Zaleria Woeshade
Zaleria Dryeareplith Woeshade
Physical Description
Facial Features
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Zaleria Dryeareplith was born and raised in the high elf city of Ishselona in the Red River forest. She was raised by elven wizards who kept the secret city hidden from the rest of the world. Born with a very keen mind, she learned how to harness arcane magic at an early age. She became one of the youngest wizard instructors in the city and gained some renown in the academy. Many thought she would take over as the high chancellor one day.
Everything would change in her 350th year. She was a professor of Transmutation and very well respected by her peers and pupils alike. It was then that the rumors of a growing plague killing plants and animals in the Red River forest started circulating around the city. Scouts and druids of Ishselona began reporting of finding dead wildlife, eyes unnaturally black. Soon, a party would be instructed to investigate, and after a week having not returned, another party was sent, this time with armed elven soldiers. One of the soldiers was Zaleria's brother, Jarlaxle. They, too, would not return.
At this point, fear was gripping the elves of Ishselona, but Zaleria wanted answers. She took a sabbatical from teaching and left the city. Less than a mile from the city limits, she came across the corpses of birds and rodents. The trees around these poor beasts had thick black veins running up their trunks. Trepidatious, she ventured forward and soon, all the trees around her were black and bore no leaves nor fruit. A detect magic spell revealed that a powerful magic aura was ahead, and it was necromantic in nature. In a clearing, she found a great, black obelisk, crackling with negative energy. Around it were dozens of elven corpses, faces distorted in frozen agony.
Realizing with horror that this obelisk was literally draining the life force from the forest and all in it, she ran, casting Expeditious Retreat on herself so she could outrun the necromancy attempting to sap her life from her. She made it back to the city and explained what she found to her peers at the academy. She led a party of clerics and wizards back to the obelisk, where they were able to disenchant the artifact, rendering it inert. With a divination spell, they discovered the stone came from the Glencroft mountains and was enchanted by mages in Larchmont.
The next day, Zaleria headed north to Larchmont to visit the creators of the obelisk. She found that they were hired by a man known as the Black Hound. Through investigation, she also discovered the Black Hound's lair lies further north across the Glencroft mountain range. While gathering equipment to begin her expedition through the mountains, she overheard a group asking a shop keeper if they'd heard of anyone calling himself the Black Hound. She followed them around Larchmont at a distance, watching these men inquire seemingly at random, about the man she was hot on the trail of. She watched as they went back to their inn, having had no luck in their search, but with optimism that tomorrow would prove fruitful. She smiled and approached them. After talking and drinking with them that night, she finally revealed to them she knew the location of the Black Hound, and that she would lead them all to him in the morning.
For the two weeks, the new party braved the Glencroft mountains and frozen wasteland of the north. Zaleria was impressed with might and fighting prowess of these men as they battles against beasts and monsters on their journey. A number of times, she found herself glad to not be making this trek alone. The leader of the men was Sandon Woeshade, and while she found his bravado and ego less than charming, his fearless determination was inspiring as they pressed on through the icy wind and snow. They finally came across a black temple made of the same stone as the obelisk that started her journey.
They infiltrated the temple, dispatching many of the Black Hound's followers, who seemed to worship him as a minor deity. They found him in his private sanctum, and the fight was fierce. The Black Hound's dark magic was intimidating, but Sandon pressed the attack while Zaleria used her magic to nullify the necromancy. Suddenly, the Black Hound shouted a string of incantations, his eyes crackling with power staring directly at Zaleria, he let loose a massive blast of dark, eldritch energy. In that moment, Zaleria could do nothing but brace for impact, but it never came. Sandon had moved in between the two of them, taking the full force of the magic attack to his chest and collapsing to the floor. Cries of rage came from his companions as they pressed their attacks. Zaleria noticed that the Black Hound was weakened after his empowered eldrich blast, so she used the chaos to her advantage and called a pillar of stone forth from the floor under him, slamming him into the ceiling, crushing his spine. She dismissed the stone pillar and The Black Hound fell to the floor with a wet thump. The others went to the body to finish the job, but Zaleria ran to Sandon, and forced her healing potion down his throat, praying it would not be too late. In the next long, excruciating seconds, the others gathered around, and Sandon's eyes slowly fluttered open with a long sigh. As soon as Sandon's eyes met hers, she realized she loved this man.
They made their way back to civilization, and Sandon and Zaleria started sharing a tent at night. She knew she couldn't return to her old life in Ishselona, and when Sandon asked her to marry her and continue adventuring with the party, she accepted. They were married by a priest in Everwood, and headed east through the Rudlan mountains to quest for glory and help those in need. They spent the next ten years on the move, going from place to place, learning about different cultures, uncovering ancient civilizations, and collecting magic artifacts.
All would change when a small tribe of dragonborn asked the heroes to free them from the evil adult red dragon who had enslaved them. The party traveled to the dragon's lair and attacked the beast. The dragon was taken completely by surprise and suffered many wounds before fleeing. Hoping they'd sent the dragon away for good, the headed back to the tribe's camp only to find the red dragon razing them all, bathing the dragonborn slaves in fire. They attacked the dragon again, this time killing the beast, but not before it had killed all but one of the dragonborn.
Amidst the rubble, the could hear the screeching of a dragonborn baby. They found the charred remains of a female dragonborn surrounding an upside down iron cauldron. Under the pot was a baby red dragonborn. Sandon cradled the child in his arms, and Zaleria knew he would never allow any harm to come to it. They decided that their adventures must come to an end if they wanted to keep this child safe. They went back to Sandon's homeland and opened a magic artifact shop.
They named the dragonborn child Anca, the elven word for a mother's protection. Then subsequently had a son, named Jarlaxle after Zaleria's brother that means the might of the forest, twin daughters named Oren, a seeker of secrets, and Orixisys, a seeker of knowledge, and their youngest daughter, Rivana, grace of the gods. They all live in Loyalton and own and operate Woeshade's Warehouse of Wizardly Wonders.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
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