a.k.a. Dora, Thema, Evil Sister
PSYCHIC (Rebirth Discipline) 13
A humanoid female well into middle age, with metallic silver hair and amethyst eyes. She was quite tall and very slender (almost frail), with a sharp bone structure and golden skin tone, untanned but not pale. She had a sickly-looking stain on her skin, as though something had been poured over the back of her head and smeared everywhere it would be hard for her to see on herself. Whatever it was left a greasy purple-gray stain. She had a crude eyeball brand between her shoulder blades. She appeared really sad and really kind, as if she was accustomed to giving and receiving care and respect.
The word that echoed in her mind from the Prologue was “Remember.” In the shared nightmare of Chapter 1, she was clutching an oversized knitting needle with a blue eyeball on the end. She has proven able to use magic, though not in the usual arcane tradition. She uses emotional and thought components instead of somatic and verbal ones, and has no need for mundane material components. She speaks Taldane, Draconic, and Aklo.
In Chapter 2, she remembered her own name, and detected psychic significance from the violin, the rapier, the morningstar, that battleaxe shards, and from many objects within the pouches collected by Ray. From those, she kept the woman’s golden wedding ring (which felt like hers) bearing the inscription G.V.–T.A. 4700, a crystal that warmed to her touch, and a bag of what appear to be bleached and polished halfling finger bones. She also took the violin, a sickle, a crossbow and fifteen bolts.
In Chapter 5, Dora was brought down by a doppelganger and when revived, flew into a maniacal rage that was completely out of character from anything the others had seen before, even speaking differently. She seemed to wrestle between states throughout the battle, and a few minutes later, dealing with the stubborn survivors behind the barricade, the rage briefly re-surfaced again.
In Chapter 6, Ray confronted her about the change, which she could only explain as a momentarily loss of control over her emotions, when she receded and “something else” came forth. She assured him that when she wanted control again, she was able to attain it.
Afterwards, it was Dora’s idea to search Gull’s books to compare their handwriting against the writing within before they healed him back to consciousness, to avoid the risk of him not allowing them access. She was not clever enough to restore the items exactly as they found them, and Gull was able to tell they had displaced his things, damaging his trust in them. Later that same day, she used psychometry to delve into Grip’s constable badge and Ray’s memories, finding success with the former and not with the latter. In fact, she seemed certain that she could not reach Ray’s memories of himself because they had somehow been removed from his mind.
In Chapter 7, she acquired a pair of gaudy pink boots with catskin lining. Later that same day, after Ray implied Gull couldn’t be trusted with some of the items the party had recovered, she apologized to Gull for having rifled through his things the day before.
When the party reached the chapel and was undertaking Winter’s test of patience, Dora performed a psychometric reading on a small silver box the party recovered from the laundry room, and saw a priest of Pharasma (wearing the same clothes as a ghoul Dr. Oathsday was experimenting on) tying it to his forehead with a leather cord. Dora spent the test of charity helping Loic take his medicine.
When Gull related the details of his nightmare to Dora, she was struck by the description of her “fortress” as a “mansion on a hill” as it resonated with her method of casting spells using thought components. She also told him she didn’t believe they actually had been married, and couldn’t imagine she could have a child out there in the world and not know or feel it. She promised not to hide anything from Gull in the future that she might learn or remember about it.
In Chapter 13, Dora performed a psychometric reading on the violin and caught a glimpse into another world. In Chapter 14, Dora learned that she could understand the Modern Osiriani language, and on the morning of 28 Lamashan, 4718, Dora used psychometry in an effort to understand the fungus-haunt near the barricade and to perhaps learn how to destroy it.
In Chapter 15, Dora took a necklace with a lesser talisman of warrior’s courage and another unidentified magical bead on it from Dr. Losandro‘s desk. While in the administrator’s office, Dora used her automatic writing ability to determine whether or not entering the rainbow fog in would bring weal or woe, and learned that entering was probably dangerous, but that learning something useful would be possible.
When the party reached the Briarstone Asylum records room and Ray began to read the file attributed to “Thema Antea,” Dora recognized it as her own. The file revealed that she is an aasimar of human descent, probably Kellid. She learned she was from Thrushmoor in Versex County and was committed on 15 Lamashan 4718 along with her companions, and that she had been an employee of H.P. Lowls. She learned she was the wife of patient “Vatticus, G” and the mother to patient “Vatticus, B.” whom the party determined were Gull (or someone with the same name) and Ray. Lowls warned that she was “possibly contagious”. Her attending doctor was Arosh Chawaar. On 16 Lamashan 4718, she was observed to mutter “Remember” repeatedly in the Taldane tongue overnight, in multiple voices (at least two).
