The characters of the twelfth adventure path, Reign of Winter
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Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin
Race: Human
Class: Oracle
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Once again, the Rasputin. Secretly a son of Baba Yaga, left behind on Earth after he was born. Rage and envy at being abandoned by his birth-mother led him to conspire with his distant female sibling, Queen Elvana, to overthrow her. Appearing in the fifth adventure of the path, Rasputin guards Baba Yaga's prison and seeks to claim her near-divine mantle for himself.
- Back from the Dead: The Bolsheviks killed him, but because of the powerful destiny ahead of him, fate itself wouldn't let him stay dead.
- Bastard Bastard: He's the Big Bad of Reign of Winter, and Baba Yaga's estranged son.
- Beard of Evil: Rasputin still has that iconic beard.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: He's the estranged son of Baba Yaga.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Of the Reign of Winter adventure path, along with Elvanna.
- Doorstop Baby: Baba Yaga left him on the doorstep of a seemingly random Russian peasant family.
- Faking the Dead: The body in his tomb that was burned by the Bolsheviks is actually a magically-created simulacrum.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Had Elvanna not intervened he probably wouldn't have amounted to much.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: The real Rasputin most definitely wasn’t a 18th level spellcaster.
- Historical Domain Character: The actual historical figure who lived near the end of Tsarist Russia.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Has very obvious blue eyes, and isn't too kind of a person. Also counts as Occult Blue Eyes.
- Implacable Man: He has to be killed three times before the "threads of fate" binding his soul to his body break and he stays down for good.
- Kavorka Man: In this story, he seduced the Tsarina to conceive Anastasia.
- Rasputinian Death: Naturally, the players will have to dish one of these out to kill him.
- Parental Abandonment: He was abandoned by his real mother, Baba Yaga, leaving him bitter and hateful.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Gender-inverted. Again, he's Baba Yaga's son and... well, he's not exactly the most conventionally handsome of men, but he's still far prettier than she is.
Nadya Petska
Race: Human
Class: Ranger
Alignment: Chaotic Good
This Irriseni woodswoman is more than willing to help the PCs in their quest, despite the tragedies fate has thrown her way.
- Action Mom: She's a mother of three at the age of 26, and a skilled ranger who regularly traverses the dangerous wilderness of Irrisen on weeks-long trading journeys and later guides the PCs to their attack on the Irriseni capital — and potentially follows them beyond that on the rest of their adventure.
- Break the Cutie: She lost her husband at a fairly young age, just lost her daughter shortly before the beginning of the adventure, and if the PCs aren't on the ball she can lose one of her sons too. Life is not kind to this woman.
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Nadya shows remarkable strength over the course of the story.
Greta
Race: Winter Wolf
Class: Fighter
Alignment: Neutral Evil
A female winter wolf who guards the Howlings Gate, appearing in adventure #2: "The Shackled Hut". She can become a potential ally of the party if approached right, but the party has to get past her to get into Howlings regardless.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Her human form is far from ugly, but her natural form is a giant wolf, which may turn some players off.
- Becoming the Mask: A variant; like all winter wolves in Howlings and Redtooth, she greatly enjoys being able to take on human form and especially in indulging in more human comforts. One way of securing her allegiance is promising to help find a way for her to assume human form even when she's not in Howlings or Redtooth.
- Breath Weapon: A conical blast of freezing cold, as is standard for winter wolves.
- Canis Major: In her true form, she's a bear-sized she-wolf.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Yes, she's a savage, ice-breathing giant wolf, Don't mean she doesn't need affection, too!
- Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Averted. She explicitly has no loyalty to Queen Elvanna, nor is she a member of the Winter Guard, and this is why she's willing to throw her lot in with the party if they approach her in the right fashion. Also, she's disinterested in her job, and thusly if all else fails she happily looks the other way and lets the party in for a decent (30gp a head, minimum) bribe.
- Gone Horribly Right: If a PC using the rimepelt to disguise themselves as a winter wolf uses Diplomacy to persuade Greta to let the party in, she automatically becomes enamored with them and starts flirting.
- An Ice Person: Being a winter wolf, she has freezing cold bite and Breath Weapon attacks.
- If It's You, It's Okay: While initially angry if the truth about the rimepelt comes out, she's initially annoyed, even mildly angry, but comes to term with it quite quickly and has no problems continuing the relationship afterwards.
- Interspecies Romance: She will unwittingly try and enter this if she believes a PC to be a fellow winter wolf. Nothing explicitly forbids a PC trying to woo her from the start without the rimepelt, either, and it's noted that winter wolves in Howlings and Redtooth do occasionally take human lovers.
- Love Redeems: It's explicitly noted that Greta's "worldview can expand, and even her alignment can change over time" if she has someone special to give her a reason to do so.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She's currently single, and wants to find a mate. Thusly, she's quick to offer a sincere, flirtatious and less than innocent offer to a PC she thinks is a fellow winter wolf about going for a cup of tea or spiced wine together. Her entry in the "Friends, Allies & Lovers" sidebar even explicitly notes she has "romance on her mind".
- Woman Scorned: Whilst she will accept honest rejection maturely and gracefully, misleading her or standing her up can make a serious enemy of her.
Nazhena Vasilliovna
Race: Human (Jadwiga)
Class: Witch/Winter Witch
Alignment: Neutral Evil
The former mistress of the Pale Tower, one of the great-great-granddaughters of Queen Elvanna.
