Quaithe

In 1949 SMA, a tiefling is born in the small village of Pinecutter in the Riverlands to a horrified human mother. Her birth mother abandons her in the nearby forest and the infant is discovered by a tribe of nomadic elves who decide to take her in, naming her Quaithe. This tribe is filled with druids and Quaithe is raised as such. She takes to these lessons well enough, but still feels like an outsider within her tribe thanks to her demonic features and violent habits. Despite this, Quaithe continues on with her teachings and becomes a fully-fledged druid, but lacks the zealotry for natural balance typical of a druid.
Despite the clear affection her tribe has for her and the acceptance from her adopted parents, Quaithe decides to leave the tribe in search of something that she is unable to quite articulate. She wanders aimlessly through the wilderness of southern Axa for months, occasionally visiting local towns Wild Shaped as small animals like cats. She is aware that her tiefling visage gives others cause to distrust her, and she understandably keeps to herself and rarely speaks to anyone, trusting only herself. This has a side-effect, however, slowly poisoning her opinion of humans to the point where she actively dislikes and distrusts them.
As the new year dawns, Quaithe decides to travel to a local druid haven called Sarxim that she had heard about, in hopes of gaining Lith's permission to join a Circle. While there, the haven is attacked by bandits and everyone in the haven is killed except for Quaithe and another druid, Iri. The two work together and defeat the bandits, taking their ship as a prize. Returning to Sarxim, the two perform their rituals and Quaithe is officially accepted into the Circle of the Moon. A mysterious vision warns Quaithe of an evil reawakening on the Estrian Archipelago, and she takes Iri to go combat this threat.
The trip there is fraught with pirates and Quaithe's ship is eventually attacked by a group of them. A large crew of pirate hunters comes to her rescue and she joins up with them for the rest of the trip. On this ship, which she learns is named the Catfish, Quaithe meets two other adventurers named Areth and Trechtus and the three of them realize that they are all headed to Estria to combat the same evil. They decide to create a three person party for the duration of this quest.
Upon landfall in Estria, Quaithe and the party meet a young girl named Teal who asks them to investigate a ruin in the jungle for her. The party senses that these ruins might give them a lead to their prey, and accept. The ruins are large, mysterious and full of ancient but functioning constructs. After unlocking the inner vault, they travel into it and destroy a particularly powerful construct called the Sentinel. What the Sentinel was guarding was exactly what the party was looking for: instructions on how to open a unique time and space rift. The notes detail that what was required is a spell to kickstart the rift (which Trechtus had already discovered), a strong energy source and a crystal to focus the energy. Satisfied, the group departs. Just outside the ruins the party encounters another group of adventurers and engage them in a fight, capturing a tabaxi druid. Quaithe convinces the party to release the druid against their better judgement.
Afterwards, their first order of business is to get a crystal, which Teal informs them could be found in the Triton town of Novros. They travel there and acquire the crystal before fighting off an attack instigated by a Triton youth named Jerzeh. Areth and Quaithe capture this youth and give him to the town authorities, who exile him. Realizing that Trechtus had vanished in the chaos, the two women decide to travel back to the main city of Ordelia to hopefully meet up with him there, unknowingly following in the destructive wake of a goblin horde. Upon arriving at the city, the two are shocked at the destruction and goes to combat the goblin chief: a bugbear named Samuel Smorkle. Meeting up with Trechtus, who was also present, the three kill Smorkle and save Ordelia.
With the party reunited, they travel to the south of the island where a large volcano called Mt. Folgath was located to find a good source of magic. A small kobold village at the foot of the mountain warns them to turn back, but they ignore the reptiles and push on, finding themselves in a dragon's den. Thinking quickly, Trechtus kills one of the dragon wyrmlings and steals the Lord of the Mountain, a shard of the resident dragon's soul. They leave quickly and travel east, meeting back up with the Catfish and deciding that they should deal with the pirates, who had placed bounties on their heads.
The plan is simple and executed well: pose as captives to get the bounty and spring a trap. The fight is brutal, but they kill most of the pirates and their leader, the Admiral Idos Kyras. Satisfied with their work, they follow Quaithe's suggestion to find some local druids and make their way to Anaxi's Garden and meet Treefather Quinn. After participating in the druidic ritual in which Quaithe meets an enigmatic fiend that gives her vague and unhelpful information, Quinn informs them of an issue with a local Chimera in the Feywild, and they agreed to help him in exchange for his help with opening a time rift.
