Ileleste

Appearance:
At a quick first glance she might just strike you as an attractive human. Take a second glance and you can easily tell that is not the case. While her body is both athletic and voluptuous, with firm arms, legs and belly, and a curvaceous bust and waist, it seems unnaturally flawless, perhaps unsettlingly so for some. Short cropped white hair hide slightly pointed ears and a pair of dark curved horns frame a face with luminous, amber colored eyes peer out. She has rather pale skin mottled with freckles across her nose, and most of her body. From her elbow to her finger tips the freckles seem too multiply and thicken, making her skin inky black at the tips of her fingers.  Her smile is sharp, both in looks and full of fangs not unlike a piranha. A long tail extends from her backside, the same blotchy black skin ending in a heart shaped tip.

Background:
Left in a gutter to rot at birth, an unwanted child that never knew her parents, she was taken in by an elderly caretaker at a tavern. While the act of generosity might spared her from an early demise, she toiled for years cleaning dishes, linens, cooking, and as she grew into a young adult, dancing and singing in the tavern. While she had little training at either craft, her appearance was alluring enough that her failings were easily ignored. Things seemed well enough for the unwanted demon touched girl.
While her appearance at first stands out like a thorn, she was able to get most of the common patrons at the tavern to take a liking to herself. She found she had a silver tongue for getting her way with others. Without knowing what else was out there in the world, she made herself a good, albeit sheltered, life.
It was not uncommon to have to push away the stray hand of a drunkard in the tavern, or talk down an angered patron with her soothing voice, one unfortunate night gentle was not enough. While doing dishes she overheard a ruckus from the main room when no patrons should be left. Making her way out she found a brute of a man beating the life out of the tavern owner, her caretaker of all these years. She lashed out, more from shock than anything, blasting the man with a surge of magic she didn’t know she had. The force threw the man from the room, but it was too late, and her caretaker had no life left to give.
Fearing she would be blamed for the death, or retaliation from whomever the man was she attacked, she gathered her meager belongings and fled.

Journal:
This is the leather bound, worn journal of Ileleste Avae’ess. It contains many pages of drawl days of a mundane life turned unexpectedly adventurous. Most pages are adorned with crude drawings of people, places and random scribbles. Here are a few notable entries.
1 – Mama says I have a ‘silver tongue’ and that I’m a charmer. I’ve seen the way most folk look at me. Disgust, surprise, fear. She says I’m wrong. The men like me, even some of the women too. She says that I can talk their coin purse off if I tried, so well… I tried. I’ve never made so much coin in one night! Drinks were flowing and I was dancing and coins were flying. It sure was something. Til ol’ Hagrath tried to get handsy and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I might of bruised him I slapped him so hard and he still wouldn’t let go. Good thing Jackal was there to teach him a lesson and toss him to the street. I’ll have to be more careful if I use this so called gift again.. Jackal ain’t always around.

2 – I.. I’m alone. I ran. I did it to protect mama but.. What have I done? How did I do it? I had to run. They’d hang me or have my head and put it on a pike. The demon bitch, they always said behind my back I was an evil omen. I just wanted him to stop hitting her. I don’t even know why. Was it money? Who would hurt mama? (The rest of this entry is stained and the ink smudged)
3 – It’s been two days. I found some travelers that seem to not be too put off by my appearance. They’re letting me come along and one of them, a gnome by the name of Siliga, said she would teach me about the magic I seem to have. She says it comes from my bloodline, and it is as natural as I am. She didn’t say that I was unnatural, but it felt implied. Either way, I am excited to see what else I can do. (There is a drawing of a wagon being pulled by a donkey and five people)
We are travelling to Anvil. They have a contract to complete there and then to look for more work. They said as long as I travel with them and do my part of the work, I get an equal cut. If only I could tell Mama that I was doing this, she’d be so proud of me. Oh Mama I miss you.
4 – We made it to Anvil. We were attacked by bandits on the road once, but I was so tired after I forgot to even write about it and just fell asleep on the wagon. It was… amazing! I’ve never felt such a rush and not been scared for my life. Petros, the meatwad that he is, took a pretty nasty blow so we’re going to look for a cleric once we deliver the package. I’d say he’d think again about taking on four bandits alone, but he did get hit in the head pretty hard, and didn’t think much to begin with.
This city is massive! I thought my hometown was big, but it’s like a speck compared to Anvil. I’m going to look for some new clothes to wear with my share of the reward. Siliga made a list of other things I should buy. Cloak, bag, bedroll, other boring things. I want some jewelry!
5 – I did it! I made, or summoned, a familiar! Siliga says it will help me and is bound to me. It’s a little amber colored snake. I think I’m going to call him Kiir, for gems. (There is a crude drawing of Kiir in all his spikey snake glory) It’s been a whole year now, since… since I met my new family.
6 – We took another contract. I’m worried, it doesn’t feel right. We’re supposed to hunt down some gnolls. It sounds easy enough, but I just have a gut feeling. We’ll be pretty set for a while though if we pull it off, we might be able to take some time off the mercenary gig. Siliga keeps telling me of places that I want to travel to. Ragos would be number one. There’s a college there for mages that I might be able to learn something from. More than Siliga could ever teach me. We head out in the morning, I should get some sleep, but I just keep tossing and turning. I’ll lay my head down and try again.
7 – The gnolls were easy enough. We found their lair and killed the guards, we’re heading inside in a moment once they finish packing up. That feeling still hasn’t gone away, but with how easy it has been so far I shouldn’t be worried.
8 – Petros tried to seduce me. Ugh. All this time he’s been so indifferent and suddenly when we’re exploring this damned gnoll cave he changes almost attacked me. He said he was sorry and doesn’t know what he was doing.
9 – I’m lost. We got separated. We were lost to begin with. We’ve been in here for weeks and couldn’t find the exit. Now I’m alone. We turned a corner and I heard something behind us, when I looked it was just shadows, and then the others were gone. It’s like the darkness swallowed them whole.
10 – (Some of the words in this entry and scratched thicker than the others) I’ve LOST track of time, I only have a few rations left. Everything here is WRONG. It’s all black and greys. I tried to LEAVE a trail, and it just disappeared behind me. Like the walls feel ALIVE and move. The SHADOWS are at every corner, edging in.  I’m not crazy, but I hear whispers, promises, DARK things. I wish I was back home with MAMA.
11 – (The last entry is thickly scribbled gibberish. The words do have some pattern to them and one could even say create the pattern of diabolical looking faces. Otherwise, the words are meaningless.)