<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/3/39/0c482e6bbfb1ee02926a0699b94a1db3.png)</div><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Elizanyrra's Tale</div><div class="spoiler_body">The succubus Zanyrra's troubles began on the day that she answered the calling of the mad arch-wizard, Kestrel.  She had expected that she would simply be called to serve, or perhaps service, a powerful mage, and had hoped that she might parlay that service into something greater.  A favor owed by a powerful wizard could be a wonderful thing, after all, having the chance to bend his ear and influence him towards her own ends could open up some opportunities, and at the extreme end of her hopes, perhaps she might even be able to seduce him, or even take his soul...<br/><br/>What she did not expect was that she would become a subject in one of the mad wizard's experiments.<br/><br/>Stripped of all that she had been wearing, dimensionally shackled, confined to an underground dungeon... These things were disheartening, but she was a demon, quite adaptable by nature to adverse conditions.  The Abyss could and did throw worse circumstances her way over the course of the centuries she had been alive.  She needed neither food nor sleep, and the dungeons themselves were filled with all manner of beings who had been summoned and imprisoned from across the planes.  With such interesting conversation partners available, boredom was never an issue.  Kestrel's magic, on the other hand, was quite a different ordeal.<br/><br/>The wizard would not tell her what the purpose of his experiments was, not at first, but the epic rituals he worked upon her often left her feeling like he had opened her up and rummaged around inside her body, like intangible, metaphysical parts of her had been pulled out of place and rearranged.  Undergoing the rituals was uncomfortable, at first, and soon became painful.  Eventually, the wizard began to push things far enough that she would lose consciousness entirely as he worked, and perhaps most disturbing of all for a being that never slept, she found herself beginning to dream when she did so.<br/><br/>In her dreams, she was a mortal woman, a human named Eleanora.  A noble woman, a virtuous and righteous Paladin, she served a god of martial might and noble mien, the Archpaladin Heironeous.  She had even gone as far as taking a vow of chastity, pledging herself purely to her god in order to show her devotion.  That, however, left her inexperienced and naive in the ways of romance, which proved to ultimately be her downfall.<br/><br/>As a succubus herself, Zanyrra had been able to tell almost immediately that the nobleman's wife whom Eleanora had met was one of her kind.  The friendship that Eleanora had so treasured had been nothing but a predatory demon luring in its prey, tales of an abusive husband were a transparent lie, designed to provoke the noble and good-hearted woman into trying to help her new 'friend', which in turn only served to see her ostracized and isolated due to the nobleman's political influence...  It was skilled manipulation, to be sure, and when Eleanora killed the nobleman, throwing his domain into chaos and falling from Heironeous's grace in the process, that other succubus in Zanyrra's dreams was there to pick up the pieces and lead her down an even darker path from there.  In her weakened state, the ex-Paladin was magically charmed, and the succubus revealed herself for what she truly was on the same night that she tempted the human woman into breaking her vow of chastity.<br/><br/>Eleanora tried to convince herself from there that she had found true love and a far greater bliss than she had ever known while serving her former god, but Zanyrra knew that all the woman had found was carnal lust and a demonic mistress who was using her as a puppet to try to undermine the Heironean church's influence in the area.  She also wasn't up to the task, couldn't garner nearly the amount of popular influence and support that the succubus wanted, and so she was eventually tempted into committing darker and more depraved acts, her soul stained further with every evil deed committed, until she was corrupted completely.  Her final moments were spent enjoying one last night in bed with her demonic lover... though only so that the succubus could enjoy seeing the very moment Eleanora realized she had been betrayed, as her soul was torn out of her body during that final act of passion.<br/><br/>Zanyrra was not the only denizen of Kestrel's dungeons to dream of a mortal life in this way.  Sooner or later, every denizen of the planes, the captured angels, eladrin, archons, guardinals, demons, devils, yugoloths, slaad, all began to dream of lives as human, elves, dwarves, and members of other mortal races.  They discussed these dreams amongst themselves, pieced together what evidence they could find, and eventually had their conjecture confirmed by Kestrel himself.  