Anavel Maltae

Appearance
Vel bears the features of someone who was once quite beautiful, but two centuries of pain, violence, and madness stole that from her. The right side of her body is covered in burn scars, marring her once-flawless pale skin. Like most elves, Vel is short and slight, standing barely five feet and weighing no more than ninety pounds. Her eyes are like steel -- as hard, cold, and unfeeling as sheets of metal. Her hair is incredibly, unnecessarily long. Elves live a long time, and in Vel's long life, she's almost never cut it. It falls to her ankles in thick waves and is inky black. Usually, she ties it back in a braid, so as not to impede her roguish escapades.

Back Story
Anavel was born into a tiny elven village located deep within the woods. She was a mute child. Although no healer could find anything physically wrong with her, the girl simply refused to speak. Despite this, her parents loved her. Her father taught her how to hunt while her mother trained her in the art of stealth. She learned quickly, becoming the best huntress in the village in a matter of years.

When she was young, a fire swept through the forest, burning the village and most of its occupants with it. Ana tried to get her parents out of their house, but part of the roof collapsed, blocking Ana's path and trapping them in their burning grave. The girl fled with the agonized screams of her family and friends surrounding her. She barely escaped the forest with her life, suffering serious burn wounds to the right side of her body that scarred her permanently.

A travelling band of thieves stumbled upon the exhausted, wounded, emotionally broken girl where she had collapsed on the side of the road. The leader of the group -- a half-elf named Luca -- took pity on her and took her in, treating her wounds and offering her a new life. Over the next several years, she journeyed with that band of thieves. It was with them that she honed her deadly skill set.

When she was nearing adulthood, tragedy again struck her life. This time, however, things went a bit differently for Ana. One night, while the thieves were setting up camp outside a town, a group of soldiers ambushed them. The thieves put up a good fight, but were unprepared for the attack. They were subdued. All except young Anavel. As the attackers swarmed out of the trees, Luca slipped a golden bracelet off of his wrist and onto hers. That bracelet of invisibility allowed her to escape the notice of the soldiers She followed them in the shadows as the thieves were taken into town and put on trial. They were found guilty. Their sentence -- death. The girl was unable to do anything as she watched her new family hang.

Ana was overcome with grief, but that grief soon turned to rage. A fire is not a beast or an entity. It is not something one get revenge on. A person, however, is another matter entirely. Over the course of a month, she tracked down and slaughtered every soldier involved in the rest, the judge, and every juror. She punished them for the thieves' deaths, for her parents' deaths, for ever injustice she had ever suffered. Her already fragile mind shattered. 'Anavel', the beautiful, silent lass from the forest, burned with her parents, hanged with her saviors. The woman that rose from these tragedies was nothing but a cruel echo of the past.

Vel stood over the corpse of her first kill and laughed.

Future of Fire: "I guess I'm an adventurer now. Yay."
Several decades ago, Vel stumbled across the seedy town of Grotto and thought to herself, "hey, this place would be perfect for murder." So she politely but firmly asked the owner of a less than reputable tavern to hand the deed over to her. The man refused, so Vel killed his brother, nailed him to the door, and asked again. Thus -- after breaking every mirror in the building -- the Black Cat Inn was born. Vel used it mostly as a base of operations for her "business", not bothering to buy anything but the barest of necessities. People still flocked to it, though, because hey! Alcohol!

Fast forward a few years. Vel is enjoying the high life. Or, well, as high as you can get in Grotto. One day, a man she recognizes as one of Roland the Black's messengers enters the Black Cat and announces that he seeks the "strongest of adventurers." While Vel doesn't have a particular interest in adventuring, she does have an interest in the elusive Roland. She decides it would be prudent to be on a powerful wizard's good side, and follows the newly-formed party in secret. She doesn't make her presence known until they had reached Roland's tower.

Vel went through a bit of a "dragon" phase when she was younger, going so far as to even learn the language (c'mon, who hasn't?), so when they are tasked with stealing an artifact from a Black Dragon, she is all for it. Much to her annoyance, however, the Dragon Worshiper and Dragon Fanboy of the party decide to strike up a conversation with Dar instead of just killing it. To her even greater annoyance, they make a deal with the thing to kill Roland and bring back his head. This goes against her whole "get on Roland's good side" plan, but her choices are to either go along with them, or try to fight four well-armed player characters and a dragon. Vel was never one to make stupid choices.

