Natashya

Lady Natashya Dalterein, also referred to in some circles as "The Kestrel," was an assassin and high-ranking Enforcer within the Thieves' Guild prior to her death at the hands of the mercenary Twando. She lead a double-life as a noble within Zoluren following her involvement in the Sorrow War as an assassin, having procured papers establishing herself as the cousin of Edenlaen of Shard and distancing herself from her past, going so far as to have her appearance drastically altered with Shift. She engaged in a number of affairs with various heads-of-state prior to her death, and her motives for doing so are still questioned by most.

The Assassin - A time of Sorrow

The Assassin

Natashya aka Little Bird, aka Kestrel

Along with Tigron, first appeared in Crossing working for the Thief Guild Enforcer, Bilgrath, aka The Rattler.

As mercenaries hired by Sorrow the group utilized a team of Dark Assassins and began their attacks on the adventurers elected to the Crossing Defense Council and the subsequent expanded War Council comprised of representatives from each of the guilds.

Members of the council included: Paschein, Melvi, Piextra, Salvalis, Daython, Garfaldo, Galain, Sneak, Lanthander, Camielia, Soim, Sholana, Mystanya, Kortny, Dritzfury, Galahant.

Tokens, in the form of Raven's feathers were left as calling cards for the first successful murder of a council members, making it clear that the assasins were working for Sorrow.

A warning from a Dark Assassin "You and yours are marked, turn back from your path. Though each time I have to visit your leaders, I get paid, repetition of the same target is tiresome and not befitting one of my talents."

After several months of attacks that failed to deter the Council, Natashya changed tactics.

Where death and threats did not work, eventually the intrigues and side plotting of the Council became it's downfall and Natashya was in the middle of it.

The Transition

The war was over, and contracts all fulfilled. The assassin went to ground and took some time planning the next phase of her career.

When next we see Natashya she had taken up residence in Leth Deriel and under gone an effort to recreate herself that would have done Henry Higgins proud.

First she changed her appearance and for that sought out an old friend, Paschein for help. After hearing the plan, Paschein did what shifts she could and contracted out the few shifts she couldn't to those who had no idea of the lady's reputation.

Using her shady connections Natashya obtained papers for a fictional house and holdings in Ilithi. She acquired a taste for finer liquors and wines and with the help of Gaumedies undertook elocution lessons to correct her broken common and improve her dialect of Ilithic. Her tattoo was altered and bless the poor seamstress that Gaumedies contracted, they all survived her dress fittings with only a little blood shed.

While Gaumedies was never fully clear on her past, he didn't seem to care and the whole process amused him greatly.

When she was finally presented to the late Ferdahl as Gaumedies' Ward, only an implicitly trusted few could say she had ever been anything other then the Ilithian Lady.

The Noblewoman

Natashya's first notable public appearance as a noblewoman was at Prince Vorclaf's coronation ceremony, where she gave him a pair of breeding kestrels. Her transition to a noblewoman was obviously not without controversy, as several remembered the name Natashya from the Sorrow War even if her appearance and mannerisms had changed.

Natashya's political accomplishments include meeting openly with Queen Morganae and negotiating herself an engagement to Prince Fayne, as well as procuring a token made from the bones of the Queen's enemies for some unknown purpose. It was during this time that Natashya was given the Maiden Alrina, who was instrumental in several of her plans, such as keeping an eye on Princess Arilana and preventing the birth of an heir to Zoluren's throne. Among her retinue was the scribe Aguisian as well, who served Natashya loyally from his position in the Keep until her death.

During this time, Natashya carried on romantic affairs with more than one political leader, including Vorclaf himself and Baron Gyfford. She was an accessory in the death of Baron Jeladric as well as being responsible for Vorclaf's prolonged illness many years ago and was responsible for causing Princess Arilana to have a miscarriage of her first daughter.

The Enforcer

Along with Bilgrath, Tigron, and Satarra, Natashya worked as an Enforcer within the Thief Guild hierarchy. She enlisted several Thieves to aid her with information gathering, both in Zoluren and Therengia. One of Natashya's final duties was to investigate Kalag The Black, the local Crossing Guildleader.

Originally, Ivitha ordered Satarra to Zoluren for an investigation into the rampant crime abound in the province, which was bringing undue heat to the Guild. When Satarra's attempts at discussing matters in Zoluren with Kalag failed, a meeting was hastily arranged between the Guildeader and Natashya at the Gilded Unicorn Inn in Kaerna Village. Several Thieves, both among Natashya's entourage and free agents, helped provide distraction along the Northern Trade Route so Kalag could arrive safely and undetected. Natashya was escorted to Kaerna by a contingent of local militia members with orders from Zukir to never leave her unattended. These orders proved problematic upon arrival at the Inn when Natashya was not allowed to sit alone in a room where Kalag was waiting in hiding. Conveniently, a barrage of faenrae assassins and executioners, along with various thugs and ruffians, invaded Crossing just as Natashya was leaving Kaerna. Natashya's guard was killed, allowing her to sneak back to Kaerna to meet with Kalag. Raised voices and loud yelling were heard from those who were on the other side of the shut door, including the sound of something shattering after being thrown. At the end of the argument, Kalag was seen exiting the Inn with Natashya still inside the private room.

