Saedda's Story

The Kingly Kraken was running northeast at a good clip. As fast as was possible at least with the hold chock full as it was with the valuable trade goods purchased in Chult’s Port Castigliar.

It was the 20th of Alturiak, 1372, and it had been about a month since the grand sohar left Calimport’s Dock Ward for open waters. Saedda stood upon the small forecastle of the vessel next to her mentor, Tarvastus. The old salt and accomplished ship mage only VERY occasionally would take on students for a voyage or two as he was simply too old to put up with much nonsense, and despised idle chatter. Fortunately, Saedda’s mother was well connected as a member of the Guild Arcane and had no issue convincing the man that taking her daughter under his wing for a short time would be in his best interest.

Though her mother was a human woman, Saedda’s father bore strong ties to the blood of his djinni ancestors that first founded the Calim empire thousands of years ago. He was genasi, and as such refused to stay in one place for longer than it took him to taste the air. Saedda had never met the man, but she was much like him, so her mother told her. With light blue hair and the way the wind would respond to her movements, there was never any question as to her parentage.

It wasn’t until she was eighteen that the pangs of wanderlust that plagued her father’s life struck hard. Until then she’d lost herself among the tomes of her mother’s personal library, devouring all arcane knowledge she could get her long, pale fingers on. The magic that she found the most compelling wasn’t in influencing others or changing the world around her, but in the evoking and shaping of pure, raw energy pulled directly from the Weave. Force magic.

Eventually Saedda’s heritage pulled her out of that static lifestyle and out to sea where her skills could be put to use in the real world.

While her wanderings might eventually cost her life, on this day, the young genasi learned that this time it had saved her.

From miles away, the crew of the Kingly Kraken could see the strange gray haze that hung over the great city. An acrid taste tinged the air. Smoke and…something else even less pleasant, but she just couldn’t place it.

As they sailed nearer, they wondered if the ship had been blown far off course without knowing it… There was nothing left. No golden domes or minarets reaching for the sky. No bustling docks… Smoldering ruin remained where the greatest city on Faerun once stood.

Saedda would come to learn from the survivors that a ten-day prior, a band of adventurers calling themselves the Champions of the Red Dawn had arrived in the city mere moments before a colossal dracolich flew out of the north to follow them, raining death and green fire upon everything in its path! What was not destroyed by its breath was flattened and obliterated into dust when the beast fell… The red dawn. A foul omen indeed to those who know anything about the sea. They had named themselves well, for in their wake came the death of thousands on enormous tattered wings.

Among the wards decimated by fire and acid, was the Wizard’s Ward. Saedda’s mother. The library. The Guild Arcane. With her life shattered, her home and family gone, there was little else for her to do besides pack up what few belongings she’d taken on the ship and head north with one of the caravans leaving the city.

The two years following that incident were spent on the move, taking on odd jobs here and there to pay for travel expenses. Whether doing some scribing work for a Tethyrian mage, working as a caravan guard for a Calishite merchant, or sailing across the Sea of Fallen Stars as a ship’s mage and deckhand, Saedda managed to see more in those years than most people do in a lifetime. She wasn’t sure if she was running from or chasing something, and to be honest it didn’t matter either way. As long as she wasn’t standing still, she was happy.