Vazjena grew up in Menzoberranzan with a mother who had been captured from the surface and was a secret Priestess of Eilistraee. She taught her two daughters the teachings of the Dark Maiden while swearing them to secrecy. When Vazjena was 17, her five year old sister was coerced by the secret police into revealing her mother's shrine. Her parents fought off the secret police long enough for their Svirfneblin slave to take young Vazjena to safety in Blindenstone where he hid the young drow from the authorities. Knowing she couldn't stay there, the deep gnome eventually found rumors of a surface tribe of drow. His brother escorted Vazjena there where she was welcomed with open arms. The leader of the tribe taught her and many others how to be a cleric of Eilistraee with dances under the full moon, organized hunts, and clerical rites and spells. After nine years she was almost ready to graduate when a raid by Underdark drow surprised the tribe, killing or scattering the members. She barely escaped and wandered for weeks trying to find another survivor, but alas she found none. Starving, she eventually found shelter in a town's church where the pastor nursed her back to health and found her menial work in a tavern. The townspeople were very prejudiced against her and she could not blame them knowing the terrible reputation of her people. Eventually, a cry went up in the town for adventurers and she grabbed her twin shortswords and pieced together leather armor to join them. She was confident that Eilistraee would guide her to gain the power she needed to return to the Underdark and liberate as many drow as she could from Lolth's evil grip.
WildBill (AKA Dragonheart/DH) started as a player not a character then found himself as a character in the game as a human monk/ranger after several years he was involved in the original Giants-Drow-demo web pits modules and had reached monk3/ranger17. At the end of the Demonweb Pits adventure after Lolth wiped out the rest of the party he figured to go down fighting and shot an arrow of slaying at her in a called shot at her eyes. He crited the shot and rolled a series of 10 crits in a row to overcome all magical/difficult resistances killing Lolth and absorbing her energies starting the process of becoming a deity and cleansing the energies of their evil taint. He world walked several times after that ( I moved and found new games) before I took him out of play moving him to my own campaign - an alternate forgotten realms. There he arrived in 1362. His extended stay with holding the deification energies of (a) Lolth brought on the silence of Lolth and brought him to Ellistraee’s attention. He was willing to work with Ellistraee to make a surface home for good Drow. His home base was in a revitalized Teshendale and the edges of Cormanthor forest. Since was successfully cleansing her mother’s energies when Eillistraee absorbed her brother’s energies when she had to kill him she passed them on to WildBill for “repair” . After a number of run ins with surface Drow in the forest he created a set of epic/high magic spells that cleansed the Drow of Cormanthor of demonic taints, returned them to original dark elf form, shifting their alignment one step toward good and forming them into a single clan under him. When Eillistraee was killed she sent most of her energies to him to hold while sending a small portion into an infant Drow female sending him to rescue her new form. He managed to rescue the infant and its parents bringing them to Cormanthor first and later to Rymanthien (sp?) when she was old enough he invited her out adventuring ( to train her) they adventured together throughout most of the spell plague years and at the end following her restoration and his ascension they were married and now sometimes he joins her dances.
technically mizu is an npc. but she's going to be a main npc in the story one who the players talk to and even adventure with as such i've taken the rational route and started writing a book about her. here's what iv'e got so far
LIFE OF AN OUTCAST
Prologue
It is a dark and damp place with very few sounds. Little bugs scurried across the floor, walls, and ceiling unseen. Drops of water fell from stalactite into small puddles on the floor. A cave leading away from the depths of the underdark. But if a closer inspection was given then a figure against a wall would be noticed slowly shimmying across the wall.
This is Mizu, a dark elf. Hated across all surface lands due to their incessant need to conquer and enslave other races. However there are few of a more gentle nature who try to escape this brutal life they have come to despise and live on the surface in the moonlight. These are the followers of Eilistraee, the lady of the dance. These followers see the wrong they and their people have done and want an escape from it all.
So they try, however many fail and are killed by their drow brothers and sisters. But the lucky few who do get out try to live life peacefully along with the other races on the surface. Though safety is never assured on the surface they believe it is better on the surface world then in the underdark. This is the story of one such lucky dark elf. This is the story of Mizu.
