| Relatives | m'Rang (mother); l'Mon (father) |
|---|---|
| Languages | Common, Grung |
| Affiliations | Criminal Syndicate, Galik |
| Aliases | p'Ash'r'Ohn |
| Marital Status | Single |
| Place of Birth | Galik |
| Species | Grung |
| Gender | Female |
| Height | 2'10" |
| Weight | 29 lbs |
| Eye Color | Brown |
p'Ash'r'Ohn, or "Pash" is a Grung adventurer native to Galik who seeks admittance into the Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company several months after the company launched its missions. Pash is a hexblade warlock who wields a mix of blade and spell to fell foes and eke out a living. Having learned of the new opportunity in the wilds, Pash wants to prove she is a great fighter to all.
Physical Appearance
Pash is a red grung who generally relaxes without clothing and wears small pieces of hide armor to battle, although she hopes to acquire far more durable gear through adventuring. Pash has dark brown eyes and stands just under 3 ft tall. She weighs under thirty pounds and has a large number and variety of scars on her body from indelicate friends looking to poison their weapons. She also has a spiral tattoo on her left arm.
Personality
Pash is very dedicated to her weapon and to her fighting skills. She has let most of her relationships wither through inattention other than those encouraged by her patron or her criminal contacts. She is loyal to people she likes and is far more naive than she realizes. She trusts quickly and has no personal experience with betrayal, just drifting away as her attention wanders. She is very absent minded, and gets angry under pressure, but hasn't yet learned how to hold a grudge.
History
Pash was hatched in an alley in Galik to a pair of grung exiles. She knows little of traditional grung culture and has focused on quickly developing skills and rapport with her warlock patron. She is an only child and grew up in the poor side of Galik, but her parents managed to afford a small house of their own. Due to the poor conditions at the time of her hatching, Pash never fully developed her strength, a fact of constant frustration for her until she made her Warlock pact. She learned to read very young, in part because she wasn't strong or fit enough to do a lot of other things in her first year of life. After she was a little over a year though, she was able to begin going outside and meet more new people.
She had a few close friends, mostly of other poor children among the non-human citizens of Galik, but due to her toxic skin was often ostracized by her peers. As such, it should come as little surprise that she found herself entangled with the criminal element of Galik. She found an in with the Boltward Syndicate and mostly assisted in the collection of debts and intimidation efforts.
Pash's role in the criminal enterprise wasn't actually as an enforcer, but she thought of herself that way. She delivered pointed, and often poisoned messages to people who were behind on payments or who had otherwise offended the hidden law of the city.
During one of these trips to a local bookseller, Pash became fascinated with a particular tome and took it in exchange for an extension of the shop's payment. It told the story of a powerful sword with the power of life and death. This sword's power focused on the spirit, binding slain foes to its wielder's service and drawing the memories of the fallen into its wielder. The blade became known as Memory's Awakener. This story fascinated Pash greatly, and she felt a powerful connection to the idea of securing the memories of her foes, having assisted with one or two interrogations in the past. That night, as her mind dwelled on the idea, she had a dream, and in that dream connected with the spirit of this legendary weapon. It promised her power, and the strength to wield it should she prove herself worthy and should she serve the weapon's purpose in destroying zombies and necromancers, and feeding it more memories. Pash did not hesitate in the slightest and accepted the offer, becoming a warlock. It took a few months before she was able to extricate herself from the Syndicate, but she left on good terms with her bosses.
Languages
Pash speaks Common and Grung
Powers and Abilities
Pash primarily uses her machete (Longsword), but also sometimes wields spells or her shorter piercing shortsword which she can apply her poison to. When out of reach (unfortunately common for her short legs) she most often uses blasts of arcane force.
Memory's Awakener
Pash doesn't know a lot of detail about the mythical weapon other than its needs: to gather and consume the memories of beings cut with it.
Joining the Company
Having grown a little bored with her life of crime and interested in finding some of those fabled undead her patron keeps telling her exist out in the world, Pash signs up with the Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company in search of adventure and more funds. She joins them via airship and definitely didn't stow away on their supply ship without permission. At least, no one can prove that. She simply went unnoticed for a while.
