Althea

> *I swear I'm not the one who put that money in my pocket!*
>
>

-Althea to guard while being thrown in jail

Althea Blacklock is a rogue that joined Lynda's group when offered money.

## Biography

### Early Life

Althea was the human daughter of Ryker Blacklock, a former White Claw leader, and Cybil Owens, the lady whom Ryker left the White Claw behind for. As dictated by the White Claw Law, nonetheless, Althea and her brothers, Jax and Cadmus, were deemed as fit for positions in the White Claw. Hence, Althea and her siblings were asked twice every five years to join, all times of which they refused as they had been raised with the belief that the White Claw led dangerous and monstrous lives.

Althea's father had given her his jade medallion, claiming that it'd give her guidance and protection in the world. He knew she'd use any means to keep it safe as a sort of sentimental gift, though he grew up with the belief that it'd one day play a bigger part in things which he wasn't inclined to explain at the time.

Shortly after she was offered the forth time of joining the White Claw at the mere age of ten, her family's small cottage on the edge of the town had been under attack. The town's government had found Ryker's past connections with the White Claw and sent an enemy group to the Blacklock cottage. Althea was in her room when she heard the sounds of the door being kicked down, and the screams of Cybil and her siblings cut short. The door to her room was thrown open, and she was grabbed by a tall man in a mask who raised a blade to her throat. Her medallion suddenly glowed, floating out from under her shirt tied to her neck, and the blade was ripped from his hands. She scrambled back in his moment of surprise, and he grabbed at her necklace, ripping it off as she darted to the window and escaped. She could see the smoke in the distance as her family cottage was demolished by the flames, with nothing left to hold onto from her family. Althea then immediately decided to leave the town and join the White Claw for answers and means of revenge.

Althea took up the life of a White Claw at an early age. Though her family had grown as mere townspeople, perhaps on the poorer side, she quickly began to associate with the criminal lifestyle. When she had found out her hometown's government had been the root of her family's demise, she found laws as insignificant and social structures as corrupted. She found that the only way she would survive is through any means necessary, and taking for her personal benefit. Her goals longterm, however, would ultimately contradict that.

Though Althea was part of a group, she was very much alone and merely used them as a way to build herself up. She learned the skills of thievery, which she seemed to be a natural at, and became an important asset in assigned group missions. She also learned to speak goblin, as many she knew in the White Claw were goblins. She used the White Claw as means of finding out more information about her family's tragic end, the group that had been behind it, and the jade medallion--the only connection left to her family. She had already taken care of her town's government, and had followed leads regarding the mysterious group behind her family's deaths but to no avail.

Althea eventually left the White Claw, as she was met with dead end after dead end and figured she'd do much better on her own, without the restrictions of the White Claw. She recognized the dangers of her being out in the open though much preferred it, and figured there must've been a greater reason behind her family's end she had yet to find out, starting with finding the medallion, which she heard Duke Damian von Smithers would know something about.

### Althea and the Search for Duke Damian

Althea heard around that the Wreenwood Mayor had assigned a dragonborn to the task of hunting down Duke Damian, and waited at the Wreenwood Tavern for Lynda's (the dragonborn's) entrance. Conveniently, Lynda was looking for recruits and Althea gladly accepted, finding herself hopefully one step closer.

Althea journeyed with the group to the Aznean Cave, where they were met by the Dopo Gobo Bros, who recognized her. They left the goblins badly wounded as they searched the caves further. While in the caves, they were met by Athena, a Druid, and were ditched by their previous comrades, Meow--who had a heart attack and died at the old age of 99--and Manus, who left to probably steal more money from various orphanages.

In the caves, the group had to crawl to the end of a passage that was lined with arrows. Althea crawled onto a skeleton while in the passage, proceeding to looting it (she found nothing). She took the pinky of the skeleton as a souvenir of the journey and ironically as a good luck charm.

The group then came across the Frog Sage, who pointed them in the direction of Duke Damian. Althea had considered following the other path of riches, though decided against it as she was warned of what lay on the other side. Furthermore, her goal was to reach Duke Damian and retrieve her jade medallion. The Frog Sage gave her his crystal ball.

Duke Damian was brutally murdered by Krakowski while he was balling in Krakowski's arm. Althea tried to take the jade medallion back from Duke Damian's dead body, though could only find gold pieces in his pockets. Fortunately, Krakowski found the medallion while he was attacked by Alessandra for killing the Duke, and he eventually gave the medallion back to Althea. This is also when the group met Percival Williams, an explorer who was also sent to find Duke Damian. As the group left the cave, they were taken by the elves for killing the duke and thrown into the Cranun Island Prison.

