Cyriana, the Song of Iron

[namo]

Cyriana

I shall make their blades sing so loud

That the demons cower and run!

a young Cyriana, her imagination inflamed after hearing the Ballad of Yaniel

 

Details

Gender: Female
Race: Half-elf
Deity: Desna
Age: 28
Nationality: Taldorian

Role: buffer, secondary frontline combatant
Class: Bard (Arcane Duelist)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Campaign Trait: Child of the Crusade

Appearance

Cyriana stands tall and proud, and looks people straight in the eye.

Her dark hair often looks messy - she's never been very interested in spending time to take care of it; she's even been known to hack it herself with a dagger when on a campaign. Thankfully, it passes for something civilized right now.

She has striking blue-gray eyes, emphasized by her slightly tanned skin: she spends much time outdoors.
Her clothes are practical - thick, durable cloth, or good quality leather - and hug her muscular figure.

Her vicious-looking weapon, a long polearm with a sharp, shiny blade (she oils it religiously) stands out as well, and generally causes passers-by to give her a wide berth.

Personality

Cyriana is intense, in relationships and in most tasks she undertakes.

She is friendly and gregarious, but her intensity can frighten away people before they have had the time to appreciate who she is.
She is generally happy to help out others, in small or big ways.

She tends to tell it like it is, too much so but, after suffering the consequences of her honesty a few too many times (which is what they call maturity), she has learned to be a bit more circumspect, and to edge in more diplomatically.

She tends to be optimistic most of the time, but can fall into depression at times: she may be lightly bipolar.

Backstory

Cyriana likes to think that she was fated to join the crusade.
Ever since she was little, she was fascinated by all things military. In that, the influence of the tales of her Mendevian (human) father, a former soldier in the 3rd crusade, and the job of her elven mother, quartermaster in the Taldorian army, was quite obvious.

But it's her elder brother joining the crusade before her and getting himself killed that sealed the deal. Call it a need for vengeance, a righting of a wrong, the filling of a void... She felt she was pulled across the continent.

But let's back up.

Cyriana's childhood, with her siblings - she also has a little brother - was happy and carefree, except for being a military brat, hence forced to uproot herself every few years to follow her mother. She happened to have a good voice, so she joined a local military choir, and later the choir of her local Desnan chapter.

Like all kids, she fought mock battles, proclaimed a thousand victories and knew a thousand defeats, but it did not mean much.

What carried weight was her training: with grizzled, grumpy, obnoxiously cock-sure veterans, wielding blade, hammer, or spear; with the regiment's war chanter for songs of power; with the officers for battle plans and with the rank-and-file for the raucous meals or the long, boring watches. A couple of magi (they go on rotations, preciously rare that they are) even showed her how to deal with spellcasters; she is far from having mastered those techniques, but keeps practicing whenever she can.

Her entourage pushed her to apply to the Kitharodian Academy in Oppara, the most prestigious music school on the continent, and - what an honor! - she got in.

She loved the music there, and how it vibrated through body and soul. She even formed a band with some fellow students. But she loathed the discipline, and the airs people - teachers especially - put on, like they were better than the rest of the world, when they were really just in a blessed, comfortable bubble away from real life, with their concocting of arias and their endless refining of the pitch of a tiny new violin.

It was good, lucky even, to get a turn at this lifestyle, but she found out she did not like it: when it came down to it, she was a rugged kind of girl, feet down in the mud ("figure of speech, I hate mud just as much as anyone else!")
She quit the Academy after just two years, leaving a little scandal in her wake, since "no one does that!".

By that time her elder brother, Victor, was already in the North, both retracing their origins on their father's side and following his own dreams of glory: he traveled to Mendev then joined the Fourth Crusade.

When news of his death arrived, she was devastated. The missive was sparse on details, but she later pieced out that, most likely he was killed by demons (and not by cultists, other monsters... or a fire hazard cause by any of the former).

She headed North in turn, and enlisted. She was still grieving; she searched for traces of him, people who might have known him... and found few.

She did after a while find a sense of purpose, and of belonging: her martial experience and the power of her voice could be of use here, could make a real difference.

So she stayed on, and fought on.

The end of the Fourth Crusade came, yet she found she had no desire to return to civilian life, so she worked part-time in the army, and part-time as a teacher.

Faith

Cyriana is fairly private about her faith in Desna, but it is nonetheless very dear to her.

She finds solace in it...
to give meaning to what she has seen, despite the inequities of the world
to hope that luck is on her side
to find meaning in the journey, even when she doesn't know the destination
to draw strength from the light of even a lone star when the world seems overcome by night.

