Merope

Merope "Shui Jing" Oathwan is a water genasi of elven origin and a founding member of the Finders' Four. A civil war survivor from the misty forest, she is now on a quest to find her mother whom she hasn't seen in over a decade. Having picked up various skills during her solitary travels, she now serves as the party's primary navigator and cartographer on their journey through the jungles of Chult, considering this, she is unfortunately impulsive and easily distracted. However she is extraordinarily skilled with a bow, that, coupled with an uncanny affinity to the darkness rendering her almost indetectible during it... Makes her quite a pain in the ass for allies and enemies alike.

   *"When has too much poison killed anyone?" - Merope Oathwan*

## Personality

Merope is a water genasi with a bubbly personality to match, on a quest to find her mother and following the stars.

She acts in a way that can only be described as "ditzy enthusiasm". Sometimes seen as naïve although that couldn't be farther from the truth. She isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but her wisdom shines through her unserious exterior when it really counts. Skilled with a blade and bow, as well as navigating the wilderness, her eyes observe more than anyone- even she gives herself credit for. She is proud, to the point of narcissism at times. She is fond of nature and animals and little trinkets, especially those that look like stars, as such she's particularly fond of gemstones and in particular star gemstones. The only material posession she really cared much about. A skillful person with animals and a skilled mounted combatant.

Her lilac eyes are almost always fixed upon the stars, often making her miss important details. Despite her intellect, she acts immature in most scenarios that don't require her to be mature, not often thinking about things and their consequences except in very rare circumstances. Resulting in her often drifting off from the group and going and doing as she pleases without sense of repurcussion. She is painfully curious of her surroundings, and despite her easily distracted nature with her gaze glued to the sky, she grasps scientific concepts with relative ease and can explain relatively complex concepts with minimal teaching.

Some that know Merope a little better may find that she is jaded to most forms of violence or death and loss as a result of her experiences with war, often abiding the phrase "shoot first, ask questions later", although it is noted that she seems protective of children and will not tolerate their abandonment in any way.

Moreover, perhaps due to her nature as a water genasi, her mood is volatile, fluctuating wildly. When she's angry, her anger is akin to a storm at sea, ruthless and uncaring. Other times her mood is calm and undisturbed like a forest pond, in any case, her mood as water can only be controlled, not truly contained.

## Description

Merope looks like an elf, the slender form and pointed ears especially, which have litttle copper clownfish earrings dangling from them, she however has long black hair that extends to halfway down her back, it has a wet sheen to it like she just stepped out of the shower, her eyes a deep lilac set in a sharp featured face, a star like emblem of a pale gold scar on her forehead just over her brows. Her skin is a light seaweed green, the neck flanked by sets of nearly invisible gills except for when she’s under water where she also gets more webbed hands for ease of swimming, the water also strangely carrying her forward to her destination. She wears flowy clothing with blue accents that blend in seamlessly when she swims, however underneath the ornamental, she is well protected by a layer of high quality studded leather, at her sides are various bags of necessities and blades for foraging, finally on her feet she wears a pair of very worn black boots of some kind of animal hide, she smells of a waft of fresh seawater mixed with something more herbal.

Her most favored magic items include the shroud of windstep, Comet, and The bracers of archery.

## Abilities

Merope is an 11th level character. With 6 levels in gloomstalker ranger and 5 levels in star druid.

As a water genasi, Merope has the ability to breathe underwater as well as swim in it with greater speeds than any normal person. Her affinity towards the element has also granted her the ability to cast the cantrip "Shape water" as well as conjure up to 20 gallons of water per long rest through "Create or destroy water". Saving some time for the party as she provides clean water easily.

Merope is skilled at foraging and can provide enough food for 6 creatures with a day of hunting and foraging in fertile lands as a wanderer, an ability that kept her alive for the better part of her life. She is also skilled at navigation and hunting. She also has a vast knowledge of stars and constellations.