After traveling through the harrowing and corrupted Feywild, they kill the chimera, with Iri unfortunately perishing in the fight. Trechtus is unable to hold back a secret he had been keeping from the party, and Areth forces him to admit that he had been working as an agent for the very evil they were chasing, though he had escaped from it. Quaithe is disappointed but ultimately unsurprised by this revelation and blames Trechtus' pride as a wizard for his downfall. She convinces Areth that he is better help as a living ally, so Areth spares him. The party returns with a trophy, gaining Quinn's help. Fully prepared, the party heads back to the ruins to open up the rift.
Opening the rift is not difficult, and once inside the party heads to the lone castle within this pocket realm. There they encounter the source of the evil: the King of Creation. With Thera's help and eventual sacrifice, the party defeats the King and seals him away for good this time. Despite more or less enjoying each other's company, the three decide to split up here.
After the whirlwind of emotion and danger on Estria, Quaithe is left with more questions than she started with. She assumes that traveling back into the wilderness could ease her mind, and she travels to Estria's sister island, Arte, which is almost entirely unexplored. Quaithe spends months on the island, but does not feel the same sense of comfort as she once did. Conflicted, she returns to Ordelia and encounters a ship of the new Catfish Fleet. Recognizing Quaithe, the pirate hunters happily allow her to sail with them if she agrees to pull her weight, including hunting pirates. Quaithe is more than happy with this agreement, giving an enthusiastic "Hell Yeah!"
After defeating a primordial god, pirates were not a scary or challenging enemy. Quaithe learns about sailing and the many sailor groups on the seas. Spending time with other people made her realize that what she was missing on Arte was personal connections. She no longer enjoyed being alone. She missed the banter and petty squabbles that she had with Areth and Quaithe. Feeling exhausted and homesick, Quaithe asks the crew to sail her back to the coast of the Riverlands. This journey takes several months as they keep getting sidetracked with lucrative pirate hunts.
Once docked at a small fishing village in the Riverlands, Quaithe immediately perks up. She recognizes the village as one of her favorite places to visit as a child, being a spot where she practiced her Wild Shape to steal food. Since the village was mainly comprised of tabaxi, who were considered by many to be a "bestial race" they were more accepting of Quaithe's tiefling form. Combined with that she had made a name for herself as a pirate hunter, Quaithe is able to walk the town freely. She purchases a horse and travels deeper into the forest, taking in the sights and sounds.
The first people she heads to are an elderly tabaxi couple living on the outskirts of the village, named Zeke and Lenore. The two had often taken pity on Quaithe as a child as she had no friends and would regale her with myths and stories of adventure. Lenore would also bake sweets. The couple welcomed Quaithe back home and they spoke for hours, with Quaithe retelling the entire story of her time on Estria. Zeke was very impressed. Quaithe grabs a few of Lenore's tarts for the road and heads to meet the tribe she grew up in.
Meeting her adopted parents again, she re-retells her story on Estria, and they are very proud of her, thanking the gods for her safe return. This catches her interest, as when she was younger she often heard such phrases for all things important or trivial. Quaithe always thought it was a bit silly, but seeing the work of the gods firsthand and understanding their terrifying yet beautiful power, she regretted thinking so close-mindedly. Over the next few months, Quaithe spent her free time studying the gods. She studied their history, myths and academic papers about the angels and the Firmament. Gaining a new appreciation of religion, she attempted to pray and over time would find herself saying short prayers to the gods while training or hunting and had to admit that it felt like it improved her skills ever so slightly.
While out hunting one day with her mother, Quaithe spotted smoke rising from a part of the forest that she thought was uninhabited. Fearing a wildfire, Quaithe prepared to flee before her mother explained that the local human village had been expanding and building great machines. Realizing that this village was the same one where she was born and abandoned, a deep bitterness struck Quaithe's heart and she cursed the humans for cutting down forests instead of just working within them.
Such dark thoughts bring to mind the fiend that Quaithe spoke to in Anaxi's Garden over a year ago, and Quaithe realized that she still knew nothing about that figure. Troubled, she asks her mother if she knew anything about fiends, which her mother unfortunately didn't. Curious, Quaithe sneaks into the village to see if she can find a book on fiends, she overhears talk from some of the townspeople about a "meeting with the Lady at dusk". Quaithe of course investigates this.
Quaithe has infiltrated the small village of Pinecutter out of curiosity and overhears some figures speak of a secret worship service they plan to attend. Interested, Quaithe follows them to a cellar entrance and sneaks in with an invisibility spell.
