Niore Character Bios
Last Updated: May 14 2012, post-Session 32, Level 15
The current party is...
Ash (since session 1)
Race: Razorclaw Shifter
Class: Invoker
Deities: Silvanus (god of nature and forests) and Selune (goddess of the moon and the hunt)
Origin: Forest, one of Silvanus' sacred groves in the Warped Wood
Dump Stat: Charisma
Spirit Companion: Squeak
Cantrips: Sift, Create Water, Spark
Player: Adam Mc.
Very impatient, prone to bursts of impulse, prefers actions to words, enjoys learning and doesn't like to be told what to do. Likes to purge things with fire. Often turns into a tree whenever he feels unsafe or when thrown into and unfamiliar situation. Very perceptive, though initially a fish out of water while traveling. Was one of the guardians of a sacred grove under the tutelage of a bear druid master in the Warped Wood before being teleported away by Yuuko. Has never seen a city prior to this, though has seen a lot of wilden and their "villages," such as they are (which is more or less completely indistinguishable from the rest of the forest to the untrained eye).
Due to spending so much time around wilden, he slips into first person plural speech when extremely agitated. Doesn't wear much upper body clothing, which displays the large tattoos of the symbol of Silvanus and the symbol of Selune on his shoulders. Of the clothing he does wear, the color of choice is black.
Currently, Ash carries a purple ribbon in his hair that can be used to contact Haruna once every 7 days so long as they are on the same plane, and a red-studded bracelet that can be used to contact Lareth once every 3 weeks. During the party's travels, he was impressed upon (in the fashion of a baby bird) by the baby air elemental Squeak (real name Doormat), who was thrown at him during session 3 by the irritated Autumn Nymph in the woods northwest of Velinsk, during the revisit after the lightning storm died down. Squeak is now his spirit companion.
More recently, Ash has taken up an intensive study of magic and rituals, and has quite the impressive ritual book at the moment. He also likes to collect miscellaneous objects, magical and non-magical, from throughout the party's travels. A log of these and the party's adventures from Ash's POV is stored in the crystal he took from Zeke after his death, and Ash is going through it as time passes. The going is slow, however, due to Zeke's odd organization and incomprehensible acronyms for just about everything.
His nature seems to have become slightly less hair-trigger since he joined the party, which is good since he takes the role of de facto party leader and primary "diplomat."
Book (since session 1)
Race: Warforged
Class: Star Pact Warlock
Deity: None
Origin: Mechanical layer, undefined observatory island in the middle of nowhere
Dump Stat: Wisdom
Familiar: Timcanpy (as per D.Gray-man character)
Cantrips: Prestidigitation, Mage Hand, Mending
Player: Adam Ma.
Somewhat naive, though well-meaning and friendly. Once referred to himself as "this unit" when speaking with those he views as having a higher status than himself, such as his patron and Lessinor, though this habit seems to have largely vanished. Used to think people could be "fixed" like warforged. Like Ash, has never seen a city before campaign, and further, has even only seen two other PEOPLE before this. Both were gnomes.
Prior to being summoned by Yuuko, worked in the astronomical observatory for his gnome master, though he was built by a different gnome on commission. The master largely ignored him and assigned him menial tasks, though Book learned much and was interested in the work and understands it well. Is still technically indentured to his master by contract, though his master died of unknown causes and Book simply thought he was "broken" and resolved to have him fixed later rather than get someone to do repairs and delay the work, which his master emphasized was extremely important. Came into contact with his Far Realm patron when gazing at the stars on day and hearing a voice (currently carries a small telescope to serve this contacting purpose as he travels).
Currently, he carries a book with recordings of star charts and conversations with his patron, as well as a pendant that appeared when he first made his pact. Odd for a warforged, he wears clothes with pockets to carry his tools. Has a device that allows him to speak to others telepathically. Additionally, a while after picking up a mechanical golden ball with wings and tail in a shop on the Water layer, Book managed to turn it on by linking it to part of his soul, making the every-hungry Timcanpy into his familiar. Timcanpy bears an odd symbol in the shape of a harp in the base of one of his wing feathers. Nefaraxia has indicated that this means Timcanpy was once used as a communication device by the members of the Harpers, a now-presumably-inactive or deceased guild.