Merope has the feature "Sharpshooter", allowing her to shoot up to 600 feet with a longbow accurately and unleash devastating attacks in exchange for accuracy. Furthermore she can mark someone as a favored foe and deal more damage to that creature once per turn.

Due to a sensitivity to starlight, Merope has gained the ability to see in darkness for up to 60 feet, furthermore she can choose to be invisible to creatures that depend on darkvision to see her in darkness.

Her Ranger spelllist currently includes the following spells:

Ranger spells
 Hail of thorns

Moreover Merope has become a 5th level star druid, allowing her to transform into different animal and starry forms depending on the situation, as well as giving her access to a wealth of druidic spellcasting.

Starry forms

## Relationships

### Will

Will is the member of the Finders' Four that Merope has come to find the most interesting, his involvement in technology and skill in that field is so far removed from the rest of her life up until that point that she can't help but be curious about it, even though the firearms do scare her.

Merope also finds Will fun to tease, although disagreeable and with strange thought patterns at times, she enjoys his company and his usefulness and resourcefulness, even though he tends to overthink things to ridiculous degree.

Given more time travelling together, Merope has reluctantly begun to find Will a stalwart friend and trusted ally, and a person that has a far more noble goal than she does. He has taught her about morality and through butting heads, she has learned more about her own moral compass. She has also picked up a great deal of scientific and academic lingo from him.

### Juniper Evenous

Perhaps the member of party that Merope is closest with, finding her endlessly entertaining and worrying at the same time. However wishing the best for her as everyone. Finding that Juniper is more kindhearted than first seemed, Merope has unconciously been copying this behavior to encourage it in the gruff warrior woman.

Since Juniper has gained magical abilities, Merope has been increasingly worried for her, knowing that Juniper has something to hide and hating the secret keeping between them, but also trying to understand why Juniper would hide such things. Facing backlash from both Juniper and Will when she asked, she has a deep disdain for secrets.

Given more time, Merope has now begun to see Juniper as a indispensible friend, and would sacrifice much for her sake. Even picturing a future together where the two of them can travel freely.

### Quaf

An endless mine of Chultan knowledge and the subject of many a fawning from Merope over his feathers, perhaps the most tragic victim of her attentions. Merope has come to view Quaf as a helpful ally in both navigation and combat, becoming a more and more colorful companion to be around, she increasingly enjoys his company and values his contributions to the team. Seeing him as a kind hearted and at times quite funny travel companion.

### Calla

Meropes relationship to Calla is tenuous, the later addition to the finders five confounds and confuses her. Her self sacrificing tendencies are frustrating to Merope, but she also recognizes the usefulness of the cleric.

After the incident where Calla put the party to sleep to protect them, Merope has turned cold towards the tabaxi. Taking care not to get too close, as hatred bubbles beneath the surface. She doesn't intend to put on airs of friendship with Calla.

Moreover, since the bond between Calla and Juniper Evenous deepened, Merope has also turned jealous of the twos relationship, though that feeling truly stems from shame that she could not have helped Juniper Evenous first.

### A

Merope has a seemingly complex set of feelings towards her mother, both putting her life on the line to find her as well as cursing her under the same breath. Although not much of her comments are malicious in nature, she does seem to hold onto anger from being abandoned by her mother. "A", which is the alias that her mother goes by.

### Rosza

It's very clear that Merope does not trust Roza at all, having her own suspicions towards her goals and the triangle on her forehead. And more importantly that Roza keeps her own secrets, which Merope loathes.

## History

### Childhood

Merope does not often talk about her childhood, but when she does it's with a casual laughter despite her tales of abandonment and neglect, telling tales of hunting alone when she was not even a teenager and being abandoned in the forest by her mother at very young ages. She was told to escape by her mother at the age of 10, surviving the civil war by herself, and has not seen her mother since.

### The Elven Civil War

The water genasi tended to avoid any sites of battle, instead finding refuge in the forest and sneaking away from any civilization, as such she is out of the loop on a lot of world happenings. In the rare instances that she did bump into people, it is heavily implied that she did horrible things to stay alive.