(circa "Red Nails")
Medium Human Female
5th level
1st level commoner/4th level wizard
Hit Dice: 5d4 +10 (23 hit points)
Inititiative: +8 (+4 Dex, +4 Imp. Init.)
Speed: 30 ft.
Armor Class: 15 (+4 Dex, +1 dodge)
Attacks: Dagger +5 melee
Damage: Dagger 1d4+3
Face/Reach: 5 ft x 5 ft/ 5ft
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +6
Attributes: Str 16, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 18
Skills: Alchemy +10, Concentration +9, Knowledge (Arcana) +9, Spellcraft +9, Spot +5, Sense Motive +7, Knowledge (Religion) +9
Feats: Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes
Climate/Terrain: Xuchotl
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 14
Treasure: None
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Advancement: by character class
Tolkemec
Valeria
Olmec
Links
~Red Nails, Robert E. Howard
Tascela is the woman that began the fifty year feud in Xuchotl, yet she appears young. She is old enough that she does not remember her childhood. She does remember that once a priest of Stygia loved her and gave her the secret of immortality and youth everlasting. Later she was taken to Xuchotl. Although she is called a princess by Olmec and his people, she is not of royal blood. She is also a mage, but since she lived on the wrong end of Xuchotl, she knows few spells - the spell of immortality and a couple of defensive spells - spells taught to her, presumably, by the priest who loved her. She was either abnormally strong, or she used magic to enhance her strength when she fought and captured Valeria. I prefer the latter solution. If you, as DM, prefer her to just be magically enhanced or just plain strong, give her a 20 strength or so.
Combat
Tascela prefers to "fight" by setting traps around her to protect her from anticipated harm. She knows spells and drugs that cause sleep and such, as well, although her means of casting do not readily commit themselves toward combat. She normally fights with daggers.
This is the last Conan story Robert E. Howard wrote, although it was not the last one published. Conan and Valeria find themselves trapped in a weird, fully-enclosed city inhabited by two peoples locked in a desperate war of extermination. Though Conan and Valeria offer their services to one side in the war, Valeria soon finds herself the object of the seemingly lesbian gaze of the King's wife, Tascela. Don't get your hopes up though. It turns out she wants Valeria for something else entirely. But you do get treated to a nicely prolonged and explicit whipping of a villainous girl sent to drug Valeria. Later, Valeria is manhandled by King Olmec in some rather undignified ways.