In the Act I Interlude, it was revealed that 39 years ago, when she was nine years old, Dora once stood, at dusk, on the polished, blue-tiled floor of an audience chamber fit for a king (but possessed by a monster) in the aftermath of something terrible. She stumbled backward into a corpse, let out a faint moan, and then ran away as tears clouded her vision. Soon the Stranger found her and took her by the hand, and after saying “You will do nicely,” she asked Dora what her name was.
In Chapter 16, Dora revealed that she shares her body with an entity known as Thema, though she knows very little about her, except that Thema tends to come forward when her body is threatened. She believes Thema to be extremely dangerous, unstable, and angry. Dora has promised the party to find a way, since there is nothing to be done about Thema at the moment, to make Thema useful to their endeavors.
In that same conversation, Gull realized that Dora’s eyeball brand was the mark of a Technic League slaver known as “Baron” Feshka Nellit.
In Chapter 17, the party learned that Dora is an Aasimar, a Native Outsider. She has acid/cold/electricity resistance 5, and a daily ability to cast corruption resistance on herself or others. She has bonuses to Diplomacy and Perception, and this accounts for her metallic skin and hair, as well as her unusual eye color.
Later that chapter, she outfitted herself in comfortable men’s clothing from the personal effects room at Briarstone Asylum.
Dora was clearly deeply impacted by what she saw in Chapter 17 while reading the mind of the insane man at the edge of the pit that lead to the Briarstone crypts, and she began caring for the terrified arctic fox they found there. She named it “Reynard” and soon developed an intense—and mysterious—relationship with it.
In Chapter 18, upon meeting Ratch Mamby, she learned that she speaks the Abyssal language.
In Chapter 19, Dora was rescued from the clutches of death by a lesser talisman of healing power, after being stabbed in the neck by the doppelganger known as Mr. Gabriel.
In Chapter 20, Dora’s madness was revealed to be a delusion. She began receiving counseling from Tolman to aid her recovery.
In Chapter 26, Dora’s dream from Dr. Losandro’s office was revealed, prompting all sorts of questions about her relationship with Thema Antea. Dora later revealed to the party that Thema may be working against them in their dreams.
In Chapter 27, during the encounter with the Nightgaunt in the North Courtyard, Dora tried to return to the forefront of the body she shares with Thema, but failed, and Thema released Reynard into the fog. When Dora returned, she ran after him alone to recover him, but he would not talk to her in the aftermath.
In Chapter 28, Gull tried to get Tolman to perform a divorce proceeding between himself and Thema, but this instead led to a very strained conversation amongst the party as Dora did not feel right either intervening between the two.
In Chapter 29, Dora worked with Grip to create a secure carrying harness for Reynard, so that Thema would not be able to easily release him.
During the battle for the chapel in Chapters 29 & 30, Dora located the invisible Horsepiss (which led to the other survivors being able to take him down), healed an unconscious Ray in the midst of a rat swarm (contracting filth fever in the process), and directed the final assault on Benji Bald-Belly as he ravaged Bates‘ face.
In Chapter 31, Dora managed to move her madness to a latent state, and began traveling with Reynard for companionship rather than out of psychological need. In the same chapter, she learned that she is fluent in the Orcish and Hallit languages.
In Chapter 34, Dora learned that the fox she called “Reynard” was actually Barnabus, and the dead fox the party found in Chapter 3 had actually been Thema’s familiar, Reynard. After a frightening experience with a psychometry reading on Thema’s wedding ring where her body tried to harm itself of its own accord, Gull and Ray surmised that the sickly stain on her back was the result of having something growing on her body. Dora determined that looking too deeply into things that were Thema’s might be problematic.
In Chapter 35 (Part 1), Dora’s attention was drawn to the “Foreign Trader” card of a harrow deck, which depicting a veiled figure in yellow bearing an armful of misshapen rubies, and she recovered memories of the Stranger. Later, when she was able to make out the words Zandalus was chanting, she learned she was fluent in the Kellish language.
In Chapter 35 (Part 2), Thema (while in control of Dora’s body) killed Aggra Loomis, Ulver Zandalus, and the Tatterman.
In the Act I Epilogue, a 9-year-old girl (that the Stranger called Dora) told the Stranger to call her “Anathema.”
