Imoen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
buffleheaded) wrote2018-09-22 04:15 pm
buffleheaded) wrote2018-09-22 04:15 pm
Duplicity app
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Name: Imoen Door: Left Canon: Baldur’s Gate Canon Point: End of “Shadows of Amn;” Irenicus is defeated and everyone’s got their souls back in the right place, so Imoen won’t be worrying about whether or not the clock is ticking on her plot. Age: 21ish Appearance:  The young woman is small, with a slender build for a character design meant to emphasize a thief's agility. Imoen has brown hair, but keeps it dyed pink and cropped between chin and shoulder-length, with several locks in simple decorative ties. She has pronounced cheekbones, a high forehead and generally smooth skin save for scars from fighting and torture -- the most obvious of which is a scar over her right eye. History: Short version is a wiki: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Imoen As for the detailed version. . . In the D&D land of Faerun, god of murder Bhaal foresaw his own death and did his best Zeus impersonation and fathered children of all races, humanoid or not, in a hare-brained scheme to have them sacrificed for his resurrection. When the secretive do-good organization known as the Harpers attacked Bhaal's followers to disrupt that plan, many of those children were scattered. One was specifically taken in by one of the Harpers, a mage named Gorion, and carried away from the battle; this was the series protagonist (referred to here as Syeira, to fit with child_of_bhaal’s application). Two others escaped the fighting on their own and lived on the run: Sarevok, who was soon taken in by a wealthy but morally questionable arms merchant, and Imoen, who wasn't found until she was about ten. That was when the Harpers found her and she was given to Gorion's care. Details on this period of her life are scarce and she might not even remember much about it; presumably she lived as a street urchin.Gorion raised Syeira and Imoen as his adoptive children in the library fortress of Candlekeep. They grew up as siblings and partners in mischief, as they were pretty much the only children their age in a fortress populated mainly by old monks and scholars. Imoen found something of a second father figure in the less intellectual -- but more interesting -- innkeeper Winthrop, apparently a portly drunkard who nurtured her thieving skills. They lived doing chores, learning lessons from the mages and monks, and getting up to no good in their free time until they were about twenty. They were unaware of their heritage, though there were plenty of monks around to ramble on about Alaundo the Seer's prophecy predicting the mass chaos Bhaal's children would be responsible for. Someone knew about Syeira, though, as when her twentieth birthday approached, two men infiltrated the citadel and attempted to assassinate her. The night before, Imoen had found a private letter to Gorion warning of impending danger; he had forbidden her to go along and had Syeira getting ready to travel. They left in the evening after the assassination attempt. Imoen snuck after them. That night, Sarevok and some goons intercepted Syeira and Gorion, and the mage protected his ward as Syeira fled. The siblings watched Gorion die separately, Imoen finding Syeira again in the morning. She refused to let her go on her own, so they continued to meet with Gorion's waiting Harper friends, Jaheira and Khalid -- and from there, they set about looking into the mystery of a brewing war, as well as to get to the root of who was trying to get Syeira killed and why Syeira was starting to have disturbing dreams and develop special powers. They picked up an insane berserker, his hamster and his mage ward Dynaheir along the way, though the second game lets the player choose to treat it as canon that they became familiar with all of the possible party members. The adventure took them to investigate several mines in the land, to thwart a strong ring of bandits and to ultimately root out a conspiracy to take over the large city-state of Baldur's Gate. The conspirator? Sarevok, who was out to have any Bhaalspawn he learned about killed, and to spark a war as leader of Baldur's Gate and use all the death to catapult himself to godhood. In killing Sarevok, the party saved the day -- but when rumors of Syeira’s revealed lineage circulated, they were forced to leave the city. Imoen began to pick up the art of magic, but it was shortly after this that the party was ambushed, knocked out and captured -- waking up in the dungeon of the inhuman mage Jon Irenicus. Irenicus and his minions outright killed the party's most experienced mage, Dynaheir, and spent a great deal of time physically and magically torturing Syeira and Imoen in separate rooms. He killed and dissected Khalid, forcing Imoen