Richelle de Mauvais

Richelle de Mauvais is a Red Widow from Dementlieu.

Background

Dementlieu

The Red Widow's unknown mother implanted a clutch of eggs in an unnamed human man, abandoning him to be devoured from the inside out by their offspring. Before this could happen, the man was purchased by the two scholars Albert and Giles de Mauvais. The clutch hatched in 709 BC, but the hatchlings were trapped in Albert's laboratory, where he subjected them to inhumane experiments. In the year 714 BC, due to her extremis of terror and pain, one hatchling discovered a spark of arcane magic within herself, which she tried to use to secure her escape. Instead, Albert stated out loud his intention to dissect her brain.

At this point, matters took a turn. Giles de Mauvais knocked Albert unconscious, stuffed the gifted hatchling and a number of precious books in a bag and absconded, fleeing east. During their journey, he nursed the Red Widow back to health and started educating her about the world at large. He made it very clear that his actions were not inspired by true altruism, but that he wanted to learn about Red Widows by observing her, rather than slicing into her flesh.

Unusually, the Red Widow felt a deep and lasting sense of gratitude for the human who had saved her life. As she gained control of her shapeshifting powers, the Red Widow and Giles started to claim they were a travelling father and daughter to deflect awkward questions, and he bestowed upon her the name Richelle de Mauvais.

Nova Vaasa

The unlikely pair wound up in Kantora, where Giles took up a teaching position at the University in Kantora and enrolled 'Richelle' as a student. He was honest with her about his intention to monitor her capacity to learn and her mental growth when compared to the human children with whom she must take classes. Rather than be offended, Richelle considered the idea to be interesting and a challenge; she focused on her studies, rather than the appetites of the flesh.

When Giles declared that he was ready to compile his notes on her development into a book in 719 BC, Richelle was eager to be the first to read it -- but tragedy struck. One morning, Giles was found dead in a brothel in Kantora, apparently having succumbed to a heart attack while at business with the local prostitutes. Because Richelle was his only heir, the sum of Giles' worldly possessions passed to her. Out of respect for the man who had saved her from a torturous death and found her interesting enough to study, Richelle decided to complete her studies at the University before moving on with her life.

In 721 BC, Richelle chanced to overhear her father's killer boast of his having poisoned Giles and dumping his body at the brothel while deep in his cups. Spurred by a mixture of loyalty and gratitude towards Giles, the Red Widow murdered his killer in the dead of night, injecting him with enough venom to kill a horse, then leaving his body where it lay instead of feasting upon him.

Richelle graduated summa cum laude from the University in Kantora in 722 BC. Suddenly realizing that half of a Red Widow's average lifespan had already passed, she was suddenly gripped by the fear of death and resolved to find ways of extending her lifespan. As none of her studies in Kantora had offered her any leads, Richelle travelled west to find superior houses of learning.

Dementlieu

Richelle enrolled in the University of Dementlieu in 724 BC, planning to engage in postdoctoral studies and perform advanced studies in the field of biology. As part of her research she started trapping and vivisecting any other Red Widows she encountered, an activity that led to her failing a Powers Check -- an unusual achievement for a creature whose humanity should be nothing but an illusion. Although her research did teach her a lot about Red Widows in general and herself in particular, she found nothing to help her extend her lifespan. What she did find, was an explanation why she found it so much easier to resist the urges of the flesh than most of her kind; be it due to a natural mutation or due to Albert de Mauvais' experiments, but Richelle was both sterile and asexual, neither inclined to nor capable of producing offspring.

Regrettably - for Richelle - her research was cut short before she could find a scientific way to extend her life. Her biological experiments, once discovered by the University's leadership, led to general outcry and her forced ejection from the University in 730 BC. With most of her inheritance spent on necessities, the cost of her education and a laboratory that was now lost to her, Richelle needed to secure an income. She decided to ply her abilities with arcane magic at the venue most tolerant of it in Dementlieu, and she applied for a membership with la Société de Legerdemain in 731 BC. To her relief, she managed to secure a sufficient income to meet her needs. To her surprise, she found she had a knack for stage magic and quite enjoyed it.

Richelle was successful enough that she managed to save up money to found a travelling company of entertainers which she named Théàtre d'Atroce, recruiting from among the less successful entertainers of Port-a-Lucine who might otherwise have starved to death - and thus came cheap where wages were concerned. In addition to travelling all over the domain, delivering music, theater, stage magic, acrobatics and other diversions to the people, Richelle started using her group to help foreign agents get around the land undetected. She especially favoured the patronage of Borca, as she was compensated for her services with Vital Venom, which allowed her to halt her physical aging.

