Spinel

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Spinel

Player Name	Gail
Languages	Common, Quori, Orc, Abyssal, Draconic, Wiki
Affiliations	Igneous of Isonhound, Iron Hawks, Harbingers of Sardior
Date of Birth	793PR
Place of Birth	Isonhound
Date of Death	826PR
Place of Death	mountaintops of Isonhound
Species	Longtooth shifter
Gender	Female
Height	5'11"
Weight	148
Eye Color	Green

Spinel is the Sapphire Seat of The Ruby Court, and in mortal life lived as a longtooth shifter and an eldritch knight fighter/wizard.

Physical Appearance

Spinel is lithe and muscular and has several hyena-like traits. When she shifts, her muzzle becomes more elongated and claws and tail more pronounced. Her fur is a pale brown/gray. As a trained fighter, she is most often found waring chain mail, ready for the next battle.

Personality

As with many shifters, Spinel is fierce and self reliant. She believes her strength can solve most of her problems and doesn't have much respect for those who are not outwardly strong. She doesn't like to admit she is wrong. In spite of herself, she is known to occasional help weaklings in need, especially if it advances her goals.

Spinel is capable of forming strong bonds and is incredibly loyal to her tribe, at least those that are still alive. She will do all she can to protect those who have earned her trust. Because much of her tribe has perished in the recent past—and because her most trusted friend up and left one night—she can be wary of forming new bonds. What good is loyalty if everyone is just going to leave or die?

History

Spinel was born into a hyena-like shifter tribe—the Igneus of Isonhound—that has been decimated by recent conflicts with orcs and the more beast-like shifter tribes. In spite of their low numbers, the recent disappearance of her tribe’s sacred gems and artifacts has only strengthened their resolve to put these conflicts to end.

When she came of age, Spinel and a few of her peers traveled to a nearby wolf-like shifter tribe—the Alluvium—to train as soldiers. But not long into their trainings, her tribe mate Cobalt—the target of her burgeoning affections—took off one night leaving only a note behind. He stated he was going to find their tribe’s lost artifacts and not to follow, for it would be too dangerous. At first, Spinel vowed to become stronger so she could prove herself worthy of being by his side. She dipped into the arcane arts to strengthen her swordsmanship and better protect herself. But as the years passed, she realized Cobalt didn’t deserve her company. She would seek him out and get her answers…or her revenge for his seeming betrayal.

Languages

Common, Quori, Orc, Abyssal, Draconic, Wiki

Powers and Abilities

Spinel can enhance her hyena-like traits at will. In this shifted form, she is particularly aggressive and is not afraid to put her sharp canines to good use. In addition to wielding a sword, Spinel turns to the arcane to enhance her fighting prowess, for example harnessing green flame blade. The rest of her magic is a product of her past. Losing her tribe and best friend, she knows she must rely on herself. Defensive spells like shield and silvery barbs are now her most trusted allies.

Attacks and Weapons

When required, Spinel will certainly bite an attacking foe while in her shifted form.

In a recent expedition, Spinel acquired the powerful rapier Firefang, which blazes with flames when commanded and grants the bearer resistance to cold damage. She and her companions helped to clear out the crypt of the renowned elf warrior Sir Beren Cohnal (Commander of the Sylvan Order), which was overrun by cheshire goblins and orcs. Beren's spirit gave his blessing for the party to take the remaining equipment from his lieutenants' tombs. Firefang bears the mark of the Sylvan Vanguard—a silver iron cross with the golden crescent moons of Corellion in the center circle—on a field of crimson on the hilt. It also is engraved with runes of fire. The high elf Aldean El’Naddath of House Kessaria (Emissary of the Wold Order and member of the Sylvan Order) helped identify the item, and provided a personalized letter granting its use to Spinel and to pacify any members of the Sylvan Vanguard that might question the shifter's use of sword.

Already with a spark of the arcane and with resources around her, Spinel multiclassed into wizard. Alongside a rotating slate of adventures, she knew she had to be prepared for anything and liked having access to a variety of spells like feather fall and fog cloud. Given the high dragon activity in the area, she also learned Earthbind. As a wizard, she has taken to summoning an owl familiar, who often lends advantage to her attacks. Learning war magic, Spinel has learned to use her reaction to buff her armor class or improve reactions to threats (buff saving throws with “arcane deflection.”)

Spinel has learned to be quick on her feet, staying observant and using her reaction for many things. To complement “arcane deflection” and the silvery barbs and shield spells, Spinel purchased an ouroboros ring, which allows her to meddle with attacks and spells of others and to buff herself and her allies. The ring has come in handy in some critical moments.

In one adventure, Spinel also acquired bracers that allow her to load a potion and more quickly drink it later. Seems useful.

