Althea Stormsoro

Start-class article · First seen: s15 · Last seen: s16
Althea Stormsoro
Althea
Portrait of Althea Stormsoro.
Character
StatusDeparted
First seens15
Last seens16
PlayerMaliwana
FactionSevryn's recruits, All Hammer devout

Althea Stormsoro is a three-foot, white-scaled kobold cleric and paladin of the All Hammer, a forge god, played by Maliwana in sessions 15 and 16. From Khaldun Forgehold [30], she ran into the party’s camp outside Eldwythe pursued by an Aurelian patrol that wanted the silver-and-golden gorget at her throat, which she had refused to show them [31][3]; its significance was never revealed. She took the seat Mordane had left at the table, joining in the session in which Ruin was executed, and went through the Eldwythe sewers with the party, blessing and healing it. Session 17 retconned the end of session 16: she and Vasquez were captured by Aurelians, and she is departed offscreen, not an active rescue arc ([8][9]; ruling 25).

Appearance and personality

Althea is a 3-foot white-scaled kobold with deep blue eyes. She wears a simple dress and jacket and an oversized pointed hat with a skull emblem. Her defining piece is the silver-and-golden gorget with a burning gem set into a runic carving at the centre, the item that put her in flight from the Aurelian patrol that introduced her to the campaign.

She is nervous around new people, observant, and devotional in cadence. Her in-character incantations are forge-coded: her Bless calls on the “all hammer father of the forge” and ends “by fire by hammer by the ring of creation to grant them strength” [10][11]. Her combat patter is brisker than her social register: “Fuck you, kill those guys” [5] is her Draconic Cry, after she ran out of insults (“Oh god, wait, I have nothing.”).

The player who plays her introduced themselves at the table thus: “My name is Maliwana”, and then “Not much of a talker, more of a listener. But I’ve been playing the game for like five to six years, maybe more” [1].

Background

Devout of the All Hammer, the Hammer-of-Forge / iron god, a deity referred to only as “All Hammer” at the table and not yet given a canonical pantheon name by the DM. The deity is possibly homebrew. She channels divinity to Turn Undead.

The reason for the Aurelian pursuit at her introduction is the gorget: Aurelians wanted to inspect it; she refused; she ran. The significance of the gorget remains unrevealed as of session 16.

Build history

  • s15-current: cleric/paladin of the All Hammer. Spell list to date: Bless, Sacred Flame, Toll the Dead, Identify (10-minute ritual cast), Draconic Cry. Channel Divinity: Divine Spark, which healed Caelumn for 11 after the sewer-water shock [12][13][14], and Turn Undead [15][16]. 2nd-level slots used for upcasting Bless. Player handles: cleric flavour primary, paladin features touched on.
  • Joined at character level 4 (matching the party’s level after they hit 4 at end of s14).

Equipment

  • Silver-and-golden gorget with a bright burning gem: the runic piece at the centre of her introduction. The item Aurelians wanted to inspect. Significance unrevealed.
  • Oversized pointed hat with skull emblem.
  • Standard cleric/paladin holy symbol and divine focus.

Campaign role

Althea’s time with the party was short and spent on the run. She arrived fleeing an Aurelian patrol that wanted her gorget. That night the party lost Ruin, executed after Vasquez refused Mharos’s urging to give her up and took the blame himself, and lost The Egg in the escape. She went with the party into the Eldwythe sewers as its cleric, blessing and healing it and turning the undead, and in the last fight there Vasquez saved her life. Session 17 retconned the end of session 16: she and Vasquez split off from the party and were captured by Aurelians, and she is departed offscreen. The significance of her gorget was never revealed.

Session by session

Session 15: The Death of Ruin and Althea Joins

Main article: Session 15

Althea ran into the party’s camp with an Aurelian patrol behind her: they had wanted to look at the silver-and-golden gorget at her throat, and she had refused [2][3]. When the patrol arrived, Mharos urged Vasquez to blame the arcane on her; he took the blame himself, and Ruin was executed instead [17]. The DM noted that she and Vasquez, being from Khaldun Forgehold, were the only two who might know the Aurelians’ signal [18]. She blessed the party in the name of the All Hammer [19] and fled with them into the Eldwythe sewers. There she ran out of insults halfway through her Draconic Cry against the Kuo-toa [5], healed Caelumn with Divine Spark after Vasquez’s lightning dropped him [20], and finished the last Kuo-toa with Toll the Dead [21].