Each of them had once been a mortal, had lived a mortal life and died a mortal death, and then been transformed into outsiders once their souls reached the outer planes to which they were best attuned.  This was a process that rewrote the soul entirely, that wiped clean all memories of that mortal life, and yet the mad wizard had found some means by which to reawaken those memories within them, to restore to them their knowledge of the people whom they had once been.  This had been the entire purpose of his experiments, and having found success, he eventually began dismissing his summonings and returning his prisoners to their planes of origin.<br/><br/>Returning to the Abyss, Zanyrra resumed her previous job, serving as one of several succubus concubines to a Balor general who had been highly successful in the Blood War.  At the same time, she struggled to deal with the extra set of memories that were now rattling around in her head, and with no one around that she could trust enough to talk to about her problems, all she could do was try to puzzle things out on her own.<br/><br/>She wasn't Eleanora.  That was the one truth Zanyrra clung to, the one thing of which she was absolutely certain.  She had ceased to be Eleanora when she died and was reborn as a succubus, and besides that, Eleanora had been nothing but a fool who allowed herself to be deceived and killed.<br/><br/>But was she a fool for falling for the honeyed words of her succubus lover?  Or was she a fool for everything she had had to turn her back on in order to reach that point, for ignoring the heartbreak she felt as she argued with and eventually fought against her own friends and comrades, for turning her back on that friendship and camaraderie in the first place?<br/><br/>And the very concept of friendship and camaraderie was something she was finding fascinating, on top of that.  It was something utterly alien to the Abyss, where power was what was most highly sought after, in all its many and varied forms; something demons could grasp on an intellectual level, and then dismiss as a useless diversion at best, or a weakness to be exploited at worst.  Thanks to Eleanora's memories, Zanyrra could truly understand such concepts, however, could truly see why mortals placed such value on one another, and by comparison how empty and meaningless the life of a demon truly was...<br/><br/>The knowledge that demons weren't merely refusing these things, that they could not understand or explore them, that they truly had no choice in the matter, was what weighed most heavily on Zanyrra as she confronted Eleanora's memories.  As a being born out of the Chaos and Evil of the Abyss, the succubus inherently had both an instinctive desire to dominate others, to see them enslaved to her will, and an inherent and violent distate for being dominated or enslaved herself.  And now here she was, being confronted by the fact that every demon in existence was a slave to their own nature, that even the lowliest mortal peasant had, in many ways, more free will than even the mightiest demon lord.<br/><br/>A decade later, when the Balor general's fortune in the Blood War took a turn for the worse and he lost much of his power and position, Zanyrra finally made a choice that no demon would ever make.  With her former master no longer in a position to even give any thought to pursuing a concubine who had already grown cold and distant to him before his string of failure, the succubus was now free to pursue her own destiny.  And her destiny, she had decided, lay on the material plane, among the mortal races.<br/><br/>She had no decided to take back up her life as Eleanora.  Eleanora was still dead and gone, and the succubus considered herself to still be a different person.  And yet, in many ways, she could no longer consider herself to be Zanyrra, either.  Eleanora had been a fool, but Zanyrra had been a slave, and whatever magic Kestrel had worked upon her had broken the shackles she hadn't even realized she'd been wearing.<br/><br/>And so, when a succubus walked openly up to the gates of one of the greater churches of Heironeous in one of the larger cities on the continent, she introduced herself as Elizanyrra before asking to speak to the high priest.  She had come seeking atonement for the many sins she had committed during her multiple centuries of life...</div></div><br/><br/><br/><strong>Elizanyrra</strong><br/><strong>hp</strong>40 (6d8+12 HD)<br/><hr/>Succubus 6//Cloistered Cleric 4/Ordained Champion 1/Prestige Paladin 1<br/>Lawful Good Medium Outsider (Chaotic, Evil)<br/><strong>Init</strong>+5;<strong>Senses</strong>Darkvision 60 ft.; Listen +19, Spot +19<br/><strong>Aura</strong>alignment aura (strong Chaotic, Evil, Lawful, and Good)<br/><strong>Languages</strong><em>tongues</em>, telepathy 100 ft.