First Memories

• First thing he remembers is life on the street of Chiavari (capital of a duchy within the kingdom of Artumbria)
• Grew up on the street with a band of other kids
• Varying races
• Eventually the band was helped out by a kind orphanage
• Didn’t have space for them specifically, but gave them supplies etc.
• The band thought of the orphanage as their second home
• At one point the band of kids managed to steal a lyre in hopes to sell it
• Strum took a liking to it and managed to convince them to keep it
• He started learning to play
• In the orphanage, there was a air genasi girl (Rayna)
• Strum got to know her over time
• To him, she was the first outside of the band that accepted them

Growing Up

• Coming into his teen years, Strum decided to go out in the world
• A travelling circus came through Chiavari
• So he joined up as a performer
• He would come back every year to meet with Rayna
• She was always happy to see him
• She ended up starting to work at the orphanage that she grew up in

Striking Out

• Heading into their 20s
• Rayna wanted to go see the world
• She asked Strum to take her with him
• So he left the circus to go travel with her
• First around Chiavari
• Then the other five duchies
• They made do by performing at bars and taverns where they went
• Strum was an accomplished musician, but she was the talented lyricist and singer, skills he was adequate
• They lived happily for a good few years (~5) in this situation

Getting Lost

• Although they lived happily, Strum and Rayna always dreamed of more
• Comfortable living
• Not rich, but enough to settle down
• Perhaps buy a tavern they could run and perform in
• Or bards at one of the noble courts
• Luck was not on their side
• For every village that were interested to see the exotic half-devil and half-genie
• There would be two that chased them out for being abominations
• Every time they managed to earn some coin
• On the next journey, they’d be robbed by highwaymen
• They had each other, but they needed something to change
• Strum’s solution was trying to learn a bit of magic
• He had heard that it could be done with hard work and study
• He thought that he could spruce up their performances with magical effects
• Perhaps they could cover their appearances such that they were out of harm’s way
• He used some of their coin to purchase an old spell and some components from an alchemy shop
• The seller had assured him that they were of the most basic forms
• No matter how many hours he poured over them
• Strum could not get a spell to work, he couldn’t master the incantations
• But no matter how many hours he poured over them, no matter how much of disgusting ingredients he brewed and hand gestures he made, Strum couldn’t get a spell to work
• He just wasn’t capable of mastering the incantations and keeping it all in his mind
• Depression crept in, as well as shame at having failed and wasted their money
• Rayna was suffering from it too, Strum could tell and knew her anxiety was his doing
• But then, during one performance, something incredible happened
• His melodies and chords from the lyre seemed sweeter than ever before
• His heroic sagas had the crowd cheering in excitement and his sonnets had them unabashedly weeping with joy
• Strum could feel that it was different, he was different
• The performances continued in the same vein
• If this had happened before his experiments, Strum would have perhaps put it down to him mastering his talents
• But the timing was too perfect to be coincidental
• Strum knew his spell practising must have unlocked something within him, or gifted him something
• Whatever the truth of it, Strum’s new performances began earning them much more money
• It got him entry into much more exclusive crowds, his dream was becoming a reality
• Frustratingly, Rayna did not seem as excited and optimistic about Strum’s newfound abilities
• They still performed together but their relationship grew tense
• Strum took her reticence for jealousy and resentment
• He thought she would be happy for his success, but she never expressed it
• Strum began to drink more and more heavily
• A way of escaping Rayna’s constant gloom
• He also began to be troubled by nightmares
• In them a hooded figure began to frequent his performances
• In the dreams he radiated an intense heat, but nothing around him seemed to burn
• The figure never announced himself or interrupted the performances in his dreams
• He gave an undoubted air of menace and threat
• When Strum awoke from these dreams, he would find Rayna next to him thrashing around and seemingly sharing his disturbed sleep
• But whenever he raised it she would dismiss his concerns and say she was simply overly tired
• These nightmares continued and in them the hooded figure began to speak
• He only ever repeated one phrase, “Payment is due, one gifted life damns another. Soon.”
• The nightmares led Strum to drink more in efforts to avoid them
• They also led to more fights with Rayna
• They came to Rossano Calabro and stayed several nights at an inn (The Smiling Boar)
• After a particularly good performance, Rayna disappeared
• Strum had been drinking during and after the performance
• Revelling in the praise being heaped on him
• He thought he remembered Rayna going up to their room in the tavern
• Perhaps once again jealous of the attention paid to him
• After several more hours of drink he must have stumbled upstairs too
• He thinks he remembers Rayna being asleep in the bed
• But after that much drink it is difficult to be sure
• When he awoke in the morning, she was gone
• All of her possessions were there
• There wasn’t an obvious sign of a struggle
• But they had been living at the inn for some weeks and Rayna was messy at the best of times
• He scoured the room and all that was different was the slightest smell of sulphur and a single piece of paper
• Strum recognised it as one from the journal which she kept
• On one side of the page was an entry from Rayna

