Cianier Dy'Nien

Cianier Dy’Nien Is an enigmatic elven wizard from a long line of elven wizards, Cianier’s talent for magic is almost as frightening as her apparent lack of scruples.

Personality
Since undergoing the treatment found in Master Alchemist Cherub Vassago’s ‘Elixir of Lies’ Cianier has slid a degree closer to her younger persona, tempered now by her years spent at sea.

She is still a woman that sets a standard of near perfection within her work, and expects no less from those around her. Though the elven tendency to dwell, for years, on a work before beginning it has long since been shed in favour of a decidedly human understanding of time. She believes that, in order to succeed, elven-kind must accept that the world moves more quickly in this day and age. If the elves are going to survive, they must move as humans do. Thusly, Cianier sacrifices some of her leanings toward contemplative silence in order to keep up with humanity’s pace and has found, she believes, a fair compromise in balancing perfection with timely action.

She demands much of herself, and those around her yet is not so blinded by her obsessive tendencies as to overlook basic needs, both physical and emotional. While she is a wizard and has a vast array of spells at her disposal that could, theoretically, loosen her grip on reality, Cianier readily acknowledges that people grow tired and will not push herself or others to the brink of exhaustion. She is an intelligent and wise woman and believes that one fights their best (and thus, their most flawlessly) on a full belly with a good night’s sleep at their backs. One also fights more strongly for love, than a whip at their backs, thus, she is a woman who encourages rather than berates her peers and sub-ordinates.

That is not to say she lacks the will to punish those who cross her. That would be far from the case as several of her misguided lackeys have been unfortunate enough to discover over the years. Her ire, when truly earned, is as terrible as her smile is beautiful for she also maintains that one must not doubt their leader’s strength and dedication. When her mettle is tested, she personally makes an example of the fools such that her crew fall back into line and remember only that somebody was foolish enough to bite the benevolent hand that feeds them all. These days, however, she is prone to giving second chances – as she feels she has been given one. Her loyalty to those around her is intense. Historically, she has gone so far as to exhume the bodies of fallen comrades and bear them to a temple for resurrections that she has paid for in full.

Beyond those defining points, Cianier is a woman who tends to be a little too self-absorbed for the tastes of some. She was spoiled as a child and bears, within herself, a sense of entitlement that many can not quite grasp though she is intelligent enough, and objective enough, to stem most of her indulgent leanings and realises them for what they are.

She is extremely talkative, and inquisitive. Hitting an area of interest in a conversation will see her shed her regal poise, lean over the table and begin jabbering excitedly about a given topic. A jeweller by craft, a herbalist and apothecary by necessity and an architect by design, her areas of interest are many (they have to be, otherwise, her mind would implode from boredom – or so she claims). Cianier is excitable rather than aloof, talkative rather than contemplative – though she does her fair share of quiet contemplations. Given to bouts of heroism because, firstly, she enjoys getting the blood pumping, and secondly, she desires to show the world that elves have strength and will left in them and should not, yet, be forgotten about by the more prolific races.

She can be passionate, but in that artistic temperament, she can also sulk and brood when things do not go her way. She can be obsessive and struggles to let go of a challenge that she cannot solve, she can also lose herself to those tasks at hand and forget about those around her. Being absorbed by either her studies, her work, or the imaginative thoughts that come from watching the sun rise and basking, as she is given to doing, in its warmth.

Cianier has become, over the years, perhaps a little closer to a moon elf in her outlook. Freer of social confines than her sun-elven blood would lead her to seem, Cianier is fond of song and dance, of romantic stories and sweeping epic sagas, just as she is fond of lesser ballads. She enjoys bards, immensely, and while she possesses a small degree of skill in song and with the harp, she does neither out of respect for those who call another of her fascinations an art.

She is, as some few have probably guessed by her choices of songs and tales, a closet romantic – though, if accused of such, she would vehemently deny it as being folly. She believes, quite absolutely, in the virtue of heroes and the villainy of wrong-doers. This manifested in her approach to piracy and the manner that surrounds Argus and Sorsha alike and is, perhaps, a part of the reason she is so very drawn to Lord Bastien who, to her, represents so very many of the forgotten knightly virtues that fascinate her.

Appearance
Cianier is short, even for an elf. Svelte in build and gifted with a figure that leaves no room for doubt as to her gender, with her long, wavy black hair and vividly green and bronze eyes Cianier is used to turning heads and drawing eyes. It is rare that one notices, however, that she stands barely above five feet in height for she is a woman that bears herself with such confidence and possesses such a presence that she seems far larger than she actually is. For most humans, it is only (typically) when standing at her side that one notices she is both tiny and frail in her true physical presence.

