Decima Overmere

The youngest living member of her generation of the Imperial Family of Correhome, The Ladies' Hiking Club first encountered Decima Overmere in the lowest level of The "Lighthouse" in Bridlip. She and General Kuzoh appeared to be overseeing the siege, and working with (or commanding?) The Silent Man and his band of cultists. It is now clear that she is the mastermind of some extensive plot, if not intended to bring about the apocalypse, certainly seeming to be reckless in risking it.

“Do you see what they’ve done there, with that one?” she said, gesturing to Bik, bound up in hemp rope. “That’s the idea. Say, grandma, do you need a job? It’s hard to find good help in the boonies.” Her voice was condescension distilled.

Background and Personal History

After reviewing a royal genealogy in the library of Adalberto Veno, the party can make a few educated inferences about Decima's background. Her mother was Emperor Optimus Overmere's third wife, Lucy Fel -- and that is a famous name. It was broadly assumed that their incomparably opulent wedding and the month over which it was celebrated was an overture to peace after that conflict had begun to stagnate over the course of his reign. It is broadly known that Optimus did not prosecute his father's war along the southern border with any degree of commitment, and he tapered off those expenditures as soon as it was politically safe to do so. Optimus was an imperialist but a practical one; Tenthun was too tough a nut to crack. Vastly better to get rich with them as a trading partner than to bankrupt the Empire fighting a monastic warrior caste uphill.
The birth of a daughter to the couple in 847WA is unsurprising -- Optimus certainly had no issue with issue -- but also not something that the Ladies' Hiking Club knew offhand. Any child of that union would be well outside the line of succession in both nations and a birth, particularly of a girl, would not have been significant news. Fanny noted with interest that Decima was not actually the youngest child of Optimus and Lucy: they had twin boys that are noted as having been deceased at the age of two or three, when Decima would have been a toddler herself.

Family Relationships

Doing the math, the group can deduce a few possibly relevant facts about Decima and her relationship with her half-siblings:

• She would have been born just months before her father died at sea.
• She likely cannot remember her father or full-blooded siblings, though the Ladies cannot recall whatever became of Lucy Fel.
• She would have been a baby during the Petition of Sylvio Overmere, and Sylvio's only "sister" that would have been that age at the time, suggesting she was the "sister... the last scion of Optimus Overmere" offered to Kelemvor in exchange for a dictum condemning Emperor Kern Overmere for the murder of his brother Ericus. If she was indeed at the Grand Mausoleum for that event, it raises questions about why (and if) she was entrusted to Sylvio at such a tender age for such a dangerous journey and where (if anywhere) she went afterwards.
• Sylvio was either lying or mistaken when he told Bishop Spritzer that Decima was the "last scion" of the family. The twins would have been a few months old at this point. If the commissioning of the Petition was the last thing Sylvio did before departing Correhal on this journey, and Lucy was the last thing Optimus did before departing on his, it is plausible that Lucy could have been as little as two or three months pregnant at that point and word did not reach Sylvio as he seems to have been making an effort to travel in secret.
• She would have no recollection of meeting Thalia Overmere unless they did so during Thalia's exile.
• If Decima returned to court in a reasonable time, she would have been present for her stepbrother Cassius' death from plague and could potentially have relationships with her other stepbrothers Kern the Emperor, Christus the Archbishop of Maulden, and her stepsisters Camilla and Fluvia, though both presumably lived in their respective duchies (Vertis and Corshire, respectively) after marriage. Her uncle Silas, Duke of Orland, is also well-known as a family consiglieri frequently at court, and she may know him as well.
• It is possible, however, if Sylvio was telling the truth and he was Decima's guardian, that she was raised with him on the Portavian campaign.
• It is also possible that she did not leave with him. Vega still does not know the outcome of the petition.

Involvement in the Apocalypse

Little was initially known about Overmere and her specific involvement in current events, other than that Kuzoh appeared to be answering to her in The "Lighthouse":

The Silent Man took a moment on the ground, catching his breath. In an instant, a bellow from across the bridge shook dust free from the columns.
“Archers! Shamen!”

“No!” screamed the woman’s voice. “He’ll handle this.”

“That is unwise, Dec-”

“Don’t say my name! They’re just going to fuck it up!” The voice was youthful and refined, consonants cracking like chattering teeth.

“You had seven of him, I advised you to wait.” The reproachful growl hummed through the air.

“We are out of time. They’re four old women. What is wrong with you?!”

