Tek'Ill Atraluna – Exposing a Pact Thief

[Tekill]

Following is the testimonial of a high ranking Yuzas of the Calimport Amlakkar (captain of the city guard), regarding the following person of interest.

First Name: Tek'Ill
Last Name: Atraluna

Appearance: A pretty, middle aged, dark skinned, dark haired, exotic looking Hin, last seen wearing full Mithril Plate. She is tiny, standing only 2'10” and weighing about 60 pounds, (90 pounds in armor).
Her demeanor seems generally friendly and upbeat. That said, there is just something 'off' about her.
Her eyes are a light gray, almost white. They look unnatural – the colour seems to have simply been drained from them. She has strange markings on her face – they look sort of like snakes wreathed in flames. There's something unsettling about the design itself – something 'not right'. She usually wears a hat and goggles that hides her eyes and said markings.
There is a feeling, a sense, or a sort of negative vibe or dark cloud over her, that is a bit draining or depressing, especially if/when hostile towards her.

Personality Profile:
General Health: Healthy- when not trying to drown in ale.
Deity: Mask
Initial Alignment: NE
Profession: Robber, Raider, Thief

Base Class & Proposed Development: The Blacklock of Mask – The Pact Thief

Habits/Hobbies/Goals: Taking things that don’t belong to her - getting rich. She collects stories of her exploits robbing and stealing from others. She wants to be known among the followers of Mask, as a brilliant thief. Although she is not a very good traditional thief, she tries to prove herself anyway, by coming across more as a thug or raider.

Weapon of Choice: Eldritch Blast.

Background Investigation:
Generations ago, The Atraluna Family were known as a fairly powerful Gypsy clan whose caravan traveled around the Western Heartlands providing a variety of services to anyone willing to part with the coin.
The family or clan, was made up of human nomads known as the Gur and as well, a small group of Strongheart Halflings. It is unknown how they came to adopt each other but the humans and hin treated each other as family, united under a venerable matriarch more often than not, Hin.
This kinship was not shared by the other Gur gypsy families, who felt the Atraluna Family represented everything wrong with their society. They always assumed the worst, often slandering the Atraluna family, specifically regarding rumors that the Atraluna's worshiped dark gods and practiced witchcraft.
The resulting infamy did not bother the Atraluna's, and in Gypsy fashion, it actually increased business for the family.
Bat from this height of prosperity, the Atraluna clan suddenly, mysteriously and suspiciously decided to pull up stakes and move the whole caravan far to the south. It was a long slow journey, traveling the main trade routes all the way down through Calimshan to the great city of Calimport.
Road weary and exhausted, none of them were prepared for what was to happened to them next. Mere days after entering the city of Calimport the Atraluna family were all gathered up, arrested, and then either summarily executed or enslaved- reasons unknown.
Then, as it is now, nobody dare question the unerring judgement of the Syl-pasha's appointed officials. The powers that be, rated the security level of the Atraluna case very high. The details are still restricted to this day and the trial itself was held in closed court. One statement was provided to the public, regarding the case, the trial and the sentencing: "Crime is not tolerated in Calimport, especially from outsiders bringing their corruption into our glorious city- order must be maintained and justice shall be served."
Among the newly enslaved survivors, was they family matriarch (Tek's grandmother), her children and her grandchildren, who all ended up being sold to one particular wealthy merchant and trade guild leader.
Tek'Ill Atraluna, or just Tek, was born one year after these events becoming, not only the youngest family member, but eventually the last surviving member of the Atraluna family.
Tek and her remaining family, lived lives of abject poverty misery and near starvation. All except her older sister Aria, oddly enough, who for some unknown and suspect reason, was treated by their master, as an honored guest and so she lived a life of absolute luxury. The reason for this has yet to be identified.
Tek, only a couple years younger than Aria was raised to be her own sisters personal servant.
Tek did not like this at all and often resisted against her station in life. This, earned her a lot of punishment, including beatings, for the impertinence of her disobedience. In response, she would escape, choosing to live on the streets in other nearby Sabbans (neighborhoods). A viscous cycle eventually evolved with her refusing to serve her sister, then the resulting punishment for refusing to obey, then her running away, and then finally her recapture to begin the cycle anew.
The cycle was eventually broken, when Tek was arrested and charged for larceny and robbery. She simply never learned to keep her hands to herself and so justice demanded that she have her hands removed - the standard punishment for such acts. Unfortunately, Tek'Ill would avoid this punishment when the victims of the robbery suddenly changed their statements, suddenly claiming she was not involved. One Report at the time indicated that Aria had paid the victims to change their story. Perhaps, if she had just let justice take its course she herself would not have ended up paying such a heavy price.
It was also Aria that came up with the idea to 'promote' Tek to her personal body double and body guard. Tek even received some military training, during this time, to better protect her sister. It was still never understood why Aria, a foreigner Hin of no consequence, needed this protection, but witness accounts reported that during this time, for the first time, Tek did not resist. This apparently started a short period of relative peace.
It would not last long as tragedy would soon strike the Atraluna Family.
It happened during a very special occasion for Aria. It turned out that Aria was to be part of some sort of important ceremony or party. Many suspected it was to be an arranged marriage ceremony or something of the like, but these reports are unconfirmed and details of what actually happened are classified. We can confirm that a large fire broke out in the merchant masters guild house, the night of this ceremony, killing the master his immediate family and also one, Aria Atraluna.
Tek'Ill's parents and grandmother on the other hand had been later found outside the city gates, having had somehow found a way to escape the guild house. Reports show that they were able to make this escape days prior to the fire having actually started. But regardless of this little fact, it seems they were immediately arrested and charged with arson and murder. They were tried, found guilty, and summarily executed.
Tek on the other hand, had completely disappeared, and from that time on, was never seen in Calimport or even Calimshan again. She had somehow mysteriously escaped both the fire and the city of Calimport itself.
There has been some reports of sightings of Tek'Ill Atraluna, since the time of the fire though. It is of interest to note that these witness reports all share a peculiar commonality among them. It seems that her appearance had changed drastically, allegedly through some sort of witchcraft. Her eyes were said to have turned almost completely white, and that her face was now covered in strange markings.
Further details are unconfirmed, vague or simply classified at this point.
It seems apparent though that, having escaped Calimport, Tek somehow found her way up the coast quite a distance before taking refuge within the church of Mask. It is not known what went on during time within the church of shadows- and all attempts to apprehend her during this time had been thwarted.
We know that she now has made her way to Baldur's Gate and now lives a life as an adventurer. Our agents report that she has grown considerably powerful having developed and refined the abilities of a Warlock. It turns out the reports of witchcraft were true!
Our agents also report that, in her early days around the Friendly Arms Inn she tried to convince folk that her powers were fey in nature, as in fairy magic, and that one day she would go to the land of the fey and live there with them. It appears to be untrue, either she was suffering from madness or it was some sort of cover.
The final note on this Warlock -she may have slipped out of Calimshan's reach, but justice may still have been served for she is imprisoned within a darkness that shall not be mentioned. Everything else on Tek'Ill Atraluna is classified. A warning go's to any that read this- she is unpredictable and extremely dangerous. Approach her at great peril!

