Sigil: City of Doors

Basic Information
Name: Elrithiathiel Crystalthorn
Aliases: Elrithia
Gender: woman
Race: Silvanesti elf
Age: Past her fifth century
Profession: mage
Languages: celestial, infernal, abyssal, draconic, sylvan
Accent: Distinct silvanesti accent.

Physical Information
Height: 6th
Weight: <your characters weight>
Body build: slender, healthy.
Skin type: smooth with ordinary common flaws
Hair style: (kept behind a hood, long with a small topknot)

[b]Hair:[/b] Blonde [b]Eyes:[/b] emerald green [b]Skin:[/b] pale. [/li]

Mental Information
Alignment: I believe in balance between the forces.
Philosophy: While I do not consider myself an evil woman, sometimes harsh measures has to be taken in order to secure a greater good. We know from the tales of the war of the lance that sometimes harsh means are necessary.
Deity/Beliefs: Pantheon of Krynn, no favored deities.
Personality:

[u]Cautious[/u] [i]It is always necessary to have a good backup plan.[/i] [u]Secretive[/u] [i]I am charged with protecting the secrets of my order.[/i] [u]Careful[/u] [i]While my magic is considerable it is always better to have others for it, if they wish to be hired then all the better.[/i] [u]Arrogant[/u] [i]I am not arrogant, I simply know better than most.[/i] [/li]

Additional Information
Gear: I wear the red robes of my order and a plain staff.
Jewelry: On my left hand is the ring given to me by my deceased husband.
Habbits/hobbies: I do not have ny significant hobbies other than reading a good book.
General Health: I am reasonably healthy.
Favorite Drink: Tea. Anything else is barbaric.
Weaknesses: I do not have any significant weaknesses, I merely tend to be confident in my ability. Its not arrogance or overconfidence when I get away with it.

Brief physical description

As with most elves Elrithiathiel Crystalthorn, or just "Elrithia" as she's also known, appears to be of an indetermineable age, she's standing fairly tall for her kin, her kin being the silvanesti elves of Krynn, ans wears the red robes of a mage of the order of the red robes of the conclave of the magi on Krynn - marking her as one of those rare few elves that passed the test and decided to join the order of neutrality.

Those who knew the elves from Krynn might note her careful mannerisms, that while she often joked there semed to be something insincere about it, as if she was simply using it as a shield to keep others away from the "real" Elrthia, and should one further know much about the culture of the Silvanesti they might estimate her to be of above middle age, possibly around the five to six hundred years of age, whcih would leave her old enough to have witnessed the cataclysm that shook the world as man demanded too much of the gods, causing them to turn away from the world for the next three hundred years.

Brief background

Hailing from the nation of Silvanesti the young woman was born as most elves are, the product of a pair of loving parents, as with most elves she celebrated life and the joy of it in the capital of Silvanost, eventually she was, as was common for so many other elves, married and lived a fairly good life.

All of this was shattered when the gods turned away from Krynn, the day they hurled the fiery mountain down on the priest-king of the city of Ishtar where the landscape of the world was irrevocably changed and she lost not just her young daughter but also her husband who had been travelling with her daughter to see the glories of the city of Ishtar. It was a sorrow that she was not alone in for many thousands others lost their loved ones that day.

As with all elves on Krynn Elrithia had married for life and that day her heart turned cold, she felt herself grow distant from her kin and she would eventually seek to throw her mind to other things, anything that could help her set aside her grief even for a moment and that was how she initially came to study the practice of the art. Wether her tutor found pity on her or she had talent did not matter, what mattered was that she learned and grew wiser in the art, and eventually she would go to the forest of Wayreth to the towers of high sorcery where she undertook the test that all mages undergo to be accepted and afterwards she donned the red robes of the order of neutrality, something that came as a large shock for many elves, for most elves view the red robes as only a single step away from the followers of the black moon - Nuitari.

How she came to Sigil, as as of yet, unknown. And she avoids the topic when asked.

I hate sleeping.

I hear that elves from other primes meditate and that they go into a deep form of trance, but we donÂ’t, not the elves of Krynn, neither are we impervious to magical sleep unlike the elves of Faerun, but on the other hand? We live up to twelve hundred years against their six hundred or so. Not that this matters in the least bit, what use is it to live a thousand years or more if you suffer nightmares every night? And I do.

