The story of

Drow Elf Fighter/Mage

The Beginning

Yasraena, of the noble house of T’Sarran, was born and raised in the large city of Ithilaughryn, which is located in the Hell furnaces mountain range on the world of Oerth. She was brought into this world as the second daughter of Akordia and Durdyn, nobles who ruled the fourth house of the city.

During her childhood she led a very comfortable, if very empty and cruel existence, learning about how females had all the authority and the males had none, and how it was customary (and encouraged) to torment and ridicule them, both mentally and physically whenever possible. Now, Yasraena was not a cruel person. On the contrary, she was given to random acts of kindness, compassion and mercy, much to the chagrin of her entire family. (well, except her brothers. They didn’t really understand their good fortune with their strange sister. They were just thankful for it) She was always punished and chastised for such acts when caught. “Being a part of a noble family, a ruling house, meant that you conduct yourself in a certain manner! You represent the family! etc, etc.” But that never once prevented her from stopping the beating of one slave, or sneaking some food to another, or defending her brothers when they would take the blame for something.  She did have fun teasing them from time to time, making them wait on her hand and foot and sometimes making a complete mess on purpose just so they would have to clean it up, but she soon learned the true nature of her people. When she was fourteen, in a special ceremony, she saw her new baby brothers murdered in sacrifice to Lolth by their own mother’s hand. When she asked why her mother berated her saying “Because they weren’t perfect! They were too deficient to be nobles… to be T’Sarran’s!! They displease the goddess!” She was horrified by what she saw and heard, but was at a loss as to what to truly make of it. She did know that her people, her own family, were not the type of beings she wanted to be with.

Being of a high ranking noble house, and a female noble at that, she learned of the many privileges afforded her, which she took every advantage of from a very early age. From her earliest childhood she showed an uncanny aptitude for wizardly magic. She was the first of her family to be able to cast all of the Drow innate powers by age ten. Against her mother’s better judgment, she was allowed to be taught the basic theories of spell casting from the house mages. From this small beginning, she was eventually able to manipulate the essence to her will, customizing spells to her own tastes and inventing totally new spells as well. She put this knowledge to great use with her offensive spells, getting greater area of effect, damage and unique shapes.

In her teenage years, she proved to be amazingly physically adept as well, showing great potential as a swordsman(woman). Again, against her mother’s better judgment, she was allowed to train with the house weapon master, the great Zacknafien. Even he was amazed at how quickly this young female learned from him. In time, she became quite proficient in the single and dual weapon fighting styles, favoring broadsword and dagger. She also learned how to throw daggers with great skill. She also learned (grudgingly at first) the techniques of the Drow’s signature weapon: the hand crossbow. She felt it too unfair. She learned the usefulness of it later in life, though. She eventually became a specialist with this weapon.

Being a female, and a noble one at that, she was eventually expected to give up on these foolish male interests and join the ranks of the clerics of Lolth. She went along because she really had no choice in the matter, and learned the ways of worship at the great temple to Lolth. She proved not to be very adept with the clerical studies failing at just about every test put to her. Even though she exhibited great skill in her fighting and spell abilities, she was not excused from attending her clerical studies. (much to her disappointment) So, she allowed ample time for her clerical knowledge, but actually more time to her fighting and her magic. She kept her studies up for a dozen years, actually fooling the matron mothers at times by using her magic instead of her clerical magic. 

As the years went by, Yasraena found herself acting the part of a typical young female noble. On her 50^th birthday, she had learned about an ancient Drow ritual called “The Blooding” from her brother. This ritual it turned out, was the “coming of age” ritual for all young Drow, common and noble alike. This is when all Drow of age (75 years old) go to the surface world for a night of utter slaughter. To kill a surface elf this night is a sign from Lolth of a long and healthy life. After hearing of this, it was then that she decided she would leave Ithilaughryn and life with her own people for good. But only when she felt she would be ready.  So for the next 25 years, she studied and practiced, honing her skills and knowledge for that fateful night.

It was during these years of preparation that she learned of something that would change the way she looked at life. One day, during a trip down to the temples’ archives for a book that the head priestess wanted, she came across a book about another Drow goddess. Only this goddess was a goddess of good and truth and beauty, the total opposite of Lolth. Her name was Eilistraee and she was everything Lolth was not. Kind, just and beautiful. There was only one lone paragraph about this “affront to all that is sacred to Lolth” in the book she found so she decided to ask some innocent questions about her. But, whenever she inquired or asked questions about this goddess, she was told with an angry voice all the horrible things that this evil following has done and continues to do. And much to Yasraena’s sadness, there was not one book on Eilistraee in the entire archives. She looked for a good ten years before finally giving up. She did eventually find a small book on Eilistraee from a traveling salesman who came into the city with a small caravan. It cost only 5 gp, but to her, it was priceless. Over the remainder of the 25 years, Yasraena had to worship her in complete secrecy for fear of being killed in Lolth’s name.

