Neria Oleandris Coppermane

Neria's Background Story

 * Neria's Story: The Beginning 

The Church was coming. Towns to the north and west had fallen in its wake and Corvus Coppermane knew the massacres had only begun. So, in the early evening, he took his wife and together they left their hometown of Ghaash Dar and headed South west, deeper into the Demon Wastes. Like Harbingers of Death, every town the Coppermanes fled through soon fell to the church of the Silver Flames, its residents slaughtered.. After tireless travel, the Coppermanes sought haven in the Burning Keep, a place so treacherous even the Church itself feared passage through it. For eight years the couple survived the tempestuous wasteland and eventually felt secure enough to have a daughter, Palanis. They raised her to be wary of any church or religious group, but especially the church of the Silver Flames. They told her of the olden days when werewolves walked in society alongside Barbarians and even Shifters, able to hide their lycanthropic heritage any time except during the full moon. They recalled their days in Ghaash Dar, happy times in a society of understanding. After twenty-eight years away, the Coppermanes decided to make the trek back to Ghaash Dar and, along with their daughter, rebuild the lives they once had. However, this was not to be. Despite the overall disbanding of the Church of the Silver Flames, renegade bands still roved the continent, searching for the surviving lycanthropes and mercilessly and brutally murdering them. The Coppermanes made it as far as the Labyrinth before discovering this. It was there that they were captured and tortured for seven days by just such a group. The seventh night brought the full moon and the Coppermanes’ deliverance. All three transformed and ripped their way to freedom, a joy soon snatched away as Palanis lost her mother shortly thereafter in the Icehorn Mountains. Bitter and still suffering from their torture, Corvus and Palanis made their way to Vostethatra where Palanis soon learned she was with child. Horrified and ashamed, she was prepared to end her own life when her father intervened. He reminded her it was not her fault, and that neither she nor the child could be held responsible. She agreed, but did not want the half-blood child, and they agreed it would be left at an orphanage as soon as it was born. The days passed by without much incident, until the day Corvus failed to return from a hunt. Palanis, scared and eight months pregnant, searched for her father for several hours before finding him face-down in a stream. There were no wounds on him and no sign of a struggle. Upon returning home, Palanis gathered what she could of their meager belongings and sought refuge deeper inside the abandoned city. It was there, on a chilly late-spring night that Palanis gave life to her child, Neria Oleandris Coppermane. She decided to keep her.

Eight years passed rapidly for the mother and daughter, and there seemed to be no sign of the Church of the Silver Flames; still, Palanis taught her daughter to be wary. She also taught her to hunt, forage, and even scavenge, should the need arise. Then one night, it happened. Neria noticed that during a full moon, Palanis could transform into a wolf-creature. Why couldn’t she? She felt the same blood-lust, and oftentimes it was impossible to control. She had the same heightened senses, but why couldn’t she change shape? She asked her mother. Palanis refused to tell her daughter she was half-human, especially half Church of the Silver Flame human. So instead she told her it was because she hadn’t grown into her wolf-state yet. This satisfied young Neria, but she noticed a change in her mother’s attitude from that night on. She became distant and had a look of worry on her face for several days. Then, on a very early morning, shortly before Neria’s ninth summer, a band of men appeared inside the city. Their foreign scent alerted Palanis, who hid her daughter away in a dry well before attempting to hide herself. It was dark outside when Neria finally hoisted herself out o f the well and found her mother’s remains smoldering on a stake at the entrance to the ghost city. Neria screams turned into wailing tears, and then into a mournful howl as the moon rose and bathed the heartbroken girl in its full light.

It seemed like a dream. She could only remember catches of it, but those glimpses were very real. She picked out each of the men’s scents and followed them. She found their campfire. She threw something large and black onto their fire and the men leapt in terror. The firs tone ran right by her and she ripped his legs out from under him. In another glimpse, two men were obviously very dead and the third was wriggling his torso around in agony. She felt herself laughing, a dark, deep laugh that made her want to kill more. In the final memory, she held the last man waist-deep in the fire, laughing in his screaming face between mouthfuls of cooked flesh from the remnants of his arms. It was a sadistic dream that scared her. She could never be like that. She wanted vengeance for her mother, but she was just a child, and such violence was worthy only of demons. She roused herself from her sleep and realized the foul stench of burning skin. She thought she had cried herself to sleep at the feet of her dead mother. But then again, she also thought she couldn’t have done those terrible, awesome things in her dreams either. But before her lay four cadavers- one quartered and left to bleed, one run through lengthwise with his own blade, one decapitated with his neck chewed through, and the last leaning out of the fire, armless, and supported by the foul remains of the flag of the Church of the Silver Flames.

From that day forth, Neria made it her mission to hunt down the founders of the Church of the Silver Flame and put an end to their homicidal tyranny once and for all. Thirteen years into the hunt and Neria learns of an oracle who can tell the whereabouts of anyone. She decides to pay a visit to this seer and finds herself leaving the Demon Wastes for a place called Breland.

                          Neria: In Game

In the beginning of the campaign, Neria was shy and withdrawn, not wanting to attract attention to herself anymore than necessary. During the initial run-in with Corey Brogan, she quickly revealed herself to be a non-matronly character- threatening to knock Corey out of the tree by force, rather than sympathize with the crying little twit and talk him down nicely. She suspected he was not as innocent as he pretended to be, especially after the rat infestation of the town. After hearing about his actions, Neria disliked the snotty brat even more and really doubted his story about his soul being traded by his father. Slightly later in the game, the group had a battle with a Gorgon, which went badly for some of the characters- Neria and another member of the party happened to be turned to stone, and thanks to the ingenuity of Adonteon, both were buried underground "for their protection". This is where Neria learned to commune with earthworms, as she was buried underground for quite a while, during which time the rest of the group was "looking for a cure". She has her doubts about all that time going to the search...Eventually, Neria was dug up and revived, but the other character was nowhere to be seen.