Eventually, Book figured out what death was and that, furthermore, he has a soul and, since he does not worship a god, when he dies his soul will go to lasting torment and eventual obliteration in Cyric's Wall of the Faithless. This gives Book considerable concern, and he is now very concerned with not dying. Eventually became good friends with Zeke until he accidentally killed the other warforged with an ill-placed headshot during the arena tournament in session 20. Has been told that he is the "Chosen One" of his patron by a probably very confused Far Realm devotee. His book is now known to be filled with Far Realm script that he believes he wrote, but gives horrible visions and knocks out anyone who reads it, now including Book though he does not know why. The book is, however, currently in possession of Jalein.
Recently, the amulet given to him by his patron glows and becomes slightly warm whenever he casts, and his patron did not answer his most recent attempt at contact. He has also discovered that the amulet is not, in fact, capable of eating his soul or allowing his patron to view the world, only serving as a conduit of power. As such, he has more or less turned his back on his world-eating patron at this point in time.
Due to progress in his work with the Algorithm, book has received two visions pertaining to a younger Guardian Nefaraxia and her companion, the inventor mercury dragon Jerostrauz, who apparently made Book as the prototype warforged/robot and named him using line-of-sight naming. These visions indicate that Book was made on their home world and once possessed a scale necklace from Jerostrauz, though how Book got to Niore and the location/fate of his necklace are both unknown.
More recently, an investigation of Book's composition by a shardmind has revealed that part of Jerostrauz's experiment, the attempt to add his own psionic abilities to a robot via a crystal in Book's head, has largely failed, only granting Book telepathy and a few Elan-like powers. The "inspection" also found that Book's outer coverings once looked very different, though he turned down the offer to restore them to their original form.
Alvilda (since session 13)
Race: Gray Dragonborn
Class: Assassin
Deity: Mask (god of shadows, thievery, and assassinations)
Origin: Water layer, captain of a pirate ship
Dump Stat: Strength
Player: Reny
Once a pirate ship captain, Alvilda lost her ship and entire crew when one of the magical artifacts they were carrying, a small urn, turned out to be carrying a live - but trapped - baby kraken that called out to a larger kraken to save it, ending in the destruction of the boat. Alvilda escaped with the party when fellow Mask worshipper Zaren became infused with the divine power of his god and sacrificed himself to drive off the kraken and allow the others to escape. Having informed Alvilda that Mask asked him to look after the party, Alvilda decided to take his place and join the other PCs on their journey.
While she was a pirate at the time she met the party, Alvilda was actually born into a merchant house of minor nobility. When their fortunes took a turn for the less favorable, she left to pursue a life of freedom, though she still occasionally aided her family by transporting goods and slaves for them with her ship.
Alvilda is been somewhat quiet, but useful in combat, possibly due to her love of hunting. She gets along very well with Lessinor the cat, who can often be found in her company, and has an appreciation for money.
More recently, she was taken away via teleport by the last spirit-remnants of the Guardian of the Water layer, but the rest of the party is unclear on what transpired during that very brief interaction save that it "will not harm them in any way."
Haltash (nickname Hal, notably can be read at "Halt Ash") (since session 21)
Race: Half-Voidsoul Genasi, Half Kalashtar
Class: Battlemind
Deity: None, waiting to find a dead god
Origin: Wanderer
Dump Stat: Strength?
Cantrips: Spark, Object Projection, ?
Player: Fitzy
Hal is a member of the Awakened, a child born with full mental capacities despite its youthful body. At a very young age, Hal uncovered his abilities and, donning full body coverings and only speaking mentally to conceal his age, began wandering the more civilized layers, searching for a way to sate the literal power hunger of his Voidsoul heritage. Along the course of his travels, he found several desecrated ruins with references to potentially dead deities that he then hoped to contact in hopes of their assistance.
In his search for dead gods, Hal eventually entered the service and gained the tentative trust of a purple dragon on the Underdark layer, who permitted him to go through its library in exchange for performing services that its undead minions could not. It was in the service of this dragon that Hal recruited the party to retrieve a dagger the dragon desired. While in their company, Hal learned that the party was also in search of dead gods, and decided to join them in order to further his own knowledge.
Posessed of significant hubris despite - or perhaps because of - his youth, Hal currently desires to absorb the powers of the dead and current gods to take Ao's place as the Overgod to gain ultimate power and repair the damage that has slowly eroded Niore. To this end, he has created a number of harebrained schemes and conspiracy theories regarding the current state of the world and how he could overthrow Ao.
