![[DuskPathfinder-v2.webp]] # Dusk _Deep Gnome Lich | [[Heroes of Waterdeep]] | [[Green Expanse]], [[Feywild]]_ ## Summary Born a pixie in the [[Feywild]], daughter of [[Solara]] — a spy for [[Titania]] — and the [[Summer Court]] archmage [[Snow]]. She ran a mediation business that resolved disputes by making the disputing parties undead, and her skeletons wore pink armor. She was killed when an intellect devourer ate her brain, reincarnated as a deep gnome, and completed her own transformation into a lich in a [[Ramnus]] graveyard. She fought through [[The Oblivion War]] as one of the [[Heroes of Waterdeep]], and now holds the [[Green Expanse]] — [[Titania]] helped her take it, and she promised aid to the war effort in return. %% > [!caution] Provenance > Audited 2026-07-28 against the recap corpus. **This was the most fabricated note in the Feywild set — her biography had been replaced wholesale.** Corrections applied: > - **"Dalvara Undrennek," "Blingdenstone," the deep-gnome-artificer-turned-wizard-turned-archlich ascent, and "the Underdark had been thoroughly catalogued" as her motive for turning to the Feywild — all invented.** None of it appears anywhere else in the vault. **Deleted.** > - **Her real biography is restored** from the PC note (`01 Player Wiki/02 Heroes of the Realms/Chained Oblivion/Dusk.md`) and the recaps: born a **pixie**, daughter of **[[Solara]]** and **[[Snow]]**; killed when an **intellect devourer ate her brain** (`Fey 17`, her fifth character death); **reincarnated as a deep gnome** by [[Oakenton|Doorknob]]; became a lich using **[[Acererak]]'s Guide to Lichdom** from [[Baba Yaga]]'s library, completing the ritual in a **[[Ramnus]] graveyard**; her sister **[[Sunset Flickerflame|Sunset]]**, and [[Elkane]]'s guilt over having killed her, which is what got the [[Righteous Order of the White Flame|Righteous Order]] to stand down; and her father [[Snow]] at **[[Mab's Lament]]** (`Fey 31`, `Fey 32`, `Fey 40`). > - **Ruling §10 applied rigorously.** Every claim about her plans is cut: "surveillance network," "cataloguing," "building toward something specific," "waiting for the balance to tip," "using it systematically," "receives no visitors," "decay is fine." Several of these sat in the **frontmatter summary**, so they propagated into every index and gallery — the frontmatter was rewritten first. **No replacement plan has been substituted.** Graham: *"Dusk was a PC and it was never clear to me what she was doing. I think trying to master undeath."* > - **[[Titania]] helped her take the [[Green Expanse]]** and she **promised aid in the war effort** (`Oblivion 6`). The build had her as an uninvited squatter. Corrected. > - **She actively remade the place** — annihilated the putti, deliberately avoided the black-tar quarter (`Oblivion 6`). The build had her passively letting it rot. Corrected. > - **[[Alyndra]]'s soul.** [[Lia]] killed her and **Dusk caged the soul on the spot** — `Oblivion 9`: *"Dusk, being Dusk, captured the Dusk Queen's soul."* The build had Lia soul-caging her and Dusk stealing it from the aftermath. Wrong. > - **She caged five souls, not three:** [[Mab]] (`Fey 36`), [[Korapira]] (`Fey 50`), [[Alyndra]] (`Oblivion 9`), [[Pale Night]] (`Oblivion 19`), and **[[Natasha]] the Dark**. And she **no longer holds Mab's** — it went to [[Manitou]] (`Oblivion 9`). The "three prizes" framing was tidier than the truth and is cut. > - **[[Korapira]] is female, and a Forest Dragon** (`Fey 44`, `Fey 47`). The note was internally inconsistent about this. > - **Rulings §8 and §9 applied.** She holds the **Murder Stone**, and her lair is inside the one tree whose wood can permanently kill [[Korapira]], whose soul she holds. **She may not know.** > - **Her real interiority, unused by the build, is restored:** the voice in her head (`Fey 47`), her rejection of [[Tharizdun]]'s offer of godhood over death, and the fact that she has repeatedly been **cautious and pro-social** — she argued for retreat from [[Pale Night]] when the party was outmatched (`Fey 22`) and caught a falling [[Kali Firesong|Kali]] (`Fey 47`). > - **She was a player character.