  Things grow worse and worse, I cannot sleep. I feel his stench on me constantly, making me want to throw up my innards. I am such a fool for getting myself into this situation, I will never forgive myself. I wish there was a way out, anything to escape him. But I have tried and I fear my time is up. I wish I had told Strum. I love ---

• On the other side of the page was writing in a different hand
• The message was far shorter, it simply read: “Payment has been taken, one gifted life damns another.”
• The meaning of both Rayna’s entry and of the other’s were confounding to Strum
• Multiple possibilities ran through his head
• Deep shame that he had driven Rayna to hate him
• A glimmer of hope that maybe she still loved him based on her unfinished sentence
• Far over what had happened to her
• Clearly she had not simply ran away from him
• The wording of the hooded figure in his dreams was identical and suggested something more
• Had Rayna made some deal to escape from Strum?
• Had this figure been her saviour?
• But no, he was unquestionably sinister and meant no good will
• Although Rayna seems to hint at knowing that she might perhaps disappear, had she been taken forcibly?
• Strum felt further shame that it had happened when he was in the room
• Too blind drunk to notice and help her
• Strum asked at the tavern and around Rossano Calabro
• But no-one had seen her after their performance the previous night
• Rayna had simply vanished

Post-Disappearance

• For weeks Strum struggled with what to do
• No-one could or would help him
• His mental state spun erratically
• One day he would spend sobbing in grief at the loss of his love
• The next he would spend in a fury
• Getting into fights and breaking anything he could
• Raging at the woman who had betrayed and left him
• Every possible permutation of the meaning of that journal page constantly ran through his head from the possible to the fanciful
• But when Rayna did not reappear, weeks, months, and then years went by
• He slowly began reassessing his time with Rayna, especially since his powers manifested
• The more he looked at the times he had accused her of jealousy and criticised her moods
• The more he remembered how she had praised and supported him
• He realised her bitterness had been sadness
• Her resentment had been grief
• He had ignored it
• Revelling in his popularity
• And escaped reality with the drink
• It’s been about 3 years since that night (therefore Strum is about 28 years old)
• Strum hasn’t touched a lick of drink since then
• He regrets not being able to fully remember the night due to the drink
• Also he sleeps lightly/not at all now, triggered alert by sounds in the night
• He hasn’t had a nightmare since then, but he’s afraid of sleep
• His bard powers have waned since that night
• He can’t get buy in life as much as easily as he used to during his time with Rayna
• He thinks now that previously he must have been channelling some sort of magic
• He’s being trying to channel it again, and has managed to handle some of the simpler magics
• In his efforts, he’s also managed to touch on a wilder sort of magic
• It doesn’t flow out from his music as his “bard” magic
• Feels different, but he wants to get any advantage that he can get
• He’s started trying to shape this magic
• He’s been using the only skills he knows, his performance and charm
• He is always hoping that some hint of Rayna will surface, some trail to follow
• He keeps the torn page with him as a memento/charm, and a warning

