WIP char app
APPLICATION DATA Name: Talia Pestico | Class : Rogue 8 / Aegis 3, Psion 2, Awakened Blade 3
Race : Forgeborn ( Drakeblooded ) | Gender : Female | Age : Unknown
Height : 6'1" | Weight : 150 lbs | Hair Color : Raven black going ombre purple/red | Eye Color : Red
Alignment : LN | Role : Melee DPS, Scout, Buff with some Investigation / Heals
Build Notes : I see about half the apps appear fairly un-optimized (so far), but the rest look to be skewing low to just touching mid optimized? So this should be a low opt build depending how I spec it out. The important part of all that is I will adjust it to match the party if picked to make sure everyone gets their ‘cool thing’ to do.
Appearance : Talia stands about 6’1” which puts her on the very tall side for a human female, but only above average for a Forgeborn. However her height is not the part that makes her stand out from the crowd. No, that would be her combination of red eyes, a prominent pair of dragon horns, mid thigh long ombre hair transitioning from raven black to dull redish purple and near flawless skin that looks like living marble - because it is. So, the addition of an obviously over sized katana and long bow on her back barely makes for any added impact.
Even though Talia has been out of stasis for a while she still has issues at times with expressing emotion both facially and in vocal intonation thus coming off as rather dead pan (She sounds a bit like Orianna from League of legends if that helps). Added onto this is the fact that she does not need to breathe, and thus can appear eerily still. Therefor it is not too surprising when strangers and even passing acquaintances sometimes assume she is a construct, or in some really unobservant cases when she is still, a rather modern take on a gothic statue.
She knows from experience that she can not just ‘blend in’ without magical aid, and so has largely tried he opposite approach to stand out instead. The plus side to this is it provides an obvious alibi when she does use said magic disguise. And is even better when she uses further magic to then change one of the other of Pestico's Daughters to look like herself. Neat trick right?
Personality : Talia was a blank slate just a few years back when she first came out of stasis and has grown up in the Pestico household since then which has of course had a marked impact on her forming personality. Despite her other traits she adores children, and as part of her own personal code she tries not to harm them or expose them to any more unpleasantness than is necessary. She is also a very capable and expressive artist in sculpture and doll making with both a fine attention to detail and to process that she applies in many other things she does. And while she is aware of individuals and their needs / rights, she is at heart a collectivist. No, not the common kind using it to mask a lazy self serving agenda, but rather the much rarer idealistic and hard working variety. And as such she would nod and agree with Spock that the needs of the many outweigh then needs of the few, which for the most part makes her a pretty good teammate in any group she is part of.
By her own nature she is direct and not too troubled about distinctions between good versus evil. Instead efficiency, results and up front simplicity, are her guiding lights. This can frequently lead to some short sighted, and often times violent, solutions to problems that have unintended consequences she did not fully suss out. Mind you Talia is no way stupid about this, or goes around half cocked, its just if a critter has the thing she needs… Well then the pointy end of the sword is usually the first answer she will consider. Despite that she is actually quite intelligent in an egghead sort of way, but is still lacking in what one would call common sense, the understanding of human nature, and not at all surprisingly, life experience.
Talia is however rather introspective and willing to admit fault and learn from her mistakes which is both good and necessary for her to grow. . . But, she tends to assume everyone else is the same way, which is far from the truth. And this is something else that has also gotten her into trouble before for being too blunt. Basically she would make a pretty good straight man in a comedy routine, and was everyone’s favorite pigeon in a poker games, at least until she learned to break the rules and started cheating.
Now one might assume from her appearance that she is… A), not someone you would want to F with just for funsies. True. And, B) that she is a humorless being. False. While many elements of humor like slap stick and puns still do escape her, she is practically an expert at one liners, quips and sarcasm and is not always shy about expressing such.
Her hobbies and interests include games, figurines and doll making. No surprises here, and she gets plenty of practice helping out at the shop during down times. She does however like to take trophies from notable foes and carve figurines from them as mementos. She also engages in charity work, but unless its for children, that is more just a cover done to help her families’ reputation than out of any civic virtue.
As far as goals go? Well, her family is tops. Gaining power and perfecting herself is probably next on her list. But not so much in an ego centered way, but rather in a ‘I will use my power to create order which is good for all’ direction. In that vein she is a bit of a battle junkie, although she adheres much more to the ‘winning is right’ viewpoint versus the ‘personal honor’ aspects that some follow. Children probably come next as a priority in her mind. And, following that, would be her own ‘personal issues’ such as unraveling the mystery of her past, or finding other constructs / Forgeborn.
