Zaphodel

Zaphodel of Nyasa the Dutiful (1413? - 15 November 1443), often referred to as Zaph, was Ashra's main thrall and the dedicated healer of Shadowwing, Inc. from late 1442 to late 1443. Before being captured and enslaved by Neogi, Zaphodel studied at the The Caltris School in Nyasa City, Nyasa in Divine Studies and Medicine. When sentient, she was surprisingly badass. She died at the hands of High Regent Xenteroth, and is irretrievable as she would almost certainly prefer death to servitude. 
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==Capabilities==
Zaphodel was a positive energy channeler with the domains Healing and Luck. She has a light crossbow and a heavy mace.
Zaphodel's thrall status did confer some penalties. Because she is thrall-bred, she performed slightly better when close to Ashra but notably worse when far away. She also had an Int score of --, meaning she could not use any Intelligence-based abilities.
Her status as a thrall aside, her clumsiness made Reflex saves her main weakness. Ashra bought her Bracers of Reflex in an attempt to keep her alive. 
She had a Greater Geas with a contingency on it such that if she breaks contact with Ashra completely, she wakes up instantaneously and is driven to recover Ashra. Were she unable to recover Ashra, she would then attempt to her former master.
==Weird Shit==
Something very odd clearly happened in Zaphodel's history. However, we don't know what, and she never told. Aside from what we've gleaned about her past, she was under the influence of a couple of odd effects:
She was marked with a scrying mark; it is unclear who placed it on her, but she was never scryed on while the party was detecting it. This scrying mark would allow someone scrying on her to experience things through her senses.
She is apparently affected by Soul Partition, a divine or necromantic spell allowing a person to split their soul into multiple parts. This is a necessary part of becoming a lich. The soul could be entirely present, or part could have been removed. She might serve as a phylactery, though she currently does not detect as one to Analyze Dweomer. She could also have a phylactery. As she is healed by positive energy and makes Fortitude saves, she does not appear to currently be undead. She is also Lawful Neutral (and really Chaotic Good) when most messing with souls is evil. 
Her thrall-bred nature is also interesting: she functioned as a thrall-bred creature should, gaining competence from proximity to Ashra, but if her sentience were suppressed from birth as it should be for a thrall-bred slave, Ashra doubts she would have developed enough intelligence to be able to comprehend clerical spells, never mind fitting into society well enough to take classes at the Caltris School.
She had several amusing twos which do not have any effect currently because of her suppressed consciousness. She believes her magical ability to be the best in the party, has an aversion to clothing, and is reluctant to cast spells for fear of rolling a two.
==Sentient Zaphodel==
During Season Nine, Episode Nine, Ashra was knocked unconscious and teleported way out of range. It was then that the party discovered Zaph's geas and met her for the first time. While sentient, she has an Int of 12 and an alignment of Chaotic Good.
Zaphodel was surprisingly calm for someone who spendt most of her life as a mind slave. She was a generally nice person despite her occasional snippiness. She worked well with others and tried to keep everyone alive. She was willing to apologize for her mistakes and calm down to listen to others, even if she was being a bitch a moment before. She was very straightforward in her actions, and didn't try to scheme or find easier ways around things. Some people found her an easier party member to work with than Ashra.
Zaphodel had a strong dislike for her master, as she remembers the entirety of her life while dominated and doesn't appreciate it, but while sentient was under the influence of powerful magic forcing her to recover and restore her. She did, however, make fun of her whenever possible, and tended to describe her as "that fucker". She was fond of Ethan of Malvont, and helped him as best he could when they were both twitching under their various mind-affecting compulsions. She got along all right with Fab Dick, and worked closely with Leilah Maloch, who taught her how to plan combat magic. She found the "fight the power" Claire put in her mind highly amusing.