Missions with the Tempest Brothers
Pash's first mission for the company was very straightforward: follow Nettle's directions to head West out of camp to a magical fruit tree growing in the place of an earlier mission involving Sabbatical, Hermes, Marion and others who fought elementally-charged dinosaurs. The mission was to retrieve as much fruit as possible in order to enable Nettle to make new and more powerful soups. On the mission, the group encountered a small band of gnolls including the ones known as Ripjaw and Talon who were defeated and forced to flee, although the party initially thought Talon had been killed. Several fruits were recovered and returned to Nettle, and the party was paid handsomely for their efforts in gold coins and discounts on future soups from Nettle.
Her first kill —
Pash wasn’t really sure how she would react when she finally got to unleash violence on another living creature, but it felt sort of… less impactful than she expected. It was easy, and she wasn’t even sure whether the gnoll could be counted as a “person” that she killed. She was able to isolate a gnoll in single combat and defeat it herself without even being hurt by the creature due to her own nimbleness. It fell to her blade, and as it died, she dedicated the kill to Memory’s Awakener, and directed whatever memories she could send its way.
It was fun to meet the challenge of the gnolls and feel physically up to defeating them, an experience that she’d never had before given her own physical weakness. In thanks to Mem, she also stabbed the rest of the gnolls, trying to pull their memories out to Mem as well even though none of them were undead creatures.
Back at camp as she worked through the concept of being a killer now, she decided that it didn’t really feel different from before, but after discussing with Heli thought that the reason it didn’t feel any different was because gnolls maybe weren’t “people” enough to really change anything about who she is. She had always thought it would be this big thing to be able to kill people and have killed them, but it just wasn’t. Although not entirely sure how to feel about that she decided to just roll with it. If things change how she feels about herself down the line, she figures she’ll deal with it then.
Visions from the Dark —
During her break between assignments Pash found herself a bit restless and directionless. She was here out in the wilds as Mem had directed, but didn’t feel was really accomplishing that much. This led to a great deal of contemplation about her role in the camp and whether she would be more useful somewhere else, despite this being the best paying job she’d had in a while and relatively low effort to get the money. Still, she needed some sort of confirmation or direction from Mem regarding continuing in this adventure or where she should focus her efforts.
During this time of focus and contemplation she was able to commune with Mem to learn more about the memories from the slain gnolls and the direction she should focus her efforts. Mem thanked her for her efforts and showed her the memories of the gnolls, revealing some of their recent plans, but more interestingly a brief glimpse of a dark weapon, a hammer, that exuded energy similar to Mem’s own. Her patron was shocked, at this revelation, that other weapons like it may exist, and Pash, sensing the eagerness and distress in her friend promised to look into the matter and investigate the weapon as much as she could while out here in the Wilds.
After making this promise, she began asking around the camp whether anyone had heard of this dark hammer or had more information about the gnolls doings that she should look into. While no one knew anything about the hammer, she did learn a lot of information from Marianne/Marion about “The Seven” which are some mysterious entities that have long existed in the Wilds and may also be the force that Mem mentioned wanted to keep things forgotten in the wilds, while Mem collects the memories themselves. This also seemed like it could be a strong antagonistic force for Pash’s interest in the wilds supporting Mem’s goals.
An extra ally, and ZOMBIES, and hammer clues —
My next mission sounded like it would be fairly easy, restore contact with a survey team that went silent, and deal with whatever stopped their communications. Things started a little weird, as Paul, the member of the company who assigned us the mission and said he was going to stay in camp, but then suddenly and suspiciously joined us anyway. (Turns out he was some kind of monster in disguise, which was totally not a shock!) He was some kind of twisted creature of the philosopher’s stone, an alchemical artifact that we were able to capture and secure, and bring back to camp.