Preparing to assassinate a man is a long process. They spend a good while scheming and coming up with elaborate plots. At one point, some of the party inadvertently start the bar fight of all bar fights in the Black Cat. While it has always been, to put it mildly, a shit-hole, Vel does not appreciate the breakage of all of her furniture. She spends the rest of the planning stage in a considerably bad mood (also a little drunk).

After horribly failing to interrogate one of Roland's henchmen, they decide to screw it and just assault the tower. Vel manages to do a significant amount of damage with a well placed sneak attack, but is incapacitated for the rest of the battle by being turned into a mouse. She squeaks indignantly at the party while they loot the tower and Roland's corpse. Edgidus is kind enough to take Vel to the Church of Bane to get her de-moused. Vel does not appreciate this, however, because she is loathe to owe anything to the Imperceptor, with whom she has an uneasy agreement (stay out of my business and I'll stay out of yours).

The next day, the party presents Dar with Roland's head and receives the Black Orb as payment. Vel finds the idea of the orbs intriguing, especially the "world-changing power" bit. She has no interest in changing the world, but she has many interests in keeping the likes of Daeren or Yenmorn from doing so, as she figures their ideal world would be less than ideal for her. Thus, Vel decides to stick with the others in their quest to obtain all the Dragon Balls Orbs.

The next few days are peaceful, until one of Malbourne's men barges into her inn demanding her (and Edgidus') presence.

"The Imperceptor is a bastard, but he does pay well."
As it turns out, Malbourne has decided to hire Vel -- along with her compatriots -- for a bit of cleaning. They are tasked with destroying a Temple of Torm and using some kind of Banite Black MagicTMto wipe it off of the map entirely. Vel hates the idea of doing anything for the Imperceptor and considers pitching a fit, but the promise of having the Church owe her a favor is too good of a deal to pass up.

After a good bit of lying and shenanigans, night falls, and the murder spree begins. Daeren, Edgidus, and Yenmorn deal with the Celestial guards while Vel helps Nuranna slaughter the injured and infirm. She is not one to do a job halfway, so she even chases down the one man that tries to escape. It takes a while to kill everyone in the temple -- including a Primarch and several Exarchs -- but they get it done, spilling a lot of blood in the process, as per the Imperceptor's orders.

Vel is incredibly unnerved when they use the Banite Black Magic ScrollTM to literally wipe the Temple from existence and is more than happy to forget the incident and just go get payed. She collects her gold and her favor before leaving as fast as she can.

"I hate having to bring the kids on a business trip."
Vel is approached by a client interested in hiring her for an assassination -- you know, her job. She takes the suspicious-looking man to the Black Cat's back room to talk business, knowing full well the rest of the party will probably try to eavesdrop on the conversation. She is offered an exorbitant amount of platinum in return for killing Baron Yule, Baron of Bamor. Seeing as Vel really likes platinum, she agrees without hesitation, instructing her client to return in a few days. She gives her party a quick "be back later, don't burn down my inn" before going to pack for the trip. Before she can leave, however, she is pulled aside by Paul, the only remaining employee of the Black Cat. Paul warns her that this job could be more dangerous than she realizes and advises her to take along the others. Vel hates being told what to do, and especially hates it when the person telling her what to do has a valid point. So it is with great annoyance that she drags Daeren, Yenmorn, Edgidus, and Nuranna with her.

The group opts to rent a carriage instead of walking the several-mile-long journey. Piling into the canvas-covered wagon, Vel comes face-to-face with something she can't stand. A gnome. This particular gnome -- Ghan -- wears a stupid-looking hat, knows her past, and calls her the pet name her father gave her almost 200 years ago. Ana. Vel can barely contain her anger and agrees to play his game mostly because she would like to shove his deck of cards down his throat. The magical gamble actually works in her favor as she receives a helmet that allows her to read thoughts and 50000 experience points. When the game ends, the party realizes that they had been traveling for three days, although it felt like only a few minutes. They stumble, somewhat dazed, into Bamor and seek out a place to eat and sleep.

Vel's dreams are usually filled with delightful visions of murder. That night, however, she dreams of a man's face. He is pale, with dark messy hair that comes to his neck. He only has one eye, and his non-natural one seems to only be made of dark clouds. She awakens in a cold sweat when a small purple pupil appears and locks onto her. The man, she realizes, is Dren the Amoral, an assassin of unmatched skill. The thought of being hunted by such a man is enough to put her in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

Since she had to drag them with her, she figures her party can at least be of use, so she tells them to do recon for her. After all, how could they mess up such a simple task? Nuranna ends up getting arrested for pick-pocketing. Her escape attempt goes horribly wrong as well, and Vel is faced with a dilemma. If Nuranna goes to court, she could potentially reveal her purpose in Bamor, which would compromise Vel and her business. The elf makes a silent vow to put the fear of god Vel into Nuranna later, and goes to help her escape. She tries to convince the guards that Nuranna is just a poor, mentally unstable woman that managed to slip from her watchful eye. While she (along with Yenmorn) talks, she slips her magical bracelet of invisibility onto Nuranna's wrist, whispering to her the word of activation. However, even with magic, Nuranna is caught, and she gets herself, Vel, and Yenmorn arrested.

