#masarn

[unmyeoung]

@masarn responded for a starter

     she dips her head slightly in greeting, tilting her head. “it has been so long since you were last here- would you care to converse over some tea, kaedehara?” 

[plounce]

my druid masarn and her wife, rosemary!

she’s a wood elf druid and has a goofy southernish accent and has a little cottage outside the walls of the city where she grows only carrots and dresses like a lady from a crystal kitsch shop and killed a beholder without taking a SINGLE HIT!!! i love her very much

(tragic backstory under the cut)

cw for descriptions of blood and death

Masarn was raised in a druidic circle on the border of the domain of the archfey. There, she gained her values and culture and accent and the traditions that made her into a druid. She was raised by the whole community and loved everyone so dearly. She can’t remember a portion of her youth - the end of it. She’s unsure if it’s an hour, a day, or a week, but her memory picks back up at her standing in the abandoned campgrounds of her people. She herself was untouched, she’s fairly sure, but no one else was there. It didn’t seem like people had evacuated in a rush or that they were robbed, because all of their necessities and valuables were still there.

She knows this because she’s pored over every detail she can recall from that day for the past two centuries, trying to figure out what happened. (If she had been the one to cause it.) What immediately precedes the gap in her memory is blurry and uncertain. She’s tried and tried to remember, but at this point she’s given it up as a lost cause. It’s an aching, gnawing, deep-seated point of fear, especially as her memories of that day fade into the past.

After that, Masarn wandered for a month or so, lonely and confused. She quickly joined the first city she encountered, desperate for the community she had so abruptly lost. She became one of the defenders of the Sereshire, helping ward off encroaching monsters and make peace with natural forces. She helped bring the city into a new era of cooperation with nature and was a beloved, trusted figure about town.

It was in Sereshire that she loved Rosemary. They met when Masarn was still new to the city and skittish in this crowded, bustling urban space, looking for something familiar. She ducked into a doorway that was bursting with flowers and greenery, practically radiating natural energies. And then there was the florist herself, arranging flowers behind the front counter, and her cheek had been smudged with dirt, and oh.

Masarn would accompany her out of the city to her flower groves and help her cultivate them, occasionally casting little charms to help the flowers grow strong and vibrant and plentiful, and Rosemary had teased I suppose I’ll have to keep you around forever, now and Masarn had to stop herself from blurting out please do.

Their wedding was utterly covered in flowers. Rosemary carefully constructed each of their bouquets to have particular meanings, but above all they radiated love. Masarn’s favorite flower, rain lilies, were front and center. It’s no coincidence that those were the first flowers Rosemary ever gave her. (Rosemary is associated with wedding ceremonies, with headpieces made of it worn by brides and a sprig given to guests; thus, it’s also known as a love charm. Rain lilies mean “I love you back.”)

Also, Masarn learned her carrot bread recipe from Rosemary and makes it often because it’s a living memory that she can keep alive and keep with her.

Rosemary gave her the home she thought she had lost decades ago with the disappearance of her circle. They were together for years and years, married and living in the rooms above the shop, thinking about children. They were both elves. They were set to meander through their long lifespans, sure that they would have enough time. They’d gotten a cat recently, and they were halfway through litter training him.

One day, in a moment of altruism, she let a stranger in the city gates as she was leaving to attend business in the woods. The stranger was so unassuming, just a very normal looking person, maybe a bit downtrodden and in need of a soft bed and a warm meal. Masarn loved her new people - they had given her charity and hospitality, so perhaps she would continue that chain of kindness with this person. She left not thinking much of it, mind already on the wild herbs and plants she needed to gather.

And then she came back - and the city was sacked, mauled, gutted. Masarn isn’t certain if the perpetrator was human or monster (the few survivors she was able to find, or those who she witnessed finally die, said it was a wolf, a man, a bear, a child, a hulking massive beast with huge claws that delighted in its work - a shapeshifter of some sort), only that it was a bloodbath, and that it’s her fault.

Her house was in ruins, the walls and floor covered in blood and gore. Rosemary was barely recognizable, her body already cold. Masarn gathered as many valuables as she could recover in her stupor, but their beautiful home that had been full of so many happy memories was defiled beyond recovery. Flower petals that had once been in the vase Rosemary had set out just that morning (had tucked one in Masarn’s hair as they’d exchanged casual goodbyes that morning, not suspecting) were floating stickily on the rivers of blood that ran over the floorboards (well worn from where they had danced, drunk on Sereshire’s famed cider, giggling in each other’s arms). She slipped the ring off of Rosemary’s (disembodied) finger with shaking hands, hitching breaths, and a mind that could barely comprehend her own insurmountable horror.

(Rosemary is also used in memory charms; mourners would throw it into the graves of the dead as symbol of remembrance. Rain lilies also mean “I must atone for my sins” and “I will never forget you.”)

