Somewhere on the border to Sembia

[Dobian]

Salina travelled for three days across Cormyr. Tired and dirty, she thought often of the ill-conceived takeover of Great Gaunt. It was supposed to be a simple assassination of an annoying dwarf who had been harassing people in the town and been arrested. Ordinarily Salina wouldn't even waste her time on such a lowlife, but his boasting about his solicitation of prostitutes struck a raw nerve because of her own past. So she killed the dwarf in his jail cell, which alerted the guards and led to the ensuing fight. Her partner in this venture, Jackal, helped Salina to defeat the jailhouse guards and the way to escape was clear.

But as they left town, on a suggestion from Salina, Jackal decided to go back and take Gaunt itself. Salina followed, and the pair was soon joined by a handful of others, including her ally Vlad. Together, they took Gaunt, and then Jackal began setting fire to the buildings, including the Regal Griffon Inn and Garrot's, with Salina tossing fireballs to accelerate things. Things had clearly spun out of control, and indeed their bloody reign over Gaunt was short-lived. A contingent of Purple Dragons arrived and quickly had the upper hand. Jackal was hurt badly, and their forces were scattered, so Salina cloaked herself in invisibility and ran north into Bramblewood.

She continued north, where she met up with Vlad. Together, they were set up on again. Vlad fell to the attackers, but Salina escaped and fled on to Skull Crag. Now a fugitive, she kept to the shadows and lived off her meager supplies. Salina crafted a clever disguise and slipped back into Gaunt two days later to learn what was happening. Jackal was locked up in the prison at Suzail, likely awaiting the hangman's noose. Vlad had somehow escaped his captors, however, and was at large. And a bounty had indeed been placed on her head. Salina travelled to Suzail, where she tried to reach Jackal, but he was too heavily guarded and no visitors were allowed. She left a note at the Ogre for her mysterious benefactor who went by the name of "Cordal", explaining her predicament.

That night, Shar came to Salina in a dream, her dark misty beauty more striking than ever. "I was beginning to doubt you, Salina," she said, "but you have done well. Two of the dead were Selunites." When she awoke the next morning, Salina doubted how well she had done. The whole affair was a complete mess. It was reckless and stupid, and she never should have thrown in her lot with Jackal. While she admired Jackal's spirit, his lack of discipline led to his downfall, and nearly hers as well. She would never make such a mistake again.

Salina had no intention of wandering around Cormyr indefinitely in some silly costume or like a ghost at midnight. There was nothing left for her here. Yes, there were people she would miss: the shrewd and cunning Revan, his stupid but lovable sidekick Bak, the sweet and generous Dorian, the naive but well-meaning Deeling and his wife Maraya. And most of all, Nord. Poor, dear Nord. She left a note for him while under disguise at the Regal Griffon, which had just reopened, but she knew he wouldn't understand. She was a Sharan, and things with him never would have worked out. Hers was the life of a loner, a wanderer, and now it was time to move on.

Salina crossed into Sembia on a moonless night, never looking back. "I hear the weather's nice there this time of year," she said, laughing her familiar laugh.

[Dobian]

Salina woke up, dazed and groggy and with a terrible headache. Around her, the ground was littered with the bodies of several dead orcs. Adding to the confusion of where she was and why she was laying in a makeshift graveyard of orcs, was the fact that she didn’t know who she was. Looking around her, Salina noticed a large rock with a bit of blood on it. As she touched the blood-matted hair on the top of her scalp, wincing at the pain, she realized that the rock must have been the culprit. She also saw dark burn marks on the rock face above her; no doubt that had something to do with the stone that conked her on the head. But what about all these orcs? She was hit buy a sudden but blurry image of her casting a firebrand spell at a group of them while a hellhound was tearing into one. Several of them fell while the dog subdued the last, and then…blackness. That must be it, she thought. I’m some sort of mage, and was attacked, and in my defense I managed to knock myself out cold. At least I did it with none of them still standing, she shrugged. So now what?

Salina wandered back to a nearby road, picked a direction, and started walking. After a day and a night of travel, and not passing a single soul, she came to a sign which read “Now Entering the Kingdom of Cormyr”. Across the road, she saw a similar sign facing the opposite direction but with “Sembia” in place of “Cormyr”. At least they have an open border policy, she mused. Salina trudged on for two more days, her supplies dwindling, when she arrived at the town of Waymoot. While looking down the main street to find the inn, she heard a voice behind her call, “Hey Sal.” She turned to find a large man dressed in black, unkempt and smelling of liquor. “You’re not talking to me, are you?” she said. “Don’t you recognize me? It’s Aris,” he said. “What happened to you? You’ve been gone for weeks.” Salina eyed him suspiciously. I can’t believe I used to consort with this…man, she thought. “You say my name is ‘Sal’?” she asked. “Yes, short for Salina. You do know your own name, don’t you?” he smirked…

Salina gave Aris a brief rundown of her awakening among the fallen orcs. And Aris, in turn, proceeded to tell Salina about the events that led to her departure from Cormyr as a fugitive, as well as his own fate at being captured and executed…only to be raised by a demon a short time later, and given a powerful sword that apparently talked to him. “Tells me to kill, it does,” he said. “And I can’t get rid of it either…not that I’d want to…it’s bound to me for life.” Salina found his tale interesting, but recovering her lost memory was a far more immediate concern. She knew she needed to find a priest who could help her, and she also knew – if she believed what Aris told her – that she was a wanted criminal. She set about creating a couple of disguises for herself that she would wear when in the towns and cities of Cormyr. The first was Tabitha, a young and giggly half-elf from Tethyr, with a round face and straight blond hair. The other was Samantha, also a half-elf, a brash and mouthy legal counsel from Calimshan. She had wavy blond hair, and a harder and more angular face than Tabitha. "Tabitha" would wear robes and cloaks of bright colors, lots of white and regal blue. "Samantha" would be dressed in neutral colors - tan, green, or gold. Samantha also wore a round steel skullcap helm on her head. Since Salina had spent several years in Calimsport, and time to a lesser extent in neighboring Tethyr, she was able to affect accents and speech patterns for these characters quite acceptably. Of course, Salina had no memory of having been in these places before, but seemed to “remember” by intuition how the people of these regions spoke.