Cianier takes as much pride in her appearance as she does her magic. There is rarely a misplaced hair or crooked eyelash to be found on this woman with her pearly white teeth and soft bronze skin, full lipped, busty and long legged – she is gracefully poised at all times, and moves with all the confident ease and elegance her people are famous for possessing.

Gone are her days of long-coats and pirate boots, these days, while her extravagance remains, this wizard keeps herself in robes or flowing tunics at all times. They remind her, constantly, of the choice that she has made and the path that she has returned to. She keeps herself attired in the finest silks, Cianier is rarely seen without her staff in hand and a rod at her hip, where once an elegant rapier sat. She often keeps her hair bound back by a black and silver ribbon. Her favourite combination of colours, often offset by emerald sashes or scarves, Cianier’s smile has been said to inspire her followers to great feats and propel them into daring raids that few other’s would dare.

History
Cianier Dy’Nien was born in 1222, the youngest and last child in her generation, she benefited from having her older brothers around in those early years. While her parents were devoted, in their way, they were also old and thoroughly entrenched in their positions within the community, thusly, their time was limited and much of Cianier’s early interactions came with either those brothers, their children, or her mother. Her father was very rarely present as he was, at the time, grooming his oldest son to be presented to the circle of High Mages on Evermeet.

She was a remarkable child, quick to learn and faster to develop that her siblings had been, it was through her able mind that she caught her father’s attention who watched her grow from afar and, as he saw her attention being tugged at by both the sun and the glitter of the household’s many ornamental treasures, knew that a part of the family legacy had awakened in this, his last child. At his behest she was given the best education, her brother’s tutelage being replaced by the local masters in their arts until they discovered what caught her imagination and began to encourage her along the paths of those arts that fascinated the young elf.

Rather than wasting their energy on jealousy, her siblings gathered around her and lent aide where they could, ensuring that Cianier’s education in the arts and literature and sciences was second to none. Like all elves, she was schooled in the rudiments of swordplay and archery though these interested her little after her father took her to one side and presented her with a challenge that she rose to quite immediately.

She began her schooling in the arcane arts within a day of being exposed to them. Her first cantrip came to her easily, though after that, her schooling settled into the theory of magic until, it was deemed, she grew into her ears a little more. In essence, her father checked for the sorceror’s gift that he, himself, possessed and, once discovered, took measures to bind and suppress it. Leading Cianier into study, rather than (what he thinks of as) the whimsical dabblings into the Art that the sorcerer is unfortunate enough to be bound to.

It was in those early years that Cianier also encountered the sea. It would have been impossible for her to avoid it, truthfully. With her eldest brother’s background in the elven navy, and her mother’s captaincy of an elven frigate - She took to the sea with the same relish that she did her studies of elven architecture and was often found milling around the docks, looking up from one of her books to watch a ship docking, or setting sail.

In time she found herself torn between her father’s wishes that she engage her additional studies with the sciences of engineering, against her mother’s desire that she spent time at sea. The debate was never concluded, indeed, it is still ongoing in her home in that sense that aged couples bicker over which path would have yielded the better results…

For her fiftieth birthday, she was given an ornately worked wooden box that turned into a small elven yacht. From then she was found, when not being taught magical theory, sailing in the small bay at the bottom of her family estates and her mother seemed, for the next few decades, to have won while her father watched proudly on. Cianier would, one day, be more at home at sea than on land, though her sense of victory would, ultimately, become the source of her present sense of shame for her daughter’s activities on those seas.

She had few friends growing up, being an elfling that was too talkative for most of her fellows to engage with. Her best friend was a moon elf from Evereska who had been sent to Evermeet to study under a fabled elven hero. She and Telern got along very well as he lacked the sun elf’s fondness for silence and contemplation and quite simply told Cianier when she was rambling too much. Beyond him, she was viewed as a garrulous girl who was far too fond of sitting in the sun, and staring wishfully at treasures.

As Cianier grew from a girl into a woman, and as she came into her own as an elven wizard, it became more apparent by her speech and bearing that she was something a little out of the mold of normalcy. Her father hoped that she would learn to kerb her differences, still her tongue and not appear to be so vain as she began to demand the same level of perfection from her appearance as she did in her work. The opposite seemed true as she became self-absorbed and delight in treasure and mystery began to turn toward a morbid fascination that fouled his plans for her future.

