done on the battlefield, it was an act of genuine concern for the Brotherhood that had done so much for her as a child. The fact was that most of her traveling companions spent thousands of gold and platinum pieces a year on armor and weapons and magical items. Since Tsuri did not, she had a massive amount of wealth just lying around. That was what she used to buy the Bastion of Faith. (Once again, by the time I'm pulling her from, she will not have an appreciation for how much this affected the Brotherhood of the Vale for the better.)
Not long after saving Castle Sepher, Matsuri and some of her favorite companions -- The Inquisitor, Marigold, Cedric, Dragomyr, Jace, plus an unfamiliar fighter -- began what would be Matsuri's 111th Mission. (I'm not even kidding, I laughed so hard when I calculated that. It's my 94th Adventure Record, but in the early days of the campaign they didn't issue ARs. This is COR5-14 All Roads Lead To Rauxes By Chris Chesher) It was one of those times where past missions started adding up - this time 3 prior jobs over 2 years. Tsuri and her companions all received a summons to return to the Northern Kingdom of Aerdy, specifically to the Barony of Stel. In these regions, the worshippers of Hextor and Vecna are more prevalent than ever, and both gods are enemies of Rao and Veluna as a result. They met up at the Clenching Fist inn just across the border from Nyrond, near the site of an earlier mission that ended with the destruction of a blue turreted estate in a blast of acid and fire. It had been the base of a mysterious group known as the Footmen of the Spider Throne, and they fought a man named Darrien the Knife. It took a year, but they'd pieced together some information about what the Footmen had been up to, and the clues lead to the city of Rauxes. 10 years prior, some calamity had occurred, and Rauxes fell into ruin. Now, Matsuri and her companions had to return to their investigation of the Footmen and possibly discover what had happened to Rauxes along the way.
That meant Sir Ramden, Baron of Stel, wanted to talk to them before they went running around his lands, or so they thought until they arrived. Apparently his twin children had gone missing - one boy and one girl - and he wanted the group to keep an eye out for them. The Baron was sure that they'd run off with the Night Cloak Players, a troupe who used to perform at the blue turreted estate in the name of Boccob with the permission of Prince Gancent, who'd owned the rights to the estate. The children had been gone for a month, and the only other person of interest would have been the children's' arcane teacher, but he'd been gone for three years by that point. Apparently when the Court Mage went missing, the children started spending more time with the Players. The group's clues mentioned the Night Cloak Players, and so they knew that the Players were actually Footmen and agents of Vecna the Whispered One. The group investigated the mage's lab before heading out on the southern dirawaen trade route to the thorp of Yillish, where the Players were heading as well according to the Baron. Yillish was just outside of the area Rauxes had once occupied in Naelex -- the border area between the Northern Kingdom and the country of Ahlissa.
They discovered that the Night Cloak Players had performed a ritual in the guise of a play and used a local storyteller for the final sacrifice. He lived, but became a leper, and the group started to worry that perhaps the twin teenagers had been turned into twin horses - something that the Footmen had been unable to acquire through natural breeding of normal horses. But thanks to Dragomyr and The Inquisitor healing the man - Gilrest of Redford - he was able to aid them in going after the Night Cloak Players / Footmen before the lay lines shifted again. They had to perform the same ritual and cut Gilrest again - a role he volunteered for to get back at the terrible masqueraders - while leaving him with strong potions so the Yillish villagers could heal him. No one had felt good about that option, but Gilrest assured them it was the only way to tap into the earth's lay lines and penetrate the Shimmering Veil that now surrounded Rauxes.
Navigating an extra-dimensional pocket in the planes, the party stumbled upon a camp of devas and other celestials in the middle of a war and preparing for battle. One mortal has clearly had his mind warped by staying too long in the area. They are drafted into a platoon under the command of a lantern archon wearing a green hat -- essentially, he's a glowing orb just slightly bigger than a human head -- and are armored by an azer -- a dwarf-like being with fire for hair. The group then begins a siege into Castle Triumph, defeating animated ballistas, bearded devils, and erinyes -- all baatezu, Lawful Evil devils. They find information leading them to a place called The Vomitorium (yes, really) that leads to The Imperial Theatre, where the Footmen are supposed to meet if things go wrong.
