Synodiporia: Application
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tailforbrainsP L A Y E R;
NAME: Gail
AGE: 32
PLAYER JOURNAL:tailforbrains
TIMEZONE: PST
CONTACT: PM tailforbrains
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: NA
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Neeshka
CANON: Neverwinter Nights 2
POINT IN CANON: Chapter Three, start of Vale of Merdelain. She’s being pulled from a game path with a male-led party, since that shows a lot more depth of character (and the fact the she was originally slated to be a romance option) than a game with a female-led party.
AGE: Early 20s, or thereabouts. Even she’s not entirely sure.
APPEARANCE:
If she were a normal human being, Neeshka wouldn’t really stand out much: she’s not tall, nor particularly short; her build is neither sturdy nor lithe; her hair is an auburn brown, cut short out of convenience and sticking up in the back; and her eyes are a muddy sort of brown. Her clothes are nondescript and well-used leather by necessity rather than out of a sense of fashion, moderately protective and not particularly pretty, and even given the choice, she prefers things that are easy to move in and not eye-catching in any way. She moves, perhaps, with more careful grace and skill than one might expect, and she’s more likely to position herself behind you than most other people, but otherwise, she’d be perfectly unremarkable.
However, since her good ole grandfather was a Fiend, a kind of lower-plane demon, she has a few... non-standard traits. Her hair is swept back from a pair of small, slightly curly horns of gold-tinged gray and her ears are long, pointed, and unusually flexible, rather like a cat’s. Her triangular face is mottled along the hairline with red markings, and, probably most noticeable of all, she has a long, prehensile tail with a spade at the end. Those muddy brown eyes tend to be either full of mischievous good humor, or badly-concealed uncertainty.
CANON HISTORY:
@The campaign plot
Though Neeshka doesn’t know who her mother or father might be, it’s obvious that her grandfather (or -mother, but she assumes grandfather) on one side or the other is a demon. After all, she has the horns and tail and sensitivity to magic that came with it. She’s even been told he was, specifically, a Fiend, and she thinks it’s possible-- from what other demons said to her over the course of her adventures since-- that he was an important one of some sort. She has yet to get sufficient explanation for that one, though.
Without parents-- she was abandoned as a baby-- she was taken in by the priests of Helm (“The Watcher, the Vigilant One, Kind to Children”, as she says, somewhat sarcastically), where she grew up to be something of a troublemaker, constantly trying the patience of the priests by lying, cheating, stealing, and otherwise being unable to resist her own impulsive nature. She finally helped herself to a particularly generous offering plate and fled, once she was old enough and had tried their patience enough, and started life in the city of Neverwinter, a large metropolis on the Sword Coast. Her inherited abilities lent well to the life of a thief, and she eventually took up with a partner, Leldon, who she worked with for a couple years before one job went south and he claimed far more than his share of the takings. When she protested-- she, after all, had done all of the work!-- he took everything she had, up to and including precious personal belongings-- such as a “lucky” coin she frets herself to pieces without-- and turned her out. She got him back by sneaking in and stealing some of it back... but not that coin.
Fleeing the city to avoid Leldon’s retribution, she just missed being trapped within quarantine when the Wailing Death-- a terrible wasting illness caused by magical means-- hit, Neeshka wandered the countryside living off what she could steal for a few years while a war with Luskan raged and Neverwinter burned. She somehow managed to stay out of any major trouble-- though she mentions being run out of villages and threats of being burned at the stake, presumably from this period-- until peace finally prevailed. And then, of course, she was caught doing absolutely nothing wrong, at all. She was just trying to sneak past the guards at Fort Locke when her invisibility potion wore off, and they trapped her, assumed she was one of the local bandits, and planned to kill her for a reward.
Neeshka escaped being tortured and killed for her horns by the lucky passing by of a young harborman and his foul-mouthed dwarven friend, Khelgar. With their help, she not only avoided a terrible death, she got to join up with them to have adventures, to her delight. The harborman was not only “nice-looking people”, as she shyly told him when they first met, he was actually nice, wanting to know about her past and valuing her contributions to the little group. What she didn’t expect after that was joining up with him on a quest to save the world, that took her not only back to her home city of Neverwinter, she got her lucky coin back and actually made a group of friends-- some of whom didn’t seem to mind that she was part demon and a thief! Imagine that!
