Kestrel "Kess" Tod
Mar 11, 2014 1:54:09 GMT
Post by Vaylon Kenadell on Mar 11, 2014 1:54:09 GMT
Kestrel "Kess" Tod
"Your one best specialty attack -- hit your opponent with it before they're ready."
Basic Information
Age: Early twenties
Classes: Thief, Vampire, Monk
Race: Human
Alignment: Good ("Ignore danger to aid another.")
Look: Eager Eyes, Long Braid, Graceful Body
Statistics
Possessions
Worn items:
Crown of Blades (0 weight)
Gi (0 weight)
Durable leather satchel (0 weight)
Carried weapons:
Rapier of Bloodletting (precise, +1 damage, 1 weight)
Stiletto (precise, 1 weight)
Niu's Bow (near, far, +2 damage, 2 weight)
Hunter's bow (near, far, 1 weight)
Arrows (2 ammo, 1 weight)
Throwing knife (0 weight)
Tools and supplies:
Fancy lockpicks (5 uses, 0 weight)
Smoking pipe (0 weight)
Halfling pipeleaf (9 uses, 0 weight)
Potions and poisons:
Disorienting healing potion (0 weight)
Bandage (1 uses, 0 weight)
Bandage (3 uses, 0 weight)
Wealth:
33 gold coins (0 weight)
21 silver coins (0 weight)
21 old copper coins (0 weight)
9 diamonds worth 1000 coins each (0 weight)
Miscellaneous:
Teleporting Chalk (0 weight)
Incense Sticks (0 weight)
Alharis's Scroll (0 weight)
Ruby Amulet (0 weight)
"Sachiko," a horse (10 load)
Carried by Sachiko:
Sewing kit (0 weight)
Map of Othnea (0 weight)
Kestrel's diary (1 weight)
Stored at home:
Dagger (hand, 1 weight)
Several bolts of cloth decorated with flowers (0 weight)
A diplomat's finery (0 weight)
Ermine-trimmed formal dress (0 weight)
Everyday dress (0 weight)
Stationery of various kinds (0 weight)
Map of Irla (0 weight)
Map of Damerus (0 weight)
Moves
Human: Most steadings will have temples that are friendly to wandering monks. You may petition them for shelter, and they will almost always give you a place to stay. It won't be luxurious, but you'll have a roof over your head and rice to eat.
Good: Ignore danger to aid another.
Trap Expert: When you spend a moment to survey a dangerous area...
Backstab: When you attack a surprised or defenseless enemy with a melee weapon...
Shoot First: You're never caught by surprise. When an enemy would get the drop on you, you get to act first instead.
Cheap Shot: When using a precise or hand weapon, your backstab deals an extra +1d6 damage.
Escape Route: When you're in too deep and need a way out, name your escape route and roll+DEX. ✴On a 10+, you're gone. ✴On a 7–9, you can stay or go, but if you go it costs you: leave something behind or take something with you; the GM will tell you what.
Evasion: When you defy danger on a 12+, you transcend the danger. You not only do what you set out to, but the GM will offer you a better outcome, true beauty, or a moment of grace.
Dirty Fighter: (Replaces Cheap Shot.) When using a precise or hand weapon, your backstab deals an extra +1d8 damage and all other attacks deal +1d4 damage.
Nosferatu: You are a vampire! You do not age, nor do you need to breathe. You start with the following two weaknesses:
• Instantly slain by a wooden stake to the heart
• Repulsed by and vulnerable to fire and sunlight
When you are reduced to 0 hit points, unless you were utterly annihilated or killed by a weakness you turn into mist and return to your last safe resting place and gain 1 Hunger.
Apex Predator: When you feast on the blood of a living person, hold 2 Blood if you leave them alive or if they are already weakened, or hold 3 Blood if you kill a healthy person. The maximum Blood you can hold is equal to the number of weaknesses you have, plus your CON. When you hunt for a victim in a steading, roll+DEX if you use stealth or aggression, or roll+CHA if you use guile or charm. *On a 10+, you find someone you can feed from undisturbed. *On a 7-9, you still find a victim, but choose one:
• You only hold 1 Blood
• Someone catches you in the act
• You leave behind incriminating evidence
The Blood is Life!: When you make camp, spend 1 Blood or gain 1 Hunger. You do not recover HP when you make camp or rest; you must spend Blood. You can spend 1 Blood to:
• Take +1 to any roll using +STR, only once per roll
• Make your next melee attack messy, forceful, or deal +1d4 damage
• Heal yourself for 2d4 HP
• Resist a weakness for a short time
• Reduce your Hunger by 1
The GM can spend 1 Hunger to:
• Make you attack the nearest or weakest creature
• Make you drain someone's blood completely when you are feeding
• Make your appearance monstrously inhuman for a while
• Run in terror from a weakness
Disguise: When you have time and materials you can create a disguise that will fool anyone into thinking you're another creature of about the same size and shape. Your actions can give you away but your appearance won't.
