name: Dar-zel
Age: Apparent: 17 Actual: 124
Gender: Female
Race: Argonian
Appearance: Dar-zel is a tall thin Argonian whose jaw hides viper-like fangs and whose eyes flash with a predatory glint. She wears light ragged robes of gray and black which blend with the shadow and are often damp and dripping from her time in the murky waters surrounding Bravil. On the streets of that shanty town she is easily mistaken as a common reptilian beggar.
Job: Necromancer/vampire. Dar-zel occupies one of the flooded ruins near Bravil, known locally as Veyond Cave, which opens along the riverside. She makes her lair in a refuge only accessible by way of a long underwater swim through an inundated labyrinth of tunnels. For food, supplies and fresh corpses she ambushes travelers both on and beside the river making sure to only take those she suspects will not be missed. She will also, when necessity arises, swim into Bravil through its canals in order to prey upon beggars and thieves. When she needs to interact with mortals she assumes the guise of a poor, ignorant river trader and pilots a small dilapidated raft lashed together from driftwood.
Personality: Dar-zel views mortals as little more than livestock, cows for the slaughter, however, she rarely underestimates them for she knows that even a dumb animal can be dangerous. As a result she prefers not to face opponents she deems dangerous and shies from contact with skilled warriors and accomplished mages. Bereft of any personal vanity, she easily swaddles herself in the guise of a miserable beggar and plays this act whenever around mortals in the daylight. When she must attack a worthy foe she does so from secret, hiding while sending in her undead minions to finish them off, occasionally creeping in during the chaos to deliver the deathblow herself with her dagger.
Skills: Conjuration and Restoration (Master), Stealth (Expert), Enchantment (Adept), Onehanded (Apprentice), Alchemy (Apprentice), Speechcraft (Novice), Pickpocket (Novice)
History: Dar-zel grew up as a homeless hatchling in Bravil seeing through her eyes the worst of both men and mer. She grew disgusted with all people and chose instead to spend her life in the canals, interacting with them only long enough to pick their pockets and preferring the company of watersnakes and river gar. It was from the murky water that she first saw him, a stranger in Bravil who stole not only wealth but life from his marks. She was intrigued by this creature and followed him from the safety of the water back to his lair in a nearby Aleid ruin. There she was finally caught by the monster, but instead of killing her outright he recognized the advantage having an Argonian underling who knew the canals and corridors of the city could bring him. He offered her the 'gift' of vampirism that night more than a century ago and not fully understanding what that meant, Dar-zel accepted.
In the coming years, the young vampire broadened her knowledge learning the arts of conjuration and restoration from her master and combining them to become an accomplished necromage. Gifted by her birthsign of the Ritual she found she possessed a natural talent for raising and controlling undead. Combined with the stealthy skills of her youth she was well equipped to survive the rigors of life as an eternally hunted abomination. Hunters claimed her Dunmer sire not long after her training, but not before he was able to convey to her secrets about the world of the dead and the merchants of souls. He called these merchants, with whom all necromancers and enchanters bartered, knowingly or not, the Ideal Masters. In the coming years, Dar-zel spent more and more time researching these Ideal Masters and the Soul Cairn they inhabited. She ambushed caravans heading for Bravil's Mage's Guild or the Imperial libraries, stockpiling more and more lore on the subject. Although she lacked the alchemical skills to open any kind of doorway into soul cairn she did eventually discover the secrets of summoning the dead directly from that dread place. With these new gifts came instructions and omens of a dark future. Bound to the masters by oath and spell, Dar-zel awaited their instructions with sanguine anticipation.
Finally the order came, she was to travel by water way secretly into the Imperial city. There she randevued with other cultists, vampires and mortal necromancers both and they prepared for the coming of the Ideal Masters, raising an army of dead below the city to rise up at their return. When the white tower turned black, they came to the aid of darkness, boiling up out of the city like a pestilence and turning the tide against the Imperials. With the battle won and the city in the hands of the Masters, Dar-zel returned to Bravil under orders to prepare that city for conquest, recruiting others to their cause and bolstering ranks of her own undead servitors. Specifically she was to seek out an alchemist with the skill to open a permanent gate to the Soul Cairn and recruit him or her to their cause, willingly or unwillingly.
Equipment: Dar-zel has spent a long time furnishing her lair at Veyond Cave and has stockpiled a large amount of literature on arcane subjects, specifically necromancy. She has created altars attuned to the Soul Cairn which, although they lack the ability to create a stable portal, allow her to summon the denizens of the Cairn, the bonemen and wraithmen, at ease. At her lair she has access to an enchanting altar, an alchemical work station, and a stockpile of soulgems and staves she's cached over the years. Through her altar and by means of her oath to the Ideal Masters she is able to corrupt grand and greater soul gems, making them black, but can produce only so many in a given period.
When travelling outside her lair, the vampire wears the ragged robes of a beggar, with a hood to conceal the gleam of her eyes. Since she lacks any skill at destruction magic, she relies instead on an ebony dagger, a possession of her late master, which bears a powerful enchantment for draining magicka.
Starting Point: Bravil (outskirts)