Directly following her meeting with Kalag, Natashya met with a group of trusted Thieves. She instructed them to observe and analyze the events occurring in Zoluren, paying particular attention to any action taken by Kalag. These Thieves were instructed to report back to her with their findings. Upon Natashya's death, Satarra charged a handful of Natashya's associates with reporting their findings to Ivitha and the rest of the Thief Guild Council at a meeting in Ain Ghazal in Natashya's stead.

Her Death

Natashya was poisoned and attacked by a group of Human mercenaries twice during a visit in Therengia. Twando then revealed himself and, via proxy, explained that he was seeking to fulfill a contract with her that demanded the extraction and delivery of one of her eyes to an unknown employer. With the help of her bodyguards and some of her retinue, she managed to evade Twando and return to Zoluren.

Therengia then captured one of Twando's associates, named Farsten, who had been responsible for the poisoning and sent him to Zoluren for questioning. With the aid of Alrina, Majebrad, and Caelumia, Farsten was tortured for information then murdered and reduced to ashes after he was unable to provide any. This act would later serve as Twando's motivation for escalating his pursuit of Natashya to one of vengeance.

Editors Note: The following is taken directly from an event summary provided by GM Auriane on the Dragon Realms Boards in regard to Natashya's death. http://www.play.net/forums/messages.asp?forum=20&category=13&topic=14&message=2879

Early in the evening a messenger in Ulf'Hara livery brought messages to Rose Sister Satarra (an emissary from Ain Ghazal visiting Zoluren) and Lady Dalterein bearing a Zoluren seal. It was a request for a meeting at Kaerna with someone they had no reason to question. Sister Satarra did not require a guard and the note indicated that an escort would be provided at the destination, so they both left the Keep and went to the Gilded Unicorn. They'd left quickly, so assumed they'd arrived early and looked around Kaerna for Satarra's benefit. She had heard there might be a shrine in the area and expressed interest. With no activity in the area, they went in search of the Damaris altar without too much worry. Once isolated from the main road they were ambushed by Twando and a band of Human mercenaries. They defended themselves briefly, but Natashya was struck down and Satarra beaten until unconscious.

The Zoluren Militia responded quickly to the attack and managed to arrive at their side within minutes. They got Natashya's body gated down to the Clerics in Crossing but before they could get her raised the Mercenaries arrived in pursuit. Her body was dragged back and forth for some time before her rescuers were finally struck down and Twando claimed the body. He admitted to being responsible on the gweth and mostly ignored offers of negotiation, citing that he'd been waiting to fulfill this contract and then bragging over the ring he'd taken from Natashya's body as part of his payment.

Sister Satarra was taken quickly to safety and finally healed, where she relayed her knowledge of the above events -- reserving a full report for the heads of the Militia and the Prince. The Militia insured her safety and others began actively searching for where Twando might have taken the Lady's body. Twando eventually quieted down on the gweth and did not offer any clues, keeping his location quiet. The Lady's handmaiden Alrina was found wandering on the Northern Trade Route, covered in blood and mad with fear and grief.

After several tense hours (IC) Human mercenaries arrived at the aptly named Gallows Tree on the Northern Trade Route. Attacking the guards there, they cleared enough room for a small party to arrive with the body. They hoisted it up on a noose and left it dangling over the NTR. Alot of fighting ensued between the Militia, Natashya's retinue and the mercenaries. Ultimately they were successful in clearing the area of mercenaries, but not before Twando arrived. During the melee he ordered the body destroyed and before it could be cut down it was doused in a flammable liquid and immolated to ash. It was apparent that Twando never intended to return her and allow her to be raised.

See below for the image of the body hung in the Gallows Tree north of Kearna.

Twando himself was ultimately struck down and had one of his own eyes removed by Ragad. Unfortunately his cronies dragged his corpse off and the rest of the mercenaries were slaughtered.

The Triad

A short time before to her death, Natashya established a group of close companions that often aided her. Various tasks included serving as bodyguards, spying, acting as an informant, as well as events prior mentioned. Included among the group were former Court Advisor Paschein, Ragad, Majebrad, Mazrian, Rainea, Quawl, Caelumia, and very few others. Some of these people still work to accomplish her final wishes, sometimes using their personal influence to achieve the goals.

Included in that group were three men referred to as the Triad, meant to accomplish some end of hers: Ragad who was referred to as her Voice and helped her handle affairs within the Thieves' Guild, Majebrad who was referred to as "arn fana" ("my flame") and was her lover, and Mazrian who she purported to call "arn haize" ("my wind") and whose position was established by Alrina following Natashya's death by giving him a brooch that Gyfford had given to Natashya. Natashya left a will to Ragad instructing him to carry out her last wishes and take on the mantle of her position within the Thieves' Guild, as well as leaving several instructions on how to deal with Alrina, who had begun to go mad due to her condition and her grief.