### The Prison Escape

Althea shared a cell with Krakowski and his little wolf named Wolfie. In this prison, Famaric gave her a golden sword. She spent her time sitting it out and plotting ways of escape, mainly with Krakowski, who had tried many attempts to escape, even lighting the pantry on fire which wasn't very smart. During the first arena battle for the group, Althea sat out and robbed the prisoner beside her, who had a Wolf Training Guide which she later gave to Krakowski. She also saw the White Claw Leader, Bob, watching in the stands, who instantly recognized her. She winked at him, prompting him to send her past comrades from the White Claw to go to her cell and beat her up. They did so to avoid problems, but slipped her a health potion on the way out.

In the last hours before escape, Althea befriended Lurka, an orc lady who had won all her prior arena battles. Althea showed Lurka her lucky charm pinky, which encouraged Lurka to show her her own lucky charm pinky, creating a bond between to the two. She gave Althea her bone-toothed necklace as means of protection, as Althea had joined the final arena battle in the prison.

Althea finally escaped with Lynda, Krakowski, Manus, Percival, and an urchin sorcerer through a hole in the prison wall. They fought the prison warden and escaped to the docks, getting on a ship that the Old Sage had stolen along with Greta, a lady prison guard, and James Periwinkle, an adventurer who offered to be stuck in the prison in the first place. Shade Shambles had tried to get Althea to join her side, and though convincing, she left with her group, which seemed more trustworthy and gave her an advantage at the time.

## Personality

Althea is chaotic neutral, therefore she comes across as rude and mysterious at times, taking sides that best benefit herself and utilizing quick wit to ensure her advantage. She likes to keep people at arms-length, fearing the past to repeat itself, though she will most likely help out if she believes things will go downhill in the future from her current inaction.

Althea doesn't like to admit but she reads extensively and has a perfect memory for things. She's very sneaky and quiet in her steps, making it easy for her to listen in, and has mastered acrobatics allowing her to maneuver around obstacles.

Her downfall is that she's stubborn in her thought and will dismiss reason when it comes to the things she wants, such as her medallion. She is willing to risk herself for information concerning her past. In addition, if anything is valuable in the room she will be unable to think about anything other than ways to steal it.

## Physical Description

Althea is described to have short, dark hair and piercing green eyes. She is thin and short, being just under five feet and weighing slightly above ninety pounds. Her hands are calloused as she does much climbing, and she has somewhat of a suspicious air about her.

## Skills and Abilities

* **Acrobatics**: Althea is good at performing stunts regarding acrobats, allowing her to keep her balance on narrow or unstable surfaces, slip free of restraints and grips, and take less damage from falls.
* **Deception**: Althea excels in being able to hide the truth or mislead others for her own advantage.
* **Sleight of Hand**: Althea is good at planting objects on other people and stealing things from other.
* **Stealth**: Althea is skilled at hiding from enemies, slipping past guards and anyone without being noticed, and sneaking up on people without being seen or heard.
* **General Dexterity**: Althea has great hand-eye coordination, agility, reflexes, and balance.
* **General Intelligence**: pretty self explanatory
* **Languages**: She can speak both common and goblin
* **Thieves' Cant**: Althea learned a secret mix of dialect, jargon, and code, allowing her to hide messages in normal conversation. Only those with the same ability can understand her. She also can make and understand secret signs and symbols to convey short messages when an area is dangerous or there's a thieves' guild nearby, whether loot is nearby, whether people in the area are easy marks or will give safe house for thieves on the run.
* **Sneak Attack**: Althea can strike subtly and exploit a foe's distraction, dealing an extra 1d6 damage to a creature. There's no need for an advantage on the attack role if the creature is within five feet.
* **Cunning Action**: Althea's thinking and agility allow her to move and act quickly. She can take a bonus action during her terms of combat for when she wants to dash, disengage, or hide. -*Disengage:* If she takes this action, her movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks (an attack that could happen if she were to pass by an enemy) for the rest of the turn -*Dash:* She can move up to 60 feet on her turn. -*Hide:* If near cover, she can use this action to hide.
* **Criminal Contact**: Althea still is in contact with other criminals, which may come to an advantage.
* **Pickpocket**: Althea's criminal speciality is her skills in pickpocketing.
* **Roguish Archetype**: She focuses her training on the art of the blade, relying on speed, elegance, and charm in equal parts. She excels in single combat and can fight with two weapons while safely darting away from the opponent.
* **Fancy Footwork**: She can land a strike and slip away without reprisal. If she makes a melee attack (hand-to-hand fighting) against an opponent, the creature can't make opportunity attacks against her for the rest of the turn.
* **Two-Weapon Fighting:** She can use her bonus action to fight with two weapons and then safely evade each foe she attacked.
* **Rakish Audacity:** Her confidence propels her into battle. She can give herself a bonus to her initiative roles equals to her Charisma modifier. She doesn't need an advantage on her attack role to use Sneak Attack against a creature she's within 5 feet of (and no other creature is within 5 feet of her), and she doesn't have a disadvantage on the attack roll.

