Quote Originally Posted by CollectorOfMyst View Post
I run a sort of 'Age of Exploration' campaign. That being, there are rudimentary guns and cannons, the players own a ship, and it takes place in a sort of archipelago (a group of islands). Scattered about this archipelago are twelve characters that function as a player would, and can be recruited to the ship. At present, nine of these characters are complete in that I know who they are and who they used to be. Three of them are in varying stages of completion. I can say that having someone help patch those gaps would be a great help, so anything you (or indeed, anyone else) can offer would be a godsend.

The campaign takes place across several islands. There are two 'superpower' nations - the Kingdom of Aeros, and the Empire of Kyralia. Both of these two nations have several vassal states, and there is tension between the two, because as if two nations could exist in D&D without nearly being at war with each other. The recruits come from various powerful factions; the Cardinal Orthodoxy, the religious group of the isles; the Ambrose Academy, the university and council of mages (wizards, warlocks, sorcerers); the Blackthorn Mercenary Company, based in Aeros; and the Outcast's Charter, a former thieves' guild now trying to do some good in the world. There's also an unknown group called the Coterie, which puts up a front of being a group of people who want to improve the world and the relations between the two nations - but is truly seeking power in various ways. The players themselves are essentially a group of wanderers thrown together by chance, standard stuff.

Fiona

Race: Tiefling (Devil's Tongue) | Class: Monk, Way of the Open Hand | Alignment: Chaotic Good | Age: 23 | Faction: Blackthorn Mercenaries, the Coterie.

Fiona, in no simple terms, is a double agent. She is a high-ranking captain in the Blackthorn Mercenaries, enough to have sway over a significant number of them. However, her loyalties are to the Coterie. She is a Mirror Maiden; an almost exclusively female group, the Mirror Maidens are the spies of the Coterie; they use seductive wiles, battle prowess, and espionage to get what they want. If the players recruit Fiona, they will, in fact, be welcoming an enemy into their midst - because the Coterie has a number of goals that conflict with the party's.

However, I'm not so cruel as to give the players a turncoat (as fabulous as that would be), so Fiona, since her deployment, has begun to have doubts. The world outside Kyralia, where she is from, is so different, so much kinder. She doesn't know what to believe at this point.

Obviously, there's room for something here. I was thinking that Fiona grew up in the Empire's capital city (as yet unnamed) but I'm not sure.
Fiona was another one that came to me; and it doesn't have a lot of high fantasy elements this time.
Hers, much like her, was a humble beginning, that she learned to use the Devil's Tongue to sway men (and women, as needed) to get the information she needed...
But one mission would change her life forever! I loved writing this one and the end... was delicious to write.
As always, I welcome feedback - tell me what you like, hated, loved, what works and what doesn't!
Until then, enjoy!
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Who I am represents what I’ve become.

My name is Fiona and I was born into this world as a Tiefling.

Born from a human family, I am neither human nor devil, despite my appearances.

I have always lived this life of duality; my human side urging me to remain strong and true to the cause; but the devilish appearance makes it difficult. In order to survive I began to rely on my natural ability to speak to someone’s desires.

Doing this allowed me to survive, but also gain information. It’s interesting how someone might scoff at you on the streets in the presence of others, but if you get them alone, they’re more than willing to be seduced by someone that sneered at in public.

I suppose everyone, in this sense, leads a life of duality. The person they are in the presence of others and the person that they are in privacy.

My appearance and my ability to easily sway a person and gather intelligence from them in the heat of passion quickly got the attention of the Blackthorn Mercenaries, especially after it had been one of their high ranking officers whom I had bumped into, made idle chitchat with, and then proceeded to seduce by the name of Gnéas Le do’thoil (though he enjoyed being called “Genus”). In the thralls of passion, he told me everything about the Blackthorn Mercenaries; their plans, their various bases scattered about, even some of their agents. After the night’s activities, he realized what he’d done and fearful I might go elsewhere to betray them he immediately offered me a position within the Blackthorn Mercenaries.

