My life might have been passed in ease and luxury, but I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path. Oh, that some encouraging voice would answer in the affirmative! My courage and my resolution is firm; but my hopes fluctuate, and my spirits are often depressed. I am about to proceed on a long and difficult voyage, the emergencies of which will demand all my fortitude: I am required not only to raise the spirits of others, but sometimes to sustain my own, when theirs are failing...
Frankenstein, by Mary W. Shelley
Twenty Eloi NPCs (D20)
- Lucretia has a thing for mirrors and ghosts. She dances for the spirits that sing to her through her mirrors. They whisper to her of peculiar keys and dreamy things, and especially of an empire that is hers for the taking. She only needs to locate her own reflection. It escaped one night, during a terrible storm, and has been playing a sort of cat-and-mouse game with her ever since. Now neither she nor her independent reflection (most often taking a male guise), can be seen in a mirror or any other such surface. Sometimes this prompts her associates to suspect her of vampirism, accusations of which can sometimes be very inconvenient to disprove.
Lucretia [Eloi, F/MU, LVL 2/3, AL C, MV 120' (40'), AC 7 (loop-scale corset-cuirass, war-gloves), HD 5 (22 hp), #AT 2, DG 1d6/1d4 (+1 Mirror-blade & +2 curved dagger), SV MU5, ML 9. Special: 18 DEX, 17 CHAR & INT. Dagger can re-roll a miss if wielder takes 1d4 damage. Mirror-blade does double damage to Dobblekin, Simulacra, etc. Spells per day: 2,1. Level One: Charm Person, Light/Dark, Sleep. Level Two: Mirror Image, Phantasmal Force. Lucretia carries or owns (2d4) random mirrors of various kinds and sorts at all times.] - Gelja has been hitting the Hard Candy way too often lately. She doesn't much care any more. Ever since her twin was taken by the Comprachicos she has been obsessed with tracking them down and getting them back. She hasn't slept in three weeks or more. It's starting to show. She bleeds black, like a Tsalalian now and her once golden hair is turning black as well...
Gelja [Eloi Thief, LVL 3, AL N, MV 120' (40'), AC 6 (Banded Leather), HD 3 (14 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d4+4 (Six-Scalpel-Lash), SV T3, ML 11. Pick Locks: 27%, Set/Disable Traps: 25%, Sleight of Hand: 30%, Move Silent: 36%, Climb: 80%, Hide: 27%, Hear: 1-3. Backstab: +4 to hit, X2 damage, with surprise. Special: The Lash can be used as a garrotte on a score of 18 or better; inflicting double damage if the victim fails a Save. Hard Candy Addict: Gelja needs to make a CON Check (or a Save) every 24 hours to hold off the effects of the Vile Transformation. Right now she has a +3 bonus to her Check/Save, but every time she takes more than half her hit points in damage, she loses one of those pluses. Eventually her bonuses will become penalties and the Vile Transformation will be increasingly difficult to hold off. It's a losing game. She knows this. It's a price to pay to get what she wants. She's paying it. Now she has no time to waste.] - Pask served as a body guard and concubine to a rich noble who was banished to Wermspittle for certain unspecified excesses that incurred the Imperial Wrath. Like a fool, Pask followed his mistress to this place. She died after her third week. Poison. They blamed Pask. After three years in the Arenas, Pask still wouldn't talk about it unless blind drunk on Black Liquor. After the Black Liquor, he can't recall any of the details, only the pain remains.
Pask [Eloi Fighter, LVL 4, AL C, MV 120' (40'), AC 5 (Layered Mesh and Shield), HD 4 (32 hp), #AT 1, DG 2d6+2 (Flame-Spike Flamberge) or 3d4 (Three-Section Flail), SV F4, ML 5. Special: Pask must make a WIS Check (or a Save) to remember anything any more. He has a 45% chance to go berserk in his sleep and wildly attack anyone and everyone within 30' of his resting place.] - The sight of old brick slums and dark foreign faces eat ever so deeply into Lylistire's ennui-stifled soul, or so he often will remind anyone whom he suspects of listening. Tormented and precious, this Eloi poseur is obsessed with appearances and implications. His paranoia is rich and virulent in respect to his closest colleagues and dearest friends, but rarely troubles him around complete strangers. He strives cunningly to make a suitable impression on those he has never met before. Those whom he knows, even only slightly, he tends to take for granted.