## Possessions

* a shortsword
* a short bow and quiver of 17 arrows
* a burglar's pack: backpack, bag of 1,000 ball bearings, 10 ft of string, a bell, 4 candles, a crowbar, a hammer, 10 pitons, a hooded lantern, 2 flasks of oil, 5 days rations, a tinderbox, a waterski, 50 ft hempen rope
* a explorer's pack: a backpack, a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, a waterskin, 50 feet hempen rope
* leather armor
* four daggers
* thieves' tools: small file, set of lock picks, small mirror mounted on metal handle, set of narrow-bladed scissors, pair of pliers
* a belt pouch containing 4cp, 8sp, and 246gp
* a crowbar
* a set of dark common clothes including a hood
* a pinky she took off a skeleton when searching the Aznean cave with her group
* a crystal ball that the Frog Sage gave to her
* her jade medallion which she was finally reunited with when Krakowski had looted it from Duke Damian
* a golden sword she got from the guard Famaric in the Cranun Island Prison
* healing potion that her old White Claw companions gave her after they beat her up in the prison when the White Claw leader saw her in the arena
* a bone toothed necklace that Lorca gave her for protection and a sign of friendship

## Relationships

### The Dopo Gobo Bros

Althea has had close ties with the Dopo Gobo Bros through past White Claw missions, though she can't say anything more than that towards them. However, she did kill the unnamed goblin during an argument, much to Gobby's disappointment though he was never much upset by it. The unnamed goblin was pretty annoying.

During the quest with Lynda's group, Althea meets the Dopo Gobo Bros once again who recognize her during a battle. Gobby attempted to have Althea betray Lynda's group and join the goblins instead, to which she refuses, seeking greater things to which she'd have a better chance of in Lynda's group.

### Lynda

Althea tolerates Lynda, the dragonborn wizard, and recognizes her needing to do so in order to further along the mission and find leads connecting to Ryker and the medallion. However, she does see Lynda as a bit of a problem in her tolerating the government and following laws that Althea believes doesn't apply to her, and has found herself frustrated with some of Lynda's decisions. Lynda's inclination to tell the truth is worrisome to Althea and could be a problem in the future.

### Meow

Althea doesn't have much of a problem with this old cleric, and is actually quite amused by the fact Meow can still party hard despite her old age.

### Manus

Althea isn't much amused with Manus, who seemed to get on her nerves since the start. He went into a long speech at the Wreenwood Tavern, prompting Althea to believe Manus was heavily intoxicated in his offering her a house which she refused on multiple accounts. With her instincts as a rogue, she figured something wasn't right. Moreover, his long speeches she found tiresome, as it distracted from the quest and ultimately in her finding more clues.

What got to her most was Manus' apparent stealing of her golden dagger. She had put her daggers to the throats of two "children" when she found out the gold dagger was missing, and was surprised to find it gone from her grasp (which I think was a flaw in the DM's telling of things, as stealing from a Criminal Rogue at the hands of any other character seems ridiculous), when Manus was forced to reveal the dagger. She's got it in for Manus now.

### Krakowski Hanson

Althea seemed to get along fine with Krakowski upon their mutual dislike of Manus starting off. He also helped her in acquiring more money, though he was unaware of doing so. However, she was confused with Krakowski's odd encounter with the Dopo Gobo Bros during battle and wondered towards her own safety in oppose to his seemingly naive actions.

### White Claw Members

Althea never liked Bob, the leader. Ever since she left, he seemed to have it out for her. However, Althea did make a few good friendships in the White Claw. Fortunately while imprisoned, the White Claw members sent to beat her up were her past friends, and had all-in-all spared her. She would remember this.

### Lurka

Althea felt a connection with and understanding towards Lorca. She managed to befriend Lorca while sitting at a table with her by showing her her lucky pinky bone. Lorca later gave Althea her bone-toothed necklace as sign of friendship and protection. Althea wondered where Lorca disappeared too when she prison had been under attack.

### Shade Shambles

Althea is amused by Shade, and though he is a potential danger to the group, his companionship had proven to be vital especially during the last prison arena battle. Althea sees him as a future threat, however, and is weary of coming across him again if he were to perceive the group as his enemies. She recognizes the potential of joining sides with him for safety and riches if the tides are to turn.

### Percival Williams

Althea recognizes Percival as a dependable monk and one of the more logical thinkers of the group. She appreciates his sincerity and welcomes him to the group as an important asset. However, she thinks his tendency towards the law can be seen as a downfall when in need of making tough decisions.

### Athena

Althea thinks Athena is too set in the law and good, though is a trustworthy person to be around and could be easily used to Althea's advantage.

## Trivia

* Althea had a cat named Grumpy.
* Althea isn't her real name, as she had to change it once she fled from home to avoid suspicion and danger. She likes to keep her last name under wraps too.
* She murdered the former leader of her hometown out of revenge.
* She dealt a deathly blow out of annoyance to the head of the unnamed goblin with the bouquet of roses in a claypot he had offered to her.