The group has now managed to reach the gates of Rauxes itself. They are shocked to witness the city burn all around them and the citizens start to riot in their death throes. The group is unaffected, but can only watch as inside the city proper the whole place starts to reset itself in "a sinister groundhog day." They have to go through underground tunnels to get inside, instead. In The Vomitorium is a half-fiend otyugh called The Server, dedicated to a being named Baalzy (Baalzephon, the Pit Fiend Supply Master of Baator). Everyone was demanded to 'partake of the feast' or kill The Server, the only two ways to get past into The Imperial Theatre. Matsuri approached the challenge with vigor, knowing she couldn't be affected by the poisonous food. Dragomyr, The Inquisitor, and Marigold all managed to use the magical spell purify food and drink to help accomplish the task for everyone else, but Matsuri was very proud of the fact that she didn't need their help.
When they reached The Imperial Theatre, they found a woman, two horses hobbled, and a clockwork man sitting in the stands watching. His name was Pro'grom, an Inevitable Quarut from the plane of Mechanus, a Lawful Neutral Outer Plane. Inevitables like Pro'grom only get involved when fundamental, universal laws are being violated -- for a Quarut, that's the flow of space and time. Pro'grom only watched as the PCs confronted the woman - Floria, last of the Footmen - and subdued her, then interrogated her. That's what The Inquisitor does best, anyway - get information. They decided to talk to Pro'grom first, since it wasn't like Floria was going anywhere. The clockwork man approached, his body giving off clicks and jerks. "I am Pro'grom, a guardian. I serve the universe-- as do you." His voice sounded like it was created with music-box strings. "I have seen what has gone past and I see what could become. Doing as I ask will ensure your destiny. This is just the crossroads."
Before Pro'grom can explain more, Lady Tsuri is whisked away to Edensphere. She will be 21 years old, nearing 22, and thus there should be very little appreciable difference in her physical appearance to people who knew Seren. Her personality, on the other hand, should augment the feeling that she is much younger.
--- Below is a summary of Tsuri's Background from beyond her Edensphere Pull Point ---
Pro'grom's request of Tsuri's adventuring party would be to ask if she would help save Veluna from the last thing plaguing the country in the wake of the war with Herion. A large portion of Herion's forces had been demons and devils -- outsiders, beings not native to the plane Veluna exists on -- and Veluna's spellcasters banished all of them back to their home planes. Banishing the outsiders en masse resulted in wave after wave of wildmagic. Wildmagic warped how spells worked, how long they lasted, who they targeted, and generally made spell-casting difficult.
Unfortunately, there was little that Tsuri could do, since she wasn't a spell-caster, except lend her support in defending Veluna's borders from the Bastion of Faith. She did so for the next two years. The attacks on the border came much less often than her adventuring missions -- attacks being once every 1-3 months, compared to adventuring missions that usually took one week and only sometimes two. Similarly, the border strikes were always handled by Tsuri and her fellow Brotherhood monks at the Bastion with occasional assistance from local military units, meaning Lady Tsuri didn't have to try very hard to make sure the border was well defended. Because she no longer exerted herself, never struggled to improve, she gained relatively little power over the next two years compared to her first 5 and a half years of adventuring. Her self-esteem plummeted quickly, buoyed only by the progress of her students as pupils of the Brotherhood of the Vale.
On the other hand, Veluna's wizards and clerics in the magical Colleges conducted research on how to counteract the wildmagic waves, gaining power from the experiences. When they succeeded after those two years, they were praised as heroes. Meanwhile, the "Lady Tsuri" stagnated and gained no more power either as a monk or as a paladin, since Tsuri had retreated to her Bastion. She focused instead on training a new generation of Brotherhood monks. That was her entire existence for years before she was pulled to Edensphere as "Serenity" at the age of 53.