Dragons Spinel has bitten:

Echamus (to save him!), corrupted amethyst (to break free), TOWIE/Feredemius (with a moonflower, to send him away from the mountaintops)

Into the Greedy Green

Spinel’s search for Cobalt brought her to Synara during the festival of Asar Ogalas. A dragon attack—and the subsequent abduction of a townsfolk who claimed to be a mayor—changed her priorities. She began to understand the source of her tribe’s troubles and decided to investigate the dragon threat. She soon joined the Band of the Iron Hawks—a like-minded group of honorable adventurers who seek to protect the people of Isonhond. Although Spinel’s missions have taken her across the continent, she generally stays at the Hawk’s guild hall, the Iron Eyrie, in Seglock. She has a particular fondness for taking missions out of Gammelgard, partly for Falgrim’s noteworthy potions and partly for Rose and the kitchen’s excellent road snacks, especially the muffins.

In her travels, Spinel ventured to Sro’s lair (where she refused to fight the dragon, and his resulting first “rule” stating not to attack a dragon in its lair validated that decision). She also went on several missions to defeat Horatio Cheshire and his abominations. Other missions took her to the plane of “Thaer”, to the home of some hags, a mine under the threat of shadow. In one adventure, she encountered an artifact known as the “Astrolabe”, which released magic into Spinel and her companions. Spinel took the mantle of the “Harbinger of Bleucorundum the Sapphire,” which came with a draconic boon. She met Bleucorundum, learning what it might mean to be a harbinger, and had an elevating hair-raising encounter with an amethyst dragon.

Although caught up in world events, Spinel has not yet given up her search for Cobalt. One evening, while having a drink with then new guild member Durian in the Hawk’s bar, All that Ales You, Spinel learned that Cobalt has indeed been in the region. However, at that point the trail was months old. She finally found Cobalt, months later, in the ring of the exhibition tournament alongside the Tournament of Fist and Fury. She did not hold back in the ring and had serious words for her friend.

Pit Fighting

Between missions, Spinel has spent considerable time roaming the streets and establishments of Seglock, partly to keep an ear out for word of Cobalt and partly in frustration for all the overwhelming politics at hand. She soon took to spending time at a rather dingy bar called The Rusty Spoon, where she entertained herself watching drunkards, students. and refugees desperate for coin do some off-the-books pit fighting. With enough time, she learned the usual competitor’s best moves and how to spot an adventurer only pretending to be drunk. She carefully joined in the fights, earning a fair amount of coin. She soon learned of the Tournament of Fist and Fury to name the Victor of Isonhound, and registered herself at the Fighter's Forge, one of the officially licensed pit-fighting establishments in Seglock. After learning the official rules, she participated in several bouts and was fairly successful, but was hesitant to enter the tournament proper, as she didn’t want to draw too much attention to herself. But, as her guild members pointed out, perhaps attention was what she needed to learn more about Cobalt. And if her fellow guild member Tristam’s exploits had taught her anything, it’s that carefully placed attention could be a powerful weapon.

Spinel did indeed enter the Tournament of Fist and Fury, where the opponents were certainly more skilled. She recruited Dancer of the Boreal Valley to keep eyes on the match and offer advice (though Spinel thought afterward she might have chosen someone more invested in the role). After three close fights, Spinel fell in the quarterfinals to a dragonborn fighter who was just too quick. She was disappointed but had heard of another shifter rising through the ranks and had a sneaking suspicion it was Cobalt, who, it seemed, had expertly avoided her for many months. She decided to attend the tournament’s finale to size up Cobalt and perhaps confront him. Before the finale, however, she was drawn into the exhibition 6v6 cash grab tournament, which accompanied the events. In the exhibition’s final match, one of her opponents dropped an illusion, revealing themselves to be Cobalt. He seemed to hesitate, but Spinel did not, and her team made quick work of Cobalt and his companions.

After the match, Spinel expressed her frustration but she came to realize it no longer mattered what he said. She had become a true hero with her own following. He could now work to redeem himself, and he agreed to help her in her quest to support Bleucorundum and face the source of Isonhound’s darkness.

Harbinger duties fulfilled

In a final attempt to purge Isonhound of the shadows, a team of more than thirty adventurers worked together to perform a ceremony to resurrect Sardior, a dragon god who might provide protection from the coming of Tiamat. This task involved protecting each of five artifacts at separate mountain peaks across the region from TOWIE and his minions so the ceremony could occur. Spinel opted to protect the corundum egg, as Bleucorundum was slated to attune to it and retake her seat on the Ruby Court. However, with Bleucorundum missing, Spinel attuned to the artifact. TOWIE, however, appeared and devastated the team. He then returned in the form of Bleucorundum and stole the egg. But all hope was not lost, for Spinel requested a special obsidian artifact from the Iron Hawks leader Vadeth, who turned it over to her. The artifact had a special ability to morph into one of the five artifacts. It became a ruby-hued obsidian egg, and Spinel attuned to the artifact. Bleucorundum finally appeared, with her apologies and appreciation. With a final sync of the five artifacts, each attuned to a dragon or harbinger, the ceremony was complete. Spinel briefly turned into a sapphire dragon herself and the egg glowed with a blinding white lighting, pushing the shadows back and ultimately revealing a scrawny looking Sardior. However, Spinel then left the mortal plane, her duties as a harbinger fulfilled.

