Alias

Alias was a human construct "daughter" of a once-disgraced Harper bard Finder Wyvernspur that had been given true life in 1357 DR by an alliance of powerful evil beings who intended for her to be their perfect assassin. Instead, she became a hero and a sellsword.

"..My allies had their own purposes, something I should have realized when each gave her a different name. I named her Alias because I could not give her my own. All I wanted was for her to live in peace and sing my songs."

- Finder Wyvernspur

Description
Alias was a beautiful unaging young woman. She was tall and weighed, and had reddish-blonde hair and striking green eyes.

The most distinct feature of Alias was the legacy of her magical creation. That feature was the magical tattoo that covered her right arm, wrist to elbow. The elaborate azure tattoo shimmered and glowed, and upon closer examination was a collection of tiny glyphs. The tattoo, the azure bonds, were swirling patterns of thorns and waves, with a beautiful azure blooming rose.

Before the rose, however, the tattoo consisted of runes that represented her masters and creators: an insect-like squiggle (Cassana), three interlocking rings (Zrie Prakis), an open palm with a fanged mouth (Moander), a flaming dagger (Fire Knives), concentric circles (Phalse), and lastly, there was an empty spot. Upon the masters' deaths, the runes disappeared, and the empty spot blossomed into an image of a rose, that represented Alias' "father", Finder Wyvernspur.

Personality
Alias was a strong-willed individual, un unexpected result of her interrupted creation, it gave her the power to resist the magical control imprinted on her by her masters. She stood up to wizards, liches, fiends, and gods, so she was strong enough to weather anything the Realms had to throw at her.

Due to the memories given to her by Finder, a proud and arrogant man in his past, the programming that was put in place to keep her from seeking the aid of clerics, and reinforced by her being manipulated by a deity, Alias harbored mistrust towards gods and thought clerics to be fools.

Alias was born into an adult body with a full set of memories and it affected her emotional maturing. She was prone to extreme emotional overreactions, seething rages, deep adolescent sorrows, ecstatic happiness, and child-like infatuation, like kids and teenagers tended to do. Over time she matured and grew more independent from both her father-figures, Finder, and Dragonbait, as a child does from her parents with age.

Alias was created to be an amazing singer and her mind was filled with Finder's ballads and songs and often found solace in singing, even if just to herself. She cherished her memories, even though she knew they were false.

Abilities
Alias was a highly capable fighter, proficient in all swords (including exotic saurial broadswords), daggers, maces, axes, clubs, darts, all polearms, lances, morning stars, and quarterstaves. She was able to hold her own in battle when blinded and was a skilled horseback rider.

She was created to hold ancient lore knowledge, including information about the draconic Feint of Honor, know all songs and ballads by Finder Wyvernspur, possessed a hauntingly beautiful singing voice, and knew how to play a chordal horn.

Alias had a permanent misdirection spell effect bestowed on herself as a part of her creation, and it extended to any in her company.

As a part of Alias' design, death was warded away from her and her sisters by Zrie Prakis's magic, making Alias immortal and unaging (she was still killable by other means).

For a period of time, after she destroyed her masters, in 1357 DR, Alias along with her companions were protected by a benevolent spell of Elminster’s Blessing that was cast by Elminster himself, unbeknownst to them.

In 1358 DR when Alias got hold of the Finder's Stone once again, she used its power to cast the permanent tongues spell on herself to be able to her "brother", saurial paladin Dragonbait.

Possessions
When Alias first came to the existence she was left with simple leather leggings, plate mail, a pair of tall knee-high leather boots with daggers tucked in them, a red cape, and a simple longsword. She kept her hair in place with an eagle-shaped barrette.

When Alias was captured by her masters and prepared for the ritual, she was outfitted with magical gear they intended for her to use as the servant. She has been given a seemingly impractical +2 chain mail shirt that split in the middle and exposed the flesh between the breasts adorned with black metal pauldrons and a magical + 3 longsword.

While traveling through Cormyr and the Dalelands in 1357 DR she owned a purebred horse that she named Lady Killer.

Relationships
However, several additional versions of Alias had been created by Phalse. These clones disappeared upon Phalse's defeat, teleported to parts unknown. Upon the discovery of the not-living and not-dead clones, Alias felt pity for them and refused to have them destroyed.

Once Alias met her father and creator Finder Wyvernspur, they quickly bonded against what either one expected. Their resulting relationship was that of a family, even though it was strained with Alias' knowledge of the Nameless Bard's past, and Finder's personality flaws.

Among Alias' oldest companions and friends were: Olive Ruskettle, a famous halfling "bard" who joined the party for selfish reasons but steadily grew from a nuisance and an annoying companion to a friend; Akabar Bel Akash, a Turmish merchant and a wizard who helped Alias to destroy her masters, later, Alias felt child-like infatuation with the mage, they remained close friends until his death; Zhara, one of Alias' clones and a widow of Akabar, they shared some sibling rivalry; Mintassan, a planeswalker sage, and a wizard; and, of course, her "brother", Dragonbait, a saurial paladin, with whom she shared deep love and kinship.

