Ill Winds Over Verbobonc
Kayen Telva
A gentle-elf of Verbobonc, this powerful adventurer once struggled to throw down the Slavers of the Pomarj alongside Ruprect's uncle, Phanstern. He dwells amidst the tree top houses of the sylvan elves of Verbobonc City.
Description:
This elf has a wiry strength to his limbs, and he seems exceedingly agile and hale to boot. He would seem to be of both sylvan and grey elf blood, for his eyes are emerald green and blazing with a keen intelligence, but his hair is long and silver, gathered in a topknot when he is adventuring but otherwise worn loose. Typical for the wood elves, his complexion is slightly darker than most elves, and also a little bronzed from spending a good deal of his time out in the weather. When not adventuring, Kayen favors long, loose robes and tunics of green or blue, with soft leather shoes of matching color, and he keeps only a dagger about his person. When on the road, he exchanges his robe for sturdy travelling clothes, travel-worn knee-high leather boots, his elven mail, a mithral buckler, and a green cloak with a gold and emerald brooch. At such times he also carries a sword worn from a baldric, as well as a hand-axe, dagger, a quiver full of arrows, and a composite bow all secured to an ingenious weapons harness. A long quiver or case holding several javelins is carried at his shoulder.
Bio:
This striking elf was encountered by the Band of the Silver Spear in the Etter Hills to the north and west of Hommlet. In company with his father, Gilathadar, and a number of other elven warriors, wizards, and priests, Kayen was hunting a party of drow seeking to establish some sort of understanding with or perhaps dominion over the native ettercaps, whose numbers were growing once more amidst the hills. Roused from their camp by the sights and sounds of a battle in the nearby hills, the band of heroes rushed to discover the source of the disruption, only to find a pitched battle taking place between the sylvan elves and their ancestral foes, the dreaded drow, as well as several ettercaps, a half-dozen spiders ranging in size between that of large dogs to warhorses as well as a single bloated monster bigger than an average size inn. Naturally, the Band of the Silver Spear decided to get involved.
Kayen’s father, Gilathadar
While Gilathadar struck down the drow and their fell allies from afar with Chain Lightning, a Prismatic Spray, Scorching Rays, Fireballs, Lightning Bolts and Magic Missiles, Kayen led the warriors in meeting the dark elves and their arachnoid allies face to face. From afar he appeared to fight using a defensive style, leading with his mithral buckler and stepping lively to avoid the strikes of his foes while he waited for his own opening. When he struck, his cold iron sword appeared to leap with blue flames and spit sparks, and when his blade bit, the enemy more often than not fell and did not rise again. The sight reminded some of the eldritch strikes of Harrijin, the cursed adventurer whom they had met in the Kron Hills months earlier.
After the battle, while the elves thanked the Band of the Silver Spear, Kayen started when he heard Ruprect give his name. He stepped forward then to give his own, explaining further that he was a good friend to Ruprect’s uncle, Phanstern, who had vanished some years earlier. Apparently the two had been comrades within the Band of Broken Chains, a famed fellowship of adventurers who succeeded in throwing down the Slavers of the Pomarj in the late 570s. Kayen invited Ruprect to call upon him when he arrived in Verbobonc, for they had much to discuss concerning the past, and conjecture to offer about the current whereabouts of the master Illusionist.
Art credit: Gilathadar portrait was taken from work by Oana-D
