Eliza

A warm, welcoming Vistani woman with insatiable curiosity and a talent for evasion. She followed the party into the woods at night, stalked Aleric through camp with perfect awareness of his position, and used social manipulation to deflect every attempt at interrogation. Her true motives remain unknown.

Overview

Eliza is a young married Vistani woman encountered at the Tser Pool encampment. She presents herself as warm and welcoming, peppering newcomers with questions and expressing fascination with their stories. Beneath that warmth, however, lies something more deliberate. She was caught following the party into the woods at night during Madam Eva's midnight reading, and despite direct confrontation by Aleric, she has never given a satisfactory explanation for her behavior.

Eliza is skilled at evasion — both physical and social. She employs manipulation, misdirection, and social pressure to avoid accountability. When cornered, she escalates by loudly calling for witnesses, using her status as a married woman to reframe interrogation as romantic harassment. She has demonstrated an uncanny ability to track Aleric's movements through camp, appearing and disappearing around tents, always watching but never allowing herself to be caught in a private confrontation.

She wagered a collapsible brass spyglass with a maneuverable mirror during the Vistani storytelling game — an item notably useful for surveillance.

Session Appearances

Session 09 — First Encounter

Eliza was first discovered crouching in the bushes along the path to Tser Pool, revealed to be a "curious Vistani who had been following them to learn their story." The party sent her away, but she circled back into the woods to continue spying.

At the Vistani camp, she peppered Ria and Daisy with questions and became fascinated by them. She participated in the formal Vistani storytelling game organized by Stanimir, wagering her collapsible brass spyglass with a maneuverable mirror — a telling personal possession for someone whose hobby appears to be watching people.

During the storytelling votes, she voted on each tale alongside the other participants. When the party departed for Madam Eva's midnight reading at the River Iblis gallows, Eliza followed them into the woods undetected — a fact that would not be discovered until the following morning.

Session 10 — Confrontation and Cat-and-Mouse

The morning after, Aleric confronted Eliza directly over breakfast about following the party into the woods the night before. He rolled poorly on an Insight check — but what it revealed was telling: she was actively hiding the truth rather than simply lying.

Eliza responded with ambiguous deflection: "Maybe you had a dream." When Aleric pressed further, she turned the conversation inappropriately flirtatious, suggesting he was too old for her — a married woman. When Aleric refused to back down, she escalated dramatically by loudly declaring to nearby Vistani men: "I am a married woman, sir!" This effectively called for backup and reframed Aleric as a romantic aggressor rather than an investigator. The confrontation ended with Aleric forced to back down.

Throughout the rest of the day, Eliza stalked Aleric with perfect awareness of his position, appearing and disappearing around tents, abandoning each attempt at confrontation the moment he got close. When Aleric tried to corner her around a tent, she used the same trick again — loudly announcing his pursuit to make him look inappropriate. She then doubled back to resume following him at a distance.

Her surveillance was constant, deliberate, and skilled. The party noted her behavior was definitively suspicious, though Ria suggested she might simply be extremely nosy.

Relationships

• Stanimir — Elder of the Tser Pool camp; Eliza operates within his community
• Madam Eva — Relationship unclear; Eliza may be gathering information for or about her
• Aleric Shaw — Primary target of her surveillance; she tracked him specifically throughout camp
• Ria and Daisy — Expressed fascination with both; peppered them with questions on first meeting
• Unnamed husband — She claims to be married, using this status as a social shield

Memorable Quotes

"Maybe you had a dream."

— Deflecting Aleric's confrontation about following them into the woods

"I am a married woman, sir!"

— Loudly, to summon Vistani witnesses and reframe Aleric's interrogation as harassment

"We're in my camp. Our paths are bound to cross."

— Dismissing Aleric's accusation that she was following him