Hally was an orphan kenku who grew up as a petty pickpocketer in Yartar. A human girl who also grew up on the streets “adopted” Hally as her younger brother. She originally did it out of pity, but she grew to genuinely care for the kenku. They would save food for each other and slept back-to-back every night. The girl gave Hally his name, as the other kids just called him Smasher because he smashed things; she combined the human name “Hal” with the bird breed “tit,” because he reminded her of the cute birds. (Honestly she probably knew what she was doing when she used that word.) The name got shortened to Hally over time.

The girl mysteriously disappeared one day. Hally bulked up from getting into his fair share of fights with other urchins. After a couple years of fending for himself again, he resolved to leave Yartar to pursue a better life as an adventurer. He spent all his stolen money on an explorer’s pack and promptly set off. Traveling south, Hally eventually found himself in Daggerford, informally working for the Duchess to protect the town in exchange for money.

As a kenku, Hally had resigned himself to a life of never being able to fly, so he has tried to make the best of walking. He wanted socks that could fit his bird feet, but he couldn't make his own or afford a custom pair. Hally adventured in search of the perfect fitting socks. (The socks were just a cover for his desire for loving friends and family. He struggled to express positive emotions and believed that a material possession representing warmth and comfort was a good enough substitute.) Another big part of his kenku identity was not being able to speak with his own voice, but Hally was around enough people that he could effectively talk. He spoke in mostly short sentences because why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?

At the request of the Duchess of Daggerford, Hally went out with three other mercenaries/adventurers to deal with some rowdy foreigners camping outside the city. Hally and his coworkers ended up getting kidnapped and dropped off in a strange place called Barovia. They had barely spent a day there and they were already being terrorized by Count Strahd von Zarovich. The party vowed to beat him up and traveled across the land, gathering more information and meeting new people. While helping out a winery, Hally was killed by needle blights. Upon his "death," mysterious shadowy figure(s) offered to resurrect him in exchange for being their "champion." Hally agreed, and that was the first deal he made with his new shadow friends. He no longer had a shadow and had faint black smoke wafting off of him. The shadows spoke to him but no one else could see or hear them. Even Strahd said Hally's whole vibe was bad news.

The second deal Hally made was when he and his friends passed out after inhaling poisonous gas in Castle Ravenloft. The shadow friends woke him up and told him to wake up the others by sticking his finger up their nose (it makes sense in context). He did it to Vincent, the paladin, and their relationship soured from that point on. Hally's third deal was when he died AGAIN, this time to some scarecrows that ambushed the party during a rest. When he woke up, Hally's whole body was a silhouette: no features, just pure darkness. He grew a little more arrogant and cared less about others, becoming neutral evil. Hally ultimately died when a huge shadow monster came out of him and started walking across Barovia. It got so bad that Strahd had to deal with the monster.

• Hally was originally supposed to speak in 3 distinct voices that he mimicked from people in his past, but I suck at voices and just gave him a deep "dumb" voice.
• His totem warrior path was the Eagle because I thought it was funny for a bird.
• Hally had the Tavern Brawler feat, but I never used it.
• Some of Hally's final items were: a Strahd puppet, a fancy top hat he looted from a nobleman he "accidentally" murdered, and a wrestling suit.