ABILITIES:
STATIC POWERS
Unarmed Strike: This is Matsuri's standard means of attack; she has been trained so that any part of her body can be used to attack in typical martial arts fashion - fists, feet, elbows, head, etc. - like you see in the movies. She is fast enough to attack once every 2 seconds without exerting much energy. Matsuri's unarmed attacks come in a series of three strikes -- or five, if using the Flurry of Blows power described below -- and the last two strikes in the set are always less accurate than the initial attack(s). She can combine punches and kicks and head-butts in this series of strikes; it is not limited to one form per 3-strike or 5-strike series. Her unarmed strikes are as effective as adamantine (an ultra-hard metal), meaning she can -- as an [UNLOCKABLE OPTION] -- sunder weapons, armor, and other objects (wood, bone, metal, etc.) with any unarmed attack. Sundering does not happen automatically. For example: with a simple wooden chair it may only take one hit to break it, but with armor it would take considerably longer to punch a hole in a breastplate. The point is she'd definitely make a dent even after one hit, which gives an idea for what it feels like to get hit by one of her unarmed strikes. The extraordinary strength behind her unarmed strikes also means that she doesn't injure herself when she strikes stone or metal, unless she does it for an extended period of time.
--- Matsuri's unarmed strikes are always treated as "subdual" damage, or bludgeoning blows that cannot kill an opponent, only knock them out. She must actively choose to make her attacks lethal as an [UNLOCKABLE OPTION], but she does not suffer a reduction in accuracy or damage either way when striking.
--- Matsuri's unarmed strikes are treated as magical weapons, meaning they can get through most low-powered defenses that prevent normal/mundane/non-magical physical attacks from doing any damage, such as the Hierro ("toughened skin") of weaker Arrancar in Bleach.
--- Matsuri's unarmed strikes are also imbued with the trait of "lawfulness", which only matter if her opponent specifically does not abide by any sort of law or code. (Even evil creatures can be "lawful," basically.) As a force of law, her righteous strikes do a bit more damage on each hit to creatures of chaos, and can get through tougher magical defenses of the same creatures. These law-imbued penetrative powers also do not affect neutral-aligned (neither lawful nor chaotic) beings.
Still Mind (plus Diamond Soul): Matsuri has the ability to completely negate magical attacks, but these defensive powers do not always work and do nothing against mundane attacks like a sword in the back. In order to affect Matsuri with a spell, Edensphere spell-casters must actively attempt to penetrate her extraordinary defenses. To be very clear, this does not mean that Matsuri can never be affected by magic, only that it is very difficult to do so and requires extra concentration on the part of the spell-caster. That means a spell-caster should feel something working against them and that will be the case whether the magic succeeds or fails. Matsuri is best at defending herself against "Will-based" magic -- compulsions that test one's ability to act like themselves and other mental influences, like charm spells. Secondly, she is good at defending against "Fortitude-based" magic -- tests endurance, vitality, health, and your ability to stand up to physical punishment from magical abilities, including death effects. Lastly, she is only decent at consciously defending against "Reflex-based" magic -- tests dexterity and reaction time, specifically against magical abilities that target whole areas and not just one person. Her unconscious reaction to Reflex-based magic is described under Improved Evasion.
-- Matsuri's magical defenses also work to her detriment, because if someone needs to cast a helpful spell on her (namely healing magic) then her own magical defenses could stop the healing magic; friendly spells are treated the same way as enemy spells. Matsuri can choose to lower her spell resistance as an [UNLOCKABLE OPTION], but that means she'll have to remember she can do it before she can knowingly lower her defenses for the sake of friendly spells.
-- Improved Evasion: Matsuri is extremely adept at dodging magical and mundane projectiles thrown at her, avoiding traps beneath her feet, and keeping her balance. Often, she is able to completely avoid taking damage from such things, but her instincts move her body so fast that she will only take half damage even if she didn't fully dodge the attack. If Matsuri is helpless -- unconscious, frozen in place, etc -- she does not gain the benefit of improved evasion. Once again: These abilities do nothing against standard combat attacks, like a good old sword to the gut.
Purity of Body (plus Diamond Body): Matsuri is immune to all poisons and mundane diseases. Magical diseases (which she is not protected against) include such things as lycanthropy.
Aura of Good: Matsuri has a very weak aura that only gauges her paladin powers -- it is palpable enough for similar aura-detection powers to notice her and to feel that she is not a 'threatening' / 'evil' presence, but it also does not account of her monk powers. Thus, she could be mistaken as a weak-powered person.
