Thistle 'Silvertongue' Vane — The Seven-Fold Betrayer

Ability Scores

STR

16

+3

DEX

14

+2

CON

14

+2

INT

16

+3

WIS

10

+0

CHA

19

+4

Combat

Armor Class: 16; Breastplate, Dexterity
Hit Points: 66; Hit Dice: 9d8+18
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30 ft.
Proficiency: +4
Passive Perception: 14

Attacks

Wilted Rose Rapier+61d8+2 piercing

Vicious MockeryDC 16 Wis2d4 psychic

Personality

Speaks in a frantic, rapid-fire whisper. He constantly brushes non-existent dust from his sleeves and scans the ceiling for encroaching vines.

Ideal

Order. Only the rigid, unfeeling laws of civilization can hold back the chaotic savagery of the natural world.

Bond

The Bone-Latch Key. It is his only exit strategy from a world that wants him dead.

Flaw

His terror of nature is paralyzing; a simple potted plant in a room can make him lose his composure.

Backstory

Thistle was born to the whispering pines of the Glimmerwood, but he found the silence of the trees deafening. While his kin communed with spirits, Thistle studied the rhythm of coin and the geometry of power. His descent began with a deck of many-colored cards in a border tavern; within a month, his debts exceeded the value of the forest itself. To save his own skin, he didn't just run—he drew a map. He led the Iron-Root Mining Consortium to the heart of the Glimmerwood’s sacred ley-lines, watching from a distance as the ancient groves were stripped for their mana-rich soil and the elders were put to the sword.

Now, Thistle is a fixture of the capital’s high society, a towering giant in a powdered wig and straining velvet silks who sells secrets to the highest bidder. But the city is no sanctuary. He is haunted by 'The Green Vengeance,' a psychic rot he believes his slaughtered family cast upon him with their dying breaths. He hasn't slept in three years, fearing that the moment his eyes close, the cobblestones will turn to roots and drag him into the earth. He carries the Bone-Latch Key, a macabre relic he stole from a dying archmage, convinced it is the only thing that can unlock a door to a sterile, metallic plane where the reach of nature cannot follow.

Abilities & Actions

Insomniac’s Vigilance

Thistle is immune to the unconscious condition and magical sleep effects. However, he has disadvantage on saving throws against being frightened by creatures of the Beast or Plant type.

The Bone-Latch Key (1/Day)

Thistle can use an action to thrust the key into the air, tearing a hole in reality. He casts Dimension Door. If he uses this to escape a creature of the forest, the range is doubled, but he takes 2d6 psychic damage from the key's necrotic resonance.

Words of the Buried Grove

As a bonus action, Thistle can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration to whisper a secret of the dead to a creature within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or take 4d6 psychic damage and be frightened of Thistle until the end of its next turn as it sees the ghosts of the Glimmerwood reflected in his bloodshot eyes.

Psychic Blades

When Thistle hits a creature with a weapon attack, he can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration to deal an extra 3d6 psychic damage to that target. He can do this only once per round.

DM Notes

Thistle smells faintly of expensive lavender water and rotting compost. He will never take a meeting in a park or garden. Sample dialogue: 'The trees... they don't forget, darling. They have such long, wooden memories. Now, shall we discuss the Duke's gambling debts, or must I watch that fern behind you strangle us both?' He constantly twitches his ears toward any sound of rustling leaves.