Star Lutana

> *"Less thinky, less talky, more dancey!"*
>
>

**Star Lutana** was a tiefling bard and a student of archaeology at Brighthollow, the prestigious academy of the city of Darnagal. Her academic pursuits were upended by a githyanki raid upon the city, forcing her and her brother Aurin into a temporary alliance with a number of other adventurers; Gwynnestri Grimm, Nagar Krelker, Ashton Halloway, and Shio Zise.

After desperately entering a portal with her newfound companions to escape from the Githyanki, Star found herself in Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells of Baator. Upon arrival, her brother was implicated in a devilish contract that forfeited his soul to Dispater, giving her a personal goal; to free Aurin's soul from the Iron Duke or die trying.

Having allied with Shai'a Crescent and surviving the fires of the hells, she and her fellow adventurers of the newly formed Skeleton Keys began adventuring in the city of Sigil, each of them seeking answers to their problems on the planes.

## Description

Star was a violet skinned tiefling with short horns, pointed elf-like ears, and featureless white eyes that glowed faintly. Her skin was dotted with white freckles and bore few blemishes. She was of average height and stood on two normal humanoid feet (unlike some tieflings, who bore hooves or digitigrade legs). Trailing behind her was a tail that ended in a spade shape; this tail was at least partially prehensile.

Typically dressing for archaeological digs, Star often wore sleeveless tunics, shorts, and fingerless gloves. She was quite fond of jewelry and accessories that evoked cosmic imagery, owing to her love of divination and fortune telling.

## Personality

In stark contrast to her straight-laced and dour-faced twin brother, Star was an optimistic and lively individual who lived life with passion. Star treated others with respect and saw value in almost all life, even when exposed to the harsh realities of the planes beyond the prime material. Star often objected to being the judge and executioner to her enemies, sometimes putting her at odds with the vengeful Shai or the practical Nagar. She disliked seeing others in pain, and thus disliked inflicting pain on others if possible.

As a die-hard idealist, Star was quick to stand up to those who made life difficult for others; she had very little tolerance for bullies, oppressors, and tyrants, and would vocally protest their actions even when greatly outmatched in power. Given her own experiences with prejudice and intolerance concerning her infernal nature, Star fiercely opposed bigotry in all its forms; she was particularly incensed during her encounters with the Cult of Hojehav, who targeted tieflings as individuals born of evil.

Star was an avid fortune teller and purveyor of divination techniques. She held a steadfast belief in the power of predictions, and enjoyed reading the fortunes of her companions and others. While she believed her predictions to be true events that would occur, she also believed the future to be malleable, seeing her predicitons more as warnings than inevitables. She was never without her Tarot deck, which allowed her to perform readings almost anywhere.

Ever a student, Star was fond of learning as long as the subject was one she cared about. She was fascinated by the world of the past, which was only spurred further by her association with spirits. When confronted with a subject or field she found boring, however, Star was quick to either excuse herself or express frustration at the tedium; she would often complain about lectures during her time at Brighthollow, and tuned out of several presentations at the Civic Festhall.

While her idealist nature was Star's primary motivator, her appetite was a strong second. Star was the first to try any new foods the planes had to offer and the first to ensure the party had a meal before adventuring. She had a particular fondness for meat and sweets.

A notorious lightweight in matters of alcohol, Star was easily inebriated after imbibing only a few drinks. During bouts of intoxication, Star's behavior was marked with loud and ominous predictions aimed at strangers, which she intended as warnings to stave off potential doom. Because of these traits, Star typically avoided alcohol unless she was particularly stressed.

## Abilities

Unlike a traditional bard, Star performed her magic by entreating "the spirits" for aid. It was unclear if the spirits she spoke of were the local ghosts or lingering shades of a particular location, or a metaphor for the whims of fate that guided her predictions and divination magic. Star was also particularly skilled at magic that affected the mind, favoring spells such as *phantasmal force* and *dissonant whispers* to inflict damage in battle.

In addition to her ability to predict fates and do harm, Star was a capable healer who saw to the injuries of herself and her companions even in the heat of battle and was known to use *healing word* to mend wounds,.

Star was reluctant to fight in melee combat given her dependence on magic and sparse protection compared to some of her companions, and thus favored the whip as her weapon of choice. When forced to fight in close range, Star fell back on the use of a rapier to fend off enemies until she could retreat to a safer distance.

The quintessential use of Star's spirit magic was the deliverance of vocal predictions imbued with tangible power, all based off of drawn cards from her Tarot deck. Different drawn cards were able to produce different effects, affecting enemies and friends alike. These cards were capable of feats such as summoning spectral warriors, bolstering the life force of others, rendering individuals invisible, or even rendering sentient individuals completely unable to speak any comprehensible languages for minutes at a time.

