Agnieszka Tarnowska

I'm in such peril

Sister

Alchemist

Professor

Inventor

Doctor

Surgeon

Priest

Royal Khora University

The Truth Seekers

Venatori Umborum

​*A sharp mind is all well and good, but it's never enough. Knowledge isn't power, power lies wherever people believe it does and it takes a sharp tongue rather than a clever thought to change that.*

Character is a Human knowledge cleric played by Charlie.

## Biography

### We must all start somewhere

I spent much of my early life as little more than an
incarcerated slave within the Tenebris Orphanage in Talmira, the grand imperial
capital of the collapsing remains of Asmor. The master, Devran, was a terrible
man and a serial abuser unable to form a single pleasant thought I’m certain of
it. To tell the truth, I can’t say that I recall a huge amount of the eight years
that I spend in captivity there. All I remember are a few people and faces, a
small number of specific events and a constant sense of fear, dread and clawing
hunger. That last one in particular set in motion the events that led to me
being where I am now. At some point, you just can’t lie down and take it any
longer. I stole some of Devran’s own food, a sizeable slice of a rich meat pie
and I had never felt so full in my entire pathetic little life. Of course, I
couldn’t have gotten away with it but for Ricard. He was the eldest in Tenebris
and fiercely protective over the rest of us. It was he who confessed to having
stolen the pie. We all stood and watched, terrified into silence, eyes wide
open in morbid disbelief as we watched Devran beat him to death. Eventually he
stood away from the ruin on the warped wooden floor beneath him, wiping the
blood from his face he instructed us to clean up the remains before returning
to his bottles.

Frankly I wouldn’t have lasted another week there, but
fortune be praised I only had to survive another four days. In response to the
incident, conditions deteriorated further and so when the door was kicked in
and Devran was seized by members of the Scaled Knights, only five of us
remained. I was never told how they decided that the orphanage had to be closed
but I’m endlessly thankful that it was and can only hope that Devran was
suitably punished. I never saw the other Tenebris survivors and honestly can’t
recall their faces or names at this point either, but I do recall what happened
to me next.

### The call of Hashan

I was taken to the temple of Hashan and, for whatever
reason, the acolytes there took a shining to me. I was taken into the fold,
fed, clothed and most importantly, educated. These were all things I had had no
real experience with before but was very ready to take full advantage of. I
excelled in every manner of education that they offered, feverishly doing
anything I could to force out the memories of Tenebris and forge a new path for
my life. During this time, I was surrounded and educated alongside a large
group of other children from a wide variety of backgrounds, some rescued like
me and others from a much more privileged upbringing. I had trouble really
relating to any of the other children there and spent most of my time alone,
reading, writing and practising without much in the way of communication or
contact with anyone aside from the priests themselves. Eventually, at the age
of 12 I was given the opportunity to join the priesthood directly and become a
full adherent of Hashan. Naturally this was an opportunity I was very quick to
snap up, adherence to Hashan meant more information, more research more
utilisation of my talents… but it was more than that. I felt drawn towards this
path as a lost wanderer may follow a river to find their way, and in doing so I
learned how to do more than I could ever have imagined.

As my magical powers blossomed and grew, so to did my
rapacious hunger to devour more and more knowledge wherever I could. I was
quick to study and master numerous fields including alchemy, medicine, the
aethersphere, history, nature, the arcane, the occult and what tantalisingly
little magitech I could get my hands on. Over this time, I had built something
of a rapport with Tiberius Fiduria the high priest of Hashan, who had in turn
taken direct interest in the research that I was engaged in. He was the man who
made Magister Elizabeth Ailamos salient to my existance, a revolutionary within
the archaic magisterium and woman in need of bright young minds for her own
projects. And so it was, at the age of 16 I was given the opportunity to work
on what I was assured would be something amazing, and be generously rewarded
for it too. Naturally, I accepted.

