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A Bard's Tale
Posted: 22 Aug 2003 10:45 AM |
"Greetings and well met! My name is Isaak, teller of tales, singer of ballads and lover of women!" The young bard is indeed a strikingly handsome man, lean rather than muscular, his bright eyes betraying his wide-eyed wonder at the marvels and evils he has seen. Never a military man, Isaak instead learnt to survive on the streets of the grand cities and forrested woodlands surrounding them through poaching, stealing and performing. Isaak was found as a babe in the backstreets of the district of nobles by a servant running errands. Amongst the wrappings, a sheathed slim dagger with a single word engraved on it was the child's namesake: "Isaak". The serving girl's heart went out for the child wrapped in rags, and took him back to her master's estate.
He was raised in secret by the loving servants until he came of age to walk, run and talk. Obviously he could not be contained within the servant's quarters, the boy was full of mischief, so he spent his days sneaking around the estate, playing in the stables and stealing food from the kitchens. Befriending a stableboy named Hulik, a slave brought from foreign lands, Isaak learnt much. Hulik was from a nomadic tribe of people who have a great affinity with horses and make great woodsmen. Unparalelled with their skill with a longbow, they were even able to fire arrows accurately from horseback - a valuable skill that Hulik trained Isaak in. Hulik also told Isaak much of the lore he had picked up from his interactions with various people and from his own tribe.
When Isaak was approximately 12 years old, he was caught in the act of wooing one the master's daughters in her bedchamber. Furious, the estate master had the servants whipped and Hulik executed, banishing Isaak to the wilds. Having stolen a bow from an unsuspecting hunter, Isaak lived in the forrests poaching for his survival. One day, Isaak was caught by a patrol of guards and brought into the nearest city - his crime was poaching, and his punnishment was service. Forced to entertain the guards, Isaak realised he held a power over people and his singing could effect them. Of course, this was short lived as he was caught stealing a woodharp and was chased into the woods by the guards. Days later, when the sky was inky black and the rocky terrain around him was silent as death, a sudden rushing of dark skinned bodies caught and caged him.
He had been captured by a Drow raiding party and forced into servitude in the house Al'Meara. The darkest four years of his life was spent in the Underdark, with no hope of escape and evils lurking at every corner. It was here that Isaak developed very keen senses of body language and a deep seated fear and hatred of spiders. Having somehow charmed the weapons master into teaching Isaak how to anticipate somebody's actions by the rippling and tensing of muscles, Isaak became aware of a young, powerful cleric named Bylanna who gave of waves of fear when in the company of the House Matron. Fear was a weakness in drow, as was the growing sympathy and affection she felt towards the young bard who was assigned her personal entertainer. Rather than use him simply as a source of pleasure, Bylanna was teaching Isaak (quite roughly) in the ways of drow passion. In the fourth year of his captivity, Isaak's power over people had earnt him the love and respect of the drow cleric, and she helped him escape the underdark.
Fearing to return to her home, Bylanna instead travelled with Isaak on the surface at night for two days, until a powerful paladin and his squire happened upon them, and captured Bylanna so she could be brought to justice. His heart broken, Isaak followed the trail of gossip that was left in the wake of a captured drow in all the playhouses and taverns for several months. Then, after 7 months of relentless chasing, the gossip placed Bylanna in the area of Midor, and this is where Isaak vows he will free his very unusual drow lover. |
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Re: A Bard's Tale
Posted: 22 Aug 2003 11:59 AM |
| Sounds like you'd need some DM help =) |
Aria
So talented, so troubled. |
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