Talk:Caer Lonesis: The Last Valley

Vitale

Concept: Surface-dwelling survivor/survivalist

Role: Local Guide

Description

There were storms when the sky fell. They rained down beasts of maddening physiology, turning the trees and creatures of the world against themselves and scorching the very air itself. Vitale, through bitter fortune, survived this madness.

She continues to wander the natural world she once watched over and studied, even as it was changed. She continues to learn from it, even as she is thrust into the struggle of natural survival more than any elf could have expected.

Appearance

Vitale has a lean, wolfish cast to her features. Her hair, usually concealed by her cloak, is her strangest feature – it still changes with the seasons, but all of the colours have been changes to an irregular mix of indigo, with the shade generally changing depending on the current season. This is a direct side effect to the altered surface climate. Her eyes remain the same deep green they were before the sky fell.

Skills

Druid Magic 8

Abomination Lore 6

Stealth 6

Archery 5

Healing 5

Tracking 5

Lost Surface Lore 5

Equipment

Cloak of the Wood (blends in with whatever environment the wearer is in, protects them from natural weather)

Venomseed Staff (can be used as a blow-gun to fire needle-like darts coated with a paralytic poison)

Minthiaiel

Concept: Sorcercess/Shrine Maiden

Role: Ancient/Historical Scholar, Magical Support

Description

Born the illegitimate daughter of a fairly major noble, Minth had the luck to be taken in by her noble father and sent to a shrine run school. She displayed a distinct talent for arcane magic and also studied the path of the shrine maiden, in honor of her mother who was a priestess. She is known to be a talented and powerful mage but has had a rather sheltered upbringing, having grown up within the bounds of a fairly prestigious boarding school.

Appearance

Minth has an intelligent cast to her face and is conventionally pretty, but has dressed practically in simple sorceress's robes since graduating from her school. She has sharp blue-green eyes and keeps her hair either tied back or cut short depending upon her mood.

Skills

Arcane Magic 8

Arcane Lore 6

Divine Magic 6

Divine Lore 5

Ancient and Non-Elven Languages 5

Ancient/Historical Lore 5

Staff Fighting 5

Equipment

Sorceress's Staff (Masterpiece) - A high quality gift from her father with several protective enchantments on it. A good focus for her magic and also an effective weapon when someone manages to get up close.

Priestly Goods: A portable altar and everything else a journeying priest(ess) would need to worship the elvish deities.

Mitz

Concept: Clockwork cyborg

Role: Fighter

Description

Tam experimented with many ways for the races of mortals to survive the cataclysm and the possible disasters to follow. Among them was to link fallible flesh more closely to machines and magic. Mitz was one of the lowborn children chosen for the honour of experiment, for which her parents recieved a year's extra food ration. Her body was altered for superior respiration and circulation, enabling her to use the pneumatic and hydraulic interfaces the artisans of Caer Lonesis were developing for direct integration with machina. However, she pays a price for this power in persistently elevated blood pressure and the unbalancing of her humours.

Mitz was raised by the servants of the sorceress and shaped by her magic. She is devoted to Tam and her presence as such on the exploration squad is not a coincidence.

Appearance

Mitz is a dark elf with a hunched stance and a strange humped back under her cloak. Her blue-black skin is oddly blotched with grey and pink. One eye is purple, the other is white.

Skills

Close Combat 8

Intimidation 6

Weaving 6

Omnidexterity 5

Machinery 5

Stealth 5

Acrobatics 5

Equipment

Arachnid Harness: What looks like a bulky backpack under Mitz's cloak unfolds into a set of eight long clawed limbs she can move independently. Any one is strong enough to lift both her and the machinery. The core is attached tightly to Mitz and hooked into her respiratory and circulatory systems at several points. It takes several minutes to remove safely and like all flesh-linked machina, places a certain amount of physiological stress on the user. Nevertheless one as experienced as Mitz can use it for days without major issue.