** The note did not say so. It does now. > > **Still unverified, retained as usable invention:** the stoppered soul-vials on silver chains as the physical form of the cages, and their colors. The cages are canon; the vessels are not. > > **Open, flagged for Graham:** her **phylactery's location** is unestablished in any recap. The build placed it in the [[Feydark]] beneath the [[Green Expanse]] as a consequence of the invented Underdark biography; with that biography gone, the placement has no support and has been removed rather than replaced. > [!warning] Write her carefully — Ruling §10 > **She was a player character.** Do not give her a tidy authored master plan, a monologue-ready scheme, or a surveillance apparatus. Her motive is *mastering undeath*, and the specifics are **deliberately open**. The ambiguity is canon, not a gap to fill. ## Now Holds the [[Green Expanse]] from the Heartwood at its centre, with [[Titania]]'s sanction and an unpaid promise of wartime aid attached. She has been remaking it since she arrived — the putti annihilated, the black-tar quarter left strictly alone. She makes no declarations and sends no envoys, and nobody on the [[Council of Fey Queens]] has established what she is doing there. ## Appearance Small even by gnomish measure, grey-white and slightly translucent, with two pale lights where a deep gnome's amber eyes used to be. Her skeletons still wear pink armor; this has never been negotiable. ## Personality Analytically brilliant, unflappable, and operating on a logic that is internally consistent and externally terrifying — mediation means making both parties undead, capturing an enemy means killing them and raising the corpse. She is not theatrical about it. She does not gloat, monologue, or make deals she intends to break. She is also, consistently, the one arguing for the sensible thing. She pushed for retreat when the party was outmatched by [[Pale Night]] (`Fey 22`) and caught [[Kali Firesong|Kali]] out of the air when she fell (`Fey 47`). Her moral compass is real and idiosyncratic: she killed her own father when he proved irredeemable, insulted [[Orcus]] mid-ritual, and told [[Tharizdun]] no when he offered her godhood over death. She cares about her sister, her friends, and doing what she considers right, and her definition of right is not anyone else's. ## Quote _"I can fix this. Hold still."_ ## Connections **[[Snow]]** — father. [[Summer Court]] archmage turned [[Orcus]]-serving lich. She sought a reunion and killed him instead. **[[Solara]]** — mother. [[Titania]]'s spy. **[[Sunset Flickerflame|Sunset]]** — sister, killed by [[Elkane]] while he was mind-controlled. **[[Elkane]]** — party member; his guilt over [[Sunset Flickerflame|Sunset]] is the reason the [[Righteous Order of the White Flame|Righteous Order]] stood down at her lich ritual. Died in the [[Green Expanse]] (`Fey 47`). **[[Kali|Kali Firesong]]** — party member. The one person she told about the voice in her head (`Fey 47`). **[[Titania]]** — helped her make [[Korapira]]'s cage permanent and take the [[Green Expanse]]; holds an unspent promise of aid from her (`Oblivion 6`). **[[Oakenton|Doorknob]]** — reincarnated her as a deep gnome after the intellect devourer. **[[Baba Yaga]]** — her library held [[Acererak]]'s Guide to Lichdom, and her vault paid for the materials. **[[Manitou]]** — took [[Mab]]'s caged soul off her hands (`Oblivion 9`). **[[Korapira]]** — soul in her keeping; former master of the [[Green Expanse]] she now holds. **[[Tharizdun]]** — offered her godhood over death and undeath. She refused. ## Background **The pixie necromancer.** Born a pixie in the [[Feywild]], daughter of [[Solara]], a spy for [[Titania]], and [[Snow]], a [[Summer Court]] archmage. She ran a mediation business that solved disputes by turning the arguing parties undead. Her skeletons wore pink armor. She was introduced to the party as their guide to [[Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut]], recruited to help rescue her sister [[Sunset Flickerflame|Sunset]]. **Death and reincarnation.