Salina Pandora

[Dobian]

Birth Name Sa'lina Nu'ari Caffyn
Birthplace Lushpool, Lapaliiya
Raised in Lapaliiya and Halruaa

Age 119
Height 4-11
Weight 95 lbs
Hair red
Eyes green

Markings: See below

Salina is an elven female. She has two tattoos on her upper arms, seldom visible. On her right arm is a band of cresting waves. On her left arm, a single black butterfly now resides. Salina paints her lips purple, but does not dress in any way that indicates any past or current association with the Dark Goddess.

Quick-witted, sharp-tongued, with a wry smile that let's one think she might know something they don't, Salina freely alternates from being delightful and fun to tempestuous and cruel. Outspoken and opinionated, she can be difficult to work with. Salina is a loyal ally, but never blindly follows, and will change course in an instant if she sees the need to do so. Her fierce independence is attributable to her unconventional upbringing, and the horrid abuses she suffered while in her youth. Recent activities and events have sparked a battle for her soul, and no one on either side really knows who the real Salina truly is.

Salina's ongoing story can be found here:

//Shar Cultist Shrine - Thayan Enclave frc.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=thayfrc&action=display&thread=15683
//A Showdown Looms frc.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=adventurer&action=display&thread=14484
//Somewhere on the border to Sembia
frc.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=adventurer&action=display&thread=13478
//Waiting in a jail cell frc.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=suzailrp&action=display&thread=16292&page=1
//Salina Moves On frc.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=adventurer&action=display&thread=17028
//The Two Faces of Salina frc.proboards.com/thread/20398/faces-salina
//Beauty and the Undead frc.proboards.com/thread/21719/beauty-undead

[Dobian]

Part 1

Salina was born Sa'lina Nu'ari Caffyn to elven parents in Lushpool, Lapaliiya on 15 Kythorn, 1260. Little is known about her early youth. When she was just eight years old, Salina travelled with her parents south to Halruaa. Somewhere on the road outside of Halarahh, the family was attacked by bandits, and Salina’s mother and father were killed. Salina had no known relatives in Lapaliiya, and was adopted by a sympathetic human couple, Alistair and Eloise Pandora. The Pandoras were a powerful and influential wizard family in Halruaa, a land famous for its practitioners of the magical arts. Previously childless, Alistair and Eloise raised Salina like their own daughter, and raised her to be a wizard. Both fluent in elven as well as human, they spoke to Salina in both tongues so that she was proficient in each language. Salina quickly adopted human customs and affectations (including smoking some years later), to where if you couldn’t see her elven features, you would think you were speaking with a human. Salina was bright if not a genius, but she was a poor student. She lacked the discipline needed for the sheer volume of reading, memorization, and comprehension involved in wizardry studies. But what Salina lacked in academic skills she made up for in her intuitive understanding of magic and the Weave. Salina was, in short, a natural-born sorceress, and took great delight in being able to pull off spells that her more studious and academically-successful classmates could not (and she was not shy about letting them know it). Unfortunately for Salina, sorcery was looked down upon in Halruaa as the magic of commoners and miscreants. She was regularly chastised by both her teachers and her parents for getting by with “trickery” and “shortcuts” instead of learning things the “proper way”.

Salina became rebellious as she got older. Always a charmer and very mischievous, she was always getting into trouble of one sort or another. Compounding this was the fact that, as an elf, Salina had the mental maturity of her mostly-human contemporaries, but physically she was still a child. This caused her to become more and more isolated from others her own age as they reached physical maturity and all the social changes that come with it. With no real friends and no siblings, Salina became increasingly isolated and more-or-less left to her own devices in her teen years. One such activity was sneaking up to the top of her stepparents' wizard tower to read through their books and notes. One night, when her parents were asleep, she found a book on portals and summoning and studied it. Salina was always fascinated by the dark arts. While her stepfather never actually practiced these things – which were seriously frowned upon and in most cases outlawed in Halruaa – like many wizards he had a healthy interest in these subjects, and a basic knowledge of them was important. But Salina saw no issue with actually trying some of these things out, and after several attempts successfully summoned her first devil, a low-level assistant of Levistus - archdevil of Stygia. While she easily could have been devoured on the spot, Salina’s natural charm and flirtatious personality, combined with her understanding of the rules devils are bound by, enabled the clever girl to engage with this one and others in the long hours of the night. As the weeks went by, these hellish beings had in a strange way become the friends Salina had never had. To her, they were far more interesting and engaging than anyone she had ever met in Halruaa.

