Dame Elizabeth Frick, "Lioness" of House Velstra

Started by Pandip, March 22, 2020, 06:27:03 PM

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Pandip

I got nostalgic while looking through screenshots and I'm a serial narcissist so I felt compelled to make one of these.

I don't really go into my characters with an elaborate plan or thoroughly thought out ideas as much as I cobble together a mission statement and a few dreams. In Elizabeth's case, it was to kick shit up as much as possible while trying to marry Nicholas Velstra. Ser Nick was one of my favorite NPCs in early EFUv5 and I had joked more than once about making a fanboy PC for him. It eventually stopped being a joke.  I had just played a grossly disappointing and unsuccessful werewolf, and I just wanted to have some fun. So I made a PC with high intelligence and taunt that spit bile at anyone she didn't like, and the results were pretty satisfying.

I liked the idea that Elizabeth would have a "code" of sorts despite the fact that she was pretty wild and chaotic and vindictive. It originally only had two lines, and was updated as time went on...

Tragically, I am missing a lot of my early screenshots pre-death. Those early days were my favorite.

  • There was a period of time when House Velstra was genuinely a force -- 6 or so retainers who were pretty tightly knit alongside a handful of ringrunning companions.
  • Conflicting with Sean Gorick and his friends in the Stonebuilders and Ticker Square was a treat.
  • Elizabeth was deeply against "subhuman trash" and fought vehemently to keep any non-humans outside of Peerage Ward. That sentiment combined with her desire to keep the catacombs safe from people looking to loot them and find seams were the crux of some of her early conflicts - most of which she lost... !
  • Some of Elizabeth's convictions and anti-Ticker sentiment lead to a conflict with  several Ticker Square figureheads, including Virgil Menathril and the Bloodbeards. This ultimately led to her death, but it was nonetheless quite fun to form a coalition against the big, bad, evil, powerful groups and play the underdog.
  • Flagrantly cheating in literally every duel she fought...
  • Countless other things - arena interactions in the Spinning Groat, harassing changelings in 98, playing house with Merredith and Annette, and so much more...


Elizabeth was resurrected by a handful of different parties vying for favors and prestige in Peerage Ward. I'm sad to say that the aftermath of resurrection wasn't quite as stunning as what led up to it. For a lot of reasons, I lost a lot of momentum and motivation after coming back from a two week death break.
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One of Elizabeth's original character quirks was that she had a little pair of spectacles that she would put on and make notes in her notebook; she was very inquisitive. I dropped the quirk after she was resurrected -- at this point, she felt like she knew everything that needed to be written down. I tried to pivot towards the establishment of a secret society that acknowledged the death of the King and sought to record the truths of the  City of Rings in secret. Several of Elizabeth's assertions were shouted Trystan Moonspear  as he traveled with his Silver March to 99, though she never had the chance to meet him. Damn timezones! It ultimately didn't work out considering there was only ever one or two PCs at a time interested in that sort of thing (I should have been more openly seditious, but I was afraid!), but it did lead to some interesting conversations...
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Befriending Merredith and Annette Winespill and the group of friends and traveling companions attached to Dorvant's Daughters presented some of the best interactions I've had during quests and adventuring. That was a really dynamic group - with a lot of drama...
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Merredith's death came at an unexpected turn - it hit everyone quite hard, brought Peerage Ward into an internal war, and created some deep resentments between Elizabeth and those around her...
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Elizabeth spent a long time decrying the "council of peers" as an irrelevant sham used to shackle retainers. It was surely no coincidence that she did not like it exclusively because it was so often used to tell her to be quiet or stop doing things! In spite of that, she realized it was a piece of political showmanship, and she did like getting a step up on her competition - so when Drusilla Peake began reinstating the council's meetings, Elizabeth attended.

