Piper

The serpent **Piper**, more formally **Lady Piedmont** or **Lady Pipette**, is a prominent figure in the Crusade and a soft-spoken aristocrat of Auril City. She is a four-time widow, two of which times were by her own hand, and a baroness through her marriage to the late Empoleon Baron Piedmont. Having secured a comfortable place in high society, Piper monitors the backrooms of the city for the Crusade's intelligence. She holds the title of deputy magistrate under Urien, but she is occasionally caught engaging in furtive, extrajudicial, and sometimes lethal crime-fighting escapades. Piper is often seen toting a parasol, even in the dead of night.

## History

Piper grew up in a rural grassland community under happy circumstances. A child of two orchardists, she was taught at a young age about the management and cultivation of fruits and nuts. As a Snivy, Piper was handy in times of harvest because of her long vines. She lived in this manner with her parents and brothers through her evolution to Servine, around which time she began to look out for a prospective lover.

A Grotle named Pieter caught Piper's eye, and she his. The two farmers found love at first sight, and their days together were some of the happiest of their lives. They staked their own farmstead together and embarked on the grand quest to start a family. Their first harvest was bountiful, and they were soon joined by a son named Percy. Piper grew to love her son, as mothers do, and doted on him tirelessly.

However, Pieter and Piper would not live happily ever after. Pieter fell ill one day, prompting his Servine wife to reach out to the nearest town for aid. Piper met with a physician and successfully procured a medication for the ailing Grotle. To her horror, she found her home ransacked and burned when she returned. Her family lay blackened among the ashes. A grief-stricken Piper wept at their side until she could weep no more, at which time she finally laid them to rest on the family plot with little ceremony.

Yet young Piper's grief turned into single-minded vengeance soon afterward. She learned from the sheriff that a Talonflame outlaw was believed to frequent the area—she had seen no unusual footprints at her ruined home, so this avian seemed a likely culprit. Rather than moving back in with her parents, the widowed Piper borrowed a sum from Pieter's remaining family and set out after this criminal. She managed to ingratiate herself with his lackeys through clever gifts and a dark sense of humor. She even flirted with the rogues until one of them took her for a wife—even this was agreeable to her if it meant being a step closer to avenging Pieter and Percy. Maneuvering deeper and deeper into their fold, Piper was a full-fledged member of the team by the time she was finally introduced to her quarry. That night, she treated the gang to a wild night of drink and debauchery with coin stolen from their own pockets. When the outlaw and his drunken fellows ultimately fell into a stupor, Piper made her move and strangled them one by one. She evolved into Serperior that same night. Although she left numerous bodies in her wake, Piper eluded retaliation with the benefit of her new appearance and the satisfaction of revenge.

From that point, Piper had the mind of a cold and unromantic killer. She applied herself to slitting throats, amassing wealth, and manipulating authorities. No amount of revenge eased her restless soul—her ambitions turned inward, and she evilly preyed on unsuspecting bachelors for material gain. Eventually, however, her bloodlust ran short. When betrothed to the Baron Piedmont and conflicted by his good nature, she attempted to escape her dilemma by drowning in the waterways surrounding Auril. Only the intervention of Tower, the baron's pastor, arrested her plunge.

WIP

## Personality

"*No, this seat isn't taken.*"
— Piper sardonically greeting an uneasy Soir at her husband Piedmont's gravesite
Among the Crusade, Piper is known for her cunning intellect and gallows humor.