Edana Sheridon, 3rd ed. D&D

Edana Sheridon, 3rd ed. D&D May 27, 2004 20:46:02 GMT 1

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Post by Taika of Narfell on May 27, 2004 20:46:02 GMT 1

“It’s not that difficult, dammit! Grrrr, had I known that my daughter were this daft…” Edana’s father let the threat hang. Now he’d spent 2 hours trying to teach his daughter the language and alphabet of the dwarves, and she didn’t seem to pick up on any of it. He got up from his seat and stalked out of the room leaving Edana sitting at the table, quietly drawing random runes in the tray with sand they’d been using. She hadn’t been alone for long before her mother, Etain, entered the room, walked to Edana, and looked over her shoulder to see the tray – it was wiped clean. Edana turned to look at her mother.
“Can I go out and play now?”
“Yes, dear, you go ahead” Etain said, “but be back for supper!”
“I will!” Edana shouted, already half ways out the door.

Edana quietly ran along the streets to the place where she knew her friends would be. Down by the docks, beneath one of the old piers, was a sheltered and well-hidden place where they could meet without anyone ever being able to find them – at least that’s what they liked to believe. Edana was 7 years old and one of the youngest among these children, but already she had learned a lot. She had stumbled across the place a day when her father had thrown her out – literally, and she had sought refuge in the comforting darkness of the den. When other kids suddenly walked in on her she was greatly upset, but soon she was a part of their little group led by a boy named Akil. This was the place where she could always come to get something to eat, someone to talk to, or to get help. This of course also required all of them to supply those things when others needed it. How they got their hands on foodstuffs never mattered.

When she reached the den no one was there, so she sat down in silence thinking of what her father had been telling her about all those weird symbols; it still didn’t make much sense to her, but she really tried to learn, she did.
“Edana!” The sound of someone calling her name brought her back to the real world. She was a quiet child and never one to draw attention to her. She nearly cringed at the thought of someone yelling her name all over the docks.
She crawled out of the den. The sight that met her was nowhere near what she’d expected. Akil was standing there with a bland expression on his face, flanked by two city guards, and as she emerged from the low crawlspace a net was dropped on top of her. Writhing as she best could, she avoided the closest guard’s attempts to get a hold of her. In fact she managed to wriggle out of the net and hastily retreated up into the city. She was too small and too quick for the guards to follow.

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Edana was always a very inquisitive child; at times even nosy, so when she one day at the age of 10 caught a glimpse of a strange contraption in the hands of a gnome, she felt compelled to follow him and see where his path might lead her. She never did learn about that particular thing, instead she met a group of gnomes, who tried vehemently to interest her in the basics of engineering, suffice to say they failed miserably. It was her, at the time, vague recollection of the dwarven runes that really brought them together. When she showed clear signs of being able to read the odd parchment, one of the younger gnomes decided to teach her their own language. Her gnomish friend, Iangold, was no more than 27 years old and quite the little rascal, so besides learning the language she also became quite proficient in the art of playing pranks on people – especially the kind of pranks where the victim was a guard for either of the guilds or even a city guard, they were obviously the most fun, because they would seldom go out of their way to catch the culprits behind the pranks – for the simple reason that they couldn’t leave their watch.

Edana and Iangold soon teamed up with a couple of halflings, and at the age of 14 Edana was a rather skilled thief. There were limits to her freedom; naturally, she still had to help her parents with their business, and as she was the only child her father intended for her to take over the shop – or preferably marry someone who could take over. In either case she would need to be able to tell the difference between valuable and worthless, a skill that came in very handy when she and her friends went out to relieve people of some of their goods.

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Things didn’t go that well for long, though. Rumours travel, whether people like it or not. Her father got word of her exploits and a night when she came home from a successful adventure he was waiting for her. He was a burly man so her protests did little to deter him. He wanted her to bring him all the things she stole, and if she didn’t? Well, he could always turn her in. He did after all have the evidence needed. She had let him take advantage of her skills like that for years, she’d severed all ties to the gnomes and halflings, and in the end, after 4 years, he still ratted on her.

That’s how she’d ended up in that prison cell, waiting for someone to decide what was to become of her – she was not an important person, so maybe even time wouldn’t tell. That’s why she attempted to escape. She did manage to get out of her cell. She never did get much further, though. Always a guard would be there to escort her back to the cell – a fact that annoyed her greatly. Her attempts didn’t go entirely unnoticed, however, and one morning she awoke to the sight of a man towering over her cot.
“You have been making quite a nuisance of yourself these days, little one,” he said.
Edana smiled cheekily at him, not saying a word.
“Get up”
She figured she’d see how far she could push this fellow, so she remained still. She found out soon enough. When he pulled her up by the hair she silently cursed herself for being so arrogant. A whimper escaped her lips. The man looked her in the eyes and said: “Where you trying to say something, little one?”
“No, no, I… I…” she never got any further before he backhanded her, so she crashed into the wall and fell to the floor.
“Get up” he said again, and this time she made no mistake in disobeying his order, even though she could feel something sticky slowly making its way down her face. ‘I must be bleeding’, she thought, but dared not lift a hand to check.
“Follow me” was the next order, and so she did.
Walking along the desolate prison corridor she suddenly spotted a window, where one of the bars was missing. It wasn’t in a cell, so no one had bothered to replace it. She judged that she was slim enough to squeeze through, so that left her with two problems. How would she get there? And how far was the fall outside? She had no idea what floor she was on, but decided that this might be her only chance.

Suddenly feigning nausea she let herself fall to the floor. The man in front turned to look at her, while the other looked like some one who had just been told that he wouldn’t get this month’s pay. She knew she’d have to move fast. The two men would have to turn around to follow her, and hopefully that would buy her enough time.
In one swift move she was up and darting for the window, jumped, and managed to wiggle through – and just in time too. The moment she felt herself fall she also felt a slight touch on her right ankle. They’d been on the first floor, but still she got through the fall with no major damage. Luck was with her this day it seemed. It didn’t take her long to slip unnoticed from the prison grounds all the while she could hear curses coming from the window she’d just exited from.

She went to her home. It was no problem getting in unnoticed, as both of her parents were fast asleep. She quickly went about finding what she needed for patching her wound up, with no great success. She cleaned it and bound a few straps of cloth around her head – that was the best she could do at the moment. She needed to make a run for it. Staying in town was definitely not an option anymore.
Searching through the house she found her favourite weapons – her punch daggers. She’d grown to like them quite a lot over the years. She also found her thieves’ tools, grappling hook, and rope. When she felt she had what she needed for her journey, she took all the gold she could find in such a hurry, knowing this was one of the first places they’d be looking for her. Finally she left the house not intending to ever return.

In the morning she looked over the city and swore: “Never again will I let anyone use me like my father did. Never will I let anyone betray me like both he and Akil did” with that she turned and ran to the caravan leaving for Memnon. Luckily they didn’t mind an extra hand to come along, especially as she could pay them fairly well.

In Memnon she bought passage to Athkatla with a ship. Finally so far away from home that she could relax somewhat, she ventured further north, only now she was no longer running, but rather just looking to see the world. Her new life had begun!

Post by Taika of Narfell on May 27, 2004 20:45:21 GMT 1

Post by Taika of Narfell on May 27, 2004 20:46:02 GMT 1