Amber of the Woods Ep 2
The second half of the Introduction
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When we last left Lady Amber…
Last Episode: https://penumaria.substack.com/p/007-aotw-episode-01
She has just arrived in the Forest of Magic and was taken in by the current Witch of the Woods, Grandmother Nalladrie Emerisle. Grandmother Nalladrie got to know her new stray some more—finding out more about Amber and the world she’s from—as she starts weaving a spell that will let her settle more into her new world. A spell that would start the turning of Amber’s life around from the complete derailment she suffered when she was way too young. A turnaround that will offer not just herself but her father, her sole remaining family member, a better chance in life.
Of course, there are parts of that spell that might be misunderstood, mainly because of the person weaving that spell, Grandmother Nalladrie, and the nature of the spell being cast. Granted, Nalladrie is doing this out of actual concern and her wish to care for Amber and ensure that she’s going to be all right, the best of her intentions. But Grandmother Nalladrie would be the first to tell you that using Hypnosis is sketchy even with the best of intentions. But she is the product of her upbringing, which as you will see is as broken as Amber’s own childhood.
The URL for Episode 2 is here: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AjNYReLtj6OIoAHB 9BRuaPp6VhfO
It will also include a glimpse as to what kind of creature Mistress Nalladrie of the Emerald Isle was, which will make you wonder what she might have done to poor Amber had her own life hadn’t turned around.
Alignment is not Permanent
I probably mentioned this earlier, and if you hadn’t heard me talk about it yourself, let me recap it. I don’t like using Biaxial Alignment (Lawful-Chaotic Good-Evil) because it isn’t nuanced enough. There are times when you can’t fit a person into one of those nine boxes Biaxial Alignment offers. Also to be mentioned is that these nine alignments can be open to interpretation; one man’s Lawful Good can be another man’s Chaotic Evil. And of course, not only would someone not fit into the mold of a common stat block, but that person in question might have their alignment change over time.
It's not saying that Biaxial Alignment has no place in D&D (any version, including Swifttail.) A common stat block of a certain monster is more than appropriate for putting ‘Lawful-Chaotic Good-Evil’ on the Type Line (the second line of a stat block with the creature type, race, class, sex, gender, and all the other checkboxes.) Most people would understand that the alignment on a common stat block would be typical of the creature in question, even though we all know that it’s not always the case; we’re talking Hashtag Not All here. It’s why Wizards started adding the word ‘typically’ in front of the alignment in these stat blocks…before until they got rid of alignment altogether.
(This is one of the many reasons why I created Swifttail, my fork of D&D 5E; alignment is just one of the many items I’m going in a different direction from where Wizards of the Coast is headed.)
But when you shift from a common to a specific stat block, such as going from a basic Drow (typically Chaotic Evil) to Drizzt Do’Urdren (Chaotic Good) you really shouldn’t expect that character to conform 100% to the alignment box you put them in. Despite what some people believe—the ones who believe that their world is now dystrophic because Elon Musk now owns Twitter—nobody is a cookie-cutter representation of whatever demographic they are in. Everyone is an individual; no two people are alike even though they could be in the same ‘group.’ And just because they are part of a group that is of one of those nine boxes doesn’t mean that they must stay in that box. Someone would be a heartless assassin who knows he can shoot through plyboard and has killed three grown men with a Ticonderoga pencil but is a loving husband who is very kind to animals. John Wick went on a roaring rampage of revenge because someone killed his dog. Does that look like someone who’s Chaotic Evil?
Allow me to describe someone who was Chaotic Evil: Nalladrie Emerisle. Or rather, Mistress Nalladrie of the Emerald Isle. Master Enchantress and expert hypnotist. In his episode, you get to see a bit about her past. It’s a dark and tragic past that can explain why she is the way she is. Granted, the Nalladrie of today might guide someone into a nice dream where they are convinced that they are loved and cared for…but that wasn’t always the case.
She was once a normal noble child…by elven standards…likes dolls, was a doll enthusiast, could have become a doll maker, with plenty of promise for better things…
…until all that was taken from her.