One such fiend Salina summoned was named Scorpius, who became Salina’s regular chess companion. Scorpius had an enchanted board whose pieces were the miniaturized souls of humans and others from the material plane. To capture a square, your piece did not win it by default, but had to kill the occupying piece. This delighted Salina as it changed the strategy and made the game much more exciting. As these were damned souls anyway, she saw no problem with using them for her personal entertainment. Scorpius was aware of this, and was also aware of Salina’s interest in dark magic. He knew he could use this to his advantage, so one night he made Salina a bet. If she defeated him in their next match, he would teach Salina some powerful secrets of necromancy. If Scorpius won, Salina would become his servant in the outer plane for a hundred years. Salina was a bit fearful of the stakes, but the reward was too great for her to pass up. The match was very close, but Salina had the advantage and only needed to capture a pawn with her queen to secure a checkmate. When she moved her queen, however, to her stunned surprise the pawn produced a scroll and cast a death spell that killed her queen instantly. Fully aware that any chance of winning the match was ruined, Salina exploded. “You cheated,” she screamed, “There is no way a pawn could ever defeat a queen! This match is over!” “Then you forfeit and return with me to be my servant for the next hundred years”, Scorpius replied calmly, “that was our agreement.” Realizing she could not win this argument, and with no intention of being this devil’s slave, Salina cast a paralyze spell on Scorpius and bolted for the door. The spell held Scorpius for the fifteen or twenty seconds Salina needed to make it down the tower to the main floor. As she reached the last step, she heard the enraged devil burst through the doorway at the top of the tower. Salina ducked into a storage room where many magical supplies were kept, including some crates of alchemist’s fire and acid flasks. Acting quickly, and with Scorpius descending the stairs above her, Salina backed herself just outside the tower entrance and used her wand to cast a flame strike at the crates inside the storage room. As she dove to the ground, a terrific explosion tore through the doorway, and seconds later, the entire tower erupted in a mushroom cloud of smoke and flames. Salina’s parents came running out of their home to stare in disbelief at the apocalypse of their tower, followed by just about everyone in their neighborhood.

The traces of dark magic in the ruins of the tower left Salina no choice but to confess to her parents and to the authorities what she had done. While still a child by elf standards, Salina was nineteen and therefore an adult by the human standards of the Halruaan legal system. She was given two choices – imprisonment for thirty years, or expulsion from Halruaa. While an elf, Salina had still only been in the world for nineteen years and thirty years was an unbearably long time, so she took the latter. Leaving Halruaa didn’t bother her so much as the fact that her parents wouldn’t forgive her for the shame and embarrassment she had brought to their family. “You are not my daughter…I guess you never were,” were the last words from her stepfather.

Salina left Halruaa and travelled north by caravan to her homeland of Lapaliiya, in search of any living relatives who would take her, but she would find no one. And no elven families (and they were few and far between in this mostly-human country) wanted to bring this strange orphan into their homes for more than a brief stay. Salina was alone and on her own, and her aimless travels would take her down a dark and dangerous path.

To be continued.

[Dobian]

Part 2

Salina journeyed north from Lapaliiya through the Border Kingdom and across the isthmus into Calimshan, where she took odd jobs in Calimport to make money, usually as a nanny or some other domestic service. Bored and depressed with her life, the usually vivacious Salina began to explore some of the seedier sections of this exotic port city. She came under the notice of a hin named Snervius Saltweed, who offered her a job as a servant girl for upscale clients that would pay many times more than what she was receiving as a domestic helper. Still naïve in the ways of the world, Salina took Snervius up on his offer and was promptly put into service for a number of clientele that included local businessmen and politicians. Some were simply looking for a pretty elf girl to maintain their homes and give them something to look at. Their wives didn’t mind as it freed them up to go about town. But there were others – many others – who were looking for other services from elven girls, and were willing to pay highly for it. This was because there were so few orphan elves, and because elves are strictly monogamous by nature. So such a girl was a rare commodity. Neither of these conditions applied to Salina, as she was raised in a human culture and was now parentless. The fact that she had not reached physical maturity only heightened her appeal to Snervius’ more corrupt clients. Fearful, repulsed, but needing the money and seeing no way out of the arrangement, Salina submitted to her duties and went on a downward spiral over the next four years of her servitude. While her clients paid much, most went into Snervius’ pocket, and Salina was kept compliant with her introduction to alcoholic beverages and mind-altering drugs.