### Our intentions corrupted

I had never seen such finery and excess my entire life.
Despite being at the lower end of the Magisterium, Elizabeth still had
extraordinary resources at her disposal and was undeniably ready to make full
use of them. I was escorted through her mansion and taken to the top of a grand
spire where I first met my colleagues, as well as Elizabeth herself. She was a
grand woman, greying, tall and abundantly severe with an unnatural elegance in
her poise and appearance, clearly holding the other three young prodigies in
enraptured awe. With the showmanship of the finest of players, she swept away
the sheeting from the object in the centre of the room, revealing a magitech
device the like of which I had never seen before but instantly recognised.
Elizabeth outlined to us what we needed to do; the generator she had got her
hands on simply wasn’t good enough- a 12.5% power draw was insufficient for her
needs and she impressed upon us the impact that these devices could have on
Asmor as a whole.

As I listened to her talk, I couldn’t help but find myself
drawn and enraptured by her just like the others and before long felt just as
engaged in our mission as she herself seemed to be. We were going to be crucial
in saving Asmor. After her talk, Elizabeth left us with the generator to
introduce ourselves and get to work. My new colleagues were Albert Cifip, a
young and comparatively wealthy inventor and explorer with an easy charm and a
quick wit, Saoirse Harlan, a sweet and bright artificer and celebrated
alchemist with an eternally optimistic outlook, and Caoimhe Harlan, Saoirse’s
twin sister and a powerful mage to boot though far more nervous and cautious
than her sister. While we were all different in many ways, we shared a
rapacious intellect and a keen desire to learn more and improve things where we
could. This project seemed like a good first step.

It took
four months and two days to finish. We were able to improve power draw to 26.8%
and Elizabeth was ecstatic with the results, apparently it would be perfect for
what she wanted. As promised, we were rewarded generously for our work with
money as well as research positions in the University of Talmira. Over the
following couple of years, Elizabeth repeatedly called on our team to work on a
number of other projects for her which we were able to complete with similar
results as before, always generously rewarded for our efforts of course. We
felt as though we were on top of the world, everything going our way and with
each other by our sides we felt invincible. Of course, this was a total farce.
I was the one who found out what our little projects had contributed towards
when I heard talk of the razing of Vyarka. It turned out that Elizabeth Ailamos
had significant aeronautical interests and had used us all to create the most
powerful airship Asmor ever had at its disposal which had then been immediately
put into use in the hobgoblin offence in the north. Vyarka was a significant
city, which meant that there were thousands of slaves also there. Instead of
liberating them of course the Asmori military machine laid waste to the entire
area. There were few to no survivors.

### A parting of ways

I felt betrayed. We were told that what we did would save
Asmor and I suppose that in Elizabeth’s eyes that’s what she was doing but I
couldn’t see it the same way. I don’t want to work for death, I want to help,
and this wasn’t help. I told Albert first, he was just as shocked as I was and
immediately began planning how to leave Asmor forever. Saoirse and Caoimhe
didn’t want to believe it at first, they couldn’t believe that they had been
responsible in some way for what happened and frankly neither could I. It
didn’t take long to convince them though; the evidence was all there. It was
Saoirse who came up with the plan, with her characteristically unflinching good
cheer she mentioned how she had been contacted by an anonymous source a short
while before about leaving Asmor behind and working for a group that called
itself the ‘Venatori Umborum’. Seemingly, they were interested in seeking
truth, independent of national governments to twist and corrupt the research
that is conducted. It seemed a perfect fit and a genuine godsend given the
circumstances and so we made preparations to leave.

I had always maintained a close relationship with the
hierarchy of Hashan while working in Talmira, contributing to church
proceedings and offering guidance as a priest of Hashan should. This meant that
I often spent time with Tiberius himself, as the man responsible for similarly
offering guidance to his priests I felt that I should discuss my plans with
him. The bastard sold us out. So far as I can tell, he passed everything that I
said on to Elizabeth, why, I don’t know. I can only assume that he must have
had some significant debt to her and may Hashan curse him for it as a false
worshipper. Regardless of his exact intentions, the result was that on our way
to the train station we were cornered by thugs in an empty street. I’ve tried a
few times to remember exactly what happened then, but I never can, I don’t
think my mind likes to hold onto violent memories very much, but I remember the
results. Somehow as if by a miracle, Albert managed to drive myself and Caoimhe
away. Saoirse didn’t make it. I don’t think she was killed but taken by the
Magisterium is probably just as bad. We drove for days through empty
countryside, desperate to leave Asmor as soon as we could.