Once inside, she sees about a dozen people quietly worshiping a statuette of a half-snake-half-human figure. The figure glows in her presence, alerting the leader of the worshipers. Seeing no other option, Quaithe reveals herself and is surprisingly welcomed with open arms. Referring to her as the “Lady’s Guest”, the leader asks her to participate in the ritual. Quaithe agrees, and picks up the statuette to participate.
The moment she touches the statuette, Quaithe enters a vision where she speaks with the same shadowy fiend she met on Estria. Annoyed, Quaithe grills this figure hard and learns several important things. The figure reveals herself to be the Archdevil Glasya and Quaithe’s other parent. She answers several of Quaithe’s questions vaguely and tells her that if she wants to know the whole truth to come visit her in person in St. Rask, as Glasya has some business there. Quaithe begrudgingly goes along with it and makes the journey to St. Rask.
Once there, she meets an imp who takes her to Glasya. While Glasya isn’t there in a true physical sense, she is possessing a human woman and thus can physically interact with Quaithe for the first time. After another talk in which Glasya attempts to recruit Quaithe, Quaithe leaves and goes to pray, hoping to find what direction she should take. A butterfly lands on her hand and Quaithe asks it to lead her to the correct path. The butterfly takes her back to Glasya, and Quaithe realizes that the insect was in fact an illusion cast by Glasya.
Unashamed, Glasya says it was meant to help Quaithe decide and adds that she could make her decision after seeing “Phase I”. At Glasya’s behest, Quaithe sits on the roof of the building and witnesses the Calamity on the Mountain, Glasya’s cackling in her ear.
Quaithe is horrified by the Calamity caused by Glasya and decides to put a stop to it. She eventually hears of a few refugees heading to the church run by Grandfather Jonas and assumes that would be the best place for her.
A pain devil arrives and attacks some of the guardsmen outside the church. One by one, Quaithe and four others arrive and decide to do battle with the pain devil for their own reasons. Once the battle is over, they convene and speak with each other. Suspicion is high among the group - except for Quaithe and Areth, who already know each other. The five decide that they are likely the five most powerful beings not working with the fiends and decide to enter an uneasy alliance to pursue their own goals.
They first decide to enter the church and speak with Jonas, who had been attacked by a plasmoid Gahn had seen earlier. It flees at the sight of the party and they speak to Jonas, learning a bit about the political issues in St. Rask and about the potential state of the church. The party convinces Jonas to take them to where he hid his holy artifact so they can prevent it from falling into the fiends’ hands. Spotting a massive, bullish devil flying in the air, they leave before Jonas is able to lay down the protective ward around his church.
The party arrives at the innocuous statue that Jonas claims holds his artifact. There are a few members of the Spellbreakers working around the statue, attempting to uncover its secrets. Gahn quietly sneaks up and eliminates the men. The rest of the party then move up and kill the rest of the Spellbreakers, including one of their griffons.
Once handled, Jonas opens and enters the vault, with the party choosing to trail behind him. They arrive at the main room, which contains a massive statue of a golden eagle and four mummified clerics perpetually casting a ritual spell of protection. Jonas gives the blood tax to the eagle and acquires the Icon of Yush. He then speaks with the party and they exchange some information before deciding to keep Jonas held up at Gahn’s house with Gordo. They quickly head over to the Godless Heap and drop Jonas off, with the party seemingly having no concern for leaving an old man alone with a goblin. Jonas asks the party to check on his church for him, which they say they will and then immediately decide they have better things to do.
The party then decides to look for some of the magical runes that Yellesa is seeking out and decide to check some shipyards on the way to the Mages Guild. At two they find the runes and learn a bit about them with a book on magic that Ardryll had. They determine that they are part of a larger magic circle, with the caster likely in the center. The party also captures a lone Spellbreaker and interrogates him, learning about Khilvel and his relationship to Glasya. He is unable to reveal the location of Khilvel, however, saying that he is not important enough to have that info. The Spellbreaker also informs the party that the other plasmoid is posing as Gahn, which the real Gahn finds offense with.
At one of the shipyards the party finds hundreds of crows seemingly speaking to one another. Gahn throws a rock at one and kills it, causing the rest to attack him. Areth’s quick-thinking saves Gahn and the rest of the party and they kill all but one crow, which Yellesa grabs and swaddles, giving it to Ardryll. Ardryll recognizes the crow to be a familiar - one of Xanthe’s specifically. He holds onto it for the time being.
