Willow

Willow is a female Whisper Gnome, a race that is normally secretive and quiet by nature. What makes her even more unique is her half-fey heritage, one that goes back decades to a Dryad ancestress. As a child, Willow was brought up by her nomadic family, comprised of her parents, maternal grandparents and twin sister, Ash. Traders and entertainers, her family wandered from place to place earning their living. Her father was a Bard, while her mother was a Cleric of Farlanghn. Willow's grandmother was a Spirit Shaman and her grandfather a Blacksmith. She and her twin sister, Ash, was at this point still undecided.

Life was fair for the family, and Willow knew about her fey heritage and reveled in the knowledge. Ocasionally the family would meet in the Fey realm and join in the entertainment and fun. However, life would take an unexpected turn when Willow was 19.

The traders life has it's ups and downs, and Willow was learning the Rogue's trade from her father. It was the hope that she would become a Bard as well, and help the family with the entertainment aspect of the trade. Traveling in two horse-drawn wagons, was a thrill for the twins. However, during one of the family's journeys, they stayed in a village where the situation became deadly.

The family set up their camp for trade and entertainment, and the villagers were at first accepting of the little traders. The village itself was a mix of humans, elves, half-elves, gnomes and halflings. It was during their ninth day at the village that fate would take a fatal hand in Willow's life. While the family was plying their trade, one of the local human youths decided that Ash was to be his next "fling". She gently rebuffed him at every turn, and even went so far as to tell her family of the ongoing harrassment. Sensing their daughter's discomfort, the rest of the family decided to cut this visit short. The trouble was that the young man in question was not used to being rejected, often resorting to force on his past "conquests". On the ninth night of the family's stay, Ash was attacked by the young man and his cronies, and dragged to a nearby abandoned barn. Ash, also being half-fey, was able to magically send a message to her family, who with the aid of some of the villagers, rushed to her rescue and caught the youths in the act of attempting to rape Ash.

With this latest crime, the villagers found it impossible to ignore the youths' growing violence. The whole group were summarily banished from the village, and Willow's family was given compensation for the attack. Mollified, they stayed for three more days before taking leave of the village.

Two days out of the village, while camped by the side of the road, the tiny family were ambushed. The banished youths, angry and humiliated, waited for the Whisper Gnome family to leave the village before exacting their vengeance. Striking when most were asleep, the youths captured Willow's parents and grandparents, even as they fought. They found and dragged Ash and Willow before the rest of the family, and described how they were going to violate and then kill them afterward. Then before the two girls' horrified eyes, the rogue youths slaughtered their parents and grandparents.

It was at this point that something snapped in the twins...some aspect of their fey heritage surged with the death of their loved ones. For Willow, the fey powers called to her blood, and demanded retribution. She accepted and she suddenly found herself filled with the power of the fey. Breaking free of her captors, Willow turned her new-found powers on her foes. In her mind, the scene of her parents and grandparents' deaths were too much, and a red haze filled her vision. When her vision cleared, not much remained of the murderous youths but charred and mutilated bodies. Of her sister Ash, no trace was found and she searched as best she could. Ash simply disappeared. Heartbroken, Willow salvaged what she could from the damaged wagons. Then using the wood from the wagons, she built a pyre for her dead family. Then without a backward glance, she took the horses and traveled onward.

It wasn't until a little while later, that Willow discovered what occurred to her and her sister. The rush of power from their fey heritage shaped itself into two different effects on the twins. For Willow, the Fey Powers decided to intercede on her behalf and she accepted the mantle of a Fey Warlock. Since then, she has traveled across the realm and into the Fey Realm as well, growing and learning all she can. She never forgets the lesson she learned from that fateful night, and neither does she stop searching for her twin sister, Ash.

At present, Willow has joined with a band of adventurers, who are searching for the cause of the mysterious madness infecting the Fey. A chance meeting while Willow was dancing at one fo the Fey revels, led to meeting the party, and she willingly joined in hopes of learning the source of the madness and possibly destroying it. The journey led to the Awakened Forest, and there, the party learned of the extraordinary infection that seemed to be the cause of the madness. Battling different infected creatures, the group learned a great deal of information that may lead to the source and cure. Yet it was during one of these battles that Willow herself was infected by the taint. Being half-fey, this seemed a near-death sentence, but through the wisdom and intelligence of the party, the