| Relatives | Unknown |
|---|---|
| Languages | Common, others unknown |
| Affiliations | The Collector |
| Marital Status | Unknown |
| Place of Birth | Unknown |
| Species | Humanoid |
| Gender | Presumed Male |
| Eye Color | Unknown |
Jack of Hearts, also known by their former name Jaqueline Hearthorne, is a debonaire and charismatic adventurer who came into conflict now and again with the Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company in the wilds of Amusa. They are a member of the Hearthorne family and were a sibling of Alistair Hearthorne one of the leaders of the fungal cult of Mother.
Jack of Hearts is an NPC from the Within the Wicked Wilds community campaign.
Physical Appearance[edit | edit source]
Jack of Hearts wears a brown trench coat with underlying leathers and a breastplate along with a tricorn hat. On his face he wears a smooth white mask with additional gold embellishment on it's edges. This artifact is known as the Gorgon Mask and is able to hide his identity using magical illusion and transmutation magic. He also wields two innately carved magical rapiers.
Out of their disguise, Jack of Hearts appears as a beautiful pale skinned woman with long auburn hair. Since abandoning their family name Jack of Hearts Removes their mask less and less, keeping this facet of their identity hidden.
Personality[edit | edit source]
Jack of Hearts is charismatic to no end and is jovial in conversation. he switches between truth, guile, misdirection, and lies in conversation with ease only known to few. Jack of Hearts is a crafty tactician who is able to think many steps ahead of his opponents and always holds ulterior motives in his work. He is not above trickery, thievery, and murder to get what he needs, but knows enough when he needs to request help.
When they were playing the identity of Jaqueline Hearthorne, they were more quiet and reserved, but just as forceful in their opinions and personality. They would mech prefer to handle all their issues on their own and are hesitant to come to others for aid.
History[edit | edit source]
Jack of Hearts was born as Jaqueline Hearthorne to the Hearthorne family, an upstanding and wealthy family in the city of Galik. When they were kids their father would tell her and her siblings stories about the ancient city of Thelrya, lost to the wilds. After her older brother Alistair Hearthorne pledged himself to the demon Mother and disposed of the rest of her family, Jaqueline fled the city in fear for her life. Using an arcane relic known as the Gorgon mask she hid her identity and took up the persona of Jack of Hearts, doing odd jobs and mercenary work throughout Amusa. They found they preferred the life of an adventurer to that of an aristocrat and they began to identity themselves more with jack of Hearts rather then Jaqueline. Over time Jack of Hearts would attract a crew of similarly lost and tossed away individuals, forming a loose adventuring party.
Jack of Hearts and his team were hired by the Collector to retrieve a first edition copy of "A Cosmos Compendium: An Academic's Guide to Quelmar Starcharting" in the wilds of Amusa. The encountered adventurers from the Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company who were on the same mission and managed to poison two of their members along with stealing the team's map and key. Jack of Hearts and his team made it to the sight of the tome first, but eventually teamed up with those prior adventurers to defeat the book's Behir guardian. Jack of Hearts and his team eventually came to a truce with the adventurers, with Jack of Hearts' team taking the treasure from the dungeon while the adventurers got to take the book.
Jack of Hearts and his team engaged members of the Tempest Brother's Expeditionary Company in attempt to steal ancient tablets they were transporting on the Bronze Hawk Railway. To cover their escape he blew up a bridge on the tracks and fled the runaway train with his team.
Jack of Hearts was again encountered by members of the company in the hidden prison beneath the destroyed village of Thinwhistle. Here he helped members of the company escape from the Gnoll prison.
After being captured by the Gnolls and seeing what horrors her brother's work had wrought, Jack knew they had to return to Galik and put a stop to Alistair. With great hesitation they would remove the Gorgon Mask and return to the life of Jaqueline Hearthorne, taking a place at her brother's side. Here she would begin to covertly work to undermine the fungal cult's schemes, even passing information off to the Tempest Brother's Expeditionary Company to assist where she could not. But she firmly believed that defeating her brother was a task she and she alone could undertake. Returning to the Gorgon Mask, she attempted to assassinate her brother multiple times, failing in each endeavour.
In Galik Jack of Hearts was encountered when a bounty was placed on the company. During an attack on the company headquarters by bounty hunters, they strangely assisted members of the company in defeating the attackers, but secretly made away with the head of the Gnoll artificer Ripjaw. Jack of Hearts hoped that be reanimating the head, they could use it to get insight to the cult's plan and give them an opportunity to stop Alistair before he would be elected High Burgher.
Their last assassination attempt failed and she was chased by Lyreguard to one of her hideouts across the city where she partnered up with members of the Tempest brother's Expeditionary Company. But this attempt to kill Alistair would fail again, but succeed so far in that Alistair was banished from the city and many of his plans for the city were dismantled. Jaqueline promised to do what she could on her end to finish cleaning up her families mistakes before promising to dispose of her name as Jaqueline Hearthorne for good.
Languages[edit | edit source]
Common, others unknown.
Powers and Abilities[edit | edit source]
Jack of Hearts is in possession of a number of magic items including his winged boots. He also has the ability to inspire his comrades.
Attacks and Weapons [edit | edit source]
Jack of Hearts wields two dueling rapiers which he utilizes in combat. He wears a pair of Winged Boots and wears a Cloak of Displacement.
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- As Jack of Hearts, they identify as He/Him, while as Jaqueline Hearthorne they identify as She/Her.
