Olive Ruskettle

Olive Ruskettle was a famous halfling "bard," actually a thief who always aspired to a life of entertaining people and the easy living that profession could bring.

"Everyone needs to make his own life for himself, though. Cyrrollalee knows, I loved my mother, but she never understood why I chose music over merchandising, so I hit the road. The people who love us the most have more trouble accepting that we're different from them than strangers do."

- Olive Ruskettle

Description
Mistress Ruskettle was very short, even for a halfling. She was less than tall. She could easily be confused with a human toddler with minimal effort. Nevertheless, she was a very attractive halfling woman with innocent cherubic features. She had hazel eyes and long auburn waving hair. If her appearance was not enough to sway someone, her singing voice usually did the job.

Personality
Olive always called herself a "bard," never a thief or a fighter. She possessed a quick wit, sharp tongue, and keen mind, especially when a booty was involved. She thoroughly enjoyed the facade of being a bard. She often relied on her mind, sweet personality, and innocent cute looks to get her out of trouble that always seemed to find Olive. If those things fail, she hid under the table until the trouble blew over; hiding also was preferable because an unseen halfling was a living halfling. If she was forced to battle (or when her friends were in danger), she jumped into the combat with her blades out, with the ferocity of an angry wolverine.

Olive was a talented storyteller and a liar. She oftentimes weaved long, convoluted stories to exhaust any possible line of questioning. She quickly turned fierce when someone treated her as a child, dared to question her bardic credentials, or had a gull to underpay the halfling.

Olive was uncontrollable, impulsive, reckless, and often did not have the best foresight, the perfect combination of traits to constantly get into trouble.

Like so many halflings, Olive loved food and drink and could easily outeat two adult males in one seating. Her friends learned to use food as the only good distraction to pacify the fiery bard. Despite being an eager eater, Olive never cooked as she found it degrading. Olive's appetite was not the only insatiable desire she had. She loved learning stories, tales, songs, and limericks and appreciated learning new ones when she could.

Olive often could not relate to depressed or simply sad people. She thought that if you had your health, full purse, were not love-struck, and ahead of the law, there was no reason to feel down. Olive remembered feeling that way about her aunt, who would cry after a single glass of wine, and Olive's mother explained that the crying did not come from the drink but the heart.

As a halfling who often faced prejudice, she could never tolerate bigotry. Even when, in some cases, they rightfully accused her of thievery. Olive herself thought paladins and clerics to be untrustworthy and stuck up, and humans to be brutes and warmongers.

She tried to avoid Hillsfar and its Red Plumes, also known as the Red Death, for what they did to the halfling population of the city.

Abilities
Olive was a talented thief who was always alert, making it very hard to surprise her. Her first and most deadly weapons were her wit and quick thinking; apart from that, she used regular and throwing daggers, short swords, and light crossbows.

A "bard" of some renown, she was a talented singer and musician, known to have composed some very catchy ditties. She was also a very lucky and skilled gambler. Olive owed her new name and reputation to that particular skill. She had never received bardic collegial education, so she lacked the arcane abilities of a regular bard. She was too chaotic to suffer through formal education in any event.

For some time in 1357 DR, Olive, along with Alias' other companions, were protected by a benevolent spell of Elminster’s Blessing that was cast by Elminster himself, unbeknownst to them.

Works
Olive's proudest achievement as a bard was her heroic epic Chronicles of Alias of the Magic Arm, an exaggerated rendering of the adventures of Alias, Olive, Dragonbait, and Akabar.

Through her adventures with Alias and Finder, Olive learned quite a few of the Nameless Bard's works that were lost to most of the inhabitants of the Realms. Such songs as the ballad of the Standing Stone, that added lyrics to the popular elven tune; a sad and haunting song about the Tears of Selûne, and many others.

Possessions
Apart from the several hidden daggers, and thieves' tools, she always carried a musical instrument. Usually, it was a small harp, lute, yarting, pipes, or rebec. She carried standard adventuring gear, a flask of strong Luiren Rivengut, and a deck of talis cards.