But anyway, the important stuff is that I got to fight and kill some ZOMBIES! This was the most deevee thing to find and fight! Sure, they were like, some kind of vine zombie thing that lived in the ruin and not the usual basic sort of undead I had imagined, but they were still zombies. It was a little unfortunate how things started, with me getting paralyzed by the first strike against me, but after that zombie was brought down, I was able to sneak forward invisibly and get the drop on three more zombies and land my own re-killing blows. It’ll be great to see Mem’s reaction to all of this when I can next commune with it, and I made sure to confirm the kills by stabbing the remains of each slain foe, including the strange warped creature that was pretending to be Paul. Something else cool happened too: the ruins here had iconography related to the dark hammer I was looking for and which Mem showed me in the gnoll memories. There was a brief description and a clue pointing to the edge of the Scar of Amusa, where it looks like a larger, or more important structure might be that actually contains the hammer that the gnolls saw and might have even more answers. This was a huge breakthrough in the search for the weapon, and even without the dedicated energy for a full communing, Mem was able to voice a certain level of excitement at the prospect. Final reactions to all of this will have to wait until the next time I can commune with Mem during breaks between missions.
A Stolen Heart —
So, it turns out there’s a big fungal plague going around, and it’s not just Lambda with growths going on inside him (even though the stuff with him was more viny anyway) and there’s this Warden of the Wilds character who’s doing something about it, and the company’s made friends with them, so they came to us for help. They also have been watching over a bunch of grung kids. Or, at least they all acted like kids, like, less than a few months old at most. Definitely not all grown and figuring things out, or at least, not healthy and grown. I’ve never seen any others, apart from my parents, and they said to be careful if I ever saw any, since they had been kicked out, but none of these ones seemed to really be any sort of threat. Apparently there was a grung village somewhere around where they came from, but it got all fungified. I don’t really know, but I’ll look for some answers around camp later.
Maybe they’re what’s all infected and it’s made them stop growing in the head. Anyway, this warden… lady? is working on a cure for the infection, and what they need to make it all work is a super rare and special flower that only blooms once every thousand years. (They use something called “Neem plant” and need the “Shimmering Sundew” to proceed in the work on this cure thing.)
Now, obviously, there’s not going to be a lot of those around, but they know a place with one that’s all blooming and ready for the plucking, but it’s being held in some place called Fairyflower Mountain. (Which gets its name because the punishment for any serious crime is being turned into a flower, and the mountain/hill is covered in flowers.) So, they call up this fairy who owes them a favor after losing at cards, Teedles, a sprite and a real piece of work who was fired from his job as advisor for the fairies with the flower for smuggling [some kind of drug that was mentioned before]. I bet some of my old buddies in Galik would love him. Anyway, this Teedles character tells us a bunch of stuff about the security of the mountain, their treasure vault, and gives us all some magic fruit to eat that’ll shrink us down to pixie-, sprite-, or fair-folk-sized people and let us don any disguise or appearance we can imagine to infiltrate the royal courtship ball for Princess Alyara Everlilly, past all the defenses, into the vault, and secure the flower.
In order to achieve this, our group concocted an elaborate plan, which included distracting the princess and keeping her occupied while we take the key that is normally around her neck to open the vaults. I figured the best way to accomplish that would be to leave a replacement, and I was able to conjure a fake key through my connection with Mem that would do the trick. The only problem was, unless I could stay within five feet of the princess, it would disappear after only a minute! This meant, that not only did I have to get close, I had to stay close for potentially a while if we wanted to make sure she didn’t notice the missing key. There was really only one way I could think of to accomplish both of those things: convince the princess to spend the whole ball with me at her side.
So, knowing I wanted to get her attention and hold it for as long as possible, I started coming up with a plan for how to do that: First, an identity. I’ve read a few fairy stories, and I thought to myself, princesses always like knights from faroff places with impressive accomplishments and physiques, so, how can I *be* that with every ounce of my disguise? Well, I remember that one story about a charming prince who had to face down a sorcerous dragon to save the princess, and that’s the impression that stuck. And that’s how I got to Ser Windward Dawnshard of the Whispering Shore. It sounded real fancy in my head, and like a definite fairy sort of name and place. (Imagine how shocked I was to hear the fairies all talking about it like it was a real place they knew about.) I had to hope the stuff I made up made any sort of sense, but it all seemed to work. Anyways, Teedles’ documents got that identity into the party, so part one was complete. The next step was getting the princess to feel like she wanted to spend a bunch of time with me really close to her.
