Catha Frostsworn

[Tukuturi]

Name: Catha Frostsworn
Race: Human
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Profession: Sorceress (Frostwitch)
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Deity: Auril

Physical Description

Catha is tall and thin. Her features are angular, almost elven in appearance. Her skin is a pale white, as are her eyebrows and the fine layer of stubble that remains on her habitually shaven scalp. Her eyes are a cold, pale blue.

Background

Catha was born to a family of fishermen in Easthaven, Icewind Dale. At the age of fifteen, she began to show some natural talent in arcane magic. In the hopes of fostering that talent and giving her a better life, her family sold her into the service of an aging wizard named Phineas Dredge. Unfortunately, Dredge had little interest in instructing a pupil.

Dredge took Catha to his tower near the edge of the Reghed Glacier and set her to work on menial tasks; cooking, cleaning, moving things from one room to another. He refused to teach her anything of the arcane arts, nor did he allow her access to his library. The wizard's single, all consuming focus was the search for some forgotten ruin beneath the glacier, and it left him with no time for his would-be apprentice.

Over the next five years, the wizard grew increasingly obsessed with his search. He would share nothing of his findings with Catha, but it became apparent to her that he had stumbled on to something beyond his ability to handle. He would lock himself in his study for days on end, and he would speak but little on the rare occasions when he came out.

Eventually, Dredge found what he believed to be the ruin he sought. He instructed Catha to pack his bag and accompany him on an expedition into the Great Ice. Lest she risk the wrath of her demented master, Catha did as she was told. She followed Phineas Dredge into the frozen wastes for three days, dragging his belongings behind her, before the storm struck.

Trapped in the churning heart of a blizzard, Catha and Dredge were forced to make camp. The wizard took most of the furs for himself, and Catha was left to bear the bitter cold. She feared she would freeze to death before the storm died out, but it was Dredge's constitution that proved insufficient to the freezing temperatures. When both the wizard and the storm had died, Catha was left standing, cleansed by the icy wind.

Gathering up the furs and what little of use she could find in her master's pack, Catha turned back toward the tower. On the long and arduous journey home, Catha felt compelled to give up many times, but each time she would catch a glimpse of a beautiful woman cloaked in frost walking in the snowy haze ahead of her. Only later would she realize this to be a vision of Auril, The Frostmaiden.

Upon returning to the tower, Catha found it in shambles. Dredge's library had been burned, and not a single trace of his research regarding the mysterious ruin remained. Perhaps the wizard, in his madness, had set some kind of latent wards to destroy the place in their absence, or perhaps something more sinister had happened. Either way, Catha did not care to find out. As soon as she was able, she left for the south, for Candlekeep. Perhaps there she could finally learn to utilize her arcane talents, and perhaps she could learn something of the cruel goddess who had so blessed her by killing her master.