Aeli is a young human woman, 20 years old. She is tall, and her most distinctive feature is her long brown hair, silky and usually braided.

Aeli’s recent history was filled with a terrible tragedy and one that has left her with a single purpose in life – revenge. She was of a rich noble family. The family was rumored to have held great secrets from an ancient relative who had brought them to their noble status. A mage by the name of Calypso befriended Aeli, seeking to take advantage of her naivetee.

After learning how best to infiltrate the family’s home, he did so, seeking the scrolls. He attacked the home with many hirelings and a horrific battle ensued between the bandits and her family’s men-at-arms. They were eventually overcome. The mage could not find the ancient secrets, and he killed the majority of her family (some where not present during the attack) trying to get the information on where the scrolls were kept.

Aeli was not at the family estate, as she had been away preparing for her impending marriage. Upon learning of the attack, she ran off from her family and fiancee to track down the mage and make him pay.

Aeli travels found her in the city of Westport, short on money. She fell into a group of adventurers, led by a young mage named Tironell. They were seeking to enter the Tower of Zenopus, a strange old crumbling building on the edge of Westport. Aeli agreed to join the adventurers. Unfortunately, they had only gone in for a little while when death struck and the party fled.

Over the next few days, Aeli and Tironell returned to the Tower to investigate its depths. Fighting goblins, undead skeletons and a giant snake, Aeli and Tironell eventually made it to a secret workshop. A powerful mage was inside, but a timely first strike by Aeli slew him before he could cast any spells out of a wand he was holding. It seemed that Tironell and Aeli had stumbled onto a great treasure of books and magic. Aeli also found a strange black ring on the mage’s body, one that she would later remember was similar to a ring that Calypso used to wear.

Aeli’s adventures drew the notice of the townsfolk of Westport, including one of the widows of a deceased hireling, the weary priest Worlale who worships Cheliduus, the Sea Goddess and others. It was also at this point that Aeli gained lifelong friends and followers – Turchao and Rather. Aeli had hired them, protected them and paid them well and they grew to respect and devote themselves to Aeli’s cause.

A sage and book seller, Nikodemos identified the ring as belonging to the black mage “clan” of Um Loran. Nikodemos warned Aeli that Um-Loran would want the ring back.

Aeli’s successful adventures in the tower led to her being summoned to the Westport Keep. There, the Captain of the Guard, Equay, asked Aeli and her band to investigate a problem of a “monster” in the Keep’s storage tunnels. The rest of the knights and men were off chasing off a bandit problem, possibly a goblin raid. If the tunnels were not recovered, a great deal of food would be lost. Aeli agreed.

Upon entering the tunnels, which had been blocked off by the scared castle guards, Aeli and her band found a strange creature, seemingly almost invisible, sticky and very large! Aeli, seeming to be possessed, cleaved her way right through it and it “melted”, leavings coins and bits of metal in the goo. After exploring the tunnels further, the band found an area where the stored supplies had been completely eaten by a horde of rats. The rats seemed to be under the control of a lost guard named “Marcus.” There was something wrong with Marcus though, he ended up being a wererat! Aeli and her band killed him, but it was a near thing as Turchao ended up diseased, Rather had contracted lyncanthropy from being bit by the were-creature and their beloved torchbearer, Nodwig, was lost in the darkness to more giant rats.

Aeli and her band recovered from their wounds and diseases and the Lord of Westport, Lord Risz honored Aeli by naming her “Champion of Westport” and awarding her living quarters. He also permitted her to continue her explorations of the Tower of Zenopus, while also mentioning that there were problems of a different sort in a nearby rural town – Valetown.

Unfortunately, Aeli and her band came away from the Keep back to the Red Dragon Inn to find their rooms robbed and burned – the ring of Um-Loran plus many of the valuable magic books were gone.

Nikodemos told Aeli a bit about her family history – a history that she wasn’t much aware of. Her family traces back to the famous wizard Kellus Therran. Kellus founded Thyckletray, the great white mage school. There were many rumors that Kellus had been investigating strange theories in his later years, but nobody knows for sure what he was onto. Nikodemos surmised that perhaps Calypso did know, or had a clue. If Calypso bore a ring of Um-Loran, then he would most like be a black mage as well – and thus Aeli now had a dangerous enemy. Nikodemos advised Aeli to investigate more of her family’s history and learn what she could of ancient mages, in order to find out why Calypso was searching for.

After conferring with Equay, Aeli decided to venture forth to Vale and Valetown to see if she could find the source of the bandit problems and perhaps help out the leader of Valetown with a problem he was bothering Lord Risz about.

That will be covered in the second recap.