Vel spends most of the night in her cell thinking of different ways to murder Nuranna. When the trial comes, Vel and Yenmorn are let off the hook, as they hadn't technically broken any laws. Nuranna loses her hand, much to Vel's delight. Later that day, Vel warns Nuranna that if she wants to keep her other hand, she would do well never to inconvenience her in such a way again.

Finally, the group manages to sneak into the Tower of Wisdom and locate the Baron. The fight is particularly harrowing for Vel, as Yule's staff contains a piece of the Red Dragon Orb, which lets him wield fire. They eventually slay the man and book it back to Grotto.

"Dear 'D'. You're stupid and I hate you. Here's your damn blood money."
It takes a few days for Vel's employer to return, but when he does, she is rewarded with so many platinum. She divides 1/10th of the loot among her companions, keeping the rest for herself. The man then gives her another task -- collecting taxes from the town of Helenport. As Vel is always down for threatening people, she agrees and goes to tell her party about the new job offer. Before she can, however, Paul presents her with a sealed letter. A man, calling himself 'D', claims to have been hired to assassinate her. D(ren), however, respects her skill and agrees to spare her life if she can top his employer's payment. Now, Vel is a pretty smart cookie, and has stashed a good bit of gold over the course of her long career for a rainy day. She does a bit of mental math and realizes that even with her recent small fortune, she wouldn't be able to pay for her life.

Vel is furious. Also scared. But mostly furious. She knows she could never take on Dren by herself (the man can kill someone from a mile away), and she would die before admitting to her party that she needs help with a ''personal problem. ''This isn't getting aid with a bit of business, after all. This is ''saving her life. ''No way in hell would she put her life anywhere near their hands. So she does the only thing she can think of. She calls in a favor with the Imperceptor, asking for the money required. Malbourne agrees, if she can help him get a certain artifact from the God's Scorn. Although Vel doesn't really think it counts as a favor if you have to do more work for it, she is out of options and agrees. The man that runs the God's Scorn, Dante, won't part with the talisman unless she trades him. An artifact for an artifact. This means she must go to the Treasury of the Lich Duke.

First, however, she needs to collect the taxes. The rest of the party accompanies her to Helenport where they scare a public official into forking over their goods in the form of a large wagon stacked with boxes. On the way back, they are ambushed by a group called the "Hand of Light." Vel uses her rogue skills to dispatch the bard while the others deal with the cleric(?). She then uses the bard's discarded lute to bash the warrior over the head, effectively killing him.

After patching themselves up, they make it back to Grotto and give their employer the supplies. They then retire to the Black Cat to rest before tackling the Lich Duke (hopefully figuratively).

"I think I accidentally allied myself with the Banites?"
The Citadel of the Lich Duke isn't exactly a fun place. After the long, exhausting journey (and being led by a dwarf with a distaste for elves), Vel almost gets her hand bitten off by a mimic. Wouldn't that have been ironic? The party finds a gigantic room that seems to boost arcane power, which is not interesting to Vel. Much more interesting is the even more gigantic treasury, overflowing with riches, artifacts, and the Brass Dragon Orb. Deciding she wants to prevent Yenmorn and/or Daeren from having too much power (along with the fact that she and Nuranna are the only ones without an Orb at this point), Vel takes it. She also scans the treasury for anything she could use to squeeze more money out of the Banites. She finds her solution in a wicked-looking black mace that makes her feel damn-near invincible. Unfortunately, before she can do any more looting, Nuranna accidentally picks up a shrieking ring, forcing the party to flee from a very angry Lich.

Back in Grotto, Vel safely stores the Orb (that she has "befriended") in one of the Black Cat's hidden rooms before going to speak with Edgidus. She explains that she didn't have time to grab anything to trade with Dante and asks for one of his swords to use as a bargaining chip. Because Edgidus is not actually evil, he agrees. She then retrieves the talisman from the God's Scorn and hurries to the Church, her time slowly running out.

