| Relatives | The Luxaeterna Tribe in the Amusa Underdark (Estranged) |
|---|---|
| Languages | Common, Elvish, Undercommon |
| Affiliations | The Drow Army of Lolth, Amusa dedication (formerly) Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company |
| Aliases | Lux, Captain (formerly) Millie |
| Marital Status | single |
| Place of Birth | The Underdark |
| Species | Drow |
| Gender | Female |
| Height | 5’5 |
| Weight | Medium |
| Eye Color | bioluminscent green |
Amelie Luxaeterna is a Drow Battlemaster fighter in the Wicked Wilds campaign
Physical Appearance[edit | edit source]
With skin like shadow, Amelie is a soft grey-purple with pin points of white and green freckles, bio luminescent in the dark, like the irises of her eyes. They are the definitive train that gives her family their name, the Luxaeterna, the Eternal Light. Her hair is a stark silver white and while she had it long as a child, when she entered the military at the age of 50, she chose to shave it down to avoid it being caught in her way when pulling arrows from her quiver or swinging her sword with gusto. She has since improved with her ability to avoid strangling herself, but still chooses to keep her hair neat on the sides because she likes the way it looks, though she does allow it to grow length on the top. She has a scar over her nose from a fight she got into with another young recruit when she was in training. The wound broke her nose and it healed badly, but it could be worse. The other recruit did not survive Lux’s retaliation.
Amelie’s uniform consists of lavender padding that she wears under her chainmail, with shoulder guards that bear spiderwebs engraved into them, though it does not lower the integrity of the armor itself. She She wears larges leather gloves and keeps all her items close to her through a large leather belt.
She has a specific style of day clothes she enjoys wearing. She enjoys wearing loose fitting pants and collar shirts and has a large black trench coat she wears to keep the sun off the majority of her skin while surfaced. One pocket almost always has a set of playing cards. When not in battle, Lux wears a pair of heavy sun goggles that help her see in the sunlight, though they are too encumbering and short sighted to assist her in an actual fight.
She has no affinities for things like jewelry or accessories.
During the expedition of the Tempest Brother’s and Amelie’s change in her beliefs, she has begun to grow her hair out, a symbol of putting aside the soldier she had always embraced. She also frequently is seen wearing a scarf, black with red stripes, gifted by Pash.
Personality[edit | edit source]
Amelie takes her work very seriously as a Captain and a soldier and now as an ambassador, but is still young at heart and that leads her to be immature at times, even prone to having fun once in a while. She is loyal to a fault, devoted to her beliefs, but as this is only the second time she has surfaced, she is wildly curious about this new world that lays before her, up in the sun. She hopes to take advantage of the time and learn all about the surface world, both its dangers and its revelries.
History[edit | edit source]
The next generation in an era’s worth of drow militia, Amelie has been training to be a soldier since the moment she could walk. For a hundred years, she spent every moment marching, swinging swords, throwing daggers, shooting bows, attacking monsters and aberrations, hunting down escaped prisoners and it didn’t take long for her to rise in the ranks as her tribe and leaders brought her up in the ways of the Drow and their dedication to the goddess queen Lolth and the importance of being strong, despite being the smallest of the elven races.
Amelie has led the same battalion of troops for the last 70 years, but when the temple of Lolth in the Wilds of Amusa reopened on the surface, for the first time since she could even remember, it awoke something down in the underdark. Mind Flayers, cloakers, and fungus creatures that had slept for years, waiting for light and life to show its face again, rose from their dormant state and began to attack everything in sight as soon as the doors opened. Amelie’s battalion was called in to deal with the first wave, but soon it was becoming overwhelming for her young troops, who had been stationed here because it had been quiet for so long. It was supposed to be an easy patrol.
The general above Lux took them to see who had opened the temple and awakened those below. They headed up and found evidence of the interference of a group from Galik, the city that way outside the wilds. The general took them to the camp, finding the one who had opened it from within the temple, the one called PAUL. They met with Paul at the camp of the ‘Tempest Brothers’ expedition. Adventurers believing themselves capable of mapping and discovering the dangers within the wilds. It made Amelie laugh. How confident they were. And they had brought the roughest looking group she’d seen. Even her young troops seemed more capable than these. To see what they were made out of, Amelie overheard the general ask Paul and his group to come clean up some of their mess and assist them in taking on some of the beasts they’d awoken.
