Katyana's page

Katyana is a young Undine with very marked racial traits. Her skin is ereraud blue with webbed hands, feet and ears. She wears her dark blue hair cut short with her chin held high. She moves with the grace of a trained dancer but on closer inspection, some of her movements seem forced as if she was fighting against restraints.
While the skin of her face is unblemished, her arm, back and tights bear an alarming number of scars of a lighter blue color. She takes no measure to hide them and answers the looks they get her by holding her chin higher and smiling.
When on the road, she wears loose white robes over leather armor and displays two starknives in shoulder scabbards. A blue and silver painted wooden butterfly hangs from a leather thong around her neck.

Katyana was born in clan Marid, a clan of travelling entertainers. The core of the clan was composed of three families of undines but some other humanoids had joined over the time as retainers or in-laws. Originally from Varisia, they lived on a couple of river boats, moving from town to town and presenting their show at every stop. Due to their innate abilities, their show were centered on the water element and consisted of a mix of aquatic ballet, prestidigitation, singing and dancing. All family members were trained from youth and participated as soon as they were able to, at ages of 4 or 5. While pairing within the clan sometimes occurred, the elders were proactive at seeking outside blood especially undine blood to join the clan and were not afraid of making long “detours” to visit other undine clans to cement alliances. One of such was Pearl, Katyana’s mother. Coming for a sea-faring clan of undine, she was a rare breed of totally amphibious undines that used their ability to dive and fish for pearls and precious sea shells and occasionally to recover wealth from sunk ships.
By pure luck or was it, this ability was transferred to all of Pearl’s children, Katyana, and both of his older brother Arlin and sister Marilys. This was seen as a boon for the clan and the three of them were integrated in the family show to amaze the crowds by long underwater acrobatics.
Unfortunately, the year Katyana turned 10, the clan renown reached the ears of another group of entertainers. This Nidalese group of land travelers calling themselves the Monster Masters had captured or brought a whole menagerie of freak animals and humanoids and were using them to perform tours or just as a freak show. Sending a few of their members to observe Marid clan show, they were impressed by the display and decided to acquire some of the children.
Shadowing the boats, they waited for an evening when the boats anchored close enough to the shore. Upon the cover of night, they put the sentries to sleep and climbed aboard. After some time, they found the kids they had were looking for asleep in the hold. Each grabbing a child, they put a heavy bag over their heads to muffle their calls for help and ran out of the boats. In panic, the three kids tried to free themselves. As their struggle were starting to wake the adults, both Katyana and Arlin were stunned with a sharp blow to the head. However, the kidnapper carrying Marylis lost his grip to the girl and she fell down, landing unconscious, head down in the water.
Mounting the fast horses they had left nearby, the three kidnappers set out at full speed along a prepared itinerary designed to lose any pursuit. Raised by the noise, the clan adults set out to pursue the kidnappers but had to renounce after a few days as the track was cold and it became evident that they could not catch the bandits.

Thus started the captivity of Katyana and her brother.
Amazed by their good fortune, the freak show masters intended to present the kids to the public in small aquariums or have them dance and swim in natural ponds. However, for that, they needed their captives to be pliant enough. And they started training them without delay. At first, both undines were rebellious and defiant, refusing to obey or even trying to escape. But they were not given any opportunity and each little rebellion was punished by stronger and stronger beating and whippings. They even used brother against sister, punishing the sibling for any misdeed.

Slowly but surely, both Katyana and Arlin were reduced to wild animals, huddled in the corner of their cages, eating with ferocity any scraps they were served and performing at the sound of the whip. Just one thing prevented them to escape insanity. They had manage to hide something from their captors: the fact they could breathe under water. For one of the punishment their captors had designed was to lover their cage into a body of water, threatening to drown them. With time, Katyana and Arlin had become masters of feigning to drown, arms and legs flailing before becoming limp and waiting to be fished out. Paradoxically, this was the only moment they felt safe.

After years of this treatment, being on the road from village to village in the devastated Nidalese campaigns, being show or performing, their luck changed. Not a single time for all those years, they had met someone bold enough to protest their condition to the threatening circus masters. Until one day, as they were exposed in a small village at the foothills of the Menador mountains, an old vagrant made his way to the front of the assistance. He was crooked, unkempt with a long grey beard that had never seen a razor blade. Looking at the two young undines, exposed like freaks of nature, his expression moved from compassionate to resolute. Speaking up, he tried to get the attention of the villagers but was roughly cut off by two of the circus masters and thrown out. The next day, the same old man tried to approach the show again but could not even come close before being intercepted and beaten.

