Asmodia Antarion

General magical mechanics:
Asmodia is a witch as defined in the Pathfinder roleplaying system. She draws her magical abilities from an unidentified otherworldly being known as a patron, channeling knowledge and power through a living conduit known as a familiar (in Asmodia's case, a donkey rat named Biscuit). This arrangement gives Asmodia access to a variety of magical spells and hexes; the full list of spells she knows are stored inside of Biscuit but Asmodia can only prepare and cast a limited number of those spells each day (hexes do not have to be prepared and can be cast multiple times each day). When she was taken by the rift, she lost access to her patron and Biscuit became unable to help her prepare or use most of her spells. Despite this, Asmodia is still a formidable spellcaster and hex channeler. Information on her magical abilities and her spell list can be found in a separate post due to length.

Relationship with her familiar:
While Biscuit began life as an ordinary animal, once he became Asmodia's familiar he gained a number of magical abilities. He possesses human-level intelligence, and he and Asmodia share an empathic bond so long as they are within a mile of one another. The two are also capable of communicating verbally with each other; this is done magically rather than via a set language, so it is impossible for anyone else to understand their conversations without magical help, though Biscuit can also speak to other rodents. Asmodia can also use him as a carrier for any spells that require that the creature to be affected be touched by the caster.
Updated familiar speech rules: The Rift took away Asmodia's ability to speak with Biscuit without others understanding what she's saying because it's funnier that way. Anyone who can't communicate with animals will still only hear rodent sounds when Biscuit "speaks," but Asmodia's half of the conversation will sound like normal speech. Biscuit is still able to communicate with other rodents, and he is capable of understanding Common English.

Fiendish abilities:
Asmodia can see up to sixty feet in total darkness (in black and white), and she is naturally resistant (though not immune) to cold, electricity, and fire.

Magical items:
Asmodia will arrive without the majority of her gear, but she will have with her a Cloak of Human Guise, which takes the form of a short garment worn over the shoulders. Any half-human who wears said cloak will appear to be fully human, so when Asmodia is wearing her cloak she will look the way she would had she been born a human.
 

Asmodia is a young adult woman with messy auburn hair and golden eyes. Also, she has horns like a ram, a long prehensile tail, and an impressive array of pointed teeth. Her skin is dark grey, nearly black, though she has 'stocking' markings of a much lighter, freckled grey on her forearms and hands, lower legs and feet, and on the end of her tail. Other than her tail and horns, she has the body shape of a normal human, but she smells very faintly of smoke at all times.

She is accompanied at all times by a male donkey rat named Biscuit. Biscuit is a long-legged rodent roughly the size of a large cat with brown fur and a short, furry tail. When he is not riding on top of her shoulders/backpack, he can be found following close at her heels. He makes a variety of squeaking, whistling, grunting, and tooth-grinding noises dependent on his mood.

She dresses for function first and fashion second, preferring clothes that allow the best possible freedom of movement and/or serve a specific magical purpose. Prior to leaving her home world, she would have worn a long tunic with trousers and soft leather boots much of the time, and in all likelihood she will probably continue to favor the clothes in which she arrived and/or whatever she can find that is reasonably similar.

Asmodia has taught herself good posture out of a desire to look confident and capable, but she's a deeply awkward person at heart and never knows what to do with her hands and tail. The latter is almost always either in motion or wrapped around one of her legs, and she makes frequent use of her pockets as a place to stow her hands. She often struggles to express herself verbally, and may stammer or repeat phrases when under pressure.

Asmodia is slow to trust and reserved about sharing her emotions and opinions, but once she forms an attachment to another person she can be fiercely loyal and demonstrative. She demonstrates her affection through actions rather than words (sometimes through actions that don't seem affectionate); she is extremely unlikely to simply say that she cares about a person but will happily engage in prank wars during downtime and doggedly defend her friends from harm in combat, even if it means putting herself between an enraged giant and an injured party member.