The earlier adventures included a fight with a Hecuva, in which Neria and Adonteon teamed up to use their scythes to throw it out a window so the team could escape. That is, if the plan had worked, it would have ended that way, but instead the best they could do was distract it long enough for everyone to get the hell outta Dodge. There was also a confrontation with a Kelpie and then the pursuit of the Caravan of Kidnapped Women, in which new characters emerged and some old ones were lost along the way.

During these adventures, Neria begins to open up more to her companions, but still withholds her werewolf lineage. One night, however, she feels an insatiable urge to hunt, and so, while everyone else sleeps, she disrobes and runs the forests. Upon waking, the group figures she is bathing or else otherwise detained, and carry on their original path. The Bard, Kolache, however, takes her armor and gear and unknowingly leaves Neria to wander, alone, disarmed, and naked, until she later catches up to the group- this is the beginning of a long love/hate relationship between the two characters.

During the Caravan adventure, Neria meets a band with the Church of the Silver Flame and, in front of everyone, turns werewolf and begins a heavy (if not insane) attack against the band, targeting their leader, Theron. Outnumbered and unprepared, Neria was fighting (unknown to her) to the death, biting and clawing her way through the masses as Theron fired silver projectiles at her. However, Neria had an unknown ally in the band. A young half-elf soldier took an intense interest in her and decided he couldn't bear to see her killed, so he secretly cast a spell to cloud the battleground and, while everyone was lost in the confusion, he rescued her, returning her to her group where she could be healed. She didn't get his name.

After following the Caravan, the group found themselves in the gluttonous home of Huemphen J'Marma where they realized he was working with Corey Brogan. The group devised a plan to poison Huemphen's banquet, which resulted in a horrendous, but hilarious, incident involving Mass Suggestion, much poisoned wine drinking, and some loss of clothing. At this point (shortly after going topless) Neria realizes that they have back-up: a group of Druids appeared to stop Huemphen as well as another band of (apparently) adventurers, led by a certain half-elf soldier who had defected from the Silver Flame band. Thoroughly drunk and still trying to disrobe, Neria barely recognized her previous savior, but found herself really attracted to him (we'll say it was the wine..) He felt likewise towards her (sans the wine influence) and if it hadn't been for the fighting and chaos errupting around them, this wiki would most likely be 'X' rated here. Amidst all the chaos, the mansion caught fire, which quickly spread throughout the town, and Huemphen mysteriously died. It was time to leave.

There soon followed more trailing of Corey, an adventure into Druid territory, a HORRIBLE failing of will-saves, in which terrible consequences ensued for Neria and Charala, and the Almighty DM had to oversee a really difficult RP session which will not be mentioned in detail here. The group found out that certain Gates between Planes were being activated (a very bad thing) and began another branch of the mission to stop the Gates from opening. Also, about this time, Neria gained the favor of Charala's plane-touched mount- a black stallion with an apparent nightmare heritage and a taste for flesh. She named him Sithis.

The trek into the Demon Wastes began shortly thereafter. The group encountered a great little gnome (with a hilarious Southern accent no less!) selling stuff along the way and who provided them with a map to a pass into the Demon Wastes and a warning about a terrible fiend seen along the road. The group headed out, found the pass and the 'fiend' who was in fact a friend from earlier, and began the Great Adventure into the Demon Wastes.

The Demon Wastes chapter of this campaign brought with it excitement, drama, and pain to the party, but mostly just pain. Upon entering the Wastes, the group suffered many strange mis-adventures with various creatures of undead sorts, but eventually found the whereabouts of a stronghold suspected to be a haven of Corey Brogan's. The group began exploring and found the property crawling with undead critters. It appeared they weren't too interested in attacking anyone, though- instead they seemed to be concentrating on rebuilding the derelict castle. While scouting the area, the group was attacked by a band of Vrocs. Things looked pretty bleak for a while, and then got worse when the Vrocs began a Circle Dance that dealt serious damage to some party members. Frustrated and unable to stop the dance, the crew retreated into the pseudo-safety of a nearby broken-down tower. It was here that Neria concocted an idea- she recruited the arching expertise of Charala and tied one end of a rope from a Bag of Neverending Rope to the end of one of Charala's arrows and told her to cast it into the fray of Vrocs. Charala attempted this, but the arrow fell short. In a fit of fury, Neria shifted and darted out as the Vrocs continued their Dance. She grabbed the arrow and lept into the dancing group, stabbing one of the creatures as she tore through. Then, she stood back and watched as the Vrocs proceeded to entangle themselves in her rope. Furious, the ensnared creatures stopped their Circle Dance, cursing Neria loudly as they disappeared in a shamble. The group, relieved and amused, rested a bit and then carried on their search of the castle. In another tower of the compound the group made a disturbing discovery. The corpse of a young woman was found locked in a tower room and, upon further inspection, a diary was found. It appeared to belong to the victim and revealed a troubling surprise- the girl's sister had made a new friend who apparently was to blame for all her family's trouble. It was suspected that Corey Brogan was this new friend. The troup continued on with their search and eventually wound up deep in the bowels of the ruins. There, they discovered many references to The Keeper and their suspicion about Corey's involvement began to wane. One of the statues of The Keeper depicted Him holding a weapon of immense appeal to Neria- it was a scythe in the form of an extended skeleton with an evil-looking blade protruding from its gaping maw. Neria fell in love.