Masarn buried as many bodies as she could bear to, and then fled. She lived in the forest as various animals for years, basically just dissociating away from her overwhelming grief and guilt.

She eventually joined a band of roving heroes, mostly rangers, and roamed the countryside with them protecting people. It reminded her of her childhood spent with the druidic circle, and helping people reminded her of her position as defender of Sereshire - and it was sort of a way to atone for letting in its destroyer. She stayed with them for a number of years, regaining confidence in herself and her ability to do good, as well as finding comrades in the group. She was still intensely troubled and as such was rather reserved with the group, but she was fond of them regardless.

The group was slaughtered while trying to fight off a chimaera. Masarn was unable to defeat it on her own (because she was too low-level at that point in her life) and had to flee, leaving her comrades’ bodies to be devoured. Adding another burden of guilt to her shoulders over her failure to protect, Masarn ended up making her way towards Vasselheim’s region.

Her current cottage was owned by one of the members of the group, although derelict after years of unuse. Masarn traveled to it and threw her all into cleaning it and decorating it to her tastes, and then settled down there. She gathered all her belongings from Sereshire and put them in spell-secured chests in her attic, then bought as many lock charms as she could place on the attic door. She doesn’t go up there very often - she’s trying to forge ahead in her life - but she could never throw any of it away, because she’s the only one who’s left to remember.

Prior to the Slayer’s Take, Masarn lived in her cottage outside Vasselheim for twentysomething years. She was fairly self-sustaining, growing and making most of what she needs, and selling herbs, carrot products, and advice to the city for the rest. She’s made herself known as a consultant to the people of the Slayer’s Take, but the decline of the city’s defenses has made her terrified of a repeat episode on a grander scale. So while she’s scared of the responsibility, she feels compelled to step up and help.

Her gardens are mostly carrots, although there’s a small section for herbs, a bit of other produce, and rain lilies. There’s only one bed in the cottage - it’s the single second story room, and immediately above it is the attic. There’s a couch in the main room, but aside from that the others will have to sleep on the floor unless they buy mattresses.

Masarn doesn’t like crowds or large parties. She prefers situations where she knows everyone and is uncomfortable in loud social situations.

Masarn is scared that when she gets attached to something or someone, it will come crashing down around her.

Masarn blames herself for the deaths of her loved ones.

Masarn is paranoid that she was the cause of her clan’s disappearance, that there is something wrong and evil about her. Her biggest piece of evidence for this is that it has happened again and again.

Masarn wants to atone for what she perceives as her past mistakes, which is why she keeps adventuring.

Masarn wants to protect people from unnatural forces that wreak malignant destruction - she is intrinsically kind to those who haven’t wronged her.

She knows that human evil and mistakes are part of nature, just part of the way things are, but she still hates it.

Masarn seeks community and family since that is a value she was raised with, but dislikes large crowds.

Due to her paranoia about herself, Masarn deliberates over whether she will help - she doesn’t want to be dragged into things without her consent or prior knowledge.

Masarn doesn’t want to die because she carries memories and traditions that have passed out of human memory with her.

Masarn is terrified that her dead loved ones blame her as much as she blames herself.

Masarn’s big mysteries:

Where did her circle go? Why was she the only one left?

What was the being that slaughtered Sereshire? Where is it? Masarn won’t go looking for it because she’s terrified of her responsibility, but she imagines that she wouldn’t hesitate to kill it.

Her old defending party?

[plounce]

masarn and rosemary and the party went on an airship this session! we fought four wyverns and rosemary (who turned out to never have died!) pulled some WILD stuff out of her sleeve that seems to be a big mystery.

pictured: masarn isn’t happy about not having her feet on the earth. such is a druid.

[plounce]

OH YES I FORGOT TO UPDATE YOU ON ROSEMARY!! we were walking around vasselheim (our base town) (yes our dm likes CR) and the lord of the city, jameson, asked us to introduce ourselves to the shopkeepers in the new magical market quarter, and there was a flower shop AND ROSEMARY…………..

and it turns out when the massacre of sereshire happened, a stranger came into rosemary’s shop and gave her magic powers and told her to run? and apparently rosemary was so surprised and stunned and unsure how to deal with her newfound and very mysterious/dubious powers that she made an illusion of her dead body and ran. and settled in vasselheim eventually!

she and masarn reunited and had an Emotional Discussion and at the end of it masarn re-proposed to her :’) and now she is part of our party!!

during this session in a fight against the wyverns, she cast… an Assortment of spells: chromatic orb, vicious mockery, and then transformed into a LION? she told masarn that she’s not really sure what the whole deal is with her magic? except that she can do shit.

i rolled a middling insight check on that one, but none of my checks have revealed anything Suspicious about her (including a nat20 on a perception check if she was really rosemary), so! i guess we’ll see. but it’s very fun having my super cool, super damage-doing npc wife who struck the killing blow on TWO wyverns. and can apparently also turn into big cats with masarn.

