Sources: Greek setting is homebrew; cloistered cleric is from
Unearthed Arcana; taint mechanics and symptoms of depravity are from
Heroes of Horror; Unholy Scion template is from
Heroes of Horror.
This NPC is a bit of "When Inspiration Strikes," but due to the nature of her traumatic background, I thought it would be better to put it in this forum. I drew inspiration from
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for the story of her abduction and slavery, as well as a bit of the core mechanical concepts for the character, and I drew from
My Fair Lady (based on the Greek story
Pygmalion) and the
Vagina Monologues for the story of the alienist's intervention and their subsequent romantic involvement.
The character: So, I have this idea for an NPC cloistered cleric, in my Greek-themed campaign, who's based around the Dream-telling feat (
Heroes of Horror) and Skill Focus (Knowledge:religion). She's 17 at the time "her story" starts, which is at least 8 years before the campaign starts.
She's been raised in her idyllic, Late-Bronze Age village and kept safe from harm and outside influences. She has a unique gift, which is the ability to extract meaning from the dreams of the people of her village (inspired somewhat by Joseph, of
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat fame). She is exalted by the village, and is groomed to become the priestess for the village, succeeding her grandmother. Then, disaster strikes.
A raid from a neighboring village by healthy young men seeking wives sees the girl captured and dragged away, screaming. Her captor's confidence wanes, however, and despite his apparent success, is unsure as to whether he is comfortable with the idea of bringing his new "wife" home. The pair wander through the wilderness while he tries to make up his mind. Her wrists are bound, and when she tries to escape, he proves stronger and faster (curse the low base attack bonus!).
Finally hitting upon an idea to gain her freedom, she seduces him. He releases her from her bonds, "takes advantage," and as he sleeps, she smashes his head in with a rock. She wanders through the wilderness, trying to find her way back home, which proves to be futile. She's picked up by slavers, and soon after, she discovers she's pregnant with her kidnapper's child. She experiences abuse at the hands of the slavers due to her rebellious attitude.
The girl proves too cunning and headstrong to make a quick sale and thus she is dropped in a slave camp, where she might be "re-educated." (These slavers are business-minded individuals who are ahead of their time.) She gives birth to her child while she's in captivity, and her son is taken from her. At this point, the trauma she's experienced up to this point causes her to begin to have nightmarish, prophetic visions (
Prophetic, a la minor depravity). She's able to keep up the charade for a little while, but her nightmares rob her of her sleep, and she quickly becomes too exhausted to maintain her rebellious attitude.
She's placed in a program to "educate" her in the ways of the courtesan (drawing some inspiration from
Memoirs of a Geisha), where her visions intensify and she becomes delusional (the next stage of the "Prophetic" mental symptom). She is repeatedly reprimanded for "damaging" valuable silks and other objects of high spiritual value (as she's been cleaving to the items to help absorb the taint and prevent her condition from growing worse -- she's crazy at this point, but she isn't stupid
).
Finally considered too far lost to make an effective courtesan, she's cast out of the training house like a piece of meat to dogs. She's physically and mentally abused by the guards and by the other disaffected slaves. Her world of nightmares and delusions override her concept of reality, and she plunges into apathy (symptom of severe depravity at the end of the Prophetic symptom chain). It's at this point that destiny intervenes -- she's purchased by a wizard (member of the alienist class) who recognizes her taint for what it is and wishes to study the symptoms of her madness.
Taking the girl from the slave camp and into her own home/workshop, the alienist discovers that the girl is prophetic and quite intelligent, despite her nightmares, delusions, and apathy. Ever-curious, the alienist crafts for the girl a "dream-catcher" amulet to stymie the girl's plague of nightmares in an attempt to bring her back from the precipice of insanity. While in the alienist's custody, the girl gives birth to an unholy scion, presumably wrought on her by one of the guards or other slaves and tainted by her depravity. The alienist presents the unwholesome child to her cult as a "blessed" child, and the girl remains unaware of the events.
Now, no longer plagued by nightmares, it seems that the girl can begin a slow recovery. The alienist hires a priest to perform an expensive ritual to release the girl from her apathy, and she's finally able to resume a half-life of sorts. Years pass, and the alienist grows more affectionate towards her charge (drawing inspiration from
My Fair Lady) and puts a great deal of effort into helping the young cleric regain her mind and expunge herself of the horrors of her past. (Presumably, the cleric has reached 5th level by now, and is able to cast spells on a day-to-day basis to lower her depravity score. Also, she's working with local temples to "walk the path of atonement.")
When the party comes in, the cleric is completing the quest associated with an
atonement spell, which will reduce her depravity to the next symptom level (Prophetic). She is fiercely loyal to the alienist, but suspects that while they've engaged in a romantic relationship (drawing some inspiration from one of the stories in the
Vagina Monologues, as well) there's more going on that she isn't aware of.
...
The adventure that the party is engaged in when they encounter the cleric (LG) and the alienist (CE) is to smash the Material Plane base of an extraplanar slave-ring. They may go to the cleric for information, which may lead to them discovering bits of her past. They may do investigations into the character and her "master," the alienist. The unholy scion will definitely emerge as an enemy (perhaps a BBEG in several years' time? lol) or may simply be a hook for a later group.
Where it goes from there is dependent on how interested the party is in her story, and whether they want to help her or not. Either way, I have a fun, richly-detailed character that I can transpose to numerous different settings/games.