The group continued their search, dodging traps and setting off several before reaching the final gateway. Within the final chamber there were two rooms- one to the left, the other to the right. And the rest of the space was filled... LITERALLY FILLED.. with undead. Sitting upon a throne behind the rotting hoard was the evil mastermind behind the fall of Family Westmarch. It was not Corey Brogan- it was instead Julia D'Cannith, the other party member left petrified by the Gorgon attack earlier in the adventure. She had apparently survived the Gorgon incident afterall, and had since been harboring a deep grudge against the party for her abandonment. She also appeared to have been passing her time learning Dread Necromancy and plotting the fall of humanity. That aside, she sicced her undead minions on the group and a nasty fight followed. As the group battled the masses, they learned that upon 'dying', the undead creatures would explode violently. It was a tight spot. They fought exuberantly and began working their way ever closer to Julia. Sensing the danger, she summoned a creature from the depths- but since no one in the party knew what else to call the thing, it became known as "Julia's Crotch Worm". This offended her and the group laughed, which just pissed her off even more. It was a giant maggot-like creature with tentacles and it was gross, and more importantly, it was nearly impossible to hurt because of its tentacles. Irkusk rushed the Worm in a kamikaze attempt and, though he dealt heavy damage to the creature, he was devoured. Suddenly the Pit the Worm had crawled from began to rumble, and a great devilish fist errupted through the floor. The fist opened and a female of evil origin stepped down, ripped a screaming and thrashing Irkusk from the intestines of the Worm, and then the fist closed over them again and they descended back into the Pit and beyond. After the trauma, the group split into two sections and each section retreated into the nearest room. Neria found herself in a dining area with Kolache, Jaxas, and Charala. There was another door in this place which Kolache and Jaxas were attempting to open. Neria and Charala were keeping a lookout for the Crotch Worm through a chink in the door. Finally, the mystery door was opened and a room of potions was discovered to lay beyond. As the bard and his cohort wreaked havoc on themselves using the unknown chemicals, Neria's attention was drawn to an altar beyond them. On it lay a rod, in the image of a tiny skeleton. Around this time, Jaxas also noticed the object and felt an urge to take it. Neria was overcome with an obsession to make the object her own and fought off Jaxas to be the first to grab it. Seeing this, Kolache suspected an evil aura and cast Consecrate on the area. The rod flew off the altar and proceeded to beat the crap out of him. During the process, Neria grabbed it. She was instantly transported off to another plane, where she was standing amidst ash and screaming corpses atop a plateau. A single bridge connected to another plateau and there, strapped to an altar, lay a young girl. Neria approached and found the girl awake, and strangely, resembling herself. She was crying. Neria pulled the gag away from her mouth and questioned her. She said she didn't know why she was there or when she got there, much less how long she had been held captive. She had seen no one else. There was a blade laying nearby and Neria picked it up to free the girl. As soon as her hand grasped the hilt, a voice commanded her to make a sacrifice- it demanded blood. She turned back to the girl and questioned her further. The girl revealed that she had been raised by the Sons of Bannon, in the Church of the Silver Flame. That explained the slightly familiar scent Neria was picking up on her, but still she had a difficult time convincing herself to kill the helpless girl. Neria interrogated her further and found that the girl had no idea about the Church's activities and she herself had never participated in anything questionable through the Church. Neria decided instead to offer her own blood. As she moved to cut her arm, the blade took over and plunged itself deep into her chest. Everything went black.

When Neria came to, she was layed out on the floor in the potion room with the rod clutched tightly in her hand. Kolache, Jaxas, and Charala were still there, and evidently concerned. Kolache also apparently still needed more sense beat into him, as he was still messing with the unknown chemicals, but other than that, everything was pretty much still the same. Then, the sounds of battle filled the room. The other section of the group had decided to resume the attack on Julia and her Worm. Sensing the urgency, Neria's band joined in. As Neria stepped out of the room to face the Worm, she heard a familiar voice in her head- it was the voice from earlier and this time it told her not to worry- it would take care of the situation. The skeletal rod suddenly extended, the mouth of the skull opened and a sinister blade sprang forth. Neria held the Weapon of The Keeper. Its name was Atropos. Upon his command, Neria stepped forward and attacked the Worm and in one sweep, the creature fell. Julia, in the meantime, beat a hasty retreat as she recognized the weapon, and though Adonteon tried to pursue her, she managed to escape leaving no trace of where she was going. Neria told no one about her communicating with Atropos and NO ONE was permitted to wield him.

They continued on with their adventure and shortly after leaving the castle, they ran into a a relative of Revania's. She exhibited insane fighting abilities and told the rest of the party that if they followed, they would die. Rovania begged the party to listen and not follow. She escorted Rovania away then, and the party was short yet another member. Only moments later, the group was set upon by a band of slavers and taken into captivity, even the mounts. They travelled for days, went through a severe sandstorm near the end of it all, and found themselves slaves to the Lords of Dust in the fabled Demon City of Ashtakala.

Upon arrival in Ashtakala, the group was divided into sections determining where they would be most useful to their new masters. Some went to the Library, some went to the Lord of Pleasures (take a wild guess what went on there..),and others, like Neria, went to the Lord of Blades to serve as entertainment for the masses in Pit Fights against various and multiple enemies. Before leaving for their respective locales, everyone received an evil, unremovable tattoo, branding them as captives of their respective Lords. These tattoos bound the recipients' souls to the Lords of Dust and forced them to obey any directly-given order. Orders weren't hard for Neria to take- she simply had to survive whatever fight they put her in. This she did, and did so well that she was well on her way to being a Pit celebrity until one day...

When they were taken captive, all of their personal belongings became the property of whichever Lord they were bound to serve. This, in Neria's case, included Atropos. The Lord of Blades knew He was no mere rod, but could not figure out how to wield Him. She sent for Neria. Neria was told nothing in particular about her summoning, but suspected it had to do with Atropos. Upon arriving at the Lord of Blades' stronghold, Neria was ushered into a throne room and there lay Atropos on a pedestal right next to the Lord of Blades. When questioned about the nature of the item, Neria played dumb, claiming it to be simply a rod taken from a necromancer's lair. The Lord grew suspicious and picked up the Weapon. She brought Him before Neria and commanded her to sit. Neria, however, was not compelled, as the tattoo dictated she should be. She yearned for Atropos' power, and His hold over her soul outweighed the simple possession the mortal Lords of Dust had tried to claim. She turned a spiteful sneer at her captor and refused to subjugate. Taken aback, the Lord moved to strike, and a brief, bloody, and ultimately painful scuffle unfurled in which Neria very nearly retrieved Atropos from the Lord's grip. However, an assistant to the Lord of Blades entered the fray and snatched Atropos away, leaving Neria to defend herself unarmed against the enraged rakshasa. She very nearly died.