In the time before that group came to take action, Lux kept watch over some priestesses and temple maiden who came to assist in the restoration of the long-abandoned Temple of Lolththat had been left when a haunter took it up as a lair. The haunter seemed to be dispatched and it’s ichor cleared out. The spiders that once inhabited the temple were all slain though, which left Lux unimpressed. Unless they had been possessed by the haunter, they should have been left to their home here with Lolth’s statue, as they were usually the guardians of such.
When the Tempest Brothers did finally send their party to fight against the creatures in the Underdark, the general and Lux watched from a far, taking note of the different skills and weaknesses. They watched as the party struggled and while this meant they did not pose an immediate threat to the drow and those others who dwelled in the Underdark, there were some with enough skill, like the ranger with the drake, who posed enough of a threat, that they ought to be—monitored. Once the party escaped, leaving one of their own behind, a human sorcerer who had been slain by one of the mushroom creatures, Lux and her troops finished off the remaining enemies before burying the poor human girl and returning to report the information they found about the expeditionary group.
After long debates and discussion, it was decided that someone out to go up and keep their eye on the company from the inside, join their ranks as an ambassador, and with few volunteers, Amelie decided it should be her. She volunteered and even gave instruction for how her current battalion would be divided among the others. She had a long, hearty goodbye with her troops, promising to bring back stories of the surface world.
A ceremony was held for Amelie, the priestesses blessing her so she might find favor with Lolth, even with her long exposure to the sun and that she might find peace with the others above and keep them from bringing their troubles down below again.
And so she set forward, Cpt Amelie Luxaeterna, to join the Tempest Brothers Expeditionary company in the Wicked Wilds.
Languages[edit | edit source]
Common, Elvish, Undercommon
Powers and Abilities[edit | edit source]
Lux’s fighting style is Interference, as her job as a leader of a battalion is not only to show them how fight and expect them defend themselves, she also feels strongly about stepping in when she the enemy is too strong.
Attacks and Weapons [edit | edit source]
Amelie carries with her a sword made of one singular purple crystal, hard as diamond and cut by an expert weapons jeweler in her tribe. She also bears a shield with a web embossed into it, the same as her shoulder armor, and a large, raised spider at the center, the symbol of Lolth.
As she began to grow and change while staying in the city of Amusa with the Tempest Brothers, Amelie slowly shed her Lolth-sword militant armor, upgrading to an adamantine half-plate instead of her chainmail, and abandoned her spider shield for an animated one so she can more easily wield her blade with both hands. She still carries her crystal sword, but it has been coated with singing oil, which allows her to tune the blade to vibrate so it does additional thunder damage. It is also silvered as several of the missions she went on included were-creatures. Amelie also carries a javelin of lightning with the command word “Shazam”. It is also silvered.
She is divinely favored and therefore can cast guidance, as well as Shield of Faith and Augury.
She wears bracers that infuse with magic when she fails a spell save or is hit with a spell attack, a bracelet that casts shield once a day, as well as slippers of Spider climb. She also worked with Radion to develop Goggles of Day, which work like Goggles of Night, but allow drow to see in the sunlight.
Letters to the General[edit | edit source]
A Confusing Party[edit | edit source]
General Luxaeterna,
I imagined my expeditions out with these surface dwellers to be much different that what actually occurred. I was invited along with others to a party at the home of someone they call the collector. It seems to me that he is an unworthy person who procures magical artifacts and objects that he stores poorly and allows to infect and be used by anyone and anything that can make its way past his very poor protections for having some powerful possessions. If I was him, I would certainly have many more wards in place and I would assure that most of those objects have some kind of arcane lock on them so they cannot be used without my permission. We did not learn his real name, only that he is a collector.
We were invited to some kind of traditional party at his home, a celebration of dressing up in the costumes of terrifying creatures to fool one another and carve faces into gourds and turn their guts into a pie. It was all seems quite unnecessary and the party was boring as well. It was just walking around, introducing yourself too many times to people I am sure I will never meet again and seeing how much I could drink for free without being scolded by my comrades. (Six, by the way, is how many free drinks I had before the night was over. I slept quite soundly on the flight back.)
We were instructed before we left that we also had to attend in costume, so I donned robes over top of my chainmail as well as made little tentacles out of cloth that I fitted to my face, and slicked back my hair so I would look like a mindflayer, since that is the most clever and frightening monster I’ve ever encountered, besides my own mother. I abandoned this costume the moment it was inconvenient. I was scolded later for “not being in the Halloween spirit.” I don’t wish to be possessed by any spirit, so I am glad to know I was not in it.
