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Possessions: Yama-Ito, Gabrielle's Bodysuit, MW silver dagger, MW shuriken (×24), cloak of resistance and protection +2, boots of striding and springing and stomping,
bracers of armor +8, ring of free action, ring of blade turning, MW wakizashi, Dagger of Sard (mithril, +3 enhancement, +2d6 damage v. shapeshifters),
Background:
Two-hundred fifty years ago, Shiela Ironwolf was born to an impoverished family of vagabonds. By the time she was twelve, she was ferociously bitter and self-absorbed. She murdered her parents and hit the streets where she refined her skills of fending for herself. Eventually, she was picked up by the local thieves' guild and apprenticed to one of the assassins. Because she tended to "think outside the box" and throw a wrench into any plans set to defend against her, she picked up the nickname "X-Factor-1" She "graduated" and became a full fledged adventurer by the time she was 16. One of her first adventures was a solo adventure that involved exploring a haunted house. It was being used as a secret base for pirates. She claimed a pirate ship for herself after she bumped off the former owners. Using the stolen gold, she hit the seas and named herself Gabrielle.
Jump forward a few years and Gabrielle had mellowed.
She had run with a group of good adventurers and learned the meaning and value of friendship and family. While no longer evil, she was still quite self-absorbed. [Alignment change from CE to CN]. It was during this time that she commissioned the construction of her trademark sword Yama-Ito.
Despite having worked with others, Gabrielle was mostly a solo operator as she still didn't trust anyone.
One of her solo adventures took her to a walled city where she went prowling for, and found, a sweet, attractive young guardsman to keep her company for the evening (the challenge was in seducing him to
abandon his duty for the night). Shortly after, she slew a black dragon and bathed in the blood of its heart.
She was surprised to discover she was pregnant. Fearing that her own child would suffer a childhood like hers, she sought out a lawful monastery to take her in and watch her child after it was born. Gabrielle stayed at the monastery for two years and during that time discovered new levels of self-discipline and self-control.
[Alignment change from CN to LN.]
However, her wanderlust again grew and Gabrielle left the monastery. She left an enormous sum of gems and jewelry to cover her child's education and to thank the monks for their help.
Shortly afterwards, one of her adventures found her traipsing across the Astral plane (she had joined a temporary group of adventurers trying to ransack an ancient tomb, and it turned out the only way
to escape one of the traps was for the party wizard to transport them physically to the Astral plane.
Once there, she was separated from the wizard and had to find her own way home.) By random mischance, she ran across Orcus and some of his minions. Using the power of Yama-Ito she vanquished Orcus (slicing him limb from limb) and his minions, collected the Evil Scepter of Might from the corpse and used one of its minor abilities to get home. Also during this same period, she found herself searching for the Stone of Light and the Heart of Darkness (ed: "Two-Fold Talisman" adventures published in Dragon magazine ages ago). Two notable consequences of this quest is a fierce arch-enemy halfling named "D.V." and she acquired the "curse of Watt" (her thumbs turned black and any plant life she comes in contact with dies instantly. All druids and rangers would recognize the curse on sight and try to slay her. She later used a wish to modify the curse so her thumbs are no longer black and she can suppress the supernatural curse at will.)
Once outside the monastery, Gabrielle's free-spirit nature re-emerged [Align change to N], but she still retained a sense of honor and had a newfound desire to uphold the good (although, in her mind the
ends justify the means). She founded her own adventuring group.
This group included Lyle Starcatcher, Grimjaw Bonegrinder and the enigmatic Mr. I. This group lasted many years and they had many adventures serving elven queens, crushing orcish armies, slaying demons and plundering just about every tomb, dungeon, and castle that stood in their way.
After a decade away, Gabrielle returned to the monastery to visit her child.
Her child was good of heart, but quite estranged from the mother she barely remembered. A bizarre side-effect of bathing in the dragon's blood while pregnant was the endowment of sorceress magic in her daughter. Even at such a young age, Vandala Ironwolf was showing promise as a monk-sorceress. Unfortunately, there was no way that Gabrielle and her daughter would ever bond, so Gabrielle took off again.
Gabrielle became on honorary citizen of Hokar (in the Hold of the Sea Princes) when she saved the city from a monster and then donated thirteen pieces of jewelry (value of 31,000 gp). (Gabrielle
had a talent for "acquiring" expensive jewelry, so she typically thought nothing of giving it away.)
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