Last Name: Blackstorm
Appearance:
Race: Human
Age: 19
Height 5'11
Weight: 119 lbs
Eyes: Bluish Grey
Hair: Black
- A good picture of what Daelilah might look like setting up camp while adventuring. Stol-err... borrowed from http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/3E_Ma ... racter.jpg
General Health: Youthful and vibrant. She enjoys getting the blood pumping with a good fight or adventure.
Deity: Tymora
Initial Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Profession: Former Kitchen Maid, currently an Adventurer.
Base Class & Proposed Development: Pure Warlock
Habits/Hobbies:
Daelilah will frequently lose herself in the moment when channeling her power, especially during a fight. Her temper becomes short and she will see red when being struck. This behavior is in something of a contrast to the calmer, more friendly demeanor she maintains in casual settings.
Her primary hobby is spending coin on the niceties and comforts it buys. This makes her secondary hobby anything that can earn her more coin.
Her likes and dislikes are:
Likes - Travel, conversation, the color red, sweet pastries, and things of beauty and value
Dislikes - Getting hit by an opponent, "unnecessary" laws, the color yellow, ugly beasts and primitive creatures.
She is also very devout in her worship of Tymora in as far as she will actively seek adventures that will push her skills to the limit, and in "tithing" some of her gold to games of chance.
Languages: Common. Elven. Hin.
Weapon of Choice: Quarterstaff.
Background: (The background I wrote became rather lengthy and I'd still like to add more, so I'm adding it at the bottom to keep things tidy. The Cliff Notes version follows here.)
Daelilah was born to a tavern wench in Westbridge who had been taken by an unseelie Satyr as a plaything. After her mother was discarded by the bored Satyr, she returned to Westbridge pregnant, which started any number of rumors about her. These rumors eventually led to her mother's death at the hands of an angry mob that believed her to have consorted with Demons.
The orphaned Daelilah was then taken in as a ward and put to work as a kitchen maid by the richest individual in Westbridge, the Hin Ghaliver Longstocking. Eventually, at the age of sixteen, Daelilah's fey blood manifested in the form of Warlock powers, which led to her being banished from Westbridge. From there, she has taken to the adventuring life and the worship of Tymora as she travels to seek fortune and power, and to understand the arcane energy that flows through her veins.
Goals: Her driving goal is to understand who and what she is. She has gained some understanding in her travels before now, but seeks to further it through training and research. She also seeks influence and power, as the power in her blood has exacerbated her ambitions to rise above her lowly beginnings.
Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts:
The notoriety of her mother's past, and how she was killed, would make Daelilah instantly recognizable to anyone from Westbridge if they should happen upon her. This is something Daelilah tries to avoid, since any accounts they may have of her past could only cause trouble for her.
She also spent some time in Waterdeep, doing her initial research into her power. She had to flee the city, though, when an ambitious apprentice discovered what she was. He thought to make a present of her to his master, whose research was the stuff of rumor and speculation--none of it good.
Unabridged Background:
Daelilah was born to Lucy Black, a tavern wench at the Harvest Inn of Westbridge. Lucy, though of low birth, was a very beautiful woman, and attracted the attention of most men in town. Some were more forward than others, though, and since Lucy had a daughter of her own already (she would never speak about who the father was), she was not marriage material.
The tanner's apprentice Guenthare was perhaps the most taken of Lucy's beauty, and would always be the most forward in his advances as she served him at the Tavern. He was a likeable fellow with many friends, and Lucy enjoyed the attention. Inevitably, though, he went too far one night, and Lucy in her anger called him a soft-crotched kobold. His friends all laughed at the insult in spite of themselves and Guenthare left the tavern in a sulk.
It was the next day that Daelilah became an orphan. As Lucy was walking to the inn to begin preparing for the night's patronage, she was stopped by Guenthare and the mob he had brought with him. The mob encircled her as Guenthare began the accusations that would ultimately damn Lucy to a gruesome death. The fact that she had never been willing to speak of Daelilah's father meant that Guenthare was free to fill in his own version. She was accused of being a consort of demons. She had disappeared from the villiage for six tendays, and returned already showing in her pregnancy. The rumors of the creatures that inhabited the nearby Kryptgarden Forest were all Guenthare needed to present his case.