One day, Salina went on an appointment with a prominent civic leader at a discreet location. While polite and refined in public, the man was in fact a sadistic animal and beat Salina so badly that she was bed-ridden for several days afterward. During that time, she occasionally prayed to the Seldarine, but none of those gods ever responded to her. “I guess I am no elf in their eyes,” she thought. Then one night, a dark and mysterious woman appeared to Salina in her dreams. The woman was beautiful, with pale purple skin and black hair and eyes, and she wore a gown that seemed to be made of black smoke that moved and shifted when she walked. She told Salina her name was Shar, and that if Salina vowed her allegiance, she would always protect her and destroy any who harmed her. Black tendrils extended from her gown and enveloped Salina in a cool embrace that numbed the pain from her beating. Then the tendrils withdrew and Shar told her, “Remember what I said, Salina, give yourself to me and I will always be there for you.” Then Shar herself dissipated in front of Salina as if made from smoke. When Salina awoke, her pain was gone, her wounds healed, and her bruised skin had returned to its normal color. The next day, Snervius told Salina that she wouldn’t have to worry about working for that client again, as he had been found in his mansion with his arms torn off and his eyes removed.

Some weeks later, Shar appeared to Salina again. “Do you mock me, after what I did for you?” she asked coldly. “I don’t understand,” Salina replied, “I have done nothing to disrespect you.” “Continuing in this lifestyle disrespects me,” Shar said, “I expected better from you. You are a sorceress, and have power inside you that you are not even aware of. Power that I can use. You waste that power, instead choosing to be a common whore. You have a decision to make, Salina: follow me, or follow the whore’s path to your own pathetic end. I have been more than patient with you, but my patience is at an end,” she said. At that, Shar’s face turned briefly into something darker, and ugly, and menacing, but in an instant had resolved itself into the beautiful countenance of before. As in the previous dream, Shar dissipated and Salina awoke, this time shivering and afraid…but also determined.

The next day, Salina told Snervius that she was leaving him. Snervius laughed and told Salina that she would never leave - he would have her hunted down and killed. “I own you, Salina, remember that,” he said. Salina said nothing, and went back to her room. Later that night, Salina laid awake while Snervius got drunk on bloodwine in the kitchen. As she listened to Snervius stumble into his bed down the hall and collapse into a snoring sleep, she quietly got up and padded to his room. Small and light, she easily slipped on top of Snervius without waking him, straddling his chest. Pulling a poison-tipped dagger from beneath her nightgown, Salina plunged it into Snervius’ chest. The hin’s eyes opened wide with shock as Salina twisted the blade. “No one owns me anymore, Snervius,” she sneered, her jade green eyes hard and cold. “Time for you to get acquainted with my dark mother.” Salina pulled the blade out and a gush of blood shot up from Snervius’ chest as he went into his death throes. Salina produced a small vial and collected some, then left as quietly as she came. Later, in her room, Salina made a makeshift altar on the floor. After cleaning the dagger, Salina made a small cut on her hand and dripped some of her blood onto the floorboards. She then poured some of Snervius’ blood onto the same spot, and drew a circle with her finger. “Here is a symbol of my allegiance, Shar”, she said, then bowed her head as she kneeled. The blood circle suddenly burst into flames, and black smoke rose upward, forming momentarily into Shar’s face before breaking up.

Salina left early the following morning before the others in the house awoke. A few days later, a young girl in a black hood and cloak crossed the border into Tethyr.

[Dobian]

Part 3

Salina spent the next several years wandering about Tethyr and Amn, settling in Athkatla for a time and working as an apprentice to a sorcerer named Mobius. In her fortieth year, Salina journeyed east to Turmish and made her way to the capital of Alaghon. For the first time in her life, Salina saw more than the usual one or two elves – there was actually a community of them here. And to her greater surprise, she chanced upon a general store called Caffyn’s Goods – Caffyn being her birth family’s surname.

Salina entered the store and saw an elven male behind the counter, lightly graying but still youthful in appearance. “I know most of the elves in this area, but I’ve never seen you before,” he said. "Can I help you?” “Is this your shop, is your name Caffyn?” Salina replied. Cautiously, the elf responded to the affirmative. “Aye, my name is Kanemar Caffyn, and this is my shop,” he said. “You wouldn’t happen to have ever heard of a couple named Elwyn and Salina Caffyn, would you?” she asked. Kanemar’s eyes widened at the names. “I had a brother named Elwyn and Salina was his wife’s name,” he replied. “They left Turmish many years ago, but after a time their correspondences stopped, and our family never heard from them again.” “Where did they go to?” Salina asked. “Lushpool, a city in Lapaliiya, far to the south,” eyes now narrowing. “Who are you, child?” he demanded. “I am Salina Pandora,” she replied. “My birth name was Sa'lina Caffyn.” “I had a feeling the moment you walked through that door,” Kanemar said, studying her. “The green eyes, the red hair...you look just like your mother.”