It usually ended with shouting matches and bloody brawling, but the alcohol helped - assuming nobody stole her velvet!
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Speaking of Drusilla Peake, she was ironically an anchor during times of inactivity. The interactions between Miss Frick and Miss Peake were pretty incredible considering the fact that they were polar opposites of one another. Their conversations were consistently tense despite the fact they were working together. Elizabeth hated House Sunpurse, but in an odd way, her claims that her and Drusilla were "friends" was more true than she anticipated. They had a mutual curiosity for one another - and animosity. There was a lot of good back and forth, hostile and otherwise.
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One of those meetings of the council of peers presented an opportunity for Elizabeth to exploit a rift between House Nephezar and House Orza in order to leverage the life of Degory Tarver for the Ser Nicholas' sword - which had been taken from Visimar Stormchild in the previous weeks and was now sitting on Grigori Orza's mantle piece. She, uh, sometimes acted before she thought... but it usually worked out.
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... well, it sometimes worked out. So began my affair was getting ambushed outside of the Doorkeeper and interrogated. Acathos put a curse on Elizabeth to force her soul to stay in her armor for eternity until she killed Degory Tarver. A new friend helped a knight in need, though.
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One of the early ploys of Elizabeth's revolved around betraying the Arbiters. Elizabeth had taken a liking to several of the Arbiters who were currently active before they took their oaths and joined the Cube, and for a long time pursued the resolution of House Velstra and the Cube's feud. The goal was to invite them to dinner and fumigate them during the feast. It never panned out, in part because of OOC things, in part because of a betrayal by a former retainer. The conflict tied down, but it wasn't the last time the two factions butt heads. Alexei is another favorite NPC... I might have a type.

Elizabeth met Synod (the Synod?) and got some answers to her nagging, post-death questions - and some new questions, too. A lot of new questions.
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Some other things, like throwing away loot because she hated Visimar Stormchild and watching Grigori Orza be a badass...
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Not much to show for loot, but this was easily one of my favorite pieces I've ever had and I had a blast playing with it IC.
I'm a bit sad I don't have a picture of any of the emotes fun things I did with it, but it was indulgent to say the least!



I'm not very good at Neverwinter Nights mechanically. A lot of this character's journey was dealing with loss and defeat and difficult odds. There was a lot of subdual roleplay! But despite puttering out and retiring the PC, the whole experience was great. Thanks to everyone that made it that way. I'm probably going to take a break for a while. Thanks for all the fun. <3

Last Cold Tome

Thank you for the screenshots! It was a pleasure reading them, you are such a great player. Elizabeth was one of the Peerage's best and most iconic PCs and consistently drove conflict, fun chaos and frustrating messes that Drusilla had to spend her time cleaning up ... our PCs really were absolute polar opposites which made our interactions a lot of fun. I love your characterizations and writing, always.

I hope to see your next PC very soon!

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Poolson

I didn't interact with Frick as much as I had liked on my character during her prime time, but I admired you for sticking to your guns, even in the face of impossible odds.

Frick was a good representation of a Knight and I applaud you for seeing her through.

Cat

Elizabeth always did her best to try to be the guiding big sister to rebellious petulant Merry, and you having been part of the Velstra group really helped make it all that much better. Having you, and Annette, and Coriander, and all the rest were some of the best times I ever had in efu.

I think out of all the screenshots I have, this one here was my favorite of us:

Aethereal

What a wonderfully curated obituary and screenshot thread, excellent stuff, Fitz.

I did hope to spend more time with Elizabeth as she showed herself to be the only person who actually 'thought' in the Peerage Ward (prior to Drusilla) but alas it seemed she'd get carried away in other affairs. Nice chunk of preserved conversation with Aethelwine in those shots though! In those times our PCs did interact it was fun.

Oh and her conflict with Sean Gorrick... such sweet and dripping flavours of hatred unending. Merciless even after his death. xD
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'Even life eternal is not time enough to see, all the folly and despair of poor Humanity.' - To Life - A Shoggoth on the Roof

It is through Art, and through Art only, that we can realise our perfection.

Abala


spice mage

I was really sad that Elizabeth didn't come ringrunning with us. She was truly a fantastic PC and I hope we get to play together again sometime.