The party then reaches the Mages Guild and speaks to some paladins. They tell the paladins that Jonas is not actually dead and that they need to get into the mages guild. The paladins said that they’d have to get permission from the acting Grand Paladin, Lyveria, first. The party decides not to wait and use magic to put the paladins to sleep before picking the lock and entering the Mages Guild.
The party enters the mages guild and encounters a bloodbath seemingly caused by the constructs that the mages had made to protect them. After eliminating the constructs in the main lobby, the party reactivates the magical AI, Tori, that the guild uses for intelligence. Tori informs the party of all manner of topics that they ask it, from alchemy, biology, magic and fiends. It even tells them about the lockdown in the guild and that the party needs to flip three switches to deactivate the magic barriers in the building. The party decides to split up to accomplish their goal faster.
Areth and Quaithe team up, perhaps unsurprisingly, to tackle the artificiery tower. There they find where the constructs were being assembled as well as the room where magical weapons were created. They notice the potentially valuable metal and grab a couple of the magical weapons they find as well as some enhancement powder. At the top they defeat a snow golem and pull their lever.
Yellesa and Gahn begrudgingly team up to climb the alchemy tower. In the first floor they find where the potions were brewed, and the two find some unbroken but unlabeled potions. Yellesa successfully identifies hers but Gahn just bites the bullet and drinks his, being shrunk down to a height of 2 feet. The next floor is where the alchemy ingredients are stored, and Gahn fills his bag of holding full of it. Yellesa locates a ceremorph and takes it. On the third floor they fight some metallic wasps and pull their lever.
Ardryll summons a fiend with his magic and takes on the education tower. There he finds several books on various subjects and takes them all. At the top of the tower he finds an iron cobra and manages to avoid its venom long enough to kill it. He also pulls his lever. The party meet back in the lobby and exchange notes before heading to the previously locked tower where the Domain Leader of Arcana is staying.
There they find that Hier has already killed him, but they manage to sneak up on the plasmoid and wound him. Hier flees and summons two werewolves to keep the party busy. The party angrily kills the two werewolves and curse Hier for his cowardice.
The party decides to sleep for the first time since the Calamity and are woken up soon after by Xanthe, who asks for her familiar back. Ardryll hands it over without issue and she leaves peacefully. The party then goes back to a proper rest, with the two elves awaking sooner than the rest of the party and doing some research with Tori. They also notice the ring of magic developing as a result of the shield caused by the Pridwen.
Once the other party members wake up, Areth tells Yellesa about the magic ring and the party collectively decides that it must be dealt with. They continue tracking the magic circle that’s maintaining the spell and triangulate the location to a shipyard. They sneak in through a back entrance and Yellesa finally gets close enough to connect to the Mindflayer. Choosing to go ahead with such a dangerous operation, she locates the Mindflayer and shares power with it. It uses that power to short-circuit the entire complex, killing several and activating the emergency shutdown.
The party rushes to where Yellesa now knows the Mindflayer to be, mostly ignored by the panicking Spellbreakers. Once they arrive at the machine holding the Mindflayer captive, they fight the Spellbreakers trying to bring it back under control. In the chaos, the leader of the Spellbreakers, Khilvel, is killed. The party successfully manages to activate the self-destruct on the machine, killing the Mindflayer within.
The entire Spellbreaker base collapses as a result of the explosion and the party escapes with some minor injuries. Once outside, they engage in some third-degree with a paladin who noticed the chaos and manage to convince him that they are working with him and not the demons. Heading back to Gahn’s place, they debate extensively on what their next goal should be and settle on dealing with Gahn’s doppelganger. They drop off all of the alchemical ingredients gathered at the Mages Guild and pick up Jonas, planning on using him as bait.
The party heads back to Jonas’ safe room to set the trap, with Ardryll donning a Spellbreaker robe and fake capturing Jonas to make his survival obvious. Hier takes the bait and teleports into the room, not expecting five combatants lying in wait for him. Despite his advantage psionics and skill in combat, he can’t prevail against a force so overwhelming and is killed. Gahn consumes Hier’s brain, gaining some of his memories and a sliver of his psionic powers.
Afterwards the party releases Jonas to go gather the rest of the Domain Leaders, now that they are no longer being hunted. They go to the Church of Life and find it is inexplicably empty, instead running into the same paladin from before. He says he is also looking into the lost citizens and offhandedly mentions an old tale about a dragon living under the Arena. With several leads, the party sits down in the church to decide what they should pursue next.