After the elven retreat was sounded, and Cianier had spent one too many afternoons in furious debate with her peers (whom she often humiliated by the simple strength of her logic, and her devotion to Corellon’s dogmas) her father decided to take drastic measures. Thus, a day after her 110th birthday, Cianier was presented with a backpack and a smattering of articles from around the family home. It was hoped, then, that a few years on the mainland would lead her to see the wisdom in the retreat, and also lead her to value and appreciate her fellow Sun Elves and their quietly contemplative lifestyle. She was given a letter and put on one of the few ships that sailed the long voyage to Waterdeep.

A young woman who had craved freedom and the chance to stretch her wings without her shoulder being leant excitedly over by her family – who were expecting great things to come from her – Cianier took great delight in that voyage and ended up a young elf being escorted through Waterdeep’s filthy docks district and taken straight to Blackstaff Tower. On presentation of her letter of introduction from her father, and a brief interview with Khelben Blackstaff, Cianier was admitted into his tower and school. She spent several years there, learning magical theory from a different perspective – one that she instinctively respected and honoured. Though, after those years of her second apprenticeship came to an end, Cianier left and set out on her own. Despite a request from her mother that she come home.

In the years that followed Cianier had many adventures and travelled over much of Faerun in search of arcane secrets and mysteries. She uncovered several in her travels and was careful to always share her findings with Blackstaff Tower when returning home to Waterdeep. Some thirty years or so ago she received a summons home and set out for Evermeet, only to find, on returning, that her exposure to humans and differing philosophies had left her even more intolerant of the isolationist retreat which had been formalised. Cianier left a year after her return.

Returning to the adventurers life for the next few years, she burned through all she could with a gusto more commonly associated with half-bred elves and humans. Acquiring a small fortune before she was done, Cianier did begin to return home once an urgent communiqué came to her attention that demanded her presence in her homeland. Unknown to her, she was to be presented to the High Mages as a preliminary gauging of her skill. What she did know was that her father was demanding her return and that sat poorly with the elf who was not yet ready for the quiet solace of Evermeet.

A few days at sea and her ship came under attack during her morning studies. Caught unprepared and in a foul mood anyway, Cianier did not take much convincing (within her own mind) to hide herself in her cabin and wait the battle out. She was, secretly, overjoyed when the merchants died and pirates seized the vessel. Meeting the captain and joining his crew and, in so doing, sealed a fate that would lead her far from the course that she imagined when whim led her to extend her hand to the gentleman pirate that offered her a means to reasonably stay away from home.

Still, had her family seen her that day she set willing foot on a pirate’s ship, and offered to join their crew, they might have exiled her on the spot rather than face the shame that rumours would besmirch their ancient name with in the years that followed.

After a disagreement aboard her new ship, Cianier duelled and defeated the resident ship wizard. Taking his place and ensuring her role on the vessel in that same moment that elven mercy allowed her rival to live with his shame. The next few years were exciting ones to Cianier, she learned much and experienced a side to the world that was freer than any yet known. The lure of gold and treasures of stolen art kept her conscience silent. To the observant, the only indication to the shame that she felt, from time to time, came in the form of the lover she often indulged. The ship’s first mate was a handsome man, yet, a poor lover whose foul temper ensured that they never truly engaged with more than keeping one another’s bed warm on occasion. Harold, however, was besotted with the elf, even if he lacked the means to express that in a constructive way. Once she refused his engagement, some years later, they fought. Estranged in a romantic sense, Harold seduced her some months later, though his apology was laden with deceit. The Narrowroot tea she used to avoid pregnancy had been tampered with and, some months later, when she discovered she was pregnant, Cianier very nearly damned herself forever in her own eyes.

Despite the life she led, she could not go through with the abortion that she planned and wound up having to accept Harold’s offer at marriage, lest she face a shame that she would not bring on her child’s name. She cared about him, though suspected what he had done and never truly trusted him for she was (and still is) a careful woman who, despite her reservations, loved the child that grew within her despite the father’s failings.

They left the ship, the next time it docked, and made their way up to Waterdeep. Harold took only the pay that he was due and with their money, they bought a small house in Waterdeep. He, being skilled at arms and determined to turn over a new leaf now he had a wife and a child on the way, joined the town guard. Cianier found Blackstaff Tower again and renewed her ties to the Archmage Blackstaff. In the three years that followed, Cianier kept the stash she had left in Waterdeep, before leaving for Evermeet all those years ago as a secret. She did not trust her husband and wanted options should things go awry.

