Last year, the Book of the River Nations: Complete Player’s Reference for Kingdom Building was released. At the time I had plans to provide NPCs appropriate for a kingdom building game as well as much more support. Instead of doing that, I ended up going straight to work on Shadowsfall and several half finished products fell by the wayside. I don’t like vaporware as much as you so I’m working to finish up these products that I began so long ago. One such product is assassins for the River Nations. This one here is one I wrote last night. She’s part of an all elf/half-elf dance team called the Skyprancer Dance Troop. The team are mercenaries, using the cover of dancers as a way to cross borders and gain access. While none of the team actually possess the assassin prestige class, they have registered with the Gracetree Assassins in Daggerton.

Please let us know if you would like to see more assassins for the River Nations. Without further ado, I present to you Ceriddaia Shimmerstar!

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Ceriddaia Shimmerstar           CR 10
XP 9,600
Female elf magus 11
CN Medium humanoid
Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +13

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Defenses

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AC 25, touch 14, flat-footed 22 (+8 armor, +3 Dex, +4 shield)
hp 75 (11d8+22)
Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +7
Immune sleep

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Offense

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Speed 20 ft. (30 ft. without armor)
Melee +1 scimitar +12/+7 (1d6+4/15-20)
Special Attacks arcane pool (9), improved spell combat, spell strike
Magus Spells Prepared (CL 11th, concentration +19)
4th – arcane theft, dimension door, wall of ice
3rd – fireball (DC 17), fly, force punch (DC 17), undead anatomy i, vampiric touch
2nd – defensive shock, elemental touch (DC 16), frigid touch, scorching ray, web
1st – corrosive touch, expeditious retreat, ray of enfeeblement (DC 15), shocking grasp, true strike, vanish
0 (at will) – acid splash, detect magic, disrupt undead, read magic, spark

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Tactics

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Before Combat Before attacking her opponent, Ceriddaia will cast expeditious retreat as well as fly if the situation calls for it. Following that, she will use one of her arcane pool points to increase her scimitar to a total of a +3 shock weapon. Next she will cast vanish and then undead anatomy i. The following round she will strike.
During Combat The above preparations changes her attacks: +1 scimitar +15/+10 (1d6+7/15-20 plus 1d6 shock). First she will neutralize her target’s weapons by sundering them. Next, she will fight using her spell combat to increase the damage output of each hit. Meanwhile, Ceriddaia will use her shield spell ability to give herself a +4 shield bonus to her armor class.
Morale Ceriddaia is paid for her services and will flee if her hit points fall below 25.

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Statistics

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Str 16, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 18, Wis 10, Cha 8
Base Atk +8; CMB +11 (+16 sunder); CMD 24 (26 sunder)
Feats Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Improved Critical (scimitar), Improved Sunder, Lunge, Power Attack, Toughness, Weapon Focus (scimitar)
Skills Fly +17, Knowledge (arcana) +18, Perception +13, Perform (dance) +10, Spellcraft +18, Use Magic Device +13; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Celestial, Common, Draconic, Elven, Gnome,Sylvan
SQ improved spell recall, knowledge pool, magus arcana (arcane accuracy +4, maneuver mastery [sunder], shield spell)
Gear +2 breastplate, +1 scimitar, belt of giant’s strength +2, clear spindle ioun stone, dust of illusion, spellbook (includes all prepared spells plus magic missile, shout, slow, stoneskin), 500 gp

Both literally and figuratively, Ceriddaia is all about the shock factor. She gets a thrill out of appearing out of nowhere, looking like a skeleton and electrocuting her targets with her strikes. Her primary tactic however is to break her opponent’s weapons before they can use them against her. This tactic of breaking her enemy’s offense has served her well.

Among the Skyprancer Dance Troop, she is the flighty one. She bores easily and frequently acts without forethought. However, she channels her impulsive nature into shopping. She keeps a considerable amount of money on her, more money than a mere dancer should possess. This has caused the dance troop’s mercenary activities to be discovered before.

Ceriddaia Shimmerstar has long flowing blonde hair and stands about 6 feet tall. Her sapphire eyes stand out against her pale skin. When outside of combat, she wears long, flowing silk dresses or gossamer robes revealing far too much. Her breastplate, decorated in elven knots and exquisite scimitar are seldom far away. She’s worked for some of the most vile leaders in the whole of the River Nations. She doesn’t really care about the money, however. She cares more about being able to do what she wants whenever she wants. If she has to kill someone every so often to make that happen, that suit her just fine.