Theren Bucelarii - My Story

Well, I finally figured out a few things about my playing style versus the DM's style. All of my characters so far focus on their martial abilities and how they do in battle, while the DM is more about the role playing aspect. When I finally realized that on a walk the morning of our last session, I threw together some character possibilities that were more focused on role play to see if that helps me play more comfortably in this campaign. It came down to a Rogue/Ranger combo or Rogue/Artificer, although the character setup was geared very much towards the Ranger/Rogue. I would have been more comfortable with the Ranger (Gloom Stalker) probably, but after talking things out with the DM decided to try the Artificer combo, since I've never played one before. Though if I had it to do over, I'd probably just do the single class, not dual class, but it's too late now. That is the story behind why I'm playing yet another character in this campaign and at least until my ADHD kicks in or the character gets killed off, will be the one I'll attempt to role play now.

TL:DR

Salutations, esteemed companions. I am Theren Bucelarii, obviously a Shadar-kai, and my tale is shrouded in the veils of mystery. As my parents embarked on a mission sanctioned by the Raven Queen, too young to care for myself, I was given to the denizens of the ominous Fortress of Memories. It was within those shadowed walls where the Raven Queen herself, bestowed upon me a haunting "Rede". A silent pact marking my journey against the encroaching darkness embodied, who many believe will eventually turn her eyes towards the Shadowfell. Trained relentlessly, I was transformed into a Bucelarii, a forgotten one.

My Story

Theren Bucelarii
Image by Bing AI Image Creator - 2024

I am Theren Bucelarii, my last name wasn’t always Bucelarii, but it is the name that I was given.

One fateful night my parents were called away on a mission for the Raven Queen. Being too young to care for myself, I was brought to the Fortress of Memories - to grow up and be “cared” for. I later learned my parents were killed on that mission. 

The Raven’s Keep, yeah that’s what us mongrels called it, was a place where discerning allies from adversaries was a swift necessity, and learning to not turn your back on anyone a capstone ability. My innate ability to notice things that others overlooked or took for granted gave me opportunities that other children or even adults did not see or understand. 

During this time, a peculiar tapestry of dreams and nightmares unfolded, revealing glimpses of a verdant realm and my collaboration with a motley band of adventurers - a Minotaur, Tiefling, Changeling and Aarakocra  that both vexed me and yet, strangely comforted me in ways that I didn’t and don’t understand. There also were many times I dreamed that we were laughing and showing signs of grand camaraderie. Something that doesn’t happen readily in the Shadowfell.

These visions foretold of a future entwined with the destinies of others, far beyond the confines of the Shadowfell.

I was always curious about how things worked and spent hours in the library reading about odd inventions and attempting to create little thingamajigs that served no real purpose, but made the old librarian chuckle or holler at me when things got out of hand.

At about the age of fifteen, the Librarian took me in and I found a home of sorts among the staff of the Library. Enough, that after a few years of hanging around, I began to train as a Librarian. Then a lordling noticed me in the Library one afternoon when I helped him find several old volumes that he was looking for. I told him my name and he came back a few hours later and told the Librarian that he was taking me and I would not be returning to work there. 

The lordling told me that my Father had been his mother’s brother and that I was his Cousin. A fairy-tale in and of itself, not quite, but Lord Te’lengquiel did treat me decently. He made sure that I was educated according to our station and that I moved properly within the Court. I learned how to navigate the ever-changing currents of power, and how most bureaucracies function. Which gave me the skills of how to gain access to the records and inner workings of most noble courts or governments that I might encounter. 

As a result I can quickly learn who the movers and shakers are within a Court, whom to go to for the favors you seek, when to be silent, and what the current intrigues of interest in the group are. All while being able to use that knowledge in places other than the Shadowfell, since learning other cultures was deemed an essential part of my training.

For almost sixty years, I worked for and with my cousin as I navigated the intricacies of survival in the Raven Queen’s Court, while visiting other worlds to gain experience beyond the Shadowfell, including a world called Crannog. That time training with my Cousin is a time that I will always remember, not always fondly, but it gave me the skills to survive wherever my fate takes me.

Through it all, I preferred to tinker with things and was continually reprimanded by my cousin and others of my station that being a tinkerer in the Queen’s Court held no future. I was told that I needed to focus on the training I was being given, not my toys. Yet my innate talents for tinkering with things persisted, garnering attention from a variety of my instructors. 