to watch. She was eventually able to escape her bonds when assassins from a guild called the Shadow Thieves attacked Irenicus' lair; they died, but the battle drew and held Irenicus' attention while Imoen freed her friends. The party fought free of the mage's dungeon, picking up a foreign rogue named Yoshimo along the way, who claimed to have been captured in much the same way. All the way, she was experiencing the onset of the Bhaalspawn taint beginning to take hold, causing her to be fascinated with the dead and dying around them. Getting out of the dungeon was hardly the end of the ordeal, though -- there, Irenicus had just blown up a portion of a city block and was finishing up killing the Shadow Thieves attacking him. Imoen lashed out with magic, and as the city's Cowled Wizards came to quell the disturbance, Irenicus surrendered to them while pointing out Imoen's involvement in the spellcasting so that the wizards would take her as well. The Cowled Wizards did what they always do with magical deviants: sent Irenicus and Imoen to Spellhold, an isolated prison/insane asylum on a distant island. They were locked up and separated there for a time. And then Irenicus happened again -- he broke free and slaughtered the wizards, save for Spellhold's director. Irenicus simply broke the director's mind and threw him in with the director's former "patients." Then the mage's abuses began again, this time with Irenicus revealing to Imoen the truth about her heritage, explaining what he is doing is necessary to bring out the divine essence within her. Once that's done? He performed a ritual, sacrificing several men's lives to steal her soul and give it to a cursed vampire ally named Bodhi. Imoen finally broke, and while her soulless state was slowly killing her, she could only sit in the asylum, alternating between nearly catatonic behavior or becoming feral and aggressive, trying to kill people with whatever she could get her hands on (or even with her bare hands). All throughout she muttered about death and denied that Imoen was even present. This continued until Syeira finally tracked Imoen down again. Unfortunately, Syeira was promptly recaptured by Irenicus, with her soul taken for the mage's own use. The entire party was dumped in a maze beneath the asylum for Bodhi and her vampires to kill; Bodhi gave them the opportunity to try working through the maze to toy with them before attempting to kill the heroes. That was when an odd side effect of the stolen souls comes about: without Syeira’s soul to keep things in check, her already-strong Bhaalspawn taint transformed her into the Slayer, a gruesome monster that was one of Bhaal's favored physical manifestations. Syeira killed some of the vampires, and Bodhi fled, leaving the party to figure out what was happening -- and for Syeira and Imoen to realize that if they are unable to reclaim their souls, they would die or lose themselves to their taint. After making their way back into the asylum proper, the siblings rallied the insane mages that had been kept in the asylum against Irenicus. It was an obviously desperate move that pulled out all stops, and the mage responded in kind, summoning up copies of the party to aid him in the fight until he was able to teleport away. . . but then Yoshimo revealed that he was under a geas to infiltrate the party for Irenicus, turning against the heroes, attacking with a group of assassins as a further delaying tactic and getting killed. Syeira cut out his heart to take to a Temple of Ilmater to remove the geas and let him rest in peace, and it’s not even that weird for her to run around with a human heart in her inventory anymore. The party attempts traveling back to the mainland with Captain Saemon Havarian, but the chronically-lying seaman had stolen a relic and once in danger of getting found out tried giving it to Syeira so he could blame her for the theft. Long story short, the ship is doomed and the party ends up in an underwater kingdom of fish people, help out with a political coup, and continue on into the cavernous Underdark. A silver dragon agreed to aid them in continuing the pursuit, but only in exchange for the Bhaalspawn's aid in retrieving the dragon's eggs from a Drow city. While disguised as Drow by an illusion from the dragon, the party had to blend in and do the whole When In Rome thing and engage in dark elven politics with plenty of backstabbing. They came away with the eggs. The dragon teleported the heroes to the exit from the Underdark, where they found Irenicus and Bodhi had talked the Drow into trying one of their periodic attempts to invade the lands of the surface elves. This was all a distraction: Irenicus would be using it to move on the Tree of Life to take its power for himself. Before going there, the party made a sidetrip to purify Yoshimo’s heart, then stop by Bodhi's lair, killing