NPCs · Minor · Knowledge/Lore
The Crystal Scholar
The Crystal Scholar is a feminine Quasi-Soul with a passion for knowledge.
Dylith: The Crystal Scholar
The Quasi-Soul known as Dylith is an enigmatic being described as having the glass-like demeanor of a breezeless pond. It has a feminine and almost feline grace about it. This Quasi-Soul is made of light pink crystals, the color of a rose quartz, with a deep amethyst trench where eyes should be. "She" enjoys picking up the different vibrations of various humanoids voices and is able to recognize and understand all but the rarest languages.
She typically wears absolutely no clothing, weapons, or gear aside from her bundles of books and scraps of paper. She considers clothing cumbersome and she has nothing to hide, but her alluring female figure can draw a few looks she doesn't quite understand.
Dylith lives in a high mountain cave, accessible only by navigating a complex maze of varying crystal clear and reflective surfaces. Her inner residence is packed with towering piles of tomes and parchment, the stone walls lined with long, verbose, poetry and ancient knighthood credos.
She travels out of her cave once every few years to procure as many books and scrolls as she can. She pays for them by selling the pelts of animals she captures around her lair, selling her already memorized books, or being paid for various acts such as lectures or scribe-work. She has existed for a very long time and time is no object to her. She believes that she will transcend to her Soulful state when she has acquired a great enough bank of knowledge in her crystalline form, and is not exactly sure what will happen to her after that.
She is generally regal and distant when encountered, in her lair or in a marketplace. She is fond of staring off at nothing while listening intently. She finds that the more her mind wanders, the easier it is to absorb information, like the rising of a bridge to let something pass underneath.
If encountered in her lair after successfully navigating her crystal maze, she will be somewhat shocked, and will be very interested in talking with those who entered. She may have information they need or can use, and will gladly share it in exchange for new story or rare piece of knowledge.
If encountered outside her lair, typically in a shopping district or other place she knows books can be purchased or bartered for, she will not pay much attention to anything other than acquiring books or verbal recounts of information. She may even seek out the PCs if they have something she wants.
She does not actually cast any magical spells, though books of magic do fall into her possession quite often. She supposes she would be capable of casting them if she cared to and is definitely capable of transcribing them from memory for others to analyze and learn. She is particularly interested in spell books because the different arcane formulae used by different practitioners for the same spell interest her. She treats it like a puzzle or math problem, attempting to find the common factors and figure out why it works.
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This article links to 1
- Quasi-Soul Blydden linked by Pieh
I will so have to find a place for this person in my setting. Bravo! Brava!
A good application of the Quasi-souls. Also an interesting goal for the party when they need some information. I would love to see what tidbits my party brings out to barter for what they need.
Excellent NPC and as Drackler said, a great illustration of this type of being.
Missing word:
a deep amethyst t where eyes should b
t?
Thanks for picking that one up, Val. I was toying with various terms to describe what I wanted. Looks like I didn't make a choice. :P
Trench, is what I decided on. I considered trough, gouge, bore, and a few others. Just to give you an idea of what I mean. Sort of like an indented rift of purple gemstone.
Excellent sub. There are so many possibilities for using this NPC in a campaign.
So beautiful.