Meditation: When you spend a few hours in quiet meditation, lose all of your current ki and, hold 3 ki. You may spend 1 ki to gain one of the following effects:
• Deal an additional +1d6 damage with your next attack
• Prevent 1d6 damage to yourself
• Take +1 forward to your next Spout Lore or Discern Realities move
• Roll +WIS instead of +Bond when you Aid Another.
You may only use one ki per roll. You cannot use ki if you are wearing any armor.
Iron Palm Training: Your unarmed strikes have a range of hand and close. You can always safely use unarmed strikes against creatures with dangerous forms. For example, you can hit a creature covered in spikes without taking damage, your hand won’t be damaged from punching an iron golem, and striking a fire elemental will not burn you. You still may have to Defy Danger to make an unarmed strike against huge creatures, however.
Monk's Path: You follow a strict way of discipline to focus your ki and follow the way to enlightenment. Choose a path from the list. Each path gives you an additional move, a way to mark XP at the end of the session, and a restriction. If you ever violate your path’s restriction, you lose 1 ki and take -1 forward.
• Path of the Dragon: You can never refuse a challenge or retreat from battle. If someone challenges you to a fight, you must accept, even if your foes outnumber you or are clearly much stronger. When you shout with great force before attacking and spend 1 ki, your next unarmed attack has a range of near and gains the forceful tag. At the end of the session, if you defeated someone stronger than yourself without help, mark XP.
Wind Walker: You can jump much higher and farther than a normal person, and you can climb surfaces swiftly without tools. You never take damage from falling.
Finish Him!: When you defeat an opponent, if you currently hold less ki than your WIS, hold +1 ki.
Still Mind: When you attempt to resist a magical effect influencing you, take +1.
Bonds
Nikolai thinks that because I am a vampire, I should think the way he does. He fails to understand there are higher powers. At the first chance I get, I will expose him to one of those higher powers, for better or worse.
Nikolai shows sparks of a warrior's instinct, but in order to survive the hard road ahead, he must embrace them. I will spur him to this.
I sacrificed for Oliver, and he has repaid me in turn, including by allowing me to feed from him. I will see to it that the trials ahead do not crush his cheerful nature.
Oliver made some tough choices and offered sound judgement. I will try to follow in his footsteps.
The Headsman is a fine warrior, and I sense a kindred spirit within him despite our different ways. I will encourage him to join our quest.
Appearance
At just over five feet tall and with her slight frame and long, carefully-brushed brown hair, this thief lacks the fearsome, battle-hardened look of a typical adventurer, instead appearing to be nothing more than a commoner in her early twenties. She is reserved and soft-spoken but not unfriendly. She tends to wear dresses or robes of solid, muted colors that are tied with wide, flower-patterned sashes. Though she doesn't speak about her history, she apparently has some skill as a seamstress: she can often be seen stitching the clothing she carries with her, making repairs or additions. Her eyes are steel blue and betray the animalistic urges belying her demure appearance.
Background
When Kestrel was born, the country she lived in, Jiyuuteri, was gripped with civil war. All males, from nobles to peasants, were forced into service by the warring factions. Kestrel never knew her mother and father: her mother bled to death after giving birth, and her father had died only a few months before, having been captured and killed in the war. Kestrel was therefore raised by her grandmother and great-aunt, who, in order to shelter Kestrel from the destruction marching across the country, decided to raise the boy as a girl. They gave Kestrel a girl's name and dressed her and educated her in the manner of village girls. Her grandmother and great-aunt conspired to give her a poisonous herb in order to keep her sickly, and she was forbidden to play with other children for fear that her secret might be discovered. Kestrel was lettered, and she often passed the time by reading or inventing games to play by herself when not helping her grandmother and great-aunt with their sewing or cooking. In this fashion, Kestrel escaped the notice of the authorities who came to their village every year to take the boys away.