What neither Gnéas Le do’thoil nor the Blackthorn Mercenaries knew was that Gnéas had been purposely targeted by me. As I said, I’ve always led a life of duality. In truth, I work directly for the Coterie; specifically the exclusively female branch known as the Mirror Maidens. As a part of the Mirror Maidens we used every resource we had available to us, whether it was seduction, espionage, or force, to gather the information we needed for the Coterie.

That was me. That was when my life was easier; when all I had to deal with was the two sides of who I am.

That was several weeks ago. My latest mission takes me outside of Kyralia where I am seeing a side of the world I never knew existed. In the Empire’s Kingdom, everyone was struggling to reach the top, so no matter how far you got, someone was ready to pull you back down and throw you to the bottom and step on your corpse just to get higher.

Outside of that suffocating Empire, the world of Kyralia is very different. Aboard the Dark Horizon, I met an unusual man who claimed to be blind but seemed to move about the boat better than the rest of us. It was interesting trying to get to know him; a challenge, because he couldn’t see me for who I was. He could only go based on my voice which I’d master to be able to seduce man or woman, as needed.

Every attempt to speak with him in such a manner was rebuffed. Offers to spend some time together were declined.

I finally asked him, “You’ve refused every offer I’ve given you, why is that?”

Suaimhneas, the elderly male human, whose eyes were as white as snow replied, “Because they are not sincere.”

“How do you know they’re not sincere?” I asked feeling insulted.

“Because your body language,” he answered matter-of-factly, as he tapped his cane on the ship’s floor.

“You’re blind,” I laughed. “You can’t possibly see my body language.”

“I don’t need to see with my eyes to see,” he laughed back. “If you believe only your eyes are what allow you to see then it is you who is blind.”

“What does that mean?” I asked sitting down next to him, my ego still suffering a critical wound.

“When you speak, your voice is trying too hard,” he said, “and the energy coming from your body is emitting energy similar to animal pheromones. All of this tells me your body is not balanced and that you have used this method to undoubtedly seduce many men and survive in this world.” He stood and began to pace in front of me, his arms folded behind his back. “What if I told you there was something better for you?”

“Better?” I tilted my head back and laughed. “What could possibly be better than the life I have now?”

“Like a sheet of paper, you are torn in half,” he said. A large wave splashed against the side of the boat, sending myself and everyone else toppling to the ground; everyone except the blind man. I brushed myself and stood up.

“How did you do that?” I asked, eyes narrowing.

“Do what? Stand? I’ve been able to stand for many years,” he laughed.

“Well, at least it’s nice to know you have a sense of humor,” I grumbled beneath my breath.

“I felt the energy beneath me,” he explained. “The ocean and the boat are in relation with one another, I felt the boat tilt more to one side before the wave came, telling me there was something coming. Similar to when you throw a stone in a pond and the ripples come. You make yourself one with everything rather than apart from it and you will find balance again.”

For the next two weeks of the voyage Suaimhneas and I would spend hours on the deck as he explained how to channel the energy of the world around me into myself. He taught me peace, tranquility, acceptance of who I am and what I had become. The past was a part of who I was but did not define who I was now in the present.

When we landed on Suaimhneas’ island, which was one I had never seen on the charts – not surprising how small it was, it had only a small village and a small forest from which they hunted – the people of his village Cineál all came out rushing to see him. He introduced me and despite my unusual appearance to all of these humans who had never seen a Tiefling before, they openly accepted me and welcomed me into their homes. I learned their traditions and became a part of their family. I worked their fields and played with their children.

Three years of this and life was amazing until one day one of Suaimhneas’ daughters rushed out to get me from the fields. I ran back with her and saw that Suaimhneas was in bed, his face pale, his breath haggard. “Come,” he said, extending his hand to me. I took his hand into mine. “It was you I was looking for all along,” he smiled weakly. “There was a lost soul I sensed in need of direction and so I booked passage for weeks on end traveling to various islands until we met. Take what I have taught you and go forward. Find your inner peace. You are not a fractured soul any longer. Your past does not define who you are today.”

Suaimhneas took one more breath then his hand went limp in mine…