I know people get a bit sick and woozy when they touch my skin, so I thought I could use that to my advantage, and offer the princess my hand, and when she took it, catch her when she swooned from the sudden feeling of the poison on my skin. In the meantime, Rina, this cool elf druid, who is apparently also good at stealing stuff, and who I would have turned invisible, would swoop in to snatch the key while I replace it and help the princess back to her feet using my other hand, which would be gloved, and then I could convince the princess to stay close to me, because the poison was like, just her body going weak at how awesome my persona was.
And, honestly, I didn’t really think about my plan any further than that. I figured we’d end up dancing a bit, and during that time it would be enough for everyone else to do their jobs, but I figured they could all figure all that stuff out, and I’d just stick to the princess as long as possible and keep her from noticing anything was wrong all the way up until an alarm got sounded or everyone got out. I also helped with the rest of the plan a bit, but really, it all sort of left my mind just minutes after we talked about it, because it wasn’t going to be my job. And the first part of my plan went perfectly. I made Rina invisible, joined the other potential suitors to be presented, and made contact with the princess so Rina could make the swap with the keys. Things were going great!
How was I supposed to have any way of knowing I’d be really good at being a seductive fairy knight? That I wouldn’t just make the princess feel a bit weak from poison, but also from the sudden hope that she could have a political marriage to be able to be made queen and have the love of her life always at her side. That was apparently way more enticing to Princess Everlilly than I had thought, and honestly, the idea didn’t really sound that bad even the first moment I considered it. I had said before we even went on the heist that marrying the princess and just asking her to donate the flower to the cause as a wedding present might be a totally viable way to solve the problem, and I meant it.
Getting to see and talk to her a bit, the idea of actually marrying her seemed less and less like a bad thing. Sure, I couldn’t just abandon Mem or my promises to other friends I’ve made, and that would mean telling her the truth, which could jeopardize our current mission too. But, damnit, she was lovely, sweet, and so happy to be with me, even in disguise I had to give her a chance to hear the truth and see if she still wanted the same thing. So, I asked to speak with her in private for a few minutes, and after she brought us to her chambers, I tried to explain myself and my situation as best I could without ruining the mission. Still, no matter what I said, she said she still wanted to marry me, and… eventually, I had to really admit I wasn’t against the idea—I just had never really thought about being with someone else like that.
Anyway, we spoke for a bit, and I agreed to see the marriage through, so then we gathered everyone up to head outside. I thought this would work well for the others who were still trying to steal the special flower, but also since I was going to go from being a few inches back to more than two feet tall, it seemed like a good idea to find some big open space. We gathered around, and a red cardinal, the bird, offiscated the ceremony. Mostly it spoke in chirps, which I assume everyone else understood, but I managed to pick out a few words, give the all important “I do” and we kissed in front of everyone to cheers and applause. I didn’t see the group leave with the flower, but after another hour or so I took my leave and found all their vehicles gone, and just the one I came in on with Rina still there. Also, I was big again, so the vehicles weren’t really any use to me except to help guide me back along the special paths back to the Warden.
It turned out to be a success, although a complicated one. They attacked the spider and broke the security system, beat up a guard, and confused a bunch of the others while impersonating the captain of the guards. So it's all going to be really complicated when I explain it all to the princess and ask her to forgive everything. Maybe I can get some official apologies written up, or the Warden might have some ideas. But, everyone made it out, and nobody got killed on either side, so I think that makes everything as well as it could be. The Warden got the flower and was confident it would prove the necessary ingredient for a breakthrough at curing all the fungal infection stuff going on. They also paid us all quite well for the assignment, offering several items, including a brooch of fey kind that I claimed and a bunch of money. In among the stuff, I was also drawn to a gilded flower, which I’ve found out I can now use to summon a fey spirit into existence that’s become my imaginary persona: Ser Windward Dawnshard, although he’s not really ‘of the Whispering Shore’ anymore.