During these years she learned as much from going on patrols with the family guard and exploring on her own as she learned from her teachers at school. It was a very trying 25 years, but she saw it through to the very end. When the night of the ‘Blooding’ finally came, Yasraena went out with the others to participate in the barbaric ritual, but she never returned. (Unbeknownst to her, her family secretly celebrated her apparent death, reveling in the fact that she wouldn’t be around any more to embarrass the family name, and they didn’t have to lift a finger) All she took with her from her home was her backpack with her bag of holding, which held her spell books, components, 1 month of food and two wineskins; weapons and armor, ‘Piawafwi’, House insignia and her book on Eilistraee.

Outside and New Friends

Over the next several years, she trained herself to get accustomed to the surface world, with all its unique hazards. She started to follow Eilistraee openly and started to follow her beliefs and tenets, after a fashion. She learned how to heal people, use herbs and to cure the poisons she used to use. She would (try to) help anybody she met that seemed to need help and would sometimes put herself in danger to do so. She also learned how to use her dancing and singing abilities to celebrate Eilistraee by singing her ‘Evensong’. A very powerful thing, sung at sunset that summizes the day’s events in a very personal way. When she would camp out side of towns, sometimes the people would wonder where the hauntingly beautiful melodies were coming from at dusk. She had many adventures during these years, and encountered many allies, but no true friends were met. Mostly just hatred and fear because of her heritage. But these experiences just strengthened her convictions and her belief in Eilistraee.

It was about this time in her life when she met a group of adventurers, which included Li, a human male High Warrior Monk; Razor, a human male Rogue and Durnick, a human male Warrior Priest of St. Cuthbert. Little did she realize the extraordinary relationships she would have with these three people. “It was a meeting of fate” she would later say when asked. It was around dusk on the road to Greyhawk, when Yasraena was looking for a place to camp. She had heard what sounded like a small scuffle coming from the brush and decided to investigate the commotion. It turned out to be a small orcish raiding party. The orcs had apparently ambushed the three just as they were sitting down to dinner, and had taken them completely by surprise. When Yasraena got to the camp, she saw the orcs had the party bound, blindfolded and two of them gagged. The third was having his bare feet burned with a torch while being asked about “…the rest of you human maggots who’re hunting us and our kin..”. There were about a dozen, give or take a few, around the camp with the majority of them in a big gathering by the tents. Yasraena did the only thing she seemed appropriate… attack with extreme prejudice. She first cast haste and combat spells on herself, then cast a faerie fire on the 3 by the hostages. When the orcs were distracted by the effects of the first spell, she cast an enhanced fireball spell into the midst of the group of orcs, killing or incapacitating them all. She then jumped out and cut the three with the party to ribbons. Being completely surprised, the orcs didn’t know what hit them. Of the dozen plus she first saw, only 3 were missing after the battle, all the rest were dead. Needless to say, when the party was released, and they saw who, or more precisely, what their benefactor was, they were awestruck. Because of Yasraena’s brave and unselfish actions, so unlike a Drow elf, Durnick convinced the party to befriend her. It was from this beginning that her first true friends were found.

After several years of adventures that saw party members come and go, the core of four were Durnick, Li, Razor and Yasraena. Some of the more memorable adventures the four had together were: finding a cache of 1200 Mithril pieces in a ruined castle in a swamp and being chased by the very old green dragon who lived there; rescuing a young prince of Greyhawk, along with an entire royal family line of dwarves (King, son, and grandson) of Nolan’s Keep from the band of slavers known as ‘The Crimson Hand’, then being the first Drow elf ever invited to Nolan’s Keep as a guest of the Royal family, scouting and surveying some of the westernmost regions of the continent of Oerth with a group of adventurers which included a ½ ogre, a barbarian and a ‘trained’ ½ timber, ½ winter wolf; stalking and slaying the above very old green dragon which was terrorizing the local countryside (taking a fang and talon out of which her matching broad sword and dagger are made) and finding her Ring of the Archmage and Bag of Holding as well as A LOT of coinage; going to the demiplane of Ravenloft to steal back a spell book from Baron von Strahd himself, where Yasraena had to fight one on one with the vampire and eventually killed him with the help of her friends. (they never did find his treasure, though) She also had journeyed to the lower outer planes, the Abyss specifically. She met a mage named Karrick when she arrived back at Greyhawk after her adventure with the slavers. The person who she had left her spell books with, thought she was dead and so sold them to him, and was willing to sell them back for what he had paid for them. During their exchange, the mage offered to more exchanges for some info about the Underdark and Drow life. She would tell him of her days in Ithilaughryn, and he would give her access to his impressive magical knowledge. Well, they had eventually struck up a friendship. Being the mage that he was, Karrick was doing some summoning one day and got a little careless in summoning a type V demon (a very larger and angry Marrilith) by losing control of it, which the demon took as an opportunity to take the foolish mortal back to the Abyss for some fun. If Bea, his apprentice, wasn’t there when this happened, Yasraena would have had no way of knowing what had transpired. She knew from all that he had taught her of these creatures, that if she didn’t go, Karrick would suffer horribly at the hands of the evil denizens in an eternity of physical and mental torture. The experience left her drained for several days afterward, for she and Karrick barely escaped with their lives. They both also bore the enmity of the afore mentioned Marrilith, named Jerrullian, who they had almost killed in their escape. It vowed revenge on the two who had done this to it “If it takes all eternity to do so!!!” She has yet to see the demon again, but there is a long while to the end of eternity, so it is yet to be seen whether its threats will be carried out.