Chapter 1
She moves quickly and quietly across the wall following the silvery moths. She doesn’t know where they came from, but after wishing to escape her life in the underdark with her evil sibling, they showed up. It was strange at first as she was certain they were not native to the underdark. Not to mention they never showed themselves around any other dark elves. They seemed to want her to follow them. So after a few weeks of their appearance she decided to take the chance and followed them. It wasn’t long now before she saw a faint light to what she could only believe was the surface world creeping into the cave.
She was tempted to break out into a run after having walked slowly and quietly for a time unknown to her. It all seemed to blend together into a time that she would, and could, only describe as forever. But despite the fact that she knew she was being hunted she broke out into a run for her freedom following the moths. As she approached the light she could see the entrance of the cave and then the moths simply disappeared into the moonlight. Almost as if they were a part of it.
She took a deep breath as she ran and an arrow wizzed right past her head just barely missing her head. ``We've got you now traitor” sounded out from behind her deeper in the cave. It was a party of four drow warriors. The ones that went out hunting for slaves and intruders. This was bad. Even though she could fight if she needed to, she would not win this fight; they had superior training, armor, and weapons. Not to mention likely having reinforcements nearby.
However she did have a few things they didn’t have. She had more stamina from waiting and moving slowly whereas they had been running. due to the sweat running down their face and the heavy yet controlled breathing they had it was clear they had been running. She had also been fascinated in anatomy so much so that she now knew the weak points on any given body. And she also knew the armor's weak spots from having made a few pairs and how to disarm people with weapons. This is not to say it was gonna be an easy fight, but with what she knew it was survivable if she could kill them fast enough.
She took up a fighting stance and said “Not yet you don’t.” She waited for them to charge her knowing they would, She was familiar with their training methods as she had watched them train since she was a child. This was not to say she was an expert on their training but she was at least familiar enough with it to plan ahead. And she was right, she watched as two of the four charged her drawing their swords while the other two hung back drawing bows. Mizu would jump up and roll beneath the swing of one of their swords before before punching up at the armor near the elbow causing it to lock up for a second. this allowed her to knock the sword out of his hands and arm herself with it
Nice start to a story. I would like to offer you read a novel I have written of a similar character. Reading it might help you polish a few points in your narrative. DM me if you want a copy.
Got a Gloomstalker Ranger I’ve been itching to play as, who specializes in hunting threats in the Underdark.
She was once a Drow from Menzoberranzen, but gained enough awareness of the political situation to realize everyone there was just a puppet on Lolth’s strings.
Then she fled, heard tell of Eilastraee, and found that she much preferred a goddess who gives you the choice to worship her, rather than a tyrant.
”The Underdark has plenty of tunnels that go nowhere…I’m not that religious; but when I get cornered, my prayers go to the Moondancer.”
She doubles as a guide for surface dwellers when they need to navigate the Underdark…she hasn’t totally lost her sense of drow superiority, however, and thinks most surface dwellers are fools…even more foolish for going into the Underdark in the first place.
She also has a ”complicated” history with one Jarlaxle Baenre.
Been DM’ing a lot; might have to make this character an NPC…thankfully, Gloomstalker’s are very front-loaded.
one character in one of my campaigns was a twilight cleric of Ellistraee named Latherel on a continent where drow were enslaved she herself was an escaped slave and met some like-minded people and spent several several sessions hunting down and killing slavers and their mercenaries she gained renowned and was eventually known as "The Angel of Darkness." denoting her ability to fly in dim light or darkness. Eventually most minor slavers would flee at the sight of her and many were afraid to catch drow to enslave, she then targeted mines known to keep slaves killing the guards and owners and setting the drow there free
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Dungeon Master: Killing your charcters since 1974
Timeless, Boundless, Ruler of The Spire of Creation
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Tell me about your character, backstory, or events that stand out for your character from your campaign.
Looking for some inspiration. Thank you in advance!