Olive often proudly used her Harper pin she received as a lovely gift from Finder Wyvernspur. If you were to ask her whether she had any magic items, she would never admit to it. Still, it was very likely she kept some trinkets from her past adventures, such as a small bag of holding that belonged to her friend and partner Jade More, the earring of comprehend languages, another one of Finder's gifts, and many more.

In 1357 DR, Olive briefly owned a pony she named High Roll. The pony was later abandoned around Yulash.

Olive was known to use poisons like peranox and drow venom to get rid of inconveniently placed enemies with ease, especially if she had access to the kitchens that fed them.

Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue was selling custom-ordered great bard string puppets for 2 gp each. The great bard was Finder Wyvernspur, and the order was placed by Olive herself.

Relationships
Olive and Finder Wyvernspur became quick friends when the halfling rescued the imprisoned Nameless Bard. He was one of the very few people who treated her with trust and respect despite her lying about being a bard and exaggerating almost anything she was talking about. He paid full attention to the little halfling. After their adventures together and Finder's ascension to godhood, Olive became one of Finder's first followers. As a deity, he appeared to mistress Ruskettle on at least three occasions as a daisy flower, sprouting to life, maturing to a blossoming flower, and dying, all within a few moments.

Olive came across one of Finder's senior priests, Jedidiah, at some point after the Nameless Bard's apotheosis. The friendly priest was extraordinarily impressed and amused by her light touch when she managed to pickpocket a set of birdpipes out of his pocket unnoticed.

Early life
Not much was known about her past or her true name. Occasionally, the halfling bard claimed to hail from Cormyr. Olive has mentioned her drinking aunt and her mother. At some point, Olive decided to pursue her own ambitions instead of working with her family in merchandising, something that they never came to terms with. One of Olive's most frightening life events was when she resided in Raven's Bluff. She was accused of stealing a pouch of gold from a drunk paladin. She harbored deep mistrust and resentment towards all paladins after the incident... Even though the gold in question was in her possession at the time.

Subsequently, she won the name and reputation of Olav Ruskettle, a true and once famous bard, in a dice game in Procampur. Olav had a crippling habit, and he lost his hand. His voice was starting to go. Even though he was an innkeeper when Olive met him, the only thing he could gamble away was his name. The tavern belonged to his wife.

Since then, Olive did her best to maintain her image as a bard of great talent, but she never tried to apply to a bardic college to receive official training. Over the years, she has been cornered by well-traveled folks who claim to have seen the "real" Olav Ruskettle perform, each time she managed to lie her way out of the confrontation.

Azure Bonds
Olive's life forever changed when she was hired to perform at a Dimswart and Wyvernspur noble families' wedding in 1357 DR. She was traveling to Dimswart Manor with Akabar Bel Akash's trade caravan when an ancient red dragon Mistinarperadnacles Hai Draco swooped down. Unfortunately for Olive, Mist appreciated entertainment as much as she did gold. The dragon kidnapped the bard and locked her in her Storm Horns lair. Before Olive was kidnapped, she "borrowed" Akabar's spellbook. This was when Olive met Alias, who was hired to rescue the bard in time for Gaylyn Dimswart's wedding. Alias was joined by her saurial companion Dragonbait and Akabar. Alias challenged the dragon to a Feint of Honor, an ancient honor-bound tradition. The swordswoman managed to avoid Mist's attacks and eventually, with the help of Olive's wit, won. Olive bluffed about having a ring fire of resistance and called Mist out on the dragon's attempt to roast the women despite Alias winning the Feint. As the red dragon was distracted retrieving the promised reward, Olive and Alias ran for their lives. Mist gave chase bur was sealed inside her lair when Akabar retrieved his spellbook from Olive, who "secured" it from the caravan.

Olive was curious about Alias, her magic tattoos, and her mysterious past. Thinking the swordswoman could have been a long-lost rich princess definitely flared up halfling's greed. On their trip back to the wedding, the group was faced with a mineral quasi-elemental summoned by one of Alias' masters. The heroes survived the encounter and banished the creature back to its native plane. At the wedding, Olive got to perform a catchy ditty about the newlyweds when an unknown force took over Alias and made her attack a young nobleman Giogioni Wyvernspur. He survived the assassination attempt, thanks to Dragonbait's aid, but Alias herself fled.