Background : Talia has only the vaguest flashes of memories from before she woke in Vadid Pestico’s shop. Originally she was found ‘de-activated’ as part of looting a ‘ghost’ galleon that Captain Finley Broadcastle’s crew had discovered and just started raiding before it once again was reclaimed by the sea with most of its treasures and secrets still aboard. Finley brought his find to Vadid Pestico whom of course purchased the construct right on the spot given it was more advanced than even his own Six Daughter’s (Soulbound Dolls).
After almost a quarter year of experimentation Vadid determined that his newly acquired treasure was actually something between a biological creature and a construct. And further, that it was in a state of stasis, rather than merely deactivated, and so his obsession fascination grew even greater. Eventually after several expensive attempts he was able to successfully break the stasis. Talia came back to life, but no memories or personality of her own remained. Whether that was due to any of his previous experimentation, or was something done before her stasis, remains a mystery. But, from Vadid’s perspective it was practically perfect as he had already been through pretty much this identical scenario after creating each of the other Daughters and so knew the score.
Talia spent the next several months learning about her role in the family and gaining, or regaining, skills. Somewhat fortunately it was just her personality and memories that were blanked out, and so she still knew languages and concepts for many of the things in the world around her already. One thing that became clear however was her looks were not just for appearance sake, and she had clearly served in a combat role before. Thankfully there were no accidents, and Talia learned what she could and could not do (more or less... kinda) when it came to applied violence in Korvosa. Eventually she had adjusted and had enough ‘customer training’ to be introduced as Vadid’s Seventh Daughter, and then begin and working in the store in earnest.
However unlike the previous Six Daughters, Talia looked. . . well. . . kind of scary, and that hurt business which was at least half for kids. Of course the construct obsessed Vadid did not understand it. Why would anyone be scared of her. Impressed? Sure. Amazed? Of course! But scared? He tried having her dress up in really girly dresses with frills and pastel colors, but that did not work. Then he tried very professional outfits for her, but that was a nope too. Oddly enough it was Talia herself who found the eventual solution. She just had to get out more and interact in a positive way with the inhabitants of Korvosa and word of mouth would handle the rest. Thus she spent some free time playing games with kids, and helping volunteer at some local churches. Within a few more months business was back to normal.
However during this time two other events began to unfold. The first one was the return of Captain Broadcastle trying sniff around for any clues about the ghost galleon. He did not buy that they knew nothing, and after a few attempts where he ‘made nice’, he finally decided to press the matter by bringing his crew to the shop and hinting at unfortunate future affairs. After the Six Daughter’s and Talia activated their defensive protocols that was the end of that. They sent them packing a few teeth short and having gained some bruises for their troubles, but sadly not without the breakage of some merchandise and repairs needed on the Daughter’s. Vadid had to really lay down the law to prevent Talia from trying to collect on the loss, but eventually he got through. Right or wrong mattered not, a doll and figurine shop could not become a center of violence and reprisals or it would not stay in business long.
That may have been the end of it, except for the second event. The church of Phrasma, and specifically one Dion Rolser, had concluded that Vadid had to have been trafficking in souls to make those constructs, and thus was a criminal. The government had not moved much with the Soulborn Dolls, but they were obviously not that life like, and Vadid’s word was good enough with his past history as a rebel. But Talia was another thing. Waaay too lifelike and scary looking, and the church was pushing hard, so they had to officially investigate this time. That ended up in a trial with expert witnesses and so on. And who should re-appear then but the good captain Broadcastle. To make a long story short, there was no getting out of it. Talia had to pay him some fees and promise to help find the galleon if she ever could recall anything about it. While Finley agreed to serve as one of several key witnesses about Talia being alive, and not some soul cursed construct or whatever those crazy church powder monkeys were runnin’ their yabs about.
The good news was that sanity won for once. No souls were found to have been destroyed in the processes Vadid was using although he was right up on that line. The original Six Daughter’s were found to be constructs, and thus property of Vadid. Talia however was deemed to a person, and thus have to pay taxes be free to enjoy all the rights of a Korvosan citizen. Dion was furious, but most folks were either satisfied, or at least accepting of the rulings.
This all lead to another unfortunate realization for Talia. The shop was bleeding out money way, way faster than it was making it. Even with the high margin and markup for the quality of goods they made, Talia would have to work for two lifetimes to pay back all the expenses she had incurred for Vadid. When she discussed this with him he simply replied they were family so forget it. But since Talia would not let it go, he offered up a solution. Go adventuring like he had done in his youth. She had the talent, and if she was going to insist on paying him back in any reasonable time frame it was either that or crime. Well, there was government too he quipped, but you needed connections and people skills to be that sort of criminal.
