Adventure Party

Liliana Voss - The Paladin (Human)

Appearance: Dull-blonde hair in a single long braid, now tangled with blood and sweat. Her blue eyes—one now hidden beneath a bloody bandage—burn with panicked desperation. Voluptuous but heavily muscular frame, her once-pristine plate armor is dented and missing pieces, the white cloak ripped to shreds. Her left arm is gone above the elbow, the stump hastily tourniqueted with torn cloak fabric. The shattered remnants of her shield lie scattered near her boots.

Current Mental State: A leader unraveling. Liliana’s voice wavers between commanding and near-sobbing as she orders the others to "Hold the line!"—half to them, half to herself. She keeps glancing at Meadow’s corpse, her surviving hand trembling around her sword’s hilt. The weight of her father’s debt claws at her mind.

Backstory: Born to a noble house ruined by her gambling-addict father, Liliana took the paladin’s oath to escape his legacy—only for him to disappear, leaving her with crippling debts owed to underworld figures. She views Meadow as both sister and salvation; the half-elf’s radiant kindness kept her from becoming as cruel as her lineage. Now, with Meadow gone, she’s one hysterical scream away from charging the orcs alone.

Likes: Honorable duels, Meadow’s terrible singing, the smell of incense in chapels. Dislikes: Cowards, her father’s name, being called "milady." Free Time: Reading, praying to drown out memories.

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Mao Yuelin - The Fighter (Cat Demi-human)

Appearance: Black cat ears flat against her skull, fur matted with grime. Her hime haircut is now a wild mess, and her yellow eyes gleam with feral fury. Athletic body streaked with fresh cuts, the sleeves of her white shirt torn off entirely. Her iron bracers—tools of her martial art—are warped and useless.

Current Mental State: A storm of grief and rage. She snarls at anyone suggesting retreat, her claws unsheathed. Every glance at Tollis’s dragged-away form makes her tail lash. She’ll not lose another friend.

Backstory: Trained in a secluded monastery, Mao idolized her teacher—until her rival defeated her in ritual combat and claimed her as a sex slave. The sight of her bound master broke her; she fled to grow stronger. Her loyalty to this party is absolute—they’re her new clan.

Likes: Sparring, spicy food, braiding others’ hair (badly). Dislikes: Slavery, cold weather (her fur’s thin), talking about home. Free Time: Scratching logs to sharpen claws, training, picking flowers that smell nice, napping.

Meadow Voss – The Cleric (Half-Elf, Deceased)

Appearance in Death: Her small body lies twisted where she collapsed, the once-vibrant blonde twintails now matted with dirt, blood, and the bile she vomited before dying. Her violet eyes, usually so full of warmth, stare sightlessly at the sky, her mouth slightly parted as if caught in a sigh. The white and brown cleric robes are ruined—soaked with her own urine from the loss of bodily control, the golden ornamentation crushed under the careless stomp of an orcish boot. An arrow protrudes cruelly from her chest, the fletching smeared red from when she weakly tried to pull it out before succumbing. Her fingers are clawed into the earth, pale from blood loss, still gripping the shattered remains of her holy symbol.

Personality (In Life): Meadow was the radiant heart of the party, the kind of soul who could find beauty in rot and music in silence. She smiled even when covered in swamp muck, laughed after nearly dying to a mimic, and always had a healing touch (metaphorical and literal) ready for anyone wounded. She was painfully earnest, wearing her heart on her sleeve—something the sharper members of the group teased her for, though never cruelly. But beneath the cheer was a well of quiet sorrow. She knew she was unwanted—by her elven mother, by the monastery that only took her in out of obligation, even by Liliana, who loved her but never the way she loved Liliana.

Backstory & Secret Longing:

• Abandoned on monastery steps as an infant, raised among acolytes who saw her as a charity case.
• Met Liliana during her paladin training and clung to her instantly, not knowing they were sisters.
• Only discovered they were related years later—and by then, her feelings had already crossed a line.
• Never confessed. Spent nights praying for divine punishment that never came.
• Her last act was casting Sanctuary on Liliana as the arrow struck her.

Likes:

• Singing off-key hymns, pressing flowers into books, the smell of incense, Liliana.
• Watching Liliana train (she thought her sister looked heroically beautiful mid-swing).

Dislikes:

• The pity in strangers’ eyes when they realize she’s half-elf.
• Her own reflection—she hated the pointed ears that marked her as half of something, never whole.

Free Time:

• Healing stray animals, writing unsent love letters, collecting herbs for experimental potions.

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Karius – The Bard (Tiefling)

Current State: His usual effortless allure is in tatters. Purple skin bruised deep mauve, his long black hair—normally silken and artfully draped—now a tangled, sweaty mess. One horn is chipped from a near-decapitation swipe. His tail won’t stop twitching, the spade tip smearing blood where it lashes the ground. His shirt hangs in ribbons, showing claw marks across his ribs where a goblin tried to eviscerate him. Two fingers on his right hand are broken—his playing hand—and his prized lyre lies splintered underfoot.

