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|  Ectilias Nightfire
Name: Ectilias Nightfire
Age: 135
Class: Ranger/Fighter/Barbarian
Race: Drow
Alignment: NG
Diety of the past: Baraeon Ca'Duz
Current Deity : Ilsare
After spending several years in the Underdark as a Cave Ranger, Ectilias couldn't help but wonder if the legends and tales of the old drow deities, and hence the reasons for his kind living underground, were really true. Of course his common sense and judgment made him keep these doubts to himself, for had he uttered any word of such doubts in the Underdark he would have been whipped to death, or fed to the giant spiders.
After pondering for some years, still getting closer to the day where he was to take the test, he and a small group of Cave Rangers were sent to cleanse some far away tunnels of an unknown infestation that had disrupted the traderoute between another drow city and his homecity Uth'nagarth. As the party arrived in the area it did not take them long to find huge tracks of unknown origin, they were huge deep tracks with claws - they followed them carefully and were led to a group of huge beasts, they had not faced that kind before - but as Ectilias tried matching their descriptions with old tellings the only word that came to mind were "Umberhulks". The battle was long and hard and in the end the only ones still standing were Ectillias and his old friend - Naerath, both of them were near death. With much discomfort, they managed to help eachother bandage their wounds with some cloth soaked in the balm of a healing type of mushroom, and lay down on the cavefloor - they eyes blackened and they passed out. Ectilias wasn't certain how long he had been lying there, but he woke up hearing his old friend groaning in discomfort, as he looked over at him he saw a scar they had bandaged earlier in the chest region, that had becomne infected - his friend opened his eyes and spoke, Ectilias - he said - I know I won't survive this - as Ectilias were about to interupt him he Naerath silenced him with a gesture and laughed silently as he lay down on his back trying to relax - then he spoke again - Ectilias - have you never wondered if the legends were really true? he asked - I mean here we are, and our Patron deity tells us to do one thing because of our belief - but what if.*coughs*...what if it is all a lie *coughs badly*...have you never...*Naerath seems to have passed out again and lies quietly on the floor* during the rest of that day in his waking moments they speak of the possibility of the legends being wrong, misinterpreted and the like, and right before Naeraths death Ectilias is convinced that he had to know - now more than ever - he had to make it to the world above, explore it, and if the stories of the surface elves were really true, he would have to study their version aswell.
After regaining his strength - Ectilias buried his fallen friends and colleagues, then he started heading to the farthest ends of the tunnels he could think of, places no drow had ventured and come back to tell the tale of for centuries, and after wandering the Underdark for about 5 years he eventually saw an unfamiliar light that hurt his eyes and ventured forth. From what he could see this place was quite different from what he was used to, and there was this circle of light in the ceiling that hurt his eyes when he looked at it, and what a ceiling - blue, grey and yellow from what he could discern - and there seemed to be no limit to it - could this be the ceiling known as "The sky" in the old texts? He quickly learned to travel at night where his eyes could better endure the light and after a few nights he saw a small campfire, he hid among the trees and studied those around it - a woman, and a man - not unlike himself with big ears - but whiteskinned, he studied them for hours - they seemed peaceful enough - not like in the descriptions of old. Eventually he decided to venture forth and greet them - preferably let them know he came in peace and wished to learn their views on what had occured so long ago, as a precaution he set a trap among the bushes powerful enough to disable the passing of anyone who did not know where it lay - this turned out to be a good decision, for he only managed to make the greeting *in drow* before the man and woman by the fire jumped up and reached out for their weapons 2 scimatars, a dagger and a longbow with some 20 arrows with markings on them (elvenarrows), Ectilias ran in the direction of his trap and were followed by the two, as he approached he jumped the trap area and luckily for him, they both went in and were knocked out - he tied them to a tree with some rope and gagged them, took their weapons - and started to look through their belongings - the males backpack was not unlike his own in content, a bandaging kit smelling of some unknown herb balm. A bit of food, Ectilias took a bite - not like what he was used to at all - but it wasn't bad. The womans however contained a lot of books in a language unfamiliar to him, and he started to think that maybe communicating with these 2 was not going to be as easy as he had first anticipated.