When she regained her senses, she was imprisoned in a dungeon, bound, gagged, and blinded by absolute darkness. And she was in severe pain, let's not forget that. She spent the next undeterminable length of time being tortured until unconscious, revived, tortured some more, and then tossed back into the cell. During this process, she underwent a wickedly horrible torture in which she lost her eyes; not went blind, but physically lost her eyes. When she awoke after that particularly nasty session, she found she could see some distance in the pitch black. Oddly enough, she also became aware of a visitor outside her cell. It was an assistant to the Lord of Blades. She explained that no one had ever stood up to the Lord of Blades, and Neria's 'courage' had inspired her to try to plot an escape. She felt that Neria would be best suited to command the attempt and offered to help her gain freedom. Neria was very wary of the situation, but, after sensing no maliciousness in the young woman, agreed. The woman told her that she would return with some others later in the day and the escape would commence. True to her word, the young woman returned with several others later on and they proceeded to free Neria and help her escape into the sewer tunnels beneath Ashtakala. It was a treacherous escape that also included the emancipation of Atropos, which very nearly cost one rescuer her life, but in the end, they all managed to evade the guards. As they plotted their run for freedom, it became obvious that many more than just the original few people were eager to participate in the project. Most of Ashtakala was populated by slaves, and the news of a revolt spread like a plague through the crowded city. Rumors that Atropos (Neria's Pit name) was leading the exodus fueled people's hopes and attracted still more to the bandwagon.

Some of the first to be freed were Neria's companions: Adonteon, Tailswisher, Ephraim, Shanara and Kolache were all successfully located and retrieved. Sadly, Charala's location remained unknown, and Jaxas was lost to violence when he set a trap that succeeded in killing one and injuring several of his captors. A new party member was retrieved as well, however, and the party would later welcome Sardonis, a Grimalkin kitten, as Tailswisher's adopted son. They set up base in the sewers and began planning the details of the escape. While planning, it became apparent to the rest of the group that something was different about Neria: her once-golden eyes were now fiend-red, an odd coincidence with a certain prophecy dictated by Kolache.

The plan read something like this: First and foremost, whatever equipment could be gained, was taken so that most, if not everyone, was armed and/or armored. Neria and Pyn (a dwarf-like little guy with fiery red claws) tracked and killed lots of rat-like creatures found scurrying around the sewers. The bodies were stuffed with explosives and reanimated by Adonteon. These mobile bombs were lit and then released at sites near the West and North Gates to draw attention away from the East Gate, where the actual escape took place. Everyone else moved as close to the East Gate as possible in the sewers. When the signal was given (i.e. the rats exploded) the mass poured out of the sewers and moved toward the East Gate using back streets to keep from drawing unnecessary attention. Neria and a couple of others went to free Sithis while Adonteon, who had by that time caught up with the group after detonating the rats, found a holding area for Guartanos, huge minotaur-like creatures being genetically manufactured in Ashtakala as war- and labor-beasts. He rushed in and gained their trust (which wasn't hard- they're none too bright) and freed them, then led them to battle against the East Gate. The ragtag army hit the Gate like an angry wave and burst through. Phase One was completed successfully. The next problem, however, were the Walls of Storms that surrounded the City. Normally, the winds alone would have dessimated any creature trying to pass through, but luckily an old elf, Fareron, who had fought alongside Neria in the Pit, just happened to have had a special gem that would quiet the storm for a few moments. The band organized itself, Fareron activated the gem, and everyone hauled ass through the brief opening. The plan was working, except for one unforseen issue- Fareron had to rest before using the gem again, lest the exhaustion kill him. So, for ten minutes, the army had to wait while he recovered, then once again,they proceeded through the short break in the storm's second wall. By this time, however, sounds of pursuit were being heard over the roar of the winds. Just as the second wall closed behind the group, some witnessed a large dragon charging through the first wall with a Lord at the reins. Before the third and final wall could be broken, everyone got a good look at the dragon. The Lord of Blades broke through with her own army and a mighty battle errupted. It was all-out war. Heavy casualties were sustained on both sides; the group itself lost Shanara late in the battle as the Lord of Blades pulled a special move that would have also killed Neria had Pyn, her fire-clawed friend, not foreseen the attack and sacrificed himself to save her. Enraged by the loss of her friends, Neria unleashed her fury upon the Lord of Blades and the group united in an incredibly strong front and brought the Lord down. Fareron finally broke through the last wall of the Storm and the survivors began running through. Whatever the Lord of Blades had of value, the group pillaged and, just before they crossed the wall, they realized her body was missing and an artifact she had been carrying was gone. Neria realized also that one of her own emancipators who had survived the battle was also missing. They had no time to worry about it- the wall closed just as they cleared it and the first chapter of the Great Exodus ended.

The next great hurdle to overcome was how to move an entire fiend army across the Demon Wastes with very little supplies and NOT have them murder each other. This was a particularly difficult time for the newly-freed people, but with no better alternatives, they set out for what they hoped was the nearest boundary out of the Demon Wastes. Days passed and provisions were gone and tempers were high. There were rumors of a town close by, but still days away. As night fell on one of those dark days, muffled sounds of a struggle were heard and by the next morning, there was evidence of cannabalism amongst the fiends. It was at this time that Atropos seemed to abandon Neria. For apparently no reason, He struck out on His own and when she tried to grab Him, He dealt a type of ability drain on her. She dropped Him, confused and hurt, and He carried on His way. Unbeknownst to the group, the Neria they followed out of the Demon Wastes was a Doppleganger, switched in the night with the real Neria whom Atropos left to find.