CANON PERSONALITY:
@Influence chart and quotes that help display her character
Central to Neeshka’s character is her demonic heritage: it greatly shaped not only how she acts-- her impulsive nature, her selfish tendencies, and her constant attempts at being independent, brave, and carefree-- but also affected how she was shaped by others-- constantly being expected to be evil and conniving, never having friends of the upright nature, and generally being mistrusted by all, for the mere presence of her horns and tail. In reaction, Neeshka perversely tries to show pride in what she is, trying to make an asset-- or at least a personal badge of honor-- out of her demonic nature. She turns insults into compliments in casual conversation, and she reacts to surprise at her cavalier attitude at being called such things with a shrug and the comment, “well, they’re all true”. She also makes frequent references to her horns and tail in conversation. Just in case you forgot they were there.
As a result of all the abuse, she trusts no one at first, expecting insults and persecution, and is actually surprised when people (such as the main character of the game) actually want to know about her. She is extremely vulnerable to praise, gratitude, and being treated like a normal and even valuable being. Tell her she’s done well and thank her for standing by you, and you make her smile. Value her company and her skills, and you’ve made a friend for life.
Of course, as soon as you tell her she should stop being so impulsive and needs to straighten out her life, you’ve lost her again. Being a thief is something that she’s good at, even if half of the time she doesn’t even think about doing it. Between the impulsive nature, a tendency to speak before she thinks, and endless curiosity, she often spouts things like “I know you didn’t bring anything back, I already searched your bags” and “you know, apples might sell really well with the soldiers”. She’s something of a kleptomaniac, stealing out of compulsion as much as profession and to eat, and shows no shame or remorse or even desire to hide it.
Really, though, Neeshka’s biggest fear is living with nothing and no one-- whether the “nothing” or the “no one” is a bigger fear is entirely debatable, and generally depends on how she feels at the time. She’s often talking about money and what she can get for things-- “What are we standing around for? We beat Garius and his wizards... come on, let’s search the bodies!”-- but at the same time her constant mentions of how often she’s run off from places and people lead one to believe that despite her general kleptomania, her dream is of acceptance rather than wealth. The fear of her former partner Leldon-- which she tries very hard to hide, but can’t quite manage either time she runs into him-- shows her fear of being betrayed and abandoned. Thus, she’s easy to win over and can in fact be extremely protective and possessive of anyone she’s grown attached to.
Given how helpful she is and how generally charismatic-- one of her standard phrases, in fact, is “how can I help?”-- it’s no surprise that she slowly wins over the rest of the party, right back. Even her bickering with the outspoken dwarf Khelgar turns from actual malice in the beginning, to something much more like playful banter, to the point where he will even stick up for her against other adversaries. And when her loyalty is won, it is solid: in the endgame, she actually manages to throw off a powerful magical blood-binding, if the party leader has been kind enough to her to win that loyalty.
In short, on a bad day Neeshka is whiny, greedy, jealous, and takes offense at every little thing. She doesn’t like being told she’s wrong, whether she is or not, and reacts badly to being reined in when it comes to her thievery. She reacts even worse when she’s challenged. The only thing that matters is beating that challenge, and she will sulk at you if you tell her you don’t care. And when a male party leader sides with another woman in the party, she is downright vicious. But on a good day, she’s cheerful, mischievous, loyal, and has an irrepressible sense of humor-- “Shhhh, we don’t want anyone else to figure out I’m a tiefling! I mean, other than the horns!” If you don’t mind breaking a law or two, she’s really pretty fun to have around.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: NA
ABILITIES:
@Magical: Create darkness (a spell that lasts a few minutes at a time and can only be pierced with magical night-vision, not physical abilities), sense magic (particularly holy or infernal magic), and invisibility to scrying (magical means of seeing cannot find her). She can also use magical items, such as spell scrolls and wands.
@Physical: Picking pockets, picking locks, setting and disarming traps (which often includes figuring out machinery), climbing into second-story windows, hiding and moving without making a sound, dual-weilding with small weapons, magical night-vision, running away from trouble, back-stabbing, and sneaking about.