Akabar and Dragonbait followed her to Suzail, armed with the knowledge of Alias' masters. They were joined by Olive, who started mistrusting the woman after the assassination attempt but still owed her... and Olive's pockets were bulging with Dimswart Manor's loot, and she needed not to be there. The group caught up with Alias in the Hidden Lady inn in Suzail. There, the heroes told Alias about the meaning of the magic sigils on her arm. They stood for Cassana, Zrie Prakis, Fire Knives, Moander, and Phalse (unknown to them). Olive learned about Alias attacking a priest just a few days prior, only making the halfling even more suspicious. Alias decided to travel to Yulash to pursue the clue of the dead god of rot Moander.

Traveling to the town of Yulash led the group to Shadow Gap, where they stopped to camp overnight at the ruins of the North Gate Inn. Olive and Akabar engaged in friendly teasing over cooking for the group, followed by the bard trying to use her talis deck to teach Dragonbait to communicate (the group did not know whether he was sentient), to the saurial's amusement. At night the group was ambushed by a kalmari, a monstrous extraplanar creature controlled by one of Alias' masters. Olive attempted to fight the creature using a broadsword found at the ruins, trying to protect her friends, but the sword was too big for a less-than-3-foot halfling. They managed to defeat the creature and reached Shadowdale the next day.

In Shadowdale, they stayed at the Old Skull Inn where Olive and Han played a duet to entertain the customers and heard Alias sing a beautiful song about the Standing Stone. The sellsword claimed it was a common song in the area, but no-one seemed to know it existed. Later that night, Olive came face to face with Phalse, who took the shape of a halfling and tempted her with precious platinum coins. Olive decided Alias was dangerous, being a human, and attacking two innocent people recently. She accepted the heaping amount of platinum and was tasked to carry a ring that was to allow Alias' masters to magically track her.

Once they reached Yulash, Alias and Dragonbait were lured to Moander's prison, and Akabar followed them, leaving sleeping Olive alone in the camp. This was where Mistinarperadnacles Hai Draco caught up with the halfling. Thankfully, Dragonbait returned just in time to help the bard. Dragonbait was indeed an intelligent creature who could talk, and he challenged Mist to another Feint of Honor. Both Dragonbait and Oli dueled the angry dragon. Eventually, Olive showed her ingenuity once again. She used her ring of magic detection to cause Azure Bonds on the saurial's chest to explode in blinding pyrotechnics (tattoos' magical protection) giving Dragonobait an opportunity to attack it. Olive managed to throw a vial of peranox, a deadly poison, into Mist's maw. The duo won the Feint. Dragonbait used his divine magic to heal the downed dragons, and they enrolled the ancient lizard's help in fighting the newly released Abomination of Moander. Olive and Dragonbait rode the ancient red dragon to battle a god. Subsequently, they followed the Abomination through a gate to Westgate, where Mist engaged the god once again. Both the dragon and the Abomination of Moander perished in a blinding explosion. The heroes reunited once more, even though it was nothing but the calm before the storm.

While Olive was happy to be reunited with Alias, she also felt conflicting emotions, feeling jealous of the "perfect" sellsword who seemingly could not do wrong, feeling underappreciated, and feeling mistrust of Dragonbait, realizing he was intelligent and a paladin to boot. Phalse approached Olive once again but to offer her a place by his side among Alias' masters. Led by her natural brashness, poor judgment, and negative emotions, the halfling bard decided to infiltrate the organization, get rich, and prove everyone her worth by spying on the villains.

Alais, Akabar, and Dragonbait were overpowered and taken prisoners by Cassana. As a part of the Masters' Alliance, Olive witnessed the torture her friends were going through at the hands of Cassana and quickly realized how foolish and over her head she was. Phalse was planning on turning Olive into his plaything, Alias was about to be turned into a mindless weapon, Akabar was to be tortured and forced into Cassana's concubine, and Dragonbait killed off. Olive received an opportunity to rescue her friends when lich Zrie Prakis ordered Olive to assassinate Cassana, his ex-lover who enslaved his undead husk. Getting the freedom to move around the mansion, Olive discovered the prison where Akabar was held along with a seemingly insane rambling man. The insane man was the Nameless Bard, Finder Wyvernspur, and with his help, the halfling freed and healed Akabar, and together they took on the Alliance.