Spider Queen's Loom: Attached to the base of the arachnid harness is a smaller module with a long prehensile tail. In the tip a hundred alchemically-altered spinnerettes are preserved in undeath, and Mitz can use them to spin both conventional silk and a more rigid type that sets hard in minutes.

Dolwen

Concept: Dark Elven Cadet Princess

Role: Social/Physical Heavy Hitter

Description

Dolwen is the cadet daughter among Tam's many children, and least likely to attain power by her birth alone. In spite of this she was given the same educational opportunities as her older siblings, particularly groomed in the arts of diplomacy and warfare as she was groomed to be an adviser and protector to her elders. Developing a complex over her perceived inferiority in status and pushing to excel in her lessons, she developed a rare talent for manipulating others through words alone, enhanced to supernatural puissance through the qualities of a carefully-bred bloodline.

When it was announced that there would be an expedition beyond the valley, she took it upon herself to go with them, reasoning that the ravaged lands might offer her an opportunity for a kingdom of her own. Whether through marriage to some warlord or by striking it out in the wastes herself... it matters little.

Appearance

Dolwen is fair-skinned and pale-haired by the standards of other dark elves, her skin an ashen porcelain and wavy hair a brilliant snow-white. Her appearance is lithe and youthful and often clad in regal dresses of dark elven style, concealing tremendous physical prowess. She fights with a long-chained flail, but is equally adept with the whip-sword, cat of nine tails, rope dart and even lasso.

Skills

Voice of Command 8

Flexible Weapons 6

Superior Royal Bloodline 6

Ancient and Non-Elven Languages 5

Diplomatic Strategy 5

Alchemy 5

Elegant Style 5

Equipment

Shooting Star (Long Flail): A flail with an extra-long chain that must be wielded with two hands. The spiked head flickers with little dancing sparks, allowing it to dazzle the weak-willed when whirled in the air, while those it strikes are set ablaze and launched by the force of the impact.

Esgalwath (Familiar): A shapechanging creature of an inky-black liquid that Dolwen created over the course of many years as her alchemical magnum opus, hoping to gain the approval of her mother. It is a symbiotic creature generated within her body through the ingestion of processed toxins, hiding itself in her blood and shadow that laces itself into her clothes and allows her to reshape and protect garments, absorbs poisons and reknits her body together when it is injured.

Renald d'Villers

Concept: Surface Guardian

Role: Bodyguard to Vitale

Description

The surface world after the event was a harsh place, those settlements that survived or were created after the sky fell were fragile places and easily lost to the madness and violence of the wasteland. As far as anybody could tell, Renald is a survivor from such a place.

Appearance

A taciturn quiet man in late thirties, short black hair with grey fringes and goatee, with a scar across his right side of the face, and dull grey eyes. Wears heavy armor with a sun motif well faded.

Skills

Swordplay 8

Archery 6

Bardic Poetry/Music 6

Blacksmith 5

Athleticism 5

Riding 5

Human Surface Lore 5

Equipment

Armor of Karsland: Heavy armor that is quiet and feels lightweight to the wearer

Sword of Karsland: A magic sword from an order of paladins nearly vanished.

Hariv

Concept: Huge Girl in Huger Armour

Role: Tank

Description

Born in a minor noble family, Hariv never really had the temperament to become a priestess or a sorceress, despite her parents’ desire to pursue those careers and hopefully improve the family’s status. As things turned out, she eventually became a warrior – and excelled at the task, combining her great natural strength with her family’s traditional martial arts, as well as a certain military cunning, to stand out among her peers, rising through the ranks quickly. Eventually, the young, promising officer caught the attention of a group of artificers, one of many working on special projects to enhance the soldiery of Caer Lonesis, so as to prepare them better for the coming apocalypse. Hariv volunteered enthusiastically when approached - in part out of desire to increase her family's position, and in part to perfect herself.

As it turned out, the project was a success – and the young drow warrior was imbued with rune magic, ancient words of power and triumph carved upon her very flesh and bones alongside freshly developed channeling patterns. Her new-found strength - as well as her peculiar resistance to magic - has gotten her placed on the expedition to the outside world as a guard; an assignment that she is all too eager to depart on, hoping to see what lied beyond Caer Lonesis' seals.

