Ruby (Away)

Gender - Female
Race - Changeling
Class - Sorcerer (MC Paladin)
Paragon Path - Arcane Wellspring
Epic Destiny - Deadly Trickster
Alignment - Good

Background - A head loomed out of the mists, over the edge of her cradle. It looked friendly at first but soon turned to fear.
"Monsters! Oh god, kill them!"
Her pale, nearly white hand reached out to her parents.
They had no faces but she could feel they were her parents and that they were angry at her.

The scene changed to a shadowy tree and a mass of black faces. They were cheering at two people under the branches. A final cheer, a spasm, stillness. Stillness and a deep sence of sorrow. One of the black faces turned around and picked her up, laughing he did. A coughing, nearly hissing laugh. Count Noliss' laugh.

The scene swirled again around silver and green; a ring unrolling into a horned serpent snapping at her. A parrot intervened just as it was about to strike. When the serpent bit the parrot instead, she woke up, screaming.

Her mother, rather; fostermother, ran into her room. She found Ruby staring at a ring, crested with a boar and a single red ruby, and sat next to her. She took a blanket and draped it over the little girl's shoulders.
"You...had another nightmare?". Ruby nodded. "About your parents?"
"Hun, I've told you a million times. You're not to blame in any of this. They loved eachother and they loved you. They knew they were in a hostile court. They knew what having you might mean and were still glad to do it."

Ruby stared at her, seeking comfort in her big, white eyes. There was no reason to appear human here and she had to admit she found her true form more comforting for the little girl.

* * *

Ruby’s mother was a trader in the Von Denn lands. Her purses full and on a fancy cart.
In the paranoid environment of the City of Twin Serpents, changelings have an edge on the competition. So, both respected and feared, a tribe chieftain comes to her and bids her to use her gift for more noble goals. He must have left an impression because two weeks later, she’s moving into the city and playing the game of politics like no other, easing laws on the tribes and pocketing some money whilst at it.

A second changeling joined her, sent by the tribes. This went well for many years untill something nobody could have foreseen happened…they fell in love. Now, a changeling baby is incapable of staying in any assumed shape for long so they could hardly show it around without giving it away.
However, word somehow got out that they’d had a baby girl. When the nobles of the town came to present their blessings, the very worst came to be. Ruby’s parents were tortured and hung for being monsters and traitors whilst the little girl was taken away by one of the faithfull household servants. The count himself oversaw the hanging.

Nightmarish laughter haunted her dreams long after adulthood. All grown up, she had a heart filled with guilt and revenge. She enlisted as the count’s spy to get closer to him. After years of fruitfull working for the man she hates; she had finally received message that after one last mission in the underdark, she’d speak to the count himself.

Over the years, she gathered Bediss’ fabled ring. This ring held great arcane powers which, according to legend would present themselves only if its wearer was genuinely fit to rule.
Whilst it may be used to unite the clans as one, she has not used it yet seeing as it hasn’t activated yet and she feels the clans are not ready to be unified either.

Whilst before, she had spent every waking hour dreaming of revenge, lately, something new has stolen into her heart. If asked, she’d blame it on friends. She no longer has a desire for murder. She feels it is below her and instead seeks for a way to unseat the count and guide her people into an age of unity and prosperity. Simply…because she can.

* * *

First Death - The last drop of her blood sucked by Zirithian, Vampire servant of Orcus, in Hordethrone. Resurrected.

Away - After the massacre of Windrock, Ruby has decided to fully immerse herself in her Count Noliss persona, to better manipulate upcoming events.