Le Bayou a Faim

Quintessence the Mermaid      Quintessence is the leader of a pod of merfolk just off of the coast of  Ville des Marais. She is young, but well respected due to her leadership abilities, bubbly personality and beautiful appearance. She also possesses a keen tactical mind, and has managed to defend against attacks by merrow, sahuagin and even scrags (sea trolls). While she may be quite a warrior, she prefers diplomacy to combat, and her natural charisma assists her in this greatly.      Quintessence  will often retrieve items from shipwrecks and trade them for supplies that can't be created underwater. Her greatest find so far is a large (6") crystal ball, and she uses this magic item to keep an eye on her territory. She keeps this item a secret, and enjoys the adulations from the rest of the merfolk for her "uncanny ability" to know where trouble can be found. She's run afoul of the infamous pirate  Captain Gnash several times, and has outsmarted him every time.

Annette Traver      Annette Traver is an incredibly forward thinking and enterprising woman. Raised far to the north in a small town called Sarcelles, she dreamed of one day moving to Ville des Marais and starting her own general store that focused on the needs of adventurers. Now at forty-five, Annette has done just that. The proud owner of La Torche Brûlante (The Burning Torch), Annette does something that no other merchant in the city does - she delivers her wares right to your doorstep.     Annette employs two teamsters and six guards. For a nominal fee of a single gold piece, she will have one of her drivers and two guards deliver anywhere within the confines of Ville des Marais within an hour or so of the purchase. She will even deliver goods within 10 miles of the city, utilizing one teamster and four guards, but the charge goes up to 5gp for every mile travelled (one way). She pays her delivery people and guards well, and their loyalty is unquestioned.     Several of her delive

Louis Lapointe      Louis Lapointe was a thief, operating out of Ville des Marie. A friend of  Guarin Félix  and a member of the Sneak's Guild, he was on a burgling job when he ran afoul of one of  Papa Abélard Delacroix 's minions. Unbenounced to Louis, the home he had broken into belonged to the bokor and was a part of one of his nefarious schemes. As punishment, Papa Delacroix murdered Louis and then raised him as a zombie.     Something strange happened, however. Louis somehow managed to retain his intelligence, his identity and sense of self. Never under the control of  Papa Delacroix, Louis managed to escape into the bayou, avoiding detection thanks to his magical ring of chameleon power . Thanks to his now undead state and his ring, louis was simply able to stand still when the bokor's minions got close and was eventually able to get out of the lich's demises.     Louis now lives in the bayou southwest of  Ville des Marie, occasionally coming into the city (than

The planet Terre takes 360 days to circle around Le Soleil. There are 12 months, each of which has 30 days in them and the days are simply named 1-10 in Franche. There are two moons, Mother and Father (Mère and Père), with Mother having a 28 day cycle and Father having a 20 day cycle. The current year is 1485, marked from the time of the destruction of the lich king Cesaire le Noir. The year begins on the first day of First Winter. Winter Spring Summer Autumn

     Sometimes areas of the bayou are so warped by the presence of a powerful bokor that it becomes tainted with necromantic energies and starts to arbitrarily raise those humanoids that die in the waters as zombies. Plant life grows onto, within and as a part of these undead creatures, and they constantly drip fetid, brackish water. Their rotting skin takes on a sickening, swampy green pallor, and their eyes glow red.     The worst part about these zombies is that they can make the bayou itself come alive, entangling their victims in vines and other plants. Their appearance also helps them to hide much more effectively, and they will frequently lay under the shallow water, within clumps of plants or in the hollows around the roots of a bald cypress and wait for prey to come near before attacking.     Although raised as undead by the bayou itself, these zombies are treated as normal zombies when it comes to turning and control. They are also vulnerable to spells that affect plants, as

