The Red Haunt

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First introduced in Quoth the Raven, Vol.27.

The Red Haunt is a Devoratrix, a variant type of Succubus Tanar'ri Demon created by the evil Faerunian goddess known as Shar[1]. Like many of her kind, the Red Haunt chafed at having to serve at the beck and call of the malicious goddess as a Shadow Auditor - an inquisitor sent to worm her way into the confidence of users of the Shadow Weave[2], test them for loyalty to the goddess, and weed out the unfaithful.

Origin

The fiend's last target in service to Shar was a Mulan Red Wizard/Shadow Adept[3] named Girin. Rather than treat the demon as a tool or a slave, as most who fell for the deceptions offered by Devoratrices did, Girin treated the demon as a partner, an equal, even as a friend, and together they plumbed the stygian depths of the Shadow Weave for secrets and power. While Girin continued as a Specialist Wizard and Shadow Adept, the fiend studied as a Bard and Shadowcaster[4].

When Shar demanded a report on the progress of the inquisition, the fiend realized she was far more 'fond' of Girin than she felt loyalty to the goddess who had created her demonic strain. Girin returned the sentiment, and together the two dark arcanists decided to flee to some other world, where Shar could not reach them. The two of them plunged into the Plane of Shadow, managing to retain their hold on the Shadow Weave that empowered them, but Shar sent assassins to hunt them down. Girin suffered lethal wounds, but the two companions had set up a contingency plan before fleeing. Together, they sealed Girin's soul in a ring set in the fiend's navel. The plan was for the fiend to seduce a male mortal and conceive a child, then to channel Girin's soul into the pre-natal fetus, allowing her to be reborn as a half-fiend. As the fiend plunged further into Shadow, she was surprised to notice a dense fog rising around her. When the fog lifted, the demon had arrived in Darkon. The year was 581 BC.

Birth of the Red Haunt

The fiend attempted to escape Darkon and the Demiplane of Dread with all its might, trying again and again to pass through the Plane of Shadow, only for her to be delivered back into Darkon. She attempted to bully locals into revealing the way out, to no avail as none could answer her questions. Just as her frustration was reaching its peak, the fiend realized something dreadful: her memory was being eroded by some unknown force. In spite of her reality wrinkle, Darkon's 'residential curse' was rewriting centuries of the demon's memory, including her memories of the one person she had ever loved. In her extremity of emotion, the fiend took a desperate gamble, and placed a curse on herself as she had observed Vistani do from afar: No name, no past, no self, save that which you make by efforts your own. Remain unfixed by all hands; let all what would chain you suffer and moan!

The curse wiped clean the demon's memory in one fell swoop -- but it also prevented Darkon's influence from supplying her with new ones. A fiendish tabula rasa, the demon awoke near Nevuchar Springs the next morning, vaguely aware of what she was, but wholly unknowing of the who, where, when and why. As she travelled around Darkon, the demon eventually came upon Il Aluk, where she felt a great attraction to the University. Keenly aware of the void in her memory, the demon decided to fill it with knowledge. Of course, an education would cost money, and so the demon created a persona that could earn her the cold, hard cash she needed; a ferocious bandit who would wander Darkon's roads and cities, forever on the lookout for chances to shed blood and reap funds. It was at this point that the demon discovered the second effect of the curse she had forgotten placing on herself; as she engaged in the bandit's life, she found herself with two personalities coexisting in one body. One was the primal fiend who had awoken near Nevuchar Springs, eager to learn, breed and feed; the other was the bandit, hungry for battle and brigandage. Rather than fight, the two personalities were delighted to discover each other's existence.

This pattern has repeated itself over the following centuries. The demon has studied arcane magic at the University of Il Aluk; has honed her combat skills as a bandit and mercenary for Josephine Chantreaux of the Council of Brilliance in Falkovnia; has mastered science in Lamordia and pursuing post-doctorate studies with Victor Mordenheim; she has become an influential priestess of Brightwell and scholar of religious lore; she has studied many fields of knowledge and gathered power almost as an afterthought. Every time she discovers a new field of study, a new identity is born within the seething, insane matrix of the fiend's essence, allowing her to tackle her studies with a fresh perspective and expand the knowledge and skills available to the whole.

