Aleth

Aleth of Colton
Aleth of Colton
Class	Gunslinger
Tier	Expert
Ancestry	Elf
Heritage	Woodland
Pronouns	She/Her
Height	6ft 3inches
Relatives	Unknown
Status	Alive
Player	Namaphry

An ex-merchant and present-day scavenger from a charcoal and forestry family who lived near a coal town in the nearby mountains prior to the faerie attacks of this past year.

Description

A tall, long-limbed, and muscular woodland elf, with greyish tan skin, pine green hair, and coal-black eyes. She wears clothing in similar colours, in close-fitting styles that cover her from the neck down with accessories added to break up her silhouette. When ready for combat, she wears leather lamellar armour banded in woodland colours over brown and grey undergarments. She's usually seen bearing the exotic elf-made firearm she first carried into town in its leather case, armed with a bayonet on one hip and a kukri on the other. On expeditions, her favoured weapon moves to a patrol sling, her bayonet to a heavy repeating crossbow, and her kukri to a chest holster, while hand crossbow and bolts on her hips, and takes a halberd in hand, or carries it through her pack.

Skills

Physically fit, socially comfortable, and with a talent for manual labour, Aleth is adept at skills that involve movement, but not so much at those that take stopping to think. That said, she's observant and a stealthy marksman, able to prepare suitable ammunition for almost any opponent, find and reach an appropriate perch to fire from, especially in woodland environments. She can also defend herself in melee combat, with some difficulty.

Background

Before the Collapse, when Onadbyr was still a centre of industry, the port city consumed vast amounts of coal. Aleth's family was one of many in the nearby mountains whose livelihood came from feeding the city's endless demand for this resource. Being woodland elves, their contribution came from managing a rugged tract of boreal forest on the far side of a mountain lake from the local mining town to supplement the bituminous coal from the mines with sustainable charcoal, refined for the production of gunpowder. A restless youth, Aleth was less interested in taking over the family business than in hauling what they produced on their land to the succinctly-named Colton market. There, she learned how others made their fortunes, marvelled at wares from around the world, and dreamed of someday accumulating enough capital to strike out on her own. In the meantime, when not lugging charcoal bricks and other resources through rugged wilderness, she trained with the Colton militia.

The Collapse somehow seemed to forget about Colton. The only curse to strike the town, its mines, or its forests - if one could call it that - was the loss of a market in Onadabyr. This was curse enough; without trade, the town's existence was hard to justify, and many of the most wealthy and powerful residents simply left. Those remaining had no trouble staying warm, and even managed to set up their own ironworks, but with no grain arriving, local fish stocks couldn't sustain the population, and nearly all of their food had to come from hunting expeditions - and underground farms, which the dwarves were unwilling to share. Theft and raiding became commonplace. Enraged by thieves and trespassers on her family's lands, young Aleth invested much into the pursuit of such criminals and even organized counter-raids.

The final blow came when the town somehow enraged the mountain spirits; fey creatures vulnerable to no weapons but for those made from cold-forged iron or sovereign steel. As a town with virtually unlimited fuel, relying almost exclusively on scrounged and recycled metals and mine tailings rather than new deposits, Colton was unable to effectively counter such threats. They came under siege, where spellcasters were targeted, first, before the militia were overwhelmed in a sudden assault. Aleth awoke from a magical sleep to find her hometown looted and in ruins, every entrance to the mines collapsed, and the other survivors there unwilling to trust her, perhaps believing her ineffectiveness during the battle and continued survival were the result of cowardice or collaboration with the enemy. She succeeded in clearing squatters out of her family's home, but from the ruins she could only gather the rest of her family had either fled or been taken as prisoners into the First World.

Aleth soon became bored and frustrated attempting to rebuild her life all but alone on the outskirts of a ruined town where she wasn't appreciated, and began searching for alternatives. After following the traffic in and out of Onadbyr and eavesdropping on travellers for a few weeks, she walked into town, presenting herself as a skilled woodland explorer. She soon found herself engaged in exploring anything but forests as an Associate of the Round Table.