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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shayuri" data-source="post: 6437185" data-attributes="member: 4936">Nia SteeleyesNeutral Good Human Druid 3/Ranger 1Background: Sailor[sblock=Description]Nia is a striking young woman of mixed islander and African ancestry, with long, lustrous black hair and a mocha complexion. She often wears face paint and somewhat exaggerratedly 'witch doctor' garb when playing up her sea witch persona, but actually prefers more comfortable and sedate clothing. Of particular note in her appearance is her eye color. Her irises are a strange silver-grey shade, as if all the color had leached out. Sometimes when she calls on her powers, that steely color 'leaks' into her pupils as well, giving her the look of someone who has cateracts, though it doesn't seem to interfere with her vision.<img src="http://i58.tinypic.com/2lkf9z4.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock][sblock=Background]Nia was the youngest daughter of the chieftain of a small island village in the Carribean. She both idolized her older sister, Inka, who was apprenticed to the village 'witch,' a woman of significant powers and skilled in the calling of voodoo loa spirits. Nia was still quite young when Inka ran off with some Spanish pirate, abandoning her people in the process. Nia had to grow up in a hurry to fill her shoes, and though it was a struggle she rose to the challenge. To add insult to injury, not so very long afterward that Spanish captain brought Inka back...for burial. Her father the chief, consumed by wrath, demanded that Gertie, the village witch, curse that captain. It was done, and despite them forbidding her, Nia found a place to watch in secret. It was terrifying, but it felt right. It was justice. It was like Gertie always said, that which you do comes back to you. Actions and consequences. It was the way of things, and it was right.Gertie was dead, and Nia was the new witch, but still very fresh to it, when it all ended. Maybe, she would think later, this was justice too? Maybe in cursing that captain, the village had become cursed? It's an uneasy thought. A man came to the village, which wasn't unusual. Smugglers and 'naturalists' and other foreigners weren't completely unheard of on the island. This man, who called himself Smiling Jack or sometimes Jack of Smiles, was charismatic and affable, and quick to win hearts and minds. When he began to sow seeds of dissent, talking quietly to those who had gathered with him of how the Chief was doing wrong, and was weak, he was banished from the village. But he took a handful with him. Not enough to be dangerous though. They retreated to shelters in the caves at the other side of the island.One night Nia had a dream. A nightmare. She was standing on the beach after dark, looking at the sky, when the stars started going out. From the horizon, up into the sky, they went dark. Nia followed that line up, and realized it had a shape to it. The stars weren't disppearing...something was blocking them out. Something as dark as the night sky, and almost as big. Then the ball of silver light that she'd thought was the moon...blinked at her, and a smile spread across the sky. Even after awakening, the dream haunted Nia. She knew that smile.The village was all afuss that morning, because some of the kids hadn't come home from playing. While the Chief and the hunters organized searches, Nia went to find Smiling Jack. The caves were empty though, abandoned. She found their beds, and the things they'd stolen or traded with other ships for. Horribly, she found other things too. Bloody knives and instruments that seemed to have no function other than pain. Shackles, smeared with blood, now open. But no Jack. No people.The sun was setting as she made her way back to the village. As the sky darkened, several folk noticed that the top of the Holy Mountain had light on it. The Holy Mountain wasn't really a MOUNTAIN of course...it was steep-sloped, made of black rock; the core of an old volcanic caldera. The fires within had long since died. But on top, lights now. And the pounding of drums. Once again, while the village mobilized to go one way, Nia looked another. The warriors were preparing to go up there. Nia went to the sea.Under the eye of the lunatic full moon, she saw a shadow beneath the waves. It didn't rise up and block the sky. But she felt it stirring. Heard the fathomless explosion of its breath coming to the surface. She saw the waters of the sea suddenly fall back away from shore with awful speed, and knew what it meant. There was no time to warn anyone. All she could do