Vazjena grew up in Menzoberranzan with a mother who had been captured from the surface and was a secret Priestess of Eilistraee. She taught her two daughters the teachings of the Dark Maiden while swearing them to secrecy. When Vazjena was 17, her five year old sister was coerced by the secret police into revealing her mother's shrine. Her parents fought off the secret police long enough for their Svirfneblin slave to take young Vazjena to safety in Blindenstone where he hid the young drow from the authorities. Knowing she couldn't stay there, the deep gnome eventually found rumors of a surface tribe of drow. His brother escorted Vazjena there where she was welcomed with open arms. The leader of the tribe taught her and many others how to be a cleric of Eilistraee with dances under the full moon, organized hunts, and clerical rites and spells. After nine years she was almost ready to graduate when a raid by Underdark drow surprised the tribe, killing or scattering the members. She barely escaped and wandered for weeks trying to find another survivor, but alas she found none. Starving, she eventually found shelter in a town's church where the pastor nursed her back to health and found her menial work in a tavern. The townspeople were very prejudiced against her and she could not blame them knowing the terrible reputation of her people. Eventually, a cry went up in the town for adventurers and she grabbed her twin shortswords and pieced together leather armor to join them. She was confident that Eilistraee would guide her to gain the power she needed to return to the Underdark and liberate as many drow as she could from Lolth's evil grip.
WildBill (AKA Dragonheart/DH) started as a player not a character then found himself as a character in the game as a human monk/ranger after several years he was involved in the original Giants-Drow-demo web pits modules and had reached monk3/ranger17. At the end of the Demonweb Pits adventure after Lolth wiped out the rest of the party he figured to go down fighting and shot an arrow of slaying at her in a called shot at her eyes. He crited the shot and rolled a series of 10 crits in a row to overcome all magical/difficult resistances killing Lolth and absorbing her energies starting the process of becoming a deity and cleansing the energies of their evil taint. He world walked several times after that ( I moved and found new games) before I took him out of play moving him to my own campaign - an alternate forgotten realms. There he arrived in 1362. His extended stay with holding the deification energies of (a) Lolth brought on the silence of Lolth and brought him to Ellistraee’s attention. He was willing to work with Ellistraee to make a surface home for good Drow. His home base was in a revitalized Teshendale and the edges of Cormanthor forest. Since was successfully cleansing her mother’s energies when Eillistraee absorbed her brother’s energies when she had to kill him she passed them on to WildBill for “repair” . After a number of run ins with surface Drow in the forest he created a set of epic/high magic spells that cleansed the Drow of Cormanthor of demonic taints, returned them to original dark elf form, shifting their alignment one step toward good and forming them into a single clan under him. When Eillistraee was killed she sent most of her energies to him to hold while sending a small portion into an infant Drow female sending him to rescue her new form. He managed to rescue the infant and its parents bringing them to Cormanthor first and later to Rymanthien (sp?) when she was old enough he invited her out adventuring ( to train her) they adventured together throughout most of the spell plague years and at the end following her restoration and his ascension they were married and now sometimes he joins her dances.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
technically mizu is an npc. but she's going to be a main npc in the story one who the players talk to and even adventure with as such i've taken the rational route and started writing a book about her. here's what iv'e got so far
LIFE OF AN OUTCAST
Prologue
It is a dark and damp place with very few sounds. Little bugs scurried across the floor, walls, and ceiling unseen. Drops of water fell from stalactite into small puddles on the floor. A cave leading away from the depths of the underdark. But if a closer inspection was given then a figure against a wall would be noticed slowly shimmying across the wall.
This is Mizu, a dark elf. Hated across all surface lands due to their incessant need to conquer and enslave other races. However there are few of a more gentle nature who try to escape this brutal life they have come to despise and live on the surface in the moonlight. These are the followers of Eilistraee, the lady of the dance. These followers see the wrong they and their people have done and want an escape from it all.
So they try, however many fail and are killed by their drow brothers and sisters. But the lucky few who do get out try to live life peacefully along with the other races on the surface. Though safety is never assured on the surface they believe it is better on the surface world then in the underdark. This is the story of one such lucky dark elf. This is the story of Mizu.
