She smiled at her face, making a grimace that would cause a grown man to faint. She donned back on her silvered and polished mask. years of wearing had made it a part of her.
A sniff of the air told her that her true guest had arrived. Those simpering fools at her reception had already left. Some groveled, but most tried for an advantage. Here was the true maiden of the hour.
"How can I help you, my dear little... Mystra?" She stepped around from looking in the mirror. A tall dark haired woman with a near elvish face in a dark blue dress looked at her with a near smoldering look.
"How dare you come back to this city after what had happened before. You have no right to be here!"
"Oh really", she coolly said, "and why not? Do you not like the offices? Or perhaps it is my attire. I know..."
The metal face melted away and what stared back at her was a near identical copy of Mystra in front. "No? You disapprove? And I thought you enjoyed making love to yourself. Very well."
The face melts away leaving behind the scarred skull of before. Her clothes melting away showing twisted flesh with scars upon scars. Her right hand withers away and the wounds on her chest pulse. "Perhaps you would like to see me for who I truly am. Copper for the poor veteran, madame?"
A wheezy laughter filters through ravaged lips. "Oh that is right. You do not believe in the abject poor, only in those who keep the lifestyle as a hobby. Very well."
The image shift and distorts. Her face is replaced with its silvered counterpart. Her once naked body sheathes itself in red steel, and her hand grows back as a metallic creation. There is a slap as Mystra strikes the woman causing her to go sprawling.
A chuckle comes from the figure on the rug "I did not think you were here for parlour tricks. What do you want?"
Mystra looks coldly as the woman raises herself from the floor. "I want you out. I want your people and your taint out of this city. Go back to the Abyss or wherever you wish to call home. They closed the doors on you from this place a long time ago."
"How rude of you," the woman says. "For five thousand years I have been exiled by my people from this place. Five thousand years of fighting in the blood-war. Five thousand years." the woman continued approaching. The last meter seems to be impossible to the woman as the very world around Mystra shimmers and billows. her hand bursts into fire and continues burning as she grips Mystra's dress. "How dare you deny me what is mine! You with your lofty ideals do not understand." The woman lets go of Mystra's dress "How could you, you are after all only a mere god."
There is a sneer and a taunt in her voice. "I know what you are thinking of. Let's get rid of the thing before she sullies your pretty pink city. Just remember this: no-one has taken active part in the blood-war since the gods war. If you kill me the yugoloths will make sure that the blood-war spills into plane. Oh do not give me that luxuriously vile look. I have a deal with the yugoloths and they can be many things, but they do not like giving up a contract - not when it is in their interest."
The woman walks out of the room, she stops for a moment and turns around. "Oh, and if every hooded lord who comes in and is demanded to take their mask off in front of the open Lord of Waterdeep. What would you expect giving me such an open and quick way to ascend to my current position? Especially as the rumours are true, a vision of my face can kill."
She leaves Mystra with her hate. A cornugon lurches onto his feet in the corridor. "Madam Lord Commander. The mythal has been secured." "Good. I want you to go out and have our spies in order. We have a god on the move." The baatezu grins his toothy grin. "It has been a while since I have tasted god's flesh." "General. Know your place. She is not good eating." She sniffs with a mock daintiness.
The baatezu gives an over exagerated bow with an impossible twirl. "Do you know of any further wishes for me?" "Perhaps. I will call you when the need comes."
The woman turns back to her room. It was as empty as she entered it. "Such a delightfully innocent god." She says to the walls. The immutable white-washed walls listen.
--
This is the opening portion to a heavily Planescapeish and Forgotten Realms cross-over campaign I was thinking on starting off, but never got off the ground.
Players are low level agents in Waterdeep struggling for a living. Both sides decide not to risk for an open conflict instead deciding for a covert one. Each have their own allies and turncoats. The question is where does each one's allegiances live as they get dragged further down into the mire...
Any thoughts and ideas on it?
I'm using this npc righ away...
Have you written anything else that touches upon some background for this particular piece? The new Lord of Waterdeep has me quite curious about her background and motivations. Even without so much as giving a name, you've got me quite intrigued by just what she wants and who she is. Please write more!
The "make love to yourself" line was so very amusing. :D
I didn't know there were any new Lords of Waterdeep--is this drawing on any particular novels or sourcebooks?I have yet to decide upon her name. However, I can say this much, she was one of the original elves who created the elvish Mythal underneath Waterdeep. That Mythal is the reason why Waterdeep has not sunk from all the carving out of the surrounding regions. She was in the second circle to the creation of the Mythal.
She is probably one of the few who could together a real Mythal or destroy one completely. She was not present when Mystra placed the limitations on magic.
Her reason for her exile was many, but ultimately it was political. She was growing to be a power without accepting the leash of the many very powerful factions there. And the power plays that the elvish world was going through were many. It was a sudden drop that put her in front of a court that had decided that she was the best to be made into an example of.
Head spinning she was exiled from Toril to Sigil, and at first was goodly and kind wandering the many planes helping right wrongs. Slowly it all changed, not every justified deed is good or has a good outcome. Loss became a common grief and nihilism was one of the many flowers.
The great nihilism of the blood-war welcomed her, and she diminished from elf to fodder, and from fodder she grew to mercenary captain and later general. Every moment at a war she was unable to kill herself in and yet fought in as if possessed.
Ultimately she is a pawn and part of a grand experiment. The hope with the yugoloths is to goad Mystra into taking action. If she takes action then the overlords of both tanar'ri and bateezu have to become involved.
If Mystra does not there is nothing that makes it a defeat for the elf can certainly control the city and continue to grow in power and spread. A malign presence that would still cause Toril to slowly drift closer to the axis of evil than good.
I have specifically wanted to keep her enigmatic, but this is the quick notes on the matter. Usually as a campaign progresses more ideas about how the personality will interact, and how will the gods react due to a little prompting.
Wheels within wheels.
-Chrysalis