Recently, inside a Nether passageway linking Water and Hell, he badly botched a sharn's ritual to meld Far Realm energies with the Nether via a shoe focus (once owned by Sossal, now known as the Doom Shoe, temporarily sealed by Jalein - the location of the other shoe is unknown, though it is entirely possible that it is still on Sossal's foot. Whether she's even noticed this one missing is an entirely different question), creating a vortex of Far Realm energy that swirled up. Unbeknownst to anyone but Book, this vortex homed in on the crystal in his chest, leading to a mad dash for the exit as the vortex followed their flying steeds. Hal himself escaped by throwing up a force field (infused with Nether shadow, though he is unsure how he did it) and fleeing separately for the exit once he managed to get out of the vortex's center, actually beating the party through. The portal is now white and likely impassable. If it is not... well, no one particularly wants to be the one to test it out.
Also, along with Book and Ash (mostly Ash), Hal likes to try "science."
Significant/Recurring NPCs
Yuuko
Real Name: Gisela
Race: Appears human
Class: Some sort of caster
Deity: ?
Age: Presumably very old
Level: ?
Current Location: Pocket plane
Somewhat flippant and callous. Loves to watch the party struggle, is only willing to provide them with so much help, and doesn't really care what they do so long as they are more or less on task with her quest and finish it before the end of their lifetimes. Watches them sometimes from her pocket plane using the unremovable amulets they wear, and can be contacted by tracing the symbol on the amulet's back. She initially summoned the party from their respective homes and sent them on a quest to obtain 2 earrings and a tome, saying that she can read possible futures and that one such future involves the party working well together. In retrospect, this may one of her once-per-millenia mistakes, but if it is, it is far too hilarious to even attempt to correct. Is very beautiful, with pale skin, long black hair, and unusual crimson eyes. Her true name is Gisela, and she apparently originates from the same plane as Haruna and Nefaraxia, though the pair of them seem to dislike her.
Haruna
Race: Changeling
Class: Cleric (high priestess)
Deity: Shaundakul
Age: 3200+
Level: ?
Current Location: Velinsk on the Hub layer, Temple of Shaundakul
Extremely casual and not shy about making her opinions known. Tends to be very up-front about giving information (or not giving it) and doesn't like to beat around the bush. Generally very irreverent, even when discussing fellow high priests, and likes to joke and engage in horseplay no matter the levels or classes of those involved. First encountered by Ash on his session 2 quest around Velinsk's Temple District to learn more about the North Hand and it's wild magic-altering orb ritual. Seems to know a lot of useful things and is generally quite willing to share. Gave Ash a magic ribbon that allows him to contact her once every 7 days when it is exposed to a flame (but won't burn up), so long as they are both on the same plane. Current most notable line is "Mine is bigger" after shapeshifting into Zeke's form with a larger Gond-hand dent, to which he nearly replied "That's what she said" before realizing how wrong it was, leading to much hilarity around the table.
Despite her laid-back nature, however, Haruna seems to know a lot about the current Nether situation, and is a supporter of the North Hand as well as a contact of Lareth's. She is also Nefaraxia's adoptive mother. Occasionally she suggests places that the party should visit in order to learn more about the situation, proposing that they need to see for themselves in order to best understand.
Squeak (Real name: the Sylvan word for Doormat)
Race: Air Elemental, appears as a giant squishy will-o-wisp that can move itself around to form limbs and whatnot at will
Class: Spirit Companion to Ash
Deity: None?
Age: Baby - whatever that means to elementals
Level: 11
Location: Wherever Ash is
Named for the sounds its slurred Primordial makes when it attempts to speak (it can only be understood by Book), though its actual words and speaking style, when translated, are extremely eloquent. Understands Common but can't speak it. Currently is perfectly content to follow Ash around as his spirit companion, and doesn't seem to be terribly powerful despite being an elemental. Thinks Zeke is irreparably brain-damaged, and likes Book as Book is the only one beside Ash who can understand it and, furthermore, who holds conversations with it (telepathic on Book's end, sounds like a lot of audible squeaks on Squeak's end).
Lessinor (previously called: Alfador)
Race: Cat
Class: ?
Deity: Mask?
Age: ?
Level: ?
Location: With the party or inside a shadow
An odd black cat with bright green eyes. He clearly understands human speech and has been known to communicate telepathically, just not to the party. Tends to dive into the nearest person's shadow when combat is engaged or upon entering the Nether. Can reliably detect Nether shadow magic and dive into shadows but doesn't seem able to do much else, though he enjoys playing with Alvilda and Jalein's purple cat familiar Alfador. Currently wears a holy symbol of Mask belonging to the dead Maskarran priestess with whom he traveled. Seems to know, or at least be known of by, Haruna, Nefaraxia, and Book's patron.
