 | Mandy Mank, the healer "A woman with rumpled hair and a placid face upset by full lips overstated by her overjet. Overall she is not physically imposing, though the contour of her glutes is that of a beast of burden's." |
Concept | When I created Mandy I had this general notion of a personality that took inspiration from a mix of people I knew. She was like a hippy, nurse-midwife who maybe taught yoga on the weekends. So she began as an Awoken in the City of Rings who recalled little aside from apprenticing midwifery with her mother and that she liked calisthenics (squats, that's the secret). In part, because I had not played EfU for a decade I left quite a bit to be shaped by the game world that I knew very little about. I planned on her being a front liner— her highest ability score was strength and she had a weapon focus in unarmed strike! |
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Prospector to Mendicant? | Mandy was briefly a Prospector because when she rolled into Ticker Square a Prospector PC gave off a cool Gene- Roddenberry-original-Star-Trek-vibe which looked like a fun angle for a setting with random planar connections. However bare her concept it did include a rejection of senseless violence which meant she was pretty quickly disillusioned with the other Prospectors of the day... constant plundering, causing planar invasions, and a wake of suffering. Then she met an old man who invited her for a brisk swim in the canal. Saibhon Dumein introduced her to the Mendicant order and their rejection of desire in order to head off suffering. To her, Saibhon /was/ the Renunciation. I bet she was his only convert, it is a cool religion but also pretty severe to play in EfU. "You mean, I should put all my belongings and money in this bonfire?" (Which she did). Mandy's evolving worldview made her more sensitive to the world's suffering, and with seeing suffering everywhere in our bleak city she dedicated herself to being a force of gentleness and healing. She was often mistaken as a cleric, but she was a pure monk who took a skill focus in healing. She believed people deserved compassion and generosity, and she aspired to model that perhaps especially when interacting with wicked people. That is why she would attempt to show compassion and heal basically anyone who had true need, in fact she was Good 100 aligned until being adjusted a few points for healing Kastian the Slayer! Mandy would (well, did) save the life of a changeling, and would thank a Knave for doing something kind. I kind of stumbled into a Red-Cross-like role with Mandy, where she enjoyed immunities on the battlefield and got to play with a huge variety of PCs. It worked out a few times in unexpected ways, for example, Helmar Bloodchurn was out to visit violence on everyone and he had an easy chance to take down Mandy but stayed his hand in a crazy melee due to compassion she modelled for him. Mandy had also ended up considering Domina Lucretia and Arek Vlasi close friends each, despite their apparent non-good alignment. And I must say that Lucretia I think imprinted on Mandy in the form of a slightly warmer style. |
☙❃✽✾❧ | |
Finding God | Mandy's interest in "progression" in the Mendicant order was arrested by a philosophical schism her mentor Saibhon created. Saibhon was such a cool in-game "mentor" figure to have. He was a giant and an impossible act to follow. Developments related to the Renunciation and the unfortunate death of Saibhon prompted Mandy's second chapter. Those events filled Mandy with a deep doubt until she met a bright-eyed Joan of Arc-esque priestess of the Lord Departed named Eleleth Einhardt who had both conviction and compassion in spades. Through interactions with Lictor Einhardt belief took root. Mandy took up a pilgrimage kingward for religious reasons. Other pilgrims joined, and a ringrunning group formed around Einhardt. Mandy had been invited to join House Nephezar several times throughout her trajectory, but ultimately she believed in an omnipotent God and trusted Lictor Einhardt but not the House or Lord Nephezar, hence she remained the sole pilgrim outside the Holy House to the end. Mandy took the (paladin) Oath of Fidelius, naming Eleleth Einhardt as the master she would serve. Thanks EfU players and DMs. <3 |
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Sometimes you have to just enjoy that NWN1, EfU aesthetic!
Mandy was the occasional giver of anonymous "care packages" out of the blue. She once had Euphraxia deliver a package of healing supplies to Saibhon forty rings away over perhaps more than two weeks of sessions in transit. And I think there was a courier set out to get a care package to Lucretia filled with girly things like jewelry, perfume, and flowers -- you know, stuff that sultry hedonist was all about.
Renunciation papi <3
I can not even say how many 'saves' Mandy had as a dedicated medic. I had such fun being, at times, a secret guardian angel swooping into danger to heal or deal with debilitating status effects from stealth. Mandy probably spent the most time at level 10. As a higher level pure monk she had decent AC, excellent saves, improved evasion, high movement speed, high stealth, and high tumble. She could get to casualties and hang in the hurt box even when fireballs were raining down and melting away most PC's HP. Being a pacifist she could focus on collecting and using healing/defensive consumables, which I think really simplified things mechanically. That said she had many misses too, and she (and I, too) died inside a little for those casualties that could not be reached in time!
Later on in her time she was trying to figure out how to fit in this Peerage place.
A couple of cheesy flexes
Some special ladies (Valatina Felton, Maeve Briarwood, Domina Lucretia <3 ). Lucretia was a hedonist with a world view that was challenging for Mendicant Mandy. I found this screenie of Your Domina in rare fighting form, something that Mandy (of all people) would end up coaxing out of that almost exclusively social PC several times. Mandy gravitated to a few (probably) evil PCs at different times. Bad people need gentleness too, maybe more so. Such redamancy.
Legit worried for gran. Poor Captain Crimson was less fortunate.
Thanks team Pilgrims, you all really added a lot of fun to my sessions.
I saw this screenshot of Mandy rushing back to ninety-nine. Thinking back, I bet Mandy was poorer on the average once she threw her lot in with a noblewoman than when she was a Mendicant.
Yes, well, we /should/ have run as Devon said. Probably half the party died moments later when a hellball detonated on the party's location. Mandy was so profoundly plane-sick it caused her to actually survive the elemental damage.
Mandy once swam towards this insta-gibbing creature to pass out some of her Freedom of Movement potions to PCs who were getting stuck in the kelp. The DM running this one achieved great tension in this short sequence in a creative way.
A few recurring allies to Mandy throughout her time.
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Mandy assisted a band of Silverhats with a mission to help the Mohachuk people. This item was one of her first pieces of loot, and honestly helped define her playstyle mechanically.
Mandy probably earned this 'epiphany' after the permadeath battle portion of the Second Battle for Ticker Square as part of the Copper Torc War.
While traveling to Ring 333 and beyond, and facing the dangers there (and especially the way back) she found this special item.
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