Estelle and Valérie Nicolas      Estelle Nicolas, and her younger sister Valérie, run Nicolas Dry Goods, located in the poor Maçon District of Ville des Marai. A spinster by choice, Estelle hopes to one day have enough money for a dowry for Valérie and to find her a good husband that will take care of her. Friendly and hard working, Estelle is known for helping those in need by lowering her prices when someone doesn't have enough for needed goods.      Valérie is quite different from her older sister. She is flighty and fun-loving, and wishes to one day become an adventurer and find lost treasures of old so that her sister doesn't have to work so hard. She practices with a small wooden shortsword in the alley next to the store, much to the amusement of those passing by. She has actually developed some skill, and is collecting a personal savings to buy a real weapon and pay for some training.      Nicolas Dry Goods is actually haunted by the spirit of their great grandfather, Qu

Dame Émilie Lebeau     Dame  Émilie Lebeau is, without a doubt, a massive contradiction to all who know her. A paladin of the Temple of Cavdes, she is so unlike most other half-orcs. Dame Lebeau is genial, refined, calm and possesses a very gentle demeanor. She is also nearly 7' tall, incredibly strong and has bested the likes of Lord Gy Lévesque  in battle practice time and again. The Comtesse Laurent sings her praises regularly, much to the shy and humble paladin's chagrin.     Hailing from the orc lands far to the south, she came to  Ville des Marai to pledge her service to Cavdes, since the temple there is the largest in the region. Her parents understood her calling, but her orc mother fought against it literally tooth and nail. The headstrong  Émilie had her mind made up, however, and so she travelled to  Ville des Marai five years ago and quickly made a name for herself in the service of the Paladin God of Service.     In order to expand her horizons,  Émilie is learnin

Gigi Dubois      Gigi Dubois is, despite her young age, a fairly powerful woodwitch . Woodland animals seem to flock to her without hesitation, and it's an incredibly rare thing to see her without something furry or feathered cradled in her arms or walking along beside her. Her dire wolf companion, Félix, is awakened and capable of speaking common, and the two are often seen talking about the nuances of nature or spellcasting.     Gigi is incredibly curious about how everything works, even to the point of absentmindedly wandering off to examine something interesting that catches her eye. While this can be a problem at times, Félix is usually able to get her back on track with a nudge or a call of her name. This curiosity has helped her several times in the past, however, as she has managed to discover several lost magic items and a significant amount of treasure.     Gigi is a good friend to both  Jérémie Rey and his father  Pépin , and hopes to eventually learn bayou and swamp

     The Liber Populi (the Book of People in common, Le Livre du Peuple in Franche) is a magical tome that takes a constant census of the adventurers that call Ville des Marai home. Created by Kelwyn himself, the tome is both unusual and arcane in nature. Keyed to the spirit of the city, the book magically adds pages and general information about low-level adventurers that have moved into the city and established themselves as members of the community for one month.     If an adventurer decides to permanently leave the city the all basic information about them vanishes, but a name is automatically added to the appendix and sorted. If an adventurer dies, their page is ringed in gray and is moved to the back of the book automatically but it is not removed. Whenever changes take place, the book glows with a purple light sprinkled with golden motes of light. This glow lasts for exactly one minute, and then quickly fades. The Liber Populi      Marquise Désirée Fournier commissioned the boo

Lord Stéphane Barrere      Lord Stéphane Barrere is the primary personal assistant of  Mayor Fournier , and is the one that keeps her schedule tight and the riff-raff at bay. He is also the city's tax assessor, and as such knows the ins and outs of the political system in Ville des Marai better than the backs of his hands. Officious, distant, quite guarded and fairly callous, Lord Barrere cares little for the common man's needs. Whereas the mayor's bodyguard Timothée keeps the rabble away physically, Lord Barrere keeps them away socially. If you aren't of the noble class, or at the very least a well known and prosperous merchant, you are below notice and unworthy of an appointment with the mayor.      Lord Barrere absolutely despises the mayor's loving habit of visiting with the lower class, and finds the children that the mayor adores to be utterly revolting. While he won't act in the mayor's presence, he has been known to raise or impose taxes on those tha