Thalia

Thalia, the half-elven paladin of the High Watch.

“
*What is more important, the letter or spirit of the law?*
”
— Thalia de Marcos
**Thalia** is a Half-Elf Paladin adventurer currently participating in Strahdborne. As of session 6, she joined forces with the party while pursuing her personal goals.

## Description

### Appearance

Thalia stands tall for a half-elf, over six feet tall, but seems slender as a whip - like a strong wind would blow her over, but she'd move and strike like the wind. Appearing somewhere in her late 30s to early 40s (in human terms) de Marcos looks like a hard woman, with stern dark eyes and hair chopped short for practicality. She is no ruffian, however, dressed in solid leather boots and gloves and a superior version of the Guard overcoat.

### Personality

Thalia de Marcos is the scion of (bankrupt) minor nobility and a graduate of officer training, so she maintains a more upper-class accent and aloof mannerisms. That doesn't mean she won't get her hands bloody, but the High Watch abhor using brute force to get their work done. Honor and duty are everything to her - but not the mere letter of the law, but the spirit as well. The High Watch's duty is to Roulan's safety, even if it means burying dirty secrets and breaking the letter of the law to maintain its spirit. Laws can be poorly written and subverted, honor must compensate.

When not on duty, she can often be found trying her hand at more "intellectual" pursuits, reading, studying, and occasionally dragonchess. She keeps this side of herself private, having little social life outside of work aside from visiting what remains of her family. In truth, Thalia would have preferred to remain a member of the aristocracy, dealing with business and attending balls and shows as a viscountess, but knows that when you commit to something, you see it through, especially when you excel at it. And the High Watch is not something you easily quit.

## Biography

### Background

Thalia de Marcos started her career somewhat unconventionally: rather than joining the Guard from the army or Roulan's working class, she began as a cadet from an old noble house whose patriarch, her grandfather, squandered any fortune or goodwill his scions would have had. Thalia thus used her education to join the Guard as an officer, and toiled to make something of herself in this new position. She succeeded, and was one of the lucky few picked for the High Watch. While the Guard policed the streets and arrested lawbreakers, the High Watch police the nobility, government, and even the Guard.

Little of what the High Watch does is made public, but now a scandal has erupted. The late Guard Captain Jean Giordano, de Marcos' former partner in the guard, has since been uncovered as having run his Guard precinct like his personal gang, dismissing and arrested many honest officers on false charges and seizing money and contraband from criminals for himself. The High Watch is in the process of unraveling Giordano's precinct, and de Marcos has been assigned to track down two key players in how it all began: the framed inspector Lautrec Volkner, and Giordano's right hand man and successor Phillipe Gascarde. Last anyone outside of Barovia saw of Lautrec, he was on the trail of the mysterious fortune teller Madam Eva...

### Adventuring

Thalia narrowly survived the Durst manor, escaping the basement by sacrificing one of the manor's many ghostly inhabitants but failing to put the spirits at rest. Encountering the Vistani at Tser Pool encampment, she met Lautrec's former companions but was dismayed to find that Lautrec had fallen and been turned by Strahd. In the hopes of finding him and her other quarry, she agreed to accompany the party. In the meantime, Thalia bore witness to Madam Eva's card reading and received three cards: the Balance, which to her signifies that justice will be served; the Swashbuckler, indicating one of her targets lay in a warrior's grave under Strahd's watch; and the Warrior, indicating her other target resided near Strahd's lair. It would seem a conflict between Thalia and Strahd is inevitable.

## Appendix

Strahdborne PCs
**Aellun** (Elf Ranger) · **Arbrek** (Dwarf Cleric) · **Gromash** (Half-Orc Barbarian)
 **Lo-thak** (Goliath Warlock) · **Thalia** (Half-Elf Paladin)

 Allies of Strahd: **Lautrec** (Half-Elf Rogue)