Profile
"Zeta"
| "Zeta" | |
| [Image] | |
| Biographical Information | |
| Kenku Name | A soft and musical birdsong. |
| Aliases | Songbird, Song |
| Serial Number | 983016α |
| Player Nicknames | Zeta, Unity |
| Physical Information | |
| Species | Kenku; briefly an Aur'ku |
| Sex | Female |
| Height | 4' something. |
| Feathers | White with gray patches |
| Eyes | Gray |
| General Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Sexuality | Heterosexual |
| General Alignment | Chaotic good? |
| Status | |
| Dies | She is smited by Aurem after she ascends her to godhood and casts a wish spell. |
| Mate | Coo |
| Curse Status | Wished for creativity. |
| D&D Specific | |
| Campaign | Mnemonic Dreams: Intermission |
| Edition | 5e |
"Everything you are - you owe to me, Aurem."
'You awake in your bed; Phoenix Feather seems like a far-off memory...'
And I just looked to my DM and proceeded to shout a couple of very confused profanities.
She's a freakin' dream clone. Or, is Snowbird the dream clone??
You either die a hero, or live long enough to become the villain.
Symphony Movement II Retrospective
"Songbird was wrong in her actions, but did everything right." -Aurem
One can only act based upon the knowledge they posses, and poor Songbird only knew so much. Good and evil are merely perspectives; the story in it's entirety is so much more complicated. Songbird knew Aurem as a tyrant, her people as slaves, and her speech as a horrible mistake. How could she have known of Aurem's loyalties? Her plans, and the repeated failures that brought her to this extreme? Perhaps it could have been avoided if only she knew the truth, but if she knew, would she have followed through?
Appearance
Well, there's an eye in her chest for starters.
Attire
No armor, helm-crown of protection +2, a blinding white cloak with a hood [cloak of invisibility] some boots of elven kind, a different tunic, and- she lacks her scarf.
Personality
Over time she becomes less optimistic and naive, forced to accept the realities of her situation. A sense of hopelessness grows within her, a resignation to her fate... at least, up until the very end, where that spark of defiance and freedom reignites one, final time.
Goals
- Keep her flock safe.
- Follow orders.
Stats
Strength: 11 [+0]
Dexterity: 19 [+4]
Constitution: 15 [+2]
Intelligence: 11 [+0]
Wisdom: 13 [+1]
Charisma: 17 [+3]
Spells
Cantrips:
- Mending
- Prestidigitation
Level 1 Spells: [3 spell slots]
- Cure Wounds
- Disguise self
- Dissonant whispers
- Feather falling
- Faerie fire
Level 2 Spells [1 spell slot?]
- Invisibility
Knowledge
Languages Known: Common, Auran, Thieve's cant.
Interesting phrases/ sounds/ words known:
- A pained elephant trumpet.
- An elven battle cry.
- Some digeridoo sounds.
Equipment
Weapons and Armor:
- Silver Rapier +1
- Dancing Dagger of Life Steal
- Hand crossbow [~20 bolts]
- Two daggers
Her Bag of Holding:
- Crowbar, 10 pitons
- 4 candles, a tinderbox
- 10 feet of string, 50 feet of rope
- Waterskin
- Hooded lantern, 2 flasks of oil
- Thieves tools, playing card set
- Sending stone
- Kenku scroll
On Her Person:
- Lute [over the shoulder strap]
- Potion of healing (2) [At her side, on a belt.]
- Coin pouch
Story
Intermission
Zeta was 'retrieved' from Pheonix Feather just before the font opened up. 'You wake up in your bed. Pheonix Feather seems like a distant dream...' And... life for her continued at the airy. She was sent on important missions, given fancy stuff, and met Aurem often. She became second in charge within her flock, Zeta, and came up with some clever ideas. Well, she had some inspiration from Pheonix Feather to help her. She convinced Hoot to let Whip's Crack, a fighter- not a rouge- into the flock and even teach others his whip and shield weilding ways to ceate a sort of 'gaurd' cleass among them. Zeta also got the idea to give spell casters second health potions and had plans to create a 'cleric' class among them. She was well liked, and showed promise.