** Scouting in [[Senaliesse]], she was captured by drow and a mind flayer, and an intellect devourer ate her brain (`Fey 17`). [[Oakenton|Doorknob]] reincarnated her as a deep gnome. She came back sharper and more methodical — the version of her that produces a whiteboard to optimize undead troop composition. **Lichdom.** She found [[Acererak]]'s Guide to Lichdom in [[Baba Yaga]]'s library, robbed [[Baba Yaga]]'s vault to fund the components, bought what she needed in [[Ramnus]], and completed the ritual in a [[Ramnus]] graveyard. [[Orcus]] contacted her partway through. She insulted him. The [[Righteous Order of the White Flame]] arrived to stop the transformation and [[Elkane]] — carrying the guilt of having killed her sister while mind-controlled — talked them into standing down. **Snow, at [[Mab's Lament]].** She went to the tavern hoping for a reunion with her estranged father. He had already murdered everyone inside and raised them as zombies. He told her undeath is the natural state of life, revealed himself as a lich serving [[Orcus]], announced a plan to kill the whole [[Feywild]] and raise it, and asked her for [[Solara]]'s corpse. She and the party killed him (`Fey 31`, `Fey 32`, `Fey 40`). **The souls.** [[Natasha]] the Dark, executed and raised as a minion. [[Mab]], caged when the party brought her down at Cadmus's lair (`Fey 36`) — and later handed over to [[Manitou]], who used it to restore her before Waterdeep (`Oblivion 9`). [[Korapira]] at the volcano, made permanent with [[Titania]]'s help (`Fey 50`, `Oblivion 6`). [[Alyndra]] at the [[Battle of Silverbrook]], taken the instant [[Lia]] killed her (`Oblivion 9`). [[Pale Night]] at [[Waterdeep]] (`Oblivion 19`). Caged souls are transferable, as Mab's proves, which makes what she holds a currency rather than a trophy. **The voice.** During the crossing of the [[Green Expanse]] she came clean to [[Kali Firesong|Kali]] about the unsettling voice in her head, fixated on death, undeath, and destruction (`Fey 47`). [[Kali Firesong|Kali]] feared it was [[Tharizdun]]; [[Pellowea]] raised [[Orcus]]. It later identified itself: the Murder Stone, [[Red Jack]]'s Tharizdun shard, which made direct contact on the battlefield and offered her the death of the Raven Queen and godhood over death. She declined, and was punished with visions of inevitable annihilation (`Fey 48`). She turned [[Tharizdun]] down again when he made the offer himself. **[[Waterdeep]].** She seized control of a [[Nightwalker]] at the city gates, put her undead into the demonic line, and took [[Pale Night]]'s soul. **The [[Green Expanse]].** Not conquered — held by holding its ruler's soul, with [[Titania]] making the cage permanent, and walked into as master with a promise of aid attached (`Oblivion 6`). She then set about remaking it. That is the extent of the record. ## Secret **She has made her lair inside the one thing that can kill what she is holding.** The Heartwood at the Green Expanse's centre and [[Heartwood Forest]] are the same tree (Ruling §9). A weapon carved from it permanently kills [[Korapira]] (`Fey 48`) — and Korapira's soul is in her cage. **She may not know.** The party learned the fact and never used it. **And the Murder Stone is with her.** The Tharizdun shard that spoke to her across the Expanse is now at the centre of it, in her possession (Ruling §8). She is further along than the [[Council of Fey Queens]] realizes, and she already refused what it offered her once. ## Stats **Archlich (modified).** High-CR lich with her spellcasting built around necromancy and soul-magic. Her soul cages function as individual power sources — she can expend a caged soul's resonance for a large effect tied to that archfey's domain. Destroying or recovering a cage does not kill her; it costs her access to that resonance. **Her phylactery's location is not established in any recap** — decide it at the table if it matters. %%