My companions for this mission were an odd wizard called Twilsby, a strange old man who was a bard named Danke, a lovely satyr woman from the fey realm of the moon called Amaris, a strange elven girl called Rina, and a dwarven man with a shifty little dwarven man called Thordon.
The others attending the festivities were also in costume, they dressed like owlbears, crabby creatures, vampires, and most upsettingly, there was someone else also dressed as a mind flayer! I felt very embarrassed but I also believe my costume looked quite a bit better.
The party was quite, the others from Tempest Brothers told me that this is not normally how a party should be thrown. I have only been to military balls, so I am unsure of how much truth comes to that. We were introduced to a small cat called Mittens, but this was inconsequential to me at the time. I would come to despise this creature by the end of the evening.
While we were all tolerating the festivities, an odd fellow called Dynia came to the party. He is apparently some kind of fey creature, although not of the actual courts in any capacity. A free agent, if you will. He is the leader of a group called the Gourdheart disciples. He has a pumpkin on his head but spoke and moved like a man. I’ve been made aware that when you carve a face into a pumpkin, it is then called a jack o lantern. I am not sure who Jack is, but the lantern part is because they put a tallow candle inside to burn and creature a luminary of sorts.
Dynia did not arrive alone, but was followed by many of what I was later told are called scarecrows. They are usually not animate, but are put in fields to keep bird from plundering crops. Are birds inherently so stupid to be frightened by a stationery being? I must test this more with those large birds I’ve encountered in the camp. These were magical constructs of some kind.
They brought with them quite a display, it was a very large pumpkin that nearly took the whole of the ballroom. Just before this was set into place, I was handed a stone by the wizard Twilsby. He said some autom handed it off to him. I was sure I was about to be cursed, but instead it protected me from what came next. That gigantic pumpkin let loose a gaseous spell that infected everyone who did not have an amulet stone and they took the form of their own costume. It was quite frightening but I stood my ground. I am understand now that this was all a distraction so that a woman, Lorie, could go into the collector’s things and find some files for her aid, but at the time, It was unclear to me whether these were harmless forms or that the other party goers were going to become the real things with all the power and fright that come with them.
We watched on as Dynia used some mushrooms to unlock a door and go into a room of the collector’s to take something for himself. The mushrooms were apparently gifted to him by a creature that the others told me is called Mother, but likely a demon queen of some kind that we are bound to keep running into as she attempts to overtake the wilds as a new home on the material. What Dynia was looking for in the collection was quickly found, a crystalline pumpkin. I was quite interested in this, not for any of its magical qualities, but merely because I am a jewel worker myself and wished to see it closely and examine how it was cut and polished.
When Dynia realized that we did not succumb to his spell, he had us all shrunk down to only be one inch tall. This is a terrible fate and I will let you know a head of time, that I quite clearly have overcome this, but we were told that if we had remained that way until midnight, we would be permanently stuck in that small form. We were trapped inside a bottle and placed on a table in the collector’s kitchen.
That horrid cat that I mentioned earlier, came and pushed the bottle over and someone popped the cork out so we could escape. This cat was the size of a dragon! I took some rope we had and some pitons and pinned the rope to the top of the table and we scurried down the rope until the floor and then ran for a rathole. I owe ropes to Rina and Twilsby. Writing this letter has helped remind me of such.
Dynia had a wand or something that caused us to shrink and we overheard him say he took it up to the tallest point of the mansion where we were certainly not going to be able to reach it, at least, not on our own. We adventured through the rat hole until we met the owners of this home, Big Tony, who was wearing headwear that was described to me as a fedora. He spoke very oddly, like he owned the whole town, and he led us to his boss, a man they called The Don Rallition.
It was the day of the Don Rat’s daughter’s wedding, Ratilda, who was marrying Martin Mouse, son of the wealthiest of all the mice, Mickey. I am not one for rodent politics, so I will leave it at that.
In order for the Rat Don to guide us passage to the highest point of the mansion, we had to prove ourselves in the boxing ring. I am an excellent fight, strong as any woman, but these rats had hands. The bard and the wizard enhanced their own skill with magic while myself and the dwarf were easily knocked down. I would be ashamed, but these were magically enhanced intelligent rats with their own mob society, so I do not count It as a loss, but rather a learning experience.
They led us up and through the walls, we were attacked by roaches with firearms that seemed to shoot rice grain at us. The rats had weapons that worked the same. They were fast shooting and seemed quite powerful. Something like that at our normal size would be incredible to watch work, though I think I am still more partial to using my own strength to swing a sword instead of any kind of weapon that requires aiming.
