Race: Fire Genasi
Age: 15
Class: Sorcerer (Fire Savant)
Signature Weapon: Steel Cloth
Signature Spell: Flame spells…no specific one yet.
Signature Item: Gold bracers
Physical Description: Ashton stands 5’4”, and is very slim, but toned. His skin is a tanned rust-red colour, and his naturally spiked hair is the colour of flames. His eyes, normally, are a fiery gold, but they change in colour and intensity with his mood – anything from deep, dark red of low embers to the bright flare of sunlight when he casts his spells. Pretty would better describe him than handsome. He carries himself with a brash confidence and a cocky, noble air. His regular dress is something that wouldn’t look out of place in Aladdin – he is clearly dressed for hot desert climates and tends to wear androgynous, daring clothes of very expensive quality. He also wears a fair deal of jewellery, worn just so to accent his clothing and features.
Past: Ashton was the sixth child and only boy born to an exceedingly weathly Calishite noble family. He was spoiled to no end and could do no wrong, however was bored to tears by politics and wanted to live a life of adventure. His sorcerous powers awoke when he was 12, and when his younger brother Elil was born, he ceased to be his family’s star child and decided to leave before circumstances could change for the worse.
History: A few days after being trained by Miss Waters to control his sorcerous powers, a dragon arrived, bringing news that he was to travel with him to Goldspun. Curious, he rode the dragon to the psionic town, finding Miss Waters trapped in her stasis bubble there. He studied it, but could find no way to release her – nor was able to even fathom how. He stayed in the town for a few days uneventfully, wasting his time practicing his martial arts and magic well away from the psions, and generally just keeping to himself and away from the irritating peasants…even if they were psionic peasants. No more than three days later, however, the town was besieged by a small army of winged serpents, against which Ashton helped defend. The town held its own for a time, but it was clear the serpents were not being driven off. Eventually, the party arrived, fresh from their quest to recover the beaker with the small worm which would restore Miss Waters. They did so, and Miss Waters then promptly destroyed both the deep spawn’s spawn, and the serpents.
Ashton’s introduction to the group did not go smoothly. Brazen, arrogant, and generally acting as though he were still in his palace, his abrasive and demanding attitude did not go over well. In fact, his first non-combative interaction with the party came when he found Kat and Ymandra practicing in an open field, trying to teach Kat blind-fighting. He watched for a while, finding their attempts pitiful at best…and so decided to step in and show them ‘true skill’. He offered to teach Kat how to fight blind, and she accepted…picking it up within only a few days. During that time, Ashton did make conversation with her – most especially because he was impressed by what she could do. So from her, he learned a lot of what the party had done previously. He was envious, since he had dreamed of having those sorts of adventures since he was much younger. He started to almost live vicariously through Kat’s stories…wanting to know every detail...and this is the first time his arrogant demeanour began to drop away, showing just an eager child beneath. Though only Kat ever saw it.
Not long after that, three hags attacked the town, their psionic storm rendering the psions useless. Ashton wasn’t much use in battling the hags directly, but did manage to save a large number of townsfolk when the town was lit on fire – though this action did not endear him any more to any of the other party members. They remained in Goldspun for several more months before Miss Waters came to the party with the mention of a quest: retrieve four artefacts from an old temple beneath a castle. She explained that, due to their relationship to her, they were in great danger, and might eventually have to leave for the planes – which did not please the party at all.
Though the party turned down the quest for the moment, they did decide to travel to Arabel – since everyone wanted to leave the psionic town. Just days into the travel, Kat called Josh and Ashton together in an attempt to help them get along. It failed miserably, but afterward he and Kat spoke for some time, and in the end Ashton promised to try to curb his old habits and, with Kat’s help, fit in with the rest of the party. At that moment, he felt like he had made his first friend.
The next day, the party was attacked by an intellect devourer and barely survived, but in the end was killed by Emelina and Josh. From there, they travelled to Arabel, only to discover it was beset by a terrible plague. Ashton’s first thought was to simply immolate the town – fire is an excellent way to disinfect. Of course…that was somewhat impractical. Emelina understood the source of the plague almost immediately, however, and explained the cure. The party, along with the somewhat unwilling Ashton, entered the abandoned city to bring out a large number of wine casks for the villagers to clean themselves (and thus kill the spores which were killing them). He didn’t stick around to watch however, wanting to get as far from the dirty peasants as possible. Later that evening, Ymandra wanted to explore the town for survivors, and dragged the party along. The party was attacked by vampires (Ashton did his part by attempting to immolate a few), and Ymandra was slain by the shade lord, only to rise again minutes later. Hours after that, the party learned that Ymandra had fallen in love with Totoren, Lord of the Negative Material Plane, and had gone to live with him.