<br/><hr/><strong>AC</strong>31 (+1 Dex, +8 armor, +3 shield, +9 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 30<br/><strong>Immune</strong>Electricity, Poison<br/><strong>Resist</strong>Acid 10, Cold 10, Fire 10;<strong>SR</strong>12<br/><strong>Fort</strong>+11(+13),<strong>Ref</strong>+6(+8),<strong>Will</strong>+10(+12)<br/><hr/><strong>Speed</strong>30 ft. (6 squares), fly 50 ft. (average)<br/><strong>Melee</strong>+1 Longsword +12/+7 (1d8+5, 19-20/x2)<br/>2 Claws +10/+5 (1d3+4)<br/><strong>Ranged</strong>spell-like abilities<br/><strong>Space</strong>5 ft.;<strong>Reach</strong>5 ft.<br/><strong>Base Atk</strong>+6;<strong>Grp</strong>+13<br/><strong>Atk Options</strong>knowledge devotion, modified spontaneous casting (War domain), smite evil<br/><strong>Special Actions</strong>energy drain 1/day, modified spontaneous casting, smite evil 1/day, turn undead 18/day<br/><strong>Combat Gear</strong>+1 Longsword, +1 Heavy Steel Shield, Psionic Skin of Ectoplasmic Armor<br/><strong>Spell-like Abilities</strong>(CL 6th, DC 18 + spell level):<br/>At will -<em>clairaudience/clairvoyance, darkness, desecrate, detect evil, detect good, detect thoughts, doom, suggestion</em><br/>3/day -<em>charm monster, ethereal jaunt</em>(self plus 50 pounds of objects only)<em>, greater teleport</em>(self plus 50 pounds of objects only)<br/>1/day -<em>unholy blight</em><br/><strong>Cleric Spells</strong>(CL 5th, DC 13 + spell level, War, Law, and Good Domains):<br/>0th(5/day) -<em>Create Water, Detect Magic, Detect Magic, Purify Food and Drink, Read Magic</em><br/>1st(6+1/day) -<em>Bless Weapon, Bless Weapon Swift</em>(Spell Compendium)<em>, Divine Sacrifice</em>(Spell Compendium)<em>, Know Greatest Enemy</em>(Spell Compendium)<em>, Rhino's Rush, Rhino's Rush</em>(Spell Compendium) -<em>Protection from Evil</em><br/>2nd(4+1/day) -<em>Lore of the Gods, Lore of the Gods</em>(Complete Champion)<em>, Smite of Sacred Fire</em>(The Forge of War)<em>, <del>Undetectable Alignment</del></em>-<em>Aid</em><br/>3rd(3+1/day) -<em>Find the Gap</em>(Spell Compendium)<em>, Knight's Move, Knight's Move</em>(Spell Compendium) -<em>Magic Vestment</em><br/><hr/><strong>Abilities</strong>STR 17[19](+3[+4]), DEX 12(+1), CON 14[16](+2[+3]), INT 18(+4), WIS 16(+3), CHA 26[28](+8[+9])<br/><strong>SQ</strong>change shape (humanoids of small to medium size)<br/><strong>Feats</strong>Dynamic Priest(F), Knowledge Devotion(Nature)(B), Weapon Focus(Longsword)(B), Power Attack(B), Divine Might(1), Extra Turning(3), Mounted Combat(B), Improved Initiative(B), Awesome Smite(6)<br/><strong>Flaws</strong>Frail (-1 hp per level)<br/><strong>Skills</strong>Bluff +9(+18), Concentration +9(+12), Diplomacy +9(+24), Disguise +5(+24), Knowledge (Arcana) +7(+11), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +7(+11), Knowledge (Local) +4(+8), Knowledge (Nature) +7(+11), Knowledge(Nobility and Royalty) +5(+9), Knowledge (Religion) +7(+11), Knowledge (The Planes) +7(+11), Listen +8(+19), Perform(Dance) +1(+10), Profession(Courtesan) +8(+11), Ride +4(+5), Sense Motive +9(+12), Spot +8(+19)<br/>Skill Tricks: Collector of Stories (+5 to Knowledge checks to identify creatures)<br/><strong>Possessions</strong>combat gear plus 244 gp<br/>+1 Longsword<br/>+1 Heavy Steel Shield<br/>Psionic Skin of Ectoplasmic Armor<br/>Circlet of Charisma +2<br/>Belt of Strength +2<br/>Reliquary Holy Symbol of Constitution +2<br/>Vestment of Many Styles and Resistance +2<br/>Handy Haversack<br/>Tent<br/>50 ft. Silk Rope<br/>Grappling Hook<br/>Wand of Cure Light Wounds<br/><hr/><br/><strong>Energy Drain (Su):</strong>Once per day, Elizanyrra can drain energy from a mortal she lures into some act of passion, or by simply planting a kiss on the victim. If the target is not willing to be kissed, Elizanyrra must start a grapple, which provokes an attack of opportunity. Her kiss or embrace bestows one negative level. The kiss also has the effect of a<em>suggestion</em>spell, asking the victim to accept another kiss from Elizanyrra. The victim must succeed on a DC 22 Will save to negate the effect of the<em>suggestion</em>. The DC is 22 for the Fortitude save to remove a negative level. These save DCs are Charisma-based.<br/><br/><strong>Modified Spontaneous Casting (Ex):</strong>Elizanyrra can channel stored spell energy into a small selection of spells that she did not prepare ahead of time. She can "lose" any prepared spell that is not a domain spell in order to cast any spell from the War domain of the same spell level or lower.<br/><br/><strong>Smite Evil (Su):</strong>Once per day, Elizanyrra may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage. If she accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.<br/><br/><strong>Turn Undead (Su):</strong>Elizanyrra can turn undead as a 6th-level Cleric, 18 times per day (3+9 Charisma modifier, +4 from Extra Turning feat, +2 from Reliquary Holy Symbol).<br/><br/><strong>Change Shape (Su):</strong>Elizanyrra can assume the form of any Small or Medium humanoid.