Jourrael

Jourrael is a nightmarish specter, an ancient assassin of Lolth, the Spider Queen. As an NPC, Jourrael is played by Matthew Mercer.

Appearance
Jourrael is a semi-spectral drow woman with reddish hair pulled back by a black bandana and clad in a cloak and leathers.

Background
Granted the title of Caedogeist, Jourrael was a specter and the chosen assassin of Lolth, the Spider Queen, exalted through an arrangement with Asmodeus during a brief era of unified interests. Nicknamed as the Inevitable End, Jourrael was created into immortality provided the agreement between Lolth and Asmodeus remains in force. At the end of The Calamity, attempts to terminate the pact failed, so the body of Jourrael was sundered into two separate body parts and sealed apart in secret. The heart was buried within the Lotusden Greenwood within a wraithroot tree, and the skull entrusted to the elves of the Veluthil. At some point, the skull was recovered from the ruins of Molaesmyr and sold to the Stassman family of Kamordah.

Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein
In early Dualahei 836 PD, Obann and his party obtained the skull of Jourrael in Kamordah recovered the heart from a wraithroot tree.

Five weeks after the Jourrael heart was pulled from the tree, she attacked Pumat Sol and the Mighty Nein and while they were shopping at the Invulnerable Vagrant. The Nein took heavy damage from her sneak attacks and, in between each of the series of attacks, she faded back into the ground, limiting their offense. With the help of Pumat Sol, they were able to drive her off. The next day, Pumat Scried on the Inevitable End seeing her and her companions being admitted to the city of Rexxentrum.

In the battle in the Chantry of the Dawn of Rexxentrum, Jourrael fought the Nein alongside Obann, Yasha, and the Laughing Hand, using the same tactics as her fight the day before. After the Hand's death, Jourrael and Obann retreated to the subterranean chamber housing the first fane binding Tharizdun. After Caduceus dispelled the glyph that charmed Yasha, she realized Jourrael was influenced by the same charmed compulsion that she was and urged the Nein to try to break Jourrael free.

When Obann was killed and re-formed by Tharizdun as the Obann the Punished, the Caedogeist, now free of the charm, moved to the outward-leading stairs, sank into the floor, reappeared beside Obann, choosing to assist the Nein in their effort. They did significant damage with their sneak attacks throughout the battle, and got the final killing blow on Obann the Punished. Caduceus then healed them along with the rest of the party and asked for a hug. Jourrael responded, "Not my type of interaction," put a finger to their lips in a shushing gesture, and vanished into a wall.

Late, Jester cast Sending to thank Jourrael for her contribution in the cathedral dungeon and offered friendship in case she was lonely. Jourrael responded that she appreciated the help in regaining her freedom, but they will never see each other again.

Relationship with Obann
Obann recovered their remains and revived them, taking magical control over them in the process. They did his bidding while under his influence.

Notable items

 * Two poisoned daggers



Abilities

 * Resistant to acid, fire, lightning, cold, and thunder; piercing, slashing and bludgeoning from non-magical weapons.
 * Immune to poison.
 * Cannot be frightened, grappled, paralyzed, restrained, or made prone.

Feats

 * Parry (reaction, adds 5 to AC)

Drow abilities

 * Fey Ancestry
 * Sunlight Sensitivity
 * Innate Spellcasting
 * Mirror Image
 * Faerie Fire
 * Darkness

Specter abilities

 * Incorporeal Movement
 * Immunity to Grappling

Rogue abilities

 * Sneak Attack

Appearances and mentions

 * Campaign 2

Trivia

 * The title Caedogeist is derived from a combination of Latin and German, which, in a literal translation, would translate to "I kill ghost". Per Matt, it means "murder ghost".
 * "Caedo" comes from the Latin caedō, caedere, cecīdī, caesus. Caedō (/ˈkae̯.doː/) specifically is the present active indicative 1st person singular verb, which can translate to "I hack", "I strike", "I sever", "I murder", etc. It is likely that this specific form of the verb was chosen because translating the English bare infinitive "murder" into Latin is impossible due to English being a morphologically poor language while Latin is comparatively morphologically rich, and as such has no bare infinitive. However, because "Caedogeist" was created as a derivative of its two parts, whether or not it literally translates is irrelevant because it is exceedingly rare for English derivatives of Latin words to literally translate back to their original grammatical form.
 * "Geist" comes from the German noun Geist (/ɡaɪ̯st/), which can translate to "spirit", "mind", "ghost", etc.
 * One of Matt's few "How do I want to do this?" moments happened when Jourrael got the final strike on Obann the Punished. Although it was not the first time an NPC has gotten a final kill, it was the first time Matt used the phrase.