Eventually the male woke up, he looked a bit overwhelmed - and very frightened - Ectilias tried to calm him down - speaking to him as calmly as he could making friendly gestures, eventually seemingly the man understood and Ectilias removed the gag. The man looked up at him a little less frightened than he had been but still seeming to be in much disbelief - Ectilias took a stick on the ground and started to draw, he tried to draw a battle long past between the drow and the elves as it had been told among his kind for generations - and then looked over at the man questioningly - the man looked at the drawing *which he found offensive - any elf would since the surface elves had clearly been depictured as cowards*, then looked at Ectilias with a fierce hateful look in his eyes and spat him in the face - this was more than Ectilias or any other drow for that matter would stand for and without thought he drew a dagger from his boot and pierced the mans heart. Afterwards Ectilias sighed, muttering angrily something about his own stupidity - he was finally making advancement and now it had all been for nothing - well atleast there were still the woman. *He looked at her* In spite of her pale looks she was quite attractive, her outlines were near perfect, her fingers dekorated in jewelrings and a necklace of diamonds around her throat - clearly someone of stature - maybe not unlike the matronmother back home - could she be some sort of housemother and then man he had just killed her guard? Thankfully she was out at the moment - he was not in the mood to speak right now - instead he buried the man, muttering a few words above his grave of letting nature take its' passing. Then he he placed the scimatars upright in the dirt above the grave and placed the bow along with the quiver of arrows upon them and went over to look through the bags once again.
As he searched the womans bag, in the bottom he found a book he hadn't noticed earlier, written in an obscure old dialect of his own language it would seem - he sat for hours studying it and eventually managed to decipher enough of the words to make some sentence contexts - of interesting notes: "Diary of Awievien Deepwood", "....march 25th I am to be wed with Atylen Morash, ..... much against my will, ..... has already been decided....", "June 6th Illien, Atylens right hand has arrived - he is to escort me...to Atylen,.....there was some way I could get out of this" and the very last entry "June 11th, it is a warm evening, Illien and I are sitting around the camp...can't say I like the man, he is rude and unpleasant much like his master....well if only I *writing stops* And that was where I came in Ectilias thought to himself - an interesting diary indeed, perhaps I will have more luck in speaking to her than her guard there *looks over at her with a strange feeling within, promising himself that if at all possible he will avoid hurting her, not even in anger*, he looks through the rest of her bag again, finding other items, but nothing of interest - puts the things back in the bags where they belong and closes them, then puts some more wood on the fire, leans against a tree and dozes slightly off.
He isn't sure how long he has been out, but he is awokened by the sound of a slight whimper, imidiately he looks he sees a medium size beast with sharp teeth (a wolf) nearing Awievien, who is obviously helplessly aware of the situation, seems it has sunk its' teeth into her leg once already - which was probably what woke her up, quickly Ectalias jumps to his feat and runs inbetween the wolf and the female - grapping the two scimatars from the grave as he passes it - and quickly dispatches the beast. Then he places the scimatars up against a tree and pulls out some bandages from his backpack, and takes good care of the leg, speking softly and calmingly to the female. After finishing bandaging her leg, he removes her gag and to his surprise she asks him for water in his own language he finds a canteen from her bag and gently pours some water into her mouth, she asks about Illien and he tells her what happened apoligizing for what he had to do, she doesn't seem too sad about Illiens demise. The two of them spends most of the day talking and Ectalias learns much however in the end he insists on her getting some rest.
(sorry for going a bit fast - but as much as I would like to continue the slow detailed flow of this tale I do know that you people have lives - and hence I'll go a bit faster from now on - if that isn't alright - let me know and I'll rewrite with more details)
The next days are spent talking and recovering and Ectilias eventually cuts her free from the ropes, Awieviel has decided to run away and has agreed to be Ectallias guide throughout the lands and tell him the elven version of what happened that day long ago, along with teaching him different languages such as elven and common, if he agrees to walk around hooded at all times and protect her. Also she asks him to wield the weapons Illien carried - since they are a little better than what you'd normally find (masterworked scimms and longbow), and since she would prefer the grave not to be marked, after having some second thoughts about taking the dead guards weapons Ectalias agrees, and they travel together for quite some time, during which a romance starts between them, and Awieviel spends one of her jewelrings - the one given to her by Atylen - to pay for fightertraining of Ectalias, so he will be able to better protect them both. (All in all they travelling together for about 30 years). Unfortunately, the sale of that perticular ring (the one from Atylen) proves to be a huge mistake and a pregnant Awieviel is abducted. Ectalias tried to track her down of course, and was somewhat succesful, but there is only so much a man can do on his own, and though getting as far down the road as finding her location, and killing many of Atylens guards, Ectalias was badly wounded and had to retreat.
In all the years he and Awiviel travelled together, Ectallias true heritage has been discovered only a few times, mainly with a battle to follow - and the death of his attackers - but there is one other place than beside Awieviel, where he was accepted among the surface dwellers a barbarian tribe who did not see him as a drow, but a capable warrior, he has been living among them for the past 5 years getting ready for the day when his wounds are fully healed and he is able to go back for her. Now that his wounds are finally healed - he starts the search of new information on her location in a little outlying town named Hlint. |
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