Eventually they did, though it was through no fault of Harold who, since leaving his ship, had endeavoured to lead an exemplary life. Wanderlust struck Cianier, a final time, as she heard an apprentice within the Tower talking about a handful of adventurers in town – she sought them out because their plans struck a note of fancy within the wizard who decided, quickly, that a sortie into Undermountain and a final shot at fame and glory would do wonders to erase the guilt she carried for the deeds she had committed at sea.

She left her daughter, Estellia, and Harold – who argued with her until coming to realise that he would never dissuade his wife from this course, and set out for Undermountain. What had been a well planned expedition penetrated deeply into Halastor’s home, overcoming many of his traps and tricks. It was here that she encountered Kril, and argued for mercy to be shown to the minotaur who surrendered after losing a battle with the group. They delved into the Undermountain’s deepest levels, learned many of its secrets and uncovered treasures enough to make them all rich but, greed led their leader to push them further and Cianier, in her arrogance, did not protest as she aught to have.

In Undermountain’s deepest corners they drew Halastor from his sanctuary. Confident that they would return with packs laden with gold and the Mad-Mage’s head in a sack, the group attacked…and were slaughtered. Cianier was spared because Halastor recognised her bloodline, the hint of a draconic heritage stashed deeply within elven blood and, in his madness, entertained himself with this descendant of the Dy’Nien line.

Her mind broken, cursed and driven to the brink of insanity, Cianier was released with her ill-gotten gains and those that her group had plundered and Halastor, bored once more, began to watch his mental progeny.

It took her a month to find her way back to the surface. Stumbling, half dead, into Skullport and buying the secret of a tunnel to the surface, Cianier stumbled back into Waterdeep. She found her home a ruin, her husband missing and her daughter lost and in that moment she stood, screaming her rage at the blackened rubble, the elf lost what was left of her mind and succumbed entirely to Halastor’s fell magic. Assurances from family friends left her with nothing but the knowledge that the house, and her family, had gone missing in the same night. Nearly a month ago.

Cianier, after fruitlessly searching, fled Waterdeep and the guilt she had there. Running to the Inner Sea, she found herself on the Dragon Isles and, without questioning why, resumed her old life. Determining that Harold had left her and returned to the sea in her absence, her fears that he had sold their daughter, or worse, drove the last dregs of sanity from the elf and set her anger to curdle into bitterness that she unleashed on Sembian merchants over the next year.

A careful woman who hid her true identity at all times, her purple sails became feared within months. Leading her to flee that sea in due course and head back to the Sword Coast while the Sembians stopped looking for her. Cianier purchased a new ship and began plying her trade throughout the Sea of Swords. Hunting for Harold and enthralled by the growth of her treasure horde, she ran just about every job that she could. From outright piracy to couriering persons needing rapid transport through to smuggling.

In 1354 she was doing just such a pickup of smuggling goods in a cove not far from Baldur’s Gate when the merchant presented her with two slaves. A young lad of ten and a tiefling toddler, no older that three were offered for trade. The children were frightened, they had bartered for honest passage up to Waterdeep and the boy knew precisely what a crew full of cutlass wearing sailors meant on the Sword Coast. The girl, in particular, struck a note within Cianier, who knelt before her, drew the hood over her head and inspected her. She noted the alertness in the girl’s eyes, and the deft elegance of her hands and agreed to buy them.

The merchant, however, broke the deal and demanded more. Cianier met it, coolly and levelly hiding the thought that her own daughter might have suffered this very fate. She agreed to the higher price, provided the merchant apologised to the children – which he did – Cianier asked the boy if they had been treated fairly. They had not, he replied, and as the merchant left her ship, Cianier raised her hand.

Argus saw then the price that was paid to those that tried to cheat the elf. While Sorsha saw a goodness lingering in her heart that led the wizard to perform a foul deed. The merchant’s crew were killed to the last man and the ship was sunk after being stripped of valuables, the captain was the last to die and his fate was to watch his life come to ruin before being shoved from the decks, still under the effects of her paralysing spell.

She gave the children a choice, at the next port they made. They could go free with the merchant’s price for them as a weight on their hips, or they could stay with her. Argus elected to stay with Cianier, having seen how she doted on his sister in the short time that they had been aboard her vessel. She raised them as though they were hers, delighted when Argus proved himself more than a cabin boy and climbed through the ship’s ranks to fill a minor officer roll by the time he was twelve. She trained Sorsha in magic, making the girl her apprentice and, for the next years, their life was as good as it could get.