Thus began Talia’s career of adventure mixed with being a sometimes doll and figurine sculpter. Over the next two years she worked her way up the ranks mostly successfully. Recently however two things have poped up. The first is a potentially big problem for them. One of the Six Daughter’s has gone missing about the same time some murders have started in the area, and so far Talia has been unable to find her. The other thing to pop was that she got an offer to work a job for the queen. Given the state Korvosa was in the good news was it would likely pay out well. The bad news was it was probably going to be very dangerous and violent. Okay, so maybe that was only half bad news from Talia’s perspective. :P
Relationships aka Personae Dramatis
Vadid Pestico – “Can you say Geppetto?”
Vadid is a kindly if somewhat frail old man in his mid sixties who runs the somewhat famous shop Pestico's Dolls and Figurines. Located in the Midland District of Korvosa its motto is to ‘Bringing smiles to children’, and frankly to a fair number of young at heart adults too. His story is one of sweetness, sorrow perseverance, courage, and if we are being honest, a touch of madness.
He retired relatively early from moderately successful adventuring life of a wizard back in 4769 as soon as he had accumulated enough wealth to start a business and support a family. He soon met the artist Kristi, and eventually they married. Sadly the fates have a way of throwing sand in the best laid of plans and they were unable to conceive. Saddened, but not deterred, they instead settled on bringing as many smiles to children as they could in the crafting of exquisite dolls and figurines. Still fate struck yet again and he lost Kristi to Blood Veil disease back in 4707 no thanks to the efforts of then Queen Ileosa Arabasti in spreading the very same disease.
That was a bridge too far for Vadid, and he aided the resistance with what remaining might he had and helped to see her reign toppled, and queen Cressida Kroft enthroned. After which Vadid went back to his peaceful life of doll and figurine maker and kept up the business as usual, but there was an emptiness that was growing inside him. Then in 4715 he unveiled a project he had been working on for years “Pestico's Daughters” these six soulbound dolls looked fairly human and ran the shop with him. They also elevated his shop from a semi-famous boutique to a low to mid-grade tourist attraction. . . And drew the attention of both the government and various religious figures. While soulbound dolls were not illegal, they were potentially questionable due to needing pieces of souls in their creation. However with his connections from his past revolutionary support, and relationship with many in the government, nothing was done officially. But, it did put the previously largely invisible shop keep on several radars.
Then in 4718 a seventh daughter appeared called Talia who was his pride and joy. But this time officials could not turn a blind eye as Talia was very lifelike if strange looking, clearly had a full personality, and was thus very different from the previous six daughters. After much hullabaloo It was was finally determined that Talia was actually a living construct that Vadid had just completed after buying her dormant form from ‘salvage’ that Captain Finley Broadcastle had recovered. That also triggered off a legal case that ended up with Talia being declared ‘a person’ as other Forgeborn were also appearing around Golarian. In the end of the process Vadid still had an amicable relationship (mutual) with the government, if less so than before. But, he had made the determination that some of them that he had thought were his compatriots were actually hide bound Luddites who just did not get constructs.
Since that time he has continued to insist Talia is one of his daughters, and indeed she does live there and acknowledge Vadid as her father. However, she no longer works full time at the shop, and instead adventures to help repay all the bills she has accrued for her father between her reactivation, and the various ensuing legal hassles. But, the trouble for Vadid, and by extension Talia, did not end there. About three months ago one of the original six daughters went missing, and at the same time there has been a string of serial murders in the area. The Korvosan Guard has not pressed this angle too hard yet given the victims were all from the lower class, but it is hard to say if those events are related or not. Vadid has clearly been hurt by the incident and is actively looking for her along with Talia. And of course, given Talia’s background, it could even be a play by some nefarious party interested in leverage for what she may know.
OOC: I stuck pretty much to lore as much as possible but did flesh it out a fair bit by reading between the lines for Vadid. They make it seem all fluffy and fun, but lets be clear creating artificial daughters after your wife has passed means there is some deep poop going on under that happy go lucky hood and probably not all his oars are rowing the same way anymore. The analogy to Geppetto from Pinocchio is probably apt. Talia is in there as a seventh daughter to add a few more twists to it, and because it is a very natural fit for a half construct. As to how, or even if, the missing sixth daughter will play out? Or even be relevant? Well that is completely up to you. And, yes that event is indeed in the lore. :P
Captain Finley Broadcastle – “Who is using who.”
He originally found Talia’s inanimate form in one of the only two treasure chests he and his crew managed to retrieve from a ‘ghost’ treasure galleon they boarded before it sank once again beneath the waves. Not knowing what to do with an inanimate construct body, he went to the one person he had heard of that knew about such things, Vadid Pestico. Coming out of that meeting 5,000 gold to the richer and minus one construct, he fully revised upward in his mind the value of the loot on that must still remain on that missing ghost ship. A ship he now fully intended to track down again even if he had no idea how to do so.