Without Saoirse, the idea of finding a group as elusive as
the Venatori went out the window so Albert and I decided to escape to Edranar, but
Caoimhe wouldn’t come with us. She took Saoirse’s loss hard, very hard and
quickly slipped into despair despite everything Albert and I tried. She
couldn’t bare to be with us, we reminded her of too much and so at the border
she left us to strike off on her own to Tae-Osh where Asmor would never be able
to get to her. And so, the four became two. Albert and I alone in a strange
country and a stranger city with no friends and barely even an understanding of
the language, only a handful of our creations and a few thousand in Asmori gold
to make our way.

### There are always more possibilities

Admittedly it turned out comparatively easy to fit into
Khora life. As a high-ranking priest of Hashan myself, I was very quickly able
to secure support and contacts from the priesthood based in Khora. The main
issue to overcome was the technological culture shock, the leap from Talmira to
Khora is a huge one. There were cars everywhere, lighting everywhere and
constructs everywhere, we were very much out of our depth. Luckily, the priests
were able to recommend where to go to help orient ourselves and catch up on
what the rest of the world had easy access to. It took me two years to graduate
from the Royal Khora University with a mastery of what would be to most people
a lethal dose of cutting-edge magical theory and magitech understanding at the
age of 20. I especially enjoyed meeting and discussing matters on equal terms
with some of the foremost minds of the city, the level of expertise I could
garner and have access to was intoxicating.

After Albert and I had caught up with the technological
level of the rest of the world, we were ready to push that level even further.
Of course, none of it was anything I couldn’t have worked out for myself given
five years, but getting a head start on matters was certainly welcome. In order
to ride the cutting edge of advancement, we would have need of resources and a
place of work. I was recommended to the Truth Seekers by the priesthood and had
no trouble being accepted into that guild. They required the presentation of a
unique invention or new and innovative paper, between myself and Albert we had
dozens of these already and were able to quickly achieve positions of significant
repute within the organisation.

Naturally, Edranar being the military propaganda machine
that it is, and me being unable to keep a secret to save my life, our stay had
to be cut short. Turns out that the Truth Seekers were little more than a front
for the titanic military establishment to reap new innovations and scout
brilliant minds for its own purposes, whether or not that’s an intentional part
of their ethos or just the result of pervading corruption was irrelevant, the
result was that we would have to leave again. A person can be forgiven for
feeling disillusionment with the world after constantly being taken advantage
of and I’d be lying if I didn’t begin to feel helpless. It seemed as though we
would never get the chance to really do what we were meant to and may have to
just accept the loss of our ideas and their subsequent perversion at the hands
of an uncaring war machine. And we might have done just that, if not for the
Venatori Umborum. The promise of an independent environment free of the
politics of nations to truly innovate without restrictions had never been so
enticing, the only issue of course is that we had no idea how to find it aside
from a flippant mention of the free city of Lhea from Saoirse and so that
became our destination.

Albert and I still had commitments in Edranar, to the Truth
Seekers in particular who were more and more demanding on our time and efforts
and so some manner of covert escape would be necessary. Last time we had tried
such a thing it had gone horribly, so we reasoned that garnering help from
someone with greater clandestine experience would be a boon to our efforts.
Albert was much more effective at such things than me, so he began careful
inquiries within the criminal underbelly of Khora while I maintained our
appearance at the guild, covering for him as best I could. Before long, he
managed to secure an introduction with a magic user who called herself Mask but
who assured us she could secure herself and the two of us transport to Lhea
without being noticed by the state. As it turned out, it wasn’t the state that
noticed.

Turns out that Mask must have been involved in some
extremely dark dealings that she was trying to escape from herself because on
our way to the airship we were going to stow away on the three of us were
attacked on the streets of Khora. Mask seemed to recognise our assailant,
muttering the name ‘Dervish’ in a shocked whisper before he was upon us. I have
never been much of a warrior, but by this point I had access to some pretty
significant magic which I was quick to employ towards slowing his furious
assault. It was almost over as soon as it started, Dervish was extremely quick
to drop Mask before she even had a chance to react and then he turned his
attention on myself and Albert, though found that between my magic and Albert’s
shooting he wasn’t able to take on the pair of us and had to beat a hasty
retreat before he himself sustained critical injuries. Abandoning Mask’s body
in the street, Albert and I rushed for the airship before we could be found by
the police, or worse, and finally left the city.