In the Act II Prologue, Dora learned that Thema had another child, but she continued to feel no connection to the details of Thema’s life. However, she recognized that seeing a memory through Thema’s eyes meant they were more deeply connected than Dora has been willing to admit—though she could not bring herself to claim to have been Thema at one time.
In Chapter 37, Dora recognized Iris Hill as “home,” and knew that the thoughts she uses to complete her spellcasting are drawn from there.
In Chapter 39, Dora realized that the sign outside The Booklayer resonated with her spellcasting—specifically the thought component of building a wall of knowledge, brick-by-brick.
Later that same chapter, at the Sleepless Agency, Dora was not recognized—not even as Thema—by Cesadia Wrentz.
In Chapter 42, Dora (along with the rest of the party) heard the name of Xhamen-Dor and was seeded by it.
In Chapter 43, Dora began to experience itching and throbbing all along the back of her body, as if her skin has become aware of what was being born anew in her. As in, it had happened to her before. She saw this as a possibility of intercession. She later advised the others that it would be better to try to convince Thema not to say the name Xhamen-Dor than to threaten her not to say it.
Later that chapter, she also went out of her way to avoid Barnabus in his anthropomorphic fox form.
In Chapter 44, Dora recalled, as she contemplated “connections that have been broken,” that there is something that has been trying to speak to the party, and has been surprised to feel like they were no longer connected—The Prisoner.
In Chapter 45, Dora/Thema imagined the piss-stained spellbook in Rony’s haversack as the thought component for a new spell: mental block. When loosed against the Gibbering Mouther, Thema demonstrated she had developed damage reduction.
Dora was finally cured of her filth fever in Chapter 50 (Part 1), when she put on the Night Hag’s Heartstone.
In Chapter 51, Dora recognized a suit of armor in Iris Hill in a psychometric vision as the one she imagines when she casts Mage Armor. After witnessing the vision (in which Thema asked Melisenn to murder Ray), Dora grew more convinced that she needed to get Thema out of the body they share and kill her.
In Chapter 60, Dora observed that the prisoners found alive in Fort Hailcourse did not recognize her, and came to believe that Thema must have been a reclusive shut-in during her time in Thrushmoor.
In Chapter 62, Dora realized that the vision she'd had of the violin took place after a performance of The King in Yellow.
In Chapter 68, Dora experienced multiple instances of disorienting déjà vu as she made her way through the rooms of Iris Hill, especially those containing books. And when the party encountered Nemira Lowls for the second time, she called upon the mental image of phantom Ray breaking his shackles of ectoplasm to cast purge spirit on the projection.
While battling Nemira Lowls in Chapter 69, Dora released Thema in front of Dabwick for the first time, an act she had been actively avoiding for days.
In Chapter 71, while fighting against the platoon of Kuru, Dora discovered that if she allows Thema to come out, getting her to go away will entail a risk that Thema shouts out the name of the Inmost Blot in order to curse Dabwick.
Between Chapters 72 and 74, Dora experienced a disconnect between what she remembered happening in the Wailing House in Chapter 72 and what she saw happening in her psychometry reading of the empty bag of finger bones in Chapter 73. In Chapter 74, the party came to understand that she had been the victim of a Vetala attack when she encountered Daria.
During the desperate fighting in Chapter 76, Dora attempted to cast a spell that made her feel broken, but after she failed to hit the target of the spell’s attack, she chose to let the spell go rather than try again.
In Chapter 81, heading down to the sub-basement of Iris Hill, Dora knew her body had descended these stairs before, and had followed Miacknian Mun up them to her fate. She remembered ascending the stairs to fight Zandalus, and the sense of purpose she had then. Descending into Iris Hill, she was more curious, and less afraid of dying. She didn’t believe that Melisenn could break her—because she didn’t seem to know her. She realized she was in the company of people she was okay dying with.
In Chapter 83, after the fall of Melisenn, Dora realized that she had to begin contemplating the possibility of a life and a future.
In Chapter 84, Dora and Tolman picked up on their long history of counseling and Tolman gently pressed her about her connections to Ray and her community.
In Chapter 87, Dora learned that she and Thema have different handwriting, which means that Dora wrote the note to Erich some time before she woke up in Briarstone Asylum. She contemplated the ramifications that she had existed prior to Briarstone in Chapter 88.
As the party set sail for Cassomir in Chapter 90, Dora contemplated the life she must build since she did not die in Iris Hill, and felt the absence of Ray keenly.