In the next two days, as the show was making its way to their next venue, Katyana and Arlin were surprise to see glimpse of the vagrant figure as if he was shadowing them. And in the cover of the night, on the third day, their vision showed them the elderly slowly creeping to their cage. As he came to them, he took out some worn down lock-picks and fumbled around the lock. To Katyana and Arlin's despair, the noise alerted on of the guards and the camp was roused by his alarm calls. The old man was captured and as a lesson to their captives, was beaten to death in from of them. "I'll lay my life to free those who are captive", the old man whispered as his life ebbed out. "Desna, I have failed you all my life, but listen to my last plea. By my blood I curse those men, I curse them so their captive may be free. Hear me". His voice rose above the sound of wood meeting flesh one last time "DESNAAAaa" And he stopped moving.
From his opened hand, a small disk of boiled leather rolled down to Katyana's cage where she could snatch it, unseen. On it was engraved a butterfly. Hiding the disk was easy enough and, from that night on, partly in respect of the old man who tried to save her, Katyana repeated his prayer to the Great Dreamer.

This was a turning point for the circus as their luck suddenly ran dry. One after another, their carts got mired in potholes and one axle broke. Then some of their mules started hobbling. Half of the small cuts the masters got from their day to day activities got infected. And in any village they stopped, chicken went missing, fire started. After a few weeks, rumors preceded the caravan and the doors that used to be wide open were now barred with no one attending their shows anymore.
Tempers flared between the showmen and in a short time, blows followed insults.

One by one, people deserted, packing the most valuable things until the three men tat had captured the Undines decided to try to leave with their captives to try their luck somewhere else. Harnessing themselves to the cart bearing Katyana and her brother's cage, they took the road in the middle of the night hoping to reach the border of Nirmathas.
The sky was clear that night and the stars were shining. Maybe more than usual.
As the cart reached a crossroads, a voice rang from behind them "It is a nice night to walk under the stars, brothers."
"And that's when the Lady sees best in the heats of men", replied a second voice on the left.
"And she was not very happy about what she found in you.", a third voice echoed on the right.

Startled, the three men formed a defensive ring around the cart.
"She is slow to anger, our Mistress."
"But when she is, there is no barrier, nowhere to hide."
"I feel it rising in the air."
"The time is near."
"Feel the wind tonight, see the stars, they call for blood."
"Will you give it ? Will we take it ?"

The voices went round and round, the sound spinning faster and faster.
"This is your last chance,"
"Choose your path,"
"You may survive."

Three flashes of light illuminated the clearing, revealing three humanoid shapes, each one guarding one of the paths. And as soon as the flashes died, the three men took flight in the last unguarded path, leaving everything behind in their haste to escape the ambush.

Eyes laughing, the three shapes came closer to the cage and one of them bent over the lock and picked it in seconds.
"I told you it would work", said one.
"Yes but they deserved death", replied the second, steel in her voice.
"Their fate will be even worse, I would bet", answered the first while the third opened the door and helped the children out.
"Do not fear," said the third to the younglings. "The Dreamer has sent us. And you'll be free in no time to return to your own."

Grabbing the hands of the children, they began chanting a spell and the five of them disappeared in a flash, leaving the cage and cart creaking in the wind.

The five shapes materialized again in a strange open structure within a circular building. "Welcome to my home in Magnimar, I am Bevaluu Zimantiu, and this is the Cynosure Tower, the temple of Desna. You have caught the ears of the Song of Spheres and she has asked me to find you. You can stay here as long as you want and we will try to find your familly.", said the first voice, revealing herself to be a middle aged dark haired woman.

She bowed to the first man that had come with her. "Thank you for your help, Leonidas. And may your hunts be as successful as this one. And to you also, Twelve-Fingers,", she added to the second man, the one who had opened the cage. "May your luck never run dry."
Both men bowed and blew a kiss to the priestess before melting with the shadows.

After two months of healing the young undines' body and mind, Bevaluu located the Marid clan and teleported with the undines to give them back to their family. While Arlin was relieved to return to his former life. But, Katyana flatly refused. "I don't want to be vulnerable again. I want to be as wise as Bevaluu, as swift as Leonidas and as dexterous as Twelve-Fingers.", she said, citing her three saviors. "Then I'll make sure no child is ever imprisoned or kidnapped again."

