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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aeolius" data-source="post: 5316173" data-attributes="member: 2072">I liked the minions of the BBEG in my last game, so I recycled them. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> "   Tempest and Salkt, her niece, shared the bond of Xaetra’s blood. Born of the union between midnight hag and sea elf, Salkt would be the more powerful of the two, had Tempest not partaken the path of the blood magus. Holding the midnight hag Xaetra as her grandmother, Tempest was born from the joining of shellycoat and merrow. Known upon land as greenhag, the shellycoat named Meir had slain Tempest in retaliation for her mother’s cruel and unjust murder.    Reborn amidst ancient rites, Tempest embraced the title of Blood Hag. Absorbing the energies of undeath, the midnight hag succumbed to the Turning, emerged as the unliving spectral hag, and sought revenge of her own. In time, Salkt and Tempest came to serve the abyssal hag Syliah, while Xaetra took refuge in the depths, communing with her progeny through dreams and portents.   It was the abyssal hag and the four coveys under her command that sought control of the Pinnacles of Azor’alq; ruins nestled within the still waters of the Dramidj Ocean. Yet even after death, the spectral hag stood fast.   Having assembled a gathering of heroes, Xaetra had bonded with the cold machinations of a metal construct devised by her paramour, the lich known as Zander. The iron hag, amalgamation of spirit and steel, became known as grandmother clock.  Together the two conceived a child, Jaenan, daughter of skin, steel, and sorcery.   Though aided by the mystic homunculus she had fashioned in life, Xaetra found herself the victim of Syliah’s treachery. Thirteen hags descended upon Xaetra and her circle. At one fell swoop thirteen hags weakened the spectral hag, desecrated her corpse, destroyed her construct, and slew her blood-spawned homunculus. The ocean was theirs for the taking.   Her ghostly form transformed once more, Xaetra emerged as a creature of dreamstuff. Doomed to haunt the dreams of those she knew in life, the spirit hag took sanctuary within the ethereal Region of Dreams.    Syliah was not appeased. She demanded the homunculus, corpse, and construct be removed from her domain. Yet beneath her grasp, the iron hag was stolen by its creation, Jaenan. Frightened, the silver-pied child carried grandmother clock into the one place she knew the others would not follow - the Underflow.    Entrusted with the corpse of the midnight hag and her desiccated homunculus, Tempest and Salkt fearfully followed the silvery mechanatrix into the darkness of the immense submerged cavern, which joined the Dramidj Ocean with the Oljatt Sea, thousands of miles to the east. Together, the two found courage within a token granted by Syliah, the bodiless head of Meir. Animated by necromantic magics, the shrunken head served to bolster hags’ powers as if they had been joined by a third, completing their covey.    Unknown to all but a handful of protectors, a massive underground river of saltwater known as the Underflow connects the Dramidj Ocean to the faraway Oljatt Sea, some three thousand miles to the southeast. The intense shifting currents, layers of poisoned waters, and indigenous sea jellies make this a journey fraught with danger for the unprepared. As the majority of the Underflow is completely submerged, travel by the inexperienced is all but impossible.   Yet onward they traveled, Jaenan and her burden, the two hags and their charge, followed by Xaetra’s final legacy - the simulacrum. Fashioned from ruby dust, a living draught of elemental blackwater, and a bit of flesh from Salkt’s daughter, the magical duplicate swam dutifully onward, never questioning her orders, intent, or creation. By appearance she seemed indistinguishable from NeeKaa, one of the heroes of Azor’alq and Xaetra’s granddaughter through Salkt’s union with an unwitting triton. Yet from the moment of her creation she was but a sliver of the oceanid’s soul coupled with her own dreams and desires.   The currents of the Underflow held secrets of their own design. Within their waters, the corpse of the midnight hag awakened once more; taking the shape of the deathlock; an unliving creature bound to the powerful magics its wielder once commanded in life. Within the eddies of the Underflow, the unliving head of Meir awakened; emancipated from Syliah’s control. Within the turbulent waters, Tempest happened upon a field of phosphorescent coral; coral bound by the magics of incarnum and charged with the powers of propagation. The coral begat a life of its own.Clumsily, the two hags held fast to their prize as the currents beneath the ocean floor spat them out like wastewater. The sea was shallow and warm. Two moons shone brightly atop Synsaal, the Barrier Between Worlds.    The safety of their captive was crucial to earning the favor of their mistress, yet the journey had taken its toll. In an instant, Tempest succumbed to the birth spasms of her parthenogenetic offspring. Of virgin birth, Ciliaris the reef hag was born with the memories held by her mother. From her first breath, she hated her. The infant hag took full advantage of her mother’s weakness, abducting the token hag and darting off into the distance.   It would be the last sight beheld by both Tempest and Salkt."   Inspired by this sculpture:<img src="http://ii-prod-rw.marketlive.com/DesignToscano/images/products/en_us/detail/DB51037.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />   I devised Diadema the Blackwater Hag, an amalgam of the sea hag blood magus Tempest, the salt hag Salkt, and the deathlock of Xaetra herself. Diadema is also a bard capable of singing with three voices simultaneously, as well as a witch with a similar talent for multiple spell use.</blockquote>

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