Nefaraxia (nicknames: Ebon Lady, Nefara)
Race: Black Dragon
Class: Wizard
Deity: None
Age: est. 3200
Level: Powerful
Location: Somewhere within Mistvale Moor on the Marsh layer
A reclusive gatherer of knowledge, Nefaraxia is perfectly willing to share what she knows with the few she permits into her lair - provided that she feels they are "ready" for such information, as it is often highly secreted and known only by a chosen few. A self-professed Guardian of the Marsh layer, she does not appear to leave her lair often, preferring to stay inside and perform her duties from there. Few outside of the Mistvale Moor tribes permitted her protections are aware of her lair's precise location, so she can be difficult to locate at best.
Despite being a black dragon, Nefaraxia's horns curve up and backwards rather than curl around her face, and she seems to have no issue with taking a humanoid half-dragon form or conversing with "lesser" beings without a bribe. It is possible that this is related to the fact that she was raised by her adoptive mother, the changeling Haruna. She is often seen wearing a silver scale around her neck, possibly from another dragon. A recent Algorithm vision suggests that this may be a scale from her one-time companion, the mercury dragon Jerostrauz.
Narelen Kelani
Race: Human
Class: Dark Pact Warlock
Deity: Oghma
Age: 31
Level: 16
Location: Nerenth on the Water Layer, in a magic shop
A polite and relatively amicable woman, Narelen works in a magic shop with a secret basement, where she once worked on magical items and procedures used by the North Hand. However, with the shop damaged and her partner missing, it is unknown what she is doing now. Elder sister of Lareth.
The party, having been greatly changed (in Book's case, GREATLY changed - but no tassels yet) from the last time they met her (sans Ash), is now unrecognizable to her.
Lareth Kelani
Race: Human
Class: Battlemind
Deity: Selune
Age: 28
Level: 16
Location: Wandering the layers
A lone seasoned traveler, Lareth traverses the layers in search of more knowledge on the Nether and to check in with those among her agents who do not have items with which to contact her. Due to the nature of her travels, she seldom checks in with others, though her sister Narelen scrys on her from time to time to check on her status. Lareth is the current leader of the North Hand and is highly dedicated to its cause, though she now has concerns about corruption within her organization.
Recently, she has forced the party's bracelet to activate early to request that they rescue the North Hand tiefling scholar-spy Therai Evendren from the dungeon of a lord of the Hell layer, and return him to the Water Layer in time for a large-scale North Hand meeting.
Ardala
Race: Wood Elf
Class: Ranger
Deity: Shaundakul / Silvanus (minor)
Age: 17
Level: 8
Location: At the Forest Layer Anchor Point
Originally from a highly remote area of the Forest, Ardala was captured during a raid that killed or captured most or all of her clan, who once protected ruins sacred to Shaundakul. From there she wound up in the hands of a drow slaver in Skullport who was convinced to sell her to the party. She has great respect for Ash and Zeke, who saved her and cared for her, but also likes the rest of the party as well.
She has since revealed the location of the ancestral ruins that her clan swore to protect generations ago. These turned out to be an Anchor Point of Niore, converting primal energies into arcane energy that is infused into the land to hold it together. However, these are faltering now, and while the party managed to bolster this one, many more remain elsewhere. Ardala left the party to guard this anchor point as the rest of her clan once did.
Jalein
Race: Eladrin
Class: Chaos Sorcerer
Deity: None
Age: ?
Level: ?
Location: Traveling with the party
Somewhat quiet and brooding, Jalein typically speaks only to offer a snide remark, though he is a surprisingly knowledgeable conversation partner if he can be convinced you're worth his time. Generally, he spends most of his time and effort supporting, aiding, and conversing with his twin sister Asteria. Despite the fact that he often takes a support role for his sister, he appears to be a very powerful caster in his own right, most often blowing powerful gusts of wind for various purposes. Can be rather short-tempered, and is noted for loosing massive blasts of power when enraged. Has absolutely no problem with letting people know exactly what he thinks of them and their actions, though he is notably more close-lipped when it comes to his own motivations.
Collectively, Jalein and Asteria are sometimes reffered to as "the twins."