We met other awakened creatures in the walls of the collector’s home. A termite doing construction, a great spider who I looked upon in awe. I imagine it’s body to be comparable to what our Queen Mother’s in comparison to my own at that time. I was absolutely beside myself as a large lizard creature crushed the spider before I could even speak to her.
We found the scarecrow that had the item we needed to reverse our curse and become our own sizes again. When we were returned to normal form, I jumped down the ceiling and right onto the giant pumpkin with its gaseous spell and began to attack it. We destroyed it together, I got the final blow. That wretched Dynia got away with the crystalline pumpkin and we have heard is going to use it to summon a giant pumpkin colored dragon who is his patron. The dragon is a glutton who will demand every ounce of food. We will have to put an end to him as soon as he is summoned.
The collector rewarded us for saving him with some trinkets and gold. The magical gift I took was an oil that I applied to my crystal sword. It makes it vibrate in such a way that when I strike with my sword, it causes a thunderous clap and causes even more damage to my enemy. I hope for an opportunity soon to put it to good use.
I am back at the camp now. We were without food for three days recently, so that monstrous appetite of a dragon must have been summoned after all. I will write again when I go on another mission. Thank you for entrusting me with this.
With respect and love,
Amelie
( UNSENT) An Apology on My Absence[edit | edit source]
I have always been very terrible with keeping up with these letters to assure my post and safety. I apologize greatly general. I have also changed my post, so I assume that was not handled very well on my part either. Things have been chaos since I have joined this company. After failing to keep that terrible pumpkin headed man from getting the crystal pumpkin, I can confirm that he did reawaken the pumpkin dragon of old. I was a part of the team that went out with Galik’s lyreguard to conquer it so that Amusa would not suffer it’s gluttonous reign.
I must be honest in my report, or fear that guilt and dishonesty will hang between the two of us.
I encountered a deserter in my mission to slay the pumpkin dragon Xevriss. One of the soldiers I thought I had lost in our mindflayer encounter when they were first awakened by the surface dwellers. I was sure she had died, but I could not have been more wrong. She stated that believes I was sent to the surface because I was not a good enough Captain for your service, General. That in your shame in me, you have regulated me to this position so you would not have to see me or answer to the others for my poor leadership and ---- I wish I could ask if that were true. You have never held back your poor opinion of my actions when I’ve misbehaved as a child or acted out of my position as a captain. If I have done thing to fall out of your favor, I wish only you would say it. But that would require asking and I know if I question your leadership, then I shall be put in a position to prove my worth before you and the other generals. I am not prepared to meet your sword and so my letters remain here, on my desk in the headquarters.
Amelie
A New Post in the City of Galik[edit | edit source]
After fighting the dragon, our camp in the Wilds was attacked and destroyed and we fled back to the city of Galik. It is a new experience for me, as you know, to see a city in the sunlight.
While here I have found myself working for the collector again, fighting ghosts and shadow. I went into a sewer to fight wererats with my companion Thordon, who has found himself afflicted with this condition as well. We have been fighting a force that is building under the name of the Queen of Rot, Zuggtmoy!
Perhaps this is why Lolth had you sent me to the surface after all! She calls herself the Mother, and is rallying herself and her mushroom and rot to bring her abyssal home here to the surface. General, I ought to warn you and the other drow of this coming terror! I’m sure if we are seeing signs above, that you in the underdark are seeing repercussions below as well.
With love and respect,
Amelie
(Unsent)[edit | edit source]
.
I fear this will be my last letter to you and I still don’t believe I can find it within myself to send it.
I have had a terrible vision. The demoness Zuggtmoy filled our minds after we had slain her champion Jim Stacy. She was trying to feel out for new minds to pull to herself. I was stronger than her will in that moment, but I saw her vision for Galik. Rot and bloodshed and authority.
When I consider and compare what I saw those under Zuggtmoy’s control doing in her name and how I have acted in the behest of our God Queen Lolth, I cannot help but believe that perhaps, we are villains that the other elves make us out to be. The lost sisters. It is difficult to believe, I know, and I know you have spend centuries fighting in her name and for her cause, but I fear—I cannot return to my position below.
I cannot continue to shed the blood of every other creature and every other Drow tribe in the Spider’s name, knowing that they are simply doing the same to survive. We are fighting a war I fear we are never going to win and it is meant to be that way.