Then, there's Coo. Coo sort of became the third in charge, and seemingly was giften spellcasting by Aurem. (But hes not a warlock?) The pair were both favored by her, and so, when they were both given the order of 'Make babies. Or else.' It nly made sense for them to go ahead and fufill this order together. Coo suggested this first, and eventually (It took forever) after abusing enough love potions it finally worked out and they could cross that order off their 'to-do. or else.' list.
Zeta wasn't a perfect little folowe though. She foguht hard against Aurem's orders to break her pheonix sword by murering children; she even received pretty arsh ounishment for it. Andm the first time, it was Coo who received the brunt end of it. Zeta had avoided breaking the pheonix herself thanks to Coo, who did it for her. But Aurem had one mroe thing for ehr to do; she had to killa Kenku, a traitr who ran from his flock. Zeta didn't want to, but in the end... she did. Lest she fail again, lest she provoke the threats placed upon her flock... and as a gift, Aurem gave her a ring of three wishes. Zeta went home, and wished for creativity so that she could comprehend the possibilities. And then... she wrote a song. A two-part lute peice encapulating her emotions; her triumph, and her regret. Hope, and futility.
Then the time came for a 'promotion!' She was given her own flock, a reformed one names Unity, made up of some old clock mates- The Xrack Squad, Coo, and a few other guards- and new birds. This went pretty well. At least until she started having funky ass dreams where she became a ghost and accidently haunted everyine, herself included, only to wake up and learn that it hadn;t been a dream and she totally did haunt everyine and herslef, somehow. Natutrally, she (and the player) freaked the hell out and went straight to Aurem with this, who also... maybe, just maybe... slightly panicked, explaining that the gods were nto her plans of ascending to godhood, and they were about to get their asses smited. Aurem arranged for Zeta to tell a speech to convince the Kenu to worship her as a god. and ho-boy, it must ahve been ome speech...
because that shit orked like a fucking charm. Aurem ascended to godhood, casting a 10th (yes, 10th.) level spell to change all the kenku marked by her on this plane into Aur'Ku her perfect vision for what kenky should be... and in thos emoments, Zeta regretted everything. She had been folowing orders so no one got hurt.. but oh god, she ahd done soemthing even worse... she used a wish to send a message to the Songbird, Jules, and Harmony in pheonix feather (Inadvertantly sending it to the other versions of herself, I do beleive.) and Aurem, knowing she ahd been detreyed, propmtly smited Zeta.
"Any last words?"
"Everything you are - You owe to me, Aurem."
"Then consder this as a sign of my gratitude."
Aurme proceeded to blow up my bird. Dealing... what... 500 damage? It... it was a lot.
But thats not all. Aurem stole Zeta's soul to be reincarneted into a new bird... but she faile to get all of it. The gods, perhaps enabling Zeta's attemt at redemption, also stole half of her soul to reincarnate into their own bird, on different plane. Half of Zeta's soul was given to Crescenco and Resolve, and her song lives on in both birds, as well as wbithin her message to Songbird and her party. Perhaps the other bird could right these wrongs, or at least, not make the same mistake that she had.
Zeta's Message
(Cue: Starstorm, from Wandersong)
A voice pierces the silence of your subconscious; It may or may not sound oddly familiar...
“I’m so sorry for what I’ve unleashed on the world.”
A song begins to play in the back of your mind. Gentle lute plucks and intense chords create an ebb and flow of two intertwined motifs, neither claiming the position of the melody, and neither being subjugated to merely the harmony.
A grandiose image fades into your field of vision; within a massive outdoor amphitheater, a beholder, perhaps somewhat familiar, reaches her tentacles towards a floating sphere of diamond as the clouds part and reveal countless twinkling stars. The orb shatters into prismatic shards and The Beholder begins to grow to godly proportions, her skin melting and falling away from her form, her flesh evaporating into thin air to reveal a pitch black skull, ivory teeth, and a brilliant star sapphire eye.
Again, that voice speaks, and abruptly, the scene is cut short; “I was too much of a coward…”
In front of you looms the massive form of The Beholder, speaking in a voice that demands every bit of attention you can give it, “If you ever lie to me again I will slaughter you and your entire flock.” Her tentacle shoots forth and impales you; the world goes black.
