2/9
Campaign: Fly By Night
The bleak Daughter of Flowers, and the second of the Nine, Tai is a monk overcome with righteous anger. Originally tied down as a lessar piece of a hivemind, Tai’s freedom has left her simultaneously insecure of her own role in life, and utterly in control of it once more. Her wrath and cold nature make her a powerful enemy to cross, but her loyalty and devotion are well worth the risk.
Despite her intimidating nature, Tai is wise and slow to anger with most. She is not particularily kind, but sympathizes with those in suffering. Her own skepticism when it comes to her own life bleeds into her interactions with others, either calming her or riling her up. Take great caution when dealing with this judge, for she will not hesitate to strike you down if she deems you unfit to live, but may strike down your enemies with the same fervor.
Sifstring: Tai’s mind is fused to the others on the hiveminded Sifstring, though Tai has great resistance to it as well. Using the Sifstring, Tai can puppet another person’s body and use it as her own, even on an unwilling target far away, so long as they are compatible. If Tai’s original body is killed, she can re-home in another person’s body.
The Staff of the Eagle: A staff which changes effect and form when passed from person to person. One of its effects is that it can be changed into a different matieral once per day.
Damnation: When Tai takes damage from an attack, her body reacts violently while her mind sharpens. Tai does not break concentration from any attacks, and Tai’s body begins to produce fire damage on contact.
The Lantern Carrier is a tall human woman with unkept black hair. She wears cheap pale red robes and rarely carries any other possessions on her person besides her lantern staves. She is generally appears unarmored and tired, with circles beneath her eyes. Tai’s staves offer her physcical offense and defense, but her mastery of the Sifstring typically dominates combat. Tai rarely fights in her own body, and typically puppets another. Paired with her acquired pain tolerance, this allows her to throw her false body into combat with little regard for its well-being, fighting with no stops pulled and dying shortly after.
Born as the second daughter of the Red Monk, Tai spent her entire early life as a puppet for Maragan. From an early age, it was determined that Tai had no freewill of her own, and that she and Maragan were one and the same. Maragan picked out a personality for Tai of a caring sibling, having Tai be “the responsible one” between the two of them.
Tai’s personality first began to show after enduring physical pain during training from Maragan. After striking Maragan back during the excercise, the Lantern Carriers observing realized that Tai was in fact her own person, and that the Sifstring had grave implications. To protect Tai, her mother, one of the Lantern Carriers, lied that she had interfered with the excercise and harmed Maragan, and was banished in Tai’s stead.
Many years passed with Tai in Maragan’s shadow, with the two acting as though nothing had happened between them. Tai’s consciousness remained a wisp in the back of Maragan’s mind, and she was always unsure whether Tai was a real person or just part of an active imagination. As Maragan took up the role at the head of the Red Monk’s armies, Tai was assigned as the judge to the Red Monk’s courts, being the most responsible and sensible presenting of the three.
After joining the Nine of the North, the other members of the Nine constantly tested the Daughters of Flowers to see if any would break from their hivemind. One member of the Nine swears that there were moments where they had managed to coax a new personality out of Tai.
When the Nine of the North were captured by Spielascor, the connection of the Sifstring was severed as well, causign immesurable pain to all three daughters. For the first time in her life, Tai was no longer connected to Maragan, which brought on a wave of both fear and anger. With their imprisonment and torture, Tai’s anger towards her sisters and her situation overflowed, and with her single independent act she killed herself.
Tai’s spirit was unable to escape in death though, and rather was sent sailing across vast nothingness. As the Sifstring struggled to reel her back in, Tai witnessed visions of many worlds and people, including the Drifters. The dream-like facades of these visions heightened her confusion over the situation, until she was truly mad. During this time Tai flits between situations with the Drifters and Lucielle Johnson, forming a deep hatred of the god as she is repeatedly killed and tortured alongside her friends.
But, Tai’s soul was eventually resurrected as a Risen member of the Drifters, and a new body was created for her. Left with only a shell of a personality, and abandoned into an unfamiliar world, Tai’s madness convinced her that nothing was real. After finding a lantern in a nearby town though, the first source of light she had seen properly since death, Tai settled down and began to evaluate the situation.