It was in this time that Cianier began experimenting with golem creation. A small tower set up in a vast Underdark cavern, on a subterranean waterway linking the Inner sea with the sea of Swords gave her a means to store her ill-gotten gains and work on her twisted vision of magic as she began to strive toward ‘perfecting life’. Nine years ago, she was barred from Waterdeep by her former mentor – Blackstaff – who took offence at the research she presented him with. Methods of combining machinery and flesh, of binding souls with a golem’s form. He called it Necromancy, with a pleasant mask, and cast her from his tower in disgust. His criticism only made her more determined to succeed in her attempts to create the perfect unlife.

Ten years ago, Cianier returned home in secret and used her name to commission a ship. It was a gift for her parents, she excused herself and her deeds and the shipwrights believed her even as she slipped away as quietly as she had come. The frigate was completed within seven years, Cianier returned home for it, sailing with a merchant vessel part of the way before completing the voyage on her small magical yacht. The vessel ‘Sprightly’ was perfect, she led it out into the bay and sailed it, alone, out of Evermeet’s waters. Her quick inspection trip took, in the end, several years as she had no intention of returning it to Evermeet.

In the years that followed she wore secrecy tightly around her identity. Argus, now her quartermaster and effective second in command, and Sorsha, her left hand woman. Her vessel, known as ‘Wraith’ plied a fell trade on merchants from Calimshan to Amn and indeed, her tale might have ended there, had Blackstaff’s banishment not kept her far enough away from Waterdeep and the source of the spell that afflicted her mind, that Cianier began, two years ago, to wake up within herself.

She halted the research that she had kept secret from even her apprentice and ceased taking slaves to harvest their bodies in that dark laboratory and, for two years, focussed her efforts on the ocean and carving a legacy for the mysterious elf that was thought to be behind ‘Wraiths’ successes.

1372, when it came around, has been a year of great change within Cianier. It began with a message from a friend she had in Skullport that she delivered to one ‘Edlyn Amastacia’ of the Laughing Titan Inn. It was the first time she, personally, had entered Waterdeep in years. For a moment, on meeting Edlyn, she thought the half elf was her missing Estellia and so, commissioned the frightened, and then grieving bard, to find her daughter. Unknown to her, a romance started between her Quartermaster and the bard in that same night though from that day on, Skullport became her regular port of call.

In the months that followed a great many things happened. From building a castle of magical vision for a vampire-lord who secured, for her, many books of magic and a vast sum of gold in return for her services through to meeting her daughter and taking joy in that reunion. The Laughing Titan came to be the unofficial base for her crew while in Waterdeep and Cianier, after three decades of piracy, began to let the masks around her fall away.

Rumours began faster than Argus could put them out and Cianier cared nothing for them for now, Halastor’s spell had weakened such that she wished only to retire with her treasure and come to know her daughter, who had been named Agatha and knew nothing of her heritage.

She set out for one last voyage on learning that the esteemed elven general, Ares, was assaulting Murann. Though her goal was not to help liberate the city. Rather, she sailed down the coast with a mind to attack the pirates that would be fleeing Murann, once it fell. With her daughter aboard, and Edlyn having been claimed by Argus as the ship’s bard, joined by Cherub and his twin (due to a misunderstanding around Edlyn’s freedom aboard), Cianier encountered the pirate fleet and, outnumbered by a staggering twenty ships, let loose her favoured cry of ‘hoist the colours’ and attacked with heroic abandon.

The battle was savage and short. Wraith was badly damaged but crippled, within minutes, some dozen pirate vessels that could do nothing to withstand the magical manipulations unleashed on them. With their morale broken the survivors fled and Cianier set to filling her hold with the plundered wealth of Murann.

Argus claimed one of the ships as his own, Cianier made use of her magical yacht – turning it into a small galley that the Wraith towed and with holds, both magical and mundane, filled with treasure they sailed back up to Waterdeep. On berthing, Cianier confronted the harbourmaster, who objected to the infamous pirate ship being so bold as to dock in his harbour. She handed over a dozen flags, that amounted to the heads of pirates wanted along the sword coast and claimed their bounties before putting her ship into the drydock for repairs.

While Argus considered what he was going to do with his new ship, she and the crew’s most loyal headed back to the Laughing Titan and celebrated wealth that, for the captain, set her shoulder to shoulder with Waterdeep’s wealthiest. During that night, however, Cianier took a bet that she could not cast teleport while barely able to see straight, due to intoxication. Unfortunately, she was right, and was able to cast the spell so, while she made a few more gold (that she collected on her return) she also woke up in a small field alongside the Trade Way.

With very little magic or weapons she was captured by a Justiciar of Tyr who believed the rumours of her being a pirate and though she set he and his men at odds with each other and escaped, she was stuck, shackled at feet and hands, hopping up the Trade Way in an attempt to get back to Waterdeep.