The heroes together destroyed Cassana and Zrie and subsequently were swept away to the Citadel of White Exile, an extraplanar citadel that served as Finder's prison that was turned into Phalse's stronghold. There, they discovered all the echoes, clones, sisters of Alias that the demonic false halfling created for himself. The creature revealed its true form - that of a beholder-like creature. Alias destroyed Phalse and reunited with her apparent creator, her father - Finder. There they were joined by Elminster. Finder gave thankyou gifts to the rescuers, and feeling connected to his daughter, requested one thing from Alias, a story of her life. Then and there, unknown even to her at the time, Olive became a Harper when Finder gave her his Harper pin in the presence of Elminster Aumar.

The New Alliance
A couple of months after the rescue of Finder, Olive found herself in the company of a new group of adventurers bearing very familiar Azure Bonds. She came across them while traveling to a performing gig at Zhentil Keep, the Bruised Strumpet Inn, under the alias of Stevie Nickelplate. Olive "borrowed" a horse from a traveling noble, but the horse pulled up lame, and the bard needed a ride. Olive claimed she was on a mission for the Harpers to secure the aid of the adventurers. In reality, the Harpers knew not of her intentions, but Olive's objective was, indeed, aligned with the secret organization's goals.

Olive was in pursuit of the artifact known as the Blade of Lathander, stolen by a halfling Benjil Turcot, who was later killed by the Zhentarim. The evil organization claimed the blade was lost at sea, but Olive knew it not to be true. The blade was in Fzoul Chembryl's possession, and the "bard" was aiming at stealing it back.

As the group reached Zhentil Keep, Olive disappeared into the crowd, hoping the adventurers of the Azure Bonds were going to create trouble on their own, allowing her to pull the heist. Eventually, the adventurers found themselves imprisoned in the dungeons of the Temple of Bane after an unfortunate encounter. Olive used her thieving abilities to rescue them from the cell and accompanied them through the Temple and the Tower of Fzoul.

After the adventurers survived the Keep and retrieved the Blade of Lathander, Olive, of course, made away with the artifact but was politely persuaded by Elminster to return them to the adventurers of the Azure Bonds unless Olive was to take on Tyranthraxus by herself. Olive joined the adventurers for the rest of the quest against the New Alliance and was briefly reunited with Alias, Dragonbait, and Akabar in the process. Eventually, it was time to part ways, and Olive headed out on her own.

The Wyvern's Spur
After doing some traveling around, Olive settled in Immersea. There she met a very familiar face, Jade. The young human female thief became Olive's close friend and partners over the winter they spent together in Immersea. Olive knew Jade was one of Alias' clones, one of her echoes, but the halfling had no desire to share that information with the young woman, at least not yet.

In 1358 DR, Olive came face to face with Finder's prodigal son, one of the woeful mistakes he was atoning for in exile. Jade attempted to pickpocket Flattery Wyvernspur but was disintegrated, to Olive's horror. The halfling fled with Jade's possessions while being pursued by the murderer. Jade's bag of holding contained Giogi's magic belt pouch she lifted off the young Wyvernspur who resided in Immersea. While hiding from Flattery, Olive ransacked the bags' contents, searching for any way of saving her life. And she succeeded, but Giogi's belt pouch had an enchantment put on it that transformed anyone, but Giogi himself, opening the bag into a burro. Flattery discovered the scared donkey but did not realize it was one of the thieves he chased. Olive recognized the familiar facial features prevalent in all of the Wyvernspurs. Later, drunk Giogi discovered Olive in her burro form wandering on his family's land and assumed she was a new estate purchase. Giogi named his new favorite pet Birdie and took her to the Redstone Castle's carriage house stables.

As the young noble's pack animal, Olive was taken to the Wyvernspur family crypt when Giogiani was tasked by his stern aunt to find the family heirloom's thief, who was supposedly trapped inside. The heirloom was the Wyvern's Spur that was secretly taken from the crypt by Jade earlier. Inside the crypt, donkey Olive and Giogi ran into another one of Alias' echoes created by Phalse, a young wizard Cat who was sent by the villain Flattery to steal the heirloom. Giogi decided to give the young woman, the unwilling servant of the evil mage, his protection, to the donkey Olive's cynical eye-roll. After failing to find the Spur and capturing the thief, they returned to the castle, where donkey Olive overheard a plot by two of Giogi's cousins to get their greedy hands on the heirloom and its magic.

The enchantment expired, turning Olive from a donkey into a sassy halfling once more to her infinite joy. Olive used her Harper pin to get an audience with giogi at the Redstone Castle the following morning. She revealed to the young nobleman all she found out in the burro form, impressing him. The halfling bard deducted that, in fact, Jade was the thief and the Wyvern's Spur was in her possession, the fact that she did not disclose to anyone else. Olive hoped that Cat had the same anti-detection magic weaved into her being like Alias did and passed the Spur to her, disguised as a magical protection trinket. During the same visit to the Redstone Castle, Olive discovered that Jade's benefactor, who was behind the Spur's disappearance, was uncle Drone Wyvernspur. Drone knew of Flattery's plans and attempted to beat him to it to protect the heirloom. Uncle Drone also adopted Jade to grant her the Wyvernspur name allowing her access to the crypts. Funny enough, Jade was already a Wyvernspur, being one of the daughters of Finder Wyvernspur.

Consequently, Flattery Wyvernspur kidnapped a newborn baby Amberlee, Giogi's new favorite family member. The villain held Amberlee hostage, demanding the Wyvern's Spur. Giogi, Cat, Olive, and Aunt Dorath Wyvernspur were the heroes responsible for the evil wizard's fall and the child's rescue. Olive used her stealth skills to pass the Spur between Dorath and Giogi after the child was delivered to safety. Although the wizard and Giogi's battle in the skies did not involve Olive, she nevertheless became a close ally and a friend of the family. She performed at baby Amberlee's Selûnite blessing ceremony but declined the offer to stay at Giogi's old townhouse and moved on. Immersea held too many bittersweet memories for Olive to stick around. She truly missed Jade.

Song of the Saurials
Later in 1358 DR, Olive reappeared when she used her Harper pin to sneak into the Tower of Ashaba in Shadowdale during the on-going Harper tribunal of Finder Wyvernspur. Olive did not trust Harpers to treat the Nameless Bard fairly, so she aimed at helping him escape. Finder politely declined Olive's thoughtful aid on account of being able to escape on his own at any time, but he deserved their judgment. Even though he did not want to escape, Finer accepted a gift Olive brought with her, the Finder's Stone. The stone was lost a year prior in battle with Moander and was accidentally picked up by hapless Giogi Wyvernspur. Olive recognized the artifact in his possession and returned the Stone to its creator. Shortly after this, the Tower was drowned in the sounds of commotion, and a saurial wizard Grypht appeared in the cell, informing Finder of Moander's return. Of course, Olive did not understand the saurial language the conversation was held in, and it frustrated her to no end.

Another visitor arrived at the Finder's cell, a Harper agent Kyre, secretly enslaved and rotten from the inside by Moander's vines. Olive hid, and the corrupted Harper used magic to imprison Grypht. Kyre's next task was Finder's assassination. With Olive's aid, Finder had enough time to tap into Finder's Stone magic and teleported himself and the halfling to relative safety, but not before Moander's assassin snatched the Stone.

The teleport spell brought Olive and Finder to the Nameless Bard's old laboratory, the Finder's Keep, in the Spiderhaunt Woods. The duo was attempting to access Finder's old magic items and artifacts to aid them against the returned god of rot. Olive's thieving skills and tiny size were a great help in navigating through collapsed halls and rooms. Unfortunately, not all old traps were disarmed by the ravages of time and scavenging monsters. Finder triggered one of the poison needle traps as they were attacked by orcs led by another rotten slave of Moander's, a beholder. Olive managed to loot a potion that stabilized the Nameless Bard, but he was in no shape to continue on, and the halfling stashed him in a safe spot and continued to search for his old laboratory on her own. The door to Finder's lab was magically protected. Thankfully, Olive was a good singer and could easily replicate all the notes she needed to hit to enter. Inside the lab, Olive discovered that Finder's construct son Flattery ransacked it a long time ago and left a magical trap to kill his hated parent. Olive escaped the deathly magical rays by a lock of her hair, literally. Other than the trap, the laboratory was empty. Flattery took every magic item he could find in there. Olive, probably for the first time in her life, felt tired, empty, and hopeless. She collapsed under the weight of despair and uncontrollable tears.

Olive snapped out of her despair when she heard her friend Finder in his weak state confronting the orcs and their beholder leader Xaran. The beholder was negotiating Finder's life in exchange for the knowledge. Finder's charisma earned him the life-saving antidote. Olive, with the ferocity of a wolverine, jumped out of her shelter to save her friend. She attacked Xaran, disorienting him momentarily, and managed to push Finder into the lab. She jumped inside, slamming the door behind and hoping the magic wards would give them some time to come up with a plan. The halfling did not accomplish that assault unscathed; she was wounded by one of the beholder's deadly eye beams. Finder uncovered his old horn of blasting from under the rubble inside the workshop. The duo fled the orc army and the beholder after using the horn to collapse the ceiling on the villains' heads. It did not kill the Moander's pawn, and the chase only slowed down until Olive and Finder found themselves at a dead-end, with only a section of a collapsed ceiling protecting them from the orcs.

The duo eventually heard Alias and her party's arrival, guided by the Finder's Stone. With Olive's distraction, the heroes defeated the beholder, reuniting Alias with her father, and Olive with her friends. Together they used the power of the Finder's Stone to confront Moander in the Lost Vale where the god enslaved a tribe of saurials, the tribe Dragonbait belonged to. Olive and her friends succeeded in rescuing the saurials and destroying the god, but at a steep price. Akabar Bel Akash sacrificed his life to stop Moander, and Finder used the shard of para-elemental ice inside the Finder's Stone to destroy the god, perishing in the process. Unknown to Olive at the time, Finder inherited Moander's divinity, becoming a demi-god himself. Eventually, Olive became one of his first followers.

Masquerades
Not a lot was known of Olive's adventures for the next ten years. She resurfaced in 1368 DR, reunited with Alias and Dragonbait when the swordswoman was working for one of the noble families in Westgate. Together they took on the city's thieves' guild, the Night Masks. During that time, Olive was employed by a wealthy merchant family fending off dangers of both the thieves' guild and attitudes of other merchant organizations of Westgate that considered halflings inferior.

Together, Olive, Alias, and Dragonbait embarked on a quest to break the Night Masks, starting with the guild's leader known as Melman. Ironically enough, the Night Masks leader occupied the same manor the heroes were prisoners at a decade ago, Cassana's manor. There, Olive had to fight off and survived a hungry gelatinous cube. Later, Olive and Alias, polymorphed into a halfling, worked together to rescue the bard's employer from the Night Masks' new leader, known only as Faceless. Olive witnessed the final battle between Alias, Dragonbait, and the Faceless. Subsequently, the friends parted ways once again when Alias and Dragonbait departed for the Lost Vale, and Olive remained in Westgate.

Trivia

 * Dragon magazine 153: Game Wizards: An evening (wasted) with Elminster featured a conversation between Jeff Grubb and Elminster in which the old mage informed Jeff that Alias was very amused by the cover of Azure Bonds and suggested Master Caldwell treat Olive and Giogi just as well in the upcoming book The Wyvern's Spur or Alias would come after Jeff and his lovely wife Kate with her broadsword.
 * Originally, Olive Ruskettle was created as a male character, Oliver, who later was reworked and mainly inspired and based on Kate Novak's personality. While Alias was inspired and based on Jeff Grubb's.