Loreleii Rouge
Lovely Librarian

Appearance:  Loreleii is a 19 year old human female that stands at 5’4” and weighs 96 pounds.  She has shoulder-length black hair, a button nose, and forest green eyes.  She has a very petite figure and is considered fairly attractive among her own race.  Normally she wears a red blouse and skirt with sandals.  She also has a white wide-brimmed hat with a red ribbon tied on it on particularly sunny days.  Her favorite possession, however, is a lovely ruby necklace her grandfather gave her right before he died.  She almost never takes it off when she can help it.

Personality:  Upon meeting her, Loreleii appears as a friendly, sweet girl.  This is really just a mask she wears.  In reality, she’s quite shy and withdrawn.  She has difficulty getting close to others, largely because people simply puzzle her.  She can be a bit mousy and meek, but has a strong inner core of courage that she can sometimes call on when in desperate need.  She has a deep love of books and knowledge in general, and admits to getting a bit of a giddy thrill whenever she has the chance to use magic.  She suffers from musophobia (fear of rats) and also has a real sweet tooth.

History:  Loreleii was born on Saffir 11^th, 647 to Mendel and Iola Rouge, a middle-class family.  Mendel’s father, Raizhen, was an accomplished wizard and former slayer.  Raizhen (sometimes known as Raizhen the Wise in his youth) was a member of the original Tainted Hands.  He amassed quite a fortune as well as a number of books and scrolls in his travels.  After one of his teammates died, a woman known as Teya the Beautiful, Raizhen retired from the group.  He used the money he had earned to open up a library.  (Some say he had a secret lab hidden in the library that was filled with all of the magical treasures and spellbooks he collected.  Loreleii does not believe this rumor, as she feels Raizhen would have told her about it before he died if it were true).

Raizhen married his henchmen and assistant scribe, a woman named Rhyea.  They had a son together named Mendel who worked as a linguist in the library under his father.  He, in turn, wound up marrying a historian who worked there named Iola.  Thus was Loreleii born.

Her parents took over the library so Raizhen could finally retire.  Rhyea eventually succumbed to health problems and passed on.  Mendel and Iola became quite successful, even coming to work for Lord Sardis, a recently dubbed nobleman at the time.  However, in the year 660 when Loreleii was 13 years old, both her parents simply vanished.  They were never seen again.  There was no sign of any struggle and no bodies were found.  It was a mystery that even Raizhen’s divination spells could not seem to solve.

Raizhen took over the library once again, with the additional task of raising a heart-broken teenage girl.  Loreleii, who was a much more outgoing girl before her parents vanished, became more withdrawn over time.  She stopped speaking to her friends and lost a lot of her interest in boys.

A year later, another family was struck with a similar tragedy.  The Rysids, a family of wizards, were experimenting with some kind of new fire spell and started a fire in their own home.  They both died, but their son, Aidan, survived.  Feeling sorry for the young man, who was 19 at the time, Raizhen offered him a job at the library and even helped finish his training in magic.

Although Aidan always kept her at a distance, Loreleii felt a kinship with Aidan, as they had both lost their parents.  She would try and reach out to him, but he always scorned her for showing such ‘weakness.’  Her affection for him rejected, she withdrew even further into herself.

A year ago, when Loreleii was 18, Raizhen was on his death bed.  He bequeathed to her everything, including the library before passing on.  She has since worked to keep it from going bankrupt, but most of the money the library had made back when it was successful has run out.  By this point, only she and Aidan remained working there, as the other scribes and scholars had left to seek work elsewhere.

Campaign Events:   Loreleii first met the Shadow Bats through Daufer, who approached her with a mysterious maul he called the “Hammer of the Gods” that he had apparently won from an Orcish chieftain.  Loreleii had grown rather bored by this point, and found it a great challenge to learn more about the weapon for the cleric.  She discovered its origins as Dukosh’s Valor, a weapon wielded by the son of the legendary Dan’gen.

The next time she met with him, he had his companions with him:  Jasmin, Gaheris, and Meschior.  They were seeking information on an extinct cult known as the Bloody Maw.  Loreleii provided them with what she knew, but she had certainly caught the eye of Meschior.  Although she had not really had any interest in a man in a very long time, she had to admit he seemed handsome and honest.

When Aidan began to complain about the lack of funding he was getting for his research, Loreleii was afraid he might leave like the others did.  So she encouraged him to go speak with the Shadow Bats, as they had all become fairly wealthy as of late.  Aidan did so, and wound up joining their group.

Over the next couple of months, Meschior would stop by and visit, usually under the pretense of researching something.  But they would just wind up talking instead.  They realized they had a lot in common, including a thirst for knowledge, a love of books, and just like Aidan and Loreleii, Meschior had also lost his parents at a young age.

In Agate of 666, Loreleii was kidnapped by the Vermin Plague.  Meschior, Aidan, and Eskar managed to rescue her and slay the Plague’s leader, Rat King.  After this, Loreleii and Meschior became much closer.  When Meschior started to spend more time at the temple/smelter than with the Shadow Bats, he also managed to find lots of time to visit Loreleii.  Soon, they began to officially court each other.  When it was discovered that the Rat King still lived, this only brought them closer as she feared he would return to get her.

Shortly after his 19^th birthday, Meschior proposed to Loreleii.  She was hesitant to accept, though, as she still had feelings for Aidan although she refused to admit it, even to herself.  When the party set out to fight the Nightmaster, Daufer warned her she was not safe and she should go stay with Meschior at the smelter.  It was this event that made Loreleii realize how dangerous the world was, how there may not be time later to waste making up her mind, and so she agreed to marry Meschior.

However, that was not the end of her story.  Daufer later came to her with a plan to investigate the ancient Abelard Ruins, said to contain many historical artifacts.  He asked Loreleii to assist him on this adventure, and she agreed.  Things did not go as planned, and they never arrived at Abelard--although she did have her skills put to the test in several battles.

When Voxis was invaded by the Drow, she assisted the Shadow Bats as much as she could.  However, she sat out the last battle as she was out of magical spells by this point.

After the battle was won, she later married Meschior and they had three children.  One took over the library and the other two became clerics of Shadowbite and Renos.

DM's Commentary:  I created Loreleii two a twofold purpose.  One, to possibly become a henchmen.  Two, to give the party information and exposition when they needed it.  In both of these respects, she was a success.  Indeed, she was the only character to become a henchmen in this game, or in fact, any game I've ever run before.

When Josh inserted Loreleii into Aidan's backstory, I toyed with the idea of a potential romance between the two characters.  But Josh would have none of it, so that whole thing kind of fell through.  Instead, she became involved with Meschior.  As an NPC, I became kind of fond of her, so I was glad she got a happy ending out of all of it.

Joe was fairly worried when he took command of Loreleii that he would not play her correctly.  But as far as I could see, he did a fine job at it.  Maybe in the future, more henchmen will be added to the party now.  I suppose we'll see.

Relations:
Eskar:  Indifferent
Jasmin:  Indifferent
Daufer:  Friendly
Aidan:  Friendly
Siara:  Indifferent

Favored Weapon:  Dagger
Favored Spell:  Magic Missile
Henchmen:  Daufer's Henchmen
Birthday:  Saffir 11, 647
Zodiac:  Gonto

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