Mixie Shadowmuffin

[Mixie Shadowmuffin]

Mixie Shadowmuffin is half human and half goblin. She is 5’4” tall, and 130 wiry pounds, with light green skin and unkempt frizzy black hair. Her eyes are large and black, with unusually large pupils, and her face has sharp clever-looking features. She has fangs which are visible only when she opens her mouth or smiles. Her body was marked by hundreds of thin, almost invisible scars, and a crude but nevertheless artistic image of a dragon burned into her back, drawn with a hot poker over the course of many days. However, she recently had them removed at a clinic in Zinn'Sunn. The pinky on her right hand is missing. She does not know when she was born, but is in the neighborhood of 16-18 ordinations.

She is able to see in the dark, but her eyes are sensitive to bright light so that she wears slit sun goggles when she must go out in the day. She had a tattoo of a black sun around her left eye.

Her life story is not pleasant, even starting before she was born. She is the product of a rape, and her human mother left her abandoned in a garbage heap in Vortex. She was found and raised by a dark elf couple who abused her in every conceivable manner, and she ran away from home when she was 12.

She formed her core beliefs in the torture chamber. She envisions existance as a thin thread that stretches through a large dark room. The thread represents the portion of the world in which happiness is possible, while all around it is chaos, pain and despair that is the dark room. “Goodness” is the philosophy whereby the lucky justify and try to maintain their hold on the slender thread of joy, at the expense of people like herself who are ever doomed to live in the gloom that is the basic reality of existence.

Mixie is not so much evil as insane. She is not against kindness and generosity, but sees them as an affectation of the super-fortunate, like a diamond studded bootscraper or some such thing. While she doesn’t especially enjoy pain, she is used to it, and it provides her a nostalgic comfort. Consequently she does not think deeply before inflicting it on others. She believes that the pinky is the wickedest finger of the hand, and has cut her right pinky off and tanned it, and wears it on a cord around her neck. In times of stress she argues with it.

Mixie learned the language of the dark elves growing up, and speaks it fluently.

[Mixie Shadowmuffin]

The writing sample from my special permission race application.

*************

Mixie sat on the edge of a bluff watching the setting suns. The searing red light pierced her brain like rusty nails, but she was used to the idea that life brings pain and forbore to comment on it. In a tattered leather-bound journal she wrote-

On this darkening as all others the suns are dying on the horizon, bleeding their red fires against the bellies of the clouds. It is a promise, or perhaps a threat, that the Gods make to us. Like the suns we are born in a wash of red, ascend briefly to a golden zenith, and then are brought low to lay hemorrhaging against the surface of Telath before we sink forever into the ground.

Bah! I spit on this lesson, and wave my pinkie at the sky which is where the gods live when they do not ride the whips that beat our backs. I have been denied my zenith, and will instead enjoy the dark embrace of night. The cold bones of existence are all the gods I require, and all that it is likely I shall be allowed.

She shut the book with a decisive snap, and averted her eyes from the sunset. Reaching into a wire mesh bag that hung from her belt, she selected a fat wiggling mouse and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully and wincing only slightly as it bit her tongue in its frantic death throes. The gathering darkness brought an end to the pain in her eyes and she felt it slip about her like a comfortable cloak. The darkening always brought to her a yearning for something, but she was never sure what it was. She absentmindedly scratched an old scar on her side, and climbed nimbly to her feet.

Solemnly, she did her dance of welcoming for the darkness, a haphazard ritual she had conceived era ago. The steps of the dance were always different, but slow steady movements were always alternated with quick jerks of speed- that was the essential thing. It illustrated the terrible nature of reality, which rolled smoothly along until intermittently horror leapt upon you, and her welcoming of the night expressed her appreciation for the advantage, if ever so slight, that it gave her. Tonight she crept in circles around the bole of a large oak, making sudden leaps and gesturing wildly with the severed stump where her pinky once had been.