ACQUIRED SKILLS:
@Hammerspace: A free ability in place of her lesser bag of holding.
@Gryphon: Neeshka stole a gryphon egg and hatched it on her first Jaunt, and the gryphlet came with her into liminal space and beyond.
@Stationary Portal Creation: Neeshka can open a portal into liminal space, and return to a Jaunt at the same place she left it afterwards.
@Short-range Teleportation: Using portals in and out of liminal space, Neeshka can jump fifty feet from her last location.
@Liminal Manipulation: While in liminal space, Neeshka can create things, like chairs or fake food or whatever. This only applies in liminal space.
INVENTORY;
@ Neeska's Sneaky Slicer: A small sickle enchanted against shapeshifters and to cause minor ice damage (it glows blue!)
@ Neeshka's Namarra Neversleep: A rapier enchanted to daze an enemy and cause minor acid damage (it glows green!)
@ Balhoderie's Softer Skin: Dark burgandy leather armor with a light protective enchantment and a tendency to turn aside piercing damage
@ Cloak of Elvenkind: Provides a bonus to her ability to hide
@ Gloves of the Rogue: Gives her fingers extra zing for stealing things
@A Lesser Bag of Holding In Hammerspace: Lessens the weight of everything inside by 50%. Inventory currently consists of: two each of a spike trap, gas cloud trap, fireball trap, and tangle trap; potions of heal (x10); spell scrolls of fire arrow (x3), invisibility (x5), cat's grace (x2), and hold monster (x1); several books on how to create magical arms and armor; and one almost-used-up Wand of Missiles (casts the spell magic missile, 7 charges)
@ Amulet of of the Master: Boosts stealing-related stats and gives strong spell resistance
@ Ring of Caitlyn: Small magical armor protection, additional bonus against undead
@ Ring of Stone to Flesh: Can turn a statue into a living creature once per day
@ Neeshka's Lucky Coin: Increases her reflexes a little bit, and makes her feel better.
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?
Nope!
S A M P L E S;
FIRST PERSON:
From her previous game: Neeshka finds a cool device and asks for somebody to help her check it out and make it work.
THIRD PERSON:
Maybe it was childish, but Neeshka hated when the rest of the group left her behind. Even worse, when they left her behind but took Khelgar. Not that she’d admit that she liked the smelly little guy, but he’d gotten nicer over the months they’d worked together-- almost friendly, even-- so she kind of missed him when she was stuck back at the inn in Crossroads Keep, and he was off adventuring. They’d probably come home with heaps of treasure that she’d then have to snitch some of, just to keep things fair, and then someone would get mad at her as soon as they realized something was missing.
Maybe she’d snitch something of Elanee’s. That elf would never like her, anyway.
Neeshka sat at the bar in the inn with her chin in her hand and listened to the bard and the dancer-- a celestial, yuck; she was worse than the paladin when it came to making her teeth itch-- and sulked, kicking her feet at the bottom of the bar and twitching her tail from side to side. The innkeeper, Sal, watched her with something that was probably wariness, since she was a tiefling in his inn. And she’d been sleeping in one of his spare rooms rent-free, since she just snuck in after he’d gone to bed through a window he knew he’d locked. As if a simple lock like that one could keep her out. Hmph.
“Here,” he said after a few minutes, sliding her a drink. “On the house.”
That perked her up a little bit, and she gave him a little grin. “Thanks, Sal!” Not that she usually paid here, anyway, it being “their” keep’s inn and all. But it was nice of him, anyway.
“They’ll be back before you know it,” he added after another minute, pretending to watch the dancer rather than her.
The perk flattened out again, and her ears drooped at the reminder. “Yeah… I guess.”
“Take my word for it, they’ll need somebody to unlock a chest or somethin’, and they’ll be comin’ for ya.”
“You think so?” Neeshka asked, unable to stop from sounding a little bit hopeful. It wasn’t like they left her behind often... but enough that sometimes she did worry that they might just not want her around anymore. Just a little bit. It wasn’t like it’d be the first time.
“‘Course. Now drink up. And maybe,” Sal added, wheedling, “maybe you oughta stay up in the keep proper t’night. You know there’s plenty of room.”
