Khristal Blakhart

Khristal
My life growing up was not very exciting. I was just a normal child like any other elf and there really isn't anything to tell...

Lanteron, Khristal's older brother: Khristal? Who could forget her? The girl was... abnormal, to put it nicely. From the moment she could hold an object in her hands, all she ever did was hit things as well as people, and trees, and animals... with whatever she could get her hands on. Once, a boy in the village thought it would be humorous to hand her an actual club. It took three of us to get it away from her and he had to be taken to a healer because his knee was mangled. Because of her compulsion, our house was empty. We could leave nothing around that she could pick up. Everything had to be locked away lest the whole place be destroyed. This frustrated her greatly and likely was the cause of her next bit of strange behavior. She started slamming her head into... everything, the wall, the door, the table, my face... she once broke my nose. More than once we had to summon one of the village priests who would calm her, though that only lasted for so long.”

Khristal: Lanteron? He is my brother. I envied him because he always got to leave and go hunting and exploring. I used to watch him spelling up before he would go. If I nagged him enough he would cast some spells on me too, making me change color or be able to run faster and jump higher. He never knew it but sometimes I would sneak out of the village and follow him. It was one of those times when I saw The Lady.

Lanteron: Of course I knew she was back there. She followed me every time I went to hunt, that's why I spelled her up before I left. I got pretty good at being able to keep an eye on her while letting her think I didn't know she was there... Until the day she disappeared. I glanced back and she was gone. I backtracked and searched for her but I couldn't find her anywhere. That was the last time I ever saw her. I shudder to think what type of fate she met that day and it is all my fault. She was so young...

Khristal: I was stalking my brother while he was stalking boars or whatever. He looked back toward me (he always looked back) so I ducked so he couldn't see me. He could never see me, but this time he turned and started coming back toward me. I ran off of the trail and through bushes and trees, over rocks and across a stream, up a little hill and then I saw her. There she was, a beautiful doe in the middle of a big green meadow. Just like the picture my mother had on the wall in her room. It was The Lady who all of the stories were about! I just stood there... and she stood there and she looked right at me for a long time. She turned and started to walk away, she wanted me to follow her. I followed her for a long time until she went through a thicket and I couldn't see her. I ran ahead and looked all over for her but she was gone. I looked and looked but the only place she could have gone was around the lake somehow.

A rather typical Elven Captain: T'was the craziest thing I ever saw, that's for sure. We had just put out the gangplank at the North end of the lake and I saw this young girl, a tiny thing with blond hair and dressed like a Sylvan. She was wandering from one side of the road to the other looking for something when a kobold burst out of a bush and knocked her right down. Fearing that she was about to meet her end I started across the plank to see if I could get to her in time when the darndest thing happened... She sat up quickly, grabbed a large stick that was laying nearby and legged the thing... I could hear the bones snap all the way from the ferry. The kob layed on the ground screaming whatever it is that kobolds scream when their legs are broken and the girl leapt to her feet and hit the poor creature, over and over 'til it went still. She stood over the body for a moment then grabbed its helm and plopped it on her tiny head and picked up its short sword and came running toward us. Right across the gangplank she ran and sat on the deck, just staring straight ahead and not saying a thing. I went up to her but stopped when she pointed the sword out at me with both hands and shrieked "Stop!". Fearing for my knees I did as she commanded. I told her that the boat was going to sail across the lake but she seemed fine with that, saying something about having to go over there to meet some lady, so we set sail. When we pulled in at Fearling Pass and dropped the plank she bolted across it and was gone out of sight before I could even manage to yell out a warning. Just another day on the ferry I suppose.

Rothran Blakhart, Khristal's father: Khristal? Who's that? Oh... you mean Rose? That girl is touched in the head, she is. I remember the day I first saw her. I was sittin' by the Victory Gate with Lady Sianan like I was often prone to do when here she come, full speed with a helmet down over her eyes and draggin' a shorty like it was a claid. I tried to get out of the way but she tripped right over my legs and went all sprawlin' on the ground. I got up and went to help her and she just went berserk! Jumped up and started swinging that shorty at me with both hands. It wasn't much trouble dodging her but I quickly grew tired of that, so I webbed her.

Khristal: Sticky stuff!! The ogre that was trying to get me had covered me in so much sticky stuff that I could not even move! I screamed at it that I was going to kill it but it was just laughing the whole time. I tried and tried to get free but I could not... then I heard someone telling me to calm down. They said that the ogre was a human and a priest and that he would not hurt me. I knew that a priest would know how to find the Lady so I stopped and stood still. After forever the sticky stuff went away and I looked up at the man who was to become my new Father. I grabbed onto the edge of the skirt he was wearing and told him to take me to the Lady.