Her ceremony accomplished, Mixie gathered her few belongings- the tattered journal, a thin-bladed shortsword which she strapped onto her back, and a small box containing teeth she had found on the floor of a particularly dangerous bar- and walked down the hill and into town. She held instinctively to shadows, her long experience teaching her that being noticed was never a good thing and often bad. At the outskirts of town she came to a tavern, the sign out front naming it the Rose and Thistle. She stood in front of it for some minutes, her mouth working silently and disturbing thoughts lurching through her head, then all at once sprang forward and darted inside.

The tavern was warm and the fire chased the cool night air from Mixie’s clothes. Candles on a chandelier lit the room with a dim but cheerful yellow glow, and the customers laughed and made merry sounds with their glasses. Mixie threw herself violently into a seat and surveyed the room, fixing the bulk of her attention on a table at which three men sat, one of whom she had been paid to be interested in. This man was deep into middle age, with a distinguished touch of gray well advanced on his temples. He wore modest but well made clothing, and his finger wore a heavy gold ring featuring a cabochon cut ruby. His dining companions were young and well muscled, and sat with swords leaned against the table. They were rather obviously body guards.

A barmaid approached Mixie’s table, and giving her a suspicious glance, asked “And what can I bring for you this evening Miss?” Mixie took her eyes from the three men.

“I would like a mug of salt and a plate of chicken’s feet. Please.”

The barmaid’s eyebrows knit in puzzlement. “You want to drink salt?”

“Yes. From a mug. Beechwood if you have it.” Mixie produced a small fistful of gold coins which she plunked down on the table. Those who lived the privileged life were easily disturbed, as if they knew that if their lives took any sudden turn they would wind up in a disaster, but they were easily soothed by money.

The woman looked at the coins dubiously. “We don’t serve chicken’s feet Miss.”

Mixie looked around the room. “I see..”she paused to count “…seven people eating chicken. None of these chickens have feet. What became of them?”

“We threw them away Miss.”

“Well there you go then. Pull them from the garbage and put them on a plate. Build them into a little cabin or something attractive like that.”

The Barmaid decided that she’d had enough of this conversation, and backed away to place the order.

Mixie watched the three men eat and chat while she waited for her food, but took pains not to be obvious about it. She brought forth her little box of teeth, and whenever any of them glanced her way, she was busy arranging them into patterns on the table, smiling to herself. That’s it Mixie, don’t draw attention to yourself. Nothing to see here, just a bit of harmless tooth arrangement.

When Mixie’s food arrived, she frowned to see that the mug of salt was not beechwood, and that the chicken’s feet were piled higglety-pigglety on the a plate. She glared at the barmaid, who retreated quickly. Mixie picked up a foot and began to suck it absentmindedly, sweeping the teeth back into their box.

Despite her nonchalance, the men kept looking her, and continued to do so now. Have they never seen a green girl arranging teeth and eating chicken’s feet? Mixie wondered. She hadn’t guessed they would be so provincial. I wave my pinkie at them! Let them stare if they must!

Rising gracefully to her feet, Mixie performed an elegant dance twirl, mug in hand, then suddenly dashed the salt in a spray across the eyes of the three men. In a flash her sword was out slashing and hacking. The men grabbed for their swords but could not see, and Mixie did gruesome work amongst a chorus of screams, then turned on her heels and left the tavern, pausing to remove one of the coins she had left on the table as a punishment for the pewter mug and randomly piled chicken’s feet, and melted away into the darkness.

[Mixie Shadowmuffin]

Money ledger:

Starting Autumn: 14,650
Earned: 120/cycle * 4 months = 2,400
Expenses: 50/cycle * 4 months= -1000