Salina entered Great Gaunt a few days later as “Tabitha”. The Griffon was mostly rebuilt and was open again for business, and she saw piles of black, charred wood stacked against an embankment. So I guess this part of Aris’ story is true, she thought. After asking around a bit, Salina chanced upon a young cleric who could help her with her predicament. After explaining her story, the priestess took Salina into the dining room at the Griffon and placed her hands on Salina’a head, incanting a spell as tendrils of ice seemed to work their way from the cleric’s fingers into Salina’s skull. Salina gasped, then slumped to the floor as her head was filled with thousands of competing scenes and images. The onslaught of information caused her to convulse in pain, before slowly subsiding. After several minutes, Salina got up and thanked the worried cleric. “You’ve done me a great service,” she said, handing her some of the few coins she had left.

As the young woman left, Salina sat in a chair at the long table and ruminated over all that had happened. It’s great to be me again…or maybe not so great, she thought. Salina now knew why she had left Cormyr, and in an ironic twist, had come back. And now that she was back, she would have to deal with it. “If I’m ever caught, I’m as good as dead…time to send Cordal a note,” she said to herself. And with that, Salina walked out of the inn and into the main square of the town she had helped burn down just a short time before.

[Dobian]

It had been months since Salina returned to Cormyr. In her quiet moments - which were few, now that half the province was hunting for her - she reflected on her brief time in Selgaunt, the great port city in Sembia. Underneath the vibrancy and opulence of this metropolis was a dark underbelly of corruption and malfeasance, plots and intrigue. All bright cities have their dark alleys, and Selgaunt had a plethora of them. But it was stories Salina had heard of the Shadovar that interested her the most. Ancestors of the ancient race of mages from Netheril, they were purported to be loyal servants of Shar, and had made Sembia their base of operations.

Salina explored the darker corners of the city at night, and one evening walked down a narrow and deserted street past a lit storefront with a sign that read "Anauroch Magical Goods". Stepping inside, she looked at the many bins of roots and herbs and other things she couldn't identify lined on a table against the right wall, obviously ingredients for potion makers. Overhead were hung shrunken heads of what used to be orcs and trolls. Several wands were spread out on some moldy velvet behind a glass case. At the back was a tall bald man with narrow eyes and a goatee on his prominent chin. His eyes never left Salina as she strolled through his shop, and she could feel his gaze even when she was turned away from him. At last she approached the counter, unsure of of what she was going to say.

"Nice store, business must be booming," she said. The man stared at the empty shop behind her, then returned his cold and steady gaze to Salina.

"Is there anything you are looking for?," he said evenly.

"Nothing in particular. But someone in your line of work, I'm sure, knows what goes on in these parts, and might know where to direct a person such as myself," she replied.

"And what reason would I have for helping some strange woman who simply walks into my store asking questions?"

"I'm sorry, I should introduce myself. I am Salina, most recently come from Cormyr. I have an interest in certain aspects of Sembian society...most notably pertaining to the worship of...Shar," she said. "As the proprietor of a magic shop, I figured you might know a few things on the subject."

The man walked around the counter and to the front of the store, locking the front door and closing the shade. Suddenly Salina became very nervous. She had foolishly overplayed her hand. She considered striking him with a spell, but something told Salina that this was no simple shop owner, and that such an act would be her last. The man walked back to where she was standing, tall and thin, looming over her, his dark eyes staring right through her.

"Why do you ask these things?," he demanded.

Salina looked aside. "I'm sorry if I offended you, I should be going," she said, starting to move around him.

The man blocked her exit and grabbed her arm. "I say to you again, why do you ask these things?"

"I am a Sharan," she replied. "I had heard about the Shadovar in Sembia...and I was curious."

The man sneered. "You could be anyone, and right now you are someone who has foolishly stuck her hand into a basket of snakes."

"I can prove it," she blurted out. "My left arm..."

The man grabbed her robe at the shoulder and yanked down, tearing the sleeve all the way off. In the dim light, the ring of black and purple circles across her upper arm shone dully. "I see, the mark of Shar," he said, rubbing it to make sure it wasn't just a simple paint job. He also sensed a taint about this one, but said nothing. "I am Akmir, the owner of this store. That is all I will tell you, servant of Shar...along with this advice. Do not stick your nose where it doesn't belong. You do not find the Shadovar, they will find you - and only if they want to make themselves known to you. If you try to seek them out, you will be killed, no matter which god you follow. This is your one warning. Now go," he said, letting go of her arm.

Akmir walked Salina to the front of the store, unlocked the door, and let her out. Before she could turn around, the door had already been closed and the light put out.

//Related threads in the Adventurer's Registry:
//Salina Pandora frc.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=adventurer&action=display&thread=13031
//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