Lylistire [Eloi Expert (Poet), AL C, MV 90' (30'), AC 8 (Velvet-lined Panel-Coat), HD 2 (8 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d4 or Scathing Rebuke, SV MU2, ML 4. Special: Lylistre can opt to inflict 1d4 damage per Scathing Rebuke in place of sullying his new gloves with blood. This is a verbal attack and requires him to use a language recognized by the target. He is fluent in eleven languages.] - Zeeb was raised among Roof-Runners. She is highly skilled at climbing, jumping, and all the things expected of a Roof-Runner.
Zeeb [Eloi Thief (Roof-Runner), LVL 3, AL C, MV 120' (60'), AC 8 (Slick Brigadine), HD 3 (12 hp), #AT 2, DG 1d4+2/1d4+1 (Climbing Axe or Daggers), SV T3, ML 7. Pick Locks: 30%, Set/Disable Traps: 35%, Sleight of Hand: 20%, Move Silent: 36%, Climb: 84%, Hide: 25%, Hear: 1-3. Backstab: +4 to hit, double damage, with surprise. Carries 4 sets of climbing cable or rope (each 50-100'. Keeps a pouch of spider-bane on her belt.] - Shildra is a restless, high-strung, difficult child; brilliant, messy, incredibly creative, and far from ornamental, now that the vivid blue-green mold has robbed her of her looks (-4 to CHAR). She has looked upon the Smoldering Seas of Kazibak and traded her left hand for something more useful...
Shildra [Eloi Spellcaster, LVL 4, AL C, MV 120' (30'), AC 7 (Studded Vest, Ragged Lace), HD 4 (15 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d4+1 (+2 Bodkin), SV MU 4, ML 5. Special: Shildra can cast Contact Other Plane (Kazibak) once per week. Her left hand is a disconcerting mess of silver fluids and writhing phosphorescent green tendrils that somehow remains intact, despite its weird appearance. This prosthetic can change its shape at will, automatically Detects Magic (on touch), can reach past most mundane barriers (limited Passwall), and either smother or scald opponents on a successful attack (does both on 19 or better). Spells per day: 2,2. Level One: Hold Portal, Magic Missile (Searing Mercurial Droplets), Shield. Level Two: Levitate, Locate Object, Web (Strands of Mucous). Special: Shildra possesses a bone whistle that casts Sottarix's Six Clouds once per day. She does not know how to choose which cloud it will produce.] - Dashae was raised in an attic by her maternal grandparents. They negotiated an arranged marriage for her and her three sisters. It was a terrible blow to them all when the emissary of a foreign Prince they were supposed to be dealing with turned out to be a fraud. She ran away the night they discovered the truth. She's a Forager now. There hasn't been any opportunity to find out what became of her sisters. She has to keep busy, keep moving, keep working, or else her spot will get forfeited and someone else will take her place in the queue. Only seventeen spots remain between her and a real apprenticeship or even entry into the Academy.
Dashae [Eloi Thief (Forager), LVL 3, AL C, MV 120' (60'), AC 7 (Boiled Silk), HD 3 (16 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d6+1 (Yurlishi Katar), SV T3, ML 7. Pick Locks: 20%, Set/Disable Traps: 25%, Sleight of Hand: 17%, Move Silent: 38%, Climb: 80%, Hide: 35%, Hear: 1-3. Backstab: +4 to hit, double damage, with surprise. Carries a Forager Pack.] - Joola's family has been raising winged cats for generations now. She, however, cannot stand the filthy beasts. For their part it is a mutual antipathy. Joola wants to be a singer. Her looks and her innate charm-ability have gotten her quite a bit farther than her meager talent and grating voice ever could. A shot of Black Liquor tends to smooth out her voice. Now if she could just get those damned cats from crashing her shows.
