Dae Wu-Feng - The "Dhampyrate"

[ResidualRose]

WIP

Dae Wu-Feng
(Dhampyr [Human or Half-elf lineage, Shou Ancestry for the human part in either event], Warlock [Hexblade] 5, Wildspacer Background)

So, taking a bit of a deep dive into Forgotten Realms/Spelljammer lore for this idea I have here...

The Shou Empire of Kara-Tur (aka, Th "Far East" of Toril), did actually once commision a grand fleet of massive Spelljammers and sent them into the Astral Sea on missions of exploration and diplomacy (basically, a space fantasy version of Admiral Zheng He's "Treasure Fleets" from Ancient China).

Wu's father was the captain of one such vessel, and travelled deep into space, driven by wanderlust and the drive to explore...even to the point of damning his whole crew by pushing his ship past it's logistical limit and they became lost in space after their Spelljammer Pilot fell...they all died as a result, but that lust for adventure and exploration could not be quelled even in death...and they arose in void as Vampyrates.

Eventually, they encountered a survivor of a Scro attack, a wandering scholar/mage (human or half-elf), who was brought on board first as a potential meal of "emotional energy" that the Vampyrates craved, but after knowledge of her magical ability became known, she instead was roped into serving as the crew's new spelljammer pilot.

During her service to the undead crew, she got to the know the Captain quite well and their shared love of discovery soon turned into a mutual love between them directly.

The result of this was Dae Wu-Feng, born half-dead and raised almost communally, by her parents and the extended family of the treasure ship's vampyrate crew. Eventually, her mother left the ship to return to wandering amongst the living, leaving the young Wu behind...(by this point, Wu's mother had managed to impart enough arcane training on to other members of the crew, enough to at least pick up some levels of wizard or bard and attune to the Helm).

Without an actual fully living member on their ship, the crew turned to exploring more inhospitable areas, eventually exploring an area of space that co-terminous with the Shadowfell. While there, Wu encountered a mysterious entity (perhaps a fragment of the Raven Queen) and having inherited both her parents' bad habits for recklessly pursuing the unknown, used what arcane lessons she remembered from her mother and formed a Pact with the Entity, which put a fragment of its esscence into Wu that she could channel through her martial arts and weaponry, becoming a Hexblade witch.

Her father was apprehensive when learned of this development, unsure of the entity's true nature or intentions, and it slowly would cause a rift between the two...though, always in need of backup Spelljamming Pilots, his apprehension didn't stop him from allowing Wu to gain some experience at the helm.

Eventually, Wu's lust for knowledge overshot her father's, and she left the Treasure Ship and it's crew when it pulled into port. At time she was curious about her own lineage and origins, and made her own way by bargaining her spellcasting, spelljamming and blade skills to other ships and crews, attempting to make it to Realmspace and Toril, the homeplanet of her father.

Things went okay at first, but this was the first time Wu had been around so many living people for an extended period of time and it awoke her Vampyrate hunger...causing a few close calls with being discovered biting or emotionally draining dry a fellow traveller/crewmate before she managed to get it under control. Another concern was the Shadowfell Entity itself, which would occassionally would cause "weirdness" around whatever ship she was on, especially if she was currently serving as pilot and attuned to the Ship via the Spelljamming helm...moving shadows, sudden drops in temperature, indistinct whispers from nowhere, feelings of dread and anxiety or feeling tired and just emotionally drained (this also happened because Wu was passively psychic-feeding off of the heightened emotions of her crewmates, typically without their knowledge).

Eventually though, Wu would make her way to Toril finally and after making planetfall and jumping ship on the Sword Coast region of the continent of Faerun, she began to adventure around and take in as much knowledge and culture as she could. That was a half-century ago, and her thirst for arcane knowledge has yet to be sated...though the influence of the entity on her half-dead soul has started to take it's toll and make it's mark known, as the genres of lore she's begun seeking out have been of the darker and more forbidden varieties.

@Cointhief Electrum Piece for your thoughts?

Edited April 11 by ResidualRose (see edit history)

[Cointhief]

Sounds pretty cool, I like the way you tied in Kara-tur. I can easily nerd out on that with flashbacks or obscure references.

[ResidualRose]

3 hours ago, Cointhief said:

Sounds pretty cool, I like the way you tied in Kara-tur. I can easily nerd out on that with flashbacks or obscure references.

Awesome! I'll get started on the crunch!

