Character 84 - Hacerna the Grey

Illustration by Luis Perez

I was really excited by this week’s random rolls. This was our third fetchling in going-on two years and she came out different than the other two. I was particularly enamored by the lack of dexterity in the usually dexterous race and what I would do with her being strong and tough, the exact opposite of your average fetchling. With interesting background tidbits like being a mass murder I had a lot of fun things to plan out.

Usually when I talk about class I lament there being so many options. There were still a few options this time but with a high strength and high constitution I imagine many of you would have made her a melee fighter of some type. I, however, had another idea right from the get go. The idea that she was a gang member or something in the slums of this major city made me immediately jump to the idea of a rogue. In particular I went with the Thug Archetype, and she would definitely be taking the Intimidating Prowess Feat if not at first level, than with her first rogue talent. The idea of the physically intimidating fetchling amused me.

Hacerna the Grey

At the end of the Goblinblood Wars, Elidir was left as the only sizable city in Isger. Refugees flooded to the city, straining the scant resources that the city had left. Although Isger began to rebuild, a lot of that was mostly cosmetic, sweeping undesirable elements under the rug as it were. The Elidir of today still tries to hide these elements, but it has turned into a massive underworld in which even the most innocent might get lost.

Hacerna’s family had lived in Elidir since before the wars; she was only nine when the wars began. Fetchlings had their own small community but they weren’t overly populous. After the wars when the refugees came the humans blamed the inhumans races for taking up space, jobs, and resources. Hacerna, who was different from even her own people – some called her a slipshadow, which is slang for a klutz – saw bullying from both her other fetchlings and the humans who realized her own kind wouldn’t come to protect her.

The abuse was horrible but it toughened the young fetchling up. Her parents were too busy trying to scrape by in the slums they were relegated to and her brother was too young to be of any help. Hacerna didn’t take the bullying lying down and would fight back, physically. She was exceptionally strong and could take a beating better than most. This is, of course, what got her noticed.

In her early teens she was approached by one of the many would-be syndicates. There were constant turf wars and they thought Hacerna would make good muscle. She jumped at the chance to join, mostly because with numbers it would be harder to pick on her. The group became not just a means of self-preservation but a home.

Illustration by Luis Perez

In her time with the Black Sashes she learned to express herself. It turned out that she could be a very scary person. The glowing green eyes helped against most non-fetchlings, and when she leveraged her physical strength she could scare most people into doing what she wanted. Only one person wasn’t scared of her, a half-orc name Grtiz. Haverna spent a lot of time denying his advances, which usually made him try harder.

The leader of the Black Sashes was a man who went by the street name Red Bob. He kept with him at all time a young woman – a seer – who he consulted with to determine if his planned actions would succeed.  Although she couldn’t produce visions on demand, when she did have them they would be eerily true. One day the woman took Hacerna to the side and said she had a vision of the Fetchling living an unnaturally long life. When pressed on the matter with not so veiled threat the seer also revealed that in the vision she had come into a lot of money to get that life.

Hacerna began to research ways of living forever, she became obsessed with this possible extension of her time on Golarion. All of her searching led to little except for the possibility of undeath. She even managed to root out a cult of a sort of mortal goddess. The former herald of Aroden, a demigod turned lich by the name of Arazni. The cult promised a route to the power she sought although they needed money to do so.

Red Bob had long kept a very tight reign on the funds of the Black Sashes. He knew that giving his followers just enough money to spend but not enough to get out of the slums would keep them working for him. Hacerna may not have been the smartest mind in Elidir but she was no fool either. She realized Red Bob was keeping more money than he deserved and when she confronted him about it she was rebuffed.

The fetchling had her needs and she needed them now, so she devised a mutiny. Gritz stood by her as did some others who were tired of Red Bob’s rule. Hacerna confronted Bob once more, this time with numbers. He rebuffed her again but she threatened him and those who stood with them. She knew she might need to kill, although Red Bob was the only one she wanted to. She slaughtered nine others that night. She felt bad about killing them but it was the only way to prove her point.

Hacerna now leads the Black Sashes. And although the cult of Arazni turned out to be a grab for money, which earned their deaths, she still dedicated herself to the Harlot Queen. Now she seeks other ways to lichdom, which is hard for a someone with no magical talent. Until she find what she seeks she’ll remain the leader of her own little syndicate. And, for now, she’ll keep Gritz around for the pleasures that the flesh does allow.

How did you piece together the bits of this fetchling’s background? What class did she gravitate toward? Why was she bullied? How many people did she murder? Who was the seer she found purpose from?

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The character illustration was created by the fine artist Luis Perez. You can find him on Twitter, Tumblr, and on Instagram at luisperezart.