In Chapter 91 Dora’s lingering madness drove her deep into research belowdecks on the Starling. She discovered that she was taking notes on her ritual study using both hands. Some of the notes were hers. The others were Thema’s.
Also in Chapter 91, the Inmost Blot dreamed Dora’s dream: Dora dreamt that she was traveling “home,” not knowing what or where that was, but knowing that it would find her. Thema was with her, as always. She dreamt that home mades its way to them, but it was empty when they arrived, except for a box. Thema told her not to open it. The dream felt true but not real.
In Chapter 92, Dora found that she had unconsciously been writing “Can you hear me?” to Thema while in the fugue state of her occult ritual research.
In Chapter 93, Dora began to recognize her own obsessive behavior, only to discover that Thema was leaving her messages in the margins of their notes, chastising her for her shortcomings.
In Chapter 94, Dora finally rid herself of her delusion madness.
In Chapter 97, on her second visit to the Dreamlands, Dora experimented with the amount of control she had over her lucid dream body, and manifested herself without either her brand or her stains.
In Chapter 100, Dora began to experience physical side effects from prolonged Xhamen-Dor seeding.
In the same chapter, Dora continued her conversation with Thema, but realized that she didn’t really know what she wanted from Thema, and that she didn’t believe Thema understood what was happening between them any better than she did. She also thought that she was the only thing keeping Thema from seeding the entire world with Xhamen-dor.
In Chapter 101, the Inmost Blot dreamed Dora’s dream: Dora dreamt of learning how to quiet her mind and focus. Thema was barraging her with questions, interfering with her ability to concentrate. But Dora continued her training because if she didn’t, she knew that all was lost. Her training was interrupted by a knock on a door. The dream felt true but not real.
In Chapter 103, when arriving at Viscount Pietro Brellin‘s ball, Dora manifested a dream body dressed in elegant, courtly finery.
In Chapter 107, when arriving in the Enchanted Wood, Dora manifested a dream body dressed in practical safari clothing, including a thick net to cover her face.
In Chapter 116, the tenor of Dora’s written “conversation” with Thema changed when Dora led a fresh exchange with a different tone. Thema responded in kind and asked a number of questions that Dora noted as being helped and engaged.
In the same chapter, Dora had a dream without the influence of Xhamen-Dor: she dreamt of sitting in front of a mirror while Barnabus circled her speaking in Aklo, flicking through his forms. The mirror disappeared and Thema was there instead. The box appeared between them: metal, hinged cover, perfectly square, lockbox-sized, bigger on the inside. Dora reached for it, but Thema stopped her, warning her silently not to open it.
In Chapter 118, while pursing the Captain's Tricorne gift, Dora’s lucid dream body was nearly slain by a single blow from the wraith Ellish, and Dora was forced to take an extreme amount of damage to her waking body to avoid a death in the Dreamlands.
In Chapter 123, while reflecting on the psychometry vision of Anathema's vial of silver dust, Dora recognized that she had gained some begrudging respect for Anathema and that her curiosity about their relationship was evolving. She began to wonder if the tattoo needle and the silver vial were left behind in the Dreamlands as breadcrumbs.
In Chapter 126, when arriving in Arventon, Dora’s lucid dream body manifested in spelunking gear, with her mouth covered.
In Chapter 130, when the party arrived in Igguzqaiz, they were given visions of an alternate life. In hers, Dora saw herself as a highly successful educator and administrator, the Headmistress of an academy of some sort. She manifested her lucid dream body dressed in her clothing from that alternate life.
In Chapter 132, upon catching sight of a Gug, Dora was driven mad, overcome by the delusion that the alternative life she had briefly glimpsed upon arriving in Igguzqaiz was her true life. She woke in Chapter 133 believing that she had, in truth, been the headmistress of a school called the Aucturn Academy.
In Chapter 135, Dora managed to overcome her delusion through long talks and time spent with Dabwick.
In Chapter 137, when arriving in Sarnath, Dora manifested her dream body dressed in a gold gown.
In Chapter 138, Dora secured the Doom Idol of Ib, but in the process she beheld Bokrug in all of his horrific majesty and was driven both mad and deaf.
In Chapter 139, Dora’s madness manifested as the unshakeable belief that she herself was nothing but a madness Thema was experiencing as a result of her own participation in the original hunt for the Green Stone Idol. Vik was able to determine that her deafness was purely psychosomatic, but was unable to cure it. It took several weeks for her to recover, but after her experiences with the Stardust Augurs in Chapter 142, Vik and Stazi were able to shake her bout with madness.