I try to spend my days working hard, to get exhausted and ever since I arrived in Sigil its grown at least a little easier. For the first time in forever I did not have any nightmares, work progressed fast, and I think iÂ’ve learned more about the planes by walking them than I ever did by reading the lore in the high tower of sorcery in Wayrest and iÂ’ve been a part of many events recently, one that made me actually stop up and write this journal.

We were contacted by an elf in the bazaar, it was some man named Nadir who needed us to fetch a key from a house that had a plague of undeath. Of course I knew something fishy was going on but rather frankly? I do not mind destroying the undead so going along was a fine excuse. Still, I learned more and got even more questions. The key where, it seemed, held by a lich of some sort (fairly easily destroyed), there were vampires (who decided to run into a wall of fire) and more, there were also when we left a second group of undead, marked by a green claw appeared. I did not know the meaning of the symbol and it ended, unfortunately, in violence (who am I kidding? I like destroying the undead)..

Still, I am curious, especially given the amount of lies that Nadir spoke when we got back. So, note to self, and this is what iÂ’ve been doing over the last three days since the journey:
IÂ’ve been researching the green claw symbol. I started with Toril (why? Because bloody everything around here seems to be from that lunatics wet dream of a plane).
IÂ’ve been looking into how to polymorph or take control of stupid driders who cost us our bonus chance of better pay. I want to transform that drider into a fly and then feed him to a spider.

We will see what my research brings.

- Elrithiathiel Crystalthorn

p.s.
Dear journal? The nightmares have returned.

FiendsÂ…

Is there anything less trustworthy than those in the multiverse? I personally cannot think of anything and worrysome enough it seems that at least one of them have gained a personal interest in me.

Oh, but I was a fool perhaps, setting my foot on the lower planes for the first time, my voice rang harshly across the desolate landscape, my spells destroyed the devils who did not belong in the abyss with a word, my conjured noble Marid, whose name I cannot pronounce, tore into them and destroyed demons a piece, spells of force split them asunder. It was.. Satisfying to unleash my wrath on those deserving of it. Oh, but of course it was not without its challenges, a lone mortal, no matter how powerful, cannot hope to survive alone in the abyss for long, so I avoided the major battles and there I met her, a halfling. Or so it seemed, she claimed to have stepped into the wrong portal, she had tried to go to Elysium. Oh, of course I was suspsicious, a lone mortal in the lower planes? Without any wards? Of course I knew something was just wrong here. So I brought her to the cave where I knew that fiends would be weakened, where runes of warding and powerful abjuration spells where written and that forced the “halfling” to reveal her true form. She shifted through several, cursing me for going there, but eventually it was revealed who she was. An Erinyes, she offered me her weight in gold should I just help her reach Sigil, stating that hundreds of fiends already did that, that it would make no difference whatsoever with just one more. Surely, a hundred thousand gold would be worth that?

I was almost tempted, but no. One more fiend may not make a difference in the greater scheme of things, but that would be a fiend who was on my conscience, any evil deed sheÂ’d do, and she would certainly do that, would be on my soul. No, I could not accept her bargain for all the gold in the world, so I refused her, strongly, standing inside the protective circle I offered her the one way out she could have, to be returned to her own plane and I started casting the banishment, she fled at that point cursing me for my lack of cooperation.

I strongly suspect that the fiend, petty in its nature as are all fiends, will find me again. It will look me up and try to enact its revenge on foiling it, and it will make it to Sigil, one way or another. At that point I will be in grave danger indeed.

What can I do to avert it? It will not enter my chambers, I have warded those against intruders, but thats not enough. no, I fear I may have to dive into the lore of the black mages in order to combat the fiend. We shall see.

- Elrithia Crystalthorn.

Dear journal,

No, not that its dear. Nor is a journal a person, but I suppose its one way to start off the writing to keep a note on my research. It started in the middle of the night, I heard the screams once more in my dreams and I woke up and I simply could not sleep, so I went back to my work.