Fast Movement: Matsuri can move without breaking a sweat at a speed of 140 feet within a 6 second period, or 23.2 feet per second, all the while dodging obstacles in her path and still doing something when she's done moving, such as attacking or using an item. If she is rushing in a single direction without anything in her way, she can double this speed to 280 feet (or 46.67 feet per second). If she's doing a flat-out run, she can move at 420 feet per 6 seconds, or 70 feet per second, but can only do this for short periods of time - approximately 4 rounds, or 24 seconds. A monk in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.
UNLOCKABLE POWERS
Flurry of Blows: This is more of an attack mode than a single power. It makes Matsuri's attacks come more rapidly, increasing her number of attacks in a series from 3 to 5, meaning she can attack a little faster than once per second. Her final 2 attacks in a series are still less accurate, as described under Unarmed Strike. She can use this power any number of times per day, but can only use it when she is attacking with an unarmed strike or a few specific weapons from her monk training: butterfly sword, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, and siangham. The butterfly sword is the only kind of sword that Matsuri can use for this attack, but it need not be her butterfly sword. She cannot use this attack mode if she is heavily encumbered (such as carrying someone) or wearing armor.
Stunning Fist: Matsuri can choose to stun opponents, but must mentally declare this intent before attempting to strike an opponent. She can only use this power combined with an unarmed strike - meaning it is not limited to a punch - and a few specific weapons that monks are trained with (see below). Each successful stun hit only lasts 6 seconds at a time. It is difficult to resist this stunning fist power, but it is possible. Matsuri can attempt to do this 16 times per day with no delay or recharge time needed between hits. She cannot re-stun a character that is already stunned. However, a stunned character can still defend themselves - they just can't attack her back, and they are slightly easier to hit because they lose some ability to dodge attacks.
-- Instead of stunning a character, Matsuri can choose to expend a "stun attempt" (one of her 16 per day) and place a weakening touch on her opponent as another [UNLOCKABLE OPTION]. A weakening touch drastically reduces a character's strength, but does not cripple them completely (unless they weren't that strong to begin with). In a span of 6 seconds, Matsuri may either "stun" or "weaken" a single opponent, not both and not more than once in a 6 second span of time.
-- Specialized monk weapons that can be used for the stunning fist attack include: butterfly sword, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, and siangham. The butterfly sword is the only kind of sword that Matsuri can use for this attack, but it need not be her butterfly sword.
Abundant Step: Matsuri can slip magically between spaces within 800 feet of her starting location. She can only do this once per day. She can bring up to two people (willingly) with her as long as she is touching them, or one large creature. Unconscious beings count as willing. This is very dangerous to do when Matsuri doesn't know where she's going, because she can be randomly transported to nearby areas if the space that she tries to "step" into is already occupied by a building, a person, etc. If there is no place free within 100 feet, all travelers suffer a small amount of magical damage and all travelers are shunted to a random nearby space within 1,000 feet of the intended area. If there is no place free within 1,000 feet of the target location, all travelers suffer an additional amount of more severe magical damage and are then shunted back to their starting place. Matsuri must always take 3-6 seconds to re-orient herself after using this ability - basically that she can't use it and then move again, or attack, or use an item, etc.
Wholeness of Body: Matsuri can heal her own wounds, but only herself. She can heal a fatal injury to the point of only being a critical injury, re-set a broken limb, and heal most injuries incurred by light sparring. She only has so much power she can expend per day, but she can spread this healing out among several uses. For example if she sets a broken limb, that's it for the day, or she could heal about 30 shallow knife cuts, but not both.
Smite Evil: Once per day, Matsuri may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack -- basically when she's attacking with her body or something she's holding onto, but not a weapon she can fire (such as a bow or gun) or anything she can throw (such as darts or a spear). She gets only a tiny bit of extra power when she tries to attack an enemy, but she deals a bit more damage if the blow connects (about the force of two normal hits from her unarmed strike). If Matsuri accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect -- meaning no extra damage, but the hit could still connect and hurt that way. Whether she's right or wrong about her opponent being evil, that's the only chance she gets per day.