Edit: two questions, @Cointhief, The rerolling hit points if below average...
...1: Is that reroll per an individual hit die roll or per the total end result?
...2: Is it reroll each die only once, or does the trigger of "below average" activate again if the reroll is also subpar?

 

 

Edited April 11 by ResidualRose (see edit history)

[Cointhief]

Sorry, I missed this question earlier somehow.

Yes, any roll below average you can reroll. So, you keep rolling until you get something between average and max. But once that happens, you stop rolling.

[ResidualRose]

Okay, here is the WIP write up of her background so far...will finish later on after my appointments are done!

 

Dae Wu Feng was born with one foot in the grave and the other planted firmly in the cold void of wild space...a child of serendipity and coincidence, as much as that of their actual star-crossed parents.

 

Captain Dae Liu Zheng was a decorated military officer and naval commander for the Shou Empire on the Continental region of Kara-Tur on the planet of Abeir-Toril, Realmspace. Noted for his wanderlust and journies of adventurous discovery, Captain Dae was a first draft pick by the Imperial Admiralty and Sage Advisory Order for command of a Treasurejammer. Treasurejammers, or Space Junks, were giant ships not dissimilar from the Massive flagships employed by the Shou upon the waters of Toril...at first glance...they were equipped with a spell jamming helm of a new and novel design, elegantly crafted and enchanted by the Empire's best artificers and Wu Jen mages. The Shou were driven by a zeal for discovery and understanding, and the introduction of the spelljammer to the Shou toolbox had spurred them on to craft a fleet of these Massive ships to explore Wildspace, to seek out new civilizations, codify new knowledge and claim new resources for the Shou People and their Emperor.

 

In this task, Captain Dae and his crew were willing to give everything..and when they pushed themselves too far past the point of no return and became stranded in the void when the last of their Spelljammer magepilots died, they did give everything...and yet, still so hungering for that next frontier, for that next discovery, that their spirit would not stay quiet even in death.

 

They rose again as Vampyrates, hedonistic undead that haunted the spacelanes, and fed primarially off of the emotional energy and life force of the living...though still maintaining most of what made them, mentally at least, themselves...albeit with a more predatory bent.

 

Wu's mother, Annysphasia Palegeist, on the other hand, was ALMOST mundane by comparison. An elven mage and scholar of Shadar-kai stock, she had centuries ago left the Shadowfell for the Prime Material to study the mortal realms. The vibrancy and colour of the Prime Material plane was almost intoxicating to her, and she sought out to document and record every new experience so she might on day pass the knowledge of such things on to her fellow Shadow Elves who still resided in the dreary Grey.

 

Eventually, this quest had also led her to seek out the diverse vibrancy of other worlds, and so she took up with the first spelljsmming crew that she could...this crew was not those of the Heiteng-Lung, the Black Dragon, the Space Junk of Captain Dae.

 

 

Instead, she met up with Captain Dae and his unliving crew, after she had been left stranded and half-dead in the wreckage of her original ship, the only survivor of a Scro attack.

 

The Vampyrates for their part still followed much of their old naval sea-going code, which included the rescue and treatment of shipwreck survivors...and they fished her out of the void and revived her. This act of kindness, though born merely out of habit and tradition then actual concern, was to not go unrewarded..

 

Firstly, the Annys was a capable spelljammer pilot and stayed on with the Vampyrates, their shared wanderlust and curiousity allowing them to bridge the gap between the living and the dead. This meant that the Heiteng Lung was once again capable of traversing into the Silver Sea and operating at full capacity once Annysphasia attuned herself to the Helm.

 

Secondly, Annys was able to see the spark of arcane talent that was hidden amongst the crew members and began training several of the Vampyrates in the arcane and bardic arts.

 

Thirdly, Annys and Captain Dae's daily routine of working closely together as Captain and Spelljammer, fuelled by their shared interests and sustained lust for life that had transcended death itself, resulted in a passionate affair and partnership.

 

From that union, and with some necromantic magical assistance, Wu-Feng was born...a singular entity skin to the more common Dhampyr: a Dhampyrate.

 

While Wu's early childhood was largely dominated by the presence of her parents, especially her mother...who was often the only other entity on board with a heartbeat and a warm body.

 

As she grew up however, her rearing became a communal activity that extended to the entire crew. She learned how to fight, how to sail between the stars, how to manage resources, effect minor repairs and other relevant skills. From her parents and the ships other undead scholars and sages, she was taught lore both arcane and mundane and fostered the curiousity drive that she had inherited from her parents.

 

WIP