- An Ice Person: Like all of the Winter Witches of Irrisen, she specializes in using ice magic.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Nazhena picked up a taste for this at Elvanna's court, and as an adult she has no tolerance for even the smallest slight, going so far as to kill children for telling jokes about her.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In her own way, she truly loves her apprentice, Radosek Pavril, and she's confident of his loyalty. When he dies at the party's hands, she is filled with grief and becomes determined to avenge him.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: A thoroughly evil, merciless character with a wintery motif to her spells and appearance.
- Hot Witch: A beautiful and talented, if evil, spellcaster. She even has the Witch class.
- Sinister Scythe: She wields the enchanted sickle Emberchill.
- Starter Villain: She's the first major villain whom the heroes are working against: she's the one spearheading the invasion in the Border Wood that they're investigating and commanding the initial forces set against them, and she's the last one who has to be defeated before entering the Dancing Hut and closing the first theater of the adventure.
- Start of Darkness: When she was seven, she offered a female cousin a momentary act of kindness. Said cousin repaid her by breaking her arm. Nazhena was told that her pain was her own fault, and if she wanted justice, she would have to take it herself. That specific incident wasn't the only "lesson" she learnt at her ancestor's court, but it was a very typical example of what her childhood at court was like and of the kind of upbringing that started her descent into malice and cruelty.
- Would Hurt a Child: She kidnapped and later killed Nadya's 7-year-old daughter because the little girl made fun of her, using her soul to make a guardian doll.
Solveig Ayrdahl
Race: Human (Ulfen)
Class: Hidden Priest Cleric (Milani)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
A native-born Irriseni Ulfen, Solveig grew up seeing the horrors heaped upon her people by the rulers of Irrisen, until her family was smuggled over to the Lands of the Linnorm Kings when she was twelve by the Heralds of Summer's Return. Growing up, she absorbed much of her ancestral heritage, but she was forever marked by her childhood, and eventually travelled to Cheliax. There, she became invited to a small, private congregation of Milani worshippers and immediately converted to the Everbloom's faith. For four years she attempted to undermine the Chelish government, but her combination of a striking physical appearance and bold, brash behavior made her stand out too much; she was forced to flee the country to evade Thrune inquisitors. Since then, she has established herself as the leader of a cell of the Heralds of Summer's Return in Irrisen. When the party encounters her, she is dealing with a personal crisis; she fled Cheliax on behalf of her lover, a Chelish opera singer named Bella Belvorica, who recently arrived in Whitethrone and was taken prisoner by the dragon Logrivich. Though she tries to remain professional, she is quick to suggest the party should rescue Bella.
- Being Personal Isn't Professional: Won't admit she wants Bella to be saved because of her former relationship with the Chelish woman, instead couching it in terms of "Bella's remarkable talent not being collateral damage in a world so thirsty for beauty". A successful Sense Motive check does reveal that she has a more personal interest in Bella's rescue.
- Carry a Big Stick: Wields an Everbloom's Rose, an enchanted Morningstar popular with the clerics of Milani.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Had to break up with Bella because of the enemies she had made as a rather foolish anti-government agent in Cheliax. Privately hopes that, if she can save Bella from the dragon Logrivich, the two can be together again in Whitethrone.
- Straight Gay: Unless actually convinced to reveal the information, the party probably won't realize she's a lesbian until she kisses Bella upon their reunion.
- Unequal Rites: Her Hidden Priest class archetype allows her to disguise her divine spellcasting as arcane spellcasting, which she uses to pretend to be a sorcerer. This is essential because divine spellcasters, especially those faithful to the goddess of uprisings and revolution, aren't welcome in Irrisen.
Bescaylie and Efrixes
Race: Winterborn Triaxian/Red Dragonkin
Class: Fighter(Dragoon)(Bescaylie)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
A Triaxian Dragon Legionnaire and her Dragonkin partner who form the party's welcome wagon to the alien world.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Averted. Unlike true Dragons, the colors of a Dragonkin's scales have no bearing on their alignment.
- Dark Is Not Evil. Not so much Dark, but the first reactions of most D&D/Pathfinder players to a Red Dragon coming their way is not likely to be a positive one.
- Interspecies Romance: Efrixes is platonically in love with Bescaylie.
- Kill It with Fire: As a Red Dragonkin, Efrixes has the usual Breath Weapon.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Dragonkin are roughly forty feet long and have opposable thumbs. They come in all the chromatic and metallic colors, but can be any alignment.
- Punny Name: Be'scalyie.
General Malesinder
Race: Silver Dragonkin
Class: None
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Commander of the Drakelands' army attacking the fortress of Spurhorn. The players may fight her, or even join her.
- An Ice Person: An ice-breathing Silver Dragonkin with an ice sword.
- Light Is Not Good: As before, her scales tell you nothing of her nature. Silver dragons are normally paragons of justice and nobility, but Malesinder... not so much.
- Merging the Branches: Whether you side with the Drakelands or the Dragon Legion, you will eventually have to fight her.
- Our Dragons Are Different: She's not a true dragon but a dragonkin, a Triaxian species that resembles somewhat more humanoid true dragons.
- Uriah Gambit: One one raid, she arrived "too late" to save a certain rival.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: If the players help her win, she tries to kill them out of jealousy and so she can claim all the credit.