The group made it all the way to Fairhaven by the time they realized the switch. Scrying attempts failed and it appeared that Neria may very well have been lost to the group. Little did they realize that she was closer than they expected.

Neria remembered very little of what happened exactly. She remembered the torture- lots of it and of a caliber the guy in Ashtakala knew nothing of. She couldn't remember who had her, only fleeting memories of a feminine figure in all-white with big, fluffy, white wings sticking out of her scapulars. Then, Atropos appeared; a black space, no memories; then shambling in the desert. A shadow passed over her and Atropos lay beside her; voices, one of them a man's that she vaguely recognized but couldn't place; then she was being lifted and someone told her she was safe. She regained consciousness in some room she was unfamiliar with. It was simple and clean and, judging by the muffled sounds outside, in a city of considerable size. By the smell of the air, it was not in the Demon Wastes. With this knowledge, she rested, falling into and out of consciousness several times. She became aware of being wrapped, no, covered in bandages, the way some corpses of royalty were bound before being sealed away in a catacomb. Everything she did lead to pain; breathing hurt, blinking hurt, trying to move even the slightest bit was excrutiating. She felt like she'd been skinned, rubbed with salt, then had the skinned pieces reattached only to be re-skinned later. It was during one of these exploratory/ hurting sessions that her savior walked into the room. She thought she was hallucinating. Before her stood none other than her half-brother, Raithos, an exorcist of the Church of the Silver Flame. She knew him by his voice, but still couldn't believe he would save her. They spoke for a while (he talked, she listened- at least listening didn't cause pain) and he explained that their half-sister and Neria's other half-brother, Tethos, had been killed by the corrupted Church and he had been excommunicated. He sought her out to make ammends for his earlier attempts on her life and to help her save her immortal soul. Neria had a lot to say about the subject, but luckily for Raithos, she was incapable of speech at the moment. So he continued tending her wounds and caring for her until finally he chanced upon her allies one day in the streets of Fairhaven.

After some heavy healing thanks to the Church of the Perfect Form (aka Kolache and his new friend Eurface), Neria was finally able to lose the bandages and move around. She had indeed suffered tremendous and continued torture, as her fully-scarred body showed. Every inch of her was lined with fine scarring in what looked like a patchwork of skin. She really had been skinned alive, piece by piece, and then reconstructed, so the process could begin again. She harbored anger for her friends for leaving her to her fate; she felt that they should have had clues telling them they were in the company of an imposter, but they all claimed they had no such insight. She demanded to see the doppleganger, but the group told her it had suffered a strange, but deadly, fate shortly after their arrival in Fairhaven. Neria was instead introduced to two new party members: a Druid named Briar and a Thayan Knight, Arra. Briar had been granted an audience with the King of Aundair and had tried to warn him of the impending danger threatening the country via the blight through the Gates. The Good King could not see her,though, and she instead spoke with his imperial advisor. The advisor would hear nothing more without proof (like a tiny blighted chunk- all that remained- of Olean wasn't enough to prove trouble afoot!) and sent her away. Neria, who already disliked and mistrusted any major human establishment, became enraged at the carelessness of the advisor and was all for abandoning the City of Fools to their demise. The group, however, was more forgiving, and agreed to take on a mission from the King in order to prove their trustworthiness to him. They hoped that upon the mission's completion, he would realize the honor of the group and hear more of what they had to say. Neria's hopes weren't nearly so altruistic.

They set off for a grand adventure in the nearby town of Marketplace, just a couple days' journey via the Lightning Rail. By this time, Neria had questioned Raithos to the whereabouts of her weapon, and he told her it was safe, but it was in her best interest that she not weild it. Neria strongly disagreed, but because he had saved her life, she behaved herself. Then they arrived in Marketplace.

What was supposed to have been a bustling city was instead a smoldering, abandoned warzone. Corpses littered the Lightning Rail platform, but the rest of the town seemed oddly devoid of bodies. Neria demanded the return of Atropos, and Raithos, considering the situation, cautiously acquiesced. Dusk was settling as the adventurers began inspecting the scene. Neria and Arra rode the city perimeters looking for who- or what- had attacked the city, but found nothing. As they returned to the platform, a sudden explosion rocked the back of the building, and a shadowed figure was glimpsed scrambling away. Neria rushed to the scene to find everyone trying to move the train before the building collapsed on it. They succeeded, and a spooked engineer warned the group that they would be leaving at first light. Neria caught the scent of something foul on the wind and followed it to the town's center. There, in an enormous mound, lay the bodies of the townsfolk. A party member tried to burn the bodies and instead enraged some large black beetles that had been eating the cadavers, which then attacked. As the party engaged the insects, other noises in the growing darkness attracted Neria's attention; they were being surrounded by some sort of zombies that were partially mechanized and had green-glowing runes carved into their flesh. The party scrambled, and Neria, astride Sithis, waded into combat. The battle seemed to be going in their favor until Tailswisher was nearly killed by a squad of the mech-zombies and unseen enemies began casting spells into the melee. One of these spells was aimed at Neria, and she used a newly-acquired skill to turn the spell back on its caster, singeing it nicely and giving it a good scare. She tracked it down and finished the kill. At the battle's end, it was very clear that a particularly nasty flavor of necromancy had been at work in the town, and the danger became even more eminent when a beautiful horned woman rode out of the darkness on a steed that rivalled Sithis in unsettling freakishness and ran Arra through with a wicked blade. She spoke only briefly, then disappeared into the black night with Arra still skewered on her weapon. The only clue she left was "Karnath". A message came, then, from the train warning the group that it was pulling out- all that fighting had scared the hell out of the crew and they were going home.

They hurried back to the train and just made it.

