Backstory

Reymera spent most of her childhood growing up in an orphanage.

The accidental offspring of a Priestess of Lolth and a particularly persistent Bard, who was likely trying to save his own skin. After her birth, Reymera was taken to the surface and left along the side of a well traveled road. The intention was for her to be left in the woods somewhere, but the individual who was tasked with transporting her must have felt merciful in that moment– or, at least that’s what she will tell herself when she later learns of her heritage. She’s found and picked up by a traveling family some hours after being left. This family will bring her to the orphanage that will serve home for the next several years of her life.

As she grows she is viewed with an air of suspicion and disgust by the adults who run the children’s home. It isn’t until she’s older that she will learn of the reasoning behind the poor treatment, it’s for no other reason than the color of her eyes. The red eyes that were gifted to her by her mother, and by extension, the evil goddess Lolth. Unfortunately for her, the manner in which the adults treat her is also reflected by the children she grows up with, often in the form of bullying (in both physical and mental forms).

Once she’s “too old” to continue living in the orphanage she is booted out onto the streets. Ironically, it’s a better life for her. No, there may not be a roof over her head anymore but she is no longer subjected to regular torment. Yes, children tend to disappear in the city, but the benefit of her eyes– the eyes that caused her pain and torment previously, serve as a wall of protection. People tend to think twice before doing anything and just leave her alone.

Unfortunately as Reymera gets older she struggles to find and keep work. She takes a few odd jobs here and there, but she has to rely on thievery and pickpocketing to get by.

Some time passes and Reymera eventually falls in with a group of would-be adventurers, composed primarily of people like her– outcasts. Her goal at this point is to get off of the streets and earn a little bit of gold. To her dismay, the group primarily run low paying jobs (mostly escort and retrieval jobs. With that being said, she never sees her full cut of the proceeds. This would go on for several jobs before they’re given something a little higher paying– to escort a priest to exorcize a temple of a malevolent spirit. As with all things this does not go as planned and the group ends up running afoul of a fey. This fey is the very creature the priest had been tasked with exorcizing, the client had been under the assumption itt was a poltergeist.

Upon learning what it is, Reymera attempts to open a dialogue and bargain with it. Alas, it has no interest in whatever things she says in her attempts to keep it from having its fun with the group. But, as the only one who did not try to kill it outright, it gives her a choice. Serve as its host and provide it with a source of entertainment or die with the rest of her very unprepared party. She chooses the option that will allow her to live. In doing so she saves herself but it’s first act as a part of her is to take over and kill the rest of her party. It giggled the entire time. The one bright side? The job was technically completed and she finally got paid. She even got the full cut. And the new magical abilities she now possesses as a result of the deal make life a lot easier.

The upside, unfortunately, does not outweigh the downside of this situation. She is now bound to the creature and forced to do its bidding. Should she refuse it will take control of her and wake her back up as it finishes its “good work”.

After a time, Reymera lands a job with a noble in Baldur’s Gate who has an interest in the FeyWild. No, she did not put her “patron” on the job application, but the knowledge she gained from the creature and the knowledge she gained from researching the thing on herself puts her at the front of the line. Her new employer sends her out to collect various artifacts and serve as an advisor of sorts when he’s purchasing items for his growing collection.

Reymera is sent out on a job, as has become the normal, and while traveling her party is set upon by a small group of Goblins. HGer party is mostly taken out in the attack, Before turning tail to return to the city, Reymera stops off in a nearby settlement to regroup with anyone who may have survived and resupply for the journey home. Those same Goblins catch her on her way back through, having not yet left the area. She’s handed over to the Absolutists.

Thus leading to her being planted on a Nautiloid with a Mind Flayer tadpole behind her eye. Most of her travel party were not so lucky, many of them ended up dying in an attempt to flee or as a part of the Goblin raiders’ next meal.

Act 1

After the ship crashes, Reymera stumbles away from the wreckage battered and bruised, but alive. Unaware of her surroundings, she follows signs of civilization and finds herself arriving at the druid’s grove.

