Bedelia R. Quandary
5th yr. midterm project
Goodwife Bedelia Rätsel Quandary (a.k.a. "Goody Rätsel")
Bedelia is a woman of many talents, and much gifted in the way of intelligence and savvy. Her personal life is an enigma that she has kept close to the vest. It is unknown from whence she hails. Her accent is that of the pidgin common used by sailors and merchants, yet her vast vocabulary is easily ascertained through her precise enunciation. She is a talented and accomplished chocolatier, but sells weapons and armor for a living.
She has never had a lover. Not that anyone could swear witness to. Yet, at one point nearly twenty five years ago, she grew large with child, and bore a beautiful little girl.
And then? Nothing. She up and disappeared from view, and from all knowledge in the little town she had been living outside of. Honestly, though, she kept so quiet and lived so unobtrusively, few ever even noticed she had gone.
Yet live she does, to this very day. Comfortably. Anonymously.
Thrivingly.
Artifacts
She is in possession of a wonderful feather; a huge, beautiful, shimmering feather. She has muttered something to the effect of it being divine, to the very few who have seen it hung carefully on the wall above her bed. She says it is a coatl feather; the feather of a great and beautiful creature.
Holy Books & Codes
The Book of the Moons and Tides, Selune's guide upon Pax.
Divine Symbols & Sigils
She has a pendant of a coatl feather, cast in gold.
Tenets of Faith
She is a follower of Selune.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Her captors kept her fed and cared for nicely, to maintain her desirability. Since her escape, she has retained much of the self-care she was taught while captive.
Body Features
She is slim and small, with a mole on her right cheek.
Facial Features
She very often has a smile like she knows something that you don't.
Identifying Characteristics
Her large, expressive eyes, and the mole on her right lower cheek.
Physical quirks
Here we go with the mole again. A mole. She has a mole.
Special abilities
She is so unobtrusive that she can attack with surprise her first round of combat.
Apparel & Accessories
She dresses very plainly, although her mastery in seam work has allowed her to contrive a way to carry a brace of daggers on her person at all times.
Specialized Equipment
The The Gifts of Modi.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Bedelia was raised on a farm out in the 'east country' of Craysilt, in a town called Higsby. She was orphaned young by the Kobold Armies rampaging throughout Pax after the The Kobold Accord, but managed to avoid the workhouses and orphanages using wit and hard work. In the span of several hard years, she became a seamstress of some renown.
As Bedelia grew older, she became very quiet around other people. Shy, even. And several years after that, by chance it became known that she had been imprisoned and tormented, by a man fancying himself a "Lord", for many months. That she managed to escape at all was a miracle many would deem heroic; but the rugged folk of her hometown preferred, instead, to believe a nefarious rumour started in a bar by a man calling himself "Cap Boris". He drunkenly yarned about how, if he had been in that situation, he would have "sucked and fucked ev'ry living thing available to get meself outta that mess!" In no time at all, the shy retiring young seamstress was rumored to be the town whore, which Cassidy D'Light took personal offence to because she was jealous. She had had to work hard for that title!
Gender Identity
Bedelia may be shy and introverted, but she's just as freaky (probably way more than you, square!) than anyone else.
Sexuality
Bedelia is a vigorously consensual partner. She is also a violently murderous non-consensual partner.
Education
She is entirely self educated, but she educated herself very well indeed.
Employment
Bedelia is currently a seamstress and servant in the Cotnor Retinue.
Accomplishments & Achievements
When Bedelia was very young, it was noticed that she was never (ever!) surprised. One could not play 'peek-a-boo' with her; she always knew one was there. Perhaps this helped her escape her imprisonment later on in life.
As a seamstress, Bedelia seams (see what I did, there?) to have a latent talent, and has recently been hired by the current Lady Cotnor, of the Cotnor Royal Family in the north.
Failures & Embarrassments
Bedelia has an 'invisible friend'. He started showing up while she was imprisoned; indeed, he helped her escape her torment. As much as she tried to keep it secret from others, those closest to her (her workmates) were bound to notice strange behaviors eventually, and rumors spread from there like fleas colonizing a fresh batch of sewer rats. Too quiet to ever make a fuss about it, she winds up changing jobs frequently. The maids she works with even now (5426NG) are starting to chatter to each other behind her back. Most recently, the biggest and loudest of the bullies was found dead in her bed, strangled to death.
Mental Trauma
Her time spent as a captive at the hands of a false, pretender Lord, was incredibly traumatic. All of the worst things that spring to mind when one says 'female kept hostage' happened to Bedelia at the hands of the "Lord's" men. It was much worse when the "Lord" himself chose to partake of her time; he liked to hurt people. It made him finish faster.