Normally, it is difficult to demand an audience with the Imperceptor, but when one storms in waving the Literal Black Hand of Bane (as she will soon learn the name of the mace), people tend to make an exception. She presents the Talisman of Ultimate Evil and the Black Hand to the Imperceptor. Yeah, let's just take a moment to appreciate that sentence. Malbourne rewards her with a brick of platinum and the Church's friendship for her services. She leaves with his maniacal laughter echoing behind her.

Vel returns to the God's Scorn and presents Dante with the platinum brick (as instructed by her new Pen Pal). Before she sleeps, she reconciles with the fact that apparently now she is allied with the Banite Church, though considering their new found power, that probably isn't a bad thing.

"Again?!"
Vel spends the next few days enjoying some peace and quiet, her debts paid (for the time being) and nothing in her inn broken. This peace is shattered by Yenmorn's arrival. He presents the party (minus Daeren) with a job, and since Vel needs to start saving for her next payment to Dren, she agrees.

They are hired by a group of bandits known as the White Hammer and tasked with escorting some "cargo" to its buyer. This cargo turns out to be a young girl, and the buyer is a mindflayer. This being Vel, however, she has no moral hangups and agrees. They stop in the city of Bargar to get some food. Vel takes charge of the girl, not trusting Nuranna not to run off with her. She meets up with the rest of the party a little later, but Nuranna does not reappear. Although this strikes her as odd, Vel doesn't complain and heads towards the city's gates.

Before they can leave, they are confronted by a group of armed guards that had been tipped off by Nuranna. Vel passes the child to Edgidus, pulls out the Brass orb, and teleports as far away as she can, leaving Edgidus and Yenmorn to their fate.

She does not, however, completely abandon them. She figures that at the very least she can steal the Black and White orbs while they are incarcerated. On the journey back to Bargar, she puts that idea on the back-burner as she comes up with a better one; break Edgidus and Yenmorn out of prison, track down Nuranna, and make her suffer. Fortunately for her, she runs into Daeren. She fills him in on the situation before the two use his arcane magic to break into the prison (at the same time the others were breaking out, as fate would have it). After a brief skirmish with the guards and freeing a dwarven monk named Kor, the party is reunited. Well, almost reunited.

"An eye for an eye, a knife in the back for a knife in the back."
The hunt for Nuranna is not an easy one, as her trail leads them through the woods. Vel is too angry to let anything stop her, not even a displacer beast pack lord and a group of angry White Hammer bandits. They manage to survive both encounters (barely) and finally corner their prey in a tree. While Daeren and Yenmorn hurl attacks at the backstabber, Vel talks. She knows her little speech is mostly pointless, but she hopes that the threats she hurls at Nuranna would be enough to make her slip up. And she does. The backstabber falls out of her tree. Vel allows Yenmorn and Daeren to do the actual killing, content to just watch.

"New Order? That sounds... Not fun."
After returning to Grotto and dividing up Nuranna's belongings, Vel and the others meet a man named Kale. He claims to have been sent by Lord Crowley, leader of the New Order, in order to hire them. They are told to collect the rest of the Dragon Orbs for Crowley, and that they will be well rewarded. Kale also makes it abundantly clear that they don't really have a choice in the matter if they want to keep living.

Vel doesn't like the New Order, and especially doesn't like being threatened. What Vel does like, however, is chaos, and she has an idea how to stir some up (and maybe solve her Dren problem on the way). She goes to her new buddy Malbourne and tells him all about Crowley's proposal. Malbourne promises to help deal with Dren in return for her planting an espionage spell on Crowley. This sounds like a wonderful plan to Vel, who agrees.

The party prepares to ambush the current holder of the Blue Orb -- the Ambassador of the Ulagar Kingdom -- as he travels home from the New Order. On their way there, they stay at a small inn in a small town for the night. Vel is outraged to find a petty thief has attempted to rob her, and she joins her comrades in dealing with the intruder. The next morning, they meet a young woman named Sylva, who has no idea how evil the people before her are. Vel finds the girl's bright attitude annoying and wants nothing to do with her, practically begging the party to ditch her. Unfortunately, she ends up tagging along. Vel plans on murdering her as soon as possible.

As the group and their new associate travel, they pass a covered carriage that Vel immediately recognizes as Ghan's. She sees her chance to get rid of Sylva, encouraging her to go get a free card reading. The girl drags everyone else along with her, unfortunately. This almost ends in disaster for Vel. When Ghan repeatedly calls Vel 'Ana', she snaps out an insult and barely survives a powerful spell that would have turned her into a tree.

They arrive at the city of Dunwich late at night and go find an inn to sleep in. When Vel awakens the next morning, she is pleased to find that Sylva has vanished. That headache dealt with, they begin to scheme. Because that always works out well for these guys.

