First appearance: S4E8 — Blood Rain — Fatale v Claudia · watch it on YouTube
Fatale was a champion of few words and many weapons. She arrived in The Void on a wind of black rose petals to fight Claudia, a plant-loving university professor, aboard a ship sailing through the clouds. Secretly she had come as a spy, hoping that victory would let her pry precious information out of The Shadow King and the Grandmaster. Her match ended with a doubled-damage curse, a tangle of vines and one very angry death. Her mission did not die with her, though: a cloaked sister swore to finish it.
Story
Fatale was summoned to The Dread Fortress while the Shadow King was busy planning a swimming pool where a school stood, and the killing of everyone who lived there. Black rose petals swooshed in on a wind from nowhere, and she stepped out with her long black hair flowing, a one-handed crossbow held like a pistol and a whip in her other hand. Asked to say something about herself, she glanced at her crossbow: “Is there anything else you need to know? Really?” When the Shadow King scoffed that the Grandmaster had brought a nerd into the arena, Fatale explained that she reads “only to kill somebody.” He was won over immediately: “See, that’s cool… She’s cool.” She cracked her whip and promised to dominate the Deathmatch.
The fight began on a magnificent wooden sky-ship, eighty feet up. Fatale melted into hiding flat against the crow’s-nest pole, which her scantily clad latex outfit made easier: “the less clothes you wear, the tighter you can get.” She threw a dagger as a warning shot and caught Claudia in the shoulder (“oh, that’s where you are”), then held back from a killing strike because, as she put it, “we work well together.” When a giant, exhausted sky puppy floated down and fell asleep on the deck, Fatale climbed onto it. She scratched an itchy spot on its butt, which loosened some things, and the dog farted on her. Her whip was only a prop meant for intimidation, but its crack was still enough to rattle Claudia, who demanded, “What the fuck is that smell?” Fatale informed her, “You still smell like dog farts.” Claudia’s answer was a spell that froze Fatale stiff where she stood.
While frozen, Fatale talked. She whispered a deal so quietly that neither host heard it: she would fake throwing Claudia overboard, or send her away on the sleeping puppy, and in return Fatale would win. She revealed that she was “infiltrating the D20 Deathmatch. For information on the Shadow King and Grandmaster.” Claudia, it turned out, had also come for information, in her case the Shadow King’s grandmother’s secret soup recipe. Fatale offered to fetch it for her: “Cuz if I kill you, then you’ll never get the soup recipe.” The bored Acolytes pelted the ship with cats, hot dogs and an Ikea piano, and woke the dog, which tumbled Fatale off its back. She fell over like a stiff Barbie. Still unable to move, she sent her black petals dancing into The Box of Chaos, freshly fed with the soul the Shadow King had just ripped out of an Acolyte named Lubofan, along with her head and spine. In return the box dropped a powerful magic whip on top of her, a real weapon at last. The Grandmaster eventually freed her with a snap of her fingers, and a parachuting goblin first-aid crew wrapped her forehead in gauze and decorated her with My Little Pony band-aids. She thought they went nicely with the latex.
After the Shadow King grew bored and smashed the ship into a mountaintop, Fatale opened the Grandmaster’s gift box and found squeaky shoes on her feet. Hers did not squeak so much as snap, a sharp, painful click “like razor sharp Louboutins.” She shrugged off a second freezing spell with a perfect natural 20. A squirrel adopted her as its favourite: it offered her “a peanut of encouragement,” which she speared with her heel, and later kicked Claudia in the shin on her behalf. Then the Shadow King declared, “This is all bullshit. They’re not doing anything,” and snapped his fingers. Both champions’ armor crumbled away, and every blow from then on struck twice as hard. Claudia screamed and brought her gardening shovel down on Fatale with devastating force, and the plants rose up to bind Fatale’s ankles. Fatale protested that the curse was “a little rigged.” She spent her last surge of the crowd’s power on spite rather than survival, lashing her whip around Claudia’s leg and dragging her into the vines: “I want you stuck with me as I die.” Her final thoughts were pure fury: “I’m just mad… goddammit! This whole thing is rigged!” Her body dissolved into luminescent black petals that drifted up into the stands, where a cloaked figure with dark eyes and black lips caught them and vowed, “We will fulfill your mission, sister.” In the end the soup recipe did reach Claudia’s lap. Its secret ingredient was “Incinerate,” and the Shadow King set her alight moments after declaring her the winner.
Personality and Abilities
Fatale was terse, cool and theatrical. She preferred, in the Grandmaster’s words, to “let the weapons do the talking,” and she showed about as much visible excitement as a closed door. “Cool,” she said, on finding magic shoes on her feet. She had long black hair and wore a scantily clad, cut-out latex outfit. Her signature was the wind of black rose petals she could summon at will, which carried her in, hid her, and carried her out.
She fought as a patient rogue. She stayed hidden, struck from the shadows and trusted her luck. She was an expert with her pistol-grip hand crossbow and also carried a rapier and daggers. Her whip started as a prop for intimidation until the Box of Chaos traded her petals for a real magic one. Under the cool exterior she was willing to bargain, and she seemed genuinely ready to spare her opponent. She was also angry enough to drag that opponent down with her when the match turned against her.
Relationships
- Claudia: Her opponent. Fatale offered to spare her and fetch her the soup recipe, then bound the two of them together in the vines as she died.
- The Shadow King: One of the two targets of her spy mission. He found her “cool,” then cursed the arena with the curse that sealed her fate.
- Grandmaster Elusia Skypiercer: The other target of her mission. The Grandmaster summoned her, freed her from Claudia’s spell, gave her squeaky shoes and urged her to “show them how badass you are.”
- Her cloaked sister: A dark-eyed, black-lipped figure who caught Fatale’s petals and swore to complete her mission.
Memorable Quotes
- “Is there anything else you need to know? Really?” (S4E8)
- “You believe in me, so you want to die.” (S4E8, to Claudia’s encouragement)
- “I’m here infiltrating the D20 Deathmatch. For information on the Shadow King and Grandmaster. And if I win the Deathmatch, I will be able to get precious information out of them.” (S4E8)
- “Cuz if I kill you, then you’ll never get the soup recipe.” (S4E8)
- “I want you stuck with me as I die.” (S4E8)
- “I’m just mad… goddammit! This whole thing is rigged!” (S4E8)