Suzetta Kernohan

Suzetta Dahli Kernohan is the protagonist of the stories contained within the Suzetta Kernohan Chronicles. She was a thief and an assassin from Darincedonia, a member of the Syndicate

Stats

 * Birthday: April 12 FY 117 2


 * Death: September 28, FY 1246


 * Nationality: Darincedonian


 * Race: Human


 * Sex: Female


 * Alignment: Chaotic Good


 * RPG Class: Rogue, Assassin, Swordmaster

Description
Suzetta is about 5'10," an average height for a Darincedonian woman, with an athletic, yet slender build.  She has shoulder length, chocolate-brown hair that she prefers to wear down and unadorned.  It parts naturally in the center and is straight.  Her eyes are a sapphire blue color and described as one of her best features.  Her nose is hawkish and later gets broken.

She dresses in dark clothing, browns and blacks. She hates dresses and prefers to dress as men do, a blouse or a jerkin, and trousers, and good thick boots. This isn't feminism on her part, she simply feels more comfortable and more functional in pants than in a dress.

Skills
Suzetta is a skilled swordmaster, later becoming a Veyelle. Her speed and agility also makes her an adept knife fighter and she's trained hand-to-hand as well.

She has some alchemical knowledge, she can concoct poisons and grenades of various types.

Suzetta has a small reserve of mana she can use to cast spells. It is not great enough for her to be a mage, indeed, she was rejected by the School of the Arcanites as a young girl, but it is enough for her to perform small tricks that help her keep her edge. These tricks are in the school of mental magic and illusion, which requires more willpower than mana, and she can generally only maintain them for a few seconds. Thus she can't turn herself invisible for an entire heist. Using such a spell can quickly physically fatigue her, so she generally uses them only once or twice, if at all, and prefers more traditional methods of stealth. She does not use any spells in combat as they do more harm than help by sapping her energy.

The spells she has mastered (and this list is not exhaustive):
 * Vanish: Disappears a short amount of time.  Not true invisibility, rather, she tricks other people into not registering that she is there.
 * Muffle: Decreases the sound her footsteps make.  Similar to vanish as she's actually tricking people into not registering what they hear in their minds
 * Disguise:  Makes other people see her as someone who belongs where she is.

Items of Note
Ramas and Romel are her twin Veyelle swords she is gifted by the Grand Veyelle after completing her training. Ramas is the right hand and Romel is the left. The swords are Tamarian words meaning "Grace" and "Death" respectively. They are about 2 and a half to three feet in length with a mahogany hilt and a gold handguard, pommel and crossguard. Along the handguard is a golden tiger in the act of pouncing. The blades themselves were forged by the Earth Elves long before the War of the Necromancer, an art lost with the destruction of Paeriannis. They never dull and they never break. The hilts were smithed in Elrund. If one were to put a value of Darincedonian currancy on only one of the blades, they're worth tens of thousands of gold crowns. To Suzetta, they are priceless.

Baviaka is her first horse. Before Baviaka, she never really owned a horse, borrowing or buying one when she needed it but never really kept one long or formed a relationship with one. She escapes Goma Shakatz's plantation on Baviaka. Baviaka is a hot-blooded mare, a Vodosian Scouthorse with a silky brown coat and traveled with Suzetta on most of her adventures. She is five when Suzetta steals her. Unfortunately, Baviaka was killed when the Fist of Angoth ambushed Suzetta the day after she assassinated Baron Reufgar.

Tomun is a male black stallion, a Darincedonian Warhorse bred in the Breadbasket, very hot blooded with a wild streak that replaced Baviaka. He was Suzetta's mount for the remainder of her adventures. He is six when Suzetta acquired him as a gift from Tomas Grice to replace Baviaka.

Biography
Suzetta Dahli Kernohan was born in Stranton Village to Frederick and Vivian Kernohan, potato farmers. She was an only child, her mother was barren after Suzetta's birth. Her family was poor but they were not starving. Fred was a subsistence farmer who sold little of his goods at market. In FY 1179, the Great Blight struck northern Kal Tarnia, which lasted until FY 1182. The blight was particularly brutal, killing off a third of the potato crop and a fourth of all other crops in the first year. Suzetta's father had a very poor harvest in FY 1179 and so he was evicted from his home. He stole a loaf of bread from Baron Reufgar's soldiers and for that, the cruel Baron, claiming that it was best for Stranton County to have fewer mouths to feed, had Suzetta's parents executed. A guard, in his guilt, suddenly grabbed Suzetta and escaped the castle. Unfortunately, the guard was shot by an arrow as he escaped and Suzetta was left to fend for herself.

After a night in the rain, alone and desolate, Suzetta encountered a wagon train of gypsies from the Lusharn Desert, lead by Zan'bar clan Hictib. He let her ride with them to Darincedon, but he was set on hard times himself and could not afford to feed another mouth for long so he took her to an orphanage. Zan'bar, in his ignorance, picked an orphanage run by Seinacian fundamentalists. The orphanage was run by nuns and a priest named Father Lillivan. The nuns overworked Suzetta and made her life miserable. When Suzetta was eight, Father Lillivan attempted to rape her. She escaped through the window and lived in the streets after that.