When Kestrel was hardly more than twelve years in age, a fierce battle swept across the mountain pass where lay the secluded village, and in its wake, the villagers were captured as slaves by the victors. By this time, despite the constant poisoning at the hands of her guardians, Kestrel had grown into the appearance of a beautiful if frail little girl, and she was among those selected from the village to be sent in tribute, unspoilt, as concubines to the general. The name of this mighty warlord is now not spoken as a rule, but Kestrel's deception was quickly discovered, and she was assumed to be an assassin. However, instead of ordering a swift execution, the devious general came to see her merits: "Such an assassin, posing as a woman, would be a powerful weapon -- a hidden blade saved for last!" He kept Kestrel for his personal amusement, molding her bit by bit into a skilled assassin. As the general's plaything, she was given leave to roam within the war camps -- though often in secret, as many hated her -- and was thus able to learn to devise stratagems, poisons, and cunning traps to kill her target. So each night would he allow her to attempt to kill him, and each night would she fail and be subjected to his whims.
By the time Kestrel appeared to be in the blossom of womanhood, the civil war was coming to an end. The royal line had been re-established, and her general was on the losing side. After a pitched battle, the general was captured and imprisoned; rather make the general into a martyr and inflame old passions with a public execution, the new emperor decided to let him languish in prison. The general's followers were scattered to the winds, and his concubines were allowed to go free with unblemished names, for many of them had been slaves -- but, because she had long since stopped hating him, Kestrel, dressing as a priestess and using all of her skill, infiltrated the prison where the warlord was held. She came undetected to her general's cell and found that he was unwilling to escape; the general commanded her instead to kill him so that he might therefore retain his honor and no longer suffer the indignity of being captured. With great grief Kestrel did as he commanded, barely escaping from that prison with her own life. So in this way the general's words came true.
After this, Kestrel made her way to Orahone, the new capital city of the reunited nation. It was a bustling place on the coast that allowed her to slip in and out of the crowds as she wished. For a long time, she was forced to live on the streets, but the shame that she felt in resorting to common thievery was outweighed by her desire to survive at any cost and establish a safe place for herself from which she might make full use of her array of talents -- talents that she had no intention of letting rust. She was later able to open a shop as a seamstress of some skill, crafting extravagant dresses and coats for merchants and nobility alike. The connections she made she used to extract favors and to satisfy herself with an indulgence in a profligate habit; even so, she was always careful not to reveal her abilities as an assassin. The underworld knew how she, remaining hidden to them, could be secretly contacted: a letter dropped on a certain street corner, a sign posted on a certain wall just slightly askew, flowers dropped in the street. For the right price, a hated enemy could be ended; a rival in love could disappear; a business partner could hastily leave the city. Most of her victims happened to be, no doubt by coincidence, the emperor's appointees, and the emperor much resented the faceless killer of his associates. But this did not prove to be Kestrel's undoing.
A haughty merchant's wife came one day to Kestrel's shop; she and her husband had been invited to a formal dinner with the nobles of the city, and she needed a gown for the occasion. Kestrel made the gown, a particularly lavish one with delicate silver embroidery, as requested, but when the merchant's wife came to claim it, she refused to pay. "Instead," said the merchant's wife, "you will give me the dress and all else I ask, or I will reveal your secret." And then Kestrel recognized the merchant's wife at last: she had been the general's favorite concubine (at least up until Kestrel's arrival) and was proud and vain and forever nursing a grudge against the one who had usurped her place at his side. "How dare he pick that -- that thing over me?" had she said often. Kestrel did not long bear the injustice of this blackmail. The merchant's wife came once again to request a dress even more extravagant than the last, the cost of which would leave Kestrel little room to carry out her plans. The dress was made, however, and after delivering it to the merchant's wife, Kestrel boarded the first boat out of the country. In order for her to ever have a safe place, she knew that she must sadly leave Jiyuuteri behind and go to a strange land called Othnea to start again, anew. The merchant's wife never troubled her or anyone ever again, for a poison in the fabric of the dress killed her from the moment she arrogantly put it on, and her handmaiden and husband were also killed when they tried to save her. News of the cursed dress reached the emperor's ears, and they knew then the truth of the little seamstress from Orahone. So Kestrel avenged herself but with the high price of revealing her nature and abandoning her only safe spot in the world.
