Renée Greystarred, Arcane Devotee of Shar

[VengefulSeraphim]

Hey everybody! So, yeah, your favorite clerk turned out to be a Sharran, with her focus mainly on the revenge and secret-mongering aspects of the goddess.

Her backstory was that she lost her voice due to a mugging gone terribly wrong, and well... this was the story that I wrote for Elmo's story contest.

“You will know when the time is right, little one. The Dark Mother will show you a sign.” These were the last words Renée was given by her mentor. She never knew her mentor’s name, what her life story was, or how she came to worship Shar – Renée knew from the beginning that she probably would not be told any of these things. That didn’t matter, her mentor’s words were like a cool salve upon the halfling’s gaping wounds.

The cut that ran from the chin to the back of her neck, though closed, was perhaps the one that caused the most pain for the poor halfling. For it was that cut which stole what Renée had held most dear – her voice. Years ago, merchants and paupers alike flocked to where she performed; all were entranced by the sound of her voice, that silky alto singing of love and of better days than these. By all rights, Renée was lucky to be alive after the thug sliced her throat open so. The halfling certainly did not see it that way, however. To her, the man who mugged her and sliced open her throat when things didn’t go according to plan had sealed his own fate. Renée would have her revenge – it was only a matter of ‘when’.

Ultimately, the Dark Mother did show Renée a sign, or so Renée believed as the Darkening fell upon the whole of Toril. The world had gone mad and became consumed with strife with the devouring of Lathander’s light, and Selgaunt was no different. To paraphrase a certain poet, “Things were falling apart, the center could no longer hold - mere anarchy was loosed upon the world.”

The merchants of Sembia saw the writing on the wall and ordered their private guard forces to guard their palatial estates and most prized assets – the rest of the city was left to its own devices. Looting and bloodshed became a regular thing upon the streets of this once great city, and surely an opportunist like Renée’s mark would not pass up on something like this.
Sure enough, there he was – the man who claimed her voice many years ago, entering the ransacked jewelry store…

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Darys looked through the many jewelry cases quickly, feeling around the felt bottom of one before moving on to the next. He eventually gave up on the jewelry cases and moved to a chest of drawers nearby, some of the drawers already yanked out from their resting place. Darys was about ready to give up – the place had already been picked bone dry by vultures just like him. Of course, it paid to be thorough; one could never be sure where treasures might be hiding, overlooked by amateurs that came before.

He ventured up the creaky stairs to what appeared to be the jeweler’s bedroom and resumed his search. He scoured the place, pausing only briefly upon hearing the stairs creak behind him. He looked behind him, before shrugging to himself. There was nothing there – perhaps he was merely being paranoid, imagining things…

He dug under the bed and suddenly found a gold chain. He held it close to his face, his eyes gleaming with avarice. A wide toothy smile, remarkably similar to a crocodile’s, dominated his face, before something struck him hard from behind, bludgeoning him on the head and sending him unconscious.

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Renée silently waited for her captive to wake, savoring the smell of the pillaged wine cellar in the meantime. Pungent and pleasant aromas filled the room as broken bottles and spilled vintages littered the floor. Having waited for this moment for years, the halfling wasted no expense. The most secure chains she could find, a horse’s bridle fitted specially for his head – she sincerely hoped he would come to appreciate all the hard work she had gone to in order to make his final moments… special.

Darys began to stir, his chains rattling. Renée quickly straddled the human, setting down her pack, filled with numerous improvised tools of torture, before gazing long and hard into his brown eyes as they fluttered open. For a few long seconds, Darys merely looked at the halfling with confusion and bewilderment. Suddenly, it dawned on Darys who he was confronted with, and his eyes grew as wide as saucers upon recognition of the halfling’s face.

Renée merely smiled and set about her grisly work. Slowly, she began to remove the fingernails from his fingers, listening to the sounds of his muffled screams and savoring them like a fine wine. After the fingernails were all removed, she took the dagger from Darys’ pack, the very same dagger used to cut her throat long ago, and began to flay the man’s skin with it. Every attempt was made by Renée to prolong the man’s suffering for as long as she could. To any bystander unfortunate enough to bear witness to this cruel act of vengeance, it almost appeared intimate, in a sickening and perverse way. It almost appeared as though Renée was a long lost lover, returning to give the man she loved the affection she had bottled inside for so many years. But as every Sharran knows, love is a lie – it is only hate that endures. Renée’s own hate for the man who had taken what she loved the most did not simply endure, it became all of her.

Eventually, of course, Darys died. His pleading eyes eventually grew lifeless, and the last thing they would behold would be Renée’s icy smile and eyes burning slowly with all-consuming wrath. As all of Toril began to crumble and fall to pieces, law and order giving way to madness and chaos, light to darkness, Renée found herself at peace.

Anyhow, my goal was to have her become prefect, and even though her scheme to blackmail Castling into making her so failed, she intended to forge a document suggesting Edgin Crane and Penelope Castling were doing the nasty and plotting against the Spellguard.

Oh well, I got away with a lot of other things! Some of which I can talk about or are featured in the screenshots and some of which I can't.

For those who are unaware, the halfling mute got her start as a mime and then decided to start her own newspaper, the Sanctuary Scribe. Pretty excellent way to gather information, which she hoarded and used to her own advantage. It did mean she ended up in rather unpleasant situations for the sake of chasing down a story...



... like here...



... and also here!



She worked to get herself in a position of power, and saw the best way to do that was to work her way up the ladder in the Civil Service. The position she coveted the most, that of a prefect, she was often within arm's reach towards grabbing, yet she ultimately found herself beaten back when a plan of hers backfires! Here's her trying to win over the support of Ma Murik in her first bid.



Outside of meetings with the Directorate, Clerk Greystarred got into meetings with other sorts, many of which take on a remarkably ironic twist, now.



She also got herself in a lot of trouble, including... oh, wait, yeah. This she was actually in on, sort of. Whoops.



Sexy Howl loot.




Sexy BOM loot.



Uh.. gee, thanks Munt. I can... I can surely make use of this.

Now, atmospheric shots!











Catch you all on the flip!

[Aethereal]

Nicely done. Always enjoy your subtle and sometimes not so subtle hints as well.

[Candyman2]

lol. Should've bought more candy.

[LiAlH4]

Well done. Sharrans past and future should take note.

[Garem]

Fantastic character!

Although I was really looking forward to the moment some long, insidious scheme of hers paid off that would make the guy from the "Saw" movies blush.

[PlayaCharacter]

Awesome PC.

[shards]

ugh!
aw.
oh noes.

what now?

[Bearic]

Too bad she's gone, was hoping on having her around a while. =]
 
 Awesome stuff.

[AllMYBudgies]

Well done, VS :)

[goate]

Renee, Tobit trusted and respected you!!! How could you do this to a feeble old man, you hin shit?  Fun PC Vengeful Seraph.  I could see the effort.

[DangerousDan]

worthless.

kind regards,

dangerousdan[dm]

[scrappayeti]

Sad to see this one go.

[Ebok]

Was fun plotting around this little demon, <3

[Big Orc Man]

Very cool character.  It's great to see PCs who engage very seriously with the nuances of the setting, and try to dig deeper!

[Divine Intervention]

A lot of fun to plot with, I will miss chilling with you.