The motley crew made it back to Fairhaven with little interruption where, after alerting the authorities to the plight of Marktplace, the new Druid of the Party voiced a desire to find her tribe after receiving a disturbing vision. The intrepid adventurers set off yet again, this time on the hunt for Orcish Druids. After a few run-ins with irritating things, such as pixies and big smelly ape-things that spit acid, the group received an unexpected visit from a former member. In the dark of night, as Neria took watch, she felt something thick and wet splat on top of her head. Figuring the worst, she looked up expecting at least a bird overhead or at worst some giant, evil thing, but was surprised to find Eldrid hovering overhead. She had accidentally plopped mud on Neria and after the surprise wore off, Neria invited her to the fireside where they talked until the next watch started. She filled her in on the group's goings-on, including the tentative introductions to some of the newer members. The next morning, after proper introductions, the group headed off to continue their search for the Druids. They later stumbled upon an alarming situation: a large part of the forest was under an illusion spell. It appeared to be there, but something about it was wrong. Upon further inspection, it was revealed that the forest had actually been stripped away and was being brutally mined by large machines, the likes of which all but Revania had never seen. In this mine, bodies, alive and dead, were being dumped and crushed into odd, green-glowing stones. Eldrid volunteered to retrieve a sample and Neria offered her oilskin cloak to carry the vile thing in. Eldrid flew off into the pit. She summoned a sample and tried to get closer to one of the machines to observe it, and it attacked her. Wounded, she hurried back to the group to deliver the evil package. No one could identify it, so she offered to take the stone to a temple where she felt more could be learned about the substance. She hurried off after the group told her they would send a message about their whereabouts and they would reunite in a few days. The group found the Druids they were seeking a day or so later. While everyone else played healer or befriended some of the orcs, Neria was unsettled. Since the influence of Caradoc, she disliked, and in most cases, hated Druids. She considered them weak, cowardly, and useless and certainly didn't want to chum up to any of them. She had to ask directions to the stables, however, and made the mistake of asking a certain young orc male who could only utter monosyllables. She figured he was either ignorant or under some chemical influence, but managed to get to the stables to care for Sithis. Little did she know that he could speak, but was unable to in the presence of the gloriously-scarred Lady of War, Neria. She didn't realize that scars were attractive to orcs.

While tending to her steed, Neria was shocked at the sudden arrival of Eldrid and three unsavory characters. Their presence triggered a mass response from the Druid settlement, and the group very nearly became embroiled in a skirmish until Briar intercepted and announced that the newcomers were friends. It turned out that the three accomplices came from the temple Eldrid had visited and were to act as her backup. They were most unsavory- from the acolyte of The Mockery with her horrendously scarred body to the dark, secretive follower of The Shadow, to the fiery-haired flirtatious madman of The Fury, they were a trio that most in the party became immediately wary of. Neria didn't mind them so much, even though they did (including Eldrid) stare at her crazily when she later pulled Atropos out in battle. She never did find out what caused their shock, because after the group finished with the orcs, they visited Arcanix where the trio turned on Eldrid one night and killed her. They disappeared without a trace.

The party continued their investigation of Arcanix. Neria visited a skilled craftsman there and commissioned a special suit of armor. Turned out it would take several days to complete, so she went with the group to visit the local college. The college sucked. It was apparently run by stuffy, eccentric, pompous old bastards that succeeded in doing nothing but leeching funds from the group and pissing everyone off. The group did manage to free a 'celestial' being, however, which later turned out to be a fiend of some powerful sort. They conveniently failed to mention this to anyone at the college before they left. As they were leaving, alarms were raised, as well as eyebrows, when Tailswisher came bolting from the library with screaming books. It was a good time to leave.

Shortly after that misadventure on campus, they returned to their quarters at a local inn for the night. After settling in, the town came alive with guard activity. It seemed some artifact(s) of value were taken from the college and the guards were seeking out the culprit. Everyone suspected Tailswisher, and shi abandoned the books on a nearby rooftop in an attempt to hide the evidence. The books flew away while the following chaos ensued. The guards swarmed the inn and questioned everyone therein. Tailswisher was found to have a sword of some sort on hir person, which floored everyone (we all know shi ain't got no skillz like dat!) and shi was carried off. However, while trying to transport hir to prison, the guards met with an adversary- something dark attacked their winged mounts and nearly killed a rider; luckily Adonteon just 'happened' to be there, and fought off the shadow while saving the guard. It was soon discovered that the sword Tailswisher had 'stolen' had mysteriously disappeared. Everyone was confused. With no evidence, the guards couldn't detain Tailswisher, so they let hir go (plus it had helped that one of hir party members had just saved a guard). Once back in the room, everyone was trying to make sense of the disappearing goods. Neria picked up an unfamiliar scent in the room, but couldn't place it, and there didn't appear to be anyone extra present. They eventually gave up and went to bed.

The next morning, however, a young halfling fellow was seen in the dining area of the inn. Neria recognized his scent and knew he had been in the room. She began to observe him carefully. Others in the group became aware of the little fellow, and eventually they began speaking to him (though Adonteon suffered a case of child-like immaturity, and preferred to throw wadded up notes to the halfling... no one knows why...) He introduced himself as Marcus Shinhigh and was, in fact, the rogue extraordinaire who had procurred the weapon from Arcanix, planted it on Tailswisher, and reclaimed it yet again while it stood in the guards' grasp. Obviously well-skilled, he was instantly offered a place within the party. Sensing adventure and hoards o' loot, he accepted. Neria found him entertaining, to say the least.

It was near this time that the group received a message from Ephraim, who had traveled on to Fairhaven. Things were looking dire- the king and the royal family were missing and the advisor seemed to be the only one in charge. Something was amiss. Sensing the urgency in the message, the group decided to depart immediately for Fairhaven; Neria would return later for her new armor and Sithis, who couldn't make the trip due to spell limitations. They poofed to the outskirts of Fairhaven, heeding the warning that the town was extremely militarized and on high alert. Briar transformed the group into a flock of geese (which was thoroughly amusing!) and they flew right onto the college campus there. They managed to safely make it into Josatia's office and were returned to their usual forms, though naked. Their possessions were returned, they geared up, and prepared to infiltrate the castle keep.