It was in this state that she encountered Amilynn Steeles, and René Bastien. A poor introduction to both, René took his duty over his instinct and helped her, beginning a relationship that is as turbulent and uncertain as it is tense and involved.

On their return to Waterdeep, Cianier saw the wanderer (as she knew him then) right, before Argus told her that a merchant ship – one they had been chasing for years – had just set sail. Cianier took the bait and broke Wraith out of drydock, taking a skeleton crew and, again, deciding to take one last shot at glory. Unfortunately, for her, it was a trap.

The Dy’Nien family had known, for years, that Sprightly had not sunk, they had known that it was a ship being built for their daughter and while they missed her on that day she launched it, they set about tracing their child across Faerun. A difficult feat for she took great care to ward herself from scrying and, possessing an elven vessel built for speed, was nigh impossible to catch up with when rumoured sightings were come across. In the end it was Cianier’s defeat of the Murann pirates that proved her undoing.

Her brother, who had been trying to lure her after him by posing as a wealthy, mystery merchant running a small but treasure laden ship, acquired his father’s aide and thus it was them that Cianier pursued out of Waterdeep and eventually caught up with.

Her mother captained the frigate that emerged from a blanket of illusions even Cianier had not been able to detect. The battle was short as Wraith was nearly rammed and suffered, in the first pass, severe damage before the crew were ensorcelled and dozens of elves teleported onto her deck. Cianier was arrested by her father and together they returned to Waterdeep.

That was, quite simply, the inglorious end of Cianier’s career at sea. Not only had she been caught by her father but he had, during the course of the battle, slain her ship priest – a powerful cleric of Umberlee. Unwilling to honour that fickle goddess by avenging the cleric, she has earned Umberlee’s ire. Cianier’s shame was exposed and her father outraged. The Dy’Nien name is one that has been highly placed amongst elven society for thousands of years, virtuous exemplars of the Sun Elven dynasty and Cianier, for all the promise and potential she possessed, had jeopardised their legacy.

His rage subsided, somewhat, as it came to the light that Cianier had run afoul of Mad-Halastor and that her mind was not, wholly, her own over the last two decades. However, that merely dulled the edge of his fury. Ultimately, he charged her with proving, to him, her worth as a member of his household. Banishing her, officially, from his home until such a time as she could set foot in Evermeet and hold her head high, with honour at her side, he left a week later, and took her ship with him. Heading home to cover up Cianier’s illness, as he had come to think of it, and tend to matters within the elven hierarchy. Much as he has made his daughter suffer, he does not wish for her to suffer at the hands of her entire people. Thus, he is doing what he can to keep her past as a secret, and in the past.

Cianier has been forced to retire from the sea and through the course of the Midsummer festival, found a means to provide her with both the retirement that she wanted, a task to accomplish, and an adventure to be had. She learned of the Stonelands from Lord Bastien and took it upon herself to force his return to his homeland. Though she had to use every trick in her book of persuasive skills, and in the process, found her heart quite enthralled by the fallen noble, Cianier eventually won and set into motion those events that have led to their return to Cormyr.

Once in Cormyr, Cianier relaxed and before she had so much as met a single War Wizard, spent the first of a handful of very enjoyable nights in Lord Bastien’s bed. She has, since, devoted herself to her arcane studies, only to find herself stalling on the past that she has been able to leave behind, but not expunge from her mind. Haunted by the memory of her past deeds, Cianier returned to Waterdeep and sought out the aide of Cherub Vassago. Unable to progress as a wizard or truly focus on the future and its many facets, she wasted no time once reaching Waterdeep and finding the wizard who had impressed her during their sortie near Murann.

She saw, in him, something of a kindred spirit, at least in the sense that he is a wizard of exceptional ability who has been shunned by the academic circles that plague arcanists. He did not fit the mold of being a ‘proper’ wizard and that, first and foremost, warmed Cianier to the young alchemist. He leant his aide, as both a willing ear and a scholar whose potion stripped away the foulest of Cianier’s memories. While she remembered most of the lore that she had uncovered, she has forgotten that she acted on it and attempted to use those long-buried secrets.

Exhausted by the experience, she could do little to help Cherub when Halastor caught up with them, she did what she could before she heeded Cherub’s demand and fled back to the safety of Stillwater Keep, in Cormyr, where she worries after Cherub’s safety even as she begins to, in earnest, move on with her life and truly leave the past behind her…

Stilling the home waters
Sorting out Lord Bastien’s affairs on his ancestral estates proves to be more a task than either could have envisioned as the duo discover a plot against Lord Bastien that has ties with his family’s distant past and the riverless lake for which his keep takes its name.