[Tekill]

Utter Darkness.
An opaqueness so deep, dark and thick, that simply peering into it, creates a feeling of disconnect, a dis-incorporation of ones soul from ones body.
From somewhere deep within this abyss a sound can be heard. The sound of a mans voice, exhausted and horse, full of suffering, pain, madness and terror, screaming into the void.
These scream suddenly come to an abrupt stop when the briefest, most faintest glimpse of something appears far in the distance. At first it seemed a trick of the eye, or a symptom of the disorienting darkness, but eventually a spark is born out of the nothing. A faint pin prick of light appearing, like a singular tiny distant star shinning by itself at the far end of the universe.
An undetermined amount of time passes by: minutes, hours, days....
At some point the voice of the man who had been shrieking, suddenly begins to start sobbing, most likely as a result of the appearance of this light.
This mesmerizing little speck of light begins to flicker and grow, imperceptibly slowly at first, until eventually turning into the size of a candle.
At this point, a faint sound can faintly be heard, coming from the direction of this light. As it gets louder, it slowly becomes identifiable as the sound of footsteps. As the light grows so does the sound of these footsteps.
Eventually, the silhouette of a figure carrying a torch can be seen approaching. The light from the torch becomes a sort of beacon in the suffocating darkness, and eventually reaches a hunched form of the wretched source of the previous screaming, a horribly tortured and whimpering man sprawled on the ground.
There is a layer of mist covering the ground that conceals most of the whimpering mans naked, shivering body, but he can be seen on his knees, protectively covering his head with his arms.
The parts of this mans body, exposed through the mist, is completely covered in all manner of unhealed wounds: tears in his flesh, fissures, bite marks, horrible burns and deep gouges. Most of these wounds are now infected, showing dark red-purpleish black discoloration and oozing pus on any portion of skin not already showing an open wound. There is no natural reason why this man should not still be alive.
The figure with the torch steps up to the hunched over naked form of this tortured soul, and speaks:
“Well there you are!”
Stated cheerfully.
“We had all but forgotten about you out here. How long has it been my good man, a couple of minutes or much, much longer?”
Although shadow conceals much of his appearance, the figure with the torch appears to be a well dressed, male Tiefling of average height, build and with typical Tiefling characteristics: horns, reptilian eyes, red skin, pointy ears a prehensile tail.
There is one characteristic about this man that does appear to make him quite unique, and is quite noticeable in the light of the torch. In fact, it is the hand holding the torch itself, or more particularly, this characteristic is the elongated, scaly fingers of this hand that seem to loop and writhe around the handle of the torch itself. At the end of each of these long coiled fingers, instead of fingernails and fingertips, is the head of a hissing snake!
The whimpering man is now deathly still and quiet.
“I have the ability to release you you know. I can separate you from your soul so that it can fly off to whatever afterlife you are deserving of. Does that sound nice?”
“Would you let me take your soul, in order to free it?”
“Should I just end you life right here and now?
No answer.
“Of course, an escape from here, is usually extremely rare. I would normally just keep you here until you hand over your soul yourself freely, or until I slowly tear it from your body. But, since you have been so cooperative so far, I could make an exception.”
The snake fingered Tiefling shakes his head in mock concern for his prisoner.
“Now, since you have already stumbled upon my identity, I see no reason at this point why I should not formally introduce myself. My name is Eldanoth, the Bloodless Scion of Orcus, The Lord of the Undead.”
He paused a moment before continuing, “You are the guest of the most powerful demon prince in all the abyss- a very honored, and as well, very troubling position for you to be in.”
Eldanoth states this with a tone of kindness and a with pleasant smile on his face.
“The good news for you is, I am in charge of souls around here. But, before I can free you we will need to discuss how you got here. To do that we will need to look back to the Material Plane, to Calimport to be specific, to where we discovered you scrying information about us. I would like you to know that it was a bit of an invasion of privacy on your part, and quite irritating, and I will also have you know, I value my privacy quite a lot.”