OOC notes

• The Player Guide mentions people with the same Child of the Crusade trait should be related: if OzzyKP agrees to it, I figured Cyriana and Sandor could be distant cousins (through her father), reunited by the circumstances.
• I see there's another Bard applicant. FYI, we could both get selected without stepping on each other's feet, since our styles diverge wildly; in particular, we're using different, complementary bardic performances.

Storylines & NPCs:

• get closure on her elder brother's death (I left the "how and where he died" vague so you can make it up/integrate it more easily, but I can fill in the blanks if needed)
• she could cross path with Xertok, an accomplished half-orc bard now advisor to some Mendevian nobles. They met at the Academy, but he was part of the crowd that she did not get along with. He is her senior by a few years.
• she would love to see Ariadne (an elf) again - one of the war chanters who taught her when she was a young teenager.
• she is in a friendly competition with Derrick, a gnome martial mesmerist from a unit stationed nearby. They're counting how many enemies they kill, but also how many people they save from death, so it's not unidimensional.
• (DM option) her little brother Aguaro: it might be fun if he ran away from home to follow in the footsteps of his elder siblings. Cyriana would want to send him back home, on account of the extreme danger - quite hypocritically, given that she did exactly the same as he, but she'd think of her parents and the overwhelming worry they'd be going through, with the risk of losing both their remaining children. NB: her brother is much more adept at sneaking than she is.

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by namo
typo; and adding little bro (see edit history)

[namo]

Stat Block

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Cyriana
F Chaotic Good Half-Elf Bard (Arcane Duelist), Level 4, Init 2, HP / , Speed 30ft
AC 12, Touch 12, Flat-footed 10, CMD 19, Fort 2, Ref 6, Will 4, CMB +7, Base Attack Bonus 3
Masterwork Cold Iron Fauchard +8 (1d10+6, )
Abilities Str 18, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 16
Condition None

 

 

Note: I haven't finished picking her gear nor rolled her HP, but I assume that can be done after selection, if you choose her.

Edited October 27, 2023 by namo (see edit history)

[hoverfrog]

Looks good.

Are there any NPCs that you'd like to include in the game and how have you spent the week since the fall of Kenabres?

[namo]

So, the thing is... I haven't played the module, so I don't know much about the fall of Kenabres. Is there a 3-line summary somewhere I could get the main gist from?
Did it fall due to a sudden, overwhelming assault? Betrayal?
It's still controlled by the good side, not demons, correct?

I've read the 3 pages of the current main thread, but it doesn't talk about that; I haven't hunted for the old threads.

 

I've listed some NPCs at the bottom of the 1st post, but I'd leave it up to you to see which ones resonate with you, and we could flesh them out together.
One I haven't included but will is... her little brother! It might be fun if he ran away from home to follow in the footsteps of his other siblings. Cyriana would want to send him back home, on account of the extreme danger - quite hypocritically, given what she did, but she'd think of her parents and the overwhelming worrying they'd go through.

Edited October 30, 2023 by namo (see edit history)

[hoverfrog]

The city of Kenabres sits on the edge of the Worldwound and is a launching place for many of the crusades that seek to recover the land from the demons. It was protected by a series of wardstones, one of which was stored in The Kite, a prominent fortification in the city and the rest are placed along the border of the Worldwound. The Kite was destroyed by betrayal and the city very quickly overwhelmed by demons attacking by teleporting into the city. There was a day of heavy fighting but now the demons seem to have moved on, with an occupying force left behind to torment the survivors. Defenders have congregated at a fortified inn, Defender's Heart and are preparing a counter attack to recover the city.

Some survivors, mostly non-combatants, have been sent away from Kenabres. Some haven't yet been rescued and are hiding out in the city or beneath it.

[namo]

Thanks for the information!!

After the fall, Cyriana would have first tried to identify where she is most needed, then dived head-first into it. I see two options, broadly:

- healing? She's not very adept at it, but even a little can mean saving lives.

- organizing the survivors? Thanks to her mother's job, she has some notions of taking care of high-level organization: several squads for pulling survivors out of the ruins, a few improvised "field hospitals" with nurses and healers, some squads dedicated to foraging for resources, and of course scouts and guards to defend them all. She's not necessarily the best with the details after that, but she could be a sort of advisor / coordinator / aide-de-camp / at whatever headquarters end up forming at and around Defenders' Heart, depending on the seniority and competence of whoever survived.