“With no true will of my own…”
Your hand feels as though it’s on fire, yet you can’t seem to force yourself to drop the rapier that’s in your grasp. The music and your own thoughts are drowned out by a terrible sound; perhaps it is a sound that you can simply never forget, or something that scared you as a child, or the voice of something terrifying… Still reeling from the backlash of the noise, you hear The Beholder’s voice, though you do not see her, “Your job was to break the bird, not have it break you!”
“With no direction. Aimless… Useless…”
“So you failed me.” The Beholder floats in front of you, then stabs a tentacle through your chest, only to toss you across the room. Before you hit the stone floor you are overcome with a jarring, jerking sensation, and it feels as though reality itself is shifting, breaking… or, perhaps it’s something else…
You’re not given time to ponder as once again you face The Beholder, and once again you are impaled, “You failed me.”
Over and over this occurs, and over and over, nothing you try to do, or say, or think matters. Finally, the voice brings this madness to an end: “I was selfish. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I didn’t want to get hurt.”
You feel a horrible pain in your chest, and realize that you’re being suspended in the air by a tentacle that has pierced through your heart, “If you fail me ever again I will let you choose three of your flock that survive.” You’re flung towards a wall, but before impact, the memory is cut short.
“So I just followed orders.”
A new scene fades in, with a booming male’s voice yelling over it, “You stupid bird! You follow orders, that’s your only job!”
You leap into a tavern through a window, armed with a dagger, slitting the throats of the women and children that had taken refuge there amid a dense fog. The task is performed with well-practiced ease, though still, not without the difficulty of another kind; with every attack comes a tinge of hesitation, a guilt in the back of your mind. It was nothing that couldn’t be quelled by fear.
“We were never free. We were born into this. Bred to be her version of ‘perfect.’”
You see an unusually short, pure white kenku, surrounded by her loyal followers.
The kenku is adorned with a brilliantly white cloak, the blue eye embedded in her chest on display, and behind her, refracting the light in an array of colors, gleams a pair of icy wings, matching the staff held proudly in her hands. What looks to be a small beholder floats by her side.
And the longer you look, the more dazzling she seems to become.
The longer you look, the more familiar she seems to become...
“We’re just numbers to her.”
The Beholder’s voice, accompanied by her ever imposing blue eye, jabs her tentacle into your chest; “You are nothing.” Your vision goes dark, and you hear her voice again, “Everything you are, you owe to me.”
“All of us.”
Images of various kenku, perhaps a few familiar to you, flash through your mind in quick succession.
“She doesn’t care about us.”
You see a young kenku, armed only with a fiery staff, fighting for his life against The Beholder. He moves to dodge but is instead impaled. Then, the scene seems to rewind, and there he is again, this time uttering the sound of rising flames as his staff shifts into a rapier. A tentacle swats at him as he makes an attack, but it is quickly made irrelevant after another rewind.
This continues, and it begins to become clear… The Beholder is merely toying with him, while he fights desperately to survive.
“She never cared about us.”
You see The Beholder use a tentacle to pick up a kenku, who seems to be either dead or unconscious, and toss the bird into her maw to devour her whole.
“She is not a god! *Songbird,* embrace your freedom! Do something with it! You can't go back home! Get rid of everything she gave you; just burn it! Never try to contact her, or any of the others! These aren’t the kenku that you know! ...And I helped to create them…”
You see before you a crowd of thousands in an outdoor theater; the overwhelming murmur of countless conversations dwindle, and all eyes are on you. Your fear fades, and whether you even believe in your own words or not… you begin to speak, touting in the voices of many Lord Aurem’s godhood, passionately convincing them to pray to her, to worship her.
“I lead them...”
You see a wave of dense fog roll into an elven village as several kenku slink silently into it, quickly disappearing from view. Fires begin to spread from building to building. You unsheathe your rapier and utter an elven war cry before charging into the fog.
“It’s all my fault.”
You look up to see Lord Aurem in her ascended form casting a spell. Magic swells around you, and existence warps and bends until finally, the spell goes off…
And you just know that whatever that spell was shouldn’t have been possible.
