Ariadne Wychwood

Appearance
In general, she is short and curvy with tattoos spiraling up her left arm to her shoulder, starting with a stylized water lily on the back of her hand, and working its way up to a closed scroll on her upper arm. Her other tattoo scrolls across her ribs in Celestial.

She doesn't scar up very easily, but she's got a pretty nasty one near her right collar bone. This one is an embarrassing story, if you can convince her to tell it. Mistakes were made.

An Accident
Ariadne was, first and foremost, an accident.

Her father, Errol Qivven, is a bard from the Eladrin city of Karnaca, whose primary hobbies are sex and drugs. Somehow he ended up addicted to an ancient vampire. Said vampire is originally from Avista, but had millennia of working and living around Blackwater when she met Errol.

Ariadne herself was the result of a moment of stupidity and passion. Mistakes were made. Neither really thought her mother - being undead - could conceive and precautions were not taken.

Precautions were taken to make sure the addict rockstar bard wasn't the primary influence on the spawn. He is thoroughly addicted to her mother's blood - as addicted as she is to his blood - but, surprisingly, Ariadne knows her father fairly well.

The relationship between them is ... strained. Her mother raised her, but he showed up regularly and took care of her - with servants to do the actual caring, he was really just the Token Present Adult - for short stretches. He even took it on himself to train her talent in music and bardic magic. They're not close, but there's no real enmity.

Unlike between her mother and father. (There's plenty of enmity there!) Her mother brooked no argument that Ariadne was her child, and his only by virtue of donated genetics. And the small fact the child took to bardic magic. Grumble. Okay, make sure she doesn't hurt herself.

Blackwater
Ariadne's childhood was spent cloistered in her mother's house in the above-ground part Blackwater. She was safe, mostly, but not allowed outside. It was too easy for a vampire or dhampir to lurk in the shadows and prey on the "spoiled little princess". She was taken twice, tortured, and nearly killed.

After Ariadne recovered the second time, she was turned over to the Blacksteel, and specifically to Donbrik Blacksteel, with instructions to give her tools that would help her defend herself against future attempts. Donbrik taught her spycraft, and her father ... reluctantly, because he had better things to do ... taught her music and magic.

Driscoll
At 15, Scarlett decided Ariadne was old enough to learn how to hunt for herself. They took a trip, walking to Driscoll, the nearest mortal town, and Scarlett made Ariadne talk to people, showed her how to blend into mortal society, and helped her pick out prey. The man Scarlett helped her select turned out to be prophetic. A man swaggered in with his cowering wife, yelling at her when she didn't move quickly enough, or acted meek enough.

That night, Scarlett approached the man's house, listening to the quiet sobbing of his wife inside. He invited her inside and Scarlett flushed the man out into the street and then just waited. Ariadne chased the fleeing man, stalking him through the slums until she cornered him, and fed.

After that, Ariadne was allowed to visit Driscoll once a month, travelling by herself, to feed. While there, she began performing in taverns, and struck up a friendship with a girl her own age named Carissa.

Wandering
Ariadne eventually took to wandering, like most bards. She supported herself rather well on entertaining with her musical skills, or ferreting out and selling secrets with her spycraft. Most of those jobs were interesting, and sometimes she could pull off truly audacious cons.

Most of the time, she was just sightseeing, performing, and taking time off to drop in on Donbrik and her friends in Driscoll.

The Mistake
Nothing to see here, move along. Ariadne took her punishment and then fled to Driscoll.

Lady Driscoll
She found a mess in Driscoll. Her goddaughter, Anale, had married the current Lord of Driscoll under duress. When he also forced a command performance out of Ariadne, a few reputations got set on fire.

The Order of Faris
Because it was very clear that Ariadne needed to not be around normal people for a bit, Donbrik found her a job infiltrating the Order of Faris, a nature deity whose followers marked themselves with floral or nature tattoos. The Order had come into possession of a few sacred relics and Ariadne was sent in to find out the true nature and purpose of those relics... and then liberate them and return them to their rightful owner.

She marked herself with "tattoos" of a cleric in a high position, and knew enough clerical magic to get by, and joined the Order of Faris. She wasn't overly concerned that Faris would intervene. After all, if the relics were legitimate she wasn't going to interfere with them. If they weren't, she was doing the god a tangible service by unmasking a corrupt sect. No divine intervention should have been forthcoming - aside from the maybe blasphemous cheek of impersonating a cleric to begin with.

And then she almost got caught. Three weeks in, the Order played host to a visiting warrior that she was pretty sure was going to recognize her as not the most religious of beings - and certainly not committed to a nature deity. She, after all, recognized him. But somehow ... he didn't. He looked at her, and then passed right on by. Ariadne silently thanked whoever was listening and finished up her assignment as fast as possible before getting the hell out of the situation.

She thought she had managed perfect damage control, somehow, until a figure appeared in her dreams the night before she left. The figure was a woman in robes, who pulled the young woman close, as though she was telling her a secret, and whispered that what she had done was entertaining, and she would be watched from now on. The woman smiled gently and touched Ariadne's arm, saying "A parting gift."

Ariadne awoke to stinging pain all along her left arm but no blood and no visible changes. She shrugged it off as "deal with it later" and went on to complete her assignment. After dropping off the information and being paid, Ariadne treated herself to a long soak in a hotspring - one that wouldn't ask questions as she washed tattoos off the length of her arm.

Some of the tattoos didn't wash off. Hidden beneath the curling vines and flowers were real tattoos: mandala patterns and a stylized scroll inked into her upper arm. The only reminder of the Order of Faris was a newly-stylized water lily that remained on the back of her left hand.

Her healing magic was suddenly more potent, and months later - as she was tangling with a pack of low-level undead - a burning pain along her ribs heralded another tattoo. A mantra: For every truth a secret, for every secret a truth, therein lies power and knowledge.

As soon as she read out the words, the tattoos on her arm flashed gold, the inked scroll unfurling along her arm, and the undead turned and shambled away.

Her visitor returned shortly after that and introduced herself properly as Sendovani, the Lady of Secrets. She also let Ariadne know she was claimed, and in a way that she couldn't "lose" her holy symbol. But, she wouldn't prevail on her too much. She found Ariadne entertaining and capable, so Sendovani would leave the level of adherence as a priestess up to her.

Most recently, she was delivered an interesting contract from a smallish duchy on the coast. The local duke was hosting a Felrast slave auction, and looking for a personal slave for himself. Preferably exotic. He has a small but significant rebellion of people that want him to end the slave trade - and especially stop allowing the Felrast to cull people off the streets after curfew.

Ariadne was hired to infiltrate the auction, locate three girls that were previously sent on the mission but failed, and to discover who else in the nobility was in the market for new slaves and anything incriminating she could find to use against the duke. The price was 1000 gold for delivery, with an extra 100 per rescue.

Blood Mate
... nothing to see here either. Keep moving.