Recently to Rossano Calabro

• A month ago, whilst Strum was wondering between towns along the Ligurian coast, he had a dream
• In it, Rayna’s voice appeared
• The dream was so real and intense that he knew it wasn’t his subconscious tormenting him
• It was something more
• The only time he had had a dream like it was when he’d been seeing the hooded figure
• Strum was scared, what did it mean?
• In the dream her voice was calling to him as if from across a great distance
• She simply called his name as if looking for him
• The next night it came again
• This time Strum dreamt he was on a high mountain which a strong wind blowing all around him
• Threatened to blow him off into the vastness of the sky
• Rayna’s voice came again, as if travelling on this wind, calling him
• The wind was coming from the west
• The next day Strum set out west, inland
• For the first time in years he longed for sleep, just to hear her again
• The voice grew stronger in his dream and continued to do so the more he travelled
• One night the voice grew so strong that he heard Rayna say more
• He could tell it was difficult for her and it seemed almost as if she were speaking another language
• But he understood: “Be in Elturel in three days’ time. Save me from hell. Come to the Wandering Emporium.”
• Elturel was further than twelve days’ travel
• Strum panicked
• He did all he could, stole horses, ran them to death, went through the night, everything to get there
• But it wasn’t possible
• He reached Elturel after four days, exhausted and on the break of collapse
• What he found was impossible
• The entire city was gone
• All that remained was an enormous crater in the earth
• Hundreds of people lay around the crater site, some injured from what they described was a violent tempest the like of which had never been seen
• Strum searched through the crater for where this “Wandering Emporium” would be until the light fell
• Exhausted, he fell asleep amongst the survivors
• Rayna did not speak to him on the wind that night
• He travelled with the survivors, now refugees, heading towards Rossano Calabro
• He listened to their wild speculations about Elturel’s disappearance
• Some blamed the Hell Riders for not protecting them, others cursed Heol, the patron god of the city
• Some said it must have been the work of some fiendish cult
• Others said that it was foolish to head to Rossano Calabro as it would likely be next
• When Strum reached Rossano Calabro he found that the Almogavares had closed the gates against the refugees
• Strum managed to climb the city walls and evade notice
• The city seems on the brink of rioting
• Anger at the Vars for their treatment of the people
• The leader of the city, High Duke Boccaccio, apparently missing with Elturel
• Fears over whether the city will suffer the same fate as its neighbour
• All contributing to a bubbling panic
• To make matters worse a new cult had begun random attacks
• Nobles, commoners and guards had all been targeted
• In the couple of days that Strum has spent in the city the rumours are that this organisation, the Cult of the Dead Three, might be behind what happened to Elturel
• This is his only lead to maybe getting to Elturel and finding out whether Rayna truly still lives

Knowledge

Rayna

• Air genasi
• 5’7” (i.e. slightly shorter than Strum)
• Pale bluish/white skin and striking stormy grey eyes
• Wears a ring on left, middle finger (Strum and Rayna exchanged these at some point during their time together – not official by law)

Felix

• Human
• From Antaine
• Very nice guy

Chiavari

• Strum knows the capital city very well, having grown up there on the streets
• It is an exciting and exotic metropolis
• Not only would people come from all over Artumbria there to trade, but also from the island nation of Erendira, the tropical kingdoms to the north, the Dzagorian Commonwealth to the west and even some of the Dragonborn from Sertsey
• Strum also has a basic knowledge of the rest of the duchy, having travelled around with the circus for some years
• He’s visited the holy city of Elturel and marvelled at the Companion, a giant radiant orb which hangs as a protector over the city
• He’s also seen the noble Hell Riders, a knightly order which guards the city
• He’s been to Rossano Calabro, far less holy but far more interesting perhaps with its swarming masses and limitless opportunities

Rossano Calabro

• The city is ruled by the Council of Four
• A group of dukes who share the role of High Duke on a five year rotational basis
• The current High Duke is Boccaccio Alfier
• The other three dukes are:
• Adelina Bandiera
• Elene Minnoti
• Allesandro Cosimo
• Rossino Calabro has three distinct regions
• The Upper City (containing the government buildings, noble residences, major temples etc.)
• The Lower City (containing the majority of shops, taverns and craftsmen housing)
• The Outer City (beyond the city walls containing several slum areas and housing for the peasantry)
• Strum knows of, either from his past visits or from his searching the last few days, several shops:
• The Wondrous Emporium: The best shop in the city for arcane supplies and some magic items, run by a gnome called Canowicakte
• Hettie’s Place: A reliable place for general equipment and supplies, run by Halfling named Hettie
• The Smiling Boar: This is the tavern Rayna disappeared from
• It has an excellent reputation for its food and drink, as well as being reasonably priced
• The Bashful Otter: This is a seedy bar where Strum suspects a black market guild member operates from
• He has seen criminal types coming and going and they all seem to go and speak to the same woman who permanently resides at a table in a corner
• When Sturm asked the barmen what her name was he replied that if you didn’t already know then it was dangerous to ask