She learned to steal food and coin to live. She found she was a natural at not being noticed and cut her first purse when she was nine. That was the same day she met the Beggar, an old man who lived in the Southside Slums in an alleyway. The Beggar and his boys took Suzetta in and helped her. Suzetta, at thirteen, stole a very expensive item from Northside and sold it to a fence the Beggar knew. She used the coin to buy rent for an apartment. The fence, unbeknownst to Suzetta, referred her to  Tomas Grice, the Chief Doyen of  The Syndicate. He purposely set her up to steal from Tomas Grice's house. Though she got away, Tomas saw a glimpse of her in the night and was intrigued. After watching her for a year or so, the fence and Tomas set up a trap for her and that is how Tomas recruited her.

Tomas took Suzetta in and raised her as his daughter, teaching her everything he knew, including how to read, how to fence, how to fight and how to run a business. She learned very quickly and was a rapid success within the Syndicate. From FY 1186 to FY 1198, she had many adventures within the Syndicate. She fought against King Robbard Brant's tyrannic rule, ultimately assassinating him and paving the way for Prince Jame Brant to take his father's place. She helped the School of the Arcanites find an ancient powerful diamond before it was used in the wrong hands. She found Baltizaar <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">'s gold and donated most of her wealth to the poor of Darincedon. She became a  Veyelle<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">, a swordmaster of great skill. She helped Shaga prove his innocence in the death of Jame Brant's family in FY 1195. This and more.

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">The Mage's Apprentice
In FY 1196, after assassinating Baron Reufgar, Suzetta was riding home. On the way, she was ambushed by cultists, who killed her horse. In the ensuing fight, she took an arrow to the collar, another that pinned her left arm to her body, and was slashed across the belly with an axe. Finally, she took a sword in the gut but killed the remaining bandit by stabbing him through the chest. She then passed out from loss of blood.

She was discovered moments later by a mage named Almus Hadrin, who quickly stopped the bleeding and worked hard to save her life. In the meanwhile, she had a terrible fever dream that foreshadowed events to come, especially the return of Raeldrek the Necromancer. Because of Hadrin's magic and medicinal knowledge, she survived, though her friends believed her to be dead. Hadrin, having probed Suzetta's body with magic further than any mage had ever gone, made a startling discovery. Suzetta had not burnt her magic out, she had inadvertantly blocked it. The trauma of the death of her parents keeps her from casting proper magic.

Upon returning home, she finds her friends at her own funeral and surprises them all by being alive. She then learns her friend Vayan Frudd, an elderly bookseller, is dead and left her his shop. She grieves his passing and takes his shop as an opportunity to settle down and live an honest life.

Tomas has a job for her to take. She rejects it, and decides to get her shop ready for opening. But she is visited by the Mogdi who inform her that the job will lead her to revelations about the prophecies that have haunted her all her life and that she must take the job so the prophecies can come to pass. Suzetta reluctantly takes it, hoping that she can, through this job, learn what her role is in the prophecies and find a way to stop the cult from trying to kill her, permenantly.

She picks up the job from a man called Jarod, disguised as a noblewoman and she learns she has to steal a book for him, Raeldrek's Necromendium. She's reluctant to do it, as she does not trust Jarod, but does it nonetheless. When breaking into the Tower of the Arcanites, she sees Taeryn Maerig, whom she recognizes from her fever dream. She steals the book and makes her way home and gets attacked by one of Mikrul's undead cretins. It tries to rape her, but she kills it and runs off in fear.

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Suzetta thought she had gained a quiet life, when shortly after Sophie's birth, Sophie was kidnapped by Raeldrek's lover, the  lich<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">  Sarastae<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">. Raeldrek<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;"> had returned. Sophie was used as bait to draw Suzetta and Taeryn into Raeldrek's schemes. However, the two, along with several others who joined their party along the way, defeated Raeldrek during the Second War. The defeat was so utter that magic itself was destroyed in the process.

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">After the war, Suzetta returned to Darincedon and sold books and raised her children. She had two others aside from Sophie. Tomas, born in FY 1201 and Alyanna, born in FY 1203. Suzetta died from a sudden illness in FY 1246. Sophie inherited Suzetta's bookstore and published Suzetta's stories after Suzetta died. Suzetta went down in Darincedonian folk lore as a legend.

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Profession
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Suzetta was a thief and assassin for hire for the Syndicate. After being discovered and taken in by Tomas Grice, she was his second in command, soon to be Chief Doyen when Tomas retired. However, after she married Taeryn Maerig, she settled down as a bookseller. She always had an admiration for books and her experience in the Syndicate gave her a high amount of cunning and made her bookshop the richest in Darincedonia.

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Likes/Dislikes
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Suzetta is not only a kleptomaniac but she enjoys stealing. She also enjoys pranks so long as it results in a good laugh. She's fond of dark lagers, betting on card games and getting in fist fights. She likes to read and explore. She enjoys fencing immensely.

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Suzetta hates being called Suzie. She hates knitting, sewing and stitching. She hates the Seinacian religion and is apathetic towards other religions. While technically not an athiest as Gods exist and once walked among men in Astarnia, she does not worship one. She despises those who flaunt their wealth and those who flaunt their religious zeal.

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Personality
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Suzetta is a good natured person who doesn't give any concern for the law of the land. Though guided by a moral code of her own, she is still a criminal. At heart, she is a friendly person, amiable and mischievous. But at first, she is suspicious and distrusting. And though she is a friendly sort, she is also aloof, preferring to operate alone and independently. She keeps very few close friends but she is not shy by nature, more observant than shy. Suzetta is stubborn as well. She is determined to see a thing through and gives nothing to her enemies. She doesn't take crap from people and has a very short temper that gets her into trouble a lot.

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Finally, for all her big talk, she is actually a somewhat modest person who blushes at praise for a job well done. She also blushes when embarrassed.