She has no desire to be a leader nor a follower, but wishes to be left at liberty to make her own decisions and to trust others to do the same. Comparing and evaluating decisions against her personal beliefs and values is more important to Asmodia than using logic or objective rules. She is impatient with theoretical or abstract discussions without practical applications, and would have struggled with traditional schooling if she'd had access to it in the first place. She learns by doing, and struggles with long-range planning of all kinds. She's sensitive to rejection and criticism, and has a difficult time accepting blame even when it legitimately rests on her shoulders (when angered, she is not above using her magic to 'punish' those she believes have wronged her, even if this isn't strictly in accordance with the teachings of Sarenrae). She's generally quite interested in other people, but operates under the assumption that being open with them will usually result in her getting hurt.

Asmodia has a strong aesthetic sense and a solid appreciation for art and beauty. She does not consider herself an artist or performer despite her joy in crafting illusions on those occasions when she can afford the necessary spell components, but she does enjoy art created by others. That being said, Asmodia generally isn't interested in objects beyond their usefulness, both as a reaction against her older sister's hunger for material wealth and as a natural result of spending more than a decade living a largely itinerant life. During her adventuring days, her most valued possession was a diamond she bought and carried as a spell component that would allow her to bring back a friend from the dead should they fall in battle.

When left to her own devices, Asmodia spends a considerable amount of time alone, working to hone her magic and to further her knowledge of Sarenrae. She carries a small copy of her church's holy book, The Birth of Light and Truth, in which she has recorded a brief version of the story of her upbringing and conversion, though she does not feel she has done or witnessed anything since then of an uplifting or holy enough nature to write into the remaining blank pages. Though she worships the Dawnflower, Asmodia gravitates toward a semi-nocturnal sleep schedule when there isn't a pressing need to be out in the morning. In town between adventures it's not uncommon for her to greet the dawn shortly before going to bed.

Asmodia is afraid of losing her independence and control, in a very literal sense. She's long been afraid of being reclaimed as a slave, of having to renounce her patron if she discovers it's something evil, and of failing to renounce her patron and compromising her ideals. She's also afraid of devils; while her party has taken on minor extraplanar beings and survived she knows better than to take such beings on alone or to expect that they would do anything other than be destroyed by a greater devil. She holds particular fear and loathing for her namesake.

Biscuit may have the intelligence of a person, but he has the heart and soul of a rodent. He's a social creature by nature, but as his intelligence and abilities have increased he has become less able to relate to other rodents and more emotionally dependent on Asmodia. The pair dote on each other out of both genuine affection and the ability to experience a feedback loop of each other's emotions. They protect one another because they are part of one another; Asmodia may wield their magic but Biscuit is the one who channels it from its source and warns her of danger.

Biscuit is more interested in observing the world around him and relating what he sees to Asmodia than in attempting to engage directly with most people. He likes to ride on her shoulder or pack and see the world from up high, but he also enjoys moving about unseen and learning secrets. Despite his impressive teeth he shies away from even the most mild of physical conflicts; fleeing to Asmodia for protection is always his first resort.

Asmodia was born to Trobius and Miranda Antarion of the Chelaxian port city Kintargo around the time the House of Thrune seized control of the country and ended three decades of civil war. The country had been thrown into turmoil by the unexplained death of its patron god, Aroden, and by the time Asmodia was born most of its people were ready for peace at any cost, even the cost of living under an oppressive government established by force with the aid of bound devils summoned from the depths of Hell. Reporting suspected traitors to the Hellknights whose orders arose to maintain order and root out rebellion quickly became a path to wealth and social advancement, so that even those without personal investment in the new diabolical order were often ready to turn on their neighbors. Those who could navigate the cruel new system (or at least pay it lip service) could gain power and prestige, while those who could not or would not do so suffered constant indignities and very real and constant danger.

Asmodia was the second of three children, and the only known non-human member of her family. Her parents were Chelish humans who owned and operated an inn called the Dog and Duck that catered to those who came to the port city to trade, and the newfound peace imposed by the House of Thrune represented for them a return to relative safety and the ability to make a living and provide for their growing family. Asmodia's birth was the first either of them knew that one or both of them carried the shame of a fiendish ancestor, as the blood of devils and demons can lie dormant for many generations before manifesting in an inhuman child. Fearful of the judgment of their neighbors for choosing to raise their "subhuman" daughter as a member of the family rather than a slave, they named her after the country's new god, the devil Asmodeus, as a way of paying lip service to his evil church. Both of their other children (a girl named Lusana born two years before Asmodia, and a boy named Pellius born seven years after) were human, and though her parents loved her, it was always understood that Asmodia's needs came after those of her siblings.

