Pandora wasn't named until she was bought by an Egorian nobleman looking for "some new pieces to add to the collection." She was a talented songstress, even at the age of five, and had the carriage of a dancer. Her instructors were merciless. Day after day they drilled the theories, forms, and techniques into her, berating her when she failed to get it right.
Her instructors were not the only ones that the young Pandora needed to worry about. The nobleman's children took to teasing and bullying the young girl, calling her Slip because of her small size and framing her for their mischief. From the age of five until her eighth birthday, she made good on her derisive nickname and slipped away into the night. The noble's estate was outside the city proper, and there were no guards around to see her escape.
Shortly after slipping away, the young girl found a small dwarven caravan from Janderhoff that had just been cheated out of their pay on a technicality. Feeling no great love for the Chelish just then, they adopted her and brought her out of the land of devils. After giving her the family name of McGee, she was taught to cook and defend herself, as well as the language of orcs. She took to the longknife, becoming a jinking, slashing dervish in her sparring matches.
For six years, she rode on the route from Janderhoff to Kraggodan, through to Tamran and up to Vigil and back to Janderhoff after stopping in Trunau. It wasn't the most profitable route, but it did let the small clan that ran the caravan live comfortably. Pandora felt as if she had found a home among the dwarves, and was eternally grateful that she had found them when she was just a scared, lost, little girl.
It was shortly after she'd turned fourteen that disaster struck. The caravan had been caught between two orc tribes, small ones that were no threat to Trunau, but not so small that they were not a threat to the caravan. Caught between, the dwarves were slaughtered, and Pandora was brought before the brother of the chief of the larger tribe. Amused by the small girl in their midst, they had neglected to disarm her. The mistake proved fatal for the orc that had sought to make her a slave once more, and found that the nimble young woman had inherited her dwarven family's hatred of orckin in full.
Then it was the chief's turn. Angered by the delay in the attack and the obstinace of the Trunau defenders, he ordered the attack before going to take care of the panic fomenting in his rear ranks. He knocked the blades from Pandora's hands, but before he could grab her and rip her limb from limb, she had ripped the greatsword his brother had once wielded from it's scabbard and fought like she had been possessed by a demon. She beheaded the orc chief after battering him into a bloody mess and reducing his honor guard to corpses. The orcs frightened by the young girl's rage and ferocity cowered away from her as she stalked to where the chief's head had come to rest, then bolted when she had raised it up high like a trophy and dared any of them to even come near her. The loss of support and leadership and the losses taken from trying to batter down the gates broke the siege and sent the orcs running.
As the orcs ran past her, giving her a wide berth, the defenders on the wall saw the young girl standing among a small pile of corpses with the severed head of an orc held high. Pandora let loose a primal howl of rage and pain as the last of the orcs ran past. She took three running strides before hurling the head after them. She howled curses at the fleeing orcs. She kept screaming and raving long after they had gone. It was only then that she succumbed to the injuries she'd suffered and fell to the ground.
She awoke in the Ramblehouse the next day. It wasn't long before she was on her feet and helping out, trying to forget what had happened. After chatting with Cham, and Cham learning of her childhood as a slave, the halfling took her in and gave her a place to stay. In return, Pandora helped with the cooking, proving to be adequate, but improving, by the halfling's standards.
It's been two years since that day, and though Pandora has mostly recovered from that horrible fight, she still suffers from bouts of depression and the occasional nightmare.