Total starting Winter: 15,050

Earned: 300/cycle as thane * 3 months = 4500
Expenses: 50/cycle * 3 months = 750

Total starting spring: 18,800

Starting Summer
Earned 300/cycle = 4500
Expenses: 50/cycle* 3 monts= 750

Total starting Summer: 22,550

Second short sword, after first was taken (-60 crowns)
Scabbard with blowgun built into it (-150 crowns)
Darts for blowgun, 10 wire and 10 of bone splinters.
Assassination Job: +200 crowns
Found jewelry worth 1500 cr (Sold for cash)
5 months food and shelter (through Summer) @30/cycle: -750
Farming profits, Fall 25,000 crowns.
1 dark elf slave, lvl1 bow, lvl1 shortsword, 250 crowns
1 warehouse in Olympia 500 crowns
20 doses soporific poison, tasteless, 700 crowns
1 sturdy chisel and hammer, 75 crowns
1 length of rope, 100' 40 crowns
Short bow 30 crowns
quiver of arrows 12 cr
short sword 80 cr
black leather duster 75 cr
Wire garrote with wooden handles, 20 cr
Long black cloak feathered with crows feathers 200 crowns
1 flasks of Arium Crier venom
Pup tent
Winter sleeping roll
Blowgun, 3 feet long.
Portable snake cage.
-1400 crowns for scar removal
Golden cup of health
+ 750 crowns from bounty hunt
-250 crowns- winter expenses.
-4,000, house in Frigid River
1 male and 1 female shadow snake.
1 spectacled cobra
1 diamond back rattlesnake
1 Sylrosian Vinesnake
1 Ice Snake
Wratfink, a pet raven.
Miss Twinkleboots, an Arium Crier serpent who she can speak to through a magic torc.
Small wagon
Mule
Barrel
Elven Steel short sword
Bronze golem horse -2200 crowns

Stuff found on way to Herozzal:

750 crowns worth of jewelry
4 pairs of lacy underwear
Red Sequined ball gown
Cloak covered with black feathers
Gray Pillbox hat with flower on the front
Long white gloves that go past her elbows
Low black boots of soft leather
Short Sword (double edged)
3 foot blowgun
Dagger with 8 inch blade
Short boot knife
3 alembics
2 pelicans (the distillary kind, not the bird)
3 stands of assorted sizes
Bricklayers wagon (small, pulled by hand).

Poisons:

10 doses Arium Crier venom, prepared for blowgun dart (crippling pain)
20 doses of Gallow Brush venom, prepared for blowgun dart (puts target to sleep)
5 doses of Calcena mushroom venom, prepared for blowgun dart (causes hallucinations)

Mixie habitually wears thin tubes braided into her hair which are loaded with envenomed darts.

[Mixie Shadowmuffin]

Business plan- Mixie's Fortress of Valiant Poultry Warriors

Business Plan

Average # of Patrons/brightening 35
Money spent 2
Gross Income/cycle 700

Expenses/Overhead 420

Staff

Bartender, 1 @ 40 crowns/cycle

Admission Usher, 1 @ 40 crown/cycle

Chicken Handler, 1 @ 50 crown/cycle
Assistant handler, 1 @ 30 crowns/cycle

Staff total 160

Net Income 120/cycle

[Mixie Shadowmuffin]

<B>Rate Page
Arium Crier

Appearance

The Arium Crier is a massive snake, reaching nearly 20 feet at full maturity, and thick and sturdy of build. Females of the species are larger than the males, and a full grown Arium Crier queen may weigh as much as 350 pounds, although 250-300 pounds is more typical. The Crier is covered with brown scales with black diamond patters tessellating down the spine. Its tail terminates in a tube of exposed cartilage that is pierced by many holes. This appurtenance functions as a flute, and when held up in the air and shaken it produces a sound very much like a woman crying.

Climate and Terrain

The Arium Crier is native to the Arium Mountains, though it is sometimes sighted on the lower-lying wilderness. It is capable of living in the higher reaches of the mountain crags, but tends to gravitate towards trails and passes, where it may hunt more easily.

Behavior

Arium Criers are extremely vicious snakes, who actively hunt sentient races for prey. They are extremely sensitive to noise and are able to pick up the sound of voices from up to three miles away. When the snake hears an approaching victim, it will use the simulated crying noise produced by its tail flute to lure the traveler into striking distance.