Grudges

  • The Red Haunt is noted to deeply dislike both Falkovnia and Lamordia, albeit for different reasons.
    • The fiend dislikes Falkovnia's lack of culture and learning, considering most of the people she meets there to be unlettered thugs - good for fighting in her persona as Charissa Schlosser and good for robbing or collecting bounties on, but nothing else. (Presumably, she has never visited or found insufficient virtue in the Radiant Tower.)
    • In contrast, the fiend likes the scientific development of Lamordia very much, but considers its people to be myopic and close-minded. Her Katia Schlosser-persona feels insulted by Victor Mordenheim and still resents the fact that she was driven from the hospital she ran there by an old enemy. Charissa Schlosser considers the Lamordians to be 'boring' to fight and kill.
  • The Red Haunt's Imogen Schlosser-persona holds a deep, lasting hatred for Meredoth, not merely because the old Necromancer tried to infiltrate her household with Lebendtod so he could rob her, but because she finds his very nature to be repulsive. Whereas the Red Haunt is creative, driven and holds a twisted respect for scholars of all kinds, Meredoth is a thief and an arrogant magic-supremacist who achieves nothing in the wider world. As a Dread Possibility, the Red Haunt is pursuing a plan to sink Todstein into the ocean, whereupon she will attack and murder Meredoth while he is still confused. While the old crank is incapacitated and his troops are scattered, the fiend plans to rob him of his magical treasures and spellbooks.
  • At one time, Alanik Ray (possibly unaware of the Red Haunt's true nature) tried to track her down and bring her to justice. While the fiend has made no mention of a true vendetta against the great detective, she refers to him as 'old Alanik Ray' in discussion with Victor Gagné, expressing some disdain for the man while simultaneously acknowledging his skill as an investigator.

Nemesis

As she went along her way, sowing harm and studying in equal measure, the Red Haunt came to realize her forward progress was being stymied by an unknown force. In game terms, each consecutive persona has less room to grow by means of gathering levels in a character class. In addition, her early experiments at escape from the Demiplane of Dread went disastrously wrong for no logical reason she could discern.

Over time, the fiend became convinced of the existence of the Dark Powers. Blaming the obstacle to her growth, the thwarting of her experiments and possibly the void in her memory on these secretive but all-pervasive forces, the Red Haunt decided that something needed to be done about her oppressors. She is highly fond of the Lands of Mist for their opportunities for study and their malleability, but the Dark Powers? They have got to go.

Centurion

In 740 BC, the persona of the Red Haunt known as 'the Centurion' is born. In 751 BC, during a meeting of Evil beings in Kartakass, she co-founds the Centurions of the Night with a single, devastating goal: to cast down the Demiplane of Dread, kill the Dark Powers, and rebuild the Land of Mist through an act of 'Cosmic Necromancy'.

Source of Shadow

While it is unknown whether the Red Haunt is aware of the events of the Spellplague[5] and the resulting dissolution of both the Weave[6] and the Shadow Weave[7], the fact remains that she is a nexus and source of the Shadow Weave in the Demiplane of Dread. Even if Shar no longer sponsors this dark Weave, it appears to still be vital and functional in Ravenloft -- and the Red Haunt is eager to spread it and instruct others in its use. In a sense, this means the Red Haunt has surpassed her former mistress, and is the foremost authority on the mysteries of her chosen style of magic.

Powers and Abilities

Apart from being a potent Bard in all her incarnations, the Red Haunt has access to three Land-based powers, one of which allows her to conjure an dense fog within her reality wrinkle, one to forcibly warp the Demiplane's Weave of Magic[8] (as acknowledged by both Hags and the Church of Hala) within her reality wrinkle to the Shadow Weave, and one that grants her a smile capable of driving people who see it insane.

Chronology

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