"A thief? Me? You must have me confused with someone else!"
Last Name: Dharvoon
Appearance:
Race: Human (Chondathan)
Age: 25
Height 5 feet 5 inches
Weight: 137 pounds
Eyes: Dark brown
Hair: Dark brown, wavy, recently cut shorter and worn up more often.
General Health:
Elspeth's overall physical health is fairly average for the Realms, she is not excessively sickly but can becomes tired quickly due to her preferred indolence. (Natural constitution: 8) She is lean, nimble and light on her feet (Natural dexterity: 17) but not too frail either. (Natural strength: 11). She is undeniably attractive, and takes efforts to ensure that she remains that way. (Comeliness: +3*)
Personality Profile:
Elspeth is much smarter than she tends to come across, though how much of this is calculated deception is less apparent, even to her. (Natural intelligence: 16) She certainly comes across as a little distracted or forgetful, and rarely considers risks when there is a reward or something shiny at stake. (Natural wisdom: 8) She is pleasant to speak to and knows the right things to say in most cases, even though the way she says things may sometimes come across as a bit odd due to her short attention span. (Natural charisma: 13)
Deity: Ostensibly Waukeen, though she is unlikely to be seen in a church attending services even for the Golden Lady.
Initial Alignment: Neutral evil – although she is selfish, self-absorbed, vain and unlikely to risk her own neck to save her own grandmother, Elspeth does not think of herself as a bad person.
Profession: Adventurer, though mostly through necessity. She’d much rather live a life of pampered luxury at leisure, but doesn’t have the willingness to put the work in to make the money honestly.
Base Class & Proposed Development:
Rogue, to develop through RP.
Habits/Hobbies:
Elspeth has a near-obsessive fondness for gemstones, especially diamonds, to the extent that her roguish cousin Otilio would tease her by calling her his "little magpie." She has just about enough self-awareness to realise one can't just march into the Temple of Helm to swipe a ruby-encrusted chalice from the altar, but only just. She devises overly complex schemes which she doesn't quite have the aptitude or presence of mind to follow through.
She has a habit of interrupting herself with tangential ideas, corrections and rhetorical questions while mid-flow in conversation. Sometimes this can totally derail both her train of thought and the conversation itself. Lower-intelligence characters may end up confused when attempting to follow a conversation with her.
Languages: Common, Chondathan, Alzhedo, Illuskan
Weapon of Choice: A light crossbow. She also carries a dagger which she uses only when the possibility of a quick escape isn’t achievable.
Background:
Growing up in the Dock Ward of the city of Waterdeep, Elspeth lived with her parents in a tiny tenement downwind of the Telethar Leatherworks. Their early life together was reasonably happy despite their poverty and the constant stench of urine from the tanning works. Her father supplemented his meagre income on the dock by rifling through the pockets of drunken sailors passed out near the ward’s many taverns. Her mother found work at the Hanging Lantern, for which no further description is warranted. When Elspeth was only five, they both found themselves innocent bystanders in a fight between two adventurers which culminated in a brawl that nearly set the Copper Cup tavern ablaze. Witnesses later reported that in trying to escape the violence, both were slain, though Elspeth was too young to identify the bodies.
She ended up living with her paternal aunt Osmela (N hf Rog1/Exp2), a minor fence who was neither a good role model nor a particularly protective guardian. Osmela’s own son Otilio (NE hm Rog2), a handsome young man of sixteen summers, took a shine to the new little girl and enlisted her into a small gaggle of child pickpockets he was training. He soon found that while Elspeth was only a mediocre pickpocket, her precocious intelligence and tendency to talk to strangers in a way they found adorable made her an excellent blind for the other thieves to work behind.
Otilio and Elspeth soon developed a plan that worked brilliantly: Elspeth would perform as a little lost child in the Sea Ward, bawling loudly until a group of concerned citizens gathered, then the other child-pickpockets would run through the crowd lifting valuables. Finally Otilio, acting as a distraught "elder brother," would step in to collect Elspeth before the assembled helpers realised anything was missing.
The plan worked well for several years, until Elspeth started to become a beautiful young woman rather than an innocent little girl. Respectable Waterdhavians were, on the whole, cautious of approaching an upset attractive woman in the streets in case their neighbours or business associates thought ill of their motives, and to make matters worse there had been a few occasions where Otilio was almost recognised.
He resolved to refine his scam before he or his prize asset ended up coming to the attention of the City Watch, and an opportunity presented itself completely by coincidence.
Tthe latest target of their deception was an eccentric but wealthy wizard named Alfanas Brook (LN hm Wiz9), who made his fortune putting overpriced enchantments on the heirloom blades of noble families, and promptly spent it again trying to assemble “the greatest library in the Realms, possibly barring Candlekeep itself.” Alfanas, a widower, had a daughter about the same age as Elspeth, and Melissa Brook had inherited little but her name from her mother, who had once been a moderately successful adventurer.
She was naïve, spoilt and completely lacking in any sense of original thought, a fact that her father despaired of while not knowing what to do about it. He eventually resolved that the thing she lacked was good female guidance, but a string of governesses and elderly tutors failed to improve his daughter's attitude.