### Too good to be true

Lhea is a weird city full of weird foreign conflicts and
competing business interests, a bustling grove of opportunity for anyone who
knows how to use it. Given my ineptitude with subtlety and secrecy, Albert
began the subtle investigation for the Venatori himself while I worked within
the priesthood to gather money to support us. It didn’t take long for him to
get contacted, turns out that you don’t find the Venatori, the Venatori finds
you. It’s no overstatement to say that we were a perfect fit for the
organisation, driven, brilliant and desperate to unravel the secrets of the
universe without national loyalty. For the first time in our lives, we were
truly free to pursue our intellectual desires and build and innovate on what
was genuinely the bleeding edge of modern understanding.

There’s no doubt in my mind that my years within the
Venatori were the happiest of my life. Without the constant peril of national
interests and other unsavoury organisations breathing down our necks, Albert
and I were able to finally relax into an environment in which we felt at home.
We had always been close, but now rather than being close from necessity and
looking out for each other we could truly get to know each other and forge a
bond neither of us had experienced before. I loved him more than anything and
for eight long happy years we had the chance to live and work together, doing
what we loved with who we loved free of worry and concern. It felt like the
good times had finally come and would continue until the end, but the fates had
other plans.

All good things must come to an end, sometimes not all at
once in a catastrophic event but slowly and almost imperceptibly. Over my time
in the Venatori, I saw several friends slowly change and eventually leave
altogether, given another top-secret assignment far away from us. It was never
an issue; new people would always come in eventually and so I was still
surrounded by friends never really thinking anything of it. That is, until
Albert began to behave weirdly. Slowly but surely, he became more and more distant
and absorbed in other thoughts. We spent less and less time together, he
seemingly having become occupied in the work of Elias Tonra, his new
supervisor. As I thought about it more, trying to work out why he would drift
away from me, I realised how it all started and ended with Elias. Come to think
of it, it had been the same as those before as well. I dropped everything I was
working on, devoting all my time and effort to finding out what I could about
the man, but he was illusive. Not quite illusive enough for me though. I mapped
his actions, who he had spoken to, reassignments he had ordered, and began to
get a glimpse at a larger picture that I didn’t like the look of. Elias had an
unnatural capability to indoctrinate and convince, he had the entire
organisation wrapped around his little finger. Clearly, he was engaged in
something big, Albert would have to listen to me.

Of course, he didn’t. By the time I confronted him, it was
too late. Elias had already gotten his teeth into him and Albert was long gone.
He didn’t believe anything I said, accusing me of being paranoid, of forging
the evidence I had, of being jealous of Elias. If I cared for him, he said that
I would be supporting his project, not trying to ruin his opportunities. He
left me distraught on the laboratory floor, the last memory I have, his back
turned as he slammed the door shut with finality behind him.

As I said, all good things must come to an end and this
spelled the end of my time with the Venatori. I had no idea what I had stumbled
into, but it was clearly big. Elias was a big fish and a man that I could do
nothing about alone, so once again, I fled. This time, there was nothing
stopping me from leaving. I gathered a number of my inventions and what magical
power I had accrued into a bag of holding and took my leave of the organisation
with no plan of where to go or what the future would hold. I put my fate fully
into the hands of Hashan to set me on the right path, for I was truly lost.

### Escape into fire

Though it was easy to leave, Elias clearly didn’t want me to
get far. As soon as I got far enough outside of Lhea to be out of eyeshot, I
was attacked on the road by a group of masked assailants in dark armour,
concealing every inch of skin. They were powerful, much more so than the
average thug and I was quickly overwhelmed. By some miraculous foresight, I had
taken a planar rod of fire in my escape and now in my desperation, clutched it
and prayed for a miracle. When I opened my eyes, I found myself in an empty plain
of desolation surrounded only by empty blasted ashen fields and a crushing, dry
heat. In that instant, Hashan had given me the power to visit other worlds, and
I became a planeswalker. A visit such as this marks the mortal form, the plane
of fire burning a red streak in my dark hair that would forever mark me.