He waves his index finger at the prone man - the snake head, at the finger tip, hissing and snapping at the air.
“So in all fairness, and in a like minded fashion I had my agents follow up on you as well. It seems you were a Yuzas, a captain of the Calimport guard or Amlakkar as you refer to it....and not even a corrupt one, how unfortunate.”
No response.
“Your investigation of an escaped halfling slave and an all around trouble maker, one Tek'Ill Atraluna is really what has brought both you and I together. Did you figure that out yet?
I would like to thank you for telling me what you know about her and her current whereabouts.”
Eldanoth smiles warmly, when the prone man again does not respond verbally, but as a way of response, the man does ball himself into a tight fetal position, tensing and bracing himself for the worst.
“Oh, do not worry, we do not need anything else from you at this time. But I was around, when you first arrived as our guest- we had such a good time in your company, and so informative. The information we extracted, plus the report you had previously written on this little scamp, Tek'Ill, turned out to be quite accurate and filled in a lot of the missing pieces of the puzzle. I really want to thanks you, and tell you that you do fine work Yazas (using his Captain rank to address him), fine work indeed.”
When the Yazas does not respond, Eldanoth smiles, his fangs now exposed.
“Let us break down what we have pieced together, shall we?”
“Tek sets fire to the estate of a valuable merchant, killing him and many others in it, including her own sister, Aria Atraluna, on the night of a great ceremony. She then escapes the city, and her life as a slave, to travel the sword coast, suddenly blessed with a spark of power that she used to grow much later become an Eldritch Master.
He looks down at the Yazas, his smile suddenly a deep scowl. He continues.
“As I am sure you have already pieced it together by now, the murdered merchant was a humble servant of mine, and that ceremony was supposed to be a sacrifice, to me, of one of the most purest and willing souls, I have set upon in an entire generation. And we spent almost that long preparing this sacrifice to me!”
He nudges the Yazas, with his foot.
“This murderous criminal, shows up to my sacrificial ceremony, after killing my slaves, and her very own sister, my sacrifice, the one promised to me. She then bumbles into my chamber, sees me step into the material plain from my portal here. Some does quick thinking, and save her skin, cooking up a lie on the spot. She claims to be her sister, and then with an incredible temerity, actually begins making a bargain with me, for a soul she herself had just sent screaming to the wailing wall. Being well and truly deceived, and apparently a gigantic fool, I make a great pact with her, thinking her to be my slave and my newest vessel while on the material plane. So, basically I trade my power, for a body that she had already made into a corpse and a soul that was not her own to trade.”
Eldanoth's rage is written all over his face now. He takes a deep breath and appears to be about to explode, when suddenly, he just bursts out laughing instead. A deep, rich, somewhat menacing laugh.
“I new there was something wrong about that deal right from the start, yet she still gets away with it!”
More laughter.
“Oh she's perfect!”
Eventually his laughter dies down and both of them linger in silence for a few momments. Eldanoth bends down close to the Yazas. “Perhaps we can make a deal. It seems that I was made to look like quite the fool, and do not want word of this getting around. It is one of my many dirty little secrets but fortunately the only one to know about it, is you. How are you at keeping secrets, by the way?”
Still nothing from the man on the ground.
“Now, you will need to answer this question if I am ever to decide to free you from this place.”
The wretched naked man splayed out on the ground before Eldanoth begins to shudder, he lifts his head and in a horse whisper weakly says, “I wont talk...I promise”.
Eldanoth seems pleased, “Well that is good news then, for the both of us!” He exclaims pleasantly.
“But, just to help you keep your secret, I think it best for you to stay here, away from prying eyes and ears.” Eldanoth says with a wink to the man.
The Yazas eyes roll back in his head and he simply begins repeating the word no, over and over again.
“no-no-no-no-nu-nu-nuh-nuhhhh-noooo”
Then more vigorously.
“No! No! Noooo Nooooo!"
Now smiling, quite happy with himself, Eldanoth, the Bloodless Scion, turns on his heel, and causally begins walking back the way he came.
Following closely behind him, the word 'No', which then slowly becomes a long shrill shriek once again, the only thing to fill the empty void.
“Nonononononooooooo-Nuuuuuuuuuuu-Nuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!”