Advancement History
Level 1: Human
Level 2: +1 Dexterity, Shoot First
Level 3: +1 Charisma, Cheap Shot
Level 4: +1 Constitution, Poison Master
Level 5: +1 Dexterity, Envenom
Level 6: +1 Charisma, Connections
Level 7: +1 Dexterity, Escape Route
Level 8: +1 Wisdom, Evasion
Level 9: +1 Dexterity, Dirty Fighter
Level 10: +1 Dexterity, Disguise
Level 1: Monk
Level 2: +1 Wisdom, Wind Walker
Level 3: +1 Wisdom, Finish Him!
Level 4: +1 Wisdom, Still Mind
Resolved Bonds
I see the potential for a great leader in Oliver, but too often he sells himself short (so to speak). I will teach him to be a leader of men.
It was due to Nikolai's bravery and the help of his minion, Bronen, that we were able to escape the fortress of Tahrik-Men. I owe him a favor.
Oliver died because I wasn't there to protect him. I will try to stay closer to him from now on.
Nikolai showed no remorse for his neglectful behavior. I will prepare for his inevitable treachery.
Nikolai could have chosen to stay in Damerus in comfort, but instead he went with me on my quest. I will see to it that he accomplishes good.
Oliver has agreed to go with me on my quest; I must do what I can to take care of him.
Nikolai made a risky move to help us with our quest. I will allow him to feed from me if necessary.
Oliver has seen through my lies and does not like what he sees. I will endeavor to show him that I am not an evil person.
I've defeated Ilun for Nikolai but at a high cost. I will make sure he knows his place.
I saved Nikolai in a moment of crisis. He owes me a favor.
Oliver has my back when things go wrong.
Nikolai is a vampire! I should try to befriend him to see if I can learn anything from him.
Grimalkin is strange and dangerous; I will kill her if she threatens me again.
Oliver is difficult for me to understand; I must try to habituate him to the comforts of the city.
Norman is young and inexperienced but loyal; I should teach him some tricks.
Norman knows incriminating details about me.
"Your one best specialty attack -- hit your opponent with it before they're ready."
Basic Information
Age: Early twenties
Classes: Thief, Vampire, Monk
Race: Human
Alignment: Good ("Ignore danger to aid another.")
Look: Eager Eyes, Long Braid, Graceful Body
Statistics
| HP: | 11/16 | Strength: | 8 (-1) |
| Damage: | d8 | Dexterity: | 18 (+3) |
| Armor: | 0 | Constitution: | 10 (-1) |
| Level: | 4 | Intelligence: | 13 (+1) |
| XP: | 7 | Wisdom: | 16 (+2) |
| Load: | 6/8 | Charisma: | 18 (+3) |
| Ki: | 2/3 | Sick (-1 CON) | |
| Blood: | 0/2 | Hunger: | 0 |
Possessions
Worn items:
Crown of Blades (0 weight)
Gi (0 weight)
Durable leather satchel (0 weight)
Carried weapons:
Rapier of Bloodletting (precise, +1 damage, 1 weight)
Stiletto (precise, 1 weight)
Niu's Bow (near, far, +2 damage, 2 weight)
Hunter's bow (near, far, 1 weight)
Arrows (2 ammo, 1 weight)
Throwing knife (0 weight)
Tools and supplies:
Fancy lockpicks (5 uses, 0 weight)
Smoking pipe (0 weight)
Halfling pipeleaf (9 uses, 0 weight)
Potions and poisons:
Disorienting healing potion (0 weight)
Bandage (1 uses, 0 weight)
Bandage (3 uses, 0 weight)
Wealth:
33 gold coins (0 weight)
21 silver coins (0 weight)
21 old copper coins (0 weight)
9 diamonds worth 1000 coins each (0 weight)
Miscellaneous:
Teleporting Chalk (0 weight)
Incense Sticks (0 weight)
Alharis's Scroll (0 weight)
Ruby Amulet (0 weight)
"Sachiko," a horse (10 load)
Carried by Sachiko:
Sewing kit (0 weight)
Map of Othnea (0 weight)
Kestrel's diary (1 weight)
Stored at home:
Dagger (hand, 1 weight)
Several bolts of cloth decorated with flowers (0 weight)
A diplomat's finery (0 weight)
Ermine-trimmed formal dress (0 weight)
Everyday dress (0 weight)
Stationery of various kinds (0 weight)
Map of Irla (0 weight)
Map of Damerus (0 weight)
Moves
Human: Most steadings will have temples that are friendly to wandering monks. You may petition them for shelter, and they will almost always give you a place to stay. It won't be luxurious, but you'll have a roof over your head and rice to eat.
