Shackled City: ECL 5 Ethel Schmidt Goblin Rogue 1 Scout 3: Bio

Not all that long ago, in the grand scheme of things, a fairly unusual child was born.  The father was a young goblin man, recently come of age and scouting for resources for his tribe.  The mother was a nymph.

If you could find that nymph, you could ask her how it happened, but she wouldn't tell you.  The goblin, on the other hand, would be all too happy to, if he hadn't mysteriously gone blind and died.

Soon after birth, the nymph brought the baby girl to the late father's tribe.  No words were exchanged.  After she was out of sight, the goblins exchanged dumbfounded glances, then broke into cheers.  What followed was a night of feasting and celebration in memory of the man who fell in the line of duty.  The daughter would be named Vrinnat, and the chieftain would raise her as his own.

Or so he thought.  As it turned out, she was a difficult child.  Teenage rebellion is not much known among goblins, partly because their life tends to suit them fine, and partly because they rarely live to be teenagers.  But the touch of the fey had made the girl contrary.  She demanded special treatment, like clothes and a bed.

Ultimately, she refused to be forced into an arranged marriage with the son of the chief of a neighboring tribe.  It's a story as old as time, one that's been told and retold, but usually with a happy ending.  Goblins haven't read any of those stories, though.  If she hadn't fled, she would have been slaughtered and eaten.  Everyone was getting really curious if half-nymphs tasted anything like elves, anyway.

The first living creature she met after leaving the tribe was an alchemist named Otto, a city-dwelling human, out in the woods on a day-trip doing whatever alchemists do in the woods.  He was terrified of her at first, but became fascinated after she chased him down, tied him to a tree with his own 50' hemp rope, and told him her story.  He took her in, and at her insistence, gave her a human name.

Vrinnat, now Ethel, found that even fairly meager accommodations for a human were paradise compared to the squalorous goblin village she had known.  Still, Otto struggled to support the two of them with his trade, and Ethel found she took to thievery very naturally.  He didn't much feel like asking where the money was coming from.

Of course, it caught up with her, as these things tend to, and she had to split town.  After a brief but tearful goodbye to the only real father she had ever known, she was on the road.