the vampire to reclaim Imoen's soul and the enchanted item necessary to reopen the path Irenicus had sealed behind him. With that out of the way, the siblings were able to return to elven lands and go confront Irenicus himself. Unfortunately, when they killed the mage, Irenicus and Syeira’s soul sucked everyone into the Abyss -- Bhaal's plane of existence. There, they had to fight Irenicus again, this time with the mage drawing on the power of the Slayer. Luckily, Syeira was able to reclaim her soul when the mage fell a second time, and they are returned to Faerun, where the Elven queen gave them a well-deserved hero's treatment. Personality: "For someone who supposedly has her soul tainted by the evil of a dead god, you remind me considerably of a chipmunk with a sugar high and a death wish." -Valygar At her core, the character concept is the cute and, yes, sometimes annoying little sister. Even after all that she's been through -- the obvious physical scars and the various mental traumas she's suffered -- the first thing people who know her will think of is a silly and mischievous girl. To a certain extent, it remains true; it is actually a plot point that her cheer and innocence suppressed the evil taint of the divine essence in her to the point that it only manifested because someone made a specific and prolonged effort to draw it out. Even towards the end of the series when she's trying to deal with all these things that have happened to her and still living the dangerous life of an adventurer, she's the sort of person who indulges in frivolous things like dying her hair pink, or trying to tease and fluster the people around her to lighten the mood. In the series epilogue, when she's an archmage and guildmaster, she's still noted as tending to harass some of the most notable figures in the land because they're being "sticks in the mud." This presentation is partly a conscious decision on her part. Imoen is an intelligent young woman who grew up in a library under the tutelage of a great mage and a number of studious monks, and it's shown that she frequently dumbs herself down, so to speak. This is mostly done by throwing informal mannerisms and even made-up words into her speech from time to time, which is quickly dropped when she feels the need to get serious or explain something -- for instance, getting serious and identifying a type of enemy and what they're likely up to in the area, then lapsing back into her mischief by teasing the player character for having slept through the lesson she learned those facts in. So why the pretense? The thief actively wants people to think of her as "just lil' ol' Imoen." It's noted in dialogue that this is because of her father figures: Winthrop taught her to try and stay out of the spotlight, so one aspect is agency as a thief. Gorion taught her to step up, take charge and/or do what's right when needed, which is why she sometimes casts the act aside. After her abuses at the hands of Irenicus, she also expresses a strong desire to her sister that they should go back to their childhood home, that she wants to get away from all the horrible things happening and go back to the good old fun times; this demonstrates that another aspect of her presentation is a genuine desire to return to the simpler times the behavior represents. Which isn't to say she won't sometimes boast, or highlight her competence or lineage. For instance, when party members discover her lineage and question her for making light of the issue, she actually jokes about the dark urges and dreams that come with Bhaal's essence, saying it was disturbing. . .until she figured out all the Slayer within her wanted was a snack. She also highlights her lineage to tease an arrogant party member who was finding himself knocked down a few pegs as he was turning out to be not as special as everyone else around him. In more serious situations, she might point out what she is or what she's capable of when it's a matter of agency, such as when an older party member denies Imoen could understand a matter because she is a "child," or when a resurrected Sarevok tries to intimidate her. And agency is pretty important to her -- she gets flustered or folds easily when she feels she's in over her head or finds herself powerless to act. It should be noted that as a D&D game character, there are certain archetypal mechanics that apply to how she ticks. By the system, she is Neutral Good, which means overall she has good or at least harmless intentions -- but she picks and chooses when she cares about law and order. In fact, because of her background as a rogue, she's a lot less hardline about morals than most people and if she decides she cares about someone she will remain devoted to them whether they turn out to be good or bad. While she will express disapproval of blatantly horrible acts, she is a rare party member