Esme Currindon

Defense

Offense

Statistics

Description

Female human aristocrat 3/sorcerer 3

During Combat: Esme is a poor combatant. If there is no one to protect her, she attempts to charm a likely protector and then flees combat, using unseen servant to close doors and move obstacles into the path of pursuers.

Morale: Esme quickly flees or gracefully surrenders if she believes she would be killed. She isn’t frightened by battle; she just understands that she has no aptitude for it.

The once-great Currindon family carried on a quiet war with the Beauturne family for three generations. Commoners knew nothing of the noble machinations, but the families seethed with new venom after each social or political victory one scored over the other. Eventually, the Beauturnes achieved the rank of count, and the fading Currindon heirs were banished from Lozeri. The exiled Currindons naturally backed the commoner coup in 4670, but failed to seat themselves in the Beauturnes’ place. The Currindon family fell from infamy to obscurity for 40 years.

Esme Currindon, only a child when Lozeri changed hands, has had quite enough of this feud. Raised in a sympathetic noble’s keep in neighboring Odranto, she saw her birthright squandered by listless relatives and overlooked by Prince Valislav. Esme is quietly infuriated at this indifference to her family’s state. She believes the Palatinates, particularly Lozeri, are ripe for return to noble rule.

Her primary job is tending the connections and resources necessary to return the Currindons to power. Esme’s first husband, Temcurel Muralt (second cousin of the current count), died several years ago, but left her with land, wealth, a young son, and the means to disguise her Currindon identity when it suits her. In addition to her portfolio of favors and admirers across Ustalav, she is also a sorcerer of some ability, which she uses to bolster her return to rightful rule.

Esme is well bred and pleasant but prideful. She is particularly nice to adventurers, however, since she knows they are powerful, useful destabilizers. She only tells her plans to those who can be implicitly trusted. In other cases, she attempts to sic adventurers on her rivals. Her pretexts are genuine—she’s too clever to send adventurers on a wild goose chase—but she makes sure that the tasks she gives them align with her own interests.

Considered something of a beauty in her time, Esme has aged gracefully (with magical assistance) as she nears 50 years. She can still wear her curled brunette hair long, something few other women her age do with dignity. She favors rich colors, such as purples, blues, and reds, for her clothes and wears long dresses. Her jewelry is not gaudy but is obviously expensive to the trained eye. She is always perfumed with lavender. Her voice is clear but can be harsh, perhaps the one unlovely aspect of a well-painted portrait of charm and beauty.

Boon: Esme is an excellent (though biased) source of information about goings-on in Ustalav. Adventurers who gain a helpful relationship with her may lodge and eat for free in her manor house and have access to her entire staff (including a small force of 1st-level fighter bodyguards) for the duration of their stay in Odranto. She may have information about other strange happenings in Ustalav; as a noblewoman she considers herself above petty gossip and stories of evil monsters, but she knows adventurers are often interested in such things.

Source: NPC Guide, p. 33