Surviving in burning hot desert may be challenging for most
people, but when creating nourishment and water is a minor wonder to you it’s
barely a concern. Of course, the cinder storms were far from ideal and so I
struck out for the only bastion of civilisation (if it can be called that) in
this blistered wasteland; the City of Brass. This was a difficult trek to make,
even with my extensive knowledge of the planes and substantial magical power
the ashen fields are full of all manner of perils that I would do well to
avoid.

Luckily, I had appeared relatively close to the city and
only had to traverse a minimal distance of wilderness to reach it, encountering
little beyond a pair of salamanders on my way there. The City of Brass is
breath-taking to behold, not a sight that you could ever forget as long as you
lived. Dominated by brilliant spiralling minarets and crammed with colour,
sound, smell and action everywhere, glittering with burnished brass in the
white-hot inferno of the sun. Intimidating doesn’t do it justice, I don’t think
that my words really can, but suffice it to say that I was terrified, knowing
that though I had escaped peril on the material plane I could just as, if not
more easily find myself in an even more dangerous predicament if I made one
more move in this place. So, I tread cautiously, avoiding communication where I
could and Efreeti at all costs. Though I could talk to them without issue, I
had no local currency and precious little to trade and so I searched for some
measure of familiarity, other mortals who had ended up stranded here or even
other planeswalkers. The vast majority of the mortal population of the City of
Brass are slaves to the Efreet but some few have managed to forge independent
lives here. One such person was Tei Lun, a Tyresian man who had amassed a
significant fortune from buying and selling magical items while maintaining
perfect confidentiality of his clients. It was his shop ‘Wonders from abroad’
that I stumbled into, filthy and exhausted as more or less my first and last
hope at finding a safe base of operation in the City.

Tei seemed to take some pity on me, offering shelter and
safety without yet a demand for anything in exchange. Of course, I was grateful
for his hospitality, taking the opportunity to clean myself and recover from
the gruelling march through the desert before we sat together that evening to
discuss what would happen next. My tuning fork had been irreparably damaged in
the wild discharge of magic of my first casting and so I had need of new ones.
Tei had a rivalry with an Efreet called Rhoyjar, one of the sons of The
Pestilent Raja who was disrupting his business and threatening his suppliers.
Tei also explained that this Rhoyjar was also a planeswalker, in possession of
tuning forks for the planes of fire and air and that if I was somehow able to dispose
of him from the city, I would not only be able to take those for myself, but I
would have a permanent secure base in Tei’s establishment whenever I found
myself in the city. We drew up the contract and both signed, satisfied with
what we would get out of the deal as I began to plot how I would take down an
Efreet prince.

Rhoyjar was an arrogant and prideful being, terribly
aggressive and quick to furious outbursts and so I knew I would have to be
careful in my approach. I came up with a brilliant and subtle plan, where I
would lure him into the jaws of an inescapable attack and destroy him while he
lay helpless. Of course, that plan fell apart instantly. The nerves of seeing
him in person got to me and all the planning I had fell out of my mind so when
I stood there in the middle of the bazaar blocking his passage, I couldn’t
think to do anything but challenge him to a duel. Thankfully, I had the
foresight to insist that we set aside our means of escape, so I could ensure I
didn’t damage the tuning forks I needed but it was still a shockingly stupid
thing to do. Rhoyjar leapt at the chance to shred a mortal planeswalker and sprang
into action, flaming scimitars in hand. I could barely do a thing but apart
from defend, his assault was quick and furious, and it took everything I had to
hold my own against him though very quickly it became apparent that it wouldn’t
be enough. I was tiring and he was just getting started so I acted out in
desperation, casting plane shift and forcing Rhoyjar out of the City of Brass
and into the mansion of Magister Elizabeth Ailamos. Miraculously, it worked,
and I couldn’t hold back a full-bodied laugh imagining the chaos of his
intrusion into her meticulously organised domain as I gathered Rhoyjar’s
discarded tuning forks and made my hasty escape back to Tei.

Despite how funny what I did was, I knew the consequences of
my actions. The Pestilent Raja would not be happy to hear of the humiliating
defeat of one of his princes, and though Tei assured me that I would be safe
with him, I didn’t want to risk losing my only safe haven on the plane to the
wrath of an angry Raja. I stayed one more night at ‘Wonders from abroad’ before
bidding my farewells to Tei and shifting back to the material world.