in the series that doesn't mind whether she's surrounded by good or evil companions and will not be driven away if the player behaves too heroically or sadistically, whereas other characters who get on each other's nerves may actually leave the party to duke it out or quit if the protagonist becomes too much of a paragon or too much of a villain. To a certain extent, she enjoys being contrary and inappropriate to the individual she is interacting with, which means different things with different characters. The girl will prank and tease self-righteous types -- for example, telling a cleric she saw pornographic materials among his order's literature, or pickpocketing jewelry off a paladin, flirting with him to make him act awkward, and whimsically returning it once she's had her fun -- but she will also typically hold her own with people of poor moral fiber, such as bonding with a bloodthirsty dwarf mercenary by exchanging barbs, or spinning ridiculous falsehoods with a rogue that habitually lies. As a thief she seems to have a slight kleptomaniac tendency in that she admits in retrospect being unable to resist stealing from Winthrop or Candlekeep's monks as a child even knowing the monks had nothing useful or valuable and she certainly wouldn't be able to profit from selling Winthrop's things back to him -- and habitually breaking into Gorion's private study to root through his things is also how she ended up sneaking into the main character's adventure in the first place. It wouldn't be a surprise if she attempted to join or start a criminal enterprise, as the series epilogue has her running a successful thieves guild. "I see. You are worried about me being a Child of Bhaal. Is that it? Well, I’m sure I’ll let you know if I’m going to turn into some monstrous killing machine." -Imoen There is the matter of being a Bhaalspawn. This part of her is contrary to all the sweetness she usually spreads around; since her father’s taint has only recently been brought to the surface she hasn’t gained the supernatural perks that come with it, but there are certain instincts that have woken in her. This expressed itself in the worst ways when she was missing her soul, but it means she has to spend time reflecting on who she is and who -- or what -- she will become. She has become fascinated by a bloodlust, at once loving it and disgusted by it. When she's in her right mind, Imoen avoids fighting where possible, complaining she's seen too much death and there has to be another way -- but it’s so tempting, and violence can be triggering for her, on occasion getting the better of her and causing her to do things like crow as she sees an enemy incinerated, or making her disappointed when a fight ends to the point she confides that she was so frustrated she wanted to jump on her sibling, clawing and biting. The more she sees, the harder it is to stop. This is a fairly straightforward aspect from an OOC standpoint, but it is important because it's the primary thing she needs to work out about herself moving forward. Regarding sexuality, Imoen seems to be bisexual. She actively admires feminine grace, doing things like commenting on the beauty and feeling for the needs of distressed dryads. As far as men go, she admits a male teifling's seduction attempt does fluster her a little -- but not enough to keep her from quickly rejecting him. Although she has limited personal experience, Imoen has clearly run in social circles that are terrible enough that she has the general idea of kink. Listen, there’s talk of “trollops with plug tails.” Powers and Abilities: Imoen is a thief and wizard. For mundane abilities, she is trained in fighting with daggers, staves, bows and darts; she is also very skilled in lockpicking and finding and disarming traps. She has mediocre skill in stealth, and negligible skill in setting traps. She enjoys picking pockets but is statistically bad at it; basically as a thief she's best at breaking into and rooting through people's homes. Imoen does not have special abilities from being a Bhaalspawn, but now that her portion of the god's essence is no longer being suppressed people with relevant senses may be able to detect it. As a mage, however, Imoen has eight levels of spellcasting (there are nine, but the final level is from “Throne of Bhaal,” which takes place after her canon point). She has to get a full night’s rest (by default considered eight hours) and spend time studying her spellbook to memorize any spells she wants to use for that day. She must have her spellbook, and she cannot memorize and cast every spell in her book; she has to try and anticipate which ones she'll need on a given day, or she won't have the ones she needs prepared. In general, all spells have methods to mitigate or negate damage or negative effects they inflict. In the interest of simplicity, I'm going to assume