Phelaia Hope, an Ord-in-'arry Devil
Phelaia Hope is a Tiefling ranger from northern Malakath.
Appearance
Phelaia Hope is slightly taller than average, lithely muscled, with bluish gray skin, long pointed ears, a shoulder-length shock of red and purple streaked raven hair, faintly glowing, sclera-less, devilish amber eyes, a dazzling white smile with faintly pointed, barely pronounced canines, short purplish black horns, sharp, purplish-black talon-like claws on her fingers and toes, and a bluish-gray arrow-pointed tail. She dresses in loose brown cloth and dark leathers to better blend in with the wasteland, with a pair of well-broken in, hobnailed, legionnaire-style open-toed sandals. She carries a twisted darkwood longbow, a quiver of arrows, two scabbarded shortswords, and shin-scabbarded boot knives. She also carries a well-stuffed satchel, a short shovel, a coil of rope, and a thin, somewhat raggedy bedroll.
Skills and Abilities
Phelaia is nimble, stealthy, perceptive, and a fair bit stronger and tougher than she looks.
As a former street urchin, Phelaia is a proficient if quite out of practice pickpocket, lock-jimmyer, and cutpurse. At a young age, she discovered a special knack for climbing walls and disappearing into whatever cover presented itself. She knows every back alley and shortcut in the Slums like the back of her hand, and knows which carters are kind to the less fortunate and which are complete mragrashem.
Phelaia is an excellent archer, especially with Old Beazle, a Tief-touched longbow. She can shoot from horseback and make trick shots to cut ropes, snuff candles, peg someone to a wall with their clothing, that sort of thing.
Old Beazle is effectively a spell focus, channeling Phelaia’s connection to the Tief. If she senses that she or someone she aims to help is in real danger, the bow starts warping the heads of normal arrows into wicked, magical, hard hitting barbs that cut in all directions when pulled out. If Phelaia grows angry, her arrows not only twist into barbs but burst into flames on impact, possibly setting the target afire. Prolonged shooting of Tief-touched arrows wears her out quickly.
Phelaia learned some of the Malakathan style of twin shortswords from a cousin who made it into the Temple Guards, focusing on deflecting incoming attacks and countering with quick thrusts aimed at opponent's legs and joints to hobble them. Her bag of swordfighting tricks is not terribly deep yet, and she greatly prefers to fight at range with her bow.
Phelaia is a proficient rider, on those occasions when she finds some manner of mount. This is a good thing, because horses often distrust her at first smell. She has learned to carry apples, carrots, or dates for such meetings, to ease relations along. She has dreamt since she was a little girl of riding a dragon, blue like her. She knows it’s a silly dream. Only humans can ride dragons…
Phelaia has a rudimentary understanding of how to live off the land, finding edible plants, hunting, trapping, fishing, butchering, and jerking meat. She knows how to cook food to make it edible, though she wouldn't call herself a 'good' cook.
Phelaia has keen night vision and sharp hearing. Thanks to her tail, she can jump somewhat higher and farther than would be normal for a similarly-sized human. Her sharp, hardened claws give her advantage when climbing normal walls and with the aid of a rope, she may even scale smooth-carven ones. In a pinch, she can use her claws as weapons, but she hates to do so as she thinks it's 'giving in.' Her Tief connection has combined with her messed-up religious beliefs about her Ascended blood to render her innately resistant to fire, but also innately vulnerable to holy water.
As a former street urchin, Phelaia is a proficient if quite out of practice pickpocket, lock-jimmyer, and cutpurse. At a young age, she discovered a special knack for climbing walls and disappearing into whatever cover presented itself. She knows every back alley and shortcut in the Slums like the back of her hand, and knows which carters are kind to the less fortunate and which are complete mragrashem.
Phelaia is an excellent archer, especially with Old Beazle, a Tief-touched longbow. She can shoot from horseback and make trick shots to cut ropes, snuff candles, peg someone to a wall with their clothing, that sort of thing.
Old Beazle is effectively a spell focus, channeling Phelaia’s connection to the Tief. If she senses that she or someone she aims to help is in real danger, the bow starts warping the heads of normal arrows into wicked, magical, hard hitting barbs that cut in all directions when pulled out. If Phelaia grows angry, her arrows not only twist into barbs but burst into flames on impact, possibly setting the target afire. Prolonged shooting of Tief-touched arrows wears her out quickly.
Phelaia learned some of the Malakathan style of twin shortswords from a cousin who made it into the Temple Guards, focusing on deflecting incoming attacks and countering with quick thrusts aimed at opponent's legs and joints to hobble them. Her bag of swordfighting tricks is not terribly deep yet, and she greatly prefers to fight at range with her bow.
Phelaia is a proficient rider, on those occasions when she finds some manner of mount. This is a good thing, because horses often distrust her at first smell. She has learned to carry apples, carrots, or dates for such meetings, to ease relations along. She has dreamt since she was a little girl of riding a dragon, blue like her. She knows it’s a silly dream. Only humans can ride dragons…
Phelaia has a rudimentary understanding of how to live off the land, finding edible plants, hunting, trapping, fishing, butchering, and jerking meat. She knows how to cook food to make it edible, though she wouldn't call herself a 'good' cook.
Phelaia has keen night vision and sharp hearing. Thanks to her tail, she can jump somewhat higher and farther than would be normal for a similarly-sized human. Her sharp, hardened claws give her advantage when climbing normal walls and with the aid of a rope, she may even scale smooth-carven ones. In a pinch, she can use her claws as weapons, but she hates to do so as she thinks it's 'giving in.' Her Tief connection has combined with her messed-up religious beliefs about her Ascended blood to render her innately resistant to fire, but also innately vulnerable to holy water.
Personality
Phelaia is quick-tongued, sharp-witted, and devil-may-care. She speaks in a Thagretis-accented personal patois of trade-tongue spiced with "Tiefling" words and odd customs like 'mister' and 'missus'-ing people for longer than strictly necessary. She has a sardonically cheerful disposition and a healthy dollop of the black humor common to her kind. She holds an idealistic, good vs bad worldview and has a heart of gold that keeps her broke.
Deep down beneath her happy facade, she is lonely and philosophical, wondering what exactly her reason is now that her apprenticeship is over. Why her, why here, why now? She calls 'em the 'Three Ys' sometimes, when there's someone to talk to and philosophy comes up. Which is so far never.
Deep down beneath her happy facade, she is lonely and philosophical, wondering what exactly her reason is now that her apprenticeship is over. Why her, why here, why now? She calls 'em the 'Three Ys' sometimes, when there's someone to talk to and philosophy comes up. Which is so far never.
