Spellbook:
0 - All
1 - Alarm, Detect Secret Doors, Endure Elements, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Shield, Stone Fist
2 - Bull's Strength, Gust of Wind, Invisibility, Knock, Scorching Ray
3 - Fireball, Fly, Haste, Protection from Energy
Word of Power known:
Effect words: Frost Fingers
Meta-words: Boost
Target words: All.
Equipment
165 gold
Amulet of natural armor +1
Assisting glove
Backpack
Bag of holding Type I
Bedroll
Bit and bridle
Bracers of armor +1
Camel
Club, +1
Dagger x5
Explorer's outfit
Feed (18 days)
Holy symbol (Gozreh)
Holy water x5
Military saddle
Potion of Cure Light Wounds x6
Potion of Neutralize Poison
Rations, trail (20 days)
Scholar's outfit
Scroll case
Spell component pouch
Spellbook
Tent
Waterskin
Appearance
Natasha is short and slender, with a pretty face. Unlike most Wizards, she does not completely neglect the physical for the sake of the mental and spiritual; a strict martial arts regimen keeps her fit and in good health. She has long, auburn hair, which she ties back in a braid with plain ribbons; she largely ignores her hair, apart from keeping it clean and out of her eyes. Natasha's eyes are light hazel. Her skin is pale from hours spent in old libraries and burrowing into the earth in search of the remains of ancient civilizations. She habitually wears a cape with a hood, to keep the sun from burning her. Apart from that, her style of dress is startlingly masculine.
Background
Natasha was born to the noble Mournglory family of Druma. A pretty child, she was raised and pampered to be a bargaining chip in the nation's internal politics. To be blunt, she was geared to be married off to this or that scion of another merchant-lord's house. Everything seemed to be going right on track until the girl hit puberty and entered her rebellious phase.
Deeply resentful at the realization that her family had raised her to be 'breeding cattle', completely unwilling to listen to her parents' protests that she had a grand purpose to serve in the family's ambitions, and fiercely prideful of her own intellect, Natasha gathered up what valuables were hers and fled the family home and Druma itself. Eventually, she wound up in Qadira, where she managed to win entry into its prestigious schools.
For the next ten years, Natasha spent her days and nights in furious studies of matters historical and arcane. She wrote papers, joined expeditions to excavate the buried monuments of the past, she uncovered secrets...
Among her greatest achievements is her unaided discovery of some aspects of ancient Word magic, an esoteric and primal art seldom used anymore.
An item of extremely local notoriety is the fact that she regularly entered the university's annual martial arts event, and usually managed not to get knocked out in the first few rounds. Among her fellow students of archaeology and arcane magic, that left her in a category of one...
Her latest claim to fame is the discovery of inscriptions in one of the buried monuments, which claimed there was a treasure buried in the sands of Thuvia -- a treasure somehow connected to the faith of Gozreh and 'worth more than all the sands of the desert, were every grain dust-of-gold'.
The day came when she felt her star had risen high enough in academic circles that her family would have to acknowledge she was more than some brood-mare.
She sent a letter home, and the only answer she received was that 'House Mournglory does not recognize any child named Natasha'. A second, furious letter describing her achievements was answered even more curtly: If Natasha continued to use - or rather, abuse - the name of Mournglory, she would be dealt with as all slanderers were.
The first assassin appeared a week later, and Natasha defeated him more by luck than skill. She did much better with the second one.
If either party in the Mournglory family tragedy had been willing to apologize and make concessions to their pride, all of this might have been avoided, or peace might have been restored. But neither was. Natasha was both hurt and furious over this rejection. She decided to pursue the matter of the inscription; it would take her out of her usual stomping grounds, thus hopefully freeing her from the attentions of the assassins for a time, and could also solidify her academic prestige, ensuring her of more security when she returned home.
It was easy enough to convince the local temple of Gozreh of the inscription's veracity, and the young archaeologist was on her way to distant Thuvia...
Sand; Fox familiar:
FOX
Tiny animal
Init. +2; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +8
AC 17 (+2 Dex, +3 natural, +2 size)
hp 14 (half master's total)
Fort +3, Ref. +5, Will +5
Speed 40 ft.
Special qualities
Deliver touch spells
Empathic link
Improved evasion
Share spells
Speak with master
Background
Sand was an ordinary desert fox until the day Natasha performed the ritual to summon a familiar. His brain suddenly on fire with odd thoughts -- which basically was any thought not devoted to his personal survival -- he made his way to her. While the little hunter is a loyal companion, he would much prefer to spend his days lazing away in front of the fireplace in Natasha's study while gnawing a meat bone, rather than accompany her to the far corners of the world in search of dusty relics neither he nor his mistress can eat.
