Lepida

**Lepida "Ida" Vespen** (\_\_/\_\_) is a Khoravar druid with yuan-ti features and a Witherbloom student at Strixhaven.

## Biography

### Early Life

Lepida was born to her two loving mothers, Optera and Latrielle Vespen, on the floor of their one room cottage deep within Q'barra's Basura Swamp, in 976 YK. Khoravar runaways from the destruction of the Last War, the women sought as much solitude as they could find with their small convoy of refugees in tow, so into the swamps of northern Q'barra it was.

Over time their little camp grew into a small floating town that would drift with the flow of the murky marsh waters taking them from "port to port," which were little more than several shacks strapped to moss-draped stilts perched above the water. So was Driftwater Holler founded, and so it was that Lepida (but folks just took to calling her Ida) would spend the greater part of her life. While her mothers tended to the cattail crops, the reptile traps, and small bean plots they so lovingly referred to as "the family farm," Ida would spend her days following the floating holler from the shore, delving into giant beetle holes to check on the progress of hatchlings and catching dragonflies right off the top of the swamp grass like it weren't nothing. She has always had a thing for "creepy crawlies" as Momma Optera likes to call 'em.

Now, life in the Holler suited Ida just fine: she did her chores for her Mommas each morning at sun up, helped with the harvesting during the daytime, and at night would snuggle beneath a patchwork quilt her Memaw she hadn't even met sewed together eons ago, and read. She'd read all about Khorvaire and the wonderful plants and minerals and critters that made up different ecosystems. All of these fascinating little factoids would keep Ida out for days sometimes scavenging for some rare marsh lily or upturning every rotten log looking for the right creepy crawly; and let me tell you something, there's a whole hell of a lotta rotten logs in Basura Swamp.

As Ida sprouted up and turned from girl to woman-grown, she started focusing her studies more on the local denizens of Driftwater, cataloguing each insect, bird, plant, and well darn near any living critter she could possibly put hands on with the care of a seasoned biologist. Using her now budding druidic abilities (with some learnin' from her Momma Latrielle), Ida would shape her body down into an insect of her choice, and get closer to her specimens than ever before.

Through these small forays into early wild shaping, Ida observed the organic symbiosis of plants and the insects that burrowed below them or buzzed about their leaves. She became obsessed. Her idea, as she'd be happy to chatter on to anyone about, was about creating more perfected, more unified, symbiotic organisms who might improve their home in the murky swamps. Say for instance a marsh plant that filtered the water and made it something near drinkable was on the brink of collapse; well, Ida would come along and she'd go studyin' and readin' until she found a way to combine that filtering ability to a healthy fish species so they could do the cleaning while they swam. In her mind, at least, everything made sense. When things worked out alright too, it made her Mommas as pleased as peach. It was after a particularly clever melding of lightning bugs and cattails that Ida concocted the first guiding lights of the swamp's now sprawling riverway system that guides folks safely from port to port even in the dead of night. It was after the success of this project and her continued studies on true communication with her local insect species that triggered her entry into Strixhaven.

### History at Strixhaven

#### Year 1

During the Orientation challenge, was part of a group of students who stopped an old trunk that had become sentient and was attacking students.

Three months later they were present in the Bow's End Tavern when a recipe went bad and mephits sprouted from the meal, making a mess of the kitchens.

After midterms, on Olarune 20, 994 YK, she and The Rose Buds were sent to the small town of Atessa, Cyre, near the border of Breland, to assist Watcher Alex and Professor Mavinda Sharpbeak find a young girl named Sally d'Cannith and help her get onto the lightning rail out of town.

She attended a poetry reading by Drazhomir Yarnask in the Biblioplex. Opening the ancient poetry book, a poltergeist escaped and attack those in attendance.

After final exams, during a performance on the Rose Stage Festival she and The Rose Buds stopped an owlbear attack when an owlbear prop came to life. The black balm found in previous events was found here as well. Assisted Silverquill Professor Johenne Totsky to cleanse the corrupted water of the Sedgemoor Bayou where the balm is made.

## Extracurriculars & Jobs

* Fantastical Horticulture Club
* (job) Campus Grounds