Adrasteia

> Are you hurt?
>
> Adrasteia to Miteus, Sx08 — Are You Hurt...

**Adrasteia** (pronounced /ædrɛstiæ/) **Alexopoulos** is a Circle of the Moon Druid and an original member of the Primal Seven. She has a connection to the goddess Artemis, and is secretly a half-dryad. She is also cursed with Loup Garou lycanthropy.

## Description

### Appearance

Adrasteia stands at about 6 feet tall, with a curvaceous figure and olive skin. She has rounded features with large, dark brown eyes. She has long, thick black hair that falls in waves almost halfway down her back. Sometimes she wears her hair in a large braid, but she usually wears it open, underneath a flower crown consisting of various flowers, blossoms, leaves or vines, which she newly crafts every morning.

Now, she also bears a large, gruesome scar across her left eye and forehead, where Quintus Pterygas took out her eye and fractured her skull in the wake of her escape from his kidnapping in *Sx44 - Mommy Issues*. She also broke her left hand when it got trapped in a flesh wall in the labyrinth in *Sx35 - We've Seen Better Maze*, but it was able to be healed fully in the temple of Apollo in Dexicos.

Adrasteia usually wears a white toga-like dress, which is tied at the waist with a leather belt to which various pouches and items are strapped, underneath a piece of hide armor over her torso. Additionally, she wears dark leather sandals with straps that wrap all the way up her calves.

### Personality

Adrasteia is a highly emotional and intuitive, and yet extremely socially inept person. She is incredibly self-conscious, insecure, and nervous at times, which often leads her to follow other's leads rather than pushing for what she personally believes. However, she is still usually very vocal and direct about her opinions and concerns. She is very interested, open, and empathetic, and tends to put others' safety and feelings above her own, especially when it comes to people she cares about.

She tries to do the best or right thing in most situations but is often misguided due to her sub-par communication and decision making skills. She often fails to find the right words in social situations, but she has a knack for reading people, and tries to offer comfort to others wherever she can. Over her time with the party she has grown a lot, and while she feels deeply attached to them and would do anything for them, they have also taught her to stand up for herself more.

## Biography

### Background

Little is known about Adrasteia's background beyond her worship of Artemis and her goal to join the goddess' hunt. Over the course of the campaign it was revealed that she is from near Athens, and that both of her parents are deceased. Out of game it is also known that Adrasteia is a half-dryad, although this is not known to any party members, and they all believe she is human.

### The Primal Seven

Adrasteia met the rest of the Primal Seven whilst travelling through Posttown on her way to Artemis Cove. Originally she was wary of travelling with a group of strangers, but after a short while their experiences bonded them and she is now usually the biggest advocate for keeping the group together. Since then she has been with the Primal Seven throughout all their different adventures.

### Death

In *Sx12.5 - Adrasteia's Terrible No Good Very Bad Day*, during a fight with some shadow demons on the road to the Lighthouse, Adrasteia was killed at the hands of a strength-draining curse. She tried to combat it by using her *Wild Shape* ability to turn into a giant constrictor snake, but this attempt failed and she eventually died. She was resurrected almost instantaneously by Leviticus casting *Revivify*, though she did suffer immense pain throughout the entire process. Her death also caused some of her muscles to atrophy rapidly, but most of the damage has slowly been healed over time.

### Weapons & Spellcasting

As her main weapon she originally wielded an almond wood quarterstaff, which was also her druidic spellcasting focus. The staff was dotted in pink almond blossoms, especially at the top, where there was a crown of twisted branches, in which Cynthia the spider lived. After Khantos broke the staff with his axe in *Sx22 - Rock Bottom*, it exploded into radiant moonlight and subsequently lost its magical power.

Adrasteia then found an almond seed, which she kept in the top of the old staff as her new druidic focus. She attempted to reconnect the two pieces with her nature magic but was unsuccessful, and the quarterstaff remained broken. After recognizing the almond seed needed to be planted to keep it from dying and losing it's magical properties, she planted it in the ground at the clearing of the wooded area underneath Sunguard in *Sx37 — From the Earth; We All Return*. It grew into an almond sapling intertwined with grapevines, which sprouted from the place Dionysus appeared to talk to Oto.

After this she was without a spellcasting focus for a while in which she discovered that while she can still perform magic, it seems to become wild and somewhat dangerous. Whenever she casts spells without a focus, bloody vines sprout from the ground to tether her for a brief moment and rip up the ground around her. This worsens at higher level magic. If she wildshapes without a focus, an animal of the kind she transforms into which is nearby, is killed.

Eventually she was fashioned a replacement druidic focus by Xunthas, a piece of starry antler. However, it was taken from her, along with the rest of her belongings, when she was kidnapped by Quintus. After this, a crimson red almond blossom manifested, which is her current spellcasting focus and also makes her more able and resilient.