Despite the difficulties inherent to their position, the family's business flourished. All three children worked in the inn in their early years, though Asmodia typically worked out of the public eye or did simple manual labor. She babysat her significantly younger brother when she was a teenager and the two shared a relatively close bond, but Asmodia and the ambitious Lusana were unendingly antagonistic toward one another. Asmodia was a chink in her older sister's social armor and an obstacle in her path to wealth and prestige, and the fact that the tiefling's aging slowed to a decades-long crawl once she hit adolescence really didn't help matters. When their parents passed away, ownership of the inn went to Lusana and Pellius, by then both adults with families of their own. Asmodia resented working for Lusana; without a say in the business or a cut of the profits she felt like a slave. Lusana responded to her protests by making it official; as closest kin to someone seen as less than a person it was easy for her to file for ownership of her own sister. Pellius was sympathetic to Asmodia's plight but didn't have the chutzpah to stand up to Lusana, who ran the inn as though she were the sole owner.

It was during this particularly dark time that Asmodia heard the call of the Patron of Deception and answered it. The first task it set before her, to obtain a familiar, did not go precisely as expected. Asmodia might have chosen something traditional like a raven or a bat, but when she put out the call with the help of her patron it was an exotic, oversized rodent that answered, and Asmodia had little choice but to steal him from the trader who had imported him and a number of other foreign animals as pets for the well-to-do. Years later she would realize her patron had likely been testing her resolve and her ability to live up to its plans for her, but by its very nature the patron never made those plans clear to her.

She practiced witchcraft in secret, taking comfort in her newfound power despite being too afraid to use it to better her situation. Biscuit was a steadfast friend with whom she shared first a metaphorical and then a literal emotional bond even if she did have to keep him hidden in the stable, and life rapidly became more bearable now that she had secrets worth keeping.

She couldn't withstand the humiliation and fear that came with being her sister's slave indefinitely, though, especially knowing that she would outlive her siblings and be inherited by Lusana's insufferable children. At age 60 she fled Cheliax when Pellius helped her get passage on a smuggler's ship going north to the wild frontiers of Varisia. She did not stay in that frontier country long, as the Chelish-dominated port city of Korvosa didn't suit her much better than Kintargo had. Instead, she traveled onward over the mountain paths of the Bloodsworn Vale to Nirmathas and made a new life there instead, finding like-minded seekers of freedom in a land formerly ruled by Cheliax. Nirmathas was a dangerous place in its own right due to its lack of coherent government and incursions by the armies of nearby Molthune. Asmodia found that she preferred the dangers of ongoing war to the dangers of political and social intrigue she had escaped, and settled down to scratch out a living as a provider of minor magical assistance.

It was in Nirmathas that Asmodia first encountered the church of Sarenrae, the goddess of the sun and of redemption. Curious about the celebrations put on by the little missionary outpost near town in honor of the summer solstice, Asmodia meant to observe the Sunwrought Festival from a distance and was more than a little surprised to find herself invited to join in the festivities. While her living situation was comfortable enough, Sarenrae's priests were the first people she had encountered who seemed genuinely interested in knowing and helping her for her own sake rather than what she could offer in trade. She was often surprised and confused by their generosity and openness, not to mention dubious of their call to selflessness. Until then her only concern had ever been for her own wellbeing and perhaps that of her brother, but she found herself slowly won over and eventually joined the ranks of Sarenrae's worshippers.