She did all fashion of disgusting things to survive, one mind crushing trauma at a time, as they tried to reduce her to nothing more than an available female body.
Her fierce will to survive and enact vengeance attracted the attention of extraplanar beings of great power, mostly due to Higsby's proximity to the instability caused by the The Necrodruid's earliest machinations into manipulating power and Entropy.
Also; Bedelia lives with the knowledge of what she did not only to survive, but to escape. Dozens of the "Lord's" people died that day; projectile vomiting, and bleeding from their eyes, ears, and other available orifices. Not only the "Lord" himself, but all of his people. All of them, simultaneously vomiting and dripping out their lifeblood. Bedelia watched from a nearby balcony, a sense of pride and closure falling over her...as her friend Modi put his warm hand upon her shoulder.
More than a friend. Modi was more than a friend.
She had adjusted the "Lord's" dosage of the poison just-so. He was alive; conscious, but unable to move or react. A prisoner inside his own body. All of the rage, and shame, and hurt...and pain...came boiling up all at once. So Bedelia roasted him alive.
He could not even scream.
Intellectual Characteristics
She is tactically brilliant, fearless, and has such an innate knowledge of poisons and acids that no one has ever caught her for her role in the murders of Lord Ulrich Vonnecott and his entire retinue. She is very, very quiet, keeping to herself almost obsessively.
Morality & Philosophy
Save those you are able, lest you make the others' sacrifices worthless.
Taboos
Abandoning a friend without good cause (literally life threatening). Speaking about her beautiful daughter, about whom none can be sure. Speaking of her wonderful lover and erstwhile boyfriend, Modi.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
To be joyous, happy, and free.
Virtues & Personality perks
Bedelia is such a good seamstress, many of her creations are magical in some way. She has quite a talent at making masques of all shapes and sizes, and is quite inventive when she has been hired on the side to make costumes and gowns. She is accepting of all peoples, and is one of the truly empathic people in the world.
When she shares a rare smile with someone, that person feels completely seen, and heard. If she ever laughs in your presence, feel honored indeed, for it means you are truly a blessed person, within and without.
Vices & Personality flaws
Bedelia has been...broken, in a way. Her amygdalae has been altered by the "Lord's" evil machinations, and her sexual avarice is voracious. Her anger, also, can go from a simmer to a boil in mere seconds. She tries valiantly to keep it in check, and has been almost entirely successful.
Almost. Hence all the new jobs.
Bedelia believes 'geographical cures' for shame are perfectly valid, and has a few times simply disappeared for months at a time.
She will straight up murder you if she needs to.
Personality Quirks
Bedelia likes butterflies, dragonflies and Lunar Moths, but she just loves dogs of all kinds, and red foxes in particular.
Hygiene
She is meticulously clean and well groomed, obsessed with masking her scent. She washes and styles her hair in ways designed to be as inconspicuous as possible.
Social
Contacts & Relations
She has a 'beautiful daughter' that she drinks to every year, on 23 Maya.
Family Ties
If she has any, she has kept them to herself.
Religious Views
Bedelia believes religion is fine, in moderation.
Social Aptitude
Bedelia's social aptitude is abysmally absent. She is shy, retiring and quiet. Some would call her a "wallflower".
Mannerisms
She reads books incessantly, adoring the release of care and the flights of fantasy she is able to take when she loses herself in a well wrought story. She tends to shrink in on herself, walking with her shoulders hunched in a little bit and her head held down.
Hobbies & Pets
She is a world class carrier pigeon trainer, but she has not had the opportunity to set up a dovecote where she works, in Cotnor City.
Speech
Bedelia is very soft spoken and quiet, but her precision of language is bloody fantastic. When she is enraged, she will speak with the timbre and confidence of a well trained warrior.
Wealth & Financial state
She is surprisingly well off. She figures if she works another five years, she will have saved enough to actively retire. Comfortably, even.
Divine Classification
Consort
Current Status
Maid at a Cotnor estate
Species
Ethnicity
Other Ethnicities/Cultures
Church/Cult
Age
54
Date of Birth
22 Prill
Circumstances of Birth
Loving, cherished, and very private
Birthplace
East Craysilt, "The East Country"
Children
Current Residence
Palace servants quarters
Pronouns
she/her
Sex
Female
Gender
Female
Presentation
Unobtrusive female.
Eyes
Brown
Hair
Short, brown, and straight
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Ruddy white, with a mole on her right cheek
Height
5'3"
Weight
115
Belief/Deity
Selune
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