Appearance

Hariv is exceptionally tall, standing at over two meters twenty, and although somewhat intimidating due to that, she’s quite beautiful. Her body is toned and muscular – and now covered in tattoos made from potent magical infusions, intricate patterns put on her by the Caer’s artificers; some of them ancient words of power and triumph, some of them entirely new designs created by the researchers of the underground city.

Her armour – which she is most often seen in – encases her body in a mobile fortress of metal, however, showing precious little of any of that.

Skills

Juggernaut 8

Polearms 6

Military Tactics 6

Archery 5

Rune Magic 5

Machinery 5

Magic Resistance 5

Equipment

Superheavy Armour: while many of the soldiers of Caer Lonesis wear some kind of clockwork armour, Hariv’s makes full use of her great stature and strength. Bigger and heavier than most, it is made to move via the combined power of runic magic and intricate clockwork mechanisms – although it’s rumored that even if it broke, Hariv could still walk inside it anyways. Forged out of adamantine by the sorcerer-smiths of Caer, and enhanced even further by the power of runes, it offers both unparalleled protection and augments Hariv’s own considerable physical abilities. Comes complete with a quicksilver-like magical interface bodysuit, covered in runic patterns reflecting those on Hariv's own flesh.

The Body of Runes: Hariv’s body is covered in intricate runic tattoos made from magical infusions – and, during certain rather unpleasant magical rituals, runes were carved even on her bones. Formed of both ancient and newly-created runes, it allows her to channel arcane energies through her own flesh, making herself tougher, faster and stronger, as well as being able to mend her flesh to some degree. It can also be used to channel those energies into her own strikes; an old property of her family's martial arts put to lethal use.

Zarae Gulffyn: The Voice of Mourning

Concept: Bardic Necromancer

Role: Emissary to the Dead/Countermage

Description

Many souls perished when the heavens fell. Many lives - both noble and wicked - were cut short, their dreams and desires unfulfilled; their final words seared from their lips by a howling maelstrom of fire, fury and pain. Zarae Gulffyn speaks for these forgotten multitudes. Her songs give voice to the sorrow and longing of the numberless dead, bringing their grievances and regrets to the ears of a living world all too willing to ignore their plight. Her music stirs the soul - be it living or dead - granting it peace or torment, as its crimes dictate. From the feeblest shade, to the mightiest lich, few can hear the haunting notes of her lute without feeling their otherworldly pull, and the urge to give themselves over to it. It is said that every musician has devoted followers. That Zarae's no longer breath is of little consequence to her.

Appearance

Zarae Gulffyn is a sombre-looking drow woman of faintly androgynous beauty. Snaking crimson tattoos coil across her face, and she keeps her long, red hair woven into twin braids that hang down to the small of her back. Unless required to do otherwise, she dresses in simple, grey clothing of elegant, yet functional design, and is rarely without some form of musical instrument on her person - be it a simple bone flute, or her infamous lute. Despite her melancholy appearance, she smiles easily enough, but with a hint of weariness, accentuated by the tired lines lurking at the corners of her dark red eyes.

Skills

Necromancy 8

Songcraft/Bardic Performance 6

Stealth 6

Sword/Knife Play 5

Diplomacy 5

Anatomy 5

Religion 5

Equipment

The Last Song (Lute): An elegant, 24-string lute, crafted from ebony inlaid with bone filigree. When played, it calls to the souls of those who died nearby, summoning them to Zarae's aid. Those slain by Zarae often find their souls ensnared by the lute's enchanted strings (rumored to be woven from the hair of ghosts), trapping them within the instrument until the Voice of Mourning chooses to release them... or put them to work.

Shade's Kiss (Dagger): A wickedly sharp dagger with a curved, black blade and a hilt of carved bone. The blade not strictly physical, and can pass through non-magical armor like a ghost. Those wounded by the dagger feel the chill of the grave seeping into their veins, weakening them in both body and spirit.