Salina filled Kanemar in on what happened to her parents, to his distress. She talked at length about her upbringing in Halruaa, but was evasive on the reasons for her leaving, as well as on her years in Calimshan. Kanemar was suspicious of the gaps and inconsistencies in Salina’s story. The idea of an elf going on their own in their twentieth year was absurd. But with no other information to work with than what Salina related to him, Kanemar simply accepted what she told him at face value and filed his suspicions away for future consideration.

Kanemar introduced Salina to her extended family. Their initial excitement soon gave way to wariness of Salina’s decidedly non-elven manner. They would speak about her in hushed tones when she was out of earshot. Salina was also vague and evasive about her philosophical beliefs and her spirituality. One night, Salina dreamed again of Shar, the first time she had such a dream in more than a year. The familiar visage, cloaked in black smoke, told her, “They are not your family anymore Salina, you know that. They will never understand or accept you. It is time to sever your ties and move on. Time for you to accept loss and embrace it.”

Disillusioned, Salina left town one night without saying goodbye or leaving a note. On the way back through Turmish she stopped in Klondeth for a time. On a whim, she stepped into a tattoo shop one night and had a band of black circles with purple borders – the symbol of Shar - inked onto her left arm, balancing the band of waves she already had on her right. Heading west again toward Tethyr, Salina made camp in the woods near the Snow Lake Mountains. On a morning hike, she heard the sound of strange voices. Spying from behind a tree, she saw that it was a settlement of goblins. Fascinated, Salina made herself invisible and then spent the day observing them. For weeks she did this, watching their primitive little society, their daily rituals, and picking up bits and pieces of their guttural language. Then one day, defying reason and common sense, Salina revealed herself to the creatures, who looked at her with malice, but also confusion over why someone who looked to be no more than a child and was apparently alone would voluntarily approach them unarmed. Salina approached them and spoke – to their amazement – in their own tongue. “Here, take this,” she said, handing one of the goblin leaders a glittering necklace with a light enchantment upon it. The goblin put the necklace over his head and was delighted by the circle of light that appeared around him. He broke out into a grin, showing off his green teeth and moldy gums. “This good,” he said, “you be guest of tribe. No one hurt you.”

For the next six months, Salina lived among these goblins, learning their language and culture, and entertaining them with some simple magic spells in return. They were captivated by this strange elf-girl who could speak their language. Then one morning, a small group of human adventurers passed through the area and practically walked into the goblin camp. Alarmed, they immediately opened attack on the still-sleeping goblins, killing half of them before they could react. Jumping out of her tent, Salina saw the source of the commotion and began to hit the human aggressors with a barrage of energy spells, pausing to summon her familiar – a hell hound – to join the attack. The humans stared at her in disbelief. “Whose side are you on, you crazy girl?!” one of them shouted. Salina replied with a magic missile that silenced him for good. With the tide turned, the goblins killed the rest of the human party in short order, but the damage had been done.

That night, Salina was honored by the surviving goblins for saving their tribe. They cooked and ate the humans they had killed, offering Salina a plate full of their vital organs…which she nibbled on out of respect, but was secretly revolted by. The goblin chief also presented Salina with a necklace made from the humans’ teeth, which she accepted graciously. Shar came to Salina again that night as she slept. “So you are now the goblin queen, Salina?” she laughed. “Really, I thought your ambitions were much higher than that.” Chagrined when she awoke, Salina made plans for her departure, and left quietly a few nights later with no goodbye, the same way she had left Alaghon.

[Dobian]

Part 4

Salina wandered the Sword Coast for several years, finally settling for a time in Neverwinter. She got word on the streets of a temple to Shar deep in the Neverwinter Wood, located by the “spitting man”. After several trips into the forest following the clue she was given, she was about to give up and return for the last time when she heard but could not see running water nearby. Working her way around a rock face she saw dampness on the rocks, but no stream. An underground river, she thought. Then she saw it, water shooting out at intervals through a small gap in a rock that looked like a human countenance. “So this is the spitting man,” she said.

