Campaign: Ashen
A calculating monk with a hopeless demeanor. While normally a very rational and clever fighter, the Lantern Carrier suffers from a dehibilitating sort of madness which drastically alters her personality from time-to-time. Depending on the situation, the Lantern Carrier can become quite distant and unwilling to take action, or she can be rushed into a berserker-like frenzy. She seeks control over herself and others, going out of her way to both maintain her image and subtely influence others to fall in line with the heirarchy she desires. Despite her flucuations, she appears to have a genuine desire to help the drifters and others as a whole.
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 lanterns. She is unnaturally thin and weak, fighting mainly with both her open-hand techniques and offsetting attacks with fire magic. On the battlefield, she typically groups people together during the first initial rounds, and dives into action when provoked. While she lacks both power and stamina, the Lantern Carrier fights with elemental manipulation, using environmental hazards to dish out damage and move around allys.
The Lantern Carrier is a known member of the Nine of the North. In a zone of truth, the Lantern Carrier admitted to having been previously imprisoned with the other Nine before escaping with the assistance of Lady Parhelion. Her role in the Nine is unknown, although she has said that two of her sisters are also members of the Nine. It is known that the Lantern Carrier has an actual name, but chose not to use it. The Lantern Carrier has also mentioned in passing that her father is a much more powerful monk than she is.
The only thing that Lantern Carrier refused to talk about while in the zone of truth was the specifics of how she wound up as Reborn if she escaped imprisonment. She has the Sight of the Prophets, but not only recalls Lady Parhelion’s adventures in Drachend, but also all other D&D, Call of Cthulu, and any other adventure within the universe (most with first-hand accounts).
The Lantern Carrier first appeared during the Tree-Felled Tavern scenario in the Reborn arc, where she obtained a magical staff and lantern. She is initially pegged as being a more subdued member of the group, passive on most cases or easily persuaded out of her goals. She is also seen to have a habit of staring off into blank space instead of sleeping during nighttime.
During the next venture over to meet Violet, the Lantern Carrier was the first one to open the cellar against Violet’s wishes, catching both the building and Violet in a fire blast. Having confirmed Violet’s identity, the Lantern Carrier later apologized for her actions and tried to leave, but was blocked in by Violet. During the trials, the Lantern Carrier was one of the few drifters who could not make the swim across the pool, having her left leg pulled down by the Velvet zombies. Skozz attempted to cut off her leg to free her, but failed and lost his firesword. Bojo later saved them both. At the end of the trials, when confronted by Violet, the Lantern Carrier abided by Lady Parhelion’s choice to kill Velvet during her first visit, and refused to admit that it was a wrong decision. In the final room, the Lantern Carrier and Andrew’s Tiefling make a pact to kill Violet together this time, rather than being forced to kill her alone like had been done before.
After being abducted by the Triumverate elves, the Lantern Carrier began to show anger at being forced into the mission unwillingly, and requested blue cloth from the elves. Upon reaching their mission’s destination, the Lantern Carrier attempted to dissuade the other drifters from assassinating their target, and pleaded with the target to give them a reason to leave him alive. In a fit of rage, she lunged at him, casting an illusion to make it seem like she killed him. Bojo intercepted the spell, however, breaking it and allowing another drifter to assassinate the man. The Lantern Carrier, distraut with the outcome, waits until the drifters dispersed, then left behind the blue cloth, marked with the flag of the triumverate elf faction that was behind the attack, in the mouth of the unconscious wife. This proveed to be meaningless later, however, when Bojo revealed their clients anyways. Bojo also managed to knock out the Lantern Carrier during the fight with General Tetsu.