Neeshka had to laugh. “Where’s the fun in that?” At least, she thought, as he threw up his hands and went back to his actual, paying customers, he’d made her laugh! Just keep upbeat, that was all she needed to do. She’d been doing that all her life.
NAME: Gail
AGE: 32
PLAYER JOURNAL:
tailforbrainsTIMEZONE: PST
CONTACT: PM tailforbrains
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: NA
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Neeshka
CANON: Neverwinter Nights 2
POINT IN CANON: Chapter Three, start of Vale of Merdelain. She’s being pulled from a game path with a male-led party, since that shows a lot more depth of character (and the fact the she was originally slated to be a romance option) than a game with a female-led party.
AGE: Early 20s, or thereabouts. Even she’s not entirely sure.
APPEARANCE:
If she were a normal human being, Neeshka wouldn’t really stand out much: she’s not tall, nor particularly short; her build is neither sturdy nor lithe; her hair is an auburn brown, cut short out of convenience and sticking up in the back; and her eyes are a muddy sort of brown. Her clothes are nondescript and well-used leather by necessity rather than out of a sense of fashion, moderately protective and not particularly pretty, and even given the choice, she prefers things that are easy to move in and not eye-catching in any way. She moves, perhaps, with more careful grace and skill than one might expect, and she’s more likely to position herself behind you than most other people, but otherwise, she’d be perfectly unremarkable.
However, since her good ole grandfather was a Fiend, a kind of lower-plane demon, she has a few... non-standard traits. Her hair is swept back from a pair of small, slightly curly horns of gold-tinged gray and her ears are long, pointed, and unusually flexible, rather like a cat’s. Her triangular face is mottled along the hairline with red markings, and, probably most noticeable of all, she has a long, prehensile tail with a spade at the end. Those muddy brown eyes tend to be either full of mischievous good humor, or badly-concealed uncertainty.
CANON HISTORY:
@The campaign plot
Though Neeshka doesn’t know who her mother or father might be, it’s obvious that her grandfather (or -mother, but she assumes grandfather) on one side or the other is a demon. After all, she has the horns and tail and sensitivity to magic that came with it. She’s even been told he was, specifically, a Fiend, and she thinks it’s possible-- from what other demons said to her over the course of her adventures since-- that he was an important one of some sort. She has yet to get sufficient explanation for that one, though.
Without parents-- she was abandoned as a baby-- she was taken in by the priests of Helm (“The Watcher, the Vigilant One, Kind to Children”, as she says, somewhat sarcastically), where she grew up to be something of a troublemaker, constantly trying the patience of the priests by lying, cheating, stealing, and otherwise being unable to resist her own impulsive nature. She finally helped herself to a particularly generous offering plate and fled, once she was old enough and had tried their patience enough, and started life in the city of Neverwinter, a large metropolis on the Sword Coast. Her inherited abilities lent well to the life of a thief, and she eventually took up with a partner, Leldon, who she worked with for a couple years before one job went south and he claimed far more than his share of the takings. When she protested-- she, after all, had done all of the work!-- he took everything she had, up to and including precious personal belongings-- such as a “lucky” coin she frets herself to pieces without-- and turned her out. She got him back by sneaking in and stealing some of it back... but not that coin.
Fleeing the city to avoid Leldon’s retribution, she just missed being trapped within quarantine when the Wailing Death-- a terrible wasting illness caused by magical means-- hit, Neeshka wandered the countryside living off what she could steal for a few years while a war with Luskan raged and Neverwinter burned. She somehow managed to stay out of any major trouble-- though she mentions being run out of villages and threats of being burned at the stake, presumably from this period-- until peace finally prevailed. And then, of course, she was caught doing absolutely nothing wrong, at all. She was just trying to sneak past the guards at Fort Locke when her invisibility potion wore off, and they trapped her, assumed she was one of the local bandits, and planned to kill her for a reward.
