Ash

Li Mei (birth name)

*" Am I evil? Insane? Maybe. But at least I'm free. Free to live my life as I see fit. I've been a slave before, but I'll *never* be one again."*
— Ash
**Ash**, formerly **Li Mei**, is a former Zhentarim assassin and one of the 6 sent to Kalton by Fate to prevent its collapse. She was born in Toril to a human woman and the Unmaker-created shapeshifter Tom Barthollowmews, and as such, has shapeshifting powers, albeit ones less powerful than those of the Shifters of Kalton. She is the one designated to kill and mantle the Sin of Sloth.

## Appearance and personality

Ash is a shapeshifter due to the nature of her father, Tom Barthollowmews and thus has a variable appearance. In her true form she appears as a short and slim feminine hermaphrodite with gray skin, white hair, and white eyes. She generally has a cynical attitude about the world because of her past strife, however, that attitude is somewhat fading due to her newfound allies and mission.

## Relationships

Ash is distant from others as a rule, but has started to develop close relationships with her allies after being stranded in Kalton. She has a very negative opinion of Fate because of her supposed role in the death of her mother. She has a neutral relationship with most of the crew of the Jericho, with a few exceptions. She has found a close friend in Sosti due to their similar lines of work and expertise. She has some romantic feelings for Varis Xiloscent, and thus sees Varis's love interest Etheal as somewhat of a rival. She has very complicated feelings for her late mother, Li Tai. She resents her for casting her out, but still loves her on some level, wishing they could have spent more time together. She also has many regrets regarding her former girlfriend, Hazel DeShass. They were once very close, but Hazel found their relationship to be unfulfilling, they had some disagreements, and stopped seeing each other.

## History

### Early Life

Ash was born as Li Mei in the Faerunian city of Baldur's Gate to Li Tai, the personal chef of a Baldurian patriar and daughter of a Shou immigrant to Baldur's Gate, and her lover, an Unmaker shapeshifter with the alias Tom Barthollowmews. After her birth, she seemed to be an ordinary human child, until she gained the capability to take on her true form at around the age of 5. Her mother, believing her to be some kind of monster, cast her out into the streets, but did not kill her out of superstitious fear. She lived homeless for many years, surviving off of the charity of strangers in the Outer City. At the age of 15, Mei was taken in by Lord Stefan Cauldwell, the Chancellor of the Ducal Cabinet and a prominent Baldurian nobleman, as a serving girl, seemingly out of kindness and sympathy for her condition. However, he used her meek nature and helpless condition to make her emotionally dependent on him, and make her into his object for sexual pleasure. After 2 years of slavery, Lord Cauldwell was killed in his chambers by a Zhentarim assassin named Hazel DeShass, who freed Mei and took her in.

### Zhentarim and Criminal Career

Hazel recruited the 17-year old Mei into the ranks of the Zhentarim and trained her in the ways of an assassin. She taught her to use her anger at the world to gain emotional power, and that she should never again succumb to anyone else's will, unless there's something in it for her. She took on the code-name "Ash", which eventually became her only true name, and became a skilled assassin. She would often take on the lives and identities of her victims for a time after their deaths. While legal authorities in most cities are unaware of her existence, she is currently wanted in 12 different cities under her various false identities for murder, conspiracy to murder, burglary, grand larceny, arson, extortion, and many other crimes. After killing Waterdhavian alchemist Gorstag Sunmark and taking on his identity a year earlier, Ash was hired by an unknown figure to steal an artifact of great power near Baldur's Gate.

### Jericho

Along with 5 others attempting to use the artifact, Ash was transported to the dying world of Kalton by the Eternal known as Fate. She and the others appeared on the deck of the airship Jericho, and after helping the crew fight off a horde of demons assaulting the ship in Beggar's Canyon, was recruited by her captain, Daniel Blackrose, in exchange for finding a way for her and her new companions to get home. At first, she kept up the appearance of Gorstag. After a stop in the fortified town of Osgallioth, the Jericho embarked on a mission against a fleet of pirates, in which Ash revealed herself. The pirate fleet nearly destroyed the ship, and after a near-fatal encounter with a horde of demons, a last-minute use of the Warp Cannon sent the ship to the city of Goldenrod. While there, it was revealed to the new arrivals to Kalton that Daniel was, in fact, the current incarnation of Pride, one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and that the Cataclysm, the rift that was causing the demon incursions in Kalton, would soon cause the destruction of the entire planet within 30 years' time, and that the only feasible way to close it without destroying the planet was to have the Sins use their combined powers to close it. Thus, the crew took on a new purpose: kill the other 5 Sins, take their power, and close the rift.

## Abilities

As a human-shapeshifter hybrid, Ash is able to take on the form of any Medium humanoid, regardless of race or sex. She is also very skilled in stealth, deception, and subterfuge due to her Zhentarim training.