Personality: Karius copes with horrors by treating them like a jester’s stage. Even now, he’s grinning too wide, cracking jokes about "orcish courtship rituals" while his red eyes dart for escape routes. His charm is weaponized survival instinct—seduce, distract, survive. But beneath the theatrics is raw terror. He’s never been this close to dying without a crowd to impress.

Backstory & Hidden Shame:

• Born in brothels, raised on scraps of attention bartered with honeyed words and batting lashes.
• Learned music from a drunken minstrel who called him "pretty, for a demon."
• Uses sex as both shield and scalpel—lets nobles bed him, then blackmails them with secrets whispered in the afterglow.
• Secretly despises how easily people reduce him to his horns and tail.

Likes:

• Captivating audiences, cherry wine (will drink straight from the bottle), his own reflection.

Dislikes:

• Being touched without permission (flinches if grabbed suddenly).
• The quiet after performances—when the mask slips.

Free Time:

• Composing self-aggrandizing ballads, flirting with tavern wenches for free ale.

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Rhazk – The Ranger (Lizardfolk)

Current State: His dark green scales are marred by fresh gashes, the pale underbelly streaked with clotting blood. The tip of his tail is gone—hacked off during the retreat. His black, horned hat (horns are hunting throphy) remains stubbornly in place despite everything, though his bowstring is snapped, leaving him with only his serrated dagger. His yellow reptilian eyes track movement with cold precision, but his nostrils flare at the scent of Tollis’s fear lingering in the air.

Personality: Rhazk doesn’t panic. He assesses. Right now, he’s counting arrows left in his quiver (three), estimating distance to the treeline (too far), and tallying how many of the dead are goblins versus orcs (not enough). He doesn’t speak unless necessary—words waste energy. But his silence isn’t indifference. The way his claws keep flexing betrays his rage.

Backstory & Vengeance:

• Born in the Blackfang Swamps, raised to hunt and kill without sentiment.
• Captured by slavers in his adolescence, sold to a noble who wanted an "exotic guard."
• Escaped by disemboweling his master with his own teeth.
• Now hunts slavers like game—leaves their skins strung up in trees as warnings.
• Tollis once sewed up a gut wound for him. He owes her.

Likes:

• Sunning on warm rocks, the crunch of bone between his teeth. Dislikes:
• Fire (scales dry out), metaphors (confusing), owing debts.

Free Time:

• Sharpening his claws on stone, staring at the moon (reminds him of swamp reflections).

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Tollis Ironvein – The Mage (Dwarf, Captured)

Last Seen: Gagged with filthy cloth, her glasses cracked but still stubbornly clinging to her nose, making her big green eyes look even bigger. Her robes are torn open at the shoulder and thigh, revealing bruises and bite marks. Her light brown hair in a bun are now a mess. The goblins are dragging her toward their warren—a place of squealing laughter and rusted cages. She’s fighting, thrashing, but there are too many hands on her. Worst of all is the crude brand already seared into her forearm—a goblin clan mark. They’ve claimed her.

Personality: Stubborn, fiercely intelligent, and unapologetically blunt, Tollis was the kind of mage who set things on fire first and asked questions later. She had a sharp tongue and a low tolerance for incompetence, which led to frequent bickering with Karius (whose antics she found insufferable) but a grudging respect for Rhazk (whose silence she appreciated). She was endlessly pragmatic, even brutal in battle—she had no qualms about turning a goblin’s blood to boiling sludge inside its veins if it meant survival.

But beneath the scowls and sarcasm, Tollis had a soft spot for the people she deemed hers. She’d secretly slip Meadow rare spell components for her healing magic. She’d endured Mao’s aggressive head-pats with minimal grumbling. And despite mocking Liliana’s self-righteousness, she did trust the paladin to have their backs—right up until the moment the ambush shattered that trust.

Now, bound and gagged, her magic suppressed by crude iron cuffs, that pragmatism is the only thing keeping her from pure terror.

Backstory & Unspoken Regret:

• Fifth daughter of a wealthy merchant clan, shipped off to magic school because "girls who read don’t cause scandals."
• Graduated with honors but refused to return home, instead choosing the adventurer’s life for the sheer thrill of freedom.
• Her biggest regret? The last thing she said to her mother was "Don’t expect letters." Now, faced with the reality of being broken into a broodmother, she wonders if this is some cosmic punishment for her arrogance.

Likes:

• Rare spellbooks, black coffee (bitter, no sugar), proving people wrong.

Dislikes:

• Being patronized, goblins (now more than ever), her family's name.

Free Time:

• Tinkering with unstable magic, writing pissy letters she never sends.