Good: Ignore danger to aid another.
Trap Expert: When you spend a moment to survey a dangerous area...
Backstab: When you attack a surprised or defenseless enemy with a melee weapon...
Shoot First: You're never caught by surprise. When an enemy would get the drop on you, you get to act first instead.
Cheap Shot: When using a precise or hand weapon, your backstab deals an extra +1d6 damage.
Escape Route: When you're in too deep and need a way out, name your escape route and roll+DEX. ✴On a 10+, you're gone. ✴On a 7–9, you can stay or go, but if you go it costs you: leave something behind or take something with you; the GM will tell you what.
Evasion: When you defy danger on a 12+, you transcend the danger. You not only do what you set out to, but the GM will offer you a better outcome, true beauty, or a moment of grace.
Dirty Fighter: (Replaces Cheap Shot.) When using a precise or hand weapon, your backstab deals an extra +1d8 damage and all other attacks deal +1d4 damage.
Nosferatu: You are a vampire! You do not age, nor do you need to breathe. You start with the following two weaknesses:
• Instantly slain by a wooden stake to the heart
• Repulsed by and vulnerable to fire and sunlight
When you are reduced to 0 hit points, unless you were utterly annihilated or killed by a weakness you turn into mist and return to your last safe resting place and gain 1 Hunger.
Apex Predator: When you feast on the blood of a living person, hold 2 Blood if you leave them alive or if they are already weakened, or hold 3 Blood if you kill a healthy person. The maximum Blood you can hold is equal to the number of weaknesses you have, plus your CON. When you hunt for a victim in a steading, roll+DEX if you use stealth or aggression, or roll+CHA if you use guile or charm. *On a 10+, you find someone you can feed from undisturbed. *On a 7-9, you still find a victim, but choose one:
• You only hold 1 Blood
• Someone catches you in the act
• You leave behind incriminating evidence
The Blood is Life!: When you make camp, spend 1 Blood or gain 1 Hunger. You do not recover HP when you make camp or rest; you must spend Blood. You can spend 1 Blood to:
• Take +1 to any roll using +STR, only once per roll
• Make your next melee attack messy, forceful, or deal +1d4 damage
• Heal yourself for 2d4 HP
• Resist a weakness for a short time
• Reduce your Hunger by 1
The GM can spend 1 Hunger to:
• Make you attack the nearest or weakest creature
• Make you drain someone's blood completely when you are feeding
• Make your appearance monstrously inhuman for a while
• Run in terror from a weakness
Disguise: When you have time and materials you can create a disguise that will fool anyone into thinking you're another creature of about the same size and shape. Your actions can give you away but your appearance won't.
Meditation: When you spend a few hours in quiet meditation, lose all of your current ki and, hold 3 ki. You may spend 1 ki to gain one of the following effects:
• Deal an additional +1d6 damage with your next attack
• Prevent 1d6 damage to yourself
• Take +1 forward to your next Spout Lore or Discern Realities move
• Roll +WIS instead of +Bond when you Aid Another.
You may only use one ki per roll. You cannot use ki if you are wearing any armor.
Iron Palm Training: Your unarmed strikes have a range of hand and close. You can always safely use unarmed strikes against creatures with dangerous forms. For example, you can hit a creature covered in spikes without taking damage, your hand won’t be damaged from punching an iron golem, and striking a fire elemental will not burn you. You still may have to Defy Danger to make an unarmed strike against huge creatures, however.
Monk's Path: You follow a strict way of discipline to focus your ki and follow the way to enlightenment. Choose a path from the list. Each path gives you an additional move, a way to mark XP at the end of the session, and a restriction. If you ever violate your path’s restriction, you lose 1 ki and take -1 forward.
• Path of the Dragon: You can never refuse a challenge or retreat from battle. If someone challenges you to a fight, you must accept, even if your foes outnumber you or are clearly much stronger. When you shout with great force before attacking and spend 1 ki, your next unarmed attack has a range of near and gains the forceful tag. At the end of the session, if you defeated someone stronger than yourself without help, mark XP.