Neeshka escaped being tortured and killed for her horns by the lucky passing by of a young harborman and his foul-mouthed dwarven friend, Khelgar. With their help, she not only avoided a terrible death, she got to join up with them to have adventures, to her delight. The harborman was not only “nice-looking people”, as she shyly told him when they first met, he was actually nice, wanting to know about her past and valuing her contributions to the little group. What she didn’t expect after that was joining up with him on a quest to save the world, that took her not only back to her home city of Neverwinter, she got her lucky coin back and actually made a group of friends-- some of whom didn’t seem to mind that she was part demon and a thief! Imagine that!
CANON PERSONALITY:
@Influence chart and quotes that help display her character
Central to Neeshka’s character is her demonic heritage: it greatly shaped not only how she acts-- her impulsive nature, her selfish tendencies, and her constant attempts at being independent, brave, and carefree-- but also affected how she was shaped by others-- constantly being expected to be evil and conniving, never having friends of the upright nature, and generally being mistrusted by all, for the mere presence of her horns and tail. In reaction, Neeshka perversely tries to show pride in what she is, trying to make an asset-- or at least a personal badge of honor-- out of her demonic nature. She turns insults into compliments in casual conversation, and she reacts to surprise at her cavalier attitude at being called such things with a shrug and the comment, “well, they’re all true”. She also makes frequent references to her horns and tail in conversation. Just in case you forgot they were there.
As a result of all the abuse, she trusts no one at first, expecting insults and persecution, and is actually surprised when people (such as the main character of the game) actually want to know about her. She is extremely vulnerable to praise, gratitude, and being treated like a normal and even valuable being. Tell her she’s done well and thank her for standing by you, and you make her smile. Value her company and her skills, and you’ve made a friend for life.
Of course, as soon as you tell her she should stop being so impulsive and needs to straighten out her life, you’ve lost her again. Being a thief is something that she’s good at, even if half of the time she doesn’t even think about doing it. Between the impulsive nature, a tendency to speak before she thinks, and endless curiosity, she often spouts things like “I know you didn’t bring anything back, I already searched your bags” and “you know, apples might sell really well with the soldiers”. She’s something of a kleptomaniac, stealing out of compulsion as much as profession and to eat, and shows no shame or remorse or even desire to hide it.
Really, though, Neeshka’s biggest fear is living with nothing and no one-- whether the “nothing” or the “no one” is a bigger fear is entirely debatable, and generally depends on how she feels at the time. She’s often talking about money and what she can get for things-- “What are we standing around for? We beat Garius and his wizards... come on, let’s search the bodies!”-- but at the same time her constant mentions of how often she’s run off from places and people lead one to believe that despite her general kleptomania, her dream is of acceptance rather than wealth. The fear of her former partner Leldon-- which she tries very hard to hide, but can’t quite manage either time she runs into him-- shows her fear of being betrayed and abandoned. Thus, she’s easy to win over and can in fact be extremely protective and possessive of anyone she’s grown attached to.
Given how helpful she is and how generally charismatic-- one of her standard phrases, in fact, is “how can I help?”-- it’s no surprise that she slowly wins over the rest of the party, right back. Even her bickering with the outspoken dwarf Khelgar turns from actual malice in the beginning, to something much more like playful banter, to the point where he will even stick up for her against other adversaries. And when her loyalty is won, it is solid: in the endgame, she actually manages to throw off a powerful magical blood-binding, if the party leader has been kind enough to her to win that loyalty.
In short, on a bad day Neeshka is whiny, greedy, jealous, and takes offense at every little thing. She doesn’t like being told she’s wrong, whether she is or not, and reacts badly to being reined in when it comes to her thievery. She reacts even worse when she’s challenged. The only thing that matters is beating that challenge, and she will sulk at you if you tell her you don’t care. And when a male party leader sides with another woman in the party, she is downright vicious. But on a good day, she’s cheerful, mischievous, loyal, and has an irrepressible sense of humor-- “Shhhh, we don’t want anyone else to figure out I’m a tiefling! I mean, other than the horns!” If you don’t mind breaking a law or two, she’s really pretty fun to have around.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: NA
ABILITIES:
@Magical: Create darkness (a spell that lasts a few minutes at a time and can only be pierced with magical night-vision, not physical abilities), sense magic (particularly holy or infernal magic), and invisibility to scrying (magical means of seeing cannot find her). She can also use magical items, such as spell scrolls and wands.