Chapter 1
She moves quickly and quietly across the wall following the silvery moths. She doesn’t know where they came from, but after wishing to escape her life in the underdark with her evil sibling, they showed up. It was strange at first as she was certain they were not native to the underdark. Not to mention they never showed themselves around any other dark elves. They seemed to want her to follow them. So after a few weeks of their appearance she decided to take the chance and followed them. It wasn’t long now before she saw a faint light to what she could only believe was the surface world creeping into the cave.
She was tempted to break out into a run after having walked slowly and quietly for a time unknown to her. It all seemed to blend together into a time that she would, and could, only describe as forever. But despite the fact that she knew she was being hunted she broke out into a run for her freedom following the moths. As she approached the light she could see the entrance of the cave and then the moths simply disappeared into the moonlight. Almost as if they were a part of it.
She took a deep breath as she ran and an arrow wizzed right past her head just barely missing her head. ``We've got you now traitor” sounded out from behind her deeper in the cave. It was a party of four drow warriors. The ones that went out hunting for slaves and intruders. This was bad. Even though she could fight if she needed to, she would not win this fight; they had superior training, armor, and weapons. Not to mention likely having reinforcements nearby.
However she did have a few things they didn’t have. She had more stamina from waiting and moving slowly whereas they had been running. due to the sweat running down their face and the heavy yet controlled breathing they had it was clear they had been running. She had also been fascinated in anatomy so much so that she now knew the weak points on any given body. And she also knew the armor's weak spots from having made a few pairs and how to disarm people with weapons. This is not to say it was gonna be an easy fight, but with what she knew it was survivable if she could kill them fast enough.
She took up a fighting stance and said “Not yet you don’t.” She waited for them to charge her knowing they would, She was familiar with their training methods as she had watched them train since she was a child. This was not to say she was an expert on their training but she was at least familiar enough with it to plan ahead. And she was right, she watched as two of the four charged her drawing their swords while the other two hung back drawing bows. Mizu would jump up and roll beneath the swing of one of their swords before before punching up at the armor near the elbow causing it to lock up for a second. this allowed her to knock the sword out of his hands and arm herself with it
Nice start to a story. I would like to offer you read a novel I have written of a similar character. Reading it might help you polish a few points in your narrative. DM me if you want a copy.
Got a Gloomstalker Ranger I’ve been itching to play as, who specializes in hunting threats in the Underdark.
She was once a Drow from Menzoberranzen, but gained enough awareness of the political situation to realize everyone there was just a puppet on Lolth’s strings.
Then she fled, heard tell of Eilastraee, and found that she much preferred a goddess who gives you the choice to worship her, rather than a tyrant.
”The Underdark has plenty of tunnels that go nowhere…I’m not that religious; but when I get cornered, my prayers go to the Moondancer.”
She doubles as a guide for surface dwellers when they need to navigate the Underdark…she hasn’t totally lost her sense of drow superiority, however, and thinks most surface dwellers are fools…even more foolish for going into the Underdark in the first place.
She also has a ”complicated” history with one Jarlaxle Baenre.
Been DM’ing a lot; might have to make this character an NPC…thankfully, Gloomstalker’s are very front-loaded.
There is only one to follow, and that is Kurtalmak!
Really? A kobold troll?
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
You know it
Garl! It’s for you!
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
one character in one of my campaigns was a twilight cleric of Ellistraee named Latherel on a continent where drow were enslaved she herself was an escaped slave and met some like-minded people and spent several several sessions hunting down and killing slavers and their mercenaries she gained renowned and was eventually known as "The Angel of Darkness." denoting her ability to fly in dim light or darkness. Eventually most minor slavers would flee at the sight of her and many were afraid to catch drow to enslave, she then targeted mines known to keep slaves killing the guards and owners and setting the drow there free
Dungeon Master: Killing your charcters since 1974
Timeless, Boundless, Ruler of The Spire of Creation