Lords of Gossamer and Shadow NPC’s: Tristan Stolt

Tristan’s earlier years saw him working as a circus professional Image by Alex TovMauser, legalese at bottom of page

I was born in Bolshaya Elnya just outside of Nizhny Novogorod, Russia.  I was born a long time ago and I was born to a witch, or so it is said.  I never knew my mother for she died giving me the life of a savant.  Many of the people from my home would not dare talk to me as I was gifted with certain minor abilities from birth.  These abilities and a series of birthmarks running down my spine caused the locals to sell me to the gypsies when they first arrived.  It was a blessing as I would never have found the path that I walk on now without them.

As soon as I could walk I performed in a circus of sorts.  Every stop was a feast or a famine with the local populace but we would perform and steal from them while they were distracted if their purses were too tight during the performance.  It was perhaps not honourable but without these skills we would have starved a long time ago.

When I reached the age of sixteen I ceased to age.  No one realised it but me for at least a further ten years but when they did the Gypsies believed it to be an omen of good luck and they altered their path to take me to some kind of sorcerer that they knew.  He was a kind old man named Sevenski and he offered to take me and teach me the things “I needed to know” to become a true artist with my skills.

I spent ten years with him mastering some astounding abilities and one evening he took me to a cavern nearby.  I had never known that it existed but we stood in its cramped damp enclosure and stared at what appeared to be a door shaped coloration formed by the rocks.  Sevenski offered me the choice of three items.  The first was a sprig of fragrant witch hazel picked from a bush on the day of the winters first snow.  It is an ingredient used often in linking magic.  The next item was a slender rod of amber formed by wounding the branch of a yew tree each day for eleven days.  This was an item used to power all sorceries that I had been taught.  It is also a care rare and valuable item as the wounds given to the tree must be perfect.

The final item was the one I took.  A glass eye with an iris coloured as the rainbow.  I look back at it and think that I took it as it was the one item that I knew no spell for and thought Sevenski would track me it.  In reality though I think I took it as I could feel its call.  When I grasped it Sevenski smiled and asked me to look back at the cavern wall.  I was shocked to find that the door colouring was no more and a grand door with intricate carvings and messages displayed now stood before me.

I said nothing but grasped the handle and disappeared into the Grand Stair.  I was born to travel this maze and I wonder now if my mother knew it too?  Perhaps one day I will find out…