Red Shroud
| CE Female succubus sorcerer 11/fatespinner 4 | |
|---|---|
| Home: Broken Reach | |
| Allies: Bleak Cabal (unsteady), Fated, Malcanthet (varies), Pazuzu, Shami-Amourae | |
| Enemies: Malcanthet (varies), Mithrengo | |
| Pathfinder | |
Daughter of Malcanthet and Pazuzu, Red Shroud is one of the more well-known succubi outside the Abyss. Though little is known of her life before the founding of the fortress city of Broken Reach, that place within Pazunia is one of the settlements in the entire plane most trafficked by outside visitors, thanks to its location just on the other side of the portal to Plague-Mort, and thus she holds personal control over one of the key ports of the plane. Though Broken Reach has been attacked near a half-dozen times over the last two centuries of its existence, including one by a minor Abyssal lord, not once has her fortress been taken, an impressive feat for such a key location.
It is an open secret that Red Shroud's eventual goal is to displace her mother as Queen of the Succubi, and to this end she cultivates a number of connections with those that may one day help her take this position. She is known to have a special interest in a former competitor for the title during the War of Ripe Flesh, Shami-Amourae, and she has also been spotted commonly meeting with high-placed members of the Bleak Cabal (likely thanks in no small part to her capture of the body of their founder), one of her few potential key allies outside the Abyss.
During her slow rise to power, Red Shroud has grown a vast information network across the Abyss through Broken Reach. Though not one of the best information brokers to be found, she is certainly one of the most highly-placed among the easily approachable ones, requesting little more than a steep donation to her coffers. The breadth of her knowledge tends to be limited to areas she finds personally interesting, but for those needing information on matters relating to the Abyss, she is a very knowledgeable source. In addition, due to her position as one of the more major accessible information brokers in the Lower Planes, the Fated have spent much time cultivating a close business relationship to the point that many consider her an erstwhile member of the faction.
Red Shroud abhors direct combat, finding it too crude and messy for her tastes, and even going so far as to bar it entirely from the walls of her fortress. The molydei are similarly banned from Broken Reach, as she has little care for the Blood War, a somewhat unique viewpoint amongst the tanar'ri (though not especially uncommon amongst succubi). However, she is far from a pacifist: Red Shroud is well known for her interest in poisons and venoms, vastly preferring the subtlety of their touch to personal involvement. It's said her collection of such is one of the largest in the Multiverse, with samples of all kinds both natural and alchemical. Quick to anger when she believes she is not receiving her deserved respect from one she sees as a peer, it's many the misspoken word or lack of courtesy that has led to the application of one of her favorite poisons. Some even say the brain damage inflicted on her consort Ygrax was not due to a goristro attack as is commonly believed, but rather the result of a special poison of her own creation able to effect even fiends; few believe such claims, however. Somewhat oddly for a tanar'ri, she holds much more patience for those below her — while she may toy with them, it takes a great deal to cause her to rise to the same level of anger.
Over the years, Red Shroud has raised a number of children, many of which she's kept in her personal guard or as potential infiltrators in the courts of others. However, she is quick to punish even her own kin, having even sold at least one — Fall-from-Grace of Sigil — into the possession of the baatezu. Rumors continue to circle, however, that this is merely another plan of hers, allowing her to gain access even to those outside the tanar'ri that may one day challenge her rise to power.
Gallery
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References
- Dungeon #148 - Wells of Darkness, pp.57-62
- Planes of Chaos: Book of Chaos, pg.25
- Planes of Chaos: Travelogue, pg.10