The party somehow is convinced by Ardryll to pursue the dragon lead and they head to the arena. There they kill several demons outside and sneak inside, finding several shadow demons setting up a detonation despite the mortal slaves toiling away in the caves. The party decides that the lives of the slaves aren’t worth saving and detonate the bomb themselves, killing all 22 slaves inside and opening up an entry to the lair of the copper dragon Agamol. Ardryll wakes up the sleeping dragon and converses with it. It is polite, but makes it clear it sees no value in Ardryll or anything he can offer. He, somehow, has the patience to allow Ardryll to ask several pointless questions and even lets him leave alive.
The party simply watches this proceed, hiding in the hallway. The party quickly leaves when given permission and roast Ardryll for his recklessness. They then talk about what actually useful action they will take next.
After escaping the increasingly-irate dragon, the party decides to go speak to the paladins and see what is their deal. They all approach and ask to be let inside, but the paladins only allow in Areth and Ardryll, who disguised himself as Jonas. The other three engage in a minor argument about racism and suspicion with the paladins, who aren't impressed. The paladins separate the elves, leaving Areth in a bunk room on the second floor and taking Ardryll to a secret room on the third floor.
Gahn, Yellesa and Quaithe get suspicious after a few minutes and Yellesa discovers an open window on the second floor. She jumps on up and lets down a rope for the others Areth grows uneasy and prepares her weapons as a precaution Ardryll discovers two corpses in the room he is in and determines that they have only been dead for a few hours. He gets the hint and uses some beads of force and his halberd to pry the door open, finding himself in the quarters of Lyveria, the head paladin.
The three begin cutting their way through the paladins quickly and quietly, eventually finding the room Areth is being held in and helping her kill the other paladins on the second floor. Ardryll finds a silver dagger and uses it on a paladin after cutting both his Achilles tendons. The dagger kills the paladin instantly, confirming Ardryll's suspicion that most or all of the paladins are werewolves.
The four head up to the third floor and kill Lyveria's second-in-command, taking his amulet-key. They find Ardryll looting and killing his way through the third floor and all five head down to the first floor. They open a magically-sealed door with the amulet and confront Lyveria within, who seems pretty unconcerned with their presence. She even smokes a cigar while heckling them about how they're following their own goals instead of greater good, just like she is. Eventually she grows tired of the party and decides to kill them. She is strong, but the party has learned to work together and cover each other's weaknesses too well for her to succeed.
The party searches Lyveria and heads back to Gahn’s place to take a long rest. They notice that many of the mortal forces of Glasya have dried up, and while there are more fiends, they seem to be less organized. At Gahn’s home, the party finds that Gordo has somehow managed to successfully brew a few potions, which he gives to Gahn to hand out to the party as necessary. During the long rest, the two elves hear sounds of crashing and roaring, which Ardryll convinces Areth to come with him to investigate.
They find their way to the St. Rask National Bank, which has been broken into. Ardryll ventures inside and enters the vault, in which the dragon Agamol has entered, planning to take the city’s wealth and add it to his hoard. Ardryll, for some reason, sees this as an opportunity and helps Agamol transport the gold while Areth heads back to inform the party. The party is not keen to help Ardryll and instead venture off to find the Domain Leader of he Forge, Harsola. They rescue her from a few demons and she rewards them by upgrading some of their gear.
Ardryll grows on the dragon somehow, and it tells him a few choice secrets about the city. Satisfied, Ardryll leaves and reconnects with the party at the Library. Inside the library, the party can barely see through the magical fog, but they manage to find and kill the vampire Xanthe, despite her best efforts to separate and disable the party. The party searches Xanthe's lair and finds a few magical items, including one of the Church's artifacts. It is a book written by the Skeleton King about becoming a lich.
They head back to Gahn's to get a long rest and decide it is time to go after the portal. Through their various abilities, they climb the sheer cliff next to the river so as to not fight the fiends guarding the main path. On top, they fight to a garden shed where Areth casts a spell that shuts down all portals, including the fiendish one.
They rush into the cathedral and eliminate Rozin, with some effort. After Rozin's death, they have a short chat with Glasya, who is unbothered by the failure of the invasion. They head down the mountainside and run into Jonas, who congratulates them. They warn him of the dragon's plans.
Quaithe is unhappy about her relation to the person who caused this mess, and decides to head back to the Riverlands to dedicate herself research and fully master her fiendish powers.