Laura Nicks

Laura Shiadanni Velez Nicks, commonly known as Laura Nicks, is a powerful astral being and planar traveler.

## Appearance

Laura appears as a tall woman with light brown skin, dark eyes, and curly dark hair. She is almost always wearing her Mantle of the Star Kraken, a sleek, cyan coat with the tattered tails trailing behind her.

## Personality

Laura is a solitary and self-reliant person. Withdrawn and introverted but highly ambitious, Laura has a cool-headed and calculating persona and keeps everything under control, which compels people to trust her and defer to her authority. Despite this, Laura can sometimes be awkward when trying to be genuine.

Laura is calculating and curious. Her mind is always working; whenever she sees a problem, she is always thinking of solutions within seconds.

## Biography

Laura Nicks was born in San Viento, a town in Alicante, a kingdom on the Shield Coast. As an orphan from a small town, Laura was unable to properly study magic, but she read through any tomes she could acquire, despite not always understanding every theorem she read. When she was a teenager, Laura began to hear the voice of Laudna Lyrelor the Nightmare Queen in her head, guiding her, gaining her trust by giving her the ability to cast some simple magic and helping her dodge trouble.

Laura traveled to the Southern Archipelago on advice from the Nightmare Queen, who told her to find a girl named Eliza Quill. They eventually met in Diamandis City when Laura helped Eliza out of a tough scrape. Laura was invited to stay with Eliza's adoptive mother Ophelia and aunt Odessa. While Eliza trained as a monk, Laura honed her warlock powers with guidance from the Nightmare Queen and Venkor, her parasite.

In their adulthood, Laura and Eliza adventured with their friends Hex'un, Khaless Roseblight, and Carlo Costa. They once encountered Averford Gallus, Demetrius Beck, Xiao Kai, Verin Gallus-Beck, and Ziya Niano in a series of circumstances that led to them fighting each other, but parted as friendly acquaintances. On another occasion, they fought an earth genasi vampire named Karrig alongside Tessa Stills and Pauline Humboldt.

After her fellow party members settled down, Laura entered the Astral Plane with the intention of seeking more power and understanding of the multiverse. After spending so much time in the Astral Plane, she became a powerful astral being and acquired new powers related to her station. Despite becoming an astral being, Laura still travels to other planes, often on business for her patron. During this time, she became estranged from her family.

Laura once had to save her nephew and niefling, Joseph and Jory, from being trapped in the Astral Plane. Shortly after, both of them developed strange psychic powers, which Laura helped them control and hone. She became much closer with her family during this time as well.

## Abilities

### General Abilities

* Pact Magic: Through her pact with Laudna Lyrelor and Venkor, Laura has warlock powers of both archfey warlocks and great old one warlocks. She has access to many types of psionic spells.
* Swordsmanship: Laura is an adept sword fighter, wielding her psychic pact weapon.
* Resistances: As an astral being, Lauar is resistance to cold and fire damage, as well as damage from nonmagical weapons. Because she doesn't need to breathe, Nicks is also immune to the poisoned condition and resistant to poison damage.
* Astral Rejuvenation: When Laura is killed in the Astral Plane, she regains all her hit points in 1 hour.

### Magic Items

* Mantle of the Star Kraken: When Laura wears the Mantle of the Star Kraken, she gains resistance to acid damage and eight tentacles that she can use to grapple opponents.