Wind Walker: You can jump much higher and farther than a normal person, and you can climb surfaces swiftly without tools. You never take damage from falling.
Finish Him!: When you defeat an opponent, if you currently hold less ki than your WIS, hold +1 ki.
Still Mind: When you attempt to resist a magical effect influencing you, take +1.
Bonds
Nikolai thinks that because I am a vampire, I should think the way he does. He fails to understand there are higher powers. At the first chance I get, I will expose him to one of those higher powers, for better or worse.
Nikolai shows sparks of a warrior's instinct, but in order to survive the hard road ahead, he must embrace them. I will spur him to this.
I sacrificed for Oliver, and he has repaid me in turn, including by allowing me to feed from him. I will see to it that the trials ahead do not crush his cheerful nature.
Oliver made some tough choices and offered sound judgement. I will try to follow in his footsteps.
The Headsman is a fine warrior, and I sense a kindred spirit within him despite our different ways. I will encourage him to join our quest.
Appearance
At just over five feet tall and with her slight frame and long, carefully-brushed brown hair, this thief lacks the fearsome, battle-hardened look of a typical adventurer, instead appearing to be nothing more than a commoner in her early twenties. She is reserved and soft-spoken but not unfriendly. She tends to wear dresses or robes of solid, muted colors that are tied with wide, flower-patterned sashes. Though she doesn't speak about her history, she apparently has some skill as a seamstress: she can often be seen stitching the clothing she carries with her, making repairs or additions. Her eyes are steel blue and betray the animalistic urges belying her demure appearance.
Background
When Kestrel was born, the country she lived in, Jiyuuteri, was gripped with civil war. All males, from nobles to peasants, were forced into service by the warring factions. Kestrel never knew her mother and father: her mother bled to death after giving birth, and her father had died only a few months before, having been captured and killed in the war. Kestrel was therefore raised by her grandmother and great-aunt, who, in order to shelter Kestrel from the destruction marching across the country, decided to raise the boy as a girl. They gave Kestrel a girl's name and dressed her and educated her in the manner of village girls. Her grandmother and great-aunt conspired to give her a poisonous herb in order to keep her sickly, and she was forbidden to play with other children for fear that her secret might be discovered. Kestrel was lettered, and she often passed the time by reading or inventing games to play by herself when not helping her grandmother and great-aunt with their sewing or cooking. In this fashion, Kestrel escaped the notice of the authorities who came to their village every year to take the boys away.
When Kestrel was hardly more than twelve years in age, a fierce battle swept across the mountain pass where lay the secluded village, and in its wake, the villagers were captured as slaves by the victors. By this time, despite the constant poisoning at the hands of her guardians, Kestrel had grown into the appearance of a beautiful if frail little girl, and she was among those selected from the village to be sent in tribute, unspoilt, as concubines to the general. The name of this mighty warlord is now not spoken as a rule, but Kestrel's deception was quickly discovered, and she was assumed to be an assassin. However, instead of ordering a swift execution, the devious general came to see her merits: "Such an assassin, posing as a woman, would be a powerful weapon -- a hidden blade saved for last!" He kept Kestrel for his personal amusement, molding her bit by bit into a skilled assassin. As the general's plaything, she was given leave to roam within the war camps -- though often in secret, as many hated her -- and was thus able to learn to devise stratagems, poisons, and cunning traps to kill her target. So each night would he allow her to attempt to kill him, and each night would she fail and be subjected to his whims.
By the time Kestrel appeared to be in the blossom of womanhood, the civil war was coming to an end. The royal line had been re-established, and her general was on the losing side. After a pitched battle, the general was captured and imprisoned; rather make the general into a martyr and inflame old passions with a public execution, the new emperor decided to let him languish in prison. The general's followers were scattered to the winds, and his concubines were allowed to go free with unblemished names, for many of them had been slaves -- but, because she had long since stopped hating him, Kestrel, dressing as a priestess and using all of her skill, infiltrated the prison where the warlord was held. She came undetected to her general's cell and found that he was unwilling to escape; the general commanded her instead to kill him so that he might therefore retain his honor and no longer suffer the indignity of being captured. With great grief Kestrel did as he commanded, barely escaping from that prison with her own life. So in this way the general's words came true.