Joola [Eloi Expert (Former Cat Herder), AL N, MV 120' (40'), AC 7 (Cat Leather), HD 2 (7 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d4+1 (Cat-Skinning Knife), SV F1, ML 5. Special: Joola's voice provokes a CHAR Check with a -2 penalty, unless she has had a shot of Black Liquor, then it gains a bonus of +2. Joola recently picked-up a mandolin. She does not know how to play it. Cats hate her. They frequently target her boots.] - Karj reads too much. He's the first to admit it. But with his memory, he only needs to read something once to be able to recall it later. Sometimes he wishes he could forget certain of the things he's read.
Karj [Eloi Spellcaster, LVL 3, AL C, MV 120' (40'), AC 7 (Lacquered-Plaque Robes), HD 3 (11 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d4+poison (Bundle of Tail-Spines), SV MU 3, ML 9. Spells per day: 2,1. Level One: Cloud of Sparks, Magic Missile (Cascade of Pages), Read Magic, Shield. Level Two: Locate Object (Book), Web (Constricting Tendrils). Special: Karj is very well-known to several local book-sellers.] - Lurri was born to a family of gardeners. Their ancestors tended the great greenhouses that were ruined in the war. Which war depends upon which of her relatives is telling the family lore. They've lived in the attics of an Abandoned Property in the Burned Over District for so long that no one remembers where the old greenhouses used to be any more. Some of the younger cousins don't believe in such nonsense. They understand the harsh realities of the here and now.
Lurri [Eloi Expert (Gardener), AL N, MV 120' (40'), AC 6 (Lacquered Lamellar), HD 2 (10 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d4/1d4 (Knife or Trowel), SV F1, ML 6. Special: Lurri was gifted her great-grandsire's crossbow...but she has lost the quarrels.] - Keedri has very pale eyes and incredibly tangled hair that is on the verge of becoming a riotous mane of dreadlocks. She is frail to the point of appearing anemic and almost bloodless, with a distinctly unhealthy grayness around the eyes. The spirits that possess her and speak through her at the seances she holds only grant their guidance and favor at a very steep price.
Keedri [Eloi Spellcaster (Medium), LVL 2, AL N, MV 120' (40'), AC 7 (Bone-Reinforced Plaited Cordage), HD 2 (7 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d6+1 (Sword-cane), SV MU 2, ML 4. Spells per day: 2. Level One: Protection from Spirits, Ventriloquism. Special: Keedri has the ability to use her CHAR Reaction roll to befriend spirits. She also can Discern Presences at will and allow a spirit to talk/communicate through her if she voluntarily fails a Save either via Spirit Trance, ritual seance, or by Invoked Possession. She has three distinct entities that have taken an interest in her. One is a Predatory Projection that is attempting to mislead her about its true nature. She has a Received Text that she is transcribing in a backwards cipher based upon another of her spirit-guides' efforts to instruct her in various aspects of the sorcerous arts. The third spirit is difficult to contact, as it cannot abide the Predatory Projection's influence. It is some sort of discarnate scholar that cannot recall very many details about their previous existence, but it is attempting to teach Keedri a form of Voorish Sign to help defend her from the duplicitous Projection.] - Faren is descended from a proud line of idlers and do-nothings. Her people were once so rich and powerful that they had slaves to perform every menial task for them. Those days ended abruptly when their city was bombed into ruins. Reduced to penniless refugees, her people have had a particularly hard time of it in the shanty towns. It's amazing to her how quickly her kin took to the brothels. Her aunts now both control two very prosperous establishments, though they each had to arrange for their disagreeable husbands to disappear when they both started making noises about who was head of their households. Faren helped dispose of the remains. That was when she realized that her aunts had no intention of leaving her around as any sort of witness. She's been wandering the alleys and by-ways of the Shanty Towns ever since. She prefers to keep a low profile, in so far as her vanity will allow her...