Taking the light with her, she took on the simple name of the Lantern Carrier, as homage both to her mother (the only unique trait she had from her sisters), and as acknowledgement to her mental state. During her initial travels, Tai considered herself unfit for this reality, and lashed out at the situations that arose, treating the people she met more like ghosts than living beings. Puzzles to be solved, rather than real life events.
Tai’s first awakening occured during the fight with the dragon Tetsu, in which she realized she was an angry person. After being pushed and prodded into a difficult situation, Tai realized she was sick of being left without an agency of her own, and would protect her own independence.
Upon reaching the town of Uln, Tai became acutely aware of her own poor combat ability, and how it was affecting the others. After the dwarf Skozz protected her during an assault on the ship, Tai became determined to guard Skozz and ensure his success as leader. Shortly after entering the town though, Tai’s madness swelled and left her unable to become grounded in reality again. In a fit of madness, Tai convinced herself that she could barter with the town’s god and trade her leg for Skozz’s sword, which he had lost previously while saving her life.
After Tai’s leg had been cut off and fed to the local Chimera, Skozz and the other members of the party took Tai to get a prothetic, which she would keep for the rest of her life. Ashamed of her actions, and furious at the god who had not answered her, Tai lashed out at the local church and became determined to slay the chimera that had feasted on her leg. After killing it, she took its horn and later crafted it into her new pegleg.
Tai’s misfortune with battle continued with future travels. In battle, she was fierce, but was easily injured or wild. Outside of battle, her wisdom and intuition were rendered unreliable by fits of paranoia or madness. Acutely aware of her own flaws, Tai did what she could to protect the party, but tied her own hands when it came to matters that didn’t directly involve her.
After a failed confrontation with Baumen, Tai was left on death’s door and imprisoned alongside the Drifters in a prison cell for several months. During this time, Tai’s bonds with Skozz deepened as the dwarf insisted on trusting her, despite her insistence on not being a reliable ally. As a thank you, Tai tricked another member of the Drifters into destroying a magical ring that Skozz had wanted destroyed.
Months passed in the jail cell, as tinder ran out for Tai’s lantern, so too did her spirit slip. Tai’s mind became clouded with grief and shame over her behaviour, not only with the Drifters but in claiming her own life in imprisonment as well. Determined not to let Drifters starve on her behalf, Tai did not eat any food, and attempted to fast her last few months in the prison.
Upon their release from false imprisonment, the Drifters were not eager to get back into the world of politics that had treated them unnecessarily cruelly. Their plans to lay low, however, were interrupted when a group called “The Seven” rose up and threatened the town. Tai begged the Drifters to help her hunt them down, thinking that perhaps they were members of the Nine, and the Drifters agreed without hesitation to help Tai. While searching around, Tai unexpectedly ran into Lady Parhelion instead, and left to join her.
Now paired with Lady Parhelion, the two focussed on how to free other members of the Nine. Tai’s job was to hunt down the escaped Yez in NeoTokyo, a task that proved to be difficult given the rivalry between the two. Tai learned how to use her Sifstring abilities to puppet people in other realms, and eventually helped catch Yez.
The Nine assaulted Spielascor and freed Preston, but not without running into issues along the way. Yez and Sawyer left to be on their own after the fight, and Lady Parhelion had been badly injured in the fray, leaving Tai to tend to her and Preston. Taking shelter in an abandoned sea god’s shrine, Tai nursed the others back to health. Preston recovered quickly, but with Tai noticed that Lady Parhelion’s injuries were only getting worse. At Tai’s insistance, Preston left to join the Drifters, hoping to either return with something that could cure Lady Parhelion or kill Spielascor.
Tai’s wits unravelled further when taking care of Lady Parhelion, as both she and Preston realized that should the bard die, so too did their hopes of killing Spielascor and freeing the rest of their families. The two met frequently at night through the power of the Sifstring, talking and collectively mourning the sharp turn their lives had taken for the worse, the anger they felt towards Yez and Sawyer, and their curiosity towards the Drifters.
