Althea Crowthorn

Born in a swamp, deep in the wilderness, Althea Crowthorn was raised by her maternal grandmother Ildra. As a child Althea ran barefoot through the mud, making friends with the insects and plants around her. Ildra and the humans who travelled from the nearest village to seek Ildra's healing and magic were the only humanoids Althea encountered. Her parents died before she was one, and no other children ever approached Crowthorn Cottage or entered the swamp.

Ildra taught Althea all she knew, sharing her Druidic secrets, and Althea quickly learnt how to speak to plants and use Nature to heal and punish. She has a knack for summoning insects and reptiles; frogs and toads are her favourite. Althea is happiest when searching out poisonous mushrooms or talking to giant snails.

Most people avoided their swamp, but some braved the mosquitos and bogs to seek Ildra's help. One such hero was Kelton Plainflour, the local baker. He came knocking at the cottage door, and begged Ildra to make a love potion to help him seduce the lord's daughter. Ildra refused but Kelton persisted, returning day after day until she gave in. Ildra mixed the potion and gave it to Kelton, now covered in sores and scabs from the bites of different swamp bugs.

A week passed. Althea was out collecting firewood when she heard the commotion. Racing across quagmire she ran as fast as her feet would carry her, arriving at the cottage door to see Ildra lying on the floor, blood pooling beneath her. Lord Strongborne has sent his men to avenge his daughter who couldn't resist the oozing Kelton and had leapt into his arms after he gave her a cupcake laced with love potion. The pus from Kelton's bites burnt through the couples' skin as they lay entwined, until both were scarred and sick. Lord Strongborne found the pair, yellow and lifeless the next day, and in a fury sent his men to kill the 'old hag in the swamp.'

Althea ran to Ildra's side and pressed a poultice of moss and herbs into the knife wound. Using all her might she invoked Nature's help to try and save her grandmother - but Althea could not cure her. Ildra's wounds were too deep and she had lost too much blood. Ildra reached out and held Althea's hand, ready to die.

But Althea was stubborn. She had lost her parents; she would not loose Ildra. Through her studies of swamp flora and fauna she had discovered a means of preserving bodies, even when at the brink of death. Althea remembered a fungus she had seen deep in the swamp on one of her excursions. Tears streaming down her face she retraced her steps and found it. Althea took her knife and performed a Druidic ritual: communing with the plant to ask permission, she slit her palm and let her blood rain upon the fungus before using the same knife to take a cutting from the roots. She returned to the cottage and mixed a new paste which she spread across Ildra's wound. The blood flow stopped; Ildra was too far gone to heal but the paste kept her from dying. Althea knew the fungus she had discovered would preserve and sustain her grandmother until she could find a way to bring her back from the brink of death.

    Terrified, Althea knew she had to leave to seek new magic. She disguised Ildra's body in moss and swamp matter and wound spells of protection to prevent anyone finding her. Then she left the swamp for the first time.

Althea wandered for weeks before arriving at New Moon Cove where she joined the Navigators Guild hoping that she would discover a way to save Ildra on her adventures.

Althea is stubborn and antisocial, preferring the company of plants to people. She has a deep distrust of humans, preferring green races like goblins, dragonborn and orcs who remind her of the lizard-folk and reptiles of her beloved swamp. Althea will go to any lengths to improve her knowledge of poisons and necromancy. She is secretive and mistrusting, but will protect and heal those who win her trust. Her solitary upbringing means she is unused to social situations and tends to watch how others behave before joining in, but her desire to find community leads her to learning the lute and drinking with her fellow adventurers.