Faren [Eloi Cleric (Serves: Zoosh The Selfish), LVL 2, AL C, MV 120' (40'), AC 5 (Ancestral Chain-Mail), HD 2 (11 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d6+1 (Bifurcated Staff), SV C2, ML 3. Spells per Day: 2. Level One: Allurement (limited phantasmal forces), Expand Capacity (only for self), Purify Food and Drink (only for self), Resist Cold (only for self), Sleep (Dispel Vigor). Turn Virtuous (as Turn Undead). Holy Symbol: Wide-Open Mouth molded in solid gold, modeled upon Faren herself.] - Voona is a former Rat Catcher's apprentice. She saw a swarm of rats obliterate her mentor and seven other apprentices just last week. She only just barely escaped. Mostly because she had fallen into a crevasse and had been climbing back up out of the pit when the rats turned upon her group. In her hurry to draw her weapon and attack the squealing mass of rodents, her hand slipped and she fell back down the crevasse. She awoke on the lichen-covered floor of a cavern overlooking one of the older cisterns. It took her four days to climb back up and out from there. Now she's debating what to do with herself. She doesn't see much of a future in being a Rat Catcher. Maybe knowing where a forgotten cistern is located might be worth something, to someone...
Voona [Eloi Specialist (Ex-Vermin Hunter), AL N, MV 120' (40'), AC 6 (Decommissioned Sewer-Scale, Mesh-Gauntlets), HD 2 (14 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d4/1d6/1d4+2 (Serrated Knife, Truncheon or Fighting Torch), SV F1, ML 6. Special: Voona is currently listed as missing in action and presumed eaten by rats. She has about a dozen dinged-up old rat-traps and cages that she's considering selling.] - Jalisk ran away from home tonight. His mother had become one of the Soulless. He decided that he wasn't going to stick around to get used like another pawn in her devious machinations, not like his brother, his sister, and everyone else in their family. If he wasn't so scared, he might start to have ambitions.
Jalisk [Eloi AL N, MV 120' (40'), AC 7 (Quilted and Shield), HD 1 (5 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d4 (light club), SV Zero-Level Human, ML 4. Special: Jalisk stole 400 silver coins on the way out of his mother's estate.] - L'Vinya was named for her great-aunt who was lost when her wagon didn't make it through the second Weak Point in the dark forests they had to cross to get to the seemingly endless plain of gray mud that brought them to the North East Rampart and into Wermspittle.
L'Vinya [Eloi Spellcaster, LVL 2, AL C, MV 120' (40'), AC 7 (Vertebrae-Disk Leather), HD 2 (7 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d4* (Ruuzang Stiletto), SV MU2, ML 5. Spells per day: 2. Level One: Charm Person (Revulsion), Light/Dark (Lilac Dimness), Protection From Insanity, Sleep (Incite Dream), Foul Fumes, Glossalalia. Special: Ruuzang Stiletto does double damage on roll of 19, triple on a natural 20; but it has a 75% chance to snap off in either instance. L'Vinya owns a copy of Manku's Black Book, three unfinished wands and a scroll of Convert Blood to Lamp-Oil.] - Kosha dreams of a white sphinx every night. A huge, alabaster sphinx looming over a vast expanse of wind-swept ice. Sometimes they wake up in the morning with a layer of frost over everything in their room.