"What could possibly go wrong?"
The plan is simple. Lie in wait until the ambassador's carriage passes by a secluded stretch of road, jump out, kill the guards, take the hammer.

The first sign that things are going to go horribly is the appearance of the "Devil of Sidalgo." As Vel waits invisible among the trees, she hears a voice calling out to her. She turns to see a disgusting, monstrous creature stalking towards her, grumbling about "release." When she tries to warn the others, she realizes they can't see it. Thankfully, Daeren and his use of magic draws the things attention, and she writes it off as "not my problem anymore."

The next sign of horrible things to come is how difficult the battle between the party and the Ulagar guards turns out to be. An anti-magic field complicates things, everyone almost dies at least once, Daeren does some clever things, Vel ends up in a tree. Shenanigans all around, really. It takes forever, but they do secure victory. One orc manages to escape.

The orc ambassador doesn't have the hammer -- sign number three. He claims that it is in Froyley Keep, and the party decides to compel the ambassador to get it for them.

The final sign comes when the ambassador does not return. They head to the Keep, camping in the woods surrounding it, in order to wait. Outside the Keep's main gates, they see the ambassador's head stuck on a pike.

"Mistakes were made."
Obviously, they're going to need to rethink their plan. Vel, having both the ability to turn invisible and to teleport, decides to sneak inside and do recon while the others wait outside. They provide a distraction for her, and she is able to slip past the guards. The Brass Orb serves as a sort of compass, guiding the stealthy elf through the halls. Unfortunately for Vel, three critical failures in a row result in her alerting four orcs to her presence, tripping, and dropping her only means of escape. As the Orb rolls away from her, Vel realizes that she has made a horrible mistake. She tries to fight the orcs, but they prove too much for her, and she is slain, cleaved in half by a very large axe.

Personality
Let's not sugar-coat things. Vel's a psychopath. Years of suffering and hardship formed her into the cold-blooded killer she is. She enjoys tormenting people, creating chaos, and making a profit (by killing).

Beliefs
Gods exist, sure. But why should she worship them? What have the gods done for her?

Fighting Style
Vel is very small, quick, and agile. She dual-wields daggers with the grace of a dancer. She prefers to attack from the shadows, dispatching her foes before a fight can truly begin. If it does come down to a skirmish, her movements are so fast they're hard to catch, and she's never in one place for more than a second. At the first opportunity, she will disappear into the darkness and strike again.

Relationships With Other Characters
Nuranna Haeds: While she doesn't make friends, Vel was tolerant of Nuranna's presence. Although her shenanigans often left her frustrated. She found her amusing, and would sometimes help in Nuranna's cannibalistic pranks (such as tricking the inn into eating human flesh). She would occasionally help Nuranna after she lost her hand, tying her hair etc. Feelings of amusement and tolerance were quickly replaced by absolute burning hatred when Nuranna betrayed the group. Vel was one of the first to suggest tracking her down and slaughtering her. A woman scorned and all that.

Edgidus Bastardus: Vel hates Edgidus's moral standpoint. The way she sees it, he puts himself on a moral high ground, when in reality (she believes) he's just as corrupt as the rest of them. As a person, however, they get along decently. Their relationship is based on the fact that neither of them want the world to be burned down at Daeren's hands. So as long as they're on the same page about the apocalypse, she is content to align herself with him.

Yenmorn Strongsteel: Arrow Boy is boring. For the most part, she's neutral towards Yenmorn. This is mostly do to the fact that he has no emotions, and Vel finds that dull. So she doesn't bother with him.

Daeren Ilgaran: She hates Daeren. Daeren hates her. And that's all there really is to say about that. She enjoys trying to annoy and anger him in any way she can.

Trivia

 * Vel is not afraid of fire. She is afraid of being trapped and unable to escape the inferno spiraling towards her.  Most would say that there is no difference between burning alive and being unable to escape burning alive.  To Vel, however, there's all the difference in the world.
 * She was born 'Anavel Del'Saras'. Her parents gave her the nicknames 'Ana' and 'Anabelle.'  After her mental breakdown, she never referred to herself by any of those names.  She shortened her given name down to 'Vel' and chose a new surname, one she just thought sounded cool.
 * Vel was furious when Ghanishan referred to her as 'Ana' in D&Dvil because, to her, 'Ana' died centuries ago.
 * As a side note, the NPC Del that appears in several of Emilie's quick-shots got his name from Vel's original, discarded surname.

Appears In
DnDvil Campaign