### On the run

Elias hadn’t given up his hunt. I continued to evade his
people as best I could, killing my attackers when possible and fleeing into
other planes when not. My experiences on the plane of air were much less
stressful than on the plane of fire, I shunted into existence on a small grassy
rock that was adrift in the labyrinthine winds and was able to use my magic to
shape the interior into something that resembled a comfortable home. That is,
while not locked in a terrible hurricane in which case you had better get out
of the plane as soon as possible. For my excursion to the plane of air, I
earned a streak of white through my hair which would forever mark me.

The last several months have been hell. I’ve had a few
collective days of peace in my home in the plane of air while the currents were
slow, but that was rare. Very rare. On the plane of fire, I’m in constant fear
of being found by the Pestilent Raja and I can hardly spend longer than a day
in the material world before being attacked by Elias’s tireless hounds. Peace
of mind is a thing of the past, restful sleep a distant memory, friends,
ambition, goals, faith even, all fallen to the wayside in my single-minded
desperate clawing attempt to cling onto the meagre life force that I had left
with no end in sight. I was helped a very few times, most notably my life was
saved by a planeswalker named Azhek stepping in on my behalf for little
apparent reason as he disintegrated one of the efreet hounding me, the others
taking almost all of what little I still had before fleeing the scene too.
Azhek was a confused man, he didn’t seem to understand what I said to him when
I explained my situation and the peril I was facing. He was more interested in
his holiday than getting involved any further, so I shifted back to the
material plane again.

### Salvation in chaos

I had steadily been getting better at aiming my arrivals to
the material world, but this time for some reason I was shunted far away from
where I wanted into the heart of a titanic storm, laying waste to thousands of
acres of the world in all directions with no perceivable end. I desperately
hunted for shelter, there was no way I could survive a storm of this magnitude
in the open. Fortunately, I had been dropped in the midst of a craggy mountain
range with dozens of tunnels and caves into which I could huddle for some small
measure of security. It was difficult to sleep, but I eventually recouped the
power I would need to shift again and escape from this hellish screaming wind,
worse even than the worst I had experienced in the plane of air. So, I
focussed, clutching my tuning fork I shifted again.

I could not even begin to posit as to the nature of that
storm, because it fucked my planar travel to absolute shit. I instantly
recognised where I ended up, but it didn’t make any sense how I had got there.
Limbo is not an easy place to reach, and it’s an even harder place to be. Limbo
is a realm of true chaos, matter being made and unmade, reformed, burned,
frozen and everything in between over the course of 30 seconds but it can be
tamed. A powerful, ordered mind can force out the chaos and create stability in
a limited area and luckily for me, my mind is certainly powerful. I was able to
forge a small fifteen-foot radius domain of rock and earth around me. Now all I
needed to do was survive the day until I could shift out of Limbo once again, I
just had to hope I wouldn’t get found. The marks that the outer planes leave
are more significant than those of the inner planes. This time I was rewarded
with a slowly shifting and undulating colour changing ring around my left thigh
which would forever mark me.

I lay down exhausted on my small island of peace to rest,
hoping to Hashan that I would finally find some safety. Of course, nothing had
gone my way so far, so why would that change now? Hideous malformed Slaadi took
notice of my tiny pocket of stability and were enraged by it, charging in their
screaming droves to destroy it and punish me for creating it. I still had a lot
of magic left in me, but there were dozens of them and only one of me, and I
was exhausted. The first few were easy enough to dispatch, but there was no
real end to how many of them would come and I was quickly forced to begin
thinking creatively, demolishing and reforming portions of my platform to slow
their assault and crush their advances. No such defence could be mounted in
perpetuity of course and I quickly found myself running out of power, and then
running dry completely. In the instant I had before they finished me off once
and for all, I cried out to Hashan openly for help, and for the first time in
my life, he answered directly. When you reach a certain level of significance
to a God, they will, on occasion, step in directly to help. Hashan stepped in
for me, burning away the slaadi around me in a brilliant blaze of radiant fire.
I shielded my eyes from the brightness of it as I heard their hideous dying
screams and opened them again to see a strange figure with peculiar bearing and
unusual dimensions wading through piles of discarded slaadi, finishing off any
that survived the initial barrage. Then, I heard the divine voice of my God. Hashan
was full of sympathy and courage, he had been watching me the entire time and
lamented what had happened, but more than that he gave me a way out. I was to
find a group of extraordinary people in Edranar, they themselves engaged in
thwarting what was hunting me. I would be able to find safety, security,
friendship once again and have the opportunity to. Finally. Stop. Fleeing.

