The Red Drowess

[*wmw12]

Deltana has been many things in her long life, and at 450 years old is still young enough to be anything she desires still. Her list of accomplishments is rather long, varied, and strange for a drowess, strange only because she is still alive after being in such high places of power.

A simple Priestess of Lolth is all she was in the beginning. A fresh face, straight out of Amn. As a small thing her mother had cast her out for her strange hair, though rather than kill her as she should have done she sent her to live on the surface and to be raised by humans. Humans who pimped her out to anyone who would have her and be willing to pay. Once she came of age, though she left and never looked back.

In her travels from Amn she met a jaluk named Val'dorl and while he was her companion she was forever saving him from scrapes with orcs, as is the usual way of things with hot headed males. He eventually began to serve her when they made their way to the Kingdom of Haven.

While there she went from a rather unique Priestess of Lolth to a Yath'tellar, or high priestess of a house that Deltana no longer speaks the name of as it fell quite seriously and without warning once the Queen of that city had been kidnapped. She fled from there and has never returned.

Fortunately for Deltana, at the time of her escape from Haven she had been sent another offer... an underdark city required a new ruler and as no one was readily available or capable of taking on such a task, the Matron ruling that city sent for her so she could obscond with her slave, having fallen from Lolth's favor the Matron knew it was just a matter of time before she was targeted by the other Matrons in the city and so off Deltana went to the city of Olath K'lar.

There she found Val'dorl once again, having been badly tortured and damaged when their house in the Kingdom of Haven fell, she healed him, once more saving him and he once again became her loyal follower. Olath K'lar was little more than an outpost on the way to bigger cities, but she did all she could and in the process became more of a diplomat than a Queen. In order to solidify relations with the surface while her city was still so vulnerable she aided the king of the surfacers in many battles and investigations. Having been instrument in finding his fiance he had little knowledge that she had made off with one of his royal guards, who had fallen in love with her and become her eyes on the inside of his castle. Here, we also find her first <i>real</i> consort, Alf'in. A druid who enjoyed nothing more than causing plants and animals to find their way to her sunless city, he spent much of his time protecting her and hunting and humming to the small plants he worked to grow. But, alas Olath K'lar was not to be, not through any fault of her own, but one day when she arose from reverie she found her city utterly destroyed, the Kings brother having been there in the night with an army of undead. The only reason her house survived at all was due to the magic that protected its location.However, her mate had been caught out, humming to his flowers and was killed in the attack. So with a heavy mind and a ruined city she packed up once again and moved on. This time to the land of Rigillia.

In Rigillia she settled down for a quieter life, she retired. Her magic dried up and she spent much of her time reading. This is when she met her first husband, and rather than consort she did marry this man. His name was Fang. He taught her how to make Whisky and they spent many days working at a still and talking with each other. It was a good time in her life. It was the first time in her long life that she'd ever gone so long without turmoil or fighting and she enjoyed it immensely. But once again, Rigillia would not stay her home for long as she was forced once again to move on when the magic that had created Rigillia began to fade and eventually swallowed the small rock entirely. This time, with her husband in tow she moved on to the City of Silversun.

Silversun was not much different from Rigillia, though she couldn't openly acknowledge her faith as in so many other places, she was happy to remain retired with Fang. But one evening when she came home from working in the field she found Fang gone. This was not odd, he often went on hunting trips when the city became too much for him, but this time he didn't return. She waited for months, and she searched but to no avail, and finally she began to heal and move on. One day, while she was sitting in the city, once again doing nothing but thinking about her missing husband she decided she'd had enough and she picked up once again and moved on.

Next we come to the city of Mantol Derith. Here Deltana started off in a rather volatile situation. Her first encounter almost left her with a concussion as a half dragon became annoyed with her for flirting with the male she enjoyed. Deltana laughed this off, and even suggest the poor creature had fallen in love, though eventually the male fell out of favor and the dragon and Deltana became friedly. Here she began to grow her house, and many Yath'rin targeted her as her power grew with each new guard she added to her rostar. Finally, she ran into an old acquaintance, a jaluk named Xander. He'd been around in a few of the places she'd lived prior to Mantol Derith, and she'd met him once or twice but they had never really had any type of relationship until coming to this city. Here they got to know each other and he became the Patron of her house very quickly. His cunning and planning matched no other male she'd ever been with and she liked him immensely. They gradually began to turn the house that Deltana had already been building into a slavers house and worked to form contracts with an inn in the area to run their operations out of. They even set up a contract with Skullport to receive regular shipments of slaves. Things were going well until the population began to drop severely. Rather quickly they realized that with the residents dwindling their business would be useless in very little time and so once again they packed up and returned to Silversun to regroup and plan their next move.

Once there, Deltana shed her Lolthite ways and converted to a new faith. Once her conversion was complete she married Xander and they decided to move to the City of Doors, as Deltana was now pregnant they wished to move to a place that could offer more opportunity than the City of Silversun and its surroundings could.

And that is where the past ends and the present begins.

[*wmw12]

Since arriving in Sigil her life has been anything but dull, first beginning The House Grail, including all of the initial members, and then again some she hadn't though to think of. The death of her friend Byron having shook the drowess quite a bit more than would usually do, she remained quiet on it for the most part, only commenting from time to time on the loss but in general her lips remained sealed and her private thoughts remained for her alone.

She joined the Guvners, her husband seeming only too happy with the chance to work with her on more than one level, though her ascension through the ranks was slow moving at first, partially due to her unwillingness to move up without knowing enough of the laws to make her feel confident and partially due to the birth of the twins, Alejandra and Alexander. Not a usual drow mother, she took more notice of them than most others would but then again, she'd changed quite a bit since the last time she'd born young and so she seemed a bit more warm than she would have only a few short years ago.

Though once the children were old enough to be left in the care of Hensley, the rattling butler, she went back to work. Not only with the shop but with the Fraternity, working diligently, first to solve a case of corruption within their own ranks and then more broadly, helping on several cases, though her most recent seems to be at a standstill as they wait for yet another road block to be pushed aside.

For the moment, she battled morning sickness as she finds herself growing heavy with another child, and she seems to move slower, almost as if age were beginning to catch up with her a bit, though perhaps she's only tired.

[*wmw12]

*The drowess no longer stops for her usual cup of coffee in he morning, nor does she spend much time out and about unless she's set up her shop. To all around her it would seem that she's withdrawing. The only real time she spends anywhere is at her home and in the Abyss. She speaks to almost no one and she is quick to move on when she finds herself bored or dejected but it's the way of her for the moment. There is no permanence, she's known that for quite some time.*