Spinel’s Hastily Scrawled Notes (Mission Log):

1/21: I came to Synara. A big tree told me they saw shifters, but I thought Cobalt traveled alone. A fortune teller told me something about the last one being reborn and a victory will shift the power. But I met a Dragonborne (Durian) who also got his fortune read and I think the fortuneteller is just bad. All of a sudden lots of dragons attacked. We followed a big white one toward the mayor’s mansion. I guess it was after mayors. We were sorely underpowered for this scary dragon. Ulka rescued a lot of people, including the real mayor. A dude told the dragon, named Sro and now in human form, that he was the mayor. I tried to tell him it wasn’t him (“MAYORS DON’T READ BOOKS”) but Sro didn’t believe me. Sro got in my face but I was too scared to engage. So Sro took the dude and flew off. I don’t like this town.

2/18: We went to rescue the mayors but were really bad at being stealthy. They gave us bad guns. We met a lady named Belle who wanted to fight us. Ultimately we met Sro again, who mostly just talked to us. He said he was stealing mayors to see if the real was ready for the dangers of Tiamot. Then he said he wanted to teach us lessons about fighting dragons and some of our party fought him, but I feel like it’s bad news to fight a dragon in their home. Then he gave that as the first lesson, so didn’t I prove that I knew that lesson? It was a weird day.

3/11: We went to a kobold cave because there was supposed to be a dragon there. We fought a lot of kobolds. I liked Ferris’s explodey pinecones. But we rested and the kobolds left with all the good stuff. We did find the bones of a dragon strung up to look like it was undead, but it was just a puppet. I did pick up a magical kobold shield. It’s small but useful. I took some dragon bones too, and they sold for a fair price.

3/24: We went to find a guy named Horatio who has been causing trouble. There were really big orcs with big glaives. We gave a barbarian speed juice and Falgrim's fire while raging. I mostly watched the show. Dancer set a trap on the cave's secret exit. Horatio almost got away in a mechanical contraption, but instead he got stuck and then fell into the ocean. We muscled him out of there. Where did these Cheshire orcs and goblins get their shiny armor? Maybe Horatio will know. I don't think I know enough to use this double-ended glaive well. Nockdus says Cheshire goblin flesh tastes bad.

6/10: Fancy elf man talks a lot. Told us to go to a special tomb. Dancer really wanted to follow tracks around the crypt, but instead Percy just opened the door. Goblins are smelly. Vadeth really wanted to ride the goblin’s mount, but it didn’t end well. But we found where the Cheshire armor was coming from. And now I have a nice fiery sword. Spirit man couldn’t eat Buho’s gift of chocolate. When we got back, Buho set a big fire trying to do more cooking. Poor Rose. My fur smells like smoke. Maybe I’ll sleep outside tonight.

6/28: The mounts bite really hard, so we want to find where they are coming from. We attacked the camp head on. There was a lot of Falgrim’s fire. We had some close calls, but took them out. Only a few got away. And Vadeth finally managed to get his mount.

8/17: We helped a scholar from Deeplake solve a riddle. Elric kissed a frog, but it was a weird guy called the curator. Said something bad about Horatio maybe going to the Shadow Forge and we needed to prevent that. And we needed a fey key from a dragon called Uhlm. He opened a portal and went to a different plane with people who seemed weird and brainwashed. He said we needed 3 keys to get to the forge, so we did weird time travel stuff to get the same key three times. But the realm kept attacking us and it wasn’t fun. Eurus did throw a death knight off a cliff, and I was impressed. We tried to convince Uhlm to help our cause, but he wouldn’t have it.

10/20: Apparently hags have been wreaking havoc in Isonhound. They all left their home at the same time, so we went to their swamp to see what’s going on. A big pumpkin beast came out and also zombies that belched leaches. But I bit the leaches on me and Reylendor turned dead nicely, so we took care of everything. There were also lights floating around everywhere. Hugo and Kihlek took some of the lights. When we killed the pumpkin beast, the lights all went away, and I think they revived the comatose children. I helped Kihlek figure out how to put the souls in their bag back into other kids (downtime). I got some cool bracers.