Jalein is currently the keeper (read here: kidnapper) of Book's book and telescope, and seems to have no intentions of handing them back any time soon, and appears to have at least some basic information on Book's patron. Whether Asteria shares this information is unclear.
Asteria
Race: Eladrin
Class: Wizard/Cleric
Deity: None
Age: ?
Level: ?
Location: Traveling with the party
Despite being Jalein's sister, Asteria is friendly, serene, and extremely diplomatic, if somewhat soft-spoken. She seldom uses her powers, and when she does, it is most often to heal someone else. She seems somewhat reluctant to harm others in combat, which may contribute to her brother's protective tendencies. Though she enjoys sharing tales of her and her brother's extensive travels across the layers, she is rather quiet on personal subjects, preferring to speak of events rather than personal tastes, opinions, or motivations.
Jerostrauz
Race: Mercury Dragon
Class: ?
Deity: ?
Age: Unknown, maybe at least adult?
Level: ?
Location: Deceased
A one-time close companion of Nefaraxia, Jerostrauz seems to be very optimistic and easygoing by comparison. It is possible that they even spent some time living together under the same roof. Has been seen to accuse her of "worrying too much." They seem to get along fairly well despite Nefaraxia's continual snarky and sometimes slightly derogatory comments/making irritated noises toward him. Currently, he appears to have invented flail snails and the prototype of warforged, formerly known as "robots", and that the prototype in question may be Book, who was liked by his creator and named via line-of-sight naming.
Only appears in visions granted by Book's Algorithm, and once in a nightmare in the Shifting that made mention of "hunters."
Sossal
Race: Human Lich
Class: Necromancer
Deity: ?
Age: est. 600?
Level: 21
Location: School of Night's Necromancy Branch
Sossal's most striking feature is her rampant madness, caused by the botching and later last-minute fixing of the lich transformation ritual, which ended with her soul ripped in pieces, one of which resides as a wraith in a flesh doll by the name of Scilla. Sossal appears to have a great deal of information on death and undeath, and to a lesser extent the Nether, but tends to share that information primarily with students of the school. She also appears to be working for Yuuko to some extent.
Deceased PCs
Zeke
Race: Warforged
Class: Paladin
Deity: Oghma (god of knowledge and learning), formerly Gond (god of machines and technology) pre-memory restoration
Origin: Mechanical layer, undetermined city
Dump Stat: Charisma
Player: Fitzy
Has a tendency to wander off whenever left unsupervised for more than several minutes. Tends to follow around the "angry squishy meatbag" a.k.a. Ash. Refers to all organic beings (behind their backs) as "meatbags" and/or "squishies." Asks "why" more often than a 3-year-old child. Though he originally believed that he had just been released from indentured servitude to his gnome master, who treated him poorly and whose shop he just burned down, before being summoned by Yuuko, he was actually once a head librarian who had been damaged during a theft and had lost his memory.
After a sound beating by a flail snail in the Marsh, he regained his memory, intelligence, and love of books, and began recording the party's tale and his old library collection in a spellshard given to him by Nefaraxia. Also became an accomplished chef, despite a notable lack of taste buds. Died during session 20 when Book accidentally crit him with a headshot daily during round 3 of 4 in the drow arena tournament.
Werall Gunnadye
Race: Half-elf (elven half 50% moon elf and 50% wood elf)
Class: Ardent (formerly Bard)
Deity: None?
Origin: Mountain layer, born in a remote-ish town near the mountains but became a wanderer
Dump Stat: Strength (the best decision of the bunch, IMO)
Cantrips: ?
Player: Randy
Charming and self-interested, though invested in the quest. Tends to schmooze his way through life, preferring to sleep with women in their houses and provide the night's entertainment in bars rather than pay for things. Very much likes the ladies. Before being called by Yuuko, he wandered through the forests and towns of the Mountain layer. Became a bardic healer after his brother died of an illness and wanted to heal to spare others the pain of losing a loved one. Currently doubles as both healer and general party conversationalist / information gatherer / PR guy.
His name, "we're all going to die," is a reference to the fact that the party has more or less put all their eggs in one basket in terms of having a very disproportionately high amount of bad social skills, non-human appearances (human appearance being defined as dwarf, halfling, elf, half-dragon, etc.), everyone has a high constitution stat, almost all spellcasters with little to no melee capabilities, and all with high scores in similar skill sets. For those unfamiliar with D&D, parties are usually MUCH more diverse than this - and for good reason.
Deceased due to being eaten and dissolved by a particularly nasty tree in a Nether shortcut.