At one point, she and her companions were hired by the city govt. of Greyhawk to find out who or what was behind the monopolizing of trade routes, brutal bandit raids and activity with large pirate ships (heavily armed) on the open waters of the Nyr Dyv. She and the group were to do reconnaissance on the movements and locations of the pirates, bandits, and/or agents of who/whatever was behind all this. Their first mission to infiltrate a keep turned into a disaster with Li getting captured and the rest of the party barely getting out with their lives. Yasraena felt compelled to go back and try to rescue Li. The rest of the group went, although grudgingly at first for they felt that Li was as good as dead already. They got the best plans and intelligence money and treachery could buy, then they went in after Li. The group pulled their strategy off flawlessly, but there was just too many of the enemy. The adventure ends with Durnick dying in the initial combat. Razor gets killed later for trying to escape, but Yasraena and a charmed Li are forced to fight each other to the death. Li was a master at his profession, but Yasraena had area affect magic strong enough to stun him long enough to get a blade in. The last thing Li said as he died in her arms was “ I forgive you, my friend. Not …your… fault…”.  She was then dragged off, to be ‘prepared for the master’ as one slave had said. Basically allowed to wash and clean herself and given luxurious and sexy clothes to wear. When she was brought before ‘the master’, she almost didn’t believe it was who it was. Iuz himself stood before her. He said to her “you will be my personal slave Drow bitch! You will do as I bid and beg for more! Hahahahaha! Take her to my chambers and make sure she’s taken care of! Now!” Yasraena was taken to Iuz’s personal chambers and was thrown on the bed so hard she hit hear head on the headboard and was knocked unconscious. She vaguely remembers lying on a large bed and seeing rocks and torches before she blacks out. She remembers no more until……… 

To Hell and Back (again)

She wakes up to find she’s lying on the bottom of a bunk bed in complete adventuring gear, her weapons are leaning against the bunk, and she believes she’s on a boat as the room is rocking a little and she hears splashing water. She gets up and puts on her weapons and proceeds to go up the stairs in front of her. When she gets to the top, she sees she is indeed on a boat, and she is not alone. At least a dozen Githyanki are on board with her and several normal looking adventurers. She begins to talk to a female half elf and finds out the rest of the people are also displaced and have no idea what’s going on. The Githyanki seem to be the boats crew on closer observation and didn’t seem to pose a threat, although the silver sword each wore was a good reminder of what they were.

The cleric of the party eventually found out where we were. None of us expected the answer.

“We are traveling on the river Styx”, she said.

How in the nine hells did she get here?!?

At that moment, the boat stopped and a loud horn blew. Everyone went up on deck and saw that they had docked at an amazing looking city. One that put Ithilaughryn to shame in many ways and means, she later found out. The city was called Sigil, and it resided somewhere on the (un?)known planes of existence. It was called “The City Of Doors”. Doors to “any and/or every plane there is” some say. We found out how true the statement was.

We were brought here by a being called the Caretaker, who looked after things within the city. It’s there that we all formally introduced ourselves. In addition to myself, there was Elias, a Mul (half dwarf/half human) gladiator from a world called Athas; Gildene, a half elf magic user who worshiped Mystra; a female half elf warrior monk called Althea from my home world, Greyhawk; and a human male priest of Ra, called Gemmon.

We found out from the Caretaker that there are many door s to many planes of existence.

Each one of these doors is enabled by a gem of power.

Asmodeus, an arch devil, was stealing the gems of power to use them to form gates to anywhere he wished. If he seized the remainder of the gems, he could reign havoc and chaos throughout the planes.

With what was at stake, Yasraena couldn’t say no. If just in repayment for taking her out of Iuz’s clutches. She just hoped that everyone was of the same feeling as she was. 

We were transported to the ‘doorstep’ of Hell. We had to go through several tests that were set up, not the least of which was Yasraena playing a game of chess against Death himself (with the fate of the party as the stakes), trudging through a virtual river of blood and fighting an undead looking thing that could cast spells, just to get to the doorway to the 1^st layer of Hell.

Everyone walked through as normal, but when I go through, I don’t remember anything until…

The continuing story of Yasraena

can be found at the Hellgate Keep page.