Description
With a winsome gleam in her pale green eyes and a bounce in her step, the
youthful lass crouching at ease here is cinched in stylish, artfully tailored
black leathers that though inky-hued and matte-black, still manage to hint at
the relatively lean, albeit still quite maidenly figure beneath. With a
physique honed through a daily ritual of rigorous training she seems
possessed of a keen sense of agility and a natural economy of motion. At her
hips she carries a variety of items, from daggers and needle-bladed poinards
to a pair of smallish maces. Upon her back and right thigh, a pair of longer
blades rest in their sheathes, looking both well-kept and oft-used. Pouches
and hidden pockets aplenty adorn her belt and garb, and a cowled cloak,
presently with its hood thrown back, rests easily upon her tawny shoulders.
Tucking a stray lock of dark red hair behind a tanned ear, her bright-green
eyes flicker this way and that, as she shares a wry grin, flashing white
teeth as if she might have noticed someone looking in her direciton.
Role
Escaping the Keep
Added Mon Jul 3 00:14:59 2017 at level 51:
I knew this was a mistake! First off! I'm too young to be writing my memoirs at
least I feel like I am, that damned-able amulet didn't help. I spent the
majority of my twenties feeling like i was still in my mid to early teens,
which was sort of fun but also very confusing! Regardless, I guess I'd better
get on with things.
I spent my youth, such as it was as a helper in the kitchen of some no account
Count or some such in a small fort south of Seantryn Modan. Don't ask me the
name of it, because while I'm sure i should know it by heart, I've done my best
to blot that horrible place out of my memory and thoughts. Lots of people have
different things going for them, strengths or quirks you might say, and at
least thus far *reaches out and wraps on the wood of the desk she's at* mine
have been a good humored, easy going nature and a knack for being in the right
place at the right time.
Case in point. There I was, slaving away alongside the other servants, who
taught me the first nuances of how to go statue-still in the shadows of any
given hall or stairwell and blend as best I could, when the cook asked me to
deliver a basket of stuff to some random fop in Modan. I probably shouldn't
have said yes, but the thought of escaping the confines of that dank stank-hole
was too attractive to pass up. So I said yes, of course.
That's really all it took. Now I don't know if you're aware, but Seantryn Modan
is a stank-hole itself! Lots of shady characters wander those streets, and
though I did manage the delivery, which was an odd story in and of itself, it
was on my return trip to give the basket back to the cook, that I ran into a
few shadow kids. Me being me, I proceeded to smile, giggle and while away the
time with them, to avoid the imminent waylay I sensed coming if nothing else.
But either I was too good an actor or something else entirely happened, because
in the end we all ended up mostly getting along. And to top things off, they
even offered to help me escape that squalid little soul-crushing keep. We shook
on it, and I went on about my merry way. Come dusk the next day, I offered to
do Joseph's task of feeding the horses and mucking out the stalls, and found a
rope waiting for me that my new found friends had tossed over the wall. It was
the hardest climb I'd ever made, my hands were sweating with excitement and I
was so anxious I nearly fell and broke my skull open. Thankfully, adrenaline
and a cooler head prevailed and once I'd made it over, laughing alongside my
companions we raced out into the night, back towards Modan.
The sky was the limit!
The Grass is always Greener (Except when it isn't)
Added Mon Jul 3 00:17:51 2017 at level 51:
I don't care what they tell you, and you shouldn't either, because half of them
are full of it and the other half are just talking out of their backsides!
Generally speaking there is no free lunch! Oh, I left the keep thinking I'd be
living the high-life alright. Stealing from the rich and keeping the lion's
share for myself, but believe you me, that's not how it panned out. Everyone's
got their hands out, and I'm not talking about the beggars and supposed urchins
who wander the streets with eyes as keen as any thief, because that's just what
they are!
My new so-called friends set me up, regaled me with stories about walking tall
and proud, tables laden with feasts that just hearing about sent a rumbling
through my tummy, etcetera. They might as well have all been lying bards in
training for the pictures their words painted. The reality however was entirely
a letdown. Lice and flea ridden burlap bedding, stale and crusty bread, water
that was only mostly brown, stagnant and stinky, and skulking around like the
miserable ill-begotten thieves we were. Three days after I arrived I had to
shave my precious hair clean off and coat my poor scalp with unguents that
stunk to high heaven and made my skin itch where it didn't burn the tar out of
me!
I consider it a point of pride that I managed to survive for six months in that
hell-hole that was Seantryn Modan. I've never considered myself a lady or a
doxy per se, but I'm not as homely as some, and when a couple of the guild
lieutenants decided to press themselves and their unwanted advances in my
direction I decided it was time to head for greener pastures. Ignoring the fact
that Modan was supposed to have been my greener pasture already. Like any good
thief I'd squirreled away as much as I could, between the guilds' percentage
and my tutors', which usually didn't leave me with much beyond what was required
for the barest necessities. With that, I managed to bribe a ship guard to look
the other way, and stowed away like a rat eager for a new start.