Making her way through a narrow opening in the rock face, she found a path that led deep underground. The sound of water got louder, and she saw the stream ahead of her. As she rounded a bend, she entered a large and empty chamber lit by torches. She thought she heard a soft incantation, and then the entire chamber went dark. “Who are you, intruder?” a voice called out. Salina looked around for the direction of the voice before getting her wits about her, and cast ultravision, revealing four figures standing around her in a loose circle. Salina looked from one to the next, letting them know that she was aware of their proximity. “I am Salina Pandora, servant of Shar,” she said a bit self-servingly. “I was looking for a good bath house and found this place.” The apparent leader approached Salina warily. “I am High Priestess Zafina, and you shall address me as such,” she demanded. “This is my temple and my order here, and you are trespassing. Who sent you here?” Salina eyed the tall, raven-haired woman before her in her black robes. “No one ‘sent’ me, I was given a clue to the location from a street urchin for a few coins, and I found this place after several days of looking. I guess your security is a little lax,” she said. The priestess bristled at this. “Your explanation of what you are doing here will decide whether or not you see the light of day again, so I suggest you choose your next words carefully,” she said. Two of the others reached for weapons while the third assumed a pose for a spell incantation. “Why, I wish to join your temple of course. Heard you needed some new recruits. Why else would I be here?” Salina smirked…

For the next few months, Salina toiled as a novice in the order, doing menial tasks and attending services, and never being allowed to participate in conversations with the high priestess or the senior members regarding temple business. As someone who had spoken to Shar herself personally, this hurt Salina’s pride considerably. In her mind she was no peon, but an agent whose services this order needed. So Salina began to casually relate the story of her first encounter with Shar to the other novices, which made its way through the grapevine to her superiors, and finally to High Priestess Zafina, who summoned Salina to her chamber at once. “What is this nonsense I hear about Shar revealing herself to you as a young girl?” She demanded. “I will not have such blasphemies spoken here.” “The truth is not blasphemy,” Salina replied coolly. Zafina walked over to where Salina was sitting and said into her ear, “Continue to speak this rubbish and you can go back to emptying bedpans or whatever it was you did before coming here. Now get back to your duties.”

Over the course of the next several weeks, Salina noticed that her novice duties doubled while other novices were being given their first real assignments. No fewer than three of them were promoted to the next rank. She was also aware of a definite coldness toward her from the other members of the order. Just a bunch of jealous twits, she thought. But her anger and resentment were growing.

One day, she overheard one of the novices talking about an assignment she had been given to find out information on a particular Selunite in Neverwinter. The novice was to simply to observe the Selunite’s schedule and routines over several days. Salina decided to follow the novice on one of those days, and after the Selunite left his home with the novice tailing him, Salina unlocked the side door with a simple spell and sneaked in under invisibility. Investigation of the home yielded little until Salina looked through a desk in the study. In a drawer, she found several correspondences regarding Zafina and the suspected location of the temple, as well as tentative plans to root out this order of Shar. Wait till Zafina hears about this, she thought. Maybe then I will finally get some recognition. Salina was about to put the papers back when she heard a door shut followed by approaching footsteps. “I know I left it in here,” the Selunite said, opening the door to the study. He quickly noticed the open drawer and papers lying on his desk, eyes widening in alarm while Salina sidestepped around him. Almost as if on cue, Salina’s invisibility spell wore off just as the Selunite turned in the direction of her rustling behind him. “Who the devil are you!” he yelled, pulling a wand from his inside his jacket pocket. Salina reacted instantly, casting a flesh-to-stone spell on the Selunite and turning him into a human statue. Salina fled out the front door and ran down the street, oblivious to the novice watching her from behind a horse cart.

Early that evening, the temple was unnaturally quiet. A knock on her door was followed by a slip of paper slid beneath it. “Come to the main chamber now,” it read. Waiting there in a large semi-circle was the entire order, all seventeen, with Zafina at its center. “Stand there in the middle, before me,” the high priestess said, pointing. Salina looked in a wide arc at all the sour faces staring back at her, then back to Zafina. “So,” Zafina went on. “First you tell blasphemies to your fellow initiates. Now you go on an unauthorized reconnaissance and undermine our mission to remove the threat from a certain group of Selunites. After this man was returned to flesh and obviously gave his account, I learned from my informant, he was whisked away to a safe location.” Turning to the novice who reported Salina, she added, “And thank you, Circe, for first bringing this to my attention. You will be rewarded.” To Salina she spoke again, “You are hereby banished from this order. Your actions have put us all in grave danger. You are a menace and I should kill you now, but for whatever her reasons, Shar forbids it. Leave now, and never return, or you will be killed.”