Upon her arrival at the grove, she’s greeted with a suspicion she knows all too well. But, after many reassurances and relinquishing her weapons at the gate, she is allowed into the relative safety of the druid’s home. One of the tieflings takes interest in her arrival; the bard, Alfira. Claims she looks to have a tale or two to tell. Perhaps looking to her for some inspiration for one of her own songs, outside sources and all of that.

When the goblins attack the grove while in pursuit of the adventurer’s who’d attempted to infiltrate their camp, Reymera finds herself drawn to the fight. Be it herself or the whim of her mind’s co-tennant she’s unsure, but nevertheless she assists in holding the gate.

Given their common affliction, after a brief mindmeld with one, the druid Blaidd, she offers her assistance to the tadpole group after the fight.

That same night Alfira surprises those in the camp with the gift of music, completely uninvited. Reymera’s fey, though it loves surprises, does not like this surprise. It doesn’t like when she makes new friends and views her more defenseless friends as new playthings. It will take control of Reymera while she sleeps and brutally slay Alfira after luring her out of camp. She regains consciousness as soon as the fey is done admiring its work. Unsure of what to do, Reymera drags the body further into the surrounding forest, finds somewhere to clean herself off, and scrubs her hands until the poor woman’s blood is replaced by her own before returning to camp. Though, she is unable to sleep for the rest of the night; the image of that poor woman is seared into her mind.

She does not expect to get away with it and when Blaidd returns with news of the bard’s death. The deed was assumed to be done by the Absolutists, but it doesn’t help Reymera feel the guilt any less. And it shows. If the others can tell they don’t say anything and she won’t bring it up.

Until it is brought up one night a few days later while everyone is asleep. She’s woken by Astarion’s lurking. She was to become the Vampire’s next meal. She allows him to proceed after a brief exchange and the following morning the two discuss what had happened the night before. She’ll make a comment about not being in a position to judge, he comments about her not hiding it well, and she puts two and two together. Given his recent revelation she figures he could smell Alfira’s blood on her no matter how well she thought she’d washed it off. It becomes their little secret.

As to how Blaidd never noticed though she can’t quite figure it out, the man spends a chunk of his life as a wolf afterall.

She travels with the group for a time, searching for the Goblin’s base of operations. Once they reach the base the party splits up to divide and conquer. Reymera herself joins with the party going after the Drow, Minthara.

Once the Goblin leaders are dealt with and Halsin has been set free, Reymera rediscovers her love for social gatherings. The opportunity to make new friends and deepen already established relationships. And, honestly, the chance to let loose for the first time in a long while was not unwelcomed either.

When the Tadpole party splits off again she joins the group that travels through the Underdark. While in the Underdark the truth about her extra passenger comes to light. At least somewhat. She's caught having an agressive argument with herself by one of the others and, though omits a few details, she explains what her situation is...and what happened to Alfira.

Act 2

After spending their time trudging through the Underdark the party will eventually end up reuniting at the Last Light Inn, a refuge under the protection of the Harpers, upon their arrival in the Shadow Cursed Lands. It isn’t much, but the little bubble of Selune’s light is a welcome change to the oppressive weight of Shar’s “blessing” upon the land and Reymera is grateful for it. Her passenger had been a little too happy in the shadows.

A short time after their arrival at the inn, a small-scale battle breaks out over Isobel, the cleric of Selune who is keeping the inn protected. Isobel is successfully defended but the battle pushes forward the Harper’s timeline. The group is tasked with investigating Moonrise Towers - which was the entire purpose behind the trip into the Shadow Cursed Lands to begin with.

This is where the party splits up again - one group to stay behind at the inn and one to investigate Moonrise. Reymera joins the group heading to Moonrise.

Upon their return to Last Light, Reymera begins to struggle with the fey once more. After some of the others head for the Temple of Shar, the creature sets a new victim in its sights. To make matters worse the target is a child. Reymera refuses, because time, place and well, child. It does not like it, but it agrees with her logic and lets the matter go for the time being. But it will have its due.

She leaves with the Harpers after an angel streaks across the sky. Reymera stays at the base of the tower to help the Harpers hold against any Absolutist reinforcements that could be on their way.

