Elizabeth Báthory

Medium humanoid (human), chaotic evil rogue (mastermind) 5/bard (college of whispers) 5

Armor Class 15 (studded leather)
Hit Points 55 (10d8+10)
Speed 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
10 (+0)	16 (+3)	12 (+1)	14 (+2)	9 (–1)	20 (+5)

Saving Throws Dex +7, Int +6
Skills Arcana +6, Deception +13, History +6, Insight +7, Intimidation +13, Performance +9, Persuasion +13; harpsichord +9, thieves’ tools +7
Senses passive Perception 9
Languages German, Greek, Hungarian, Latin, Slovak
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

Special Traits

• Bardic Inspiration 1d8 (5/short Rest). As a bonus action on her turn, Elizabeth can choose one other creature within 60 feet who can hear her. That creature gains one Bardic Inspiration die, a d8. Once within the next 10 minutes, the creature can roll the die and add the number rolled to one ability check, attack roll, or saving throw it makes. The creature can wait until after it rolls the d20 before deciding to use the Bardic Inspiration die, but must decide before the GM says whether the roll succeeds or fails.
• Cunning Action (1/turn). Elizabeth can use a bonus action to take the Dash, Disengage, Help, or Hide action.
• Fast Learner. After Elizabeth has heard a creature speak for 1 minute or longer, she can mimic its manner of speaking as long as she knows the same language as the creature (allowing her to seem like she is local to a given region).
• Jack of All Trades. Elizabeth adds +2 to any ability check she makes that doesn’t already include her proficiency bonus.
• Psionic Strike (1/turn). Elizabeth expends one use of Bardic Inspiration when she hits a creature with a melee weapon attack to deal an extra 10 (3d6) psychic damage to her target.
• Sneak Attack (1/turn). Elizabeth deals an extra 10 (3d6) damage when she hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of Elizabeth that isn’t incapacitated and Elizabeth doesn’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.
• Spellcasting. Elizabeth is a 5th level spellcaster that uses Charisma as her spellcasting ability (spell save DC 17; +9 to hit with spell attacks). She has the following spells prepared from the bard’s spell list:
  • Cantrips: message, prestidigitation, vicious mockery
  • 1st level (4 slots): bane, charm person, sleep, thunderwave
  • 2nd level (3 slots): detect thoughts, enthrall, suggestion
  • 3rd level (2 slots): bestow curse, fear
• Song of Rest. After a short rest, if Elizabeth or any friendly creatures who can hear her performance regain hit points by spending one or more Hit Dice, each of those creatures regains an extra 1d6 hit points.
• Tactician. Elizabeth is able to use the Help action to aid an ally attacking a creature as long as the target of the attack is able to see and hear Elizabeth and is within 30 feet of her.
• Terrifying (1/short Rest). Elizabeth can horrify a creature that can understand what she says during 1 minute of talking, forcing it to make a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, for the next hour the creature is frightened of Elizabeth or a creature of her choosing. The effect ends if the creature is attacked, damaged, or witnesses an ally be attacked or damaged. On a successful save, the target doesn’t recognize Elizabeth’s attempt to frighten it.

Actions

• Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4+3) piercing damage.

Reactions

• Uncanny Dodge. When an attacker Elizabeth can see hits her with an attack, she can use her reaction to halve the attack’s damage against her.

About

Born in Hungary into one of the most powerful families in Europe, Elizabeth was well-educated and spoke German, Greek, Hungarian, Latin, and Slovak. She married Ferenc Nádasdy (feared across the Ottoman Empire as the ‘Black Knight of Hungary’) when she was 14—though not without having an affair with a peasant boy and giving the offspring away. When Nádasdy found out, he castrated the peasant and threw the child to the wolves. Ferenc Nádasdy got rich from war and they bonded over their mutual sadism, and also the 5 children they had together; but in 1601 Ferenc fell ill, losing the use of his legs, and died 3 years later.

At this point, servant girls started disappearing! Local clergy began getting suspicious. Elizabeth went right off of the rails, and when replacing murdered servants became a bother she started luring girls in from the countryside. Elizabeth purportedly didn’t do that much actual torturing with her own hands and instead left it to her sycophants. First they’d wait for a servant to make a mistake, then start battering the poor girl before gruesome violence took place—stabbing with sewing needles, cutting off fingers with knives, forcing them into cannibalism, tearing things away or out with pincers, and the like.

By 1609 there were rumors about what Elizabeth Bathory was up to spreading everywhere. With debts increasing, and all of her children married off she opened a finishing school for young noble women.

If she wasn’t definitely insane yet, this is obviously where she went all the way nuts: if aristocrats were willing to pay for their children to attend her school, why would they suddenly not care when said children disappeared? They appealed to King Matthias II to investigate and he sent György

Thurzó (the Palatine of Hungary) to figure out what was going on. They overheard Elizabeth and an accomplice making incantations, and then found the mutilated bodies of several girls.

Within a year all of Elizabeth’s accomplices went to trial and several were executed. Elizabeth however received no trial, and was placed in solitary confinement until she passed away in 1614. She was then placed in a public cemetery before being exhumed not long after and taken to the Bathory family crypt—yet when it was opened in 1995, her corpse was missing.

Due to her position as royalty, Elizabeth is treated with a measure of respect wherever she goes. She is treated as royalty (or as closely as possible) by most peasants and traders, and as an equal when meeting other authority figures (who make time in their schedule to see her if requested to do so).