The man introduced himself as Ferril, an agent of the mythical
being ‘Lady Loss’ and a collector of the broken, a returner of the lost. I
suppose I fit that bill very well, no doubt about that. Ferril gathered the
piles of slaadi around us and cast a spell on me, something to help when I arrived,
he said and then we shifted. I found myself alone in an empty street at night
in central Khora, as I saw the house I was supposed to find go up in flames.

## Description

### Appearance

Agnieszka is short, skinny, and abundantly unkempt. She has long, dark hair streaked with colour from her extra planar experiences loosely and ineffectually bound back in a messy bun in a futile attempt to keep it out of her face. She wears thick wide spectacles which magnify her already large eyes and has generally plain features. She typically wears practical and comfortable laboratory attire to resist spills and other workplace accidents but also is often seen wearing a heavy mask to prevent exposure to gasses and other workplace mishaps.

### Personality

Agnieszka has total confidence in herself, she knows exactly who she is and what she's good at, and likewise knows precisely where her weaknesses lie. Given this understanding, she does make effort to alleviate her weaknesses as much as possible with the magic and inventive craft that she has been blessed with, but more so tends to rely on other people help resolve any weaknesses. As a result of this, Agnieszka certainly has a tendency to hate being alone, latching onto and making bonds with most anyone who may be open to her.

## Relationships

### Aoife McCombe

"Gods, I hope she finds what she's looking for."

To Agnieszka, this is a woman of two parts. There's Natasha LaReve, the cold and brutally efficient executor, capable of dealing unfeeling death to the enemies of her and our cause. But, there is also Aoife. Aoife, the woman who feel into a heap in tears before her, a woman whose faith *could* waver, a woman who, she thinks at least, would think twice before making the final move to end someone's life. It feels like a wall separates the two figures who share one body, a wall perhaps to protect Aoife from Natasha, to shelter herself from the nature of her destiny, for what a destiny it is. She's clearly been so alone for so long, the only real person in her life being Dervish and as far as Agnieszka is concerned, the less said about that man the better. But maybe, hopefully, there's a world where that wall can be broken, and Aoife can be saved before the last brick is laid. She'll do what she can.

### Hieronymus Thughduhm

"Until recently, if asked about Hieronymus I would say that my defining experience of him was how he reacted when my communion with Hashan was co-opted by the One Above All. Since then, however, I've seen him in so many different lights. He's been a real kaleidoscope of emotive expression and I struggle to see through the surface to the tangle of experiences underneath which shape his world view and inform his choices. He's like the opposite of me in so many ways, yet to hold the same opinions I did when I saw what I thought to be a 'mask off' moment for him would be unfair. Now, I can't help but want us to be friends, not only because I think we could learn a lot from each other, as different as we are, but because I like him."

All choices have their consequences, and the choices that Hieronymus has made have had significant consequences for the relationship between him and Agnieszka. Equally, the choices that she has made have shaped their relationship just as much. For a not insignificant time he was a truly intimidating figure to her, one she would simply have to work with so that things kept on ticking and progress could be made against the inexorable enemy, but it seems as though a lot has changed over recent months. The letter he sent her had a significant effect on the way she thought about him, she saw it as him projecting a character of who he thought she was over her own reality, and seeing someone with whom she had shared minimal interaction writing with such depth and confidence about what he saw... well it was alarming. Since then, it feels like things have improved a great deal between the two of them. Communication is of course a necessary component in any relationship, and she's reached a little more of an understanding of who this man is and the way he thinks, though dispelling the image of the impenetrable tangle entirely is an endeavour that is still ongoing.

