Unarmored Defense. While Mistress Scale is wearing no armor and wielding no shield, her AC includes her Wisdom modifier.
Evasion. When she is subjected to an effect that allows her to make a Dexterity saving throw for half damage, Mistress Scale takes half damage, or none if she succeeds on the save.
Dragon Drift. Mistress Scale reduces any falling damage she would take by 40.
Multiattack. Mistress Scale makes three attacks. If possible, she will use Dragon Strike to knock someone down, then Dragon Stomp to stun them, then Dragon Fall on them while they're stunned.
Dragon Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and if the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone.
Dragon Heel. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one prone target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and if the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the start of its next turn.
Embodiment of the Dragon's Claws. Mistress Scale must be standing to perform this attack. She falls prone and strikes a target with the focused totality of kinetic energy in her elbows or fists. Reach 5 ft., one prone target. 24 (8d6) bludgeoning damage. If the target is not an inanimate object, it may avoid this damage entirely by succeeding at a DC 2 Dexterity saving throw.
Flames of the Queen of Tyrants. Mistress Scale sweeps with both arms, generating an admonishment in the form of a burning hands effect.
Tattoo's Teeth. Mistress Scale unwraps the coiling red dragon tattoos from her forearms and wields them like whips. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 5) piercing damage, and the target loses any temporary hit points it currently has. Mistress Scale's reach with Dragon Strike is then extended to 15 feet until the end of her next turn whether she hits or misses with this attack.
Dragon's Wings. Mistress Scale focuses her Ki in order to stand up, dash, or gain a climbing speed equal to her normal walking speed for this turn.
Breath of the Queen of Tyrants. Mistress Scale exhales draconic ki in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 1 fire damage on a failed save, or none on a successful one. She can use other chromatic breath weapon types, and can inflict considerably more damage (4d10), but would never do so outside of a lethal battle, and always uses fire in the ring, preferring to use this move as a dramatic opening or finisher. The cone does so little damage that Mistress Scale is not shy about catching (non-noble) spectators in the front row with it.
Dragon Denial. Mistress Scale subtracts 1d10+16 from the damage of an incoming ranged weapon or spell attack. If her roll is equal to or higher than the damage of the incoming attack, she redirects it at a target within range.
Dragon Throw. Mistress Scale subtracts 1d10+16 from the damage of an incoming melee attack. If her roll is equal to or higher than the damage of the incoming attack, she can immediately try to throw a Large or smaller attacker up to 15 feet and knock them prone. This attempt may be opposed with a DC 16 Strength saving throw or a DC 14 Athletics or Acrobatics check (target's choice).
Description
Mistress Scale is the only Zerr Monk to bear the ceremonial name Scale in the city of Tanthis, and her skin has grown pale from over ten years living under that city's permanent pall of sun-dimming volcanic ash and forge-smoke. She makes up for it with the usual snake and dragon tattoos common to her order, but hers are mostly dragon, very little snake, and all bright red in color instead of all five chromatic dragon hues. Her head is shaved, and five red dragon heads arc up from the back of her neck, over and under each ear with the largest fifth one running to the middle of her forehead. The eyes of the dragons are closed, but they open (as do those of the tattoos on her arms and lower legs) and glow gold when she will it. (This has no mechanical effect but it looks cool and is a signal that she's Ready to Fight. Which is actually ridiculous, because she is always Ready to Fight.)
Mistress Scale has attended, and been a finalist in, three of the last four Acromion Brawls (SY 647, SY 644, and ST 638); before that, she spent eight years training as an adolescent at the largest Zerr Monk school in Crescendo. Before that she was a child in Glin, where a passing Master Scale saw her potential and gave her family ten sacks of grain to take her away for training. It's a common story in Glin, and there are worse outcomes in that kingdom when an Imperial with authority wants something.
She doesn't think about her past much; all she cares about now is fighting, performing the administrative and doctrinal duties that allow her to continue fighting, and the roar of the crowd in the Arena of Tanthis, or other arenas as often as possible. She hates living and working in Tanthis, but does her duty; she likes the feel of unfiltered sunlight, and often leads her disciples on twenty-mile jogs as part of their training... which means they spend hours inland out of the cover of the smoke. She has refined and perfected her art; she is technically junior to Grandmaster Jaw of Crescendo, but is probably his better in actual combat.
She also plays the lute, but this rarely comes up in public. Her mother played the lute, and taught her. She keeps one in her cell in Tanthis and never takes it on the road. It's a simple instrument, of middling quality, without decoration. She had it made that way despite being able to command the services of some of the finest artisans in the empire.
Mistress Scale's position in the order meant that she had to sit in meetings with representatives of the Psychogenic Academy and Houses Acromion, Ressen, Reyathless, Radula, and Kovati. Most of her peers get along well with House Ressen's religiously-oriented people, but she hates them. She hates all the nobles except the Acromions, and she hates the faculty of the Academy even more. She keeps a stone face in meetings and does her duty, but the recent death of Professor Smowa brought a full smile to her lips (in private). If she finds out an opponent was involved in that death, she'll thank them before trying to smash them into the ground.
Mistress Scale uses her fire abilities to put on a better show and her martial arts to viciously pummel or throw opponents into submission, or out of the ring. She's never actually won any of the four Brawls, but her monk abilities mean she'll be able to keep going, every third year, for decades to come. If she ever wins the grand prize she'll give the favor to Grandmaster Jaw; she has no real desires beyond those stated here.
Every time she competes in front of a large audience, her order gains a recruit or two. The Brawls often generate a surge of new acolytes, at least half of whom actually survive to eventually learn real skills. The Scales of other cities are less discriminating in who they take, with a resulting increase in fatality rates, but Mistress Scale doesn't like waste of any kind.
In the ring, Mistress Scale will leap to the top rope or cross barriers and hazards with near-impunity, but she will eschew any weapons left out for combatants to use. She's never shy about throwing someone into an entertaining collection of swords and caltrops, though, and prefers fighting armed opponents when possible, because it showcases the superiority of her methods.
Continuity note: If Mistress Scale survives the next fifteen years, she will likely leave the order (there's no better way to ensure a steady stream of skilled opponents than inciting her former colleagues to come assassinate her, after all) and help found the Fire School on the Gray Isle. Even if she doesn't, the other founders will know of her and use her as inspiration.
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