Lilith

Art by Alysha Lowery

Lilith is an NPC character in the campaign The Chronicles of Sunder: Ironspire, and is portrayed by Jazza.

## Description

### Appearance

Lilith is a young woman who lives into the forest- she is described to have a relatively lightweight, lean build - well toned, but not ripped. She has brown hair, brown eyes, and appears to have a mixed ancestry; Grayden complexion, with skin a shade darker than it should be- possibly from Thunissain or even Faelen Descent.

She used a heavy longbow she made herself from a sturdy tree, possibly oak, cedar, or yew prior to it being broken. When unstrung, it easily disguised it as a walking stick so she could keep it with her while she's in town. She also carries a decent machete-falchion, a coil of rope, and a spare dagger on her belt.

### Personality

Lilith is a young, fierce woman who seems to be very passionate about animals. She's tough and decisive, but not aggressive or outright rude. She has a quick wit and often thinks on her feet, making up new plans as she executes them. This not only helps her stay one step ahead of prey, but also one step ahead of swindling merchants, or anyone else who thinks they can exploit her. She does have a soft side for animals and children regardless of gender, and often gets along with women of all ages just fine. Although she is implicitly biased against men, she doesn't immediately shut them out at first meeting. It's only when they start to act in unsavoury ways that she closes them off, and especially when they try anything resembling a romantic advance.

## History

### Early Life

Lilith grew up in a town, but her mother was killed by a mountain lion when she was very young. A few years after being left on her own, Lilith finally tracks down the mountain lion, and kills it. She then notices the now-orphaned cub, but as she is about to kill it, she 'feels' the cubs fear and pain. This is the first time she feels an animal communicate back with her, and she forges a special connection between her and the cub- raising and training it as her own.

Over the years she lived in the forest and refined her abilities to hunt and communicate with the wildlife making her appear to be an EXTREMELY competent animal trainer to outsiders. She believes that she can communicate to animals through her signals and sounds, but rather it's more mental 'reading' of the animals, and planting her intent and commands into them through her magic.

Churl the Mountain Lion is her closest friend and loyal partner. He of course helps her hunt and protects her while she is in the wild, but gets skittish in large groups of people, so stays out of town during the day, but has no problem staying by her side in cities at night. While Churl is her partner, she does have a few more animals that are her friends. There is a peregrine falcon that she is close with. It helps her track prey from the sky during hunts, watches her back from a high perch when she's in town, and will occasionally deliver messages for her. All just for a few strips of meat when she gets a kill. There is a pack of wolves who aren't really her friends, but they allow her to hunt in their territory. Her relationship with them is less of a friendship, and more a mutual respect for one another. She can understand what their howls mean, and thinks she can howl back, but when she 'howls' like a wolf, she is really sending out a magical signal to all the wolves in the area without realizing it. She will sometimes leave her kills for them to finish eating if she doesn't need food or money from the carcass, but other than that, they don't interact any more than co-workers in a large business.

### Campaign

Lilith is introduced in Chapter 6, when the party comes across a group of 4 men hassling a girl. Katalina notices some sort of falcon circling above the group who is seemingly distressed. As the party gets closer to this group, they can hear Lilith screaming at the group of men holding a metal cage with a Mountain Lion named Churl inside. The party learns that this group are stealing the mountain lion from Lilith, noting that they believe it's magic. As this group begins to walk away, Lilith jumps at one of them, seriously injuring him with a machete to the shoulder/neck. The party enters a short period of combat where they quickly kill 1 of the remaining men and incapacitates the other 2. After Lilith has gotten the key to the cage and lets Churl out, the party talks with her when they learn that there have been Gray Guards patrolling which may make the journey unsafe.

Lilith takes a moment and seemingly communicates with Churl before offering to let the party camp at her abode for the night as a thanks for helping. When Delvin says that he is interested in learning more about Lilith, she uses her Mind: Telepathy magic and is seemingly less trusting of him based on his thoughts. It's quickly made obvious that she has a group of animals that she lives with when a peregrine falcon lands on her outstretched arm. Lilith guides them carefully deeper into the forest and into her sheltered area. This area is described to have canopies set up so that the majority of rain stays out along with a smaller area with pelts that create a proper shelter along the mouth of a cave. This cave seems to have bedding and three wolves sleeping in the opening and it appears that there's a nest nearby for the falcon to rest in. While there, she makes a trade with Delvin to share her food and bed in exchange for help hunting in the morning and a new bow from Ironeye.

In the next morning during ch 7, Lilith watches Brick's morning Kata and is seemingly very impressed by it. This causes her to assume that Brick will be going on the hunt with the party whilst the others stay nearby the camp. While out hunting, Lilith quickly gets frustrated by Brick's inability to stealth. Upon Brick's suggestion of trying to lure the animals to her, Lilith kneels down and makes a few unusual sounds- seemingly communicating with nearby animals. With the help of her animal companions, she creates a plan in which a few wolves attack a deer nearby allowing them to jump into combat with the wolves. Brick and Lilith adeptly take out the wolves, bringing back the carcasses of a deer and three wolves; one without a head, another missing teeth, and the third killed cleanly. While the two are packing up prior to returning to Lilith's camp, they have a brief chat in which she seemingly wishes they could learn a bit from each other. Lilith asks Brick about his choices in life and explains to him that he has choices in his life and perhaps shouldn't keep companions that are not his friends around.

When Brick and Lilith return to the camp, Lilith begins working on the carcasses they returned with and it's extremely obvious that she's is quite masterful in removing the pelts from the animals and preparing the meat from them. The party observes every 15 or so minutes a few of her companions seem to be bringing her different herbs and such while she prepares some food for the party. It's noted that Lilith doesn't particularly recognise this as anything different, and is seemingly not conscious of it. While she is doing this, Katalina and Delvin take a moment to look around Lilith's shelter a bit more- noticing that Lilith has a collection of trinkets such as weapons, religious items, foreign taxidermy, and even a few watcher tokens. Something in this collection seems to call to Delvin, but he quickly waves the collection off as it seems generally worthless upon a quick appraisal. Once the party had eaten, Lilith gave the pelts from the earlier hunt to them and informs them of a trader who is willing to bring a bow they purchase back to her. She guides the party towards the edge of the forest before saying goodbye.