Character Sheet
Name: Cianier Dy'Nien

Race and Age: Sun Elf, 151.

Class and levels: Elf Wizard/Wizard/Incantrix/Archmage - 1/5/10/5

Height and Weight: 5'1", 101lbs.

Eyes and Hair: Bright green, flecked with bronze. Black.

Alignment:Neutral Good

Deity:Corellon

Allegiance: None, at present.

Challenge Level:21

Caster Level: 21

Abilities and modifiers: Note: *raised via wish.
 * Str: 8 (-1)
 * Dex: 18 (+4)*
 * Con: 14 (+2)*
 * Int: 30 (+10)*
 * Wis: 16 (+3)
 * Chr: 18 (+4)

HD: 21d4 (-21)

Initiative: +4

Speed: 30ft.

Reach:5ft/5ft

Encumbrance:  Saving Throws: Base Attack Bonus: +10 Special Abilities:
 * 27(light)
 * 28-53(medium)
 * 54+(heavy)
 * Fortitude: +16
 * Reflex: +19
 * Will: +27 (Iron Will)
 * +2 vs. illusions
 * +2 vs. Enchantments and Charms.
 * Melee Attack: +10/+5
 * Ranged Attack: +15/+10
 * Special Attack: Nil

Racial: Class Granted:
 * Immune to magical sleep effects
 * +2 saving throw bonus vs. enchantment spells and effects.
 * Low light vision
 * Weapon Proficiency: Longsword, rapier, longbow, shortbow.
 * Keen senses: +2 to Listen, Search and Spot.
 * Passive Detection: Merely passing within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door allows a check, as though actively searching, to see if the elf discovers it.

High Arcana – Arcane Fire:

''The archmage gains the ability to change arcane spell energy into arcane fire, manifesting it as a bolt of raw magical energy. The bolt is a ranged touch attack with long range (400 feet + 40 feet/level of archmage) that deals 1d6 points of damage per class level of the archmage plus 1d6 points of damage per level of the spell used to create the effect. This ability costs one 9th-level spell slot.''

High Arcana – Mastery of Elements.

''The archmage can alter an arcane spell when cast so that it utilizes a different element from the one it normally uses. This ability can only alter a spell with the acid, cold, fire, electricity, or sonic descriptor. The spell’s casting time is unaffected. The caster decides whether to alter the spell’s energy type and chooses the new energy type when he begins casting. This ability costs one 8th-level spell slot.''

High Arcana – Mastery of Shaping:

''The archmage can alter area and effect spells that use one of the following shapes: burst, cone, cylinder, emanation, or spread. The alteration consists of creating spaces within the spell’s area or effect that are not subject to the spell. The minimum dimension for these spaces is a 5-foot cube. Furthermore, any shapeable spells have a minimum dimension of 5 feet instead of 10 feet. This ability costs one 6th-level spell slot.''

High Arcana – Spell like ability:

May use ‘Shapechange’ twice per day, as an ability.

High Arcana – Mastery of counterspelling

''When the archmage counterspells a spell, it is turned back upon the caster as if it were fully affected by a spell turning spell. If the spell cannot be affected by spell turning, then it is merely counterspelled. This ability costs one 7th-level spell slot.''

''Cooperative Metamagic: may spontaneously apply any known metamagic feat to a spell being cast by an adjacent ally. This modifies the effective spell level of the altered spell, but does not cost the caster a higher level slot. Usable 3+(int modifier)/day''

Metamagic effect:'' May attempt to apply a known metamagic feat to a persistent spell effect already in place. (Example: Apply extend spell to a wall of force, or maximize spell on a cloudkill). Usable 3+(int modifier)/day''

Metamagic spell trigger:'' May apply a known metamagic feat to a spell trigger item (such as a wand). Must have the item creation feat. Expends a number of charges equal to the modified level of the spell. ''

Seize Concentration: ''May wrest control of a spell that requires concentration from another spellcaster within 30ft. If the target is willing, this is automatic. Otherwise results in an opposed caster level check. If the Incantrix wins, she controls the spell for as long as she maintains concentration, or the spell duration lasts. If the Incantrix releases the spell, the original caster may attempt to regain control via a caster level check, if that fails, the spell is uncontrolled.''