After this, Kestrel made her way to Orahone, the new capital city of the reunited nation. It was a bustling place on the coast that allowed her to slip in and out of the crowds as she wished. For a long time, she was forced to live on the streets, but the shame that she felt in resorting to common thievery was outweighed by her desire to survive at any cost and establish a safe place for herself from which she might make full use of her array of talents -- talents that she had no intention of letting rust. She was later able to open a shop as a seamstress of some skill, crafting extravagant dresses and coats for merchants and nobility alike. The connections she made she used to extract favors and to satisfy herself with an indulgence in a profligate habit; even so, she was always careful not to reveal her abilities as an assassin. The underworld knew how she, remaining hidden to them, could be secretly contacted: a letter dropped on a certain street corner, a sign posted on a certain wall just slightly askew, flowers dropped in the street. For the right price, a hated enemy could be ended; a rival in love could disappear; a business partner could hastily leave the city. Most of her victims happened to be, no doubt by coincidence, the emperor's appointees, and the emperor much resented the faceless killer of his associates. But this did not prove to be Kestrel's undoing.
A haughty merchant's wife came one day to Kestrel's shop; she and her husband had been invited to a formal dinner with the nobles of the city, and she needed a gown for the occasion. Kestrel made the gown, a particularly lavish one with delicate silver embroidery, as requested, but when the merchant's wife came to claim it, she refused to pay. "Instead," said the merchant's wife, "you will give me the dress and all else I ask, or I will reveal your secret." And then Kestrel recognized the merchant's wife at last: she had been the general's favorite concubine (at least up until Kestrel's arrival) and was proud and vain and forever nursing a grudge against the one who had usurped her place at his side. "How dare he pick that -- that thing over me?" had she said often. Kestrel did not long bear the injustice of this blackmail. The merchant's wife came once again to request a dress even more extravagant than the last, the cost of which would leave Kestrel little room to carry out her plans. The dress was made, however, and after delivering it to the merchant's wife, Kestrel boarded the first boat out of the country. In order for her to ever have a safe place, she knew that she must sadly leave Jiyuuteri behind and go to a strange land called Othnea to start again, anew. The merchant's wife never troubled her or anyone ever again, for a poison in the fabric of the dress killed her from the moment she arrogantly put it on, and her handmaiden and husband were also killed when they tried to save her. News of the cursed dress reached the emperor's ears, and they knew then the truth of the little seamstress from Orahone. So Kestrel avenged herself but with the high price of revealing her nature and abandoning her only safe spot in the world.
Advancement History
Level 1: Human
Level 2: +1 Dexterity, Shoot First
Level 3: +1 Charisma, Cheap Shot
Level 4: +1 Constitution, Poison Master
Level 5: +1 Dexterity, Envenom
Level 6: +1 Charisma, Connections
Level 7: +1 Dexterity, Escape Route
Level 8: +1 Wisdom, Evasion
Level 9: +1 Dexterity, Dirty Fighter
Level 10: +1 Dexterity, Disguise
Level 1: Monk
Level 2: +1 Wisdom, Wind Walker
Level 3: +1 Wisdom, Finish Him!
Level 4: +1 Wisdom, Still Mind
Resolved Bonds
I see the potential for a great leader in Oliver, but too often he sells himself short (so to speak). I will teach him to be a leader of men.
It was due to Nikolai's bravery and the help of his minion, Bronen, that we were able to escape the fortress of Tahrik-Men. I owe him a favor.
Oliver died because I wasn't there to protect him. I will try to stay closer to him from now on.
Nikolai showed no remorse for his neglectful behavior. I will prepare for his inevitable treachery.
Nikolai could have chosen to stay in Damerus in comfort, but instead he went with me on my quest. I will see to it that he accomplishes good.
Oliver has agreed to go with me on my quest; I must do what I can to take care of him.
Nikolai made a risky move to help us with our quest. I will allow him to feed from me if necessary.
Oliver has seen through my lies and does not like what he sees. I will endeavor to show him that I am not an evil person.
I've defeated Ilun for Nikolai but at a high cost. I will make sure he knows his place.
I saved Nikolai in a moment of crisis. He owes me a favor.
Oliver has my back when things go wrong.
Nikolai is a vampire! I should try to befriend him to see if I can learn anything from him.
Grimalkin is strange and dangerous; I will kill her if she threatens me again.
Oliver is difficult for me to understand; I must try to habituate him to the comforts of the city.
Norman is young and inexperienced but loyal; I should teach him some tricks.
Norman knows incriminating details about me.