At the beginning of the Ashen arc, the Lantern Carrier started off strong by accidentally attacking Skozz in a panic on the ship heading towards Uln. Both she and Skozz were knocked out quickly soonafter. Once coming to, the Lantern Carrier began to rally people to following Skozz, citing him as the group’s new leader. At the ceremony in Uln, the Lantern Carrier drew a stick denoting that she was exempt from the sacrifice, but choose to become a sacrifice regardless. Before being pulled onto the alter, the Lantern Carrier called upon the god of order that the city worshiped, claiming that she should have lost her leg long ago, but that Skozz lost his fire sword instead, and calling for an equal exchange. The Lantern Carrier’s left leg was chopped off, burnt, and she loses consciousness immediately. After waking up, she flew into a rage, first travelling with Skozz to get a pegleg from the local blacksmith, and then returning to the church to accuse the religious leaders of not adhering to their end of the deal. Her rage continued for quite some time as she gathered more and more drifters to travel to the border of the city. She proposed to take on the Chimera with Andrew’s Tiefling, but was quickly laughed off and shot down on the request, finally allowing her to cool off and fall back into a more sullen state.
During the fight with the Chimera, the Lantern Carrier waited up the top of the town and managed to mount the Chimera when it crashed into the side of it. Following their return to Uln, the Lantern Carrier was gifted with several red candles which lent true sight to her lantern when used. Upon returning to the dungeon beneath Uln, the Lantern Carrier is trapped in the room with the zesty water elementals and fights them off by using her own water magic to clear the lungs of drowned drifters. In the final stages of the fight, the Lantern Carrier’s lantern is extinguished as she pulls opens the door, and she quickly relights it. Before facing the boss, the Lantern Carrier ran off with Bojo and the requested corpse once they found it. She stripped the corpse of the magic chainmail, emblazoned with the emblem of two fish circling each other, and later gifted it to Vaus.
On the outskirts of Besna, the drifters met Kingsley Oldbeard and the Lantern Carrier was notably unhappy with the man, refusing to even give her name to him. Once within the city, the Lantern Carrier kept up her habit of wandering the streets at night, but to a much more extreme degree, going out of her way to avoid interactions with anyone during this time. Bojo stole/gifted the Lantern Carrier another lantern (which Kingsley payed for later), and the Lantern Carrier bought a second staff to hang it on.
After venturing to the top of the Observer’s Temple, the Lantern Carrier refused to leave an offering for the Observer, and as such was not marked. After seeing the mark of the observer appear on the hands of other drifters, however, the Lantern Carrier became panicked and instead burnt a sigil into her hand in the same location (the same sigil as found on the chainmail armor). During the ensuing fight, the Lantern Carrier was in a state of frenzy the entire battle, ignoring all the other drifters for several rounds and fighting solo in a trench in the floor (which she lit on fire before leaping out of). When asked to assist Kingsley after the fight, the Lantern Carrier quickly and happily agreed, rushing down to speak with Baumen.
Once confronted with Baumen, the Lantern Carrier once again became distraut at the binary decision to either fight him or force the drifters to all switch sides. The Lantern Carrier attempted to persuade Baumen to either accept her servitude alone, or accept that life is full of wonderful things like alcohol. After Baumen reteated and wounded Kingsley, the Lantern Carrier jumped to his rescue immediately, barely dodging the undead beholder nearby and rolling a nat 20 on a medicine check. She was immediately hit by the Beholder’s ray, however, suffering severe necrotic damage and nearly dying immediately, being saved by Skozz channeling Baumen’s magic.
The Lantern Carrier was imprisoned beneath Besna, and spent most of her time speaking with Skozz in infernal, where they bonded quickly over strategizing and their somewhat chaotic personalities. The Lantern Carrier also spent time talking with Bojo, but became afraid when Bojo nearly extinguished her lanterns. The Lantern Carrier tricked Vaus into destroying the ring of water manipulation during this time. About a month into imprisonment, the Lantern Carrier refused to eat any longer, and began to starve herself and go quiet.