In Chapter 142, when arriving in Dylath-Leen, Dora manifested her dream body dressed in flowing, jewel-tone silks.
In Chapter 145, while the party discussed their imminent visit to the Mad Poet’s Oasis, Dora stated that she wanted to know where Lowls was headed—the location of Neruzavin—but said she had no need to recover memories she didn’t identify as her own.
In Chapter 148, while traveling to the moon of the Dreamlands on Verivas, Dora was formulating a hypothesis that she herself was a being that had stolen possession of her body, which was Thema’s in truth. She wondered if she was the Prisoner. The alien body-switching race of Yith came to mind, but didn’t feel quite right.
In Chapter 150 (Part 1), while crossing the Eastern Desert Dora felt her sense of moral superiority slipping further and further away.
When asked by the Mad Poet what in and of herself she valued most highly, Dora responded, “My curiosity.” She then released Thema to answer the question and Thema answered identically, in Dora’s own voice. In return, Dora received the boon of a +2 bonus to her Intelligence score.
In Chapter 150 (Part 3), Dora recovered her lost memories and learned her full history.
When she woke in Chapter 151, Dora was sobbing and thrashing. The others held her down as all the grief she’d set aside since her initial awakening came pouring out of her. She revealed that she wasn’t always called Dora. Her given name had been different, but her father didn’t like it and called her Dora instead. But, truly, she was Pandora. She claimed to have lived a thousand lives, and had been reborn once more.
In Chapter 152, Pandora demonstrated some new abilities—a way of enhancing her spells using math, a new way to use her knowledge of planar creatures, and a few new spells—including Reincarnate, which she cast upon Barnabus after he was slain by the Shachath Demon.
In Chapter 153, Pandora recalled information she’d learned about the Necronomicon, and though some of it had been told to Thema by Miacknian Mun, Pandora realized that the rest came from sources she couldn’t pinpoint.
In the same chapter, she began recalling very specific memories of a person she did not know as she cast spell she had not previously known: Locate Creature.
In Chapter 157, Pandora’s Magic Missiles changed from dark black void missiles into bright beams of hopeful white light.
In Chapter 158, spoke aloud to the party of the new ability that gave her access to spells she didn’t normally know (Water Breathing, that day).
In Chapter 159, Pandora demonstrated a reflexive ability to heal herself when reduced to fewer than 0hp.
In Chapter 160, Pandora shared with Bash that Thema was completely gone, and that she had access to memories from this unknown man’s life—someone helpful, ambitious, determined, and naïve—and that it was this man’s spellcasting knowledge that she was tapping into (Nondetection, that day).
She also confirmed that despite the recovery of her full life’s worth of memories, she still had no memories or knowledge of Erich.
In Chapter 163, it was revealed that Pandora learned a new skill from her memories of Anathema’s life, known as Arithmancy—the use of numerology to enhance personal spellcasting.
In Chapter 165, Pandora realized that the eye she pictures when she casts Dispel Magic is her father’s eye.
In Chapter 171, while meditating for a new spell (Detect Srying that day) Pandora experienced more memories from the unknown Wizard’s life.
In the same chapter, Pandora recognized that she was feeling a deep connection to Pharasma.
In Chapter 173, while meditating for a new spell (See Through Stone this time) Pandora began experiencing memories from a new person, this time an unknown Druid. Coming out of her meditation, she discovered she could speak the secret language of the Druids.
In Chapter 174, the party discussed their preferences regarding Reincarnation and Pandora revealed that she would be willing to return from the afterlife in that manner.
In Chapters 175 and 176, while meditating for new spells (Lesser Restoration and Echolocation) Pandora experienced more memories from the unknown Druid’s life.
In Chapter 180, Pandora finally came face-to-face with Anathema’s former lover, Miacknian Mun, and delivered the killing blow that ended his reign of terror.
In Chapter 185, while meditating for a new spell (Bountiful Banquet) Pandora began experiencing memories from a new person, this time an unknown Cleric.
In Chapter 186, Pandora learned that she knew how to speak the 5,000-years-dead language of Ninshabur from one of her past lives.
In Chapter 187, while meditating for a new spell (Restoration) Pandora experienced more memories from the unknown Cleric’s life.
In Chapter 193, while meditating for a new spell (Heroism) Pandora began experiencing memories from a new person, this time an unknown Spiritualist.
First Appearance: Act I Prologue