It was learned that the advisor was compromised- he was no longer loyal to Fairhaven, and his treachery was unfathomed. They formed a plan- Josatia and Ephraim would go beneath the castle structure to check on the magical reinforcements around the walls. The rest of the group would seek out the king, free him and his family (if it was possible), and take out the advisor. The only problem was that the group needed something of the king's in order to effectively scry on him. Marcus stepped up to the plate and after much shenanigans tormenting guards and earning the nickname of "Palace Demon" for himself, Mr. Shinhigh procured the king's crown. It was more than necessary, but impressive all the same. The scrying spell revealed the king being held in a dungeon beneath the palace. After much walking and sneaking, the party finally saved the king and told him of the advisor's deceit. They stormed into the castle stronghold and sought out the advisor (Marcus had previously wounded the man, which made tracking him that much easier), and they caught and interrogated him, then the king knocked off his head. Neria wanted to do that...

Anyhow...

The group had learned of an attack planned for Fairhaven, but the timing was uncertain. It seemed at any moment.. *BAM!!*.. yeah, there it was. The first wave of the attack hit while they were discussing tactics and they had to scramble for the defensive. The magic shields around the castle were still up, but damaged. The town wall was under attack by a massive force of barbarians, undead, beasts of war, and mechanized war-bots, and the town was in chaos. The king stepped up to calm his townspeople and organize troops. He enlisted the aid of the group and gave them all commander status and a unit to control. Then, they went to battle!

Neria and her unit moved to the NorthWest gate and began their counter-strike there. She ordered them to focus on taking out commanders, and that no survivors were to be left. They surged into battle and hit the opposing forces hard. Neria could feel the delight in Atropos as he sheered through corpses, the blood and icor fueling his hunger. It was infectious; she darted in and out of units taking out commanders and leaving a path of carcasses in her wake. A sudden earth-rending blast from the wall momentarily halted the battle, and when the smoke cleared, it was obvious the fight wasn't going as well elsewhere. Part of the wall had just been blown up. War beasts were sent to ravage the wall and city within and Neria re-directed her troops to the failing structure. They retreated behind the NorthWest gate and moved to defend from within. They joined with other units and eventually met up with other commanders at the wall, where magic defenses were being erected to hold off the army. It worked well enough. The king ordered a retreat to the castle while the army was stalled, and everyone fell back. It was during this evacuation that Neria learned the wall's collapse was due to Adonteon trying to impede a swarm of rats. No one had told him the rats came from a special container, or that they smelled of something from Ashtakala... gunpowder. He managed to kill the rats, and himself as well. There was no time to mourn. After scrambling back to the castle, the king ordered an immediate evacuation for all citizens of the town while his forces regrouped and strategized. Sometime late that night, the king decided he would rather strategize one-on-one with Axemangler, of the opposing forces. Despite emphatic warnings and pleadings from his underlings, the king marched out onto the battlefield and demanded an audience with the leader of the undead army. Kilrana Axemangler answered, and they began a long, arduous battle, after agreeing that the winner of said battle could have whatever they desired. Marcus and Neria hid in the nearby darkness, one preparing to take fallen goods, the other prepared to take on the wounded winner. During the struggle, Axemangler dropped her rifle, which disappeared mysteriously, and Neria suddenly began channeling darkest, evil energy. It was suspected that Atropos was involved, especially when Neria suddenly vanished.

Neria found herself in a chamber, of sorts. It was obviously a cave, with only a couple of rooms in it, but the walls held strange crystals that were revealed to be dragon shards. These shards were emmanating a strange light, and upon closer inspection, it was obvious that souls were imprisoned within. After a few moments exploring, Neria realized Atropos was with her, but he was not in scythe form. He was instead in the shape of a small, black skeleton with wicked fangs. He seemed very pleased about something, but wouldn't be more specific than to tell Neria that a great power was at hand. So saying, he began clawing his way up Neria's back. She didn't fight him- she was intrigued by the 'great power', and even when it felt like he was burrowing into the back of her skull, she struggled only against the scream building in her throat until finally, overcome with intense anguish, she collapsed unconscious.

She remembered nothing. She lay in a field of dessecation and ashes outside the burned-out walls of a city, unarmed and naked. No people, nothing alive was in sight. Carefully, she raised herself up out of the wreckage and surveyed the scene. It looked like the city had been beseiged and hadn't survived. Still, she was alone. She walked cautiously along the wall's remnants, but found no sign of her armor or weapon. Come to think of it, who was she? She paused to consider, and after a moment, remembered. She was Neria. This city... this was Fairhaven, and there had been a battle. Where were the troops? Where were the bodies of the fallen? She wandered towards the city's center, to the castle. She soon discovered undead guards had been placed along the roads and there, lying just outside of the castle, lay the dessimated carcass of some massive creature. Other undead creatures milled around it and, rather than face these forces unarmed and unarmored, she disappeared into nearby shadows and made for the city docks. As she moved on, she came across a familiar creature: one of the seige beasts, a two-headed dog, came limping near. It was wounded and, though it eventually saw Neria, didn't appear interested in attacking her. It went about trying to scavenge food. Neria noticed a bit of corpse nearby, and tossed it to the dog. In all her own uncertainty, that one gesture felt normal, and seeing the animal accept her gift somehow made her feel less confused. She let it be and made it to the docks.

The docks were empty. Apparently the evacuation had been a success, but she had no idea which direction they went or how long ago. As she deliberated, she realized she was being followed: the two-headed dog had been tentatively following her. She tried to pick up traces of where the ships may've gone, found a minute trail, and followed it. She was headed toward Silver Cliff Castle, following the river, with a warbeast at her back.