Alias and Dragonbait took on the role of protectors for the Saurial community they freed from Moander in Lost Vale. And she felt deep hate for her masters and their affiliated organizations - Cultists of Moander, Fire Knives, Night Masks, and the Iron Throne.

History
Alias was born a single child to an emotionally closed-off fisherman's widow. The mother died when Alias reached her teens, no relatives, known or long-lost came to the woman's wake. A year later Alias left her home to avoid being married off to a weaver, a good man, but not a match for her. She eventually was picked up by an all-female adventuring group, Company of the Swanmays. It was with them she felt a kinship for the first time in her life. The adventuring women shared their love of risk, open road, wilderness, and adventure. With the Swanmays alias regularly traveled through the Shadow Gap, spent winters in Shadowdale, became close friends with another young member of the company named Kith. Eventually, the Swanmays disbanded and Alias joined the Adventurers of the Black Hawk with whom she stole the Eyes of Bane from the temple in Baldur's Gate.

None of these memories, of course, were true... Alias was a creation of an arrogant Harper agent and a bard, Finder Wyvernspur, later known only as the Nameless Bard. The bard was renowned for the beautiful songs and stories he's created throughout his life and he sought to preserve them uncorrupted by time, inevitable changes tampering. Eventually, Finder realized that the only to achieve that was by creating a magical vessel, a repository of knowledge. The first version of that became the artifact known as the Finder's Stone, the second attempt created was a construct, a copy of Finder himself - Flattery. Imperfect construct by irrationally obsessive standards of the bard. Finder mistreated Flattery, causing the sentient construct to kill one of the bard's assistants, and disfiguring the other one. The Harpers did not tolerate the creation of a monster and subsequent deaths of the apprentices, and they punished Finder. They took away the source of his pride, songs were erased from Toril, the bard's name stricken from the history, and Finder himself was banished to the Citadel of White Exile on a different plane.

Harpers were not as diligent as they thought they were and the story of Finder's failure reached an evil and ambitious wizard Cassana. She was able to find and recover the Nameless Bard. Cassana convinced him to create a new vessel and used her equally evil and ambitious allies to help with the task. Cassana created the body, making a copy of her own. The powerful lich Zrie Prakis used his powers to ward Alias from death, making her unaging. The Fire Knives provided money for the expensive magical creation process and wanted to receive a perfect assassin in exchange, to remove King Azoun IV of Cormyr from the throne. The cultists of the god of rot Moander provided the divine life energy in exchange for the "unborn child" only way of freeing the long-imprisoned avatar. Phalse, the fiend was to provide the pure and untainted soul - the final component to create Alias. That soul was that of the saurial paladin Dragonbait. The paladin and Alias were tattooed with the azure bonds to seal the control of the body and transfer the soul into it. Finder created false memories for the construct, recorded his songs and stories, but realized that Alias was alive, before the saurial's sacrifice was complete. Somehow Dragonbait's soul splintered and gave life and consciousness to the construct, a newborn in an adult body. Finder realized that they created a living thinking being with a soul when he watched the newborn Alias cradling and singing to Dragonbait who was badly hurt. Finder tried to let Alias escape, gave her the potions of healing but instead of escaping she continued showing her humanity and healed the saurial instead. Finder begged Dragonbait to rescue the newborn, take her as far from Westgate as possible.

Finder was imprisoned in Cassana's dungeon in a cell enchanted with the feeblemind spell, and Dragonbait took Alias to Suzail. He made sure that she would be found at the stoop of The Hidden Lady and placed in one of the rooms to sleep off the perceived night of drinking and debauchery. Three days later Alias woke up, fully conscious, plagued by false memories of her life, a gap in the recent events, and a strange shimmering magical tattoo.

Confused, Alias assumed the tattoos were connected to the memory loss and sought help with the obviously magical predicament. She met Akabar Bel Akash in the Hidden Lady, a mage, and a merchant from Turmish. He attempted to cast detect magic on the azure bonds, they exploded in bright strobing lights and azure pyrotechnics. Alias thought the wizard did something wrong and visited the Towers of Good Fortune. The curate present at the time, Winefiddle tried to help Alias by casting the remove curse spell. The bonds reacted even more aggressively, taking control of Alias' body and going for the kill. The curate survived by Tymora's good luck and suggested Alias visit a sage - Dimswart.

On her way back to the Hidden Lady, Alias was ambushed by the Fire Knife assassins who were able to track Alias thanks to two attempts to remove the azure bonds. They tried to subdue the sellsword woman but were defeated with the help of Dragonbait. Alias quickly felt a connection with the strange creature not remembering her creation nor realizing that he was an intelligent creature. Together they reached the Dimswart Manor where they agreed to rescue a bard from the dragon in exchange for the sage's help. The bard's name was Olive Ruskettle, and Akabar joined Alias on the mission as he was there when the bard was taken away. Alias challenged an ancient red dragon Mistinarperadnacles Hai Draco to the Feint of Honor. Alias rescued Olive, and the women escaped with their lives thanks to Olive's bluffing skills. On the way back to the Manor, Alias and her new companions, by chance, stumbled upon a circle of stones erected by Zrie Prakis. They defeated the lich's mineral quasi-elemental but that alerted her masters.

