Caligari Calarook

Gender: Female

Age: 74 (32)

Group: None Player Characters

Game: Beyond the Ragnarok

Race

Human

Class

Witch - (Necromancy)

Alignment

Chaotic Neutral

Physical Appearance

Caligari is tempering the aging process through her necrotic magic and appears to be holding in her early 30’s. Prior to joining Balar’s party of Adventurers, Cali had been alone and isolated for many decades and made no efforts to make herself presentable. It had been decades since her last true bath and longer still since she’d paid any attention to brushing or preening herself. Her pale skin was routinely smudged in dirt, soot or blood. Her long black hair was unkempt and her eyes a muted grey.

After the defeat of the Goddess Hel at the hands of their party, Caligari’s appearance has undergone a marked change. The swollen knuckles and wrinkled flesh were gone, replaced by the youthful extremities of her body from the living world. Even her voice was clear and tight, gone were the warble and mature timbre. She was young and beautiful again, without the blood and grime that had covered so much of her body before. The nails on her fingers were long and groomed as was the sheet of inky black hair falling about her pale shoulders. The bone and feathers of her darkened headdress were supplanted by splendid silver spikes that crowned her head.

The pieces of black leather that had been her clothing, that had been stretched unseemly to accommodate an elderly woman’s waning physique was now disconnected sections of dark shrouds, delicate gossamer coverings of flowing fabric so fine and light it was little more than a flimsy translucent veil hanging low on her hips and high upon her chest, revealing bare flesh everywhere between and intricate tattoos engraved across her abdomen; leaving little to the imagination.

Personality and interests

She has spent the greater number of her years ostracized in civilized lands, finding the inhabitants of those lands less than civil. As such she spends much of her time alone, especially true over the past two decades. She’s not crazy, though she speaks as often to the dead as to herself. She can spin a twisted and fanciful story, but unlike a bard who entertains (among other motives) Caligari’s stories tend to put a captive audience into a vulnerable trance. She can butcher and dress a carcass with alarming speed and efficiency.

She's skilled at applying tattoos. Has a fairly detailed understanding of the complex humanoid anatomy. She’s not squeamish around blood or physical suffering and has steady nerves; could be useful in instances of basic surgery, but it’s not magic in and of itself.

History

Caligari’s magic was welcomed by her tribe early on as they mistook her for a healer and later an oracle, but only because they’d misunderstood the source of her power and had not seen the methods required to work such magic. Magic is every bit an art and that art must be nurtured and explored by the artist; it will not let itself be ignored or brushed aside. And in Caligari’s experience, it would not let itself be disguised for long. When her tribe realized she was doing more than communing with their ancient forefathers and was literally raising the dead to walk the land again, they took inexcusable offense to her methods despite the benefits which those methods had presented. No one seemed to care that these methods terrified and repulsed Caligari as well. She simply had no choice in the matter. Suppressing the magic, ignoring the compulsion to perform the magic was causing more harm than the chastisement of her people. Until they began erecting a stout pole and piling firewood around it’s base. She thought the pitchforks were a bit much, but the message was received loud and clear. Her village no longer wanted her. She fled her tribal lands and out of necessity rarely stayed in one place for long. She grew leary of others and from there she committed herself fully to her particular blend of necromancy, heavily influenced by shamanism. She’s not well travelled in terms of cultural knowledge and in fact has not been beyond the lands of the frozen tundra in over twenty years. She’s lingered there more or less waiting for certain conditions to present themselves; conditions slowly revealed to her in ongoing prophecies by a trio of cryptic spirits. She had little call to doubt these spirits; the dead served without deception or reserve. They committed their service to her cause for the reward they’d been promised; to live again even for a moment, to clear their name and find eternal rest, to satisfy some eternal desire to kill the living. Each had their own reason for answering the summons, but they invariably pooled from the same playbook.

Starting Equipment

Skinweaver - sacrificial blade (knife) sharp enough to dissect a body cleanly, but fine and delicate; not for reciprocal combat.

Set of full finger claw rings crafted of bone - capable of rending flesh, gouging out eyes and channeling necrotic energy into phantom claws extending her range of attack by two feet.

(Her weapons are better suited to uncontested murder than combat or even self-defense.)

Collar of polished silver that remodels itself as an ornate Headdress under certain circumstances.

GARM is a Winter Wolf - much larger, stronger and more intelligent than the average wolf. He has fur black as night with eyes that glow a soft blue. He stands 4.5 feet high at the shoulders, 8 feet long and weighs 450 lbs. Garm seems to be able to understand the common tongue, or at least enough of it to grasp the meaning of Cali’s comments or instructions. He is immune to the cold, has powerful jaws and his bite has been known to cause frostbitten wounds. He is adept at tracking through his sense of smell and can see well in low-light.

He was raised from a pup by Amdir, an Adventurer indigenous to the northern tundra. Both Amdir and Garm fell in battle and Garm was reanimated by Araghol the Necromancer to attack the remaining party. Caligari could not directly counter Araghol’s spell in inverse, so she bound Garm to herself through sexual magic. It was appalling and dirty and Garm loved every second of it though he lost his testicles in the process. (http://www.ongoingworlds.com/games/3381/posts/661)

Because of this binding process, and particularly the methods Caligari uses when she works her magic, Garm fancies Cali in THAT way and tries to act on that fancy whenever possible. It is only with Cali, or with Cali’s involvement that Garm’s testicles manifest as spectral stones so he can frolic and engage in fornication. There is more than an element of free will, but as a Revenant Winter Wolf, Garm is loyal and subservient to his master or mate as he tends to regard Cali. He serves as her mount, protector, battle companion and occasionally, lover as stipulated by the magical binds between them and, let’s be frank, both of their twisted libidos.

Special Skills

Necromancy; communicating with the dead by summoning their spirit or raising them bodily. Can use these spirits to foretell future events (future is fluid and ever changing) and discover past knowledge, possibly clandestine wisdom or observations possessed only by the summoned dead. The risen dead can be used as weapons or allies, but the more intelligence they possess the shorter the length of time they can remain reanimated and in her service. She must have access to the physical body in order to reanimate them.

Her magic is powered by rituals and sacrifices, not spells and somatic hand gestures. She doesn’t use herbs and plants or gemstones & metals as spell components. She incorporates talismans, incantation and sacrifices. These sacrifices could be animal or human, flesh or blood and occasionally hand wrought trinkets.

She constructs magic circles or wards which consist of various objects, shapes, symbols and letters which may be drawn on the ground, nearby surfaces or even the air itself.

She can condense the spirits of the dead to physically shield her from ranged weapons or misrepresent her movements. Hexes can be charged and released in orbs of necrotic energy capable of melting flesh.

If she can get to a person within the first few minutes of death there’s a chance she can bring life back into their body without the adverse effects otherwise bound to necromancy. This is a lasting restoration and much preferred over that of zombification.

Darkest Secret

The most powerful feats in her branch of magic require a necrophilic exchange between herself, the deceased and things in between. It’s an indelicate ritual more kin to orgy than ceremony and best not discussed with outsiders. Or those with weak stomachs. Or high moral fortitude.

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This character is owned by: Winters