Anjali Lashtail

Name: Anjali Lashtail
Door: Door Pass

Canon: Original (D&D)
Canon Point: Level 15

Age: 28
Appearance: Here

History:

Anjali Lashtail was not born to that name. She was not born to magic, or riches, or to a clan of Lashtails.

She was in fact born to a very mundane human couple, Pravin and Roshni, living in the lower castes of an ancient city far to the north, one rung above absolute poverty or slavery. Things had not always been this way, her father told her. Once, their family had been a part of the upper echelon, granted money and status by a sinister bargain made with a Rakshasa. But bargains with such creatures usually end in ruin. So it had in this instance, as the family plummeted from their lofty heights over the generations, with the final toll being taken in the form of the birth of this unusual child bearing the creature's taint.

Though her parents bore enough love for her to live despite her obvious demonic traits, she was viewed as a curse by most common folk and kept out of sight as often as possible. Anjali's parents did their best by her, regardless. Of course their 'best' was a little dubious, as her father Pravin led a gang in the city that preyed upon the upper class to help their community survive. But even small groups of rabble could be seen as a threat. Pravin made some unfortunate enemies along the way, and Anjali's mother Roshni was killed as a result of one of these encounters. Pravin took a stronger hand with his daughter after that, not wishing to lose her in the same fashion. Using his contacts in the city he saw to it that she was taught to fight, to wield a blade, and most importantly? To wile her way out of dangerous circumstances. It was these lessons that Anjali thrived in. Her aunt Tara, the owner of a brothel and one of her father's safehouses, had a great deal of education to bestow on the young tiefling. Certainly she would never fit in with common folk, but why should she need to, when she could use her 'exotic' appearance and natural guile to her benefit?

There were stumbling blocks along the way. One such formative experience involved one of the city's nobility descending from on high to mock the common folk with their friends, in the way that pompous young people with too much money and free time are sometimes wont to do. They happened upon Anjali, mocking her as a 'mangy stray', pulling her tail and hurling stones. Not satisfied with humiliating the young girl, the noble girl leading the onslaught spied a small ivory mirror on the tiefling that she claimed was too precious to be left to garbage, and demanded it be seized from her. The mirror had been a prized possession, belonging once to Roshni and before that to her mother, and her mother before that. Unable to bear seeing it in the hands of these bullies, Anjali nearly leaped onto the noble, teeth and claws bared, but a little girl was no trouble for the nobles to beat away and leave in the alley, laughing.

Spite, as it happens, is a powerful motivation, particularly where her specific fiendish heritage was concerned. Those people had taken everything from people like her and her father, and it was so much easier to turn sorrow and frustration to hate and malice. Anjali determined that she would find a way to steal the item back, one day, and humiliate the noble as she had been humiliated. She would learn to have their kind invite her into their midst, and then take from them everything that wasn't nailed down...for didn't they take everything they had from the poor to begin with? The young tiefling started taking a vested interest in her father's modest street gang, with the intent of turning it into something more than a handful of thugs and lookouts. Spite and ambition fueled her desire to hone her skill and build their contacts, refining their methods. Brawn could open certain closed doors, but cleverness and charm? Could open purse strings, hearts, lips burdened with secrets, and so much more. If her family could no longer claim nobility for themselves, then they would drink from their goblets, spend coin from their coffers, until the difference of blood and birth no longer mattered.

To protect her father and aunt, she divested herself of her old name and took up her current moniker, working her way into the higher rings of society and traveling from city to city as a bard and entertainer, but ever on the lookout for more opportunities for her family's more clandestine operations...and of course keeping a eye open for the noble who had set her on this path all those years ago. Vain and petty, Anjali delights in playing with people, wrapping them around her little finger, and prying for whatever might be of use, of interest, or simply fulfill her curiosity. She does have a tendency to overestimate herself, however. She is proud and willful, and capable of biting off far more than she can comfortably chew. She also has a great deal more cunning than wisdom, and will more readily think of clever ways to do a thing as opposed to the reason for doing so...or the consequences.

Personality:
Positive Trait: Creative. Whether it’s animating a chest full of cheese wheels to attack a hallway full of guards, quietly sowing sedition in a small village to cause a violent uprising against the mayor who did not give her what she wanted quickly or easily enough, or dumping a case full of high-quality black market drugs into the vat of an Elder Brain to disable a ship full of Mind Flayers, Anjali rarely picks the simple answer to a question. Indeed, most problems pose a puzzle to her not in if they can be solved, but how, and with how much style attached. The end results are usually of less consequence than how much chaos she can cause in the meanwhile. Part of this is simply the nature of a bard to want to embellish and leave behind a story worth telling in their wake. Part of it may simply be that she's so curious about the 'what if' that the question of whether or not she should simply doesn't occur to her. She wants to leave a big, colorful, sparkly smear on the world where she's touched it, determined not to be easily forgotten. And more than that? A girl just wants to have fun, to feel the rush of doing something no one else would have thought of in the moment.