The fact that Guenthare's accusations weren't far from the truth likely showed as she protested her innocence. She was no consort of demons, but she had good reason not to speak of Daelilah's true father. She had been out for a walk, indulging her sense of adventure and curiosity in exploring the edges of the Kryptgarden Forest, the night she disappeared. Tragically for Lucy, the rumors about the nightmarish dangers that inhabited the Kryptgarden were true.
On the nights of the full moon, the Taeremgira, a coven of warlocks and unseelie fey courtiers, would run wild looking for prey to brutalize and torture. Malegrin, an unseelie Satyr of the Taeremgira, noticed Lucy that night and was taken with her beauty. So Malegrin made her his plaything for almost two months, before finally discarding her at the edge of the forest. She spoke nothing of what had happened when she returned to Westbridge, and the owner of the Harvest Inn, assuming she had been taken by bandits, took pity on her and put her to work in his tavern. And Lucy, who had never been very religious previously, prayed to Ilmater every night that her child would not bear the hideous countenance of her captor. Ilmater heard her prayer, and Daelilah was born a beautiful girl who took on much of her mother's appearance.
***
Ghaliver Longstocking, the Hin who through virtue of ownership of most of Westbridge's industry was the de facto mayor of the town, heard the commotion and came to see what was happening. While he had no special love for Lucy, he quickly saw both the injustice and the danger to his bottom line in the mob violence being enacted in the streets. He ran to the nearby guard tower and conscripted a handful of the Archers on watch (most of the gold the town paid them with came from him anyway) to come with him to break up the mob.
They arrived at the scene too late for Lucy, who had been beaten to a limp, ghastly parody of the beautiful woman she once was. The guardsman quickly broke up the crowd and detained some of the more belligerent men. After some interrogations by Ghaliver, Guenthare was identified as the ringleader and was shortly thereafter hanged for murder. The rest of the crowd dispersed as quickly as they could, and no one dared speak of that day again for years.
Ghaliver took pity on the orphaned Daelilah, and so he took her as a ward, putting her to work as a kitchen maid in his manor. He was not cruel to her, but neither was he kind, and he never even came close to speaking of her mother and how she had died, saying only that she was a good woman who had passed away. Still, she never wanted for anything in food, shelter, or clothing.
***
As Daelilah grew, she became every bit a match for her mother in terms of beauty, and so Ghaliver worked to keep her hidden, knowing that her mother's beauty had ultimately been the death of her. He worked to find her a proper match within the town, but was unsuccessful.
Finally, on her sixteenth name-day, he informed her that he had found her a proper husband in a young crumblecake baker in the town of Red Larch. He had thought she would be pleased by the news, so he was taken by surprise when she suddenly screamed and began sobbing. Ghaliver was very upset at the ingratitude and grabbed her by the arm and barked at her to stop sobbing. In response she screamed again, this time balling a fist and thrusting it towards the ceiling. Then Ghaliver heard the hideous blast that he would never forget, followed quickly by the rain of pulverized plaster. As he looked up at the charred edges of the hole in the his roof, a sudden look of realization dawned across his face.
For her part, Daelilah was immediately shaken from her pity at the outburst. That, whatever it was, had been thoroughly exhilarating. She grinned down at Ghaliver with a manic expression. Ghaliver quickly began back-peddling towards the door. He told her that she needed to leave, tossed a fat pouch of gold at her feet, and finally said that if she was still here when he returned, he would summon the guard.
Giggling, Daelilah picked up the gold. She took a walking staff and a cloak and made her way out of Ghaliver's manor. She was still giddy with the rush of that power that had channeled through her as she left Westbridge, determined to find out more about what she was and the power she could now wield.
(More to come - In her travels, Daelilah visits Waterdeep and learns more about what warlocks are, and also learns people's disdain for them. She also meets with a band of adventurers, and it is with them that she finds a love for Tymora and a lust for battle. Finally, she makes her way to the coast, having heard of the adventures to be had there from her former companions)