Ubys
Type: Player Character Race / Class: Shadar-Kai / Cleric — devoted to The Raven Queen; spells include Sacred Flame, Toll the Dead, Guiding Bolt, Spiritual Weapon, Thaumaturgy, Comprehend Languages, Ceremony, Decompose, Ray of Enfeeblement, Armor of Agathys Player: Massey Status: Active — with the party First Session: Session 001
Note: This file is in
03 Wiki/rather than03 NPCs/Major NPCs/. Greg, feel free to move it when convenient — Obsidian will resolve the wikilink either way.
Description
Ubys is the party's spiritual anchor: the one who speaks with the dead, reads cursed scripts so others don't have to, and sulks when someone gets left behind. He carries a khopesh called Voidfang.
As a Shadar-Kai — a shadow-plane elf sworn to the Raven Queen — he is excluded from certain post-Bahamut consecrated places. The Harpers' anti-Shadar-Kai ward at the Druid Grove of Lynx confirmed his nature in Session 018.
Appearance: Age 128 (this incarnation). 5'10", 180 lbs. Ashen/pale skin; black hair (white in the Shadowfell); gold eyes (silver in the Shadowfell). Nearly always wears his Jackal mask with clerical robes and leather/metal-bead adornments. Carries Voidfang (khopesh), a Crook (quarterstaff / walking staff), a Flail (whip), and a Shield. Always prepared to perform funeral rites; keeps a carving knife for rune practice and occasional headstone carving.
Backstory
Due to the Shadar-Kai reincarnation cycle, Ubys has lived countless lives — bonds blur across them. In this incarnation he was sequestered at the Raven Queen's temple from childhood: large, cold, structured. He did not mind.
Temple siblings (Egyptian-animal masks, oldest to youngest): Hauris (Falcon), Obek (Crocodile), Khepir (Scarab), Ubys (Jackal), Tawar (Hippo), Bast (Cat), Sehma (Lioness), Wepwa (Wolf), Hawth (Ibis). Ubys was closest to Obek (shared nightmares from the previous cycle's Blight war), Wepwa (performed funeral rites together; helped Ubys find positives), and Hawth (scribe for the Raven Queen; shared tales of other planes). Ubys was betrothed to — and wed — Bast before leaving for the Material Plane.
Previous life: Ubys fought in a great war against the Blight that had plagued Shadowfell settlements. Casualties far exceeded expectations. The Raven Queen brought adventurers to the plane; they destroyed the Gulthias Tree and turned the tide. The nightmares still invade his Trance.
Arrival on the Material Plane: Ubys spotted a Nagpa (one of those who betrayed the Raven Queen) in the Shadowfell and pursued it to an abandoned wizard's tower. Inside: runes, ravings, signs of madness. Chasing the Nagpa into the tower's depths, he stepped through a dark portal and found himself in a lavish, unsettling manor — belonging to a noble lord who had rebuilt it from the ruins of the Tower of Thalivar in Leilon. Suspecting the noble was allied with the Nagpa, Ubys fled. In the escape he encountered a Goliath Paladin; panicked, he unleashed spells and ended with a Command: "Clemency!" The Paladin let him pass. Ubys still doesn't know if that figure was friend or foe.
Lost on the Material Plane, Ubys followed a silvery raven (sign from the Raven Queen, or so he believed) for roughly half a day until it led him to the Toke Inn. Jorry Tolk and family took him in. The flood of unfamiliar emotions triggered panic attacks; the Tolks introduced their calming tobacco blend, which Ubys now leans on too heavily. While waiting, he began receiving visions of distant adventurers and wrote letters to each — the raven invitations that called the party together.
Background & Hooks
- Receives missions and recurring dreams from The Raven Queen; called to the party by the same raven-invitation as the others.
- Read a demonic letter under Comprehend Languages in Session 003 and was briefly driven into temporary insanity.
- Shadar-Kai nature excludes him from certain consecrated post-Bahamut sites — a recurring practical complication.
- Prophecy: A diviner with true-seeing gifts once foretold that Ubys would be severely injured (if not killed) by a powerful spell. Unresolved hook.
- Enemy made: Ubys once made an enemy of an adventurer — he was to blame. Details TBD with player.
- Session 040 — Forge cost: Ubys sacrificed the memory of his wedding to Bast at the Forge of Memories. He no longer knows he is married. Bast does not know the memory was destroyed. This is an enormous unresolved emotional thread.
Items of Note
- Voidfang — khopesh
- Slippers of Spider Climb — acquired Session 024 (500 GP)
- Amulet of the Devout — acquired Session 024 (500 GP); +1 spell attack / save DC; +1 Channel Divinity use
- Elven Chain + Armor of Lightning Resistance — merged at the Forge of Memories (Session 040) into one piece; lightning resistance preserved; swim checks DC 18