Talin Baravaar

The Harrowing of Talin Baravar

As far as gnomes go, Talin was very average. She was born as Selmiphi Stumbleduck (sell-ME-fee STUHM-bull-duck) to a middle-class gnome family in a small town on one of the Lantan islands off the Sword Coast of Faerun. She had enough to eat to satiate hunger. She had clothing on her back made from decent fabrics, but didn’t often get new garments and would have to mend what she had to make them last longer. Occasionally her family was able to get very nice things, like fancy foods or little trinkets. So as far as upbringing, it was standard. However, she always felt ill at ease, feeling as if something was always keeping a dark eye on her. She tried to ignore it for most of her young life.

All of her family members, as well as members of the surrounding community, were able to perform simple feats of magic. Those who were especially adept were held in high-esteem.

As an adolescent, Selmiphi, or Mimi as her childhood friends called her, would often be found climbing in the trees or running along the forest floor, playing sword-fight with her sister Grenapine and the other gnome children. Mimi took after her father, the town’s blacksmith, and as she grew older she would work in his shop with him, creating tools and weapons with him. Her years in school were spent mainly on smithing and creating new ways to use the weapons she made. Mimi’s prized possession is the hand-crossbow she made and showed off as her  culmination project for the Final Showing of her school-learning.

She grew into a young adult and, at the age of 98, she decided to take her skill as a blacksmith and weapons-master on the road; a small town needs only one smith in it. She also wanted to get away from that cold, dark feeling that had always followed her throughout her young life. Selmiphi travelled for days, weeks, before finally coming across an unfamiliar yet lively city called Scornubel she wanted to settle in. Her business was slow to start up at first, but it didn’t take very long for people to take notice to her fine work and skill. A dwarf woman named Dagna Leeroot began frequenting her shop, though only ever bought things on occasion. Selmiphi and Dagna soon fell in love, and the two ended up getting married. For the first time in her life, she forgot about the darkness looming just behind her. After a few years together, the happy couple adopted a daughter, a young half-elf girl named Illedove, whom they playfully called their “little bird”.

Of course, happiness is fleeting when it comes to these kinds of stories.

Fire broke out one day in their home behind the shop, started from an unknown source. Selmiphi had grabbed the still small Illedove from her bed and had made it outside. The support beams of the roof began to fall behind her. She looked around in the crowd, searching for Dagna. She screamed out her name, and heard a weakened response from inside the collapsing house. Selmiphi called to her, saying she would get her out, and the building caved in, shooting sparks out in every direction and the flames high up in the air. Illedove screamed, scared, and Selmiphi sobbed.

Selmiphi took her daughter out of Scornubel which now was only left with sorrowful memories. The darkness behind her came back to the forefront, and constantly had to fight to ignore the whispering she could hear but not make out. The darkness behind her started taking over, like she was a puppet and it controlled the strings. She and her little bird never settled in one spot for long, mainly because Selmiphi would steal from shops and cheat people out of their money, and didn’t want to get arrested. She gave false names whenever meeting new people, her favorite being Talin, sounding like the sharp appendage on predatory birds. The darkness behind her would often bring up the terrible memories of watching Dagna burn. She pleaded with it to stop torturing her. She found that if she caused physical pain, the darkness behind her would be satiated enough to not cause her mental pain. Each night, she boils water and pours it onto her right hand (she’s left-handed), scalding her skin, and leaves it untreated for an hour. Her arm is wrapped in an enchanted cooling-cloth bandage for all other hours of the day and night. The skin on her right arm and hand is so scarred that it doesn’t even look real anymore.

One day the darkness behind her was too much for Talin, or whatever name she went by at the moment, and she lashed out at Illedove, causing her harm. Immediately she realized what she had done, and knew that her little bird was not safe with her. She went back to her hometown in the dead of night and left toddler sitting asleep on the stoop of her childhood home, with a note pinned to her simply saying:

“Illedove, my baby bird. Please take care of her until I return.

-Mimi”

Since then, Talin has remained wandering from town to town, city to city, different provinces within Faerun, typically staying for no longer than a month.

Her most recent place of residence is the city of Mulmaster, where she’s taken up with the Zhentarim that are there.

Random Bits of Info on Talin

• Harrowing event: born under a dark star, and can feel it watching, cold and distant, sometimes beckoning her in the night
• Personality trait: puts no trust into divine beings
• Ideals: a dark calling that puts her above the law
• Bond: child to protect, and must make the world safer for her
• Flaw: certain rituals she has to follow everyday and cannot break them
• Faction: Zhentarim
• Greatest desire: finding whoever started the fire and killing them (the darkness convinced her that a wicked person must have been the cause of the house fire and subsequently Dagna’s death, and wickedness must be punished)(she personally believes that if she kills the culprit, she will be rid of the darkness forever)
• Greatest fear: losing herself/being consumed by the ever-present darkness and ending up hurting her little bird beyond repair
• Doesn’t care if there is collateral damage as she works towards a goal
• Various identities used:
  • Talin Baravar
  • Jaminia Glitterstone
  • Elleana Firefoot
  • Kell La’kell
  • Finneagon Fleet
• Presently, Talin is 107 years old, a young/middle-aged gnome
• Has a little pet mouse named Chewdas that lives in her backpack
• Wears a broken silver pendant of a dragon around her neck always; was Dagna’s prior to her death (not broken), then found amongst the wreckage of their home (broken)

Character Epilogue

"After leaving Barovia, you travel with Augustus to his tavern. For a few months you try your hand at thievery to make sure you have the money to bring back to your child. On your first night, creeping through Neverwinter’s streets, you cannot help but imagine dark figures watching you from the rooftops. After a week of sleepless nights and unsuccessful capers, you put away your cloak for good and do not return to creeping around at night. You are safe from vampires, during the day. 

"You return home to your daughter and make a living as a silversmith, and make a respectable living selling weapons to monster hunters. You even craft a new silver dragon pendant, which you give to Illedove to remind her of her mother. You teach her never to travel on a foggy night, to always shutter her windows when she sleeps. Your silver rapier hangs on the wall in your house, just in case. Everyone thinks you made it, and no one--not even Illedove--suspects you would be able to use it if you needed to. 

"Sarik continues to try and convince you to come back, plying you with the stone of luck he grants his closest confidantes. But beyond the occasional visit to Augustus’ tavern, you are content to live out your life as an artisan in the city. You carefully train your daughter in silverwork, to make sure she would never be caught out when the vampires awaken."