Instant Metamagic: ''Once per day may apply a metamagic feat to a single spell without preparing it beforehand. (Usable: once at 7th, twice at 9th)''

Snatch Spell:'' May attempt to seize control of a persistent spell created by another spellcaster. The effect must be one that does not rely on concentration, but still responds to the caster’s wishes (ie. Summon Monster, Spiritual weapon. But not wall of fire or acid-fog). The effect must be within 30ft of the Incantrix. Opposed caster roll.''

Improved Metamagic: The effective spell level increase for using a metamagic feat is reduced by one (to a minimum of one)

Permamency:

Resistance - +1 to all saving throws

Read Magic

Arcane Sight

Tongues

Detect Magic.

Traits:

Absent Minded:

+1 to all trained knowledge checks.

-1 to spot and listen checks.

Cianier is usually distracted from tasks at hand, by intellectual pursuits and other, similar, matters.

Plucky

+1 to will saves.

-1 to fortitude saves.

Cianier’s physical frailty is contrasted by her mental resilience.

Skills:

Feats:
 * Leadership: Score – 25
 * Spellcasting Prodigy(intelligence counts as 2 higher for purposes of spell slots
 * Skill Focus: Spellcraft - +3 to Spellcraft.
 * Spell Focus: Conjuration - Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against spells from the school of magic you select.
 * Spell Focus: Enchantment - Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against spells from the school of magic you select.
 * Craft Wondrous Item.
 * Scribe Scroll.
 * Summon Familiar.
 * Improved Spell Capacity - Can cast 10th level spells.
 * Metamagic: Twin Spell. (+4)
 * Metamagic: Quicken Spell. (+4)
 * Metamagic: Enlarge Spell (+1)
 * Metamagic: Widen Spell (+3)
 * Metamagic: Silent Spell (+1)
 * Metamagic: Maximise Spell (+3)
 * Iron Will (+2 to will)
 * Invisible Needle [Reserve] - +1 CL when using force spells. Can create force needles (1d4 and 5ft/level of reserve spell)
 * Spellwise [regional] +2 Spellcraft, Concentration and saves vs. illusions.

Flaws:

Frail (-1hp/level)

Vulnerable (-1 to AC)

PrC Granted Feats: Spells/day:
 * High Arcana - Spell Sculpting.
 * High Arcana - Mastery of Elements.
 * High Arcana – Arcane Fire
 * High Arcane – Spell like ability – ShapeChange
 * High Arcana – Mastery of Counterspelling

Note: Cianier has barred herself from using Illusion spells.

Note: Base-High Arcana+int (38)+Naga Crown.

0th 8

1st 16

2nd 16

3rd 14

4th 14

5th 12

6th 12

7th 10

8th 10

9th 10

10th 6

Familiar:

Krix, goshawk.

Inventory and Magic Items

 * Head: Naga Crown (Major Artifact). A slender platinum circlet, bearing three, inwardly curving spines.
 * Eyes:
 * Neck:
 * Torso: Vest of the Archmage.
 * Body: Robe of the Good Archmage.
 * Waist: Ruby cincture of immutability.
 * Shoulders: Cape of the General - Cloak of the Undeniable.
 * Wrists: Bracers of the entangling blast.
 * Hands:
 * Left Ring: Ring of Spell Battle.
 * Right Ring: Ring of Telekinesis.
 * Boots: Boots of Swift Passage.
 * In Hand: Staff of Mastery

On her person, or in her pack:

Infinite Scrollcase - Carved ivory, capped with platinum seals.

Rod of Absorption

Handy Haversack - Hung over one shoulder to rest on her hip.

Gem of seeing.

Decanter of Endless water.

Folding Boat - of elven origin

Daern's instant fortress - of elven origin

Pillow of restful reverie.

This small, heavily embroidery cushion almost seems too slender to provide any true comfort to the one that sits on it, or uses it as a pillow. The opposite is, in fact, true. When used by an elf entering a reverie, the pillow halves the reverie time and grants the sitter all the benefits of a full (8 hour) sleep. When used as a pillow, in a more traditional manner of sleeping, the pillow grants regeneration 1, as well as halving the time necessary to consider a period of rest as a full night's sleep.

Mundane Items.

Collapsing Telescope - A masterworked naval telescope that was a gift, to Cianier, from her mother. It is cased in rune-wrought bronze and the level of magnification is adjustable such that it may be used to watch the stars, as well as the horizon (though a support is needed at the higher end of the magnicifation). It has a small notch, just in front of the eyepiece, where a specially cut gem of seeing may be slotted in. While using the gem in this manner limits the telescope's range, it does grant the viewer the benefits of true seeing, through the gem..

=Followers=