Once freed, the Lantern Carrier initially refused to eat still, and was healed by [whatever the name of Richard’s paladin was]. During their trial, the Lantern Carrier showed little interest in the procedings, and warned Skozz not to interfere during Admiral Ye’s execution. She does, however, pay Valyran to turn Bojo invisible (harkening back to when Lady Parhelion made the same request from Patrick’s old warlock). At the tavern that night, the Lantern Carrier expressed little interest in staying in the city, and agreed to follow the group.
During the night, however, the Lantern Carrier caught rumors of “The Seven”: a notorious group of criminals who had recently been making strikes on the city. She once again went mad and attacked city officials, demanding more information. After intimidating all information out of them, she was found by Baba Yaga, who then executed the officials once the Lantern Carrier stalked off. The Lantern Carrier wandered the streets in the rain for the remainder of the night, but collapsed from exhaustion in an alleyway. Returning to the drifters the next morning, she dropped to her knees in the street and begged them to help her find “The Seven”, claiming that they were friends and family.
The drifters agreed to help, and they spent the day hunting down various criminals in the city to learn more. The Lantern Carrier lit one of the red candles to disperse the fog around the city, and after learning of a trap set ahead, immediately charged into the trap and began to wail on anyone nearby. After capturing one of the criminals, Bojo and the Lantern Carrier interrogated the man until he begged to be dragged back to the officials. That night, the Lantern Carrier bought the drifters dinner and wine, and melted down the winebottle into several glass flowers that she gifted to those who had helped her. When doubt arose about the Lantern Carrier’s intentions, she volunteerd to stand in a Zone of Truth (against Skozz’s wishes).
Within the Zone of Truth, she declared herself to be a member of an organization called the “Nine of the North”, led by Lady Parhelion. She confessed that the group was primarily heroes, but that they could have been easily led astray without Lady Parhelion’s guidance. She spoke little about the members of the group, talking about her older sister who wore a horse mask, and about two thieves who were the right and left hands of a notorious guild. The Lantern Carrier explained that she and the others had been imprisoned prior to her joining the drifters, and that Lady Parhelion had unsuccessfully attempted to free her about a year prior to her becoming Reborn (about the time the Jade Fortress battle occurs in Drachend). Valyran became suspicious of this, however, asking how she escaped and came to be among the drifters, since all the Reborn were dead prior to being called by the Caretaker. The Lantern Carrier does not answer this question in the Zone of Truth, and instead looked at the floor.
Skozz: The Lantern Carrier appointed Skozz as the leader of the drifters, and seems to follow him on most stances. The Lantern Carrier is notably more relaxed and trusting around Skozz, and typically follows him in battle.
Vaus: While not a formal friendship, the Lantern Carrier appears to be the closest friend that Vaus has within the drifters, and following the events of the months in jail, Vaus holds great debt and respect towards the Lantern Carrier.
Bojo: The Lantern Carrier appears to respect Bojo. For some reason.
Valyran: the only drifter who knows the Lantern Carrier’s true name. 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.
Baba Yaga: The Lantern Carrier is openly hostile towards Baba Yaga, either trying to use him as a tool or dismissing him.
The Observer: The Lantern Carrier is openly hostile towards the Observer, and holds her up as a standard of the problem with passive immortals.
Lucielle Johnson: The Lantern Carrier shows no emotion when dealing with Lucielle Johnson, but has expressed disgust with him among the drifters.
Kingsley Oldbeard: A mixed relationship, with Lantern Carrier occasionally going completely out of her way to help him, while other times declaring her distrust in him.
Lady Parhelion: The Lantern Carrier appears to hold a great deal of respect for the leader of the Nine.
Sharyn Ann: The Lantern Carrier’s little sister. Not much is known about their relationship.
Reed: Reed appears to have all the Lantern Carrier’s memories on the drifters, exhibits her habit of forgoing sleep at night to wander about. He also grabs a lantern to help Patches.
Felicia, Mac: All part of an organization called the “Nine of the North”. Her stance on these people is unknown.