Salina gave High Priestess Zafina a hard, cold look but said nothing, turned, and walked out of the chamber. Collecting what few things she had from her room, she headed back out into the world. I was never cut out for this priestess gig, she thought. I need to find people who think like I do, who go out in the world and accomplish things, not just hide all day in secret lairs. She continued on, one path now closed, trying to figure out which one to follow next.

[Dobian]

Part 5 (The final chapter of her back story)

Tired of wandering, Salina settled in nearby Neverwinter after being kicked out of the temple. There she met a wizard named Hadrian Thrax, an older man who lived alone with his cats and had the habit of constantly misplacing his spectacles. But Hadrian was a very accomplished wizard, and he also was in need of an apprentice, his last having left recently to pursue other interests. Salina had a certain level of disdain for wizards dating back to her childhood in Halruaa, when she was chastised for her raw ability by classmates who had to learn what she could do naturally. It was a prejudice she carried throughout her life, but Hadrian dispelled her qualms from the start with his gracious if befuddled manner. Salina genuinely liked the old man, and he also wasn’t the least bothered by the fact that she was a sorceress.

Hadrian taught Salina the “why” behind certain classes of spells, and helped her to understand how to channel her energy so that she could tap into a wider range of spells. Salina became more prolific and powerful under Hadrian’s tutelage than she had ever been before. She stayed with him in his tower for several years, practicing her art while making a living helping Hadrian with his business of making scrolls and wands for sale. (Salina was never very good at this, so she managed procurement and delivery, as well as record keeping, and left most of the crafting to Hadrian, who was a master)

One day, Hadrian entered her study while Salina was practicing a ghostly visage spell. “In all these years, Salina, you’ve never told me why you sometimes draw magic from the Shadow Weave,” Hadrian asked, almost cheerfully.

Salina stopped short of what she was doing. “I don’t…”

“Oh come, girl, I could sense it the first time you ever cast a spell here,” Hadrian said. “I’m not accusing you of anything…if I had an objection I would have kicked you to the street the day you arrived.”

Salina noticeably relaxed. Of course he knew all this time, she thought. “I only dabble with it,” she replied. “I learned a little about it from my stepfather's notes and journals...he liked to study the dark side of magic. I'm not very good at it, I just find it...interesting.”

“But you’ve been playing with it for a long time, which either makes you a follower of Shar…or someone who is very lucky. The Sharrans don’t take kindly to just anyone using the Shadow Weave,” he said. "Not to mention, I've heard that it can make a person a bity crazy."

Salina just looked at her mentor, and then away.

“Never mind, child, your secret is safe with me. I was just curious. You have been a good and loyal apprentice, and your beliefs are of no concern to me,” Hadrian said, stroking his beard, his blue eyes twinkling in the torchlight.

That night, Salina dreamed, the first time she had dreamed in many years. In fact, the only time Salina ever dreamed was when it was something to do with Shar, and this time was no different. They were more like visions, really, as elves do not normally dream. This time, Salina was standing in the middle of a road in a place she had never been before. After she had walked for what seemed like a mile through gentle, rolling country, she came to an old and weathered sign. “Now Entering the Province of Cormyr,” the sign read. As she continued on, Hadrian’s cats appeared by the roadside. Salina bent to pick one up but it hissed and scratched her, drawing blood. Salina backed away from the tabby and turned back down the road. She soon noticed that it had gotten darker, until she was in some sort of dark fog and couldn’t see the road anymore. At the moment she was enveloped in total blackness, she awoke.

Deeply troubled, Salina left her chamber in the early dawn and walked down the stairs to the main floor of the tower. As she rounded the doorway to the laboratory, she let out a gasp. On the floor lay Hadrian, his spectacles beside an outstretched hand. Four of Hadrian’s cats were stepping over and around his body, some licking him, others meowing. Noticing Salina, they turned their heads and stared at her. One let out a feral growl, and then they all turned their attention back to their dead master.

Salina gathered her things and fled the tower. There was only one place she could think of to go…

[Dobian]

During the downtime, I gathered a few shots from notable events in Salina's story...



Salina's public hearing for the burning of Great Gaunt begins



Salina receives her sentence



Salina's execution



Salina meets Priestess Zoha after being resurrected in the Upperdark



Salina fights to escape the Nightbringers



Salina meets with some grouchy Banites



Being evil doesn't mean you can't look great!

[Dobian]

Salina's portrait files, for those who want to view her custom portrait in-game.

Attachments: