When Kobold Press launched the Tales of the Valiant RPG, we also launched six pre-generated characters for people to be able to start playing right away.
But who are these characters? We know their heritage and background, but how did they get from there to the character you can play?
Today, we find out the story behind cleric of Artemis, Seno Fosh.
Seno Fosh (Human Cleric)
Class: Cleric (Light Domain)
Lineage: Human
Heritage: Grove
Background: Adherent
Unbeknownst to the kingdoms below, the disciples of the Temple of Artemis watch from the moon-kissed peaks of the Everliving Realm. Only the brightest daughters of these lands are invited to train with the warrior priestesses in the mist-shrouded forest atop the world’s crest.
A human named Seno was one such daughter. She caught the attention of Sister Thalia Nightgale during a tour of the nearby lands under the stewardship of Lord Varris Blackstone. Thalia and her fellow priestesses arrived at a border village to find the local militia scattered, overrun with freshly animated undead. Amid the confusion, one six-year-old girl had scaled the town watchtower and lit the beacon to summon aid from neighboring settlements.
That act of vigilance was the first of many Seno would perform under the tutelage of Thalia, who became a friend and mentor as the young initiate grew into a full-fledged adherent of the Radiant Order. In the years that followed, Seno searched the mysteries of Artemis and honed her skills as a defender of the light. While fellow initiates found their calling as sacred scribes and ritual keepers, Seno’s aptitude with the scythe (the sacred weapon of Artemis) set her path as a radiant warrior.
When Sister Thalia was elected to lead the temple as the new Reverend Mother, Seno soon found herself elevated to a high position within her lifelong mentor’s honor guard. As soon as she accepted the new role, every aspect of Seno’s life changed. Days of quiet communion among mountain groves were traded for weeks of hard travel along desolate, muddy roads. The comforting routines of temple life were exchanged for the manifold customs that differed with each new town on the horizon.
Worst of all was bearing witness to a growing despair in the footlands. Despite the mother’s inquiries and visits to the region’s nobility, the priestesses were no closer to discovering the source of restless dead appearing in ever greater numbers.
Upon entering the demesne of Lord Blackstone, Seno saw a different land than that of her childhood. Abandoned hamlets, fields of rotten crops, and the charred remains of farmhouses lined the road to the lord’s estate. The priestesses reached the gates just as the sun set, giving way to a moonless night—the point in the lunar cycle when Artemis’s influence was weakest. As a retinue of helmeted guards, escorted them across the manicured courtyard, Seno signaled her companions to stay on high alert. An ill feeling slid just beyond her awareness.
Just as the clerics stepped through the reception hall doors, dozens of fanged creatures descended, crawling along the walls and ceilings like pale insects. Simultaneously, the glamours and spells clouding the sisters’ senses dropped. Seno’s mind reeled as she sensed the scores of undead hiding within the fortress.
The sisters fought against the spawn, but they had neither the numbers or the power to stand. Seno caught glimpses of her companions as she seared through waves of vampire flesh and pushed down the hammer of her injuries. She saw her sister drop to the floor in a crimson spatter before a crawling mass of feasting spawn buried her. She saw Thalia’s limp form dragged down the lightless hall. And finally, she saw the beautiful, terrible red gaze of Lady Blackstone standing beside the desiccated remains of Lord Blackstone, still on his throne.
In a corner of her pain-addled mind, Seno felt her body hit the floor, crushed by the weight of cold, clawing bodies. She felt a gentle hand upon her face, and her vision filled with silvery light. Then her broken body gave out.
It was weeks before Seno and the other survivors fully recovered from their injuries, even under care of temple physicians. While the survivors slept, the full force of the Radiant Order returned to Blackstone Manor to recover Thalia and the other missing sisters. They found it abandoned, with no trace of the vampires, Mother Thalia, or their missing fallen.
Reports of undead attacks dwindled. A new Reverend Mother was crowned. Temple life resumed. But Seno could not return to life before.
After her recovery, Seno departed the Everliving Realm. She was no longer content to watch and defend. Instead, she journey into the world, to peer into shadows and burn away every evil hiding within them. Seno’s hunt took her from place to place until she joined a heroic organization called the Valiant Six. As she fights alongside her new companions, Seno is relearning the strength that comes from comradery and allowing it to heal the scars of her past.
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