One day while exploring the deepest bowels of the Keep, I discovered there was this Gnome in a room shackled to a wall by a long, thin silvery chain, puttering and muttering to himself at a workbench. I watched the Gnome for a few minutes, who eventually looked up and said “Ahh my new assistant.” He continued to let me watch what he was doing and then I made a couple of suggestions to the piece he was working on. He stopped, looked at me, tried them and they worked. 

He laughed an insane laugh and then began rattling off a series of commands for me to get other things. It was the start of a grand time in my life. While I still attended my Courtly training, this was where I belonged and spent as much of my time with Orryn as I could manage. Who seemed to enjoy having someone to bounce ideas off of and an extra pair of living hands to assist in some mad idea. Over the next few years, I learned many of the Artificer skills I still use today from Orryn. Someday, I like to think I would help him gain his freedom, but yet, I don’t know if he’d ever take it.

Despite being sort of chained to the wall (something he chuckled about one day and showed me just how useless that chain actually was), he is allowed to create marvelous inventions, some useful, others useless but never ordinary. He’s fed, given almost any material he requests and is left alone to follow what he finds interesting. I have a feeling even if I went down there and offered to take him somewhere else, he’d just refuse and get back to dreaming and creating neat, new tools and stuff in that little lab of his.

While I spent a great deal of my time with Orryn. One night I got caught by that damned old Librarian who found me in the forbidden section of the library reading books - ones that were for the Queen and a few high ranking counselors. Certainly not a low level Courtier like myself. He and the other librarians beat me mercilessly and then I was brought before the Raven Queen herself for judgment, per her standing orders on anyone who was able to bypass the wards and traps set to kill most intruders and wasn’t dead. 

I was barely able to kneel before her. 

When she touched me, suddenly went into a trance and proclaimed a “Rede”:

"In the shadowed annals of Crannog's fate, whispers weave the tale of a pale elf, veiled in mystery, destined to dance with destiny's threads. Born under the darkest moon, this silent adept shall tread the shadow path unseen. A harbinger against the looming darkness embodied in the purple ooze and snakes, an ancient force awakening wanting the rule of worlds and realms untold, including those of shadow. His steps, swift as the night’s shadows, shall unravel the enigma, a key to the realm's harmony. In the dance of shadows and echoes, the silent guardian, holds the power to mend the fractures and stand against the encroaching abyss.”

After that the Raven Queen looked around with a gaze of dismay and surprise etched upon her regal countenance. She healed me of all my injuries. Then imperiously commanded the Librarian, to permit my undisturbed perusal of those mysterious tomes and that when I left to start my other training that I would be taking one with me. 

Within a few days, a large tome that seemed to appear in my hands that I felt would help me improve my Dexterity and the Librarian just shook his head, muttering words I didn’t want to hear, as I walked out. Later that week, I found myself escorted along with others - an Eladrin, a Fairy, a Bugbear, and a Human who lasted only a few hours once we got there, to Shadowfell's equivalent of a magic academy nestled in the midst of the city of Evernight.

The cold grasp of stone cells awaited us as we were kept separate from the other students there. The Raven Queen's enigmatic "rede," was ensorcelled into the very fabric of our souls over the course of several days. Yet, amidst the collective obedience, I alone continued to grapple with haunting nightmares of a verdant world, a stark contrast to the perpetual shadows of the Shadowveil. 

The ensuing years unfurled a relentless regimen of training, and where my courtly, observational and investigatory skills were pushed to their limits. However, those skills were quickly supplemented by combat training and  intertwined, with many rogue’s skills. While not the best fighter in our group, my other skills were valuable. As a result my training focused more on infiltrating without being seen and a quick sneak attack. I won’t say that I hated all of it, butI learned that intrigue, power games, and using words as weapons to misdirect or re-direct others are skills that have their many subtle uses. Sometimes they have more effect than a dagger strike or magical fireball over a long period of time.

Under the tutelage of my heartless instructors, the echoes of their demanding training, did shape me into a killer without remorse. It is not a time of my life that I will look back on fondly or without regrets. Needless killing that serves no purpose other than to teach one how to kill is a lesson that I learned the hard way. 