Despite her atypical approach to bardic magic, Star was still a capable musician and versed in the playing of several instruments. She was a practiced orator with a gift for persuasion and a keen intuition towards others, helping to break through to even the most stubborn of people. She retained knowledge of history from her time as an archaeology student, and was particularly adept at identifying the purpose and origin of abandoned ruins and other structures. While her archaeological knowledge was impressive, the practical survival skills she learned in the field were even more refined. Star was also proficient at and fond of fishing.

## Relationships

### Aurin Lutana

Star and her twin brother were very different individuals. Aurin viewed his sister as undisciplined and reckless, and often spoke in disapproval of her actions out of a misguided sense of worry; conversely, Star often referred to her brother as a 'stick in the mud' and a 'pain in the ass', bemoaning his inability to let her have fun without raising a fuss. Despite the pair being twins (and Star being the older twin by a few minutes), Star often chafed under Aurin's tendency to act as a protective older brother. Star often found Aurin to be an obstacle in her dating life in this regard.

Despite their differences and sometimes vocally belligerent relationship, however, the Lutana siblings cared deeply for one another. When the pair and their companions were accosted in hell by agents of Dispater, both Star and Aurin volunteered to sacrifice themselves for the other to fulfill Colunar's deal with the Lord of the Iron Tower. Aurin's capture and imprisonment in Dis became the prime motivator for Star to adventure through and survive Sigil and the planes.

### Estare Lutana

Star loved her mother dearly and respected her for raising two children alone. During the Githyanki attack on Darnagal, Star's first concern was her mother's safety after ensuring Aurin's own. When asked if she wanted to send a letter to Estare during a brief visit to the prime material plane, Star declined, citing her reluctance inform her mother about Aurin's fate or to make her mother worry about her.

### Colunar

Although she knew little of her father, Star despised the man for using her and Aurin as collateral in an infernal deal and for subsequently abandoning them. Following Aurin's capture, this hatred was only worsened.

### Shai'a Crescent

Star's initial relationship with Shai was rather terse given the desperate situation that they met in. Shai's relative intolerance for planar naiveté was seen as an insult by Star, and Star's love of fortune telling found contention with Shai's paranoia.

As the two traveled together, their relationship eventually mended, and the two began to enjoy each other's company. Star and Shai were able to empathize over the mutual experience of losing a sibling, and Shai admired Star's insistence on rescuing Aurin despite the dangers involved. Star, in turn, respected Shai as a source of planar knowledge and would differ to her in regards to the physical and societal dangers of Sigil.

### Gwynnestri Grimm

As fellow scholars, Star and Gwyn got along rather well from the start of their association. The two shared similar goals of rescuing family members from unjust imprisonment, bolstering their camaraderie as they survived the literal hells to reach Sigil.

Although the two had their differences (particularly over the 'taming' of the infamous Wuzzy), Star and Gwyn remained steadfast friends during their interplanar adventures. Star cited Gwyn as her favorite party member to share inn rooms or campgrounds with, given Gwyn's permissibility with sharing space.

### Nagar Krelker

Star and Nagar shared stubborn and action-oriented personality traits, which helped make them fast friends early on. After Nagar began to elaborate on their history, Star came to admire Nagar's determination to live as they wanted without having to hurt the innocent.

Like most of the party, Star was quick to sing praises to Nagar's physical strength and brawn, and happily allowed them to engage in situations that allowed them to show this off; arm wrestling in particular.

### Ashton Halloway

As an optimist able to match Ashton's boundless pessimism, Star spent a good amount of her time with Ashton trying to cheer the dour dragoon up and attempting to get her to open up to the rest of the party. Although these attempts were rarely successful, Star still treated Ashton with kindness, even after stating once that Ashton reminded her of her brother's negative qualities.

After Ashton's past and true nature as a fiend were revealed, Star's positive treatment of her companion went unchanged, still seeing Ashton as the same person despite this new information.

### Shio Zise

Star and Shio did not interact much while stuck in the Hells together, but the two got along well enough to work together during their shared tribulations. Star was saddened when Shio was made to give up one of his most prized memories to the hags of Avernus, and bemoaned the cruelty of it all.

### Bliss

Given Star's own experiences with bigotry directed at tieflings, she found herself empathizing with Bliss' struggle against the Cult of Hojehav. After Bliss joined the party, Star was able to help guide Bliss through the shock of being exposed to the realities of interplanar life and travel for the first time, having recently gone through the same thing.