Sunday, September 22, 2013

Faces of Pretomournon: The Jester

Quinzel

Quinzel is a jester who is rapidly making a name for herself in the city. She started her career in the Comedy Dungeon, a club where the less fortunate come to listen to jokes about the upper class. When she climbed the stage, the innocent looking blonde immediately charmed the audience. To everyone's surprise this little girl told the most coarse, rude, and vulgar jokes. Her performances were an instant hit, and soon Madame Cherisse came knocking on Quinzel’s door.

Now she regularly performs at the Palais Cherisse, on the leading stage in the city. Quinzel ’s performances here are attended by the same high class men she makes jokes about. On her first night, Madame Charisse tried to have Quinzel adjust her repertoire, and eliminate some jokes about important customers. But Quinzel would have none of it. She stepped onto the stage and began with a joke about Garrelt Cristofoletto, who sat less than 10 yards away with a courtesan on his lap. The whole room held his breath, but Cristofoletto took it all in good fun and began to laugh. The ice was broken, and since then Quinzel can say and do whatever she wants when she’s on stage. No matter how far she goes, she comes away with anything.

This is mainly because of how she looks. Quinzel is small in stature, unruly blond hair and big blue eyes. Although she’s in her early twenties, she can look as if she’s anywhere between 15 and 30 years, depending on how she wants herself to present. With her hair loose and without her jester makeup, Quinzel is practically unrecognizable, and she makes good use of this in executing her mistress’ plans.

See, Quinzel is the Disciple of Padat, The Fall, the 8th Lord of Misrule. This demonic entity will destroy the world of Seralin by collapsing it into the gas giant Anderove. To do so, it must first reach the world and enter it.

Quinzel is originally from another world. Padat has plucked her from another world called Oerth to achieve the end of Seralin. Now, Quinzel is working to call her mistress to this world.

She does so by using the resources of The Temple. Disguised as a young nun named Trudi, Quinzel has won the trust of Amariza, a priestess of Muizi, goddess of Memory. Amariza is very upset about the advancing humanotheism and atheism in Pretomournon and decided something had to be done. Thanks to Trudi she came into possession of a ritual which will bring her goddess into the world. Of course, the ritual Trudi/Quinzel has provided will not call Muizi, but Padat, The Fall.

It should be clear by now that Quinzel is insane. Traveling between worlds and seeing what lies behind Reality has made ​​her certifiable nuts. At night she has horrible nightmares, at daytime she has regular fits of crying. On days when she is not performing sometimes she fills sketchbooks with drawings of the hideous monsters from her dreams, and she plays haunting melodies on her flute that make listeners either sad or terrified.

However, there are few who ever see this side of Quinzel: for almost everyone she is the cheerful, provocative, mischievous jester who tells rude jokes. Ibbo, himself the Disciple of Arak-Kur-Mortahn, The Death Titan, 5th Lord of Misrule, knows who she is and assists her sometimes - even though he would prefer his own master to destroy the world. Madame Cherisse sees Quinzel’s depression and anxiety behind the scenes of her performances, but  she’s unable to bond with the young woman. She has instructed a number of her spies to keep an eye on Quinzel, but so far none of them has found out she’s the servant of an Apocalypse Demon.

Quinzel: AL C; MV 12; AC 4 (manifesting leather armor +2, Dex); Human Female Jester 8; hp 29; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6+1 (short sword +1) or by weapon +2; S 9, D 14, C 12, I 15, W 13, Ch 15; M 10; items: wand of wonder; XP 1560.
Spells: Quinzel cast spells as a 4th level Mage.
Manifesting armor: Quinzel usually goes about her business unarmored. The armor instantly manifests automatically when she is attacked. If she wants to, she can also summon the armor.

Location: At The Comedy Dungeon or the Palais Cherisse performing, in the Cathedral of Clouds (as Trudi), or in her apartment in the River District.

See also: Amariza, Madame Cherisse, Garrelt Cristofoletto, Ibbo.

Sources: I use my own version, but there are many good Jester classes on the web. Depending on which system you use, you can try one of the following versions:

-          Swords & Wizardry and OD&D compatible games: http://swcompanion.wdfiles.com/local--files/resources/jester (obviously, Quinzel isn’t immune to insanity).
-          Labyrinth Lord and B/X compatible games: http://labyrinthinelore.weebly.com/uploads/6/0/8/4/6084555/jester.pdf (obviously, Quinzel isn’t immune to insanity).
-          For OSRIC and AD&D compatible games: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/files/pdf/FootprintsNo12.pdf

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