I have made the decision to stay with the Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company until the end of their expeditions, but I do not know if I will show myself in the Underdark again, to avoid bringing you any further shame. I have gained more than allies here. I have genuine relationships with the people I have come to trust and fight alongside. They are not simply peoples under my command, but people who truthfully care for me and not out of fear but out of love and respect, something I have yearned for you, my own mother, my whole life and have never felt the warmth of once.
Do you know, to escape a maze, I was asked to give my happiest memory and it came with complete ease? I was willing to give up a memory, that I know do not know, simply because living mattered more to me than retaining an ounce of the good that I had known between you and I. I watched one of my companions nearly sacrifice his life over just the thought of a memory with a child he cared for and never once have I experienced a tenderness like that with another creature in all my decades. Nearly two centuries and I can’t claim a memory worthy of hesitation. I felt like a monster in all of their faces. Like I made a mockery of what was difficult for every one else. At first thought perhaps I was stronger than all of them because of it, but I see now, as the vision from Zuggtmoy, it is because I have had an important piece of one’s existence kept out of my sight for all my life. I did not even know I was missing this kind of connection, and yet now I cannot help but crave it.
I will not return to Lolth’s service.
I will avoid the Underdark at all costs.
And again, I cannot find the motivation to send this letter to you.
Amelie
Street Fighting[edit | edit source]
In order to keep herself agile, as well as maintain better control over her growing anxiety and aggression, Amelie had taken up street fighting in Galik. She runs about an hour outside of the area where the Tempest Brothers Headquarters is, trying to avoid having to brawl with any of her fellow explorers and cause any kind of infighting.
She frequents the same fighting club and has found herself a bit of a triumph. She was constantly under estimated with her height and being a female Drow in a mainly male led sport, which surprises her of course, considering she was used to men being more involved in the arts and arcane.
She was mostly set up in fights with other female competitors, but did not find any of these to be a challenge. She had a hundred years experience over most of the fighters and most of them had probably never just outright killed someone without a second thought. After she proved herself to be too strong for most of the women in her ‘weight category’ which seemed like a silly way to put people against each other instead of their skill level, she started to work her way through stronger opponents of all gender.
She had a few nights where she was obviously against odds and they threw her a curveball to keep betting pools in check; a Goliath three times her size, a Minotaur, a Lizardfolk who was much faster than she could ever move and with teeth sharp as daggers.
The Goliath seemed especially pulled to make Lux suffer for changing the betting tables. She had lost the previous evening and determined to not lose the war and only the first battle, she challenged the woman she’d lost against to a rematch. She arrived the next evening, prepared to take on the same human woman, and instead the referee brought out a 7’6 Goliath man with biceps the size of Lux’s head. She fought with every ounce of strength but eventually was pounded into the sand of the pit and couldn’t get herself up. One of the clerics kept nearby for medical assistance carried her back to the Headquarters.
Lux stopped fighting for a while after this loss, but after a trial where she saw a vision of her mother trying to challenge her to combat and being forced to cut it down, the rage and anxiety filled her again and she returned to the ring.
In her first serious tournament, Lux was declared the champion and given a ceremonial belt.
The Knife[edit | edit source]
Between saving the Druid conclave of Thistlebrook from Mother’s fungal curse and releasing the Kobold’s from their dimensional pockets of time, there was a brief interlude. On a skiff ride, Heli Moltenshield approached Lux and offered her a knife, sharp, high decorated, ceremonial. It was carved with drow runes and a spider was engraved in it’s handle. Lux’s face paled at pulling such a knife from it’s sheath and looked to Heli for an explanation. Apparently at a temple in the Underdark, the General was there, trying to defend it from Mother, but had been capture and was nearly turned into a zombie herself. Upon hearing that the party was from the Tempest Brothers and knowing that Lux was likely with them, as it was her last known position, the General handed over this knife stating that “Captain Lux will know what to do with this.”
In their culture and the military, the gifting of a knife from one to another is symbolic of informing them that no matter what relationship they previously held, being familial, professional, or carnal, that relationship was severed. By sending Amelie the knife, her mother, the General, was telling her that she was cutting her away. Amelie resolved this internally after their victory against Mother in Thelrya. She decided she would not argue or attempted to mend, but instead accept what she had in the Underdark is lost. She also realizes that it is nearly a kindness that her mother has given her this way out of the life she had, instead of forcing her to answer for leaving the Wilds and not killing the Deserter upon finding her.
Amelie has asked that her company members begin to use her first name, as she is no longer a Captain in Lolth’s army, has lost faith in Lolth, and has lost her birth rite to be called a Luxaeterna. The only thing she is determined to retain from their tribe, is their motto: “We Make Our Own Light”