“You watch, but you do not assess,” he said, gesturing - but unclearly as to whom. “They’re droz'ohn-ka. Did you know you had attracted the attention of the Grand Mausoleum? I should demand a premium.”

The woman freezes, eyes scanning the field - but not with fear. With excitement. The droz'ohn-ka were here? In Bridlip, in the Empire's asshole? They could only have come for her. Dark eyes sparkled and her tongue found the corner of her mouth. “Yes,” she said, pulse racing. “Yeah, do it.”

Since that time, certain other parties have provided the Ladies with their take on Decima's potential involvement in these events. Torwall's Patron rejected the idea, stating that the Ladies clearly meant Fluvia or Camilla: capable, conniving political operatives with networks and weighty titles that come with troops, vassals and allies. Thalia Overmere responded, "Who-- the baby?" when it was suggested that Decima was behind a large-scale attempt at an Omnicide. She ridiculed the idea of Fluvia orchestrating any kind of scheme outside of vicious gossip. Something of this nature would require picking up a book, which would not have been an option for the middle sister. Reghyxesh did not know which, if any, of the sisters were behind these events; could not even confirm that the events took place, and perhaps could not say even if it did know more.

The most useful confirmation to date came from The Hobgoblin Who Got His Dog’s Throat Cut And His Balls Almost Torn Off, who confirmed that Decima was working with Kuzoh in spearheading the assault on Bridlip. During his postmortem challenge in the Hall of Events Non-Canonical, he provided details about the bargain. Kuzoh was promised some amount of gold but more importantly a limited engagement with the elite Sixteenth Legion by his side. Kuzoh reportedly jumped at the chance in the course of his campaign to consolidate power over the goblinoid races, cautious of the offer but on the whole dismissive of the grand plans of a spoiled teenage girl. She arrived at their camp south of Gwynab a few months before the assault with the legion in tow. He indicated that Kuzoh ultimately felt some degree of concern for having entered into the bargain, as he "didn't expect what we found when she arrived".
Clytemnestra asked what that was. "Her," he responded, suddenly grave.
"What was she like?" she asked the arrogant, misogynistic unit commander, who stopped pawing at her momentarily.
"... Impressive."

Activities After Bridlip

It is now clear that somehow Decima was tipped off to the route the The Ladies' Hiking Club took out of Bridlip, and for reasons unknown took an interest in ensuring they were not long for the world. As described below, when they met her again in the Non-Canonical Demiplane, Decima rattled off a number of subtle facts that she could only have known through extensive inquiries following them south across the continent. She indicated that she did not really need to interrogate them as "there isn't much to know about you that you haven't blurted out to everyone from the Overcroft to the Lamplight Inn", suggesting she has been aware of their route from the very, very beginning of their enterprise. She made a joke about an excess of tilapia, referred to Matthew Legge being displeased with them as matchmakers, and was well versed in the origin of Vega's flail.

According to Reghyxesh, Decima's men sold the enchanted linen wraps of the sacrificed Silent Men to The Arcanaeum while dressed in the livery of Thalia Overmere. The ruse did not convince the Beholder, however, who noted that her men were not idle mercenaries like Thalia's guardsmen. (Fanny has since learned that her guards are not lax and idle because they are mercenaries, but because they are mostly spies by training rather than hired muscle.)
"Hard men, tight lips," Reghyxesh twice repeated, referring to the men that sold it the wraps. "Disdainful of money. Veterans accustomed to death." From this, The Ladies' Hiking Club concluded either that Thalia and Decima were working together, or that Decima has infiltrated Thalia's guard.
After Thalia's meltdown before Fanny and Peaseblossom upon receiving her clothes order, the former explanation is untenable. The only possibility is that Decima is operating on the Shell and disguised her men -- likely legionaries of the Sixteenth -- as Thalia's lacklustre guards in order to operate with the blame for any conflagrations falling on her dispossessed eldest sister. It did not even sound as though Thalia was aware of it.