Session 16: Through the Sewers, Onto the Skiff

Main article: Session 16

Althea ritual-identified the Hat of Disguise [7] and ended the fight with the fungal creatures with Toll the Dead, crushing a bar of iron into a cowbell, ringing it and throwing it in the creature’s face [22]. Cut off from the others with Vasquez, she was caught in grasping roots until he pulled her free [23], then healed a wounded smuggler who had warned them of something hiding in the ceiling down the corridor, a warning she later passed on [24][25][6]. After her first Turn Undead in the flame-skull fight, a skull’s Magic Missile knocked her out; Vasquez’s greater healing potion revived her, and she spent her last Channel Divinity on a second Turn Undead [26][27][28]. Session 17 retconned the ending: she and Vasquez were captured by Aurelians [8][9].

Status at the end of session 16 (as retconned in session 17)

Departed offscreen. At the start of session 17 the DM retconned the end of session 16: Althea and Vasquez split off from the party and never came back, the party chose to flee the Aurelians rather than go back for them, and the two were captured [8][9]. She was last known to be alive in Aurelian custody; the gorget she refused to surrender is presumably taken or being inspected. Her fate is left offscreen by design and is not a rescue thread (ruling 25): like Cholmondeley, Harvo and Ruin, she is a former party member. Why the character left play is a table matter, covered on the Maliwana player page. See Session 17 and the s16 Retcon block for the framing.

Player

Played by Maliwana (Discord handle, “Mally” colloquially, [29]) in sessions 15 and 16. Joined as Mordane’s replacement at the table after Mordane left and Ruin was scripted-executed; see the player pages for the table history.

Notable quotes

“by fire by hammer by the ring of creation to grant them strength” — Althea, her Bless invocation, [11]

“Fuck you, kill those guys.” — Althea, casting Draconic Cry, [5]

“There was something we shouldn’t fight right now up there.” — Althea, [6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 15, line 19: "My name is Maliwana" (player intro).
  2. ^ Session 15, line 73-74: First in-fiction appearance, fleeing into the forest clearing.
  3. ^ Session 15, line 89: "They wanted to take a look at my gorgets and I denied them that chance.".
  4. ^ Session 15, line 260: Casts 2nd-level Bless on Terry, Vasquez, Hugo and Caelumn.
  5. ^ Session 15, line 853-855: "Fuck you, kill those guys." (Draconic Cry).
  6. ^ Session 16, line 1588: "There was something we shouldn't fight right now up there." (warning tone).
  7. ^ Session 16, line 159-160: Identifies the Hat of Disguise via 10-minute ritual.
  8. ^ Session 17, line 130: s16 retcon, Althea and Vasquez split off at the sewer mid-point, were captured by Aurelians; party fled and left them behind.
  9. ^ Session 17, line 785: DM restates the retcon for Caelumn's player (catching up post-break).
  10. ^ Session 15, line 272: Inline citation.
  11. ^ Session 15, line 274: Inline citation.
  12. ^ Session 15, line 1189: Inline citation.
  13. ^ Session 15, line 1190: Inline citation.
  14. ^ Session 15, line 1193: Inline citation.
  15. ^ Session 16, line 1425: Inline citation.
  16. ^ Session 16, line 1532: Inline citation.
  17. ^ Session 15, line 111-119: Inline citation.
  18. ^ Session 15, line 207-211: Inline citation.
  19. ^ Session 15, line 260-274: Inline citation.
  20. ^ Session 15, line 1189-1193: Inline citation.
  21. ^ Session 15, line 1311: Inline citation.
  22. ^ Session 16, line 706-716: Inline citation.
  23. ^ Session 16, line 1132-1140: Inline citation.
  24. ^ Session 16, line 1148: Inline citation.
  25. ^ Session 16, line 1159-1160: Inline citation.
  26. ^ Session 16, line 1425-1439: Inline citation.
  27. ^ Session 16, line 1474-1483: Inline citation.
  28. ^ Session 16, line 1532-1533: Inline citation.
  29. ^ Session 15, line 18: Inline citation.
  30. ^ Session 15, line 211: Inline citation.
  31. ^ Session 15, line 74: Inline citation.