Pidonus Marasia was an innocent, beautiful human woman whose town happened to be destroyed by Alhazred. Unfortunately, Alhazred happened to hear her when she, trapped under some burning church wreckage, begged for her life, specifically saying the particularly stupid words "I'll give anything". Alhazred took her up on the offer, rescuing her only to transform her into a Succubus, erasing her memory of her human past and replacing it with a mile-wide sociopathic complex and intensely vain nature.
Pidonus is loyal to Avshar only incidentally; Alhazred, her 'creator', is the one she honestly thinks of as master. Pointedly, though, her methods are particularly nasty even by the terms of Avshar's minions, manipulating the minds of the weak-willed directly through magic, while working to corrupt the strong-willed until she can influence them too. Some get turned over to Alhazred for his experiments, while others are ultimately slain, their lifeforce drawn into her to power her nastier magics. (She refers to the amount of energy consumed by these spells as a "number of souls", however, it's uncertain that she actually claims the soul, stealing it from its honest fate. Certainly, though, the body is left dead.) A signature method of hers is to steal someone's memories and then kill them, magically copying their form and taking their place for some time to lead into a larger scheme.
Possible Hooks: -- Possibly someone you were close to was consumed by her. If they were significant in their community, perhaps they acted strangely for some time before doing something horrifying and turning out to actually have died days or weeks ago, replaced by the succubus. -- Possibly you were another survivor of Pidonus' hometown, and recognize her. -- Most importantly, a major thing I wish to play out is Pidonus ultimately being captured by the heroes, and convinced to allow herself to be 'purified', at least partially restoring her human form and memory. How might your hero or villain be involved in that?
no subject
Pidonus is loyal to Avshar only incidentally; Alhazred, her 'creator', is the one she honestly thinks of as master. Pointedly, though, her methods are particularly nasty even by the terms of Avshar's minions, manipulating the minds of the weak-willed directly through magic, while working to corrupt the strong-willed until she can influence them too. Some get turned over to Alhazred for his experiments, while others are ultimately slain, their lifeforce drawn into her to power her nastier magics. (She refers to the amount of energy consumed by these spells as a "number of souls", however, it's uncertain that she actually claims the soul, stealing it from its honest fate. Certainly, though, the body is left dead.) A signature method of hers is to steal someone's memories and then kill them, magically copying their form and taking their place for some time to lead into a larger scheme.
Possible Hooks:
-- Possibly someone you were close to was consumed by her. If they were significant in their community, perhaps they acted strangely for some time before doing something horrifying and turning out to actually have died days or weeks ago, replaced by the succubus.
-- Possibly you were another survivor of Pidonus' hometown, and recognize her.
-- Most importantly, a major thing I wish to play out is Pidonus ultimately being captured by the heroes, and convinced to allow herself to be 'purified', at least partially restoring her human form and memory. How might your hero or villain be involved in that?