[ryogai]

@masarn​ said : “Are you afraid to die master?”

“It’s.. complicated, Kazuha.” Perhaps to others it would be but the Saber had been there for her since near the beginning of it all. He had been by her side during all the Singularities, the crazy holiday occurrences, and even the Lostbelts so far. If there was anyone that knew how she thought and felt bet, it would be him. Nix had thought that Mash at least would’ve been similar but certain events had changed that opinion. “Of course I am afraid to die but there are other reasons for it. If I die.. Humanity does too. I’m the last Master that we have, just like during the Singularities. But after the earth is restored then..” A hand rested over her mouth as she halted herself from saying anything more. After all she had done during these missions to the Lostbelts, what right did she have to try and live happily? Worlds and people perished because of her..

[nulltune]

“   it's getting dark...   ”     bright hazels peer up to meet with dark gray,  ominous clouds littering the vast expanse of the sky  ——  a sign of a storm ?   she wouldn't know,  having only seen a vacant sky as far as her memories go.  a distant crackle of a noise makes her shoulders flinch  ( like an instinctive response like a small animal to any slight threat ) and hakuno gets the feeling that whatever it is,  it was likely to be unpleasant. 

she turns to her companion then,     “   shouldn't you be on your way to find shelter now ?   ”     soft voice contrasted with the blunt words,  it was a question asked out of concern but the delivery made it a little...  super super bad !    /  @masarn not a surprise anymore but HI ILY

[ardenssolis]

misc actions meme; accepting || @masarn​

🤺 - to challenge your muse to a sparring match

     ❝YOU WISH TO SPAR ME? I did not expect one from the Shinsengumi to approach with such desires.❞ Perhaps Hijikata, but anyone else? Not so much. To say that Ozymandias was not intrigued would have been an understatement as he examined the other curiously, his head giving a slight tilt to the side. Further taking in the other’s appearance, his gaze soon came to linger upon their hands and then the blade resting upon their hip. Those were the hands of a warrior. That sword was not merely for show. Even still, none of that mattered if the individual who wielded that blade was devoid of skill. So, that brought up the question – how skilled were they? Would this Shinsengumi be worth his time, or would they waste it? Normally he would be tempted to wave his hand and brush away such challenges with very little interest; however, considering he had nothing else to do right now, why not merely play along? It would be a good way for him to test just how good they were, and as a king, was it not his right to do just this? Testing another?

     Time passed, his fingers gently drumming against the seat of his chair before his lips soon curled into a smile that only reflected his amusement. ❝Very well,❞ Ozymandias finally managed to say, ❝I will accept. Know that I will not go easy on you, though. I fully expect you to bring your all to bear or do not bother at all.❞ Pushing himself up, he gestured for the other to follow him towards the simulation chamber. Since they were going to fight with a sword, he too would use one as well. Admittedly, he was probably quite rusty with the usage of such a weapon, especially in this particular Class and with his specific fighting style, although that was fine. It would serve as a means of getting his blood boiling and stretching his legs regardless.

[ryogai]

@masarn​ said : “ look at me. you’re gonna be okay.  ”

No one else had dared to step into the Simulation Room since Nix had decided to occupy it for a time. The noises heard on the other side was a clear indication that none should step in unless they were closer to the master than most. Many chose to give her space since it was only hours ago she had to make the choice to destroy the first Lostbelt. What could one say to such a weight hanging over her? Perhaps that’s why this matter was best left to someone that had been there for her since near the beginning of it all. 

When Kazuha entered, he was greeted by a room that had been torn apart. Desks and tables broken, broken glass and picture frames, shattered windows, and a clear chill in the air. In the middle of it all was Nix herself. Breathing heavy and blood dripping from her knuckles, all accompanied by a pained expression on her face. Her chest ached with sorrow but there was a rage that needed to be released too. Anger that flared to life when, in the worst possible moment, the silverette learned that Holmes, Da Vinci, and even Mash hid a terrible truth from her. After all she had managed to accomplish with the others, how could they deem her still so fragile to not learn the truth? 

Her thoughts were in a whirl until a familiar voice called out to her, soft and gentle. It was just what Nix needed to snap back into reality, to take a deep breath before facing the other. “I may be okay.. but all those innocent lives won’t be. They’re.. probably already gone by now, Kazuha.” Those words barely managed to be spoken, her voice strained as she struggled to keep the tears from forming in her eyes. If she cried, if it got out that she did, no doubt it would make the others feel justified in keeping her in the dark. “I deserved to know what would happen sooner. If I had.. Patxi wouldn’t have had to die the way he did.. Am I.. still so weak in everyone’s eyes? What am I lacking to be treated like I don’t have the right to know these things!? I WAS THE ONE THAT HAD TO MAKE THE CHOICE!!” Nix couldn’t hold it back anymore, tears began to stream down her face. All the hurt melded with sorrow couldn’t be bottled up anymore, not at that moment.