The Arium Crier uses a special adaptation to ease its existence in its cool mountain habitat. Like all snakes the Crier is cold blooded, but it can generate heat for itself by producing a rhythmic contraction that sends ripples the length of its body. The warmth of the snakes flexing muscles raises the Crier’s body temperature as much as 10 degrees above the ambient temperature.

A side effect of this adaptation is that the snake must feed more frequently to fuel itself when the weather is cool. As a result, the Crier is especially dangerous in early spring and in the cooler parts of fall.

Arium Criers hibernate in winter, and they are believed to hibernate amongst the mountains. Arium Criers releases a pungent smell in their liars where they hibernate to repel predators from nearing them in their vulnerable state -- an odor similar to rotting meat. They reappear in late spring, after the snow melts, and terrorizes the Arium Highlands once more.

Diet

The bulk of the Arium Crier’s diet is made up of humans, humanoids, cattle, and other creatures of similar size. They will usually ignore small game, but when exceptionally hungry they will strike at nearly anything that moves.

The Crier has a very efficient digestive system that is able to process items such as bones, clothing, leather, and many other items a person might be carrying. In the last stages of digestion they will regurgitate metal objects into small piles, and such corroded relics can sometimes be found in the Arium Mountains as cairns to those who have met a gruesome fate.

Combat

When happened upon, the Arium Crier will coil itself together which may make it appear small and submissive, but it is actually tensing its muscles for a strike. Travelers have reported that these Snakes are able to lunge up to ten feet in distance to attack their victim, usually impaling their teeth into the torso and pumping a small dosage of venom into their bloodstream. The snake will usually let go of its victim and wait for the poison to incapacitate its target, and then move in to consume it alive.

The venom of the Arium Crier is usually not lethal but it causes such immense pain that the victim wishes they were dead. The venom acts quickly, working on the pain receptors around the site of the bite and quickly spreading through the bloodstream throughout the body, and sending the target into shock. The venom is thought to absorb into bone marrow and can stay in the target’s system for cycles. Those who survive the experience often become highly resistant to pain as their pain receptors are somewhat burned out.

The Arium Crier does not use constriction as a primary method of attack, but will constrict if its venom fails to immobilize its prey. It is a large and powerful snake and can inflict serious constrictive damage on a struggling victim.

Reproduction

Arium Criers mate in early spring, all the way to mid summer. During these times, the female snakes will swing their cartilage flutes while holding them vertically rather than swinging them parallel to the ground, as they do when hunting. This results in a different sound which is a signal to males of the species that they are ready to mate. The sound will attract the nearest male, and if he appears healthy and vigorous the two will mate. The sound of women singing can be heard when these snakes are mating as the wind sweeps through their fluted cartilage.

The female will lay a clutch of 15-30 eggs which she guards tenaciously until they hatch. The hatchlings are about 2 feet in length, and produce dangerous amounts of venom immediately. The first snakes to hatch will often lie in wait and consume their siblings as they emerge from their eggs. Thus fortified, the survivors will slither forth into the world with their bellies full.

Trade

The hide of Arium Criers will sometimes show up on the snake leather market, but they are not actively hunted. This skin is not spectacularly colored, and they are exceedingly dangerous to hunt.

</B>

[Mixie Shadowmuffin]

Training:

Short Sword: Level 2
Basic Short Sword +2 XP
Shortsword +1 XP
Shortsword +1 XP
Shortsword +1 XP
Veteran Short Sword +2 XP

Stealth: Level 1
Basic Steath- Starting package
Stealth +2 XP

Feral Shamanism: Level 2
Basic Feral Shamanism +2XP
Feral Shamanism +1 XP
Feral Shamanism +1 XP
Apprentice Feral Shamanism +2XP
Feral Shamanism +1 XP
Feral Shamanism +1XP

Poison: Level 3
Basic poisons +2 XP
Poisons +1 XP
Poisons +1 XP
Apprentice Poisons, +2XP
Poisons +1 XP
Poisons +1 XP
Poisons +1 XP
Poisons +1 XP
Journeyman Poisons +2 XP

Glass Blowing: Level 1
Novice glassblowing +2 XP

Meditation: Level 1
Basic Meditation +2XP

Blow Gun: Level 1
Basic Blowgun +2 XP

Zinn'Ka: Level 1
Basic Shaasskah, +2 Xp

Mysticism: Level 1
Basic Mysicism, +2XP
Mysticism, +1XP

Escape: Level 0
Basic Escape +1 XP

Bow: Level 0
Bow, +1 XP

[Mixie Shadowmuffin]

Poison's Mixie knows how to make/aquire.