For a period of time she carried a Staff of Healing, gifted to her by Leviticus at his departure, and sometimes used it as a quarterstaff weapon after hers broke. Unfortunately this was also taken by Quintus during the kidnapping. She also lost the other items she carried, such as Theobald's luckstone.

### Lycanthropy

In *Sx03 - Welcome to Artemis Cove*, Adrasteia found a magical ring showing a crescent moon, in a jewellery shop in Artemis Cove. It was too expensive for her at the time, but she finally returned and bought it in *Sx20 — Wait! Fuck, He's Hot!*. Unbeknownst to her, this was not a token of Artemis like she assumed, but instead the Ring of King Lykaon, an ancient and cursed magical artefact. It carried a dormant curse of Loup Garou lycanthropy, which eventually activated in *Sx34 - Battle of the Nerolamia Highway.* Adrasteia made multiple attempts to get rid of the ring or identify it, before the curse activated, but was ultimately unsuccessful. While the ring remained on her person, there was a very high chance of her turning into a Loup Garou after leaving her wildshape form.

The fallout from the reveal was devastating to Adrasteia. She intended no harm or secrecy, she was only keeping the ring under wraps because she had no idea of the gravity of the situation and felt there were more important things going on within the party at the time. She felt intense guilt after she first turned, and considered leaving the group as to not risk everyone's safety. She was deeply ashamed that she had become such a danger towards everyone, and in conjunction with her fear and sense of helplessness about the situation, she reacted badly to everyone in the party blaming her and became defensive. She regretted this reaction and tried to explain herself as much as possible afterwards.

In tandem with the curse manifesting, King Lykaon began visiting Adrasteia in her dreams to try and convince her to give in to the werewolf nature and join his pack. In these visions, he continuously preyed on her insecurities and attempted to manipulate her by using her relationships and perceived failures against her. Ultimately, she rejected him and is currently still trying to find a way to control the wolf nature inside her or break the curse.

## Relationships

### Khantos

Adrasteia and Khantos’ relationship is a relatively positive one. She admires his intelligence and quick thinking, and appreciates the fact that they are able to have fun together. Oftentimes she feels like he is the only other sane or reasonable member of the party, and she tends to agree with a lot of his reasoning during inter-party conflicts. They have had some deeper conversations, however Adrasteia also struggles with his tendency to play his cards so extremely close to his chest, both emotionally and practically, particularly where it concerns his and Leoven’s secret plans. Her relationship with him was one of implicit and almost complete trust until Khantos started pushing her away when he went mad in *Sx22 - Rock Bottom*. This culminated in him destroying her quarterstaff and threatening her to get her to leave, which has left her vaguely scared of him and unsure about their relationship.

After this, their relationship changed again quite rapidly. In the fight against Anteus, Adrasteia’s healing magic was warped and in an attempt to heal him, she inadvertently dealt the killing blow to Khantos. She was wracked with guilt over this, as she not only failed to save him or bring him back, but also felt responsible for him dying in the first place. When she confessed to killing him, he didn’t lash out or blame her but instead told her she should have never said anything about it in the first place. This eased her conscience somewhat, but she still felt indebted to him. She then came to him to ask for help about her cursed ring of Lykaon, but when he tried to identify it, the ring attacked him, which only compounded her guilt and feeling of responsibility over his life and injuries.

Their relationship then slowly repaired over time. Khantos did not overtly lie or hide dangerous information anymore, and she slowly felt like she could trust him again. She was still desperate to try and repay him for everything that happened to him that she felt responsible for. Although she was hurt when he addressed his departure letter only to Leoven, this all changed when he took her to Shorevale with him as Ayleth was dying. He asked her to be there for him in one of his lowest moments and finally let her into his life. They have also not disagreed in a while, and she feels like he cares about her and would help her in anything she needs, such as breaking the lycanthropy curse.

### Leoven

Although Adrasteia and Leoven’s relationship has always been rocky, Adrasteia cares for her very much. After Leoven “betrayed” the party in *Sx08 - Are You Hurt…*, Adrasteia’s trust in her was almost completely lost. This was even further negatively impacted by multiple comments Leoven made about Adrasteia’s struggle with social interaction. However, Leoven’s apologies and her refusal to leave Adrasteia behind in *Sx11 — You Thought It Couldn't Get Worse... SURPRISE*, slowly restored her faith in Leoven. Their relationship is still quite contentious though, with their two personalities clashing on multiple different issues. Adrasteia was hurt by Leoven’s continued lack of trust in her, which culminated when Leoven went mad, and her and Khantos broke her staff. Following their confrontation in the palace after the tower break-in, Adrasteia was wary but optimistic, it seemed like Leoven took her points to heaart, and she proceeded to open up to the party about her interaction with Quintus. However, their relationship has once again deteriorated since then, particularly after Adrasteia's lycanthropy manifested and the party arrived in Dexicos.

