The Nightseeker, often referred to as the "Shadow Lady", is a pale elven woman that appears to control the Darkheart. She was once forced by the demigod Tarisi to endeavor to summon the demigod Vortek, but following Tarisi's sealing, her motives have become unclear.
Description
The Nightseeker is an average height elven woman. She has sharp ears that extend slightly beyong her long, straight black hair. Her serene face usually wears a calm, understanding expression, accented by her deep purple eyes. Her skin is very pale, though she appears healthy.
During the battle with Tarisi, when her powers were the most taxed, the Nightseeker's visage changed to become decidedly more monstrous, resembling Phaelnah's somewhat, but more advanced.
The Nightseeker appears to hold her cards very closely to her chest, but has a pragmatic mind. She appears willing to compromise with the party in order to eliminate Tarisi.
Powers and Abilities
Shadow Magic
The Nightseeker appears to have control over shadows, and can imbue the ones she manipulates with special properties. She has displayed the following abilities using her shadows:
- Teleportation
- Creation of an impenetrable barrier
- An ability that allows her to drag targets into her shadows
- The ability to steal shadows, which grants her some sort of power over those she does it to
Connection with the Nightblight
When meeting Phaelnah in Vardev, the Nightseeker inflicted the cleric with a bizarre corruption simply by gripping her arm. According to Phaelnah, this corruption had something to do with the blight affecting her home forest of Ethrel, known as the Nightblight.
History
The Peas first encountered the Nightseeker in the Velvet Hat in Vardev, where she rapidly advanced Phaelnah's Nightblight corruption after trapping her within a large shadowy sphere. While the group did not see her for some time after that, after the group met up with Leadbelly Balnar, she made repeated attempts to drag him away into her shadows and opened multiple rifts during their journey to Madrioc, allowing Abrax and Yyk Sen to attack the group.
When Leadbelly snuck his way into a Darkheart hideout in Madrioc, he heard the Nightseeker's voice as she talked to his son, doing something that prompted muffled screams and the surprise of Mardyth.
The party encountered the Nightseeker in the flesh on a Batra full moon, where she used the power of the god of evil to protect her from Tarisi's sight. She took this opportunity to speak candidly with the party, explaining that she was not evil by nature, but was forced into becoming a "villain" in order to suit the desires of Tarisi's personally concocted prophecy. She wished to establish a meaningful dialogue with the party in order to find some way to overcome Tarisi, and force her to stop meddling with everyone's lives.
At some point, the Nightseeker began to contact Phaelnah Ellarian, requesting that she lead the Peas north in order to help her with the sealing away of Tarisi.
The Peas next encountered the Nightseeker in the underwater altar underneath Lake Faelance, where she was preparing a ritual to trap and bind Tarisi. She worked alongside the Peas and the Darkheart, siphoning energy from Journey and Phaelnah in order to hold back Tarisi's power. Eventually, through everyone's combined efforts, the demigod was sealed away, and shortly after, the Nightseeker ported out with a calm goodbye, leaving Phaelnah with a message that her betrayal is for her own protection.
The Nightseeker later responded to a Sending sent by Phaelnah asking her about the Rain Knight, Balnar, and her intentions. She apologized for the cavern collapsing, stating that is wasn't part of her plan and hinting that it might have been Mardyth's doing. She asked the Peas to keep Zerist out of trouble, and ignored the query about Balnar. After Phaelnah sent her some stilted praise regarding the Rain Knight after his assistance with the Bottle Demon, the Nightseeker invited Zerist to find her on his own.
Phaelnah later used scrying to spy on both the Rain Knight and Leadbelly Balnar, and saw the Nightseeker traveling with them in a subterranean environment. On one occasion, the Nightseeker spotted Phaelnah's scrying spell, and gave her cousin a small wave.
Following the Peas' attunement to a Mass Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location, the Nightseeker reached out to Phaelnah with a Sending spell, wondering why her attempts at scrying were failing. Phaelnah clumsily attempted to convince her that she had nothing to do with it, but the Nightseeker did not follow up with another message.