A new tinker, and the Boltwards —
The company saw a demonstration of a new invention by an artificer of some special lava-proof suits that can be worn in the Scar. He lived a few days away in the city, so we had to travel to go get him, and Velemar Decrye didn't even want to pay for a carriage to go get him. He was being dumb, but I talked him into sending us with transit because it would be cheaper than paying for lodging in the city. Anyway, we went after this guy, who lived above a sweetshop. The owner of the shop is this fairy named Sugarsprinkle, and she has some sort of magical sweets that she's going to start offering to the company later, but she pointed us to the artificer's apartment upstairs, and we found it ransacked. The guy was missing!
After searching the apartment for evidence, I found evidence of them being late on payments for a loan from the Boltwards, my old gang. So, with that, I explained the situation to the others and we began tracking down the most recent base. I didn't know for sure where they would be holed up, so instead I went to see a friend who does underground fighting pits to then point us to the boss. Someone had to fight her for the info first, and the rest of us had a chance to wager a bit of gold on the bout.
Bounty Hunters Attack on the Tempest Brothers' Compound —
So, the whole
Downtime Revelations
Visions and Memories from Mem (November 2023)
- Mem shuffles through the vast stores of their collected memories and begins to share what they have recovered from your recent missions.
- The memories of the zombies from when they were mortal are centuries old, almost as old as the ruins you discovered them in. You see them tending to the structure and you see many of them wield weapons similar to yours. Whatever this place was it was some base for an ancient order that used these weapons to collect and store memories, and destroy undead. It almost makes you feel both nostalgic and sad, as if almost a part of you was lost with this order.
- You see flashes of memory of someone wielding the strange hammer, attacking other members of this strange order. In the memories this figure is defeated and the hammer is locked away in a vault deep within the scar.
- You see flashes of this vault in the scar over centuries. In these memories you see another figure, broken and burnt approach the vault which seems to open up to them, hungry for a newcomer. Around the vault you can swear you see fungus pushing up from the cracks and magma. This figure which you realize is a Gnoll enters the vault. (This figure is definitely the Gnoll King.)
- In an another flash you see them grab the hammers hilt from where it was sealed away. As they take it tough, you realize that they left something important behind tied to this hammer, more vital then maybe even the hammer itself tied to the weapon, but you cannot determine what. The closest thing you can amount it to, is that the hammer was both taken, and left behind at the same time.
- You then see the ruins as you saw them, old and decaying. Alongside the zombies you see a strange figure, tall and lanky, hiding out in the ruins. While all mortals have flesh, this thing is "made of flesh." More muscle then it should be able to handle and parts of humanoid bodies almost grafted to its form. You see the pulsing red of the philosophers stone in its grasp. (This figure is the same as "not Paul" from before, but a more complete creature. It's hiding out in the ruins and using them as a base of operations.)
- (Pash would be able to find this place in the scar herself, based on these memories, and there's potential that she could direct others there with time spent researching and using maps, but that would be riskier and more difficult for her than going herself like she's promised Mem.)
Rumors from the fair folk (December 2023)
- The Mountain itself with the blight surrounding it is pretty isolated from the going ons of the jungle. Rumors are of sightings beyond the blight of strange figures watching the mountain. It seems these rumors started popping up around the time of the heist.
- There are reports of demonic omens in the region, including animal mutilation, the death of flora, and electric storms. These types of omens seem to herald something larger
- Reports say that the Gnolls seem to have taken control of the region, but also they might have lost most of their power in the attack, losing a good chunk of their forces as well as major leaders.
- The swamps at the edge of the scar have been growing larger, intruding into the jungles.
- Another group of outsiders have come from Galik bringing what seems to be humanoid remains into the wilds. For what purposes the fair folk do not know.
- The fair folk also note an uptick in ooze related sightings and claim the oozes are feeding on the fungus.
- The Warden is nearing completion on their work on a "cure" for the fungus which should potentially be able to destroy the fungi in the forest and cure the grung and any others who are infected.
