Alandra Golduck was born around the year 1466, somewhere supposedly in the expanse of northwestern Faerun.

Her parents were farmers, not adventurers. She had no bloodline descending from the greats of Faerun and as such she always imagined her life as an adult to be one representing mundanity and uncomplicatedness. She was ten years old when cruelty came to her village. She was ten years old when her village and everyone she knew was turned to ash and bone.

If not for a traveling adventurer she would have joined them, a cruel irony that she has come to think about often. His name was Jandek. As he felled the creatures with his longsword as she trembled against a tree she saw what she had only heard of in stories. A hero standing up for the innocent, refusing to allow them to be murdered and defiled. When the smoke cleared she was the only survivor of a village that would soon have its name forgotten in the history books. Jandek could’ve left her there, or dropped her in some other village. He didn’t. What the older man did was take her in as his ward until he found “someone better”. He hated when she’d call him a hero. He wasn’t a hero, he’d tell her; he was just doing a job. He told her to stop romanticizing it. To see the forest for the trees. It would be one of her earliest lessons, years before she picked up a sword and bow in earnest.

By the time she was fourteen she was apprenticing. Learning. He hadn’t found anyone better, save for the group he ran with. An elven ranger, dwarven cleric, and a gnome sorcerer. A group he occasionally ventured with. They became a second family to her for years and she picked up a few skills here and there from them as she learned the way of the sword from Jandek. None of them saw themselves as babysitters, let alone foster parents to some orphan, but Jandek’s guilt was as undeniable as his pride. They saw it. Wondered what it would’ve been like if they had went with him. She saw their guilt with her eyes, their shame. She never judged them for it—though she did fight for their respect. If they were going to look at her Alandra would prefer it was not pity and shame, but admiration and pride. Perhaps she was filling her own hole. The screams of her friends and family members never went away. She remembered them often in her nightmares and thoughts.

More years passed. She was an adult. Independent. The group had went their separate ways and Jandek himself had passed away. All she was left with was his sword and the lessons he taught her.

Gundren Rockseeker, one of her acquaintances from a previous job contacted her about a new job. She was no veteran guard, but they knew her and thought of her when they required her assistance.