==History==
Zaphodel's past is confusing and still not entirely known to the party. Her early childhood memories were completely erased. While she was thrall-bred, which should have made her under psionic domination from birth, she had a significant number of memories related to being sentient. However, as the party learned, it is possible for thralls to form memories of events that happened while their consciousnesses were suppressed.
Also, in her memories she was a member of the trading class. She was enrolled at The Caltris School for some time. At the age of sixteen, she was severely punished in an unknown manner for an unknown offense. Her memories of this punishment were then written over by repeatedly copying a boring day over the relevant memories. This may have been the source of her single Sanity Point.
She did not recall who thralled her. The last memories Claire found in her mind are of being age 26, on mission in the mountains. She was hunting for feral pegasi, or nightmares. She found a strange inverted cave which appeared full of scales. She saw an aasimar paladin, a wizard gnome, and a young male ranger with a goatee. Then her consciousness suddenly blanked. Thanks to Claire, the final day of the two-week thralling process has been deleted. The phrase "fight the power" has also been imprinted in her memory.
She was purchased by Ashra in 1442 from Neax Hiss for 10,000 GP. How she came to be in his particular possession is not currently known. It is also not clear whether he or someone else was the one to place a scrying mark on her.
==In Eon==
After leaving the Ruins of Eldergrin, the party bribed Vishnu to send a Dream to Neax Hiss and ask him to come by with his spelljammer. While Kruglor gambled wildly, Ashra and the party purchased Zaphodel, and over the next two weeks in Barrensburg, Ashra converted her into a thrall. This was the tipping point for Ashra's alignment change from True Neutral to Lawful Evil. Zaph accompanied the party ever since, following Ashra and obeying orders. Notable contributions include:
*Fixing all the limbs Kruglor broke after being exploded from inside a dragon
*Keeping Athena from casting Dimensional Anchor and stranding Ashra, Kruglor and Zaph in Olympus
*Casting Wall of Stone to block off the sewers of Port Wyatt when the party was traveling through the Underdark
*Providing a way for Ethan to contact Tyro, Pyotar, and Barron Ganth before the Battle of Syscian's Tower, and to reply to Ganth's later invitation.
*Helping Ethan to interview Marcus Fairlan after he was dead.
*Raising Leilah Maloch from the dead after her unfortunate encounter with a cannonball.
*Causing an iceberg to spontaneously drop from the sky when she was hit by a cannon.
*Badassing around with the party for half a session to save Ashra from a white dragon.
In late 1443, Zaphodel was with the party when they were attacked by High Regent Xenteroth. He cast Horrid Wilting when the party had nearly destroyed him, and Zaphodel was killed instantly. Her last words were "Can you help us?" spoken at Ashra's command to the Inquisitor the party had recently rescued. Her death was a large part of what pushed Ashra over the edge and inspired her to use Time Stop to help finish Xenteroth off.
==Gambits==
Zaphodel generally operated under a set of contingent instructions which functioned kind of like the gambits from FFXII. The effect of this was that she could take reasonable actions for a healing cleric in combat without requiring Ashra to spend actions commanding her. She could also do more esoteric things on command.
Most of the gambits were fairly boring (heal people, move with me, follow me not that close god damn it cannons shit shit shit), but some of the stranger/more relevant ones were:
*"Cure Ethan" was a code meaning that she should begin to take commands only from Ethan of Malvont until he returns control. (This was implemented when Ashra feared she would be tricked or controlled by fellow illithids in Baldur.) Ashra was still the one exercising psionic domination, and might be able to reassert control by force, but it's a precaution.
*Never cast a positive energy spell on Ethan.
*If she wakes and Ashra is not awake, her first action was to wake Ashra.
*If Ashra's body is there but incapable of command (unconscious, dead, Feebleminded, etc), she would take any command from Leilah or Ethan, but would default to attempting to heal, raise, or fix Ashra.
*A new weaving movement pattern meant to allow Ashra and Zaph to cast spells on each other but not present such an attractive cannon target.
Category:NPCs
Category:Nyasa People
Category:Pets