An NPC I fleshed out for my Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign. She is the silent and secretive leader of The Harpers in Icewind dale, dedicated to keeping the faction members safe in the wake of assassinations years ago.
Description
This late middle-aged human woman wears thick furs crudely sewed together from random small animal pelts. Her movements are strong and steady, giving her an air of firm assurance. Her graying golden hair tumbles loosely around her head with shells and beads sewn in. She walks with a stiff gait, mainly in her right leg, which is covered in burn scars. Clear and piercing amber eyes and her weathered face carry an air of stoic discipline.
Personality
She prefers to avoid direct conversations and when people insist on pushing her, she likes to user her dogs surprise or intimidate them. She is a bit of a drinker and has a weakness for anyone who will sit quietly with her and drink.
Voice
A strained and raspy voice makes it difficult to speak and she prefers to use crude sign language most of the time
Motivation
The secrecy and integrity of The Harpers is her only concern, although she carefully protects their identities from one another and the outside world, she is dedicated to each of them like they were her own family.
Occupation
Sled Dog Trainer, she operates a small kennel of dogs in constant rotation in Bryn Shander and is known to sleep in a small room off to the side of the kennel, of late often with the dogs for warmth.
History
Beldora was born in Bryn Shander. just as her father became increasingly distant from her family, instead choosing to pursue power in Luskan among the Arcane Brotherhood. Beldora’s father didn’t care for her much, and the feeling was mutual. Their relationship strained all the more each time he returned to Icewind Dale to seek some magical artifact or power.
She studied with the Druids near Lonelywood but days after completing her studies, she received word that a band of Skortchclaw Orcs were attacking Bryn Shander. Beldora was horrified and rushed home out of concern for her mother, sneaking back into town she discovered her father was leading a conspiracy by the Arcane Brotherhood that caused the Orc attack. In a fight with her father and his conspirators, she was badly burned and wounded, losing most of her voice, but the Orcish attack was repelled.
It is during the fight against her father and the Arcane Brotherhood that recruited by The Harpers. Since then she has risen to be a prominent leader of the faction in Icewind Dale, a detail which she has maintained as a carefully guarded secret, as she has with the identities of any Harper agent in the area. She is cautious to a fault, and primarily uses the animal messengers to communicate with other agents in the region and has a complex system for other physical communication.