NPCs · Minor · Knowledge/Lore
Me'fiante Delagouttie're
Life as a street urchin is a pathetic existence indeed - and Me'fiante has it worse than most. In a back-alley underworld filled with trickery and subversion, the ability to sense lies is often more of a curse than a blessing.
Appearance:
Me'fiante Verite Delagouttie're is a twelve-year-old street urchin with a peculiar gift for seeing the truth, in people's minds as well as in their actions.
At about 5 feet tall with a very slight, scrawny frame, Me'fiante stands out from other grubby street children due to her intelligent grey eyes, framed by dirty, shoulder-length flaxen hair. She wears a frayed, stained dress, originally a very pretty, frilly garment of a deep burgundy, but now barely recognizable as clothing.
As a person, she is defiant and very difficult to get along with, being uncommunicative, vicious, and suspicious of everyone and everything. Originally, Me'fiante dreamed of being a poet, but her life on the streets led her to take up petty crime, pickpocketing and burglary.
Me'fiante likes poetry, being one of the very few street urchins lucky enough to be able to read, having been taught by a cleric (who she later robbed blind because he was embezzling money), but she despises liars, cheats, frauds and con artists. Me'fiante cannot tell lies - the very act of lying is painful to her.
Background:
Me'fiante cannot remember a time when she was not aware of the truth in all matters. Even though it manifested itself weakly at first, she was able to sense the subtle nuances in peoples' words and actions that betrayed their falsehoods. Furthermore, she found she was steadily gaining the ability to discern the truth even from lies.
Her family line is unknown, as her first memories are of the opulent priest who raised her as an infant. Father Marcus Andronicus Levitas, while appearing kindly and cheerful, was at that time embezzling money from his parishioners in extremely large amounts, and it was not long before a six-year-old Me'fiante became aware of this fact. An intense internal struggle followed: Me'fiante's very nature seemed to revolt against this man who had lied to her, yet her common sense told her to remain with him, where she would be assured of a future.
In the end, her instincts won, and after raiding her adoptive father's coin purse and dumping its ill-gained contents down the churchyard well, Me'fiante secretly packed what meager belongings she had and fled. She almost immediately regretted disposing of the money, after realizing what a cold world it is for the poor and homeless. She was able to scratch out a living through petty thievery, trying wherever she could to steal only from those who lied or cheated, though to appease her own conscience more than for revenge.
In addition, Me'fiante found herself soon regretting having never been told the identities of her parents. Father Marcus had always assured her that when he thought she was ready he would reveal their story to her, and such a statement had always been accompanied by a firm sense of truthfulness, something rather uncommon in the corrupt priest's assertions.
Today, Me'fiante lives on the grimy streets of Armudstadt, along with a small group of urchin 'friends'. She tolerates the other children because they bring her information, but she often fights with them for telling lies, something that jars against Me'fiante's very soul. Me'fiante senses lies as painful throbbing in her nervous system, and often hears a ghostly voice telling the truth, whispering in her ear while people tell lies to her.
Roleplaying Notes:Although Me'fiante can sense peoples' lies, she rarely shares the information, because she trusts no one. The PCs might need some information from her, but Me'fiante needs to be completely assured of their motives before she'll part with the information.
In addition, the PCs cannot lie to Me'fiante without serious consequences - she can automatically tell, and will grow resentful and perhaps violent. They will have to do some clever roleplaying to get what they want from her, perhaps telling only a part of the truth if they really want to keep it a secret.
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Use alongside
Submissions that pair well with this one at the table.
How'd you do the little accented e's?
I work on a Mac. Go on, laugh it up.
It's easy on Macs, just option-E and then E again. Windows? I have no clue.
Windows systems, Hold down ALT, and then press(on the numeric keypad only) the ANSI code of the character you want to appear. I don't know what the accented E is, but the 1/2 symbol is ALT-171... e'... give it a whirl... works in anything ansi based, pretty much(including notepad).
Brother Maynard, Consult the book of ANSI!! Book of Ansi, Appendix A, Codes 145 thru 191... and yea, verily there was a symbol for clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds, an accented A, an umlauted O, and the mighty circumflexed N, and the lord spake unto the masses and said, go forth and create strange names for Strolen's Citadel, and it was so, and the lord was pleased.
About the urchin, I like the character in theory, but I'd prefer to know where the lie detection comes from, and I have to take away a point for the 'orphan' bit. Still, most of my characters are fairly cliche'd, so I have no room to complain about that, so, all in all, 4/5.
Well done, overall, although I must admit to having little use for street urchins, as a generality. For whatever reason, my players tend to completely ignore the peasantry, they're big time adventurers now, dontchaknowit... ;)
Personally I quite like street urchins
Usually great sources of information - assuming you can catch the little b#@@ers that is
Must admit that most of my street urchins are somewhat archetypal child thieves - one who can actual sense the truth and/or falsehood of what the PCs say is a refreshing variation
Like her a lot - 4/5
Interesting. Refreshing.
I actually like when big-time save-the-world heroes have to actually deal with a commoner... remindst them of their roots...
And ... what is her heritage, then?
Well, as to the heritage and source of powers - I was thinking that the GM could decide, to fit the mood of the game.
Nice little NPC :)
A nice little person who could not walk amongst politicans without feeling great pain.