All too often within the crucible of this training, I faced off against my fellow aspirants, each possessing unique skills and abilities, all while navigating the perilous dance of survival. The culmination of this relentless process led to a match in the arena between myself and the bugbear. One that I knew would not end well for me once he got close. I was allowed to wear and use the items I had created while working with Orryn, but there was little doubt that the Bugbear was a superior fighter. Though I did make him work for the victory and once, if my magic had been just a little stronger, I believe I could have beaten him. After that wake-up moment he quickly finished the bout, where before he had been cruelly toying with me.

In the aftermath of my hard-fought defeat lying on the brink of death, an instructor loomed over me, callously pressing the Raven Queen's tattoo onto my wrist. Though I had lost, it was how I had performed in a situation the instructors had already known the outcome of. I had fought well and surprised them with my ability to last as long as I did in the arena with the Bugbear. I was deemed to still be of value. But a weapon that needed to be forged further to meet the expectations of the Queen.

With a loud declaration for all to hear, he named me Bucelarii—a forgotten one—before callously stepping on the new brand and departing. From that moment forth, my old surname vanished, magically erased from the annals of the Shadowfell. There was a female’s laughter inside my head, which hardly registered as close to death as I was.

However, that new tattoo seemed to have a chilling effect on anyone who was not one of my instructors and even they changed their tone towards me. Something had definitely changed and to this day, I keep it covered. While it is a mark I earned, I still do not know what Bucelarii truly means, but to wear it openly, doesn't seem wise outside of the Shadowfell.

After losing to the Bugbear, the shadows seemingly deepened, and the cruelty of my training intensified. The instructors, driven by an urgency that hinted at an impending event, only escalated their violence and brutality - I was being honed to a razor's edge and for the first time some rudimentary training in magical casting skills became part of my curriculum. It seems my Artificer skills were becoming seen as more and more useful. I was even allowed to use the Artificer lab on the Academy grounds a few hours each day.

Despite their attempts to eradicate any trace of morality from my soul, a stubborn spark of defiance and, dare I say, decency persisted in the darkest recesses of my being. A silent vow crystallized within me—to escape to the elusive realm that my visions foretold. In the solitude of my dreams, I envisioned emancipating myself, becoming my own master, and utilizing my skills for a purpose that wouldn't crush the very essence of my soul.

At the age of 75, my long-awaited opportunity to break free from the suffocating chains of my existence in the Shadowfell. I was taken back to the Fortress of Memories, brought before the Raven Queen once more, where she again spoke the “Rede” and told me it was time to fulfill my destiny. She announced to those in attendance that I was to be taken to Alabaster on Crannog as her representative and contribution to the Rede given so long ago. There an individual named Roland would bring the adventurers I had seen in my dreams together at his mansion and allow our destiny to unfold.

Leaving the Shadowfell will be a change for me, but I have no doubts that I will quickly adapt to the world of Crannog. It is a place that I have visited multiple times, made different contacts within the Royal Court, with those in Inverness, Silvaa, Seasonal, Midas, and other shall we say other less savory places. So, it would not be the shock it might have been, if I had been suddenly dropped there and told to find a way to survive.

Though my allegiance to the Raven Queen is not one that I question, she has been, and probably always will be a part of my life's weavings. Despite being a harsh mistress, she is the deity that I worship and how many can say they have met their God.

I have, and I have been touched by her.

After meeting with the Queen, my cousin presented me with a Heavy Crossbow of Certain Death and An Amulet of Proof against Detection and Location, gifts from him for my impending adventure. He let me know that my abilities and being chosen by her majesty had increased his standing in the Queen’s Court. Then he grinned about giving me the amulet, as he said there was a very long discussion about it with other more powerful councilors. However, he had argued successfully that it was necessary so that none from the Shadowfell could influence my actions once on Crannog (then he winked at me). I just smiled a Courtier’s smile and nodded that I understood the double meaning of the gift. There were the usual mundane items an adventurer would need and finally an enduring spell book, just in case I decided to write down rituals.

Now, the time to depart has come and I think that both my cousin and myself knew that this would be a one-way trip and that once on Crannog, I would be too changed to ever accept coming back to the Shadowfell. That I needed to make Crannog my new home and help the people there survive whatever the shadow upon their world would be.

It is a chance to live a life unimagined by many of the Shadar-Kai. I wonder how it will affect my relationship with the Raven Queen? Only time will tell.