Until… he heard the rumor that the construct was active and could actually talk. He immediately returned to the shop and tried to gather what information he could. After all, if the construct new anything about the galleon or treasure, it could be the key to a new ship… No maybe even a new fleet of ships for Broadcastle. Sadly the construct, Talia, just claimed to have no memory from before she was reactivated. Clearly she and Vadid were holding out until they could just figure out how to claim it for themselves as was only smart.
Not deterred the good Captain re-assessed and then approached again later but this time he tried a bit of the stick with some veiled threats as to what would happen to the shop if they were not forth coming. Sadly there is a big difference between a frail old shop keep who sells dolls to rich kids and has too much money, and a frail, old shop keep that also happens to be a wizard, has friends in the guard, and has his own (admittedly construct) crew. Whole different kettle of fish that. Knowing when he was beat he apologized and withdrew but silently vowed to keep a weather eye on them.
And then his luck finally took a turn for the better when news came of Talia’s trial. He once again showed up and offered to testify if the construct would reveal to him all it knew about the ship and treasure. Talia agreed but rather than hold that till after the trial, insisted she recalled nothing but flickers of memories. Convinced she was lying he became incensed and was ready to withdraw his offer, but Talia quickly calmed him. She realized Finely was not going to let up unless he ‘won’ somehow, so she agreed to pay him twice the cost for truth verifying magic, the same amount again a year later, and to reveal unto him and him alone if or when she did recall the information. Mollified with a can’t lose proposition, he then became a touch embarrassed when her words turned out to be actually true. So he agreed to cut her in for an officer share when and if she remembers. In the short run it really was a good deal for everyone. In the long run? Well, Talia would cross that gangplank when and if it ever came up.
OOC: As far as Finely is concerned she owes him, but is at least somewhat trust worthy. However debt works both ways. I.e. In order for him to collect she has gotta be alive so he is kind of on her side in a mercenary self-interested sort of way. And maybe, just maybe, he has kind of grown to like respect not hate her a bit. On a lighter note, even though he realizes better than some that she is alive, he still refers to her as ‘you’, ‘construct’ and ‘hey bolts fer brains’ among other colorful forms of address on the occasions when they do meet up.
Toyota Cressida Kroft – “The queen who was once a car” err I mean “Its complicated.”
Cressida and Talia Have no particular direct relationship other than that Talia unfortunately reminds her of a ‘minor bit of unpleasantness.’ What with Talia having reddish tinted hair, marble pale complexion and obvious signs of chromatic dragoness. Still a person should not be judged by their cover… But some doubt and suspicion? Now that is more than fair game. :P
Talia and Cressida have an indirect relation both through Vadid, and through the fact that Vadid and Talia seem to be involved with minor issues of late. And if there is one thing a monarch has too much of, its going to be minor issues that exhaust time and influence that could quite frankly be better spent elsewhere, like dealing with the major issues that Korvosa faces.
It all started with the whole daughters thing that stirred the pot with the second priest of Pharasma, Dion Rosler*. Then the Talia event brought that pot to a boil. I mean if you wanted piss in a Phrasma’s pot just start grabbing souls or whatever and maybe removing them from the normal flow of events. That will do it for sure. Counter point was adopted by those in her own guard whom worked with Vadid during the revolution as well a surprisingly enough by Paravicar Acillmar. I mean then again that one made sense. Sure the Nails would support Vadid in this instance because the use of souls, if that was indeed happening, was targeted. That meant they could say remove chaotic or good aligned souls from the normal cycle and use them to create tools useful here and now. A potential double profit indeed.
The good news is she so far successfully played both churhc and Nails off against each other without owing anyone and put Vadid and Talia a bit in her debt in what Cressida likes to call a win-win-win scenario. By allowing Talia to do mercenary work for her along with some of those she trusted she would get a read on if the construct was more a boon or a bane to Korvosa and herself, and could react accordingly. Dion could be pointed to the fact that Talia and Vadid’s creations were doing good for Korvosa thus turning his volume down a notch. And the fact that Talia was working for the crown as a mercenary mean that Paravicar Acillmar had much less chance to get his hooks into Vadid since their shortage of funds was being met. Indeed she had made it clear to Talia and Vedid to avoid the Nails. So, as long as Cressida got her value’s worth out of it? It worked for now. Hopefully that was the last pot stirring Vadid would do, but that was not guaranteed. Indeed she was a touch worried that the mage just might be going off his rocker which could change her calculus for sure.
OOC: Friendly back history with Vadid or not, Cressida is a queen and has to act as such. If Talia and Vadid become a liability well… I mean the whole Queen Ileosa Arabasti scenario has doubtless taught her the lesson well that unquestioning loyalty can be a thing taken too far. If, however, they are more useful than dangerous, then that is another story of course. Only time will tell for Cressida.
Dion Rolser – “I see dead souless people”
Paravicar Acillmar “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”
Last edited by DoesAOneSave; Jul 8th, 2024 at 09:46 AM .