After the battle, when everyone else is finally able to rest, Reymera herself is unable to find her own rest. The fey had decided it was time to take its due. It wakes her in the middle of the night with her beloved in its sights. The creature views her close bonds as its playthings afterall, so going after him is the perfect form of retaliation in its mind. She manages to wake him before everything goes dark.

She wakes the next morning tied to something with both a lump on her head and a massive headache.

The group takes another day to recover from the battle before continuing their journey to the city.

Act 3

Once they make it to the city, Reymera chooses to investigate the Circus of Last Days, the extraplanar circus. She was drawn to it for both personal reasons and because of the fey, it was drawn to the circus as well. While looking around she helps foil an Absolutist plot by killing their best clown, Dribbles, and grabs the attention of the circus’ ring leader, an individual named Lucretious. Lucretious took one look at Reymera and recognized what was going on with her, they offered her a possible solution in exchange for finding out what happened to Dibbles and returning him to the circus.

Reymera jumps at this opportunity. The solution is a spell and it’s temporary but it’s still something. This spell prevents her passenger from taking control of her body, but it is still able to mentally torment her. When she returns later with Dribbles’ dismembered corpse, Lucretious provides her with information on an artifact that can lock the creature away. They also inform her that separating the creature from Reymera will result in her death as it can only be separated from her at her time of death, so finding that artifact is really her only option.

The moment the group sets up base after being allowed into the lower city Reymera beelines it to her home for a bath and a change of clothes. Upon her return to camp she drags Blaidd shopping as the man’s attire is looking more than a little worse for the wear in her eyes.

While in the city, she gives a hand to the “Hag Support Group” as a result of her interest in the fey and a missing child.

To put it simply, she helps Astarion deal with his former master. It’s a hard choice to make, but she manages to talk him down from completing the ritual- despite the fact that everything in her is screaming to let him go through with it. She realizes that this is ultimately more about what he needed and not about what he wanted. When he thanks her for it some time later to say she’s surprised is an understatement, she thought he would be furious.

But, instead, he takes her out into the city to visit, and in a sweet way, deface, his own grave. It's a private moment that meant a lot to them both.

Reymera is part of the group that infiltrates the temple of Bhaal, while the rest work on breaking down Lord Gortash and claiming his stone. Saving the child was a higher priority in her mind. She breathes the biggest sigh of relief as soon as Orin is slain and Yenna is freed. She does not let the child out of her sight until she’s back at camp, safe and sound.

At the end, when it is time to take on the Netherbrain, Reymera isn’t too keen on going to the morphic pool and would rather stay above ground to help protect the civilians. She goes where she is needed, but complains about it with a loud utterance of “I did not sign up for this shit”.

Post Game

Following the fall of the Absolute, Reymera returns to her old life somewhat, only she needs to learn how to share her life with another person. She hammers out time with her employer to allow her to search for that artifact Lucretious had provided information on. She spends the next six or so months tracking the item down.

Her search brings her to a tunnel leading to the Underdark a short ways from Waterdeep. Her fey passenger starts screaming in Reymera’s head more and more the closer she gets to the item, which tells her she’s on the right path. Unfortunately this means she gets very little sleep as a result. During this brief time spent in the Underdark, she will meet her mother, a woman who's name was in that notebook Kithyra carried around during their travels together. It takes just about everything in her power to keep from maiming the woman. The mental scars had healed long ago but the woman did leave her to die afterall. Afterwords, she finds the item she's been searching for, which is a ring, and the moment she slides it on her finger her passenger grows quiet. And once she’s back home she sleeps for what seems like a week.

Despite the creature no longer having an influence over her, it has had its lasting effects on her personality. She is still very chaotic and her morals remain questionable.

At the reunion party Reymera recounts the tale of her quest for the artifact if asked, but she’s just happy to be around her friends again. This time though, she can fully let her guard down. Without a disaster looming overhead and without having to fear the fey taking control. She does, however, end up passing out a few hours in, her body still recovering from her time spent on alert for the fey.

Reymera will leave her current employ to adventure with Astarion, because if the last year and half as taught her anything it's that they're hilariously good at being "heroes".