When she was found by her soon-to-be master, she lost everything; her family, her wealth, her home, her clothes, her living, everything. Including her dolls. Especially her dolls. She would easily fall prey to anyone with nefarious schemes for her…and someone with a nefarious scheme did find her. Stephen Daufour, human wizard and renowned hypnotist. While on the surface he managed to reassure Nalladrie and took her in like she did Amber, unlike with Nalladrie and Amber, Stephen did not have the best of intentions. Oh, I could say that Stephen had his own selfish reasons for putting Nalladrie under his spell…but…that’ll be too kind. He bent her to his will, using drugs to bypass her natural defenses, (look into Fey Ancestry on Page 23 of the Player’s Handbook. In the story, it means that Elves cannot naturally be hypnotized to show the Advantage on all Saves vs Charm) and completely remolded her inside and out into what he wanted her to become.
You’ll find out how thorough the remaking of Nalladrie was. Spoiler alert: Nalladrie Emerisle is not her birth name! In fact, if you put a gun to her head and demand she tells you ‘Her Real Name,’ she’d just say ‘Pull the Thrice-Damned trigger because I don’t know.’
The things he did to Nalladrie. I’ll admit it. They crossed some lines. Not only to Nalladrie herself but to what he prompted Nalladrie to do…to others! Let’s just say that Nalladrie got her dolls back… by turning people into her dolls. While she believed she did it to those who deserve it a la Dexter Morgan, she reduced them, body and mind, into mere toys, little more than playthings for her to play around with, and then tossed them aside when she’s bored of them, only to turn another into her doll to replace them.
Classic Chaotic Evil material.
When everything finally caught up with Stephen, and he ended up killed by…well, that would be telling…Nalladrie found herself waking up from whatever Stephen put her in…but she didn’t know who she truly was. All she remembered is being Stephen’s partner in crime, who would hypnotize others and turn them into her dolls. It was what she knew, and what she was capable of, and she was very very good at it.
Was she always like this before Stephen Daufour got to her, or is this what Stephen Daufour made her into? I expect a hot debate over this. There’s a reason why Penumaria has ‘Heaven’s Fall’ Laws that would keep her from prison terms and maybe even execution because it was clear to the courts that she was controlled and made to do what she did; she was as much as a victim as all the other dolls. But Nalladrie didn’t stick around to catch any more hell than she needed to. Within 48 hours of Stephen’s death, Nalladrie left town on a single cart, never to return.
Although she was free of Stephen’s influence, she was still Mistress Nalladrie of the Emerald Isle, and she still consider people to be a means to an end. She was able to keep into the socialite circles and not shell out her own coin for meals or a room. And even though she could make any man swoon over him, she couldn’t feel any kind of connection toward them. They were still mere puppets, dolls to play with. But she didn’t reduce anyone into a doll as she did before, mindless toys meant to be a momentary plaything only to be discarded at the end. Nalladrie was still within Chaotic Evil territories, but she wasn’t in the classic destructive nihilistic area that most people consider Chaotic Evil to be. She was creeping up into Chaotic Neutral.
In another scene that will be delved into in a later episode—it was hinted here—Nalladrie would have that incident that would magically age her. Gone would be her natural elven beauty. Once again, Nalladrie had lost everything. And she feared that someone else would find her and take advantage of her again, so, she decided to just go into the nearest forest she could think of and just sit down and…just wait to die. Maybe she’ll get lucky—fat chance—and just reincarnate into a life where she could start over. Maybe the bad karma she had would be kinder to her.
However, someone did find her that would show her a better path. The then Witch of the Woods, the one whom Nalladrie was the Apprentice of, will find Amber and guide her out of that dark place. She would set Nalladrie on a path to becoming more benevolent, both in her practices and as a person. And while Grandmother Nalladrie, which she calls herself now, still uses her tried and true talents, she doesn’t consider those she puts under her spell as mere objects. They’re people, even when they consent to her putting them into a trance where they become dolls for a while, she knows that they’re people. And to some of them, especially when they’re younger, she grew to actually care for them. It would eventually guide her out of the Evil territories and eventually somewhere in between Chaotic Good and Chaotic Neutral. If not fully into Chaotic Good.
It was a long way out of a very dark place in Nalladrie’s soul. A dark place Amber would know all too well.
The next Article
This next weekend’s my birthday, and it’s taken me much too long to write this article. While I took care of the story file, I didn’t bother to write the Substack Article to go with it. Whoops! I’ll need to reset things for next week, so the week after this will be my next article, where I introduce the Paid Tier.
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