It is now beyond question that Decima was the strategist behind the Ambush at Commissioner's Hall, intercepting Beulah's commissioned portrait of Gavinus to use as a poster luring them to a location on a specific date and time, and providing a false sense of security by doing so outside Corran territory. She infiltrated Thalia's guard with her own and hired her personal assassins, the Quattrociocchi siblings, to eliminate them and to frame Thalia for the hit in the event of failure. (She is seemingly unaware or heedless of the extent of the relationship developing between Thalia and Clytemnestra.)  She made specific provisions to separate the Club and tailor their traps to their weaknesses:

• She met Azas at some point and somehow conscripted him to possess Violet Verihendrion Miller to peel Fanny and Vega away from the main floor, then to separate those two under the pretence of engaging in the kind of private heart-to-heart talk that Decima somehow learned Fanny craved. "Violet" held a sleep glyph that rendered Fanny unconscious and presumably available for interrogation and another crack at the Lantern.
• She learned of Vega's interest in Violet and removed the healer from the main targets of the assassination attempt. It remains notable that while Fanny had to be taken alive, there was no specific plot to kill Vega, who is as disposable as Beulah or Ch---.
• She was familiar with Ch---'s inability to avoid being sucked into kitchen duty, commissioning actors to start a magical, asphyxiating fire in the Commissioner's Hall kitchen and to abandon it, leaving Ch--- with the mess. She had metal panels installed over every opening with exterior locks to trap Ch--- inside and positioned Antimagic Fields on both sides of the room to preclude any of the "coincidences" for which the Halfling is becoming known.
• She presumably supplied Carrie Quattrociocchi with an enchanted dagger capable of silencing its target, with instructions to commence the attack by silencing the Eloquence Bard and rendering her helpless.

In the event the assassination was unsuccessful, Decima correctly assumed the survivors would return to lick their wounds at their base at The Lamplight Inn and seemingly dispatched a Gnomish explosives expert to booby-trap their room. Her intelligence failed her on this point, however, as she was unaware that the room was already booby-trapped. He was blown back on to his own charges, blew himself through the roof, and fell back into their hallway in pieces. Decima's backup plan was thereby foiled.
Pretty good plan though.

Encounter Over Brunch

To the surprise of everyone in the Club, the final door in The Non-Canonical Demiplane revealed a pitch-dark chamber, save for two end tables with candlesticks lit upon them. Between those tables was a row of four rocking-chairs with cardamom and rosewater-scented basins of steaming-hot water directly in front.
The spotlights that shone on their opponents to that point seemed to malfunction, shining on them as well as on Decima, who stood on the opposite side of the room.
Once they had entered and arrayed themselves, she let out an exclamation. Half-exasperated, half-relieved, she said simply, "you're here!"

What you see is a figure standing spear-shaft-straight in broken-in banded leather and the yellow silk baldric of an Imperial flag officer. There’s a rich grass stain along the left side and the left pauldron is just resting in place, mostly severed from the rest of the hauberk and dangling by a thread. Boots, polished to the patina of a silver vanity, are clumped over with mud and horse shit.
A spray of thick brown hair as raven-dark as the Imperial sigil is tied in a braid for the occasion. On the whole, it is a much more imposing outfit than the silk tunic she was wearing the last time you saw her, four months ago in the cave beneath the Lighthouse.
She’s remarkably pale in this light, made all the more apparent by the flush of pink around a mild abrasion on her left cheek, but her deep brown eyes are crackling with the reflections of the candles beside you. In the shock, you don’t register much about the mass in the shadows to the left of her.

Personality and Motivation

The exchange with Decima revealed something of her personality, motivation and activities over the past few months.

Personality

While she has the flippant accent and snide mannerisms culturally associated with women of Correhal (see Thalia Overmere, Carrie Quattrociocchi and Lucida Baldelli), Decima's condescending, impatient attitude is deceptively layered over a foundation of intelligence, curiosity, ruthlessness, and apparent nihilism.
She was unable to refrain from lecturing the Club with her thoughts on the planar influences on the physical laws of the Non-Canonical Demiplane (and it seems increasingly clear from her own humble-brags and the use of casual Mauldeno script that she was personally responsible for the inscriptions on the metal door spotted by Vega Spritzer effectively "reprogramming" the challenge chambers).
While it might not be conclusive of her personality, it is notable that Overmere seemed to have been rushed into the Chamber from some other duties. She appeared in the uniform of a Corran flag officer, without having had the opportunity to change, clean her boots, or even bandage some abrasions along the right side of her body. The suggestion that she had just been in action, or at least some dangerous physical activity, seems to give some credence to the hobgoblin's confession that she managed to impress Kuzoh and his troops in some way. The Club noticed a gladius, a wand and a number of well-worn pouches of various size on her belt.
At the conclusion of the encounter, as Decima responded to the Club's inquiry by saying in part that she needed a new dress and had a ball to attend, Fanny sarcastically remarked that sure, she was "just a brain-dead socialite". Decima left the room while cheerily responding, "half the time!"