Blue Shark Poison- This poison is a fast acting paralytic. It does not act long. It comes from the teeth of sharks endemic to the island of Olympia.

Gallowbrush poison- This poison is a soporific, putting the target to sleep in an time frame unspecified by the write-up. The effect lasts for several hours.

Calcena Mushroom Poison- This poison causes the target to hallucinate.

Arium Crier venom- She gets this from her pet Arium Crier, Miss Twinkleboots.

Death Cap Mushroom (death poison)
Blood rage (causes anger)
Schmooshums (severe inebriation)
Tavern Bane (causes bad reaction to alcohol)
Red-Tongue lichen (dizziness)
Ruby's Dew (causes docility)
Mive (potent aphrodisiac)
Shadow's Eye (pain suppressant)
Tyride Crystals (hallucinagen euphoric)

[Mixie Shadowmuffin]

Mixie's NPCs

Her secretary/assistant is Darilyn Lorilard, an elegant blonde woman in her early 30's. Darilyn comes from a once-rich family that has fallen on hard times. She was married once, but her husband (who she did not much care for) was a soldier who got killed in a skirmish with orcs.

Darilyn is not especially politically knowledgeable, but has a good grasp of etiquette, fashion and knows how to keep a social calendar. She is friendly and a good talker. Her job is primarily to put a friendly and reassuring face on the Thane's office, and keep Mixie from doing anything too startling.

Her body guard is a Sung-te, a Kemite man of 32 ordinations. Tall and lean, Sung-te grew up an orphan on the streets of Zinn-Sunn, and spent much of his youth committing petty crimes. Later he joined the Vermillion guard and fought on the other side of the law. In the end he found neither to be entirely to his liking, and has taken a job as Mixie's body guard.

Sung-te is somewhat gruff and abrupt, not so much rude as unconcerned with niceties. He rarely smiles, but neither is he often angry. He is skilled both in Shaashka and with the Katana, and does brush calligraphy with a reasonably proficient hand.

Katan Lvl 2
Shaashka Lvl 2
Brush Calligraphy lvl 1

Mixie's cook is a young halfling woman named Annalise Meadowgrass. She stands about 3'3" and is plump and rather jolly, usually to be found singing some sort of cheerful song without any particular skill. She is an adventurous cook and knows recipes from many different cultures. She's rather timid and is somewhat afraid of Mixie, but likes the prestige of being the Thane's cook and that Mixie will eat practically anything she chooses to make.

Cook Lvl 3

Mixie's maid is a Vysstichi woman named Tatzel. She is rather short for her race, perhaps 5'8" or so, and is quite beautiful. She is also rather insane, having been dosed with experimental drugs as a child. Tatzel is afraid of practically everyone except Mixie, who for some reason she has formed an attachment to. She moves through the house like a ghost, cleaning each room with great care in the middle parts of the night. Visitors who wander the residence late in the evening will sometimes see her peeking around corners or out from under the couch, but it takes much coaxing to get her to come out and speak. She is quite fond of Mixie's snakes, and Mixie has had to give her strict rules to keep her from becoming envenomed by them.

Maid lvl 1

Erasmus Redoak is her butler, a dwarf who is well into his maturity. Erasmus is a sturdy fellow with a deep voice like rolling thunder. He is quite suave, and always clear thinking. In a short time he has adapted to the sometimes odd circumstances of the Shadowmuffin household. Erasmus is a great wine connoisseur and will speak on that subject as long as anyone cares to listen. He is the only one other than Mixie who is able to have useful conversations with Tatzel, although she prefers to hide around a corner when she speaks to him.