Rothran: When that random passing Elf (not hard to find them in the Nations) told her I was a Cleric she just stopped. The webs melted away and she grabbed 'hold of me kilt and barked some kind of an order which I nae understood. "The Lady", my translator told me so I nodded and my little Rose and I set off on the search that would last 'til this very day. I ended up getting her a little suit of Halfling leathers that almost fit her and a little sheath for her "claid" so she could stop dragging it. I bought her a little pixie doll because little girls should have dolls but she kept trying to kill it. She has issues, I tell ya. She followed me everywhere I went while we looked for this mysterious lady. I tried to teach her to speak the common tongue and she learned, but slowly.

Khristal: I didn't want to speak Human but he said we were going to travel over the mountains and that everyone there was Human. So I tried to learn as much as I could. I went with him everywhere so I could look for the Lady but it was hard to keep him focused on the task at hand. He preferred to just sit by the gate and poof out and get dead people. Eventually we did travel over the mountains. We went through a place with tunnels where there were lots of short people with beards. Father said they were Dwarves. The cart rides were fun!
Then he took me down to a Human city by the water and showed me the mansion we were going to live in. It was all made of shiny black stone. I would rather have stayed outside but Father said I couldn't because the whole neighborhood was full of "Flushers". I'm still not sure what he meant.

Rothran: I left Vaalor and went back home to my place in Solhaven. Rose came with me, of course, but did nae seem real happy about living in the mansion. Probably because she was a tree elf and wanted to be outside a lot. She spent a lot of time on the roof. You know the whole time we had the Mansion down in 'Haven she slept on the roof. When we were in the Landin' at the Phoenix House she slept up in the willow tree. She’d act like she was going to bed all normal like, and I'd tell her a bedtime story and she'd close her eyes, but the next morning she'd be up there again. The way she was obsessed with finding that deer-lady (who I found out later was Imaera), it seems the child has spent her whole life searching for an Arkati. The way she'd always be slamming her head into things, I thought she was possessed and tried to exorcise her a couple of times. Aye, she's a real piece of work, that one...
I taught her about the way of Voln each night but she never got a real interest in freeing the undead. Was almost like she didn't even want to hear about them but I told her just the same. .

Khristal: Every night with the stories about ghouls and wraiths and all sorts of horrifying things. I don't know if thinking about those creatures or thinking about how Father would spend so much time down there hunting them all is worse. I guess killing them helps them somehow. Doesn't make sense to me. The one thing I do know though is I'm scared to death of them. I still remember the last words he would say to me EVERY night at bedtime. "Rose, the coming of the Unlife may take many forms. Some may garb themselves in shapes of terror and evil and dwell in the forgotten places of the world and in the realm of the dead. Others may come among you with secret words of power and mystic symbols to lure even those who would fight hardest against them."
Lady help me, they're going to get me! I think the undeads came from the ground so I snuck out of bed every night and went as high as I could and slept on the roof.
When I got older, Father told me it was time to do something with my life and he invited me to join the Voln people. No way, plain and simple. I started going up to the Landing a lot and trying to sneak into the fortress on the North road where all the people in armor always went. I found out it was a warrior club and I begged around until they let me join. They're teaching me neat ways to spin my sword around and how to scream at things when I fight them. I like it there. Then I ran into one of those Dwarfs who told me that I could help them fight grimswarms if I wanted to. Just had to go to that Zul place again. Mine cart rides??!! I left right away. Father wasn't too happy when he found out but he said at least I wasn't a Flusher so it's not a complete disaster.

Rothran: She tells me now that she joined that Onoir house out on the cliffs there. I nae know a lot about ‘em but I do know that Cosannie is a Phoenix so I guess I trust ‘em. I hope whoever they paired her up with to teach her is normal and sensible so maybe the girl can get her head on straight. I hear she joined up with those Drakes Vanguard people as well. I checked them out, she’ll fit right in there. Heh, Charl help ‘em.

Khristal: I like the Landing now and I think I’m going to stay here. I’ve been all over the world on boats and in pickle barrels. I don’t like pickle barrels so much. I met a guy named Harlan who used to spell me up a lot and a guy named Breckwith who I used to hunt with. He told me about the House he was in called Onoir. It has a longer name but I can’t say it. I went there and they didn’t try to kill me or anything so I joined them too. There are good people there. They gave me the bestest Mentor named Xixie. She has a longer name but I can’t say it. Stewardt is fun to hunt with but he gets mad when you skin undeads… Yes, I hunts undeads now if I have to. I’ve even gone into the Anwyn castle with the Onoir people but I get pretty scared in there still. I even went in the Varunar castle but I don’t want to talk about what happened to me in there.
I joined the Drakes Vanguard and am a fusilier. I don’t know what that is. They take me crazy places like into Warcamps. I even went under Thanatoph with them once. I joined Silvergate Inn so I’d have somewhere safe to sleep. They have a dog. Its name is Wacknut and it’s stupid.
I'm still looking for The Lady. I never found her yet but I found her temple down by home. I'm saving up for some plate armor... Hmm, I don't know what else to say.
You has to finish this because the pixie is gettin mad. She even spoke to me harshly so finish it and sends it to Lady Roe and the pixie, hurry up!