The ultimate purpose of the Triad is currently unknown, but one duty tasked to them will be delivering Alrina to the Mountain and the hands of Morganae, who may have some cure for her condition. Violent visions have been experienced by Moon Mages regarding the Triad following her death which may shed some light on her ultimate goals.

Visions

Your vision blurs, shapes melting into one another around you. The surrounding voices merge into an indecipherable cacophany that sets your ears ringing.

Colors drain from the landscape, shades of grey melding together and shifting against one another until they resemble a finely woven fabric. You try to sort through it with your eyes, but each thread you follow moves from your field of vision before you can reach its terminus.

The pattern undulates before you, just beyond your reach. Shapes form within the taut weave, rolling close to you before fading into the imagined loom. You try to identify each before it disappears: a triangle, a single leaf of clover, a trident, three moons rising and setting in rapid succession, a triskelion. A theme emerges among the spiraling symbols; at no time can you see the entire image before it fades -- one or more components are out of view.

A sense of being incomplete washes over you. You instinctively reach for the symbols to correct them. As your hand moves toward the pattern it shatters as if glass, brilliant spots of light burst searingly behind your eyes. The threads fall apart, disintegrating among a riotous clamor of voices that fuse to sound like hawks screeching in anger.

---

(incomplete)

The haze thickens around you, your senses swim as the scent of woodsmoke washes over you. The air grows warm and it becomes difficult to breathe. You cough and try to turn your head, seeking clearer air, but your body will not respond the way you want it to.

White-hot pain explodes within your head and your field of vision is suddenly cut in half. Wetness trails down your cheek from the remains of your eye. The air around you grows hotter, with ragged breaths you pull the searing air into your tortured lungs. Your brain screams in confusion as you try to sort out the source of your torment and find nothing.

The roiling smoke clears just enough to make out a hazy tableau. The slender silhouette of a woman stands before a large easel draped with a heavy canvas. Instead of a paintbrush, she holds in her hand a long feather quill. On the canvas is an elaborately detailed spiderweb done in deep scarlet. There are three ragged gaps in the otherwise elegant pattern. She studies the picture with intense concentration, oblivious to her tortured audience.

After several long moments of contemplation she goes back to work on completing the picture, but finds her quill dry. She searches fruitlessly for a palette. Finding none, she sighs and turns toward you. You cannot make out her features other than delicately pointed ears. Over her heart is a deep wound that does not heal. She dips the quill in the rivulet of blood running from it and returns to her work, humming softly as she tries to complete the pattern with her own life's blood.

The choking haze closes in, obscuring the details forever and stealing your breath. Your spine feels like its cracking as you arch in renewed agony. Bonerattling coughs wrack your frame and you beg for air, the heavy woodsmoke thickening with the cloying scent of burning flesh. The heat grows unbearable and you can feel your skin scorch, blisters erupting along your flesh as you find yourself suddenly engulfed in flames.

---

A feeling like a band of iron encircles your chest, squeezing steadily. As it closes tighter and tighter you find it impossible to take a deep breath. A sense of panic builds as your air hunger rises. Your eyes tear up and your vision blurs as you teeter on the brink of unconsciousness.

A grey haze fills your field of vision, obscuring the details of your surroundings and tamping down the ambient light so that you lose all sense of direction. A presence moves past you, a dense mist that skims your perception.

Images form in front of you, the details coalescing just long enough for you to pick out one or two before they dissolve. A gleaming trident, a gladiolus with tattered petals, a single white rose dipped in blood, a lotus spinning madly across the surface of a deep green pool, they loom and fade as you hear the sound of an infant crying in the distance.

A tree burns to ash before your eyes, the glowing coals scattering before a gust of wind and winking out along a well-traveled road. The infant's cry turns to the shrieking cry of a hawk. Out of the murkiness a red-eyed raven suddenly looms in front of you. Cawing raucously it flings itself at your face, the wings beat at your face as the talons tear for your eyes, as if preventing you from seeing the rest of the tableau.

An ethereal wind buffets you, pushing the haze back and you find you can finally take a deep breath. A sense of frustration can be felt as the images waver, incomplete and too weak to sustain themselves they dissipate as your surroundings return to view.

Appearance

(post-Sorrow)

She has pointed ears and thick-lashed stormy grey eyes. Her auburn-streaked black hair is very long and wavy, and is worn pulled up in a topknot. She has fair skin and a lissome figure.
She is a bit over average height for an Elf.
She is young for an Elf.
She has a tattoo of a crimson drop trickling down from a bracelet of intertwined briars on her wrist.

(Deceased)

The Elven woman's head is canted at an unnatural and gracefully macabre angle. Auburn-streaked black hair dangles in long blood soaked mats; glimpses of gleaming white skull can be seen in small patches. A hollow left eye socket mars the lovely face. Deep bruises, long jagged lacerations and blackened scorch marks, reflecting hours of pain, decimate the fair skin. Oddly intact is the skin around the wrist, where a tattoo of a crimson drop trickling down from a bracelet of intertwined briars can be seen.