Otilio heard about Master Brook's predicament, and posing as a merchant of means, met with the wizard with a business proposition: his younger sister "Elsa" was looking for employment and the rogue delicately suggested she could guide Melissa's studies while acting as her handmaiden and confidante, singing praise of her wit and intelligence.
Alfanas and Elspeth met soon after and indeed she did charm the old wizard, impressing him with her affected bookishness and polite, cheerful disposition. He was eager for her to start work at once, and advised that she should move into the manse, which was Otilio's plan all along.
Elspeth had a small room across the hall from Melissa’s own bedroom, and the girls played, learned and grew up together. While Melissa did indeed blossom into a naive yet capable wizardess (N hf Wiz1) under “Elsa’s” influence, Elspeth became jealous that she was always the interloper, aching to be a respected heiress herself rather than a beloved handmaiden at best.
For his part, Otilio visited regularly, making sure he was as handsomely attired and devilishly charming toward Melissa as he could be. The next part of the plan swung into motion: the older rogue channeled his income from the pickpockets to present himself as a wealthy suitor who Melissa could easily fall in love with, while Elspeth would encourage the girl and her father of her "brother's" reliability, goodness and prospects.
The two would then arrange "accidents" for both Alfanas and Melissa, once Otilio was placed to inherit, and the two would split their proceeds and retire as wealthy indolents for the rest of their pampered lives.
Alfanas was soon enamoured of the handsome young man who sought his daughter’s hand, especially with Elspeth feeding back information on how to best please him. Melissa, remarkably, was less keen, even with her best “friend” encouraging her all the way. She was holding out for a richer man, “more worthy” of her hand, and Elspeth realized that she’d passed on a little too much of herself to her malleable young charge. Hurriedly, she fed back to Otilio and he upped the scale of his boasts, claiming of multiple estates, vineyards in Tethyr and trading interests across Faerun.
The ruse worked, and after several more years the two were engaged to be married, and the two were united under Sune’s sight one glorious Midsummer day. The bride and groom retreated to the mansion not long after the ceremony, with "Elsa" as their their matron of honour left to organize the festivities. Elspeth ensured that Alfanas had a hearty meal of burdolin that Otilio had her prepare specially, with a unique ingredient that would "ease the path for them both". The old man reacted poorly to the poison, and was unable to return home, not living through the night. Otilio, for his part, did not wait long before he made his next move, and upon her return next morning, Elspeth found Melissa dangling from the laurel tree from a crude noose. With a cruel sneer, he told his cousin that she clearly could not cope with the bad news of the loss of her father, but both knew she had been unaware at the point he'd murdered her.
The two were free to inherit everything, but unfortunately for Elspeth, the older rogue had no intention of keeping his part of the deal – he harshly told her that she no longer had anywhere to live. When she protested, he threatened to reveal who placed the poison in the fish that killed her adoptive father. Instead, he told her to leave Waterdeep, with a purse of gold and the clothes she could carry with her.
Elspeth had little choice but to comply – she was guilty of the murder even if she hadn’t known it would kill him. The man who killed her childhood friend, betrayed her and stole all her plans for the future ushered her to a boat bound for Murann in Amn, where a friend of his would find her some work to do.
The boat, however, never made it to Amn. Halfway through their journey, half the crew, including Otilio’s own contact, revealed their true identity as Bilge Rats, pirates affiliated to the Shadow Thieves of Amn who plied their trade out of Murann’s harbour. They were seizing the boat – the Silver Hind – and all its cargo and the passengers weren’t wanted, least of all a mouthy girl who a little too eagerly begged to join them just to save her own skin.
Elspeth was left adrift in a lifeboat with an elderly Atkathlan couple and Durgdurg (CN hom Brb3), a burly half-orc too simple to comprehend what had happened to them. Soon realizing they hadn’t enough supplies to make it to shore, our heroine charmed the half-orc and persuaded him to throw the old Amnians overboard. They were only a mile or so off the coast of Baldur’s Gate when Durgdurg “accidentally” fell out of the boat himself.
Nonetheless, Elspeth was ill-prepared for rowing and capsized in the harbour, ending up being hauled out of the water by Baldurian dock workers who bawdily joked that they’d caught a beautiful sea-nymph. Furiously, she stormed off, finding herself stuck in a strange city with no friends, allies and only the purse of gold she had with her and a set of salt-ruined, waterlogged clothes.
Goals:
To make enough money to get back on her feet, orchestrate a master plan to humiliate and ruin her treacherous cousin, or failing that, just find a life of luxury elsewhere in her new hometown.
Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts:
It’s not impossible that one or both of her parents are in fact alive – though it’s unlikely. Poor Durgdurg the half-orc is more likely to have survived and made it to shore, but who’d believe a half-monster with vaguely functional intellect over a pretty young human woman?
Elspeth has enlisted with the Windspell Adventuring Company, finding them to be at least a worthwhile mechanism to earn her fortune even if it means splitting the rewards. Nonetheless, she is attempting to come up with a plan that ensures she keeps their trust while manipulating them to end up better off than her fellows.
* - using the homebrew adaptation rules for Comeliness here: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Comeliness ... iant_Rule)
Edited to improve the back-story and add to Plot Hooks.