I'll tell you true, right here and now! I hate boats. All that dipping and
sloshing, up and down and side to side, it's enough to turn you green around
the gills, except you've got no gills! So if you pitch overboard you're food for
the fishies! Long story short, I hated it. By the time we docked in Hamsah I
looked like a ginger nightmare and smelled worse than any sailor I'd ever run
into. But mission accomplished! I was free of the fat, unsavory no-account
bastards who thought I owed them everything I had and should be pleased for the
privilege.
A Place to Call My Own
Added Mon Jul 3 00:21:01 2017 at level 51:
From Hamsah I hid amidst the wagons of a caravan that traveled the long Eastern
Road where we saw unsavory black garbed Imperials, a few wild men who
supposedly come from a single village set in some ruins and men and women
garbed in glittering armor, all decked out with pinions that fluttered from
their lances. I hadn't ever experienced anything like any of this on the
distant southeastern continent, so it was a sight to see. Granted, Seantryn
Modan is no stranger to military pageantry, but they opt for the same colors
and coldness that the Imperials seem so proud of.
In Galadon, one of the most easily wandered cities I'd ever entered, I quickly
found the local Thieves' Guild and lucked into what I later realized had been
the castaways of the guilds' former Kingpin. I threw on an amulet that made me
look and feel like a youth again, and along with the other trinkets and such,
quickly put it to use. It seemed that everyone and their nearest kin had
developed a rather potent dislike for the previous Kingpin, so in relatively
short order I had legends of the land willing to aid and even sponsor me should
I intend to make a bid for the position myself. But I was too young, and just
becoming a member near paupered me. In the meantime, another Kingpin who I'd
never seen before rocketed upward in the guild. But he was nice, and any
intentions I'd harbored for trying to become Kingpin myself were couched then
and there.
I'd never run into the head of a Thieves' Guild that wasn't a greedy old
lecher, so it was a bit of a shock to the system. Early on, in adventuring I
ran into another member of the guild, which is not exactly overflowing with
young blades looking to carve a path for themselves. She asked after my
interest in becoming Kingpin and I told her the truth. With our present Kingpin
I had no designs on such. I didn't really notice it at the time, but she seemed
pleased by this, more so than I might have imagined I'd come to learn.
Years past. I know they say youth is wasted on the young, and that time
seemingly passes more slowly for youth than those who have gained in years, but
it never seemed that way to me. The amulet kept me younger than I actually was,
I made friends, and mostly avoided enemies and fretted over much with what
skills I intended to learn as I grew in the guild. As a thief, where thieving
is concerned, I must admit I feel a bit like a failure. The one thing I did
steal, that wasn't based on practice or the like, was an amazing looking
katana, from a sleeping shaman. What's worse still, is I felt guilty about it.
Clearly I'd been spending way too much time around those denizens of the
Fortress. But like anyone with an ounce of sense, I found and still find it
very difficult to trust those cut from darker fabric.
(Continued...)
A Place to Call My Own (cont)
Added Mon Jul 3 02:24:46 2017 at level 51:
Since then I have attained the apex of my guild, opting to focus on theft,
despite the aforementioned attack of conscience, and sorcery of a sort. I have
explored some truly amazing and frightening places and sometimes question my
choices where the guild is concerned. But there's no going back, and I figure
it's okay to have regrets about things you did, but not so great to regret
those you didn't at least try. So maybe I'm maturing? I honestly don't know...
I think this was when I first started thinking it was time to get rid of the
bloodstone amulet...
So that's what I did. Going from the lithe, still modest figure of a teen
instantly into adulthood and all that entails, at least physiologically was a
shock to the system, and took some reorientation to say the least. But I was
me. It took some time but I accepted the woman who looked back at me when I
found myself glancing in a mirror or at a particularly placid surface of a pond
or lake. It was around this time that I noticed the Kingpin nearby and went to
speak with him. Surprisingly, he told me he was leaving the guild forever, and
this troubled me more than I expected. Failing to convince him to change his
mind, I decided that perhaps my hands were the best suited to guide the course
of our guild.
Those who had traveled with me and interacted, not to mention the Kingpin
himself, seemed to like me well enough that I achieved elite status in the
guild in very short order and a few days after the Kingpin left, I called upon
the vote. A couple weeks later, and the thief I had traveled with showed up and
had some relatively petulant things to say about my seeking to become the new
Kingpin. Initially I tried to explain my reasoning, but she was having none of
it. Then, to assuage my sense of guild, I thought I might help her with a few
things I gathered.
Unfortunately she was acerbic and accusatory when we met face to face. Telling
me in no uncertain terms that I'd colluded with the former Kingpin and was
being handed the position, while she herself was working and clawing her way up
tooth and nail. I didn't say so at the time but this made me angry for obvious
reasons. I also knew that she'd done her level best to earn backers of her own
to facilitate her desires. Initially, I had even thought of encouraging her to
keep tithing to the guild, whereas I would stop, but no longer. She chosen her
tact... It was the wrong one.