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Riggilla the Dark, a.k.a. Cosim, was a female half-drow and a leading member or shadowlord of the Shadowmasters of Telflamm in the 14th century DR.[1]

Description[]

Riggilla was lithe and athletic, standing 5 feet and 2 inches tall while only weighing a scant 120 pounds. She had dusky skin due to her drow-elven heritage but claimed it to be due to her mastery of shadow magic. Her slightly pointed ears, however, gave away the truth. Another mark of her drow heritage was her naturally silver hair, which she kept cut short and dyed black.[1]

Riggilla's facial features were harsh and somewhat masculine, a fact she used to pass for being male most of the time.[1]

Personality[]

Due to her troubled upbringing, Riggilla felt neither emotions of kindness or pity and was therefore ruthless in her role as Shadowlord.[1]

Riggilla rarely ever spoke of herself, and especially not about her early life.[1]

The half-drow didn't feel overly bothered by life on the surface.[1]

History[]

Early Life[]

Riggilla was born within an unknown drow fortification in the Underdark near the nation of Thesk, but was left to die at the jaws of the monsters within the region. However, a group of duergar spies soon found her and judged her to one day be a good slave and potentially valuable spy against the drow, and as such chose to raise her.[1]

As Riggilla grew older, she was told by the gray dwarves that they had bought her as a slave from her parents. As planned, this caused Riggilla to grow resentful towards her drow-kin, and the dwarves began training her in the quiet arts of thievery and assassination, as well as granting her further comforts. However, in spite of their efforts, Riggilla never gave up her hatred towards the duergar either, and as such, they chose to slay their failed experiment.[1]

Once again left for dead within the Underdark, Riggilla somehow managed to survive and escape to the surface of Faerûn.[1]

Early Surface Life[]

At some point after 1300 DR, Riggilla arrived on the surface near the nation of Thesk. Finding life on the surface to be less troublesome than she had been otherwise informed, after recovering from her wounds, Riggilla traveled to Telflamm and there assumed the guise of a man, calling herself "Cosim" and acquired work as a security consultant for a mercantile company within the city.[1]

As a security consultant, Riggilla's job was to prevent thefts from the company, an easy job to her, which allowed her to engage in thievery of her own. This however eventually drew the attention of the Shadowmasters of Telflamm, soon resulting in the recruitment of "Cosim" into the guild.[1]

Life as a Shadowmaster[]

In the guise of "Cosim", Riggilla quickly rose through the ranks of the Shadowmasters, and additionally showed great affinity for shadow magic, which eventually caught the notice of the priests of Mask within the guild, who persuaded her to undergo the ritual of the Shadow-Walker, upon which she was granted even greater responsibility and power within the guild.[1]

After joining the inner circles of the Shadowmasters, by 1372 DR, Riggilla had the task of traveling between different Shadowmaster Enclaves throughout the Realms, either to offer them leadership and instructions, to establish new guild presence within a region, or to eliminate a branch of the guild that had deviated too far from the decrees of the Shadowmasters of Telflamm.[1]

Relationships[]

Due to her past within the Underdark, Riggilla felt a passionate hatred towards dwarves and elves, which was not restricted to just duergar or drow.[1]

Riggilla felt most comfortable in the company of humans, but she didn't mind halflings or gnomes either.[1]

She additionally kept up connections with her old mercantile associates, much to their benefits.[1]

Possessions[]

Riggilla commonly wore a pair of gloves of dexterity +2 along with a blackened +2 shadow silent moves mithral chain shirt, which she considered a "gift" from a former associate within the Shadowmasters guild who died at her hands.[1]

When engaged in combat, Riggilla wielded a +1 frost rapier.[1]

She was also known to use a hat of disguise to further hide her identity, whenever she was tasked with performing an assassination.[1]

Skills & Abilities[]

Riggilla was a dangerous foe, specializing in the strike-and-retreat style of combat typical for her roguish training. She particularly favored using her shadow arts and hat of disguise to seem to appear out of nothing, and thereby inspire fear in her opponents, getting the drop on them, maximizing her own position while minimizing personal risk.[1]

Riggilla frequently took advantage of her ability to see through magical darkness, as most of her victims were without the same ability.[1]

As a Shadowalker, Riggilla shared many spell-like abilities with others who'd undergone the ritual, including the ability to teleport short distances, from shadow to shadow.[1]

Her training as a rogue left Riggilla both strong and nimble, easily capable of evading the effects of enemy attacks, such as the fireball spell.[1]

Appendix[]

References[]

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