The main conflict between the two of them is Leoven’s reluctance to share information and include the rest of the party in her plans, which Adrasteia interprets as a lack of trust, and which she has critiqued on several occasions. Leoven, on the other hand, struggles with Adrasteia’s need for emotional transparency and her persistent efforts to get everyone, particularly Leoven, to open up.

### Oto

Adrasteia originally didn’t see much in common between her and Oto, but once they discovered their shared love for animals and plants, and learning about them, their relationship began to grow. As they became closer friends they were able to be there for each other on a genuine and essential level. Adrasteia also recognised that Oto was still learning about what it means to be alive, which both caused distance and a certain degree of emotional disconnect between the two. But this also allowed them to bond over his desire to learn about human nature and emotionality, topics on which he specifically sought out Adrasteia and her opinions and advice.

After the fight with Anteus they finally grew to be deep, genuine friends. They would discuss the morals and ethics of each other’s worst sides, but they were also able to have fun together, talking about oranges, Trechon, siblings, and all sorts of things. When they had their more meaningful conversations, Adrasteia made sure to impress upon Oto that she felt he had a soul, that he wasn’t a monster, and that she loved him no matter what. It meant a lot to Adrasteia that he confided in her to such a deep level. In turn, after witnessing his connection with Dionysus, she confided in him about her fraught relationship with Artemis, and how she was almost jealous of his connection to his god. Speaking to him gave her the courage to plant her almond seed in the grove beneath Sunguard. And although she deeply disapproved of Oto’s behaviour towards Cyaro, she appreciated that he gave her an apology, and was willing to move past it, as it seemed Cyaro was prepared to do so.

When Oto passed, it was devastating to Adrasteia. Their last moments together were beautiful and she cherishes them to this day, but part of her blames herself for not knowing what was going on with him. Her inability to have done anything for him causes her great pain, despite the fact he told her not to blame herself. She has tried to take the words of his letter to heart and stand up for what she believes in, but she sometimes feels she still lacks the confidence and conviction he always possessed. She strives to carry him and his love with her every day, but she can’t help but feel a piece of her died when he did.

### Cyaro

Adrasteia and Cyaro share a mostly friendly relationship. They got off to a rocky start as Adrasteia’s lycanthropy curse was revealed not long after Cyaro joined the group. Cyaro blamed Adrasteia for this happening originally, an opinion which Adrasteia didn’t react well to. However, they were able to speak about it and Adrasteia apologised and explained herself, and since then the two have been on mostly friendly terms. When Cyaro was forced to speak the truth by Leoven and Oto, Adrasteia eventually tried to stop them but failed. She later expressed her regret at not stepping in earlier to to try and help Cyaro. After Cyaro came to her to tell her that she was sworn to protect her, Adrasteia was surprised and felt mostly guilt. She also feels closer to Cyaro after they travelled to Shorevale together to be with Khantos during Ayleth’s death and funeral.

## Character Information

### Notable Items

* ***Blood Almond Bloom,*** manifested after returning from being kidnapped by Quintus. Acts as her current druidic spellcasting focus, adds +2 Dex, +3 Con, and +1d6 piercing damage to any attack made while in wild shape form,

#### Former Items

* ***Almond Wood Quarterstaff,*** Adrasteia's original weapon and magical focus. Broken into two pieces and destroyed by Khantos in Sx22 and later taken by Quintus.
* ***Staff of Healing,*** gifted by Leviticus upon at his departure. Used to inadvertently kill Khantos and later taken by Quintus.
* ***Moon Ring/Ring of King Lykaon,*** bought at a jewellery store in Artemis Cove, and destroyed in Hecate's Ravine. Cursed Adrasteia with Loup Garou lycanthropy, adds +2 Dex and + Con.
* ***Luckstone,*** taken off of Theobald's corpse, later taken by Quintus. Adds +1 to all ability checks and saving throws.
* ***Almond Seed,*** arcane focus gifted by Artemis after the destruction of her quarterstaff, planted in Sunpool grove in Dexicos.
* ***Charm of Soulmates,*** bracelet of Aphrodite given to her by Neleous and later taken by Quintus. Legend says the dove flutters to life upon the first meeting between soulmates.
* ***Bag of Bullshit,*** small drawstring bag used to carry the Ring of King Lykaon, the Almond Seed and the Charm of Soulmates, taken by Quintus.

### Abilities

#### Half-Dryad Abilities

* Darkvision
* Fey Ancestry
* Mask of the Wild
* Nature Magic
* Speak with Beasts and Plants

#### Proficiencies

Skills: Insight, Medicine, Nature, Religion, Survival