My research into the plane of the crazy gods have yielded no results, the payment was in platinium with a dragon imprinted on it, but not the same coins we use on Krynn (where we use steel mainly anyway) so where could it then be? Nadir is a chaotic and untrustworthy person, that much is rather clear, but is that a trait from his race on a specific plane or a trait that he simply has? I cannot know, still, its a lead if a weak one. Then there is his equipment, iÂ’ve rarely seen that many crystal shards before, but is that a typical sort of equipment from where heÂ’s from? Or is it a result of what he gathered and a personal fetish? IÂ’m more inclined to believe its because he has a use for it than anything else, he seems to be the sort.

My next study will be the desert world of Athas, I know that there are elves there though from what I understand they act like nomads, thieves and are generally seen as untrustworthy, perhaps that is a lead? If not, well, there are many other locations in the multiverse, odds are iÂ’ll find the right one sooner or later.

I will also be asking Annie for help, the tiefling has more of a knack for divination than I do.

- Elrithiathiel Crystalthorn

Dear journalÂ…

...no your still just a scrap of paper and I do not hold any particular feelings for you. But neverthelessÂ… There have been developments on the whole story with Nadir and that has to be put down onto paper before I forget them thanks to the ton of other issues that have arisen as of late.

Nadir seemingly misplaced his “sister” the one that I learned about recently, of course I volunteered in helping, after some payment was in order, but things went sour. I should really remember that the wit of my companions rarely are equal to that of my own. I mention to them that we could get a deal, and they jump to it. They also ignore my bluff and… I better start over.

I made the suggestion, an earnest one too, that we could leave Nadir in the hands of his enemies if he turned out to be as we feared, this however was interpretated by my silly companions (minus Annie) as a sure thing, we now had to betray him (Why? With no gain?) the companions being a lich who dual wielded hammers (why this is so I do not understand - here is a being that through arcane magic has managed to overcome death itself and then wishes to spend immortality onÂ… Smashing stuff? I donÂ’t care how many spell tomes this man visited. HeÂ’s an idiot) and a foolish girl who likes to smash kneecaps, oh, and Annie, but Annie I believe saw through it.

Then it turns out that the enemies here where nothing short of the undead and when we finally got to some we could talk to, and learn more, the things goes even further south. It turns out it was a demi lich that wanted us to present a gem to Nadir, the fool girl eagerly grasped at the oppertunity to backstab Nadir once our contract was done, the lich? LICH SMASH! Yes, once I had coaxed the demi lich into showing us the gem the idiot lich ran in and smashed it. As I said: Idiot lich.

I was never going to allow Nadirs soul to be stolen, for one simple reason: Its wrong same reason I refused to make a deal with the fiend earlier. But it still left me with things to do I suppose. For one: I will research what artefact it was that went missing from the school of augors and secondly I now am in possession of the shards from said gem the demi lich wanted us to use, so iÂ’m going to (with AnnieÂ’s help) try to divine the purpose of the gem.

There is a mystery here and I intent to unravel it.

- Elrithiathiel.

Dearest journal,

I will start by writing the dream I had, it began withÂ… the rest of the text is smeared out, as if the ink was ruined by water and not allowed to dry. The next letters are written by a far more shaking handwriting.

...on the other hand, I do not want to write it. I have enough horrors in my waking life, I do not need to recall old tragedies. Instead I will once more throw myself into my work and describing what I have been doing.

It has been a long time since I last saw Nadir and an almost as long time since Annie and I created the ritual, and I have not sat idly by in the meantime and there have been many thougths to answer. My first part of buisness were researching the figures from the vision, who where they? And the second one was, who was I in the vision? Or rather we? This too I did through the same means as the gem, but iÂ’ve been preparing for other means too.

I may be poor with divination but I am an expert with necromancy and I can seek knowledge directly from the dead, I can better than most compel and command the undead and while my expertise normally is one I use to lay the undead to rest (Yes I am a necromancer who dislikes the undead) I can at times use it in other means if it leads to a greater success and given Nadirs involvement with the undead there is a good cause for this to continue.

Then there is the gem, shattered as it is, I will seek to repair it with the aid of the mending spell, it will be a long and arduous process but I seem to be making process. Perhaps once its made whole again I might have a more successful chance at divining its original purpose.