As the situation improved and Lady Parhelion’s recovery was hastened with the acquisition of Dalot’s Heart, Tai’s focus became solely on the future. No longer needing to take care of Lady Parhelion, Tai was sent off to go explore new lands and seek new artifacts as well. Her journeys took her towards acquiring a crew to sail the seas in search of treasure, but her vile temperment and cruel ways set her on the path of a pirate quite early. With a loyal crew, a steadier head on her shoulders, and a notorious reputation for slaughtering whatever interfered with her plans, Tai took on the role of Alpha, the Pirate Queen.
Tai settled down on the main shrine towards the sea god that had offered her refuge when Lady Parhelion was injured, and turned his domain island into the Sea Herring’s Temple. Other pirates who had been tailing her and feeding off her leftovers settled down and turned the shrine into a port city. Pirates and wisemen the world over came to serve and inquire with the monk pirate queen, who’s power had grown stronger with her travels. She became reviled and worshipped among the seas, and spent her time projecting out her consciousness into other bodies to futher the plans of the Nine.
This plan, however, was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the Drifters in the North. Determined to keep them safe from the affairs of the Chaotic Lords, Tai sent a scaled crow to serve as her body in the North.
After retrieving the rest of the Nine from Spielascor’s grasp, Tai returned to the Drifters in earnest, serving as their patron and offering them advice, quests, and protection. Her role in the matter of Spielascor was a difficult one, faced with both supporting her older sister Maragan, and opposing her younger sister Shan. In the end, Tai mainly sought to simply protect the Drifters and kill Shan in whatever way necessary, and did so with Maragan’s help.
Following the final battle, Tai sets off on her own, leaving behind both the North and her remaining sister. As a parting gift, Tai makes due on her father’s promise of protection for Nero, extending her own vast protection as well, and swearing to hunt down the uncaring gods such as Lucielle Johnson and punish them.
Skozz: Despite their differences, Tai trusts Skozz wholeheartedly, and has benefitted greatly from his kindness and trust in return. She holds him in highest regards, and often uses him as the example of why mortals should be protected from the gods.
Vaus: A confidant and friend who could speak bluntly to Tai. Their solidarity in mystery and quiet demeanor is something Tai is fond of
Bojo: The Lantern Carrier appears to respect Bojo. For some reason. When retelling stories of her travel, she often replaces Skozz’s role as leader with Bojo, as she finds it amusing
Valyran: The only drifter who knew the Lantern Carrier’s true name while they travelled together. During the ride on the ship to Uln, the Lantern Carrier paid Baba Yaga to steal Valyran’s cardset frequently so she could play solitaire. He is not happy about this arrangement, but the two are on good terms.
Lucielle Johnson: Tai’s hatred towards Lucielle Johnson is absolute, on both a personal and personality level. They are opposites in many regards, and Tai blames Shan’s death on him.
Odin: A god who takes particular interest into Tai’s life. She avoids him at most any cost, but does not consider him to be a bad god.
The Red Monk: Tai’s father. Despite her father’s actions regarding the Sifstring, Tai still considers the Red Monk to be a caring father with a kind heart. They assist one another quite often.
Kim: Tai’s first mate on her pirate ship, a trusted friend. He’s not afraid to challenge her if he believes she’s out of line or trick her if she’s being self destructive.
Lady Parhelion: Tai respects Lady Parhelion after their time together. They trust one another, though acknowledge they walk very different paths.
Maragan: Tai’s older sister. Tai’s anger towards Maragan is stunted by her sister’s lack of anger back at her. Tai knows she will need to rely on Maragan in the future, and Maragan is eager to help her and make up for their relationship in the past. It’s a truce, for now.
Preston: The only other member of the Nine who Tai is oddly friendly with. It’s unclear how long they have been friends.
Yez: Tai’s rival. They despise each other on principle, but actually think of each other as too small of a threat to take seriously, and ironically are rather fine around one another.