Alas for Richelle, Dominic D'Honaire got wise of her business and subtly blacklisted the Théàtre d'Atroce, cutting it off from sponsorship by the nobility and discouraging paying customers from attending its performances. Aware that this was little more than a warning shot from the master manipulator of Dementlieu, Richelle decided to take her company on the road, and started a grand tour of the Core. She would eke out her supply of Vital Venom for as long as it would last while searching for other ways to extend her life.

Darkon

In 737 BC, the Théàtre d'Atroce was performing in Martira Bay when Richelle came to learn of the unusual longevity of several of its inhabitants. Without knowing what the Kargatane were, Richelle still considered them a useful resource. She personally organized one of her company's greatest performances ever, urging her employees to give their very best even as she herself laboured on devising new and daring illusions for the magic show.

The Théàtre's final show in Martira Bay was still spoken of years afterward, both for the amazing entertainment and for the fact that over a dozen people legitimately disappeared during Richelle's "disappearing act" - and were never seen again. Indeed, Richelle had used the show to mask her abduction of the people she most wanted to investigate. By means torturous and foul, she extracted what she termed an elixir of longevity from her victims, which she imbibed to great success -- in spite of the fact that she failed a second Powers Check. The elixir rejuvenated Richelle until she was physically in her prime, the equivalent of a 17 year old Red Widow.

With both Alanik Ray and the Kargat descending on Martira Bay to investigate the disappearances, Richelle hustled her company out of the city and deeper into Darkon. Unknown by her, her misdeeds were well-known to Azalin Rex, who took grim amusement from her determined scrambling to stay alive, and took steps to prevent the Claiming of Darkon from taking the 'little spider' and her servants -- for now.

In 741 BC, the Lich-King finally deigned to contact Richelle, inviting her to work for him by ferrying Kargat agents around the Core as she had ferried spies for other countries in Dementlieu. Knowing better than to defy the ruler of Darkon, Richelle accepted, but asked to be paid not just in gold, but in life. Amused by the Red Widow's temerity, Azalin agreed to her terms. During Richelle's service, she would periodically be invited to Castle Avernus, so that Azalin might use his magic to drain the life of prisoners and bestow it upon her.

Richelle served the wishes of her dreadful employer, mostly faithfully, until the start of the Requiem. The Red Widow was growing increasingly restless, seeing the reaping of so much life as dangerous, especially since she was sometimes required to ferry Azalin's killers to and from their blood-soaked work. When Azalin was seemingly destroyed in 750 BC, rather than ally herself with any of the major Kargat cells, Richelle cut ties with the organisation and took her Théàtre d'Atroce out of Darkon for good.

Twilight

In 755 BC, Azalin returned to the throne of Darkon. Richelle started corresponding with the dread king, offering to return to his service if he would agree to compensate her as he had done before. Azalin sent a reply that explained he had decided not to directly punish her for abandoning his service while he was indisposed, but that he was not interested in retaining her services in future. In addition, he forbade her from ever returning to Darkon, thus consigning her to the touch of time and eventual death.

By 760 BC, Richelle definitely felt the touch of time upon her body, in spite of everything she had done to stay alive. She announced to her employees that she wished to retire, and allowed them to buy her out. With her pension thus secured, the Red Widow retired to Chateaufaux, where she settled down in a small manor house. On occasion, she would still emerge from her seclusion to hold stage magic shows, especially when the Théàtre d'Atroce stopped by on its never-ending tour of the Core, and she took a handful of students in that art over the years. Most of the time, however, she spent recording her accumulated knowledge in the subjects of arcane magic, biology, the extension of life and stage magic into a series of scrolls; an activity which she allowed to become public knowledge.

The work Richelle is doing on her scrolls is not for purely scholarly purposes, however. By allowing news of her work to become public knowledge, the Red Widow hopes to attract thieves with an interest in arcane knowledge. The scrolls are bait in a trap Azalin's 'little spider' has set, hoping to attract people who like her have an interest in extending their natural lifespan, so she can use their knowledge to gain more time.

Statistics

Neutral Evil female Red Widow Bard 2 / Wizard 3 / Ultimate Magus 2 / Stage Magician 5.

Richelle casts spells as a 5th-level Bard and an 8th-level Wizard. She especially favours the school of Enchantment, but is equally skilled with Illusion.

She retains a hairy spider from Hazlan named Cardinál as a familiar.

Path of Corruption

Path of the Philosopher

Associated transgressions:

• 1. Vivisection of fellow Red Widows in Dementlieu.
• 2. Torturous murder of over a dozen Kargatane in Darkon to create the Elixir of Longevity.
• 3. Knowingly acting as a logistics officer for the Kargat and later for the Ebon Fold during the Grim Harvest.