“I don't know if she will come after you, but if she does, I want you to be prepared. They rely on stealth, large groups, and distractions, usually fog and fire, and Aurem is more than capable of giving them powerful magic items. She seals phoenixes into jars and puts them into swords; these swords are very dangerous but have a limit on how much you can use them in a single day. She has access to incredibly powerful magic, and will not hesitate to use it…”
With each warning, suggestion, or piece of information, a correlating image was brought into your view; A kenku putting up the hood of their cloak and vanishing, another setting a building on fire, a glimpse at an incredible treasury filled with gold, weapons, and magic items of all kinds, a flaming avian creature sealed inside a glass pommel...
“But I… I think that you’ll be fine though. Jules, Harmony, keep her safe for me, okay? And, *Songbird,* never give up on your music.”
The last note of the song is finally cut off, and you can’t quite tell whether it ended in a somber sendoff or a triumphant finale. Seemingly, the dual melodies managed to be both.
Silence envelopes your perception; then, her voice shatters it: “Goodbye…”
Your eyes seem to open, and noise surrounds you; the music of a band in the near distance, the muddled conversations of a large crowd, and you see the stone walls of the amphitheater, lit by starlight.
You bring your hand into view- or, she does- her hand is distinctly birdlike; Distinctly kenku. Worn on one finger is a beautiful ring- which instantly becomes the center of your attention- adorned with three diamonds. One is pitch black, one is beautifully transparent, and the last seems to be losing its shine.
“And…”
You stand, and the sense of dread and fear wrapped in blinding courage becomes overwhelming. But something within you- within her- feels light, liberating; a strange bliss granted by courage in the face of certain death. Nothing you try to say, or think, or remember, or do, could ever change her mind; not that you successfully manage to try any of those things anyway.
“Good luck.”
You turn and face the monstrosity head on.
A diamond-tipped tentacle pierces your gut, lifting you upwards to face The Divine Eye of Brilliance. But the dream begins to fall apart; your vision blurs and darkens as the commotion of the crowd fades until only a terrible, searing pain remains.
Then, there was nothing.
But that kenku’s song lingers in your mind, even after you wake up.
Influence After her Death
Duet...
Relationships
Hoot
Information
Coo
Her mate and a close friend, as far as she's concerned.
The Crack Squad
Whip's Crack, Fire Crackle, and Bone Crack.
Miscellaneous Characters
Crimson, Cat's Yowl, "Bard Girl," Page Turn,
Trivia
- **Other tidbits from her character sheet:
- Ideals: "People: She is loyal to her friends, not to any ideas, and everyone else can take a trip down the river Styx for all she cares. (Neutral)"
- Bonds:
- Flaws: She is afraid of heights.
Quotes and Excerpts
First, she speaks in Aurem's voice, "Everything you are -" Then, in her own, "You owe to me, Aurem."
Author's notes
- In my notes, Zeta's adventures are referred to as "Intermissions." I blame Homestuck for the decision.
- Zeta's gonna become the villain or something, I just know it... My poor little bird.
- 'You either die a hero, or live long enough to become the villain.' Zeta is related most closely to Angel, and the two are very much opposites.
- Crescendo is specifically Zeta's daughter.
- To quote the DM, "Zeta is just an NPC I let you play."
- Coo is a backstabbing son of a bitch by I only know that because my DM told me, my poor birds are none the wiser. Coo apparently actually H A T E S Songbird, and planned to get his revenge by stopping by the hatching grounds and fire-bolting their eggs. Aurem would have wished away the issue and seriously messed Coo up, but that betrayal would have really stung for Zeta... But uh, instead, I, the player, freaked out more over the weird pseudo-dreams my bird was getting, so my bird went straight to Aurem who initiated the whole 'become a god' plan way earlier than the DM thought it would happen.
Music
- Starstorm (A Shell in the Pit, from Wandersong): The relation to nightmare king/ dream king, the buildup, rising emotion... attributed to her speech/ message sending.... marks the spit between her and Angel. A sort of rising calm before the storm, realization, and the building choice to either act, or conform.
- The End (A Shell in the Pit, from Wandersong): You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. The i wanna be the hero theme is perfect. befitting her message and.... the consequences.
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