Kendra

Kendra was a treasure-hunting adventuress who traveled Faerûn in the mid–14 century DR.

Description
She was tall with a fit and healthy figure with wide hips and slender waist, but also very big feet. She was considered rather beautiful. She had red hair, cut to the level of just beneath her chin. Her armor comprised a steel bustier-like breastplate, mail leggings, a leather skirt slit up the front, and a broad belt with sheaths for various bladed weapons. She tied peacestrings on these in deference to Cormyrean law. Over this, she donned a heavy hooded cloak, which had a hem weighted and lined with "orc spikes" as a trap.

Personality
Kendra had a cold and stern attitude when she expected trouble, namely from men, so she usually had a cold and stern attitude. She despised men who were pigs and fools, declaring she'd kill them given the chance or let them die. Nevertheless, she accepted men who were respectful and didn't try to touch her where she did not wish and trusted a man who liked animals, especially cats. She was relaxed and friendly when among good company. She admitted she could be a bit of a bully.

Possessions
She had her armor and weapons, including a knife and a sword.

She had a horse, a combat-trained steed named Darrun.

Abilities
She was a skilled rider and swordswoman.

History
She came from outside Cormyr. As an adventurer, she travelled quite widely.

Kendra already had an impressive reputation when she came to Cormyr in Eleint of the. Her goal was to hunt for treasure in the Vast Swamp, namely that of the bandit chieftain Fastred.

On Eleint 16, Kendra rode from the city of Wheloon to the town of Ghars. That night, she stopped by the Bold Bard tavern and immediately received crude and unwelcome advances and insults from Dovo, and she returned the insults. When he grabbed her arm, she put a knife to his throat and invited tavernkeeper Shortshanks to throw him out, though Kendra did most of the throwing. Dovo even threatened her, but fled from her anger. Shortly after, Grodoveth tried the same, subtler but no less crude before he left. Shortshanks apologized for his patrons and thereafter Kendra drank her Old One Eye in peace. After a few drinks, she left and camped out among a copse of trees south of town.

The next morning, Kendra was accosted by two highwaymen, and left them dead. Riding to the Vast Swamp, she came upon the scene of Dovo's murder, which was being investigated by Captain Flim of the Purple Dragons, Benelaius, Lindavar, Jasper, Doctor Braum, and Mayor Tobald. Flim questioned her, and she mocked him. Naturally a suspect, Kendra said she would've gladly killed Dovo, but denied actually doing it—her alibi for the killing being busy killing two entirely separate thugs elsewhere, and besides she didn't use an axe. She left the men and rode away free into the Vast Swamp, promising to return to Ghars when she was done and inviting Jasper, whom she recognized from the Bold Bard, to raise a drink to her if she didn't.

But she did come back, riding out of the swamp on the evening of Eleint 18 and rescuing Jasper from a rogue hydra. Battling it on horseback, she chopped off three heads and stabbed it through the heart with her sword, but not before one head bit her thigh. Jasper threw rocks at it. Afterward, he was thankful and suggested she go to his master Benelaius to treat her injuries; she agreed, letting Jasper ride behind her. On the way, she put herself forward as a suspect for the murder of Grodoveth, who'd been found dead in Fastred's tomb with the treasure gone, and teased that if she had killed him she could kill Jasper too. But she hadn't, and she didn't. At the cottage, Kendra trusted Benelaius because he had almost a hundred cats and let him treat her wound.

Over the next few days, Kendra stayed at the cottage with Benelaius, Jasper, and Lindavar while she recovered from her injury and blood loss. She spoke much with Benelaius about her travels and the species she'd encountered, and developed an affection for him and his cats, and him and his cats did likewise for her. Thus she was present when Benelaius and Lindavar gathered all the suspects in the killings (which included herself) at the cottage at midnight of Eleint 21 and revealed the true killer; Kendra was of course innocent.

She departed the next morning, on a new quest to discover a lost city in Anauroch full of jewels.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Murder in Cormyr