Emelina was devastated and went into seclusion, dragging the party with her. Because of how much Kat missed her and how she was working off her anger and frustration, Ashton couldn’t even spend time with her, and so he was more or less alone for several weeks, until Emelina finally came out of the druid’s grove. After that, the party returned to Goldspun…only to find that it was under attack by Githyanki controlled by mind flayers. The party slew the mind flayers, and then the Githyanki took many of the psions prisoner and fled back into the astral plane. Miss Waters announced that these attacks would continue until Goldspun and the party leave Faerun, and that she could help protect the town if she had the four artefacts she had mentioned before.
The end plan was that Miss Waters would rescue the Githyanki slaves while the party retrieved the artefacts. Just before the party left to do so, Emelina rented a shrunken Red Wizard head from Miss Waters to help her overcome magic resistance. The party left for the temple and descended in, solving the first puzzle with relative ease. After an encounter with a pillow room and a near-lethal encounter with a horde of clay golems (from which the party spent several days recuperating – especially Ashton, who nearly lost the use of his legs), the party continued searching the temple for signs of the artefacts. They managed to find the entire parchment on how to enter the sun chamber after meeting up with another party, and Ashton offered himself to go, suggesting that any traps in a sun chamber would be based on heat and fire, which he was highly resistant to. He retrieved the planar cube.
From there, the party went to the Moon room, which they could not solve, so they went above to the room of stars. Ashton discovered the wish-diamonds, and guessed their purpose, and the new member of the party (whose name I can’t remember) offered to go attempt to get both the mountain heart and the holy avenger. In the end, she was unsuccessful, but through a wish on Ashton’s part, was transformed into a living wish, which even now protects the party from annihilation (though only once). Out of options, Emelina decided to contact Ymandra using a crystal ball given to her for that specific purpose…asking for Ymandra’s return. She did, and eventually retrieved both the heart and the sword, unharmed (after a rather long session to which the rest of the party was not privy to). Then, the last survivor of the other party arrived, explaining what happened to his party – slaughtered by one of their own party members, who transformed into an evil werewolf. Being one of the only members of the party capable of contracting lycanthropy, Ashton subjected himself to one of the transformations so that the party could get the moon gem. It could’ve been worse, but Ashton doesn’t really know how…he was transformed into a wereswan, and retrieved the gem for the party. Later, Emelina used her staff to cure him of his affliction, much to his relief, leaving him with a few feathers which he kept close to be able to study their magical properties (though Kat also took one, as a token, because she thought Ashton was so pretty as a swan). Ashton’s selfless acts during this experience greatly increased his reputation among the party members, which did make him quite happy.
After retrieving the four artefacts, the party returned to Goldspun and presented them to Miss Waters, and then took a month off for Kat to read her magical tome. Shortly after their return, Ashton started to realize he had growing feelings for Kat, but thought of her only as his best friend…yet he asked Emelina for advice on gifts to give her – information she was happy to provide. Seeing Ashton approach her in this way, and revealing his far more insecure, childlike side, had her realize that Ashton needed a true mother figure in his life…and assumed such a role. Ashton, excitedly, rushed off to pick Kat flowers and buy her a beautiful item of jewellery, still thinking of her as nothing more than a very good friend. He presented those to her, along with the remaining swan feathers…and thus began their first date.
Over the month, they have gotten together several more times – the party no doubt realizing that Ashton practically skips along the ground sometimes, despite trying to maintain his noble air. As the month goes on, Ashton also wears more and more androgynous clothing, and his use of jewellery becomes (somewhat) more subtle and refined. He spends a fair deal of time with Kat, and they go on several more dates throughout the month, though they also spend other time with each other, shopping and otherwise. People might also notice, when the party eats together, that Ashton eats far less meat than he used to, sometimes actually looking ill when it’s placed before him.
All in all, over the month, Ashton seems far more like an energetic child than the spoiled noble he used to be.