Sariel

In The Dark

"I'm not as evil as I may seem"

The fall of an aristocrat and the rise of a adventurer

Sariel is the seventh daughter of an aristocratic ( Daevaeir House) from the drow couple, and the only female among her siblings. She was born very weak and sick, making her mother (Saradreza) believe that she wouldn’t make out of it, but surprisingly, she grew up to be a really strong and diligent girl, and her mother trained her very hard to be a Lolth priestess.

Despite that, Sariel had always a very good heart, despite not being very popular among other drows in her age group, she had a large influence and respect among the priestesses, being seen as a very promising apprentice.

The only thing that she needed now in her mother’s eyes, was a suitable male, so she started taking a hard look among the warriors, taking a liking to a warrior called Dithym. But for what it seemed, he was already set to marry Imrae from the T’horg house, a lower noblety drow. That displeased Saradreza deeply, so she plotted with her sons to kill the whole T’horg house, without Sariel knowing, and they did successfully leaving no trace behind.

A few months after the massacre of the T’horgs house, Saradreza proposed the marriage to Dithym’s parents, that eagerly accepted the high priestesses request. They made a palace so that their son could live with his soon to be wife alone. Sariel would often visit her fiancé bringing him small gifts and weapons, and he would always be very welcoming to her.

One day after her shift in Lolth temple had ended, she met a dwarf named Asdrag lost in the city. Taking pity on him, she gave him information on how to live the city unnoticed. What she didn’t know was that her mother had seen the whole scene, and later that night, she banished her from her from the Daevaeir house, stripping her from her name and status.

Without knowing what to do and only having the clothing that covered her body and a small ritual dagger, she went to her fiancés house to ask for shelter. He gladly took her in, telling her to not get any of the slaves to see her and live in her room from now on. She asked if he wouldn’t mind and if she would be heard, to witch he replied that “no sound can be heard from outside the palace”. Sariel brushed it off, maybe he liked the privacy.

She lived like that for a few months, being allowed to roam the halls at night, once nobody was up. One of those nights, she was ambushed by Dithym, who told her that he would end her life as revenge for the one that her mother took. Puzzling the pieces together she was shocked, she didn’t know what was she supposed to do, but she knew she wasn’t the one that was going to die that night.

Dithym was much stronger than her, but she was much quicker. She ended up stabbing his knee cap making him fall and drop his sword, which she took and ended his life. Realizing what she had done, she needed to get rid of the body, she rushed to the library recalling a small ritual book she had seen a few nights before. She took it, making a improvised necromancer ritual, so that she could maybe get rid of it by giving it to an entity.

That ended up not working, making Dithym’s body get carbonized to ashes, and her arm almost being badly injured, with an warning of the creature to never contact it again if she isn’t powerful to handle it beforehand. Desperate, she shoved the ashes in a small vase she found in the room, taking the sword alongside her as well as her dagger, fleeing by the catacombs.

She wondered for a few hours, and once she was out of the city, she wondered for days, spreading the ashes around so that they could never be reunited and breaking the vase in the process. When she was very weak, she was attacked by a drider that cut her back very badly, making her pass out.

In The Lands Of The Sun

"What doesn't kill you make you stronger I guess"

Once she woke up, she was patched up and apparently moving in a very steady speed. Confused, she looked around, being greeted with a familiar face of Asdrag, the very same dwarf she helped all that time ago. She was in the surface, finally free, her eyes squinted because of the harsh light hitting her eyes. Alongside Asdrag, were a few of his travel mates, all dwarfs, that seemed rather surprised that his friends story was in fact very much real.

They helped her heal up, but it seemed that the pain in her arm would not leave her alone, making her sweat profusely in her sleep and frequently have convulsions, and seeing no other way to help her out, they decided to take her to the high elves to get better treatment, seeing she could now barely keep a conversation without screeching in pain.

They refused to let her in at first, but after seeing her conditions took her in. The dwarfs left, once she was in, telling her if she ever needed anything they’d be there to help her out. It took around a year to get Sariel’s arm fully fixed and pain free. The high elves figured out quickly it was a reaction to a poorly executed necromantic ritual, and their priests ended up fixing the best they could, but it would still burn harshly if she was exposed to necromancy infected items/people.

They took advantage of it, making her test countless items, and help them solve a few problems. She wasn’t very welcomed in the place, only tolerated, so once she was well she left thanking them deeply, and offering her help if they ever needed.

She wondered for many days, learning very quickly a few survival skills, and how to move more safely around the wilderness, merely watching people from far away. She had a few encounters with goblins, taking a liking to drinking their blood on a daily basis to keep her mentally stable. In a regular night, she overheard a small group of smugglers talking about their latest catch of magical creatures.

That infuriated Sariel, that ended up killing the whole group and burning down their bodies and belongings in the process, releasing the creatures free. One of them was a small baby copper dragon with an injured wing, which she treated and later on released him to the wild. She spent a lot of time after that wandering the wilderness, eventually running into lost merchants that she would usually help without asking for payment.

At that time she ran upon a small group of nomad wizards, whom she took a liking to. She would usually watch them from afar, only approaching once it was late at night to have a closer look. She was like this for a few months, until she was caught by one of the wizards that demanded an explanation. She simply told them that she liked watching them practice magic and wanted to learn, but they didn’t believe her, but one of the wizards, a human called Rozin, took the benefit of the doubt and took her as his apprentice.

Sariel wasn’t very good at magic at first, the only things she knew was how to use light globes and prestidigitation, to which wasn’t very satisfactory to the drow. Of course it didn’t slow her down a bit, making her stay many days inside her improvised tent studying the books she borrowed from Rozin. One day he had the idea if maybe she would be able to make magic by using an lute, after all, he had seen a few bards do the same so it might as well work with her.

He was really happy when his new teachings started to flourish with her, approaching them even more. With time, they started having a relationship that was cherished by the group, but it didn’t last long, because the young wizard had a sickness that no one could cure. Before passing, he gave her a letter and a map telling her to find Novi, so that she could learn a bit more from astronomy that he had started teaching her, he also trusted her his cape and she left off into the wilderness after his body was burnt in the funeral.

She followed the map without hesitating, going around the continent until she finally reached a small port city and took a job as a bard in a merchant ship, so that she could finally reach her final destination. Sariel tried her best to appeal happy to others, which it worked flawlessly, and the ship crew loved her. She traveled alongside them for a few months before reaching the city of Draconia and saying her goodbyes to the crew.

With the little money that she had she stayed at a local inn and started looking around the town for this Novi and for her surprise, nobody knew who she was. One night frustrated, she sat at a sidewalk and started muttering at herself, and a blond woman appeared to her, claiming she was the one she was looking for. At first, she didn’t believe her, but after a small talk, she agreed that maybe the woman was telling the truth.

They agreed that they would meet outside the town at the next night. Sariel did so, and once they met, they started going into the wilderness. Once they were far away from the town, the woman transformed into a magnificent ancient golden dragon, taking the drow by surprise, but assured her she wouldn’t do her any harm.

The Adventure Begins

"Now the dog days are over!"

Sariel spent 20 years with the dragoness, studying astronomy to guide herself on trips and to predict the future. She also studied a lot of spells, riddles, songs and draconic, speaking the language with ease and barely no accent. Once she left, she said goodbye to the dragoness, considering her as a mother. Novi gave her a small broken dagger with the “-dius” written on it, telling her it might be helpful on the long run.

The drow left the island that they lived back into the continent, getting money to destroy nests of goblins and from singing at taverns or town plazas. At that time she named herself Sariel (after her worship to Boccob) Liadon (after the family of high elves that healed her).