Some seventy years or so later, the children of her former boss track her down to hire her for a job. They're looking to grow their father's collection and she was the first person that they could think of. The job ends up taking her and her current travel party into a vampire den. Suffice to say that was something that none of them were prepared for. Given her time spent with Astarion she felt she was the person best suited to play decoy and get everyone out of their current predicament relatively intact. While the group ended up killing the vampire in question and recovering their query, Reymera herself does not fare so well. She leaves the den very much changed, now a vampire spawn herself.

Despite kicking herself for it for a good long while there is one silver lining. She died. The fey creature is gone.

In the following months, she leaves her current employment and, at Astarion’s suggestion, spends as little time around other people as possible. After a time, six or so months, she ventures back out into the world, if only to travel to Waterdeep. With the fey gone her magics are extremely unstable and she believes that Gale can help her get a handle on them again and she is convinced that the man would have found a way to extend his life. The man is a powerful Wizard afterall.

Upon the conclusion of her lessons she’s offered a job by Iskirthos Orn, a friend of Blaidd’s. She procures stock for the woman’s shop, items that one can only gather in the moonlight mostly.

• Not the MC, she’d make all of the dumb choices. She is, however, roped into helping make decisions for the group by Blaidd and Kithrya.
• Bit of an offshoot of the Dark Urge/Haunted One origin, just without the Bhaalspawn and cannibalism aspects.
• Rey to her friends. ReyRey to Karlach or anyone feeling brave.
• She does not have a surname.
• Half Wood Elf, half Drow.
• She will live for the same timespan as a full blooded elf. But, alas, unlike full blooded elves, she does need to sleep.
• As a child, her hair was pure white, the black crept in when the fey happened.
• Named by the travelers who brought her to the orphanage.
• The goth kid.
• Because of her fey patron, Reymera's spells are generally white with a prismatic light effect.
• Suffers from terrible nightmares. Rarely sleeps soundly as a result.
• While trying to gain the party's trust, the Emperor takes on the form of a man named Gavirn. Gavirn had looked out for Reymera when she was booted from the orphanage, only, Gavirn her age as well. Gav vanished when they were still young, so the form taken on by the Emperor is merely what he may have looked like as an adult. While the form does work to put Reymera at ease, she does not recognize that he is meant to be him since she'd last seen him when they were still children.
• She spends a lot of time staring up at the night sky, she finds watching the stars oddly relaxing.
  • This is something she’s done since childhood.
  • She would watch clouds regularly as well, but due to her heritage the sun bothers her eyes.
  • It’s nothing blinding, but it will give her terrible headaches.
• Bonds with Scratch pretty much instantly and will go fucking feral if anything happens to that dog.
• Given her father’s bardic nature, Reymera often sings/hums softly to herself to fill silence.
• Most of her facial scarring is from the orphanage she grew up in.
• Whenever asked about her background she generally just replies with “children can be mean”.
• She doesn’t actually own much, so her home is pretty empty. Which is part of why she likes clothing the way she does. It’s something she can travel with and keep with her. That and the lack of nice things while growing up.
• The necklace she wears in act 3 she actually stole on one of her first adventurer gigs. She snatched it after turning in proof that the job they were hired for was completed. The client hilariously ended up being her employer later.
• She is quite the doodler.
  • She picked up the hobby to silence her brain while she was in the orphanage. It was really her only escape.
  • Enjoys sketching animals.
  • She cries a little whenever she reaches the end of a sketchbook, because she doesn't know when she’ll be able to pick up another one.
• Can be considered a sorcerer after the fey is removed from her head.
  • Having been possessed by the creature for 80-90 years at the time of it's removal, it left behind some of it's essence.
  • Not sure if the Fey Bloodline is a subclass in D&D 5e but it is in Pathfinder, so I'm going to roll with that.
  • She uses this newfound power to learn some spells that were originally beyond her power source meanwhile supplementing her weakened Warlock abilities (she has zero interest in finding a new patron, not that any potential patron would want to touch her soul at this point anyways. It isn't worth much anymore.)
  • Spends some time in Waterdeep bothering Gale (who likely found some way to extend his life because Wizard) to teach her some control over this new power.
• -- Spotify Playlist --