Detect Evil: At will, a paladin can use detect evil so long as they concentrate on activating the power. This spell has a set range of 60 feet in front of her in a conical shape. The spell can penetrate some thin barriers, but thicker barriers can block it, such as: 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt. Animals, traps, poisons, and other potential perils are not evil, and as such this spell does not detect them. Most often, this ability is used to scan areas for potential threats; it does not read minds or provide any insight into motive. Any morally grey character gets the exact same result to Matsuri's mind as a good character, which is "not evil." It is also easily misdirected due to being such a low-level power. For example, any attempt to Detect Evil on meta-plot characters and objects (be they good or evil or anything in-between) will knock her out before she gets a reading. Additionally, to use an example from Bleach canon, it is entirely conceivable that Matsuri could get a reading off of Ichimaru Gin (evil or not is debatable, but not the point of this example), but get a blank reading from Aizen Sousuke -- which is the same as a "not evil" reading. A second example would be Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars series. He was a leading Senator and walked among hundreds of powerful Jedi Knights for years, and was never detected as a Sith Lord, because he obviously had mental powers of deception that were able to deflect the Jedis' ability to notice he was evil.
I'd like for this to be used as character development, actually, because almost every character in Edensphere is some shade of grey or good, and as such this power doesn't tell her anything about the person. After she re-discovers this power, she'd become extremely frustrated by how useless it actually is in this setting, and have to resort to other things like *GASP* getting to know people better. However, if it's still deemed as too powerful, I'm willing to lock it entirely.
LOCKED POWERS
Quivering Palm: Essentially a one-hit kill on a time-delay, if the attack succeeds, that a monk can perform once per week.
GAME INFO
EDENSPHERE NAME: Rauxes
BIRTHDAY LOG: Yes please!
DREAM:
There was a column of light in the darkness. Or, it looked like light anyway… before it started shifting in the wake of a wind she couldn't feel. It was this pale lavender-grey color speckled with stars and it wasn't until she walked closer that she realized it was a semi-sheer veil. The column of veil-light only looked to be about 5 feet in diameter, as best she could guess, but inside it there appeared to be a white marble column roughly four feet high and only two feet in diameter. On top of the pedestal... she couldn't see anything, but surely something was there?
She pressed her hands gently against the veil and jumped back when something flashed in her mind -- a city on fire, and people screaming.
She moved around the wind-blown curtain while looking for a way in, but every time it looked like there might be a break in the cloth, she couldn't get her hand in fast enough. She cursed herself - she should be fast enough to breech it. How could she miss each time?
"I have seen what has gone past..." She knew that voice... It almost sounded like a child's singsong voice to the tune of a music box. She wondered if perhaps the voice was coming from beyond the veil. She kept looking around as it continued. "… and I see what could become." She touched the veil again, and the screaming fire returned.
Which are you showing me, then? Show yourself, or at least make a reply! She tried to speak, but couldn't, and she stamped her foot in anger. I don't understand! She gritted her teeth and stormed through the veil anyway, trying not to run into the pedestal-
But when she emerged and opened her eyes, everything had changed. It wasn't a city... it was a keep of some sort, or a castle. It was dusty with age, cobwebs strewn everywhere. She walked around but saw no one. She entered a library only to find books written in characters she couldn't read. However, as she entered a courtyard, she saw a statue and approached it. It was a man in flowing robes, with a beautiful smile on his face and a crook in his hand.
"Doing as I ask will ensure your destiny."
She blinked up at the man and reached out her right hand. As she did so, a kind of swirling mark appeared near wrist and started to crawl up to her elbow. She wasn't afraid of it -- she was actually very pleased. It's high time they knew I'm not some dainty lady! This means I can... Why couldn't she remember what it meant?
She looked back at the man, throwing her braid back over her shoulder and shouting at him wordlessly. What destiny? Tell me what I have to do, and I'll do it! I can do it, then! This I swear!
"This is just the crossroads."
Then appeared two roads, one veering to the left and one veering to the right. Above each of them hung a flag, seeming to cling to thin air. They both included four crescent moons and a star, but were stylized differently. She pondered that for a moment. So what was the difference? Was there a difference? She looked around the statue and - lo and behold - there was a third road. She grinned. I'll waste no time making my decision! She walked around the statue with her head held high. That was rather easy, in fact.