Thus began Katyana education both as a Cleric of Desna but also as a rogue, under the tutelage of Bevaluu, Leonidas and twelve-Fingers. Oven the last twenty years, for undines come slowly into their prime, she has learnt as much as she could, from blending in the shadows and picking locks to fighting with Desna's weapons and to the name of each and every star that shines above her. But also how to invoke the godess' powers to heal or fight.

And at night, when the sky is clear and she is restive, she goes down to the sea. And in the waves, alone under the stars watching eyes, she dances to thank the Song of the Sphere for listening to a vagrant sacrifice and a kid's plea.

"Today, however is another day"[i], thinks Katyana as she finishes packing. Today she has received word that one of the three men who captured her is still alive and may be again walking the wrong path. His last location was in a small town called Holver's Ferry. [i]"He only got one chance and waisted it. And I will find him wherever he hides."

Ssraaz son of Razzal and double-son of Marazz the Wavewarden is a warden apprentice of the Bloodied Coral tribe, a tribe of the Lizzardfolk living on the western most isle of the Sieben Islen. The tribe, now numbering more than 80 members occupies a coastal village bordering a wide lagon on one side and a tepid marsh on the otherside. Sixty years ago, when Dresmond valorous was found unconscious on a beach of another of the sieben island, the tribe was reduced to less than twenty members by the unrelenting attacks of the Sahuagin on them. Only the strength and cunning of Marrazz had saved them from being wiped as the giant lizzardman was relentlessly patrolling the waters to warn the tribe of the upcoming attacks and enable them to retreat into the marsh where they could hide or evade their ennemies.

When the call came fto all the remaining tribes that a small halfman was gathering the lizzardmen to take the fight to the sahuagins, Marraz left the remains of his tribe under the protection of his last living son and escorted the elders of the tribe to the meeting. He was amongst the selected to join the core of the group that attacked and finally defeated their ennemies. However, some of them did not come back and Marazz was one of them, mauled to death while killing one of the Devourer's lead cultist. The tribe was devastated when the news came.

But his sacrifice was not in vain as the Bloodied Coral tribe were safe and could now prosper and reconquer their lagoon and the reefs behind without fear. Having been hardly expoited during the war, the reefs were full of fish and shells and provided for the tribe growth.

Nowadays, the tribe is more prosperous than it has ever been, both with the nature bounty but also with the trade of pearls and shells that are in great demand in Middleport and ion the mainland. Despite that newfound wealth, the memory of the Wavewarden and the wisdom of Silaz, its current elder have contributed to the stability of the tribe. Once only directed by its elders, a shaman devoted to the Flower of Chance (an aspect of the azata empyreal lady Chadali) and the eldest witch, well versed in the knowledge of herbs, the tribe elders now include two other randomely selected adults that change every year.

A new group a protectors for the village has also been created and named in memory of Marazz. The Wardens, as they are called, are devotees of the Flower of Chance and responsible for the safety of the tribe. Numbered ten, they patrol the marsh, reefs and detect and remove threats. but they are also called as arbiters buy the inhabitants. Their leader is also designed by fate for a year so that all are prepared to take this burden in an emergency.

Like his father, Ssraaz is the direct descendant of Marazz and was prepared from the moment he broke his shell to integrate the Wardens and show himself worthy of his twice-father. Tutored both by Silaz and his father, he has learned to master his claws, teeth and the fishing nets for restraining his opponents. Along this martial training came the specific warden training: the knowledge of the water and the marsh, how the surrounding animals can warn of incoming dangers and the knowledge of the weaknesses of the Sahuagins. Because the wardens needs to be ready for their return.

The training was harsh and demanding but Ssraaz embraced it and it felt very natural for him as he was favored by his natural abilities and his mindset. His determination was reinforced by the meetings with Dresmond Valorous, the last one just before the halfling's death. The aura of the small and ailing hero coupled with his determination to visit each year his former companions or their families to inquire of their well being resonated with Sraaz.

As he grew to adulthood, his confirmation as Warden was but a formality. The ceremony took place on a full moon day, as the tide was at his highest and the water lilies wide open. Asking for the blessing of the goddess to better protect his people, his call was answered by the sound of the message drums. The large ones carved into the widest trunks that were used to communicate from tribe to tribe and island to island. They were relaying the request of the mayor for help against a threat to the islands.

That is the will of the Lady, said the shaman, and the village could not but respond and send Ssraaz. Packing his weapons and supplies for the trip, he was gone within the hour. Riding the currents from island to island, he swam relentlessly, stopping only for short sleeps and arrived to the capital. that was the first town he had ever seen. Nor had he seen as many people, especially other races, gathered in the same place.