Dusk was falling as Neria and the dog found themselves just outside of a small farming town. The burned-out husks of buildings indicated the undead army's march had taken them this way. She found a hovel that hadn't sustained too much damage and claimed it as camp. The dog was still acting cautious, but had become bold enough to follow at Neria's side. Though she wasn't hungry, Neria scrounged up enough food for her and the dog and, while he was distracted by the food, she crept up behind him and quickly removed the weapon debris from his wounded leg. It scared him, but soon he realized her intentions and relaxed again. Night fell, and Neria had acquired simple peasant's clothing and found a scythe that would stand in until she could find her original weapon. **She had no recollection of Atropos when she awoke; instead, all memories of Atropos were substituted with her original adamantine scythe from pre-Demon Waste adventures.** The dog slept, and eventually, so did she, though she wasn't particularly tired. The next day broke cloudy, and after donning a wide-brimmed farmer's hat, Neria and her new companion hit the road. Sometime later, they caught up to and stealthily passed the undead army. Near sundown, they came across another little town, but because the townsfolk hadn't met with the army yet, they were still around to stare warily at Neria, so she and the dog moved on. Let them find out for themselves.

With no hint of fatigue, Neria decided to see how far she could go before giving out. The dog collapsed before she did, and Neria took that as a sign to bed down for the night. They rested a while, and just after dawn, moved out. They found food along the way, though again, Neria had no appetite. They traveled on until sometime short of mid-day a voice interrupted their journey. Neria realized it was her party trying to contact her. They asked where she was and she gave them a brief description. At their promise to come and get her, she found she wasn't all that excited or relieved. The communication ended, and she realized her feelings toward her companions had changed. She walked on, the dog at her side. Moments later, a griffon flew up and landed just ahead of her. It spoke, and she realized it was Briar in animal form. The newly-resurrected Adonteon was with her. Their concern was obvious. Adonteon suspected Neria had fallen prey to a doppleganger again, and she scoffed at him. They told her she didn't look like Neria- she was unnaturally pale and her eyes had become feverishly red. She threw her head back and laughed darkly at their suspicions, revealing a new set of fangs as well. Adonteon demanded a drop of her blood to prove she was in fact Neria. Her laughter stopped, and a dark expression masked her face. "Draw it and it's yours," she snarled. He drew back for the attack, and she beat him to it, landing a heavy backhand before disappearing. He lashed out and, as chance would have it, hit her, but as the attack landed, her skin simply closed back over. She didn't bleed.

After their shock wore off, they realized she had a travelling companion. Arrangements were made, and they both were transported to the ships. After landing on deck, the group was reunited, with the shock of Neria's appearance taking its toll on several onboard. None were affected as badly as Raithos, however, when he finally left his quarters to see for himself what others had told him of the change in his sister. When he saw her, he was shocked. When he cast a Detect Evil spell on her and saw the truth of her ordeal, he was driven mad and barricaded himself in his room. He later disappeared altogether. The other party members proceeded to interrogate Neria, pertaining mostly to her memory of where she disappeared to and where Atropos was. She didn't know what they were talking about and the more they pressed for information, the angrier she became. She seemed to know nothing of her absence, much less anything about an 'Atropos'. They wondered if she was finally free of that evil influence...

Later, Neria, Adonteon, and Marcus made a special trip back to Arcanix to retrieve Sithis and a few other commodities. The trip was relatively short, but they did get to meet the town's mayor and warn him of the fall of Fairhaven. Things could have gone badly (like jail-time), but they managed to talk their way out of it, get Sithis, and return to the ship.

After spending considerable time entertaining herself at the expense of others, Neria went below one afternoon to check on Sithis and the dog, now named Kinnik, and was interrupted by the overwhelming smell of blood. Upon further investigation, she found the source- an old man had been murdered in his room. She alerted Ir'Baekess and it was determined that the man had been teaching Sardonis the art of the beguiler. It didn't take a genius to realize that the man had been murdered by an Ashtakalan assassin. After an exhaustive search, it was determined that the boy was missing as well. Tailswisher charged off into the wild blue yonder alone and unprepared to find hir child and several others went as well after a scrying spell revealed his whereabouts, but Neria was left out. She wasn't particularly upset about it, but did miss the killing opportunity. She spent her time tending her pets, tormenting unsuspecting bystanders, and, upon realizing her hair had grown pale and brittle for an unknown reason, she sheared it off to a short, spiked style. It was still a while before the party finally returned. Despite Tailswisher's best efforts, shi managed to just barely survive the encounter with the assassin and despite everyone else's best efforts to retrieve Sardonis, he was tragically murdered before their eyes and carried off by the assailant. As shi disappeared below deck, Neria glimpsed a familiar expression on the Chakat's face and made a mental note of it: she could recognize the look of unrequited vengeance on any countenance, furred or not.

They were only a short distance from their destination by the next morning. Neria spent some time watching Adonteon try to swim; he was actually just being pulled behind the ship and probably would have drowned if someone hadn't intercepted and pulled him from the frigid waters. He 'thought it was fun', apparently. She sat idly by as he proceeded to work on his fishing skills and decided to aggravate him. Hiding in nearby shadows, she pulled the bait off his hook, threw bait on him, stole fish, hit him with fish, and various other minor offenses while he complained and threatened someone he couldn't see. Tiring of the game, she finally let him be. He never did see who had been harassing him, but he had a feeling he knew.

With each new sunset, Neria felt memories returning, but they were still incomplete. All that would soon change as they neared the docks of Silver Cliff, and the seventh day since her disappearance on the battlefield.

The ships docked and almost everyone disembarked, glad to have solid land under their feet at last. Neria unloaded Sithis and Kinnik and rode off in search of prey for them. They hunted well into the night when suddenly the last memories emerged. Neria had dismounted just inside the treeline surrounding the city wall as the dizzying wave hit her. She remembered the cavern, the dragon shards... and finally Atropos. With that recollection, unbearable anguish bore down upon her. When she finally regained control of herself, she felt... different. New. Complete.


 * to continue, see Agro Shartun***