No sooner had she stepped off the portcullis than she found herself falling and grabbing for the dirt wall near her.
WHAT? NO! HEY!
She focused on the wall, gripping as tightly as her hands would allow. She was surprised to feel the resistance, but no pain as she slid further and further down the sheer cliff. Looking up, she caught a glimpse up above of the portcullis closing on her.
HOLD YOUR HORSES! SPEAK WITH ME!
"This is just the crossroads," the voice repeated.
What foolishness! She grumbled, Now I have to return and try again. She was about to utter another mild curse but every time she tried, the name of a god to profane kept escaping her. She knew inherently who she meant... a god of luck and fortune, a god of merchants and coin, a god of travel... any of them would have worked, but none of their names came to her.
Finally her grip loosened and she started to free-fall. NO! I MUST RETURN! She kept trying to remember where... it was someplace important, someplace that could fix what was broken, or needed fixing, or both. It was a place, it was a decision, it was a moment in time and space, where the music-box voice and the smiling man in robes were waiting on an answer.
I swear I'll return. She gritted her teeth again, trying once again to speak. To the... I'll be- My name? Why can't I recall my name?
Just as a name came to her, something broke her fall and she bounced a little with the give of it all. It looked like the same fabric as the star-dotted veil. She was looked up into a black sky and the slowly disappearing image of the keep.
"Raux-"
But what she gulped in wasn't air. It was thick and filmy and tasted horrible and had her gasping for breath as she punched and kicked and frantically struggled to break free. In the instant she gulped, her eyes shut and now they wouldn't open, seemingly stuck together by the glue-like substance. Instinct kicked in at that moment and she braced her right fist with her left. With all of her concentration, she struck the side of her confines and went tumbling out into the cold air.
JOURNAL SAMPLE:
[[After watching words appear on the page for a little while]]
So it seems that man was right when he said this tome was magic. That's fair - we each receive a magic item when we're still green, and the rest is up to us as individuals.
Greetings, then. We've all been hit with the same spell, so nobody can recall anything, correct? That's the meaning behind choosing new names? Out of my whole dream, I heard only one name, and I believe it's mine… It'll do for now, in any event, since I'm not about to live nameless. That name would be Rauxes.
Next task, then: seeking wages. I didn't note a length of time on any of the required services, and I don't want to just choose one out of thin air... I suppose that means a bit more research to do before I make my decision.
[[The handwriting is the same as Seren's, but the style is a little different - more like chicken-scratch quick notes and not quite as formal; you make the call on whether your character 'recognizes' it or not]]
ASPIRATIONS: This is the version of Matsuri I was trying to get Seren to become - or rather, to bridge the gap between her younger and older identities from her canon. So here's my attempt to show what was lingering underneath the 'broken old woman' that Seren was, and try to make the character concept still work in an LJ RP setting. While 'Seren' was an additional layer of characterization that I applied to an old muse, 'Rauxes' will be the character straight. This is the character as I played her for years, not an extrapolation to an end-game point. This time, I'd like to try the reverse, which is to see if 'Rauxes' can get to that halfway point where I'd been trying to push 'Seren,' but of course it's the opposite direction this time.
This version of Tsuri isn't the type to sit still and just think out her problems. She'll be much more active in figuring out the world around her and helping those who look like they're doing the same, if at first only because they're the ones in the know. She's much quicker to act and react and puzzle out and comprehend, coming straight out of the height of her adventuring career where such trials were commonplace.
I'll hope that some of her old companions make an attempt to re-connect with her, but since I was mostly clean-slating Seren anyway... it should come out to about the same response with Rauxes. Anyone approaching her with clues to her past should be met with the same reaction though: they are valuable sources of information, and people to keep close to like members of her 'core party' (the 15-20 characters she often traveled with in rotation).
This younger Tsuri's handwriting will be the same as her older self, but the younger will use a more "casual" speech style. My goal is to include older words and phrases to get her antiquated time period across, but the casual speech style because she is so much younger and used to being around people who don't use overly formal speech patterns, namely her adventuring companions. Young Tsuri/Rauxes will still be overtly polite / formal in situations that seem to merit it, like speaking with people she recognizes as authority figures.