was rush to the hollow of a stone and press herself inside. There was the rumble of the wave breaking...far overhead.Then there was just water, dark and cold. Rushing into her ears and mouth and nose, crushing her against the stone. And then just the dark and cold. But in that dark cold she was not alone. In the Shadowlands between life and death, under the endless twilight of its starless sky, something spoke to her. She gave response. To this day she cannot remember what words were spoken.Nia woke up though, coughing water, covered in seaweed that most likely saved her from being smashed to pieces by debris. On peeling herself out, pushing free to stand on the beach, she beheld the ruin of her home. The island had been scoured. Trees, topsoil, and of course the village...all gone. Only dirt and stone and the Holy Mountain were left. With the rising of the sun, Nia scaled to the top of the Mountain and found the place where the light had been. That high, the waters hadn't reached. A crudely made altar still stood there, and bodies still lay. The bodies of the missing children, drowned by the look of them. The bodies of the villagers who'd stood with Jack of Smiles...throats cut. Of Jack there was no sign.With nothing for her at the island, Nia buried her former fellows and improvised a raft from the driftwood and few ripped-up trees that remained. In this way she managed to get to a neighboring island, and from there found her way onto a ship. Bartering her skills as a healer, and the promise of magic to aid them, Nia spent the next years of her life at sea, learning its ways. She learned to find a course in the stars and to tell the weather tomorrow by the clouds today. She honed her skill with bow and staff, preparing for a confrontation she knew would take place. And each time she found port, Nia hunted. The man she knew as Smiling Jack went by more than one name, and even more than one face, but the smile was always the same. Nia knew without knowing how that he was no man at all, at least not any longer. She studied the old legends of the Abyss, learning her enemy as well as she could. Finally, she helped find and catch an abyssal cultist who let slip before he died that his brother had betrayed him at Cartegena; a sacking from which just one ship escaped. La Gloriosa. Though long considered a fool's errand to seek that old wreck, Nia immediately made plans to do just that. For in that ship lay a man who might know, or have, information about where to find that smile one more time...and wipe it from the world forever. [/sblock][sblock=Stats]Nia SteeleyesNeutral Good Human Druid 3/Ranger 1Background: SailorStr 10 Dex 16 (+1 race)Con 14 Int 10 Wis 18 (+1 race, +1 feat)Cha 14 HP 32AC 14 (11 + 3)Prof Bonus +2Init +3Race: Human+1 Dex, +1 WisBonus FeatBonus Trained skillClass DruidDruidic LanguageSpellcastingRitual CastingWild Shape 2/short rest (up to CR 1/4)Circle of the Twilight- Harvest's Scythe (Spent 1/2 lvl out of 3d10 pool to do bonus necrotic damage on spells; cure 2/die spent to ally in 30' if damage kills)RangerFavored Enemy (Adv on Wis checks to track and recall info, gain language)- Aberrations Natural Explorer (2x prof on Wis/Int checks related to terrain type, gain benefits when traveling through)- CoastProficienciesArmor: Light, Medium, shields (only nonmetal armor)Weapons: All Simple, All MartialTools: Herbalism KitSaves: Intelligence and WisdomBackgroundSailorSkills: Athletics, PerceptionTools: Navigational tools, water vehiclesEquipment: Belaying pin, 50 ft silk rope, common clothes, 10 gp, trinket)Feature: PassageSkillsAthletics +2Nature +6Survival +6Perception +6Stealth +5Insight +6LanguagesEnglish, Creole, Jamaican, Loa, AbyssalPersonality Trait: I do not suffer fools.Bond: I hunt the thing that destroyed what I love, and I will stop at nothing to find and destroy it.Ideal: What goes around, comes around.Flaw: I would risk too much, sacrifice too much, to accomplish my goal.Fortunes: Mixed: Quicksilver eyesGood: Voodoo rituals, Magic TrinketsIll: Haunted, WastrelFeats- Observant (+1 Wis, +5 passive Perception and Investigation, read lips)Spellcasting (Save DC 14)Slots 1 - 4, 2 - 2Cantrips- Guidence- ShillelaghPreparedCure Wounds, Healing Word, Entangle, Faerie Fire, Enhance Ability, Flaming Sphere, MoonbeamEquipmentCash: WeaponsStaff, +2, 1d6 (+6, 1d8+4 w/shillelagh)Dagger, +5, 1d4+3Longbow, +5, 1d8+4, 150/600 rng Armor Pitch JacketGear3 belt pouchesHerbalism KitTrinkets- Pirate recipe book- Elaborate compass in scrimshaw case- Piece of helm's wheel with loa name on it- Sharkman necklace- Loud conch shell[/sblock]</blockquote>

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