[hider=The Crone]

[b]Identity:[/b] Kulgha the Crone, the Beast Hag, the Glutton, Mother of Toads, Charnel Witch, Tyrant of the Bone Ziggurat.

[b]Potency:[/b] Kulgha is old, hard as her true age may be to discern from her bloated features, and with time comes wisdom, even to one as foul as her. Above all she is versed in the craft of all manner of portentous plants and other such growths, knowing with certainty which can poison and which can chase away illness, as well as how to mix and dry them so that their properties will be tempered or magnified. With a concoction, she may grant otherworldly visions rumoured to be the dreams of dead gods, wring one’s body and spirit through pain and ague to an exceedingly precise limit when she wishes to test rather than kill, or put one into a sleep so deep that not even being cut with a blade will rouse them. In more earthly terms, her knowledge of herbs and spices likewise makes her a superlative cook, capable of transforming nearly everything into a flavourful meal; though the ingredients she favours are so gruesome that only her most depraved minions willingly partake of such feasts.

Nor have the decades left her with nothing but knowing what to boil in a cauldron. Over a lifetime of guiding the brutish bands and hordes of her compatriots, she has grown cunning in some tricks of rulership. Though never an accomplished warleader, stateswoman or orator, preferring to leave such roles to her more skilful acolytes, she knows well how to inspire her underlings and menace her foes through hoarse omens or covetous promises. Fear and greed are her tools in this trade, and they are well-worn in her gnarled hands. If all else fails, she is not loath to resort to more tangible weapons - her spear-arm is ever as strong as it was in her prime, and her eye for the javelin remains deadly.

Yet her most dreaded power is her macabre and unnatural witchcraft. In her hands, human flesh, blood and bone become arcane ritualistic tools, and the feats she may accomplish by charring, cooking, curing and consuming them eclipse even the remarkable results of her herbal draughts. It is known that by feeding on babes and youths she has kept herself alive and sturdy for far longer than any of her savage people has ever reached, and that her warriors, glutted on the remains of their strongest enemies, grow to strength and proportions thought to be impossible in mankind. Her sanguinary brews, seasoned with cerebra crushed in a pestle and stirred with an etched bone, can drive men to bestial fury, poison the sky with bloody rain, the ground with gory morass and the rivers with charnel sludge, or call forth an infestation of venomous crimson toads, thought to be Kulgha’s familiars. Some even claim that by preparing a special offering she can invoke three horrifying beasts from a world long gone by to do her bidding, though no one has ever been known to glimpse these beings and lived to tell the tale.

[b]Ambition:[/b] To feast, to amass wealth, to make merry. Devious as she may be in her gnarly age, Kulgha has never been of a more refined spirit than the rest of her people, and like them she wishes for little more than to enjoy the crass pleasures of life, indulging her bottomless hunger and idle avarice. That she cannot do so without taking from others is a testament to the ferocity and belligerence of the folk that birthed, forged and acclaimed her.

[/hider]