Ethel

Auntie Ethel was an old woman that dwelled within a quaint little teahouse in the Sunlit Wetlands of the Western Heartlands as of the late 15 century DR.

"Hello, petal. Just relax. See the world with fresh eyes. And let your dear old Auntie Ethel look after you."

- Ethel's voice to those donning one of her masks.

Description
By all outward appearances, Ethel was a kind elderly woman that went out of her way to help others. She presented herself as frail and vulnerable and spoke with a soothing tone that quickly garnered the trust of others.

Personality
"But let it not be said that Auntie Ethel doesn't honor her debts."

Ethel's sweet and "generous" persona was merely a guise to pursue her own selfish aims, which she furthered by manipulation, outright lies, and various forms of torture. She was thoroughly evil in how she used others, exploiting their greatest desires or fears for her own gain.

Despite her horrific nature, Auntie Ethel never lied outright and always kept true to her word.

She absolutely detested and would not have anything to do with shadow magic, particularly that associated with the returned empire of Netheril. It was one of the few topics that caused her to forego her usual honeyed words for bodily-function-themed vulgarities.

Abilities
Auntie Ethel was a powerful spellcaster armed with many powers and spells to confuse and mislead anyone that dared oppose her in battle. She could create illusory clones of herself, take on and imbue her clones with the likeness of others, and outright turn invisible if she felt truly threatened.

Possessions
"I've collected some...interesting bits 'n' bobs over the years."

Over the years Ethel amassed a collection of magical implements, including the powerful staff of rotting wood and live worms called the staff of crones, that was capable of inflicting sickness in others at will, an elven staff called Corellon's Grace, and a specially-crafted wand of her own making called Bitter Divorce, which allowed the hag to raise one specific individual.

Using the extracted eye of one of her many victims, Ether created a twisted amulet that offered her protection against righteous and immoral beings alike.

True to her disguise as an apothecary, Ethel maintained a vast collection of mysterious brews and draughts in her lair, with names like Insanity's Kiss, Wilted Dreams, and A Mother's Loathing.

Activities
"People in dire need travel from all over Faerûn to see little 'ol me. And I do my damndest to help them."

Auntie Ethel spent much of her time in her lair, working on sick experiments or other horrific acts to further her own goals. When she was out in disguise amongst the folks of the Realms, Ethel was seeking out victims to target for her depraved covenants. While these deals seldom worked in the favor of those that dealt with Ethel, she always upheld her end of the bargain, often in some manner twisting the words of the agreement.

She dwelled made her lair and laboratory within an underground cave deep beneath the swamp. It was accessible by a twisting passageway beneath a decrepit old shack, that Ethel made to appear as a cozy little teahouse. She used illusion magic to obscure the appearance of the swamp itself, making it look as a lovely picnic destination with adorable sheep, while it was in fact a putrid bog with poisonous plans overrun with her personal redcap minions.

Relationships
Ethel's lair was inhabited by many of those she had manipulated, debilitated or outright abducted. Among them were the elf Lorin, she made to always see others as horrific illusions, a petrified dwarven man, the beheaded Magron, and the vain Calim, whose likeness was trapped within a mirror.

History
At some point, two paladins and a divine cleric attempted to storm Auntie Ethel's lair. While their final fate was unknown, their last known deeds were screaming in pure terror.

For a time during the, Ethel traveled with the community of tieflings that had been exiled from Elturel following the Descent of the city into Avernus, working as an apothecary and potion-maker. At some point she offered some unknown potion to the guard Pandirna, leaving her immobilized for a short time.

Around that same time, Ethel made a deal with a woman named Mayrina, offering to bring her husband Connor back from the dead in exchange for her unborn baby. She kept Mayrina within her hut in the middle of a swamp until the baby was born, offering promises that she would provide a better life for the child than the poor woman ever could. While returning to her lair in her human form, Ethel was confronted by Mayrina's brothers Johl and Demir.

Appearances

 * Video Games
 * Baldur's Gate III