Negative Trait: Self-Absorbed. You could blame her rough upbringing, living poor and having only her own back to watch, but the truth is Anjali is a creature of selfish pleasures for whom empathy never truly registers. She can’t even communicate with her own familiar due to her complete lack of ability to connect on an emotional level with the creature, despite it being bound to her. There are certainly people she likes more than others, people she considers 'hers' that she will protect as a matter of protecting something she sees as an extension of herself. But she's not overly concerned with being kind or compassionate, nor in the benefit to others without having first also weighed the benefit for herself. She will run if there is danger, leaving her party to deal with her mess, and not feel an ounce of guilt whether or not they would have done the same. Having fun and getting her way is all that motivates her at the end of the day, with one major exception…

Negative Trait: Spiteful. Any slight, any hindrance, any perceived insult or injury, and you’ve just made yourself Anjali’s new hobby. There’s little she won’t do to make the people who’ve crossed her as miserable as possible, and in ways they couldn’t have had the imagination to predict. It’s not about justice or what’s fair, it’s about soothing her own wounded ego, and there is no force that will cause her to give up a grudge once she’s latched on. Take any profession of forgiveness with an ocean’s worth of salt. It's probably just a ruse to lure you into a false sense of security while she plots something suitably awful to do to you. Similarly, there's no better way to convince Anjali to do something that to tell her she can't, or that she's incapable of it, because she'll do everything in her power to prove you wrong, even if the end results wind up detrimental to her in some way. It's the only push stronger than her own self-interests: the desire to prove someone wrong, and rub their face in it.

Negative Trait: Impulsive. What’s that? What does it do? Can I touch it? Eat it? Smell it? What happens if I do this? What about this? Sometimes in an adventuring party you want the person who will do the obvious, dumb thing, push the big red button, or go down the hallway with the foreboding aura emanating from within. Similarly, if there's something she wants, she'll go after it first and consider the ramifications of it later. This goes for treasure, plots and plans, and ill-fated romances, and many a broken heart (and possible villain origin) lies in her wake after she's sated her fleeting interests. ‘Curiosity killed the cat’, they say, but Anjali usually finds a way of foisting the consequences of her curiosity off onto whatever poor sap is along for the ride. Someone’s got to keep this story going, and we’ve gone far too long without something traumatic happening. Let’s fix that.

Powers and Abilities:

Darkvision: Anjali can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. She can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Hellish Resistance: Resistance to fire damage.
Bardic Inspiration: Able to inspire improved skill in whoever listens to her.
Mantle of Inspiration: Uses a point of her bardic inspiration to give herself a wondrous appearance, and up to 5 people in the area that she chooses can heal a little bit and move up to their movement speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Enthralling Performance: Anjali performs for a minute, and attempts to inspire wonder in her audience. She chooses up to five targets who make a Wisdom save (nerf: the effect is up to target player’s discretion) and on failure, the target idolizes her, speaks glowingly of her to anyone who speaks to them, and hinders anyone who opposes her, avoiding violence unless already inclined to fight on her behalf. The effect fades after an hour, if they take damage, if she attacks them, or if they see her attacking any of their allies. If they make the saving throw, they have no hint that she tried to charm them. Only usable once per day.
Song of Rest: A soothing song that helps to heal while people rest.
Mantle of Majesty: Cloaking herself in fey magic, she casts Command and takes on an appearance of unearthly beauty for a minute or until concentration ends. She can cast Command as a bonus action on each of her turns without using a spell slot. Any creature charmed by her autofails. Once per day.
Unbreakable Majesty: She gains an otherworldly aspect that makes her look more lovely and fierce. Lasts a minute or until incapacitated. Whenever someone tries to attack her for the first time on their turn, they make a Charisma save and if failed, they have to choose someone else to target or the attack is wasted. If they save, they can attack her, but have disadvantage on her next spell against them. Once per day.
Thaumaturgy
Prestidigitation
Minor Illusion
Mage Hand
Vicious Mockery
Faerie Fire
Tasha’s Hideous Laughter
Dissonant Whispers
Comprehend Languages
Command
Hex
Hold Person
Heat Metal
Shatter
Hellish Rebuke
Darkness
Suggestion
Misty Step
Fear
Major Image
Counterspell
Dimension Door
Polymorph
Greater Invisibility
Wall of Force
Telekinesis
Disintegrate
Forcecage

Inventory:

Pumpkin, a small orange viper that serves as her familiar
Her magical stringless sitar
Ivory hand mirror

Samples:

TDM