Motivation

Around the shock of being arcanically goosed by Ch--- Decima seemed to be hinting at some philosophy reminiscent of Plato's Cave. She gestured to the emaciated corpse of the red dog the Club first encountered in the Chamber of Non-Canonical Events and that provided Vega with her trademark red-wool +1 Flail, asking if a creature born and spending its life in the Demiplane could imagine the wonders of the broader world. "Can you imagine dying here," she asked, "and never looking outside?"
That question sent a chill down Vega's spine, as it sounded familiar. The Club met Decima in the context of her attempting to breach a Lantern containing a relic of Naraoch. Naraoch was famously defeated by the Trilune Fellowship as she attempted to "swim upstream" in the Green Dream -- the creative aether Sylvanas unleashed to feed the Tarrasque -- to find its source and to seek vengeance for her people, challenging Sylvanas in his own realm. The fact that Decima has an interest in those nodes, effectively plugs in the Green Dream that would otherwise burst forth and rouse the Omnicidal beast, and that she has allied herself with a cult of Naraoch worshippers tends to point in an extremely dangerous direction. Does she intend to destroy the world? To ransom it? To resurrect Naraoch? To surpass her, succeeding where she failed? Or to defeat her once and for all, ending the tension of having her forever bound to stasis?
Finally, there were odd moments of familiarity with Vega in Overmere's monologue. She began by checking that she had three of four names right -- Beulah, Cherry, and Clytemnestra -- but seemingly had no need to verify the identity of the Club's fourth. She interrupted herself at one point to refer to the fact that she herself had (intentionally?) died in the Demiplane and complained about the experience:

“And you know what’s really interesting? When you die here, there’s nothing. No bridge to the Incunabulum. No Elysian Fields or Pits of Hell. There’s a flash of memory and then quiet. I can’t remember a thing. Is that what we can expect? Are those souls on the bridge even human, Bishop Spritzer? Who are the sources the Kindly Ones trust on that?
Did you miss me, by the way? Never wanted to, I don’t know, check on me or whatever? It’s fine.”

In context, this seems to be confirmation that she was the child offered to Kelemvor in the Petition of Sylvio Overmere, though it is unclear whether the offer was accepted.

Recent Activities

In response to the Club's formal question, Decima admitted she had social engagements in the Corran capital to attend in the next few weeks and that she hadn't had the opportunity to go shopping recently. She said that in the meantime she was going to be wrapping up a campaign with Kuzoh and the Sixteenth Legion against the Black Sun tribe: an ever-present threat to the Hobbit nation of Gwynab, based in an occupied peninsula that is still diplomatically Halfling territory.
Decima admitted to bringing prisoners of war from this conflict into The Non-Canonical Demiplane and executing them there as an apparent experiment. She was fascinated by the fact that material and ineffable materials seem to be divorced on that plane, and that while a body might be destroyed and even ejected from the plane, something ineffable remained and would be reincarnated with demiplanar materials. (This may explain why the food continued to diminish as deaths, resurrections and external shades began to pile up.)

“I’ve executed prisoners in here dozens of times in the last month, thrown their bodies out… wait until the room resets, poof! Right back fifty feet from the sticky buns, good as new. I can march them right back out past a pile of four of themselves. Though it’s not quite the same, they remember everything." She chuckled. "Actually I suppose they walked out past a pile of much more naïve, optimistic versions of themselves. By the ninth or tenth time, they’re barely capable of speech, but that seems more likely to be trauma than decay, right? I really do think it’s a complete physical reset, the tides just don’t have any effect on the ineffable.”

Perhaps there was some purpose to that experiment, but to the best of the Club's knowledge at this point those relentless executions appear to have been undertaken purely to sate Overmere's own curiosity. Or perhaps she has something of her eldest (surviving) brother in her, and she simply enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with different methods of execution.
The question of whether Azas and Decima were working together was also conclusively resolved in this conversation, with a curious suggestion as to the power dynamic between the two:

She turns slightly to look at the candles beside you. “Are you here, cutie?”
The candle goes out, then re-ignites. “Good puppy. Thanks for introducing us, by the way - we’re really hitting it off. You girls really have a knack for matchmaking. That jeweler is NOT a fan. Anyway!"

It remains unclear from whose side of the room Azas entered.

Alignment

Neutral Evil

Age

19

Date of Birth

1st Summerfall, 847WA

Sex

Female

Eyes

Brown

Hair

Dark Brown

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Pale

Height

5'5"

Weight

118 lbs.

Aligned Organization

The Corran Empire