12/13: We learned about different stones and how they react to each other. I ate my Gammelgard muffins—they are the best. Dippy acted weird and ran away. We went to the mines that had a shadow rift and fought some shadow demons. We sent our familiars into the rift and they saw some things, but it was mostly unhelpful. We took a bunch of the fellstone and blew up the mine to stop the shadows. I don’t think it helped much. But the fellstone was worth some good gold.

12/13: I got Gammelgard muffins again. We went to a place where a white dragon was supposed to be attacking, but it was just a low-level cult named the White Dragon.  We magicked them to go back to Gammelgard and turn themselves in.  We went to their hideout which had a shiney sphere. It shot weird light into us. It changed Arlin into a Dragonborn. The rest of us got dragon breath weapons and turned us into “harbringers.” I am the Harbinger of Bleucorundum the Sapphire. What does that mean? Also Tristam turned me into a T-rex and I got to chomp.

1/21 (megagame): I went to the Pendergras factory in Sneerwell but I didn’t understand what was going on. So I took a portal back to Seglock. Echamus was going crazy again and was destroying the town. Other adventurers were saving people, but no one was going for Echamus. I used a ballista to ground him, then went over and knocked him out (crit!). The Lunarians were astounded, and we drug the unconscious Echamus over to the Moonwell where he got better. Then a lot of shadows came and killed a lot of people. I helped heal my party and take the shadows down, but it wasn’t pretty. Then I went to the Moonwell to keep it safe. It helps heal corruption and is important.

2/13: Some of the once-comatose kids have been disappearing at night. Some were cleansed of corruption by the Moonwell, but one didn’t come back. We talked to the family, who I had met before (downtime). The bounty hunter they hired wasn’t very good, but did figure out where the kid had gone. We went to the swamp and fought zombies that belch leaches again. There were a lot of weird corrupted animal dudes that were ruled by Towie (a big bad guy, I’m told). There was also a young black dragon that had been captured. Towie wants him for his purposes. But we let it go and it told us where to get nice things.

2/28: Towie found us while traveling and it wasn’t pretty.  Ona got mind-addled and I bit her to try to get her to wake up. We ran away. We found a river and heard a voice that said it was Bleucorundum. I followed the voice! She led us to her lair, where we healed up. There were interesting images of war and battle on the walls. I would like to study them more. I couldn’t see her, but we had a nice chat. I asked her what it meant to be a harbinger, and she said it was a from long ago. Without the court, it has no meaning. BlueC seems good. I would like to help her.

She told us about another dragon in a town with a name no one remembers. She gave us a boon so we were invisible to the cult members there. We tried to sneak in, but I ran into an invisible person and ran away. We found a crazy halfling cult leader and left him be. Then we found the amethyst dragon we were looking for. The dragon said they were corrupted by Towie, but not to save them. If we saved them, they couldn’t protect the townspeople from the shadows. We were conflicted but overpowered. I was grabbed by the dragon and the building started to rise. I tried and tried and tried to get out. Finally, FINALLY managed to beak the grapple and jump. I am not made to fly, but I’m sure glad I learned feather fall. Ona was there to help me too. We ran so hard away from that place.

4/13: I have been fighting in the Tournament of Fist and Fury but lost in the quarterfinals. I went to the finals to see who would win and found some adventurers to team up with for the exhibition cash grab tournament. We fought a bunch of tabaxi and then some hybrids. Then we fought a team called Chef’s Surprise, but one of the members was actually Cobalt. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to fight me, but we were in a tournament and I was mad at him so I didn’t hold back. I helped Cecil take him out so our team won.

I asked Cobalt hard questions. He said he had to leave to help the world or he would be drawn to me and never be able to leave. He said he couldn’t take me with him because he didn’t want me to get hurt. He said he wanted to be a champion to impress me. But even though I didn’t win the main tournament, I have something better. I am a real hero and I have helped a lot of people. I am a harbinger and I know my worth. We need to talk more, but the world is too crazy right now.

(PS also helped friend Ulka get her revenge.)

Finale

4/23 (megagame): Taking a brief rest on the mountaintops. This has not gone as planned. Bleucorundum has not appeared, so I have taken necessary steps so the ceremony can be completed. I know my guildmate Delphi and former guildmate Durian are doing the same. I discussed this possibility with Cobalt last night and he was not happy. It is unfortunate we cannot spend more time together after so many months of misunderstanding. But I have found purpose in fighting to protect Isonhound and in being a harbinger, and if my death can bring back Sardior, then it must be so. As I write, we are getting desperate. TOWIE took the form of Bleucorundum and took the corundum egg. He was so convincing! And we were so tired from his previous attacks. But Vadeth's ring might be the answer. I will make one final plea to my guild leader to see if we can get this done. I hope Bleucorundum is proud of me.