Zaleria Naicelea

**Zaleria Naicelea** is a Snow Elf from Hildurn whose village was slaughtered by demons when she was young. She blamed herself for their deaths as she grew up and and a thirst for revenge grew inside of her. She became a Blood Hunter, following the Order of the Lycan, and set off to hunt down and destroy demonic monstrosities across the land.

At one point she was employed by Willard Lacey to hunt wolves for the winter, but the expedition turned out to be much more than they bargained for when the group was attacked by the Wendigo. Zaleria and one of the others of the group, a dwarf named Gartokar, were the sole survivors, managing to defeat the Wendigo before finding their way to Solwish.

## Physical Description

Zaleria is a short Snow Elf with light-grey skin and white hair with silver streaks. Her eyes a silver, and if you linger on them too long you can catch a glimpse of the haunted and demonic things Zaleria has seen. She wears smoky tribal makeup around her eyes and has a single iron nose ring in her right nostril.

Her clothes consist of tribal-styled furs as well as a mix of light-grey leather and silver cloths. She carries a large longsword and hand crossbow, both made of iron.

She doesn't have a left arm anymore, having to amputate it due to frostbite caused by her encounter with the Wendigo.

## Backstory

### The Lone Wolf

The village that Zaleria was born in, Casthorne, was almost completely wiped out by a barrage of demons when she was young. Without warning or reason these demons were unleashed upon the townsfolk in the night, slaughtering dozens of them, including Zaleria's family. Torn and haunted by the guilt of her own survival, Zaleria thought only about revenge.

She spent the next 200 years learning infernal and abyssal tongues and trained as a Blood Hunter, following the Order of the Lycan, which allowed her to transform herself into a werewolf at will. She wandered Hildurn alone, slaying any demonic beasts she could find, hoping that one day she'd be able to properly avenge the spirits of her murdered family.

### The Renowned Hunter

One day while travelling through the snow, Zaleria came across the renowned hunter, Willard Lacey, wounded and in dire need of help. He'd been subject to a brown bear attack, and although he had just barely killed it, he was bleeding out and without supplies. Zaleria shared her own supplies with him and helped him to the nearest town before giving him a few silver to get back onto his feet.

Willard was grateful, and mentioned that he was actually on the look out for people to hire for an expedition into the wilderness that was happening in a few weeks time. He asked if Zaleria would be up for joining him, and although she wasn't really up for it, he said if she changed her mind she could find him in Belmead a day before Winter's Peak.

Zaleria soon got low on coin herself, and inside of her grew a hunger to hunt some more, so she headed to Belmead to take Willard up on his offer.

### The Wendigo's Curse

She arrived in Belmead the day before Winter's Peak, and headed to the only inn in town, The Howling Horde. Upon entering she found the inn empty except for Willard Lacey and a group of strangers sitting at a table in one of the corners. Willard introduced the group which consisted of their guide, Kane Bolton, a fully-armoured dwarf, Gartokar Garaninov, an orc covered in tribal feathers, Tuk Dulaga, and a huge red-headed barbarian, Valor Hecktor. Willard then outlined the plan, which was to head out for the winter and kill as many wolves as they could, gathering up the pelts and meats. He then had a contact in Solwish who would buy them and pay good coin.

The next morning the group headed out, and were met with an old woman who in a fit of rage cursed Willard and the rest of the party with the Curse of the Wendigo.

After that, the group started to encounter strange happening after strange happening. Wildlife vanished from the area, people started drifting into unconsciousness and others started to have horrible nightmares and visions. Zaleria herself starting dreaming of the demons that had killed her family, which was especially strange as she was a Snow Elf, and had never dreamt before.

One morning Willard disappeared from the camp and was soon found skinned and tied between two trees, before disappearing completely and then showing up again with wolves feasting upon his flesh. The next morning Kane disappeared, and all that was found of him was his face, which must have been ripped off of his skull.

Soon after that, Valor Hecktor manifested into what must've been the Wendigo, and proceeded to attack the remaining party members, killing Tuk in the process. Zaleria and Gartokar barely managed to defeat the beast before slowly making their way to the town of Solwish together, Zaleria having to amputate her arm to frostbite on the long trek.

The whole incident became known as The Winter's Peak Massacre.

## Session Appearances

 Poor Bobby
 Fey Choices