Etri Paddenwalk

Etri Paddenwalk was a halfling ranger and trapper who wandered Kork and the Tellarian Northlands in the 9th century of the Age of the Virgin Lands. She was born to a tribe of halfling merchants who roamed Central and Eastern Tellaria in a caravan convoy.

## The Caravan Attack (837 AoVL)

In 837 AoVL, when she was a mere sixteen years old, her people were accosted by disguised members of the Order of Iludin. The halflings had avoided paying the Iludin's extortionist road taxes for many years. To collect what they deemed they were owed, the so-called knights ransacked the caravans, slew the merchants for their insolence, and burned what was left. Etri's parents sent her running away, herding the other halfling children from the scene. She took them into Peatonbrook Woods and raised them as best she could for twenty years. When the last of the children was old enough to leave on his own, Etri set her mind to a new task: finding whoever did this to her people. Being so young at the time, all she remembered were that the "bandits" were humans. She grew up distrusting them, and the humans she met on her travels did nothing to disavow her of that conceit. With nothing but her bow, her wits, and a pendant of an owlbear talon that her parents gave her before they died, she headed back to the place of her greatest trauma.

## Travels in Kork (857 AoVL)

In 857 AoVL she returned to the old trade roads in northern Kork, where she was born. She meant to find a lead from some of the merchants who currently rode through there, but was surprised to find that the roads were mostly abandoned. It seemed that once again, bandit activity in the area had driven innocent traders away.

Hearing raucous drunken singing with her keen ears, she snuck into the Peatonbrook Woods west of the road and found the camp of the Dirt Road Stranglers, a bandit gang led by one Captain Hatchet. Through a series of offers, lies, and threats, Etri learned that it was knights of the Iludin who killed her family. He told her that there were no more Iludin bases in the north, but the knights who manned the former Fort Nivon were dishonorably discharged and some still lived in obscurity in the town of Hurstvik. She was allowed to leave the camp, and headed north toward the town. On her way, she was shot at by two unseen assailants, but escaped with only two nicks from the arrows. She arrived in Hurstvik that night.

She entered the only open establishment, the tavern called the Moldy Turnip, and met the local barkeep Magor Mak'Linnen and his nephews Agor and Bakkor, quickly endearing herself to the latter. Through her particular manner of verbal weaving and pressuring, she gleaned information that Hurstvik was a town on the verge of panic. Not only had bandit activity increased to the south and west, but the ogre Migmog and his gang of snow goblins had attacked the Coldstone Mine, presumably killing all inside. On top of this, the town priest had been visiting the mine, and the mayor's brother had gone out after him. They, along with the other dwarves, were presumed dead.

The next day, Etri explored the rest of the town, meeting the local apothecary, Rickard MacDougall. He had an outgoing shipment of potions to Coldstone Hall, but they had never arrived. Etri found the thieves hiding in town and retrieved Rickard's goods with creative use of gravity and fire. Three humans fled, followed by the halfling Halford Pennypinch. After returning Rickard's goods, Etri visited the tanner Willem MacStarlin. During their transaction, a smoke bomb went off and Willem fled out the back. Ducking under the smoke, Etri recognized the quick-stepping snow boots of Hal. They drew daggers and fought in the smoke until Hal was knocked unconscious. Etri left him there, but not before stealing his boots.

Etri returned to the Moldy Turnip, only to find disdain from Magor. He now fancied her a troublemaker in a town with more than enough troubles. Gleaning no more information from him, she bought the patrons drinks and greased a few palms. Eventually she bribed the mayor's gardener into arranging an audience. She met with Mayor Garfor Vanad in the nearby Border Tower. She offered her services in tracking down his brother Kerlos, who had gone into the Northlands to hunt down Migmog and his gang. Mayor Vanad held little hope that any of the dwarves survived, but promised Etri anything she wanted to know if she managed to return his brother to him.

## Into the Northlands (857 AoVL)

Etri passed through the Hedgerow with little trouble, and besides an ambush from ice spiders, reached Coldstone Mine with little trouble. Inside she used her stealth, daggers, and empathy with bats to slay many goblins along with the outcast orc shaman Kelfax Bonechomper. Kelfax had kept Hurstvik's priest of Raea and Boderin, Lagrud Rocknocker, whose hands had been bound and his tongue cut out. She freed him, and together they went deeper into the mines to search for Kerlos.

In the largest chamber, Etri and Lagrud came upon the sleeping form of Migmog. Choosing stealth over combat, they snuck past to the next room, where lay the starved body of Kerlos, his thieves' tools still in the heavy, complex lock of the opposite door. While Lagrud took a moment to silently pray for Kerlos's soul, Etri managed to pick the lock, and stepped into a magnificent chamber. Inside was the skeleton of a young adult white dragon curled around the base of a giant statue made of magical ever-frozen blueice. It depicted Queen Lakaer Ironchill, who had slain that very dragon singlehandedly. The statue granted magical powers upon touch, and (though unbeknownst to her at the time) she was fortified by its magic. Knowing better than to try and steal anything, she left the statue behind. Lagrud hoisted Kerlos's body and they snuck back past Migmog's chamber, only to be met by more goblins who had come down behind them. The battle was pitched, and one of Etri's explosives finally woke the ogre. Migmog came charging in a rage, busting doorframes and snapping beams. Lagrud escaped up the narrow passageway, but Etri was not quite quick enough, and Migmog punted her up the passage. Thankfully, nothing was broken, and she recovered and fled the mines before Migmog could struggle through.