### Isolde LeFay

"I feel as though she's looking to present herself in a certain way, to be a strong a ruthless figure of great authority, but I don't know that it comes naturally yet. I suppose she's still learning and building her confidence in that regard. She's in a really unique situation, no one on the planet can say to have faced similar trials to her. I just really hope this doesn't all break her, she seems to hold her own life in such little regard when compared to the bigger picture and I just don't know what I could say or do to make that stop."

Certainly Agnieszka and Isolde didn't exactly start off on the best footing, Isolde's immediate reaction was to threaten violence, but Agnieszka thinks she understands the paranoia that explains why Isolde reacted in that way and hasn't held any sort of grudge over the incident. Since then the two haven't exactly become close, but she feels that they have a lot in common, and sharing what she has found out about the Haemonculi project with Isolde has given the two of them more of a united purpose; a wrong that would be good to right before everything is done.

### Ivellios Nailo

"These people and experiences have changed him, perhaps irrevocably. I imagine he still carries a lot of weight and baggage with him from the long military career he holds so close to his heart, but everything that has taken place afterwards, alongside the people that he has been up against can't have helped with that at all. I find myself really unsure of what to do, I want to try and help draw his instincts from the ones he needed in the army, but I have no idea how."

Agnieszka is wary of Ivellios, he seems unpredictable in some ways, and seems to lean to heavily on violence as a solution to many unexpected problems. Given her own life experiences, Ivellios's military dedication is a source of particular anxiety. They share a variety of expertises, both seeming to notice the same things that others tend not to, and holding a particular knack for mechanics and science as well, but she never feels as though she can really let her guard down around him, needing to be ready to act at any moment just in case.

### Natasha LaReve

#givetashtits

### Raphael Estrada

"Raphael is such a blessing to have around. He's so easy to spend time with and I feel like I can really talk to him, and more than that, it feels like he actually listens and *cares*. Since I can only talk to Yvelda occasionally now, he's been a real godsend. I hope he sees me in the same way, and that we'll stay friends after all this is done."

When Yvelda left the FBI it was really hard for Agnieszka. She found herself surrounded by people who were in many ways still strangers to her, and had lost that comforting solid presence that she provided. Raph's being in the FBI has been enormous for her, and she feels like he's ended up in a situation very similar to her in a lot of ways. They've both been hunted by inexorable forces, they're both used to being surrounded by friends, but had found themselves alone stuck in isolation for a long time. It isn't a surprise the two have been able to lean on each other as a result. But more than just being a friend, Raphael has been a stable presence for her, emboldening her to try and work on other relationships within the FBI as well.

### Xanaphia

"She feels so distant, I genuinely don't know a single thing that is going on behind those sunglasses, it's wild how someone who has seemingly spent so much time in the thick of this whole debaucle can still be so cool. I feel as though you always know exactly where you stand with her, she's not unpredictable or chaotic, she's extremely stable and will not take any shit from anyone, and she'll let you know that she's not going to take it."

Xanaphia is incredibly powerful and among the very best in the world at what she does. An assassin and thief without compare in Edranar or beyond and an incredible individual to have watching your back. Xana's presence is palpable, and the effect that she can have on those arrayed against her is very very impressive. Since their excursion into the Octagon together, Agnieszka feels she's gained a new understanding of what it is Xanaphia appreciates; competence. The satisfaction of a job working without a hitch. Hopefully, she can help ensure this continues to be the case.

### Yvelda

"Yvelda is without a doubt one of the best people I've ever had the fortune of meeting. She has been so warm and has so much affection for everyone around her, it's so amazing to feel as though there's someone who cares again. I was truly sorry to see her go, but of course I could never ask her to do anything else. Understanding the tragedies she's come from, those children mean more than the world to her and I can only hope she can find peace and comfort with them, and them with her."

When Agnieszka first encountered the FBI, Yvelda was the first to show her compassion and help her while she was exhausted and in pieces. Between her and Natasha, Agnieszka was able to make it through those first few days and she is immensely grateful to both of them for it. Even since then, Yvelda has continued to show such kindness and care, something that Agnieszka appreciates probably more than Yvelda realises. Having a friend again is so so important to her. It was really tough for Agnieszka to leave Yvelda behind, and the instinct to selfishly ask for her to come with them anyway, or even to stay behind was strong, but ultimately unfair and though she has grieved for her friend left behind, she has been able to strike up new bonds and friendships to help.

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