Character Backstories

His mother named him hepiamLe'nuakuu, and he was her pride and joy. In fact, children were so rare for the Le'nuakkuu halfling tribe that he was the pride of the whole tribe for many years.
A curse was cast upon the chief's family (which, coincidentally is Hepiam's family) many years before by a witch against the chief of that day, a legend named manaLe'nuakuu, because he slighted her offer of marriage to her.Hepiam (or Hepi, as he prefers) has heard the tales, but does not know how much faith he puts into those stories. He believes in making his own destiny.

He was taught by his people to track game, to fight bravely, and to be loyal to his tribe.

For a time, he aided yejkue'at ("outsiders"), guiding them through the wilderness in exchange for gold (and to expose himself to the beautiful exotic women that, at times, he would meet in these groups). He had a good life, and brought much to his family.

One day, on his way back home from guiding some yejkue'at, he noticed tracks of dhekdia-khjila leading to his home. It was a slaving party. He looked up and saw the signs: the tribe was decimated. Though a perceptive halfling, Hepi is not very stealthy, and he was happened upon by the raiding party, who mortally wounded him and tied him up, after which the drow matriarch healed him. For days, he was enslaved by the drow. They ultimately sold him to some over-worlders (being that halflings don't fetch much of a price in the Underdark), and ultimately, he was placed on a ship to be sold to the slave markets of a distant land.

The humans and other larger yejkue'at call him "Happy", being a close common word to his preferred name.

Zeverelin Kiirnodel, or Zev for short, is the second son of the Kiirnodel family, owners of the MoonGem Holding company in WaterDeep, one of the larger High Elven import exporting businesses in the land. Zev grew up wanting nothing, and expecting the best. His older brother pushed himself to prove to his father that he was ready to take over the business, while Zev spent his time with his mother, being babied and waited on hand and foot. Seeing how his wife had ruined their youngest son, Zev's father put him to work on one of his many ships at the young age of 50, where he was expected to work with the crew. Instead, Zev's innate magical talents started to show themselves. He learned how to use his innate ability of prestidigitation to do his cleaning for him, as well as manipulating the crew. When it was his turn for galley duty, the fish soup suddenly tasted so much better. When it was his turn scrubbing the deck, he clearly put in a lot of elbow grease to scrub the floor in exactly 1 foot sections. But whenever he started to get into trouble, or people were starting to really study him, wouldn't you know it a small fire would break out on the spool of ropes, or the handle of an oar. Its amazing how many small fires broke out when Zev came on board. The smallest flames or sparks would send the crew into such a tizzy, that Zev never got tired of it.
His magical abilities were finally noticed, and Zev was put under the tutelage of a powerful ships mage. After several years of studying, and learning the basics, Zev was put on his own ship to work, yet continue his education.
While aboard his fathers ships, he was never able to break away from his fathers grasp. He didn't want to work of course, but his father had made it clear that his crews were to treat him no better than any other greenhorn who wished to join a ship. The only way to break from his fathers grasp, and be treated well enough to not have to do any real work, was to earn it himself. His only goal was to become more powerful than his father so that people would listen to what he said, and to fear his name, not his fathers. That is where we find Zev, striking out on his own and In 3 or 400 years, Zev would have the power, wealth, and resources to make his father mop the poop deck, clean the privy, and slave over large cauldrons of fish head stew. That childish revenge, is the motivation for Zev.

Laeren was born the 3rd son in the Zaut'ar family, one of the lower ranked (but ambitious) families in Menzoberranzan, the drow capitol. As a male, and of low rank, he had few friends growing up, except for his younger sister Balaena, the 4th daughter in line to be the house matron. When, in their early teens, Laeren suddenly gained the ability to change their gender, they hid this secret from everyone except their sister. They realized that for a male to be able to become female would be seen as threatening to the family matriarchy. It was also not an ability that Lolth, the drow goddess, approved of. Unfortunately for Laeren, their sister Balaena felt threatened by this potential challenger, for if Laeren (who was a year older) was considered a female that would make them 4th and Balaena, only 5th in line. Balaena betrayed Laeren's confidence and told the mother matron their secret.

Laeren feared they would be killed for their ability and decided to flee Menzoberranzan and the Underdark. They spent several difficult months surviving on their own, eating mushrooms and hunting blind lizards and bats for food. Eventually, they came across a group of human smugglers from the overworld and offered their services as a local guide. They traveled with the smugglers above ground and joined their organization, a thieves' guild, learning many tricks of the trade from them. They never chose to be a common thief, but it is difficult to break away from this life when the over-worlders all expect the worst from you. Perhaps now that they've saved up some money and are planning to take a ship to another land, they can get a fresh start and do something worthwhile with their life.

Fernarei was born on the outskirts of the country of Narfell to a Tiefling father that was killed in a raid by bandits. From a young age, she learned to take what she needed from others, and not to get caught. Despite this a human family took her in as their own, raising her with their own daughter teaching her the value that knowledge has in all things. She was happy there, content with her life growing up alongside a sister that she grew quite close to.
But as she and her sister grew older things began to change, their parents seemed to find the girls more valuable as objects than children so they were sold off to drow slave traders from the Underdark and quickly separated. Fernarei Whithers, gained the nickname Feral One among the captives for her abrupt lack of fear and willingness to fight her captures at any moment. During one of these instances, she managed to escape just barely with the other captives when the small group she was housed with banded together to knock out the guards before they were transported.
From there the young Tiefling woman decided she needed to find her sister, but she was sold off and long gone by the time Feral had escaped. For months she traveled around Narfell hoping to gain some clue when she decided to take more drastic measures. Hearing news of a powerful cleric in the Zhentarim that could open gates to the Gods, Feral disguised herself as a member and tracked the cleric down. When begging the man for help didn't work she used her own brand of trickery to convince him. To both the cleric's shock and her own the gate opened upon the Goddess Waukeen who agreed to give Feral the information she needed at a cost.
Having what she needed, the young Tiefling removed her disguise and set off to accomplish her goals hoping to someday find the only person she can still call family.
After a few years of travel, she arrived in Waterdeep only to hear that Zhentarim agents from the north had come looking for someone. Fearing that they knew of her crimes in Narfell she needed a way out of town, hearing about a ship traveling to Moonshae Isles she decided that was the perfect opportunity and booked passage. It was a long way around to her original destination in Amn but that couldn't be helped.