Kosha [Eloi Spellcaster (Dreamer), LVL 2, AL N, MV 120' (40'), AC 7 (Fungal Leather), HD 2 (6 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d4+1 (Glass Club), SV MU 2, ML 9. Spells per day: 2. Level One: Protection From Nightmares, Dreamlight, Dreamwalk, Lucidity, Interpret Dreams, Oneiric Shield, Sleep. Special: Kosha's Glass Club affects intangibles for 2d4+3 damage. It cannot/will not affect non-intelligent undead.] - Tidri isn't quite so easily-hypnotized as Tonash the Master-Somnambulist originally thought. She never batted an eye as she slit his throat. She still smiles sweetly every time she thinks of it. If it hadn't been for him trying to stuff her into one of his velvet-lined cabinets, she might never have discovered her talent for the more subtle arts. Looting his library before she left was also one of her better ideas. After selling off the less useful tomes, she was able to get herself some decent clothes and secure a reasonably safe place to study. She just has to avoid the snares and servants of the other Somnambulists seeking revenge on her.
Tidri [Eloi Spellcaster (Oneirist), LVL 2, AL C, MV 120' (40'), AC 7 (Beaded Leather), HD 2 (9 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d4+2 (Snip-Shears), SV MU 2, ML 8. Spells per day: 2. Level One: Collect Oneiroplasm, Detonate Oneiroplasm, Dream Projection, Discern Unreal, Disperse Oneiroplasm, Language of Dreams, Lesser Hypnosis, Protection From Dreams, Rude Awakening, Trance Induction. Special: Tidri has six manuals and books on various oneirical techniques and practices from which she has taught herself her eclectic repertoire of non-standard spells. She has also dreamed of a shining short sword formed of some sort of bone-like material that is becoming more manifest each night she dreams of it. Three more nights and it will be usable for one hour each night.] - Zizi never wanted to be part of the Circus. She didn't ask to be a contortionist. She wasn't going to let Uncle Leonard send her off to the Comprachicos to get her 'fixed.' Things had gotten increasingly hard after her father died at the Battle of Xoron and the Gray Pox took her mother away from her. And, yes, she was grateful for all her uncle had done for her, but she had had enough. If he wanted someone cut and stitched and reworked to please the crowds, he could go get himself mangled. She ran off and hasn't looked back once in three years. She tries not to notice the hunchback that seems to be following her everywhere.
Zizi [Eloi Fighter/Thief, LVL 2/2, AL C, MV 120' (40'), AC 6 (Light Bruthem-Hide), HD 4 (24 hp), #AT 2, DG 1d6/1d4+2 (Machete or Pincer-Knife), SV F3, ML 7. Thief Skills: Pick Locks: 27%, Set/Disable Traps: 20%, Sleight of Hand: 27%, Move Silent: 27%, Climb: 88%, Hide: 15%, Hear: 1-2. Backstab: +4 to hit, double damage, with surprise. Special: Pincer-Knife can snap-shut on a roll of 18-20, causing double damage and automatically inflicting 1d4+2 per turn until removed.] - Ladjo lives hard. He's rarely sober and only gets meaner when he goes for very long without a drink. His tolerance for exotic liquors is astounding. But then having three livers has more than a little to do with that.
Ladjo [Eloi Fighter, LVL 4, AL N, MV 120' (40'), AC 4 (Spike-Mail), HD 4 (38 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d6+2 (Trefoil-Axe), SV F4, ML 9. Special: Heavily scarred in mind and body alike. The right eye isn't his. The right hand has talons and looks like it came from a griffin. The Grafters in the Arenas aren't always so choosy about what parts get used. Ladjo did a few favors for an Almas Glandculler a while back, hence his internal modifications that allow him to drink well past the point of excess and survive.] - Vashun is quiet. Almost skittish. They lost their tongue to some geist-thing their party ran into on the Third Flight of the Deep Stairs. They haven't been the same since.
Vashun [Eloi Fighter, LVL 2, AL C, MV 120' (40'), AC 6 (Scale-Mail), HD 2 (7 hp), #AT 1, DG 1d6 (Crossbow or Short Sword), SV F2, ML 5 (-4 to ML when facing Geists). Special: Vashun tends to flake out when faced with what feels like overwhelming odds. They prefer to run away, not finish the job. They've been dismissed as a henchman by three employers already. Vashun does know several unmarked secret passages located along the first three flights of the Deep Stairs, which in itself is often pretty useful and valuable.]
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