Backstory
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Ayre/Keiran grew up in an orphanage, the product of a forbidden tryst between an elf and a human - or so he assumes. All he knows of his parents are their names, Kalia Liadon and Aaron Blakely - and undaunted, Keiran took both. the orphanage was more neglectful than cruel, and without guidance he grew up without influence from men or elves. The other children, however, were not so absent. He had only one friend and many enemies, a product of his heritage. that friend was a half-orc, by the name of Alistair.
The two fled the orphanage at the age of 8, barely scraping a living. They still never went back. A mixed blood street urchin was no unusual sight, and for others on the street there were bigger problems. These Ayre and Alistair solved soon, with the help of some 'friends' in more dubious professions. Alistair showed promise with his quick tongue, and Ayre an unerring eye for copying, resulting in many a forgery, though he had to leave Alistair to do the talking. Under the eye of one of his kindlier tutors, he even created a second life. Since then no one knows which of Ayre or Keiran came first.
Alistair was older than Keiran by three years, and so, when he reached 16, he left to take his initiation into the gang true. They called themselves The Thief's Coin, supposedly in honour of the Icon. They also harboured a number of the less savoury characters in the city. One of these was a fellow 'student' that took his initiation with Alistair. he was a noble's son, seeking a life of adventure, and did not deign to associate with a half orc beggar. the fight escalated as Kieran looked on, and Alistair died with a knife between his ribs.
Ayre fled the scene, head in hands and tears in his eyes. It was a day later when his old tutor approached him in the hidden bunkhouse, and offered to help return Alistair. Ayre had heard such things were possible, and leapt at the chance. They went to a safehouse, not known even to the gang, and there was Alistair's corpse, in the centre of a sigil woven from dead twigs. All it took was the drop of a match, and the room filled with a strange light, in a colour Ayre has never since been able to describe - not that he has tried.
Alistair did not return that day. Instead, his corpse vanished, and in its place stood a fey. It seemed to almost shimmer, with short blue hair and piercingly bright green eyes. A moment later, and a hand pushing forward. and Keiran stumbled into the circle with it. It nodded, and placed a finger on his head, and suddenly before Keiran stood his own reflection. Beneath him, his hands and clothes were no longer his. His reflection seemed to shimmer slightly, and the only trace of fey remaining was a slight hint in the shape of its face. Then he - the fey - walked out, and as Keiran tried to follow, the charred circle held him.
It was two days, by his reckoning, before anyone returned. It was the fey, still wearing his face, though Ayre's 'tutor' was over its shoulder. It nodded to him, like an old friend, and stepped into the circle. Ayre, parched as he was, did not react. The fey however, bent down to him, and pressed a tattered scroll into his hand.
"Consider it payment."
With that the fey vanished, leaving Keiran, now resembling almost entirely a fey, stranded. He was found ten minutes later by a pair of guards, who had been tailing his old form. After great debate, and far more persuasiveness than he had known he had, Keiran convinced them to break the circle, and they took him back to the barracks to recover. He never spoke of that night again, but the guards of that district took him in, unofficially. His newfound sharp tongue proved of great use to them, and sometimes, when he had that scroll on him, he seemed to know, and be able to do impossible things.
Over time, he took arcane tutelage, and these things were put aside as early symptoms of an underwhelming sorcerer. When he reached 16, he joined the guard formally, though he took little heed of some of the more restrictive practices of the guard. A year later, a particularly vicious killer took all bar one of those who had taken him in. Ayre swore vengeance, and the killer was soon found by him - having hung himself. His diary spoke of madness, starting shortly after the killings of the guards. Ayre never took credit, but his superior - the one survivor from his past, and one of the two who had found him on that first night - was no fool. Soon, Ayre found himself assigned to the group tasked with hunting down Milestride Jack.
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Topic: Dwarmin and Gigla's co-gm 5e game: OOC thread (Read 18671 times)