Olive Ruskettle

Olive Ruskettle was a halfling 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,” she said aloud. “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

Personality
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 from the heart.

History
Not much was known about her past or her true name. 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, 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.

One of Olive's most frightening life events was back when she resided in Raven's Bluff, she was accused of stealing a pouch of gold by 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.

Ruskettle was unique even among halflings, due to her height of less than three feet. Simply by putting on a pair of shoes, she could be mistaken for a human toddler. Unknown even to her at the time, Olive became a Harper when Finder gave her his harper pin in the presence of Elminster Aumar.

Appearances

 * Card Games
 * AD&D Trading Cards
 * Novels
 * The Finder's Stone trilogy
 * Azure Bonds
 * The Wyvern's Spur
 * Song of the Saurials
 * Masquerades
 * Video Games
 * Curse of the Azure Bonds (minor)