The entertainment for the Dimswart's daughter's wedding was rescued just in time. Alais, Dragonbait, Akabar were all invited to the event as guests. There the programming put in place by Fire Knives kicked in. The assassins planted the command for the construct to attack and assassinate King Azoun IV upon hearing his voice. One of the groom's family members Giogioni Wyvernspur imitated the king's voice in jest. Alias lost control of herself and attempted to kill the poor nobleman. Stopped by Dragonbait, she fled the scene, still controlled by the bonds, Alias knew no place to run to so she returned to the Hidden Lady.

Akabar, Dragonbait, and Olive followed Alias armed with information about the glyphs on her tattoo. Deciding to pursue one of the leads about the mysterious masters, the adventurers traveled towards Yulash. In reality, Alias' programming was luring her there, towards the prison of the avatar of Moander. They traveled through Shadow Gap, where Cassana tracked the group down while polymorphed into a robberwing. The group confronted and killed a monstrous kalmari, one of Caasana's summoned extraplanar creatures on loan to the Iron Throne.

The group reached Shadowdale, a place from Alias' false memories. The swordswoman became acquainted with lord Mourngrym Amcathra who praised and rewarded the group for freeing the Shadow Gap from the Iron Throne occupation. Alias realized that no one from her past remembered her in Shadowdale. There she met Elminster Aumar who realized what and who Alias truly was. He gifted the woman with the Finder's Stone to aid her on the quest.

In Yulash alias unwittingly released the Abomination of Moander who trapped her and revealed her true origins to Alias. The monstrous pile of rotting matter, the Abomination of Moander, started its way through Cormanthor towards the city of his ancient enemies, Myth Drannor. Alias' friends managed to defeat the monster eventually after enlisting the help of Mistinarperadnacles Hai Draco, pursuing it through the gate where the Finders Stone guided the group through the swirling planes and other worlds. The final battle with Moander took place over Westgate where Mist ignited the creature destroying both in the process.

In Westgate, Alias freed herself from the cultists of Moander, fought for her freedom. She crossed paths with poor Giogi once more, but peacefully this time around. She reunited with her friends in Westgate's Rising Raven Inn. The breather was shortlived as the masters had the upper hand on their home turf. Cassana made an in-person appearance and used her wand to put Alias to sleep. Zrie subdued Akabar, and Dragonbait fell to the Fire Knives' poison, while Olive was taken in by Phalse. While in Cassana's hands, Alias was forced to beat Akabar half to death just to please the evil sorceress. The second sacrifice attempt was about to commence on the Hill of Thorns outside Westgate. With Olive's help, Finder Wyvernspur was freed from Casana's prison. The Bard told the origins of Alias' and his own past to Akabar and Olive while they healed up and prepared for the final confrontation.

To torture Alias more, Cassana forced the sacrifice to be done by Alias herself. The evil wizard did not realize the strength of the connection between her construct and the saurial, and the sheer willpower that Alias developed. Alias plunged the sword into Cassana instead of Dragonpait, and Finder, Olive, Akabar joined the battle with the masters, cultists of Moander, and Fire Knives. Both Casana and Zrie Prakis perished in the combat by Alias' hand, while Phalse, with Cassana's wand, fled to the Citadel of White Exile. There Alias uncovered the fiend's plan. He created clones of Alias, her sisters, that were varied in skin tone, and professions (Cat, Zhara, and Jade were among them), to use them as his own perfect assassin army to dispose of the enemies. Starting with Moander's true self deep in the Abyss. Alias confronted Phalse in his true foram - a beholder-like creature with stalks that ended in mouths instead of eyes. When the creature attempted to control Alias with Cassana's wand, Alias overpowered the magical device shattering it and taking Phalse's hand with it. Alias defeated the demon in combat, destroying the last of her masters. She met her father at last, and they started to bond as a family. With Elminster present, Alias promised to testify in front of the Harpers to reinstate her father's name whenever it was to happen.

Later, Alias found herself changing the songs she would sing in inns and taverns, turning them into songs about destroying the land and otherwise desecrating it. Eventually, it was discovered that Alias had become a "soul singer," a type of saurial oracle who could make known the status of saurials in distant areas. The soul songs Alias had been singing were warnings of the return of the god Moander.

After reuniting with her friends and learning the truth of Finder's history regarding her creation, Alias was instrumental in helping Finder make the final steps toward destroying Moander.

Afterward, having apparently aided the displaced saurials to create a new home in the Lost Vale, Alias began taking missions from the Harpers.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Curse of the Azure Bonds


 * Card Games
 * AD&D Trading Cards • Spellfire: Master the Magic


 * Comic Books
 * Converging Lines • Converging Lines • The Great Game • Fools Rush In


 * Novels
 * Azure Bonds • Song of the Saurials • Masquerades


 * The Wyvern's Spur


 * Video Games
 * Curse of the Azure Bonds (game)


 * Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate