Moondark's page

Ex-Asmodean- +1 hit/damage vs House Thrune, Devils
Temple Training- +1 know nobility (class skill) and religion

Ariena attached a dark lump onto her cheek with spirit gum and looked critically into the small hand mirror that she had stolen from her mother. Raising a piece of burned cork, she smudged her face and neck a bit more. Not too many disease scabs, she thought. I just want people to avoid me, not haul me off to some plague colony to die. Finishing up, she looked critically into the mirror again admiring her work. She reflected that there were actually two useful skills she had learned from her brief time at Lady Docur’s: how to properly apply makeup and how to tell convincing lies. Lessons well practiced and mastered before her parents pulled her from the school to be put under the private tutelage of that horrible Asmodean nun.

Ariena rubbed some oily clumps into her rough shorn hair and hid her daggers, darts, and pouch of tools under the stained, baggy robe she wore. “Moondark”, the beggar boy, looked back at her from the mirror. Just another Old Town wretch, she smiled faintly while stowing the mirror and grabbing her begging bowl. Move along. Nothing to see here, folks.

She had found that in this guise, most people would work assiduously to avoid eye contact and those that didn’t, quickly turned their attention elsewhere when she boldly presented her bowl asking for a copper or two for bread. Occasionally, she’d get a couple coins, but then there were others looking to take instead of give which is why she carried the daggers. It rarely took more than an unexpected flash of sharp-edged metal to change their mind. She also had a silver dagger just in case some imp had been dispatched to drag her off in fulfilment of her parents’ treacherous promise…

She had more to fear than the unlikely appearance of some servitor fiend though. After she ran away, it had been a lot of work to keep an eye out for some family acquaintance from the Greens that might have business in the harbor or a former schoolmate from Lady Docur’s acting most unlady-like by slumming it with some sailors. At least for a while she had had the other members of her small gang of wharf thieves to keep lookout with their mate, Ari. That was the first alias she took. Not a particularly good one, she reflected. Then the dottari nabbed Selkie Jim. She suspected her old boss managed to get a quick release with a promise that likely involved selling out his old gang. As soon as Three-Fingers Vik disappeared, Ari was south across the Bleakbridge and hadn’t been north side since.

She had had a rough time of it at first, friendless and forlorn in the unfamiliar south side of the city. She stayed well clear of the devil-born in the Redroof and ended up trying to scavenge in the Old Harbor. Her attempts at seeking employment with the alchemists and masons were rebuffed and she resorted to snatching apples off of carts at the Farmer’s Market. Fortunately, the matronly halfling that caught her stealing hadn’t reported the hungry girl, but offered her a job instead. The beggar outfit wasn’t actually a disguise originally. Now Moondark ran errands for Mother Muddlum for the odd coin and some of the vegetables that the halflings carted in through the Rust Gate to sell at the Veritas Market. Ariena couldn’t understand how they made any money after the new two shield Gate Tax, but she suspected smuggling halflings out in the cart helped make up for the loss somehow. She’d have to tell Mother not to bring any mint to sell at the market.

The new lord-mayor is definitely insane. Just look at those Proclamations. Not that they affect me: I won’t be offering the dottari a couple of dead doves for a pat on the head and a handful of copper pinches; won’t be wearing my ball gown or adopting some mutt either. Barking mad. She snorted and then realized that she was already at Aria Park. Her eyes worriedly scanned the crowd for a dangerous face from the past as she dug her fingernails into the base of her thumb berating herself for walking too fast and not paying attention to her surroundings. She didn’t expect anyone her parents knew would cross the Yolubilis to join a mob, but then she had heard that the new management didn’t really give two pinches for the Court of Coin. That was sure to rouse the noble families. Likewise, Selkie Jim wasn’t political, but who knew how chummy he’d become with the dottari lately and there were plenty of dottari around today. She pressed a little deeper into the gathering crowd and wondered if this was such a great idea. Well, she thought, if things do get ugly at least I can probabbly cut loose a purse and hamstring a dottari before I slip away in the confusion. She crouched down with her back to a tree so that her eyes were at purse level to look for a mark and anxiously wait to see what would happen.

Arienna Belialos (beh-LYEL-os) was born the daughter of a minor noble house of Kintargo. She had a sheltered childhood, carefully watched over and trained in the tradition of lesser nobility and the new order of Diabolism. Although her lessons held little interest for her, she played the dutiful daughter until she overheard a meeting between her father and the House of Sarini. It then became clear that she was to be sacrificed to fulfill her family’s ambitions for her father bragged to Lord that on Arienna’s sixteenth birthday she was to be given to another Asmodean Convent in the capitol and live the rest of her life as a Sister in service to Hell.

Stealing what she could from her treacherous parents, she fled for her life and attempted to stow away on a ship leaving Kintargo. She was found before the ship left port and promptly relieved of her money. With few options, she joined Selkie Jim’s dockside burglary ring for some protection. Disguised as a servant boy named Ari, she proved her value by using her knowledge of the noble houses to identify likely targets. It was only a matter of time however, before the gang was busted.

Ariena narrowly escaped through the charity of Mother Muddlum, an operative for the Bellflower network, who got her off the docks and into a safe house where she could hide from the law and Selkie Jim, who managed a suspiciously quick release. With Mother’s guidance she now tries to make a living in the guise of a nameless beggar boy. Meanwhile she is still indebted to Mother Muddlum, but is working on plotting revenge on her family and the other nobles under the alias Moondark.

Ari is small and thin with short-cropped dark hair. For her safety, she is often disguised as a teenage beggar boy in loose ragged robes. She is a habitual liar and can be manipulative; a necessity in her precarious situation. Although she keeps her emotions hidden well, she lives in constant fear of Hellknights, devils, and the Dottari. She always has silver nearby for use against the supernatural threats. Against more mundane dangers, she has found it best to stay undercover and have something sharp within reach.

Tansy “Mother” Muddlum (NG Halfling Drd 4) is the matriarch of a clan of escaped halfling slaves that live in the marshlands along the Yolubulis. Constantly moving through the sewers and safe houses, she provides an underground railroad for fugitives to get out of the city and find their way east to Andoran. She manages to elude both Hellknights and the Dottari by using her ability to cover tracks and disguise herself as a small animal. She also offers healing and comfort to lost souls, beggars, and others in need of succor.
Homefree. An abandoned plantation outside of town serves as one of Mother Muddlum’s main hideouts. Warded by thick overgrowth, brambles, and the occasional assassin vine, her halfling clan has excavated a series of burrows to serve as a home and way station for those moving on across the river to freedom. Few respectable citizens live nearby and even the thieves give the place wide berth due to the dangerous flora and the mysterious ghostly lights that appear deep within the thickets.

“Selkie” Jim (CN Chelish Rgr 5) is a charming, but unreliable smuggler and bandit who formerly headed a gang called the Tidewater Boys who prowled Yolubulis Harbor as a subsidiary of the Rover Talon. Using his magical pelt cloak to shaeshift into an otter, he led the group in the petty burglary of boats and barges. Eventually, the gang became successful enough to attract the attention of the Dottari. Jim was released quite quickly and Ari is uncertain if he came to some arrangement with the Dottari. She is suspicious of his motives, but appreciative of his knowledge of the underworld and the waterfront.
The Tarka. Selkie Jim owns a twenty foot sloop that he lives on and uses in his smuggling operations. Disguised as a fishing boat, it has piles of nets that come in handy for obscuring the boat's identity and covering illicit goods. It is usually docked in the Harbor when it is not visiting a more secluded location up the Yolubulis.

Arienna's family are minor nobility affiliated with House Sarini. In recent years they have made a play to gain greater status by allying with the more powerful and better connected House and by offering Arienna to the powerful Church of Asmodeus. House Belialos suffered a major set back by her running away and they have made her recovery and punishment a priority; however, they still lack the political power to make her capture much of a concern for the authorities.