that instant death effects or spells that summon/banish entities across planes of existence are nerfed. Normally I would also exclude any mind control spells, but would like to leave it to mod discretion, as with OOC permission and communication it might make an interesting scene. Mods are welcome to further restrict spells as they like; a full list with details and commentary on usefulness/weaknesses is here, or because that’s long, generalized descriptions of the levels are below. Level one is the most minor spells, such as small blasts of energy, close-range flaming or ice attacks, creates a greasy area that hinders movement, causes status effects such as sleep, illusions to temporarily blind or confuse enemies, improve her own sight, or identify magic items. Level two includes manipulating fire or shooting an acid attack at one target, inflict status effects like creating a sticky web to stop movement, or a number of enchantments or illusions to hide herself or counter the special abilities of others (for instance, Vocalize lets her cast a spell silently if she expects someone to make it so she can't talk, or Mirror Image generates several illusions of herself to hide among and take hits for her). There’s a spell for unlocking things when her own lockpicking skills fails. Level three has a number of useful spells, such as throwing one large or several small fireballs and lightning bolts, with a variety of defensive spells that either directly counter magical effects or reduce damage from specific damage types, such as acid, fire, mundane ranged attacks, or electricity. Utility spells include hasting/slowing targets, or even immobilizing them. Level four has a sweet spot of power and variety. It largely improves on earlier spells, with several new ones inflicting status effects like confusion or illness that weakens and slows the target until it can be cured. Enchantments allow her to temporarily create a mace, axe or sword out of magical energy (rarely used because she's not good with those weapons and those who are good with them usually carry better versions of those weapons), or scry an area for several minutes to watch or study something from afar. There are improved spells protecting her from hot or cold damage types while surrounding her in defensive flame, a spell to remove a curse or turn a target into an animal. Stoneskin covers her in magic stone that absorbs a number of physical hits for her. This is also the first level to offer a spell that lets her cast and store a spell for later, letting her trigger it in an instant without taking the time to cast in the heat of combat. Level five offers improved protection spells, an improved confusion spell, the ability to set off a burst of flames around herself, and a few more spells countering magical abilities. Level six offers better magical counters, a spell storage ability that triggers regardless of what she's doing based on a set circumstance (such as "enemy sighted" or "wizard loses 50% of health). There are also spells for things like chain lightning or the ability to magically increase her strength for melee fighting for a couple minutes. Level seven offers a delayed-blast fireball that waits for an enemy to wander too close before going off, more magic counters, creating a floating sword that wields itself (but can be destroyed), a third spell storage ability (this one stores better spells than the first, but she can only have one active at a time), and the ability to project an illusion of herself that she can move around and cast spells through (basically letting herself fight without directly exposing herself). The most amusing spell on this level is a Sphere of Chaos -- people in an small area of effect get hit with random status effects including bursting into flames, being healed or hasted. Level eight gets nasty with an area of effect spell that damages by sucking moisture out of all living beings in the area of effect, creating a cloud of flames or manifesting a large magical hand that attempts to catch and squeeze an enemy. There's an improved option to project her image and fight through it, as well as more flavors of spell counters. This level offers for the first time the ability to inscribe a magical symbol on a surface that serves as a trap that inflicts a status effect, such as fear. Inventory: -Spellbook -Cloak of Non-Detection aka "Whispers of Silence" (Enchanted: protects from magical attempts to reveal the wearer when he or she is invisible/in stealth. Despite advertisement, not actually effective against all means of detection.) -"Firetooth" dagger (Enchanted: Minor fire damage on hit. Returns to the user after it's been thrown.) Samples: Thoughts and dialogue in prose: Imoen reunites with her sister, joking and dancing around shared traumas. Dialogue, with some action tags: Pestering Doctor Strange on the train. |