<div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 25pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: edwardian script itc;"><em>Sthenae</em></span></span></div><br/><table class="bbc_table"><tbody><tr><td>(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/Summerschild/Elliquiy/Medusa_Commission_by_froggiechan.jpg)</td><td><strong>Currently Found:</strong> In Heroes Antica: The Cellar of Mystery (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=25318.0)<br/><strong>Age:</strong> 124 Human Years.<br/><strong>Race:</strong> Gorgon<br/><strong>Description:</strong> °¤<strong>Gorgon</strong>¤°: At first glance she appears to be nothing more than a young woman.  Shapely of form.  A modest veil falling over delicate features, hiding them from view, giving one to wonder if the face beneath the clothe is as sumptuous as the pale skin revealed beneath drapes of linen and ornate jewelry.  That is, until the shift of hair reveals it to be something else entirely.  Long, writhing snakes, in darker shades, dark green, violet-black, maroon.  The moment of stillness passing quickly as the sentient locks of 'hair' shift and turn, snapping at anything that draws to close to the perfection that is her human form.  Should any peek beneath the veil they would see the soft pouty lips, nearly hiding the snake-like fangs.  Large golden eyes tilted at the edges, the pupils appearing to be a slit within the golden irises. <br/>°¤<strong>Naga</strong>¤°:In her full glory.  The upper torso of a woman.  Pale skin, kissably soft, with the first soft flush of youth.  Though from the waist down she appears to be a snake of untold power.  Long coils constantly shifting until one could not say</td></tr></tbody></table>exactly how long her body is.  Dark violet scales glinting in the light, paler scales along her 'belly'.  Though even in this form those annoying snakes still curl around her head, hissing at anything nearby and snapping with their poisonous fangs.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Abilities:</strong><strong>Petrification</strong>: An active ability, rather than passive.  Under her control to some small degree, though it tends to fall under 'startle reflex' all to often.  The ability to turn a person of flesh and bone into stone.<strong>Pheromones:</strong>Her scent coils within one, urging them to look in her direction, the subtle throb of lust in the air..<strong>Venom</strong>: Two types.  Her 'pets' have a low-grade poison, which likely will cause a rash, and itch like hell, but is not deadly.  However, her own fangs produce a highly noxious poison which when injected into a human host will freeze their limbs, leaving them alive, but unable to move for a period of time.<strong> Shape-Shifter</strong>:Two forms.  That of a human girl with snake-hair.  And that of a Naga.  In naga form, the girl's scales offer more protection than human legs, as well as a better ability to move and climb rough surfaces, such as the sides of buildings or trees.  This form also comes with advanced senses.<strong>Accuracy in Archery</strong>: As is common in her race, the Gorgon has been trained in the skill of Archery, to the point that it seems Superhuman..<strong>Resistance</strong>:To both Aging and natural disease.  Making her long lived and youthful.  Though at 125 years old the Gorgon would be comparable to a 20 year old girl.<br/><br/><strong>Abilities:</strong>[16pp]<br/>STR 10<br/>DEX 14<br/>CON 12<br/>INT 10<br/>WIS 10<br/>CHA 20<br/><br/><br/><strong>Saves:</strong>[8pp]<br/>Toughness +1/+3 in Naga form<br/>Fortitude +3<br/>Reflex +6<br/>Will +2<br/><br/><br/><strong>Skills:</strong>[10pp]<br/>Bluff 12 (+17/+21 with Attractive)<br/>Handle Animal 8 (+13)<br/>Intimidate 8 (+13)<br/>Notice 4 (+4)<br/>Stealth 8 (+13)<br/><br/><br/><strong>Feats:</strong>[12pp]<br/>Animal Empathy<br/>Attack Focus (bow) 6<br/>Attractive 1<br/>Fascinate (Bluff)<br/>Redirect<br/>Skill Mastery (Bluff, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Notice)<br/>Taunt<br/><br/><br/><strong>Powers: </strong>[80pp]<br/>Alternate Array (human form) [80pp]<br/>::Immunity 2 (aging, disease) [2pp]<br/>::Paralyze (Venomous Bite) 8 (Alternate Save: Fortitude) [16pp]<br/>::Pheromones 7 (Flaw: lust only)<br/>::Petrification 10 (gaze)<br/>::Super-Senses (low-light vision) 1<br/><br/>Alternate Array (naga form) [80pp]<br/>::Immunity 2 (aging, disease)<br/>::Paralyze (Venomous Bite) 9 (Alternate Save: Fortitude)<br/>::Petrification 10 (gaze)<br/>::Pheromones 4 (Flaw: lust only)<br/>::Protection 2<br/>::Super-Movement (slither) 1<br/>::Super-Senses (darkvision, smell [acute] 1, tremorsense) 5<br/><br/><br/><strong>Combat:</strong>[20pp]<br/>Attack +5/+17 with bow<br/>Defense +5<br/><br/><strong>Drawbacks:</strong>[-6pp]<br/>Action [assume alternate form] [-1pp]<br/>Disability [hostile snake hair] [-2pp]<br/>Full Power [Petrification, Pheromones] [-2pp]<br/>Noticeable [-1pp]<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Brief History</strong>:<br/><br/><em>It had happened so quickly.  Her sister had ruled their tiny family with a iron fist.  She was the first among them.  The eldest child of Typhon and Echidna..  With such examples of parentage.. What else could she have become?<br/><br/>Sthenae moved slowly through the rubble strewn garden.  