@Physical: Picking pockets, picking locks, setting and disarming traps (which often includes figuring out machinery), climbing into second-story windows, hiding and moving without making a sound, dual-weilding with small weapons, magical night-vision, running away from trouble, back-stabbing, and sneaking about.
ACQUIRED SKILLS:
@Hammerspace: A free ability in place of her lesser bag of holding.
@Gryphon: Neeshka stole a gryphon egg and hatched it on her first Jaunt, and the gryphlet came with her into liminal space and beyond.
@Stationary Portal Creation: Neeshka can open a portal into liminal space, and return to a Jaunt at the same place she left it afterwards.
@Short-range Teleportation: Using portals in and out of liminal space, Neeshka can jump fifty feet from her last location.
@Liminal Manipulation: While in liminal space, Neeshka can create things, like chairs or fake food or whatever. This only applies in liminal space.
INVENTORY;
@ Neeska's Sneaky Slicer: A small sickle enchanted against shapeshifters and to cause minor ice damage (it glows blue!)
@ Neeshka's Namarra Neversleep: A rapier enchanted to daze an enemy and cause minor acid damage (it glows green!)
@ Balhoderie's Softer Skin: Dark burgandy leather armor with a light protective enchantment and a tendency to turn aside piercing damage
@ Cloak of Elvenkind: Provides a bonus to her ability to hide
@ Gloves of the Rogue: Gives her fingers extra zing for stealing things
@
@ Amulet of of the Master: Boosts stealing-related stats and gives strong spell resistance
@ Ring of Caitlyn: Small magical armor protection, additional bonus against undead
@ Ring of Stone to Flesh: Can turn a statue into a living creature once per day
@ Neeshka's Lucky Coin: Increases her reflexes a little bit, and makes her feel better.
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?
Nope!
S A M P L E S;
FIRST PERSON:
From her previous game: Neeshka finds a cool device and asks for somebody to help her check it out and make it work.
THIRD PERSON:
Maybe it was childish, but Neeshka hated when the rest of the group left her behind. Even worse, when they left her behind but took Khelgar. Not that she’d admit that she liked the smelly little guy, but he’d gotten nicer over the months they’d worked together-- almost friendly, even-- so she kind of missed him when she was stuck back at the inn in Crossroads Keep, and he was off adventuring. They’d probably come home with heaps of treasure that she’d then have to snitch some of, just to keep things fair, and then someone would get mad at her as soon as they realized something was missing.
Maybe she’d snitch something of Elanee’s. That elf would never like her, anyway.
Neeshka sat at the bar in the inn with her chin in her hand and listened to the bard and the dancer-- a celestial, yuck; she was worse than the paladin when it came to making her teeth itch-- and sulked, kicking her feet at the bottom of the bar and twitching her tail from side to side. The innkeeper, Sal, watched her with something that was probably wariness, since she was a tiefling in his inn. And she’d been sleeping in one of his spare rooms rent-free, since she just snuck in after he’d gone to bed through a window he knew he’d locked. As if a simple lock like that one could keep her out. Hmph.
“Here,” he said after a few minutes, sliding her a drink. “On the house.”
That perked her up a little bit, and she gave him a little grin. “Thanks, Sal!” Not that she usually paid here, anyway, it being “their” keep’s inn and all. But it was nice of him, anyway.
“They’ll be back before you know it,” he added after another minute, pretending to watch the dancer rather than her.
The perk flattened out again, and her ears drooped at the reminder. “Yeah… I guess.”
“Take my word for it, they’ll need somebody to unlock a chest or somethin’, and they’ll be comin’ for ya.”
“You think so?” Neeshka asked, unable to stop from sounding a little bit hopeful. It wasn’t like they left her behind often... but enough that sometimes she did worry that they might just not want her around anymore. Just a little bit. It wasn’t like it’d be the first time.
“‘Course. Now drink up. And maybe,” Sal added, wheedling, “maybe you oughta stay up in the keep proper t’night. You know there’s plenty of room.”
Neeshka had to laugh. “Where’s the fun in that?” At least, she thought, as he threw up his hands and went back to his actual, paying customers, he’d made her laugh! Just keep upbeat, that was all she needed to do. She’d been doing that all her life.
