Asherah Demir

Arcane tattoos down arms for ease of casting and binding,

Ghost Step Tattoo across clavicle

Undead husband looming behind her occasionally

Feat: Shadow Touched (TCE 80)

Class: Artificer (TCE 9)

Class: Order of Scribe Wizard (TCE 77)

## Appearance

Asherah is a lean pale elf who's weathered and scarred skin is nearly covered with intricate tattoos of arcane sigils circles and text that glow and whisper whenever she casts spells.

While a shipwright, Asherah was more hands on than her peers, her desire to see her designs on the sea causing her to be part of the crew of the leviathan hunting and pirating vessels she had carved and bound spirts to, albeit only temporarily. This recklessness has resulted in many scars on her person that slipped past her protections most prominent being the burn across the upper half of her face inflicted by a Brelish ship's wizard's scorching ray.

She is always seen with a simple blank book in which she scribbles designs and arcane formulas into, seperate from the arcane library of spell she has amassed tattooed across a large portion of her back extending from the base of the spine up; a spell book of script and arcane designs to bind and funnel the powers of the planes and the specters she's bound to her flesh.

Besides her inked spell book, Asherah has a several intersecting crimson bands across her clavicle with black Mabran script tattooed carefully into them, a series of eldritch patterns that allow her to funnel the power of Mabran and become a semi-ethereal ghost for the shortest of moments.

She keeps her black hair in braids held off her face by a red bandana that covers her now crystalline eyes while she works and dresses in simple and practical clothing with a cloak in cold weather though she has not had the need for it since arriving in sharn.

## Fluff

### History

Asherah was odd growing up. She was never charismatic, she was told such by her undead ancestors and the children she was taught with, and had a tendency to question what other's accepted as tradition. While it did not make her friends, her analytical mind excelled at the Farlnen art of binding, and as she grew into her century she was heralded as a brilliant if not slightly unorthodox shipwright and arcanist, and her tithe to the Grim flowed thick after each commision and design.

Part of her success was her insistence to join the voyages of every ship she crafted to see the boat function on open sea, noting faults and absorbing the needs of the crew and the bound spirits to improve her future vessels. It also inadvertently helped her gain a good amount of combat experience as the life of a Bloodsail sailor was rarely a peaceful one, but also resulted in the loss of both her eyes to a Brelishman's lucky wand blast. Thankfully she quickly made replacements, although her ability to see color was greatly diminished to her annoyance.

Near the end of her 3rd decade at sea she had a tryst with and later married a human cortesan from Port Verge, knowing full well the consequences. He would later start a tattoo parlor with money he had saved and they were happy for a short time, content to chatter about arcane theory and biding artifice and trade notes. When his body perished she bound his soul to her skin so he would never truly die: where he remains still.

However, journeying from Farlnen to Port Verge was expensive and many of her clients started to move on to different shipwrights who were closer to the homeland. After the years spent with her husband, Asherah's vault to the Grim was not as impressive as it could have been, and her clientele had dwindled to a few old sailors that would only require minor repairs.

### The Last War

Asherah built ships for the Bloodsails and boarded their vessels as they made war on Karrnath's enemies for several decades before settling down for a short while with her husband. The war itself never really interested her and her knowledge of it is just passing gossip she's heard along her work.

### Invitation

While Asherah was contemplating joining a crew for a few decades or helping her daughter with the tattoo parlor to amass the capital to put herself back on track for an desirable afterlife, Malcolm, one of Niraj's and now her daughter's occasional customer suggested she make her fortune with the Wayfinders that had just set up a guild hall in Regalport after proving themselves to the Ryger. Adventuring was profitable, and would allow her more inspiration than slaving away bound to a menial job.

For some reason, after completing her arcane assessment by summoning an undead specter in the middle of the training hall, and lecturing about the intricacies of glyphs to funnel Mabaran energy for several hours to the interviewer, she was told that while she might not be a fit for the Principalities as it was just getting on its feet, there was a branch that would accept more "special" cases.

After some wait she received a letter from one exhausted looking Orien: an invitation to the Sharn Branch of the Wayfinders.

Asherah boarded the first ship to Breland, unsure what to expect in this foreign human nation but hopeful that it would lead to knowledge and more importantly coin.

### Experience

Asherah is incredibly knowledgeable about binding and arcane sigils, a talented shipwright and a decent sailor. Hailing from Farlnen she knows more about the negative energy of Mabar than most, and years of jumping onto the vessels she crafted as a temporary part of the crew has honed her combat skills to a razor point. Though she is slightly out of practice she can still summon specters and skeletons to defend herself and give support to her crewmates.

### Motivation

Asherah wishes for two things, inspiration and coin. While she enjoyed her relatively settled time with Niraj, it was never meant to be a long term setting of roots. With a bit more freedom of movement, she intends to learn anything and everything from the adventures she will partake in and her adventuring peers to create new designs and learn new techniques to apply to her future ships.

If she can save for the afterlife while she does it, all the better.

### Enemies

The occasional military officer that might have recognized her aboard a pirate ship about 50 or so years ago

### Traits, Ideals, Bonds & Flaws

**Personality Traits**

* I love sketching and designing objects, especially boats and arcane sigils.

* I have an endless supply of cautionary tales related to the sea.

**Ideals**

* Souls. Death should not be the end. If they cannot be bound to their corpses they should be bound to flesh and wood. If they cannot be bound to flesh and wood they should be scribed in word. Though it is still a death, at least their memory can belong to ones who remain.
* Invention. Make what you need out of whatever is at hand. (Chaotic)

**Bonds**

* Much of the treasure I claim will be used to enrich my community, blood and gold for the Grim lords.

**Flaws**

* I am so obsessed with sketching my ideas for elaborate  arcane designs and ship schematics that I sometimes forget little thing like eating and sleeping.

## Crunch

### Expeditions & XP Dots

* 2 level 4 missions
	+ Welcome to the Jungle
	+ Apparel in Peril
* 3 level 5 missions
	+ Eye of the Beholder
	+ The Trollfather
	+ Purple People Eater
* 2 level 6 missions
	+ On Dead Woman's Tides
	+ Controlled Chaos

### Inventory

**Bought/Sold**

Total: 3818/3835.5 gp

* Thieves' Tools +12.5
* Crossbow, Light +12.5
* Crossbow bolts (20) +.5
* Ghost Step Tattoo -3060
* Gilded Skull -300
* Spellbook -50
* Alchemist's tools -50
* Spell Transcription (3rd Level x2) -300
* Ersatz Eye x2 -58

**Starting**

Background:

* A set of well-loved carpenter's tools
* a blank book
* 1 ounce of ink
* an ink pen
* a set of traveler's clothes
* a leather pouch with 10 gp

Classes:

* two daggers
* studded leather armor
* a dungeoneer's pack
	+ a Backpack
	+ a Crowbar
	+ a Hammer
	+ 10 pitons
	+ 10 torches
	+ a Tinderbox
	+ 10 days of Rations
	+ a Waterskin
	+ 50 feet of Hempen rope