Stone creatures all around her.  Animals.  Reptiles.  Humans.  They stood.  They begged.  They glared defiantly.  Yet all of them had ended up the same..  All save one.  The slender girl stopped before one stone specimen in her contemplation.  The very likeness of a virile human.  Her head resting against his shoulder, the hiss and snap of her companions a they would lunge towards his neck, their fangs snapping against stone, too strong to be bitten, yet that did not stop them from trying.<br/><br/>“Who were you in life?”  Her voice was soft, undoubtedly human, her slender hands slowly caressing that stone chest, perfect still, though it would never again lift with each breath taken, never again would a mighty heart pump underneath it.  Her fingertips finding ruts in the stone, little pieces having chipped away, crumbling to nothing.  Nothing..<br/><br/>That irrational anger bursting from her in the sudden thrust of her body against the statue, she was slight, but the sculpture was top-heavy, and tumbled over rather easily.  The head smashing against a stone, huge chunks rolling away from what was left of the whole.  “Nothing!  All has come to.. nothing..”  The sudden release of anger left her weak.  It was like walking through a battle field.. The dead surrounding her on all sides.  Strange that the ground was so pure, so devoid of the blood that she felt should soak it.  <br/><br/>Of course, this brought her to the point.  The center of this macabre little garden.  The place she had been carefully avoiding even looking at.  She hated her sister.  Loathed the stranglehold she had kept over her siblings.  Until they were but mere appendages, rather than equals.  Golden eyes slowly rising to that dais.  Raised in the center of her sister's playland, it was square, each step bringing one closer to the long bench that lay atop of it.  Specially designed to hold her lately departed loved one in either of her forms.  The lush, inviting, but ultimately deadly human.. Or the long, coiled Naga.. <br/><br/>“Oh Sister..”<br/><br/>Sthenae's sibling.  The Monster.  The Bitch.  The 'Hero' Perseus had not even bothered to remove her body.  The stinking remains draped across the bench as she might have been in life.  One long leg curled over the other, her dress revealing the still-perfect flesh.  Their kind resisted aging, and disease, and even now the voluptuous form looked as if it might rise and embrace her..  “Medusa..”  A megalomaniac of the worst kind, luring men with her supple curves and then adding them to her garden, as if they were nothing more than pieces upon a board.  To entertain her. <br/><br/>Yet, sister she had been.  Sometimes tender.. Though more often not.  If her head had not been removed, Sthenae might have reached out to stroke the smooth cheek.. Instead she would lightly draw her arms under the body, heavy in death, though less so in human form, than it might have been in Naga.  The girl slowly trudging from the dais with her burden, her head resting lightly against the dead Gorgon's shoulder, silent tears spilling against smooth flesh.  <br/><br/>She alone wept for the dead serpent-kin.  She alone cared enough to offer her a proper fare-well.  Carefully carrying her sister to the pyre she had built with her own hands.  Not even Euryale, their sister, and the last of the three siblings, cared for naught but that Medusa's death now made her the oldest.  No tears would be shed from her cold golden eyes.<br/><br/>That headless body laid to rest upon the pyre, a moments silent weeping over the often-hated form, before fire would be laid to wood, catching quickly.. The plumes of smoke rising darkly into the sky as near-immortal flesh was slowly consumed.<br/><br/>“Farewell, Sister..”</em><br/><br/><div align="center">¤°*°¤</div><br/>Sthenae was one of the sisters of the infamous Medusa.  As a child she was terrorized by her older sisters.  The girl growing up withdrawn and introverted.  Until the time when her older sister was beheaded, a terrible misunderstanding that nearly tore her family apart.  The head of one at once hated and beloved used as a bargaining chip?  As a gift?  Rage filled her even as she was glad to be free of her sister's stifling influence.  Even as young as she was, for a gorgon, she had a hard decision to make.. To follow in her sister's footsteps and eventually end up flung at the feet of some king..  Or to take her destiny into her own hands..<br/><br/>It was at this time of youthful crisis that the young gorgon was carefully approached by the philanthropist Catulus.  She had been staying in the Balkans. Living in hiding from her true self as well as from her family.  The older gentleman managed to coax her out of her shell.  A tedious thing when dealing with a girl whose first instinct is to turn what scares her to stone!  Yet he must have seen something beneath the surface.  Beneath the scales and her writhing, poisonous companions.  A need for redemption.  A need to be seen as something other than a Monster.<br/><br/><em> “The World needs Heroes..”</em>Such a strange thought.  And yet it stayed with her, festered in her dark little heart. Until she found herself heeding his call for adventurers.. For those of certain Power to come to the aide of the land..  But could she overcome her base nature.  Could she be.. Good?