Ten years after leaving Cheliax, Asmodia moved on from Nirmathas. She had felt conflicted for several years about her simultaneous devotion to both Sarenrae and to her mysterious patron, and when she heard that she might be able to learn more about the nature of the latter in Druma she somewhat reluctantly set out on a self-imposed pilgrimage to identify her patron, knowing that she must renounce him, her, or it should she discover that her power had evil origins. In order to enter Druma and be allowed to stay while she conducted her search, she was required to study the Prophecies of Kalistrade at the tent city of Twingate and pledge her loyalties to the prophet and the nation. She did so despite lacking any desire to follow the strict edicts laid out by the Prophecies, tolerating the byzantine rules and religious assertions of her teachers for the sake of convincing them she would serve as a good citizen of Druma despite not being human and therefore not (according to their beliefs) having a share in adherents' ownership of the world as predicted by the Prophecies. She made her oath, but felt no compunction to honor it beyond what it took to get by from day to day without bringing trouble down on her and Biscuit's heads.

She spent over a year in Druma, during which time she failed to find any answers and grew increasingly frustrated with the complex (and in her eyes, unreasonable) rules dictated by the Prophecies. When she heard of a coven of witches in the River Kingdoms that could have answers for her she resumed her travels, passing through the Five Kings Mountains and through the dangerous country of Galt, then in the midst of a bloody revolution. Once in the River Kingdoms, she was drawn to a village in the Kingdom of Gralton by voices whispering of secrets in the wood only to find it disturbingly devoid of life. Nearby, she met a party of adventurers and seized on the opportunity to distract herself from what she was supposed to be doing. She had been plagued by deep ambivalence about her mission since before she had even started on it, and finding herself within a few days' journey of the coven that might be able to settle the question of her Patron's identity and thereby force her to make a choice about whether to retract her allegiance frightened her. She aided them in several fights despite not being sure what they were attempting to accomplish, and accompanied them back to the island of Absalom when a member of the party named Giga was killed.

Once Giga was successfully revived (and swore off adventuring in light of his firsthand experience with a bomb), the group revealed that they were members of the Pathfinder Society whose venture captain often sent them on missions to recover dangerous artifacts and bring them to the city of Absalom on the Isle of Kortos for safekeeping; they had been on such a mission when she met them. Asmodia swore allegiance to the Pathfinders (an oath she has honored significantly better than that which she swore in Druma) and bought a share in the group's business, a gun works in the city.

Located in the center of the Inner Sea, Absalom was one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the known world. According to myth the city was founded by the god Aroden himself, and it remained a center of commerce and the site of the cathedral housing a powerful divine artifact known as the Starstone. More importantly to Asmodia, though, this was the home of her newfound comrades and the base of operations for the Pathfinder Society, as well as a metropolitan city in which she could find both a reasonable measure of safety and of acceptance.

Since then, Asmodia has traveled through much of the Inner Sea region with her compatriots, to whom she has developed a great deal of loyalty. Together they have fought monsters and demons, infiltrated an army of Cheliax, and faced down cultists and assassins. Their cause has always been mostly just, though in all this time Asmodia has been on an indefinite hiatus from her pilgrimage while she gallivants across the continents looting various dungeons and fighting various monsters, a choice she rationalizes by reminding herself how often her new friends put themselves in danger and need her help and how many evil creatures they've removed from the world.  

Most recently the group's focus has shifted away from retrieving dangerous artifacts once it came to light that an earlier incarnation of the group had angered the Cult of Razmiran by snatching the Gem of Dreams out from under the cultists' noses in a previous adventure. One kidnapping of half their party by cultists later (Asmodia aided in the rescue and nearly lost her life to another spellcaster in a following skirmish), the cultists used secrets from three of her friends' pasts against them. Asmodia had already known one was in hiding from the assassins who had killed his parents, but it was a surprise to her that another was in hiding from his own brother and that a third had a long-lost daughter in Cheliax she had believed to be dead. In each case the cultists had their revenge on the escaped adventurers by releasing information about them to dangerous people who had previously thought them dead, and so the group refocused their efforts on addressing those threats. In true murder hobo adventurer style they chose to chase after each of the groups threatening them in order to hold the conflict on their own terms rather than attempting to run and hide (the latter was Asmodia's initial preference, but she's rather braver when she's with the group and allowed herself to be convinced to go along with these suicide missions quests). This worked surprisingly well, and one after another the group sought out and faced down those who would kill their friends.